Chapter Sixty Great Wall

  At 7:20 am on July 22, the main force of the 11th and 41st regiments of the 9th Brigade of the Japanese army launched an attack on the 529th regiment of the 94th division under the cover of army aviation; although the artillery could not keep up, the aircraft bombs and mortar shells still swept over the exposed Great Wall like raindrops, the 'inferior' Central Army's 94th division did not even have a high-mounted machine gun, dozens of light machine guns were held by soldiers holding the gun mounts and shooting at the sky, in an instant the city wall was filled with blood and flesh flying everywhere, **people and guns were blown off the Great Wall one after another.

  Why not disperse and hide? This is in the anti-long city! **The rear except for a few broken mouths, there is no road to climb the city! And the direction of the Japanese army's attack is not only close to the traffic route, but also has multiple roads that lead directly to the top of the city!

  At 7:35, the Japanese planes took off, and at this time, the two regiments of the 529th Brigade on the city wall had less than half left! The 18 90mm mortars of the 3rd Battalion of the Japanese army's mortar battalion and the infantry guns of each battalion, as well as the grenade launchers of each company, continued to wreak havoc on the Great Wall with dense shells, covering the infantry's rapid approach to the more dilapidated Great Wall; "Throw grenades!" Rows of hand grenades fell down, smoke and explosions filled the air below the city wall, but the Japanese army did not hesitate to continue approaching the city wall. The light machine guns and accurate rifle fire continued to hit the exposed heads of the counterattacking soldiers; Soldiers from both sides fell down in front, and those behind them continued to fill up; Reserve troops were also climbing up the north side of the Great Wall with ropes and gaps to reinforce the first line. In the end, after paying a price of several hundred casualties on both sides, they faced each other on the city wall for a fierce battle. Although the officers and soldiers of the 94th Division lacked good weapons and effective military training, the men from Zhongshan never lacked bravery, swinging big knives and holding rifles to fight with techniques far superior to those who held guns and shot; Just as both sides were fighting fiercely at several slope mouths, blood splattered everywhere, and in an instant, the dead and wounded fell down and piled up at the entrance of the road; As the hand-to-hand combat decreased, the rifles and grenades of both sides played a role again. After a burst of gunfire and explosions, they knocked down another layer of both sides on the city wall without any cover; Later, both sides shouted, trampling over the dead and wounded, stumbling and colliding with each other to start hand-to-hand combat again. Those in front continued to fall down, and those behind continued to join in, gradually spreading from various slope mouths to the entire city wall; The gunfire decreased, and only the light artillery of both sides was still firing at each other across the Great Wall.

  The 529th Regiment was quickly exhausted, and the 1st Battalion of the Japanese army was also exhausted; The 94th Division's search company, special operations company, even engineers and logistics soldiers were connected to fight with the second battalion of the Japanese army that climbed the city wall again. Although the search company and special operations company were sharp, and the iron shovels of the engineers danced like flying, they were still beaten step by step and lost the city wall; At this time, the 20th Regiment, which was attacked and defeated the day before, finally arrived in a hurry to turn over, with hundreds of soldiers holding submachine guns and light machine guns **climbed up the city wall and swept away, beating the Japanese army that had just taken the upper hand. Suddenly fell down in a large area, but they were immediately covered by the 3rd Mortar Battalion of the Japanese army's 90 mortars; A large group of Japanese soldiers rushed up to the city wall again, and was covered by the 20th Regiment and the remaining 81 mortars of the 94th Division; The follow-up officers and soldiers of both sides climbed up the Great Wall again and launched a melee, while the light artillery of both sides began to fire across the Great Wall.

  At 8:20, the last regiment of the 20th Brigade, together with the brigade's direct subordinates, joined the battle. The opposing force was already the 3rd Battalion of the Japanese army, and blood was flowing down from the city walls; Chen Daqing searched for the 4th Division's search battalion, special operations battalion, engineer battalion, etc., to serve as a reserve team; behind them, Tang Enbo checked his pistol and led the 13th Army's guard battalion to rush to the battlefield, scolding Liu Ruming, Li Xianzhou, Gao Guizhi, and even Zhu Huai Bing. Meanwhile, the Japanese army still had the elite 11th Regiment's 1st Battalion ready to deploy.

  At 8:32, Chen Daqing took the submachine gun handed over by Wei Shi and led the 4th Division's direct team to charge up the city wall.

  At 8:35, just as Tang Enbo was about to climb the Great Wall, cheers from the wounded soldiers came from behind. Turning back, it was the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army! The 72nd Division's Zhang Shuzheng Regiment had arrived.

  The soldiers of both sides fell one after another, and the blood flowed from various breaches. Zhang Shuzheng led his troops to climb the city wall without saying a word. Chen Daqing on the city wall was wounded in many places, and the 4th Division's direct unit had been defeated with more than half casualties. However, they still covered a lot of ground, allowing the Jin-Sui army to climb the city wall smoothly. After climbing the city wall, the Jin-Sui army immediately opened up a bloody path with submachine guns, light machine guns, and hand grenades, rushing towards the passageways on both sides.

  Seeing that the situation was not good, the enemy also threw in the last battalion of the 11th Regiment, and the 3rd Battalion's mortar troops launched a covering bombardment. The mortar troops continued to fire, and after the continuous explosions, the light artillery of both sides were severely damaged. The wounded soldiers on both sides suffered heavy casualties, and the artillery was blown to pieces.

  The 1st Battalion of the 11th Regiment was indeed elite and had forced Zhang Shuzheng's troops to retreat step by step. However, when the 72nd Division's Gao Jinbo and Cao Bing teams arrived and joined the battle, the enemy finally gave up. As the retreat signal sounded continuously, the enemy quickly retreated towards the passageways.

  The Jin-Sui army took advantage of the situation to pursue and intercept, and in the end, the remaining enemy soldiers on the city wall were all knocked down! After the enemy's defeat, their troops hastily retreated and did not dare to take the main road at Hengling. Instead, they used the remaining infantry artillery and a few 90mm mortars to cover themselves, and the troops quickly passed through Fangkou and retreated south of Fang'an Valley.

  It's done! ... This was the loud shouting and venting of the remaining lucky ones from the Shanxi Army, 4th Division, and 94th Division; Tang Enbo and Chen Changjie were stunned, looking at the thousands of corpses on both sides of the Great Wall and the flowing blood; while Chen Daqing had already fallen.

  "A great kindness requires no thanks, but may I ask how Brother Jieshan arrived here?"

  "I heard that the 84th Division has been transferred to garrison the Great Wall in your northern area, and the 21st Division is being blocked by Liu Zuming west of Zhangjiakou. I specially request Director Yan to dispatch our division to come and reinforce."

  "Thank you, Brother Yisheng! I will always remember your kindness!"

  July 22nd afternoon, Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport.

  "For the sake of our baby, we can only be apart for now."

  "Don't cry!" The goose with a bit of poise still smiled mischievously, but softly said, "The big air raid is coming soon, you be careful too."

  "There is an air raid shelter in the official residence", I smiled and said, "The place where I participated in the previous life has been completed."

  It wasn't until I couldn't see the figure of Rong Ke's guest plane that I turned back, just about to head to the government office again, but saw Yu Dawei hurrying over. Hehe, why do I always feel guilty whenever I see him?

  "Is the child all right? Are you sending your wife away?"

  "Yes. Director Yu works hard!"

  "Hehe, being able to save a bit of national energy is worth some hard work."

  "Brother Yu, if you say it like this again, I'll be even more embarrassed."

  "Dear brother, what's with the formalities between us? Let's head back to the official residence together!"

  The conference room in the official residence, the boring meeting had just ended in the afternoon, and Old Chiang and the high-ranking officials had all left cleanly. Only Zhang Zhizhong and Lin Yu were still sitting face to face with worried expressions.

  "What's wrong with you two brothers? Isn't it just Huabei losing a game? What's the big deal?" I said with a smile, "Has Baoding lost?"

  "Your son is safe, but the North China crisis has erupted again; can you still smile?"

  "'Four risings'?" I asked knowingly, "I remember that there were only three battlefields in North China, and if something happened, it would be 'three risings'. Has the Japanese army landed at Qingdao?"

  Lin Wei smiled bitterly, "Zi'an really can calculate, Qingdao is still fine, but Huabei now has three battlefields everywhere in crisis, plus the one that just arrived, it's indeed 'four rises'!"

  "What is this?"

  "As expected by my younger brother, Old Feng can't hold on anymore! Not to mention Song Mingxuan and Han Xiangfang, even Sun Fanglu is now avoiding Huan Zhang. They've messed up their own Northwestern Army, what's the point of having other armies if they're just going to be in disarray?"

  "What is the Director planning to do?"

  "The director got angry." Lin Wei smiled and didn't continue speaking.

  "Let me guess, is it Germany?"

  "Haha! Rarely does Zi'an make a mistake!"

  Zhang Zhizhong took over: "This morning, we discussed replacing Huan Zhang with De Lin, but I don't know what happened. After lunch, the chairman suddenly proposed that Han Ying, who had just returned to China, take charge of the Ji-Lu war."

  "What?" I was really shocked this time! "Sorry!" I quickly slipped into Old Jiang's 'room' to gather information.

  In the small living room, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling sat facing each other.

  "Third brother, sit! Drink soda." I sat under the third sister's hand and started drinking iced pop soda. Every time at this moment, I really miss the tangerine soda of my childhood days!

  Chiang sighed and finally spoke, "It's still what Little Brother said that's right. The Northwest Army generals are so afraid of Huan Zhang that they all hide from him, and the other armies follow suit, making it impossible to command the war." Chiang smiled bitterly, "Now we can only change people. Originally, I was thinking of De Lin, but your Third Sister recommended Han Ying, I think it's not bad either, what do you think?"

  "Still deceiving people? Isn't it just that you're afraid of the White Fox's gathering because you saw Xiaobai leading the main force of the Gui army to the north?" I secretly laughed, but of course, I couldn't say that. "Hmm, brother-in-law's concerns are valid. Although De Lin is good at fighting, most of the Ji and Lu regions are under the control of the Northern Army. If De Lin hastily takes the field, except for the Gui army, he might not be able to command effectively, and there's a possibility of repeating past mistakes."

  "What Zian said is exactly what I was thinking, but Hanqing's understanding of the art of war is far inferior to that of De Neighbour. As for Jian Sheng, although he is good at fighting, he doesn't get along with Lai. " Old Chiang smiled and said, "Except for Li and Huang, who else would let him take charge? So I have decided that Jian Sheng will serve as the deputy commander-in-chief and chief of staff of the war zone, while you will take up the post of deputy chief of staff of the First War Zone!"

  I spat out all the soda in one mouthful.