lovenovelstory Chapter 68 begins the mass production of troops, with a total strength of 8 men, as the Japanese lau
Chapter 68 begins the mass production of troops, with a total strength of 8 men, as the Japanese lau
Li Jianghe looked at Xu Dingguo, a short, stocky man from Guangxi with dark skin, and a hint of excitement flashed across his face as he spoke in a deep, resonant voice.
"No retreat! Fight to the death!!"
The three main commanders reached an agreement, and the group began to discuss how to proceed with the next battle.
Li Jianghe knew very well that although he could still summon a lot of soldiers, the number was ultimately limited, and it was impossible to defend every part of the city.
Therefore, it is necessary to defend key areas and at the same time gather the defeated soldiers in the city.
After some discussion, Li Jianghe decided to lead the main force of the Provisional Third Regiment into the city to build barricades in preparation for the upcoming street fighting.
Meanwhile, Xu Dingguo's Fifth Regiment and Zhu Chi's 262nd Brigade continued to hold Yuhuatai and Zhonghuamen.
Li Jianghe will leave two battalions of troops here.
Meanwhile, Li Jianghe ordered Long Wenzhang to lead 300 men to the city to gather the routed soldiers, the more the better.
He then led the selected engineering troops to construct barricades.
That evening, the various units began their operations.
Gao Zhisong opened the Zhonghua Gate, allowing Li Jianghe's supply troops, artillery, engineers, and some infantry to enter the city.
Gao Zhisong had long admired Li Jianghe, but had never met him.
After a brief self-introduction, Gao Zhisong said with a worried expression:
"At present, the main forces of all troops in the city are retreating towards Yijiang Gate, and the Japanese army is also launching attacks in Zijin Mountain and Guanghua Gate. The whole city of Nanjing is in complete chaos."
Li Jianghe assured him:
"Don't worry, I will build barricades as soon as possible to buy time for the retreating troops and civilians."
"Alright, I will defend Zhonghua Gate with my life to buy you some time."
Gao Zhisong saluted Li Jianghe.
Between soldiers, a salute or a glance is enough to entrust their lives to each other; no further words are needed.
Li Jianghe turned around and led his troops into the darkness of Nanjing.
Upon entering the city, Li Jianghe immediately began to mass-produce troops.
There are all kinds of military branches, including engineer squads, infantry squads, assault squads, and so on.
Of course, simply producing more troops is not enough; you also need to exchange for large quantities of ammunition, weapons, medicine, food, and so on.
Especially regarding artillery shells, Li Jianghe foresaw that the consumption of artillery shells would inevitably be huge in the future, and that he would need to reserve an extra amount of merit points.
This time, Li Jianghe summoned 200 infantry squads, 30 engineer squads, 30 heavy machine gun squads, 50 assault squads, 20 anti-tank gun squads and mortar squads, 20 field artillery squads, 10 medical squads, 30 supply squads, and 30 rocket launcher squads.
Once all these troops are summoned, the total strength will be nearly 10,000.
However, I've almost used up all my merit points.
After all, a large amount of merit points still need to be reserved to exchange for and purchase consumables such as food and ammunition.
Once the fighting begins, the consumption of bullets and shells will be like flowing water.
After all, they needed to maintain firepower superiority over the Japanese army, so they couldn't be stingy when firing.
Rifles are fine; after all, they're bolt-action, so firing them won't consume too many bullets.
But the MG34 and MG42, along with the Czech-made and Maxim machine guns, made the firepower flow like a river.
The bullets that were provided weren't even enough for a single Japanese charge.
The MG42 machine gun, in particular, consumes merit points extremely quickly when it fires.
The advantage was that the firepower density was high enough to suppress the Japanese troops so much that they couldn't raise their heads.
The same applies to artillery shells.
On the one hand, the shells themselves are quite expensive, but their consumption is enormous.
His artillery battalion now has a total of 46 cannons, including the 20 field guns that were just summoned. Just one artillery barrage against the Japanese army would require the consumption of thousands of shells.
1000 shells require 3000 merit points.
However, they could not be separated from artillery support. Without artillery support, they would be powerless to fight back against the intense bombardment of Japanese heavy artillery.
That would mean the soldiers sacrificed themselves in vain.
After a series of summons and replenishments, Li Jianghe had almost run out of merit points.
However, in subsequent battles against the Japanese army, you can still earn a lot of merit points, which should be enough.
Although Li Jianghe's total force was over 8,000, many troops were stationed in the Yuhuatai area. In addition, Long Wenzhang took 300 men to gather the defeated soldiers, so he could mobilize about 5,000 troops.
He first ordered the engineers to build barricades as quickly as possible, while the infantry assisted the engineers.
In addition, it was necessary to evacuate the residents in the neighborhood, since Japanese artillery shells would not distinguish between civilians and soldiers.
In addition to building barricades, another task was to find suitable warehouses for storing weapons and ammunition.
After all, with so many troops, ammunition would be consumed very quickly once they started fighting the Japanese army.
Machine guns, in particular, and artillery, were consuming the ammunition they could exchange for merit points like water.
These warehouses were mainly managed by the supply battalion.
Li Jianghe's supply battalion has now become a massive supply force consisting of 70 supply squads.
Their main equipment included packhorses, horse-drawn carriages, trucks, motorcycles, and so on.
For the newly summoned supply team, Li Jianghe did not choose to upgrade the trucks.
On the one hand, the expenses are quite high, and on the other hand, in the future, mules and motorcycles will probably be the best means of transportation in Nanjing, as trucks will probably not be able to travel.
When he needs to replenish ammunition and supplies for soldiers on all sides of the battlefield, he will need to rely on the supply corps to accomplish these tasks.
After all, Li Jianghe couldn't directly airdrop the exchanged weapons and ammunition to the front-line troops.
As the battlefield expanded, the transportation of military supplies became entirely dependent on these supply units.
As dawn approached, dense artillery fire could be heard from the directions of Yuhuatai, Guanghuamen, and Zijinshan.
At the same time, a large number of Japanese warplanes began to circle over Nanjing.
In the direction of Zijin Mountain, the Central Training Corps is stationed here, and they have done well in previous battles against the Japanese army.
However, last night, Commander Gui Yongqing fled overnight, leaving the entire Central Training Corps leaderless. The troops began to collapse under the fierce attack of the Japanese army and retreated into the city through Zhongshan Gate.
Along with them, the Japanese 9th and 16th Divisions were also launching a fierce attack from the direction of Guanghuamen.
Wang Jingjiu, the commander of the 87th Division, and Sun Yuanliang withdrew last night. There were not many soldiers left behind, but they still guarded the place.
Faced with the fierce attack of the Japanese army, their defeat was only a matter of time.
Even in the direction of Yuhuatai, the main force of the Sixth Division began a fierce attack.
Unlike Shigeharu Suematsu's 114th Division, Hisao Tani had clearly been observing the battlefield these past few days.