allonlinenovel Chapter 923 You forced me to do this
Chapter 923 You forced me to do this
Five days.
The dawn's light brought no hope, but instead illuminated a row of menacing giant shadows on the horizon.
The Japanese Central China Area Army spared no expense in urgently transferring this massive machine from the mainland, originally intended for attacking the permanent fortifications along the Xicheng defense line.
An entire battalion of Type 96 240mm heavy howitzers was deployed to the front lines outside Nanjing.
These war behemoths, with their short, stubby cannons and requiring railcars to move, silently pointed at the majestic Nanjing city wall.
Their very existence is a form of ultimate deterrence.
"Operation Amaterasu" was the arrogant code name Matsui Iwane gave to this general offensive, intending to use the name of a god in the hearts of the Japanese to completely erase the resistance in Nanjing.
At 7:00 a.m. sharp, as a series of flag signals fell, the earth began to spasm continuously and epileptically.
"Whoosh... Boom!!!"
Unlike the sharp whistling of the previous division-level 75mm mountain guns, or the dull bang of the 150mm heavy guns, the sound of the 240mm shell cutting through the air was a low-frequency roar that was both a train whistle and a steel tearing sound, suffocating.
It was as if it hadn't flown in, but rather as if the entire sky had collapsed.
The first test-fired giant shell landed near Xuanwu Lake, sending up a plume of smoke hundreds of meters high, and mud, lake water, and rocks erupting like a volcanic eruption.
Immediately afterwards, a dense hail of bullets, like the destructive drumbeats, began to cover the entire city wall defense line.
Zhonghua Gate, Guanghua Gate, Zhongshan Gate, Shuixi Gate... These sturdy city walls, built in the early Ming Dynasty and bearing the marks of centuries of wind and rain, groaned in pain before this force that transcended time.
The bricks and stones were not blown apart, but rather shattered into dust.
Sections of the parapet and crenellations collapsed like building blocks.
The rammed earth on the inner side of the city wall was peeled away layer by layer by the huge shock wave, exposing the internal skeleton.
The city of Nanjing trembled under the relentless bombardment, like a giant ship about to disintegrate in a raging storm.
However, in their extreme despair, the defenders displayed astonishing wisdom.
A veteran of the Training Corps, who had served in the Beiyang Engineering Corps, keenly observed that although these cannon shells were incredibly powerful, when they struck the outer side of the Ming Dynasty city wall with its distinct curves, they sometimes did not embed themselves directly into the wall and explode due to the angle of incidence. Instead, they would bounce off the wall like skipping stones and fly to an unpredictable distance before exploding.
"A ricochet! It's a ricochet!" This discovery was quickly relayed to all departments via the remaining telephone lines.
The commanders immediately ordered that the main forces and firepower be deployed as close as possible to the base of the inner side of the city wall, or that the curvature of the inner wall be used to construct bulletproof shelters.
Although the violent tremors still caused many casualties, this clever use of physical laws to deal with the situation greatly reduced the destructive effect of the 240mm heavy artillery.
Many shells futilely created shallow craters on the outer walls of the city or flew over the walls and exploded in open areas inside the city, failing to effectively kill the core defenders.
Matsui Iwane witnessed this scene at the observatory, and his face turned ashen.
His "decisive weapon," which he had placed high hopes on, seemed to have struck a ball of tough cotton.
In the afternoon, Tongji Gate, along with Guanghua Gate and Zhonghua Gate, was listed as a key target by the Japanese army.
The shelling ceased, and an eerie calm descended upon the battlefield.
The smoke and dust had not yet cleared, and visibility was very low.
A group of about thirty people, dressed in tattered cotton-padded coats, supporting the elderly and carrying children, panicked "refugees," stumbled and cried as they ran from the direction of the Japanese army's position, surging toward the tightly closed city gate of Tongji Gate and the temporarily reinforced gap.
"Open the door! Please, sir, open the door! The Japanese devils are chasing us!" The voice of the middle-aged man leading the group was shrill, his face covered in soot, making it impossible to recognize him.
The battalion commander frowned.
Taking in refugees is a moral obligation, but at this crucial moment of fighting, what if there's a trap?
Just as they were hesitating, a small, thin figure emerged from the anti-cannon hole at the base of the city wall.
It was Wang Amao, an orphan whose parents died in the early bombings. He was taken in by the soldiers and helped them with odd jobs on the front lines to earn a living.
He was filthy, but his eyes were exceptionally clear.
Wang Amao curiously observed the approaching "refugees," when suddenly his gaze fixed on the feet of several "refugees."
Although they were wearing worn-out cloth shoes or straw sandals, when the trouser legs were lifted, A Mao caught a glimpse of a distinctive yellow standard cloth sock peeking out from their ankles—the same kind of socks he had seen on the feet of the Japanese soldiers who had been killed!
"Battalion Commander Wang! They're Japanese devils!" Amao, like a startled rabbit, scrambled to the battalion commander's side, grabbed his trouser leg, and pointed downwards, shouting shrilly, "Look at their feet! Socks! Japanese devils' socks!"
The battalion commander was startled and raised his binoculars to take a closer look.
Sure enough, amidst the hurried and chaotic footsteps of those "refugees," yellow split-toe socks could be seen peeking out!
This was standard equipment worn by Japanese soldiers in their military boots; ordinary Chinese refugees would never have had it!
"Good lad!" The battalion commander patted A Mao's head hard, a cold glint in his eyes. "You damn Japanese devils, trying to play these tricks on me!"
He immediately whispered the order: "All units, listen up! Let them in! Machine gunners, take your positions, await my signal! Demolition team, prepare to detonate the second pre-set explosive zone!"
The order was passed on silently.
The soldiers pretended to be relaxed, and some even shouted down, "Don't panic, folks, we're opening the gate!" The drawbridge was slowly lowered, and the city gate opened a crack.
A barely perceptible glint of joy and malice flashed in the eyes of the group of "refugees," and they quickened their pace, some even scrambling to reach the breach in the city gate.
Their hands had unconsciously reached for the grenades and military knives hidden under their cotton-padded coats.
When most of the special forces soldiers had entered the narrow area near the city gate and the breach, the battalion commander suddenly waved his hand and ordered: "Fire!"
In an instant, light and heavy machine guns and rifles, which were already in position on both sides of the city wall and on the high ground behind it, opened fire simultaneously, weaving a dense net of fire.
At the same time, a loud "boom" was heard as the explosives that had been planted in advance under the street behind the city gate were detonated, blasting the surging Japanese special attack team into a frenzy.
This elaborate trap ended in ten minutes.
More than 30 elite Japanese special forces members were all captured.
Japanese 9th Division Command.
When Lieutenant General Yoshizumi Ryosuke, the division commander, received news of the complete annihilation of the special attack force, his face was so grim it could drip water.
Conventional artillery fire proved ineffective, the surprise attack failed, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and morale plummeted.
He glanced at several ammunition boxes marked with special symbols placed in the corner; those were "special smokes" that the army strictly ordered could only be used in the most extreme circumstances.
"Chinese army... You forced me to do this," Yoshizumi Ryosuke squeezed out through gritted teeth.
As evening approached, the wind shifted to the southeast, directly facing the defensive positions at Zhonghua Gate and Shuixi Gate.
On the Japanese artillery positions, gunners donned rudimentary gas masks and pushed a batch of special shells into the breech.
The piercing sound of shells leaving the barrel rang out again, but this time the explosions were relatively muffled, and the rising smoke was yellowish-green with a pungent garlic smell, which quickly spread across the defenders' positions.