Hearing the words of Sasaki Doichi, the regimental commander, the officers of the entire regiment looked somewhat relieved.

Captain Miyabayashi Taro led his entire company of one hundred and eighty-four men to the front of Huashan.

Looking at the fortifications and trenches prepared long ago by the National Army on Huashan,

he couldn't help but feel flustered.

Fortunately, at this time, the artillery guidance officer the regimental commander spoke of arrived.

Standing far away at the foot of the mountain, they saw the booming sounds of artillery fire on the mountain peaks, and the intense bombardment made the entire earth tremble.

Even though Miyabayashi Taro's company was far away from the bombardment area, they could still feel the shaking of the ground after the shells exploded.

Suddenly, the soldiers of Miyabayashi Taro's company became rampant:

The shadow of being bombarded by the fortress artillery a few days ago finally began to dissipate.

This was the area guided by the Sixth Field Heavy Artillery Brigade.

When the artillery fire on Huashan stopped, Captain Miyabayashi Taro immediately led his troops to charge.

This time, their charge went very smoothly. When they charged to one hundred meters in front of the defending army's position, they encountered no further attacks.

When they charged to fifty meters away from the defending army's position, they still did not encounter any attacks.

Thirty meters!

...

Ten meters!

It wasn't until Miyabayashi Taro's company charged into the trenches dug by the National Army on Huashan that they discovered that the entire garrison on the hilltop had been annihilated by heavy artillery.

Colonel Xu Gengyang of the 671st Regiment watched from afar as a Japanese company charged up Huashan.

No matter what position the Japanese reached, neither of the two companies he had deployed on the mountaintop reacted in any way.

This made Regiment Commander Xu Gengyang very angry.

He immediately reported this new situation.

Commander Liu Xing had already received the news that two companies guarding the positions on Wushan had been completely annihilated by Japanese artillery fire.

He solemnly ordered Fortress Commander Xu Kang: "Level Huashan for me."

Regiment Commander Xu Geng of the 671st Regiment ordered the Sixth and Seventh Companies to prepare to recapture the lost Huashan position.

But before that, they had to wait for the fortress artillery to plow Huashan again.

The artillery batteries on the Jiangyin Fortress bombarded Huashan with much greater precision than the Japanese bombardment.

After all, these were all positions within the Jiangyin defense zone, and all the data was accurate to the centimeter.

The firing elements had already been calculated accurately, and they could just fire according to the previously prepared plan.

The soldiers of Miyabayashi Taro's company, who had just charged onto the Huashan position, had not had time to fully experience the accomplishment of occupying the position,

when they were greeted by a fierce bombardment from the National Army. The National Army's bombardment came suddenly and violently, no less powerful than the shells fired by the Sixth Field Heavy Artillery Brigade.

After all, the fortress artillery also had howitzers with a caliber of more than 300 millimeters.

Such howitzers could create craters up to two meters deep in the ground.

The bombardment from the fortress came quickly and ended quickly.

After ten minutes of bombardment, when Company Commander Huang Hai and Company Commander Hu Xiuhua led the two companies to charge onto the Huashan position,

they saw that the soil on the position was stained with a layer of blood.

There was not a single living person on the entire hilltop, neither Japanese nor National Army soldiers.

Not a single soldier from either side was alive.

Even the corpses were only able to collect twenty-odd bodies. The entire hilltop originally had nearly three hundred men from two companies of the National Army, plus one hundred and eighty-four men from a Japanese company.

Now, all of these people had turned into flesh and blood, mixed into the soil on the entire hilltop.

Just as Company Commander Huang Hai and Company Commander Hu Xiuhua were leading the soldiers of the two companies to clear the hilltop position,

the Japanese artillery bombardment came again.

Having already prepared, the two company commanders immediately led the soldiers, carrying the twenty-odd corpses they had cleared out, and quickly evacuated the Huashan position.

Although most of these corpses were the corpses of Japanese soldiers,

the two company commanders still couldn't bear not to transport them down. For those warriors who could die without retreating in the face of artillery bombardment, they were still willing to preserve the corpses of these Japanese soldiers.

This situation on Huashan forced Huo Shouyi, commander of the 112th Division, to issue an order: temporarily abandon it.

The Huashan position was no longer a battlefield for infantrymen. Instead, it had become a target range for artillery.

The situation was similar at Huashan.

Nanzha Town was no better off.

Nanzha Town was a large town in front of Jiangyin County, no more than five miles away from Jiangyin.

This was the only way to attack Jiangyin.

The order received by Captain Goto Yo was to attack Nanzha.

Defending Nanzha Town was the 668th Regiment of the 342nd Brigade of the 112th Division.

Regiment Commander Cui Xizhang had commanded the entire regiment to repel three Japanese attacks yesterday.

Today, the Japanese started the battle by unleashing a major weapon, with heavy artillery continuously bombarding the entire position.

This bombardment was different from yesterday's. The power of the Japanese shells yesterday was far less than that of today's.

With the situation critical, Regiment Commander Cui ordered the soldiers to temporarily avoid the brunt of the Japanese bombardment, retreat to the second line of the battlefield, and wait for the Japanese artillery bombardment to end before rushing to attack the position.

Even so, many positions in Nanzha Town were occupied by the Japanese. The two sides fought over Nanzha Town.

On the 29th, the entire Jiangyin defense zone—Nanzha, Dingshan, Huashan, Yunting, and Wushan—were repeatedly contested with the Japanese.

The 103rd and 112th Divisions suffered extremely heavy casualties. Even so, the officers and soldiers were still fighting with the Japanese.

Especially on hilltops like Huashan and Dingshan, the Japanese had gained experience.

As long as the National Army soldiers occupied the hilltop position, they would immediately call for artillery support from the heavy artillery brigade.

This powerful bombardment capability forced the National Army soldiers, who had just managed to recapture the position, to abandon it.

Waiting for the next battle with the Japanese.

Conversely, it was the same. If the action to seize the hilltop failed, the National Army would also ask for help from the fortress's heavy artillery.

To drive the Japanese down.

Such a battle was completely a contest of morale and reserve soldiers.

But as far as the Nanjing government's war of resistance was concerned, they were now shrinking their forces and concentrating on defending Nanjing.

There was really no reserve force to supplement the Jiangyin defense zone.

The difficult day of the 29th finally passed.

In the night, the Japanese slowly withdrew their troops, as they did not like night battles.

Today, the Special Operations Company was resting, and had only shot down a few planes in the morning.

Then, Lin Fan led the mortar team to bombard the Japanese artillery positions once.

That was how the day went.

When it got dark, in the 112th Division headquarters in Jiangyin County, Huo Shouyi was gathering officers above the regimental level to hold a meeting.

As the company commander of the Special Operations Company, Lin Fan's rank was only that of a company commander, but he had more than a thousand men under his command.

What was even more special was that the combat effectiveness of his company was off the charts, so as the most special member, he also participated in the meeting.

At the meeting, Division Commander Huo marked the situation of all the positions defended by the 112th Division today on the sand table.

Looking at the situation of the enemy and ourselves on the sand table, everyone was silent.

Yunting and Nanzha were occupied by the Japanese. If these two places were not recaptured, the harm to the county seat and the fortress would be too great.

These two places were in the blind spots of several artillery batteries in the fortress, meaning that if the Japanese established artillery positions in these two places,

then the several artillery batteries on the Jiangyin Fortress could only be passively beaten and unable to fight back.

After the current situation was explained,

Division Commander Huo Shouyi asked loudly, "Is the situation clear to everyone?"

"Yes!"

Chief of Staff Li Lanchi picked up a command stick and pointed at Nanzha and Yunting:

"These two places must be under our control, no matter what, we can't lose them."

Brigade Commander Li Deming of the 336th Brigade looked at the situation on the water tray and loudly requested instructions:

"Division Commander, Chief of Staff! Tonight, I will send a battalion to raid Yunting Village and take it back."

Huo Shouyi looked at Brigade Commander Li Deming: "At night, although the Japanese no longer have the support of heavy artillery, they have a large number of people.

You must be fully prepared."

"Yes! I guarantee to retake Yunting tonight," said Brigade Commander Li Deming.

Division Commander Huo's expectant gaze swept over the officers present.

After a long time, no one else spoke.

Lin Fan stood up and requested to speak.

Division Commander Huo Shouyi said with a smile: "Company Commander Lin, speak frankly. This is a military meeting, no need to be too restrained."

Lin Fan opened his mouth and said, "Division Commander! Today, the soldiers of the Special Operations Company have been resting for a day.

I request that the task of attacking Nanzha be handed over to the Special Operations Company."

As soon as Lin Fan's words fell, the officers present breathed a sigh of relief.

Attacking Nanzha Town, which was guarded by a Japanese battalion, was something that none of the regimental commanders or brigade commanders present had the confidence to do.

After all, their troops had suffered heavy casualties in the battles of the past two days, and some regiments had been reduced by as much as 30% or 40%.

A night raid also meant leaving some troops behind to defend their original positions.

Therefore, they could only send a small team or a reserve team.

Now, they really couldn't send out a reserve team of more than a thousand people.

Huo Shouyi's expression was a bit grave: "Just now, I introduced that there is a Japanese battalion in Nanzha, at least a thousand men.

Can your one company do it?"

"Report to the Division Commander! My company has a full complement of one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven men. I guarantee to complete the task of capturing Nanzha Town.

But..."

"But what?" Division Commander Huo asked.

"Report to the Division Commander! The Special Operations Company is good at attacking but not defending. After we capture Nanzha, we cannot hold it," Lin Fan said loudly.

Division Commander Huo smiled: "That's easy. After you capture Nanzha, immediately hand over the defenses to the 672nd Regiment."

Regiment Commander Wan Yi of the 672nd Regiment said loudly, "Nanzha was lost from our regiment.

The First and Second Battalions of our regiment have suffered more than half their casualties for this. Tonight, in the attack on Nanzha, our regiment is willing to follow as a reserve."

Lin Fan said with satisfaction, "I have no problem."

Division Commander Huo looked at the time: "Launch the attack at one o'clock in the morning!"

"Yes!"

After returning to his station, Lin Fan saw the soldiers of the Special Operations Company as usual.

Each detachment was organized to study.

As long as there was time every day, the literacy learning of the Special Operations Company never stopped.

Civilize their minds and make their bodies barbaric!

This was Lin Fan's requirement for the construction of this team.

It wasn't until the soldiers' study ended that he gathered the ten giants of the Special Operations Company for a meeting:

Eight squad leaders, one deputy company commander, plus Lin Fan himself, were the ten giants of the Special Operations Company.

At the meeting, Lin Fan explained the task he had just received.

He pointed to Nanzha Town on the map and said, "Now we only know that there is a Japanese battalion stationed here.

But we don't know their specific deployment at all.

How do we fight?

Everyone, give some suggestions."

Liu Laopao looked at his brothers, but no one spoke.

He asked, "Are there still civilians in Nanzha Town?"

Lin Fan thought for a moment: "Yesterday and today, Nanzha suffered particularly heavy artillery bombardment.

The civilians must have already fled."

Liu Laopao immediately said, "Then there's nothing to worry about!

We've all been to Nanzha. Tonight, we'll attack from eight directions separately.

One squad in the north will take a few heavy machine guns to cut off the Japanese retreat.

In the south, we'll drive our tanks straight in for a hard rush.

The other directions will quietly approach, passing through those houses.

We'll catch the Japanese off guard."

Lin Fan asked, "With eight squads attacking in separate directions, how do we distinguish our own people?

If we start fighting each other, it would be a joke."

Liu Laopao was suddenly speechless. He scratched his head and started thinking urgently.

Li Xian added, "Eight squads attacking from eight directions, that's the Bagua Formation (Eight Trigrams).

We can use the Bagua positions, plus the names of the squad leaders as passwords.

The first squad leader is Chen Sichuan. If the first squad attacks from the due north, the due north position belongs to Kan (☵), so the password would be 'Chen Kan'.

The second squad, Liu Laopao, attacks from the northeast, so the password would be 'Liu Zhen' (☳)!"

Lin Fan frowned, "That's secure, but it's too complicated."

Liu Laopao quickly said, "Not complicated, not complicated! The Bagua is something left by our ancestors.

I usually like the Bagua the most.

This is good, no need to worry about someone impersonating."

Yang Daren, who had always believed that everything from the West was better, also admitted for the first time, "This is good, secure."

The other squad leaders all agreed to use this Bagua password tonight.

Lin Fan no longer insisted: If you like it, then so be it.

Each squad had already received their respective tasks. Lin Fan was at a loss as to how the direct subordinate team would enter Nanzha Town from north to south:

He wanted to use the direct subordinate to attract the Japanese fire, and at the same time be able to drive straight in.

Like a scalpel, directly cutting open the Japanese, and then the other squads would cooperate to annihilate the Japanese in Nanzha Town.

Yes!

From the moment Lin Fan stood up and requested to let the Special Operations Company attack Nanzha Town, he never thought about just driving the Japanese away.

How could he ensure that the direct subordinate team could approach covertly and maintain strong firepower?

In the Special Operations Company, the most powerful firepower was of course the anti-aircraft guns.

The next was the anti-aircraft machine guns.

Anti-aircraft guns could not be moved, but tanks and anti-aircraft machine guns could be moved.

However, when the tanks were moving, the sound of the engine could be heard from thousands of meters away on a night like this.

The anti-aircraft machine guns had to be mounted on cars.

When moving, the sound of the car's engine was lighter, but on a quiet night like this, it could be detected from hundreds of meters away.

The troubled Lin Fan explained the imperfections in his plan and asked everyone to think of a way.

The eight squad leaders, some suggested that miracles happen with great effort, and directly push the car.

Push the car?

Lin Fan suddenly understood: Car! He was wholeheartedly thinking about using the car as a carrier.

When sneaking attacks like tonight, he could only use manpower.

He could use flatbed carts, design a bracket on the cart, fold it up when traveling, and put it down when fighting.

The entire conversion process only took a few seconds.

Lin Fan immediately found someone to do an experiment, and this thing was made in less than half an hour.

Not only was it made, but with such a flatbed cart, a bulletproof plate could also be added.

Inspired, Lin Fan immediately added ten more brackets.

Not only were the two anti-aircraft machine guns installed,

but also the heavy machine guns were installed on the flatbed carts, and a layer of composite armor made of iron plates, wooden boards, and cotton wool was installed around the flatbed carts.

This was completely a homemade armored vehicle.

The entire company was ready. Lin Fan specifically said to Wan Yi, the regimental commander of the 672nd Regiment, who was preparing to take over the defense positions of Nanzha Town: "When we attack, we will put on Japanese uniforms.

Therefore, your 672nd Regiment must not enter Nanzha Town until we send someone to contact you."

Regiment Commander Wan Yi did not expect that Lin Fan and the others would pretend to be Japanese to sneak attack.

Hearing him say this, his eyes lit up immediately.

To be honest, Regiment Commander Wan Yi was skeptical about whether the Special Operations Company could recapture Nanzha Town.

After all, a Japanese battalion had more than a thousand people, and the Special Operations Company also had only more than a thousand people.

In terms of numbers, the two sides were about the same. In terms of combat quality, Wan Yi still believed that the Japanese combat effectiveness was stronger.

From the perspective of timing, a night raid could only be considered a surprise attack. As long as the Japanese reacted, the attacking side would become passive.

As the attacking side, it was already at a disadvantage in terms of terrain. If it was entangled by the Japanese, it might really end up losing more than it gained.

Now hearing that Lin Fan was preparing to pretend to be Japanese, if that was the case, the Japanese would not be able to tell the difference between the real and the fake, and it was really possible to succeed.

Thinking of this, Regiment Commander Wan Yi immediately said, "Please rest assured, my regiment will never take the initiative to enter Nanzha within a two-mile radius."

Lin Fan smiled and nodded, "That's good, wait for our good news!"

The squad leaders of the Special Operations Company returned to their respective teams and told everyone to seize the time to rest, as there would be a task at night.

At ten thirty, the Special Operations Company quietly assembled and left quietly from the south gate under the watchful eyes of Division Commander Huo and Regiment Commander Wan.

As soon as the Special Operations Company left, the south gate of Jiangyin was immediately closed.

Division Commander Huo smiled and said to Regiment Commander Wan, "This Company Commander Lin is indeed thoughtful. The flatbed carts have been transformed into armored vehicles by them.

This time, I am confident that they will capture Nanzha."

Regiment Commander Wan echoed, "Division Commander! You don't know, they are going to pretend to be Japanese after they leave the city!"

"Pretend to be Japanese?" Division Commander Huo was shocked.

"They won't..."

Division Commander Huo was afraid that Lin Fan and his company would just run away quietly.

Regiment Commander Wan quickly said, "That shouldn't be the case!

The Special Operations Company is so fierce in fighting the Japanese, and their tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and ammunition have not been taken away."

Division Commander Huo breathed a sigh of relief at this time, "Right! Right!"

Lin Fan and his team embarked on the road from Jiangyin to Nanzha.

Just less than two hundred meters out of Jiangyin City, Lin Fan issued an order: "Everyone, change clothes!"