Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 539 Great Ups and Downs
Faced with the G army's pincer attack from the north and south, Tang Keqin was extremely anxious.

Wusongkou was Shanghai's only sea escape route, and it could not be lost under any circumstances.

In order to stop the G army's attack, Tang Keqin had no choice but to rob Peter to pay Paul.

The troops originally stationed in the city were continuously transferred to the battlefields of Yuexing and Kangqiao.

On the Kangqiao battlefield, although the 52nd Army was known as one of the six main forces, it still suffered repeated defeats in the face of the continuous attacks from the Second General Headquarters.

"boom!"

To prevent a rout, Liu Yuzhen, the commander of the 52nd Army, had another battalion commander executed.

This was the eighteenth officer below the rank of major he had executed in two days.

Liu Yuzhen looked around and shouted, "Anyone who dares to retreat on their own will suffer this fate!"

"All of you, get back to your positions! Otherwise, you will all be considered deserters and executed on the spot!"

The soldiers of the Guo Army looked at their dead battalion commander, then at the supervisory team with guns pointed at them, and could only return to the front line in fear.

Seeing the soldiers dawdling, Liu Yuzhen ordered, "Send men to lock up all their bunkers and let them perish with them."

"In addition, send a telegram to the Siren, requesting artillery support from the Wusong Fortress."

"yes!".
The Wusong Fortress possessed hundreds of cannons of various sizes, with the large-caliber fortress cannons easily hitting targets more than twenty kilometers away.

Tang Keqin took Liu Yuzhen's request very seriously.

Under Tang Keqin's personal supervision, in addition to the Wusong Fortress, naval vessels on the sea and the Huangpu River also bombarded the Kangqiao Town battlefield incessantly.

Seeing the Kuomintang army's cannons and planes bombarding them relentlessly, Chen Chengxing angrily said, "This is outrageous!"

Although the East China Field Army deployed a corps in Pudong, the area around Kangqiao Town was too narrow, making it impossible for a large corps to deploy and thus failing to fully utilize its numerical advantage.

Moreover, there is a river every three steps here, and all the bridges over the rivers have been destroyed.

This has resulted in the howitzer regiment not arriving yet.

As for the heavy artillery regiments of the East China Field Army attached to the corps, that goes without saying.

Even 105mm howitzers couldn't reach it, let alone 155mm artillery.

Chen Chengxing can only rely on his various mountain gun and rocket artillery regiments to contend with the Kuomintang army's large number of heavy artillery pieces.

This resulted in the Second General's firepower being completely outmatched.

"Old Chu, send orders to the front lines to reduce the number of troops deployed and increase the frequency of attacks. I want to see how long the Guo army's heavy artillery can keep up!"

According to the field headquarters' orders, the attack on Kangqiao Town could not be stopped, as there were still many enemy troops in the urban area of ​​Shanghai.

The battle at Cambridge was briefly decided, with the Second Army advancing under cover of darkness at night, while the Nationalist Army launched a fierce counterattack during the day, utilizing their superior artillery firepower.
However, as time went on, the two armies of the third echelon also crossed the Huangpu River to the east and entered Pudong to participate in the battle.

Faced with repeated attacks from multiple forces, the situation of the Kuomintang army on the Kangqiao battlefield became increasingly difficult.

The battle never stops for a single second, 24 hours a day.

The G Army could take turns to rest, but the 52nd Division of the KMT Army could only hold the front line all the time.

A few days later, the Second General Corps and the Corps Headquarters' howitzer regiment and the T Column's heavy artillery regiment arrived on the battlefield one after another.

The gap in firepower between the two sides has also begun to gradually narrow.

The heavy artillery regiment of the T column also managed to damage seven warships on the sea, and the navy chose to withdraw from the battlefield in order to preserve its strength.

Meanwhile, as Kangqiao and Yuexing drew away more and more of Tang Keqin's troops, Huayeyesi also began to deploy attacks on the city.

Just as the East China Field Army was deploying its troops and preparing to storm Shanghai, a wave of desertion swept through the Kuomintang, from the head of state to the garrison troops.

Chang Ruiyuan, who repeatedly claimed that he would share hardships with the officers and soldiers and live and die with Shanghai, was the first to take a boat to Zhoushan.

On the ship, Yu Liangzhen reported: "President, Chief Commander Tang reports: The battle at Cambridge is progressing smoothly, with G Army casualties."

Before Yu Liangzhen could finish speaking, Chang Ruiyuan waved his hand.

After experiencing the highs and lows of life, Chang Ruiyuan had a rare moment of clarity.

"Reporting victory means defeat has already arrived."

"For decades, the bad news I receive has always arrived a step later than the good news."

As Chang Ruiyuan had predicted, Tang Keqin was now fully aware that he could not hold Shanghai. Therefore, he moved his command post to a warship overseas long ago.

After nervously holding his last military meeting and announcing the defense deployment for Shanghai, Si Ling, the commander of the Shanghai Garrison Command, fled immediately.

The defense of Shanghai's urban area was handed over to Liu Changhong, who was also the deputy commander of the Garrison Command, commander of the Northern Corps, and commander of the 21st Army.

Faced with the mess that had been dumped on him, Liu Changhong knew better than anyone that no matter how many armies he had—the 51st, 123rd, and 21st—they were utterly useless.

The 51st Army has long been annihilated. The current 51st Army is a reorganized unit of miscellaneous personnel, and it is just using a different designation.

The 123rd Army was composed of security regiments and had a strength of less than 10,000 men.

Although his 21st Army was relatively well-organized, it was a Sichuan Army unit with extremely poor equipment.

However, Liu Changhong didn't care about any of that at the time.

He had already made up his mind that if he could hold out, he would hold out; if he couldn't, he would revolt on the battlefield after Tang Keqin and the others withdrew.

Meanwhile, Chen Churu, the prefect of Shanghai, was also anxiously searching for a proxy.

However, unlike Tang Keqin's smooth sailing, he was rejected by several highly respected elders in succession.

Left with no other choice, Chen Churu had to resort to both soft and hard tactics to bring up Chen Kangzu from the Civil Service Bureau.

Chen Churu was unaware that Chen Kangzu was even less reliable than Liu Changhong, and that Chen Kangzu had already contacted the underground Communist Party in Shanghai.

Therefore, Chen Kangzu only politely declined for a moment before agreeing to Chen Churu's decision.

After taking office, Chen Kangzu immediately ordered the police to maintain order and public security, while strictly ordering them to avoid conflict with the G army.

Inside the Second General Headquarters, Chen Chengxing received another telegram from the Special Operations Team.

"Commander-in-Chief, we have just received intelligence that Tang Keqin has moved the command post to the warship at Wusongkou."

“The enemy is about to escape,” Chen Chengxing asserted.

"That should be it." Chu Yunfei nodded: "South of the Suzhou River, there are only some traffic police teams left. Tang Keqin has withdrawn all the main forces to the Wusongkou area."

“In that case, Cambridge must be taken,” Chen Chengxing said, looking at the map.

"Our artillery shells and rockets have been replenished, and it's time to let the Kuomintang army experience the firepower coverage."

The fact that Tang Keqin is still refusing to retreat despite the battle has reached this point means that important supplies for Shanghai have not yet been transported out.

Since that's the case, we certainly can't let them transport the goods out so easily.

"Old Chu, pass on my order: unleash the full force and beat these cowards to a pulp!"

"Yes!"

Upon receiving the order, the artillery barrage, unleashing its full firepower, greatly alarmed the Kuomintang troops in Kangqiao Town.

If it were just howitzers and mountain guns, the KMT troops in Kangqiao Town wouldn't be so surprised. But with the rocket artillery regiment firing in unison, the KMT troops truly understood what firepower coverage meant.

Fifty-four rocket launchers, firing more than 640 shells in a single salvo.

The entire town of Cambridge was engulfed in a violent explosion.

The soldiers of the Kuomintang army said they had never seen such a density of fire.

"Command post! Command post! This is the Kangqiao position! The G Army has deployed over a thousand heavy artillery pieces! Over a thousand heavy artillery pieces!"

"Asking for support! Requesting support!"

The 52nd Army's radio operator shouted at the top of his lungs.

With such a high density of attacks, the situation inside the bunkers might be a little better, but those soldiers who didn't hide in the fortifications would have a very hard time surviving.

Looking at the explosion flames that were clearly visible even in broad daylight, Chen Chengxing nodded in satisfaction.

"That's the effect we want! If we can use explosives, we won't use infantry."

"Tell the artillery positions to keep firing until the gun barrels get hot!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)