Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

As the battle continued, the second line of defense of the SKELETON Division in the city was completely turned into a meat grinder. The 6th Army of the 9th Army launched large-scale assaults on the defense line of the SKELETON Division for a whole day and night. However, the four infantry regiments of the SKELETON Division in the fortifications maintained an extremely tenacious fighting will. Even when the three divisions in front and behind the 6th Army suffered serious casualties and more than 50% casualties, they still could not move forward.

Outside the city, the iron torrent of the First Armored Regiment was still raging. In the flat plains outside the city, the Armored Regiment had an absolute overwhelming advantage, just like the infantry against cavalry in the plains in the era of cold weapons. The Seventh Army of the Ninth Corps and the Ninth Army saw no hope of winning at all and were forced to move eastward into the two deserted urban areas of Qingpu and Jinshan, using the obstacles and complex terrain in the urban areas to escape the pursuit of the Armored Regiment.

After all levels of command were completely cut off from each other, they could only use the most primitive method and sent people on foot to the headquarters where Bai Qigang was located to report the combat situation. However, this seriously delayed the opportunity to obtain intelligence, causing Bai Qigang to learn about the situation faced by the Seventh Army and the Ninth Army. As a result, by the time Bai Qigang learned about the situation faced by the Seventh Army and the Ninth Army, the armored regiment had already launched a frenzied attack on the headquarters guarded by the Central Sixteenth Army like a tiger descending from the mountain.

In the headquarters, Liang Jiaheng, commander of the 16th Central Army, said to Bai Qigang with a serious face: "Commander! The local armored forces are completely invincible in the plains outside the city. If we continue to fight with them, we will only face huge losses in the war and may not even be able to form any effective resistance. The only way now is to transfer all the troops outside the city to the Qingpu and Jinshan urban areas we have occupied, and use the complex terrain inside the city to avoid their sharp edge."

Bai Qigang thought for a moment and responded, "Once all our troops enter the city, we will lose contact with Jinling's headquarters. As long as the enemy cuts off our retreat and supply lines, our large army will be in danger."

"We have to make emergency decisions. Their armored forces are consuming a lot of gasoline and ammunition every minute and every second. The logistics pressure is huge. Without sufficient logistics support, these armored units are no different from scrap metal. We can disperse the troops in the outer urban areas of Shanghai and cut off the connection between their base camp in the city and the outer armored forces."

"From the current situation of the SKULL Division's second defense line in the city, the SKULL Division's abandonment of the outer defense position is a complete conspiracy, which is to make us relax our vigilance and cut off the communication between our troops at all levels, so that the armored forces can bypass the city and launch a surprise attack on us, in order to cause heavy losses to our Ninth Army. If we continue to hold the base camp outside the city and fight the armored forces head-on, it will undoubtedly play into the opponent's hands."

"This damn Skeleton Division is so audacious. They actually dared to take the initiative to attack when they were totally outnumbered. I feel so aggrieved after fighting this battle!"

Liang Jiaheng shook his head helplessly. This was no longer the World War I era. The warfare method of queuing and shooting and the advantage in numbers could no longer play a decisive role due to the obvious gap in military equipment. Liang Jiaheng once represented the Southern Government and went to the West Point Military Academy for further studies. He had a very good understanding of the combat effectiveness of Western armored forces.

In the plains, a combat force with a large number of armored units is completely invincible. The huge gap between the two sides cannot be bridged by numbers.

"We'll do as you say. Find a way to notify the 14th Army to immediately withdraw to the Qingpu and Jinshan areas in the city and choose to garrison in the nearest location. At the same time, set up a large number of roadblocks on the main traffic roads in the city, or use explosives to destroy the roads, so that the enemy's armored forces will be completely unable to pursue our army."

Under normal circumstances, Liang Jiaheng's choice was undoubtedly very rational. Knowing that he could not resist the enemy's iron torrent in the terrain outside the city, he still fought to the death. This was undoubtedly a very stupid behavior. The true meaning of war is to avoid the enemy's edge and use one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses.

But what they didn't know was that this was also part of the SS Division's plan. It was undoubtedly unrealistic to rely on an armored regiment of 3,000 people to inflict a devastating blow to the three army-level combat units of the Ninth Army. Ike's goal was to use the armored regiment's unstoppable steel torrent to force a large number of enemy troops outside the city into the city. On the one hand, they could cut off their connection with the Jinling City logistics base. On the other hand, the SS Division had prepared a huge surprise for them in the city.

This is the sheepfold tactic mentioned in the telegram Ike sent to Su Zhengyang. The enemy troops, which were regarded as prey by the Skeleton Division, were driven into the sheepfold and then devastatingly attacked one by one.

"Report to the commander! The enemy's Fifth and Seventh Armies stationed outside the city, as well as two Central Army-level units, have all evacuated into the city. Our plan has been perfectly accomplished!"

"Notify Commander Ike immediately! The fat sheep have been put into the pen, get ready to sharpen the knife and slaughter them! Make them fall into the abyss of despair completely!"

"Yes, leader!"

A large number of troops of the Ninth Army Group gathered in the two major districts of Qingpu and Jinshan in the city. Bai Qigang chose Lishui Street in Jinshan District as his new headquarters.

The chain reaction brought about by this action was that the defensive pressure on the second line of defense in the city suddenly increased several times. A large number of enemy fresh troops poured into the front line and launched a crazy and continuous attack on the second line of defense. The artillery game between the two sides was also extremely exciting. The Ninth Army also began to sum up experience and dispersed the artillery troops in the city, setting up multiple artillery positions in battalions.

In this way, even if the location of the artillery position was exposed and there was no time to move, the armored artillery regiment of the SS Division would not directly cause serious losses.

It even posed a certain threat to the armored artillery regiment. As long as the armored artillery regiment set up artillery positions and eliminated the enemy's artillery positions, artillery positions of multiple directions and different sizes would immediately launch counterattacks.

As a result, the armored artillery regiment no longer dared to easily expose the position of its artillery positions. A large number of artillery pieces of the Ninth Army began to bombard the second line of defense. The huge roar of artillery fire almost shook the entire line of defense.

You know, in order to capture Shanghai, the two heavy artillery brigades and four artillery regiments of the Ninth Army spent a lot of money, and were even equipped with a large number of 105 howitzers, which are extremely rare in the country today, and a small number of 150MM heavy artillery.

The M2 heavy machine guns they had prepared in advance also performed brilliantly in this offensive and defensive battle. If the 12.7MM machine gun bullets continued to launch fire attacks on one point, they could even penetrate the nearly half-meter thick concrete defense wall of the Skeleton Division.

This resulted in increasing casualties on the Skeleton Division's side, and the defensive pressure was enormous.