Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

At dawn on August 1937, 8, the battlefield in Shanghai was filled with smoke.

General Huang Meixing personally led three regiments of troops and launched an overwhelming attack on the Japanese strongholds with fearless courage and firm determination.

At the beginning of the battle, Huang Meixing's troops faced an extremely grim situation.

The light weapons in their hands seemed so thin and powerless in front of the Japanese army's sturdy bunkers and armored vehicles.

However, the soldiers did not retreat at all. They shouted and charged forward. With their tenacious will and fearless spirit, they successively broke through more than ten Japanese strongholds, including Chizhi University and the May 30th Cemetery.

In the morning, the Japanese army launched an attack on the temporary headquarters of the 264th Brigade, Zhizhi University, from Tiantongan and Yokohama Bridge. Huang Meixing commanded the troops to use the school fortifications to stubbornly block the attack and repel the Japanese Marines.

In order to break through the defense line, the Japanese army used tanks to clear the way and forced their way across the Eight-Character Bridge located southwest of Chi-Chi University. Huang Meixing immediately mobilized troops to counterattack and led his troops to fight for key strongholds such as the Patriotic Girls' School and Yuedong Middle School.

In this battle, every charge by the soldiers of the 264th Brigade was accompanied by fierce gunfire and shouts of killing.

Every breakthrough embodies the blood and lives of the soldiers.

They shuttled through the hail of bullets, bravely advanced under the enemy's firepower, and fought for the dignity of the country and the nation with their flesh and blood.

However, the balance of the battle did not entirely tilt towards the 264th Brigade.

When the Japanese Third Fleet noticed Huang Meixing's fierce offensive, it quickly dispatched nearly 100 carrier-based aircraft to carry out low-altitude bombing.

Planes roared across the sky, bombs rained down like raindrops, and the entire battlefield was instantly shrouded in fire and thick smoke.

Huang Meixing's troops suffered heavy casualties under the Japanese army's indiscriminate bombing due to the lack of air support.

Some of the attacking soldiers were knocked over by the blast of the bombs, and some were hit by shrapnel, and the ground was dyed red with blood, but they still held their ground and continued to attack without any hesitation, fighting a desperate battle with the Japanese army with their tenacious will.

At around 6 pm that day, night gradually fell, but there was no sign of the war being extinguished.

General Huang Meixing personally led his soldiers to attack the last stronghold of the Japanese army, the Patriotic Women's University.

At this time, the Sanwei Bazi Bridge, which is only 8.3 meters long, became the throat of the battle between the two sides.

This seemingly ordinary bridge has symbolic significance in the war, as it carries the life and death struggle of soldiers on both sides.

Soldiers from both sides engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat on the bridge, with shouts and screams intertwined and echoing in the night sky.

Huang Meixing stood by the bridge and directed the operation on the spot.

But at this moment, a mortar shell fired by the Japanese army exploded nearby, and shrapnel flew like sharp blades, hitting Huang Meixing's abdomen.

"Charge! For the country, for the nation!" Huang Meixing fell to the ground in pain, blood gushing out from his wound, but he still endured the severe pain, shouting with his last strength, and then he died heroically on the spot.

When General Huang Meixing died, the Chizhi University campus was bombed by Japanese heavy artillery and aircraft. The library, teaching buildings and other buildings were burned down, the book collections and teaching equipment were completely lost, and the raging fire illuminated the entire night sky.

However, Huang Meixing's 264th Brigade effectively delayed the Japanese advance thanks to the solid defense here, buying time for follow-up troops.

The house where the brigade headquarters was located was also hit and caught fire, and the fire spread rapidly.

The chief of staff anxiously advised him to move to the bunker to avoid danger.

But Huang Meixing refused, saying, "As a general, how can I leave the front lines at this time? I want to be with the soldiers and boost their morale!"

Before his death, Huang Meixing led his troops to annihilate more than a thousand Japanese troops. His sacrifice also made him the first senior general of the Nanjing government to die in the Battle of Shanghai.

On the 15th.

The soldiers of the 88th Division once again launched an attack on the Japanese Navy Headquarters.

In the smoke-filled Hongkou district, the sound of dense gunfire echoed among the broken walls and ruins. Relying on strong fortifications and armored cover, the Japanese army set up layers of defense in the narrow streets. The Chinese army had to pay a bloody price for every step forward.

After several fierce charges, the vanguard of the 88th Division finally reached the Japanese Navy Headquarters building.

However, the Japanese army had already set up bunkers throughout the building, and the doors were powered by electricity and could be closed at any time.

The soldiers of the 88th Division ignored their casualties and continued to charge forward, and finally a row of brave warriors rushed into the building.

But just when they thought they had successfully broken through, the door of the building slammed shut, and the follow-up troops were blocked outside. The Japanese bunker machine guns inside the building immediately opened fire, and bullets rained down.

In just half an hour, this row of brave soldiers all died heroically, and no one survived.

Seeing that the siege had been going on for a long time without success, General Zhang Zhizhong decisively ordered the selection of elite troops from various units to form a suicide squad, attempting to attack from Qiujiang Road and cut off the connection between the Japanese naval headquarters and the Japanese concession.

However, the Japanese army had already built dense obstacles on the streets and used armored vehicles as mobile bunkers to stubbornly block the attack.

The suicide squad charged forward under a hail of bullets, but was repeatedly suppressed by the Japanese firepower, suffering heavy casualties.

The original plan was to use the complex streets and alleys of Hongkou to infiltrate and break through, but under the iron-clad defense of the Japanese army, the battle was turned into a brutal siege.

The soldiers of the 88th Division fought bravely, using their flesh and blood to attack the Japanese defense line again and again, but they were never able to shake this iron fortress.

By the third day of the battle, the streets were littered with corpses and the broken walls were stained red with blood, but the Japanese Navy Headquarters still stood.

The war situation took a sharp turn for the worse, with a series of unfavorable news coming one after another.

2400 Marine reinforcements from the Japanese Third Fleet landed in Shanghai and quickly occupied key points, suddenly strengthening the Japanese defense system.

What is even more worrying is that intelligence shows that two reorganized divisions have been urgently dispatched from Japan and are rushing to Shanghai to provide assistance.

If the existing defending enemy cannot be annihilated before the arrival of reinforcements, the war situation will deteriorate significantly.

Inside the command center, Zhang Zhizhong frowned and tapped the map heavily with his fingertips.

He knew very well that time was running out.

However, the biggest constraint in previous operations, the existence of concessions, always made him hesitant to act rashly.

Most of the Japanese military strongholds were located close to the International Settlement. A rash attack would likely result in accidental casualties from artillery fire, leading to diplomatic disputes and even affecting international public opinion.

But now, Japanese reinforcements are about to arrive, and if we delay any further, the situation will be irreversible.

On August 8, the Nanjing Command finally made the decision, and Song Xilian's 17th Division rushed to Shanghai to support the attack! This elite unit, also equipped with German weapons, traveled day and night, like a sharp knife piercing the battlefield, injecting a powerful force into the long-standing encirclement and annihilation campaign.

"I can't care about that anymore!" Zhang Zhizhong slammed his fist on the table, his eyes burning with fighting spirit.

He immediately ordered the 36th Division to cooperate with the 87th Division to attack Huishan Wharf at all costs and annihilate the Japanese army on the banks of the Huangpu River!