"Yoxi! We do need a few victories to boost the morale of the army!"

Nishio Shou nodded. Although he assisted Nojima Lumen to successfully complete a special sneak attack at the last moment, this was not enough to offset the shame of repeated defeats before!

So rather than letting the troops boost morale, Nishio Shozuo wants to regain some face!

"Hayi, what the Commander said is very true!"

Suzuki nodded and then changed his mind and said with great anticipation: "This time the base camp recalled Ishihara Sang back to Tokyo, maybe our Japanese Army will turn a new page!"

"Soga! I hope so. Although the Imperial Army is already very powerful, it is far from enough to completely conquer China!"

Nishio Suzuo sighed lightly. There was no harm without comparison. Before he met Yang Fan, he always felt that he could crush the Japanese army with its existing strength!

However, the bloody battles over the past few days suddenly woke Nishio Suzao up, and then he realized what it means to have a mountain and a mountain high, and what it means to have truly excellent equipment!

January 31, 1938, Rizhao County, Shandong!

Gu Liangmin stood on a high ground by the sea in Rizhao County, looking at the busy construction site around him, looking at the three already built forts, and said with great emotion:

"I only now fully understand why the Chinese Tiger Army can not only withstand the siege of the two A-type divisions of the Japanese army, but also cause major casualties to the Japanese army!"

The deputy commander nodded and sighed:

"Yes, I never dreamed that in just one week, not only did the tremendous changes occur in Rizhao County, but such a complete and powerful coastal defense line were also established. The speed and efficiency were incredible!

If it were someone else, I would have been less than a year or two, so I would not have thought it would be as large as it is now!"

Tao Qinghai raised his eyebrows and said, "Yes, these three large turrets not only have more than ten meters of steel and cement, but also have extremely complete light and heavy firepower configurations. These three turrets alone are enough to block the coastline that is dozens of kilometers long!"

Ning Chunxiao, commander of the 15th Brigade of the 6th Division of the China Tiger Ben Army, nodded and sighed: "Yes, I really don't know where the chief officers bought so many shore defense artillery!

That big guy alone makes people shudder. Just one cannonball is more than 1,000 kilograms. I'm afraid it will take a shot to overturn a Japanese warship? It's so scary!"

The terrifying financial and material resources, powerful construction capabilities, and the mental outlook of the military and civilians uniting to fight the sky and the earth made Gu Liangmin and others feel deeply moved, especially the 406mm super shore defense cannon, which made them feel extremely shocked!

Li Zhanbiao, the commander of the 16th Brigade, laughed and said, "Then you need to say it, otherwise the Japanese fleet would be so honest? He would not dare to approach our coastline at all. This thing has a range of more than 30 kilometers, and it will be disabled even if he gets shot!"

Yang Fan has no way to develop the navy to confront Japan now, so he can only build defense towers and vigorously strengthen the coastal defense fortifications and spend a lot of money to purchase heavy shore artillery!

Now that it shines on the coastline of Jiao County, although there are only 2 406mm super shore defense cannons, there are 30 heavy cannons of 155-305mm, which is enough to impale more than 100 kilometers of coastline!

The warships with strong armored cannons can roam around the sea, but they have to be three points short of anger when they see the shore defense cannons.

One shore defense cannon is enough to support three naval cannons of the same caliber, even the old cannons of grandfather cannons can beat warships all over the ground for teeth.

Because the coastal artillery has a geographical advantage and is backed by Mother Earth, the turret can be built with extremely strong strength without any tonnage restrictions. It can pour high-grade concrete armor of more than ten meters thick!

There is a steel plate that is several dozen centimeters thick in the middle, so no shell can break it, even ordinary atomic bombs can do nothing.

The shore defense cannon has excellent shooting stability, and it does not fire when swaying left and right like the naval cannon, and it has much higher accuracy.

The shore defense cannon is selected to occupy the best view and angle on the battlefield. You can look down from a high point and look down at the overall situation, or you can use the back slope to prevent the enemy from attacking.

The shore defense cannon can also calibrate the area in advance, calculate the various elements, and fire quickly and accurately.

Therefore, even if a warship is powerful, it will hide if it encounters a shore defense cannon and try not to provoke it. If there are bold and reckless people, there will be basically no good ending.

"Haha, the chief officer has provided us with such good conditions and treatment. We must train the army to guard the defense zone well. If the Japanese don't come, they will be beaten to the ground!"

Gu Liangmin waved his passionate hand and was very glad that he came to join Yang Fan. With such a strong backer, he could defend his country without any worries!

At this moment, the 20th Division of the Japanese North China Front Army had arrived in Jinan and began to attack southwards to several small counties stationed in the Third Group!

The Japanese army formed the 15th and 17th Divisions and the newly built 21st, 22nd and 23rd Divisions on the local area with the remaining troops of the permanent divisions. They are gathering to prepare for transport to Shandong and Jiangsu to participate in the ongoing Xuzhou Battle!

In addition, the 5th Division and the 10th Division gathered in Jimo, Pingdu, Weixian and other places gradually became energetic after replenishment and training by soldiers, and began to clean up the anti-Japanese armed forces behind the Kuomintang and the Communists in Penglai, Huangxian, Fushan, Changshan, Qidong and other areas!

For a time, the situation of the war of resistance in the entire Shandong and Jiangsu regions became extremely severe. The Japanese army continued to gather a large number of superior forces, and the vigorous battle of Xuzhou was about to enter the climax!

On February 1, the 20th Division of the Japanese Army entered Jining County, and the 5th Division of the Japanese Army set out south to Zou County.

On February 2, the 20th Japanese Division launched an attack on Jinxiang and Yutai counties at the same time. Sun Tongxuan, commander-in-chief of the Third Army, ordered the 20th and 74th Divisions to fight on the spot.

The 20th Division and the 74th Division fought with the Japanese army for three days, causing a large number of casualties to kill and annihilate more than 2,000 enemies. However, in the end, due to heavy casualties, they had to withdraw from Jinxiang and Yutai counties.

On February 5, the Japanese Fifth Division entered Zou County, which put tremendous pressure on Tengxian, Taierzhuang, and even Xuzhou, the defense zone of the Fifth War Zone.

Teng County was originally the 59th Army Defense Zone of Zhang Zizhong, but since the Japanese Central China Front Army headed north from Nantong along Rugao, Dongtai and Yancheng, the 59th Army was transferred to Lianyun, Donghai and Xin'an Town to deploy defenses.

Tengxian was taken over by the 22nd Army of the 1st Column of the Sichuan Army, Deng Xihou, and was responsible for the defense of Tengxian.

The Sichuan Army was a legendary force in the War of Resistance Against Japan. After the outbreak of the full-scale war of resistance in September 1937, more than 400,000 Sichuan troops were integrated into Sichuan to fight.

Sichuan recruited nearly 2.6 million soldiers to join the war, and with soldiers serving in other ways, Sichuan transported nearly 3.5 million soldiers during the War of Resistance Against Japan.

The price paid by the Sichuan Army was also extremely high. According to statistics, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, 264,000 soldiers were killed, 356,000 injured, and more than 26,000 missing, with a total loss of nearly 650,000.

The death of the Sichuan Army was related to the weapons and equipment, and the backward training of soldiers; it was also related to the serious chaos in the command of the upper class and the lack of necessary supplies in combat.

The Sichuan Army during the War of Resistance Against Japan was strictly not considered a regular force of the Chinese army, but a local warlord armed force.

Neither the equipment, military qualities, or the treatment of the troops, can be compared with the Kuomintang Central Army.
Chapter completed!