In winter, the pure sky was painted with ink marks by smoke, and turned black. The sound of guns and cannons were heard everywhere. The Japanese army was like ant attached to the city, and explosions were heard one after another. Dozens of cannons lined up in a row, aiming at the top of the city, bombing the Japanese soldiers who were sieging the city without caring about the Japanese soldiers.

The Chinese defenders on the top of the city were divided into two parts. Some were desperately lifting sandbags upward to fill the gap in the city wall, and the other was desperately shooting under the command of the officers. The shells exploded around them, their limbs flew into the air, and bursts of fire broke out in the city and smoke filled the smoke.

Kaori Nakajima's judgment was very accurate. From the early morning of the attack, the first wave of offensives launched by three brigades commanded by Komatsu broke through the defense line of the Chinese defenders. Since the defeat of Pingjin, the morale of the First Group Army was depressed. With Zhang Zizhong and Liu Ruming's troops transferred away, the essence of the troops was Feng Zhian's 77th Army. Song Zheyuan placed this army on the second line, Zhou Fucheng, the 53rd Army and Peng Jinzhi of the 90th Army. Faced with the decisive attack of the Japanese army, the resistance of the two armies collapsed within half an hour. Komatsu destroyed the two lines of defense they set up and ran straight towards Xinxiang.

The 32nd Army facing Gu Shu on the right wing also quickly retreated after the collapse of the front. The resistance of Shiyou's three minions became weaker, and the forwards of the Lucao Brigade easily broke through his defense line.

After the entire line of breakthrough, Nakajima quickly threw the main force of the Lucao Brigade into the left wing, and used the fast maneuver of the cavalry to chase the retreating 32nd Army, regardless of the fleeing right-wing Central Team, and headed straight to Xinxiang City.

The 32nd Army tried to form a blocking defense line, and Lucao made full use of the fast maneuvers of the cavalry and continued to attack from the flanks. The 32nd Army quickly changed from an orderly retreat to a fleeing. The officials could not find the soldiers, the soldiers could not find the officials, and most of the establishment ran away. Shang Zhen had no choice but to order the guards to write orders on a traffic road, so that the troops could gather in Zhengzhou.

The 77th Army, on the second line, was led by the commander of the army, Feng Zhian, and defended Xinxiang. However, Feng Zhian did not expect that when there was fierce battle in eastern Henan, the Japanese army on the front would launch an attack. The information from the theater command showed that the Japanese army on the front would take defense. Of course, what he did not expect was that the front would collapse so quickly.

The outer positions were caught off guard and quickly lost. The troops were forced to retreat back to the city. The Japanese army did not stop or rest at all, and then launched an attack on Xinxiang, which was in a storm.

In the evening of the battle, there were emergency everywhere. He Jifeng, the commander of the 179th Division, who was fighting west of the city, was injured, and two brigade commanders were killed and injured. The troops were forced to retreat. The 132nd Division, which was fighting east of the city, was defeated. Now only the 37th Division in the city was still standing. The commander of the war zone, Li Zongren, sent an emergency telegram informing the 32nd Army that had collapsed and the three ministries of Shiyou could no longer contact him. The 53rd Army fled westward to Wushe. The vanguard of Japanese cavalry had appeared outside Xiuwu City, hoping that he could stick to Xinxiang and gain time for adjustment and deployment for the war zone.

After visiting the telegram, Feng Zhian tore the telegram to pieces and everywhere. The defeats spread frequently. The 53rd Army actually ran nearly a hundred miles in one day and fled to Wushe. How much force did the Japanese army invest in launching an attack? Feng Zhian was a little angry and uneasy when he thought of this.

"Boom!" The shells exploded nearby, the houses were burning, and a team of soldiers were in a hurry to reinforce the city. The sky gradually became dark, but the Japanese offensive showed no sign of weakening, but instead became more violent. Feng Zhian felt a bad feeling.

The firm and resolute resistance of the 37th Division brought a lot of trouble to Nakajima. Nakajima was not worried about the Zhongzhang team on both sides. Reports from both wings showed that the Zhongzhang team had no other actions except to escape. The only thing he was worried about was that if he wasted too much time in Xinxiang, it would have a significant impact on future river crossing operations. But he could not bypass Xinxiang, which was the defensive support point he set. After he led the main force southward, Gushu would rely on Xinxiang to cover the wings of the main force of the front army.

"The offensive cannot be stopped, and you will attack overnight. Xinxiang must be occupied tonight," Nakajima said to Murakami with a blank expression: "Oka Nakasa is ordered to attack immediately and to order the brigade guards to be ready to enter the battle at any time."

The sound of artillery became even more intense. The Japanese army saw that the Chinese team lacked artillery, so they simply pushed the artillery to a place more than 800 meters away from the city wall, lay the muzzle flat, aimed at the top of the city, and cleaned it up meter by meters. Daiga led the troops to pounce on the top of the city. Five hundred meters behind him was the brigade guard led by Nakajima himself. Everyone was on the bayonet. Nakajima stood in front of the team, commanding the knife with his hand pillar, and looked at the city with fire in the distance seriously.

"I'm sorry! Your Excellency, I couldn't rush into the city." Aoki, covered in blood, stood in front of Nakajima in shame. Behind him was a group of retreating soldiers, all over their bodies, and several wounded men were wrapped in discolored bandages and stood with the help of their comrades.

"I said before the war that there is advancement and no retreat in this battle. I know that you have done your best to be loyal to the Emperor. I will report to my superiors that you died bravely." Nakajima said expressionlessly.

Aoki was stunned when he heard this, turned around and left, and knelt down in front of all the soldiers: "Just, please come and fight the Yellow River!" After that, he pulled out his command knife, aimed at his stomach, and stabbed him hard: "Long live the Emperor, Your Majesty!" His deputy, Chi Cheng, shot him in the head with a shot.

Chi Cheng put away his pistol expressionlessly, then picked up Aoki's command knife, turned to face the soldiers: "The Great Japanese Empire's martial arts fortune will last for a long time!" After saying that, he raised the command knife and rushed forward.

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

The tired soldiers mustered up the courage to charge again.

Nakajima stood there steadily, his whole body was still motionless. Murakami stood half a step behind him, and a tragic aura spread among the soldiers.

The battle became more and more tragic.

The flames turned red in the night sky, shouts were endless, and explosions were heard. By ten minutes in the middle of the night, the Japanese army rushed up to the city wall again, and the Chinese defenders in the city seemed unable to fight them back.

"Follow me and move forward!" Nakajima pulled out his command knife, pointed at the front slantedly, and yelled and walked forward. The brigade guard squadron followed him in neat steps.

"Long live!"

With this shout, hundreds of people began to run quickly, and the bayonets radiated cold light under the fire, and the bulky military coat was thrown aside.

Nakajima led the guards into the city. The soldiers who were fighting hard were greatly motivated and their energy seemed to be back on their bodies. The gradually weakened offensive immediately recovered.

"Commander, I can't stop it anymore, let's go!" Zhang Lingyun, the commander of the 37th Division, rushed into Feng Zhi'an's command center. Feng Zhi'an sat in the command center with a painful face. The group army had completely escaped from control. All the troops outside the city had fled. Now the 37th Division was still resisting.

"Let me die here!" Feng Zhian suddenly broke out. He pulled out his pistol and pointed at his head. The guard beside him quickly and grabbed his arm, "Bang!" The bullet flew into the sky.

"Stay the green mountains without fear of burning fire. Put the commander on the army and leave!" Zhang Lingyun stomped his feet and waved his orders. Several guards rushed to raise Feng Zhian who was struggling and walked out.

In the early morning, there were still scattered gunshots in Xinxiang City. The Japanese army had already controlled the entire city, and only sporadic gunshots were left to indicate that there were still Chinese soldiers resisting.

At dawn, the last Chinese soldier was blocked in a dilapidated courtyard. All the buildings in the courtyard had been destroyed. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers around were surrounded. The Chinese soldier hid in a dead corner and continued to shoot.

"This is an excellent soldier of the army. I hope you all can fight to the last moment like him." Nakajima shouted to the soldiers around him with dirty but refreshed body, and no one stood up to refute these obviously majestic words.

"End his behavior with artillery fire, this is the highest reward for the soldiers." Nakajima gave a slight salute in the direction of the soldier, then turned around and left.

An explosion sounded behind him, and there were no more resisters in Xinxiang City, and the iron hooves of the Imperial Army crushed all obstacles.

"Your Excellency! Lu Caojun is back!" The village came to report. At this moment, the brigade was full of admiration for Nakajima. He defeated the enemy who was several times more than ten thousand troops and conquered the city guarded by the enemy. This military achievement was extremely honorable.

"It's so great." Nakajima raised his eyebrows, and his originally emotional voice was filled with a hint of surprise: "Please come here immediately."

Soon, the proud Lucao rushed to the city and galloped for more than a hundred miles overnight. Both the horses and he seemed a little tired, but his spirit was still full.

"General." Shicao trotted to Nakajima and raised his hand to salute. Nakajima smiled softly. He understood the meaning of Shicao's move, which was to express his apology for yesterday's behavior: "The First Cavalry Brigade completed the mission successfully, and all the officers and soldiers of the brigade admired the general's outstanding command for no reason. They entrusted me to express my respect to the general and apply for a new mission at the same time."

Nakajima calmly accepted the respect of Shicao, looked at his horse with a frown slightly, and asked, "Is the horse OK even if it can be withstood overnight?"

"Our horses are Japanese horses," said Lucao proudly. "If you drink some water and eat some food, you can run like a flying again."

"But you probably don't even have time to drink water and eat ingredients," Nakajima said.

Lu Cao was stunned and then said loudly: "That's nothing. After defeating the army, we have time to drink water and eat ingredients."

"Let's do this, there will be an hour left in the dawn. You can hurry up and rest as soon as possible. When the sky is dawn, set off immediately and pursue the army. It's better not to attack forcefully. From the flanks and from the back, you will never let them form a front line and drive them to the Yellow River." Nakajima said.

"Hayi, please rest assured. I will definitely drive them into the Yellow River and use their bodies to build a bridge to Henan for us!" Lu Cao saluted and turned away.

Looking at Lu Cao's departure, Nakajima was not like the soldiers who were caring for him. He knew very well that occupying Xinxiang was only the first step. If he could not break through to Henan, all his sacrifices today would be in vain.

When a trace of whiteness appeared on the sky, Nakajima led his troops to leave Xinxiang, and Gushu led all the remaining troops to watch Nakajima, which was gradually fading away on the riddled city wall. Further ahead of Nakajima, the First Cavalry Brigade led by Lucao had already set off, and the smoke and dust they rolled up formed a yellow smoke belt.
Chapter completed!