You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you ended up with a German-equipped division

Chapter 39: Gathering the defeated soldiers, the force expands to 3 men.

"Clatter!!!"

The moment the detonator was pressed, a deafening roar suddenly erupted.

"Boom!!!"

Under Li Jianghe's orders, the engineering corps buried more than 300 kilograms of explosives on the position.

The Japanese soldiers who rushed to the position were blown into the sky in the blink of an eye, standing shoulder to shoulder with the sun.

After completing the demolition mission, Long Wenzhang burst into laughter, running wildly as he jumped onto a BMW R70 three-wheeled motorcycle hidden in the woods.

The soldier beside him twisted the throttle, the engine roared, and the motorcycle sped off in a northwest direction.

Yoshizumi Ryosuke was looking through his binoculars at the liver-colored Japanese flag rising over the position, and he had some doubts in his heart.

The attack went so smoothly? We barely even heard any gunfire.

Could it be that the heavy artillery bombardment just now destroyed the bunker and scared away even the remaining enemy?

Just as Yoshizumi Ryosuke was wondering, a dull thud was heard.

Through his binoculars, the newly raised Japanese flag was blown away and shrouded in smoke.

The shockwave from the explosion created a violent blast that sent the cheering Japanese soldiers flying and crashing heavily to the ground.

This scene left Yoshizumi Ryosuke, Nakagawa Hiroshi, and every soldier and commander of the 9th Division who was watching the position speechless for a long time.

"this,,,,,"

Just as Hiroshi Nakagawa was about to say something, he noticed that Ryosuke Yoshizumi swayed and was about to fall backward.

He knew that Yoshizumi Ryosuke's blood pressure had risen again.

"Division Commander, are you alright?"

Hiroshi Nakagawa quickly helped Ryosuke Yoshizumi to his feet.

Yoshizumi Ryosuke took a deep breath, as if he was preparing something.

Finally, a deafening roar came from his mouth.

"Pursue them!!! Pursue them immediately!!! Leave no one alive!!!! Kill them all!! Kill them all!!"

On the truck, Li Jianghe was looking through the supply cards and vehicle cards in the system.

Unfortunately, there were no boats.

The Battle of Nanjing could have been won, but the chances of winning were slim.

After all, only about 100,000 defeated soldiers remained in this isolated city. Their morale was completely low, and they had almost run out of ammunition.

Heavy weapons such as artillery were almost entirely lost during the retreat.

As the saying goes, "Don't worry about victory, worry about defeat first." Li Jianghe's mission was to ensure the safe evacuation of more soldiers and civilians in the city after completing the blocking mission.

To achieve these goals, he needs to do a lot of core work.

First, we need to have enough ships; otherwise, it will be difficult for both civilians and the military to evacuate safely.

Secondly, sufficient personnel and weaponry are essential to hold off the Japanese army for a longer period and buy more time for the city's military and civilians to evacuate.

Currently, Li Jianghe's merit points, after repeated battles and personnel summons, are around 60,000.

At the same time, he had more than 700 men under his command, who could be ordered and dispatched at will, in addition to Xu Dingguo's 500 men.

These 60,000 merit points are quite a lot. If you only summon the most basic infantry squad, you can summon more than 6,000 people.

However, he also needs to consider the consumption of ammunition, supplies, medicine, and weapon upgrades, and at the same time, he needs to enhance heavy firepower, such as field artillery squads. One squad is worth 500 merit points, which is equivalent to five infantry squads.

Therefore, the actual number of soldiers he can summon is around three thousand.

This is a force of three thousand men with heavy firepower, a large amount of anti-tank firepower, assault firepower, and complete logistical support. Their combat effectiveness cannot be compared to that of just over six thousand ordinary infantrymen.

If they could gather some defeated soldiers along the way, the organized force would be even greater.

After making up his mind, Li Jianghe ordered his battalion commanders to each lead a convoy along different routes to gather the fleeing soldiers, so as to maximize the expansion of his forces.

These defeated soldiers, though now completely demoralized, are all veterans who experienced the Battle of Shanghai and have rich combat experience.

With just a little training, they can regain their fighting strength.

For the rest of the day, their convoy of trucks moved slowly along the road.

There were indeed quite a few defeated soldiers along the way. They came from different units, including the Guangxi Army, the Guangdong Army, the Northeast Army, and many soldiers from the Central Army and even the Sichuan Army.

The Sichuan Army suffered the most. They rushed all the way from Sichuan, and by the time they arrived at the destination, the battle was already coming to an end.

They missed the fiercest battle, but they did catch the rout.

That evening, the troops regrouped in the Jintan area.

We were very close to Nanjing, and the Japanese pursuing forces were coming from two directions.

These are the southeast and north directions, respectively.

Based on his memory of history, Li Jianghe knew that the Japanese troops to the north landed directly on the banks of the Yangtze River aboard warships and transport ships.

In a few more days, these enemies will be able to reach the outskirts of Nanjing.

After taking stock of the routed soldiers he had gathered, Li Jianghe realized that his previous estimate had been too conservative.

Long Wenzhang alone gathered nearly a thousand defeated soldiers, and others such as Xu Dingguo's Fifth Regiment and Yang Ruifu also gathered a lot of defeated soldiers.

With the addition of the soldiers Li Jianghe himself gathered, the combined strength of the Third and Fifth Provisional Regiments now exceeds four thousand men.

Actually, the way to win over these defeated soldiers is quite simple. Just take out some beef and canned food, shout a few times from the truck, and a large number of hungry and tired soldiers will join your ranks.

Xu Dingguo's Fifth Regiment expanded to more than 1,300 men.

Li Jianghe's side was even more exaggerated, with a total force of over three thousand men, which was already the configuration of a reinforced regiment.

If Li Jianghe were to summon more troops, he would essentially have the strength of a full brigade.

After all, a typical brigade of the National Revolutionary Army only has three to five thousand men, and it can only reach a size of about six thousand men after reinforcement.

Li Jianghe thought to himself, if Jinling breaks through the siege later, who knows how many fleeing soldiers he could pick up? He might even become a division commander by then.

Of course, this is just wishful thinking; whether we can even break through is another question.

After resting for a day in Jintan, the troops set off again at noon the next day for Nanjing.

Inside the Nanjing Garrison Command, Commander Tang Shengzhi walked around the command post with his hands behind his back, looking somewhat anxious.

"This is the latest list of troops, all of which were decimated in the Battle of Shanghai. Some regiments couldn't even muster two hundred men, and some divisions, including the cooks, couldn't even muster a thousand."

The speaker was Chief of Staff Xiao Shanling.

Looking at the list of troops and their numbers, Tang Shengzhi paced back and forth in the command post even faster.