Devil's Army

Chapter 1996 Discovery of Japanese Troop Transport Ship

The successive losses of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces once again alarmed the Japanese Army Ministry. However, their navy was currently mired in a quagmire with the US Navy. Infantry forces were also insufficient, and air power was severely lacking. How easy was it to retake and completely conquer China?

Left with no other choice, he had to send the newly recruited soldiers to Shanghai to hold the two bridgeheads of Shanghai and Jiangsu, and wait for an opportunity to launch a full-scale attack on China.

After the Japanese troops in Jiangsu and Shanghai lost Huzhou and Jiaxing, they faced a direct threat from the 15th Brigade, a "devilish" unit.

They successively mobilized troops to strengthen the defenses of Yixing County and Wujiang County in Jiangsu Province, and Qingpu County and Jinshan County in Shanghai.

The Second Army, which was advancing south, suffered heavy casualties after its battle with the Japanese forces in Zhejiang and had no immediate plans to launch an offensive against Jiangsu or Shanghai.

On the one hand, they recruited new soldiers to replenish the troops. On the other hand, they developed armed police forces to assist the New Fourth Army in strengthening its control over the recovered Japanese-occupied areas and preventing the Nanjing government forces from gradually encroaching on the spoils of war.

The Japanese-occupied areas recaptured by the First Army were all strategic locations and key transportation hubs. Naturally, the government forces were envious.

Commander-in-Chief Li of the 32nd Army Group of the government forces stationed in eastern and western Zhejiang was naturally envious.

He tacitly allowed his subordinate troops to advance into the territory of the First Anti-Japanese Army. However, they were stopped by the armed police force of the First Anti-Japanese Army.

Although the fighting strength and weaponry of the First Anti-Japanese Army's armed police force were far inferior to those of the First Anti-Japanese Army, they dared not launch a direct attack because they feared the First Anti-Japanese Army's ground and air forces. As a result, Zhejiang remained relatively stable for a time.

After being governed by the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army and the 11th Brigade of the First Army, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have become relatively stable.

To strengthen the Japanese forces in Jiangsu and Shanghai, Grey Wolf transferred them south to Chuzhou and Ma'anshan in Anhui, and Linyi and Zaozhuang in Shandong.

This made the already tense Japanese troops in Jiangsu extremely uneasy.

As if things weren't going to go wrong, just as Jiangsu was desperately hoping for reinforcements, the Japanese commander in Shanghai received news that his troop transport ship had been attacked.

Originally, the Second Area Army, which was advancing south, was temporarily unable to attack Jiangsu and Shanghai, but it did not relax its vigilance against the Japanese forces in Jiangsu and Shanghai.

In order to be on alert for reinforcements from Japan, and because the Qingdao Fleet had not yet recovered its strength, Brigade Commander Zhang ordered the air force to assist in reconnaissance at sea.

The Nanchang Air Force then deployed four fighter jets daily to conduct reconnaissance along the route from Shanghai and Jiangsu to Japan.

Persistence pays off; early that morning, before the thick fog had completely dissipated.

Two fighter jets from the First Air Force, patrolling along the Shanghai-Japan route, spotted several black dots on the surface of the East China Sea.

The pilot lowered the altitude and, during low-altitude reconnaissance, discovered that these were three passenger ships from Japan.

As the pilot flew over the passenger ship's deck, he ordered the ship to stop and all passengers to stand on the deck for inspection.

However, the three Japanese passenger ships ignored the pilots' warnings and continued to accelerate towards Shanghai.

The pilot fired machine gun shells in the direction the passenger ship was heading, as a warning to the Japanese passenger ship.

To the pilots' delight, some of the passengers on the ship actually fired shots at them.

Moreover, the pilots vaguely noticed that many of the passengers on the ship were wearing Japanese army uniforms.

These are clearly not three ordinary passenger ships.

Upon receiving the pilot's report, the Nanchang Air Force immediately dispatched three bomber squadrons and two fighter squadrons to attack the three Japanese passenger ships.