Devil's Army

Chapter 2026 Nanjing is on high alert

Due to Nanjing's importance, the Japanese army deployed garrison units under the 13th Army both inside and around the city.

Headquarters of the China Expeditionary Army: Commander-in-Chief General Shunroku Hata, stationed in Nanjing, commanding Japanese forces in Central and Eastern China, and responsible for strategic command and military-political coordination.

The 15th Division: subordinate to the 13th Army (headquartered in Shanghai), commanded by Naotsugu Sakai, was responsible for the defense of Nanjing and the surrounding areas along the Yangtze River.

Independent Mixed Brigade No. 17: Directly under the command of the 13th Army, stationed on the outskirts of Nanjing, responsible for the defense and security of key points in Jurong, Jiangning and other places.

Unit 1644 (Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department): A bacteriological warfare unit that disguised itself as an epidemic prevention unit. Its headquarters was located at the former Central Hospital on Zhongshan East Road in Nanjing. It belonged to the 13th Army and was engaged in the research and development and use of bacteriological weapons.

Unit 3067 (Kikuchi Detachment) was a garrison unit in the Nanjing area.

There were also military police and special forces, logistics and naval units (only a few remained, the majority were wiped out by the Qingdao Fleet), and more than 2 puppet troops scattered throughout various places.

The Second Army, which marched south, did not rush to attack Nanjing. Instead, it first recovered the surrounding counties and Japanese strongholds, gradually compressing the Japanese strategic space.

Upon learning of the crisis in Nanjing, the Japanese Army Ministry recalled Commander-in-Chief Shunroku Hata, who was attending a meeting in Japan, to Nanjing to take charge of the overall situation.

Given that the Devil Force currently holds air superiority, and that the Devil Force's First Naval Squadron and the Qingdao Fleet are also patrolling at sea.

For security reasons, Commander-in-Chief Shunroku Hata traveled by submarine to Haizhou (Lianyungang) and then secretly arrived in Nanjing.

The day after Commander Shunroku Hata arrived in Nanjing, he ordered the main force of the 15th Division to move west to guard against the 12th Brigade, a "devilish" unit.

The main force of the Japanese 17th Brigade moved eastward to guard against the devilish 15th Brigade.

The Japanese 3067th Unit, along with its puppet troops, launched a full-scale search for anti-Japanese resistance forces and the New Fourth Army both inside and outside Nanjing.

Under the iron-fisted rule of Commander Shunroku Hata, Nanjing was plunged into a reign of white terror, with gunshots ringing out everywhere and new innocent souls being added to the city every day.

Given the grim situation in Nanjing, the New Fourth Army's transportation lines temporarily ceased operations and went into a state of dormancy. However, the activities of the New Fourth Army troops and the Jiangsu New Fourth Army's waterborne guerrilla forces became more frequent.

They raided Japanese transport convoys and logistics units everywhere, providing intelligence to the First Anti-Japanese Army.

This gave Commander-in-Chief Hata Shunroku a major headache.

By this time, the Japanese army's strength had declined significantly. They could no longer maintain the iron cage control over Jiangsu as they had at the beginning of the invasion of China. Not only were their forces insufficient, but the formidable fighting power of their elite troops could also easily defeat even a company-sized unit.

In this way, they will not fight the devil; they must concentrate forces of a size of more than a large number.

The "Devil's Squad" always managed to accurately track the movement routes of the main Japanese forces, easily evading their encirclement and suppression, and continuously attacking their weak points.

(Commander Shunroku Hata was unaware that the Devil Unit had launched several Golden Eagle drones to reconnoiter the movements of the Japanese army from the air, which enabled him to make his decision.)

Despite a week-long iron-fisted crackdown, anti-Japanese organizations and the New Fourth Army, both inside and outside Nanjing, sprouted up everywhere like grass after a rain.

What worried Commander Hata Shunroku even more was that the Devil Forces had already joined forces with the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu.

The New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu provided intelligence and directions to the "Devil Force," while the "Devil Force" provided weapons, equipment, and even soldiers to the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu.