The rapid development of the Longling War surprised Sakaguchi, who had no idea that Song Xilian's troops would bypass Songshan and Pingga so quickly, and quickly cut off the Yunnan-Burma Road and Tenglong Road. He didn't expect that the speed of Song Xilian's troops' attack completely exceeded his imagination, and in just a few days, the 71st Army attacked Longling City.

Sakaguchi made a choice in desperation, and immediately turned around from the northern foot of Gaoligong Mountain to save Longling.

In early June, there was a fierce battle on Gaoligong Mountain, the expeditionary force had not yet broken through the second line of defense of the Japanese army, and the serious threat to Tengchong City had not yet been formed at that time.

On June 11, late at night, on Tenglong Road, cars full of Japanese soldiers screamed all the way, and the snow-bright headlights flashed in the dark forest, and the Japanese reinforcements rushed to the Longchuan River day and night.

On June 12, Matsui's troops had reached the Tenglong Bridge.

Because the grain and grass could not keep up, Song Xilian's troops were slow to attack the city for five days. In these five days, Sakaguchi was given a chance to breathe.

The Tenglong Bridge had been destroyed by Chen Mingren, and Matsui's southward movement was blocked, and when he heard the cannon sound of the expeditionary force attacking the city in the direction of Longling, Matsui was anxious and immediately sent a small advance team to detour back to the upstream area, preparing to cross the turbulent Longchuan River.

After crossing the river, the Japanese advance team quickly approached Kunino.

Guarding the direction of the Tenglong Bridge was the 87th Regiment of the 260th Division. The 260th Regiment had only one company of troops stationed at the Great Pine Garden behind Bonai.

Heavy rain in western Yunnan for several days, although in June, still cold air, stationed in Bang Nai Lian sent a little less than usual, but Matsui team suddenly arrived close to Bang Nai, hit the alert even a surprise, the 260 regiment Bang Nai defense was quickly broken through by the Japanese advance team, the Japanese army drove straight in, straight to the big pine garden.

On the side of Da Songyuan, the guard battalion has not yet received the news of the loss of Bang Nai, and the troops are just at lunch, when they suddenly hear someone shouting: "The Japanese devils are coming!" In order to confirm the authenticity of the rumors of the villagers, he immediately sent guards to understand the situation, and at the same time ordered the troops to hurry up and eat.

Here, before the meal was finished, I saw the guards running back out of breath: the Japanese army had already driven into the Great Pine Garden!

It is a pity that the alert battalion was not yet ready for battle when it was attacked by a lightning attack by Matsui's troops.

As soon as the Great Pine Garden was lost, Tenglong Bridge immediately became nervous.

Chen Mingren immediately ordered the other two battalions of the 260th Regiment stationed in Huangcaoba to reinforce Tenglong Bridge overnight, and it was necessary to block the Japanese reinforcements on the periphery of Longling City to cover the siege of the main force.

The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 260th Regiment rushed to reinforcements overnight.

On June 14, Matsui's troops marching south encountered near Kunitai, and gunfire erupted on the ground of Kuni, and a desperate fierce battle began.

Unexpectedly, the two battalions of the 260th Regiment were under a new threat to their backs.

On June 16, Sakaguchi sent a group of Japanese troops to reinforce Longling from the direction of Hongmushu, and the Japanese troops from the direction of the Longchuan River formed an east-west flank attack, more than 3,000 Japanese troops, surrounded the 260th Regiment, the officers and men of the 260th Regiment fought for many days, and finally because they were outnumbered, more than 400 officers and soldiers were killed.

At the same time as the fierce battle in Bangnai, the 3rd Battalion of the 84th Regiment of the New 28th Division, guarding Fangma Bridge, was also attacked by the Japanese army, and after several hours of fierce fighting, there were only more than 20 people left in the battalion, and the 3rd Battalion could only withdraw from its position.

The Fangma Bridge was then lost.

Tenglong Bridge and Fangma Bridge fell into the hands of the enemy one after another, and Song Xilian's siege troops were also greatly threatened.

After the connection between the Japanese army in Longling and Mangshi and Tengchong was re-established, the encirclement of Longling was quickly broken through by the Japanese army.

Song Xilian hurriedly transferred a regiment of the New 39th Division of the 6th Army and the search battalion of the 71st Army headquarters to block the attack from the direction of Hongmushu, and at the same time, ordered the Yunnan-Kang-Burma Special Guerrilla Force to send a detachment to meet the enemy in the direction of Tenglong Bridge.

However, Song Xilian was still a step late in mobilizing his troops, and several troops rushed to the battle, and they were not able to resist the rampant counterattack of the Japanese army at all.

On June 17, the reinforcements of the Japanese army from Tengchong broke through the blocking position of the 260th Regiment of the 87th Division, returned to the right flank of the Longling garrison from Laohu Beng, and entered Longling.

The situation is urgent.

On the same day, the 9th Division, which had captured Xiangda, was attacked by the Japanese army in the direction of Mangshi, and was forced to withdraw from Xiangda due to lack of ammunition.

The Japanese army in Mangshi was able to bypass Fulong Temple and join up with the Longling garrison, and fiercely counterattacked the two flanks of the siege force of the 71st Army.

Hiding in the dark castle, Koho Shotaro was always looking forward to Sakaguchi's reinforcements, and he immediately led his garrison back to Ryuling Castle from the Corridor position.

By June 18, nearly 5,000 Japanese troops had rushed to Longling with reinforcements from all sides.

Chen Mingren's besieging troops were attacked by the enemy, and the army's morale was immediately in turmoil, and the positions that had been captured were soon lost, and the battle situation in Longling was suddenly reversed.

The problem of grain and grass has not yet been resolved, and several sides are under counter-attack by the enemy. The plan for a quick fix failed in a nutshell.

In addition to being distressed, General Song immediately adjusted the entire battlefield and made new strategic arrangements, ordering the 87th and 88th Divisions of the 71st Army to retreat to the southeast of Longling, taking Xiaomixi and Changlinggang as positions to prevent the Japanese army from going north along the road. Two regiments of the new 39th Division were ordered to defend the first line of Mengwaiba on the north bank of the Longchuan River. The search battalion of the 71st Army patrolled along the Longchuan River and served as a guard behind the right flank of the army. The 76th and 9th Divisions of the 2nd Army were ordered to continue to attack Pingga and Xiangda, and prepare to flank the Japanese troops coming out of the east of Longling.

The command post of the 71st Army could only be moved from Jianshan Temple to Mengmao Street, preparing to compete with the Japanese army again.

Longling, although it is not a prosperous and small county town with a small population, has become an important place for China and Japan because of its very important strategic position. No matter which side you have, you may give up everything you originally had for the sake of Longling.

The capture of Longling is bound to cut off the central link of the Japanese Nujiang defense line, so that our expeditionary force can quickly advance to the country, and then recover the lost territory and open up the Yunnan-Burma highway.

And the Japanese army also has its own small abacus. If the Japanese army loses Longling, the Mangshi base camp of the 56th Division will not be able to be saved, and the Nujiang defense line will be completely lost.

The Japanese army desperately defended the Dragon Tomb, and our army was just going to take the Dragon Tomb.

At this time, military meetings were being held in the headquarters of both the Japanese army and the Chinese army, and in either case, the importance of this battle had been separated from the meaning of the war itself, but a choice of life and death.