Let's say that Izumi Murai suddenly received news from the battleship that the advance team that had landed in Duchang was suddenly attacked on the way to Duchang County, and the troops suffered heavy losses.

As soon as the order was issued, news suddenly came that after the marines of the 116th Division landed in Zuoli, they suffered a devastating blow on the way to march from Beiban to Duchang, and not only did the entire unit suffer more than eighty percent casualties, but even the commander of the unit was killed, and the loss of artillery and baggage was not counted.

When Murai Izumi heard this, he was shocked and slapped the soldier who reported the news several times in a row, screaming and scolding endlessly.

Captain Shimauchi Yoshiji was also quite shocked, and said on the side: "What? More than 2,000 marines of the 116th Division could be defeated in such a short time? Is the message true? ”

The herald was beaten with swollen cheeks, and his mouth was slurred: "The news was just sent by the baggage troops who survived them..."

Yoshiji Shimauchi stopped speaking after hearing this.

Izumi Murai was also blind, staring blankly at the lake, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a while, Shimauchi Yoshiji spoke: "Murai-kun, the loss of the 116th Division's marines has ruined our outflanking plan, what should we do now?" ”

Murai Izumi's heart was already a mess now, if it weren't for the fact that he insisted on dividing his troops into two groups earlier, and attacking Duchang and Wucheng at the same time, resulting in poor progress on both sides now. In this regard, although he has remorse, but it is difficult to ride a tiger, do you want him to apologize to Matsui Gui? It's harder than killing him. Originally, he wanted to count on the Marines of the 116th Division to capture Duchang with him, but who would have thought that the Marines would also be defeated in a short period of time.

Thinking of this, Murai Izumi gritted his teeth and said: "So far, we can only rely on ourselves, but fortunately, more than 1,000 people in our vanguard have successfully landed, and we only need to increase our investment to continue the attack, and I believe that we will be able to complete the task of capturing Duchang." ”

As he spoke, Izumi Murai gave his subordinates an order to increase the number of troops to attack, not only sending out all the last hundreds of people from the 103rd Wing who were attached to him to attack Duchang, but also sending out the engineer units attached to the detachment, which was really a desperate gamble.

If he had been smarter, he would have known that he was already at a disadvantage, and the best way was to withdraw his troops first, use the superiority of the ships on the surface to confront the enemy, and then look for the opponent's loopholes and break them.

However, Izunichi Murai is arrogant in the end. Bai Fei and his direct regiment are now so famous, and there are no vain soldiers under the so-called fame, although the rumors from the outside world are not close to the truth, in the end, they can also reflect the fact that their combat effectiveness is amazing. However, in the eyes of Izumi Murai, all this is not worth mentioning, and he is proud as if he is the eldest and his second child from beginning to end. It can be said that he has never had a full and objective understanding of the opponents he faced, and even the rapid destruction of the 116th Division Marine Corps has not been able to arouse his sufficient vigilance.

Of course, the above is only one of the reasons why Izumi Murai went to the dark one by one, and another important reason we also said earlier, as the chief officer of this combat unit, the development of the war has made it difficult for him to ride a tiger, and there is no other way. Unless he gives it a go, even if he withdraws like this, he will never have good fruit to eat.

However, although Izumi Murai had sent all the soldiers he could send, his doomed defeat was inevitable.

Shortly after the last group of Japanese landing troops, including engineer troops, landed on the shore of Duchang and joined up with the first two groups of landing troops, a fierce artillery fire suddenly came from the direction of Duchang County.

The commander of the Japanese army, who had better qualifications, hurriedly ordered the troops to stop advancing and prepare to advance from the flanks. Unexpectedly, not long after the flank advanced, not only was it also shelled, but it was also blocked by extremely heavy machine-gun fire from the defenders, so that they could not advance an inch.

The Japanese commander had no choice but to order his subordinates to find cover on the spot, in order to survive the shelling. However, to their surprise, the other side seemed to have countless artillery and ammunition, how could not be finished, each wave had as many as more than 100 shells attacking together, and the interval was very short, the shells were like hail, the power was extremely fierce, and the Japanese army buried their heads in the ground, and did not even dare to raise their heads.

In this way, after a few moments and three moments, the continuous large number of casualties finally made the Japanese landing force unable to bear it, and they all asked for help from Izumi Murai, a few kilometers away, for tactical guidance.

Izumi Murai was on the battleship, and when he received a distress report like snowflakes, his face turned iron-blue, and his forehead was bruised. He hurriedly said to Shimauchi Yoshiji: "Shimauchi-kun, our warriors are suffering from the frantic shelling of the defenders of China, please immediately provide long-range artillery support and destroy their artillery positions." ”

Jiji Shimauchi said in embarrassment: "Murai-kun, according to the information provided by your department, the location of the artillery position of the Shina army is actually outside the range of our naval guns. Unless we use the main ship, and we need to bring the ship closer to the shore, we won't be able to hit that far at all..."

"Then lean in!" Izunichi Murai was now mad and shouted hysterically.

Shimauchi Yoshiji had no choice but to give an order to let the three main ships, Hira, Nimi, and Hitaka, including their ships, approach the area of Mt. Oji.

At the same time, Wang Weiguo, who was commanding the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Battalion, and Artillery Battalion of the Regiment directly under his command and Zhang Zunguang's 721 Regiment troops in the vicinity along the coast of Wucheng, was engaged in a blocking operation with the Japanese landing force led by Matsui Takashi, commander of the 103rd Wing of the Japanese Army. When he saw that the three main ships of the Japanese army had indeed begun to slowly move towards the narrow waterway to the south, he was immediately overjoyed, and said to the messenger beside him: "Immediately notify the regimental seat, just say that the Japanese army has entered the hub, and at the same time order Wu Dazhong's artillery battalion and the brothers in the dark fort by the lake, so that they can be ready to attack at any time!" ”

"Yes!"