At the same time that Sun Yumin disbanded the military headquarters of the 12th Army and personally went down to Dong Wenbin's brigade, the second phase of the Hengyang Defense Battle was over, except for the 116th Division and the 120th Wing captured the X Heights at a great cost, and all the main positions in Hengyang City were in the hands of the defenders safe and sound.

It is worth mentioning that the 57th Brigade and the 133rd Wing of the 116th Division of Iwanagawang exhausted all their strength, but they were still unable to capture the main position of the line from the Stopper Mountain to the Jiangxi Hall guarded by the 20th Division. In the heat of summer, the corpses quickly rotted and grew maggots, green-headed flies flew all over the sky, and the stench drifted in the wind. If there really is a place in the world for Shura, I'm afraid there is no more suitable place than this.

On July 19, the 68th and 116th divisions of the Japanese army, which attacked Hengyang, had to stop the attack again in the face of huge casualties.

Before the second armistice, Lao Chiang had already instructed all troops to prepare for a large-scale siege of the Japanese army. As the commander of the Ninth Theater, although Xue Yue was dissatisfied with the belated arrival of this encirclement plan, he was so eager and eager that Lao Jiang's order had just been received, and his combat orders to the various participating troops were issued immediately. People who don't know think that it was the result of Lao Jiang's discussion with him, but in fact, it was a plan he had already considered.

However, how could the various departments of the national army, which had always taken the preservation of their own strength as the most important condition, take Xue Yue's order seriously. Since Ding Zhipan's 26th Army was heavily damaged by the Japanese 13th Division near Liugongmiao, and Lu Daoyuan's 58th Army was defeated by the Japanese 3rd Division north of Pingxiang, no unit dared to move forward bravely.

On the contrary, the western front is the most likely to give huge support to the defenders of Hengyang, not to mention that Wang Yaowu can't lose this face and not come to the rescue, it is impossible for Li Yutang, who has been promoted to the 27th Group Army, not to come to the rescue, the Tenth Army is his descendant after all.

Facts have also proved this point, on the first day of Sun Yumin's preparation, Li Yutang personally supervised the Huang Tao Division of the 62nd Army to advance from Sitang to Santang to Hengyang City, first had a small-scale contact and sexual exchange of fire with the alert troops of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army, and then began a large-scale battle near Ertang. Another unit under the command of Li Yutang, Li Xingshu's 46th Army, marched in tandem with the 62nd Army and was heavily sniped by the Japanese near Jiwo Mountain.

Although Aoki Chengichi's 40th Division was repeatedly defeated and retreated in the face of Dai Cunxiang, it was able to resist the attacks of the two armies of the Nationalist Army in the western suburbs of Hengyang.

To this day, it is ridiculous that the nearly 300,000 troops in the entire Ninth Theater, except for Ding Zhipan of the 26th Army and Lu Daoyuan of the 58th Army, fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army, and Wang Yaowu's unit of the 24th Group Army was rushing to Hengyang, only two troops were assigned to the command of the Ninth Theater in mid-June, and they really wanted to relieve the siege of Hengyang, and this was because the commander of them was Li Yutang, the previous commander of the Tenth Army.

Why did Sun Yumin launch an attack on the Japanese army from the Western Front, on the one hand, because he was in this direction, and on the other hand, because it was his defeated general Aoki Seiichi who defended this direction, but more because there were 46th and 62nd armies on this side that were consuming the enemy's vital ability, and opening from the enemy's weak point would of course get twice the result with half the effort.

Under the severe rebuke of the commander of the Chinese Dispatch Army, Shunroku Hatata, the commander of the 11th Army, Isamu Yokoyama, dispatched the 58th Division of Mori Suehiro, the 13th Division of Akakari, and the 37th Division of Ichiro Nogashi, to reinforce the 40th, 68th, and 116th Divisions that attacked Hengyang City, plus the 3rd Division of Mitsuo Yamamoto who was on guard on the Eastern Front, and the 27th Division of Yoshiharu Takeshita of the Kwantung Army, which had not moved but was around Hengyang. The small Hengyang surrounding actually gathered eight divisions of the Japanese army, which is unique in the history of the Anti-Japanese War, when the defense of Nanjing, the Japanese army has never invested so many troops, it can be seen that the Japanese army base camp and the commander of the Chinese dispatch army Hata Shunliu for Hengyang City ambitions.

The pressure of the upper peak and the continuous setbacks of the battle at the front made the commander of the 11th Army in Changsha, Yokoyama Yong, restless, he had been a soldier all his life, fought a lifetime of battles, and had never encountered such a tenacious force as the defenders of Hengyang. He knew that if he took Hengyang City in a short period of time, no matter how perfect his plan to encircle and send reinforcements was, no matter how many troops he had to defeat the Chinese army, he would probably not be able to get the satisfaction of Shunroku Hata and the base camp.

When he was in a hurry, the secret service sent him good news, they intercepted and cracked the combat order issued by the Ninth Theater Command of the Chinese Army.

"The Twelfth Army! Sun Yumin! I've finally found the trail! Yokoyama's eyes lit up, and he pointed to the short sentence on the telegram: "Order the Sun Yumin Department of the Twelfth Army to launch an attack on the enemy's 68th Division from the east of Hengyang City," and said viciously.

"Your Excellency Commander, although there is this order on the cracked Chinese military cable, until now, we still don't know where Sun Yumin's troops are hiding!" The one who spoke was the chief of staff of the 11th Army, Isamu Kinoshita, who was the "old minister of the Four Dynasties" of the 11th Army, and he had a deep fear and vigilance for this old opponent who had repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the units to which the 11th Army belonged.

"Since Xue Yue wants him to attack from the east, then it means that his troops are hiding in the mountains of this area!" Yokoyama Yong walked to the giant military map and pointed to a place called "Tianguang Mountain", which is a mountainous area, with peaks and peaks, high mountains and dense forests, which is the remnant branch of the Hengshan Mountain Range, only a few dozen kilometers away from Hengyang City, and most importantly, it happens to be in the rear of the 68th Division, if Sun Yumin's troops are really hidden in this mountainous area, then it will pose a huge threat to the headquarters of the 68th Division located in Quanxi.

"Your Excellency, Commander, after Sun Yumin's troops attacked Aoki Chengyi's 40th Division in Xiangxiang, they headed for Changsha, and probably received the news that Changsha had been occupied by our army on the way, so they turned south, and since then we have lost the news of his 12th Army. A few days ago, a large number of Chinese troops broke into the city from the line of Hejiatang and Wangjiaao in Hengyang City, and according to the intelligence of all parties, it was the 139th Division of Sun Yumin's Department that entered the city. Therefore, he suspected that Sun Yumin's headquarters was not in the Tianguang Mountain Mountains as His Excellency the Commander said, but here. Kinoshita Yuya walked in front of the giant military map and pointed to the mountain area in the direction of Hengshan.

Kinoshita had served in the 11th Army for many years and had several confrontations with the troops of the Ninth Theater, especially Sun Yumin's department, so his opinion would naturally be taken into account.

"Kinoshita-kun, if it is really as you said, Sun Yumin's division is in the mountainous area of Yuanshengfeng, then if he wants to attack the 68th Division of Lieutenant General Di San, he must cross the cordon of Lieutenant General Iwanaga's 116th Division, Sun Yumin's army is such a large army, and wants to quietly pass through the guard position of the 116th Division to attack the 68th Division without being discovered, I don't believe they have this ability." Isamu Yokoyama thought about it for a moment and dismissed his opinion.

"Your Excellency Commander, you must believe that Sun Yumin has this ability, otherwise how could such a large army of his suddenly disappear on the way south, we have not been able to find it so far." Kinoshita's words are more tactful, which is also his superiority, if it were not for this, in the case of changing four commanders, how could he sit firmly in the position of chief of staff without moving.

Kinoshita's words made Yokoyama fall into deep thought, the reason why he hid the most elite 27th Division drawn from the Kwantung Army was that he was afraid of this ace of the national army, which had severely damaged several regiments several times, and kept Takeshita Yoshiharu to deal with him.

According to the analysis of the intercepted intelligence of the Ninth Theater, it is very likely that Sun Yumin's troops are hiding in the mountainous area of "Tianguang Mountain", and only this side can quickly attack the 68th Division of Di Sanshunan.

But what Kinoshita Yong said he had to guard against, if Sun Yumin's department was really in the mountainous area of Yuanfeng, with the strength of the 116th Division's cordon, it would not be able to stop it at all, and then he really let him attack the back of the 68th Division, and Di Sanshu Nan would definitely be hit hard, and if the first battle of Hengyang was completely defeated because of this, then his responsibility would be great.

"Kinoshita-kun, no matter where Sun Yumin's ministry is hiding in these two places, we must make targeted arrangements." After a short period of contemplation, Yokoyama made a decision: "I originally planned to let Takeshita-kun's 27th Division specifically deal with Sun Yumin, but now it seems that one more step has to be arranged. ”

"Your Excellency, Commander, please give me."

"Order, after Takeshita Yoshiharu's 27th Division went to the flank of the 68th Division, it strictly guarded against the Tianguang Mountain area and the sudden attack of Sun Yumin's troops; Ordered, Chiluli's 13th Division to go to the rear of the 116th Division to strictly guard against the mountainous area of Chengfeng and prevent Sun Yumin's troops from escaping from it. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency, Commander!" Isamu Yokoyama's deployment is exactly what Isamu Kinoshita wants. He dared to say that it was impossible for the former Sonobe and Kazuo to be like Isamu Yokoyama and to draw out two elite divisions to deal specifically with one of the Chinese army's corps.

"In my judgment, whether it is Chilu-kun's 3rd Division or Takeshita-kun's 27th Division, it will be very difficult to deal with Sun Yumin alone, so Kinoshita-kun, you have to hurry up and draw up two battle plans, so as to completely eliminate Sun Bu in this battle and raise the military prestige of our 11th Army."

Yokoyama Isamu added this remark, which made Kinoshita even more admired, in his heart, it can be said that since the creation of the Eleventh Army, except for the first commander Okamura Ningji, I am afraid that no one can compare with Yokoyama Isa.

Things in the world are so coincidental that Yokoyama Yong temporarily transferred to the 116th Division behind the flank of the 13th Division, which happened to play a vital role in the Battle of Hengyang.

Perhaps it was fate that when he escaped from Nanjing, the Japanese division that Sun Yumin saw on the hillside marching on the road eventually became the opponent of the decisive battle.

Although the commander of the 13th Division was not Chiluli, and when he was lurking in the Dabie Mountains, when he fought with the 65th Wing of the 13th Division, the division commander was not him, but this did not prevent the 13th Division and Sun Yumin from facing off in this fateful duel.

On July 26, 1944, five days after the Second Armistice, the three Japanese divisions transferred by Isamu Yokoyama from various places arrived at their designated positions. On the same day, Isamu Yokoyama gave the order to attack Hengyang Castle in general.

The 5th Flying Regiment of the Japanese Army stationed in Yueyang, under the strong pressure of Shunroku Hatata, was forced to take off again to help in the battle. At the beginning, the Japanese planes did cause heavy casualties to the Nationalist troops reinforcing Hengyang City, but with the arrival of the Sino-US joint air force, these devil planes, which were originally rampant and unscrupulous in the Chinese sky, were shot down one after another.

By the 27th, the 5th Flying Regiment of the Japanese Army had bought time for the 68th, 116th and 58th Divisions to attack the city at the cost of almost total annihilation.

The acquisition of air supremacy did not reduce much of the pressure on the defenders, and even with the assistance of the US government, the Chinese Air Force could not support the ground troops without counting ammunition and losses like the Japanese planes, and they never even flew over Hengyang City again, except for the two airdrops of Lao Chiang's warrants to encourage the 10th Army to hold on to Hengyang and wait for help.

The 62nd Army under his command was the first to attack the periphery of Hengyang, and fought fiercely with the 234th Wing of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army in the Ertang and Yumu Mountain areas. The two sides fought hard for two days, and both suffered heavy casualties, but it was still difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, and it was difficult to confront each other. Just when Li Yutang decided to fight to the death and personally lead the dare to kill team to the front line, Huang Tao, the commander of the 62nd Army, suddenly reported a news that surprised him: more than ten tanks painted with blue sky and white sun emblems led many infantry to help in the battle!

Although Li Yutang is the deputy commander-in-chief of the 27th Group Army, none of the 10th Army, 46th Army, and 62nd Army under his command has the luxury of having armored troops, and as far as he knows, the nearest armored unit around Hengyang is the chariot battalion of the 142nd Regiment of the 48th Army of the Gui Army, they have six Soviet-made T-26B light tanks, but their station is at the head of the whole county of Guangxi, and it is not close to Hengyang City; There is also an armored force is the 74th Army of Wang Yaowu's 24th Group Army, which has an armored regiment, but they are far away, and they are still on the Xiangxi border at the junction of Hunan and Chongqing, and it is even more impossible to come to help in the war.

Whether it is Lao Jiang's edict or the telegram order of Xue Yue, the commander of the Ninth Theater, there is no mention that tanks will be sent to help in the war, so where did the tanks that appear here to help the war come from? Li Yutang fell into confusion for a while.

"Commander Huang, whose subordinates are these tanks?" Li Yutang asked the doubts in his heart.

"The war is raging, and there is no news from them yet?" Huang Tao responded: "However, I guess that they should be under General Sun's command. ”

"General Sun? Which General Sun. Li Yutang didn't react for a while, but he quickly came to his senses and asked in surprise: "Is it Yumin's troops?" ”

"If nothing else, it should be the tank of General Sun Yumin's 12th Army, if I remember correctly, General Sun once purchased a batch of tanks from the Americans!" Huang Tao was not in the Ninth War Zone before, but he was still very concerned about this very famous national army god of war.

"Yes, there is an armored battalion under the command of Yumin, how did I forget about this!" Li Yutang woke up like a dream, and he immediately said to Huang Tao: "Fighters are hard to find, with tanks to help fight, what are we waiting for, immediately send reserves, I want to capture the Japanese position in a battle!" ”