Finally, Maruyama's frenzied offensive was finally resisted.

The Maruyama Brigade returned to Rui* on its own to join the 9th Division's Guijian and the Hatada Detachment to continue its westward march along the Yangtze River, while at the same time attacking with the 27th Division in the direction of the Tsui*.

The 30th Army and the 18th Army and other units fought one after another in the area along the Rui*-Wuning highway, holding each other for more than a month, until October 5, after the Japanese 27th Division captured Qi*, turned to the northwest to attack, and on the 18th, it fell into Xintanpu, Hubei, and attacked in the direction of Jinniu.

During this period, the defending 31st Army and the 32nd Army Corps resisted the Japanese troops advancing west along the Yangtze River in the area west of Ruichang, and the Fu*kou fortress opposite Tianjiazhen was also shaken because the commander of the 18th Division, Li Fangchen, abandoned his post and absconded.

Fukou fell on September 24, and the Japanese finally opened the Yangtze River waterway to Wuhan.

The 2nd Corps organized the 6th, 54th, 75th, and 98th Armies and the 26th and 30th Corps to strengthen the defense in the Yangxin area.

By October 22, Yangxin, Daye, and Echeng had lost one after another, and the Japanese 9th Division and the Botian Detachment had rushed to Yueyang to cut off the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

The second front: fighting on the north bank of the Yangtze River

On September 24, Fu*kou was captured by the Hatian detachment along the west of the river, and the weather improved again, and the situation suddenly became bad, and the Japanese army began a three-dimensional attack by land, sea and air.

As soon as the air force came, there were hundreds of planes, and the bombing made the national army hate it and had no way to go to the ground.

The navy also had hundreds of ships, and it also carried marines from the river to attack Tian * Town, and the Imamura detachment, which had been reinforced, took advantage of the situation to storm from the land, and on the 29th, the Nationalist Army had to retreat from Tian * Town, and the gate of the Yangtze River was smashed open.

In order to seize Hankou in front of the Japanese Second Army, Okamura Ninji specially organized a fast column, led by the commander of the 36th Brigade, Ushijima Mitsuru, for a long-distance attack, and hoped to join the Second Army north of Wuhan to cut off the retreat of the Fifth Theater Army.

The third front: the battle in the north of Dabie Mountain

On August 27, the Japanese 2nd Army attacked Lu'an and Huoshan, the gateways to Dabie Mountain, at the same time.

At the beginning, the Japanese army attacked the defenders' frontal positions, and the defenders relied on the outer fortifications and city walls to resist stubbornly for two days, causing the Japanese attacks to suffer repeated setbacks.

As before, the Japanese army saw that the frontal attack could not work, and at the same time resorted to the old trick of attacking from the front and flanking and rear.

The defenders were also the same, unprepared at all, the Japanese army succeeded in a detour, and the defenders were forced to retreat.

After capturing Lu'an and Huoshan, the 2nd Army was divided into two routes.

The 13th and 16th Divisions on the left crossed the northern foot of Dabie Mountain and approached Wuhan, and the right road went straight to Luoshan and Xinyang, and detoured to Wuhan.

The 13th Division on the left flank approached Yejiaji on September 2 and began to attack Fujin Mountain.

Fujin Mountain is very close to Yejiaji, on the south wing of the Shangliu Highway, the road can be blocked condescendingly on the mountain, and the Japanese army can't bypass it, so they have no choice but to attack Fujin Mountain.

The two divisions of Song Xilian's 71st Army and the 114th Division of the former Northeast Army's 51st Army were guarding Fujinshan, under the unified command of Song Xilian.

Song Xilian defended the main position in the middle with his most elite German-style division, the 36th Division, the original 114th Division of the Northeast Army on the left, and the 88th Division on the right.

The spearhead of the Japanese attack was first directed at the main position of the 36th Division in the center.

The Japanese attack pattern can be described as the same, first with aircraft bombing in turn, then heavy artillery concentrated bombardment, and finally infantry charging.

Fujin Mountain is not very dangerous, the slope is not very inclined at all, but 36 is worthy of the central trump card, desperately defended, so that the Japanese offensive has been repeatedly frustrated, until September 6, the Japanese army is still at the foot of the mountain looking up at the top of the mountain helplessly wry smile.

Seeing that the 36th Division was too hard, the Japanese had no choice but to turn to attack the 114th Division on the left flank, and at the same time resorted to the trick of making a detour to the rear.

This time, the Japanese army's roundabout troops were discovered by the 88th Division, and they were ambushed, losing more than 400 people, and had to return the same way.

At the same time, the troops attacking head-on were also repulsed.

The 13th Division's Ogisu Libing really had no choice but to ask for help from Higashikurenomiya.

On September 11, the Japanese reinforcement 16th Division arrived at Fujin Mountain, and the Chinese defenders generally had no reinforcements because they pursued a steady resistance and avoided a decisive battle.

After nine days of fierce fighting, the defenders suffered heavy casualties and were unable to fight again, so they had to withdraw from their positions and move to the first-line positions of Shawo and Xiaojieling.

The Japanese army took advantage of the victory to pursue the national army, occupied Yejiaji and Mall, and approached the Xiaojieling defense line.

If it is broken through, the Japanese army will cross the Dabie Mountain Range and advance smoothly along the road, and the national army will have no favorable terrain to rely on to stop the Japanese army.

The Xiaojieling defense line was defended by Song Xilian's 71st Army, Tian Zhennan's 30th Army and Feng Anbang's 42nd Army, of which the 71st Army lacked the 36th Division (the 36th Division fought at Fujinshan, with only more than 800 people left), Sun Lianzhong this time let the 71st and 30th Army, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Fujinshan, defend the head and tail of the Xiaojieling defense line, and the relatively intact Feng Anbang 42nd Army defended the head and tail of the Xiaojieling defense line alone.

The three armies of the defenders took advantage of the terrain to withstand the Japanese round after round of fierce attacks, and fought from September 18 to late October, the 13th and 16th divisions finally broke through the Xiaojieling defense line, crossed the Dabie Mountain, and occupied Macheng on October 25, but by this time the national army had abandoned Wuhan.

The Japanese 2nd Army's Left Route Army had a poor schedule, and the Right Route Army was slightly better off than it, and the 3rd and 10th Divisions stormed Gushi, and after a fierce battle, captured the city.

Then, the two divisions marched west along the highway to Huangchuan and bumped into Zhang Zizhong, a famous general of the National Army. Zhang Zizhong defended for 10 days, three days more than the original scheduled seven days, and finally was able to retreat safely in front of the enemy.

After the Japanese army occupied Huangchuan, it attacked Luoshan and Xinyang, where Hu Zongnan's 1st Army and 46th Army were already in full battle.

Hu Zongnan's First Army was the best equipped of the Nationalist Army, with Qiu Qingquan's tank unit (the only tank unit of the Nationalist Army) and Peng Mengzhi's artillery brigade (the largest artillery establishment).

Hu Zongnan sat on the best equipment of the national army, and used three armies and seven divisions to fight fiercely with two divisions of the Japanese army, which had already fought several bloody battles, for more than 20 days, and even had the upper hand, and finally lost Xinyang.

Li Zongren telegraphed Hu Zongnan to retreat from Yangnan and defend Tongbai Mountain and Pingjing Pass to cover the retreat of the eastern Hubei army to the west.

However, Hu did not listen to the order, and actually moved the seven divisions of his whole army to the west and retreated to Nanyang, so that the front gate of Pinghan Road was opened.

The Battle of Wuhan was fought until the middle of October, and the peripheral points were lost, and if they still had to defend it, they could only hold on to the city walls.

What's even worse is that he did not expect that the Japanese army would be able to divide its troops to land in Guangdong at this time and soon occupy Guangzhou, an important port in South China, on the 21st.

On the night of October 11, more than 70,000 Japanese troops and 27,000 horses successfully landed in Daya Bay, Guangzhou, and attacked the suburbs of Guangzhou on the 21st.

Yu Hanmou's 12th Army was defeated by the Japanese army in just 10 days. In desperation, Yu Hanmou ordered the defenders of Guangzhou to retreat, and Guangzhou fell on the afternoon of the 21st.

Faced with this situation, the old man learned the lesson of the defense of Nanjing, did not want to be a lonely city, and decided to quickly abandon Wuhan.