Donghu is a small city on the South Burma Plain, also translated as Tonggu, 260 kilometers away from Yangon, guarding the highway and waterway, and its strategic position is very important. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info It echoes with Prome on the Western Front and Moch on the Eastern Front, and can form a barrier to prevent the British army from reinforcing north.

After Li Hongxiang occupied Leigu, he began to take Deng Taizhong's 7th Regiment as the left flank and Huang Yuying's 8th Regiment as the right flank, and the two regiments marched in unison, and after sweeping the enemy on the east bank of the Xidang River, they soon reached the east bank of the Xidang River outside Donghu City. The boats that did not cross the river had been searched by the British to the west bank, and Li Hongxiang had to stop, looking for boats everywhere to build pontoon bridges, and prepare to force the crossing of the Xidang River.

The defense of Toungoo was carried out by a brigade of troops led by Brigadier General Scott, who had recently been reinforced by British troops from the Middle East. The presence of Chinese troops on the east bank of the Sidtang River was quickly detected by Scott. Cautious by nature, he quickly retracted to the west bank after the search company sent to the east bank was routed. At this time, Scott happened to receive an order from General Charles, so he was quickly ready to hold the line of defense on the Sidan River. Donghu City is located in the plain area of the Sitang River Valley, relying on the terrain of nothing more than the Sitang River and the Pew River, and no matter which direction the Chinese army attacks, it will not be able to bypass the Sitang River. Therefore, he placed two full regiments on the Sidtang River defense line, while the other regiment was responsible for the defense of Taungoo and the defense of the Pew River to the south.

The battle began at the bridge over the Sidtang River, and the 3rd Division, with the 7th Regiment as the front, launched a fierce attack on the British defense line on the Sidtang River. In the process of capturing the bridge over the Sidan River, the British army defended very tenaciously and repelled two attacks by the 7th Regiment in succession. Li Hongxiang, who was full of frothing, hurriedly transferred a battalion from the Ninth Regiment of the reserve to reinforce, but at this time, the British army blew up the bridge very decisively. Seeing the failure to capture the bridge, the 7th Regiment, which was still unwilling to receive reinforcements, launched another attack on the British army. After more than two hours of fierce fighting, no one could be advanced, and the battle fell into a stalemate.

The battle of the Eighth Regiment began a little later, and Huang Yuying's regiment was a flank unit, secretly crossing the river from the upper reaches and rushing to the Keyonggang area northwest of Donghu to fight in a roundabout way. The area from Keyonggang to Donghu City is a canyon plain, a horse and a flat river, and there is no natural danger like the Xidang River, and only the moat outside the city barely provides a little barrier for Donghu City.

Outside the city of Donghu, Huang Yuying was responsible for attacking the main position of the British army by the first battalion, and two companies of the second battalion were responsible for attacking the two heights northwest of the city of Donghu.

As the vanguard of the whole regiment, the personal ability of Tao Zhen, the commander of the first battalion, must not be said, but his temper is relatively a little hot. The shelling ceased, the attack began, and the light and heavy machine guns acting as fire cover opened fire almost simultaneously, suppressing the British positions, while the officers and men of the Sharp Knife Company rose up and charged bravely, blowing into the enemy's positions like a whirlwind. Having taken the lead, they quickly took the first line of defense of the British army in this way.

However, the 1st Battalion encountered fierce resistance from the British in the second line of defense, and the first charge of the 2nd Company, which served as the sharp knife, was quickly defeated. Tao Zhen was furious, scolding and scolding to personally lead the team to charge, although the instructor saw the opportunity to quickly stop him, but Tao Zhen still stared at the second company commander Zhang Daquan and yelled: "Continue to attack, Zhang Daquan, you kid listen to me, take down the defense line of the British devils, I will give you credit, if you can't take it, don't blame me for being unkind!" ”

The second company commander Zhang Daquan was also a fiery temper, and he was beaten down by the British, and it was when he was in an unhappy mood.

There was another round of shelling, this time for a noticeable longer time than the last, and the British positions were suddenly shrouded in smoke and fire. The British artillerymen who were fighting across the river from the Chinese army did not care about the infantry behind their flanks at all.

Zhang Daquan launched another attack with the Sharp Knife Company, and when he was halfway through, the British troops on the position began to shoot, and the officers and men of the Sharp Knife Company were forced to shoot at the enemy on the spot. These British troops were well-equipped and well-trained, far from being comparable to those colonial armies of the British and Indian armies, and for a time the two sides were on par. Finally, when the several heavy machine guns covering the attack moved into place and suppressed the British firepower, Zhang Daquan immediately ordered the trumpet to be sounded.

Amid the roar of the trumpets, the attacking officers and men quickly rose up from the hillside, shouted and charged forward, and when they got closer, they threw grenades. A series of explosions raised puffs of smoke over the British positions, blocking the view of the defenders, and they did not react until the Chinese troops rushed out of the smoke, but it was too late. Fierce white-knuckle battles unfolded again on the position, and the sound of bayonet strikes, cursing, and screams continued to sound everywhere. And as the follow-up troops of the first battalion rushed into position, the defending British troops finally began to crumble.

"Well done! Zhang Daquan is good, I want to give him credit! "The two lines of defense of the British army, the gate of Donghu City is open, and it is right in front of me, so I can't help Tao Zhen so excited.

"Report to the battalion commander, our company commander Zhang has been killed."

"Fuck your fart, I'll kill you!" Tao Zhen was stunned for a moment, and suddenly jumped up. As he spoke, he reached out and pulled out his gun, and the instructor next to him hurriedly hugged him, turned his head and told the stunned soldier to hurry down.

"Lao Tzu killed you!" Tao Zhen struggled, roared, screamed, and two lines of tears flowed.

Since the southward operation, the Eighth Regiment has not killed a company officer, but I didn't expect that the first one was Zhang Daquan, Tao Zhen's most optimistic and trusted subordinate.

If the news that the Chinese army was under heavy artillery fire and that the defense line of the Xidang River was in danger could barely be accepted by Scott, then the news that the Chinese army had smuggled across the river from upstream, suddenly appeared in the northwest of Donghu City, and routed a battalion of British troops defending it, completely made Scott feel a little frightened.

Scott knew what the gains and losses of Toungoo meant for the whole battle, so he quickly made a decision, and after leaving a company of troops to defend the bridge over the Pew River, he gathered all the forces at his disposal and began to counterattack in the direction of the attack of the Eighth Regiment. In the fierce battle that the two sides launched outside the city, the first and second battalions were caught off guard and retreated, and it was not until Huang Yuying supported the third battalion as a reserve that the British counterattack was suppressed.

The attacking forces suffered heavy casualties and were re-routed by the Chinese forces into the city, forcing Scott to prepare for the worst. He quickly decided to withdraw from Taungoo, alternate the two regiments of the Sidtang River defense line with each other, and then make a detour to the south of the city, crossing the bridge over the Pew River, where the whole army would rebuild the defensive line.

The starting point was good, but Brigadier General Scott made a rather fatal mistake, that is, the order to retreat was given prematurely, and somewhat too out of place. The defenders of the Xidang River could have held out a little longer, at least it was perfectly possible to hold out until the evening retreat, after all, it was relatively safe to retreat at night.

At this time, the battle between the two regiments of the British army on the west bank of the Xitang River and the Chinese army on the other bank was in full swing, occupying a favorable geographical position, and the advantage was still obvious. As a result, after receiving the order, the troops quickly fell into a panic, and fearing that they would be surrounded by the Chinese troops crossing the river, they almost immediately abandoned their positions and turned to retreat. Seeing this situation, the 7th Regiment on the east bank launched a strong attack, and the officers and men of the 3rd Division, who were angry, immediately pursued after crossing the river.

At this time, Huang Yuying, who noticed the change in the battle situation, also led his subordinates to take the opportunity to enter Donghu City. The other troops of the 3rd Division that crossed the river were divided into two routes, and the 7th Regiment, under the leadership of its regiment commander Deng Taizhong, went straight to the center of the city; The officers and soldiers of the Ninth Regiment, who had previously served as reserves, held their breath, and under the leadership of the regiment commander Liu Cunhou, they went south along the city to kill and cut off part of the British troops who retreated from the city.

At this point, the entire British army defending Donghu began to waver on all fronts. Brigadier Scott's planned orderly retreat turned out to be such a rout, which cannot but be said to be providential. And when Brigadier General Scott, who had left the city, gathered his troops on the other side of the Pew River and counted the number of people, he found that there were less than 3,000 men left in a brigade of nearly 8,000 men at this time.