At three o'clock in the afternoon of May 27, when the battle was raging in the town of Hashino, the 19th Brigade of the Japanese left flank was in great trouble. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 The person who commanded the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division on the left flank of the Japanese army was none other than Lieutenant General Nagaoka Gaishi, the acting commander of the 16th Division and the commander of the 19th Brigade.

Nagaoka Waishi, graduated from the second phase of the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School, graduated from the first phase of the Japanese Army University in 1885 with the lowest grades, and entered the General Staff Headquarters after graduation, served as a staff officer of the Oshima Yoshimasa Mixed Brigade during the First Sino-Japanese War, and in 1897 he was the second section chief of the Military Affairs Bureau, and later studied in Germany, and in 1902 he served as the commander of the Ninth Infantry Brigade. Nagaoka's subordinate Tadahachi Ninomiya applied for funding for the study of flying machines, but he refused on the grounds that it was impossible for people to fly into the sky to fight, and as a result, after the Wright brothers invented the airplane, he regretted and went to his subordinates to apologize. In 1904, Nagaoka served as the deputy chief of the General Staff Headquarters, and he personally gave Akashi Motojiro 1 million yen to fund his activities behind enemy lines, making Akashi Motojiro the king of Japanese agents and famous all over the world.

In the Russo-Japanese War, when encircling Arthur, he ordered the Japanese coastal heavy artillery to be dismantled and transported to Arthur, and in May 1905, after the overwhelming victory in the Battle of Tsushima, in order to negotiate in Japan's favor, he proposed to occupy Sakhalin Island, but the navy did not agree, he wrote to his teacher Kodama Gentaro for help, and as a result, under Kodama's intervention, it was decided to establish the Birch Occupation Army in July, and on September 5, the Treaty of Portsmouth stipulated that South Birch was returned to Japan.

In 1906, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, in 1908 he was appointed director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army, the following year he was promoted to lieutenant general, and in 1910 he was appointed commander of the 13th Division. In February 1912, the commander of the 16th Division, Lieutenant General Nobuyoshi Yamanaka, only served as the honorary commander of the 16th Division due to his advanced age, and Nagaoka served as the acting commander of the 16th Division and the commander of the 19th Brigade.

Nagaoka Gaishi's qualifications in the army are actually not inferior to Uehara Yusaku, but he has always been unlucky, always walking behind others, this time for Uehara Yusaku as the commander of the crusading army, Nagaoka Gaishi is very disdainful. However, this attack on the left flank, which he personally commanded, was attacked by the water.

The surface forces of the Japanese attack were not the Qing Navy, but the naval officers and sailors of the Southern Revolutionary Government and the 11th Garrison Regiment of the Jiangbei Army. Due to the non-statement of the southern revolutionary government, the naval officers and men were extremely angry, so they volunteered to support Jiangbei. The officials of the Southern Revolutionary Government did not stop it, and about 70 or so Southern Navy came to Jiangbei. Fang Xianwu assigned them to the 11th Garrison Regiment, and the garrison of the 11th Garrison Regiment happened to be Yangzhong County.

There are only more than 900 soldiers in the 11th Garrison Regiment, most of whom are fishermen from Yangzhong County, so the arrival of volunteers from the Southern Navy has strengthened the 11th Garrison Regiment. With the help of naval soldiers, they used the river and spread to harass the Japanese 19th Brigade, especially the Japanese baggage troops, and launched attacks all the time, forcing the 19th Brigade to divide its forces in all directions.

When the 19th Brigade arrived in Zhanggang Town, the logistics and heavy supplies could no longer keep up with the pace, but Nagaoka did not care about the harassment of the "fleas" in the rear, and after watching the Chinese defenders' positions in Zhanggang Town, he thought that if they did not attack immediately, the fortifications built by the Chinese army would bring them more trouble. So Nagaoka Waishi immediately ordered the 19th Brigade to immediately launch an attack on the position of Zhanggang Town, the Second Division of the Jiangbei Army at this time.

Compared with the 17th Division on the right flank, the 19th Brigade was more courageous, and under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese launched a fierce attack on Zhanggang Town. The artillery fire of the 19th Brigade destroyed the simply constructed positions inside and outside Zhanggang Town, and the defenders suffered heavy casualties.

Subsequently, the Hengshan Wing of the 19th Brigade directly rushed into Zhanggang Town, and engaged in street fighting with the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Jiangbei Army in Zhanggang Town. During the battle, the combat experience of the Japanese army was highlighted, and the second division was gradually driven out of Zhanggang Town because of too many new recruits.

In order to support the 2nd Regiment, the commander of the 2nd Division, Li Zuzhi, used the 6th Regiment as a frontal reinforcement, and the 3rd Regiment and the 4th Regiment to outflank the left and right flanks respectively, and he informed the 11th Garrison Regiment to launch a fierce attack on the rear of the Japanese army at all costs.

The firepower of the 19th Brigade was very strong, the outflanking of the 3rd and 4th Regiments was resisted by the 19th Brigade, and the 2nd and 6th Regiments in the city also fought repeatedly with the Japanese army, and Zhanggang Town became a ruin, without a complete house. The fire ignited, and it happened that the wind was blowing in the southeast direction, and the fire burned in the direction of the Japanese army. The commander of the second regiment, Yu Zhengxiong, immediately ordered a counterattack and drove the Japanese out of Zhanggang Town in one fell swoop.

In the evening, the 11th Garrison Regiment of the Chinese Army discovered the Japanese artillery position, so it launched an attack on the Japanese artillery position. The Japanese defenders were extremely tenacious and repeatedly repelled the attacks of the 11th Garrison. Japanese reinforcements arrived, and the 11th Garrison had to be evacuated. The 988 people of the 11th Garrison Regiment were evacuated from the Japanese artillery position, and only 551 people remained.

In order to occupy Zhanggang Town as soon as possible, Nagaoka Waishi ordered an attack overnight, and the artillery continued to smash shells into Zhanggang Town, completely blowing up the already dilapidated Zhanggang Town into ashes, and even there was nothing in Zhanggang Town that could be ignited. After the shelling stopped, a brigade of Japanese soldiers armed with bayonets rushed to the ruins of Zhanggang Town.

However, what the Japanese army never expected was that there were still Chinese defenders hidden in the ruins, and when the Japanese army was about 150 meters closer, they began to shoot at the Japanese army from all corners at the same time. The soldiers in the front row of the Japanese army were hit and fell to the ground, and the other soldiers took advantage of the night howl to rush up, trying to fight for the ruins.

Fortunately, the Chinese defenders had enough grenades, and when the Japanese were outnumbered, the defenders would throw grenades, and if the Japanese were small, the soldiers would jump out of their positions and fight the Japanese back with bayonets. The machine guns of the two anti-reflex guns fired at each other at the same time, and the soldiers did not even have time to hide, and for a while, the corpses of both sides were repeatedly stacked on the east side of Zhanggang Town, and blood stained the ground red.

Seeing that the attack had been frustrated, Nagaoka immediately sent three brigades to launch a night attack on the defenders of Zhanggang Town from three directions, and even he sent out the only cavalry in the 19th Brigade, preparing to take advantage of the darkness to take the position of Zhanggang Town.