readx; Song Xilian has always been disgusted with Gui Yongqing's character, and only came to Yang Qiji to find him for the sake of the overall situation of the battle. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Unexpectedly, the "German general" was still so arrogant and arrogant, and behaved as if nothing had happened and was indifferent to the loss of Lanfeng. He deeply regretted that he shouldn't have made this trip, so he immediately left Gui Yongqing's military headquarters and returned in a huff.

Soon after Song Xilian returned to the Guilizhai Military Headquarters, he received a telegram from Xue Yue, ordering the 71st Army to be responsible for attacking Lanfeng, and the 88th Division to return the 71st Army to the 71st Army.

In the evening, outside the city of Lanfeng, the battle situation had fallen silent, Song Xilian led the commanders of the divisions and brigades to the southern suburbs of Lanfeng, inspected the terrain, and prepared to make careful arrangements for the siege of the city.

In the vast twilight, the flag of the army at the head of the city of Lanfeng is faintly visible, and there are fortifications built by the army with sandbags and masonry temporarily. In several villages outside the city that have gone through fierce fighting, most of the houses have been destroyed by artillery fire, some houses are still burning, the weather is hot and windless, and wisps of black smoke are rising slowly, which will not disperse for a long time, forming a dark cloud over the village. The national defense fortifications located in the southeast of Xu Lou have also been planted with the flag of the army.

Song Xilian led the officers to see the terrain and after returning to the military headquarters, he gave the two divisions the task of attacking:

1. The 87th Division attacked the southeast corner of Lanfeng City on the line of Dacao, Sun Lou, Zhang Yiwang, and Xiao Zhuang, focusing on the left flank; 2. The 88th Division attacked from the line of Chensunzhuang, Duzhuang, and Dengzhai to the southwest corner of Lanfeng City, focusing on the left flank; 3. The location of the mountain artillery battalion is in Chendouzhai; Fourth, the military headquarters was in Guili Village, and when the attack began, the army commander was in Sunzhuang.

The attack began at 5 o'clock on the 25th.

After Song Xilian arranged the attack mission, he instructed all troops to make full use of the villages outside the city to get close to the city walls and choose a location that was easy to climb the city.

The siege of the city in the next two days was fought very fiercely.

At about 4 o'clock in the morning of the 25th, Song Xilian rode his horse to the command post in Sunzhuang, and received a report from Shen Fazao and Long Muhan that the two divisions had approached the enemy position under the cover of night, so he ordered the artillery to shoot at the enemy stronghold near Lanfeng by telephone.

The Chen Douzhai artillery position is located directly south of Lanfeng City, about 5 kilometers away from the city. For a moment, a brilliant arc of light streaked across the night sky, cannonballs whined and flew towards the enemy formation, and the violent explosion shattered the silence of dawn. Several outlying strongholds of the army suddenly burst into flames, and earth and stones flew together with enemy corpses.

But a few minutes later, the enemy artillery began to return fire on the Song artillery positions. In an instant, the light of the ballistic trajectory in the night sky crisscrossed and crisscrossed, and the sound of the explosion was like a landslide, which could be heard clearly from 10 miles away.

The Song army's artillery fire was obviously weak compared to the Yue army, and after a few minutes, it was suppressed by the enemy's artillery fire and forced to move its position in the billowing smoke of gunpowder.

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the east was already white, and the outline of the Lanfeng city wall was already faintly visible. Several signal flares suddenly rose in the southern suburbs of the city, and immediately after, the southeast and southwest of Lanfeng City sounded loudly at the same time. The officers and men of the Shen and Long Divisions charged the enemy's outlying strongholds in two directions amid the sound of the trumpet.

The Yue army hastily responded to the surprise attack of the Song army, and due to the darkness of the night, the visibility was low, and the lethality of light and heavy machine guns was greatly reduced. By the time the Japanese army fired flares in the city, some of the attacking troops had quickly rushed into the village.

The attack of the two divisions went quite smoothly.

Song Xilian immediately ordered the mountain artillery battalion to be divided into two parts, one part of the infantry of the 87th Division to move forward, and the other part to move to the front of the 88th Division and bombard the enemy's stronghold.

The officers and men of the 71st Army ushered in the dawn of the 26th amid the fierce gunfire of gunfire.

The weather was hot and sultry, the sky was cloudy, and there was no sunlight in sight. The officers and men of the first line of siege were sometimes crawling forward in the wheat fields in the rain of bullets, sometimes rushing forward at the risk of death, sweating like rain, and their soaked uniforms were covered with blades of grass and mud. Many officers and men died while they were shots during the charge.

The 88th Division rushed all the way, and the vanguard approached Xu Lou at about 9 a.m.

The first part of the army that occupied Xulou used the broken wall and ruins as a cover in the village to shoot at the attacking troops, and the other occupied the defense fortifications southeast of Xulou and resisted stubbornly.

The defense fortifications in the southeast of Xulou built machine guns and mortar bunkers, and outside the bunker group, trenches were dug. The army fired mortar at the attacking troops of the 88th Division, and formed a crossfire network with the light and heavy machine guns of the Yue army in Xulou Village, temporarily pressing the attacking troops in the open field south of Xulou.

Long Mu Han ordered the artillery to concentrate their firepower, first bombarding the Yue army entrenched in the defense fortifications, and then turned to shoot in Xulou Village.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the attacking troops pressed towards the enemy position, but after the shelling stopped, the attacking troops were about to charge, but the cavalry of the Yue army rushed from the city at the right time to cooperate with the infantry to launch a countercharge.

The dragon master's attack was immediately thwarted.

Long Muhan then pushed the second echelon to the front line, and ordered the mortars to advance forward and fire fiercely at the enemy stronghold. The smoke of gunpowder inside and outside the building was soaring, and the smell of gunpowder filled the four fields, and the attacking troops took advantage of the smoke screen to cover and pounce on the enemy at the right time. At around 10 o'clock, Xu Lou was conquered.

By 12 o'clock, the dragon division had defeated Zhao and Yang Erzhuang, but the casualties of the attacking troops had reached more than 200 people. Song Xilian then ordered the division to stop the attack, stick to the already conquered position, adjust the situation, wait for Shen's division to advance near the city wall, and then cooperate to attack the city.

Due to the flat terrain in the southeast of Lanfeng, and the army outside Lanfeng City relied on the railway foundation to hold on, the progress of the 87th Division was very difficult. The fierce battle lasted until noon, only approaching the vicinity of Xigangtou and Zhang's Village, and there were many casualties. The division commander Shen Fazao was so anxious that he was sweating like rain, his voice was hoarse, and he was beating the wall, eager to hold a machine gun and fight to the death with the devil, but as the commander of the first division, he had no right to do so.

It was not until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon that the right flank of the division broke through the first-line position of the Yuejun railway with heavy sacrifices, and advanced in the direction of Lanfeng in the northwest to clear the enemy east of Lanfeng.

Outside the city, the army fled in panic to the northeast corner of Lanfeng.

The 87th Division then advanced forward, successively conquering Wangzhuang and Zhang's Village at the eastern end of Lanfeng City, and advancing to the line of Gaoshaotou and Huiyao on the periphery of Lanfeng City.

Shen Fazao had been observing the attack of his division with a telescope outside the command post, and saw that the troops who had been delayed by the enemy for several hours had broken through the enemy's defense line and quickly attacked the periphery of Lanfeng City. What to do next, please instruct!"

"Consolidate the stronghold and prepare to attack the city wall at the same time as the 88th Division." Song Xilian ordered.

However, when Song Xilian was about to give the order to attack the city wall, the infantry and cavalry artillery of the army jointly held a counteroffensive, captured Xu Lou, and resisted stubbornly according to the fortifications.

Song Xilian saw that the two divisions suffered heavy casualties and their morale was exhausted, and it was difficult to make progress if they continued to attack, so he ordered the two divisions to attack the troops to build fortifications on the spot and hold on to the occupied strongholds, and the second-line troops began to tie up and climb ladders to prepare for a night attack.

In the morning of the same day, Xue Yue had already called, telling Song Xilian that he had arrived at Yangqiji in the early morning, and asked Song Xilian to report the siege situation to him in time. Song Xilian took advantage of the interval between the battles and drove to Yang Qiji to meet the commander-in-chief of the corps and report to him on the siege of the city.

Xue Yue was reluctant to give up day and night for more than ten consecutive days, commanding the corps to fight, his face was thinner than before, but he was not tired. Although the weather was very hot, he still dressed neatly and maintained the prestige of a general. As soon as Song Xilian arrived, he immediately stood up to greet him, clasped Song Xilian's hand, and praised him for his success.

After Song Xilian reported to Xue Yue the loss of the Lan Seal City and the siege of the city, Xue Yue's indignation overflowed: "Gui Yongqing, as the commander of an army, does not think about the overall situation of the battle, only plans for himself, and his behavior is really shameful. At a critical juncture, withdrawing the headquarters without authorization is no different from escaping from the battle. This kind of person is simply inferior to an ordinary warrior. If the generals in the army are like him, what else can they resist, just give the land of China to Yue himself. He paused, and then continued, "No matter who supports him, I, Xue Boling, will not let him go, otherwise I will be sorry for those brothers who died in the siege!" ”

Subsequently, Xue Yue told Song Xilian that the siege battle must be decided quickly, otherwise once the enemy on the eastern front took the opportunity to advance westward, our army would fall into a situation of being flanked.

When Song Xilian was leaving, Xue Yue sent him far away and encouraged him: "Commander Song, take out your majesty in attacking Huishan Wharf in Shanghai and recover Lanfeng, you are the only one. ”

After Song Xilian returned to the Guilizhai Military Headquarters, the sky was drizzling, the temperature was gradually cooling, and the smoke and dust gradually disappeared on the outskirts of Lanfeng City, and the outline of the village was shrouded in rain and fog. Song Xilian was worried that the light rain would not stop falling for a long time, because then the roads and fields would become muddy, making it difficult for the attacking troops to advance. He could not take a break, so he called a meeting of the commanders of the Shen and Long divisions and the commander of the artillery battalion, and issued an order for a night attack, demanding that the two divisions should sacrifice all their lives to conquer Lanfeng this night, and the general attack time was set for 7 p.m.

The deployment of the attack has changed from the white statement:

The 87th Division advanced from Liangzhuang and Gaoshaotou to the east gate of Tofu Ying, Erlizhai, Tianzhuang, Xulou, and Lanfengcheng, focusing on the right flank; The 88th Division attacked and advanced from the west side of Xulou to Lanfeng Station, the southwest and south gate of Lanfeng City, focusing on the left flank, and sent a section along the city to the west to guard the enemy in Sanyi Village; The mountain artillery battalion fired at the enemy positions of Tianzhuang, Erlizhai and Tofu Battalion with the main force, and attached to the 87th Division with one section (West Gate), which jumped forward with the infantry and fired directly at the enemy in the city wall if necessary; The heavy artillery battalion fired at the south gate and the west corner of the city wall, and at various points in the city, and coordinated the attack of the 88th Division; Shooting started at 7 p.m.

When the troops attacked, the army commander went to Chen Sunzhuang to command.

In the evening, the light rain gradually stopped, due to the haze in the sky, it was dark very early, nearly 7 o'clock, the city of Lanfeng had already disappeared into the night. In the military fortifications at the head of the city, a few stars of light shine through the eyes of the gun, like a ghost fire in the cemetery of the hill, and the four fields are silent.

Suddenly, the cannon of the Song army rang out, and the strongholds of the army such as Tianzhuang and Erlizhai were shelled for the first time, and the fire of the shell explosion reflected the red suburbs of Lanfeng. The 87th Division attacked from the southeast of the city under the cover of artillery fire. After the rain, the fields were rotten and the roads were slippery, but the speed of the attacking troops did not slow down. The 261st Brigade of the 87th Division quickly conquered Liangzhuang, and then advanced to Erlizhai and Tianzhuang, and the 518th Regiment had reached the vicinity of Xulou and fought fiercely with the army.

The walls of Lan Feng are not far away.

The advance of the 88th Division was even more rapid, as the heavy artillery battalion concentrated all its firepower on the south gate and the southwest corner of the city wall, so that the enemy in the city was temporarily unable to reinforce the outlying strongholds. Lanfeng Station was conquered by the 88th Division in one fell swoop.

Long Muhan knew that after the loss of Lanfeng, he could not get rid of his involvement, and he had the heart of guilt and merit, so he ignored the enemy's bullets and went to the front line to supervise the battle in person. When officers and men at all levels saw the brigade commander personally in the line of fire, their morale was greatly boosted, and they were not willing to lag behind when they charged, and they marched forward bravely.

Long Mu Han saw that Lanfeng Station had been conquered, and immediately ordered the troops to prepare to climb the city with a ladder. Unexpectedly, the army reorganized a counterattack, and Lanfeng Station fell into the hands of the enemy again.

Long Muhan was furious and immediately ordered his troops to recapture the station at all costs. For a time, there were shouts of killing near the station, gunfire was like a rainstorm, and the explosions of grenades and mortar shells were like pearls. In the firelight, the infantry of the two armies fought back and forth, and the enemy cavalry rampage, and the battle was extremely fierce.

Long Mu Han saw that the troops were blocked south of the railway and could not advance, so in a hurry, he pulled out his pistol and wanted to lead the division reserve to rush to the station, but was persuaded by the chief of staff.

The fierce battle lasted until about 10 o'clock, and the dragon finally occupied Lanfeng Station, and some officers and soldiers had rushed to the vicinity of the South Gate Garden. Long Muhan then ordered the pre-organized "climbing team" to divide into several batches and advance wave by wave, until Bolan closed the city.

The climbing party was divided into groups of people, and the soldiers carried sabers, short guns and grenades in their waists, carried ladders, and approached the city wall under the cover of fire.

The army then fired flares, illuminating the open area outside the city as if it were day, and at the same time organized fire and fired fiercely at the besieging troops.

Under the dense fire network of the enemy, the soldiers of the climbing party fell one after another in the middle of the charge, and in the end only three groups crossed the moat and rushed to the bottom of the city. Three ladders were erected against the wall one after another, and the sturdy soldiers quickly climbed the city, but one of the ladders was blown up by a number of grenades dropped by the soldiers on the wall, and the soldiers who climbed to the top of the ladder fell down with the ladder and died.

Although several of the other two groups of soldiers climbed to the top of the city, due to their weak strength, although they wielded their swords and fought to the death with the enemy, they finally all died. The corpses were thrown from the city by the Japanese army, and the ladder was blown up.

In this climbing charge, the 88th Division invested more than 100 people in three platoons, except for a few wounded soldiers who climbed back in the line of fire, the rest all died heroically.

Seeing that the climb to the city failed, Long Muhan hurriedly ordered the heavy artillery battalion to bombard the city again. At the same time, the climbing team was ordered to divide into several echelons, one after the other, advancing one by one.

This charge was more advanced than the first time, because the army was under the pressure of the artillery fire of the dragon division, unable to carry out a strong counterattack, more than 100 soldiers of the climbing team were able to rush through the moat, leaning more than a dozen ladders against the city wall, the soldiers braved the rain of bullets to climb bravely, and finally dozens of people climbed the city wall, and started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy on the head of the wall that was more than a foot wide.

On the city wall, the Chinese soldiers were swordsman, shouting to kill, the bayonets of the soldiers were flashing, wah-wah, the swords and guns were in harmony, blood was splashed everywhere, and corpses were constantly rolling down the city. The army resisted stubbornly, quickly reinforcing the Chinese soldiers who had climbed the city walls, and preventing the reinforcements of the besieging troops with crossfire at the north and south ends. Due to the bloody battle between their own soldiers and the enemy at the head of the city, the Longbu Mountain Artillery Battalion could no longer shoot, and the follow-up troops were blocked by the enemy's dense firepower and could not be reinforced.

After that, Long Mu Han ordered his troops to launch three attacks in a row, but for some reason, more than half of the shells fired by the heavy artillery battalion at the head of the city were not exploded, and the firepower of the Yue army could not be fully suppressed, and the attacks failed.

The attacking force of the 87th Division made difficult progress, and at about 3 a.m. the next day, it began to conquer the Grange with heavy sacrifices, and after that it was difficult to approach the city walls.

Song Xilian saw that the two divisions had been fighting fiercely for nearly a night, and that all units had suffered heavy casualties, so he ordered the whole army to rest and ensure that the key points had been captured. The attack resumed at 10 p.m. on the 26th.

26. The weather turned from cloudy to sunny. At night, the stars are dense, the sky is like washing, because it is the end of the lunar month, the waning moon is hidden, and the four fields are black.

After dark, Song Xilian made adjustments to the siege force and ordered the two divisions to increase the attack points when focusing on the east and south gates to disperse the enemy's firepower. He also ordered the mountain artillery battalion to move several cannons to the vicinity of the city wall and fire directly at the city wall, while the heavy artillery battalion scattered into the city to deter the defenders on the city.

After the attack began, the troops of the two divisions quietly approached the remnants of the outlying strongholds of the Japanese army and carried out a surprise attack. Around midnight, the 87th Division conquered Erli Village, Shen Fazao immediately ordered artillery to bombard the city wall and the east gate, several mountain guns roared together, all the shells hit the target, and several gaps in the city wall suddenly appeared.

At this moment, the heavy artillery battalion also opened fire into the city. For a time, explosions broke out in Lanfeng City, and the flames soared into the sky.

Before the enemy artillery could return fire, the attacking troops of the Shen and Long divisions launched a charge. The 87th Division smashed the east gate with the main force, and the rest of the troops were divided into several roads and climbed the city from many places. The 88th Division also occupied Huayuan and Lizhuang in one fell swoop, cleared the remnants of the enemy outside the city, and began to climb the city.

The heavy artillery battalion was still firing into the city, and the soldiers were shouting horses and ghosts crying wolves, which could be heard clearly.

After 2 a.m. on the 27th, the siege troops of the two divisions finally broke several gaps, and the 88th Division climbed two places in the southwest and one in the east. The officers and soldiers who climbed the city wall used bayonets, broadswords, and grenades to drive the Japanese army off the city wall and gained a foothold.

Song Xilian immediately ordered the two divisions to increase their troops to the city and expand the results of the battle.

The Japanese army, who had been driven off the city wall, fired mortar fire at the city head in the city, and with the cover of houses and ruins, approached the city wall and launched a charge, trying to recapture the city head. However, the follow-up troops of the Song army quickly landed in the city, not only with an advantage in troops, but also condescendingly. The Chinese officers and soldiers who had gone through the brutal battle first poured out their anger with infantry and machine guns, waited for the enemy to get close to the base of the wall, and then rained down grenades, and then, with the thrill of revenge, watched the enemy's flesh and blood fly and fled in embarrassment.

The Yue army repeatedly organized counterattacks, but they were all repelled by the Song army's troops in the city.

At about 3 o'clock in the morning, the 1st Division of the 88th Division rushed into the city and engaged the enemy in a street battle. Seeing that the city was difficult to defend, Toyoshima Fangtaro immediately ordered a small group of infantry to pounce on the 88th Division's troops entering the city to cover the retreat of the main force to the north.

After a short period of fierce fighting, dozens of infantry members of a small group of the Japanese army were all killed.

After Feng Dao led his troops out of the north gate, he turned west and fled in the direction of Sanyi Village, and was discovered by the 87th Division, Shen Fazao immediately ordered a regiment to go around the north gate and pursue the enemy, and as a result, he hit the rear tail of the army, killed dozens of enemies, and captured dozens of guns and more than 10 military horses. Later, the commander of the regiment gave Song Xilian a tall and strong military horse with a chestnut shell. In the later stages of the Battle of Lanfeng, Song Xilian often rode this military horse in the army. Some officers jokingly called this "horse prisoner" "Tu Feiyuan".

At this point, Lan Fengcheng, who fell into the hands of the enemy, was recovered after three bloody battles.

Before dawn, Song Xilian telegraphed the news of the reconquest of the lost territory to Chiang Kai-shek, Cheng Qian, and Xue Yue respectively.

After Cheng Qian received the call, he ordered Long Muhan, the commander of the 88th Division, to be the commander of the Lanfeng City Garrison. Song Xilian conveyed this order to Long Muhan, and ordered the 87th Division to assemble on the east side of Lanfeng, and the 88th Division to be stationed in Lanfeng. Both divisions sent one division to clean up the battlefield and prepare the main force for the subsequent battle.

In the early morning of the 27th, the [***] flag fluttered again at the head of the Lanfeng City!

(To be continued)