After hearing that the snipers of the Southern Expeditionary Army had killed or seriously wounded the commander of the 26th Brigade, Numata Tokushige, there was jubilation on Honghua Mountain, which greatly boosted the morale of all the officers and men of the 36th Division.

The Japanese army was still defeated again and again, and continued to launch continuous attacks on the main position of Honghua Mountain.

The fierce fighting lasted until about 9 a.m. on September 11, by which time the Japanese had occupied most of the positions on Honghua Mountain, and all the nearby hills were also occupied by them. With more than 1,000 remnants of the 36th Division, the poor firepower could no longer suppress so many enemies, and they were almost running out of ammunition.

The officers and men of the 36th Division, who were determined to die, under the leadership of division commander Chen Ruihe, used fierce hand-to-hand combat to repel several attacks by the Japanese army. The two sides fought fiercely until 16 o'clock in the afternoon, and only 800 men of the 36th Division were left to fight, and most of them were still wounded, and the Japanese army also occupied almost all the key passes of Fujin Mountain except for the top of the mountain with the tactics of crowds.

Song Xilian called Chen Ruihe, Han Xing, and several other senior officers to the headquarters and said to them: "The commander of Sun Lianzhong's corps told us to hold on for 10 days, and the task of these 10 days has been completed. During these 10 days, General Zhang Zizhong organized a second line of defense in Huangchuan, and Hu Zongnan built a third line of defense in Xinyang. Our mission has been accomplished, now let's look at how to remove the mission! ”

Everyone was silent, in these 10 days, the 71st Army, especially the 36th Division, really paid the price of blood, and the lives of countless martyrs stained this red land.

Han Xing said: "Withdraw, withdraw, it is true that there is no military significance in holding on any longer, and we have already won time for the follow-up positions." Many positions in the vicinity of Fujin Mountain have been lost, and it is really difficult to hold on. ”

Song Xilian said: "Okay, I'll call the 61st Division to cover the retreat of the 36th Division, and in addition, the air force of your Southern Expeditionary Army also hopes to support the retreat of our 36th Division." ”

Han Xing nodded and said, "Okay." ”

After receiving the order, the 61st Division immediately came to Honghua Mountain to cover the withdrawal of the 36th Division from Fujin Mountain. The combat effectiveness of the 61st Division could not be compared with that of the 36th Division, and after they arrived, they could hardly support it under the attack of the Japanese army. The Japanese then released poison gas bombs, and the 61st Division barely supported for several hours, covering the successful retreat of the 36th Division.

After the Japanese army occupied the main position of Honghua Mountain, there was a jubilation, and behind this jubilation, they could not hide their heavy losses.

The Japanese army claimed more than 4,000 casualties in the First World War of Fujinshan, including Major General Numata Tokushige, the commander of the 26th Brigade (Numata Tokushige was later killed by Yu Xuezhong's department in the Sulu theater deep behind enemy lines in 1939), and the wing commanders of the four wings participating in the battle were killed and seriously wounded 2. According to our statistics, the 13th Division alone had 4,000 dead and nearly 10,000 wounded, with a total of more than 13,000 casualties.

Because the Japanese army suffered great losses in Fujin Mountain, they actually vented on the Chinese people. After capturing Fujin Mountain, they attacked westward, committing massacres along the way. Chen Linzi, Zushi Temple, Wumiaoji, Zhangbailing (now Zhangbailing Village, Guolutan), Duanji, and Fangji were all killed, hundreds of people who had not had time to flee were killed, and hundreds of women were ravaged.

What's more important is that the Japanese army disposed of the bodies of these Japanese soldiers to be cremated, and the ashes of these Japanese soldiers who died in battle were transported to Japan. They came up first to burn gasoline, but gasoline is precious, gasoline is in short supply, there is no fuel, so they demolish the houses of the common people, so far, dozens of villages and towns have been demolished to deal with these corpses of the Japanese army.

For a while, the fire was raging for more than ten miles, and as long as it was an open space, it became a crematorium. The corpse of each Japanese soldier was covered with firewood and set on fire. The smell was so scented that even the living soldiers in Japan covered their noses and wore masks, and the stench of corpses could not be lingered for a long time.

After Song Xilian's 71st Army withdrew from Fujin Mountain, it moved 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, and the 36th Division fought at Fujinshan, leaving only more than 800 people and unable to fight again. This time, Sun Lianzhong asked the 71st and 30th Armies, which had already suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Fujinshan, to defend the head and tail of the Xiaojieling defense line, and the relatively intact Feng Anbang 42nd Army to defend 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.

Besides, after Han Xing withdrew from Honghua Mountain with his entourage, he quickly arrived at Wangling Village, the garrison of the Southern Expeditionary Army, where Zhang Weihan had been waiting for Han Xing for a long time. The two men met, and after a brief meeting of the situation, they immediately convened a meeting of the principal cadres of each unit.

The meeting was presided over by Zhang Weihan, and Commander Zhang said: "In the Battle of Fujin Mountain, after 10 days of bloody fighting, our Southern Expeditionary Army effectively cooperated with the 71st Army, stopped the attack of the Japanese 13th Division, and wiped out more than 10,000 elite troops of the 13th Division. In the next step, the chief of staff of the Republic of Korea will make specific arrangements for where we go from here. ”

Han Xing stood up, opened the map, pointed to the map and said to everyone: "Our next military task is mainly to send troops to Tianjia Town, help defend the guards of Tianjia Town, and resolutely defend the safety of Tianjia Town Fortress. Where is this Tianjia Town? ”

Han Xing guided everyone's eyes again, and finally pointed to a place on the Yangtze River, and said to everyone: "This Tianjia Town is about 65 kilometers upstream of the Jiujiang River, 150 kilometers downstream of Wuhan, and about 40 kilometers southwest of Guangji County (now Meichuan Town, Wuxue City) on the north bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Its terrain is dangerous, the river is locked by mountains, connected with the lake, the east is the Huangni Lake, the west is the Makou Lake, and there are hills three or four miles wide and six or seven miles long in the middle. To the north of the hill is the Songshan Heights, the highlands stretch for more than 10 miles, the relative height is only three or four hundred meters, but it is very steep, and the dense vegetation is sometimes exposed with gray-brown rocks, which is the support of the north of the fortress.

Tianjia Town is known as 'the first gateway of Wuhan' and 'the key to the Chujiang River', and the terrain is very dangerous. Due to the confrontation between the two mountains, the Yangtze River suddenly narrowed here, and the distance between the two banks was only about 500 meters, and the Taiping army and the Qing army had built fortresses and forts here successively.

So, how did the national army defend it? After the Battle of Wuhan began, on the basis of the original defense, the Kuomintang Army Command sent two additional divisions of Li Yannian in the 9th Theater to defend Tianjia Town, and the original fortress troops were under the unified command of Li Yannian.

Li Yannian ordered Zheng Zuomin, the main force of the 2nd Army, to be responsible for guarding the north of the fortress, his 26th Brigade to guard the Songshan Heights, the 25th Brigade to be deployed in the hilly area, and ordered Shi Zhongcheng's Division to be responsible for guarding the front and east of the fortress, and his 171st Brigade commander Yang Zongding was also the commander of the fortress, with the 340th, 341st, and 342nd regiments under his jurisdiction guarding the core of the fortress, and the 337th and 339th regiments under the jurisdiction of the 169th Brigade defending the outer positions. The officers and men of the two divisions, together with the troops of the original fortress, seized the pre-war time to repair the fortifications, built several hundred fortified strongholds with cement, and surrounded several barbed wire fences in the mountainous area from the high ground near Siwang Mountain to Tianjia Town. At the same time, military training should be stepped up and preparations should be put into full force.

The Japanese troops participating in the attack on Tianjiazhen this time mainly included the 3rd Fleet, the 11th Army, the 11th Sentai Brigade, and the Hatada Detachment.

The Japanese Botian detachment advanced to the town of Wharf opposite Wuxue Town, about 15 kilometers downstream of Tianjia Town, on August 21 as planned. The 31st Army of the 2nd Corps carried out a strong resistance and held out for more than 20 days.

On 26 August, the Japanese Navy's tracing operation targeting Tianjia Town officially began. Although under the cover of aircraft and naval guns, the navy forcibly marched up the river, but the fixed or mobile shelling by Chinese artillery on both sides of the strait made it extremely difficult for the navy to clear mines and obstacles, and its advance was slow.

On August 28 and 29, Liu Ruming's 68th Army and Qin Lianfang's 84th Army counterattacked Huangmei County and its east in an attempt to recapture the county seat and lost positions, but they were unsuccessful due to the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army, and the Chinese army suffered heavy casualties. The Japanese army also advanced into the territory of Guangji County, and aimed its attack on the county seat of Guangji and Tianjia Town in Guangji County.

On 29 August, the 6th Division of the Japanese Army, with the Ushijima Detachment, that is, the 23rd and 45th Infantry Wings under the command of Major General Ushijima, commander of the 36th Infantry Brigade, the main force of the 6th Field Artillery Wing, and the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Wing of the Independent Mountain Artillery, attacked and advanced along the Huangmei-Guangji Avenue. The Imamura Detachment, that is, the main forces of the 47th Infantry Wing and the 2nd Independence Mountain Artillery Wing under the command of Major General Katsuji Imamura, commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade, attacked and advanced to the Gwangji side in the southern area of the Ushijima Detachment. The 13th Infantry Wing, as a divisional reserve, advanced behind the front line.

The two Japanese detachments began to attack and advance at dawn on August 30, and successively broke through the positions of the Chinese troops. The Ushijima detachment occupied Gwangje Castle on the afternoon of September 6, and at the same time the Imamura detachment entered the area south of Gwangji.

After the 6th Division occupied Guangji, the Niudao Detachment and the 47th Infantry Wing served as the garrison between Huangmei and Guangji. At the same time, the 13th Infantry Wing, which was fully combat-ready, was included in the Imamura Detachment and was tasked with attacking Tianjia Town.

The reorganized detachment is mainly composed of the headquarters of the 11th Infantry Brigade and the escort squadron, the main force of the 13th Infantry Wing, the 2nd Independent Mountain Artillery Wing, the 2nd Squadron of the 6th Infantry Wing, the 1st Squadron of the 6th Engineer Wing and logistics personnel, totaling about 6,600 personnel. ”

Han Xing only kept talking about the confrontation between the two sides.

Liu Zhiyuan couldn't help it a little, and said: "Chief of Staff Han, we can't remember what you said, you just say, how can we fight, what is the specific combat mission?" ”