Under the command of Xue Yue, the 59th, 102nd, and 90th Divisions of the 4th Army and the 60th Division of the 37th Army were transferred to the south bank of the Xinqiang River.

Unlike the hasty response of the Ninth Theater in history, the Ninth Theater had already determined the intentions of the Japanese army at this time, so it began to strengthen the defensive positions on the front line of the Xinqiang River as early as a few months ago.

Although the Ninth Theater has fought with the Japanese 11th Army many times, it has not remembered what to eat, and this 11th Army is not only the most elite field unit of the Japanese army, but it is also the only field army in the Japanese army that invades China that mainly focuses on mobile combat missions. Historically, since the fall of Wuhan, the Japanese army has launched many attacks on the frontal battlefield, except for the Battle of Guinan, which was launched by the South China Front Army, and the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, which was launched by the North China Front, all of which were launched by this 11th Army.

It stands to reason that China's military intelligence departments have been monitoring the movements of the 11th Army more keenly and closely, but in fact the Ninth Theater has no knowledge of this, and the 11th Army has been transferring troops from western Hubei, southern Hunan, and northern Jiangxi since mid-August to concentrate in northern Hunan in preparation for this battle. For as long as one month, the strategic intelligence department of the Military Commission, the campaign intelligence department of the Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Theaters, and the tactical intelligence departments of various units that had face-to-face contact with the Japanese army were unaware of such a large-scale troop movement, and it was not until a day or two before the Japanese army was about to launch a full-scale offensive that it was discovered that the Japanese army had massed heavy troops in northern Hunan Province, which shows the paralysis and laxity of China's military intelligence departments at all levels.

However, due to the unclear situation, the Ninth Theater had no way to carry out the battle and had no time to make targeted preparations, and its front-line garrison troops, the 4th Army and the 58th Army, were even attracted by the Japanese army and stuck to Dayun Mountain. The Japanese army succeeded in concealing the battle attempt and giving full play to the suddenness of the battle, while the Ninth Theater lost the opportunity at the first step of the battle, rushed to deal with it, and lost every step in the face of the Japanese lightning-like attack.

Similarly, the 6th Theater of Operations did not know anything about the transfer of the Pingyuan Detachment of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army and the 18th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade. One month later, it was discovered that the troops of the 13th Division had been transferred south in the northern Hunan battlefield, and it was too late to deploy a counteroffensive against Yichang; By the time the counteroffensive began, the Japanese had finished the Changsha operation, and the Pingyuan detachment was about to return to Yichang. If it can be detected early, prepared early, and launched a counteroffensive a few days in advance, Yichang will definitely be able to recover. On the contrary, the Japanese army's special intelligence department has deciphered the telegrams of the Ninth Theater many times and knows the deployment of the Ninth Theater well, so it can adjust the deployment in time and have a chance of winning.

However, at this time, the Nationalist Government knew early on that the main direction of the Japanese army was in Changsha, so the Ninth Theater was extremely calm in the movement of troops. Moreover, he also formulated a detailed operational plan, so Xue Yue was still relatively calm about the Japanese army's attack. He believed that although the Japanese army was menacing, its total strength was only 50,000 or 60,000, while he had more than 300,000 troops in his hands.

However, in fact, Xue Yue still overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Ninth Theater, and at dawn on November 8, the Japanese army launched an attack on all fronts under the command of Lieutenant General Anan. After the test of the battle of Dayun Mountain, Anan Weiji already had a very intuitive understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Ninth War Zone. Especially when he saw the tattered armament of the 27th Army at the front. Anan was relieved.

In the opinion of Lieutenant General Anan. The will to fight of the government army in China was undoubted, far more bloody than what he knew and saw in North China, and when he was in North China, he could command an infantry wing to easily defeat a division of the China army, and every time he went into battle, the Imperial Army was attacking. The people of China were just forced to defend. It's good to be able to win. It doesn't matter if you can't beat it today, if you can't beat it today, there will be tomorrow, and if you can't beat it tomorrow, there will be the day after tomorrow. No matter how strong the fortifications were, they couldn't last long, so when he was in North China, Lieutenant General Anan looked down on the Chinese army, not only because of the low combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, but more importantly, Lieutenant General Anan believed that the Chinese army had lost the blood that a soldier should have, and it was not worthy of being called a soldier at all.

However, after the battle of Dayun Mountain, Lieutenant General Anan clearly felt that although the combat effectiveness of this Chinese army engaged in the battle with the Imperial Japanese Army was not very strong, and the weapons and equipment were not good, the will to fight was very high, and those Sichuan Yankees, who were not much taller than the Yamato nation, had an invincible momentum in every major battle, so Lieutenant General Anan did not dare to take risks easily, and after the artillery and aviation units were in place, and after strengthening the fire support on the ground and in the air, the troops on the Japanese front line forced the Xinqiang River with the cooperation of the tanks.

Lieutenant General Anan's tactics were successful, although all units in the 9th Theater put up extremely fierce resistance, especially the 102nd Division of the 4th Army against the concentrated attack of the Japanese 3rd and 6th Divisions, and the battle was particularly fierce. After several hours of fierce fighting, the 102nd Division suffered one-third casualties, all heavy weapons were lost, and even the division headquarters was attacked by the Japanese air force, the deputy division commander Li Jiangong was seriously wounded, and the chief of staff Huang Weihua was killed in battle. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th, the Japanese army successfully crossed the river and broke through the first line of positions of the defenders.

The 4th Army moved to the second line positions east and west of Changhu and continued to resist. The Japanese 3rd and 6th Divisions and the Hayabuchi Detachment quickly advanced southward along both sides of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, and the 3rd Division made a detour to the flank of the 4th Army. The Japanese Hirano detachment also took naval ships to advance along the east side of Dongting Lake to land near Qingshan at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River, and coordinated with the main force to attack the defending 99th Army on this side. However, just as the Japanese army was attacking with ground and air forces in an attempt to defeat the Fourth Army and capture the defenders' second line of defense, the 7th Fighter Group of the Northern Air Force, which had been transferred from Zhengzhou Airport in Henan, arrived on the battlefield and launched a siege and slaughter the Japanese air force that was raging on the battlefield.

This air battle did not last long, and it only took more than 10 minutes from the entanglement to the end. The 7th Brigade won the first battle, shooting down 32 newly named Zero fighters of the Japanese army in one fell swoop, and 9 were damaged, while only 22 of the 60 fighters dispatched by the Japanese army escaped back, and the rest were either shot down or wounded and crashed on the way back.

With the air reinforcement of the 7th Brigade, the troops on the front line of the Xinqiang River quickly grasped air supremacy, and finally stabilized the formation, and the Japanese army did not connect two lines of defense in one day. However, the Japanese army's attack during the day still scared the top brass of the Ninth Theater out of a cold sweat, although they felt that they had overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army, but now it seems that the Japanese army's offensive strength is far sharper than they imagined, and if the Northern Air Force did not arrive today, I am afraid that the Fourth Army would not be able to hold the second line of defense at all.

In order to strengthen the defense of the front line of the Xinqiang River, at 10 o'clock in the evening of the 8th, the Ninth Theater Commander's Department issued an urgent order, ordering the 72nd Army to advance westward from the Xiushui and Sandu areas to the vicinity of Tongcheng, and commanding the provisional 54th Division to prepare for counterattack operations in this area; The 20th Army (lacking the provisional 54th Division) was ordered to advance to Wang'anwu and Zhugongqiao, and coordinated with the 58th and 4th Armies to attack the Japanese troops advancing south to the west, so as to strengthen the strength of the main battlefield in northern Hunan.

After receiving the order of the Ninth Theater Commander's Department, Yang Hanyu, commander of the 20th Army of the Sichuan Army, did not dare to slack off, and immediately commanded the army to march from Taoshu Port to Zhugong Bridge, and arrived at the designated position before dusk on the 9th. In order to buy time for the 20th Army, the 58th Army fought fiercely with the Japanese troops in front of it near Gaojiaqiao. Sun Du, commander of the 58th Army, knew that the current position of the 58th Army must hold on no matter what, and buy time for Yang Hanyu's department, otherwise the deployment of the theater commander's department will be in vain, and tens of thousands of troops will be completely plunged into a bitter battle, so he personally went to the front line to supervise the battle.

At the same time, the positions of the 59th, 60th, and 90th Divisions of the 4th Army were also attacked by the Japanese 40th Division. The 3rd and 6th Divisions of the Japanese Army quickly advanced southward, and reached the vicinity of Shipu and Changle Street on the north bank of the Miluo River in the evening; The 6th Division also crossed the river from the whetstone with one part and engaged the 37th Army defending on the south bank in the area of Yanjiapu and Hukou.

At this time, the only troops in the Ninth Theater that were garrisoning on the south bank of the Miluo River were the 95th and 140th Divisions of the 37th Army and the 92nd, 99th, and 197th Divisions of the 99th Army. Xue Yue believed that the main forces of the Japanese army were pinned down on the north bank of the Xinqiang River, so Xue Yue planned to fight the Japanese army on both sides of the Miluo River and counterattack to annihilate the Japanese army.

So the 37th Army (owed to the 60th Division) was ordered to garrison the line from Hukou to Luogong Bridge; The 99th Division of the 99th Army garrisoned the line west of Luogong Bridge and Yingtian to Xiangyin; The 92nd Division advanced north of Sanjie Bridge, occupied positions, and was under the command of the commander of the 37th Army, resolutely blocking the Japanese army; The main force of the 26th Army marched from Liuyang to the vicinity of Jinjing; The 72nd Army was reassigned to Pingjiang and prepared for battle. Subsequently, the Ninth Theater ordered all armies of the 27th Group Army to attack Changle Street, Whetstone, Guiyi, Xinshi and other places on the flank of the Japanese army north of the Miluo River, delaying its southward advance; ordered the 26th Army to advance from Jinjing to the Wengjiang River; The 10th Army in Hengshan and Lukou was ordered to march to the area of Gaoqiao and Jinjing.

Although the battlefield of the Second Battle of Changsha was on the periphery of Changsha, it was concerned about the hearts of everyone, including Lao Jiang. On 9 November, the Military Commission ordered the Ninth Theater to hold on to the existing positions on both sides of the Xiangjiang River and south of the Miluo River, strengthen resistance, maintain the main force on the outer flank, and strive to attack the enemy's flank. The 3rd and 5th Theaters were ordered to take advantage of the situation to attack the enemy in front of them, so as to prepare for the operations in the 9th Theater.

At the same time, the Sixth Theater of Operations actively attacked the Japanese army in Jingzhou and Yichang, and recovered Yichang. In addition to explicitly placing the 10th and 26th armies under the command of the Ninth Theater, the Military Commission also ordered the 79th Army to be transferred from the 6th Theater and the 2nd Army from the Seventh Theater to reinforce the Ninth Theater. (To be continued......)