Tang Yiqun only said two words and stopped, and several people in front of the map stared at Tang Yiqun, but Tang Yiqun didn't follow. Tang Yikuan opened his mouth and said: "Yiqun, what you said is indeed a way, so how do you plan to allocate troops and choose a place to cross the river?" Tang Yiqun replied: "Master, judging from the map, there are at least three places on this section of the river that can be strengthened, which are this, this, and this. However, I think the choice of the specific location is still to be determined by going to the site to inspect it. ”

Tang Yiqun said while pointing to the map, attracting everyone's attention back to the map. This section of the Xiangjiang River has many "several" shaped bays in its meanderings, and the few places pointed out by Tang Yiqun are all on the "several" bays. These "several" bays are all open to the south and the top to the north, although the river surface of this section of Hengtou is wide, but the water flow is gentle, and the river beach to the north is gentle, it is indeed a good place to force crossing.

Tang Yiqun said this, everyone also agreed with his idea, Tang Yikuan said: "Yiqun's method is feasible, but we still have to look at the results of the reconnaissance before we can make a battle plan, so that tomorrow, the task of reconnoitring the situation on the river and the Japanese defense line in Jiangbei will be handed over to the reconnaissance group of Changqing, and the rest of the troops will not move for the time being, but we must make all preparations for the strength of the Xiangjiang River." ”

After the meeting, Li Changqing's reconnaissance regiment sent dozens of reconnaissance groups to move to the Xiangjiang River overnight to carry out reconnaissance tasks, and the rest of the troops began preparations for forcibly crossing the Xiangjiang River early the next morning. One of the busiest was the engineer battalion in the baggage regiment. The number of engineers in Wang Haitao's troops was relatively small, and only each army had a special engineer regiment, while the rest of the engineering units in the establishment were subordinate to the baggage troops.

It's not that Wang Haitao doesn't attach importance to the engineering arm, it's just that most of the previous battles were defensive battles, and when building fortifications, all officers and soldiers worked together. As far as the construction of fortifications is concerned, every soldier is a qualified engineer, but for special work such as crossing rivers and opening roads, special engineering units are still used, so there are special engineering units, but the establishment is not large.

Now that he wants to cross the Xiangjiang River by force, Wang Haitao does not have a special rubber boat like the Japanese army, and the raft used to cross the river still has to be made by engineers. Fortunately, there was no shortage of trees near the station, and Huan felled the trees with the help of other troops, but the speed of making rafts was not slow. The engineering units were rushing to make rafts, and other units were also preparing.

The 90th Division is basically composed of Guangxi soldiers, and very few of these soldiers cannot swim, and more than half of the soldiers are quite good at water. Although it is October, the temperature at noon is still not low, and the swimming water will not be frozen. However, the waterproof protection of weapons and ammunition still needs to be done. Most of the preparatory work is also done in this regard.

In the evening, the reconnaissance group of the reconnaissance regiment returned to the garrison one after another, and a mixed armored regiment and a heavy artillery regiment sent by Wang Haitao to assist also rushed to the station of the 90th Division. Speaking of which, the heavy artillery regiment of the 90th Division is the strongest among several divisions, with not only 48 82-caliber howitzers and shells, but also 24 German-made 150-caliber howitzers and shells. This time, in order to strengthen the cover artillery fire when forcibly crossing the Xiangjiang River, Wang Haitao sent the 122 grenade and artillery regiment directly under the heavy artillery brigade.

In the evening, a battle meeting was held for officers at and above the regimental level of the division, and at the beginning of the meeting, Li Changqing reported on the reconnaissance regiment's reconnaissance situation today. Li Changqing stood up, saluted everyone, and then began to report on today's reconnaissance situation. First of all, he reported on the situation on the water surface of the Xiangjiang River, and he said: "At present, the water depth of the Xiangjiang River is basically about 1.5 meters, and the water flow is gentle, so it can be forcibly crossed.

In particular, there are two zigzag-shaped bays, and the water depth is only 1.2 meters, and heavy tanks can wade through the water. In addition, there are two bridges on this section of the Xiangjiang River, one is a concrete highway bridge located in Dong'an Town, which is heavily defended by Japanese troops, and a large number of explosives and ammunition are placed under the bridge. The other is an all-steel railway bridge located in Lingling County, which is also heavily defended by the Japanese army.

The Japanese defense line on the north bank of the Xiangjiang River was garrisoned by the troops of two Japanese infantry wings, and on the north side of the highway bridge, there was a Japanese infantry brigade, a mountain artillery squadron and a tank squadron stationed there. On the north side of the railway bridge, two Japanese infantry brigades and a mountain artillery squadron were stationed. The rest of the troops were evenly deployed along the north bank of the Xiangjiang River, and only one squadron of Japanese troops was stationed in Jiangbei in the two "several" bays suitable for forcible crossing. ”

As soon as Li Changqing finished talking about the situation after the reconnaissance, there was a lot of discussion among the officers below. Tang Yikuan listened to it for a while, and the voices in the discussion were basically excited. It is not surprising that after several years of fighting, these officers are extremely confident, and the strength of a regiment dares to fight head-on with two infantry brigades of the Japanese army. At present, there are only two infantry wings on the entire Jiangbei defense line of the Japanese army, but there are only more than 15,000 troops, and the six main regiments of the 90th Division have 16,000 or 7,000 men, and the Japanese defense line is dozens of kilometers long, and the troops in every place are insufficient.

Tang Yikuan said at this time: "Okay, let's be quiet." After the meeting was quiet, he continued: "Just now, Regiment Commander Li has already told me about the information obtained by the reconnaissance group, and I have listened to some of everyone's discussions, and I think the focus of our battle across the river can be placed on the two bridges and two river bays. The most important thing is the railway bridge, do you have any opinion on this?"

Seeing that no one objected, Tang Yikuan said: "Okay, no one will object to me and I will assign the task, first of all, the railway bridge is the top priority, only by seizing the railway bridge intact, our follow-up heavy weapons can quickly and smoothly cross the Xiangjiang River, this important task I am ready to hand over to the 271st Brigade to complete, and at the same time, the 271st Brigade will also take on the task of forcibly crossing a river." Tang Yiqun, can your brigade complete the task?"

Tang Yiqun stood up and said: "Division, I want the cover of heavy artillery and heavy tanks, as long as you give our brigade these heavy weapons for cover, I will be willing to be dealt with by military law if I can't complete the task." Tang Yikuan nodded and said, "Naturally, I want to give you these heavy weapons." I will give you command of a heavy artillery regiment and a mixed armored regiment reinforced by the commander, but if you can't complete the task, don't blame the ruthlessness of military law. ”

After Tang Yiqun sat down, Tang Yikuan nodded again: "Brigadier Zhang Lingfu." Zhang Lingfu replied: "Here!" Tang Yikuan looked at him and said: "Brigade Commander Zhang, I will hand over the task of capturing the highway bridge and another Jiangwan forcible crossing to your 272nd Brigade, and the highway bridge is also very important, it is best to take it intact." I also hand over the heavy artillery regiment and mixed armored battalion under your command, can you complete the task?"

Zhang Lingfu replied after standing upright: "Rest assured, if the 272nd Brigade fails to complete the task, I, Zhang Lingfu, will also be willing to be dealt with by military law." Tang Yikuan shouted "Hello!" and then said: "Tomorrow's battle is a crucial battle for our army to attack the Japanese army in Hunan, and as long as the river crossing is successful, Yongzhou City will be in no danger to defend, and it will definitely be able to go down with a drum." This will play an important role in the decisive battle between our army and the 11th Army, and I hope that all of you present here in tomorrow's battle will go all out and strive to succeed in one fell swoop. After taking Yongzhou City, I will celebrate your achievements in Yongzhou City. ”

As soon as the meeting ended, after the various departments went back, there was another meeting arrangement and preparation, not to mention anything else, just say that Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 272nd Brigade, has always wanted to make a great contribution to Wang Haitao since Zhang Lingfu expressed his sincerity to Wang Haitao in Longzhou, but the 272nd Brigade in the 90th Division has always been pressed by the 271st Brigade, the 271st Brigade is the unit that Wang Haitao started, and most of the officers are old men who followed Wang Haitao in Menghu Mountain, and Zhang Lingfu also understands that he is in love when he presses the 272nd Brigade, but this does not mean that Zhang Lingfu has no ideas.

Zhang Lingfu was born in the fourth class of the Whampoa Military Academy, and he had been serving in the first division of the old Chiang Yan's army, and he had been promoted to colonel in 1933. In this way, if Wang Haitao had not appeared, let him join Wang Haitao's 90th Division in the Battle of Songhu, and he would have repeatedly made miraculous achievements in the later War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and became the commander of the 74th Division, the head of the five main forces of the National Army.

In the 90th Division, Zhang Lingfu was also valued by Wang Haitao for his ability to lead troops, train troops, and fight tough battles, and was entrusted with the important task of commander of the 272nd Brigade. Zhang Lingfu did not have many opportunities to go to war, and now that he has such an opportunity, how can he not be taken seriously and excited? Zhang Lingfu returned to the brigade headquarters and immediately held a meeting, and several regiment commanders who had returned together, as well as the commanders of the division's heavy artillery regiments, the commanders of the mixed armored battalions, and the commanders of the engineer battalions of the baggage regiments were all invited by him.

Before the meeting, Zhang Lingfu had already thought of a plan for the war, and after the meeting, he directly announced the plan for the war. The task of attacking the highway bridge was entrusted to the 546th and 547th Regiments, which were personally under their own command, and at the same time, the guard battalion and reconnaissance battalion directly under the brigade took part in the battle to seize the highway bridge. Covering were two 82-caliber howitzer and artillery battalions of the division's heavy artillery regiment and a light tank company and a heavy armored vehicle company in the mixed armored battalion.

The battle to force the crossing of Jiangwan was carried out by the 545th Regiment, covered by the 150 heavy howitzer and artillery battalions of the division's heavy artillery regiment and brigade artillery, and the heavy tank company of the mixed armored battalion was also handed over to the regiment commander Zhao Fei. Zhang Lingfu fully took into account the actual combat capabilities of each regiment and believed that this plan was the most feasible plan. As soon as the battle plan was announced, everyone had no opinion.

In the end, Zhang Lingfu said: "Tomorrow's attack must be fierce and make the Japanese army unable to parry, and second, it must be fast, so that the Japanese army will not have time to blow up the bridge." Here, it is necessary to rely on the reconnaissance battalion to lurk under the bridge in advance and destroy the explosives and charges set up by the Japanese army on the bridge. I want the highway bridge to fall into my hands intact, and use my two main regiments to deal with an infantry brigade of the Japanese army, if I can't guarantee that the highway bridge will be captured intact, it will be a failure. Let's go our separate ways and prepare. ”

At the end of the meeting, Zhang Lingfu left Tang Shi, commander of the guard battalion, Chen Yong, commander of the reconnaissance battalion, and Su Zonghao, commander of the Jin Zige Engineer Battalion, commander of the armored battalion, to study specific methods of warfare. Among them, how to destroy the explosives and ammunition set up by the Japanese army on the highway bridge was the key issue to be discussed. After discussing for a long time, the method of diving from upstream to approach the bridge was unanimously agreed.