Judging from the map, Daqingshan is only three kilometers away from Zhennanguan, and it may be a little difficult to walk through the jungle from the mountain, but Wang Haitao believes that with the strength of the 544th Regiment, it should not be a problem to reach Zhennanguan within three to five hours. Therefore, Wang Haitao called the confidential personnel and asked them to send an urgent telegram directly to the 544th Regiment, ordering Tang Weijian, the commander of the 544th Regiment, to immediately lead the officers and men of the regiment to rush to Zhennanguan in the shortest possible time to reinforce the guard brigade on Zhennanguan.

At the same time as giving the order to the 544th Regiment, Wang Haitao telegraphed Tang Yiqun, commander of the 271st Brigade, to urgently transfer the 544th Regiment. Now that Wang Haitao has done everything he can, what will happen to Tangshan Leopard and the officers and soldiers of the two regiments can only depend on themselves. Wang Haitao turned his gaze to the 211th Division again.

Up to now, due to the obstruction of the mountain road and terrain, the 211th Division has not been able to exert its strength, and there has always been only one Li Changwu's 462nd Brigade in the pursuit and battle in front, while the 463rd Brigade and the armored brigade, as well as the self-propelled howitzer and artillery regiments of the 211th Division, are all behind. Li Changwu commanded the 462nd Brigade to bite behind Maruyama Masao's Second Division, and in one day, thousands of Japanese troops had been annihilated.

However, according to the report of the reconnaissance brigade, the main force of Maruyama Masao's 2nd Division had broken through the ambush position set up by the 543rd Regiment at Fengwei Mountain and forced its way through Fengwei Mountain. Fengwei Mountain is only six kilometers away from Zhennanguan, and judging from the marching speed of the Japanese army, the main force of the Second Division will reach Zhennanguan in two to three hours at most. As soon as the main force of the Second Division arrives at Zhennan Pass, it is bound to immediately plunge into the attack on Zhennan Pass.

Tangshan Leopards faced the Japanese army's two-sided attack, and they were already fighting very hard, but now the second division, which has stronger combat effectiveness, is bound to be difficult to stop. Tangshan Leopards: Their best choice should be to withdraw from Zhennanguan before the main force of the Japanese Second Division is put into attack. Wang Haitao couldn't help but get up and spun around the room. Now Wang Haitao feels that he has sent the guard brigade out like this, which seems to be a bit hasty.

Just when Wang Haitao was walking around the room, Su Zuxin walked in, looking at Wang Haitao's appearance, he couldn't help but say: "Junzao, what's wrong with you?" Wang Haitao's impression of Su Zuxin has always been calm, calm, planning and then acting, everything is confident, many times Su Zuxin forgets that Wang Haitao is just a young man in his early thirties. Wang Haitao looked so uncertain as he was today, and it was the first time Su Zuxin had seen it.

When Wang Haitao heard Su Zuxin's question, he stopped and said to Su Zuxin: "Chief of Staff Su, you said that I sent out the guard brigade, is it a bit hasty? Now their two regiments have to face tens of thousands of Japanese troops on both sides!" After hearing this, Su Zuxin's face was solemn, and he thought for a while and said: "The guard brigade has only two regiments and more than 5,000 people on Zhennan Pass, and it is difficult to have a chance of victory in the face of tens of thousands of Japanese troops.

Wang Haitao sighed and said: "I also want them to withdraw, but the stubborn temper of Tangshan Leopard must be guarded by Zhennanguan." I have already sent the 544th Regiment to reinforce Zhennanguan from Daqingshan at once, but I am afraid that the distant water will not be able to save the near fire! No, I have to send another telegram to Tangshan Leopard, strictly ordering him to withdraw from Zhennanguan immediately. After speaking, Wang Haitao shouted loudly to the confidential officer.

Soon after Wang Haitao's telegram to Tangshan Leopard was sent, Tangshan Leopard's reply arrived. In the reply, Tangshan Leopard once again refused to give up Zhennan Pass, and said several reasons, one is to give up Zhennan Pass now, the main force of the Japanese army will easily withdraw to Vietnam, and can occupy Zhennan Pass to block our troops, if you want to capture Zhennan Pass again, you will definitely pay a heavier price.

Second, the Japanese attack will be greatly weakened at night, and now their two regiments can still cope with the Japanese attack, and after the 544th Regiment arrives, the three regiments will not have much problem holding the Zhennan Pass until dawn tomorrow. I hope that Wang Haitao can command the troops to fight the main force of the Japanese army as much as possible in this night, and after dawn tomorrow, if the Japanese army cannot be stopped, he will let go of the city gate and let the Japanese army pass, but he will not give up even if he fights to the last man after closing the tower and the city wall.

After reading Tangshan Leopard's reply, Wang Haitao silently handed the telegram to Su Zuxin. Su Zuxin read the telegram at a glance and said to Wang Haitao: "Military seat, what Brigade Commander Tangshan Leopard said is also reasonable, we might as well believe him?" Wang Haitao was silent for a while and nodded. Later, Wang Haitao called confidential personnel to send a telegram to the 211th Division and the armored brigade, ordering the 211th Division to launch an attack on the main force of the Japanese Second Division tonight and eliminate the Japanese army's living forces as much as possible.

The telegram to the armored brigade was to order Wu Jianzhou to overcome the difficulties, drive the tanks and armored vehicles to the Zhennan Pass, cooperate with the 211th Division, and strike a severe blow at the Japanese army. Tang Longzai and Wu Jianzhou received the telegram respectively and immediately made arrangements for Wang Haitao's order. The 463rd Brigade of the 211th Division increased its speed and caught up with the 462nd Brigade, and then the two brigades marched in unison and pursued the main force of the Japanese 2nd Division. The armored brigade also sent a regiment of heavy armored vehicles to take the lead, overcoming the difficulties of driving at night, and rushed to Zhennan Pass.

On the south pass of Zhennan, the 2nd Guard Regiment was relatively relaxed in the face of the attack of the 56th Infantry Brigade, and the number of people who attacked the 56th Infantry Brigade was quite large, but there was not much artillery, and their mountain artillery brigade was basically destroyed by the 18 captured mountain guns on the north side of the city wall in the afternoon attack.

The 2nd Regiment had replaced its light and heavy machine guns with Japanese-style heavy machine guns and "crooked" machine guns. These Japanese machine guns cannot be compared with the original new machine guns in terms of continuity of firepower and lethality, but fortunately, there are quite a few of them, and they can be used alternately, and they can still maintain the blockade and suppression of the attacking Japanese army. After dark, the Japanese army went against the norm, but strengthened the attack, several times the Japanese army approached the city gate in the dark, but was still discovered by the soldiers of the second regiment, and used grenades and bullets to blow up the Japanese army.

In the direction of Vietnam, the Japanese army's 38-year-old 150-caliber howitzers and artillery constantly hit the wall of Guanlou, and the Guanlou was already full of holes by the shells, and the three regiments on the Guanlou were bombarded by the Japanese artillery, and repelled the Japanese attacks again and again. The Japanese army wanted to attack the city gate with chariots, but the chariots that came up became huge torches under the blow of the bazooka.

After losing six chariots in a company, the Japanese no longer dared to attack the city with chariots easily, but let the infantry attack again and again under the cover of artillery. The officers and men of the Third Regiment suffered considerable casualties under the bombardment of Japanese artillery, and after dark, the number of officers and men of the Third Regiment who could still take part in the battle was less than 1,500.

After dark, the accuracy of the Japanese artillery was much worse, and the shells falling on the Guanlou and the city wall were also much less, and the soldiers of the third regiment breathed a sigh of relief. After the 2nd Regiment used Japanese-style machine guns, the 2nd Regiment's machine guns and ammunition were basically transferred to the 3rd Regiment. However, less than two hours after dark, Lieutenant General Maruyama Masao led the main force of the 2nd Division to Zhennan Pass.

At this time, the Second Division still had a semi-corps of troops, plus the engineer wing, the baggage corps, the mountain artillery corps, etc., the total strength was still about 16,000 men, and the 56th Infantry Brigade was mixed, and after losing part of its strength, in addition to the two infantry brigades that attacked Zhennanguan in the early stage, there was still one and a half infantry brigades. Lieutenant General Maruyama Masao saw that the terrain in front of Zhennan Pass was narrow and that it was meaningless for so many troops to block here, so he ordered the remaining one and a half infantry brigades of the 56th Infantry Brigade to turn around and choose the ground to block the pursuing Chinese troops.

The mountain artillery wing of the 2nd Division set up mountain artillery and opened fire on the wall of Guanlou in the south of Zhennan to cover the infantry attack on Guanlou. With the cover of dozens of mountain artillery, the morale of the Japanese troops besieging the city was greatly boosted, and the second division sent a supervision team to form two infantry brigades of the 56th Infantry Brigade to launch wave after wave of attacks on Guanlou.

The sudden shelling of dozens of Japanese mountain guns made the unprepared officers and men of the Second Regiment on the wall of Guanlou suffer a loss, but fortunately, in the dark of night, the accuracy of the Japanese artillery fire was not high, and only a dozen soldiers were killed or wounded in the initial shelling. After preparation, the lethality of Japanese shells was even worse. However, the machine gun on the castle tower fired at the gate, and the fire from the machine mouth revealed the location of the firing point.

The Japanese army used mountain artillery and small artillery to target the various machine gun fire points, and the fire of more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns on the city tower was blown up at once, and the soldiers also suffered dozens of casualties. Without the blockage of machine-gun fire, the Japanese army frantically rushed to the gate under the gate.

The soldiers of the second regiment on the upper floor of the gate kept throwing grenades and bullets into the city, and in the explosion of grenades and bullets, the Japanese army still piled up the * bag in the hole of the city gate. A loud bang came from the city gate hole, and even Guan Lou trembled. Li Li didn't need to look to know that the city gate must have been blown open by the Japanese army. However, the second regiment had already prepared, and no matter how fierce the battle was on the city tower, Li Li left two companies of the third battalion and one company of the heavy firepower battalion here at the city gate, in case the Japanese army would blow up the city gate.

Behind the city gate, the sandbag fortifications more than one person high blocked the hole of the city gate tightly, and in the shooting holes opened on the sandbag fortifications, the muzzles of black holes stretched out, and there were four Type 56 light machine guns retained by the heavy fire battalion. The inside of the city gate was darker than the outside, and after the city gate was blown up, the Japanese army could not wait for the smoke to dissipate, so they rushed into the city gate hole with cheers.

But not long after rushing in, after the sandbag fortifications in the city gate hole, four light machine guns began to roar, and the bullets wantonly devoured the lives of Japanese soldiers in the narrow city gate hole. The Japanese soldiers in front fell, and the ones behind hurriedly wanted to exit the city gate hole, but their movements were far less fast than the machine gun bullets, and after a while, the city entrance hole was full of Japanese corpses, and at the same time, the thick smell of blood in the city gate hole also diffused.