The battle in Qiaobei had not yet completely ended, and Zhang Lingfu in Dong'an Town had already received a telegram from Zhao Fei, the commander of the 555th Regiment. The 545th Regiment first used heavy grenades and artillery to bombard the Japanese positions in Jiangbei, and then used heavy tanks to wade through the water. Behind the heavy tank, dozens of rafts used the heavy tank as cover and began to force the crossing at the same time.

There was only one infantry squadron of more than 200 men stationed on the Japanese position in Jiangbei, and more than half of the heavy howitzers and artillery had already suffered casualties, and when they encountered heavy tanks that could not even be beaten by mortars, they waded into the water, so how could they still have the ability to defend them? When the heavy tanks rushed up the north bank along the gentle river beach, the remnants of the Japanese troops on the position could only retreat in a hurry, and Zhao Fei was busy fearing the beachhead and did not let the troops chase after the fleeing Japanese troops.

Half an hour later, the battle in the north of the bridge was over, and only a hundred soldiers of the Japanese infantry brigade and a tank squadron fled to Yongzhou City under the leadership of the captain Gao Mingji Zhongzuo, and the rest were killed in the position, and all eight chariots were destroyed. Zhang Lingfu ordered the 546th Regiment to leave one battalion to clean the battlefield and guard the highway bridge, and the rest of the troops rushed to join the 545th Regiment with the 547th Regiment.

After the order was issued, Zhang Lingfu personally sent a telegram to the division headquarters. As soon as Tang Yikuan settled the division headquarters, he received a telegram from Zhang Lingfu, Tang Yikuan read the telegram in one breath, and said to the people around him with a smile: "This Zhang Lingfu is really not simple, he is worthy of being a person valued by the commander, the first merit of the battle of crossing the river was taken by the 272nd Brigade, and now Tang Yiqun should be in a hurry." ”

Tang Yikuan had the intention to let Zhang Lingfu move to Yongzhou City first, but he was afraid that only one 272nd Brigade would be alone, so he ordered Zhang Lingfu to lead his troops to move from Jiangbei to the direction of the railway bridge, and strive to give the Japanese army north of the railway bridge behind him. At the same time, he also sent a telegram to Tang Yiqun, informing him that the 272nd Brigade had successfully seized the highway bridge, and that the whole brigade had crossed the river and was moving in the direction of the railway bridge.

When Tang Yiqun received the telegram, the 542nd and 543rd Regiments had just been deployed south of the railway bridge, and the 544th Regiment had just arrived south of Jiangwan, which was about to be attacked. Tang Yikuan's telegram made Tang Yiqun unable to sit still, the 271st Brigade of the 90th Division was about to press the 272nd Brigade, Tang Yiqun has always thought that the 271st Brigade is the first brigade of the whole army, and now the 272nd Brigade has taken away the first merit of the battle of crossing the river, which makes Tang Yiqun's face hot.

Now the 272nd Brigade is rushing to the north of the railway bridge, if the 272nd Brigade arrives, it has not been able to take the railway bridge, then it will have no face to consider itself the first brigade of the whole army. So Tang Yiqun immediately ordered the heavy artillery regiment to concentrate fire on the Japanese position north of the bridge, and the 542nd Regiment immediately launched a surprise attack on the Japanese position north of the bridge under the cover of light tanks and heavy armored vehicles, and must take the Japanese position in the shortest possible time.

At this time, among the officers and men of the 542nd Regiment and the 543rd Regiment, the 272nd Brigade's meritorious service was already circulating, which also made the officers and men of the two regiments, who thought highly of themselves, extremely uncomfortable. Liu Yunfei, commander of the 542nd Regiment, yelled at He Dazhuang, the commander of the 1st Battalion, who was about to launch an assault: "Battalion Commander He, I want you to take your troops to attack the Japanese position as soon as possible, otherwise I will remove you from the post of battalion commander, understand?"

He Dazhuang also glared and shouted: "The first battalion guarantees the completion of the task!" After speaking, he led the officers and soldiers of the first battalion to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese position north of the bridge under the cover of four light tanks and six heavy armored vehicles. The bombardment of the heavy artillery regiment had not stopped, but the Japanese positions near the southern end of the bridge were basically not bombed. There are three bunkers arranged in the shape of "Pin" on the Japanese position at the south end of the bridge, in addition to barbed wire and triangular horses in front of the position, and there are trenches behind the barbed wire.

When the tanks advanced to the center of the bridge, the Japanese troops on the position began to shoot, and the bullets fired from the heavy machine guns in the bunker rained down on the officers and men of the attacking battalion, but fortunately, most of them were blocked by tanks and armored vehicles. Tanks and armoured vehicles on the offensive were also not weak, returning fire with vehicle-mounted artillery and vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns as they advanced.

The 20 mm guns on heavy armored vehicles are only powerful and can suppress machine gun fire points in trenches, while the 85 mm smoothbore guns on light tanks are not small enough to cause damage to bunkers. The tanks did not hit accurately during the march, and several rounds of shelling failed to accurately hit the bunker, and the two tanks in the lead simply stopped, aiming at the bunker is a few rounds of shelling.

As soon as the tank stopped, the accuracy was immediately improved, and it took only a few rounds of artillery bombardment to completely destroy the three bunkers, but after stopping, the grenades and shells fired by the Japanese * and grenadiers flew towards the tanks and heavy armored vehicles, and the tanks were not afraid of these shells, but two of the heavy armored vehicles were damaged and were forced to stop.

As soon as the three bunkers were destroyed, the firepower of the Japanese positions suddenly weakened, and at this time, the tanks and armored vehicles restarted and rushed across the railway bridge in one go. In the face of the rejection of horses and barbed wire, the tank crushed it as if nothing was there, and easily opened a passage. The officers and men of the first battalion also suffered casualties in the attack, but with the cover of so many tanks, the casualties were not large.

The chariots had already rushed to the Japanese position, and the officers and men of the first battalion also rushed to the Japanese position behind the chariot, and the remnants of the Japanese troops in the trench and the officers and men of the first battalion rushed up were killed. After the tanks destroyed three Japanese bunkers in a row, Zhao Yunfei had ordered the second and third battalions to charge together, and the first battalion fought with the Japanese in the trench not long after, the second and third battalions also rushed up.

Soon the Japanese troops in the trench were cleared, and the three battalions joined together and killed the Japanese positions in depth together with the tanks. The Japanese troops in the rear of the position were bombarded by the dense artillery fire of the artillery regiment, and they suffered heavy casualties, and now the shelling had just stopped, and before they had time to catch their breath, the Chinese troops were killed under the cover of the chariots. The Japanese troops who responded to the battle in a hurry could not please at all, and fell under the guns of the Chinese army one after another, and even the captain of the Japanese army was killed.

Without their commander, the Japanese army was in disarray, some were still struggling to block the attack, some were desperately moving forward with guns, and some were fleeing backwards after leaving their comrades. The attack of the 542nd Regiment of the Japanese army was even more violent, and soon the Japanese army could not parry, and more soldiers fled backwards. Liu Yunfei divided one battalion to clean up the battlefield, and the other two battalions chased after the fleeing Japanese troops.

Seeing that the 542nd Regiment successfully attacked the Japanese position, and the highway bridge finally fell into his own hands, Tang Yiqun breathed a sigh of relief, and now he could hand over to Tang Yikuan, the 271st Brigade was still the first brigade of the whole army. Tang Yikuan saw that the two bridges were taken intact, and excitedly sent a telegram directly to Wang Haitao, in which he reported the situation to Wang Haitao and asked for instructions on the next move.

When this telegram was delivered to Wang Haitao by the confidential officer, Wang Haitao had only settled down in Lingling County. According to Wang Haitao's idea, since the Japanese army is prepared in Jiangbei, there must be a fierce battle when crossing the river, and if the 90th Division is really unable to attack, then it will have to use the heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade to help. However, he did not expect that the 90th Division would cross the Xiangjiang River so quickly and at a very small cost, and what made him even happier was that the two bridges were captured intact.

The capture of these two bridges will bring great convenience to the crossing of the river by their troops, and heavy weapons can directly cross the river from the two bridges, without having to build pontoon bridges with labor, which will save a lot of time. But why was the Jiangbei defense line carefully arranged by the Japanese army so vulnerable? Yongzhou was garrisoned by the 13th Division of the Japanese Army.

After thinking about it carefully, Wang Haitao figured out that the current 13th Division is far inferior to the combat effectiveness of the 13th Division when the war first began, and every time the Japanese army adds a division, it has to draw some troops from these old A divisions, plus after several years of war, the Japanese army has lost too many veterans on the battlefield, how can the combat effectiveness of the recruits of the 13th Division be so strong now?

After figuring this out, Wang Haitao's confidence was greatly increased, and he immediately ordered the 90th Division to be on standby after assembling in Jiangbei, and ordered the 210th Division and the armored brigade to cross the river from the highway bridge, and the 211th Division and the heavy artillery brigade to cross the river from the railway bridge. As soon as the order was transmitted, the various units immediately went into action, first the 210th Division and the Armored Brigade moved towards Dong'an Town, and then the 211th Division and the Heavy Artillery Brigade also began to move towards the railway bridge.

The Chinese army quickly broke through the defense line on the Xiangjiang River, making the commander of the Japanese 13th Division in Yongzhou City, Lieutenant General Chiluli, restless. He had already sent a brigade of troops to garrison the Jiangbei defensive line, but he could not stop even a day's attack by the Chinese army, and he also lost nearly half of his troops. Can such a strong Chinese army be able to stop it with the small city of Yongzhou?

Seeing Lieutenant General Chiluli's worried look, the chief of staff, Ichikawa Yongji Daisa, couldn't help but say: "Your Excellency the division commander, the number of the Chinese army is large and the combat effectiveness is extremely strong, my army is afraid that it will be difficult to hold Yongzhou City, according to the opinion of the subordinates, it is better to ask the commander for help." Lieutenant General Chiluli thought for a moment and said: "The three divisions of my Eleventh Army are all assembling in Hengyang, and Your Excellency the Commander wants to set up a huge encirclement in Hengyang to encircle this hateful 90th Army in one fell swoop. The commander would not allow this. ”

Ichikawa Yongji Dasa said: "The subordinates also know the battle plan of the military headquarters, and the task of our division is to delay the Chinese army as much as possible and buy time for the military headquarters to implement the plan in Hengyang. However, the subordinates are worried that our division has too few troops, and it is difficult to complete the tasks assigned by His Excellency the commander, and if Yongzhou City is quickly captured by the Chinese army, the battle plan of the headquarters will definitely be affected. ”

After pondering for a long time, Lieutenant General Chilu Li said, "It's okay, I'll send a telegram to His Excellency the Commander to tell him about our situation, so that His Excellency the Commander can be prepared." After saying that, he called the telegraph operator and dictated a telegram in which he exaggerated the strength and combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, and then asked the commander, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, to give him some support.