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In the Battle of Tongling, Wang Haitao's first step was to take Fanchang County and cut off the connection between Wuhu and Tongling. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Therefore, Qi Daozheng, deputy commander of the 171st Division, led the 1st 511th Brigade and the 1st Regiment of the 512th Brigade to Fanchang County with the 569th Regiment, and they were accompanied by the mountain artillery battalion of the Heavy Artillery Regiment and a combat vehicle detachment composed of two light tanks and four armored vehicles.

The 171st Division had only more than 3,000 officers and men, and with the addition of more than 1,000 men from the 569th Regiment, there were only 5,000 men in total. But the 171st Division is all veterans of a hundred battles, and the officers of the 569th Regiment are also old men when Wang Haitao started. The combat effectiveness of these 5,000 people is very strong, and it should not be much of a problem to deal with a squadron of Japanese troops and two battalions of puppet troops in Fanchang County, not to mention that there are mountain artillery battalions and tank detachments to help in the battle.

The team left early in the morning and took four hours to reach the outside of Fanchang City through Jiazhen. Dozens of mountain artillery guns of the mountain artillery battalion set up artillery positions two kilometers from the city, which were defended by a tank detachment and an infantry company of the 171st Division. The rest of the troops advanced to 500 meters outside the east gate of the county town and built improvised fortifications.

Since the Japanese army invaded China, it was basically the Japanese army attacking the city and the squadron defending the city, so it was really never possible to blatantly storm the county town with troops in broad daylight. The captain of the Japanese squadron guarding Fanchang County reported to the defenders of Wuhu when the current squadron soldiers approached the city and asked for reinforcements. The supreme commander of the Japanese army in Wuhu City was a wing commander of the 101st Division named Saburo Kawaguchi, and when Saburo Kawaguchi heard that the army dared to openly attack the county seat of Fanchang, he was immediately furious.

Kawaguchi Saburo Dazuo immediately ordered the soldiers to gather, to personally lead the troops to Fanchang County for reinforcements, during the assembly, one of the captains under his command whispered to Kawaguchi Saburo: "Your Excellency Captain, the people of the branch are working cunning and cunning, we will go to reinforce Fanchang County, what if the army comes to attack Wuhu City?" The captain's words made Kawaguchi Saburo hesitate for a while.

The captain said: "Your Excellency, there is a squadron in Fanchang County, and two battalions of the Imperial Army, relying on the city to hold on, the people of the branch are not so easy to capture, I will lead my brigade and a regiment of the Imperial Association Army to support, I will definitely be able to repel those people, and as long as Your Excellency the captain of the company stays here, there is no way for the people." ”

Kawaguchi Saburo Dazuo nodded when he heard this and said: "Yo Xi, your idea is very clever, then you will lead your brigade and a regiment of the Imperial Association Army to support Fanchang County, and go out immediately." The captain replied, "Hey! Then he gathered his own brigade and a regiment of the Imperial Army, and went out of the city to Fanchang County.

Outside Fanchang City, the offensive of the 171st Division had already begun, and on the position were a platoon of mortars of various calibers, while dozens of mountain artillery battalions in the distance had already launched an artillery bombardment on the city wall of Fanchang County. The Japanese troops in the city were also returning fire with four mortars and two Type 92 infantry guns. Compared with the dozens of mountain guns in the mountain artillery battalion, the artillery fire on the head of the city was too weak.

The artillery battle between the two sides lasted only ten minutes, and four Japanese mortars and two Type 92 infantry guns were destroyed, and the Japanese army had no artillery fire to confront the 171st Division. Qi Daozheng, the deputy commander of the 171st Division, saw that the Japanese artillery had been destroyed, so he could only be beaten passively, and slapped the side of the trench excitedly, and said: "Grandma's, every time I am defending against the endless artillery fire of Little Japan, today I finally let Little Japan taste the taste of being bombed and not fighting back! ”

After half an hour of shelling, the firing points on the head of the city were almost destroyed, and Qi Daozheng ordered the light and heavy machine guns and mortars of the whole line to start firing, covering a regiment of the 511th Brigade to charge the city. Receiving the order to charge, the officers and men of the 1st Regiment of the 511th Brigade carried the ladder of the siege and rushed down the city.

As soon as the officers and men of the first regiment rushed up more than 100 meters, several hidden firing points on the head of the city and some Japanese soldiers began to shoot at the city. When it was less than 200 meters away from the city wall, the shooting on the top of the city became more violent, and the dense bullets made more and more soldiers fall.

Tan Heyi, the commander of the regiment who was following the attack in the back, frowned, clenched his palms, and glared angrily at the Japanese troops at the head of the city. Cao Maozong, the commander of the 511th Brigade, saw that the casualties were too great and that the mortars could not effectively strike at the hidden firing points, so he ordered the troops to withdraw first. By the time the regiment withdrew to its position, a third of its officers and men had fallen on the way to the charge.

Deputy Division Commander Qi Daozheng organized a second attack, but they were all beaten back, and the 511th Brigade had already suffered a lot of casualties. Qi Daozheng was also the heart of the attack, and he was about to organize another attack, at this time, Wei Yongshou, the commander of the 569th Regiment, stopped Qi Daozheng. Wei Yongshou said to Qi Daozheng: "Master Qi, you can't attack like this anymore, the casualties of such a hard attack are too great." Let's try it out with regiments and tank detachments. ”

The casualties of the 511 Brigade did make Qi Daozheng heartbroken, and now he agrees with Wei Yongshou when he hears this. After a while, two light tanks and four armored vehicles rushed up, and the combat vehicles directly crossed the position of the 171st Division and rushed towards the city wall.

Two tanks took the lead, followed by four armored vehicles, and the bullets fired by the Japanese clanged on the tanks, and the on-board guns on the tanks immediately fired at the firing points on the city. The light tank was equipped with an 85 mm caliber gun, as well as two heavy machine guns and a 12.5 caliber high-level dual-purpose machine gun, which was less powerful than the heavy tank, but it was good for this era.

After the vehicle-mounted artillery easily knocked out the remaining firepower points on the city, it opened the gate of Fanchang County with two consecutive artillery shells, and the heavy machine guns on the tanks were like two anti-aircraft machine guns after the flat fire, and the dense firepower made the few remaining Japanese troops in the city unable to even raise their heads. The armored car, on the other hand, took advantage of its mobility and rushed towards the blasted city gate at full speed.

Some Japanese troops wanted to block the armored vehicles here at the city gate, but the German-made heavy machine guns on the armored vehicles were fully fired, and the Japanese troops could not get close to the armored vehicles at all, and when the armored vehicles broke through the city gates, the soldiers of the 569th Regiment who followed the armored bodies also took advantage of the situation to rush into Fanchang County. At this time, the Japanese army in Fanchang County was already gone, and it was only a matter of time before Fanchang County was captured.

The attack of the chariot detachment and the 569th Regiment was like a cloud of water, which made the officers and men of the 171st Division sweep away the gloomy atmosphere of several failed attacks. In Qi Daozheng's eyes, this kind of attack is what he has always dreamed of, but it is a pity that his troops do not have tanks at all, and they cannot fight such cooperation.

The 569th Regiment had already entered the city, and Qi Daozheng was about to order a general attack, when a scout came to report that five kilometers north of Fanchang County, there were a large number of Japanese troops, which should be reinforcements from Wuhu, and the strength was a Japanese brigade and a regiment of the Imperial Cooperative Army. Qi Daozheng, who had already prepared for this, had already sent a battalion of the 512th Brigade to set up a position in Dong Village, north of Fanchang County, in order to prevent reinforcements from the Japanese army from Wuhu.

At this time, I heard that so many Japanese puppet troops were coming, and I was afraid that a battalion of the 512th Brigade would not be able to withstand the attack of the Japanese army, so I immediately ordered the 1st Regiment of the 512th Brigade to rush to Dongcun for reinforcements, and at the same time asked the mountain artillery battalion to provide fire support. The 511th Brigade entered the city to support the 569th Regiment, cleared the enemy in the city as soon as possible, and occupied Fanchang County.

Even if the 511th Brigade did not attack and support, the 569th Regiment could completely destroy the remnants of the enemy, and the 511th Brigade entered the city to speed up the process of clearing out the remnants of the enemy, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the battle in Fanchang County was over, and a squadron of the Japanese army defending the city was completely annihilated, and a small half of the two battalions of the Imperial Association Army were killed, and the rest surrendered. The Japanese puppet army that came to reinforce after launching a second attack on the Dongcun position, saw that Fanchang County had been lost, so they retreated to Wuhu in disgrace.

After Qi Daozheng captured Fanchang County, he immediately reported to Wang Haitao and Yang Junchang in Nanling County. After receiving the good news, Wang Haitao telegraphed back to encourage the officers and men of the 171st Division, and asked the 171st Division to be stationed in Fanchang County to guard against the Japanese troops in Wuhu. The 569th Regiment and the chariot detachment will march to Tongling early tomorrow morning and cooperate with the large army to attack Tongling City. When the telegram came out, Wang Haitao informed his subordinates to prepare and march to Tongling City early tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, Wang Haitao personally led the troops participating in the attack to Tongling City, leaving only Yang Junchang and a regiment of the 512th Brigade in Nanling County. The journey from Nanling County to Tongling City was more than 50 kilometers, and Wang Haitao and his men came out before dawn, until noon, all the men and horses rushed to Tongling City.

The German-made 150 Heavy Artillery Battalion did not go any further when it reached Shun'an Town, 10 kilometers away from Tongling City, and built an artillery position on the spot. As soon as Wang Haitao came to the outside of Tongling City, a reconnaissance team of the reconnaissance group found Wang Haitao. Originally, there was a Bijia Mountain three kilometers southeast of Tongling City, which was the closest mountain to Tongling City, and the highest peak was 320 meters high. Standing on the top of the mountain, you can see the whole picture of Tongling City.

The Japanese sent a squadron to occupy the hill and built an artillery position on the hill with eight mountain guns. If this Beacon Hill is not captured first, then the besieging troops will definitely suffer losses under the blows of the Japanese artillery on Beacon Hill. Therefore, the reconnaissance team suggested that Wang Haitao must capture this mountain first, and if this mountain is captured, then Tongling City will not be difficult to conquer.

After Wang Haitao looked at the map of Beacon Hill brought by the reconnaissance team, he found that Beacon Hill is now a mountain with three peaks connected together, the highest peak is the middle peak, and the peak closest to Tongling City is only the second peak, and the Japanese army has set up a position on this peak. After carefully looking at the terrain, Wang Haitao already knew how to take Beacon Hill, and after thinking about it for a while, Wang Haitao decided to hand over the task of attacking Beacon Hill to the first battalion of the guard regiment to complete.