Major General Nakayama took the telegram with a puzzled face and read it, the telegram was not long, and Major General Nakayama finished reading the telegram in a few minutes. Then he thought for a while and said to Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama: "Your Excellency Commander, you may have alarmed a tiger this time!" Major General Sadatake Nakayama, who said this, saw Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama looking at him with questions, and then said: "I don't know if Your Excellency the Commander has heard of the 90th Army in China?"

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama was stunned for a moment and then replied: "Is Nakayama-kun talking about the 90th Army, which is known as the First Army of China and the nemesis of the Imperial Army?" Seeing that Major General Nakayama Sadatake nodded, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama said again: "How could I not have heard of this branch of the army? Since the Battle of Songhu, this army has been constantly causing trouble for our Imperial Japanese Army, and their hands are stained with the blood of the warriors of our Imperial Japanese Army, and I have always wanted to fight with this army to let them understand that our Imperial Japanese Army is invincible!"

Major General Nakayama Sadatake took over and said, "Your Excellency, you should be able to get your wish this time. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama was stunned again and said, "What does Nakayama-kun mean is that the 116th Division was defeated by the hands of the 90th Army?" Major General Nakayama Sadatake nodded, stood up and walked to the huge map of China hanging in the office, and grabbed the baton.

Major General Zhongshan Zhenwu pointed to the location of Longzhou City on the map with his baton and said: "Your Excellency Commander, as far as I know, Longzhou City here is the base camp of the Ninety Army, and the high-ranking officers in the Ninetieth Army are all from the Gui army. If the 90th Army had entered the war, it would have been difficult to resist their attack with a 116th Division and a Kono mixed brigade, and now Takeuchi-kun's telegram for help also confirmed that the 90th Army of this branch had joined the war. ”

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama stared at the map for a long time before asking: "Zhongshan-kun, this Longzhou city borders Indochina in the south, and there is the danger of Qinzhou City in the east, aren't they afraid that they will lose Longzhou City after sending troops?" Major General Nakayama replied: "Doesn't the commander know that the 16th Army of the Southern Army stationed in Indochina has suffered a great loss at their hands? It is said that even Hanoi fell for a time. The Qinzhou Fangwen 90th Army will definitely take precautions, and the number of imperial troops there is not large, and it is difficult to pose a real threat to it. ”

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama pondered for a moment and asked, "Nakayama-kun, how should we act now, in your opinion?" Do you want to give up the task of opening up Indochina?" Major General Nakayama replied: "Your Excellency Commander, now we can only rescue the 116th Division first, and then you can get in touch with the Southern Army Headquarters and ask them to send troops from both Indochina and Qinzhou at the same time to contain Longzhou City. In the end, we can concentrate our forces and fight to the death with this 90th Army. As long as this 90th Army is defeated or eliminated, there will be no more problems in the capture of Guangxi. ”

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama nodded in agreement with Major General Nakayama Sadatake and said: "Please call back Nakayama-kun to Takeuchi-kun and ask them to hold on to help first, and I will send fighters to support early tomorrow morning, and at the same time, reinforcements will arrive soon." He also sent a telegram to the 13th Division stationed in Yongzhou, ordering the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Chilu Li, to send troops to the 116th Division to assist the 116th Division in transferring. ”

Major General Nakayama replied, "Hey, my subordinates obey!" and then turned and left Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama's office. In the office, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama looked at the back of Major General Nakayama Sadatake leaving, and said to himself: "The First Army of China, the Ninetieth Army, is interesting! Finally, I don't have to fight with those Chinese armies that are always vulnerable, so let me see how strong this First Army is!"

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama was still full of confidence when he said this, and his 11 th Army had a total strength of more than 200,000 troops under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 13th, 39th, 68th, and 116th Divisions, as well as the Koga Detachment, the Sasaki Detachment, the Miyawaki Detachment, the Katata Detachment, the Kono Mixed Brigade, the 44th Flying Brigade, the 6th Independent Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, the Independent Tank Wing, and various auxiliary arms, with a total strength of more than 200,000 troops.

But what Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama didn't expect was what a formidable and formidable opponent he would encounter. Just when Major General Nakayama sent a telegram to Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi, Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi was already facing a major crisis. In front of the defensive line laid by the 3rd Regiment of the Guards Brigade, Major General Naosin Uzawa commanded the 138th Wing, which was still combat-ready, and launched a fierce attack on the 3rd Regiment defensive line.

Outside the town of Hung Yen, several hundred large and small chariots of the armored brigade have been assembled, and the 271st Brigade of the 90th Division has also been put in place. After consulting Wang Haitao, Wu Jianzhou and Tang Yiqun issued the order to attack at the same time. Four Cheetah heavy tanks and five light tanks formed a triangular attack formation, followed by officers and men of the 271st Brigade and the 542nd Regiment.

Although the Heavy Artillery Brigade was not yet in position, with the dozens of large and small caliber guns possessed by the 271st Brigade, it was enough to launch an artillery attack on Xing'an Town before the attack. At night, the night sky was red by the light of the artillery guns fired from the artillery positions, and the fire of the shell explosion illuminated the town of Hung Yen. The nine tanks advanced as they attacked forward, and at the same time used vehicle-mounted artillery and vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns to attack the Japanese positions, and the fire points of the counterattack were named one by one.

The Kono Brigade in the wall and in the gap could only do its best to stop the Chinese army's attack, but the Japanese army was helpless in the face of such a steel monster as a heavy tank. There were no large-caliber artillery at all, and the few Type 92 infantry guns and mortars found were useless against them, and the reverse side was quickly destroyed by the vehicle-mounted artillery.

Seeing that these steel behemoths were about to drive under the walls of Xing'an Town, Major General Kono had to organize a group of death squads, with explosives and medicine packs tied to their bodies to block their advance. Just as two heavy tanks rushed to the gap in the wall, the Japanese death squad appeared. Although there were infantry behind the tank to protect it, it must have been a night battle, and several daredevils rushed to the side of the tank and detonated the explosives and medicine packs.

The explosion of explosives and powder packets stirred up a lot of smoke and dust, and the Japanese soldiers cheered for the success of the death squads. But as soon as their cheers came out, amid the roar of the engines, the tank burst out of the smoke and rushed in through the gap as if nothing had happened. The Japanese army looked at these steel beasts that rushed out of the smoke of gunpowder, and at first froze for a moment, and then I don't know who led the way to the city, and soon all the people fled to the city with all their lives.

Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi couldn't stay in the north of the town after the cannon fire rang out in the south of the town, so he first ordered the engineer wing and the baggage wing to organize soldiers to deploy in the town, and then took the division headquarters and the escort team out of the town to join the 130th Brigade. Major General Uzawa Naosin also heard the sound of artillery coming from the south, and he also understood that it was time for the last fight, and he could still have a chance of life if he rushed through the defense line of the Chinese army, and there was only a dead end if he couldn't rush through.

So Major General Uzawa Naosin did everything possible to launch a "pig rush" attack, that is, the troops took the squadron as a unit and attacked forward continuously until they broke through the defensive line. The position of the 3rd Regiment was set up on the road, and due to the rush of time, no strong positions were built, but only two trenches were dug and several machine-gun bunkers were built with sandbags.

On top of the position were the three regiments and two battalions, the third battalion was arranged on the hill next to the road, and the withdrawn battalion was placed behind the position as a reserve. The width of the road is limited, with hills on one side and the Xiangjiang River on the other, which also makes the front of the position not wide, and a few machine guns are enough to block the entire road. However, when the Japanese army frantically used the "pig rush" attack, the second battalion still felt the pressure.

In fact, this kind of "pig rush" attack is to make the opponent feel frightened in terms of momentum, so that the opponent will retreat, and in the face of several heavy machine gun fire on this narrow road, in addition to causing a rapid increase in casualties, it will not have much effect. Sure enough, after being nervous for a while, the officers and men of the second battalion gradually adapted to the Japanese army's offensive method, and they became more and more calm in dealing with it.

During the attack, the Japanese troops fell in rows under the heavy machine gun guns of the defenders, and the corpses of the Japanese soldiers in front of the defenders' positions were piled up higher and higher.

At this time, Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi came to Major General Uzawa Shonobu, and after Major General Uzawa Shoshin reported the attack to him, Lieutenant General Takeuchi Shunjiro also did not say anything for a long time. The Japanese army's "pig rush" attack finally stopped, and the officers and men of the second battalion on the position also breathed a sigh of relief, and the soldiers on the front line all sat on the ground weakly.

The Japanese attack lasted only an hour, but the intensity of the battle in this hour was no less than that of a small-scale battle. The machine gun and the machine gunner were changed several times, and the bullet casings were barely past the foot. Wu Dashan, the commander of the second battalion, also hurriedly replaced with a group of new troops, which was also the last batch of new forces in the second battalion.

After the 542nd Regiment of the 271st Brigade broke through into Xing'an Town, Tang Yiqun immediately sent the other two regiments as well, while Wu Jianzhou sent out eight light armored vehicles at once, replacing heavy tanks with light armored vehicles, which are more conducive to street fighting. After the few remnants of the Kono Brigade asked the town to flee, the 542nd Regiment stared behind them and rushed towards the town.

Soon the 542nd Regiment encountered the Japanese troops sent by Shunjiro Takeuchi to block them. These troops, which are composed of engineers and baggage soldiers, must have very poor offensive combat effectiveness, but they still have a certain combat effectiveness when used for defense, and they must all be specially trained fighters. There were still some brick buildings in the town, and there were still many people who had not left, so the attack of the 542nd Regiment was somewhat constrained, so the two sides confronted each other in the town for a while.