By the time Tang Renxin passed on the order, the troops of the East Gate and the South Gate had already converged in the city, and they were facing the 40th Infantry Brigade of the 9th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, the Mountain Artillery Brigade, the remnants of the other three infantry brigades that had been withdrawn, and the soldiers organized by Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami, totaling about 4,000 men. The combat effectiveness of those baggage soldiers and sappers was not very good, but there were also soldiers and officers withdrawn from other infantry brigades, and the good obedience of the Japanese soldiers, so these soldiers were not vulnerable.

Even if the Guards Brigade was extremely combat-ready and had the cooperation of armored vehicles, it was very slow to progress under the desperate resistance of the Japanese army. Both Tangshan Leopard and Li Yuanhong received an order from Tang Renxin to end the battle within 12 hours. Now the two of them are a little anxious. Li Yuanhong couldn't sit still in the temporary headquarters of the south gate city wall, so he hurried to Tangshan Leopard and discussed with Tangshan Leopard.

The heavy armored vehicles in the armored regiment assisting the Guards Brigade in the attack could ignore the attacks of the Japanese Type 92 infantry guns and mortars, but the Japanese 75 mm mountain guns and the 37 mm rapid-fire guns using armor-piercing shells could damage or even destroy it, which made the attacking troops have more scruples when using armored vehicles. Fortunately, the number of Japanese artillery was not too large, several directions were scattered, and the accuracy was not high, which made the armored vehicles of the armored regiment suffer little losses.

Tangshan Leopard and Li Yuanhong discussed that the attacking troops needed to suppress the Japanese army's artillery fire, but in the street fighting, the power of the mortar was limited, and the damage to the building was not great, and the Japanese army occupied some relatively solid buildings or warehouses and other concrete structures, which could effectively prevent the damage of their own troops' mortars. And for these solid buildings, which require high-powered direct-aim artillery, then the vehicle-mounted gun on the tank is the most suitable.

Originally, it was inappropriate to use bulky tank vehicles, especially Cheetah heavy tanks, to fight street battles, so Li Yuanhong has not let tanks participate in street battles in the city, and now Tangshan Leopard proposed that he needed tank car assistance, and Li Yuanhong naturally would not disagree. Li Yuanhong immediately sent an order to Zhang Zhiming, commander of the Cheetah Tank Regiment, and Zhao Wujun, commander of the Type 62 Light Tank Regiment, to each transfer a tank battalion into the city to help in the battle.

As soon as the tank entered the city to assist, the situation was immediately different, the tank car did not care about the bombardment of the Japanese mountain artillery, rushed to those fortified buildings, and with a few shots of the vehicle-mounted artillery could make a large hole in the building, and then blocked the building with the vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun. At this time, the fighters of the Guards Brigade who followed the tank operation were able to break into the building and eliminate the Japanese troops hiding in the building.

With the help of tanks, the speed of attack increased significantly, and the Japanese troops on the periphery had no choice but to keep retreating. When the fighters of the reconnaissance detachment infiltrated the interior of the Japanese army and obtained the location coordinates of the Japanese mountain artillery position, Tangshan Leopard organized all 120 heavy mortars to cover the mountain artillery position with artillery fire, and at once eliminated the mountain artillery that posed the greatest threat to the attacking troops.

Without the help of mountain artillery, the pressure on the attacking troops was greatly reduced, and the soldiers dared to approach some fortifications that were difficult to attack and attack them with bazookas or 82 recoilless guns. By 3 p.m., five hours had passed since the 12 hours given by Tang Renxin, and the Guards Brigade had basically cleared out the forces that the Japanese had placed on the periphery of the headquarters of the 11th Army, compressing the Japanese troops to less than 500 meters around the headquarters of the 11th Army.

However, the more compressed it was, the more stubborn the resistance of the Japanese army became, and there were constantly Japanese soldiers holding explosive packets and shouting slogans to rush towards the attacking tanks or armored vehicles, in this case, the tanks were fortunately without any losses, while the armored vehicles were destroyed several in a row, including an eight-wheeled heavy armored car. Tangshan Leopard saw that the Japanese dogs jumped over the wall in a hurry, and in order to reduce losses, they asked the armored vehicles to stop the attack first, and then retreat to a safe area to assemble and stand by.

Subsequently, Tangshan Leopard equipped each tank with an infantry platoon to cover the combat vehicles, and also implemented the requirements of infantry and tank coordination in urban street battles, and continued to attack the Japanese army together. The battle has been fought since the morning, and the soldiers are very tired, but in order to win this battle, they are gritting their teeth and persevering. The number of guards brigades also reached 8,000 men, but the number of infantry in charge of the battle was 5,400 men. If there is no advantage in numbers, it is natural that you will not be able to take turns to rest, and fatigue will be natural.

In the last 500 meters, it took the guard brigade three hours to take it. At six o'clock in the evening, when it was already dark, the Guards Brigade and the Armored Brigade finally surrounded more than 2,000 Japanese troops tightly in the courtyard of the headquarters of the Eleventh Army. In addition to a three-storey, reinforced concrete main building, the headquarters of the 11th Army also has a compound of nearly 1,000 square meters, with a fence and a power grid on the wall. There are two gates in the courtyard wall, one of which has been sealed, and there are machine gun fortifications piled up with sandbags inside and outside the gates.

The Japanese occupied the commanding heights in the building, and the windows towards the gate were densely packed with black holes. Several searchlights on the roof of the building kept shooting around, and the pillars of light swept as if it were day. The fortified Yuecheng could not hold back the Chinese army, let alone a small headquarters of the 11th Army? Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami, the supreme commander of the headquarters, knew very well that it was only out of the pride of the soldiers and the spirit of bushido that it was impossible for him to surrender to the lowly Shina people.

General Anami and the headquarters of the 11th Army have already left Yueyang City and have completed their mission, so let's use our lives to defend the honor of the samurai and be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor! Major General Kenkichi Ikegami had the heart to die, but calmly calmed down. The Outer Branch Army had not yet launched an attack, and there was silence around the headquarters.

Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami originally had five captains under his command, among which the captain of the 37th Infantry Brigade, Toshio Kimura, was killed on the wall of the East Gate, the captain of the 39th Infantry Brigade, Tsuyohiko Yasue, was killed by a cannon while blocking the Chinese troops attacking at the South Gate, and the commander of the Artillery Brigade, Matsuoka Keimasa, was shattered with the artillery brigade in the artillery battle with the Chinese army, and now only the captain of the 36th Infantry Brigade, Naoyasu Yoshino, who was slightly wounded, and the captain of the 40th Infantry Brigade, Katsumi Katsunai, were in the headquarters.

Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami asked the guards to bring in the two captains, and found a few bottles of authentic sake and waited for them. After the two captains came in, they couldn't help but be stunned when they saw the brigade commander sitting there pouring wine into the wine glass in front of them. Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami glanced at the two of them and said, "Yoshino-kun, Tsunai-kun, please sit down." Today, the people of China are surrounding this place, and we can't leave. I have determined to die to serve His Majesty the Emperor, and I would like to invite you two to have a drink. Time is running out, so please two of you!"

The two captains listened to the words of the brigade commander and sat down wordlessly. Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami picked up a glass of wine and said, "Two, please!" After speaking, he took a sip of the wine. Close your eyes and savor it. The two captains also silently picked up their glasses and drank the wine in the glass. Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami opened his eyes at this time and said, "What a familiar taste of hometown wine! It's a pity that we can't go back." After speaking, he sang the folk song of his hometown in a low voice.

The three of them drank a few glasses of wine in nostalgia for their Japanese homeland, and at this time, the shelling before the Chinese army launched the attack began. Hearing the sound of the cannon, the two captains stood up, and Ikegami Kenkichi sat still, and he said to the two: "Yoshino-kun, Tsunachi-kun, please leave the defense outside to the two, we are here today, for the holy war of the Great Japanese Empire, for His Majesty the Emperor! Let us be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor with our lives!

Naoyasu Yoshino and Katsumi Osa Tsukatsu both shouted, "Your Majesty the Emperor!" and then bowed deeply to Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami, turned around and left the place. The quiet for a while ago was that Tangshan Leopard and Li Yuanhong were deploying troops, and for the guard brigade and armored brigade, the last place where the Japanese army was stationed was nothing, but to annihilate the Japanese army here with minimal losses, it was necessary for the two of them to bother to arrange it. As soon as they were arranged, Tang Renxin also arrived, and after listening to the arrangement of the two, he made a few requests and agreed to their arrangement.

The final attack was to first carry out a covering attack on the Japanese troops in the encirclement by all mortars, and then launch a surprise attack from four directions, the main attack direction was the east and west sides of the building, and four Cheetah heavy grams were arranged on the east side, which was responsible for opening the wall. Behind are four light tanks, responsible for storming the compound and suppressing the army in the compound with vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns, and then four heavy armored vehicles cover the guards of the first battalion and the second battalion of the regiment to break into the courtyard and approach the building.

As the front gate of the Japanese defense, only four Geparah tanks and four light tanks were used to launch a surprise attack, and the infantry would not immediately attack. The 3rd Battalion of the 1st Guards Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Guards Regiment followed four tanks and four armored vehicles to break through from the western flank, in the same way as from the east. The 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Guards Regiment was followed by two tanks, two heavy armored vehicles to strike from behind the building. The 3rd Guards Regiment and the Light Tank Regiment cooperated to continue to encircle the area on the perimeter to prevent the Japanese from escaping.

After the attack began, more than 100 mortars of large and small calibers of the guard brigade opened fire at the same time, and the headquarters building of the 11th Japanese Army and the compound outside the building were plunged into a sea of fire, and the screams of the Japanese troops in the courtyard could be clearly heard in the sound of artillery. The shelling stopped after ten minutes, and tanks from four directions began to assault. After the tank guns easily blew through the not-so-solid wall, they rushed directly into the courtyard, and the headlights illuminated the courtyard and the building.

After the tank launched a surprise attack, the Japanese weapons on the commanding heights in the building began to return fire, the shooting was mainly concentrated in the front of the gate, there was no infantry here in the front, the tank ignored the attack of the Japanese light weapons, but raised the muzzle, aiming at the window that emitted fire is a cannon fire, as long as the window hit by the shell will be dumb fire immediately.