Not long after Tang Hongming climbed the city wall, the Japanese artillery shells fell with a scream. The explosion of the artillery shells on the position really shook the ground, and the dust and smoke rushed up dozens of meters high, and even the city walls shook from it. In the telescope, Tang Hongming clearly saw that a bunker was directly hit by * and turned into a pile of ruins. His face also changed, and he said to Liu Mingde, the commander of the 461st Brigade beside him: "Grandma, little Japan actually used heavy artillery as soon as it came up!"

Liu Mingde's face was also heavy at this time, the 876th Regiment on the position outside the city was all his troops, watching his subordinates being bombarded by the Japanese heavy artillery, although it was sad but powerless. Soon dust and smoke covered the position, and the Japanese shelling continued, but the city wall could not see the situation on the position except for the tremors.

Liu Mingde asked Tang Hongming with some eagerness: "Division, can you use our heavy artillery to kill the heavy artillery positions of Little Japan?" Tang Hongming looked at Liu Mingde deeply and asked: "Mingde, you have also been on the battlefield for a long time, what kind of artillery did little Japan use? How far away is it? Can you see if our heavy artillery can counterattack?"

Hearing Tang Hongming's question, Liu Mingde carefully observed and thought about it, and lowered his head with a red face. The Japanese army used 240 mm caliber heavy howitzers and projectiles, and looking at the trajectory of the shells, they were more than 10,000 meters away from the city wall, while the maximum effective firing range of the 122 caliber heavy howitzers and artillery handed over to the command of their division by the heavy artillery brigade was only 11,800 meters.

As long as you think about it carefully, Liu Mingde can understand this, but if you care, you will be chaotic, seeing that his subordinates are suffering from the shells of the little Japanese, Liu Mingde is also a little anxious, so he can't think about it so much. Tang Hongming also understood Liu Mingde's feelings, and then said: "The little Japanese heavy artillery will not have too many shells, and it will not be bombed for too long, as long as the soldiers can withstand this round of bombing, it will be much better." ”

Sure enough, the Japanese heavy artillery bombarded for only ten minutes before stopping, and after the smoke cleared some, Tang Hongming saw on the city wall that the positions outside the city were already in disarray, and there were craters with a diameter of about ten meters everywhere, and most of the original fortifications were destroyed, and many of the fortifications disappeared completely. The position was littered with sandbags, weapon parts, bricks and wood, and the corpses of soldiers.

As soon as the bombardment ended, the soldiers who had been hiding had already entered the position quickly, and checked their weapons and ammunition to prepare for the attack. Field medics are also resuscitating the lightly and seriously wounded, and are busy moving the seriously wounded to the city. There was originally a battalion of troops stationed on the first line of defense outside the city, and Tang Hongming visually measured it, and the casualties after the bombing were about a quarter.

In the distance, the Japanese troops had just assembled and were ready to attack the position, and the soldiers on the position were busy repairing the fortifications with this limited time. At this moment, more than 20 small guns in the rear of the Japanese offensive position began to cover bombardment again, and although the power of these 20 small guns was limited, it still brought casualties to the soldiers who entered the position.

Just now, the bombardment of the Japanese heavy artillery caused heavy casualties to his subordinates, which had already made Tang Yu, the commander of the 876th Regiment, feel a fire in his heart, but the artillery in his regiment could not reach the Japanese heavy artillery position, so he could only watch the Japanese heavy artillery go unchecked.

Tang Yutie said with a blushing face: "Battalion Commander Dai, now the little Japanese even dare to exert their power on us, if you don't give them a little power, they really don't know that the prince Ma has three eyes! I order, your artillery battalion will immediately return fire on the little Japan, and give the Japanese artillery position to Lao Tzu as soon as possible!"

Dai Bin also held back the fire in his heart, and after receiving the order, he replied loudly: "Yes, Tuanza! You can rest assured!" After speaking, he grabbed the telephone in the regimental command post and directly conveyed Tang Yu's order. The 210th Division, as the all-German armament division formed later, was completely copied from the German Army's mechanized division, and even the weapons and equipment were directly purchased by Wang Haitao from Germany.

Compared with the real German mechanized divisions, except for the inferior armor strength and the insufficient number of trucks, the other equipment is similar. Each regiment had an infantry artillery battalion equipped with 12 German-made 75 mm infantry guns, 6 105 mm heavy infantry guns, 18 80 mm mortars, and 12 120 mm heavy mortars.

The firepower of such an artillery battalion has exceeded the artillery firepower of an infantry wing of the Japanese army, and this is also the confidence of Wang Haitao to dare to use one division to block the more than 50,000 troops of the two divisions of the Japanese army. However, in order to form a quasi-mechanized division like the 210th Division, Wang Haitao spent money and energy that was naturally beyond the reach of other national army troops.

Soon the artillery battalion's counterattack began, far exceeding the firepower of the Japanese artillery, so that the Japanese basically had little power to fight back, and after quickly destroying the Japanese artillery position, the artillery battalion vented to the Japanese infantry who were assembled and ready to attack, and then stopped the shelling and shifted the position. As soon as the 139th Infantry Wing of the 110th Division of the Japanese Army, which was preparing to attack, assembled an infantry brigade to prepare for the attack, it was hit head-on by artillery fire.

Before an infantry brigade could begin its attack, more than half of them were killed or wounded under artillery fire, which made the wing commander Ryuo Shimoeda angry. First the artillery brigade of the wing was completely lost under the fire of the Chinese army, and then the infantry brigade suffered more than half of the casualties, and the attack was so badly damaged that Shimoeda Ryuo Osaku was angry and frightened at the same time.

The news was quickly reported to the division commander, Lieutenant General Hayashi Yoshitaro, and Lieutenant General Hayashi Yoshitaro was also hit hard. I thought that with the assistance of heavy artillery, the Chinese army would suffer heavy casualties under the bombardment of heavy artillery, so it was no longer able to hold its position, and its own troops could easily take the position outside the city, but I did not expect that after the heavy artillery was used, the Chinese army still had such a powerful artillery fire.

Thinking of Commander Isamu Yokoyama's repeated reprimands, and then looking at the Chinese troops in front of him with extremely strong combat effectiveness, a sense of powerlessness surged into Lieutenant General Hayashi's heart. But the attack still had to continue, and at this time, Lieutenant General Hayashi Yosataro no longer had the confidence to capture Youxian within two days, he could only pray to Aunt Amaterasu that he could capture Youxian and rush to Hengyang City before Hengyang City was lost.

After thinking about it for a while, Lieutenant General Yoshitaro Hayashi could only take advantage of his numerical superiority and order a simultaneous attack on the north, west, and east gates of Youxian, and at the same time, the 62nd Division and the Chariot Brigade also joined the attack. As soon as this order was given, the three city gates of Youxian County were attacked by the Japanese army at the same time, and the disadvantage of the 210th Division gradually became apparent.

The two divisions of the Japanese army relied on the strength of the number of people to storm the three city gates of Youxian in turn, and all the artillery and chariots were put into the attack, and the 210th Division had an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment, but as the battle became more and more intense, the casualties were also increasing. The two sides fought fiercely for a whole day, and although the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, the 461st Brigade outside the 210th Division also suffered one-third casualties, the first of the three positions was lost, and the second position outside the north and east gates was also lost.

When it was almost dark, the Japanese attack was still continuing, and it seemed that there was no intention of stopping, and Tang Hongming's body was under great pressure. Just when Tang Hongming was preparing to replace the 461st Brigade outside the city with the 460th Brigade in the city tonight, a signal corpsman came to him to report that the 211th Division had reached the south of Youxian County, and that Commander Tang Longzai would enter the city immediately.

At this time, Tang Longzai led the 211th Division to Youxian, which undoubtedly gave Tang Hongming a shot in the arm, and Tang Hongming immediately informed Wei Bin and Liu Mingde, the two brigade commanders, to rush to the south gate with him to welcome Tang Longzai, the military seat, into the city. Tang Hongming and they just arrived at the south gate, Tang Longzai arrived with Wei Ye, and after entering the city, Tang Hongming and they hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

They are all their own brothers, and there is not too much cold noise, Tang Longzai followed Tang Hongming and them to the headquarters of the 210th Division. As soon as he sat down, Tang Longzai didn't even bother to drink water, and asked how the battle situation was in Youxian, and Tang Hongming told Tang Longzai in detail about the battle situation in Youxian County in the past two days. After listening to this, Tang Longzai also felt that the 210th Division was fighting well, praised Tang Hongming and them for a few words, and began to talk about the purpose of leading the 211th Division to rush over.

When Tang Hongming and others heard that the 211th Division had been divided into two routes, that the 463rd Brigade had already inserted itself behind the Japanese army, and that the commander's intention was to inflict heavy damage on the more than 50,000 Japanese troops who came to help, they were also surprised by Wang Haitao's generosity for a while. However, after carefully comparing the situation of the two sides in terms of troops and weapons and equipment, Tang Hongming and the others also saw the possibility of success of this plan.

The next battle plan is simple, the defenders of Youxian County should drag the more than 50,000 Japanese troops in front of them to the death under Youxian County before the 461st Brigade arrives at the designated position and is ready to attack, and consume the living strength of the Japanese army as much as possible. When the 461st Brigade launched a surprise attack from behind the Japanese army, it attacked the Japanese army from the front, and tried to inflict the maximum damage on the Japanese army under the flank attack from both sides.

In order to better complete the plan, Tang Longzai decided to immediately replace the 461st Brigade with the 462nd Brigade, which was fighting fiercely, and keep the 460th Brigade, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, for a frontal assault on the Japanese army. Everyone had no opinion on Tang Longzai's decision, so Liu Mingde informed his three regiment commanders that all of them would hold on until 8 o'clock in the evening, and then the 462nd Brigade would fully take over the defense of the position.

At 7:50 p.m., the three regiments of the 462nd Brigade, which had rested a little, appeared at the eastern, western, and northern gates of Youxian County, and at this time, after a whole day of fierce fighting, the Japanese army was also exhausted, and the frequency and intensity of the attack also weakened. At eight o'clock, the three city gates were quietly opened, and the three regiments of the 462nd Brigade rushed out of the city, officially taking over the three regiments of the 461st Brigade and continuing to hold their positions outside the city.