The shell happened to land next to a heavy machine gun fire point, and not only the heavy machine gun was blown up, but also the heavy machine gun team was killed and wounded. Huang Guizhong ran closer to see that two soldiers were lying next to the heavy machine guns covered in blood, already dead, and the other three wounded were groaning in pain. Without waiting for Huang Juzhong to summon, two hygienists trotted to the wounded and began to rescue the three wounded.

Huang Guizhong saw that he really couldn't help much, so he straightened up and held the battlement to look at the position outside the city. The Japanese artillery shells on the positions outside the city were still falling, and the positions were already full of large and small craters in the firelight. Faintly, with the help of the firelight, you can see the figures of the soldiers huddled to avoid the Japanese bombing. Because there was no large-caliber artillery in his hand, Huang Guizhong knew that he could do anything with the Japanese artillery, and in anger, he smashed his fist on the battlement.

The Japanese bombardment had come to an end, and it didn't take long for the bombing to cease completely. The experienced soldiers knew that the Japanese infantry attack was about to begin, and the officers and men of the four regiments on the position quickly emerged from their hiding places, bent over and trotted to find their respective positions, and prepared to shoot. The heavy machine-gun groups on the city walls were also in place, ready to support the four regiments on the position with heavy machine-gun fire at any time.

In this kind of dark night, it is not the Japanese army's good way of attacking the defender's position, in this kind of dark night, the Japanese army's accurate marksmanship advantage can not be brought into play at all, only by relying on numbers and firepower to attack, sadly in terms of firepower except for the artillery has the upper hand, there is no advantage at all. If it weren't for the repeated calls from Commander Isamu Yokoyama and Lieutenant General Tetsuzo Ide urging the troops to immediately open the road to Zhangshu Castle and meet them with the 116th Division, Lieutenant General Ichiro Kushino would not have launched an attack on the defenders' positions overnight.

After several hours of fighting, although the Japanese army was attacking in turns, they were all exhausted, and the infantry attack was not so active, and in the darkness they could touch about 100 meters in front of the defenders' positions, but they would fire on the defenders' positions again, and the attacking soldiers who were under the dense rain of bullets could not even raise their heads, although there were grenadiers that could strike at the machine gun fire points on the positions, but there were too many fire points on the positions, and many of them were still hidden in the fortifications, and the effect was not very good.

In this attack, the Japanese army moved forward several times, but did not get close to the front of the position at all, and had to retreat, which did not take an hour in total. Although Huang Guizhong, who was standing on the city wall, could not see the casualties of the Japanese army, it was still very clear that it was difficult for the Japanese army to approach the front of the position. Now he was also relieved of the position defended by the Fourth Regiment, and after repeatedly admonishing the commander of the first battalion, he left the north gate city wall accompanied by Wang Lili.

Huang Guizhong did not return to the brigade headquarters, but came to the south gate with Wang Lili, where the second battalion commander was directing his subordinates to arrange and strengthen machine gun fire points on the city wall, staring at his subordinates to report that the brigade and regimental seats were coming together, and hurriedly greeted them. Huang Guizhong climbed the city wall and looked out, the second regiment's position was densely covered with torches, and the officers and soldiers of the second regiment were still struggling to repair and strengthen the fortifications in the firelight.

Huang Guizhong personally went out of the city to inspect the position of the second regiment and picked out some faults, so Zheng Daxi, the commander of the second regiment, immediately arranged for the soldiers to rectify it. Huang Guizhong's actions made Zheng Daxi a little unhappy, and he said a few strange words, Huang Guizhong knew his character, and he didn't pay much attention to him, but Wang Li stood up and reprimanded Zheng Daxi as the deputy brigade commander.

Huang Guizhong, who returned to the brigade headquarters, saw that it was only midnight, and it was estimated that the Japanese troops in Zhangshucheng would not arrive for a few hours, so he thought of taking this opportunity to take a nap, so he put his clothes together and lay down on the marching bed at the brigade headquarters. But after lying down, he couldn't sleep all of a sudden, and his mind was full of the upcoming battle and whether the independent brigade should return to Jurong or stay with the commander after this battle.

Huang Guizhong didn't know how long he was in a daze, and was awakened by a sudden explosion of cannonballs. I thought it was the Japanese army outside the north gate that started shelling again, but when I listened carefully, the explosion came from the south of the city. Huang Guizhong jumped up in shock, and at this time someone shouted loudly at the door: "Report!" Huang Guizhong let the visitor in and saw that it was a signal soldier. The signal soldier seemed to be running in a hurry, sweating profusely.

When the signal corps saw Huang Guizhong, he stood up and saluted, and then said loudly: "Report to the brigade seat, the Japanese army outside the south gate has arrived and is launching an artillery bombardment on the position of the second regiment. The commander of the second battalion ordered me to come and report to the brigade. Huang Guizhong nodded and said, "Okay, I know, you go back and tell the second battalion commander to pay close attention to the movements of the Japanese army and prepare to reinforce the second regiment." The signal soldier saluted again and replied loudly, "Yes, brigade!" and then turned and walked away quickly.

Huang Guizhong was still not very worried about the position of the second regiment, and was about to go to the south gate city wall to watch the battle again, when Wang Li rushed over when he heard the news. Seeing Wang Li appear at the door, Huang Guizhong said: "Old Wang, you came just in time, come with me to the south gate city wall to see the situation on the position of the second regiment." Wang Li was also going to take a look at the situation at the South Gate, and reminded the second battalion commander to get ready, and it was right to hear Huang Guizhong say this.

At this time, it was the darkest time before dawn, the night above the south gate was flashed by the light of the fire when the explosion flickered, Huang Guizhong and Wang Li quickly came to the south gate, only to see that the officers and soldiers of the second battalion, in addition to the heavy fire company arranged on the city wall, had all assembled at the south gate in full armor and stood by, and the commander of the second battalion was also in the team. Seeing Huang Guizhong and Wang Li coming, he hurriedly trotted forward and saluted.

Huang Guizhong still praised the actions of the second battalion, and after encouraging the commander of the second battalion and the officers and men of the second battalion, Huang Guizhong asked the second battalion to continue to stand by. He and Wang Li climbed the south gate wall in three steps and two steps. The position of the second regiment outside the city was completely dark, only the fire flashed when the shells exploded, and they could vaguely see a little bit of the situation of the position, and the landing point of the shells was now some distance from the city wall, so Huang Guizhong on the city wall was not threatened.

Not long after Huang Guizhong and the others climbed the city wall, the Japanese army stopped shelling, and then about a thousand meters away, the fire of the muzzle of the heavy machine gun appeared, and the sound of the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun also came. Huang Guizhong counted carefully, and there were eight heavy machine guns that the Japanese army spit out fire, which should be the size of a heavy machine gun squadron. According to the normal establishment of the Japanese army, only the infantry wing will be equipped with a heavy machine gun squadron, so Huang Guizhong estimated that the Japanese army attacking on the opposite side would have at least one infantry wing.

If the Japanese army on the opposite side is really an infantry wing, then the number is about 4,500 people, and the number of the second regiment is only 2,500 people, a difference of nearly double. Huang Guizhong thought of this and turned his head to Wang Li beside him and said: "Old Wang, the number of Japanese troops attacking is not less than one infantry wing, and the number of the second regiment is quite different. ”

Wang Li hesitated for a moment and said: "Brigade seat, transfer the third battalion over, then the town will be empty, in case there is an enemy who takes the opportunity to make trouble, I am afraid that the town will be chaotic." Huang Guizhong's face was cold, and he said with murderous aura: "Let the guard company and the logistics department be responsible for patrolling the city, and in extraordinary times, those who dare to move can be shot on the spot!" After hearing Huang Guizhong's murderous words, Wang Li didn't say anything more, and replied: "Yes, brigade seat! I'll go and arrange it immediately." ”

As soon as Wang Li left, he saw the gunfire on the position of the Second Regiment in the distance, and it seemed that the Japanese army was approaching the front of the position, and the troops guarding the position began to block it. In the dark, Huang Guizhong couldn't see the specific situation clearly, but just listened to the gunshots to distinguish the difference in firepower between the enemy and us. The gunshots continued to sound, and Huang Guizhong could only listen to the excitement of the two sides like this, anxious why the sky was not yet bright.

The 138th Wing of the Japanese Army hurried all the way to the outside of the tugboat port town, thinking that it could hit the Chinese army by surprise, but a squadron running at the front, just saw the black shadow of the tugboat port town wall, and the machine gun sound came from the front, and more than ten soldiers who ran in the front were immediately shot and fell, which made the other soldiers of the squadron stop suddenly, and all of them lay on the ground.

Seeing the muzzle fire coming out of the darkness ahead, the Japanese squadron leader knew that the Chinese army had been prepared, and needless to say that the front was a prepared position for the Chinese army. The squadron leader hurriedly sent someone to report the situation to the group leader while directing the troops to retreat. The commander of the 138th Wing, Takada Toshisada Osa, was shocked when he heard the dense gunfire coming from the front, and soon his subordinates came to report that there was a defensive position of the Chinese army in front.

Takada Toshisada was already very anxious in his heart, he knew that there was a pursuing Chinese army behind him, if his wing could not capture the position of the Chinese army as soon as possible and was blocked here, then the entire division might be annihilated. Takada Toshisada Osa hurriedly sent a signal corps to send a letter to the field artillery wing behind, requesting the field artillery wing to support his attack with artillery fire.

At the same time, he called several of his captains over and gave them a death order, at any cost, to take the positions defended by the Chinese army in the shortest possible time, capture the tugboat town, and open the passage for the division to retreat. In fact, there is no need for Takada Toshisada to say that several captains are aware of the situation they are facing, and now they can only hope to survive if they desperately fight their way out of a passage.

Therefore, as soon as the captains returned to the ranks, they immediately began to arrange the attack, and they used all the heavy weapons at their disposal, and the four brigades together had sixteen Type 92 infantry guns and forty-eight mortars at their disposal. Before the field artillery wing could open fire, these small artillery pieces gathered by the wing had already begun to bombard the defenders' positions.

The wing commander of the field artillery wing, Yoshida Moritaka Daisa, did not expect that there would be a time when it would be necessary to use field artillery on the way to retreat, so the entire wing was not ready to attack, and even the artillery was still hanging on the tractor. Now he received a request from Takada Tossada Daisa, and hurriedly ordered the troops to prepare for the attack, but there was still a process from the time the preparation was not prepared to the time when the preparation was completed, and most of the preparation passed quickly.