Fang Riying's words made Duan Linmao shake his head disappreciatively, and then said: "No matter how strong the combat strength is, there are only three or four thousand people, can we still fight against our tens of thousands of horses? Commander-in-chief, my 79th Division asks for orders to attack the enemy's position, and I will definitely destroy this team of the 90th Army!" Shangguan Yunxiang glanced at Duan Linmao and waved his hand.

Shangguan Yunxiang said: "The three or four thousand men and horses of the Ninety Army are not terrible, no matter how strong he is, he will not be able to fight against our tens of thousands of horses, but if he has a feud with this Wang Haitao, it will be difficult to deal with the 100,000 horses of the Ninety Army behind him." Rong Jiwu took over Shangguan Yunxiang's words and said, "Commander-in-chief, can't we just let go of the rest of the New Fourth Army?"

Fang Riying also said: "Commander-in-chief, if the New Fourth Army is spared, not to mention that Chairman Chiang and Commander Gu are not easy to explain, it is that others say that we are tens of thousands of people and horses are afraid of more than 3,000 people of the 90th Army, so we let go of the New Fourth Army, and everyone will be disgraced at that time! Besides, although the 90th Army has 100,000 people, it is far away in Guangxi, what can they do to us? If they come to attack our Third Theater of Operations, I believe that Chongqing will not sit idly by. ”

Fang Riying's words made Duan Linmao and Rong Jiwu nod their heads one after another, and even Shangguan Yunxiang nodded slightly and said: "I made a heavy promise in front of Commander Gu, and I didn't let go of the rest of the New Fourth Army. This fight is still going to be fought, but we have to salute first and then fight. I immediately wrote a letter to this commander Wang Haitao, urging him to leave this place immediately with his troops. If he is persuaded to leave, we will naturally send him out. If he still wants to intervene, then he will have to meet with swords!"

After the meeting, several division commanders took people back to prepare for battle, and Shangguan Yunxiang personally wrote a letter to Wang Haitao. At this time, on the left and right sides of Wusha Town, the 144th Division of the 50th Army and the newly formed 7th Division also pressed forward at the order, and the 52nd and 62nd Divisions were also rushing towards Wusha Town. The small town of Wusha was surrounded from three sides by more than 60,000 people from seven divisions of the national army.

As soon as the morning dawned, the handwritten letter written by Shangguan Yunxiang was delivered to Wang Haitao, and after reading the letter, Wang Haitao smiled slightly, turned around and picked up the pen to reply to the letter, writing: "This is born from the same root, why is it too anxious to fry each other? The same Chinese soldiers, the great enemy is present, why bother to meet each other? Wouldn't it be nice to turn hostility into jade silk?" After writing it, let the person who sent the letter bring it back to Shangguan Yunxiang.

Shangguan Yunxiang read Wang Haitao's reply, gritted his teeth and said: "Good Wang Haitao, I persuaded him to leave, but he persuaded me to quit the army! Since you can't listen to the persuasion, don't blame me for not being merciful." Shangguan Yunxiang shouted: "Someone!" The guard at the door responded and entered. Shangguan Yunxiang asked the guards to call a few combat staff officers and gave the order for an all-out attack.

In front of the first line of positions laid by Wang Haitao outside Wusha Town, the 79th Division took the place of the original 40th Division, and the officers and men were making preparations before the attack. On the left and right flanks of the 79th Division were the 144th Division of the 50th Army and the newly formed 7th Division. However, these two divisions of the Sichuan Army could not be compared with the main division such as the 79th Division in terms of combat effectiveness and numbers, and before the 52nd and 62nd Divisions arrived, they could only play the role of "playing soy sauce".

Shangguan Yunxiang stood on a high slope, observing the defenders' positions with a telescope, and his command post was guarded by the rest of the 40th Division, and there was another main division, the 108th Division, by the side of the 40th Division. After knowing that the defenders had a large number of mortars, Shangguan Yunxiang concentrated the two artillery battalions of the 79th Division and the 108th Division.

Each of these two artillery battalions had 12 French Schneider 75 mm guns, which were outdated and inpowerful, but had a range of nearly 9,000 meters that were much stronger than mortars. The current situation is that although the artillery of the national army has only 24 guns, it can directly bombard the defenders' positions, while Wang Haitao's mortars have a large number, but they cannot counterattack the artillery positions of the national army.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Shangguan Yunxiang gave an order, and the attack of the national army began, and 24 mountain artillery desperately dumped shells on the defenders' positions. If any of the main divisions of the 90th Army were present on the position, it would not have been taken seriously at all, and the bombardment of these 20 or so mountain guns would have been trivial compared to the bombardment of the Japanese heavy artillery.

But only the soldiers of the independent regiment were defending on the position, and almost none of these fighters had engaged in large-scale positional offensive and defensive battles with the Japanese army, plus the third and fourth battalions still had some recruits. The fierce shelling frightened the fighters of the Independence Regiment, no matter how well they trained in peacetime, they could not become a real veteran without experiencing real battles.

Fortunately, the key officers in the independent regiment were all promoted by veterans who had experienced the war, and because of their constant encouragement and example for the soldiers, the soldiers did not become completely panicked. But there were still a small number of recruits who scurried around in a panic, and instead fell into the shrapnel flying around. The mountain artillery of the Nationalist army bombarded for 20 minutes in one go, and nearly 100 officers and men of the Independent Regiment were killed and wounded under the artillery fire of the Nationalist army.

As soon as the artillery bombardment of the Nationalist army ended, the soldiers of a regiment of the 79th Division opened a skirmish line in front of the position, and under the cover of more than a dozen Mark heavy machine guns in the rear, they bent down and launched an attack. The officers and men of the Separate Regiment were being pinned down in the fortifications and trenches by artillery fire, and as soon as the artillery fire stopped, the officers immediately directed their fighters into combat positions. A heavy machine gun protruded from the bunker, and the heavy machine gun team was all in position.

The heavy machine gun bunkers on the position were relatively strong, only two or three bunkers were damaged in the shelling, and most of them were intact, at this time dozens of light and heavy machine guns were aimed at the target, and the weapons in the hands of other fighters were also aimed at these soldiers who were attacking. When the officers and men of the Nationalist army who were attacking forward and advanced to less than 200 meters from the position, Huang Guizhong gave the order to open fire.

At the sound of the order, the position was opened with light and heavy fire, and a dense stream of bullets flew like a rain of bullets towards the attacking soldiers. The soldiers of the national army who walked in front fell down in pieces like cut wheat in front of the bullets that flew like raindrops, and the soldiers behind hurriedly lay on the ground in fright. The officer who commanded the attack still commanded the soldiers lying on the ground to open fire on the position, and suddenly the gunfire of the two sides on the battlefield was fierce.

Without the threat of artillery, the officers and men of the independent regiment gradually regained their self-confidence, and the combination of strafing machine gun fire and accurate rifle fire made the attacking national officers and men complain, and under the shouting and scolding of the officers who commanded the attack, the national soldiers crawled forward for a distance in the face of the rain of bullets, but after a distance of nearly 100 meters, the shooting on the position was more accurate, and the casualties of the national army were more heavy.

After more than half an hour, this regiment lost almost one-third of its soldiers in the attack, and Duan Linmao, the division commander who was watching the battle behind, saw that the casualties were too great and had to order a retreat. After receiving the order to retreat, the attacking officers and soldiers finally breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew from the battlefield in a row. After the ceasefire, the 79th Division sent medical personnel to the battlefield to rescue the wounded, and the defenders on the position did not stop them.

The 79th Division's first attack was lost and the generals did not even touch the edge of the opponent's position, and it can be said that it was defeated. Although Duan Linmao was not convinced, he was also secretly shocked by the large number of machine guns and automatic weapons on the position. In the whole morning, the 79th Division launched four regimental attacks, but the defenders' positions were as stable as Mount Tai, but the 79th Division lost nearly 1,500 men and horses.

The morning's battle made several division commanders of the national army and Shangguan Yunxiang have a new understanding of the strength of the 90th Army, and even Shangguan Yunxiang secretly said: "This 90th Army is worthy of its name, and its strength is really strong, no wonder little Japan has never won favor in their hands." "Praise is admiration, the battle still has to be fought. Shangguan Yunxiang had already grasped the weakness of the defenders at this time, that is, the lack of troops.

At noon, the 52nd and 62nd Divisions received news that both divisions were in position and ready to attack the town of Wusha. Shangguan Yunxiang was overjoyed and ordered that after lunch, the 79th, 52nd, and 62nd divisions launched an attack on the defenders of Wusha Town from three directions at the same time. Shangguan Yun said to Fang Riying, who was accompanying him: "We will attack from three directions at the same time, I want to see how this Wang Haitao can block the simultaneous attack of my three divisions with three or four thousand men." ”

At noon, Wang Haitao had already learned from the scouts that the 52nd and 62nd Divisions of the Nationalist Army had reached both sides of Wusha Town and were showing signs of attack. Wang Haitao's independent regiment was concentrated on the three-kilometer-long defensive line on the front, and the defense on the left and right sides could only be handed over to the New Fourth Army, but in order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the New Fourth Army, Wang Haitao assigned 40 mortars to the New Fourth Army.

The second and third detachments of the Second Column of the New Fourth Army were rushing to repair their defensive positions, and at this time, the third line of positions had also been repaired, and the fortifications in Wusha Town were being strengthened. As soon as Wang Haitao's order to transfer troops arrived, the two detachments of the New Fourth Army put down the tools in their hands and quickly moved to the left and right sides of Wusha Town. Before the national army launched a full-line attack, the second detachment was on the left side of the town and the third detachment was on the right side of the town, and they had all entered the defensive position.

The position that the New Fourth Army entered was actually the second line of positions built by Wang Haitao, which was only three kilometers away from Wusha Town, and was a semicircular position with a total length of nearly four kilometers, which basically enclosed Wusha Town in the middle. However, because the time was too hasty, the position was only built in accordance with the basic requirements, and the practicality and solidity were much worse than the carefully built position.

A detachment of the Second Column is almost equivalent to a regiment in strength, less than 2,000 people. In terms of weaponry, it is still dominated by Japanese-style weapons, and there are also a small number of light and heavy machine guns and rushing and frontal guns supported by the Jurong Arsenal, and in terms of firepower, it is slightly inferior to the main force of the Central Army compared with the national army, and it is still much stronger than that of local troops, and each detachment also has an artillery squad, with captured Japanese-made 92-type infantry guns, mortars of various calibers, and more than a dozen artillery pieces together.