On the morning of the next day, the Japanese finally came to the outside of Yichuan City, and as the vanguard, the captain of the 38th Independent Infantry Brigade, Saburo Aono Osa, stopped in front of the defensive position of the 717th Regiment of the 359th Brigade. Even if the Japanese army is a second-rate unit, the training it receives is very strict. The 38th Brigade did not rush to attack after it stopped, and Aono Saburo Daisa sent a signal corps to report to the brigade commander while asking the troops to establish an offensive position on the spot.

Soon eight heavy machine guns of the machine gun squadron at the front of the Japanese position were erected, and behind the machine gun position, four Type 92 infantry guns and eight 80 mm caliber mortars were also erected, and the gunners opened the ammunition boxes and were ready to fire at any time. Behind the artillery position, one infantry squadron was lined up, and as soon as Saburo Aono gave the order, these infantry could attack, and the other two infantry squadrons were rushing to repair their positions.

On the position of the 717th Regiment, the regiment commander Liulian was also observing the Japanese troops on the opposite side with a telescope, and beside him were deputy regiment commander Yan Fusheng and political commissar Ouyang Jiaxiang, and the three battalion commanders under him were each on the three lines of defense. Lian Lian saw in the telescope that the Japanese troops on the opposite side did not attack, but were building simple fortifications, and couldn't help but say to himself: "These devils, when they get to the front of the position, they don't attack, what the hell are they doing?"

Basically, there was no frontal positional battle with the army, and how could they know that the Japanese army was waiting for the artillery units behind to come up. The officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 717th Regiment and the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the Central Guard Regiment, who were guarding the first line of defense, were a little nervous from top to bottom when they saw that the Japanese troops were already lined up several hundred meters away and could launch an attack at any time.

Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami, the commander of the 9th Brigade of the Japanese Army, became excited when he heard the report that there were fortifications built by Tubachi Road outside Ichichuan Castle, but the number of defenders was not large. Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami feared that Tsuchihachi would use the fortified castle to stop his advance, or use superior forces to fight a war of attrition against him. But this kind of positional warfare in the field, coupled with the fact that there are not many people in the Tsuchihachi Road, is exactly the situation that Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami wants to face.

Therefore, Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami immediately ordered the two artillery squadrons to set up artillery positions, and immediately after setting up the positions, they launched artillery strikes on the defensive positions of the Tsuchiba Road. At the same time, the 39th Infantry Brigade and a regiment of the Imperial Allied Army were sent to the front, and Aono Saburo Daisa was in charge of commanding the attack. The Japanese army was in full swing preparing for an attack here, but Liu Yongsheng, commander of the first battalion of the 717th Regiment on the defending ground, and Li Zongyao, commander of the first battalion and first company of the Central Guard Regiment, quarreled.

When Li Zongyao was training, Wang Haitao's subordinates explained the immutable attack method of the Japanese army, so Li Zongyao knew that the Japanese army would definitely carry out artillery bombardment before attacking, so Li Zongyao proposed to Liu Yongsheng to let the soldiers retreat to the anti-artillery hole in the back first, and then quickly enter the position after avoiding the Japanese artillery bombardment. Liu Yongsheng disagreed, and he asked rhetorically: "What if the Japanese army takes the opportunity to touch the position?"

Li Zongyao repeatedly said that this was what the Kuomintang officers who attended the class said when he was training, and they said that the attack of Little Japan was like this and would never change. Liu Yongsheng snorted coldly and said, "Can you believe the words of the Kuomintang? Maybe they have some bad intentions!" Li Zongyao saw that he really couldn't explain Liu Yongsheng, so he had to take one of his company's soldiers to the back of the artillery hole.

As soon as Li Zongyao and the others went down, Japanese shells flew over. Not only were 36 75-caliber mountain guns bombarding, but the 92 infantry guns and mortars on the opposite position also joined the bombardment. The officers and men of the first battalion on the position were unprepared, and when the shells flew overhead, Liu Yongsheng, the commander of the first battalion, shouted in surprise: "The little devil has opened fire, everyone quickly hide!"

At this time, it was too late to hide, and most of the people could only lie tightly behind the trenches and bunkers to resign themselves to fate, and a few soldiers panicked and wanted to hide in the back of the anti-artillery holes, but in the process of running, they were knocked to the ground by the ruthless shrapnel. Fortunately, the trenches were re-changed to a zigzag shape according to Wang Haitao's opinion, and the bunkers were also re-strengthened, which avoided greater casualties.

In this way, the Japanese army's 20-minute shelling also killed and wounded more than 100 people in the first battalion, and even the battalion commander Liu Yongsheng's arm was cut by shrapnel. Before the Japanese army began to attack, a single artillery bombardment caused a big loss to the first battalion, and at this time Liu Yongsheng regretted not listening to Li Zongyao's advice. And the regiment commander Liulian couldn't help but be taken aback when he saw that the first line of defense was completely shrouded in gunpowder smoke and dust after the shelling.

Before the smoke of gunpowder on the position had dissipated, a Japanese infantry squadron and a regiment of puppet troops had already begun to attack. The puppet army was driven to the front by the Japanese army, these puppet soldiers were afraid of the Eighth Route Army but they were more afraid of the Japanese army, and under the threat of the bayonets of the Japanese army in the rear, they moved forward in fear. There were several hundred puppet troops in one regiment, and when they were still more than 200 meters away from the first line, they began to fire indiscriminately at the position.

At this time, the wounded of the first battalion had been sent down, and the first battalion and one company of the guard regiment returned to the position under the leadership of the company commander Li Zongyao. As soon as the puppet army opened fire, Li Zongyao also ordered the machine gun in the company to return fire. A company has a total of 12 light machine guns of 56 types and 5 heavy machine guns of 57 types, and after firing at the same time, the attacking puppet army suddenly fell to the ground, and the rest of the puppet army fell to the ground at once.

The Japanese small artillery was originally specially used to deal with the machine gun fire points of the defenders, but so many machine gun fire points appeared at once, and the Japanese army's small artillery knew where to fire the artillery. The group leader, Saburo Aono, hurriedly ordered the heavy machine guns in the machine gun position to open fire and suppress the machine gun fire on the position.

The Japanese heavy machine gunners were quite accurate, and under the strafing of the Japanese heavy machine guns, the soldiers on the position did not dare to raise their heads at all, and even the machine gunners of the first company of guards fell down several times. Li Zongyao was suddenly anxious, and ordered all the machine guns to shift their muzzles and fire at the Japanese heavy machine guns. After firing at each other for a few minutes, Li Zongyao saw that his side could not gain the upper hand, and ordered the four mortars of the heavy fire platoon to open fire, targeting the Japanese machine gun position.

When Wang Haitao equipped this battalion for the Eighth Route Army, he did so according to the standard of a battalion of his own troops, and each company had a heavy firepower platoon, equipped with two Type 57 heavy machine guns, three Type 56 light machine guns, two 82 recoilless guns, and four 82-caliber mortars. The gunners of the four mortars received the order to open fire, and the gunners, who had already prepared, re-aimed at the Japanese machine-gun position, and fired three rapid shots from one gun.

After the battle, the gunners immediately disassembled the mortars and shifted their positions, as they had done during training. The release of these 12 shells was still good, and five Japanese heavy machine guns were blown up at once, and the Japanese army, which was missing five heavy machine guns, was immediately at a disadvantage in the fire, and was quickly suppressed by the machine guns on the position. Aono Saburo saw through the telescope that the Eighth Route of Scraping Earth had opened fire, although it was only a few mortars, but he immediately thought that the Eighth Route Force on the position was definitely a main force.

Saburo Aono immediately ordered that four Type 92 infantry guns were responsible for dealing with these mortars on the Tsuchibachi Road, while his own eight mortars were to deal with the light and heavy machine guns on the position. With this order, the four Type 92 infantry guns of the Japanese army stopped firing and concentrated on finding the mortars on the position, while the eight mortars adjusted their muzzles and bombarded the light and heavy machine gun fire points on the position.

Several of the heavy machine guns on the position had relatively strong bunker fortifications, and after these fortifications were reinforced, the Japanese mountain artillery was not afraid, so how could they be afraid of mortars! The light machine guns were all in the sandbag fortifications, and the machine gunners immediately picked up the machine guns and moved after hearing the whistling sound of the shells flying towards them. The Japanese army's heavy bombardment did not cause much damage to the officers and men on the positions.

When the machine gun on the position turned its muzzle and fired at the Japanese heavy machine gun, the pressure on the puppet army lying on the ground was much less, and in this way, no one dared to get up. This scene made the Japanese squadron leader behind the puppet army angrily scold: "Baga!" Then he pulled out his command knife and led his squadron to attack the position. A squadron of Japanese soldiers pulled out of the stragglers, and while shooting at the position, they bent down and attacked, and when they passed by the puppet soldiers who were still lying on their stomachs, they didn't even look at these people who were still lying on the ground and pretending to be dead.

The Japanese attack was fundamentally different from the attack of the puppet army just now, they used all available terrain to disperse and quickly touch the position, these Japanese soldiers not only had good marksmanship, but also the grenadiers were also very accurate. The grenadiers often hit the trenches directly, causing casualties among the defenders. This method of attack of the Japanese army made it difficult for the machine guns on the positions to be used.

At this time, except for the soldiers of the first company of guards, the other soldiers on the position were shooting at the attacking Japanese troops, but helplessly, on the one hand, the soldiers' marksmanship was a little worse, and on the other hand, the rifle firepower was not good. Only a few sharpshooters who participated in the shooting of the guards had some effect on the Japanese army's return fire.

Liu Yongsheng, the commander of the first battalion, was also anxious when he saw that the Japanese army was getting closer and closer to the position. When the soldiers in front of the Japanese army were only 100 meters away from the position, and Liu Yongsheng had already ordered * to prepare, the guards opened fire in full force, not only the light and heavy machine guns swept towards the Japanese soldiers, but also the * and semi-automatic rifles in the hands of the soldiers also opened fire. The soldiers of the first company of the guard were much stronger than the soldiers of the first battalion in marksmanship, and the weapons in their hands were stronger, so they suppressed the attacking Japanese troops at this time.

From the beginning of the Japanese artillery bombardment to the present, nearly an hour has passed, and the infantry squadron attacking by Saburo Aono Osami has been crushed to death by the fire on the position, and it is difficult to take a step forward except for the continuous increase in casualties, while the Imperial Allied Army has been lying on the ground and pretending to be dead. In this case, Saburo Aono could only order to withdraw first. When Xin received the signal to retreat, the puppet soldiers reacted the fastest, immediately jumped up from the ground, and rushed to their positions without looking back.