Although the heavy machine gun fortress was not afraid of the bombardment of the Japanese Type 92 infantry guns, the smoke and dust still affected the shooter's line of sight, and the Japanese took the opportunity to attack several dozen meters forward. Chu Xifeng saw that how could he let the Japanese Type 92 infantry artillery be powerful, and immediately ordered the mortars of the heavy fire company to counterattack.

The heavy fire company of eight 82-caliber mortars and a dozen 60-caliber mortars simultaneously counterattacked the Japanese Type 92 infantry artillery positions. The Japanese knew that the defenders had small-caliber mortars, but they did not expect so many mortar shells to come at once. Suddenly, the artillery positions of the 236th Wing were in flames. Seeing that the Japanese Type 92 infantry artillery was destroyed, the company commander of the heavy firepower company hurriedly ordered the position to be transferred. As soon as they left their positions, the retaliatory shells of the Japanese mountain artillery wing fell.

Without the interference of the Type 92 infantry guns, the Type 67 heavy machine guns completely suppressed the eight heavy machine guns of the Japanese heavy machine gun squadron, and now the Japanese infantry attack was unable to move an inch, and the captain who commanded the attack could only order a retreat when he saw that the losses were getting bigger and bigger. The Japanese army attacked four times in the morning and was beaten back by the second battalion, the Japanese suffered a lot of losses, and the second battalion also suffered a lot of casualties.

On the side of the 271st Brigade, after the Japanese Third Division reached the north bank of the Liuyang River, the division commander Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga was at a loss for help when facing the positions on the south side of the Liuyang River and the river. If you want to cross the river, you must first build a bridge, and if you want to build a bridge, you must first solve the defenders of China on the positions on the south bank of the river. But across the Liuyang River, no matter how powerful the artillery fire is, it is useless for the infantry to pass through.

Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga and Chief of Staff Kiyoe Yamamoto discussed for a long time before deciding to send sappers to make a batch of rafts, and then let the infantry force cross the river on rafts under the cover of artillery fire, in an effort to take the defenders' positions on the south bank of the river. So the engineering troops worked for a long time and built dozens of rafts that could only seat a dozen or so people. The rafts were sent to the 68th Wing, and the 68th Wing drew a reinforced squadron and prepared to use these rafts to force the crossing of the Liuyang River.

The Japanese placed sandbags at the front of the rafts, set up crooked machine guns, and reinforced each raft with a grenadier canister. However, as soon as the Japanese put the raft into the water, it was discovered by the observation post of the 544th Regiment monitoring the movements of the Japanese army. The observation post immediately reported the situation to his superiors, and the brigade commander Tang Yiqun snorted coldly and said: "Good come, I just want to avenge Tang Weichu and them! ”

Without Tang Yiqun's order, Wei Hai was already on the forward position, and at this time he was standing in the trench, observing the movements of the Japanese army on the north bank of the Liuyang River with a telescope. Guarding the position were the soldiers of the first battalion, and the battalion commander Tang Fan was following Wei Hai. After observing for a while, Wei Hai said to Tang Fan: "Tang Fan, there must have been an artillery bombardment before the little Japanese forced crossing, you let the soldiers hide first, and then fire when the little Japanese raft reaches the middle of the river, this time use all the mortars of your battalion, Lao Tzu wants to let all these little Japanese who dare to cross the river go down to the river to feed Wang Ba." Sure enough, it didn't take long for the Japanese artillery to start shelling, and this time it was not only dozens of field guns of the 3rd Field Artillery Wing that were bombing, but also twelve 15O caliber heavy howitzers of the Independent Heavy Artillery Wing also joined the bombardment.

When the Japanese army's dense artillery fire fell on the defenders' positions on the south bank of the river, the officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 544th Regiment were basically hiding in the anti-artillery holes. However, the power of the Japanese army's heavy artillery was not small, and even if the soldiers hid in the anti-artillery holes, their faces were discolored, and some of the soldiers' ears and noses were bloodshot. The trenches and sandbag fortifications on the forward positions were damaged under Japanese artillery fire.

Under the sound of Japanese artillery, an infantry reinforced squadron pushed the raft into the water, and then boarded the raft one after another and rowed towards the south bank of the Liuyang River. The Liuyang River is not wide, the current is not too fast, there is not much effort, the raft at the front is almost in the middle of the river, the observation post hurriedly reported the situation to the regiment commander Wei Hai, Wei Hai asked the first battalion commander Tang Fan to take his men into the position, and on the other hand let the forced artillery prepare for battle.

The fighters of the first battalion had just entered the position under Japanese artillery fire, and dozens of mortars behind them fired shells at the rafts on the river from different positions. One after another, the shells hit a column of water on the surface of the river, and after the unlucky raft was hit directly, it quickly dispersed, and the Japanese soldiers on the raft screamed and fell into the Liuyang River.

As soon as the defenders' mortars rang out, the Japanese artillery finally had a direct target. After adjusting the muzzle, he turned to several mortar positions and fired shells. However, the artillery of the 544th Regiment had already prepared for the Japanese artillery to return fire, and after each gun quickly fired a few shells, the commander of the heavy fire company ordered to quickly move the position. Because of the timely transfer, the Japanese artillery fire did not damage the gravity company.

When the mortar position attracted Japanese fire, a battalion of the forward position had already entered the position, and all the fighters had found suitable cover and waited for the order to open fire from above. Only half of the rafts that the Japanese forced to cross could get close to the south bank of the Liuyang River, but they approached the south bank, and more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns on the position fired at the Japanese troops on the raft at the same time.

Under the blockade of more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns, soldiers were constantly shot and fell. But the crooked machine guns and grenadiers mounted at the head of the raft also began to return fire at the defenders' positions. It's just that the raft is constantly fluctuating on it, and the accuracy of the machine guns and grenadiers is too poor, and the fight is quite happy, but there are not many soldiers in the first battalion. Instead, they became the target of sharpshooters in the second battalion.

The captain of the Japanese army saw that the casualties were not small, and the defenders had artillery, so he could only order a retreat. Then the Japanese army launched a second attack, all of which were beaten back in a company, and after a few rounds, the Japanese suffered hundreds of casualties, and more than 20 people were killed and more than 30 were wounded, but the good thing is that these recruits have passed the initial discomfort and are becoming more and more on par with the veterans.

At ten o'clock in the evening, all the men and horses of the 40th Division had arrived, and Yoshio Kamegawa Osaku also rushed to report the situation to the division commander, Lieutenant General Aoki Seiichi. Considering that his troops were not good at night fighting, Lieutenant General Aoki Seiichi ordered the offensive to be stopped, and the army camped on the spot until tomorrow.

The Japanese attack stopped, and the commander of a company on the position also breathed a sigh of relief, after all, he only had the strength of a company, and the Japanese army attacked several times, and there were dozens of dead and wounded in one company, and it was almost halfway through.

Now that the Japanese army had stopped attacking, the commander of the first company sent people to send the seriously wounded down while asking the soldiers to repair the fortifications. As soon as the wounded were sent down, the battalion commander Chu Xifeng came up with the second company and the battalion guard platoon, and also brought supplementary ammunition and food. The soldiers of the first company hurried to eat some food, and the commander of the first company came to Chu Xifeng to report on the battle just now. In order to complete the task, Chu Xifeng left three companies as reserves, and put all his forces on the position, including four Type 67 heavy machine guns and four 82 mm mortars of the heavy fire company. In this way, there are no less than ten light and heavy machine guns on the position, plus twelve mortars, and for a day of guarding, Chu Xifeng is still sure.

The 40th Division of the Japanese Army, in the attack in the past few days, the losses are not small, the 234th Wing and the 235th Wing have lost more than 1,000 soldiers, only the 236th Wing has not participated in the battle much, there are no losses, so the task of the main attack tomorrow will fall on the 236th Wing, for the 236th Wing's attack tomorrow will be smooth, Lieutenant General Aoki Seiichi ordered the 40th Wing of the Tomorrow Mountain Artillery to cooperate with the actions of the 236th Wing.

The next morning, after a symbolic breakfast for the Japanese, thirty-six 75-caliber mountain guns of the 40th Mountain Artillery Wing began to bombard the defenders' positions. Chu Xifeng, who had been prepared for a long time, except for leaving observation posts in several bunkers, the rest of the soldiers hid in the repaired anti-artillery holes behind the position.

The mountain artillery is not very powerful, but it is much better than the Type 92 infantry gun, and there are a lot of them, so the momentum of the shells falling on the position is much stronger than yesterday. The veterans in the anti-artillery hole looked calm, but the faces of the recruits were shocked. In order to ease the tension of the recruits, the veterans talked about the scene when they participated in the battle.

The recruits listened attentively to the stories of the veterans, and the tension in their hearts couldn't help but ease a lot. After more than ten minutes of shelling, the artillery fire extended behind the position, and the experienced veteran immediately knew that the attack of the Japanese infantry had begun, and he was about to enter the position.

The officers and men of the first company were obviously much calmer after several hours of fighting yesterday, and the veterans of the second company were also seizing the last time to explain something to the recruits. Soon the order to the position came, and the soldiers drilled out of the anti-artillery holes in turn, followed the communication trenches, and rushed to the position.

As soon as they entered the position, an infantry brigade of the Japanese army was only less than 300 meters away from the position, and the artillery fire of the Japanese 75-caliber mountain artillery was extended backwards, but the artillery fire of the 92-caliber infantry guns and mortars of the wing was still bombarding the forward position. The bunkers were left undamaged, while the trenches and sandbag fortifications were more or less damaged.

At this time, the soldiers did not care about the damaged fortifications, and quickly crouched down in the trenches and available bunkers, and one by one the black muzzles of their guns were aimed at the Japanese soldiers who were attacking the position, waiting for the order from their superiors to open fire. At 250 meters and 200 meters, the order to open fire came, and the position was full of firepower, and more than 10 light and heavy machine guns fired cross-fire, sweeping down the attacking Japanese troops and suppressing the Japanese attack. The rest of the submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles also fired bullets at the Japanese troops.

Seeing that the firepower on the position was more fierce than yesterday, Kamegawa Yoshio Osaku hurriedly ordered the muzzle of the Type 92 infantry gun to strike at the machine gun fire point on the position, and hit the defender's machine gun fire point, and ordered the heavy machine gun squadron to suppress the fire on the ground.