Commander Isamu Yokoyama relieved his mind a little after knowing that the flight unit had sent two flying teams to the battlefield in Zhangshu to support the infantry division. He slowly walked over to the large battle map hanging on the wall, thinking about his thoughts as he looked at it. When he carefully found the location of the tugboat port town and found that the town was located on the edge of the Gan River, an idea suddenly came to his mind.

Commander Isamu Yokoyama walked quickly to his desk and grabbed the telephone again, this time to get through to the headquarters of the Surface Patrol Brigade on the edge of the Nanchang wharf. As soon as Yoshio Kawaguchi, the captain of the surface patrol group, picked up the phone, the voice of Commander Isamu Yokoyama's order came. "Kawaguchi Daisa, all the patrol gunboats of your department immediately rushed to the tugboat port town south of Zhangshu to meet the 32nd Division and the 116th Division. ”

The Nanchang City Surface Patrol Brigade has four 30-ton gunboats and six 10-ton small gunboats, and its main task is to patrol the Ganjiang River and prevent the Chinese army from using the Ganjiang River to smuggle military supplies. After receiving the order personally issued by Commander Isamu Yokoyama, how dare Yoshio Kawaguchi dare to slack off, and immediately give orders to his subordinates, and the Nanchang dock was in chaos, only to see the Japanese soldiers running desperately towards several gunboats in the whistle.

There were two large gunboats and three small gunboats parked on the Nanchang dock, and the rest of the gunboats were patrolling the river, and they could not receive orders for a while. Soon, black smoke came out of the five large and small gunboats and drove away from the dock and drove quickly in the direction of Zhangshu City. Receiving a reply from Yoshio Kawaguchi, Commander Isamu Yokoyama had his men send a telegram to Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo.

The telegram told Lieutenant General Iide that he had sent his flying troops to support and let them approach the river, and that the gunboats patrolling the river were also rushing to other places, and that they could withdraw if necessary. After sending the telegram, Commander Isamu Yokoyama sat down at his desk, and now he used all the methods he could, and whether he could save the two divisions could only obey the orders of heaven.

After receiving the telegram from Commander Isamu Yokoyama, Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo immediately took the remaining troops to move closer to the Gan River, and at the same time did not forget to ask Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi to give an order to the 136th Wing to come and join him. Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo knew very well that he would not be able to save the more than 10,000 officers and men under his command with a few gunboats patrolling the river, and it would not be difficult for himself and Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi and other senior officers to escape.

In order to slow down the pursuing Chinese army, Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo ordered his troops to abandon all unused military supplies and pile them up on the highway and burn them. This trick really worked, and the chariots of the pursuing troops could not advance on the road, so they could only detour from the side, and the speed of the pursuit was slowed down at once. And when the sky was slightly bright, the burning flames just pointed the way for the Japanese planes that flew in to support.

Seeing that the Japanese army sent planes to support before dawn, Li Changwu, who led the pursuit, knew that the Japanese army was in a hurry, and that he was pursuing two divisions and regimental headquarters, and if these two divisions and regimental headquarters were all wiped out here, I am afraid that the base camp of the Japanese army would be shocked. The pursuing troops lacked anti-aircraft weapons, and in the face of the bombing by a large number of Japanese aircraft, they could only disperse and conceal first.

In Wang Haitao's headquarters in Zhangshu City, information from all over the country was reported to Wang Haitao, and Wang Haitao always looked calm. Now Wang Haitao can be said to have achieved the original goal very well, as for the two divisions and regiments of the Japanese army, it is best to be able to eat them, even if they let them escape, there is nothing unacceptable. After all, this is a battle of less to more, and to achieve such results under such casualties, Wang Haitao is already very satisfied with his troops.

Wang Haitao did not express dissatisfaction, but the 460th Brigade and the 462nd Brigade in front were not reconciled, Tang Yu and Wei Bin met each other, Wei Bin said: "As long as the tugboat port town is still in the hands of the independent brigade, it will not be so easy for little Japan to escape, and the little Japanese plane will not last long and will return, and then we will speed up to catch up." Tang Yu nodded and replied: "It's okay, little Japan can't run far, and now our chariots and soldiers can't afford to lose, so let's let little Japan escape for a while." ”

In fact, they did not know that not only the pursuing troops were being bombed by Japanese planes, but also the defending positions in and outside the tugboat port town were also being bombed by Japanese planes. Huang Guizhong was dragged by his men to a strong bunker to avoid the bombing of Japanese planes, but the officers and soldiers and civilians in the town suffered many casualties in the bombing. Especially those civilians, they did not have much training, and as soon as the Japanese plane* landed, the panicked civilians rushed in all directions, but were killed and injured by the bombing.

Seeing the chaotic scene in the town, Huang Guizhong forcibly rushed out of the bunker despite the obstruction of the guards around him, shouting loudly and directing the people to hide. Seeing that the brigade commanders all rushed into the streets, the officers and soldiers who stayed in the town also rushed out of their hiding places one after another, regardless of life and death, to help the people escape the bombardment. There were also fighters who set up machine guns and opened fire on planes in the air.

On the Japanese position outside the north gate of the town, Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono looked at the town shrouded in gunsmoke, dust and fire with a smile on his face, and proudly said to Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki, the commander of the 13th Independent Brigade: "Under the bombardment of the flying troops, the Chinese army will definitely suffer heavy casualties. When the bombardment is over, our army will immediately attack, and I will take this town in one fell swoop and destroy the Chinese people in the town. Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki also replied with a smile: "Your Excellency, Division Commander, our brigade requests to attack first. ”

The bombing by the Japanese planes lasted for more than an hour before it was over, and because the 460th and 462nd Brigades were in the field, it was relatively easy to disperse and conceal, and the casualties were not serious. The situation of the independent brigade is much more serious, but fortunately, most of the troops have been deployed in positions outside the city, and the number of officers and soldiers left in the city is not large.

Even so, the bombing caused more than 200 casualties among the officers and men of the regiment and the logistics department. The number of casualties among the people is even higher. As soon as the plane flew away, the town was busy extinguishing fires and rescuing people, and an infantry brigade of the 13th Independent Brigade of the Japanese Army outside the north gate rushed to the third line of positions where the 4th Regiment was stationed. In the bombing just now, the positions of the 4th Regiment were also bombed, but the main target of the Japanese planes was the town, and the officers and men of the 4th Regiment were concealed in a timely manner, and the casualties were not large.

However, the town's walls were sturdy* sturdy, and this ten* caused the already impregnable wall to collapse a ten-meter-long section, and a dozen soldiers and a heavy machine-gun team were buried under the bricks. The Japanese also found that the wall had collapsed for a while, so this collapsed wall became the main direction of attack.

From the telegram sent by Commander Isamu Yokoyama, Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono already saw that the situation of the two divisions south of the town was very critical. Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono looked down on Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo for directing the battle like this, and at the same time intensified the attack. After all, he couldn't save the rest of the two divisions, and he couldn't explain himself to Commander Isamu Yokoyama.

When the 13th Independent Brigade launched an attack by the infantry brigade, Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono not only ordered the artillery to support the infantry with artillery fire, but also had the chariot brigade send six tanks to attack together. In the previous battle, the tank brigade had already destroyed four tanks, and the captain of the brigade, Ono Sawa Rennakasa, knew that the six tanks sent out, but he did not know how many would survive, but he still carried out the order of the division commander unconditionally.

The six chariots did not pose a danger to the other troops under Wang Haitao's command at all, with sharp weapons such as 40 rocket launchers and recoilless guns in hand, no matter how many chariots were snacks delivered to the door. But the independent brigade was different, they did not have such weapons as bazookas and recoilless guns against combat vehicles, and they also paid a lot of price for destroying four combat vehicles in the previous battle.

Looking at the six chariots moving forward and the Japanese soldiers next to the chariots, in front of the observation hole of the command post, Chen Yishan, the commander of the fourth regiment, showed a solemn expression on his face. He said to a battalion commander standing beside him: "The chariots of the little Japanese have come up again, so that the troops are ready to block the attack." The commander of the first battalion also asked with a serious expression: "Tuanzao, do you still use explosives, medicine packs, cluster grenades, and bombs?"

Chen Yishan looked at the sky, shook his head and said: "Listening to the movement outside the south gate, I am afraid that this blocking battle has also reached the last moment, and there is nothing to hide now, you go and inform the artillery, aim at the small Japanese chariot and hit hard!"

Regarding Chen Yishan's order, the commander of the first battalion would not question it at all, he saluted Chen Yishan, and hurriedly went out to convey the order. The officers and men on the position had already seen the Japanese tanks and infantry moving forward at the same time, and needless to say from the officers, some soldiers were already preparing explosives, powder packs, and cluster grenades and shells.

The first two positions had been lost, and the third line had officers and men of the 1st and 2nd battalions who had been withdrawn from the front, but the main force of defense was still the 3rd battalion, and the commander of the 3rd battalion was responsible for directing the battle. Behind the position was the city wall, and the city wall had been blown down for a while, and now the second regiment had no way to retreat. Think about the oath of the regiment commander when he entered the position: As long as there is still one person in the second regiment, no small Japanese will be allowed to pass over the position! The soldiers' hands holding their guns tightened a little.

The Japanese army approached the position step by step, and when it was less than 200 meters, the commander of the third battalion ordered to open fire, and suddenly the position was full of firepower, although the bullets could not withstand the Japanese tank, but the Japanese soldiers were constantly being shot and fell. At this time, the small artillery and heavy machine guns of the Japanese army covering the attack also fired shells and bullets at the defenders' positions more frantically, and soldiers on the positions were also constantly shot and fell.