The 36th Division of the National Army, the division commander Chen Duanhe, has two brigades and four regiments under his jurisdiction, with a total of more than 10,000 officers and soldiers. The 71st Army is one of the five ace armies in Lao Chiang's hands, and the 36th Division is the absolute main force in the 71st Army, so you can imagine how effective their combat effectiveness is. In addition, when the position was handed over with the 91st Division, the 91st Division transferred a large number of heavy weapons captured by the Japanese army to the 71st Army.

Among these heavy weapons, the Japanese-style light and heavy machine guns are just that, the key is the dozens of 75 mountain guns, Song Xilian organized these mountain guns into a mountain artillery regiment and placed them on the main peak of Fujin Mountain. An artillery regiment is placed here, which can not only block the Yeshang road under the mountain, but also support the defensive positions on the mountainside, and on the top of the wooded mountain, the artillery regiment position is not easy to be discovered by the Japanese army, and it is difficult for the Japanese army to launch a counterattack on the artillery regiment position from the bottom of the mountain.

From Lu'an to Jinzhai, along the way, Yu Xuezhong's 51st Division used hills and rivers to continuously block the two divisions of the Japanese army. In fact, it is not a real blockade, every available terrain has set up a blocking position, but it is not hard against the Japanese army, and the Japanese army always has to shoot a burst of artillery, and then launch a first or second charge, and then retreat.

The casualties of the Japanese army on this road were not large, and more than a dozen or twenty soldiers fell in front of each position, but the speed was turtle speed, from Lu'an to Jinzhai, dozens of kilometers, the Japanese army walked for three days. When they were about to arrive in Jinzhai County, they began to divide into two routes. Yoshio Shinozuka's 10th Division advanced in the direction of Yeji, and their goal was to advance along the Shinhe Highway to Gushi County after capturing Yeji.

Fujita's 3rd Division attacked the Fujin Mountain position along the foot of Dabie Mountain, and after occupying Fujin Mountain, it entered the mall along the Yeshang Road. Only one battalion was placed in the 36th Division in Yeji Town, and after a little resistance, it abandoned Yeji and turned back to the Fujin Mountain position. After reaching the foot of Fujin Mountain, the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army set up a formation and prepared to storm Fujin Mountain.

The 36th Division, which was guarding Fujin Mountain, followed the three lines of defense of the 91st Division, and the first line of defense was still on the mountainside, which was a ring-shaped stone wall more than one meter high made of stones, with shooting holes on the wall and anti-artillery holes on the mountain wall behind the wall. On this position, there was a main regiment of more than 2,000 people defending. The overall strength of the 36th Division is on a par with that of the 91st Division, and now the 36th Division has a whole division of more than 10,000 people on Fujin Mountain, and there is also an artillery regiment on the top of the mountain for fire support. On the defensive, it is naturally easier than a brigade of the 91st Division.

The third division of the Japanese army is also a veteran standing division of the first type, and its attack power will naturally not be bad, and the division and regiment have only been reorganized, not only have the whole division and regiment been restored to more than 28,000 people, but also a batch of new artillery has just been replenished, and it is also full of confidence at this time. Facing the Fujin Mountain position, Fujita sent the 29th Infantry Brigade, and the division's artillery wing also entered the position.

The process of the attack is already the same, even if the 3rd Division is the top of the Japanese army, its attack method is exactly the same, the only difference is that the soldiers of the 3rd Division will not retreat as soon as they encounter resistance, but against the rain of bullets on the defender's position, they rush upward, and the artillery fire used for cover will not extend backwards until the soldiers rush to only 50 meters away from the defender's position.

The consequence of such an attack was heavy casualties on both sides. The Japanese army attacked with a brigade, and then a brigade of more than 1,000 people could not have a few people left to retreat. A battalion of the defenders was on the defensive line, and the second attack of the Japanese army, this battalion was almost lost. There are several reasons why the casualties of the 36th Division are much greater than those of several divisions under Wang Haitao.

First, the 36th Division did not do a good job of protecting itself, although it also had anti-artillery holes, and the officers and men of the 36th Division entered the position too early, and often as soon as the Japanese attacked, the defenders had already entered the position. After the Japanese army withdrew, they were busy treating the wounded and cleaning up the position, and did not withdraw the anti-artillery hole in time, so that the officers and soldiers were exposed to the Japanese artillery fire for too long.

Second, the distribution of firepower was not as good as that of several divisions of the 90th Army, and although the 36th Division was also a German armament division, the rifle was only a Mauser single-shot rifle, and the machine guns were not used in a centralized manner, so they did not do a good job of suppressing the Japanese army's firepower, and they did not know how to use sharpshooters to first attack the most threatening grenadiers and light and heavy machine gunners in the Japanese army in a shootout.

Third, the intensity of artillery support was insufficient, and the 36th Division could only use artillery support for artillery fire support from the artillery regiment on the top of the mountain, and because of the limited number of artillery shells, it did not dare to put it into use, and among the several divisions of the 90th Army, the 90th Division was not to mention, that is, the 91st Division and the 92nd Division, and a large number of mortars were also equipped with a large number of troops at the company and platoon level. With the support of mortars at the company and platoon levels, the Japanese mortars and 92 infantry guns did not dare to be too rampant.

Even so, in the three-day battle, the 36th Division firmly held the first line of defense, and played a casualty ratio of 1:2, which was a rare good result in the national army except for Wang Haitao's troops. In three days, there were more than 200 people left in one regiment of the 36th Division. And the 29th Infantry Brigade and the 18th Wing, which were the main attack of the Moon Army, were basically exhausted, and the entire Wing was only less than 500 people left!

Chen Duanhe, commander of the 36th Division, was naturally satisfied with this achievement, but he was not satisfied with Fujita Jin. The 10th Division was not far in front of Gushi County and forcibly crossed the Shi River, a tributary of the Huai River, to Shifodian. The 61st Division of the Nationalist Army, which was defending Gushi County, could not resist the attack of the 10th Division, nor did it fight hard with the 10th Division.

The 10th Division captured Gushi County smoothly, but looking back, the 3rd Division fell into a bitter battle, and three days passed, not only did it not advance an inch on the Fujin Mountain position, but also lost its troops. As a friendly army, he also had to help his brother troops, so Yoshio Shinozuka immediately sent a wing, wanting to carry out a sneak attack from the northwest Wuji Temple of the Fujin Mountain position, and then outflank the flank and rear of the Fujin Mountain position.

This wing was the 10th Wing of the 33rd Infantry Brigade and was personally led by Major General Kei Mitsuseya of the brigade. After the defeat of the 10th Division from Taierzhuang, the division commander was replaced by Ryosuke Isoya to Yoshio Shinozuka, but Kei Seya, the brigade commander, was still in place. The 1st Brigade of the Forward Brigade of this wing had just walked to a hilly area north of Dabie Mountain, a place called Aokoutang, when it was ambushed by the 523rd Regiment of the 88th Division, and lost half of the lives of the Japanese soldiers at once.

The death of more than 500 Japanese soldiers was not a big loss for a fully manned wing, but the shadow of the Battle of Taierzhuang always existed in the heart of Major General Seya Kei. Although the main force of the wing was still there, the commander of the Seya Kai Brigade, who had become a frightened bird, said nothing and refused to continue to advance towards the Fujin Mountain position, and the next day he turned around and retreated to Gushi County.

Fujita attacked for three days in a row, but not only did he not gain an inch, but he also lost a wing. In order to reduce casualties, Fujita took out the poison gas bombs that he had secretly carried out despite the order of the Dispatch Army Headquarters not to use poison gas bombs on a large scale. Since the last time Wuhan City exposed the Japanese army's brazen and large-scale use of poison gas bombs in defiance of the world's condemnation, the Chinese army has taken certain precautions against the use of poison gas bombs by the Japanese army.

Although the National Army units cannot be equipped with gas masks, there are still local methods, such as using wet towels to deal with poison gas. When Fujita Jin once again used poison gas on the Fujin Mountain position, the brigade of men and horses touched up, ready to kill the unconscious defenders, but unexpectedly, the originally unconscious national troops on the position suddenly jumped up, and the killed opponents became defenseless Japanese soldiers. The battle lasted only about ten minutes, and the Japanese army left behind hundreds of corpses and fled down the mountain in a hurry.

This battle made Fujita realize that gas bombs were not a panacea, and they were not necessarily that easy to use, so he also retracted his mind of using gas bombs to kill and injure the defenders in large numbers. Without the magic weapon of poison gas bombs, Fujita Shin had no choice but to continue to let the Japanese infantry carry out a strong attack, and the 29th Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army was replaced by a wing and killed the defenders again.

In the next few days, Japanese planes also came to help in the battle, and for a while, the Fujin Mountain position was covered with smoke and dust. The officers and men of the 36 th Division were nailed to their positions under the wanton bombardment of Japanese planes and artillery, and although they suffered heavy casualties, they did not lose an inch of ground in their positions. The resistance of the defenders was so stubborn that the commander of the Fujita division was also amazed!

On the eighth day of the offensive and defensive battle at Fujin Mountain, the 36th Division lost more than three-fifths of its losses, and the whole division retreated to the last line of positions, and the artillery regiment on the top of the hill was bombarded by the Japanese army, and there were only a dozen artillery pieces left, and there were no shells left. Even if it was to this extent, the division commander Chen Duanhe still let the troops stick to their positions and not easily give up an inch of position.

Fujita's 3rd Division also lost more than half, and the 29th Infantry Brigade was disabled and replaced with the 5th Infantry Brigade. At this time, the 16th Division, another strong force of the Japanese army in Hefei City, arrived in front of the commander Minoru Higashikunomiya Minoruhiko. Commander Minoru Higashikunomiya saw that your 16th Division was coming just in time, and the attack in front was not smooth, so your new force is coming, so hurry up and go to support!

As a result, the 16th Division was divided into two, and the 19th Brigade, led by the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Keisuke Fujie, went to Gushi County to support the 10th Division. Didn't the 10th Division smoothly take the county seat of Gushi? Why did it need reinforcements? This is what will be said later, so let's not talk about it here. The other 30th Brigade was led by the brigade commander Major General Kazuto Sasaki, and hurried to Fujin Mountain to support the 3rd Division.

When Major General Sasaki was still a very clever Japanese commander, when he learned that the 3rd Division's frontal attack on the Fujin Mountain position was very difficult, he did not rush to the frontal position of Fujin Mountain at once, but took a fancy to the Shimenkou position, which was the junction of the 114th Division of the 51st Army and the 36th Army. Major General Sasaki Ichi, commanding the 30th Brigade, aimed at the Ishimon position and launched a fierce attack.