Just when the blocking battle had reached a fever pitch, there was a burst of mortar firing sound of "knock, knock, knock" in the rear of the position of the four regiments, and one by one* fell among the Japanese soldiers who were attacking and advancing, and some shells accurately landed on the heads of the advancing chariots. The sudden bombardment caused the unsuspecting Japanese army to be confused.

Compared with the tanks in Wang Haitao's hands, the Japanese tanks could not even compare with the heavy armored vehicles, let alone those tanks. After the heavy armored vehicle in Wang Haitao's hand was hit, as long as it did not directly hit the vital part, there would be no major damage, and the six combat vehicles of the Japanese army were successively lying on their stomachs in the mortar bombardment, and two of them were directly hit by bullets and caught fire.

Seeing the attacking Japanese troops, not only were the infantry bombed in a mess, killed and wounded, and even the invincible chariots were directly destroyed, the soldiers on the position cheered, especially those soldiers who were ready to carry explosives, medicine packs, cluster grenades, and shells and Japanese chariots cheered even louder.

Seeing that his soldiers suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of artillery shells, and that the six combat vehicles that assisted in the attack were all blown up, Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki, who was watching the battle from behind, gasped and hurriedly ordered the troops to retreat.

Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki hurriedly went to see Lieutenant General Ichiro Kuno, and as soon as he arrived, Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki complained: "Your Excellency, the commander, the people of China have used a very large number of mortars, not only have one of our infantry brigades suffered heavy casualties, but also all six combat vehicles that attacked together have been blown up. ”

Ichiro Kumono thought that Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki would bring good news to him, but his complaint surprised Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono, and asked eagerly: "What are the people of China, and there are still a large number of mortars?" Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki nodded and said: "Yes, Your Excellency the division commander, one of my infantry brigades suffered nearly 500 casualties at once. ”

Lieutenant General Ichiro Kushino could not sit still in the divisional headquarters, and together with Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki, he climbed to a high ground and raised his binoculars to look in the direction of the defenders. After repelling the Japanese attack, the mortars of the 4th Regiment had all been transferred and hidden, and even the soldiers were also scattered and hidden in order to avoid the Japanese artillery bombardment.

However, several bombed-out chariots and the corpses of Japanese soldiers who died on the battlefield are vividly visible, which makes Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono angry. Putting down the binoculars, Lieutenant General Ichiro Kumono said to Major General Yoshiharu Ozaki beside him: "I immediately ordered the artillery to bombard the positions of the Shina people with all their might, and your attack must continue, if you don't take this place as soon as possible, and rescue Izumi Izumi, we can't explain to Commander Isamu Yokoyama." ”

Here at the north gate, the Japanese army continued to attack the positions of the 4th Regiment, but at the south gate, it was quiet, and the remaining 1,500 or so men of the 136th Wing were no longer able to attack the defenders' positions. At this time, Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi's retreat order was also sent to Takada Toshisada Daisa. With the order to retreat, Takada Toshisada breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly ordered his subordinates to move closer to the direction of the division headquarters. Finding that the Japanese army was retreating, Zheng Daxi, the head of the second regiment headquarters, also breathed a sigh of relief, and said excitedly to his subordinates: "Grandma, little Japan finally can't hold on, and I still think that I will be glorious here today." Quick, report the situation to the brigade immediately!"

During the time when Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo was approaching the bombing of the planes, he had already led the remnants of his defeated soldiers to retreat to the riverside. The width of the river was unprepared, and they simply could not cross it, and Lieutenant General Ide Tetsuzo did not intend to cross the Gan River. Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi was busy mobilizing troops to build a semi-circular defensive position on the periphery of the two divisional headquarters, and the soldiers saw that there was no way to retreat, so they could only rush to repair the position.

After the Japanese planes flew away, the 460th Brigade first assembled and chased forward, but after chasing for a while, the vanguard found that something was wrong, and the road was unusually calm, and there was no trace of the remnants of the Japanese army escaping. The vanguard immediately reported the situation. By the time the 460th Brigade sent scouts to find out that the Japanese had fled to the river, nearly two hours had passed.

After Li Changwu received the report from his subordinates, he looked at the map for a while and did not understand why the Japanese army retreated to the river. Raising his head from the map, Li Changwu said to himself: "How can you retreat to the river? Could it be that little Japan still wants to fight with us on its back?" Thinking of this, Li Changwu turned his head and asked his subordinates: "What is the situation in the Independent Brigade?" His subordinates replied: "Report to the division, the Independent Brigade is fighting fiercely with Japanese reinforcements there, and now the tugboat port town is still in the hands of the Independent Brigade." ”

Li Changwu nodded and said: "The independent brigade has done a good job, this time it will be able to completely annihilate the remnants of the Japanese army, and the independent brigade should be the first to attack." Pass on my order, the whole army pursues and advances to the remnants of the Japanese army, and the remnants of the Japanese army must be annihilated as soon as possible. The division's self-propelled howitzer and artillery regiments also pressed up and were responsible for suppressing the Japanese artillery fire. After Tang Yu and Wei Bin received Li Changwu's order, they immediately commanded the troops to chase after the river.

On the riverside, the 136th Wing and the Field Artillery Wing of the Japanese Army rushed here, and the Japanese Army had the convergence of the Field Artillery Wing and the 136th Wing, with more than 10,000 people, and their morale was also boosted. When Takada Toshisada came to the division headquarters and confessed his guilt to Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi with a ashamed face, Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi scolded him countless times in his heart: "Incompetent, stupid pig!" He encouraged him with a smile on his face, and sent him to the outer position to be responsible for commanding the defense.

Commander Isamu Yokoyama kept walking back and forth in the headquarters, and after learning that the remaining 10,000 people of Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo had arrived at the riverside and were holding on to the river, he immediately ordered the river patrol troops to speed up. He also knew very well that the gunboats of the Jiang Patrol Force could not save many people at all, and with a little hope, Commander Isamu Yokoyama sent another telegram to Lieutenant General Ichiro Kuno, urging them to open the passage as soon as possible and rescue the trapped Japanese troops.

Lieutenant General Ichiro Kushino was also very anxious, but the small town in front of him was like a stubborn stone blocking the road, and no matter how his tens of thousands of troops attacked in turn, they couldn't take it. No, within two hours, the 13th Independent Brigade launched three more attacks, but it was still in vain. Ichiro Kushino had to withdraw the 13th Independent Brigade and replace it with the 225th Wing of his own division to attack the defenders' positions.

The 225th Wing was the most combat-ready of the three wings of the 37th Division, and the soldiers were all veterans from Kumamoto. At this time, in the last few blockades, the mortars of the fourth regiment were used too frequently, and most of them were destroyed by the superior artillery fire of the Japanese army, and Chen Yishan, the only remaining 20 mortars, had to be used carefully. It is not yet known when the battle will end.

At present, the soldiers on the third line of positions are still the main force of the third battalion, but the number is less than 500 people, but fortunately, they can still be supported by the fire of the heavy machine gun fire points on the city wall, and they can barely support it. The Japanese attacked again before the usual fierce shelling, but this shelling also took care of the city wall, which had experienced many blows, and was already crumbling in the artillery bombardment.

Seeing that the city wall might not be able to hold on, the commander of a regiment and a battalion could only withdraw all the soldiers on the city wall, and at this moment, the Japanese infantry attacked with the landing point of the shells. When the Japanese troops were only 150 meters away from the position, the commander of the third battalion saw that the shelling had not stopped, so he could only order the troops to enter the position under the Japanese artillery fire. As soon as the position opened fire, the officers and men of the third battalion immediately realized that the Japanese infantry in this attack was very different from the previous ones.

The Japanese soldiers who attacked this time were more open, and they were more adept at making use of various terrain types, and no one would stupidly stand up and move forward, all bowing to their waists and moving forward in concealment. Moreover, when firing back, the marksmanship was also much more accurate, especially the grenadier was very accurate, and there was not much effort, and there was already a heavy machine gun fire point and two light machine guns destroyed by the grenadier canister.

Fortunately, there were many automatic weapons on the position, and the charging and fronting guns were no less powerful than light machine guns at this distance, so with superior firepower, the Japanese attack was still suppressed about a hundred meters in front of the position. In peacetime, when the Japanese troops were about 200 meters away from the position, the shelling would stop, but this time the Japanese attacked only 100 meters from the position, and the shelling continued.

In desperation, the commander of the third battalion pulled the signal corps and yelled in his ear: "Quick, ask for help from the regimental seat, the third battalion will not last long!" As soon as the signal corps heard this, he immediately turned around and rushed towards the regimental command post.

Although the fortifications where the regimental command post was located, they were also dusty under the shelling of the Japanese army. The signal soldiers of the third battalion gasped and rushed into the regimental command post, startling Chen Yishan. Knowing that the commander of the third battalion had sent him to ask for help, Chen Yishan did not hesitate to send his guard company up, and the commander of the first battalion asked worriedly: "Tuanza, are we also asking for support from the brigade? The first regiment and the first battalion are at the gate of the city, and the pressure on them is much less as soon as they come up." ”

Chen Yishan hesitated for a moment and replied: "It's not time to ask for help, I don't know what happened to the south gate, if the south gate can support it, the brigade will consider us here." It's good to be able to keep it for a while now, and when you can't hold it anymore, I'll report to the brigade. In fact, after the Japanese army retreated outside the south gate, Huang Guizhong was already thinking about reinforcing the north gate.

It's just that I don't know if the Japanese army will go and return, so I won't move. At this time, with the fierce gunfire and continuous shell explosions outside the north gate, Huang Guizhong finally ordered the second regiment to continue to garrison the whole army on the position outside the south gate, and the first regiment, the second battalion, and the third battalion were all transferred to the north gate, and depending on the situation of the fourth regiment, they were ready to reinforce the fourth regiment at any time. In order to facilitate the command, Huang Guizhong sent Wang Lili, the commander of the first regiment, to the north gate.