For the officers and men of the 543rd Regiment who had been trained for a long time, the four-meter-high cliff was nothing, and they were worried that they would be attacked by the Japanese army during the climb, so the soldiers of the first battalion were climbing the cliff, and the other soldiers were fully prepared for the Japanese attack. Soon the soldiers of the first battalion who climbed the cliff boarded the Japanese position on the cliff, and the Japanese attack did not come, and then the tense regiment commander Tang Weimin breathed a sigh of relief.

The officers and men of the 1st Battalion, who climbed the cliff, saw the Japanese positions in front of them and found that they did not have much to do except clean up the battlefield. The Japanese position in front of him overlapped with a large crater blown up by heavy artillery, the blood on the ground flowed like a stream to the low recess, there were not many Japanese soldiers on the position who could leave a whole corpse, there were stumps and broken flesh everywhere, even the officers and soldiers of the battalion who had been fighting for a long time were frowning at the strong smell of blood and the hellish scene, and several recruits were even more pale.

Tang Yiqiang, the commander of the first battalion, stood on a high place on the position, frowned and ordered the soldiers to search for the remnants of the enemy on the position and clean up the battlefield, the position is not large, only a small road leads to the top of the mountain, perhaps a few shells at the beginning of the explosion of this only outward road, so that the Japanese troops on the position can not withdraw at all, can only let the shells fall around.

During the search, several fighters found a cave, and after throwing a few grenades and bullets into the cave, a platoon of fighters rushed into the cave. Before a soldier came to report to Tang Yiqiang, more than a dozen Japanese corpses were found in the cave and a downward hole. Tang Yiqiang realized that this should be the entrance to the mountainside. So Tang Yiqiang immediately ordered a company commander to lead a company to search and advance into the hole.

After the commander of a company and the soldiers carefully passed through the hole, they found that there was another semi-natural and semi-artificial cave in the belly of the mountain, this cave was obviously expanded and transformed by the Japanese army, and several shooting holes were opened in the mountain wall, and a machine gun squadron was stationed in the cave, and more than 100 Japanese soldiers of this machine gun squadron were bombarded by heavy artillery, although they did not directly face the artillery fire, but the shock wave of the explosion still killed the vast majority of soldiers, and only a few soldiers who were not dead after being seriously injured fell to the ground and were dying.

Dealing with these seriously wounded soldiers, a company commander returned to the position with more than ten intact light and heavy machine guns and ammunition, and the battlefield on this position was basically cleaned. Soon the brigade commander Tang Yiqun received Tang Weimin's report.

Tang Yiqun immediately ordered the 543rd Regiment to rest on the spot, and ordered the 544th Regiment to launch an attack on the last hill of the Japanese position in Yumu Mountain. After a series of orders were conveyed, Tang Yiqun sent a signal corps to report the battle situation to Wang Haitao. Wang Haitao, the commander of Tang Yiqun, did not interfere, but only sent several artillery observers down the mountain to accompany the 544th Regiment, and their task was to send back the azimuth coordinates of the heavy artillery position that needed to be attacked when the 544th Regiment needed heavy artillery support.

The last hill of Yumu Mountain is connected to the mountain that has just been conquered, and there is a ridge that is not wide between the two mountains. Perhaps it was the ferocious artillery fire that frightened the Japanese troops on the hill just now, and when the front hill was attacked, the Japanese troops on the back hill did not send reinforcements. As soon as Wei Hai, the commander of the 544th Regiment, crossed the top of the mountain in front of him, a search pioneer came back to report that he had found a Japanese defensive position at the end of the ridge.

Wei Hai hurriedly came to the front and observed the Japanese defensive position under the guidance of the sharp soldiers. In front of me, a ridge about 30 meters wide and about 300 meters long is set between two hills, the slope on both sides of the ridge is very steep, basically impossible to walk, and at the end of the ridge you can see the Japanese defensive position dominated by trenches. The Japanese positions were hidden among rocks and trees, and in addition to a trench, you can see bunkers made of sandbags and trees.

After observing the Japanese position for a while, and listening to the top soldier say that there was about an infantry squadron on the Japanese position, Wei Hai already knew the Japanese position, so he left the place of observation. In this way, if you want to attack on the ridge, it is the limit to invest one battalion at a time, and no matter how many troops cannot be deployed, it will be in vain, but it will cause greater casualties because it is too dense.

When Wei Hai returned to the command post, his first order was to let Wei Yongqiang, the commander of the heavy fire battalion, concentrate the heavy mortars of the whole regiment to build artillery positions, and then build two heavy machine gun positions on both sides of the ridge. The 544th Regiment was able to concentrate 45 heavy mortars, of which 20 were 120 mm heavy mortars, and the rest were 100 mm heavy mortars.

After giving the task to the heavy fire battalion, Wei Hai handed over the task of the first attack to the first battalion, and the commander of the first battalion, Tang Weikang, rushed to take the task and returned to the first battalion, and immediately the first battalion took action as a whole to prepare for the attack. Due to the particularity of the terrain, Tang Weikang only sent one company to prepare for the first attack, and more than 100 people could maintain a relatively dispersed attack formation on a 30-meter-wide ridge.

It was almost evening, a group of birds and birds in the air felt the murderous aura in the woods, flying and screaming but did not dare to fall, Wei Hai looked at the sky, and gave the order to attack, he was ready to take the Japanese position before it was dark. Soon the sound of continuous fire from heavy mortars sounded behind him, and Wei Hai left the command post, stood on a high place, raised his binoculars and observed the effect of the shelling.

The Japanese positions were set up in the woods, and the mortar shelling effect was not very good due to the influence of branches and leaves, but as the shelling continued, the effect was still apparent, and the power of the heavy mortars was still good, and the Japanese positions were filled with gunsmoke and fire. Ten minutes later, the machine guns on the heavy machine gun positions began to roar, and more than 100 officers and men of a battalion and a company opened a skirmish line and began to attack the Japanese positions.

The first half of the ridge was relatively favorable to the attackers, with rocks and trees of various sizes to use as cover, and it didn't take long for them to advance nearly 200 meters. The last 100 meters were apparently cleared by the Japanese army, and the larger rocks were cleared and the trees were cut down and rafted. Several machine-gun fire points on the Japanese positions were hidden in bunkers, blocking the front of the ridge thirty meters wide with crossfire.

The attacking troops approached the Japanese positions, and the shelling of the artillery gradually stopped, and only the heavy machine guns on the two heavy machine gun positions continued to suppress the Japanese fire. It was not difficult to deal with the Japanese machine-gun fire points, there were bazooka groups, and this kind of sandbag and tree bunker was enough to destroy with only one rocket or projectile, but the Japanese soldiers in the trench did not suffer much casualties in the shelling, and they could still form dense firepower.

The commander of the first company first commanded two groups of bazooka groups to destroy several heavy machine gun fire points with rockets and shells in a row, and then asked his subordinates to try to attack once under the cover of machine guns, but the attacking fighters only advanced 30 meters before being suppressed by the Japanese on the ground, and the Japanese army's accurate shooting also caused more than 10 casualties to the troops. The commander of the first company could only ask the soldiers to withdraw first and then find a way.

Just when the commander of the first company had nothing to do, Tang Weikang went to the front line and asked about the situation, and Tang Weikang transferred the six 60-mm light mortars of the heavy fire company in the battalion. Light mortars were not very powerful, but at such a close distance they could be aimed directly at Japanese trenches and fired. Sure enough, six light mortars caused heavy casualties to the Japanese in the trench with a single burst of fire, and then a company of soldiers took the opportunity to attack again.

After suffering more than 30 casualties, the officers and men of the 1st Company rushed into the Japanese trenches and fought with the remnants of the Japanese troops in the trenches. Tang Weikang immediately ordered the entire battalion to attack, and soon the first battalion annihilated all the Japanese troops in the trench and captured the trench. Just when Tang Weikang breathed a sigh of relief and was about to report to Wei Hai that he had captured the Japanese position, some of his subordinates ran over to report that the second line of Japanese positions had been discovered in front.

Tang Weikang was startled, and hurriedly approached to observe, and did not go far before he discovered the second line of Japanese positions in the woods. The ridge had already been crossed, and although the ground was still uneven, the front of the Japanese position was much wider, and Tang Weikang visually measured that the front of the Japanese trench was nearly 100 meters wide. This position was not as rudimentary as the one that had just been captured, not only did it have two trenches, but there were also bunkers made of rocks, and the number of Japanese troops on the position far exceeded that of the first line.

The distance between the two positions was about 200 meters, and there were only some low miscellaneous trees between them, and there were no thick trees that could be used for cover, and the Japanese positions were in high positions, so it was somewhat difficult to attack. Tang Weikang was not so arrogant that he thought that he could capture the Japanese position with the strength of his own battalion, so he immediately sent someone to report to Wei Hai. Soon Wei Hai came to the front line.

After observing the Japanese position, Wei Hai looked at the sky that was getting dark, and understood that it was impossible to take the Japanese position before it was dark, so he ordered a battalion to be stationed in place and attack after dawn tomorrow. The order was given, and Wei Hai left the front and returned to the command post. The other two battalion commanders in the regiment, Du Haisheng and Wei Yunbao, were already waiting for Wei Hai in the command post.

While Wei Hai was in the command post and the two battalion commanders were discussing the matter of tomorrow's attack, Wang Haitao had already returned to the headquarters. Su Zuxin, Tang Longzai and the three division commanders were all in the headquarters, and Wei Xiaoshan also came to the headquarters. Wang Haitao returned to the headquarters precisely because Tang Xiaoshan brought the latest intelligence of the reconnaissance brigade. Wang Haitao: They were listening to Tang Xiaoshan's report on the contents of the intelligence.

It turned out that the encirclement of the three divisions of the Japanese army was defeated by Wang Haitao's troops, and the news that the 39th Division and the 68th Division had been heavily damaged was sent to Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama was greatly shocked, and his carefully prepared plan for encirclement and battle not only did not succeed, but suffered heavy losses, which made Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama have to pay more attention to Wang Haitao's team.

With the current strength of the 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama did not think that he could defeat Wang Haitao's troops in Hengyang City, and once the 11th Army was defeated, the situation in Hunan would be uncontrollable. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, who became nervous, reported the situation to the Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters in Wuhan, and at the same time contacted Lieutenant General Nagasawa Zuobi, commander of the 13th Army near Changsha, and asked the 13th Army to send troops to reinforce the troops in Hengyang.