Major General Tang Zhence was also observing the defending positions on the outskirts of Changsha City with a telescope, and listened to the words of the division commander, Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji, who was not as excited as Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga. Major General Tang Zhence has always led the Fifth Brigade to the forefront, so he will not be as blindly optimistic as Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji, and in the battles of the past few days, Major General Tang Zhence clearly knows how difficult the opponent he is facing.

Although the 29th Brigade of the division has been hidden by the division commander, Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga, the second brigade of the division, but the possibility of capturing Changsha City with this brigade is too small. Besides, I saw that the position of the Chinese army on the opposite side on the outskirts of Changsha City was very tightly built and strong, and it was a difficult position to attack.

Outside the city wall of Changsha is a spontaneous market town, along the road into Changsha City, extending out for more than a kilometer, after the 90th Army garrisoned Changsha, the merchants and people in these market towns were persuaded to leave, leaving empty houses, the 90th Army used these houses and built them into a street fort-like position. On the outermost part is the first line of defense of trenches and bunkers.

There is not much difference between the position of the 272nd Brigade outside the east gate and the position of the 271st Brigade outside the south gate, and after the division commander Tang Yikuan returned from Wang Haitao's meeting, he gave an explanation to Tang Yiqun and Zhang Lingfu, the two brigade commanders, and took the division guard regiment to sit in Tianxin Pavilion, where the division headquarters is located. According to the previous plan, both brigades placed a battalion on the first line of defense, and told the battalion commander that as long as they held it until dark, they could abandon the line and retreat.

The 271st Brigade was on the first line of defense with the 2nd Battalion of the 542nd Regiment, and although the battalion commander Wei Shan did not understand the intention of the brigade, the military order was issued in this way, and the 2nd Battalion could carry it out. The first line of defense was 500 meters wide and 100 meters deep, with two interconnected trenches. Wei Shan placed a company of troops in the first trench, and two heavy machine guns were also placed in the bunker behind the trench.

If it were another national army, the Japanese might be able to take the position with just one attack, but now in the position is a company of the 271st Brigade and the 542nd Regiment, not to mention anything else, there are 15 light and heavy machine guns alone, as well as four 60 mortars, three 40 rocket launchers, and three 82 recoilless guns, plus half of the submachine guns in the hands of the soldiers.

With such firepower to hold a frontal position 500 meters wide, battalion commander Wei Shan was still sure in his heart. Besides, the order only allowed his battalion to hold the position until dark, and it only took about ten hours, so it would be even more fine. These soldiers of the first company are all veterans of a hundred battles, and the three platoon commanders are even the old men in the tiger village back then, and in the face of the upcoming battle, they did not have the slightest nervousness or excitement, but just sat in the anti-artillery hole or bragged or smoked.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the Japanese attack began, and the first thing was naturally the same shelling, the shells fell on the positions of a few people, and the smoke of the explosion was everywhere, and none of the officers and men of the company cared about the rumbling explosions outside the anti-artillery hole, but when the dust on the roof of the cave fell on their bodies, they cursed a few words about the little Japanese and stretched out their hands to pat away the dust. And then what to do, what to do.

Twenty minutes later, the sound of artillery was quiet, the soldiers reversed the looseness just now, sorted out their weapons, and concentrated at the entrance of the anti-artillery hole, the company commander and the three platoon commanders stood in the front, the observation post had just finished reporting the situation to the company commander with a walkie-talkie, and with a wave of the company commander's hand, the soldiers carried their weapons, bent down and drilled out of the anti-artillery holes one by one, and entered their respective combat posts along the communication trenches.

The first company commander entered the bunker that was most convenient for observation and command, and the soldiers of the heavy machine gun group next to him began to lay down the Type 67 heavy machine guns, and the first company commander used a telescope to observe the attacking Japanese troops through the observation hole. It was the 18th Wing of the 29th Brigade of the Japanese Army that attacked, and the 29th Brigade did not participate in much fighting for so many days.

Wing Commander Ishii Shindasa, knowing that the division commander was anxious to capture Changsha City, simply avoided even the routine tentative attack, and when he came up, he used an infantry brigade to launch an attack under the cover of eight heavy machine guns of the wing gun and heavy machine gun squadron. The infantry brigade opened a skirmish line on a frontage 500 meters wide and quickly approached the forward position.

At a distance of 200 meters from the forward position, the blocking on the position began, a dozen light and heavy machine guns, each with a target area, with fan-shaped strafing to suppress the attacking Japanese troops, semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns for accurate fire. The four mortars also used the method of firing the second artillery to change places to hit the Japanese heavy machine gun positions and wing artillery positions. The Japanese troops who were blocked also found cover to return fire, and continued to attack and advance in the return attack.

The two sides launched a confrontation of fire, and the defenders had the advantage in individual quality, and they had more advantages in ground type and firepower, and it was difficult for the Japanese army to gain the upper hand by virtue of the superiority in numbers alone. Seeing that the attacking infantry was suppressed, Wing Commander Ishii Daisa ordered the Wing's Type 92 infantry guns to strike at the machine-gun fire points on the position, and the mortars were specially used to deal with the elusive mortars of the Shina people.

To say that the dozens of field guns now concentrated in the 271st Brigade can inflict a serious blow on the Japanese army, not to mention that the nearly 100 heavy artillery pieces in Changsha City can also launch an artillery bombardment against the Japanese army, but this level of artillery bombardment is enough to make the Japanese army retreat in the face of difficulties, and it will lose its strategic significance of containing the Japanese army, and the gains outweigh the losses. Therefore, the defenders could only show the enemy weakness and reassure the Japanese army to attack.

In addition to leaving dozens of corpses behind in this attack, the Japanese army retreated with nothing. As soon as the Japanese withdrew, the officers and men of the first company also quickly withdrew to the anti-artillery hole to avoid the next shelling by the Japanese army. In this way, the continuous attacks of the Japanese army were blocked by the defenders outside the first-line position. After several successive attacks, the 3rd Division failed to advance an inch, which made the division commander, Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji, very dissatisfied.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of the attack, Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga 2nd sent the 14th Independent Heavy Artillery Wing under his command, and under the bombardment of heavy artillery, the first line of positions soon became a mess, and Wei Shan, the battalion commander who guarded the position, held out until after dark, and then asked the regiment commander Liu Yunfei to abandon the position and retreat to the rear.

Soon after the 271st Brigade retreated to the market town position outside the city, the officers and men of a battalion on the front-line position of the 272nd Brigade also retreated to the market town position behind it. Knowing that the defenders on the opposite side had abandoned their positions, the commander of the 3rd Division, Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji, turned from the anger of the day to excitement, and he said to the chief of staff next to him, Yamamoto Kiyoe Daisa, with some pride: "Yamamoto-kun, you see that no matter how fierce the firepower of the Chinese troops is, they cannot resist the bombardment of our heavy artillery, and under the heavy artillery of the imperial army, all resistance is weak. ”

Yamamoto Kiyowei Dazuo was a little disapproving, but he still smiled and complimented on the surface: "It is still the division commander who is wise and called in heavy artillery to shell the Chinese people, and the Chinese people are afraid that under the bombardment of heavy artillery, they will suffer heavy casualties, so they have to give up their positions, and the Chinese people should have learned the power of the imperial heavy artillery." Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji was even more pleased with Yamamoto Kiyoe Daisa's compliment, and he ordered the whole army to rest for the night and continue the attack tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, an infantry formation of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army was preparing to attack, but there was a market town opposite, and not a single Chinese soldier could be seen quietly in the market town. The infantry of the rear brigade, as well as the wing guns and a few heavy machine guns, were on standby, ready to support at any time.

The infantry squadron was cautiously advancing towards the market town, and the market town was always quiet, and finally the Japanese squadron approached the market town, and the squadron leader pointed his sword forward and shouted, "Kill it!" The whole squadron launched a charge towards the market town. When this infantry squadron stormed the market town for a few minutes, the market town suddenly burst into heavy gunfire and the explosion of grenades.

The sound of gunfire and explosions sounded very suddenly, and it stopped very suddenly, and after only ten minutes or so, the market town was quiet again, and an infantry squadron of the Japanese army entered the sea like mud cows, and there was no more movement. This made Ishii Shindasa gasp, and an infantry squadron was wiped out in only ten minutes, which Ishii Shinosa couldn't believe.

Ishii Shindasa waited for a while, and seeing that there was still no movement in the market town, with a wave of his hand, the remaining soldiers of the infantry brigade that had been prepared began to attack the market town. After about the same time, not long after the infantry brigade rushed into the market town, the gunfire and explosions began again, but this time it lasted for a longer time, and after about half an hour, the gunfire and explosions in the market town gradually stopped.

Ishii Shibuyosa waited anxiously for a few minutes on the offensive position, only to see dozens of his own soldiers rushing out of the market town, and when these soldiers ran back to the position, Ishii's mood changed from excitement to panic. The dozens of soldiers were all embarrassed, and the leader of the squadron was slightly injured. When they arrived, Shi Xin Dazuo didn't wait for them to speak, grabbed the squadron leader's collar, and asked fiercely: "Tell me quickly, what's going on in the town, what about your captain, and what about the other soldiers?"

The squadron leader's face turned pale, and under the pressure of Ishii Shindasa, he stammered: "Your Excellency, Your Excellency the Squadron Leader, the town is full of Shina soldiers, he, they are firing at us from various rooms, many soldiers don't even see where Shina is, and the jade is broken, and His Excellency the Captain is also hit by the grenade of the Shina people, and the jade, the jade is broken. ”

Ishii Shindasa's face was hideous, and he pushed the squadron leader aside, scolding in his mouth: "Yaga!" while giving the squadron leader a few slaps hard, and then angrily went to see the commander of the 29th Brigade, Major General Hanayamasa. Only two ugly-looking captains and a group of bewildered soldiers were left in the attacking position.