After withstanding the Japanese attack for a whole day, the 37th and 53rd armies were ordered to withdraw from their positions at 10 p.m. on the 4th of January. The road to the outskirts of Changsha was opened for the Japanese army. After a night's rest, the 6th and 40th Divisions occupied the positions at Gaoziling and Chunhuashan in the early morning of 5 January. The two divisions, which did not encounter resistance, did not stop, but immediately attacked and advanced towards Changsha City.

Because the 37th Army and the 53rd Army withdrew, and the 211th Division of the 90th Army and the two regiments of the 92nd Division that assisted in the defense of Jumping Horse Town were also ordered to leave. After quietly consulting his brother-in-law Wang Haitao, Tang Longzai shrank the two regiments around Jumping Horse Town, while only sending reconnaissance detachments to monitor the movements of the Japanese army in other areas.

The 37th Army was originally responsible for the defense of the west bank of the Liuyang River, and before the 37th Army withdrew from the position, it notified the 272nd Brigade to take over the position, and the brigade commander Zhang Lingfu sent Xiao Changxin's 546th Regiment up, although the belligerent Zhang Lingfu put the brigade headquarters on the third position under the city wall, he always stayed in the front position, and now the 546th Regiment took over the position on the west bank of the Liuyang River.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the 13th Wing of the Forward Regiment arrived at the east bank of the Liuyang River and set up an attack position. Wing Commander Tomoshi Osa climbed to a high place and carefully observed the defenders' positions on the west bank of the river with a telescope. The Liuyang River is wider than the Xinqiang River and the Miluo River, although the winter is the dry season, the water depth is more than three meters, it is impossible to wade alone, and the boats have been taken away by the defenders, and there is not a single shadow of a boat found on the east bank of the river.

Then if you want to cross this Liuyang River, which is more than 50 meters wide, you can only let the engineering troops build a bridge. Now the location of the 13th Wing is a town called Langli City in Changsha City, where the Liuyang River has drawn a "several" bend, and Langli City is facing a horizontal line on the top of the "several" bay. The water here is relatively gentle, and the width is not large, which is suitable for building bridges.

While observing the situation of the ground and the defenders across the river, Tomoshi Toshiosa sent his subordinates to report the situation to the division commander, Lieutenant General Kanda Masa, and asked the division commander to send an engineer unit to build the bridge. An hour later, the 45th Wing and the Cavalry Wing escorted the Engineer Wing to the east bank of the river, and Major General Saburo Takehara, the commander of the 6th Brigade, also brought all the rubber boats that had been airdropped on the ground.

The Sixth Wing of the Field Artillery moved slowly, and could not rush here for a while, so Major General Saburo Takehara gathered all the artillery of several units together to build an artillery position, and after 36 Type 92 infantry guns and 12 cavalry field guns were concentrated together, it was still a large artillery force.

It is a pity that they encountered the troops of the 90th Army, although Zhang Lingfu concentrated the use of the regimental field artillery battalion, but each regiment has more than 100 mortars of large and small calibers, as well as 18 120-caliber heavy mortars with a power above the Type 92 infantry guns.

The Japanese army was observing the positions of the defenders on the west bank of the river, and Zhang Lingfu and Xiao Changxin were also observing the situation of the Japanese army on the Hexi Plateau. After Zhang Lingfu arrived at the Hexi position, he was dissatisfied with the fortifications left by the 37th Army in many places. After all, the 37th Army could not build fortifications as perfectly as the 90th Army. Zhang Lingfu commanded the 546th Regiment to seize the time to strengthen the fortifications and was busy until the Japanese arrived.

On the east bank of the river, Major General Saburo Takehara commanded his soldiers to put rubber boats into the Liuyang River, set up machine guns on the rubber boats, and prepared to try to force a crossing, and then sent a cavalry brigade and an infantry brigade to Langli City to search for materials for building bridges. After the rubber boats were ready, Major General Saburo Takehara ordered the artillery to shell the defenders' positions, and the rubber boats forced their way across the Liuyang River under the cover of artillery fire.

At the beginning of the Japanese artillery bombardment, Zhang Lingfu had already entered a bunker fortification, and the Type 92 infantry guns could only destroy sandbag bunkers and trenches to a certain extent, and could not do anything against the bunker fortifications. In the bunker fortifications, Zhang Lingfu was still using a telescope to observe the surface of the river. The Japanese army put down more than 30 rubber boats, and there were only more than 10 Japanese soldiers on each rubber boat.

In this attack, the first battalion on the forward position only used six heavy machine guns to block the river, in addition to the mortars in the regiment, 18 120 heavy mortars to attack the Japanese artillery positions, and the rest of the mortars took out half of the mortars to hit the Japanese rubber boats on the river, and the other half were concealed and waited. The soldiers, on the other hand, remained vigilant, and the Japanese did not dock and did not have to return fire.

Zhang Lingfu arranged this way to let the soldiers suffer less losses, the heavy machine guns in the bunker and the Japanese artillery could not be fired, they could shoot as much as they wanted, and the soldiers in the trenches and sandbag bunkers only needed to hide. Only eighteen heavy mortars could reach the Japanese artillery positions, and other artillery could only hit the river and the west bank of the river, and Zhang Lingfu did not want to expose his full strength too early.

Even so, the strength displayed by the 546th Regiment stunned Major General Saburo Takehara. Not counting the heavy mortars used by the people to deal with the counterattack of their own artillery positions, there were more than 50 mortars just hitting the river, and according to the fact that only a regiment of the elite troops of the Chinese army was equipped with more than a dozen mortars, the Chinese army on the other side of the river was one or two elite divisions.

Seeing that under the intensive artillery fire of the Chinese army, the rubber boats that were forcibly crossed were shot one after another, Major General Saburo Takehara hurriedly ordered a retreat, and the order was issued, and the surviving rubber boats that had not yet rowed to the middle of the river turned around and rowed back, and when they returned to the east bank, there were only more than 10 of the 30 rubber boats that forcibly crossed. And in the artillery battle, half of his own thirty or forty guns were also lost.

Major General Saburo Takehara was so dazed by this blow that he hurriedly ordered the troops to retreat two kilometers to avoid the artillery attack range of the Shina army, and at the same time reported again to the division commander, Lieutenant General Kanda Masane, and requested the support of an artillery wing. Lieutenant General Kanda Masasan knew very well that there was no way to forcibly build a bridge without repelling the defenders on the west bank of the river, and when he heard that there were one or two elite divisions stationed on the west bank of the river, and that they were equipped with a large number of light and heavy mortars, he urged the field artillery wing to speed up its advance, and at the same time reported the situation to Commander Anan Weiji.

At the same time, the 40th Division also reached the east bank of the Liuyang River, because the 53rd Army was ordered to retreat, and the 40th Division did not find that there were Chinese troops stationed on the west bank of the river. As long as you cross the Liuyang River, you can smoothly advance to Changsha City. The division commander, Lieutenant General Aoki Seiichi, secretly rejoiced in his good luck and sent his troops to search for materials for bridging.

The news that the 6th Division and the 40th Division had already reached the west bank of the Liuyang River and that as long as they crossed the Liuyang River, they would not be far from the outskirts of Changsha was greatly stimulated by the news that the commander of the 3rd Division, Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagaji. Lieutenant General Takahashi Tagashi, who had just taken up the post of commander of the Third Division, urgently needed his military exploits to prove himself, and the capture of Changsha City was the best combat achievement, and among the several divisions that attacked together, his Third Division had the largest number of people, the most sophisticated weapons and equipment, and the strongest combat effectiveness.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Takahashi Taga II gave a death order to his two brigade commanders to strengthen the attack, and in order to take the defenders' positions as soon as possible, the third division must be the first to reach the city of Changsha. As soon as this order was issued, the attack of the 3rd Division immediately became ferocious, and with the assistance of the Independent Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 544th Regiment defending the position immediately felt the pressure.

The position defended by the 544th Regiment was divided into two parts, one part was on a row of hills on the north bank of the Liuyang River, where the second battalion was defending, and the main force was still on the south bank of the Liuyang River, and there was a defensive position built in half a month. Now Tang Yiqun, commander of the 271st Brigade, is here to command. The reason why the position called Hongshan on the north bank of the Liuyang River was able to withstand the Japanese army's two-day attack was that the withdrawn 543rd Regiment left a battalion to defend the Hongshan position together.

In the second day of the attack, the heavy artillery of the Japanese army cut the whole Hongshan several layers, and none of the fortifications on the position were intact. However, after two days of fierce fighting, only more than 400 officers and men of the two battalions on the position still had combat effectiveness, and even Tang Yishu, the commander of the second battalion who remained behind of the 543rd Regiment, was seriously wounded and sent down.

Brigade Commander Tang Yiqun called many times to inquire about the situation on the position, and Tang Weichu, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 544th Regiment, who was in charge of the command, replied: "The 2nd Battalion is holding on, and the position is still in our hands!" Now that the Japanese army has once again strengthened its offensive, one infantry brigade has not retreated, and another infantry brigade has rushed up again. In the face of the Japanese army's crowd tactics, Tang Weichu gradually felt powerless, and there were fewer and fewer soldiers on the position who could fight.

By the afternoon of January 5, the number of officers and soldiers who could fight on the main position of Hongshan, including Tang Weichu, was less than 200, and at this time, the order of the brigade commander Tang Yiqun to retreat reached Tang Weichu's hands. Tang Weichu understood very well that under the condition that the Japanese attack did not stop, once the order was ordered to retreat, so many light and serious wounded, plus there was still the Liuyang River to cross, it would definitely be too late in time, and some soldiers must be left behind to fight to the end in the morning, so as to gain time for the wounded to retreat.

Tang gathered the officers and soldiers on the position together in the interval between the initial Japanese attack, announced the retreat order issued by the brigade commander, and then said: "Brothers, if we withdraw from the position now, the little Japanese will definitely fight behind us, we have so many wounded, and we have to cross the pontoon bridge on the Liuyang River, it is too late in time, we must leave some people here to fight the little Japanese to the end, and win time for the wounded to retreat." Whoever is willing to retreat can evacuate across the Liuyang River with the wounded, and if he is willing to stay behind, he will fight with me and Little Japan!"