The time pointed to twelve o'clock in the evening, and Tangshan Leopard issued an order to open fire on the artillery position by telephone. Xu Mingyi, commander of the heavy artillery battalion in charge of the command, received the order and shouted: "Open the artillery!" and 18 heavy howitzers and shells and 12 light howitzers and shells were fired one after another. The shells flew in turn towards the pre-selected targets.

The targets of the 30 howitzers and artillery pieces were different, the targets of the 18 heavy howitzers and artillery pieces were various buildings in the airfield, as well as dozens of aircraft parked on the tarmac, and the targets of the light howitzers and artillery guns were barbed wire, fortifications, and defensive positions on the perimeter of the airport. The shells exploded inside the airfield, and the Japanese troops guarding the airfield were thrown into chaos when they encountered this sudden blow.

On the offensive position, the Tangshan leopard commanded the concentrated heavy mortars and also launched an artillery attack on the Japanese defensive positions. As soon as the explosion of artillery shells sounded on the airfield, Tang Fu, the commander of the regiment who had already been prepared, gave the order to attack. Amid the roar of the engines, the twelve heavy armored vehicles of the armored battalion lined up in an attack formation and quickly rushed towards the Japanese airfield, and behind them were the officers and men of a regiment and a battalion.

The 1st Battalion of Heavy Fire, which was also closely behind the 1st Battalion, would stop its advance when they reached a distance of 300 meters from the Japanese position, choose a suitable type of ground on the spot, and provide fire support for the 1st Battalion's attack with heavy weapons. Ten minutes had passed, and the lights in the airport had long since been extinguished, and only the light of the fire was still there. The armored car was only more than 300 meters away from the Japanese position, and the lights illuminated the Japanese position.

Artillery fire began to extend into the airfield, and the remaining firing points on the Japanese positions began to return fire. The only thing that could pose a threat to heavy armored vehicles was a few rapid-fire guns and flattened anti-aircraft guns. However, the fire from the muzzle also made them a new target. After paying the price of four heavy armored vehicles being destroyed and wounded, these rapid-fire guns and anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese army were reduced to a pile of scrap metal under the blows of mortars and vehicle-mounted artillery.

Without the threat of artillery fire, the armored vehicles rushed faster, and after crushing over the bombed and incomplete barbed wire, the armored vehicles took the lead in rushing into the Japanese airfield. * Artillery and heavy mortars stopped shelling, not only for fear of accidentally injuring their own people, but also in the hope of getting some loot after the capture of the airfield. Not to mention anything else, the aviation gasoline stored in the airport is a good thing that makes Tangshan leopards greedy.

The armored vehicles broke through the airfield, and the Japanese troops in the defensive positions had already suffered heavy casualties, and basically could not organize any effective resistance, that is, some soldiers wanted to rush up with explosives, medicine packs, cluster grenades, and bombs and wanted to die with the armored vehicles, but they were also killed by the soldiers of the first battalion of soldiers who followed up and covered behind the armored vehicles. Tang Fu saw that the officers and soldiers of the first battalion rushed to the Japanese defensive position without much effort, and nodded in surprise and satisfaction at the same time.

At this time, Tang Fu did not hesitate to send the other two battalions up, the first battalion was expanding the gap in the position, and it was too late to attack the airport in a short time, just when the two battalions arrived in time and rushed to the airport with the armored vehicles again. At this point in the fighting, it is no longer a question of capturing the airfield, the question is how long it will take to end the fighting.

Half an hour passed, and a dense burst of gunfire came from the west of the airport, and Tangshan Leopard knew as soon as he heard it that the Third Regiment and the Japanese troops at the reinforcement airfield in Qinzhou City had exchanged fire. Seeing that there was a regiment at the airport that could solve the problem, Tangshan Leopard immediately sent the second regiment, which had been unable to wait, to the third regiment, and at the same time, the heavy mortars of the heavy fire battalion were also transferred.

The gunfire at the airport was quieter, and only some parts of the country were still in a fierce firefight. Tangshan Leopard couldn't wait, and walked towards the airport with the guard battalion directly under the brigade headquarters. The battle at the airfield revolved around several buildings, each of which had some Japanese troops desperately trying to hold back a group of attackers. Tang Fu only sent troops to surround these buildings, and most of the soldiers were clearing the sporadic Japanese troops in the airfield.

By the time Tangshan Leopard also entered the airport, except for a few buildings, the rest of the Japanese troops had been cleared. Tang Forten made a move, and a building sent two or three armored vehicles, plus a few mortars, directly bombarded the buildings with artillery fire, and under the bombardment of artillery fire, these buildings either collapsed directly, or there were thousands of holes, and they could no longer be relied on.

There were no mission accidents, and after ten minutes, all the Japanese troops in several buildings were wiped out, and the airport had been completely captured by the guard brigade. Tangshan Leopard looked at his watch, it was not yet two o'clock in the morning. The attack on the airport directly destroyed 71 Japanese planes of all kinds on the tarmac, and captured a large amount of trophies, especially to Tangshan Leopard's joy was to occupy the Japanese army's oil depot and seize more than a dozen tons of aviation gasoline and other fuel.

In Wang Haitao's troops, except for tanks and some armored vehicles that use diesel engines, most of the trucks and light armored vehicles use gasoline engines, so gasoline is extremely important to Wang Haitao. There are also a large amount of engine oil, butter and other materials seized together, which are also very much needed by Wang Haitao. It is difficult for the guard brigade to transport all of them away, and after seeing the captured trophies, Tangshan Leopard decided to occupy the airport on the spot and not leave!

The gunfire on the side of the third regiment gradually stopped, Tangshan Leopard estimated that most of the Japanese troops had withdrawn to Qinzhou City, and the airport was quiet, presumably because the Japanese army knew that there was no need for rescue, and they could not attack it, so they had to withdraw their troops. Tangshan Leopard's estimate was really correct, after Major General Itada Jiro, commander of the Qinzhou City Defense, was awakened in a dream by the sound of artillery in the direction of the airport, he learned that the airport had been attacked, and immediately sent two infantry brigades out of the city to rescue the airport.

Itada Jiro already knew that a large number of Chinese troops were massing in the north of Qinzhou, and there was a movement to attack the city of Qinzhou. As soon as the Chinese army attacked the city of Qinzhou, the support of the aircraft was extremely important, so he had to save the airport. But he never expected that the two infantry brigades could not reach the airport for two hours, because the road leading to the airport was cut off by the Chinese army in Dapoping.

The Chinese army took advantage of the favorable position and fierce firepower to repel the attacks of its two infantry brigades in turn within two hours, but it was impossible to move forward even if the losses of its two infantry brigades were not small. Now that the gunfire has stopped at the airport, and there is no way to get in touch, it seems that there is more luck than luck, and in such a situation, we can only order the troops who went to the rescue to withdraw first.

Almost at the same time, two telegrams were sent from Qinzhou City and the airport respectively, and the telegram from Qinzhou City was naturally sent by Major General Itada Jiro to General Terauchi Toshiichi, commander of the Southern Army, and the content was nothing more than a report that the Chinese army had attacked the field airfield east of Qinzhou City in the early hours of this morning, and that dozens of planes parked in the airfield were completely destroyed, and all the 3,400 officers and men of the Marine Corps guarding the airport were shattered. The battle of the Chinese army to attack the city of Qinzhou could begin at any time, and the commander of the Terauchi Shouichi was requested to reinforce the city.

The telegram from the airport was a telegram sent by Tangshan Leopard to Wang Haitao, which briefly reported the course of the battle and reported a rough list of captured materials, in which Tangshan Leopard explained to Wang Haitao that there were too many seized materials and could not take them all away, and asked Wang Haitao to agree to stay at the airport. At the same time, he also said that his brigade suffered little losses in the battle, and he guaranteed to hold the airfield.

The two different telegrams made the two people who received the telegrams feel very different. After General Terauchi received the telegram, he was so angry that he almost didn't spit out a mouthful of old blood. You must know that the Japanese Navy is now fighting with the US Navy in the Pacific, and the war situation is extremely unfavorable to Japan, Terauchi Shou has no extra troops to support Qinzhou City, and he can't even send a few warships.

After reading the telegram, Lieutenant General Tsukada, chief of the general staff of the Southern Army, said to General Terauchi Shouichi: "Terauchi-kun, it's just a Qinzhou city, so there is no need to be angry. Even if we lose Qinzhou City, it will be nothing to our Imperial Japanese Army, not to mention that there is still a fleet in Qinzhou Bay, and with them to help defend the city, Qinzhou City will not be so easy to lose. No matter how powerful the Chinese army is, there is still nothing to be done against our fleet. ”

After listening to Lieutenant General Tsukada's words, General Terauchi Shouichi calmed down a little of the anger in his heart, and said to Lieutenant General Tsukada: "Tsukada-kun, I am only angry because of the incompetence of Uchida Takayuki and Itada Jiro, and there are nearly 40,000 horses in Qinzhou, so how can they suffer such heavy losses? Now that they have lost the airfield, they can't even defend Qinzhou City. How did the Imperial Japanese Army come to such a state?"

Lieutenant General Tsukada smiled bitterly and said: "This 90th Army of Shina is indeed too strong, last time Honma Masaharu's 14th Army and Imamura Jun's 16th Army failed to destroy this 90th Army from both sides, but were broken by it one by one, the 14th Army suffered heavy losses, and the 16th Army was even counterattacked by it, and even Hanoi was lost. General Terauchi Shouichi was also speechless at this time, and could only sigh.

When Wang Haitao received the telegram, he excitedly said: "What a Tangshan leopard, this battle is very good! Not only did they completely annihilate the Japanese troops at the airfield with very small losses, captured the airfield, but also captured so many important materials. Okay!" Regarding Tangshan Leopard's request, Wang Haitao called back on the spot to agree. Knowing that the Tangshan Leopard has already dealt with the Japanese aircraft, the next thing is to see if he can solve the Japanese fleet.

The next day, just after dawn, Wang Haitao and his team had set off as a group, and the soldiers learned that in the early morning, the guard brigade had captured the airport, and they were excited and aroused their fighting spirit, and the speed of the march was also accelerated a lot. The team arrived at Matouling at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the 546th Regiment stopped halfway up the mountain and began to build fortifications using the terrain.

Wang Haitao took the rest of the people to the top of the mountain in one go, and the observation team left on Matouling by the reconnaissance brigade took Wang Haitao to an open space in front of the mountain after seeing Wang Haitao. Wang Haitao took a look, this open space is relatively flat, and it can be used as an artillery position with a little trimming, but unfortunately the place is not large, and only about 20 artillery positions can be set up.