After learning that there was also a lot of artillery in Huaining County, the commander of the 101st Division, Lieutenant General Ito Masaki, also had a big headache. Without the support of artillery fire, how can we destroy the city wall of Huaining County? If we do not destroy this city wall, then at what price will the soldiers under our command be able to attack the city? When Ito Masaki was at a loss, a soldier came in to report that Major Takeshita Lang of the 6th Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade was visiting.

Ito Masaki was originally going to ask for artillery support from the heavy artillery brigade, but his troops had just arrived in Huaining, and he didn't even launch an infantry attack, so he opened his mouth to ask for help from the heavy artillery brigade. Now I heard that the commander of the Takeshita Brigade is coming, and I have a feeling that I am in the middle of it.

After Takeshita Lang was ushered in, he and Ito Masaki met each other, Ito Masaki invited Takeshita Lang to sit down, and some of his subordinates brought tea, Ito Masaki then asked: "Takeshita-kun, I don't know why you came here today?" Takeshita Lang took a sip of tea and replied: "Ito-kun, I heard in Shindu Town that the artillery wing under Ito-kun was shelled by the Shina people, so it must be a lot of losses, right?" In order to be able to conquer the castle defended by the Shina people, His Excellency Commander Okamura ordered my independent heavy artillery brigade to fully cooperate with Ito-kun's division and launch an attack on the Shina people. I took the liberty of coming over today to disturb Ito-kun, just for this matter. ”

After Ito Masakami was overjoyed, he said to Takeshita: "Great, Takeshita-kun, I don't know how to speak, my division has just begun to attack, and the artillery wing has lost half of its artillery due to the shelling of the Chinese people, and in the face of the strong city of the Chinese people, without artillery, it will cost the lives of countless imperial warriors." Now with Takeshita-kun's help, I believe that Takeshita-kun's heavy artillery will become a nightmare for the Shina people, so please leave everything to Takeshita-kun. After saying that, Ito Masaki bowed deeply to Takeshita.

Shortly after Takeshitaro returned to Shinto Town after visiting Ito Masakai, dozens of heavy artillery pieces of the 6th Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade began to bombard the walls of Huaining County. The heavy artillery shells of the Japanese army continued to fall on the city wall of Huaining County and inside and outside, these heavy artillery shells were very powerful, and the explosion of each shell would make the city wall tremble.

The situation was quickly reported to the headquarters of the city by the 543rd Regiment, and Tang Yikuan and Li Yuanhong became nervous when they heard that the Japanese army had used heavy artillery to bombard the city wall. No matter how much the city wall of Huaining County has been reinforced, it must be only the city wall of a county town, not to mention that it cannot be as strong as the city wall of Nanjing, and even the city wall of Anqing City, it is not comparable. Therefore, the two were very worried about whether the wall could withstand the attack of the Japanese heavy artillery.

With this worry, Tang Yikuan made a direct call to the headquarters of the 543rd Regiment on the city wall. Tang Weimin, commander of the 543rd Regiment, and three battalion commanders were hiding in the anti-artillery holes when they suddenly received a call from Tang Yikuan to inquire about the situation, and they were busy reporting the situation to Tang Yikuan on the phone. Tang Yikuan listened to the violent explosion on the phone, and was even more worried about the safety of the soldiers on the city wall, so he asked Tang Weimin to leave an observation post at the head of the city on the phone, and the other soldiers withdrew first.

Tang Weimin received the order and immediately organized the soldiers to withdraw from the city wall first, and while retreating, they also brought down the heavy weapons as much as possible. The Japanese heavy artillery still fired shells at the city wall endlessly, and the damage to the city wall was still very serious. There were already many gaps in the female wall at the head of the city, and cracks began to appear in the wall.

The heavy artillery of the Japanese army continued to bombard the city wall for an hour, and finally a section of the city wall of more than 20 meters could not withstand it and collapsed. This situation was seen by Masaki Ito, who watched the effects of the shelling. Ito Masaki nodded with satisfaction, and said to the commander of the 101st Brigade, Sato Shozaburo, "Yo Xi! The heavy artillery brigade has opened the way to victory for our division with heavy artillery, so let the warriors of the empire follow this road of victory to attack the Chinese people!"

Shozaburo Sato saluted and replied, "Hey, Your Excellency the division commander, I will lead my warriors to attack the Shina people immediately. After saying that, Major General Shozaburo Sato returned to the 101st Brigade, called the Wing Commander of the 101st Wing, Yoshio Kana, and gave the order to attack the county seat of Huaining. Gana gave the order to the captains who had been waiting for a long time to attack.

As Tang Yikuan was worried, the city wall could not withstand the artillery fire and collapsed more than 20 meters, and it was not completely collapsed, and there was still a section of the wall more than one meter from the ground, and the bricks and gravel that had collapsed formed a slope at the root of the city, and people were able to climb up from the slope. The collapse of the city wall also made Tang Weimin secretly glad that the troops had withdrawn from the wall, which avoided casualties.

However, the fall of more than 20 meters below the city wall will be the focus of contention between the two sides, which Tang Weimin is very clear. Tang Weimin immediately sent a battalion and a company to this gap, and at the same time, two platoons from a battalion fire side company were also dispatched. On this gap of more than 20 meters, after the fighters of the first battalion and one company and the fire company came up, they were sealed at once.

The time was too rushed, and the soldiers who came up did not have time to build fortifications, so the soldiers quickly opened individual bunkers one by one, and then used the wall roots more than one meter high to build a defensive position. The two companies on the position together had 20 light and heavy machine guns, and an average of one machine gun was arranged every one meter, and such a dense machine gun position was a nightmare for the Japanese attacking infantry.

The commander of the first company is named Luo Dalong, who was originally a mountain bandit on Luo Umbrella Mountain, and started from a small soldier after the bandit leader Guang Sihai defected to Wang Haitao, and fought countless battles of all sizes over the years, and was promoted to the commander of a battalion and a company step by step with his military exploits. Luo Dalong is not tall, short and concise. In the battle to defend Mingguang, when fighting hand-to-hand with the Japanese army, he killed six Japanese soldiers with a knife, including a Japanese soldier who was wounded.

Luo Dalong was a fierce general in the 1st Battalion and even in the 543rd Regiment, and under his leadership and strict training, the 1st Company was also led into a company that dared to fight and fought hard, and was extremely combative. At this time, Tang Weimin sent Luo Dalong and his company to such an important position, which was the trust in Luo Dalong and the company he led.

As soon as the soldiers of the 1st Company and the Firepower Company hurriedly set up their positions, an infantry brigade of the Japanese army formed an offensive formation and rushed towards the position of the 1st Company. Japanese heavy machine guns, mortars, grenadiers were also covering the attack of the infantry brigade. This method of attack is the usual mode of attack used by the Japanese army, which will hardly change, and if they encounter the Nationalist troops with poor weapons and equipment, this method of attack is still very useful, but it is a pity that they encountered the 90th Division, which has the strongest combat effectiveness among Wang Haitao's troops.

On the city wall that had not collapsed, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 543rd Regiment were also ready to meet the enemy. Dozens of sharpshooters in the second battalion, each armed with a Mauser sniper rifle, was the only unit in the unit that could fire freely under any favorable conditions, so when the Japanese infantry brigade approached within 400 meters of the city wall, gunfire rang out from the city. The grenadiers, machine gunners, and commanders of the Japanese ranks continued to fall as gunfire rang out.

The Japanese heavy machine guns were originally aimed at the gap, but after discovering the presence of sharpshooters on the castle, they turned their guns and began to shoot at the place where the sharpshooters appeared on the castle. Those who can be sharpshooters have been trained as special snipers, how can they be easily hit by heavy machine guns, several heavy machine guns of the Japanese army, looking at the city head of the crazy strafing, mortars are also firing shells at the city head, but the sniper rifle guns on the city head are still ringing one after another, and each shot will take the life of a Japanese soldier.

When the Japanese infantry brigade finally approached within 200 meters of the city wall, Tang Weimin's order to "open fire" was handed down, and all the guns at the head of the city and in the gap fired bullets at the attacking Japanese infantry brigade. In an elite unit like the 543rd Regiment, the soldiers' marksmanship is not to say, let alone semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, and even the three bursts of light machine guns make the machine gunners very handy.

Such a blow made the attacking infantry brigade unable to bear before it had approached a hundred and fifty meters below the city wall. The short road of a few dozen meters was paved with the corpses of Japanese soldiers, and the grenadiers, machine gunners and officers in the brigade were the fastest to die. Although the Japanese army was also shooting at the defenders, the difference in terrain type made it impossible for the Japanese soldiers to have an advantage at all. Seeing that the fire of the defenders was too fierce, the commander of this infantry brigade hurriedly ordered a retreat.

The Japanese attack was repulsed, and the defenders began to treat the wounded, check their weapons, and replenish ammunition on their positions. The fierce firepower and accurate marksmanship of the defenders surprised Major General Sato Shozaburo, who was watching the attack, and Major General Sato Shozaburo couldn't help but think of the extremely difficult 90th Division that he had encountered on the Songhu battlefield.

Major General Shozaburo Sato hurriedly came to the headquarters of the division commander Masaki Ito and reported the situation to the division commander Masaki Ito. Ito Masaki was not surprised, but calmly told Major General Sato Shozaburo that the defenders of China were facing the elite 90th Army of Wang Haitao. After Sato Shozaburo understood who his opponent was, he could only smile bitterly.

Regardless of who the opponent was, the pride of the emperor's samurai did not allow him to be afraid, and Major General Sato Shozaburo could only return to the brigade, and after strengthening the artillery shelling, he once again commanded his infantry to launch a second attack on Huaining County. Major General Shozaburo Sato transferred all the artillery in the brigade and bombarded Huaining County. However, Tang Yikuan would not allow the artillery fire of the little Japanese to bomb his position like this.