After Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo sent a telegram asking for help, he waited for half a day to receive a reply from Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi, commander of the 116th Division. Originally, in the telegram, Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi told Lieutenant General Tetsuzo that the positions at the east gate and the north gate where the 116th Division was stationed were attacked by the main force of China at the same time, and the north gate could still be supported, and the position at the east gate was about to be broken by the China troops, and now the 116th Division was really unable to reinforce them.

After reading the telegram, Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo handed the telegram to Yoshida Eijiro Osa, who was beside him, and asked suspiciously: "Yoshida-kun, how could the main force of the Shina people appear at the east gate and the north gate at the same time? Could it be that there is more than the Shina army that came to reinforce Zhangshu? Why didn't the intelligence department receive a single report?"

Yoshida Eijiro Osa quickly read the telegram and replied cautiously: "Your Excellency the division commander, the large-scale transfer of the Shina army cannot be concealed from the imperial intelligence department, and the Shina people have always been cunning, could this be the suspicious tactic of the Shina people?" Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo thought for a while and said: "Takeuchi-kun is also a famous general of the empire, so he should not regard the attack of the small group of the Shina army as the attack of the main force, and besides, it is impossible to capture the East Gate position with the attack of the small force." ”

When Yoshida Eijiro heard this, he frowned and said: "If it is really the main force of the Shina people, then the form can be greatly disadvantageous to the imperial army, and now this situation requires His Excellency the division commander to make a decision as soon as possible." Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo also frowned and thought about it. After a long while, he said to Yoshida Eijiro Osa: "Order the 212th Wing to retreat to the third line of positions and hold the position with the 32nd Wing." As for the 116th Division, a telegram was sent to Takeuchi-kun, asking Takeuchi-kun to hold the positions at the east gate and the north gate, and to strictly prevent the troops in the city from breaking through. ”

Lieutenant General Iide Tetsuzo's order to let the 212th Wing retreat can be described as timely rain and did Keito Shiro Osa a great favor. Before receiving the order to retreat, the 212th Wing was completely in a position of being passively beaten, and the entire Wing had only the power to parry under the continuous attacks of the 877th Regiment and the 878th Regiment, especially the chariots that attacked back and forth, which were invincible in the position, and the fierce firepower harvested a large number of the lives of the Japanese soldiers.

When the Chinese army was not forced to do so, it did not engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army at all, but gave full play to Wang Haitao's demand for the supremacy of firepower. Charges, front guns, shell guns, light machine guns, and even semi-automatic rifles all kept spitting tongues of fire, knocking down the oncoming Japanese troops one by one. Under the blows of countless automatic weapons, the partial Japanese army has begun to rout.

If the order to retreat is not conveyed again, in order to hold the position, Keitoshiro Osa will lead his own guards to rush forward to block the retreating soldiers in the rout. Then the 212th Wing might be completely annihilated in this position. Now that there is an order to retreat, Keito Shiro Osaku can't help but breathe a sigh of relief, no one wants to die if he is alive. Soon the order to retreat was conveyed by Keito Shiro Osa, and his troops also fought and retreated, gradually distancing themselves from the Chinese army.

As soon as the Japanese army retreated, Wu Zhijun and Qi Xuan, the two regiment commanders, found out that something was wrong, and it was said that now the troops should bite the retreating Japanese troops tightly and completely defeat them in one go, but after this fierce battle, not only the casualties of the troops were not small, but the physical strength of the soldiers was also at the limit. More importantly, the soldiers were already running out of ammunition, and the fuel and ammunition for the combat vehicles were in urgent need of replenishment.

The battle came to this point, a company captured two positions of the Japanese army, Tang Yu was still very satisfied with the performance of the officers and soldiers of the two regiments under his command, without waiting for Tang Yu's order, Wei Ye had already led the officers and soldiers of the two battalions that had just been organized and the 879th Regiment to arrive at the position that had just been captured, carrying ammunition, fuel and other supplies.

Except for the soldiers who were on guard, the rest of the officers and men were either rescuing the wounded or cleaning up the battlefield, and a large number of freshly captured weapons, ammunition, and military supplies had been piled up on one side of the position. The captured trophies and wounded will soon be transported to the rear by the logistics department. The battlefield suddenly fell silent, and the soldiers on both sides confronted each other at a distance of 500 meters, although the Japanese army did not dare to launch a counterattack, and the 462nd Brigade was unable to continue the attack for a while.

In the command post of the 462nd Brigade, Tang Yu was thinking about when the attack below should be launched and how many troops he had in his hands that could fight, when he heard a series of standing salutes from the guards at the door, just when Tang Yu was stunned, Wang Haitao and Li Changwu had already walked in. As soon as the bombing by the Japanese planes ended, Wang Haitao could not sit still in the command headquarters, and people everywhere kept reporting to him, but Wang Haitao still wanted to inspect it himself.

After seeing that several important departments were safe and sound in the bombing, Wang Haitao was relieved, and because he was not far from the command post of the 462nd Brigade, Wang Haitao and Li Changwu, who accompanied him on the inspection, came to Tang Yu's command post. Seeing that Wang Haitao and Li Changwu were coming, Tang Yu was both a little nervous and a little excited, this battle was the first major battle he commanded after he was promoted to brigade commander, and it was a crucial battle, although he knew that so far, the battle was going smoothly, and he didn't make any mistakes, but in the face of Wang Haitao's arrival, Tang Yu still felt nervous and pressure.

Wang Haitao was most concerned about the casualties of the troops, and after Tang Yu reported the progress of the battle to Wang Haitao, he specially reported the casualties of the 877th Regiment and the 878th Regiment. Knowing that the casualties of these two regiments were now about one-third, Wang Haitao still secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In the face of a division of the Japanese army, it is not easy for the 462nd Brigade to do this, and Wang Haitao will not reprimand Tang Yu without reason.

Tang Yu saw that Wang Haitao and Li Changwu were not dissatisfied with him, so he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. I only heard Wang Haitao say to Li Changwu: "Now is the time for Tang Hongming and them to make a move, immediately send a telegram to Tang Hongming, ordering him to send troops to attack the Japanese army at the south gate in an hour." Li Changwu turned around and left.

Wang Haitao said to Tang Yu at this time: "Brigade Commander Tang, I will give you an hour of repair time, and after an hour, your brigade will also launch an attack on the position behind the Japanese army. Tang Yu replied loudly: "Yes, Commander! The 462nd Brigade promised to launch an attack on the Japanese positions in an hour's time." ”

In Zhangshu City, the headquarters of the 210th Division, division commander Tang Hongming, commander of the 460th Brigade Wei Bin, commander of the 461st Brigade Liu Mingde, commander of the 461st Brigade who was slightly injured and hanging an arm, Wei Erxi, commander of the 463rd Brigade, Wei Zhiyuan, commander of the 152nd Heavy Grenade and Artillery Regiment, and all the regimental-level officers who were not injured filled the conference room.

In Wang Haitao's telegram, he clearly ordered the 210th Division to concentrate a group of heavily armored troops and a fighting force, and to be ready to rush out of the south gate at any time and flank the Japanese troops outside the south gate. Now that the troops have been assembled, what makes Tang Hongming entangled is that he knows that there are troops attacking the Japanese army at the east gate and the north gate, so he will only attack the Japanese army at the south gate according to the commander's order, or attack the Japanese army from the three gates at the same time.

After this period of rest, the 210th Division and the 463rd Brigade have come out of the impact of defeat, and now their combat effectiveness is not weak, and the available strength has exceeded 10,000 troops. It's just that because of the lack of supplies, especially the lack of fuel, and the drag of a large number of wounded and sick people, they are unable to break through.

Just when everyone in the conference room was still debating whether to attack only from the south gate or the three city gates at the same time, Wang Haitao's order to attack was conveyed to Tang Hongming by telegram, and the spirits of the people in the conference room were lifted. Tang Hongming also made up his mind and said: "Now is not the time to argue anymore, I order: The 460th Brigade will lead the 872nd Regiment and the 873rd Regiment to guard the east gate, and they can decide whether to attack or not according to the development of the situation."

Brigadier Wei Erxi, you lead the 463rd Brigade to guard the north gate, and you can decide whether to attack or not according to the situation. Brigade Commander Liu Mingde stayed in the city and coordinated the troops from all places. I will personally lead the 871st Regiment and armored troops to assault the Japanese troops outside the city from the south gate. Twenty minutes before the sortie, all artillery carried out a covering bombardment of the Japanese positions outside the South Gate. ”

As soon as Tang Hongming's words were finished, Wei Bin and Wei Erxi stood up almost at the same time, and Wei Bin said first: "Division, let me lead my troops to launch an assault on the Japanese army from the south gate, the division seat is the supreme commander, and you can't move lightly!" Wei Erxi also said: "Yes, Division Commander Tang can't move lightly! If Division Commander Tang believes in me Wei Erxi, I am willing to lead the 463rd Brigade to attack the Japanese position from the south gate." ”

Tang Hongming smiled bitterly and said: "Don't fight, I made a big mistake before, so that I lost my troops and put my troops in such a situation, after this battle, I will ask the commander for guilt, before that, I will use actions to make up for it, don't rob me of this opportunity." Tang Hongming's words made the hearts of everyone sitting sink down, after this battle, no one can guess what Wang Haitao will do with Tang Hongming, but he will definitely not be able to be the division commander, and now it is also the only opportunity for Tang Hongming to make up for his merits, and everyone is unwilling to fight with him anymore.

Wei Bin and Liu Mingde knew that Tang Hongming's determination had been made, so they could only say: "Shizao, you must be more careful, after this battle, we are all willing to ask for the blame in front of the commander, and the previous defeat is not all on Shizao." Tang Hongming smiled bitterly again and said: "The battle was lost, the soldiers were lost, I, the supreme commander, could not escape the blame, I received your wishes, I will talk about this matter after the war, the most important thing now is to fight the battle in front of us, we must let little Japan know that the 210th Division is not a soft persimmon! After I attack, Wei Bin temporarily takes the position of division commander, everyone go and prepare, and the meeting is dismissed!"