The Independent Regiment fought and marched during the day, and after arriving at Wusha Town, it began to repair the fortifications without rest, and worked down overnight, and although the defensive position had begun to take shape, the physical strength of the officers and men had also reached the limit. Seeing the extremely tired appearance of his officers and soldiers, Wang Haitao also secretly felt distressed, and after breakfast, Wang Haitao knew that time was very tight, but still ordered the whole army to rest.

The reconnaissance company did not take part in the operation to repair the position, and they were sent out by Wang Haitao after completing the task of reaching Wusha Town in advance. This time, the task was to rectify the zero, and go out of Wusha Town from several directions, search for the traces of several national army units, and report to Wang Haitao in time. It was not until noon that two reconnaissance groups reported to Wang Haitao on the radio that troops of the 144th Division and the newly formed 7th Division of the Sichuan Army had been discovered in the south and north.

However, to Wang Haitao's relief, the two Sichuan army divisions only stayed twenty kilometers away from Wusha Town, and did not continue to approach Wusha Town. Wang Haitao's judgment was that these two Sichuan army divisions knew that they and the New Fourth Army were very strong, and they did not dare to attack alone, they should be waiting for Shangguan Yunxiang to arrive with the three main divisions.

What Wang Haitao didn't know at this time was that in addition to the three main divisions, the troops brought by Shangguan Yunxiang had increased the five two main divisions and the sixty-second division. This time, the troops in Shangguan Yunxiang's hands counted the three divisions of the 50th Army, with a total of eight divisions and more than 80,000 people. Shangguan Yunxiang also made a heavy promise in front of Commander Gu Zhutong to wipe out the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army on the Yangtze River.

By noon, only the news of the two divisions of the Sichuan Army came, and Shangguan Yunxiang's soldiers and horses had not yet been seen, and Wang Haitao's men entered the work of repairing the defensive positions after a short rest. Commander Ye Ting also sent 4,000 officers and soldiers to replace the officers and soldiers of last night to repair the position together with Wang Haitao's men.

According to Wang Haitao's plan, at least three defensive positions should be built from five kilometers outside Wusha Town to Wusha Town, and Wusha Town should also be the last defensive position, only in this way can it be possible to block the attack of tens of thousands of troops and horses of the national army for two days. Now only the first line of positions is beginning to see the scale, and this is far from enough. Under the command of Wang Haitao, the first line of positions was completed in the evening, and the troops rested for a while, and then plunged into the rush repair of the second line.

During the day, thanks to the continuous efforts of the New Fourth Army, 12 more wooden boats were found, and dozens of rafts were also set up, and after the sky was completely dark, the New Fourth Army began to cross the river with these boats and rafts. The troops of the Jiangbei Fourth Column had already been contacted, and the Fourth Column also rushed to the Jiangbei crossing site in the evening and covered the troops of the New Fourth Army that had crossed the river. In order to coordinate the operation of crossing the Yangtze River, Chief of Staff Zhang Yunyi of the New Fourth Army crossed the Yangtze River with the first batch of troops crossing the Yangtze River last night, and the operation in the north of the Yangtze River was under the full command of Chief of Staff Zhang Yunyi.

At present, the non-combat troops and logistical materials of the New Fourth Army have begun to cross the river, but the loading capacity of these dozen or so small boats is very limited, and there are not many personnel and materials that can cross the river on rafts at one time. This is also a very helpless matter, Commander Ye Ting sent out the second and third detachments of the second column to Wang Haitao for unified command, hoping that Wang Haitao can hold on for a few more days to ensure that all the New Fourth Army will cross the river and go north.

With the addition of several thousand officers and men of these two detachments, Wang Haitao's available troops have also increased to nearly 10,000 troops, and with these troops in hand, Wang Haitao optimistically estimates that it should not be a big problem to hold for five days. But the premise is that all defensive positions are built perfectly. Although Wang Haitao did not have any heavy weapons in his hands, he had hundreds of mortars, nearly 100 heavy machine guns, and sufficient ammunition.

On the one hand, Wang Haitao was desperately trying to repair the defensive positions under his command, and on the other hand, he was worried that the army led by Shangguan Yunxiang would arrive at any time, but it was not until noon the next day, after the troops had already repaired the second defensive position, that the reconnaissance group sent back information and found the troops commanded by Shangguan Yunxiang in Qingyang County. From Qingyang County to Wusha Town, it will take more than ten hours at the earliest, and Wang Haitao feels that with these ten hours, it should not be too much of a problem to repair the third position.

The reason why Shangguan Yunxiang came so slowly was because he stayed in Taiping County for a day and a night to wait for the 52nd and 62nd Divisions to join him. Shangguan Yunxiang originally thought that even if the three divisions of the 50th Army could not stop the New Fourth Army, it would be no problem to block it for one to two days, but he did not expect that the New Fourth Army would move quickly and that there would be an extremely powerful independent regiment opening the way, and it would only take two days to kill from Qingyang County to the Yangtze River.

When Shangguan Yunxiang arrived at Qingyang County with five divisions, he inquired about the situation of the New Fourth Army and learned that the New Fourth Army had broken through the resistance of the 148th Division two days earlier and arrived at Wusha Town on the Yangtze River. Shangguan Yunxiang scolded the 50th Army for being a waste, and on the other hand, he ordered his 40th Division to speed up and rush to Wusha Town, and ordered Fang Riying, the commander of the 40th Division, to hold back the main force of the New Fourth Army in Wusha Town.

Fang Riying's 40th Division had two brigades and six regiments, and a divisional artillery battalion, equipped with 12 Japanese 75-caliber mountain guns, one Czech light machine gun in each platoon, and two Mark-type heavy machine guns in each company. This kind of equipment is also good in the Central Army, so Fang Riying didn't take the New Fourth Army of more than 10,000 people into account at all.

After receiving Shangguan Yunxiang's order, Fang Riying led the 40th Division to rush in the direction of Wusha Town. And Wang Haitao also got the information that the 40th Division was the first to kill him as the vanguard. As the saying goes, "a good man is difficult to defeat with four hands, and a tiger is afraid of wolves", once several divisions of the national army rush up, and many ants bite the elephant to death, Wang Haitao is his own thousands of men and horses really can't stop the attack of the national army.

Now only one of the 40th Divisions has been killed alone, and it is in the arms of Wang Haitao. Wang Haitao asked the troops of the New Fourth Army to continue to rush to repair the third defensive position and the fortifications in Wusha Town, while the four battalions of the Independent Regiment were spread out on the first position, and the Jing County Security Regiment was the reserve.

Calculating the time, there should be nearly ten hours before the arrival of the 40th Division, Wang Haitao asked his subordinates to recharge their strength on the position and prepare for the next harsh battle. The officials also knew that once the war began, there would be no time to rest, and they also cherished this precious few hours of rest. Commander Ye Ting knew that several divisions led by Shangguan Yunxiang would soon arrive in Wusha Town, so he not only accelerated the speed of crossing the river, but also ordered the logistics department to prepare a large number of dry food materials and hand them over to Wang Haitao.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of the third day, the 40th Division finally arrived in front of the first line of positions outside the town of Wusha. Fang Riying stood on a high ground, raised his binoculars and observed the defensive position in front of him, there were not many soldiers on the defensive position, but the entire defensive position surprised Fang Riying. Fang Riying is also a graduate of the first phase of Huangpu, and has fought countless battles in his career for decades, and he can be regarded as an officer with rich experience in warfare.

However, Fang Riying also thought that the New Fourth Army was inferior to him in terms of strength and weaponry, so he didn't care too much. If he knew that he was facing the troops of Wang Haitao's 90th Army, he would not dare to hold it up like this. Fang Riying ordered the artillery of the whole division to concentrate and establish an artillery position, and then the two brigades each dispatched two regiments to launch a full-line attack on the defenders' positions with the strength of four regiments.

In addition to the 12 Japanese-style mountain guns, there are also more than 30 large- and small-caliber mortars and more than 10 Japanese-made Type 92 infantry guns. As soon as the artillery position of the 40th Division was built, Fang Riying ordered the artillery to open fire, and then the troops of the four regiments launched a full-line attack on the defenders' positions under the cover of artillery fire and heavy machine guns.

On the position, Wang Haitao stood in a bunker, calmly observing the movements of the 40th Division through the artillery observation scope. Seeing that the 40th Division concentrated its artillery and began to shell, and the soldiers also launched an attack on the whole line under the cover of artillery fire, they couldn't help but snort coldly. The artillery bombardment of the 40th Division lasted for ten minutes, and the soldiers also rushed to a position 200 meters in front of the position, and Wang Haitao ordered the artillery fire to start a counterattack.

Wang Haitao had more than 100 mortars of large and small calibers in his hands, including 40 heavy mortars, and the primary target of the artillery counterattack was naturally the artillery position of the 40 th Division. As soon as Wang Haitao's order to counterattack was issued, more than 100 mortars that had already locked onto the artillery position of the 40th Division were fired at the same time, and in the continuous sound of artillery, more than 100 muskets* flew towards the artillery position of the 40th Division after being discharged.

There was no accident, after the first round of volleys, the artillery positions of the 40th Division fell into a sea of fire, and after five volleys, the artillery of the 40th Division was completely annihilated. The counterattack of hundreds of artillery guns on the position made Fang Riying open his mouth in surprise and didn't close it for a long time, until his artillery position fell into a sea of fire, he woke up in shock, and couldn't help screaming: "My artillery!"

Not only Fang Riying, but the two brigade commanders who were watching the battle beside him were also stunned by the counterattacking artillery fire, and it was not until the shells fell on the heads of the attacking officers and soldiers that the two reacted. At this time, the three-kilometer-long position had already opened fire on the whole line and counterattacked, and countless light and heavy machine gun fire points, as well as the * and semi-automatic rifles in the hands of the soldiers, the attacking officers and men fell one by one with ferocious firepower.

The two brigade commanders were terrified and said to Fang Riying: "Division, the communist army's firepower is too fierce, and the brothers can't rush forward at all, so order to withdraw first!" The words of the two brigade commanders made Fang Riying also sober up, and after taking a look at the situation on the battlefield, Fang Riying shouted repeatedly: "Withdraw! Withdraw quickly! His grandmother's, when did the communist army have such powerful firepower? How can we attack with such firepower with one of our divisions?"