After formulating the defense plan, Wang Haitao and Tang Renxin, together with Tang Yikuan, commander of the 90th Division, Tang Hongming, commander of the 210th Division, Tang Longzai, commander of the 211th Division, as well as Tang Shanbao, commander of the Guard Brigade, and Tang Xiaoshan, commander of the Reconnaissance Brigade, were on the outskirts of Changsha to implement the plan one by one in the face of the contents listed in the defense plan. In the end, Wang Haitao and others crossed the Xiangjiang River and came to the top of Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, condescendingly, overlooking the entire Changsha City.

The time is already December 41, although the temperature has not reached below zero, but it is also quite cold, on the Yuelu Mountain, the heavy artillery brigade is in full swing to repair the heavy artillery position, hundreds of artillery pieces are arranged on the eastern slope of Yuelu Mountain, the amount of construction work of the position fortifications is not small, Wang Haitao paid attention to it, in the rush to repair the fortifications are not only the officers and men of the heavy artillery brigade, but also many officers and soldiers of other units and civilian workers, it seems that General Xue Yue has made a lot of efforts to repair the heavy artillery positions in Yuelu Mountain.

At the top of the mountain, the climate is cold but the sight is quite good, from here you can faintly see the Liuyang River that surrounds the north and east of Changsha City. To tell the truth, Changsha City is really not a city suitable for defensive warfare, and its north side, more than 30 kilometers of ground between the Liuyang River and several Miluo River, is almost a flat land, and there is no danger to defend at all. Further north to Yueyang City, only the Xinqiang River, the Miluo River, and the Liuyang River can resist the Japanese attack, but now it is winter, and among the three rivers, only the Liuyang River has a water depth of three meters, the Miluo River is only more than one meter, and the Xinqiang River is even shallower, less than one meter deep.

Changsha City is backed by the Xiangjiang River, as long as the main position is set up on the north, east and south sides of the city, and then connected into a semi-circular position, as for the Xiangjiang River, where the water is very deep, Wang Haitao estimates that the Japanese army will not easily cross the river, and even if the Japanese army crosses the river to the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, in addition to attacking the artillery position of Yuelu Mountain, it is still impossible to directly attack Changsha City.

Wang Haitao arranged the 90th Division and the 211th Division outside Changsha City, while the six infantry regiments of the 210th Division were deployed on the city wall of Changsha City, and the 30 self-propelled howitzers of the 210th Division and the 50 self-propelled howitzers of the 211th Division were combined to form a separate self-propelled howitzer regiment, which was placed in Changsha City as the artillery strike force of the 90th Army, and all the tanks and combat vehicles of the 210th Division were also hidden in the city.

In order to make up for the lack of artillery of the 211th Division, Wang Haitao placed the 211th Division in the south of the city, where there are several small high grounds, and the city wall is also just on the south side of Miaofeng. The so-called Miao Peak is a 70-meter-high hillside, the terrain is steep, not easy to attack, and the division headquarters of the 211th Division is also located on the city wall at the foot of Miao Peak. On Miao Peak, Wang Haitao asked Tang Longzai to place 36 75-caliber field guns, as well as some anti-aircraft weapons, to support the defense of the position outside the city.

The two brigades of the 90th Division, one brigade was deployed to the north of the city, and the other brigade was deployed to the east of the city, and the division headquarters was located in the Tianxin Pavilion on the southeast city wall. The headquarters of the 210th Division was located in Xinghanmen, and the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Brigade was distributed on the city wall, and the 75th field artillery was also arranged on the original gun emplacements on the city wall. On the inner side of the city is the Guard Brigade serving as the reserve of the whole army, and taking on the task of repairing the street fortifications.

The outermost first line of Changsha City, located on the south bank of the Laodao River in the north. Although the Laodao River is not a big river, and the water in winter is also very shallow, only more than one meter deep, it must be nearly 20 meters wide, and there are embankments on both sides, so building defensive positions can get twice the result with half the effort. Tang Yikuan asked the blacksmiths in the city to build a large number of triangular nails and scattered them in the river, which were mixed with the mud and sand stones of the riverbed, which were difficult to find, and would hurt if you stepped on them.

The second position was at the western end of the Liuyang River between the city wall and the Laodao River, where a regiment of the 37th Army was originally defending, but it was too close to the Changsha city wall, and Tang Yikuan took over this section. This regiment of the Thirty-seventh Army was reinforced elsewhere. The third position is the market town and shops outside the city wall, I heard that the Japanese called, the market towns and shops outside the city spun away, either hid in Changsha City, or crossed the Xiangjiang River, and hid to the west of the Xiangjiang River. The vacant market towns and shops, Tang Yishi transformed them, and just built them into a three-dimensional defensive position.

The Liuyang River in the east is more than ten kilometers away from the city wall, and the main force of the 37th Army is deploying on the west bank of the river, so Tang Yishi only built a defensive position five kilometers behind the 37th Army and used several consecutive mountain bags tens of meters high. On this defensive position, Tang Yishi placed 36 75-caliber field guns, which could effectively support the defense of the 37th Army with a range of more than 8 kilometers.

The last defensive position outside the city was still based on the empty market towns and shops under the city wall, and was rebuilt, so that two complete ring-shaped positions were formed from the north to the southeast corner of Changsha City. The south of the city was independently defended by the 211th Division, and there were a series of high ground in the south of Changsha City, although they were not high, but they could also give full play to their advantages if they were used well.

The first line of the 211th Division's position was to take Jumping Horse Town, which was 15 kilometers away from the city, as the central main position, and then extended to both sides, extending to the Xiangjiang River in the west and Liuyang River in the east. The total length of this position reached more than 20 kilometers, and Tang Longzai let two regiments go up in one go, but the troops were still weak. Later, the 92nd Division of the 53rd Army took on a third of the position, which made this line of defense thicker.

The second main position is to Tongjing Town as the main position, and then stretch to the second edge, two kilometers behind this position, there is the high ground of the ordnance, the top of this high ground of less than 100 meters originally had the defense facilities built because of the ordnance, now the ordnance has been withdrawn, the defense facilities remained, Tang Longzai repaired them, set up the headquarters of the 463rd Brigade here, and also placed the artillery of the other half of the division here.

Without the self-propelled howitzer regiment under the division, Tang Longzai could only concentrate the 75-caliber field guns of each regiment and place them on the two heights of Miaofeng and the Ordnance Institute. Wang Haitao was still worried about the safety of his brother-in-law, so he secretly sent a battalion of the guard brigade to the headquarters of the 211th Division, and secretly arranged the guard brigade's big killing weapon, fifteen Buran rocket launchers, on Miao Fengfeng.

In order to speed up the construction, Wang Haitao hired a large number of migrant workers in Changsha City to participate in the construction of the position out of his own pocket, and with the participation of these migrant workers, the progress of the construction of the position was significantly accelerated. Ten days after Wang Haitao arrived in Changsha, the construction of various positions was completed.

According to the intelligence sent back by the reconnaissance detachment of the reconnaissance brigade, the Japanese troops assembled by the generals Anan Wei reached four divisions and two independent mixed brigades, in addition to the fifth brigade of independent field heavy artillery, the third brigade of independent siege heavy artillery, the sixth, eighth, and fourteenth independent heavy mortar brigades, the fifth and sixth independent tank brigades, the second and third independent heavy tank brigades, and the 44th and 46th flying teams.

Among them, the 3rd Division is the newly replenished Type A Division, the 6th Division is the reorganized Type A Division, the 4th Division is also the old Type A Division, and only the 40th Division is the Type B Division with a three-wing system. There are also independent mixed 17 brigades and 18 independent mixed brigades, both of which have five infantry brigades, an artillery brigade, a cavalry brigade, an engineer brigade, and a baggage brigade.

The total number of troops invested by the Japanese army reached 120,000, as well as 20 warships, 200 motorboats, and more than 200 aircraft. Judging from the strength of the Japanese army, if there is no 90th Army, then the Japanese army will have the upper hand. On 24 December, several commanders of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army arrived in Yueyang City, and a major battle broke out. On the south bank of the Xinqiang River, the Twentieth Army of the 27th Army was on the defensive position on the south bank of the Xinqiang River in front, and left a large number of reserves in the stronghold of Tongcheng.

The 58th Army was resting and waiting in Huang'an City, behind the 20th Army, so that it could reinforce the 20th Army at any time. Commander Xue Yue's task to Commander Yang Sen of the 27th Group Army was to hold the Xinqiang River defense line for seven to ten days, and then move to both sides of the position, let go of the front, and let the Japanese army go deep in the direction of Changsha. This order put Commander Janssen under pressure.

The 27th Group Army is the Sichuan Army, which has fought many times until it lost more than half of its strength since the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Sichuan in 1937. In many battles, the 27th Group Army played the bloody nature of the Sichuan Army and played the style of the Sichuan Army, and was commended by Lao Chiang many times. This time, the 20th Army had just changed its equipment, and the new recruits who had been replenished had also undergone retraining, and it was at a time when morale was at its peak.

However, with the weaponry and numbers of the 27th Group Army, and with the small Xinqiang River, it may not be easy to block the two divisions of the Japanese frontal attack for seven days. However, a military order is a military order, and Yang Sen also ordered the Twentieth Army to hold its position on the south bank of the Xinqiang River for three days. Yang Hanyu, the commander of the Twentieth Army, was also a man who was killed step by step from the bottom, and he did not flinch in the face of extremely difficult military orders.

Yang Hanyu ordered the 133rd Division to build fortifications along Huangsha Street, Longfeng Bridge, Xiagaoqiao and other places on the route of the Xuan, and the 134th Division occupied positions in Qingquan Peak, Yingzhu Mountain, Guhua Mountain and other places to block the Japanese army. The 54th Division, which had relatively weak combat effectiveness, was stationed in Tongcheng as a reserve for the whole army. From December 23, the Japanese army mobilized artillery and continuously launched artillery bombardment on the defensive positions of the 20th Army on the south bank of the Xinqiang River.

On the evening of 24 December, it rained heavily in the air, and the Japanese 6th and 40th Divisions took advantage of the night to force their way across the Xinqiang River. The sudden heavy rain on the one hand covered the movement of the Japanese troops, and on the other hand, it also hindered the Japanese troops from crossing the river and advancing. More than 40,000 men of the two divisions of the Japanese army forcibly crossed the Xinqiang River in one night, and then faced the defensive positions of the two divisions of the 20th Army.