Li Changwu turned around and rushed out of the division headquarters with excitement on his face, and then Tang Longzai notified Wei Erxi's 463rd Brigade. The 211th Division knew that it would be able to cross the river to fight, and it was also ready to cross the river when it was building its position on the north bank. After sending reconnaissance troops to confirm that the Japanese troops had retreated, the 211th Division's operation to cross the river was launched overnight.

The wooden boats, which had been collected and hidden in advance, were taken out, and the engineer regiment under the army logistics department also drove to the river. The engineer regiment skillfully used these wooden boats to build two pontoon bridges on the river, and with the heavy weapons of the 211th Division of the pontoon bridges, they could smoothly cross the river. The 877th Regiment of the 462nd Brigade was the first to cross the river, and quickly deployed on the south bank of the river to escort the troops that were about to cross the river.

For a whole night, the 211th Division, except for the wounded and logisticians, all the combat units crossed the Yongjiang River. As soon as the morning dawned, the departments were counting the number of people, sorting out the team, and making preparations before the departure. Tang Longzai's division headquarters had also crossed the Yongjiang River, and the reconnaissance personnel sent the information to Tang Longzai's hands as soon as it was dawn. The Japanese 70th Division retreated very quickly, and now it is 40 kilometers away from the Yongjiang River.

In the headquarters of the 90th Group Army in Nanning City, Wang Haitao was staring at a map, and several staff officers around him were reading the information sent back by the reconnaissance brigade to Wang Haitao one by one, and clearly marked the direction and position of the 210th Brigade on the map, as well as the position of the Japanese army in Qinzhou and the position of the 70th Division after retreating.

After judging how long the 210th Division would take and where it could intercept the retreat of the 70th Division, Wang Haitao calculated for a while, and Wang Haitao believed that the 210th Division should capture Nanxiao Town within 24 hours. Twenty-four hours later, the 70th Division of the Japanese Army should also reach the vicinity of Nanxiao Town at the current rate of retreat.

After calculating the result, Wang Haitao straightened up and said to a staff officer: "Immediately send a telegram to the 210th Division, ordering them to capture Nanxiao Town within 24 hours and cut off the retreat of the 70th Division of the Japanese Army." The staff officer stood up and replied, "Yes, Commander!" and saluted and turned to go out. Wang Haitao said to another staff officer: "Send a telegram to the 211th Division, so that Tang Longzai can catch up with the 70th Division of the Japanese Army within 24 hours, and join the 210th Division to encircle the Japanese army in Nanxiao Town and annihilate it." The staff officer also left.

After the 211th Division had all crossed the Yongjiang River, Wang Haitao called his commander Tang Yikuan, commander of the 90th Division, Tang Yishi, commander of the Heavy Artillery Brigade, and Wu Jianzhou, commander of the Armored Brigade, to the headquarters. After the people arrived, Wang Haitao said: "The 70th Division of the Japanese Army is fleeing back to Qinzhou, and I have ordered the 210th Division to cut off its retreat and encircle and annihilate them together with the 211th Division." It is not a problem to encircle and annihilate a 70th Division with the strength of two divisions, which has lost nearly half of its strength, but after eliminating this 70th Division, our next task is to completely annihilate the Japanese army in Qinzhou and recapture Qinzhou City. ”

Speaking of this, Wang Haitao glanced at the people seated, and saw that everyone was listening attentively to what he said, so he continued: "However, Qinzhou is not so easy to capture, and the number of Japanese troops guarding Qinzhou is not large, that is, more than 10,000 people, but they can get artillery support from warships on the river and sea. At the time of the Battle of Songhu, you still remember the power of the Japanese naval guns, right? Therefore, in order to capture Qinzhou, you must first deal with the Japanese warships.

I have ordered the reconnaissance brigade to send a reconnaissance group to infiltrate Qinzhou to reconnoiter the position of the Japanese warships, and the only weapon we can use against the Japanese warships is the long-range artillery of the heavy artillery brigade. The firing range of the guns on the Japanese light warships was supposed to be about ten kilometers, while the range of the main guns of large warships could reach twenty to thirty kilometers. Our 130 heavy cannon, which has the longest range, also has an effective firing range of 27 kilometers, and in the case of a preemptive strike, it should be able to inflict heavy damage on Japanese warships. ”

When Wang Haitao said this, the people below were already excitedly discussing. After everyone discussed for a while, Wang Haitao said: "I decided to send the 130 heavy cannon regiment, the 152 heavy howitzer and artillery regiment of the heavy artillery brigade, and the heavy tank regiment and heavy armored vehicle regiment of the armored brigade to participate in the battle of Qinzhou, and at the same time, the 90th Division will also send a brigade to cover the heavy artillery and armored troops. Another brigade of the 90th Division, together with the remaining units of the heavy artillery brigade and armored brigade, was stationed in Nanning City, and the troops stationed in Nanning were under the unified command of Tang Yikuan. ”

No one in the 90 th Group Army would oppose Wang Haitao's decision, so after the meeting was dismissed, everyone quickly left the headquarters and prepared for action separately. After lunch, the 272nd Brigade and the 55th Regiment of the 90th Division took the lead in crossing the river from the pontoon bridge, followed by two regiments of the armored brigade and two regiments of the heavy artillery brigade. After the other two regiments of the 272nd Brigade also crossed the river, the Guard Brigade and Wang Haitao finally crossed the Yongjiang River.

At this time, after a day's pursuit, the vanguard of the 211th Division was only five kilometers away from the rear of the 70th Division. Because there was no news of the 210th Division, and without knowing whether the 210th Division had already rushed to Nanxiao Town, the 211th Division did not dare to make efforts to catch up with the 70th Division and attack it.

However, the worries of the 211th Division are a bit redundant, and the current 210th Division has arrived in Nanxiao Town ahead of schedule. The 210th Division still opened the way with ferocious artillery fire, and it was a fierce bombardment of the last line of defense of the Japanese 17th Brigade at Bazhaigou. Under the ferocious artillery fire, the Japanese Bazhaigou defense line only lasted three hours before the entire line collapsed, and the 210th Division captured the Bazhaigou defense line at a very small cost.

With Wang Haitao's order that Nanxiao Town must be captured within 24 hours, Tang Hongming loaded the officers and men of the 871st Regiment of the 460th Brigade with a truck and rushed to Nanxiao Town as the vanguard. Tang Hongming's order to Wei Shaofeng, the commander of the 871st Regiment, was to arrive at all costs and capture Nanxiao Town in the shortest possible time. As soon as Wei Shaofeng set off, Tang Hongming asked the 461st Brigade to also set off and rush to Nanxiao Town.

The 461st Brigade was led by itself and set off in the direction of Qinzhou City. There was only one road from Qinzhou to Nanxiao Town, and Tang Hongming and the 461st Brigade had to cut this road to prevent the Japanese army in Qinzhou from rescuing the besieged 70th Division. Now the remnants of the 17th Brigade have retreated to Qinzhou, and after they return to Qinzhou, the total number of Japanese troops in Qinzhou will be nearly 20,000, and this is not without threats.

Wei Shaofeng led the 871st Regiment all the way, and rushed to the outside of Nanxiao Town before evening, everyone was in a truck hurry, and they were not very tired, so Wei Shaofeng ordered to immediately attack Nanxiao Town. However, the 871st Regiment only set up a dozen mortars and fired two rounds at the wall of Nanxiao Town, and a white flag was set up in Nanxiao Town.

Wei Shaofeng ordered the 2nd Battalion to send a company to the town, and not long after the 2nd Battalion and the 1st Company entered the town, they sent people to report that they had occupied Nanxiao Town. It turned out that there was no Japanese army stationed in Nanxiao Town, only one company of puppet troops was here, and these puppet soldiers saw so many troops and so many artillery pieces coming from outside the city at once, so they hurriedly raised a white flag and surrendered.

After the 871st Regiment took Nanxiao Town without much effort, Wei Shaofeng ordered the troops to repair the defensive position in the north of the city, and reported the situation to the brigade commander Wei Bin on the other. Nanxiao Town is close to the Qinzhou-Nanning Highway, and on the other side of the highway is Dawang Mountain with an altitude of more than 300 meters, and the terrain is still relatively dangerous. After observing the terrain, Wei Shaofeng decisively arranged the second battalion, the third battalion and the artillery battalion on Dawang Mountain, especially the artillery battalion, where 12 75-caliber field guns and 24 mortars were carried to the top of Dawang Mountain by the soldiers.

At 10 o'clock in the evening, all the 460th Brigade arrived at Nanxiao Town, and the brigade commander Wei Bin did not care about resting, and immediately commanded the officers and men of the whole brigade to rush to repair the defensive positions around Nanxiao Town and Dawang Mountain. The soldiers all knew that whether or not they could stop the Japanese 70th Division depended on how well the defensive positions were repaired, so they worked hard to repair the positions regardless of fatigue.

Tang Hongming led the 461st Brigade to seize the town of Nameng, cutting off the road for the Japanese army to rescue the 70th Division in Qinzhou. At this time, Tang Hongming sent a telegram to Wang Haitao, reporting that the 210th Division had successfully occupied Nanxiao Town and Nameng Town, which not only cut off the retreat of the 70th Division, but also cut off the easy way for the Japanese army in Qinzhou to rescue the 70th Division.

After receiving Tang Hongming's report, Wang Haitao was relieved and immediately sent a report to Tang Longzai, telling Tang Longzai that the 210th Division had captured Nanxiao Town and successfully completed the task of cutting off the retreat of the 70th Division, and that the 211th Division could launch an attack on the 70th Division at any time. When Tang Longzai received Wang Haitao's telegram, the Japanese 70th Division was camping, and the camping was still 25 kilometers away from Nanxiao Town.

The Japanese army camped, and the 211th Division did not dare to attack, so it could only stop advancing, and the distance between the two sides was still five kilometers. After receiving Wang Haitao's telegram, Tang Longzai planned to carry out a night attack on the 70th Division. Tang Longzai called several of his cadres over and began to arrange the offensive task. The first person to be named was Tang Weizhong, the commander of the heavy artillery regiment.

The task of the heavy artillery regiment was to use all self-propelled howitzers and artillery to force the Japanese camp and carry out artillery fire on the Japanese camp at a distance of three kilometers from the Japanese camp. The time was set for two o'clock in the morning. The main force of the armored regiment had been merged into the army armored brigade, and under Tang Longzai's hard request, Wang Haitao left him five heavy armored vehicles, ten light armored vehicles, and twenty armored trucks, which were mixed into an armored company.

Tang Longzai's second order was given to the 878th Regiment of the 460th Brigade, ordering the regiment commander Tang Yu to lead the 878th Regiment and the armored company to reach a distance of 2 kilometers from the Japanese army before 2 o'clock in the morning, and after the shelling began, the 878th Brigade would cover the armored company to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese army. Only two battalions of the 877th Regiment crossed the river to participate in the battle, and they served as the second echelon of the attack together with the two battalions of the 879th Regiment crossing the river.

The troops of the 463rd Brigade moved together with the division headquarters, and two battalions of the 880th Regiment also came, and these two battalions acted together with the heavy artillery regiment to play a role in guiding and protecting the heavy artillery regiment. Tang Longzai assigned the task, and commanders at all levels returned to their troops one after another to mobilize their troops, and the first to act was the 878th Regiment and the armored company. Subsequently, the 881st Regiment and the Heavy Artillery Regiment also began to move forward.