In the headquarters of the 11th Army in Nanchang, the commander of the 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, held the telegram sent by Lieutenant General Chilu Li in his hand, and circled around the office with his hands behind his back, his face was expressionless, but there was still a trace of anxiety in his eyes. Finally he stopped by the wall where the large map was hung and set his eyes on it.

The red and blue lines on the map show the distribution of Chinese and Japanese forces in central China, and a thick blue arrow points directly to the city of Yongzhou, which is surrounded by red lines. The decisive place for the decisive battle with the 90th Army, the ace main force of the Chinese army, has been chosen, in the Hengyang area, not far from Yongzhou City.

The 3rd, 39th, and 68th Divisions of the 11th Army, the three main divisions, as well as the Sasaki Detachment and the Miyawaki Detachment, totaling more than 100,000 troops, were all concentrated in the Hengyang area, and now only 20,000 troops were stationed in the Nanchang area, which was also an arrangement made in order to eliminate the 90th Army in one fell swoop.

However, it takes time for the troops to move to the designated position, and according to the battle plan, it will take 10 to 15 days for all the troops to arrive and prepare for battle, and I thought that more than 20,000 people of the 13th Division could hold back the Chinese army in Yongzhou City for 15 to 20 days, but now Lieutenant General Chilu Li has sent a telegram asking for help, which makes him very passive.

After thinking about the map for a long time, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama made a decision. The battle plan must be guaranteed, and the key is how long Yongzhou City can be defended. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama called a confidential staff officer and asked him to record his call back to Lieutenant General Akakari. In the reply, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama once again stressed that the battle plan could not be changed, and that the 13th Division must hold out in Yongzhou City for more than 10 days, and that the troops to support it could not be sent by itself, but fighters could be sent to support the 13th Division.

In the headquarters of the 13th Division in Yongzhou City, Lieutenant General Chilu Li silently read the reply telegram from Lieutenant General Hengyongshan in his hand, and handed it to the chief of staff next to him, Yi Zhi Yongzhi Dazuo, who could only sigh after reading the telegram, and then said: "Your Excellency the division commander, it seems that we can only use our existing forces to defend Yongzhou City, and I hope that we can complete the order of His Excellency the commander." ”

Lieutenant General Akakari can only hope that the troops can fight to the death and complete the task. So the soldiers of the 13th Division were desperately busy inside and outside the city of Yongzhou, and at this time the 13th Division had no division of arms, and even the baggage wing had to repair the fortifications in the city and use the troops for defense. In the midst of the busyness, the 13th Division waited for the Chinese army led by Wang Haitao.

Wang Haitao didn't know that the Eleventh Army was going to set up a huge ambush circle for himself, but Yongzhou City was now a piece of fat in his mouth, and he would definitely have to swallow it in one bite. In order to eliminate the 13th Division stationed in Yongzhou, Wang Haitao also deliberately drew a brigade from the 210th Division to cut off the Japanese army's retreat to the north of Yongzhou City.

This time, Wang Haitao planned to use the 211th Division as the main attack, and another brigade of the 210th Division as the secondary attack. The main attack was the south gate and west gate of Yongzhou City, and the secondary attack was the east gate of Yongzhou City, and the 90th Division served as a reserve. In this attack, Wang Haitao sent a mixed armored battalion to assist in the attack, while the heavy artillery brigade also drew a heavy artillery regiment and placed it in the direction of the east gate, and the other two heavy artillery regiments were used to deal with the Japanese troops at the south gate and the west gate.

The west and south of Yongzhou City are mountains, more than a dozen large and small peaks are surrounded outside the city, and the east and north are hills and forests, the terrain is relatively flat, the Xiangjiang River passes through the city, the city is divided into two, the west and north of the Xiangjiang River are the main urban areas, accounting for two-thirds of the whole city area, and the south and east of the Xiangjiang River only account for one-third. There are three bridges on the Xiangjiang River in the urban area that can pass pedestrians and vehicles, connecting the east and west of the Xiangjiang River.

Wang Haitao led the troops to arrive outside Yongzhou City in the afternoon, and the troops did not rush to attack, but first selected a site and stationed down, while Wang Haitao, Chief of Staff Su Zuxin, Tang Longzai, Tang Yikuan, Tang Hongming, and Li Changwu, commanders of the 91st Army, and several brigade commanders took a guard company to inspect the terrain on the outskirts of Yongzhou City and the construction of Japanese fortifications in Yongzhou City.

When Wang Haitao and his entourage climbed to the top of Kuitouling Mountain, which is located five kilometers southwest of Yongzhou City, the situation in the west and south of Yongzhou City was unobstructed. Under the observation of high-powered telescopes, not only the situation of the Japanese army's fortifications outside the west gate and south gate of Yongzhou City can be seen clearly, but also the situation inside most of Yongzhou City.

It can be seen that the Japanese army still put a lot of effort into the fortifications inside and outside the city of Yongzhou, and there are two lines of defense outside the west gate and outside the south gate, and the distance between these two lines of defense is only more than 100 meters, which can be said to be united. The position is densely covered with bunkers, bunkers, sandbags and other fortifications, and there are barbed wire and repelled wood outside the position. A hundred meters from the position there was also a wide anti-tank trench.

Wang Haitao and others held high-powered binoculars and observed for an hour, and basically everyone knew the defense situation of the Japanese army in Yongzhou. Wang Haitao put down his binoculars and said to everyone: "Everyone has seen the defense situation of the Japanese army, right? Tell me how to attack this Yongzhou City? Changwu, your 211th Division is the main attack, and the direction happens to be the west gate and the south gate, you can talk about it first." ”

Li Changwu replied: "Commander Hui, I am ready to send a brigade at the west gate and the south gate as the main force of the attack, although the small Japanese dug out anti-tank trenches, so that our tanks could not rush to the Japanese position, but our army's heavy artillery has an absolute firepower advantage, under the bombardment of heavy artillery, these fortifications on the small Japanese position and the walls of Yongzhou City will become ruins, and then our superior forces will be enough to rush into the city." Street fighting in the city is the strong point of our army, and I believe that in the face of our army's powerful attack, little Japan will soon fall apart. ”

Wang Haitao frowned and said: "Changwu, I don't want to listen to these empty things, I want to know where you are going to arrange the heavy artillery position, where is the position of the offensive position, how many troops will be invested in the attack, and how will the weapon configuration and attack formation of the attacking force be arranged. Hearing Wang Haitao's question, Li Changwu blushed, and immediately replied to Wang Haitao: "Commander Hui, I think so......

Li Changwu reported his thoughts to Wang Haitao one by one, and Wang Haitao listened carefully and observed the location pointed out by Li Changwu with a telescope. After he finished his report, Wang Haitao said: "I have no opinion on anything else, but I want to place a heavy artillery position on the mountain where we are now, what do you think?"

Wang Haitao is located on the top of this mountain, only five kilometers away from Yongzhou City in a straight line, if some heavy artillery can be placed here, it will be a nightmare existence for the Japanese army in Yongzhou City, under the muzzle of these heavy artillery, the defending Japanese army can only be passively bombed and have no power to fight back. As soon as Wang Haitao finished speaking, Li Changwu said happily: "Great! If we can place some heavy artillery here, then little Japan will wait to be bombed, and with the fire support of these heavy artillery, our division will be able to take Yongzhou City more easily." ”

Tang Longzai and others also expressed their approval, only Su Zuxin said: "Commander, it is good to build a heavy artillery position here, but the terrain here is not ideal, there is not much flat ground, I am afraid that too much heavy artillery can be placed, and the Japanese army will definitely not be willing to let our heavy artillery positions exist, so we must beware of the Japanese army sending fighters to bomb it." ”

Su Zuxin's words reminded Wang Haitao that in the attack of more than ten days, he had not encountered Japanese planes, but Wang Haitao had dredged the air power of the Japanese army, Wang Haitao thought for a while and said: "It's a pity to give up the location of such a good heavy artillery position here." In this way, I will send the engineer regiment up to level a flat area for the placement of heavy artillery, and strengthen the air defense of the position, what do you think?"

Seeing Wang Haitao say this, everyone had no opinions, and everyone put forward their own opinions on some points that needed to be strengthened and paid attention to in the attack, and after some discussion, they went down the mountain and returned to the station. Back at the station, Wang Haitao sent the engineer regiment to Kuitouling to repair the position, and at the same time asked the 90th Division to send a regiment to protect the engineer regiment.

The time for the general offensive was set for eight o'clock in the morning, two days later, which was enough time for the troops to prepare for the battle. The Japanese army was happy that the Chinese army would not attack, and when the Chinese army first arrived, they were nervous, and saw that the Chinese army was only stationed in a distant camp and did not attack immediately, so they rushed to repair the fortifications while on alert.

In the past two days, the Japanese army sent many reconnaissance planes to the skies over the Chinese army to conduct reconnaissance, which made Wang Haitao vigilant and immediately ordered all units to make air defense preparations, especially the armored brigade and heavy artillery brigade, not only to make air defense preparations, but also to do a good job of camouflage protection. Fortunately, Wang Haitao is encamped, there are mountain peaks and dense forests, and the camouflage of the troops is not difficult to do.

A day and a half passed quickly, and at noon the next day, the engineer regiment reported to Wang Haitao that the artillery position had been leveled and that the artillery could be placed. Wang Haitao thought for a while, put the 24 Japanese-style 240-mm heavy howitzers, bullets, and all the shells captured in Guilin into the storage ring, and loaded dozens of 37-mm twin antiaircraft guns and ammunition into them, and then took the artillery and climbed up Kuitouling.

As soon as he climbed halfway up the mountain, Wang Haitao saw a ring-shaped fortification, although this fortification was repaired in a hurry, but it could still be repaired, and it was repaired by the insiders at a glance, and there were officers and soldiers of a regiment of the 90th Division stationed in the fortifications, and these officers and soldiers saw that Wang Haitao brought people up, and they saluted Wang Haitao and greeted him, and Wang Haitao also smiled and returned the salute.

Climbed to the position of the heavy artillery position, Wang Haitao stopped and looked around, this flat place is not small, the place can be placed tightly to put the twenty-four heavy howitzers, bullets, and the location of the anti-aircraft guns has also been leveled, Wang Haitao took a look, and was quite satisfied with the choice of several locations, so the next thing is simple, as long as Wang Haitao takes out the heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns and ammunition from the storage ring, other things have their own artillery to do.