The Japanese 106th Division easily occupied Pengze County, and then marched from Pengze to Yangjiashan and Chenjiaqiao at Hukou. The two positions were the gateways to the mouth of the lake, and Luo Zhuoying ordered the 77th Division to be responsible for defense.

The 77th Division originally belonged to Tang Zhisheng's troops of the Hunan Army. After the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Nanjing, the number of soldiers was sharply reduced, and now there are less than 8,000 troops.

The battle was the first to start at Yangjiashan, and the attacking Japanese army was the 147th Wing of the 106th Division, while the 462nd Regiment of the 77th Division was responsible for the defense.

The Japanese army quickly launched a round of covering bombardment of the Yangshan position, and then the ground forces launched an attack. These invincible devils thought it would be as easy as attacking Peng Ze, but they didn't expect to be attacked head-on by the 462nd Regiment.

Luo Zhuoying seems to have deliberately abandoned Peng Ze and let the Japanese army go deep alone, and then send troops to occupy Peng Ze to cut off its rear road, and then use the superior forces to attack the 106th Division.

The reason why Luo Zhuoying did this was because the Botian detachment did not follow up in time, and the Japanese ships were blocked by a large number of mine sunken ships on the river of Madang Fortress. For this national army, it seems to be an excellent opportunity to annihilate the 106th Division.

The Japanese army used artillery fire to continuously attack the Yangjiashan position, and the 462nd Regiment stubbornly counterattacked, repelling several rounds of enemy attacks.

"Boom Boom" "......"

The artillery shells rang non-stop on the position, and the regiment commander Chen Qiru personally came to the position to command.

"Hold on! My task is to stay until three o'clock in the afternoon, and I must not let the devil step into the Yangshan position! ”

"Da Da Da" "Da Da Da" "Da Da Da" "......"

The soldiers of the national army on the position took advantage of the geographical advantage and made the most stubborn resistance.

As soon as the battle broke out, the rear command also boiled.

"Didi", "Hey, Hey", "......"

These are the sounds characteristic of the wartime command.

A radioman stood up with the message and said, "Report! The 77th Division called. ”

Luo Zhuoying had been paying attention to the combat map and the current location of the troops, and shouted at the radio officer: "Read! ”

The radio officer looked at the telegram and read: "The Japanese army launched an attack on our Yangshan position at 8 o'clock in the morning, and the 462nd Regiment of our division repelled several rounds of enemy attacks, but due to the heavy enemy artillery fire, the troops suffered heavy casualties. The 1st Regiment of the enemy's 106th Division is moving towards Chenjiaqiao, Shuishuzui Liao Village----. The three battalions of our division are ready for battle at any time. ”

"Got it." After Luo Zhuoying answered, he turned around and asked the staff officer on the side: "The current position of the 16th Division." ”

The staff officer replied: "It is still on the march, and it is expected to reach the vicinity of Pengze early tomorrow morning." ”

Luo Zhuoying breathed a sigh of relief, at least the current battle situation is developing according to his own plan.

The battle for Yangshan lasted until noon. The front of the position was covered with hundreds of corpses of devils, and the 462nd Regiment suffered nearly half of the casualties.

The stubborn resistance of the national army was unexpected by the commander of the 106th Division, Junrokuro Matsuura. Therefore, taking advantage of the noon truce, the troops were redeployed, and it was necessary to occupy the Yangshan position as soon as possible and take Hukou directly. As long as the mouth of the lake falls into his own hands, Jiujiang, an important town in the south of the Yangtze River, will inevitably be in his pocket. And Luo Zhuoying took a fancy to Junrokuro Matsuura's greedy and aggressive character, so he arranged the pocket array.

Not long after lunch, the Japanese army quickly launched an offensive, which seemed to be even more fierce than in the morning. It seems that the devils are in a hurry to capture this position and then continue their "journey of honor".

At the same time, the battle of Chenjiaqiao has also begun. In charge of this position was the 3rd Battalion of the 77th Division, whose task was to control the Penghu Highway and stop the westward advance of the Japanese army. By the way, it created a false impression for the Japanese army that the national army was blocking with all its might.

"Battalion commander! The devil is coming! ”

The outpost soldiers ran to the position and reported to the commander of the third battalion.

The third battalion commander hurriedly asked, "How many people?" ”

The soldier replied, "Four or five hundred." ”

The commander of the third battalion had an idea and ordered: "The second and third companies quickly move north. After the battle of the position starts, detour back to the enemy's rear to make a flanking attack. ”

Two companies quickly left their positions and headed north. It was a good strategy to flank the east and west, but the commander of the third battalion made two of the most fatal mistakes.

It didn't take long for the Japanese vanguard to come to the front of the position and quickly spread out their positions and launch an attack.

The commander of the third battalion ordered: "This round is a tentative attack of the enemy, and it is being fought closer!" ”

The devils only dispatched less than a hundred people in the first round of attacks, and there were no follow-up troops, so this kind of tentative attack was clear at a glance.

The devil artillery constantly bombarded the position and covered the attack of the troops. The devils attacking in front were scattered very openly, and they formed a five-five formation, alternately covering the advance. Several of their light machine guns passed through a special trajectory, constantly firing to suppress the enemy in the position.

When the devils approached the position fifty meters, the third battalion led a company to launch a counterattack.

"Boom Boom" "......"

After a round of grenade attacks, the "Da Da Da" and "......" positions were filled with gunfire.

Thick smoke billowed in front of the position, sand and rocks flew away, and the devils in front of them were directly blown into the sky. Under a fierce attack, the enemy in front of him left more than 30 corpses behind, and fled back in a hurry.

It didn't take long for the Japanese to attack again. The enemy artillery continued to bombard the position, while the attacking infantry formed three squares to storm the position.

Not long after the battle began, the second and third companies returned to the rear of the devils and launched a fierce attack.

The devil commander immediately realized that he was being caught between the east and the west, so he ordered the troops to stop the attack and all withdraw. A hundred men were then left on standby to block the enemy in their positions, while the rest of the troops turned to attack the enemy in their rear.

After the first round of artillery bombardment, there were less than 100 soldiers in the company on the position, and more than 100 devils in front of them were waiting for the battle.

The commander of the third battalion could only watch his troops fight with a large number of devils, and he was completely powerless.

Bad luck followed. A large number of devils were found in the east, which was completely unexpected by the commander of the third battalion. The Japanese army dispatched a large group of troops, and it was only their vanguard that had fought before, but the commander of the third battalion did not know it.

The commander of the three battalions made two fatal mistakes: first, the outflanking force must be more than twice as large as the enemy; Second, to carry out a roundabout outflanking when the enemy's situation is unknown, this is no different from sending him to death.

Surrounded by the devil's east and west roads, nearly 300 soldiers of the second and third companies of the national army all died heroically.

"Ahh

The commander of the third battalion patted the ground in front of the trench vigorously, grief-stricken. Now that the enemy is ten times as many as oneself, a company to block it is equivalent to hitting a stone with an egg. In desperation, the commander of the third battalion withdrew from the position with the remnants.

If the commander of the third battalion did not play tricks, he could hold out until the scheduled time with the strength of one battalion. However, due to the mistake of the commander, the Chenjiaqiao position was captured in less than half an hour.

In the Yangshan position, the 462nd Regiment is still struggling to hold on. Unfortunately, at two o'clock in the afternoon, a howitzer exploded next to the regiment commander Chen Qiru, who was seriously wounded and carried off the position by the soldiers. The 462nd Regiment was leaderless, and most of the casualties were lost. In desperation, they withdrew from the Yangshan position one after another.

The Yangshan position and the Chenjiaqiao position were not captured by the Japanese army within the scheduled time, which disrupted Luo Zhuoying's overall plan a bit. Now the 16th Division can only be called to counterattack Pengze County in advance, so that his pocket plan can be carried out smoothly.

(End of chapter)