Chapter 156

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

For the Yanghang battle, Chen Cheng, Lv Muzhi, and others established a command post specifically at Miaoxing Town southwest of Yanghang.

Watching the Yanghang battlefield filled with gunfire and cannon, the soldiers' battle cries carrying several li away, Hu Gongnan was somewhat moved.

Chen Cheng and Lv Muzhi both paid close attention; this place of Yanghang could be seen as a buffer zone where the devils and the main force of the Xia Guo Army made contact. If they could get entangled with the devils at Yanghang, they could delay the devils' advance.

Of course, the Yanghang battle was also an order personally issued by the President, and everyone at the front took it seriously.

"Report! The enemy's left wing at Yanghang is collapsing! The First Division's Vanguard Regiment is advancing!" A battle report came from the front.

Although they didn't know why the Japanese left wing collapsed without a fight, everyone was still greatly encouraged.

Hu Gongnan hurriedly ordered: "Order my Vanguard Regiment to keep advancing, don't look back, charge straight into Yanghang Town!"

"Where is the Fourth Army's Thirty-Second Division now?" Chen Cheng asked.

"The Thirty-Second Division's Vanguard Regiment is blocked in its frontal attack!"

Lv Muzhi said: "Since the devils' left wing has exposed a gap, let the Thirty-Second Division's Vanguard Regiment continue to pin them down on the front, and additionally send a regiment following the First Division's Vanguard Regiment's footsteps, also charging into Yanghang Town together;

Also, let the Seventh Army's 171st Division of the Twenty-First Group Army serve as the reserve and prepare, ready to support forward at any time."

Chen Cheng looked at Lv Muzhi and said: "This way, the First Army, Fourth Army, and Seventh Army are all assembled. In the Northern Expedition years, the Fourth Army was called the Iron Army, the Seventh Army was called the Steel Army, one division was the Yue Army, one was the Guangxi Army, and they were very imposing on the Hunan battlefield."

Lv Muzhi smiled: "The President's meaning is actually that he hopes on this Songhu Battlefield, all places can truly unite. The Yue faction's Fourth Army, the Guangxi faction's Seventh Army, and the Central Government's First Army were all comrades on the Northern Expedition battlefield back then. Today cooperating to resist Japan at the Yanghang battlefield also shows our true determination to unite as one."

Chen Cheng nodded: "You've guessed the President's mind. He hopes that after this battle, the whole country can truly achieve a state of unprecedented unity."

On the Yanghang position, the First Army First Division's Vanguard Regiment chased the fleeing Dai Zancang Unit and charged straight into Yanghang.

The Kana Regiment's devil soldiers saw the gap in the left wing, hurriedly sent troops to block the gap, and at the same time requested other regiments to enter Yanghang for support, to swallow the First Division's vanguard forces under Hu Gongnan's command that had rushed in.

But a regiment of Xue Yue's Fourth Army Thirty-Second Division also launched an attack toward the left wing. Seeing this, the First Division's Vanguard Regiment decided to give the devils a blow to the belly, charging left and right inside the little devils' belly, coordinating with the Fourth Army's regiment entering Yanghang Town.

"Report! The First Army's Vanguard Regiment is launching multi-point attacks on the Japanese belly at Yanghang Town, and a regiment of the Fourth Army's Thirty-Second Division also rushed into Yanghang Town amidst the chaos!" The battle report returned to the command post again.

Hu Gongnan was very excited: "Good! The First Army indeed didn't disgrace me. Let them go with one push and drive the little devils out of Yanghang!"

"Slow!" Chen Cheng hurriedly stopped him.

Lv Muzhi also stepped forward: "Gongnan, have you forgotten our previous agreement? Yanghang Town needs to be a big chaotic stew, not simply controlled by our army or by the Japanese army;

The two armies mixed together at Yanghang, making the Japanese artillery unable to fire at Yanghang with full force, only able to engage in close-quarters infantry combat inside Yanghang Town."

Chen Cheng reiterated: "That's right. If we completely capture Yanghang Town, then the Japanese artillery will strike Yanghang without restraint. We'll keep the little devils in Yanghang, and no one uses cannons. Let's see who can outlast whom!"

Hu Gongnan sighed. He originally wanted to gain a great merit by driving the devils out of Yanghang, but this way, after dawn his troops would be bombed, causing even more casualties. After thinking it over, he still followed Lv Muzhi and Chen Cheng's method.

At one in the morning, a regiment of the First Army and a regiment of the Fourth Army rushed into Yanghang Town and got mixed up with the devils inside Yanghang Town.

The devils called in Ying Sen Xiao's Regiment of the Third Division for support, wanting to join with the Kana Regiment of the 101st Division to encircle and suppress the two regiments that had rushed into Yanghang.

At two in the morning, the main forces of the First Army and Fourth Army launched a fierce attack on the Kana Regiment's position from the south, also sending a regiment of the reserve Seventh Army's 171st Division into Yanghang Town.

At three in the morning, Lv Muzhi and Chen Cheng ordered the three regiments that had entered Yanghang Town to boldly intersperse within Yanghang Town, by battalion and company, getting mixed up with the Japanese army.

At five in the morning, Ying Sen Xiao's Regiment inflicted heavy losses on a battalion of the First Army inside Yanghang Town. Lv Muzhi and Chen Cheng discussed and decided to send another wave of troops into Yanghang Town while it was still dark.

At five-thirty in the morning, the First Army, Fourth Army, and Seventh Army each sent a regiment, rushing into Yanghang Town to engage in a melee with the Japanese army.

At six in the morning, taking advantage of the last wave of offensive, Lv Muzhi ordered Chu Yunfei to draw two battalions of his Youth Army under his command to enter Yanghang Town and assist in the battle.

Until nine in the morning, the small Yanghang Town had been crowded with six infantry regiments of the Xia Guo Army plus two infantry battalions of the Youth Army, as well as two Japanese regiments.

After a night of melee, the Xia Guo Army and Japanese army positions inside Yanghang Town were interlocking like dog's teeth, you encircle me, I encircle you.

The Japanese army's heavy artillery and the navy's naval gunfire dared not easily fire at Yanghang for a while. After all, Yanghang Town was so small that some Japanese positions were only dozens of meters from the Xia Guo Army's positions, and artillery fire could easily cause friendly fire.

They waited until the afternoon. Lv Muzhi and Chen Cheng pricked up their ears to listen to the sounds coming from Yanghang Town. They didn't hear the sound of a single heavy artillery shell exploding, only the continuous sound of gunfire and the explosions of hand grenades and small-caliber shells.

Chu Yunfei stood behind the artillery observation mirror and said: "Gentlemen, the entire Yanghang Town is now a pot of porridge!"

Chen Cheng laughed: "I think this can work! The little devils have lost artillery support, relying only on infantry to trade blows. I don't think the little devils can afford such losses!"

Hu Gongnan held up his binoculars, looking at the chaotic scene in Yanghang Town, and also felt his scalp go numb: "It's fought too chaotically... I don't know if the President will be satisfied with this result?"

Lv Muzhi said: "It's enough. It's better than us paying a huge price to retake the position at night, only to be bombed black and blue by naval gunfire in the morning. Now this can force the little devils to pay a huge price they can't afford."

On the Mutsu Battleship, Commander Matsui Iwane felt a deep sense of suffocation.

On the Yanghang battlefield, Matsui Iwane felt the Japanese army was like a stout sumo wrestler locked in a small Xia Guo coffin, with all his strength but unable to exert it.

The devils' artillery fire could not be directed at Yanghang with full force, but could only trade attrition with the Xia Guo Army using infantry.

The situation was too complex, and the troops could not all be withdrawn for a while. Many squads and squadrons were inside the Xia Guo Army's encirclement, while also encircling quite a few Xia Guo Army troops.

The situation at Yanghang was still too complex.

"Fujita-kun."

"Hmm?" Hearing Matsui Iwane call him, Third Division Commander Fujita Susumu was completely at a loss. Under the current situation, he himself was also at a loss.

"Yanghang is like a ball of yarn without a thread, a thousand threads and ten thousand strands. Could it really have to stop here?"

Fujita Susumu said nothing. Instead, 101st Division Commander Ito Masanishi stepped forward: "Your Excellency Commander, I have a Special Warfare Squadron under my command. Perhaps it can be sent into Yanghang Town to fight, disintegrating the enemy from within."

"Special Warfare Squadron? How have I not heard of it?"

Ito Masanishi explained: "This Special Warfare Squadron originally belonged to the 10th Division in North China. When I came from North China, I borrowed this Special Warfare Squadron from the 10th Division. The squadron leader of the Special Warfare Squadron graduated from the Berlin Military Academy in Hans State after studying special operations. Once they enter Yanghang Town, they can surely take the enemy commander's head from among ten thousand troops and clear out the Xia Guo Army leadership inside Yanghang Town!"