Having grabbed a Japanese soldier to ask, I learned that the brigade's retreat had also affected the Japanese soldiers of the 30th Infantry Brigade.

Some Japanese soldiers had quietly abandoned their defenses and actively joined the ranks of those fleeing.

When one place is breached, everywhere is breached!

The 30th Infantry Brigade couldn't hold out at all, and the brigade commander, Tomoya Inamori, was killed by planes on the front lines.

The remaining 30th Brigade was without a commander, fighting their own battles. Some were still holding their ground, but most had already retreated.

Hearing that even Xiezhuang could not be retaken, what could Brigade Commander Kawakawa Taro do?

He ordered, "Charge!"

Leading his twenty-odd guards, he charged toward the Seventh Regiment's defenses.

This time, he wasn't thinking about breaking through; he just wanted to die.

Dying like Brigade Commander Tomoya Inamori was definitely better than being captured by the Nationalists and sent to Chongqing to be put on display.

Brigade Commander Kawakawa Taro, who was determined to die, fulfilled his wish. He died during the charge.

With the brigade commander dead, the remaining Japanese soldiers didn't know what to do.

The Seventh Regiment just held their ground, firing volleys whenever the Japanese launched a charge.

If the Japanese soldiers stayed put in the distance, the Seventh Regiment didn't actively attack.

However, the ground attack aircraft in the sky wouldn't let these Japanese soldiers off the hook, and the planes kept strafing back and forth.

The officers and soldiers of the 30th Division had already captured Xiezhuang and were pursuing the fleeing Japanese soldiers all the way.

Squeezed in the middle, the Japanese soldiers' room for maneuver was getting smaller and smaller.

Fortunately, the ground attack aircraft finally stopped firing at this time and flew back to Maeda Village.

The remaining battlefield here now belonged entirely to the 38th Division and the Seventh Regiment.

The 38th Division continued to compress the Japanese soldiers' room for maneuver, and in the end, none of these Japanese soldiers escaped.

Zhang Zizhong had not expected that today he would be able to resolve the Japanese soldiers in Luying Town and Xiezhuang in one fell swoop in such a destructive way.

What he didn't expect even more was that Lin Fan called to notify him: The 59th Army would immediately depart for Tanghe to prepare to encircle and annihilate the Japanese 13th Infantry Division entrenched in Tanghe.

Of the three regiments of the Special Operations Brigade, the Sixth Regiment had already infiltrated the south side of Tanghe. This time, the Sixth Regiment was equipped to recover Huyang Town and cut off the Japanese retreat route.

The Seventh Regiment was on the front line along the highway,迎击to迎击 a Japanese infantry battalion coming out of Tanghe.

The Eighth Regiment followed behind the Sixth Regiment, preparing to cut off the highway from Tanghe retreating to the Tongbai Mountains.

The task of the 59th was to infiltrate the north side of Tanghe, so as not to let the Japanese soldiers flee to the north.

In fact, Lin Fan was overthinking it this time!

When Chiang Kai-shek received Zhang Zizhong's report that he was preparing to encircle the Japanese 16th Infantry Division in Xiezhuang.

The Nationalist Army's Fifth War Zone and First War Zone had already dispatched 200,000 troops from Nanyang, heading straight for Tanghe.

The Nationalist army, which had been battered and bloodied a few days ago, had now regained some of its strength.

Now, 200,000 Nationalist troops, plus the 59th Army and the three regiments of the Special Operations Brigade, were attacking Tanghe County, defended by the Japanese 13th Infantry Division.

In this situation, Neiji Okamura had no choice but to ask Rokuzo Yanju, commander of the China Expeditionary Army, for help again. He demanded that at least three divisions be sent over in order to re-stabilize the Japanese defense line on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

And hold the railway line.

When Rokuzo Yanju received Okamura Neji's report, he realized that the battlefield on the northern front of the Yangtze River was so critical.

He had no choice but to urgently ask the headquarters for help.

This time, the troops from the Fifth War Zone and the First War Zone arrived very quickly.

The 59th Army captured more than a dozen cannons in Xiezhuang, and the strength of the artillery regiment reached a new level.

Since the encirclement was completed, the Special Operations Brigade's planes had been dropping bombs and strafing the Japanese soldiers during the day.

At night, the artillery of the 59th Army would bombard the Japanese soldiers inside Tanghe County.

After only three days of this, the Japanese 13th Infantry Division couldn't take it anymore.

Division Commander Shizumi Tanaka's headquarters had been moved to the basement, and the defense line he had painstakingly managed for half a month had collapsed.

The outer defenses had long been blown to pieces.

The Japanese soldiers were waiting for the Nationalist army to attack, so they could be liberated.

The Japanese 13th Infantry Division was already desperate. In these days, they had seen off the 4th Cavalry Brigade, the 3rd Infantry Division, and the 16th Infantry Division in Tanghe.

None of these troops had returned. Their failure to return meant that they had been completely annihilated.

Although the fate of those Japanese soldiers was not made public, the Japanese high command chose to conceal the truth from all Japanese soldiers below the rank of company commander in order to stabilize morale.

However, there were still many rumors circulating: "Have you heard? The 3rd Infantry Division is eating people!"

"Yes! I heard that the eyes of Japanese soldiers who have eaten people will turn green."

Such rumors circulated in Tanghe County, and the Japanese soldiers were extremely brutal.

However, under normal circumstances, these Japanese soldiers still could not accept eating people, which had transcended the bottom line of humanity.

Not to mention intelligent creatures like humans, even many animals do not eat their own kind.

The Baosheng Geye Battalion was stationed in Tangying outside the city. The infantry battalion that was sent out yesterday had left from their defense line.

At that time, Battalion Commander Baosheng Geye also asked about their mission with concern. He heard that they were going to meet the 13th Infantry Division from Xiezhuang.

As a result, a full infantry battalion had not been seen since then.

Nationalist soldiers were constantly appearing on the opposite side. They were very bold: they just stood directly in the distance and observed the defense line that had been riddled with holes by the bombing.

In these days, the Baosheng Geye Battalion had suffered bombing and machine gun strafing, which had long worn out the Japanese soldiers' morale.

At first, the Japanese soldiers still fantasized that reinforcements would come.

Division Commander Shizumi Tanaka thought so, and Division Commander Keisuke Fujie also thought so.

However, Division Commander Keisuke Fujie of the 16th Infantry Division, who had no soldiers under his command, did not send a request for help by telegram. He dared not send it!

Division Commander Susumu Fujita of the 3rd Infantry Division had the same concerns as him, and he also dared not send a telegram to ask for help.

The small Tanghe County was now home to three Japanese division commanders.

Division Commander Shizumi Tanaka soon received a reply: "Hold the line in place for fifteen days, reinforcements are being mobilized."

The three division commanders gathered together to carefully analyze this telegram, which was too short.

People always say that the fewer the words, the bigger the matter.

Now, looking at these few words, Division Commander Susumu Fujita said with a frustrated expression: "We have been abandoned!"

Division Commander Shizumi Tanaka asked: "What do you mean?"

Division Commander Susumu Fujita pointed to Wuhan on the map and said: "If the commander wants to save us, he can send a brigade from Wuhan to reinforce us at this time. Then slowly mobilize the troops.

And we can also send troops from the railway here. You must know that the railway is still in our hands, and the unobstructed railway can send several divisions over in two days.

Now they are just asking us to hold on, but they don't mention anything about sending troops here."

Division Commander Shizumi Tanaka and Division Commander Keisuke Fujie looked at each other: the conclusion was very sad, but it was the truth.