Tan Shijie, the company commander, immediately stood up and started charging, successfully breaking through the first line of defense set up by the Japanese devils.

Qian Yiduo, the battalion commander of the First Battalion, immediately ordered, "Second and Third Companies, follow up! Tear open the breach to the left and right flanks!"

This was standard procedure: break through at one point, then bloom in all directions.

The First Company continued to advance, and the heavy machine gun company responsible for fire support quickly moved its position forward.

At this time, the Second and Third Companies also relied on the torn breach to assault the left and right sides.

In other directions, the other two battalions of Regiment Commander Ye were not idle, and were also attacking the Japanese defense line.

They were holding back the Japanese in this direction, not giving them a chance to return for reinforcements, nor giving them a chance to escape.

When the First Battalion tore a hole in the Japanese defense line, the Second and Third Companies attacked from the flanks.

The Second and Third Battalions attacked from the front, and the Japanese defense line collapsed all at once.

The Fifty-ninth Army was not the only unit participating in the attack on Luying Town under Ye Ziliang.

The situation in the other regiments was the same: concentrating firepower to attack one point.

Opening a hole directly caused the Japanese outer defense line to collapse completely, and three ground attack aircraft swept back and forth in the sky.

Those collapsed Japanese troops could not survive and were all killed on the spot.

Battalion Commander Hinohara Tai had not expected that the defense line, painstakingly built over two days, would not even last ten minutes.

It was not that the Japanese soldiers under his command were not fighting desperately; they really were risking their lives and leaving them on the defense line.

But it was useless; they simply could not stop the National Revolutionary Army's attack from the sky and the ground.

Battalion Commander Hinohara Tai could only retreat first. His battalion had barely managed to scrape together one infantry company.

In less than ten minutes of the battle, an infantry company had been wiped out.

When Battalion Commander Hinohara Tai retreated to the command post, he discovered that he was not the first to retreat.

Battalion Commander Fujimoto Shichiro of the Third Battalion and Battalion Commander Fukuju Funada of the Fourth Battalion were already here.

They each had a force of more than one hundred Japanese soldiers. This was the entire strength of the 18th Infantry Regiment.

Now, the three battalion commanders of the entire infantry regiment who had survived by luck, plus the regimental commander, chief of staff, and their guards, numbered only thirty-three Japanese soldiers.

This was the last of the regiment's strength.

Looking at the thirty-three Japanese soldiers beside him, Regimental Commander Ishii Kaho said miserably, "Gentlemen! The final moment has arrived. Do as you see fit!"

He meant that these people should not resist anymore and should simply end their own lives.

But some of these Japanese soldiers really did not want to die!

Just then, chaotic footsteps sounded, and a large group of National Revolutionary Army soldiers poured in.

"Don't move! Don't move!" the commands rang out one after another.

The Fifty-ninth Army was different from the Special Operations Brigade in one respect: they needed prisoners to prove their battle merits.

When Tan Shijie, the company commander of the First Company, led the vanguard platoon into the Japanese command post, he saw that there were several Japanese colonels inside.

He was overjoyed, raised his hand and shot down the pistol that Ishii Kaho was about to use to commit suicide.

He roared to his soldiers, "Seize them!"

When the situation became slightly clearer, he counted and realized that there was not just one Japanese colonel, but five Japanese colonels.

Tan Shijie himself did not know how to calculate the battle merits. It was as if the Japanese were holding a colonel's meeting.

The tenacity of the Japanese 34th Infantry Regiment was no better. With the cooperation of the ground attack aircraft, the attack on Luying Town was over in less than two hours.

Zhang Zizhong ordered the troops to immediately advance towards Qianda Huang Village and Houtian Huang Village to prepare to intercept the fleeing Japanese 5th Infantry Brigade. Only one regiment was left in Luying Town to clean up the battlefield.

The battle report of completely occupying Luying Town and capturing two Japanese regimental commanders and five battalion commanders was immediately sent to Lin Fan's ears.

Lin Fan smiled and congratulated Zhang Zizhong.

Zhang Zizhong could not wait to report the good news to the Fifth War Zone headquarters and then to the Chongqing headquarters.

Chang Kai-shek, who had just entered his office in the morning, heard that the Fifty-ninth Army had captured two Japanese regimental commanders and five battalion commanders in one battle.

He excitedly walked back and forth in the office, loudly ordering, "Immediately let the Propaganda Department inform the whole country of this good news, so that the people of the whole country can be happy.

Notify the Propaganda Department that this matter must be well publicized."

He was now as glorious as he had been embarrassed in the Nanyang and Zao Yang areas a few days ago.

After thinking for a moment, he continued, "Let the Central News Agency issue a press release, writing the retreat of our army in Nanyang some time ago as part of the plan.

The purpose was to make the Japanese arrogant and lure them into our ambush. Our goal was this battle.

We will have even greater actions in the future, so let the people of the whole country wait and see."

"Yes!"

The victory at Luying Town came too suddenly, making Chang Kai-shek somewhat unaccustomed.

After giving these instructions, he suddenly realized and said, "Immediately order the Fifty-ninth Army to safely send the captured two regimental commanders and five battalion commanders to the rear.

I want to hold a unique exhibition in Chongqing so that the citizens who have suffered from Japanese bombing can see the fate of the Japanese devils."

"Yes!"

The Fifty-ninth Army was still cleaning up the battlefield when Chang Kai-shek's commendation order arrived.

The affirmation of the battle results by the supreme commander had an extraordinary motivating effect on the officers and soldiers of the Fifty-ninth Army.

Sending prisoners of war back, the conventional route was of course to first send the prisoners of war to the Fifth War Zone, and then send them back all the way by land and water.

This time, Lin Fan decided to fulfill their wishes and asked the Special Operations Brigade's transport planes to do Zhang Zizhong a favor, using transport planes to directly send the prisoners of war to Chongqing.

Chang Kai-shek heard that the prisoners of war could be sent back so quickly and was pleased. He ordered, "Let Jinchen also come back for a visit. It has been more than a year since I last saw him in Wuhan."

Jinchen was Zhang Zizhong's courtesy name. In the later period of the July 7th Incident, Zhang Zizhong took over as the mayor of Beiping and retreated without a fight, handing Beiping over to the Japanese devils.

When the people of the whole country were saying that he was a traitor, he hid in the Dongjiaominxiang area of Beiping and fled back to Nanjing after many twists and turns.

Later, when the National Government arrived in Wuhan, the Fifth-ninth Army, which was reorganized from the 37th Division of the original 29th Army, had very poor combat effectiveness.

Chang Kai-shek had no choice but to reinstate Zhang Zizhong and let him go to the old unit, the Fifth-ninth Army, which was reorganized from the 37th Division of the original 29th Army, to act as the army commander.

Zhang Zizhong, who was brave and ashamed, fought to the death with his old troops to repay Chang Kai-shek's kindness and to clear his suspicion of being a traitor.

Chang Kai-shek was thinking of his merits over the past year and wanted to let him come back for a meeting and personally commend him.

Zhang Zizhong was so moved when he received the telegram. He did not lose his composure and passed the content of the telegram to Lin Fan, wanting to hear his opinion.

What opinion could Lin Fan have? Of course, he told him to temporarily hand over the command of the troops and return immediately.

Of course, Zhang Zizhong knew that it was inappropriate to leave the troops at this time, but he had decided to go that day and return that day.

He temporarily handed over the command of the Fifth-ninth Army to the chief of staff, but specially instructed that all actions were to be under Lin Fan's command.

Only then did he take his guards and seven tightly bound Japanese soldiers to Qianda Huang Village, where a transport plane of the Special Operations Brigade was waiting at the airport.

The news that Zhang Zizhong was going to Chongqing to present prisoners of war was strictly blocked.

Chang Kai-shek ordered, "I will personally go to Jiangbei Airport to pick up the plane!"

This was the highest treatment he could give Zhang Zizhong.

Let's put aside the matter here for the time being.

Xing Wan! Just as the sky was turning slightly gray, the Japanese Third Division, with the Fifth Infantry Brigade as its main force, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It was dawn, and they could have a good line of sight to spot the attacking National Revolutionary Army.

These Japanese devils were busy building artillery positions for the artillery and building simple passages for the artillery to enter the artillery positions.

Sergeant Hoshino Tatsuya shoveled a spade of soil and filled it into the pit, saying harshly, "Baga! The artillerymen of the artillery regiment really don't bother to lift a finger!"

Sergeant Onodera Ren, who was also an engineer beside him, echoed, "They made us work before dawn. We've been busy for so long, why hasn't the meal been sent up yet?"

Tokugawa Yosuke whispered, "Listen to the sound of artillery in the distance; the infantry is being bombed.

There will probably be no breakfast today!

Hurry up and get to work! We'll get whipped again in a while."

Today, the engineers had tight schedules and heavy tasks. Regimental Commander Nakajima Mitsuki had already walked around the entire construction site three times.

Regimental Commander Takeda Seiichi of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment was also supervising the work. He was anxious; the National Revolutionary Army's artillery bombardment had never stopped.

The next shell might land on the field artillery regiment's head, so he was extremely eager to get the artillery into combat status immediately.

He wanted to immediately retaliate against the direction of the National Revolutionary Army's artillery bombardment. They were already clear on that.

The National Revolutionary Army's artillery was bombing Xing Wan in three directions, and he also wanted to retaliate in three directions.

Although the artillery's retaliation had not yet begun, the artillery observation balloon had already been launched.

The artillery observation balloon, a full three hundred meters high, was launched. Although the sky was not yet bright, the trajectory of the shells had already exposed the National Revolutionary Army's artillery positions.

He now only needed the artillery to be in place, and he could immediately launch a counterattack and carry out a blanket bombardment of the National Revolutionary Army's artillery positions.

The chances of success were at least 80%.

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