Quartermasters can also fight the devils

After the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army occupied the east gate of Changde City and entered the city, they sent out a group of more than 600 people to attack the Mercury Tower, the commanding height of the city near the south gate of Changde. They also sent out another group of more than 500 people to continue attacking Changde City along the east gate.

By noon on the 29th, the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army had controlled the east gate and north gate of Changde City. At this time, the 57th Division had only more than 300 combat troops left in Changde City. As a result, fierce street fighting broke out in Changde City starting from the 29th.

For a time, the city of Changde was filled with shouts, gunshots, artillery fire, grenades, and explosions. The first place that the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army wanted to occupy in Changde City was the Mercury Tower, the only commanding height in the city.

At this time, Feng Jiyi, deputy commander of the 170th Regiment, was leading more than one row of officers and soldiers to defend the Mercury Tower. Due to the high location of the Mercury Tower, the officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment could cover most of the streets in the south and east of Changde City with firepower from the top of the Mercury Tower. In particular, the two heavy machine guns deployed by the 170th Regiment on the Mercury Tower could effectively suppress the various Japanese offensive forces that had advanced into Changde City.

Under the strafing of two heavy machine guns deployed by the 170th Regiment on the Mercury Building, the Japanese 11th Army's troops entering Changde City from the east gate were not only blocked from advancing into Changde City, but also caused heavy casualties to the Japanese 11th Army's troops attacking the city.

Deputy Commander Feng of the 170th Regiment ordered a platoon of officers and soldiers to be responsible for the shooting defense on the Mercury Tower, while the rest of the officers and soldiers fought in the fortifications below the Mercury Tower. The two heavy machine guns on the Mercury Tower were in a commanding position and fired fiercely at the more than 600 Japanese soldiers who were attacking from the east gate of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army.

After entering the city from the east gate, the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army launched repeated attacks on the Mercury Tower. However, under the fierce attack of the officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment, more than 200 of the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army were killed and more than 100 were injured. Even the two squadron leaders in charge of the attack command suffered one death and one injury.

The Japanese attacking force, with more than half of its troops killed or wounded, was too afraid to launch another attack from the streets due to the blocking fire of the 170th Regiment. They could only rush into the houses on the side of the street, break through the walls and advance forward, hoping to use this method to avoid the fire blockade of the street by the 170th Regiment's heavy machine guns on the Mercury Building.

But what made the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army uncomfortable was that the houses on both sides of the street on the side of Mercury Building had long been occupied by the officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment. The officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment had already chiseled gun holes in the walls of the houses to shoot at the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, which made the attack progress of the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army very slow.

After suffering huge casualties, the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army finally broke through to the bottom of the Mercury Building. However, when they arrived at the bottom of the Mercury Building, the officers and soldiers of the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army were dumbfounded, because they found that the machine gun firing hole on the Mercury Building was five meters high.

The officers and soldiers of the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army were in a situation where they could not be hit by guns, grenade launchers or grenades at the bottom of the Mercury Building. They were simply unable to destroy the firepower point of the 170th Regiment on the Mercury Building. Moreover, once the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army approached the bottom of the Mercury Building, the officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment guarding the Mercury Building repeatedly threw grenades from the top of the Mercury Building, which blew the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army into a panic and prevented them from getting completely close to the bottom of the Mercury Building.

Since the Mercury Tower defended by the 170th Regiment was extremely difficult to capture, the attacking force of the 11th Japanese Army was unable to approach the Mercury Tower smoothly after suffering heavy casualties. Therefore, the commander of the 11th Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, made up his mind and ordered the attacking force to abandon the plan of occupying this commanding height in Changde City and instead directly destroy the Mercury Tower.

At this time, the heavy artillery units of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army were all near the wall of Changde City. At the east gate of Changde City alone, the attacking forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army had more than 30 large-caliber heavy artillery of more than 100 mm. Under the order of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the attacking forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army immediately launched a fierce bombardment on the Mercury Tower where the 170th Regiment was stationed with more than 70 artillery pieces of various sizes outside the east gate of Changde City.

At this time, there were only a dozen officers and soldiers left in the 170th Regiment in the Mercury Tower. Moreover, the Mercury Tower was an old brick and wood structure built during the Kangxi period. It was unable to withstand the prolonged bombardment of so many heavy artillery from the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army.

After being hit by more than 20 artillery shells in succession, the Mercury Tower had been half collapsed by the artillery fire of the Japanese 11th Army. However, when the artillery fire of the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army ceased, the heavy machine guns of the 170th Regiment on the Mercury Tower once again fired fiercely at the slowly approaching Japanese infantry, and once again repelled the attack of the Japanese infantry.

When the infantry attack of the Japanese 11th Army was repelled again, the heavy artillery of the Japanese 11th Army's attacking forces began another fierce bombardment. Finally, after being hit by several more heavy artillery shells from the Japanese 11th Army, the Mercury Tower shook back and forth several times, and finally collapsed with a loud bang. More than a dozen officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment in the Mercury Tower also died heroically.

When the attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army entered Changde City from the east gate, the big and small west gates of Changde City were also lost.

Since the 171st Regiment of the 57th Division defending the big and small west gates of Changde City had already suffered heavy casualties, Division Commander Yu urgently armed more than 300 artillery officers and soldiers and led them under the command of artillery battalion commander He Zengpei to reinforce the west gate, thus blocking the defense gap in the direction of the west gate of Changde City.

After the Mercury Tower collapsed due to the Japanese heavy artillery, the west gate of Changde City became the only target of the heavy weapons of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces. The Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces concentrated more than 100 artillery pieces and began to fiercely bombard the west gate.

As soon as the artillery bombardment of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force stopped, the infantry responsible for the attack immediately launched a full-scale attack on the west gate of Changde City. The remaining officers and soldiers of the 171st Regiment and the officers and soldiers of the artillery battalion also fought hard to defend their positions in the face of the full-scale attack of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force. When the officers and soldiers' ammunition was almost exhausted, they engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force that rushed up.