Since the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army has vigorously raised troops to the south, and the long front has made the supplies of the Japanese and Kou stretched to the limit and unable to cope, in order to open the Guangdong-Han line, the Japanese army made a desperate bet and devoted all its strength to attack Changsha again, and the Fourth Battle of Changsha began.
The Kuomintang 9th Theater troops assembled in the Changsha and Hengyang areas of Hunan province and conducted a defensive campaign to deal with the Japanese attack.
The number of Japanese troops attacking Changsha was about 360,000, and the Number of Chinese Nationalist troops guarding Changsha was about 300,000. On June 16, the Japanese army that forced into Changsha began to attack the city of Changsha, and on June 19, the Chinese army retreated and the Japanese captured Changsha.
As soon as the news came out, the whole country was shocked, and the first three battles to defend Changsha played a record that made the Chinese people excited, and it was difficult for people to accept this reality, but the fact was so cruel that the Kuomintang troops withdrew from Changsha, which is an indisputable fact.
There is a story as to why the Kuomintang army was defeated so quickly this time that for many years all sides were reluctant to mention the Fourth Battle of Changsha.
The Japanese invading army mobilized a part of the Kwantung Army this time, plus the main force of the 11th Army stationed in Wuhan, and at the end of May, they gathered 200,000 troops and prepared to go south on a large scale.
Previously, the Kuomintang Ninth Theater Command had received frequent intelligence on the movement of the Japanese army in northern Hunan Province, judging that the enemy had a fourth attempt to invade Changsha, and also informed its subordinate units to make combat preparations, but it did not know anything about the information of the Japanese Kwantung Army going south.
Therefore, the enemy has not changed, the Kuomintang Ninth Theater has not reported to its superiors to request an increase in troop strength, and in addition, in the guiding ideology of operations, it also has the idea of paralyzing the enemy, believing that the Japanese army's attack on Changsha this time is only a repeat of the first three battles, so that it has made a big mistake.
Contrary to our side, the Japanese army learned the lesson of the artillery bombardment of Yuelu Mountain last time from the east, and this time the troops were divided into three routes, the eastern front through Liuyang to the south of Changsha City; the western front through Yiyang and Ningxiang to attack Yuelu Mountain; and the middle road through the Laodao River frantically southward.
Some of the Japanese troops attacking Changsha City also crossed the Xiang River from the lower reaches of Changsha, and cooperated with the Japanese army on the western front to detour back behind Yuelu Mountain and launch a fierce attack on Yuelu Mountain, while our artillery position was in front of Yuelu Mountain and failed to play a role.
Therefore, Yuelu Mountain was soon occupied by the Japanese army, and the headquarters of the Nationalist Fourth Army located in Yuelu Mountain to guard Changsha no longer existed, and the troops stationed in the city had no command, so they had to take the road and flee, suffering heavy losses under the pursuit of the Japanese army. On June 15, Changsha was besieged, and on the 18th, the city fell into a pond.
In this battle, General Xue Yue encountered a strong opponent of Yokoyama, an engineer. He divided his troops into two, and the first-line troops attacked and advanced to the city of Changsha, attacked And attacked Changsha fiercely, forcing Xue Yue to send the main force to the rescue.
When Xue Yue's main force appeared behind the Japanese front-line troops besieging Changsha, Yokoyama Yong sent a second-line force to attack the flank of Xue Yue's main force, so that General Xue Yue's main force was in the middle of the front and back attacks of Yokoyama's first and second-line troops.
In the face of reality, General Xue Yue faced a painful choice, if General Xue Yue put the main force on the outside line, he could only sit back and watch the Japanese army capture Changsha from a distance; if General Xue Yue attacked the flank of the Japanese front-line troops with the main force to rescue Changsha, then Xue Yue's main force would fall into the front and back attacks of the Japanese army's first- and second-line troops, and fall into the dangerous situation of being annihilated by the encirclement.
Step by step, Yokoyama Forced Xue Yue's troops into a dilemma between the left and the right, and the two armies were entangled, so that the essence of General Xue Yue's Heavenly Furnace Formation could not be reflected, and it was impossible to "lure the enemy deeper", the firepower could not be concentrated, and it fell into the embarrassing situation of "unable to fight and encircle".
Because the Japanese army was well prepared, well-planned, and tactically strongly targeted, the nationalist generals headed by General Xue Yue rigidly abided by the old heavenly furnace method of warfare, and the main generals were light on the enemy, resulting in the collapse of the Kuomintang army.
In this way, Yokoyama Yong cracked General Xue Yue's Heavenly Furnace Tactics, and he not only realized the attempt to occupy Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, which had not been realized by previous commanders, but also dealt a devastating blow to the main force of General Xue Yue's Nationalist Army's 9th Theater of Operations.
In the 4 battles, the Changsha garrison of the Ninth Theater carried forward the spirit of fearless sacrifice, and also repelled the enemy's attack three times, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy, although in the end it failed to stop the enemy, it still effectively cooperated with the frontal battlefield operations throughout the country, and strategically cooperated with and supported the anti-sweeping struggle on the battlefield behind the enemy's back, making great contributions to the final victory of the War of Resistance.