After the outbreak of the Battle of Changheng, Xue Yue's Heavenly Furnace Tactics were cracked by Hengshan Yong, and nearly 30,000 people of the 42nd Army abandoned the city after only 4 days of defending Changsha and fled, and the Japanese army took advantage of the victory to pursue and surround Hengyang regiments, and the Hengyang Defense War broke out. At the beginning of the campaign, Yokoyama besieged Hengyang with two divisions, 68 and 116, and the 13th, 40th and 58th Divisions blocked the nationalist forces that rescued Hengyang. Therefore, it is still forgivable that the nationalist army could not fight in during this period. However, after the two japanese general attacks on Hengyang failed in succession, Yokoyama had to retrace the 40th and 58th Divisions to participate in the attack on Hengyang.
At this time, the 10th Army had been holding out in Hengyang for a month, with great losses and little ammunition left. Fang Xianjue constantly asked the Chongqing Military Commission for help, saying that "Hengyang is in danger, personal affairs are small, and the state affairs are big, please send a regiment of troops into the city no matter what, we have our own methods." He even privately told his aides that no matter which unit it was, as long as it could send a team of men and horses to rush into Hengyang to break the siege, "I will definitely kowtow to him and ask Chairman Jiang to award him the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun."
After receiving Fang Xianjue's rescue telegram, Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered all departments to "forge ahead and break the siege." However, in order to preserve their strength, none of the troops were willing to fight hard with the Japanese army, and they withdrew on the grounds of "fierce fighting, and the Japanese army is strong" as a matter of contact. Cai Rulin, the former inspector and artillery commander sent by the 9th Theater to the 10th Army, once recalled: "In the last two decades, we listened to the gunfire of reinforcements every night above the central bank air raid shelter. When they heard it closely, everyone was excited, the gunshots were far away, and they felt lost, and they didn't know whether they were resentment or hatred in their hearts, but it was an unspeakable sour taste. ”
On June 23, Fang Xianjue, who was eager to see through the reinforcements, finally received a call from the Chongqing Military Commission, saying that the first part of the 62nd Army had "arrived at Wuliting in the southwestern suburbs." Fang Xianjue was overjoyed, and in order to receive reinforcements into the city, he took out the last mobile force special service battalion of the military headquarters, selected 150 officers and men, and formed 5 assault platoons, led by the battalion commander Cao Huating. When the warriors risked their lives to come to the agreed place, they did not even see the shadow of the reinforcements. Cao Huating tearfully said to his subordinates: Although the reinforcements have not been received, everyone has successfully broken through, and those who are willing to leave the battlefield can leave, and I am determined to fight back to Hengyang City and coexist with the 10th Army. As a result, no one left, and they killed again, leaving only about 30 people when they entered the city.
So why didn't the 62nd Army enter the city? According to the "Hengyang Wenshi" anti-war album, the commander of the 62nd Army who was fighting on the periphery at that time claimed that he "came to shed blood and sweat, gave his life and contributed, and won the merits for the 10th Army"; another army commander actually said that "Hengyang broke the siege, and Fang Xianjue became an anti-Japanese hero!" "Typical of the mentality of not seeing others' goodness, especially the other party's goodness must be based on their own losses." This is also the reason why the Nationalist army has rarely succeeded in relieving the siege, such as the Changde defense war, the Hengyang defense war, and even the later Menglianggu Campaign and the ShuangduiJi Campaign. With this mentality to break the siege, it is strange to be successful!