The Battle of Changsha was fought four times, and the first Japanese army only attacked sweeping, so it was only a shallow taste, did not go deep, and the materials carried were only one week, and it was beyond expectations to be able to fight for half a month. However, the Japanese army took the initiative to retreat, but it was publicized by the Nationalist side as a big victory and bragged about it. The chief of staff of the Ninth Theater even personally compiled a Peking opera, with a large banner in the back and a big Yue character written on it, which naturally praised Xue Yue. Since then, Xue Yue has begun to be a little fluttery, and has also begun to hype up his so-called Heavenly Furnace Combat Technique. In fact, the so-called Heavenly Furnace Combat Method is three words, pocket array, and there is nothing mysterious about it.
The Second Battle of Changsha was even more a mistake in Xue Yue's command, when the two mobile attack armies directly under the Central Military Commission, namely the Tenth Army and the Seventy-fourth Army, were reimbursed by Xue Yue's blind command. The Tenth Army had just finished its training and drove to Yuehan Road to transport Burma to participate in the war, and as a result, Xue Yue reinforced the Thirty-seventh Army in batches and was finally crippled. The Seventy-fourth Army was obviously good at attacking, and Xue Yue had to use it to defend Changsha, resulting in the Seventy-fourth Army being suddenly defeated by the Japanese army in the area of Chunhua Mountain, and Wang Yaowu was almost captured if he did not run fast. Therefore, the Second Battle of Changsha was actually the losing side of the Nationalist army in essence, but because the Japanese army later retreated to the original front, it was publicized as Xue Yue's great victory.
According to the summary of Zhao Zili, who later succeeded Wu Yizhi as chief of staff of the Ninth Theater, the key to the Heavenly Furnace Tactics is eight words, retreating to the decisive battle and striving for the outside line. However, in the previous two battles of Changsha, the echelon resistance of the Nationalist army was not so much a retreat as it was defeated by the Japanese army one by one, not so much that the Nationalist army won the success of the outer line, but rather that the Japanese army took advantage of the victory and advanced after defeating the Nationalist army, and did not take into account the recovery and maintenance of the rear communication line, and the fundamental reason for this was that the Japanese army participated in each battle with only about 100,000 troops, so it could not be used too dispersed, which was equivalent to the Japanese army taking the initiative to abandon the outer line and give it to the nationalist army. The so-called heart-seeking attack of the Nationalist army is only a gift to the Japanese army from a distance each time, and the number of real pursuits is very small.
Only the Third Battle of Changsha was a real victory, but this was also because the Japanese army made mistakes, not because Xue Yue's dispatch command was anything special. The Japanese army's third Battle of Changsha did not invest as many troops as the previous two, but the depth was deeper than the previous two, and moreover, the first two Japanese troops did not attack Changsha, while the Third Battle of Changsha the Japanese army attempted to attack Changsha, and under the stubborn defense of the Tenth Army, the attack was not successful, the Japanese army not only did not retreat immediately, but further increased its troops, wanted to capture Changsha and then retreat, thus committing a taboo, but also providing time for the nationalist troops' external troops to reinforce Changsha.
However, after this victory, Xue Yue was satisfied, and then misjudged the situation in both the Battle of Changde and the Battle of Changsha. In the Battle of Changde, intelligence had shown that the focus of the Japanese attack was in western Hunan Province, but Xue Yue insisted that the Japanese army was attacking the east from the west, and the focus was still on attacking Changsha, so he refused to send reinforcements to the direction of Changde, until the Japanese army had already attacked Changde, Yu Cheng wanlian called for help, Xue Yuecai panicked and sent additional troops such as the Fifty-eighth Army, the Tenth Army, and the Seventy-third Army to Changde to reinforce, and on the way, because of Xue Yue's command error, the Tenth Army, which had the strongest combat effectiveness among the reinforcements, was ambushed by the Japanese army and collapsed in the First World War. Let Yu Chengwan's stubborn waiting for help in Changde become a dead guard, and finally had to break out.
According to Zhao Zili's view, in the first three battles of Changsha, the first two were accidental factors, and only in the third battle did Xue Yue's Heavenly Furnace Tactics play an effective role. However, Xue Yue from then on determined that the Japanese army did not dare to attack Changsha again, and insisted that if the Japanese army dared to come again, the Nationalist army would still be able to defeat the Japanese army according to the way of the Third Battle of Changsha. This is not intended to be a sword. As a result, during the Fourth Battle of Changsha during the Battle of Changheng, the Japanese army's participation in the battle increased greatly, and it was no longer in a hurry, but slowly advanced in the eastern, central, and western routes, resuming transportation while advancing, ensuring the transportation of materials in the rear, and the Nationalist army's efforts to fight for the outside line failed, and of course it was impossible to retreat and fight a decisive battle.
After the fall of Changsha, Xue Yuecai temporarily changed his mind and attempted to fight the Japanese at Hengyang, so he ordered Fang Xianjue to lead the Tenth Army to hold hengyang, and at the same time dispatched the troops of the nationalist army on the outside line to retreat near Hengyang. However, after the Japanese army easily gradually reduced the nationalist forces in the east and west to the south, there were very few Nationalist troops left behind the Japanese army, completely unable to threaten the Japanese communication line, and the rest of the troops were suppressed and blocked on the outskirts of Hengyang, unable to reinforce Hengyang. Fang Xianjue was helpless and could only ask Chongqing for help, and Chongqing asked him to defend for another three days, and as a result, Fang Xianjue had been defending for a week, and there were still no reinforcements coming, and Fang Xianjue's troops had suffered casualties from about 17,000 to less than 2,000 people, running out of ammunition and food, and foreign aid could not be counted on, so they surrendered in anger.
That is to say, the main purpose of the first three Japanese attacks on Changsha was not to break through Changsha and occupy it, because it exceeded the limit that the Japanese army in central China could bear at that time, that is, in this context, every attack of the Japanese army was actually an attack for defense, and its core goal was to attack the Nationalist mobile corps on the outer line of Wuhan to ensure the safety of Wuhan and the safety of the Yangtze River channel. When the Japanese army lost in the Pacific Naval Battle, the mainland communication line became its only life channel, so it was necessary to open up the communication line and occupy changsha, Hengyang and other important stronghold cities, Xue Yue's heavenly furnace warfare method did not work.
And Xue Yue was still lying in the self-drunkenness of the previous three Changsha victories, not adjusting tactics in advance, not taking the initiative to change the way of play, this kind of strategic laziness can only be said to be carving a boat and seeking a sword, waiting for the rabbit. In this context, although Fang Xianjue was heroic and tragic in Hengyang, it had actually lost its meaning, and it was better to take the initiative to retreat when reinforcements were hopeless, preserve the living strength, and focus on the future. However, Xue Yue was unable to command his troops to repel the Japanese army besieging Hengyang, rescue Fang Xianjue's troops, and did not allow Fang Xianjue to retreat, and even the Xianggui Railway was cut off by the Japanese army, and the Hengyang defenders had lost their lifeline, Xue Yue still did not let Fang Xianjue retreat, and also asked him to stay and wait for help.