"Boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom! ——”

The bombardment of the artillery battalion of the Tiger Ben Regiment continued, and thanks to the coordinate guidance provided by the observers, the shells continued to bombard the devils like scattered flowers.

Almost the area about 500 meters away from the city wall was blown into a sea of fire.

Some napalm also coincidentally landed on the devil's tank, and after the "boom" exploded, the entire tank was directly ignited.

After a short time, the raging flames burned the tank armor red, turned it into a huge iron furnace, and burned all the devil tank soldiers inside alive.

Some tank crews, realizing that the situation was wrong, decisively opened the roof and tried to escape, but they were suddenly ignited by the oncoming fireworks.

……

At 500 meters, it had completely entered the absolute effective range of general-purpose machine guns, medium-formal rifles, and Type 38 rifles and Hanyang-made, and almost at the same time as the artillery battalion launched the bombardment, the officers and men of the Tiger Regiment and the Independent Regiment, who rushed to the four gates to guard it, did not hesitate and decisively pulled the trigger.

"Da Da Da!"

"Da Da Da! ——”

"Bang!"

"Bang bang bang! ——”

As the fierce gunfire exploded suddenly, the bullets poured down like a storm towards the oncoming army of devils.

"Ahh

"Ahhh ~~~”

Some of the little devils were lucky enough to escape the shelling, but they couldn't dodge the bullets, and they fell to the ground screaming.

……

The picture pulls to the Japanese Joint Command.

Ito Masaki was sitting upright behind a wooden table, leisurely sipping tea with Shiro Inaba, Junrokuro Matsuura, and others, waiting for the good news ahead.

In their view, the ground-air joint bombing just now had already blown up the entire Huoqiu county town into a sea of fire and burned to ashes.

Even if they didn't burn all the Chinese defenders in the city, they would definitely wipe them out, and they would not be able to resist again.

At this moment, a Japanese officer suddenly barged in from outside with a hurried expression.

Ito Masaki raised his head slightly, and shouted rather displeased: "Yaga! Why are you so flustered? ”

The devil Shao Zuo paused violently and said: "Your Excellency, the head of the reporting division, the big thing is not good!" The attacking forces were strongly resisted by the Chinese army, which also threw incendiary bombs.

The attacking forces are currently suffering heavy losses, and we are here to ask you for tactical guidance! ”

"Nani?" Ito Masaki's eyes protruded violently, revealing an expression that was more ugly than eating, and said with a look of disbelief: "Yaga! How is this possible? ”

After saying that, Ito Masakami stood up sharply and ran out of the military tent.

Shiro Inaba, Junrokuro Matsuura and others all got up in a hurry and followed.

Three minutes later, Ito Masaki climbed a small dirt slope a few hundred meters away from the front of the joint headquarters, and he couldn't wait to raise his binoculars and look in the direction of the city gate.

In the horizon of the telescope, the entire wilderness beyond the South Gate had turned into a sea of smoke and flames.

At this moment, several more shells fell one after another, and several larger fires rose on the ground.

Then, Ito Masaki saw that at least dozens of his own soldiers were engulfed in the flames.

Some soldiers were even swept away by the huge shock wave generated by the explosion.

Immediately after, dozens of constantly fluttering fire men appeared in Ito Masaki's field of vision.

Then, before the dozens of people had run far, they fell to the ground one after another, and there was no movement.

Shiro Inaba and Junrokuro Matsuura, who were on the side, were also observing the current situation.

After a while, Junrokuro Matsuura put down the telescope in his hand with an extremely ugly face and said, "How can there be sulfur bombs in the hands of the Shina army?" ”

"No!" Shiro Inaba shook his head and said, "This is not a sulfur bomb, but an incendiary bomb that is even more terrifying than a sulfur bomb." ”

As he spoke, Shiro Inaba pointed his finger forward and continued, "You see, after the Imperial Army soldiers are attached to those incendiary materials, they can't be extinguished at all.

This is an effect that the Brimstone Bomb cannot achieve at all. ”

Junrokuro Matsuura frowned and said, "It seems that the ground-air joint bombing before the Imperial Army did not seem to have achieved the effect we imagined.

It's just incredible!

How exactly did these people do it? How could it be possible to escape such a heavy artillery bombardment from the imperial army? ”

Hearing Junrokuro Matsuura's words, Shiro Inaba noticed the constant defenders on the city wall and said, "Now it seems that these cunning Shina troops should have dug underground air defense fortifications in Huoqiu City in advance. ”

While several old devils were talking, the little devils who launched the attack could no longer bear the huge psychological oppression brought by napalm, and fled back in horror one after another, no matter how the devil officers on the side scolded, it was useless.

……

Inside Huoqiu City, the joint headquarters of the defenders.

After Yang Jing learned that the little devil was repulsed, he immediately dialed the phone of the artillery battalion and shouted into the ears of the rake: "Immediately extend the firepower to Lao Tzu!" ”

"Yes!" Rake ears hung up the phone, and Yang Jing's order was conveyed.

Yang Jingdao turned his head to Ma Tong on the side and ordered: "Ma Tong! Immediately order the defending troops, remove the city walls, retreat into the tunnels, and hide from the Japanese artillery fire! ”

"Yes!"

Ma Tong suddenly agreed, picked up the phone next to him, and dialed it quickly.

……

After receiving the order.

Bi Yuntao, Fan Tietou, as well as Yu Zongping, Zhou Zichen and others, after another round of firepower extension against the retreating little devils, immediately led their troops to retreat towards the city along the road to the city and the collapsed buffer belt.

"Boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom! ——”

At the same time, the extension of the fire of the artillery battalion also hit.

Some shells landed in the retreating pile of devils, instantly blowing them to death, wounds, and flesh and blood.

"Boom!"

One of the shells landed not far in front of Ito Masaki and others, and the violent explosion kicked up a large area of sand and mud, and the head and face were covered with several old devils.

Frightened, they hurriedly held their heads in their hands and lay on the ground.

"Yaga! Damn it! Ito Masaki shook the sand and mud above his head, and shouted angrily: "Order the Imperial Army Field Artillery, and immediately carry out artillery countermeasures!"

Fast! Hurry up and drop! ”

"Hello!"

After the devil officer who came to report before, after getting up from the ground, he slammed his head and quickly ran towards the bottom of the dirt slope.

"Phew!" After Shiro Inaba spit out the sand and mud in his mouth, he turned his head to Ito Masakaki with a rather frightened face and said, "Ito-kun, it's not safe here, let's drop, let's go back to the headquarters first!" ”

Although Ito Masaki showed an extremely angry expression, he finally agreed to Shiro Inaba's proposal.

……

In the city, as soon as the soldiers of the Tiger Regiment and the Independent Regiment withdrew into the tunnel, the Japanese counter-artillery fire fell down as promised.

"Boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom! ——”

Under the saturation bombardment of the little devils, the entire Huoqiu County was once again turned into a sea of fire.

Although the defenders on the ground retreated into the hole in time, the heavy guns and 75mm howitzers left on the ground could not be transferred for a while.

Under the shelling of the devils, it was directly reduced to a puddle of scrap metal.

Yu Zongping came to the joint headquarters of the defenders through Yongdao, and said excitedly: "Brother Yang, you are really a god!" With your brilliant command, the artillery fire that the little devil is proud of has completely reduced to fireworks and firecrackers for our army to celebrate its victory! ”

"Hahaha!"

Inside the headquarters, the rest of the people also laughed.

Yang Jing said with a solemn face: "Things are not so simple, even if we resist the attack of a wave of little devils, their strength is still several times more than ours!"

And, if nothing else, the artillery positions of our army on the ground should have been blown up by the little devils! ”

"Ringing ringing!"

"Bell bell bell! ——”

As soon as Yang Jing's words fell, a rapid telephone rang in the headquarters.

As soon as Ma Tong picked up the microphone, his face fell, and after a while, Ma Tong said: "Tuanza, the situation is really as you expected, because our artillery has not had time to transfer, under the shelling of the little devils, all of them have become scrap metal. ”

When everyone heard this, their faces also became gloomy.

Yang Jing said: "You don't have to worry too much, if nothing happens, the tunnel will be dug tomorrow morning at most, or even earlier."

As long as we resist the little devil's attack today, the problem will not be very big. ”

As he spoke, Yang Jing heard the sound of cannons on the ground gradually thinning out, and instructed Zongping and others: "Brother! The devil's shelling may be over, you hurry back to command the troops, the devil will definitely attack again! ”

"Yes!" Several people stood up and saluted at the same time, and then took the order and left.

Yang Jing also took the guard company and the communication company out of the basement, returned to the headquarters on the ground, and continued to command the whole army to fight.

The devil's sulfur bombs and cannonballs burned the exterior of the three-story building to blacken, and the roof was blown down.

However, the first and second floors have been preserved and can continue to be used as a headquarters.

After the saturation bombardment of the devils ended, Ito Masaka, accompanied by Shiro Inaba, Junrokuro Matsuura, and others, took several sounding balloons, climbed to a height of 100 meters, and stood on them to look at the defenders' positions.

Looking at the fires and smoke-filled city wall positions and Huoqiu County, the brigade commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade, Sato Shozaburo, couldn't help but say triumphantly: "Your Excellency, Division Commander, you see, the positions and city defenses of the Chinese Army have been almost razed to the ground by the fierce artillery fire of the imperial army!"

In this attack, the imperial army will definitely be able to win and take Huoqiu County! Annihilate the recalcitrant enemies in the city! ”

"Don't be careless!" With the previous failures, Ito Masaki was not so optimistic, and still frowned and said: "Judging from the previous battles between the imperial army and them, the Tiger Ben Regiment is not so easy to deal with.

What I'm worried about now is whether the artillery positions of the Chinese people have been destroyed! ”

Shozaburo Sato also put away his contempt and said, "I may have to send troops up to test this!" ”

After a pause, he added: "However, under such a powerful and dense firepower, even if you can't completely destroy the artillery positions of the Chinese army, you should be able to destroy a lot of the mysterious artillery of the Chinese army, right?" ”

Ito Masaki pondered for a while, and finally decisively ordered: "No matter what the effect is, continue to attack!" With the shame of the defeat of the Snow Emperor's army!

Notify all participating units and start attacking immediately! Spread out as much as possible to prepare for the bombardment of the enemy's mysterious heavy artillery and incendiary bombs! ”

"Haya!"

A flag soldier slammed his head, then took a step forward, came to the edge of the hanging basket, leaned out his upper body, and waved the flag to the herald below.

As a result, the Japanese army once again dispatched tens of thousands of troops and launched a fierce attack on Huoqiu County from four directions.

Bi Yuntao, Fan Tietou, Yu Zongping, and Zhou Zichen and others all returned to their respective command posts.

The east gate was defended by two companies of the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Independent Regiment of the New Fourth Army, and was commanded by Yu Zongping, the commander of the Independent Regiment.

Because the Japanese attack at the East Gate was relatively weak, the defenders here were the least strong compared to the other directions.

However, the cunning little devil, because after encountering strong resistance in the three directions of the south gate, the west gate, and the north gate.

This time the focus of the attack was quietly shifted to the east gate, and the devils gathered an integrated infantry wing outside the east gate, about 3,600 people, plus more than 70 artillery pieces.

Under the guidance of more than 30 tanks and combat vehicles, they launched a mighty charge towards the east gate.

At the same time, the devils in the south, west, and north also launched an attack at the same time.

Yu Zongping's headquarters was located near the city wall, and he took the commander of the 1st battalion out of the headquarters to climb the city wall, looking into the distance, and just found a large number of devils under the cover of tanks, swarming in groups.

The commander of the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment couldn't help but be taken aback when he saw this, and looked at Yu Zongping next to him and said, "Be good!" Why did the little devil come with so many troops this time? ”

Yu Zongping's face was also very solemn, and he said coldly: "It seems that the little devil wants to use our east gate as a breakthrough!" ”

The commander of the 1st battalion was surprised: "How can this be? Isn't the South Gate the main direction of attack of the devils? ”

Yu Zongping analyzed: "Probably the first two attacks, the little devils may have found that we have fewer troops and the weakest firepower!"

Think we're soft persimmons, so knead it! ”

The 1st battalion commander said a little anxiously: "Regiment commander, what should we do now?" Look at this posture, the little devil who came must have at least an infantry wing and more than 30 tanks. With just our little strength, I'm afraid it's hard to resist, right? ”

The independent regiment had suffered heavy casualties in the previous battle with the Japanese army, and at this time the defenders of the East Gate had only two companies of the 1st and 3rd battalions, with a total strength of less than 1,000 people.

Whether it is the strength of troops, weapons and equipment, or the quality of soldiers, they are far inferior to the Japanese army.

It will definitely not be able to withstand the attack of so many devils, not to mention, the devils still have a steady stream of follow-up troops, and they may enter the battle at any time!

Just when Zong Ping was about to ask Yang Jing for help, a chaotic sound of footsteps came from behind them.

Yu Zongping, the commander of the 1st Battalion and others looked back and saw that it was Yang Jing who came in a hurry with a group of soldiers and dozens of flying thunder cannons.

The two of them looked overjoyed, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet them: "Brother Yang (Head Yang), why are you here!"

…………