Three cities outside the gates.

When the cannon roar in the north and the explosions around it gradually stopped, the shouts and shouts of the three cities outside the Guanwai, which were hidden by these loud sounds, slowly became clear.

The city was filled with the terrible howls of soldiers who had not been killed, the sound of broken houses collapsing from time to time, and the roars of soldiers calling for help.

The smoke of gunpowder and the heat wave melted the sections of anti-artillery walls into a mixture of wet mud and water, and the walls were covered with black water droplets, like cloudy tears.

Large sections of the shattered ice and mud anti-artillery wall bombarded by shrapnel, as well as the sandwich wall with heavy pine sections on it, slowly melted in the heat wave, because they could not support the pull of gravity, first slowly toppled down, and then collapsed with a 'hula'.

The three artillery wings of the Japanese army, the mixed heavy bombardment of grenade and high-explosive shells, inflicted great heavy damage on the positions of the three cities outside the pass, and the city was in ruins.

Especially those anti-artillery bunkers that were violently torn apart by high-explosive shells.

The surviving soldiers hiding inside often had not yet recovered from the loud explosion waves, and then the countless projectiles of the grenade bombs exploded in the sky above like a swarm of poisonous bees.

The soldiers inside were beaten and howled miserably, blood rained everywhere, blood and flesh piled up, and a large group of soldiers died in piles.

The tragic scene is like a hell of a nose, which is unbearable to see!

"The Japanese stopped shelling, all left the bunkers, and ran out to assemble; The combat units immediately took their positions, and the rest of the second-line reserve units rescued the wounded, rescued the wounded! ”

As the shelling stopped, the commanders of the various defense zones ran out of their bunkers, their faces twisted and hoarse, shouting orders.

"Medic, Medic, ahem——!"

"Come on, people, pick up the pile of bricks and remove the wooden beams!"

"The anti-artillery wall is about to melt, quickly get the pine wood on it and clamp the wall with a wooden plank!"

——

"Garrison, Japanese infantry! A large number of Japanese infantry appeared in the direction of Nanying City! ”

"Battalion commander, one mile ahead of the East Battalion, a large group of Japanese troops was found!"

"One mile ahead, Beiying City, battalion commander, there is a large group of Japanese troops running closer!"

"Brothers, all go up to the city wall for me and kill the Japanese!"

"Immediately pull the horse rejection stakes over, pile them in three rows, twist the wires, and block these collapsed breastwork!"

"The whole company is in place, pay attention to concealment, full of bullets, and wait for the order to shoot!"

Suddenly, all kinds of shouts were everywhere on the positions of the defense areas in the three cities, and the commanders of the battalions, companies, and sentinels were trying to integrate the ranks in the shortest possible time.

"Order the commanders of each defense area to report casualties, report the integrity of the defense wall and chest wall, appropriately mobilize the reserve forces of each defense area, and fill the front-line defense forces."

"Order the northern wing of the city to be in the north of the city, and the north of the city defense area of the east and west cities, and the defense troops should pay attention to concentrating firepower and be sure to prevent the Japanese sappers from blasting the city gates."

"The main attack of the Japanese army is more likely to choose the north wall of the north wing of the city, the east wall of Dongluo City, and the west wall of Xiluo City, and once again remind Liu Gangzhi, Nie Pengcheng, and Fan Wenli Department, they must hold on to the death!"

"Order Liu Mingyang in the inner city to immediately repair the second line of defense line damaged by artillery."

"Order the Green artillery platoon, pay attention to the Japanese army breaking through the breastoping wall of the inner city, let some Japanese troops in, and then use machine guns to seal the gap."

The four officers from the Austrian Chest Empire were mainly Anglo, assisted by six or seven intern staff officers of the Anti-Japanese Army, and planted small flags representing the Japanese army in the three directions of the south and north camps and the east camp on the sand table in the joint headquarters.

At the same time, one after another, orders were quickly issued from the mouth of the colonel commander of the former Tyrolean archery unit, and the heralds on standby quickly rode to the various defense areas.

Xu Bangdao, Jia Qisheng, Xia Qingyun, Tang Shaoyi, and Li Jingfang, after the artillery fire stopped, heard that Shanhaiguan was already a sea of fire behind them, and hurriedly ran to the foot of Dongluo City, climbed the ladder and climbed the west city wall of Dongluocheng.

As far as the eye can see, the main city of Guannai, a mile away, is overwhelmed by black clouds, the flames are churning, and the heart trembles.

A light wind blew eastward, mixed with a heat wave of black smoke, and rushed towards Dongluo City.

"These guys, how many times have you been reminded not to pile firewood in the streets; cough cough cough——, over the years, which military gate is not fat? In the past, the 10,000 taels of military salaries that were deducted from the empty food, even if it is for their own future, they can't spit out a mouthful of inferior local coal! ”

Xu Bang stomped his feet angrily: "I also pointed to the critical time to reinforce us, and the city couldn't get out of the burned city; - Bastard, it's really out! ”

"Ahh

I saw that Shanhaiguan City suddenly opened widely, and a group of soldiers who were blocked by the heat wave flames and black smoke in the Shanhaiguan City Gate couldn't resist the suffocating black smoke, and directly opened the city gate and escaped, one by one sitting outside the gate coughing violently.

"These bastards! We have to send a battalion of soldiers to guard the city gates! ”

Jia Qisheng jumped up with a scream.

"You don't have to guard, such a big heat wave, no one can get in without half a day's effort; Fortunately, the grain depot in Guancheng and the military depot are in Yongping Mansion, otherwise-"

Speaking of this, Tang Shaoyi couldn't help but shudder heavily, and suddenly was full of infinite pessimism about being able to defend the three cities outside the gate.

As soon as the artillery fire stopped, He Changying strode out of the joint command headquarters, ran up the north wing city wall, and trotted along the city wall towards the north city wall.

Just like the bombardment on the 6th, this time the North Wing City is still the focus of care, and at least thirty percent of the shells that bombarded the four major defense areas fell into the North Wing City.

Running on the city wall, even in the corner of his eye, He Changying saw a large number of houses in the city collapse, and a large section of the anti-artillery wall was lifted by the Japanese army's high-explosive bombs.

"Commander-in-Chief!"

"Be careful, Commander-in-Chief!"

A high-explosive bomb was hit in the front section of the city wall, blowing up a large crater four or five meters long and more than one meter deep.

He Changying didn't see it, stepped on a half-cut brick, and with a 'snap', it slammed into the pile of bricks.

"Shhhh

He Changying's head slammed on a brick, and when he was helped up by a group of guards, a big bag had bulged up on his head, and his face was covered with blood and nosebleeds.

"Let go of me and go to the North City!"

He Changying's painful voice trembled, wiped his nose with his sleeve indiscriminately, took out a piece of toilet paper and tore it, blocked his nostrils, opened his mouth and breathed heavily and continued to run.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

Before he could reach it, he heard gunfire on the north side of the city wall.

"Brothers, aim for me!"

Liu Gangzi, who was in charge of Beicheng, saw the Japanese army surging like a black wave in front of him, and he was not surprised and rejoiced, and yelled.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

At this time, the east wall of Dongluo City, the west wall of Xiluo City, and the east and west defense lines of the inner city surrounded by the breastwork wall, gunfire was fired one after another.

The infantry of the Qing and Japanese armies immediately began a fierce exchange of fire.

"Run, forward, forward! Get those stakes out of the way and break through them! ”

Akiyoshi Okada, the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Wing of the Japanese Army, saw that the breastwork connecting Xiluo City and the North Wing City had been blown out of two huge gaps, but they were blocked by a pile of wooden stakes casually piled up by the panicked Qing army, and he couldn't help but shout excitedly.

It's that easy to break through!

Breakthrough right now!