Ennis basically did not sleep all night, because the shelling of the Chinese Republic of America did not stop all night, and at about three o'clock in the morning, the shelling of the artillery gradually subsided after four or five hours.

"It is said that during World War I, there would be continuous shelling like this for a week or two before the attack, and there would be continuous shooting for several hours every day." Ennis said to the deputy division commander, "I can't imagine how the soldiers in the trenches managed to survive to the end of the war, and I would have gone crazy a long time ago." ”

"I'm crazy if I change it." The deputy division commander nodded in agreement.

In fact, a considerable number of soldiers in World War I suffered from shell shock, which was caused by this shelling. It is worth mentioning that the shelling of World War I and the shelling of World War II are not the same concept, and the development and progress of twenty years have made human artillery more terrifying in World War II, and the average caliber is also larger.

So this night Ennis and his soldiers had a much more terrible night than the night of the shelling of the First World War.

After the shelling stopped, Ennis patted the dust on his head - no shells directly hit Ennis's headquarters, but the shaking of the ground still caused a large amount of dust to fall from the ceiling, sticking Ennis's head.

"Call and contact the core positions - no, the telephone line may be broken, send people to contact the core positions, the enemy offensive may begin, cheer them up. By the way, the casualties in each position should be confirmed, and the positions with casualties of more than 30 percent should be reported to us, so that the reserves can be ready to replenish the losses of combat strength at any time. ”

After the series of orders were given, Ennis felt a little relieved, but then he thought of something, and added: "The enemy may have begun to infiltrate the infantry, immediately send a small detachment with walkie-talkies to patrol the secondary positions." ”

As soon as the staff officers received the order, they began to carry it out, and many heralds were sent out, and the staff officers with walkie-talkies were shouting to the various positions.

Ennis stood up and wanted to go out to have a look, so he nodded to his guard and stepped out of the permanent bunker that served as headquarters.

There was fire light everywhere outside, and most of the cars parked on the ground were set on fire, lighting up the whole town like torches. Ennis could see that the entire town had been flattened by buildings on the ground - literally flattened, because of the craters, the ground of the town had disappeared and was replaced by something undulating like a miniature mountain terrain.

Cars are out of service in this town, and nothing on four wheels can drive in such a bumpy place.

As far as the eye could see, only the various permanent fortifications were still alive in the firelight, but there were also some fortifications that were spewing smoke and flames outward, and it was obvious that they were unlucky to be directly hit by heavy artillery shells - although they were permanent fortifications, it was still relatively difficult to resist the shells, after all, the time given to the engineering units to build these fortifications was only eight months, and only important targets such as ammunition depots and Ennis's command post had the top that could resist heavy artillery.

Ennis looked out of the town, the firelight illuminating the surrounding desert with better effect than flares, and Ennis suddenly became less worried about enemy infiltration, although he knew that the Chinese would definitely try to infiltrate. They were masters of infantry combat and night infiltration, and Ennis had already learned their skills on the battlefields of China.

Sure enough, gunshots rang out in the southwest corner of the town, both American automatic rifles and Chinese German-style assault rifles, and the gunfire of the two guns was very different, and you could hear it when you heard it.

After knowing that the enemy was infiltrating, Ennis calmed down, because this small-scale infiltration showed that the offensive would not begin immediately, and the Chinese did not plan to take advantage of the night to attack. The Chinese commanders were probably preparing to attack at dawn, and before the dawn attack, there was probably a round of fire preparation.

Thinking about it like this, Ennis's head began to ache faintly—that is, the kind of shelling just now, which had to happen again before dawn, and the thought of this made me feel the urge to surrender with my guns.

But Ennis knew that he could not surrender, the 101st Airborne Division had achieved brilliant results in World War II, and if it surrendered here, it might not be able to return to the United States for the rest of its life. He still has a wife and daughter, and he must go back.

Then he can only fight until the last moment, and there is really no way to fight until he runs out of ammunition and food, and if he gives up resistance, no one will blame him - probably.

Ennis turned his head to look at what had been the square in the center of the town, where the black fountain was still gushing quietly, but the fountain was slightly lower in height than it had been in the morning, and sure enough, it was only a small amount of oil seeping up from the underground oil reservoir. Several craters around the fountain had long been filled with black liquid, and the strong smell of oil wafted in the wind, causing Ennis to frown slightly.

"Here, find someone to light the oil for me." Ennis commanded.

"General?" The guard hesitated.

"I said light the oil. Anyway, sooner or later, they will be shalted, and we will order them ourselves, so as to save the time when the battle is raging, and the oil and gas that volatilized into the air will explode. ”

"Yes, General." Ennis's orders were quickly executed. It was already four o'clock in the morning.

The whistling of cannonballs in the sky.

"It's about to begin." Ennis whispered, turning back to his guard, "Let's go, let's go back to headquarters." ”

**

In the outer position, Sergeant Li Pu breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God, it's finally over, and you can finally fight with the damned Chinese." ”

Others seemed to agree with Sergeant Lip's words, and the Chinese charge was much better than such a shelling, and even a tragic hand-to-hand combat was much better than holding your head and praying not to be caught by shells amid the rumbling of artillery.

Mainly in the face of the charge, everyone has a way to vent their emotions - just shoot at the enemy, at most while shooting and roaring. And when he was shelled, the breath in his heart had nowhere to spill at all, and he panicked.

"Get into position!" Sergeant Lip shouted to his men, "Don't be afraid, those whistling in the sky are the barrage of Xu Jin, and the enemy's bombardment of us has ended." Get into the trenches! ”

After all his men had entered the trench from the bunker, Lip himself got out of the bunker and into the trench. He lay on the edge of the trench and poked his head out to look in the direction of the enemy line.

Enemy armor can be seen advancing.

"Damn, what's that?" Lip muttered, "Looks like an assault gun." ”

But as far as Lip knows, assault artillery has withdrawn from the international military arena, after all, assault artillery is an emergency product of war.

The reason why there were so many assault guns in World War II was because the production time of assault guns was short, after all, it did not need a turret, and there were no parts such as rotating motors, so assault guns were mass-produced faster than combat vehicles. Therefore, when the front line was in urgent need of armored forces during the war, countries adjusted part of their production capacity to produce assault guns to meet the demand.

Once the urgent needs of the battlefield disappear, the assault gun will have no value.

At least that's what Sergeant Lipp thinks.

But now, there was no doubt that there were assault guns coming towards Lippe's position, and assault guns armed with fairly large caliber artillery.

Lip stared at the muzzle of the gun, which seemed clear at this distance, and estimated the caliber of the main gun: 152 mm? No, 152 Lip has seen, not so thick. 203 mm? It felt a little like it, but Lip still didn't think it was right.

However, the cannon was really thick, and Li Pu shuddered at the sight of the black hole muzzle, and he didn't want to see the majesty of the cannon at all.

At this time, the company commander came to Sergeant Lip, and Lip heard him say in that thick Tex-accented English, "Damn, that thing's muzzle flame can kill nearby infantry, right?" Lin Youde took out something crazy again. ”

"I just want to know how it's loaded." Lipp whispered, "Isn't it a one-shot deal?" ”

Lip had seen the artillery reload the 203 gun, and it took a long time just to stuff the projectile into the breech, and then it was loaded with propellant and tossed for a long time before firing a shot.

The tubes on the assault gun were really thicker than the 203, and Lip couldn't imagine how it could be reloaded inside the tank, and it was difficult to open the tank and reload it outside—Lip didn't know, he was right this time.

By this time, the walls of the trench could already feel the tremors of the ground, and Li Pu felt his adrenaline rush as the enemy's heavy armor pressed on him step by step.

In addition to the assault guns, the attacking Chinese troops had a considerable number of tanks, all of which followed behind the assault guns, and the infantry were further behind, and Li Pu could not see very clearly.

Lip paid attention to the markers on the ground, which were planted in the desert when the position was set up, so that the defending American troops could judge the enemy's distance at a glance.

The enemy's assault guns had already passed the 800-meter line, and the anti-armor guns should have opened fire.

Echoing Lip's thoughts, the sound of artillery was heard from the direction of the gun emplacement, and then Lip saw the shell hit the frontal armor of the enemy's assault gun, and then was shot into the sky.

The assault guns did not mean to stop at all, and continued to rush forward, and the American anti-aircraft guns kept firing, and the shells made a sharp whistle and hit the front of the assault guns one after another, but all of them were bounced off.

At this time, the combat vehicles following the assault guns began to return fire, and high-explosive grenades hit the US artillery positions one after another. However, the anti-armor fire of the US army is deployed in concrete fortifications, and it is difficult for the artillery of the combat vehicle to destroy these gun emplacements.

However, artillery continued to stop firing, and the Chinese attacks were slowly taking effect.

"Those anti-tank guns shouldn't attack assault guns." The company commander suddenly said, "That's a meat shield that attracts firepower, and they should hit the chariots behind." ”

"Apparently it's late, face." Lip's voice was a little regretful, "Our artillery has been dumb a lot. Now it's too late to attack the enemy's tanks. ”

Anti-tank guns are actually very advantageous when dealing with combat vehicles, because anti-tank artillery is generally difficult to identify, and often has complete cover, which is difficult to kill by direct fire from combat vehicles. Hitting the gun emplacements of anti-tank vehicles with tank guns often requires multiple grenades in a row to completely silence the gun emplacement.

In contrast, a vehicle with just one shot of a broken armor fragment or something like it has the potential to inflict enough damage on the occupants of the vehicle to take away the combat capability of the vehicle.

Even Germany's Tiger ace Kali Woods listed the anti-tank gun as the number one enemy of the tank, and the enemy's tank was the second most in comparison.

But now the enemy's tanks have advanced to a position where they can more clearly observe and aim at the anti-tank guns. The firepower of the US military is weakening sharply.

Lip took a deep breath: "It seems that it is up to our bazooka and anti-tank grenades to deal with the enemy's chariots, cheer up, boys!" ”

As soon as Lip's words fell, the assault gun at the front suddenly braked.

After the sound of heavy brakes, the stopped assault gun began to turn its body.

"Oh my God," Lipp muttered softly, "it's going to fire!" ”