At 4:50 p.m., on the north bank of the Ford River, 18 90-mm amphibious self-propelled howitzers and 26 120-mm self-propelled mortars of the 101st Amphibious Mobile Artillery Brigade of the Chinese Marine Corps slowly raised their barrels.

"Fire!"

Dozens of cannon ports erupted with flickering fireworks almost simultaneously, the damp earth trembled, and the stagnant water in the mud puddle shivered and rippled......

"Attack!"

The cannonballs roared, and a hideous cloud of black-gray smoke rose over the horizon, and after ten minutes of rapid firing, as three green flares rose into the sky, the tracks clanged, the leather boots fluttered to the ground, and the bayonets flashed -- the Fifth Route Army under the command of Yu Dalong began to weave the "double pockets" that trapped the enemy in front of him, centered on Pearl City.

Shi Guanghua's troops, who served as the main frontal attack, spread out about two kilometers on both sides of the road: its infantry strength was one infantry battalion and one machine infantry battalion, about 1,500 men, equipped with 10 75-mm infantry guns; Its armored strength includes 27 "Flying Wolf" fighting vehicles, 4 "Assault Crocodile" amphibious assault fighting vehicles, and 3 "Fire Crocodile" amphibious support fighting vehicles -- the combat vehicles open the way in front and the infantry cover in the rear, closely following the barrage line of its own artillery advancing one after another, and steadily advancing in the momentum of "Xu Rulin".

The expected resistance did not appear - because the wind was not in the right direction, the artillery did not fire special smoke grenades, and Shi Guanghua thought that he would encounter stronger resistance.

But along the way, in addition to craters, there were cannons and vehicles, corpses and rifles, bullet bags and wide-brimmed hats, shell casings and ammunition boxes...... There was no artillery fire, no flying bullets, and no American GIs rushing in with bayonets.

With a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension, Shi Guanghua drove his troops to continue to advance, and an hour later, the whole team of chariots did not fire a single shot, and the infantry did not fire a single shot, and successfully arrived at the north bridgehead of the Pearl Bridge, where they joined forces with a vanguard chariot company of Huang Zhifeng's troops, who was responsible for making a detour from the east road. However, the bridge had been blown up, and the south bank was sporadically fired with sporadic artillery fire and shells, and the two forces stopped here, and they found nothing in an hour's assault.

In the meantime, at about 5:20 a.m., a support formation consisting of 80 carrier-based planes flew to the battlefield, and since no enemy target was found between the Ford River and the Pearl River, and only saw "our military vehicles draped in conspicuous red flags all over the ground," it had no choice but to turn to Pearl City, where it dropped hundreds of random ordinary bombs -- on average, almost one for every building in this small urban area.

Pan Guochen's troops, who made a detour from the west, crashed into the Xicheng District of Pearl City in one breath, and its vanguard a chariot company and a motorized infantry company that followed the vehicle rushed all the way, and passed through the entire Xicheng District within a few minutes, but when they approached the central bridge connecting Xicheng and Dongcheng, they suddenly encountered fierce artillery fire, 3 chariots and 1 amphibious personnel carrier were shot and damaged, and the defenders of Xicheng District, which had not been cleared, were attacked from behind, and the vanguard retreated while fighting and temporarily withdrew from the urban area.

After listening to the report of the commander of the vanguard force, Pan Guochen rubbed his chin and pondered: "How can there be defenders? And cannons? Could it be that the enemy forces assembled between the two rivers have retreated to Pearl City? Either reinforcements from Eva or Honolulu arrived early - I didn't have enough infantry and not many artillery, but, anyway, my mission was to take Pearl City in one fell swoop, and I couldn't stop here! ”

The chariots in the urban area cannot be used, but the enemy army should have no other anti-chariot capabilities except for direct artillery fire, so let's take the chariot platoon as a unit, and the three chariots alternately cover and lead the mechanized infantry who get off the vehicle to attack.

After thinking about this, Pan Guochen quickly ordered to concentrate all the six 90-mm self-propelled howitzers at hand, and under the guidance of the commander of the vanguard unit, to cover and fire at the depth of the bridgehead area that had just been attacked, in an attempt to destroy the enemy artillery that might be deployed in that area.

Since there were only three roads into the urban area, Pan Guochen decided to put in only four tank platoons, of which two tank platoons were put into the main road through the city to guide the two dismounted infantry companies to assault, and the other two roads were each put into a tank platoon and guided a dismounted infantry company to assault, because the 37 mm guns of the flying wolf combat vehicles were not powerful enough in street battles, three of the four tank platoons to be sent were all "fire crocodile" support combat vehicles equipped with 75 mm infantry guns. In addition to being able to fire grenades weighing more than three times the weight of a 37-mm gun, this vehicle is also equipped with a number of heavy machine guns, which makes it very powerful.

As soon as the "Fire Crocodile" came out, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the shock of the 75 infantry guns at close range was really extraordinary, and several machine guns on the car could fire in four directions at the same time, and there were no dead ends at all! I saw that the wooden houses painted with white paint were either scattered by artillery or smashed into a sieve by machine guns, and the remaining American troops fled from the houses in despair, and the lucky ones were still able to raise their hands and surrender, but most of them were immediately swept down by bullets that did not have long eyes, and immediately blood was spilled on the streets, and their brains were smeared on the ground, and they flickered to see God.

Pearl City is not big, and the area of Xicheng District only accounts for one-third of the city, and many buildings have been destroyed by the previous air raids, and there are not many houses for the "fire crocodile" to demolish at this time, but in half an hour, Xicheng District has become a ruin, and the captured American soldiers are also lined up in a long line behind the marching troops.

Seeing that the "fire crocodile" at the front rumbled past the "flying wolf" and "crocodile" that had just been paralyzed by the bridge, and was about to drive up to the bridge, a cannonball whistled and smashed the two-story building that had collapsed half of the building a few meters away.

The first "fire crocodile" did not stop, but increased its horsepower and rushed onto the bridge deck, but the next two "fire crocodiles" calmly stopped, and the commanders of the two vehicles poked their heads out of the turret together, searched the opposite bank with binoculars, and then turned the turret, and a burst of intensive continuous fire hit the opposite bank into flames, the walls were shattered and the houses fell, and the ghosts cried wolves......

The tail of the "fire crocodile" in front of it suddenly spewed black smoke, and in the blink of an eye, it drove across the bridge, drove onto the bridgehead on the opposite bank, turned the turret and gun mount, and fired fiercely in all directions, causing the Marine infantry behind to cheer and thunder, eager to try, and one of the squads braved the cold guns fired from the opposite bank, protected a light machine gun crew, and rushed to the bridge deck first.

Suddenly, with a loud bang, the stone arch bridge under the feet of the infantrymen, which was no more than 20 meters long, instantly shattered and collapsed, and no one in the class and the machine gun crew were spared.

……