At this time, the convoy of the first battalion had already driven more than ten miles to the west, and naturally no gunfire could be heard, but the signal flare that flew up to 100 meters in the air with a brilliant tail flame could be observed.

In a truck full of soldiers at the back of the convoy, several soldiers were playing cards with flashlights when they accidentally saw bright yellow spots of light in the night sky in the distance.

"Huh? That's ......"

"Is it a flare?"

"Huh! Really! ”

Several people turned their heads to watch, and then they immediately shouted as they witnessed another bright yellow point of light slowly rising into the air.

The squad leader sitting in the passenger seat looked at it, and immediately ordered the driver to honk continuously, and at the same time he also found a disposable signal canister, unpacked it, stretched out the window to the sky, pulled the fire ring at the tail, and a signal flare "poof" went straight into the sky.

"There is a situation in the back, stop!"

A few minutes later, after learning that someone in the rear team had observed two flares fired from the side of the Nujiang steel cable suspension bridge when he came, Zhou Changfeng suddenly became vigilant.

"It's unlikely to be a joke, the three teams immediately turned around, and the rest of the departments stood by." He immediately ordered.

In such a bad road situation, it was obviously inconvenient to make a normal U-turn, so the soldiers immediately got out of the car, arranged jacks under the truck, lifted the whole car into the air, and then a dozen people worked together to make it rotate half a circle in place.

Soon, more than a dozen trucks went straight in the direction they came from, and Zhou Changfeng also changed to a motorcycle, following closely behind.

The captain of the third team is named Xue Can, just listening to the name, you will think that he is a sunny and tough big boy, but he is actually a medium-sized, flamboyant guy, especially good at hooking up with women with clever words, if it weren't for the fact that his military qualities are almost all first-class, Zhou Changfeng would definitely have to ask this guy to get out.

The distance of more than ten miles on a flat straight road may be reached by stepping on the accelerator with two feet, but here it takes nearly a quarter of an hour.

The dense gunfire was getting closer and closer, and Xue Can on the off-road vehicle picked up the binoculars to observe, and a flare happened to rise in the distance, and the firefight situation was unobstructed.

"Two machine gun firepower, rifle firepower is only ten numbers, a total of only a dozen people." Xue Can didn't have to think about it to guess that the defenders there had suffered the loss of the night attack.

The convoy came to a halt about two hundred paces behind the defenders of the West Bank, and one by one the soldiers jumped out of the car and lined up.

Zhou Changfeng walked next to Xue Can, and after talking for a few words, he directly ordered: "The machine gun platoon is deployed in place, and the flares are continuously replenished, and the heavy machine guns are arranged on the roof of the car, and the rest of the platoons set off in echelons!" ”

In recent years, the Ming army has become more and more dissatisfied with the 20-type heavy machine guns equipped with bullet plates, believing that they have become outdated, so they have been openly bidding for air-cooled heavy machine guns fed by metal bullet chains, but it has not yet been determined who will end up with them.

For example, the VZ.35 (ZB-53) heavy machine gun produced by the Brno Arsenal in the Czech Republic was very much valued by the Ming army, and the inspection group of the military department specially ordered 40 improved models for testing; Zhou Changfeng's first battalion was honored to obtain eight of them, after all, the test site thousands of times is not as valuable as the one on the battlefield.

[ZB-53 is the number of the Brno Arsenal, and VZ.35 is the number given to it by the Czech Ministry of Defense, that is, the predecessor of the well-known VZ.37 heavy machine gun. 】

The flares fired from a two-inch, or 64-mm mortar, were much brighter than the gizmos fired by the drawbridge defenders with grenades or flare guns, which lasted only seven or eight seconds and emitted no more than 10,000 candela.

The platoon leader changed into a steel helmet and waved a pistol, "Ready to fight!" Walk! ”

With a "bang", a flare flew over the Nujiang steel cable suspension bridge, and the light canister hung by the parachute was several times more dazzling than the bright moon, and the white light sprinkled made the surroundings as bright as a full moon night in an instant.

Shuling and her men fired fiercely at the Ming army on the west bank, and the empty shells and empty bullet boards fell to the ground; The Hoffmans and others planted explosives in the midst of a hail of bullets.

The battalion that returned to the reinforcements shocked them, and Mrs. Hoffmann said in a panic: "They are back, we must retreat!" ”

"Loose, loose... It's all right. Mr. Hoffman said a few things easy, and then took a detonating cord and hid behind the battered sentry box.

He pressed the detonator, and the long detonating cord exploded, and twenty-four one-pound packs of Barato explosives placed on the steel cable also exploded.

On the two steel pillars on both sides of the bridge, several packages of explosives arranged around them were also successfully detonated.

[Barato explosives are commonly used explosives in the British army, which are mixed with barium nitrate, TNT, aluminum powder, etc. 】

"Boom—"

Before the smoke cleared, the Hoffmans and their entourage had no time to cheer when they were surprised to find that the suspension bridge had not been broken???

The two steel columns are badly deformed, but they stand tall; Most of the eighteen steel cables were blown up, but there were still a few broken threads.

Mr. Hoffman called God Damn and began to take explosives from his backpack with the intention of carrying out a secondary blast.

"Are you insane? Here they are! Someone exclaimed.

At this moment, the muzzle of the convoy on the opposite bank flickered, and a barrage of heavy machine-gun bullets rained down, and the tracer bullets mixed with them pierced the darkest environment before dawn.

The shrill whistling of shells followed, and several mortar shells "boom boom" covered exactly where they were.

Suddenly, everything was silent, and the dozen or so people who were still firing non-stop just now suddenly stopped moving.

"Target silent, quick! Approach to the bridgehead and keep the fire suppressed to prevent the second blasting! Zhou Changfeng shouted.

Before, when the flash and roar of the explosion came from the other side, he thought that the bridge must be broken, but he didn't think it was broken? Overjoyed.

Thirty or so soldiers quickly leaped to the bridgehead, and then relied on bunkers to fight side by side with the defenders here. One of the squads rushed onto the bridge to see if it would be a good one.

They immediately found that there were only a few steel cables left on the deck of the suspension bridge, the entire right half of the bridge had collapsed, and the steel plates laid on the bridge deck were also tilted.

"Smoke! Smoke on the other side! The squad leader who led the team turned around and shouted.

With that, they put their rifles behind their backs, and then reached out to put their hands on the ropes that served as "guardrails" on the sides, and stepped on the dangling steel cables, and tried to move sideways like crabs towards the opposite bank.

Under the heavy machine gun fire, Shuling and her party, who had just been blown up by the mortar, had no room to fight back, and by the light of the miserable white flares, she could see that most of her men had become corpses, Mrs. Hoffman was seriously wounded and dying, and Mr. Hoffman was also covered in bruises.

A few minutes later, a dozen soldiers who had managed to cross the bridge rushed out of the smoke that was about to dissipate, and Mr. Hoffmann, who tried to resist, was shot and killed as soon as he drew his pistol.

Immediately after, the black muzzle of the gun almost pressed against Shuling's head.

The matter has come to this, both horizontal and vertical are dead, she feels that she can live one more day, so she obediently holds her head and falls to the ground.

"There are a few gasps here."

"You guys go rescue the wounded!"

The soldiers spotted a few wounded surviving defenders at the devastated East Bank bridgehead and immediately began to bandage them; Several people who were captured alive were also rushed to the bridgehead with kicks.