Chapter 54: What's wrong with this guy?

  With the arrival of the Independent Regiment, the battle became extremely fierce. Both sides fought to the death and refused to retreat. The entire city of Tongxu was filled with the sounds of killing. The Japanese had over 2,000 soldiers from the Independent Regiment and around 3,000 soldiers from the 745th Regiment. Although the Japanese had superior bayonet skills that offset their numerical disadvantage, the soldiers of the Independent Regiment and the 745th Regiment were determined to fight to the death, with high morale. The battle was intense and difficult to resolve, resulting in a stalemate.

  Zhang Biao, holding a large knife, was the first to charge forward and beheaded a Japanese soldier. Two other Japanese soldiers saw their comrade being killed and angrily rushed over, stabbing at Zhang Biao with their bayonets. Zhang Biao swung his large knife in succession, parrying twice and deflecting the two Japanese soldiers' bayonets. With one foot, he kicked one of the Japanese soldiers to the ground, and with the knife still in hand, stabbed down at the fallen soldier, killing him instantly.

  Another devil saw Zhang Biao kill another of his companions and shouted as he stabbed towards Zhang Biao. Zhang Biao dodged the devil's dagger with a donkey roll, sweeping his big knife horizontally at the devil's lower body, cutting off the devil's legs. The legless devil fell to the ground, hugging his severed limbs and wailing. Zhang Biao picked up his rifle and stabbed it into the devil on the ground. "Puchi" The dagger pierced his heart, and the devil died with a tilt of his head.

  Tie Niu and Li Gang followed behind Zhang Mingyu, sending each of the devils who wanted to launch a sneak attack on him to meet their ancestors. Zhang Mingyu, in front, occasionally fired his submachine gun, knocking down the devils who were engaged in close combat with the soldiers.

  As more and more Sichuan soldiers rushed to the city to join the battle, the devils were gradually suppressed out of the formation and retreated backwards. After the warriors drove the devils away, they did not pursue them, but instead jumped into the first trench and shot at the retreating devils. Although the devils had retreated, their artillery fire was unleashed at this time, taking advantage of the large number of National Army soldiers on the battlefield who were in a state of confusion, firing several rounds of concentrated shots at the formation, many warriors who were still running fell under the enemy's artillery fire. Zhang Mingyu hastily ordered: "Brothers, all get into the anti-artillery cave, quickly!"

  Some soldiers heard the order and rushed into the artillery cave, while some soldiers were still rushing forward from behind to pursue the retreating devils. As soon as they reached the front line, they suffered a sudden and intense bombardment by the devils' cannons, resulting in heavy casualties. Many warriors were blown up, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and the thick smoke produced by the explosion of shells.

  The enemy's 160mm heavy artillery, 120mm cannons and mortars of various calibers poured down a rain of shells, some individual bunkers were directly hit by heavy artillery shells, the soldiers hiding inside were instantly buried alive, or blown high into the air by the intense explosion, turning into a bloody mist.

  The enemy planes also arrived at this time, dropping heavy bombs in succession. The low-lying positions were instantly blown up with mud flying everywhere. Heavy aerial bombs could create a large crater on the ground with just one drop, and the earth-sheltered artillery pits that were hit were completely blown away, killing all the soldiers inside.

  Under the intense bombardment of the devils' heavy artillery and aircraft, the independent regiment and the Sichuan soldiers who broke out of the city suffered heavy casualties. The entire position was blown to pieces, and the shockwave from the high-explosive aerial bombs sent standing soldiers flying. Zhang Biao lay in the trench spitting out mud, cursing loudly: "Damn those little devils, do they think cannonballs are free?" Just as he spoke, a Japanese plane dropped a bomb with a loud "whirring" sound, and after a deafening explosion, something fell onto Zhang Biao's body along with the flying dust.

  Zhang Biao was buried in the mud underground, slowly crawled out, feeling like there was something on his body. Zhang Biao pulled it with his hand and pulled out a severed leg! The foot still stank! Zhang Biao threw it away casually.

  At this time, Zhang Mingyu's order was passed down, and the whole army retreated to Teng County. The communication soldier shouted loudly, but before he could shout a few more sentences, he was hit by an air bullet shot from the enemy plane and fell into a pool of blood. Zhang Biao stood up and shouted loudly: "Everyone retreat!" "Who the hell are you looking for death? Get down! Do you know what getting down means? I'm telling you!" Seeing a Sichuan army soldier running around frantically, Zhang Biao scolded loudly.

  As soon as Zhang Biao's voice fell, the soldier was blown up by a shell dropped by the Japanese plane. Zhang Biao didn't have time to scold him, and he picked up a Czech-style machine gun that had fallen on the ground and fired at the Japanese plane that was strafing in the sky with "da-da-da" bursts. Coincidentally, the bullets Zhang Biao fired hit the oil tank of the Japanese plane, and it suddenly caught fire. The Japanese pilot hastily pulled up, but to no avail, and soon the fire spread throughout the fuselage. With a loud bang, the Japanese plane exploded in mid-air. The Japanese pilots didn't even have time to parachute. The rest of the Japanese saw their comrade's plane being shot down, and they were so frightened that they stopped strafing the ground and hastily retreated.

  In fact, the shells carried by these devils had been thrown away long ago. They just bullied the Chinese army for not having anti-aircraft weapons, so they dared to strafe the Chinese on the ground at ultra-low altitude.

  Without the threat of enemy planes, the warriors jumped out of the trenches and retreated into Tongxian County. The enemy's artillery fire was still not enough to reach Tongxian County. When the enemy planes discovered that the Chinese on the ground wanted to retreat, they tried to dive down and strafe, but were immediately scared off by a dense barrage of machine gun bullets and hastily pulled up, no longer daring to dive down. Soon, the Independent Regiment and the remnants of the 745th Regiment had all retreated into Tongxian County.

  The enemy's attacking troops rushed back at this moment, and Zhang Mingyu saw the enemy infantry chasing after Tōji Prefecture. He said to Sun Dali, the commander of the artillery company who had been staying in the city: "Dali, give those bastards a good pounding for me, use up all the shells! I won't hold back."

  Soon, six 82mm mortars, four captured Japanese grenade launchers, and two mountain guns turned their muzzles around. With a loud "Fire!" from Sun Dali, several cannonballs were fired in succession, accurately landing among the charging enemy troops, blowing them to pieces, with blood and flesh flying everywhere. Usually, Sun Dali was frugal with ammunition, but now Zhang Mingyu had given the order to fire at will, so the artillery company's shells rained down on the enemy like they were free. The gunners felt exhilarated as they watched the enemy fall in droves. Zhang Mingyu saw the excitement on the faces of the soldiers and cursed, "You're all just a bunch of wastrels!"

  The devils were stunned by the sudden and intense cannon fire, and Sakaya Kei, who was in charge of commanding the battle, raged behind: "What the...! How can the Chinese have such intense artillery fire? Have they received reinforcements again?"

  The staff officer beside him also said: "Commander, the artillery fire of the Shina people is fierce now, and the brave warriors are suffering heavy casualties. Should we order them to withdraw for the time being and attack after the tank squadron arrives?"

  Setoguchi was originally going to take advantage of the Chinese army's retreat to launch a surprise attack and capture Tongzhou in one fell swoop, but he did not expect the Chinese troops inside the city to have such intense artillery fire. Zhang Mingyu also saw through Setoguchi's intentions, so he ordered the artillery company to open fire without hesitation.

  "Retreat!" he ordered with a sigh. The large group of devils quickly retreated like a tide. The soldiers in the artillery company looked at each other excitedly, shouting and dancing with joy.

  Zhang Mingyu walked over with a dark face and kicked the buttocks of a soldier who was jumping around, shouting: "Sun Dali!"

  "Yes!" Sun Dali hastily stood up straight and replied.

  "How many shells are left?" Zhang Mingyu asked.

  "Two more mortar shells are left in the ammunition depot, and there are four anti-tank gun shells." Sun Dali felt a bit uneasy but still answered truthfully.

  Zhang Mingyu listened and jumped three feet high, pointing at Sun Dali and scolding: "You damn loser, how can you still have two shots left? You're a good-for-nothing!"

  "Master, just now the devils launched an attack. Didn't you tell me to fire all the shells? I haven't finished firing them yet, and now you're blaming me!" Sun Dali said with a sorrowful face.

  "Slap!" Zhang Mingyu slapped Sun Dali on the head and scolded: "You bastard! How can you be so stupid? Can't you just report a fake number to comfort me?" After finishing, Zhang Mingyu said with a pretended crying tone: "My cannonball! You bunch of good-for-nothings!" Everyone was sweating profusely!

  "PS: Brothers, please support me more, little brother! Leave a message and let me know you exist! Give me motivation! Also, I'm begging for recommendations and collections on the back!"

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