Chapter 472

  "Could it be that the Chinese have set an ambush inside?" Hiraoka Yukihiko's heart skipped a beat.

  Although it was a cold day, he still had beads of sweat dripping from his head.

  Jinzhou City has become a gigantic fortress, with every building, every room, every alleyway, and even every unassuming ruin capable of firing deadly bullets at any moment!

  Suddenly, a bullet shot out from a window on the second floor of a three-story building. By the time the devils heard the gunshot, a lieutenant's head had been blown open with a "skylight", and a mixture of red and white splattered onto the snow-covered street. The officer didn't even have time to let out a scream before falling backwards.

  "Chinese god of guns!" All the devils cried out. They all crouched down, rifles and machine guns firing together at the window that shot bullets, a grenade launcher soldier accurately shooting a grenade into the window to explode.

  They fought for a minute without any movement, and then a senior military officer waved his command knife: "Kill!"

  The devils walked to the bottom of the building, they tried to smash the brick wall sealed at the door. At this moment, a smoke-emitting hand grenade was suddenly thrown out from another window.

  A loud "boom" shook the air, and three devils were blown to pieces, their flesh flying everywhere.

  After those devils finally managed to break in and enter the building, someone inside stepped on a landmine. Apart from this, these devils searched the entire building for half a day but couldn't find even the shadow of a Chinese soldier.

  "There's a foxhole here!" one of the devils shouted.

  There was a small hole in the wall, those devils saw that it connected to other houses through similar holes, no one dared to enter rashly. At this time, the devil captain came over and saw the hole, he cursed loudly: "Damn! The cunning Chinese must have escaped from here!"

  Seeing the soldiers crouching at the entrance and not daring to go in, the captain shouted: "Eighty-eight! Why don't you go in and chase those damn Chinese!"

  This small hole can only allow one person to crawl in at a time, and the dozens of enemy soldiers were unable to exert their strength. As soon as the first enemy soldier crawled in, he had just poked his head out from the other side when Fang Juntian chopped off his "pig head" with an axe, splashing dirty blood all over the ground, and the enemy's corpse blocked the way for the enemy soldiers behind him.

  The devils behind pushed the corpse away and crawled into the hole, but were blown up to the ceiling by a hand grenade.

  "Let's go!" Fang Jun Tian, holding the MP18 submachine gun, waved at sniper Jin Hu. The two of them crawled out from another small hole and entered a narrow alley, then climbed up to the second floor and into another house.

  The two of them instantly took down six devils and yet they themselves were unscathed.

  Xiao Bo, holding a Thompson M1921 submachine gun, and his wife Liu Linhua hid inside a house with sealed doors and windows. At this moment, Xiao Bo saw Fang Jun Tian and Jing Hu running past through the shooting hole, and the two turned a corner and disappeared into an alley.

  Behind them, a large group of about 40 devils shouted and fired as they chased, turning into the alley. This group of devils didn't know which direction to chase, so they divided their troops in two and pursued from both alleys.

  "Here's our chance! We'll take them down!" Xiao Bo said to Liu Linhua, "We'll take out one of their routes and retreat immediately!"

  Liu Linhua nodded and pulled out two Mauser pistols from her waist.

  When the devils passed in front of the small building where Xiao Bo and Liu Linhua were hiding, the two suddenly stretched out their guns from the second-floor window, a shotgun and two Mauser pistols fiercely sweeping those devils who had their backs to them. A string of intense gunfire rang out, and the eighteen devils didn't even have time to react before they were all knocked to the ground.

  By the time another group of devils heard the gunshot and rushed over, Xiao Bo and Liu Linhua had vanished into thin air.

  Every time the Hirata unit took a step forward, someone was shot by a sniper or stepped on a landmine, or was riddled with bullets from a submachine gun fired from an alleyway.

  More than 70 devils were killed, and the Hirata detachment advanced less than 300 meters.

  Hirata Yukihiko was secretly calculating in his mind: If we continue to advance at this rate of loss, I'm afraid that by the time our regiment enters the city center, this regiment will be completely annihilated! Thinking of this, Hirata Yukihiko ordered: "Everyone gather together, take the main road, and for every step forward, use firepower to blast through the houses ahead!"

  This method is not bad, such tactics would result in much fewer deaths. However, it consumes too many bullets and the advance speed is slower. The 29th Regiment advanced another two hundred meters, with only two men shot dead by a distant sniper. The loss of life was less, but their ammunition would soon be insufficient.

  "Colonel, this won't do!" a major reported, "If we go on like this, we'll run out of ammo in another 500 meters!"

  Helpless Lieutenant General Hirata had no choice but to order the howitzers to bombard, bombarding before advancing. However, after a barrage, not even a single Chinese soldier's hair was hurt, and more than 100 shells were wasted in vain.

  Hirata Taiza set up a temporary command post for the 29th Brigade inside the castle and had communication soldiers lay down telephone lines. A phone call was made to Honjō Shigeru: "Commander, the Chinese are too cunning! They're shooting at us from every alleyway, each block of streets and houses! I request that bombers be sent to flatten Jinzhou City!"

  "What the...!" came Benjō Manabu's voice from the other end of the phone, "You idiot! How did you lead your troops?! Where is the prestige of 9/18?! You're always asking for bombers, what's the point of having you guys around?! Look at the 33rd Infantry Brigade that entered from the north and the 39th Infantry Brigade that entered from the west, their progress is much faster than yours!"

  "Hai! I'll definitely speed up!" replied Hirata Yukihiko in a hurry.

  In fact, Li Bin also intentionally targeted the 29th Infantry Brigade of Hirata Yukihiko. Just now, a scout discovered the brigade flag of Hirata's brigade and reported it to Li Bin.

  It's said to be the 29th Infantry Brigade, Li Bin immediately jumped up from his chair and slammed his hand on the table: "Damn 29th Brigade! It was the vanguard of the September 18 Incident! Today I must annihilate this damn brigade!"

  He thought to himself: In the history of the War of Resistance Against Japan, there has never been a case where an entire Japanese regiment was annihilated! Today, I must create a miracle! I must annihilate this 918 Incident's culprit regiment in one fell swoop!

  After discovering the enemy's slow progress, Li Bin also knew that this 29th Infantry Brigade was now being beaten with low morale. What he needed was to lure this brigade to the vicinity of the South Gate and annihilate them.

  Soon, Li Bin deployed a plan to annihilate the enemy. He called over Hong Biao, Fang Juntian, Xiao Bo and others one by one, made arrangements for them, then grabbed his Mauser pistol and inserted it into his waist, saying: "Let's go! Today, I'll personally witness the destruction of this coalition army!"

  The Mauser pistol has a strong recoil, but Li Bin's 92-style pistol bullets have nowhere to replenish, so he can only choose to use the Mauser pistol.

  Hirata Yutaka was furious, and they didn't even see the shadow of a Chinese person, yet they lost nearly a hundred men. This kind of battle is still the first time I've encountered it.

  Taira no Kiyomori, who had been repeatedly at a disadvantage, decided to change his tactics and no longer dispersed his soldiers to conduct futile searches from house to house. Instead, he concentrated them all together and advanced southward along the main road, aiming to quickly break through the southern gate and fight his way to the Xiao Ling River, cutting off the Chinese army's retreat route.

  "Hah! As long as we cut off the retreat of those Chinese troops, once our Imperial Army thoroughly controls Jinzhou, I think those Chinese people inside the city will starve to death in the end!" Commander Hirata Yukiharu gave the order.

  The remaining 900 or so devils were concentrated together, rushing south along the main street. At this time, even if there were cold guns fired from both sides, they didn't care and continued to advance towards the direction of the South Gate.

  After being sniped and killing thirty-two devils, the Hirata regiment finally saw a street fortification appear in front of them.

  "The Chinese are building fortifications on the streets! Two kilometers ahead, it's the only retreat route for the Chinese! If we charge forward and control their retreat route, that would be a great achievement!" shouted Hirata Yukihiko.

  The devils set up mortars and fired a round of shells at the street fortifications, while grenade launchers also opened fire on the fortifications. The Type 38 heavy machine gun and the "Crooked-Handle" light machine gun poured out tongues of flame towards the fortifications in unison.

  The defenders of the fortifications were attacked by the devils' firepower, and they immediately collapsed and abandoned their positions, fleeing south along the main street in a state of panic.

  "Charge!" Major General Hirata drew his command sword and pointed. Seeing the "routed" Chinese army, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. This was the first time that Hirata Yukihiko had smiled since the beginning of the Jinzhou Campaign.

  Six hundred meters away, on the second floor of a building, a black muzzle protruded from a window. Huang Hua picked up her binoculars and saw Lieutenant General Hirata's insignia and the officer's sword in his hand.

  "Great! A big fish!" Huang Hua was overjoyed in her heart.

  When the devils started charging, Hirata Yukihiko followed other devils and chased after the retreating defenders. However, he never thought that a sniper rifle was already aimed at his head.

  Five hundred meters, four hundred meters, Hirata Kota was locked in the center of the scope by a yellow flower. She held her breath, set the lead based on wind direction and target running speed, then she pulled the trigger decisively.

  The Mauser 98 rifle fired a crisp shot, and a 7.92mm bullet left the muzzle heading straight forward. The bullet coincidentally "kissed" Hirata Yukihiko head-on, piercing his right eye in an instant.

  Hirata's right eye and the right half of his head immediately became a bloody mess, he fell heavily to the ground. This blood-stained Japanese militarist finally ended his sinful life in Jinzhou.

  The regimental commander was killed, and Lieutenant Colonel Kono automatically took over the task of replacing the regimental commander. He ordered his soldiers to ignore the sporadic shots coming from around them and must occupy the retreat route of the Chinese army on the south bank of the Xiao Ling River.

  The Chinese army that had previously "collapsed" was now running towards the last line of defense with all their might, getting closer and closer to the ambush circle where Li Bin was located.

  Just after the devils rushed over, a small team led by Xiao Bo and Liu Linhua appeared in several alleys in the back street area, and this team launched an attack on a devil machine gun squad responsible for cutting off the rear.

  "Chinese! The Chinese are coming!" This machine gun squad discovered Xiao Bo and his comrades, immediately turning their guns around. Two Type 3 heavy machine guns, two Type 38 heavy machine guns, and six submachine guns spat out flames together.

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