Chapter 63 Pingxingguan Great Victory Second Stage 2

  The troops, with high morale, formed a neat queue and quickly approached the city wall. Wearing tattered camouflage nets in a grayish-brown color, they donned dry grass camouflage hats, resembling waves of gray rapidly approaching the Japanese-occupied city wall. Due to technical issues with the artillery battalion, Gao Quan could only mount bayonets on the cannons, disguising them as carts loaded with dry grass and sacks, under the guard of Japanese soldiers in yellow uniforms, approaching Lingqiu County City, from a distance appearing to be a Japanese foraging party.

  However, the Japanese troops on the city wall were both astonished and deeply suspicious. After all, it seemed that the Japanese army had not sent out any grain collection teams to the front line, nor did they fire warning shots at this group of "Japanese" who were approaching. In the rear of the Japanese army, a team of only a few dozen people seemed unlikely to pose a threat to the Japanese occupying Lingqiu County. More than 30 Japanese troops in half a squad were still on high alert, loading their guns and preparing for any unexpected emergencies.

  At a distance of over 500 meters, the convoy suddenly stopped. The Japanese army also seemed to have sensed a hint of conspiracy in the air at the same time. They lay down in the trenches on the broken city wall, aiming their guns at the suddenly stopped convoy from afar. Dozens of "Japanese soldiers" suddenly fell to the ground, and then a massive artillery fire burst out fiercely from the horse-drawn carriage. The Japanese army, who had discovered something was wrong, could no longer rectify their mistake.

  After a brief whistling sound, the massive explosion smoke covered the Japanese army's trenches and machine gun emplacements, and the last image in their eyes was that huge explosion flame! The dilapidated city gate full of copper nails and green rust, as well as the sandbag fortifications set up at the city gate, and those barbed wires, were all sent into the air together.

  Within less than two hundred meters from the county town, a burst of shouting and killing sounds suddenly erupted, with dense gray-green figures emerging in places where the Japanese army had never suspected. The machine gun's firepower net hit the bricks on top of the city wall with a loud noise, and the mortar's rapid firepower covered several key city wall passes one after another.

  Under the earth-shaking, blood-boiling roar of the soldiers' angry cries, countless soldiers with national hatred and family enmity stepped on the Japanese army's corpses and quickly rushed into the city.

  The Japanese army's Lieutenant General Shirakawa was having lunch when he heard the sound, his face changed color, and the well-trained soldiers immediately put down their bowls and chopsticks, picked up their rifles and leather bullet boxes, and gathered together under the loud shouts of their commander.

  The phones at the four city gates have not been called to this day, which is obviously unlikely for the well-trained soldiers of the Fifth Division. It is very likely that this team of over a hundred people has already been annihilated. Moreover, in the midst of the enemy's dense gunfire and explosions, Bai Yichen did not hear the unique sound of the Type 38 rifle shooting at all. This made Bai Yichen's face even darker.

  So many enemy troops were able to destroy the Japanese front-line troops' resistance in a short period of time, and it was obviously impossible without careful planning. Now Bai Yi's most worrying thing is how many enemy troops there are, whether the enemy knows the current situation of their own troops, and what is the situation with the four battalions at Pingxingguan? Is it an intentional trap set by the enemy to give a surprise attack to the Japanese troops on the front line, or have the Japanese troops on the front line already been completely annihilated?

  The internally chaotic Byakuren quickly calmed down, as a proud officer of the "Great Imperial Army" he was not allowed to retreat, even if the front-line troops had been completely annihilated, he must fight to the end. Of course, deep in his mind, there was still a deep hope that the enemy in front of him was just a small group that had infiltrated from the military-controlled area and gained an advantage through despicable means in a short period of time. Now the Empire needed such unyielding heroes like him to thoroughly defeat and destroy the "Shina" troops and their morale!

  However, the pride in his heart was of no practical help when faced with the shouts and killings from all directions. Bai Yizhen secretly sighed, "The enemy is coming too fast!" while his face twitched slightly. He immediately shouted loudly to the panicked soldiers: "Quick! Make shooting holes on the wall, block the door with sandbags, machine guns ready to fire, grenade launchers quickly prepare to attack the enemy along the street!"

  Looking at the soldiers who were still stunned and unsure of what to do, standing out in the busy crowd, Bai Yi couldn't help but secretly scold the rural militiamen who had just been added to the troops for their poor quality. He kicked several soldiers with extremely slow reaction speeds one after another. In a fit of rage, Bai Yi immediately led two battalion commanders to inspect the preparations at various locations. Although they also understood that the enemy's sudden attack made them very passive and unprepared, even the 21st Brigade's frontline sentry post, which was only guarded by a small squad, could not be taken care of.

  The Japanese army finally paid the price for their arrogance and inadequate combat preparation!

  Soldiers of the rapid advance detachment and reconnaissance company did not, as on TV, move along the main street under the leadership of the guide towards the Japanese army command in Lingqiu, but instead jumped forward along both sides of the street towards the Japanese command post. Every hundred meters or so, more than a dozen soldiers carefully searched the houses on both sides that could hide the Japanese army, and their agile movements showed that they were elite troops who had undergone special training!

  After taking down the large military depot guarded by the Japanese army, Gao Quan even didn't have time to check the supplies and led his troops quickly towards Chenjia Courtyard which was fiercely fighting with the Japanese army. It is unknown why the Japanese commander liked the Chinese Shanxi-style family courtyard so much that he abandoned the only four-story modern building made of steel and concrete in Lingqiu County, and instead set up his command center in Chenjia Courtyard, where the whole family had already moved to Taiyuan City to avoid the Japanese army's attack.

  Machine guns spewing death flames, high and sturdy courtyard walls, and the wide and flat ground all around have become the Japanese army's reliance for resisting until now. The Japanese army has no regard for the casualties of ordinary civilians, continuously launching grenades through mortars, bombarding those already bombed-out rooftops. Anxious Xiao Zhe and two battalion commanders, anxiously and urgently await the mountain cannons outside the city, preparing to use the powerful artillery with bayonets to blast open the courtyard occupied by the Japanese army and engage in close combat.

  The Japanese army's dense crossfire had long closed the roads that could have been used for close-range blasting, and after dozens of soldiers were sacrificed, these two troops with no experience in attacking fortifications could only make a few shooting holes on the walls of nearby courtyards with their portable hammers and engage in fierce exchanges of fire with the Japanese.

  Whizzing bullets constantly stirred up waves of stone chips on the distant wall built with bluestone, and the solid houses made it difficult for the Japanese army to pose any threat to the two battalions. However, even if the two troops took out their biggest-caliber guns, they could only scatter a large piece of blackness on the solid courtyard walls, but the dense hail of bullets blinded many of the Japanese machine gunners, causing the Japanese losses to increase rapidly. Even so, the unexpected results did not allow our army to gain even a slight advantage in the battlefield situation for a short period of time.

  Gao Daquan, enraged and humiliated, personally led a dozen heavy artillery pieces to the front line. Amidst the ashamed faces of several battalion commanders, he completely ignored them and began preparing for battle with the engineering battalion soldiers.

  But at this moment, Bai Yi was also obviously anxious and uneasy. Inside the city, except for his own command center, almost no gunfire could be heard anywhere else. The occasional scattered gunfire was fleeting, leaving Bai Yi feeling downhearted and powerless. He had already ordered his soldiers to burn all confidential documents and military flags, as he didn't know how long his troops could hold out in this vast courtyard.

  It's already beyond his expectations to have held on until now, and he has to thank the owner of this mansion a thousand times. However, thinking about the possibility that the enemy outside might possess cannons makes his gloomy face look even more ominous. Some people stare intently at the small dagger that has been repeatedly wiped with a handkerchief, its cold light constantly reflecting off the blade onto their faces, casting an eerie glow on their somewhat gaunt and lifeless faces, their eyes devoid of any spark of life!

  You say it's better to catch a Japanese army captain or bury him alive by making him dig his own grave? Everyone thinks of a way, planting lotus flowers is also possible.