The First Part of National Humiliation: The Lonely City's Bloody Battle Chapter 21: Fierce Battle at Old Clock Tower (Part 1)

  At the critical moment, Song Yuanhang knew he couldn't wait any longer! Because Wang Wen had already appeared at the street corner, he believed that at this moment, the Japanese army had at least two machine guns locked onto her.

  As a sniper, his best shooting opportunity was after the Japanese heavy machine gun fired at Wang Wen, but Song Yuanhang would rather be shot to pieces than let Wang Wen suffer any harm.

  In an instant, Song Yuanhang let out a loud roar and fell to his knees, poking his body out from the corner of the wall, raising his gun and firing simultaneously!

  The fingers of the fully concentrated Hyōgo Sanjirō were slowly and lightly pressing the trigger, his experience told him that there must be a troop behind this Chinese female soldier, he was waiting for the right moment to give the greatest damage to the Shina army.

  Unfortunately, he didn't have a chance anymore. A 7.92mm caliber bullet pierced through Heihachi Mishima's steel helmet with a loud clang. The muscles on Heihachi's face twitched non-stop as red and white matter flowed out of the bullet hole in his helmet!

  When Hei no Sanjirō fell to the ground, the inside of his helmet was already a mess. The last shot from Song Yuanhang had blown away Hei no Sanjirō's skull and stuck it to the inside of the helmet. The deputy gunner beside him was initially stunned, then quickly rushed towards the heavy machine gun.

  The deputy shooter's hesitation for just two seconds had already decided his fate. Quickly spinning around and pulling the trigger, Song Yuanhang completed the ejection and loading of the next round, firing again, with the bullet entering through the deputy shooter's right eye, causing a burst of blood mist.

  A nearby machine gunner realized the situation and was about to turn his muzzle when Song Yuanhang first shot and killed the ammunition handler, then hit both the primary and secondary shooters with two more shots.

  At the same time, Liu Mengzi led 8 guards to throw grenades into each room and sweep with submachine guns!

  "Damn the five-shot bridge!" Song Yuanhang gazed at the third machine gun, which was originally in a blind spot, being carried out by three Japanese soldiers. The Japanese shooters completely disregarded that the machine gun mount had not been stabilized yet and hastily began firing!

  Under the tremendous recoil, two of the three legs of the Type 92 heavy machine gun were thrown up like a dance, and the bullets stirred up more than a dozen smoke dusts in front of Song Yuanghai. As the Japanese machine gun's sweeping bullet screen approached, Song Yuanghai seemed to be completely numb, and didn't even know to hide, but instead reloaded the bullets and pushed them into the chamber! Just as he was about to raise his gun to fire, several Japanese soldiers suddenly appeared from a nearby ruin, carrying rifles with bayonets and rushing towards the foxhole where Wang Wen was hiding.

  In a state of emergency, Song Yuanghai quickly pulled out the Mauser pistol and fired at several Japanese soldiers in succession. At this moment, he had no time to consider his own safety.

  Boom! The last heavy machine gun of the Japanese army was blown into the sky by several hand grenades.

  Mengzi and others rushed out of the ruins to sweep away the remaining enemies! Song Yuanhang, who had been wandering around the gate of death, suddenly sat down on the ground with a thud.

  Wang Wen poked her head out of a pothole in the middle of the road, looking around nervously. Song Yuanhang rushed towards her, his face red with anger, and pulled her out of the hole. He had intended to scold her severely, but instead said: "From now on, you must pay attention to safety and not walk at the front of the team. You are a non-combat personnel."

  Song Yuanhang took the initiative to pat the soil for Wang Wen, as a result, Wang Wen suddenly flashed far away, and the eyes of more than 100 people nearby were all focused on Song Yuanhang, making him feel very embarrassed.

  "I just want to see if she's injured?" Song Yuanhang's explanation seemed particularly weak!

  Did Wang Wen not bring a helmet? And also didn't have any self-defense weapons? Song Yuanhang thought for a moment and put his own helmet on Wang Wen's head, and stuffed the precious Browning pistol that he had been carrying in his backpack into Wang Wen's hand.

  Wang Wen was stunned, actually the doctor wasn't unqualified to carry a gun, it's just that models suitable for girls are extremely rare, you can't have all doctors carrying Mauser pistol cases around everywhere, can you?

  Liking pretty things is a girl's nature, and the recent battle made Wang Wen realize that she was just missing a self-defense handgun.

  The silver gun body, the white ivory handle carved with hollow flower patterns! The dark gold wire on the machine head is simple and elegant, revealing a strong flavor of European Renaissance.

  Someone presented Wang Wen with a famous and expensive pistol, several female medical officers of the same period as Wang Wen seemed to have forgotten that they were on the battlefield, and they all gathered around, praising the pistol in unison.

  The words of comment sound like they are talking about their own impure purpose!

  Wang Wen hesitated for over ten minutes before softly saying: "This gun is too precious! Just consider it as you borrowing mine."

  Under the circumstances of still owing a huge foreign debt, Song Yuanhang sent out his only valuable item, and his heart was actually very relaxed! Because Song Yuanhang didn't know how much longer he could hold on, perhaps he would soon collapse silently.

  The defensive troops stationed at the old bell tower were the remnants of the 600th Regiment and the Second Battalion of the Cavalry Regiment, plus two companies of constabulary, temporarily under the unified command of Deputy Chief of Staff Qi Mingbin of the 600th Regiment.

  Under the escort of troops dispatched by Qi Mingbin, Song Yuanhang arranged for the medical team to arrive at the front line to treat wounded soldiers. Qi Mingbin reported the defense situation to Song Yuanhang in a timely manner and handed over command after which he quickly left the central command bunker according to regulations. According to wartime regulations, two commanders of the same rank or position cannot exist in the same command bunker at the same time.

  Song Yuanhang led the troops to occupy the core position, a two-story small building with a basement at the intersection of three roads. The second floor of the building had been basically destroyed by the Japanese artillery fire, leaving only ruins and broken walls.

  The ventilation holes in the basement of the small building had been converted into machine gun ports by Song Yunhao, and twelve 24-style heavy machine guns paired with mobile light machine guns made the small building a hedgehog of firepower. The Japanese were particularly annoyed by the machine gun ports that protruded only thirty centimeters above the ground.

  Song Yuanhang rushed to the underground command post of the old bell tower, just in time for a new wave of Japanese troops probing and being repelled, two Type 97 tanks of the Japanese army were emitting thick smoke.

  Due to the excellent mobility defense of the Chinese army, the Japanese army was unable to grasp the firepower configuration of the defensive position, forcing the Japanese army to conduct firepower reconnaissance before each large-scale attack.

  What surprised Song Yuanhang was that the troops he commanded had as many as seven numbers, but in fact there were only five and a half combat companies, like most of the 200th Division's troops, many soldiers were scattered throughout the city.

  Song Yuanhang raised his binoculars, the wide San Cha Street intersection had a good 180-degree view, within more than 100 meters of unobstructed shooting range, everywhere was densely packed with yellow corpses, totaling no less than 500.

  Solid fortifications and high morale troops, with the coordination of heavy artillery support from the Heavy Artillery Battalion, especially the seasoned veterans of the 200th Division, greatly boosted Song's confidence, as if he had surrounded the Japanese instead! He believed that as long as ammunition was sufficient, defending for over a dozen days would not be a problem.

  Song Yuanhang took the fifteen sharpshooters he brought with him, divided them into fifteen groups, each group equipped with five soldiers, all carrying submachine guns and explosives. After that, Song Yuanhang dispersed these fifteen combat teams in the ruins on both sides of the wings, forming a subtle pincer movement, just like a crab's claws, using firepower to clamp down on the Japanese army's frontal assault on the core position from the flanks.

  After Song Yuanhang put down the telescope, on the opposite Japanese army position, a tall and burly Japanese major general with a sanitary mustache was lying on the artillery mirror, carefully observing the Chinese army's defensive position.

  He was the commander of the Japanese army responsible for attacking the old bell tower, the elite troops of the 56th Division, and the leader of the search team, Lieutenant Colonel Hirai Tetsusuke!

  Looking at his own troops returning without a fight, the Chinese army's firepower points exposed were less than one-third of what they should have been, and the Chinese army did not even call for artillery support. The well-hidden Chinese artillery position had already brought huge casualties to his brigade. Hirai Mokichi called Ippon Jitō, who was in charge of commanding this attack, to come forward. First, he swung his arm and gave him a big slap in the face, hitting the short-statured Ippon Jitō so hard that he stumbled around.

  What really enraged Hirai was that due to the infantry's premature withdrawal, two 97-style tanks that were coordinating an attack were hit by Chinese artillery, and both tanks were almost simultaneously hit, meaning that the Chinese army had at least two well-communicated anti-tank guns!

  "Hah!" For the two mysterious war gods who had no countermeasures, Hirai Motsuo helplessly scratched his temples and wiped away the sweat on his forehead!

  Suddenly, Hirai Mokuba found a wooden square about 1.5 meters high inserted in the flower bed on the street about 500 meters away. After adjusting the magnification of the artillery team's mirror, Hirai Mokuba was delighted to find that the wooden square was wrapped with electric wires.

  Hirai Moka glanced at his watch subconsciously, turned around and said to the messenger: "Go and get Colonel Akio Gotō of the Tank Regiment! Tell him I need to discuss something with him!"

  Akio Akutsu, one of the few armored group commanders in Japan, was promoted to major general at a relatively young age, having just turned 40. It is an enviable age for a military officer in the Japanese army. Unfortunately, Japan's national strength was not sufficient to produce tanks that met the requirements of armored group assaults.

  So no matter how proud and arrogant Qiu Jiang is, or how talented he is! The Type 95 and Type 97 tanks he commands are still often beaten into "scrap metal"!

  After three consecutive days of attacks, he lost more than ten war chariots. Autumn River Fifty, who was originally on the same rank as Heita, would not be polite and scolded Heita for his incompetence. After that, Autumn River Fifty enjoyed receiving the tea water handed over by Heita.

  When he learned that tanks were to be sent into the streets, his expression changed instantly. Urban warfare is the biggest taboo for armored forces of all countries. The situation with heavy tanks in Europe was slightly better, but the thin bottom and top armor of Japanese war vehicles could not withstand the explosion of cluster hand grenades or explosive packs.

  Moreover, the coordination between Japanese infantry and tanks was terrible. Often, infantry commanders would sacrifice their troops to reduce casualties or because they were defeated, leaving the tanks without cover and becoming live targets for the enemy.

  However, Akigawa Gojuro was soon shaken under the promise of Hirai Taro. The beautiful Chinese woman made Akigawa's heart bloom with flowers, and every time they conquered a city, the infantry would snatch all the wealth and women. This time, Hirai promised that after entering the city, Akigawa's armored unit could plunder for three days in his defense zone! In exchange, he dispatched 15 tanks to guide the infantry charge and cooperate to destroy an important "wooden stake"!

  Hirai Mokke had a triumphant look on his face as he stroked his beard with one hand, for in the other hand he still held an unused trump card!

  Second update: Help! Collect, vote and comment!

  The Type 92 machine gun used by the Japanese army had a fatal weakness, unlike in movies and TV shows, this gun actually required a trained ammunition handler to push the 25-round strip at a uniform speed during firing. Without someone pushing it, after manually cocking the first round, the machine gun could only fire single shots, not bursts! Unless a blank-firing attachment was installed. The Japanese army later modified the weapon to eliminate this weakness, but early models still had this problem.