Chapter 56: The Battle of Changde (3)

  At this time, the garrison division commander had been tossing and turning all night and was now lying in the conference room resting.

  "Commander, something's wrong! The south city gate has Communist army activity and they've already blocked the gate!" The chief of staff rushed in hastily.

  "What? Where did the Communist army come from?" The division commander suddenly stood up.

  "Commander, it's bad! The east gate has been surrounded by the Communist army." The communications advisor rushed in.

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  The general sat down on the ground, looking at the commanders in front of him with dark circles under their eyes and shouted: "What are you still dazed about? Quickly dispatch troops to guard the city. The first battalion is at the south gate, the second battalion is at the east gate, the third battalion is at the north gate, and the fourth battalion is at the west gate. The remaining two battalions will be the reserve team. Hurry up!"

  Soon, a team leader with nearly two thousand men under his command climbed onto the city wall and assigned tasks.

  "Commander, Commander, look!" The chief of staff hastily pulled the commander over and pointed to a mountain slope two miles outside the city gate.

  "My goodness, so many mountain guns! Report to the commander at once!" a regimental commander shouted.

  "Wooooo......" Suddenly, the whistling sound of shells was heard "Get down, take cover....... Boom boom boom........" Ten mountain guns roared together, and the shells accurately landed on the city wall, causing a bloody rain. At the same time, the gate tower on the city wall collapsed with a loud crash in the first round of explosions.

  A battalion commander dodged a round of artillery fire and took advantage of the interval to hide behind the city wall, avoiding the artillery attack. At this time, however, the city wall was constantly being splattered with blood rain, one wave after another. "When did the Communist army have such intense artillery fire? Quick, quick, go report to the division commander, we need reinforcements, reinforcements!" The battalion commander said anxiously, looking at the scene that had been bombed.

  At the same time, the east and west city gates also started shelling, but they were all mortars. However, the dense artillery fire also frightened the two regimental commanders to ask for reinforcements from the division commander.

  "What? The three gates of the city were simultaneously bombarded, with heavy losses. How is this possible? How can this be?" The commander muttered to himself in disbelief upon hearing the shocking news.

  "Master, Master..." The master finally woke up.

  "Hurry up and send a telegram to Commander Xue, saying that Changde is under attack by the main force of the Communist Army, requesting reinforcements. Hurry!" The division commander cursed.

  "Order the three battalions of the Fifth Regiment to reinforce each of the three regiments, go quickly, and I must hold my ground to the death. Whoever retreats, I will shoot whoever it is, go quickly." After finishing speaking, the division commander closed his eyes and lay there quietly.

  "Commander-in-chief, something's gone wrong." Xue Yue was woken up early in the morning. He was about to lose his temper but seeing his panting chief of staff, he restrained himself.

  "What's wrong, why so anxious?" Xue Yue asked displeasedly.

  "Commander-in-chief, something has happened, He Long is attacking Changde County City, and Changde County City is in imminent danger,"

  "What, how could this be! We've been had, we've fallen into a trap!" Xue Yue slapped his own head, "Quickly send out orders, command the troops to hold their ground in Changde. We'll immediately return and defend it to the death."

  "Also, order the troops to set out immediately and rush back to Changde. This time we must capture He Long alive in Changde, quickly pass on the order." Xue Yue said hastily.

  After ten minutes of artillery preparation, the city wall was now unrecognizable. A company commander gritted his teeth at the scene before him: "What are you still dawdling for? Quickly prepare to fight, the Communist army is attacking the city." He hastily organized the remaining soldiers to organize a defense.

  "Comrade Commander, the casualty report has been tallied. From the previous bombardment, we have over 200 comrades killed and over 200 heavily injured. We still have over 1,200 brothers with us." The Chief of Staff reported the casualty numbers with his head lowered.

  "What a huge loss!" The captain said disbelievingly, shaking his head. But he didn't know that an even greater loss was yet to come.

  During the 10-minute artillery preparation phase, Luo Wen-hua led the snipers with leaves all over their bodies to take cover behind the artillery fire and successfully established 60 sniper positions about 500 meters away from the city wall. These sixty snipers were Liu Hua's sharp sword in this attack on the city.

  "Order the first battalion and regiment to attack, with the second and third battalions following 500 meters behind." Liu Hua commanded coldly.

  "Commissar, the Communist Army has launched an attack." The Chief of Staff reminded.

  "Give me a burst, machine-gunner, give me a burst, I want to avenge my dead brothers." When the Red Army was still 800 meters away, the regiment commander gave the order to open fire.

  The soldiers of the company, after hearing the intense gunfire, immediately lay down on the ground and began to crawl forward, thinking that it was time for the sniper squad to attack.

  "Bang... Bang..." With the sound of gunfire, the enemy's machine gunners fell one by one beside their guns. Before long, the regimental commander could only hear intermittent machine gun fire, and the Red Army crawling on the ground was only 400 meters away from the city wall.

  "Machine gunner, fire quickly, hurry!" The battalion commander shouted urgently, but there was still no sound.

  "Commander, Commander, something's wrong! Come and take a look!" The chief of staff rushed over hastily.

  "In front of me were machine guns, each with a corpse lying in front of it. Only a few machine gunners crouched under the city wall to avoid bullets, occasionally firing at the sky."

  "How did this happen, quick, get the infantry over here, hurry!" The regimental commander said urgently without time to think about why. Immediately a battalion of infantry rushed over, picked up machine guns and prepared to fire. The regimental commander watched as one soldier took over a machine gun, fired a few rounds, and suddenly fell to the ground. Looking around, it was the same scene again, the machine gunner who had just gone up was killed once more.

  As the Communist army drew closer, the regimental commander became anxious. "Hurry up and get on, keep getting on, or I'll shoot you." Under the commander's threat, the soldiers picked up their machine guns again and started firing, but no one dared to raise their heads, and only heaven knew the accuracy of the shooting.

  At this time, the attacking troops were only a few dozen meters away from the city wall. "Throw hand grenades." The enemy regiment commander finally thought of a way.

  Liu Hua, who was standing in the rear, was excited to see the troops approaching the city wall when suddenly a black shadow was thrown down from the top of the city wall.

  "It's bad, they're throwing hand grenades. The first battalion is going to take a beating." Liu Hua's words were proven right, as the sound of explosions rang out, and dozens of motionless bodies remained in the place where they had just been.

  "Damn it! Chen Guangrong, move the mortar forward and provide firepower cover for the troops, hurry up!" Liu Hua shouted anxiously.

  Soon, the mortar battalion got 12 mortars and began to build a position in front of the city wall, starting from 800 meters away from the city wall to ensure accuracy.

  "Comrade Battalion Commander, the Communist artillery is coming." With the Chief of Staff's reminder, the Battalion Commander saw the artillery company building positions in the distance. "Not good, order the troops to withdraw from the city wall and leave one company to continue blocking." The Battalion Commander hastily gave orders and was the first to descend from the city wall.

  Battalion Commander Liu Jun, with the remaining 300 or so men, suddenly felt that the hand grenades thrown down had decreased significantly. Looking back, his own artillery was building an artillery position. "Trumpeter, blow the charge horn, everyone is present, follow me in the charge." Liu Jun shouted loudly at once.

  As the bugle sounded, the soldiers of the first battalion all stood up and rushed towards the city wall, regardless of the hand grenades falling down. At the same time, a ladder that had been dragged over was also raised and leaned against the city wall, with the soldiers holding submachine guns and continuously firing as they climbed up, one person fell down, another person continued to climb up.

  The sniper's role was evident again, constantly firing to cover the soldiers as they climbed up the city wall. Soon, one soldier finally climbed onto the wall and saw enemies on both sides throwing hand grenades down. He picked up his submachine gun, lay down on the ground, and began to sweep fire in one direction. At this time, another soldier came up, and the two of them covered each other, constantly firing at the enemy on both sides. Finally, a platoon's worth of soldiers climbed onto the wall through this ladder, and under their attack, an entire company of enemy troops on the wall was quickly dispersed. The remaining soldiers began to climb up the wall in an endless stream, and the breach grew larger and larger.

  Collect! Reward...