Chapter 2 Fellow countrymen, we have arrived!

  Xu Yang discovered the Belgian army's artillery position in the building group on the right, and was so frightened that he hastily ordered: "Turn the turret to 3 o'clock direction..."

  "Rattle...rattle...rattle..." A strange noise sounded, and the turret slowly began to move. The entire tank body shook once, then came to a stop.

  "Foolish! Foolish!!! Keep moving forward, can't stop!" Xu Yang turned his head to order the wireless telegrapher Zayil behind him, "Ask the instructor's department, whether they can fire actively when encountering danger."

  Xu Yang's heart almost jumped out of his throat, fortunately the Belgian artillery showed no signs of opening fire, it was hard to imagine if the frontal armor could withstand the bombardment of 105mm cannons.

  Zaire said: "The troops are not allowed to open fire unless fired upon."

  The tank's body shook, and finally crossed the steel bridge. The "screech" sound of the caterpillar treads on the muddy ground was music to Xu Yang's ears. If the Belgian artillery opened fire, at least two tank companies and four motorcycle infantry companies would go fishing in the river!

  "Order: Take the company as the combat unit, advance in a 'wedge-shaped' battle formation!"

  After the tanks are commanded, the tanks quickly gather and disperse in units of companies; when the company forms a "wedge-shaped" formation to move forward, one platoon is at the front, and the remaining platoons follow up in column or "wedge-shaped" formations according to the terrain and situation.

  The distance between tanks is 25 meters, and the interval is 50 meters. If an enemy artillery position is found, the tank must increase the vehicle distance and adopt a dispersed formation. Since this is a riverbank with high visibility, the distance between tanks has been increased to 100 meters.

  Xu Yang's gaze never left the Belgian artillery position, when he saw the Belgian ammunition loader loading the shells, the corrector's mouth kept muttering something, and the barrel made an adjustment action...

  "Target at 3 o'clock direction, bearing 157/045, enemy artillery position!"

  The tank came to a stop, the long barrel of the turret was elevated 17.5 degrees, the gunner shouted: "Target confirmed; 157/045, enemy artillery position! Select; high-explosive shell."

  The loader quickly opened the projectile isolation steel plate, took out a high-explosive shell from the ammunition warehouse and sent it into the barrel: "Loading complete!"

  Xu Yang (the trainmaster and observer) shouted: "Fire!"

  "Boom!" The entire tank body shook violently, white smoke burst out of the muzzle, and the ejected shell casing hit the steel plate on the bottom of the hull with a loud "clang". The loader was fully focused on the gunner, waiting for Carter's selection and loading command.

  The tanks following behind also opened fire continuously.

  Belgian artillery position, the gunner operating the 105mm has already prepared to pull the trigger, 'Foo' (the Belgian artillery term for firing) hasn't even left his mouth...

  Xu Yang saw; the explosive shell directly hit the 105mm cannon, blasting the entire barrel into the sky, possibly detonating the artillery ammunition, and the entire Belgian artillery position fell into a chain explosion, with continuous Belgian artillerymen being blown up, then broken like a rag, their bodies heavily falling to the ground.

  The sound of explosions echoed across the entire west bank of the Rhine. The scattered tank units may have encountered trouble, and they also opened fire?

  "Roger - Lieutenant, this is Rick... Roger - encountered French infantry battalion, about half a company, Roger - they opened fire first, we counterattacked in self-defense. Over!"

  Xu Yang was a bit out of state, at least the driver had been waiting for his command for a long time. Without the commander's order, it was very stupid to stop the tank in place. Behind it were 12 turret tanks of the battalion headquarters that kept rotating, and the entire battalion tank company stayed in place as targets.

  Moto saw Commander Xu Yang staring blankly at the destroyed enemy artillery position and shouted: "Captain, we need to advance!"

  Xu Yang mechanically turned his head, looking at the wireless operator, "Contact the mechanized brigade commander, have the mechanized brigade send a reconnaissance company to enter the city and reconnoiter first!" He opened the hatch, jumped out, waved his arm, and shouted into the handheld short-wave radio communicator: "Full camp assault!"

  The tanks waiting in place finally moved, they changed formation and drove into the city with mutual cover!

  The metal cover of the vehicle that protected Xu Yang's upper body sparked as it was grazed by a bullet, causing Xu Yang's heart to skip a beat. He quickly retreated back into the vehicle and thought: Has the battle begun? Is this how it begins?! No! We are taking back our own territory, we are driving out the invaders! They fired first!!!!!

  ……

  Bailuoguo; chaos in the town!

  Three countries' military and police rushed into the barracks, their faces bewildered: Declare war? The Germans declared war on France, Belgium, and the Netherlands?

  On the streets; The people heard the sound of gunfire from the east coast, and they sighed 'war' came so quickly! East coast? Isn't that the direction of our motherland? Did the German motherland declare war on those rogue nations? Great!

  Kalu's leg was twisted, and he walked along the wall with a painful face towards his home. The continuous gunfire made him tremble with fear. "Fina, don't go out! Brother is coming! Brother will be back..." His forehead was full of sweat, and the wooden cigarette holder had been lost somewhere. To be honest, Kalu was heartbroken. He had lost a week's worth of living expenses, which meant that if no one helped them, he and his sister would starve to death in that simple little hut.

  "Good God!" What did little Gau look at? He saw the Belgian soldiers retreating in disarray through the city, their faces filled with terror, clearly frightened out of their wits.

  Boom! The cannon's roar sent little Galt to the ground, where he cowered and tried to squeeze into a corner. A strange noise (the rumble of tracks) made him turn his head, and through the dusty entrance, a gun barrel first emerged, followed by the monster (tank), which shook all over, its muzzle spewing white smoke, as the fleeing Belgian infantry were blown to smithereens.

  "Forward! Faster... faster! Corporal, where's your machine gun? Set it up quickly and mow them down!"

  Klein's mouth fell open, he was at a loss for what to do, and he felt so scared that he thought he would faint. He saw many soldiers in gray uniforms emerge from behind the monster, crawling on the ground, their rifles firing continuously, shooting down those Belgian infantrymen one by one.

  "Rat-a-tat-a-tat..." The machine gun's song began, and the Dutch military police who had poured out from another intersection fell to the ground in droves.

  Xiao Jia Lu's position was in the middle of the battlefield, bullets constantly whizzing over his head. He felt a warmth and wetness in his crotch, and only when he looked down did he realize that he had urinated in fear.

  "Oh God... who are they? Don't they know that killing soldiers will get them hanged?" Little Galou had never seen German soldiers before, and after wetting his pants, he wasn't so scared anymore. He shouted at the top of his lungs: "Kill them!" He thought those uncles in gray uniforms were good people, avenging his parents! Unconsciously, little Galou burst into tears, shrinking to the ground and sobbing uncontrollably.

  The exchange of fire lasted for just five minutes and the intersection was brought under control by the Defence Forces.

  The tank rolled by with a terrifying sound, its treads rumbling past Xiao Galu's side. Xiao Galu kept his head down, not daring to look up, and suddenly two boots appeared in front of him, which scared him so much that he wanted to shout loudly.

  "German? Jew? Frenchman? Gypsy?"

  A string of questioning voices made Xiao Galu's body tremble even more violently, he used all his strength to lift his head and saw a soldier wearing a gray uniform and holding a Mauser rifle asking questions.

  "...German... German Jewish..." Xiaojialou's teeth were clenched in a fight, his eyes not leaving the muzzle of the soldier's gun, feeling his breathing was about to stop.

  The soldier of the 7th Division, 1st Motorized Regiment was stunned for a moment, grinning: "Ha! I am also a German Jew, a soldier of the German Defense Army..." He helped Galou up, "Don't be afraid! The army of our motherland has arrived!"

  "Homeland...?" Xiaojia Lu finally relaxed a bit, but just as he was about to speak, an even more majestic tank drove in from the intersection. Its side armor had a "cross" emblem, and the constantly rotating turret made him swallow his words.

  The tank stopped at the side of the road, and Xu Yang crawled out from inside the vehicle. He first used binoculars to observe the surrounding situation, then crawled back into the vehicle. "Order: The First Platoon controls this intersection, other platoons disperse to search for and annihilate enemy soldiers!" After finishing speaking, he crawled out of the vehicle again.

  A report came from inside the vehicle in Zaire's voice: "Captain, the First Motorized Regiment has discovered a French military camp north of town and has surrounded it. The enemy commander is requesting to speak with our highest officer."

  Xu Yang saw the small Gallo cowering in the corner of the wall, talking to his own soldiers. He said: "Report to the division, I'll go take a look..." In his heart, he muttered: German compatriots, we're here!