Chapter Thirty-One: Fire Again

  Hong Shan immediately stood up and said: "Please!"

  "Hahaha!" Tsuchihara Kenji walked in laughing, a piece of paper still in his hand.

  "Hong San! The Commander-in-Chief of the Great Japanese Empire's Manchurian Headquarters, Lieutenant General Honjō Shigeru, has personally issued an appointment letter to you, appointing you as the Commander of the First Army of Manchukuo. You must do a good job!"

  "Thank you! Thank you!" Hong Shan immediately took over the appointment letter and smiled: "What should we do next?"

  Tsuchihashi smiled and said, "Don't worry! Don't worry! We have already made new arrangements for your army. You can rest here now, and tomorrow the Commander-in-Chief will personally summon you!"

  "Yes!" Hong Shan gave a military salute and said: "Chief of Staff, our troops are currently a bit short on weapons and ammunition, should..."

  "No problem!" Tofu Hidenori cursed in a low voice: "Chinapig! The weapons we gave you are now enough to equip a regiment, and you still dare to open your mouth so wide!"

  Hong Shan continued to explain: "A while ago, in order to eliminate the bandits near Tieling, we consumed a lot of weapons and ammunition. Now what we lack most is mortars!"

  "No problem! No problem!" Tōyama Genji smiled slyly: "After we capture Shenyang, I'll also equip your army with ten large cannons!"

  The defenders of Mukden and the Japanese Kwantung Army exchanged artillery fire in a battle that lasted until dawn.

  At dawn, Ben Zhuang fully mobilized all ground and air forces to launch a comprehensive attack. Wang Hui, who had rested for a night, immediately woke up the remaining soldiers and said: "It's so quiet now, the enemy must be about to attack, everyone get ready for battle!"

  "Yes!" Everyone hastily took a small sip of water. Since they didn't prepare any food, this little bottle of water was now the lifesaver for all ten of them!

  "Here it comes!" Zhao Zhen, who was on sentry duty, shouted: "The enemy's tanks are also coming up!"

  "Boom!" Just then, a shell landed on the KV-2 tank.

  "Damn it! Those little Japs have hidden their big guns in the woods on our left flank, blast them!" Wang Hui shouted.

  "Yes!" Gunner Meng Jun immediately adjusted the position, fired a shot, "Good!" Wang Hui shouted: "One shot hit! Good boy, I'll give you credit for one merit!"

  The Type 88 cannon of the Japanese has now become a pile of scrap iron.

  "Bastard!" Taira Yoshimori shouted: "Bring up the other two big guns and blast it away with the tanks!"

  "Yes!"

  Before long, the two 88 artillery of the Japanese army had been adjusted in place, and five Japanese tanks began to move towards Wang Hui's tank. Behind them were more than three thousand Japanese soldiers.

  On the city wall, Zhao Xiao Feng anxiously said: "Let's send a tank to support them?" He didn't want to lose that tank and those ten loyal Jingwu Hall elites for nothing.

  "No way!" Zhao Zhenfan also shook his head in pain and said, "Our strength can only be self-preservation for now. Before we get the support of Hongshan, we absolutely cannot make any rash moves."

  "Are we just going to sit back and watch our tanks disappear?" Huang Xiansheng said in discontent.

  "No!" Zhao Zhenfan, as the commander of this battlefield, insisted immediately: "We will avenge Wang Hui and others sooner or later! But not now, think about it, if we rashly go out to rescue, the enemy's planes will cut off our return route, and those who go out to rescue will be eaten by the enemy's ground forces!"

  "Yes!" Huang Xiansheng said: "I also understand this truth, at that time our artillery fire will not be able to support us either, but we can't just sit back and watch our tanks being eaten away by the enemy!"

  "Now we can only hope that Wang Hui and the others can hold on until this afternoon! At that time, our plane will be able to take off!" Zhao Xiao Feng sighed and continued: "Order the soldiers to immediately lay a large number of landmines within a one-mile radius in front of the city!"

  "What's the point of this?" Huang Xiansheng objected: "What if our tanks come back?"

  "Execute the order!" Zhao Xiao Feng didn't say much either.

  "Yes!" Zhao Zhenfan immediately ordered his soldiers to go and secretly lay mines.

  On the desolate battlefield, only this tank stuck in the mud was left. They had given up struggling and when they saw the Japanese temporarily retreat, everyone immediately gathered around Sun Zhao-ren, the king of jokes, to tell a joke.

  Sun Zhaoren let out a wry smile, glanced at the young comrades beside him, cleared his throat and said: "Alright! Today I'll tell you guys a stirring story!"

  "Good!......" The crowd's faces immediately showed that long-lost smile, as if they were no longer surrounded by the enemy, but on the big bed in the military camp.

  "There was a new eunuch who feared that he would fall asleep and not hear the emperor's orders! He also feared that he would ruin the good things between the emperor and the empress, so he took it upon himself to hide under the bed. Who knew that he would be discovered by the emperor the next day!"

  His Majesty cursed: You dog slave, how long have you been hiding under my bed?

  Eunuch knelt down and said: In reply to Your Majesty, I have been hiding under the bed for five watches!

  His Majesty asked: What did you hear?

  The eunuch counted on his fingers: At the first watch, you were admiring paintings with Her Majesty.

  The emperor said in surprise: "What do you mean by this?"

  Eunuch Tao: I heard you talking to Her Majesty, let me take a look at your embroidered breasts.

  The emperor took a deep breath and asked again: What about two watches of the night?

  Eunuch said: "Second watch of the night, you seem to have fallen to the ground."

  His Majesty tilted his head in puzzlement and said: What do you mean by this?

  The eunuch immediately said: I heard the princess say, you come up quickly!

  The emperor took another deep breath and asked: What time is it?

  The eunuch curiously said: You guys seem to be eating crabs!

  "Ah! The emperor was startled: What did you just say?"

  The eunuch smiled and said: I heard you say to spread your legs apart.

  The emperor continued to ask: What about the fourth watch?

  The eunuch rubbed his head and said: It's the fourth watch, it seems like your mother has arrived.

  "What? The emperor stared at him strangely."

  The eunuch immediately shouted: The slave heard the princess loudly calling out, "Oh my mother, oh my mother!"

  "Hum! The Emperor asked again: What about the fifth watch of the night?"

  Eunuch Xian said: You are playing Go with Her Majesty.

  "Hmm? The Emperor asked again: What do you mean by this?"

  The eunuch immediately replied: "Your Majesty said anxiously, 'Fire another shot, fire another shot!'"

  "Hah! Hahaha!" The crowd hadn't laughed enough when "Boom! Boom!" Two shells landed around the tank.

  On the battlefield, the Japanese did not give Zhao Xiaofeng and Wang Hui any chance. Tanks and artillery fired at the KV-2 tanks on the position at the same time.

  "Damn it! The little Japanese still look down on us! Come on, another round! Another round!" Wang Hui felt the explosion sound transmitted from the iron shell, imitated Sun Zhao-ren's tone and said two sentences, then immediately roared: "Brothers! Stop laughing, each of you get back to your position, give it your all and fight! Killing one is as good as killing one! We've already broken even!"

  In an instant, the five machine guns were like five jumping fire dragons shooting at the enemy's ground forces, and the big gun on the tank was even more powerful, "Boom! Boom!" Two of the enemy tanks were blown up.

  "The enemy's artillery fire is concentrated on the north side! Give it your all and fight!" Wang Hui roared.

  "Commander! Save your breath! We've run out of shells!" Gunner Liu Fan said.

  "What?" Wang Hui angrily said: "Good-for-nothing! Doesn't know how to save and use sparingly! What to do now? You take the hand grenade out and blow them up!"

  "Hey! How dare you talk like that? Who was it just now shouting at the top of his lungs: 'Fire! Blast them to death for me!' We've got plenty of shells!" Liu Fan shouted.

  "Oh!" Wang Hui rubbed his head and said: "Did I say that just now?"

  "Cough! Whether you said it or not, you're the trainmaster. Now that we don't have many machine gun bullets left, what should we do?" a machine gunner shouted.

  "Fire!" Wang Hui shouted: "One enemy killed counts as one! When we run out of bullets, each of us will carry a hand grenade and rush out to fight them to the death!"

  "Boom!" The tank shook violently, and gunner Liu Fan was blown to pieces along with the big cannon by the enemy's large-caliber artillery.

  Most of the people inside were injured, Wang Hui saw that they could no longer stay in the tank and immediately pulled out the pistol from his waist, waved it outside and shouted: "Brothers! We can't stay here waiting to die! Charge out! Fight them!"

  Just as Wang Hui jumped out of the tank, he was hit in the thigh by an enemy bullet. He gritted his teeth and used his hands to support his leg, crawling towards the enemy's position.

  Mechanic Sun Zhaoren's left arm had been blown off, but he still installed a few grenades and jumped out with them. The machine gunner was still busy fiddling with the already damaged machine gun. Meng Jun and driver Zhao Zhen had already fallen into a pool of blood.

  Sun Zhaoren threw a hand grenade in his hand towards the place where the gunshot sounded, "Boom!" But no Japanese were injured.

  "It's all over!" Sun Zhaoren approached Wang Hui, who was crawling forward on the ground: "Trainmaster! We're not going to make it, let's conserve our energy!"

  "Nonsense!" Wang Hui said: "We will drag a few scapegoats down with us even if we die!"

  "Hah! You're still quite stubborn!" Sun Zhaoren's words had not finished, when a loud "Boom!" sounded behind them. Wang Hui turned his head to look, "It's over! Our own tank has been reduced to a pile of scrap metal! Everyone inside was blown to death."

  Sun Zhaoren proudly took out all five hand grenades from his waist and smiled: "The little devils are coming, do you dare to send them to the Western Heaven with me?"

  "Hmph!" Wang Hui sneered, "You can stay here and wait for death, I'm not going to accompany you in waiting for death. My handgun still has six bullets, I'll take out a few devils first!"

  "Good man!" Sun Zhaoren looked at Wang Hui who was crawling forward and couldn't help but give a thumbs up!