Chapter Thirty: Return in Vain

  At 4:00 pm on September 20, 1931, the Japanese had not yet reacted, and with a series of deafening explosions, many devils' bodies flew into the air and scattered to the ground, and the entire military camp was immediately thrown into chaos.

  At this time, under the cover of three KV-2 heavy tanks, Wang Zhengyang led 50 machine guns and Huang Yuehai led 50 mortars to advance afterwards. Five hundred soldiers followed around the tanks, firing at the enemy's chaotic position.

  Soon, the three-minute time was up, and the three KV-2 tanks also stopped. On the battlefield, these massive objects were like mobile fortresses, with all the soldiers gathered behind the tanks, firing mortar shells at the Japanese positions.

  "Assembly! Assembly!" A Japanese officer shouted: "Give me a punch! Ah......"

  A sniper didn't give him any chance and directly blew his head off.

  Japanese soldiers after all are trained to go into battle, they gathered troops in just two minutes and began to counterattack the Mukden Army in an orderly manner.

  Both sides were engaged in fierce combat, when suddenly the city was filled with the sound of dense artillery fire. The Japanese troops who were preparing to resist the Chinese army in their trenches immediately became targets for the shells. Many of the Japanese soldiers who had taken cover in craters left from previous bombardments were buried alive inside them.

  "Can our planes be of any use?" asked Hirata Yukihiko, peering through his binoculars at Honjō Shigeru.

  "Honjō shook his head and said: "The enemy's artillery fire is too fierce now, we must calm down! Wait for the time! Hmph!"

  Cadets on the tank had stopped firing, there were ten people in each tank, now they were all sitting leisurely at their posts watching the smoke on the enemy's position.

  The commander of the first tank was Wang Hui, a young officer who had been in the army before and was now a determined anti-Japanese warrior. The rest were driver Zhao Zhenqian, gunner Meng Jun and Liu Fan, mechanic Sun Zhaoren, and five machine gunners.

  "This time Little Japan is in trouble!" Zhao Zhen said with a smile.

  "That's right! This morning we killed more than 200 little devils! I heard that Commander Zhao has specially commended us!" Wang Hui said with a smile.

  Sun Zhaoren said loudly: "After this battle is over, I will ask to go to the flying squadron. Look how mighty they are!"

  "Bullshit! You stinky little brat still wants to join the flight squadron? I won't let you!" Wang Hui cursed with a smile.

  "Hey! I'm telling you, train conductor, what have I done to offend you? I just didn't want to be cooped up in this shell of a thing!" Sun Zhaoren said unhappily.

  "Don't get ahead of yourself! Many people want to join our tank regiment, but there's no door yet!" Liu Fan said proudly: "We are the core of the army, without the support of our tank soldiers, how could we easily drive out the little devils from Xiao Ximen?"

  "Alright! Stop messing around! Everyone get ready, the battle is about to begin!" Wang Hui commanded.

  "Yes!" Everyone immediately returned to their posts, but all that could be seen was smoke and flames everywhere, with a blurred view just three meters ahead.

  At this moment, the artillery fire suddenly stopped, "Advance!" Wang Hui shouted.

  In an instant, the roar of howitzers, the rumble of tanks and the flames of machine guns almost shook the entire battlefield.

  "Charge!" Benjuro commanded.

  Five fighter planes and five bombers immediately flew up into the sky, while the Japanese also began to fire their 100 large-caliber guns at the battlefield.

  "Bad!" Wang Hui shouted: "Stop! Stop advancing!"

  The tank couldn't stop, why? Because this was actually a low-lying area, the wheels spun faster and the tank sank deeper, finally stopping, but the entire lower half of the tank's body had already sunk into the water-filled depression.

  "Don't advance anymore! The enemy has already set up traps here!" Wang Hui immediately sent a message to the other tanks.

  At this time, the entire battlefield had reversed its momentum. Under the cover of Japanese artillery and aircraft fire, a full 5,000 Japanese troops began to charge towards the battlefield.

  "Fall back!" Zhao Zhenfan saw that the situation was tense and immediately issued an order, he did not want his troops to be surrounded by the Japanese army.

  "Commander! Our tank can't move! As soon as we move, it'll sink down!" Mechanic Sun Zhaoren shouted.

  Driver Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "The trap here is very deep, fortunately we braked in time, otherwise we would have been submerged now!"

  "Let's rush out! We can still follow the infantry and retreat!" Sun Zhaoren continued.

  "No way!" Wang Hui and Meng Jun, Liu Fan shouted in unison.

  "We absolutely cannot leave this tank for the Japanese!" Wang Hui ordered: "Immediately organize firepower, cover the rear troops' retreat!"

  "Yes!" Everyone began to act, and in an instant, this activity fortress turned into a fixed fortress deeply nailed on the battlefield.

  Ten tank soldiers will use this sole tank to block the enemy's attack.

  Shells landed around the tank, only managing to knock it off balance without causing any substantial damage.

  Honjō's anger erupted! This one tank had blocked the advance of nearly two regiments! "Baka! Order the engineer corps up!"

  "Yes!" Under the cover of artillery shells, 12 Japanese devils' engineers carrying explosives launched a night raid on KV-2, but returned in vain, with only three people coming back.

  "Fortunately our ammunition is sufficient! Haha! Come on little Japan!" Wang Hui laughed.

  "Hahaha!" All the soldiers on the tank burst out laughing.

  "Director Zhao! What should we do?" Zhao Xiaofeng asked anxiously as soon as he learned that another tank had been left on the battlefield.

  "It can't be helped!" Zhao Zhenfan said helplessly: "The Japanese had already made preparations, and this time we lost nearly two hundred people. These are all the elites of our anti-Japanese army! The enemy's deployment is also extremely strict, and we cannot make unnecessary sacrifices now!"

  "But we can't just sit back and watch Wang Hui's tank get taken out by the enemy!" Zhao Xiao Feng said urgently.

  "Commander, don't worry! Tomorrow evening, our planes will be able to take off! By then we won't be afraid of the Japanese air strikes."

  "Cover! We must cover their retreat!" Zhao Xiao Feng ordered: "The cannons at the city gate will immediately fire at the enemy's position! Support Wang Hui!"

  "Yes!" Instantly, a hundred cannons went off like mad dragons, throwing flames of anger at the enemy's position!

  "It's gone wrong! Withdraw quickly!" Ben Zhuang Fan shouted: "The Japanese are very cunning! They actually pushed the big gun two kilometers in!"

  Hirata Yukimune immediately opposed this saying: "We can take advantage of this opportunity to gather our forces and attack Mukden!"

  "Okay! ...... " Motohiro pointed at the tank road in the center of the battlefield and said: "What's going on with it?"

  "We also use tanks to open roads!" said Hirata Yukihiko.

  "Good! Bring up the tank troops!" Honjō Shigeru immediately roared: "The whole army is ready to charge!"

  "Boom!" A shell almost landed in the temporary command post of Ben Zhuangfan, he patted the dust on his body and roared: "Take down Fengtian City immediately! Kill all those Chinese there!"

  "Hold!" Toshiro Teshima immediately stopped and said: "Now the sky is too dark, which is not conducive to air combat. Why don't we start attacking tomorrow morning?"

  "Alright!" Ben Zhuang Fan thought for a moment, calmed down, and then slammed his hand on the table, shouting: "First, let them taste the power of our big guns!"

  "The Japanese plane is here again! Shall we call our planes up too?" asked Zhao Zhenfan.

  "No!" Zhao Xiao Feng said resolutely: "Hold on! Don't be afraid of wasting shells and bullets, we have plenty of these things! At least for now, the Japanese don't dare to bomb our Shenyang City!"

  "Boom!" The corner of the city wall where Zhao Xiao Feng was located was blown off, and a flying stone hit his shoulder, causing his skin to crack open!

  "Alright! Never mind." Zhao Xiao Feng stopped Zhao Zhen Fan who was trying to stop his bleeding and asked: "Why haven't we received any news from Hong Shan yet?"

  "Right!" Zhao Zhenfan said: "Logically speaking, Hongshan should have been creating chaos in the enemy's rear by now! Will he?......"

  "No way!" Zhao Xiao Feng knew what he wanted to say and immediately said firmly: "In our Northeast Anti-Japanese Army, there is no word of surrendering to the Japanese!" Zhao Xiao Feng understood that even if Hong Shan wanted to defect to the Japanese, his soldiers would not agree.

  "Huang Xiansheng immediately said: 'Commander! Look, can't we order Hongshan not to make any rash moves, and when the time is right, we'll strike the final blow?'"

  "Alright! You go and take care of it right away! But remember, the Japanese mustn't get wind of this! Use cryptic language!" Zhao Xiaofeng nodded.

  At this time, the Fengtian Flight Brigade was conducting intensive flight and parachute training in secret. To avoid exposing their target, Zheng Shan decided to have the brigade conduct a nighttime airborne operation.

  Zheng Shan led the paratroopers to tie colorful strips all over their bodies so that the ground troops could clearly see where they landed.

  The order was parachuted down, and Zheng Shan immediately took the lead and jumped out of the plane. Due to the strong wind that night, Zheng Shan was blown into the courtyard of an old lady's house in the city.

  At that time, the old lady heard the cannon fire outside the city stop, and was idly looking at the moon in the courtyard.

  Just then, a person suddenly fell from the sky and scared her half to death.

  Zheng Shan was already dizzy and disoriented at this time. He carefully walked forward and asked, "Old lady, what is this place?"

  The old lady said with a trembling voice: "This... this is Earth!"

  At this time, Hongshan led more than a thousand soldiers of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army who had been left behind in the Japanese army's rear command.

  "Hong Da-ge! Listen, the battle outside is intense! We should also take action!" Gao Xi-sheng, the leader of his subordinates, said in a low voice.

  The other three leaders, Li Fan, Zhou Huashen and Liu Shengli also said in a low voice: "Yes! The Japanese have very few troops here, we can create chaos here!"

  "Don't be impatient!" Hong Shan was now very calm: "The little Japanese are clearly not allowing us to go to the front line, they still have some doubts about us, now we must keep our cool!"

  "Yes!"

  "Report!" A subordinate came in and said: "The Japanese Chief of Staff has arrived!"