Chapter 2: The Fire Attack on Western Pass

  Xiguan, this is the area with the most stringent defense in Guangzhou city for the merchant team, and it is also the location of Chen Lianbo's "Guangdong Province Merchant Team Joint Defense Headquarters".

  Along the street, there were iron railings and wooden fences, and dozens of shooting shelters made of sandbags, forming a blockhouse-style fortress defense. Thousands of merchant troops relied on these blockhouses to resist stubbornly.

  Sun Xinghua followed Chiang Kai-shek and arrived here, and set up a command center in a residential building very close to the West Gate, directly under Chiang Kai-shek's command, attacking the fourth student team at the West Gate, as well as the third reinforcement team.

  Looking at the student army attacking in the distance, Sun Xinghua felt very uncomfortable. These young student soldiers, regardless of their own lives, launched attack after attack on the western pass, but under the firepower of the merchant troops, they retreated again and again, each attack would leave some students fallen on this land.

  "Principal, it can't go on like this." Sun Xinghua said in his heart, looking at Chiang Kai-shek beside him.

  Chiang Kai-shek's face also showed some pain, but his eyes were fixed on the battlefield, and he didn't say anything.

  "Principal, the merchant group's firepower is very complex. We are in the open, they are in the dark, and it's hard to launch an effective attack. Fifteen students have already been injured." The captain of the fourth squad, Li Weizhang, ran over from outside, panting as he spoke.

  Chiang Kai-shek's face was overcast, looking at Li Weizhang but saying nothing.

  Chen Gong and others who followed him had worried faces but did not dare to speak rashly.

  "Continue attacking, the Whampoa Military Academy students are not afraid of death." Chiang Kai-shek said fiercely.

  Sun Xinghua's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, just as Li Weizhang had said, the merchant troops were in ambush, relying on firepower to attack the student army, and the student army had no heavy weapons, continuing to attack would only lead to more casualties.

  But Sun Xinghua could only be anxious at this moment, but there was no way.

  But at this moment, Sun Xinghua undoubtedly saw a house burning after being hit by shells on one side, and a smile appeared on his face.

  "Principal Chiang, I suggest using fire attack, use fire." Sun Xinghua said hastily.

  This remark suddenly reminded Chiang Kai-shek that the western part of the city was mostly made up of wooden houses, and the commercial teams' strongholds were all located in these houses. If they came to a fire, it would be possible to achieve extraordinary results.

  However, Chiang Kai-shek hesitated again. Although this would be good, it would also cause losses to the civilian houses and shops. At the moment of hesitation, Chiang Kai-shek decided to call Sun Yat-sen directly for instructions.

  After consulting with Sun Yat-sen Street in Ishii Gunpowder Factory, in order to reduce the casualties of Huangpu Student Army and make the battle in the whole city a quick decision, an order was indeed issued, ordering Chiang Kai-shek to adopt fire attack.

  "Order, Jin Fo Zhuang's third team, Li Weizhang's fourth team, to immediately take the kerosene and launch a fire attack." Chiang Kai-shek quickly gave the order.

  Chen Gang and others showed a smile on their faces, while Li Weizhang gave a salute and immediately turned around to leave.

  Li Weizhang and Jin Fuzhuang quickly brought many barrels of kerosene, pouring them onto the wooden houses and street stalls that had been occupied by the merchant troops. With a loud explosion, the entire Xiguan area was instantly engulfed in flames, with raging fires billowing white smoke.

  Chiang Kai-shek watched as the merchant team escaped from the shelter and houses, a smile appeared on his face, and he immediately issued an attack order.

  The third and fourth teams, all of them were engaged in the battle, even Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to command from the headquarters, holding his own pistol, leading the guards to charge into the front line.

  With a "crack", a soldier of a merchant team had just emerged from cover when he was shot and killed by Chen Gong with his rifle from a distance.

  For these merchant corps soldiers, the Whampoa students' army was extremely hateful. The merchant corps killed Whampoa classmates in Shaji and now occupies Guangzhou, wanting to overthrow the revolutionary government, openly challenging the Whampoa students' army. Now that there is an opportunity to beat a fallen enemy, these student soldiers naturally will not let it slip away.

  "Bang" "Bang"

  With two gunshots, the two merchant team soldiers fell under Sun Xinghua's gun. Although Sun Xinghua did not want to shoot them, they had no intention of letting Sun Xinghua go. They wanted to raise their guns and fire, but all fell under Sun Xinghua's gun.

  "Officer Sun, what kind of gun is this? I've never seen it before." The youngest, Guan Linzheng, looked at the gun in Sun Xinghua's hand with a face full of admiration.

  "Rifle." Du Yuming said without even looking.

  At this time in China, handguns were mainly revolvers, with very few Colt pistols.

  "No, it's not like that." Chen Gang leaned over and took a closer look.

  Taking advantage of this conversation, Chen Gong and others quickly reloaded their bullets. Sun Xinghua hesitated for a moment and also reloaded his bullets.

  "Bang." At this moment, a house that had not been burning suddenly began spewing out flames.

  Two unprepared student soldiers immediately fell to the ground, one of whom let out a painful groan.

  "Jin Fo Zhuang, you've done a good job." Chiang Kai-shek shouted loudly as he watched his own student being hit.

  Jin Fuzhuang's face turned pale as he stared at the house spewing flames, wanting to get up and attack, but was stopped by his subordinate beside him.

  "Director Sun, what should we do?" Chen Gong asked urgently as he looked at the flames inside the house.

  "This is a cement structure, fire attack won't work on it, we have to use hand grenades to blow it up." Sun Xinghua took out three hand grenades, untied his leg wraps and tied the three hand grenades together.

  "Captain Sun, I'm going to blow him up." Chen Gang put down his rifle and said to Sun Xinghua.

  Sun Xinghua hesitated, Chen Gong was a future founding general.

  Look at the other two, one is the Battle of Tai'erzhuang, which was praised by Okamura Yasuji as a general who could top ten Chinese armies. The other is the capture of Kunlun Pass, annihilating the Japanese 21st Brigade and killing its commander Nakamura Masao, led by Du Yuming.

  They are now unremarkable, but decades later, they will all be prominent generals, especially Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng, who are rare fierce generals in the National Army.

  "Alas, Principal Jiang has only a few capable men, if one of them were to die today, the future would be even more difficult." Sun Xinghua sighed in his heart, holstered his pistol at his waist, grasped a hand grenade, and put on a heroic appearance.

  "Cover!" Chen Gang watched as Sun Xinghua slowly advanced forward, then loudly said.

  Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng quickly opened fire to cover Sun Xinghua's actions, while Chen Gang fired and slowly moved forward, following behind Sun Xinghua, and also restrained Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng from advancing.

  The firepower was still in shooting, and the flames that were sprayed out suppressed the attack of the student army.

  Chiang Kai-shek redeployed the two student squads to attack while immediately dispatching someone to contact the artillery in the rear, preparing to use the few guns of the Student Army to blast away this strongpoint.

  "Principal, look quickly." Li Weizhang pointed ahead and said in a hurry.

  Chiang Kai-shek held up his binoculars, taking a close look, while Sun Xinghua clutched a hand grenade, moving slowly and steadily forward, disregarding the hail of bullets from the enemy's firepower, pressing on with unwavering determination.

  Many years later, Chen Gong, as a founding general, recalled: "At that time, Instructor Sun did not hesitate at all and rushed directly to the firepower point. I followed closely behind him, fearing that something unexpected would happen to him. Because Xiguan had just experienced a big fire, the ground was very hot, but Instructor Sun seemed to ignore these and continued to crawl slowly, eventually destroying this firepower point. Yu Dong and Guangting were right behind them, they also wanted to go, but I stopped them."

  A loud bang.

  As the strongpoints were destroyed, the student army's attack unfolded once again.

  Sun Xinghua sat on the ground beside him, no longer caring about the heat, and breathed heavily.

  This time for him, it was like wandering in hell.

  "Officer Sun, are you alright?" Chen Gong hastily walked over and asked Sun Xinghua.

  Sun Xinghua shook his head and didn't say anything. He casually picked up a nearby water bottle and took big gulps of it.

  Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng, who were behind, quickly ran over.

  "Director Sun, there are still things inside." Chen Gong swept the battlefield and saw that there were still items in the firepower point, so he hastily said.

  "Liquor, food, and bullets. Looks like they're planning to hold out here." Sun Xinghua looked at the fortified position with a sarcastic smile on his face.

  Four merchant team soldiers had already been blown to pieces by hand grenades, and only these things were left.

  "Big pancake." Du Yiming looked at the food and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

  Guan Lin was also staring at the food without blinking, and his stomach growled loudly.

  The life in the Huangpu Military Academy was very poor, every day they only had porridge that could barely cast a shadow of a person. Especially for people from Guanzhong like Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng, they couldn't stand such a life. Now seeing the big buns, they were very excited, but due to military rules, they didn't dare to move privately.

  "Eat yours, don't worry about anything." Sun Xinghua was a bit hungry anyway, and immediately picked up a large pancake, taking a big bite without hesitation.

  Du Yuming and Guan Linzheng looked at each other before they started eating.

  "If there were some chili peppers, it would be delicious." Chen Gong muttered.

  "What are you few doing?" Jin Fuzhuang walked over with an unpleasant expression.

  "It was I who fed them." Sun Xinghua stood up and said to Jin Fuzhuang.

  Jin Fozhuang saw Sun Xinghua, like an eggplant hit by frost, and immediately wilted. He took his rifle and walked forward.

  "Thanks, Instructor Sun." The three of them hastily took a big bite, grabbed their weapons and walked forward.

  Sun Xinghua smiled and took a large pancake, chasing after him in front.