Chapter 276: 275 Ancient City Operation, Falange Party Soldiers Sneak Attack, In The City Crisis
Regarding the Vulture Legion’s latest model German fighter jet BF.109 making a forced landing in Caceres City, the International Brigades immediately organized an action team.
This was a temporarily formed troop, composed of international soldiers from several countries. For ease of communication, all members were required to be able to communicate in English.
A total of fifteen people.
Including driver and action commander Fang Wen, wingman pilot Du Jiahua, transport aircraft pilot Deng Zhongyu.
Plus 11 International Brigades soldiers, and one Spanish officer from the Popular Front.
After the aircraft maintenance was completed, personnel gathered at the Asian Aviation Team Camp, where Fang Wen presided over the pre-action briefing.
“This action will fly by airplane to Caceres City in the Southwest Region of Spain, mainly to make contact locally, retrieve the forced-landed German army new fighter jet, and also capture that Vulture Corps pilot who participated in the Spanish Civil War. As for the situation in Caceres City, please have Major George Baker explain it to everyone.”
George Baker stood up and stubbornly explained: “My rank is Teniente Coronel, which in English context is Lieutenant Colonel（major）.”
This was indeed a communication issue. In the Second Spanish Republic’s ranks, Teniente Coronel means “Teniente” is “deputy” or “acting,” and “Coronel” is “colonel.” To outsiders, this rank should be somewhere between captain and lieutenant colonel.
After explaining his identity, George Baker continued: “When I was in Madrid, I was once responsible for military affairs in the Southwest Region and am quite familiar with it. Caceres City has a complex situation due to historical reasons. Currently, neither our side nor the rebels have a garrison there; it is mainly managed by locals.”
To explain better, he briefly talked about Spain’s history.
Caceres City was originally built by Romans and later occupied by Moors.
Moors were Islamic believers who invaded Europe from Arabia in medieval times.
After occupying the Iberian Peninsula, they also spread Islam in Europe.
For several centuries, Islamic believers ruled this region.
Later, after 800 years of the Reconquista, Spaniards defeated the Islamic states and regained control of the Iberian Peninsula.
From then on, Caceres City returned to Spanish hands, where 300 fanatical knights gathered in the city and formed the Caceres Brotherhood of Knights.
Which is also the later location of Spain’s most noble Order of Santiago.
It can be said that the place is full of traces of cultural conflict, extremely traditional, rejects dealings with technology, and lives an ancient religious life.
After explaining the local situation, George Baker cautioned: “We must not act recklessly this time. I will communicate with them; the local government should not make things difficult.”
However, Fang Wen had a different view.
“Will there be Falange Party people there?”
The Falange Party is a Spanish fascist political party, but nominally maintains good relations with the church. Fang Wen asked this considering the strong religious atmosphere locally.
George Baker shook his head: “Caceres City has only a few tens of thousands of people. The Falange Party prefers large and medium-sized cities and should not go there.”
Now the situation was mostly understood; it was time to act immediately to avoid complications from delaying too long.
Immediately, the International Brigades’ quartermaster brought weapons and distributed them to the action team members.
Everyone received one Labora M1935 submachine gun and one Astra 600 pistol.
These two weapons were both Spanish-made, provided to the International Brigades by the Popular Front which controlled the arms factories.
In addition to individual weapons for each person, there was also a box of Spanish-made bucket grenades.
These weapons were sufficient for the upcoming action.
“Depart.”
After Fang Wen spoke, he led the way out of the Asian Aviation Team Camp.
He boarded the Shrike Hao, while Du Jiahua piloted a modified Il-16 wingman aircraft. Then, Deng Zhongyu took the others aboard the Boeing 247.
The three aircraft took off one after another, forming an escort formation and flying toward the destination.
More than an hour later, the flight formation arrived over Caceres ancient city.
Fang Wen piloted the Shrike fighter jet ahead to scout.
The aircraft lowered altitude and circled over the ancient city.
Looking out, this ancient city was built on a plain highland, composed of a large number of medieval stone buildings, which should all be former knight manors.
In the center of the city was a relatively wide square with a flat stone road surface, the best landing runway.
He then sent an encrypted telegram, guiding the aircraft to land in the city square.
After the three aircraft landed, the action team immediately assembled.
This commotion also attracted the attention of city residents. On distant streets, citizens were peering out.
Fang Wen looked around and said: “Du Jiahua, Deng Zhongyu, you two stay behind to guard the aircraft. Everyone else, come with me to city hall.”
Immediately, the 13-member action group, carrying weapons and equipment, quickly walked out of the city square.
They had just reached the street corner at the edge of the square when they encountered a large group of people.
Those citizens riding horses, holding spears and iron weapons, looked at Fang Wen and the others with hostile gazes.
George Baker loudly communicated in Spanish. After a while, he reported back on the communication.
“They say the mayor has ordered the German pilot locked up, but he won’t allow us to go there. They say they want to remain neutral.”
“Remain neutral?” Fang Wen frowned. Generally, such statements meant uncertainty, which made things more likely to go wrong.
He whispered to George Baker: “Tell them we only want to take the pilot and that aircraft; it must be handed over to us. We won’t even enter the city for that.”
George Baker turned and continued communicating, but the other side shouted loudly and kept shaking their heads.
Clearly, their attitude was firm: no releasing the person, no taking the aircraft, and not even allowing the action team into the city.
This attitude was no longer neutral.
Fang Wen had a strange feeling and immediately talked with the action team members.
“Everyone, stay alert. There might be rebels in the city.”
The action team members immediately became vigilant, half-raising the submachine guns slung over their shoulders, maintaining an alert state.
This reaction made those people somewhat panicked; after all, they were just civilians who had never experienced such a scene.
Some turned and left, and the gathered crowd began to disperse.
In this situation, George Baker raised his voice, and the other side became cowed instead.
Moments later, he returned with feedback.
“Someone told me that a few people arrived outside the city last night, and after they talked to the mayor’s house, this change occurred.”
It seemed rebels had appeared in Caceres City.
Fang Wen realized that the rebels must be dealt with, or the action would be obstructed everywhere.
He whispered to George Baker: “Find a way to locate those people and take them out.”
George Baker nodded seriously and turned to talk with the locals again.
He must have used the authority of the Popular Front government to pressure them, and some chose to submit.
They agreed to lead the way to city hall, so George Baker took 5 team members and followed.
Time passed bit by bit; George Baker and the others had been gone for half an hour.
There was no movement from the city, which made Fang Wen and the others feel strange.
After a while, gunfire came; it seemed George Baker had engaged the rebels.
But from the gunfire, both sides were exchanging intensely without any sign of immediate end.
Fang Wen was about to lead the team to provide support when a team member behind him reminded him.
“Fang, people are coming from that side.”
Fang Wen turned to look; nearly 20 soldiers carrying rifles were approaching.
The soldier at the front was even holding a flag.
Those were Falange Party people, unexpectedly appearing in Caceres City.
Judging by the situation, the enemy had quite a few people.
Fang Wen immediately turned back and retreated to the street corner, picking up his submachine gun.
“Prepare for combat.”
The action team members also hid behind the corner stone walls, raising their weapons.
Bugle sounds came, along with shouts in Spanish.
The originally onlooker citizens all hurriedly hid in their houses; a street battle was about to unfold.
At this moment, Fang Wen’s heart tensed involuntarily.
He currently lacked machinery for using his supernatural ability and certainly didn’t have the future Iron Man’s mechanical armor, so now he had to repel the enemy’s attack and head to the aircraft at the square.
As long as they could board the aircraft, Fang Wen would have a way to deal with these enemies.
He took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, and highly concentrated his mind.
Even without supernatural ability, his body strengthened by those mysterious faith treasures was much stronger than an ordinary person; he might still win this battle.
At this moment, even without activating mechanical perception ability, he simulated that state of high unity between mind and body.
The highly concentrated mind calmed Fang Wen down; he knew he needed to understand the enemy situation on the other side of the corner now.
He took out a small round mirror, extended half of it out, and used the mirror’s reflection to see the situation on the other side of the corner.
Those Falange Party soldiers were hugging the wall and slowly approaching; this angle was very tricky, and rashly exposing oneself would lead to immediate enemy fire.
But now, Fang Wen confirmed the enemy’s position and immediately adapted.
He whispered to the team members: “You hold this position; I’ll go over there.”
After speaking, he quickly rushed across the street into a shop.
This was a ham shop, Caceres City’s most famous specialty product.
As soon as Fang Wen entered, he bumped right into the terrified shop owner.
The shop owner hurriedly said in English: “Those people are not locals; they have nothing to do with us.”
Fang Wen nodded, surveyed the shop interior, and asked: “How to get upstairs?”
The shop owner quickly pointed to the back door on the right.
Following his guidance, Fang Wen climbed the slanted ladder to the second floor of the building.
In the third room on the second floor, the view perfectly overlooked the other side of the corner.
He disengaged the safety catch on the submachine gun, quietly extended the muzzle, and in the highly concentrated mental state, aimed and fired.
A burst of bullets instantly poured out, muzzle flash spitting fire; those Falange Party soldiers lined up against the wall became the best targets.
In an instant, 5 soldiers were hit and fell, and the rest were stunned by the sudden attack.
Immediately after, Fang Wen swapped in the second magazine and continued firing.
Under his fire suppression, the team members behind the corner also rushed out and launched an attack.
Uniform submachine gun fire was far more powerful than the Falange Party’s rifles in close-range combat; those soldiers fell one by one beside the wall.
It was over; all 20-plus Falange Party soldiers were wiped out, but more were rushing in from farther away.
Fang Wen immediately ran downstairs and quickly commanded: “Head to the aircraft at the square.”
At once, the action team members ran quickly following Fang Wen toward the square; this time without enemy obstruction, it was safe.
The group ran back to the square; the guarding Du Jiahua and Deng Zhongyu saw they were friendlies and immediately relaxed.
Fang Wen immediately made arrangements.
“You board the Boeing 247; it has two aircraft mounted machine guns. Use that for cover. Deng Zhongyu, you’re responsible for teaching them to use the machine guns. Du Jiahua, we’ll board the aircraft.”
After the brief arrangement, Deng Zhongyu piloted the Boeing 247 to adjust its fuselage direction, side-facing the square’s road entrance, with the aircraft mounted machine guns aimed at the entrance for defense.
Meanwhile, Fang Wen and Du Jiahua piloted their respective fighter jets preparing for takeoff.
The enemies also charged over.
Nearly a hundred troops, led by an officer high-raising the Falange flag, charged toward the city square.
The action team members relying on the Boeing 247 for defense immediately began counterattacking.
Two M2 machine guns welded on fixed brackets fired dense bullets at the distance.
12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun bullets were astonishingly powerful in ground combat; under the strafing, several enemy frontline soldiers fell instantly.
They immediately retreated to positions out of machine gun range.
At this time, two fighter jets also took off from the square into the sky.
The Il-16 modification piloted by Du Jiahua, after climbing, immediately turned to try finding ground targets for dive autocannon shooting.
In the first salvo, 20mm autocannon shells swept across, causing over a dozen casualties. But in the next round, Falange Party soldiers all hid on both sides of the streets, making this aircraft dive autocannon shooting suddenly lose its power.
In city street fighting, for aerial fighter jets, bombing was the best solution.
But this time, the two fighter jets had no bombs loaded at all; their only weapon was the 20mm autocannon.
Seeing this, Fang Wen sent an encrypted telegram with orders for Du Jiahua to return to base for reinforcements, while he circled in the air looking for opportunities against the Falange Party.
Du Jiahua accepted the order and flew back to base.
Fang Wen circled over Caceres City.
Low-altitude flight in mechanical perception state gave Fang Wen a clearer understanding of the situation in the city.
On the northeast side of the city square, over 200 Falange Party soldiers were assembled. Due to machine gun firepower suppression, they temporarily couldn’t take the Boeing 247 at the square.
In a tall castle-like building on the other side, George Baker and his group were confronting enemies in the garden. The opponents numbered over a dozen, but with the building and cover behind them, both sides were in a stalemate, neither daring to rush out.
In other parts of the city, the streets were empty; citizens were all hiding in their houses.
And even farther outside the city, several hundred Falange Party troops were rushing over.
If the troops outside the city entered, George Baker’s group and the Boeing 247 would face great danger.
Having understood the entire area situation, Fang Wen immediately responded.
He would use one fighter jet to stop the troops outside the city.
As long as these troops were held off until Du Jiahua brought reinforcements, the crisis could be resolved.
Immediately, the Shrike fighter jet abandoned the attack on city soldiers and turned to fly northwest outside the city.
