Chapter 142: Assault On The County Seat
Seeing those soldiers cleaning up the battlefield at the Shizui Village outpost several li away, Li Yunlong immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.
Before he could think of a countermeasure, another burst of hurried footsteps came from behind, followed by a panting voice behind him.
“Regiment commander… out… my god, the Shizui Village outpost has actually been taken down!”
Li Yunlong cursed without turning his head: “Zhang Dabiao, keep your voice down, are you afraid others won’t hear?”
Zhang Dabiao aggrievedly shut his mouth, inwardly grumbling, “Your voice is louder than mine, and besides, we’re several li away from the Shizui Village outpost, they won’t hear even if we shout louder.”
But facing the regiment commander’s pressure, he could only lower his voice: “Regiment commander… how come we’ve never heard of those troops wearing German-style uniforms?”
“Who knows, I reckon they just came from out of town, this is a dragon crossing the river.”
Li Yunlong’s military sensitivity was no joke, pointing at the troops down the mountain: “Do you see where those tanks and trucks full of soldiers are heading now?”
“Oh no… that’s the road to Wuta County…” Zhang Dabiao was startled, “Could it be they’re going to attack Wuta County town?”
“Nonsense!”
Li Yunlong sneered, “If I had that equipment, I’d dare to go hit Taiyuan!”
Zhang Dabiao was greatly startled upon hearing this, he knew his own regiment commander all too well, he was a lawless guy.
He hurriedly grabbed his arm: “Regiment commander… what are you trying to do? Don’t forget, we’re ordered to station at Xiao Yang Village, not go to Wuta County!”
“Let go of me, kid.” Li Yunlong disgustedly slapped his hand away, then his expression changed, softening his voice: “I’m just following to take a look, see if I can help out, after all those Nationalist brothers look like they just came from out of town, we’re all compatriots, help where we can.”
What kind of person was Zhang Dabiao? Back when the Red Army crossed the grassland, he was already a company commander under Li Yunlong, he knew his regiment commander’s character all too well.
Don’t be fooled by his righteous words, he was just coveting their spoils of war.
Wuta County was a big county, the Japanese garrison there had a company of Japanese troops and a battalion of puppet troops, over six hundred men in total, if they could take it down, just a little bit leaking from that Nationalist force’s fingers would be enough to feed their newly formed 1st Regiment to the full.
“Huzi… pass my order, the whole regiment quietly follows behind those Nationalist brothers, we’re also going to hit the big one.”
Su Yaoyang naturally didn’t know that an Eighth Route Army unit was eyeing his spoils of war.
After arranging the tasks, he led the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Battalions along with the artillery battalion at normal marching speed toward Wuta County.
Just as he was halfway there, the battle on the Wuta County side had already started.
For Nagano Shinzo, who knew in advance that a Nationalist unit was heading for the county town, he had long ordered his troops to prepare for battle, but when he saw the rumbling Renault tanks approaching from the low city wall, he couldn’t help but start to despair.
Usually in battles, the Imperial Army relied on tanks, heavy artillery, and planes to bully others, but now the situation was reversed, it was others’ turn to bully them.
The enemy had a full nine tanks, could they really hold out with this low city wall and those broken guns?
Seeing the tanks rumbling in from outside the city, all the Japanese on the city wall were stunned, the company commander ran to his side and asked in a trembling voice: “Captain, the Chinese tanks are here, what do we do?”
“What do we do? What else can we do?” Nagano Shinzo went all out, gritting his teeth and shouting: “Prepare the explosive packs immediately, form the assault team!”
“Hai!”
The lieutenant also knew that for them without anti-tank firepower, this was their best and only way.
Amid a series of creaking metal friction sounds, three Renault tanks stopped three hundred meters from the city wall.
“Left 45 degrees, range three hundred meters… high-explosive round, prepare!”
John’s roar exploded over the radio.
“Target: Japanese on the city wall!”
“Clang!”
The loader deftly loaded the shell.
After confirming the target again, gunner Zhuang Xiaoman pressed the firing button.
“Boom…”
The main gun’s recoil shook the view in the periscope.
A black-red fireball erupted at the breach in the city wall, a helmeted Japanese officer holding a saber fell, the blade tip drawing a blinding silver arc in the morning sun.
This single shot killed three Japanese including a second lieutenant, seeing this sudden Chinese army’s tank gun so fierce, the remaining Japanese hurriedly shrank behind the city wall, not daring to show their heads casually.
“Assault team… ready yet?” Seeing the enemy kill three of his men with one shot, Nagano Shinzo felt a surge of nameless anger.
“Captain, it’s ready.” The lieutenant beside him hurriedly answered loudly.
Nagano Shinzo said nothing, just drew his command saber, and when the blade tip pointed at the distant roaring steel behemoths, his wrist trembled imperceptibly.
Seeing Nagano Shinzo’s action, four Japanese soldiers hugged explosive packs and flipped over the parapet, bending low and using nearby cover to creep toward the four distant tanks.
From the city wall, Nagano Shinzo could even see the white cloth strips tied on their foreheads lifted by the airflow, like four dying struggling moths.
Suddenly, the soldier at the rear seemed to step into a shell crater, stumbling, the explosive pack in his arms brushing against a charred locust stump, tree bark crumbling onto his shoulder.
As the distance between both sides grew closer, the tank tracks’ metal friction grew louder, the sergeant charging at the front suddenly roared, his spittle spraying onto the explosive pack in his arms with his roar.
Inside the Renault tank, the turret was filled with the pungent smell of machine oil and gunpowder mixed.
John’s pupils suddenly contracted in front of the periscope, sweat beads flowing down his chin into his collar.
He saw several figures in khaki uniforms breaking through the smoke ahead right, the white cloths on their heads gleaming sickly white in the blazing sun.
Without thinking, he shouted: “Situation spotted right front! Gunner, use the coaxial machine gun on them!”
“Two o’clock direction… one hundred meters!” Gunner Zhuang Xiaoman also spotted the approaching Japanese assault team through the M4 main gun periscope.
He quickly traversed the turret, aimed at the incoming Japanese, and pulled the trigger.
“Da da da…”
The M1919 coaxial machine gun’s roar made everyone’s eardrums ache, the jumping brass casings flew everywhere in the cabin, many hot red casings rolling to the loader’s feet.
