Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

Chapter 112: The third bombing of the Watergate Bridge!
Li Guotao and Gu Cangzhou hurried back to the Watergate Bridge. When they were still a few dozen meters away, they saw a group of soldiers running towards them.

One of the soldiers waved his hands and shouted, "It's going to explode, hurry up and leave!"

Still bombing?

Li Guotao and Gu Cangzhou did not hesitate and followed the soldiers to run away.

"Boom~! Boom~!"

Another series of violent explosions sounded, and the earth shook in an instant, and smoke rose into the sky from the Watergate Bridge.

After everything calmed down, Li Guotao and his men approached cautiously.

It turned out that the foundation of the Watergate Bridge was too solid to be completely destroyed in one go, so the explosives had to be placed in several batches to completely destroy the foundation.

When the Seventh Company came over, they also brought a large amount of explosives. Li Guotao was also worried that there were not enough explosives, so as soon as the battle ended, he exchanged a large amount of ammunition and explosives and piled them directly in the enemy's ammunition warehouse.

So now they had plenty of explosives, and the soldiers then placed the explosives again and continued to blow up the incomplete base.

After several detonations of explosives, the foundation of the Watergate Bridge was completely destroyed.

Mei Sheng said excitedly: "It's been blown up like this, I want to see how they can repair the bridge."

Li Guotao looked at the completely destroyed Watergate Bridge. The base was indeed completely destroyed, and it was impossible to repair it in a short time.

It’s a pity that the span of the Watergate Bridge is only 8 meters, and there are mountains on both sides. We can’t blow up all the mountains, right?
Therefore, it is not realistic to want to expand the span significantly.

Even if they had enough explosives, they didn't have enough time to blow up the mountain here.

Looking at the cheering soldiers, Li Guotao didn't want to undermine their confidence for the time being.

But he knew clearly that the enemy could not repair the Watergate Bridge, but they could airdrop a steel bridge in a short time.

However, since Li Guotao already knew the enemy's next bridge repair plan in advance, it is still possible to prevent them from repairing the Watergate Bridge by making preparations in advance.

The terrain of the Watergate Bridge is not suitable for airdrops, especially for objects as large as a steel beam bridge. If they were dropped directly near the Watergate Bridge, they would all fall into the ravine. They can only rely on people to carry such heavy objects. Can they lift them up?

Moreover, the terrain here is complex, and those steel beam bridges may be destroyed and unusable.

As Li Guotao recalled, the enemy airdropped eight sets of steel beam bridge kits, but one set was broken and another set fell on the Volunteer Army's position.

However, only four sets were needed to repair the Watergate Bridge, so the enemy repaired the Watergate Bridge.

The airdrop location is in Gutuli, and then the supplies are transported from Gutuli to the Watergate Bridge.

Therefore, if we want to stop the enemy from building the bridge, we can only work on this aspect.

It is more than ten miles from Gutuli to Shuimen Bridge, and the terrain along the way is dangerous. As long as all these steel beam bridges are destroyed halfway, the enemy will not be able to repair the Shuimen Bridge in time.

This was also what Li Guotao had planned a long time ago. Li Guotao had already started planning to complete this task, and based on the current situation, this was also the best way.

As for completely occupying the Watergate Bridge and blocking the enemy's retreat, it is not very realistic.

The Watergate Bridge is such a small place, and the enemy planes would probably arrive after daybreak.

If they were still guarding the Watergate Bridge and a few incendiary bombs were dropped, they would all be burned to ashes. What would they do?

There are still two or three days before the enemy retreats. No matter how many troops are deployed to defend the Watergate Bridge, they will all be killed in vain.

Wu Qianli and Mei Sheng knew this, and they had never considered defending the Watergate Bridge, so after completely blowing up the base, Mei Sheng organized the soldiers to retreat. The troops on the south side of the bridge all retreated from the valley to the north side of the bridge.

Li Guotao had previously discussed with Wu Qianli and his men that after the Watergate Bridge was blown up, the troops would retreat to the area between Gutuli and the Watergate Bridge, where they would remain in hiding and wait for orders.

The reason given by Li Guotao was that this was the only way for the enemy to pass. When the enemy retreated, they could block them from this section of the road, take the opportunity to eliminate more enemies, and cooperate with the main force to encircle and annihilate the main force of the enemy.

In fact, Li Guotao's purpose was to blow up the steel beam bridge kit that was transported from here.

But I can’t tell this to Wu Qianli and the others, otherwise I won’t be able to explain it.

How did you know they would rebuild the bridge using a steel girder bridge kit?

In order to defend the Watergate Bridge, the enemy stored a large amount of ammunition and supplies here, most of which have now become the spoils of the Volunteer Army.

Moreover, Li Guotao had also taken the opportunity to exchange a batch of supplies, so the volunteer army had a fruitful harvest this time and returned with a full load.

The soldiers transported all the spoils they could take away to a safe place in the mountains and hid them.

The six tanks that Wu Qianli and his men had captured earlier were all driven into the ravine and temporarily hidden in a secluded place.

As for the prisoners of war, those who were not injured were all escorted to a mountainous area west of Gutuli, where there was a temporary prisoner-of-war camp of the 20th Army, which held a large number of prisoners of war, most of whom were from the British Royal Marine Commando.

As for the wounded, they were all sent to the road a few miles away from Gutuli. Two prisoners whose arms were blown off ran back to Gutuli to report the news, and the enemy in Gutuli sent troops to temporarily take them back to Gutuli.

Li Guotao took the initiative to take on the task of transporting these wounded enemy soldiers. After throwing them on the road, Li Guotao took the opportunity to carefully scout the terrain along the way from Gutuli to Shuimen Bridge in order to choose the most suitable ambush site.

According to Li Guotao's calculations, there should be one or two days of preparation time, and everything will still be in time.

……

The news reached the temporary command post of the 1st Marine Division.

Major General Smith's eyes widened in surprise and he shouted, "What did you say? The Watergate Bridge was lost?"

"Yes!"

Colonel Bowser said helplessly: "I can't believe this is true, but it is the truth."

Major General Smith asked angrily, "Where are the defenders of the Watergate Bridge?"

Colonel Bowser said helplessly: "Except for some who were captured, the rest have all returned to God's arms."

"Fake~!"

Major General Smith cursed: "They are just a bunch of losers. A force of several hundred people can't even defend a watergate bridge the size of a palm."

"This is a joke."

Colonel Bowser explained: "We still underestimated the enemy's determination to annihilate us. They must have sent their main force to attack the Watergate Bridge, otherwise they would not have captured the Watergate Bridge so easily."

Major General Smith roared, "I don't want to know how they occupied the Watergate Bridge now. It's meaningless. Immediately withdraw troops from Gutu and counterattack the Watergate Bridge. No matter what, we must take the Watergate Bridge back for me."

"Yes sir!"

(End of this chapter)