Anti-Japanese War: I have unlimited assistance

Chapter 174 Continue attacking or retreating?

The artillery shells continued to hit the city walls, one after another with terrifying force.

Ancient city walls were easy to defend and difficult to attack in the era of cold weapons, but it would be an exaggeration to say that they are vulnerable to hot weapons.

However, even if the ancient city walls were intact, they could not withstand the continuous bombardment of 75mm artillery shells.

What's more, the city wall had been bombarded and repaired just a few months ago, so it was even less likely that it could withstand the bombardment.

in case.

Using a large-caliber howitzer like the Hammer of the Father to bombard the city wall, just one shell is enough to create a large gap in the city wall.

Under continuous bombardment, in less than 5 minutes, the repaired city wall collapsed into a huge V-shaped gap.

"Boss Lin's cannon is powerful."

Looking at the gap caused by artillery fire through the telescope, Wang Chengzhu felt emotional.

Only sophisticated cannons and sophisticated shells can achieve such an effect in such a short time.

"Stop the bombardment, and charge the infantry to capture the city walls."

In the regiment headquarters, Li Yunlong looked delighted and immediately gave the order.

"kill!"

As Li Yunlong's order was given, a company of soldiers jumped up from their attack positions, carrying six siege ladders and attacking the city wall.

"idiot."

On the city wall, seeing the Eighth Route Army carrying siege ladders and starting to attack, Ishihara Seizo's face was gloomy, and he waved his command saber:

"shooting!"

The fate of the Japanese and puppet soldiers in the collapsed section of the city wall is unknown, but Ishihara Seizo can't care less now.

"Da da da…"

More than 20 light and heavy machine guns roared wildly, spewing out tongues of fire, and dense rain of bullets covered the new regiment.

"Mortar cover, machine gun cover."

Li Yunlong shouted loudly while observing with a telescope.

"Boom boom…"

At the mortar position, shells soared into the air.

At the machine gun positions, each machine gun spewed out tongues of fire, and dense artillery shells and bullets rained down on the city wall.

but.

The feint attack of machine gun fire made it difficult to hit the Japanese behind the battlements. Moreover, the Japanese machine gunners continued to shoot despite the mortar fire and deafening roar. When one Japanese machine gunner fell, another one quickly took his place.

The Japanese's more than 20 machine guns fired one barrage after another.

When they were still more than 200 meters away from the city wall, an infantry company of the New st Regiment suffered more than half of its men in the attack and had to retreat quickly.

"Son of a bitch."

In the regiment headquarters, Li Yunlong immediately started cursing.

Although this was not the first time that Li Yunlong led his troops to attack a county town, the Japanese firepower and the marksmanship of the Japanese machine gunners left a deep impression on Li Yunlong. The difficulty was not on the same level as attacking a county town defended by the National Army.

"Boom boom boom..."

In the direction of the North Gate and the South Gate, the troops of the New 1st Regiment launched a feint attack to support the main attack at the East Gate.

"Sixth Company, withdraw."

"Seventh Company will attack. During the attack, the artillery battalion's mountain artillery will aim directly at the enemy's firing points and destroy them."

The main threat to the siege troops came from the machine guns deployed by the Japanese on the city walls, with the muzzles of these machine guns protruding from the firing holes in the battlements.

In the past, these shooting holes were used by the defenders to shoot arrows and observe the situation. In modern warfare, they were converted into shooting holes for machine guns and rifles.

Li Yunlong quickly summed up the experience and lessons and ordered the troops to launch a second attack.

"kill!"

Amidst shouts and cries of killing, more than one hundred soldiers of the Seventh Company, carrying siege ladders, spread out in formation and rushed towards the location that had collapsed due to artillery fire.

"Da da da…"

"Boom boom boom..."

Dense rain of bullets and artillery shells rose from the Eighth Route Army positions and shot at the Japanese and puppet troops on the city walls.

Seeing the Eighth Route Army rushing up again, the Japanese machine gunners opened fire under the artillery fire and hail of bullets.

The light and heavy machine guns on and below the city fired at each other, causing sand and rocks to fly. The attacking soldiers kept falling down, and the soldiers in the rear rushed forward regardless of their lives.

"Baga, shoot, shoot!"

Ishihara Seizo personally operated a Type 100 heavy machine gun and fired with a tricky and fierce attack, suppressing the Eighth Route Army's attacking force more than meters away.

The battle was intense and both sides were fighting for their lives.

"Tum, tom, tom..."

But at this moment, the 14 mountain cannons of the New st Regiment aimed at the Japanese battlements and opened fire.

Five Japanese machine gun fire points that were firing were directly hit by artillery shells, and the battlements, Japanese machine gunners and machine guns all flew into the sky.

However, the artillery quality of the new regiment still has a lot of room for improvement.

Although the fire was aimed directly, only 5 guns in this round hit the Japanese machine gun fire point.

The rest of the shells were either too high or too low. In short, either they were too high and flew over the city wall, or they hit the city wall.

"Haha, good fight, a few more rounds will be enough."

Li Yunlong smiled with satisfaction.

After a round of artillery fire, each mountain artillery position quickly adjusted its firing parameters.

"Nani?"

Five firepower points were destroyed in an instant, and Ishihara Seizo's face changed.

The Eighth Route Army's 75mm mountain artillery opened fire, aiming directly at the target. Ishihara Seizo reacted instantly.

Ishihara Seizo immediately ordered: "Baga, the enemy mountain artillery has opened fire, fire for a while and then change the firing position."

"Hi."

As the Japanese changed their tactics, the artillery battalion's bombardment became less effective. Although the New 75st Regiment's mm Forbos mountain gun was single-shot, had a scope, and had a short range, it could aim and fire directly.

but!

If it is not a fixed target, you can only fire once and then aim again. By the time you adjust the shooting parameters and aim at the battlement, the Japanese machine gun fire point has changed its shooting hole again.

There are hundreds of firing holes in the one-kilometer-long city wall, but the New 14st Regiment has only mountain cannons, which is not enough to handle the work.

As the Japanese changed their tactics, the Seventh Company was unable to attack the city wall.

However, the Japanese's shooting effectiveness was much worse and their firepower was greatly weakened, so the casualties of the Seventh Company were not as great as those of the Sixth Company.

"Stop attacking!"

Watching the soldiers of the Seventh Company retreat, Li Yunlong shouted loudly.

"Yangquan City is much tougher than I imagined."

Li Yunlong looked towards the city wall with a frown on his face, and rethought his siege tactics.

If the city was attacked during the day, the Japanese and puppet troops would have had air support and the casualties would have been even greater.

After two sieges, the Japanese puppet army must have suffered heavy casualties. The New 1st Regiment has more troops and stronger firepower. If they continue to fight like this, the New 1st Regiment and the Independent Regiment will also be able to capture the city wall.

However, the troops suffered heavy casualties.

The siege tactics must be readjusted to reduce casualties.

We must capture Yangquan tonight. As soon as daybreak comes, the Japanese planes will surely come to drop aerial bombs again.

Moreover, most of the Japanese reinforcements are probably on their way to Yangquan.

……

On the city wall.

As soon as the gunfire stopped, Major General Yoshito Takagi called.

When he learned that the Eighth Route Army was actually using mountain artillery to bombard the city walls, Takagi Yoshito was nervous for a while.

The Eighth Route Army was actually equipped with more than a dozen mountain cannons, and they created a huge gap in the city wall!
It's just terrible.

Fortunately, under the command of Ishihara Seizo, the city repelled the Eighth Route Army's siege twice in a row.

Much better than that useless captain Kobayashi Tsuneichi!

Yoshito Takagi breathed a sigh of relief and said to Seizo Ishihara on the phone.

"Ishihara-kun, tell the soldiers and the Locust Alliance that the reinforcements from Taiyuan and Shimen City have already set out, and they will arrive by tomorrow morning at the latest!"

"in addition."

"The 79th Infantry Regiment suffered a defeat in southeastern Shanxi. Colonel Kobayashi Tsuneichi will definitely commit seppuku to apologize."

"After this battle is over, I will recommend you to General Terauchi, commander of the North China Front Army, as commander of the 79th Infantry Regiment."

"By then, you will be promoted twice, becoming a colonel and commanding the 79th Infantry Regiment."

There is no one around him at the moment, only Seizo Ishihara, so Yoshito Takagi can only paint a pie in the sky for him.

As Takagi expected, Ishihara's tone became excited as soon as he finished speaking: "Thank you for your support, Brigade Commander. Please rest assured, I will fight bravely and destroy the attacking Eighth Route Army."

"Yoshi." Takagi Yoshito said, "Then I'll wait for good news from Ishihara-kun at the brigade headquarters!"

After asking the brigade commander to support the east city wall with some machine guns and ammunition, Ishihara Seizo hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Ishihara Seizo still looked a little excited.

He was able to become the captain of the 39th Brigade with the rank of major, all thanks to his own strong qualities.

He had no backing, and if he had no military achievements, his military career would have ended at the rank of colonel at best.

However, if he can make great achievements in this battle, he can be promoted twice and become the colonel commander of a permanent division.

There is a bright future ahead!

There is even a chance to be promoted to major general in the future.

So Ishihara Seizo decisively began to micro-manage and personally arranged every firepower point.

"This heavy machine gun moves 5 meters to the left."

"Move your light machine gun three meters to the right."

"This mortar is placed here, and here are two grenade launchers."

"All machine gun firing points can only fire for a maximum of 30 seconds, and then they must change positions, otherwise they will be hit by enemy shells."

"The engineers immediately repaired the collapsed city walls."

"..."

……

Inside the headquarters of the new regiment.

Zhao Gang and the others didn't dare to speak, for fear of disturbing the leader's thoughts.

Li Yunlong lit up an Laodao brand cigarette, his eyes thoughtful.

The headquarters has just sent a telegram that the 79th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Army, which was surrounded in southeastern Shanxi, has been eaten up by four main regiments.

A large number of Japanese troops were dispatched from Taiyuan and Shimen City and were sending reinforcements to Yangquan.

Although the city wall was blown down, the Japanese firepower points on the wall still posed a huge threat to the siege troops.

If the troops suffered heavy casualties, even if they could capture the city wall before the Japanese reinforcements arrived, it would still be a loss-making business.

Before every battle, Li Yunlong would calculate the cost in advance and would only do it if there was an advantage to be gained.

I won't do it no matter how much I say if I can't get any advantage.

Now there are two voices arguing in Li Yunlong's mind.

A voice told Li Yunlong to stop the attack. The New 79st and Independent Regiments attacked Yangquan mainly to flank the Eighth Route Army's main force in southeastern Shanxi. Now that the battle in southeastern Shanxi was over and the main force of the Japanese th Infantry Regiment was annihilated, it was time for the New st and Independent Regiments to retreat.

The number of Japanese killed in this battle has far exceeded expectations, so it is not shameful to retreat now.

Another voice asked Li Yunlong to continue the attack. Yangquan was an important military town with a lot of food, weapons and ammunition stored there.

There is also a Japanese major general in the city. Killing this Japanese major general would be a big business for Boss Chen and he could make a lot of money.

(End of this chapter)