The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Chen Tianheng: "No, Deng Jieshi and Chen Gongshou should feel honored to be captured by us..."

Although I don’t know how many generals will emerge from these students in this life, I estimate that in ten or twenty years, the leaders of these joint defense groups will be able to boast that they have experienced this battle.

And I can keep blowing it for the rest of my life...

Chapter 42

Teams 2 and 3 quickly divided their tasks. Team 3 remained in direct confrontation/fire with the Merchant Corps Joint Defense Regiment while Team 2 broke in, with Instructor Ye Jianying coordinating the two teams' actions.

After breaking into the area controlled by the merchant group, Zhou Shidi and Chen Tianheng handled all situations on the spot.

The frontal battle at Xiguan broke out early this morning. Xu Chongzhi's troops and Li Fulin's troops were the two main forces of the revolutionary government. However, these two main forces have only been exchanging shots with the joint defense group so far and have been unable to make any breakthrough.

So Xu Chongzhi is now collecting gasoline and kerosene everywhere, planning to launch a fire attack on Xiguan tonight.

Chen Tianheng really wanted to capture Deng Jieshi and Chen Gongshou alive, which was part of the plan.

Besides, a quick resolution to the battle could save Xiguan from being burned down.

Ye Jianying felt that you young and inexperienced people were enough.

If the student army could penetrate deep into the area controlled by the Merchant Corps and tear down the barricade defense line, the morale of the United Defense Corps might be greatly shaken; and as long as the Republic of China flag was raised on the Thirteen Hongs Building, the United Defense Corps might collapse completely.

As for Deng Jieshi and Chen Gongshou, whether they were captured alive or allowed to escape would not affect the final outcome.

……

"Ignite! Get down!"

Li Zhilong shouted. He had just placed a pack of explosives at the base of the wall and lit the fuse.

The dozen or so people leading the commando team covered their ears and heads and hid far away.

The explosive pack weighs 2 kilograms and is tied to a 1.5-meter-long wooden handle, which allows the explosive pack to explode at the right location and people to enter and exit the hole directly.

A 2kg pack of dynamite is a bit overpowered. If it were detonated with electricity, simply sticking four 300-400g pieces of dynamite on the wall would create a hole. This would be safer and would create a larger hole.

But where can I find an electric detonator right now...

"Boom!"

"Team Two, follow me!"

A big hole was blown in the wall. Chen Tianheng was the first to stand up and jumped into the hole with a Mauser pistol.

Mauser C96 "Box Gun", semi-automatic version, the holster has been connected to the grip as a temporary buttstock.

Where did Chen Tianheng get his box gun? Look at Ye Jianying, whose belt is empty.

...This is a CQB battle. We can't have all the other personnel pulling the bolt except for two or three light machine guns.

Behind Chen Tianheng, Zhou Shidi, Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng, who were carrying light machine guns, also jumped into the building.

"Facing south and back to north, the west wall is this way, Dragon! Continue!"

Li Zhilong: "Ignite! Get down!"

The two consecutive walls are thick, so Li Zhilong, a blasting expert, is needed to solve the problem.

The second wall exploded with a loud bang. The members of the second team crawled through the hole and smashed open the main door of the house. They saw a narrow street that was several meters wide and over a hundred meters long.

Chen Tianheng: "Xu Jishen, your squad and Chen Geng's group will guard this place. Use machine guns and volleys to block the street!"

"Hey, this place looks familiar." Chen Geng's deputy shooter Xu Xiangqian said.

Not far away, an old man cowering in a corner stood up and said to Xu Xiangqian, "Boss! Don't blow up my house! You can put vinegar in my fried rice noodles any way you want!"

Xu Xiangqian: "Master Liang, I won't blow it up! You should hide in the big house at the back! The walls there are thicker!"

……

The Whampoa student army had high morale and sound basic tactics (although by Chen Tianheng's standards, their tactical proficiency was far from adequate). A detailed site survey had been conducted beforehand, so the wall breach and infiltration went smoothly.

By the time they broke through the wall for the third time, Team 2 had penetrated more than 200 meters into the battle line. After breaking through the fourth wall and exiting the house, Chen Tianheng finally saw the joint defense team members.

The joint defense team members saw Chen Tianheng and his team, and they were as surprised as if they had seen a ghost. Chen Tianheng yelled "Disperse!" and Jiang Xianyun and Zheng Dongguo opened fire with their machine guns. However, the joint defense team members ran away faster than the second team could react, and after a while they hid in the corner of the street and alley with shouts and screams.

The second team split into two squads, firing volleys in two directions, while the rest of the team leaped into the next room. Li Yannian's wall-breaking team came up and knocked the wooden wall open. The planks collapsed with a loud bang, and Chen Tianheng ordered everyone to lie down immediately and be ready to open fire at any time.

The wall that was hit was made of wood and could not stop any bullets.

However, outside the wooden wall, everything was quiet.

The most common problem for the defenders in urban fighting is poor communication between defense zones. If a unit enters a defense zone and then exits, the neighboring defense zones may not be immediately aware of it. This is especially true for small groups that avoid using streets and instead move through walls.

This is why urban warfare and street fighting wall-breaking assaults always throw less skilled defenders into chaos.

On the contrary, behind him, the two squads blocking the retreat, more than 20 people, started firing volleys of gunfire happily.

Chen Tianheng: "Sun Shucheng! Can you hold on?"

"I'm fine!" Sun Shucheng, the squad leader who was blocking the rear, answered loudly.

Chen Tianheng was about to lead his team forward when he heard a thunderous roar in the distance. "No problem, bullshit! Jiang Xianyun, come here quickly, turn the machine gun!"

Chen Tianheng, Jiang Xianyun, and Zhou Shidi emerged from their room and returned to the street. They saw hundreds of people running and shouting frantically at a nearby intersection. There were so many members of the joint defense group that the entire street seemed filled with people.

……

On the front line of the two armies, Xu Chongzhi's troops and Li Fulin's troops were still fighting happily.

The Merchant Corps was large in number, and although most of the joint defense corps members were not very skilled in fighting, they had many guns and plenty of ammunition, so the two sides opened fire on each other in the streets. The Guangdong and Fujian troops' rifles banged and machine guns rattled, while the opposing joint defense corps also fired machine guns "da da da da da da".

On the contrary, after fighting for a few hours, the Guangdong Army and the Fujian Army began to feel sorry for their ammunition. After all, Xu Chongzhi and Li Fulin were still new warlords, responsible for their own profits and losses. The bullets were consumed too quickly, and after the fighting was over, they had to find money to import them.

"Captain Sun, Captain Sun!"

Xu Chongzhi's adjutant, acting as a messenger, rode over on a bicycle, jingling: "Commander Xu orders you to launch an attack immediately!"

"Attack? Attack! The barricade across the way is like the Great Wall, with seven or eight machine guns mounted on it. Am I going to get killed? Also! Send me 10 more boxes of ammunition quickly! My heavy machine gun is running out of ammunition!"

Adjutant: "Other troops have already broken through, and the merchant group's position is immediately disrupted! Your unit is closest to the Thirteen Hongs. I can even see the Thirteen Hongs building there. Why don't you charge? Don't you want military merit?"

"Chaos?" Captain Sun looked suspicious. He listened carefully. There was a burst of gunfire in the area controlled by the merchant group, but it was not dense. Half a minute later, there was another burst of gunfire.

"Brothers, charge!"

"Da da da da da da da"

"what--!"

Dozens of Guangdong Army soldiers gathered their courage and charged forward, but the opposing joint defense regiment continued to spray water with machine guns. Several soldiers were shot instantly and fell to the ground wailing, and the rest of the soldiers quickly retreated.

Adjutant: "Keep charging!"

"Fuck it, I'm not going to charge anymore!"

Captain Sun flatly rejected the order, and his soldiers hid behind a wall of sandbags, firing back and forth at the merchant corps, depleting each other's ammunition stocks.

"Sir! Look! Why is there a flag?"

The place where Captain Sun's troops fought was a long straight street. More than a hundred meters away was the merchant corps' barricade. More than four hundred meters ahead, on the left side of the street was the merchant corps' headquarters, the Thirteen Hongs Building.

Although the distance was a bit far, the location of Captain Sun could be identified because the Thirteen Hongs Building was relatively tall and towered over other buildings.

The two sides exchanged fire for another ten minutes. Now, everyone from the battalion commander to the soldiers and adjutants could see what was happening at the Thirteen Hongs Building in the distance:

A blue sky, white sun flag was hung on the roof!!

……

This battle is easy to say, but it is also difficult to say, and it is quite suspenseful.

After breaking through the fifth wall, the members of the second team suddenly saw hundreds of joint defense team members running wildly in a group, and their eyes suddenly went dark.

But looking more closely, these hundreds of people were not rushing towards them, but... running backwards?

Chen Tianheng: "We are now deep in the Merchant Corps controlled area and have been fighting fiercely. The center is blooming. Some joint defense groups feel that their defense line has collapsed. They are running away!"

Zhou Shidi: "I can see that this group of people are not heading towards where we are!"

Chen Tianheng: "Old Zhou, I suggest we charge forward boldly. These fleeing soldiers haven't noticed us, and this street isn't conducive to defensive positioning. It's better to just charge forward head-on."

Zhou Shidi: "We're almost at Thirteenth Floor. Charge! Charge to the end!"

According to the predetermined plan, near the Thirteen Hongs, the more than 80 people of the second team were divided into two, with Zhou Shidi leading one team and Chen Tianheng leading another team, to encircle the area from two directions.

"Ignite! Get down!"

“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!”

It’s Li Zhilong again.

After blasting the walls along the way, Li Zhilong had only four explosive packs left, two each for him and his assistant, and they were all used up here.

There should be only 14 gunmen guarding the Thirteen Hongs, and they are not the personal soldiers of Deng Jieshi and Chen Gongshou. However, if they charge directly, the gunmen will naturally fire back, and the second team will suffer casualties.

How do you convince the guards to give up their resistance? Use explosive packs.

To be honest, the explosives used to blow up the wall could not bring down the three-story concrete building, but it was enough to make the guards believe that the building was about to collapse.

Li Zhilong placed four explosive packs on the outer wall of Thirteen Hongs. After they were detonated, another large gap was blown in the wall. But immediately Chen Tianheng and Zhou Shidi began to shout:

"Everyone inside, surrender immediately!"

"Surf the gun and don't kill!"

"If you don't surrender, I'll blow you and the building up!"

……

When he discovered that two revolutionary army units had appeared near his headquarters building, Deng Jieshi, the head of the Merchant Corps Joint Defense Corps, made a breathtaking decision:

He and Chen Gongshou immediately ran from the rooftop of the third floor where they had just been to the basement and hid.

...If he ran away, there was a 50% chance that he could escape. The second team only surrounded him from two directions, not from all sides.

"Captain Deng."

Zhou Shidi dragged Deng Jieshi out of the basement with his hands tied behind his back. Chen Tianheng's box gun was pointed at the back of Deng Jieshi's head.

"I suggest you immediately order the Joint Defense Corps to lay down their arms."

Chapter 43

Xiguan was in ruins after the war.

The Merchant Corps had built a wall and barricade here a month earlier, dividing the otherwise pristine street into sections. After the Guangdong and Fujian armies took action, they built their own barricade in front of the Merchant Corps's. Sandbag wall against sandbag wall, and after a rain, the sacks of earth soaked into mud, turning the few paved streets in Xiguan into a filthy mess.

The fighting was even worse. Not only were windows and furniture shattered by bullets, but some buildings were also severely damaged by machine gun fire. And this was even without either side employing barreled artillery.

Neither the Merchant Corps nor the attacking Guangdong Army had planned to evacuate civilians before the battle, leaving it entirely up to the local residents to decide whether or not they had the ability or awareness to flee. By nightfall, Guangzhou's hospitals had admitted over 200 civilians struck by stray bullets.

During the battle, more than 100 soldiers from the Guangdong and Fujian armies were killed and more than 400 were injured. The Merchant Corps is still counting the numbers, but the number of casualties should be several hundred.

Chen Tianheng's second team also suffered casualties.

Ye Jianying ran from the Third Team's position to the Thirteen Hongs Building. Chen Tianheng and Zhou Shidi came forward to salute him. Then Chen Tianheng's first words were:

"Instructor Ye, hasn't the military doctor arrived yet?"

Ye Jianying: "Xu Chongzhi's troops have been badly beaten. Three hundred wounded are crying. That doesn't even include the wounded from the Merchant Corps. All the military doctors have been diverted there. Do you have that many wounded?"

Chen Tianheng pointed to the building's lobby. "There's one here. There's also one at the water railing and three on Fourth Road. We also lost a member of our team."

Ye Jianying: "You only have 5 wounded and 1 dead? Only 5 wounded, so shouldn't you be more considerate of Lao Xu?"

Chen Tianheng: "We raided the merchant group headquarters, captured the enemy leader, and ended the battle. Isn't it reasonable for us to prioritize military doctors for the first merit?"

Ye Jianying: "Okay, Yun Daiying mobilized the nearby hospitals and put together a temporary stretcher team. I'll ask them to send a team soon. Maybe Yun Daiying will come in person."

"Yes!"

Chen Tianheng saluted. Ye Jianying, on his side, held out his hand, palm upward, and gestured wildly with his eyes.

Chen Tianheng understood what was going on. He took the box gun off his shoulder with a painful look of reluctance and gently stroked the leather holster. After a while, he made up his mind and handed the gun and holster to Ye Jianying.

This dramatic look made it difficult for Ye Jianying to look directly at it.

"That's enough. After the war, we'll reward you based on your merits. If you really want one, Principal Jiang will probably give you a pistol."

……

"It's been five minutes, why hasn't the stretcher team arrived yet?"

"Six minutes! Where's the stretcher team?"

After Ye Jianying left, Chen Tianheng waited anxiously for the stretcher team, asking almost every minute, "Have they arrived yet?"