Under Li Qiufan's order, Lao Ma's artillery regiment soon began to concentrate their artillery fire, bombing Shangyang County indiscriminately, and within a few minutes the heavy city gate was blown open.
"Two Tigers! Order two battalions to rush up and occupy the city gate! The others will suppress it with firepower!"
Li Qiufan saw the city gate being blown open and turned to shout to Erhu.
Just as Erhu was about to give the order, unexpectedly a cannonball exploded not far from him, blowing him away.
"Erhu!"
Li Qiufan's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly ran forward, carried Erhu behind him, and checked his injuries.
At the same time, countless artillery shells exploded on Li Qiufan's position. The power seemed to be more powerful than Lao Ma's howitzer!
"Damn it! The Japanese are actually hiding heavy artillery in the city!"
Li Qiufan looked at Erhu's injuries and found that he had just been knocked unconscious by the explosion without any obvious trauma. Then he frowned and looked in the direction of the county seat.
Judging from the explosion range and lethality of the shells, the caliber of the heavy artillery in the city was at least 150 mm, which caught Li Qiufan by surprise.
"Correspondent! Inform all troops to charge towards the city gate immediately. We will no longer engage in positional warfare with the Japanese!"
Li Qiufan immediately issued the charge order. If the Japanese had heavy artillery, they would only be bombed outside the city. It was better to take a risk and attack directly, so that the Japanese heavy artillery would be useless.
"Bullmaster! Play the charge horn for me!"
After the correspondent left, Li Qiufan called the bugler, then the charge horn sounded, and all the troops began to charge.
Li Qiufan gave up the outside position, which meant that there was no fire suppression against the Japs. The Japs on the city wall began to fire continuously at the charging Eighth Route Army.
Seeing the soldiers falling continuously, Li Qiufan's heart seemed to be bleeding, but he had no choice. If he didn't fight like this, he would be killed by the Japanese's heavy artillery.
"Send someone to tell Lao Ma to fire at the city wall! Don't worry about the charging troops!"
Li Qiufan gritted his teeth and issued a bold order, which was to continuously bombard the Japanese on the wall while the troops were charging.
Although it is easy to accidentally injure your own people, if you don't suppress the Japs on the city wall, you won't be able to reach the city gate at all, and you will all become targets for the Japs.
Not long after the order was issued, continuous bombardments began on the city walls. The pressure on the charging soldiers dropped sharply, but charging against the bombardment also put a lot of pressure on them. After all, an unlucky person could easily be sent away by his own cannon.
"Everyone from the guard camp, rush forward with me! My brothers are working hard, we can't just watch from behind!"
Li Qiufan looked at his troops and the soldiers charging under the gunfire. He could no longer sit still and charged directly with the guard battalion.
This time the monk was not here, and other people in the guard camp did not dare to stop him. They could only escort Li Qiufan and charge towards the city gate.
"Brothers! I'm here to accompany you! Come all to me!"
Li Qiufan charged towards the city gate while shouting to encourage the soldiers.
Sure enough, under the leadership of Li Qiufan, the other soldiers were so confident that they all ignored life and death and rushed towards the city gate with howls.
The charge was not repelled this time. Li Qiufan led everyone to the city gate, killed the Japanese in the city gate fortifications, and then arranged for people to start climbing up the city wall and take down the city wall too!
"Lu Ming, Lu Ming! Where did he die!"
Li Qiufan shouted to the troops that Lu Ming was the commander of the Second Regiment of the Independent Brigade appointed by Li Qiufan. At this time, Erhu was not around and he had to let him lead the team.
"Brigadier! I'm here!"
Hearing Li Qiufan's voice, a handsome-looking man ran over. This man was Lu Ming, the leader of the Second Regiment.
"Lu Ming, the two tigers were knocked unconscious. Now you lead the troops to take down the city wall and then attack the inner city!"
Li Qiufan directly arranged for Lu Ming to lead a large force to clean up the Japanese in the city.
"Brigadier, you're still here, you just lead the team, I'll help you!"
Lu Ming was a little confused, and then said to Li Qiufan.
"Shut up! If you are asked to lead the team, you will lead the team. There is so much nonsense! I have my own things to do!"
Li Qiufan cursed at Lu Ming, then left the main force with the guard battalion and headed towards the city.
"Brigadier, where are we going? It's too unsafe not to follow the main force. We still..."
"Shut up! I scolded Lu Ming but not you, right?"
The deputy battalion commander of the guard battalion was a little worried about Li Qiufan's safety. He just wanted to persuade him to go back, but before he could finish his words, Li Qiufan scolded him and made him dare not speak. After all, he was not a monk, and he did not dare to carry the brigade commander back.
As for why Li Qiufan took the guard battalion away from the main force, it was for the Japanese heavy artillery!
It was miserable to be blown up by the Japanese heavy artillery before, so after entering the city, Li Qiufan decided to take people to find it and let the Japanese heavy artillery follow his surname Li.
In addition, if he follows a large force, he will easily continue to be bombarded after clearing the Japanese in the outer city, so he must find the Japanese heavy artillery position as soon as possible to prevent the troops from suffering greater losses.
After leading the guard battalion around the city, Li Qiufan didn't notice the Japanese heavy artillery, just like a headless fly.
It’s not his fault. Even including him and the guard camp, no one has ever been to Shangyang County, so they don’t know the terrain here at all, and they don’t know where there is an open space big enough for the Japs. Construct artillery positions.
"Damn it! We can't keep going like this!"
"You stay where you are, I'll look for it myself, and when I find it, I'll come back to you!"
After walking around for several times, Li Qiufan decided to go out and look for it by himself. It was still too inconvenient to take the four to five hundred people from the guard camp with him.
"Brigadier, this is not okay. If the political commissar finds out, I will be killed when we get back!"
As soon as the deputy battalion commander heard that Li Qiufan wanted to act alone, his expression suddenly changed and he hugged Li Qiufan to prevent him from leaving.
"Get lost! If you don't let me go, I'll kill you now!"
Li Qiufan kicked the deputy battalion commander away and cursed angrily at him.
The deputy battalion commander became obedient after being kicked, and no longer dared to go up and hug Li Qiufan.
After Li Qiufan settled everyone, he put the pistol on his waist, and then ran directly up the wall next to him.
This shocked the soldiers in the guard camp. They really didn't know that their brigade commander was so skilled.
After reaching the wall, Li Qiufan looked around and found a bell tower not far away, which was much taller than the surrounding buildings.
Li Qiufan decided to go to the bell tower to observe. The height there was high enough, and he might be able to spot the Japanese artillery positions.
After making up his mind, Li Qiufan began to fly over the walls and head towards the bell tower. This was not a difficult task for him who was a special forces soldier.
