742
At the Baoding Garrison Headquarters, Major General Kawasaki arrived for dinner as usual.
The battle situation during the day was exactly the same as yesterday. The Yizhong Eighth Route Army did not adjust its usual harassment plan because of the general offensive tonight.
The sneak attack troops continued to attack the city head on step by step.
The familiar style of play made Kawasaki mistakenly think that tonight would be the same as usual, and Baoding City would spend another night in a steady stream of cold shots. He did not realize that tonight would be his last night on earth.
He threw the kuaizi on the table halfway through the meal, not in the mood to continue eating.
"General, can you have some more?" Cun Shangzhong Zuo comforted in a low voice.
"No appetite..." Major General Kawasaki shook his head.
"Reinforcements are coming soon, and the Eighth Route Army outside the city has not launched a general offensive. If this continues, my carefully laid counterattack plan will fall short before it even starts."
"This is the only chance for our Baoding garrison to save face."
"You'll miss it right before you see it."
"How do you want me to eat?"
The left center was silent.
The decision of whether to storm Baoding needs to be made by the Eighth Route Army commanders. They have the final say. No matter how anxious you are, you can't change their minds, let alone override them.
But the two could not remain silent forever, so Cun Shangzhongzuo decided to change the topic.
He hesitated and reported: "General..."
"The city defense force just reported that the Eighth Route Army outside the city has not made any changes."
"I believe that they will still focus on sneak attacks tonight and continue to consume our troops."
"But this sneak attack cannot go on forever."
"The Eighth Route Army has limited ammunition."
"The humble job specially asked someone to do statistics."
"In the past few days, they have consumed about 300 shells every night, and in the first night, they have consumed more than 2,000 shells."
"If they continue fighting at this rate, they will use up all their artillery shells in five days at most. If they want to attack Baoding, they will not have any artillery shells to provide artillery support."
"I think they will launch a general attack on Baoding City in three more days at most."
"Regardless of whether we can counterattack the Eighth Route Army at that time, the troops must go all out to defend Baoding until reinforcements arrive."
"General, you are the commander of the Baoding garrison. Everyone is looking at you. You must be energetic and become a role model for everyone."
Major General Kawasaki felt helpless, but had to accept this reality.
Just as he was preparing to rest in his room, a thunderous explosion came from the city wall.
Striding to the door, he raised his head and saw the dazzling firelight rising from the top of the city, and the sky was dyed red.
"It's an enemy attack... The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong wants to attack Baoding!"
Faced with this unexpected incident, Major General Kawasaki was not only not nervous, but became very excited.
His whole body seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, and his eyes were shining brightly.
Striding back to the war room: "Contact the city defense troops immediately to determine the Eighth Route Army's siege firepower and siege troops, and figure out their main attack direction."
"The latent troops immediately checked their equipment and ammunition and were ready to attack."
"After waiting for so long, we can finally counterattack."
"Tell the soldiers participating in the war whether we can avenge our past humiliation and whether we can severely damage the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong depends on tonight."
In just ten minutes, Chief of Staff Chang Cun (top center left) returned to the war room with the same expression as Major General Kawasaki, very excited.
"General, your counterattack plan is complete."
"The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong is indeed storming Baoding."
"Their field artillery battalions, mountain artillery units, and mortar units all participated in the battle."
"The total of various artillery pieces exceeds a hundred, and they are bombarding the city."
"There is a regiment of the Eighth Route Army active in every direction of Baoding and may launch an attack at any time."
"The city defense troops are under great combat pressure and are requesting reinforcements."
The smile on Major General Kawasaki's face was wider than before, and he immediately ordered: "No reinforcements."
"Tell all the city defense troops that if they persist for half an hour, a gap will be opened at the top of the city, allowing the Eighth Route Army's siege troops to advance into Baoding."
"But only five hundred people can be allowed in from each direction."
"After the ambush is dispatched, the city defense troops must cooperate with them to annihilate all the Eighth Route Army entering the city. I am waiting for good news from them at the headquarters."
…………
"Boom boom boom..."
The shells from the mountain artillery hit the city top as if they were unnecessary, the flames shot into the sky and the smoke filled the air.
Countless Japanese and puppet troops were blown over in the explosion, leaving no trace of their bodies.
All the surviving Japanese and puppet troops hid behind the battlements, huddled together as much as possible to reduce the area where they were hit.
"Baga, the Eighth Route Army siege troops are coming..."
A scream suddenly sounded from the explosion.
The Japanese leader quickly poked his head out of the crenel.
Hundreds of Eighth Route Army troops, holding rifles and exploding explosive packets, formed a skirmish line and quickly rushed towards the city.
"What a cunning Eighth Route Army. They want to take advantage of the shelling to get closer to us and shorten the assault distance."
The captain analyzed with a sullen face.
After punching the battlement hard, the hesitant expression on his face was instantly replaced by determination, and he gave a decisive order.
"The general asked us to hold on for half an hour before letting the Eighth Route Army enter the city."
"The battle has just begun. We must not let the Eighth Route Army attack the city."
"Order all city defense troops to go to the top of the city."
"Start counterattack as soon as the shelling stops. We cannot allow the Eighth Route Army soldiers to get close to the city wall."
The artillery preparations of the Duyi Regiment continued, but in order to block the first wave of strong attacks launched by Li Yunlong, the Japanese and puppet troops on the city head not only did not decrease under the artillery fire, but increased in number.
"Ready to fight……"
The Japanese captain was keenly aware that the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire was about to stop, so he drew out his command knife and gave orders with a murderous look on his face.
As soon as he finished speaking, the explosions in his ears began to weaken.
The Japanese and puppet troops who had just arrived at the top of the city immediately arched their bodies and slowly poked their heads out of the crenellations.
The rifles in their arms were held in their hands at the same time, stretched out into the crevices, aiming at the Eighth Route Army at Chichi...
"Rumble..."
Just as they were about to pull the trigger, a thunderous explosion reached their ears again.
Dozens of explosive charges rolled towards the city.
Different from the previous scattered attacks on the city head, dozens of explosive packets were all aimed at a section of the city wall two to three hundred meters wide.
Twelve of the explosive packs were right in the middle of the city. With a killing radius of nearly 20 meters, the 200 Japanese puppet troops who had gathered on this section of the city were all killed in just one round of shooting.
The East Gate wall, which the Japanese were guarding tightly, was instantly blasted with a fire hole of two to three hundred meters long.
"Boom boom boom..."
Before the surviving little Japanese could react to the explosion, the sound of mortar shells exploded again.
Twelve mortars were split into two and fired fiercely at the city walls on both sides of the fire hole. Dozens of Japanese who wanted to fill the gap in defense were blown over as soon as they stood up.
"Rumble..."
Three more violent explosions sounded again.
Different from the previous explosions, these three explosions came from underground.
In the violent explosion, the indestructible Baoding city wall trembled several times, as if there was an earthquake.
