The whizzing bullet passed through the dilapidated street, penetrated into the head of a warning sentry lying on the roof, and then embedded itself unabated in the wooden stake behind.
The alert sentry rolled down the sloping roof and fell into the courtyard, followed by a large amount of rubble.
Deputy Guard Battalion Commander Wu Jiang, who was resting in the yard, saw the sentry covered in brains and blood and hurriedly grabbed a twenty-shot rifle.
"The Japs are coming! Get ready to fight!"
Before Deputy Battalion Commander Wu Jiang finished speaking, several melon grenades were thrown along the wall into the courtyard, bouncing and spinning.
"Damn it!"
When Wu Jiang saw the melon grenade rolling towards him, he cursed in his heart and jumped into the room behind him, causing the tables and chairs to fall over.
Boom boom boom!
The violent explosion radiated in all directions, and the fiery red explosion fragments mixed with the shattered gravel clanged into the window edges, wooden doors and walls, and immediately became riddled with holes.
More than a dozen brothers from the guard camp in the yard who had no time to react were blown up by the powerful air wave more than half a meter high in the explosion, and then fell heavily. Most of them were blown to pieces.
One brother was knocked over by the explosion and fell unconscious. His helmet was also thrown off. Red blood flowed down his face, becoming sticky and mixed with the dust on his face, making him look disgraced.
He shook his head and sat up, and saw Japanese soldiers wearing helmets rushing into the yard amidst the smoke.
The sharp bayonet exuding cold air shocked him, and he hurriedly turned around to catch the rifle that had been thrown away.
The grinning Japanese soldier also saw the brother squirming on the ground, a sinister smile flashed across his cold face, and he rushed forward.
Phew!
When this brother just touched his rifle, the Japanese soldier's bayonet plunged into his body, as easily as cutting into a ripe watermelon.
This brother wanted to resist, but the leather shoes with cleats worn by the Japanese soldiers had kicked him in the face. He fell to the ground unwillingly, struggling and twitching, and the bayonet was inserted again.
The gunpowder smoke in the yard had not yet cleared, and the Japanese's cowhide boots made a heavy stamping sound on the ground as they charged inside.
Wu Jiang, the deputy battalion commander of the security guard, jumped into the house to avoid the explosion of the melon grenade, knocking over the tables and chairs. Regardless of the pain, he opened the safety of the shell gun and fired outside.
As soon as the Japanese soldier who killed the brother raised his head, the bullets from the shell gun whizzed towards him, immediately shattering his neck. The grin on his face immediately turned into pain, and he fell straight to the ground with a plop.
Wu Jiang pulled the trigger of the shell gun and fired twenty rounds of ammunition in a row. All five Japanese soldiers who rushed into the yard were knocked over, and the Japanese soldiers behind were so frightened that they shrank back.
Wu Jiang was worried about the safety of Liu Xing, the deputy commander next door, so he ran out of the door while changing the magazine. The enemy's bullets rattled the door frame, and several bullets grazed Wu Jiang's scalp.
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Liu Xing and several staff officers also drew their short guns for self-defense. They were caught off guard by the Japanese who suddenly appeared and stayed in the house waiting for the security battalion to come for reinforcements.
Wu Jiang rushed into the house and saw Liu Xing holding a short gun: "Sir Liu, the Japanese are coming. You retreat quickly, I will cover you!"
A combat staff officer looked at the Japanese who were lying at the door of the yard and shot inside and said, "Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, the Japanese have blocked the door and can't get out. What can we do?"
Wu Jiang fired a few more shots outside, turned and pointed at the back window and said, "Get out of the window!"
"Take Chief Liu away quickly, I can't stop him for long by myself!" Wu Jiang urged while shooting.
The combat staff also knew that it was too late, so he quickly picked up a stool, smashed a hole in the back window, and helped Liu Xing get out.
The Japanese soldiers who had infiltrated were shrewd and discovered that this was a headquarters, so they launched a surprise attack. However, they did not expect that as soon as they rushed in, they suffered a head-on blow and were knocked down by Wu Jiang several times.
"Machine gun cover!" The Japanese commander was not a vegetarian. He immediately ordered the machine gun to suppress it and the infantry detachment to attack.
Ta da da - da da da -
The Japs machine gunners were all experienced veterans, and they fired bullets like water. Wu Jiang was so crushed that he could not lift his head.
Through the smoke, I saw more than a dozen Japanese soldiers hunched over under the cover of machine guns. Without hesitation, they turned around and ran through the window.
The advancing Japanese soldiers ran to the wall and squatted down. One Japanese soldier threw a melon grenade into the room. The tables and chairs were blown to pieces, and the whole room was filled with smoke.
Before the smoke cleared, the advancing Japanese soldiers had already rushed into the house with bayonets in hand, but Wujiang and the others had already run away, and none of them were able to catch a single one of them.
The sudden sound of machine gunfire caused Yang Ling and others who were running around looking for the frontline headquarters to stop in their tracks. They recognized the sound of the Japanese's crooked light machine gun.
Company Commander Wang Huzi hid behind the broken wall, pointed to the street ahead on the left and said: "It's coming from over there——"
"Shall we fight?" Liu Yidao approached Yang Ling and asked.
Yang Ling did not hesitate at all: "It should be that the friendly forces encountered the Japanese. Let's go up to help and inquire about the headquarters."
After the order was issued, Liu Yidao led more than 150 men into the alley, and Wang Huzi and Blacksmith each led more than 300 brothers to outflank the battlefield.
Yang Ling and Qin Shou personally led the remaining five hundred brothers to meet him head-on.
Liu Xing, the deputy commander of the garrison, personally went to the front line of Guanghua Gate to direct the battle, but the situation on the battlefield was so complicated that he did not expect to be attacked by the Japanese who had infiltrated in. At this moment, he was running in a panic.
Three combat companies of Liu Xing's guard battalion have been reinforced to fight on the front line, leaving only one guard platoon. At this moment, there is no ability to fight back.
The Japanese soldiers were like wild wolves smelling something fishy. They judged from the maps and documents in the headquarters that this was a high-level headquarters and pursued Liu Xing and the others.
In order to cover the transfer of Liu Xing and his staff, the soldiers of the guard platoon relied on the ruins of the streets to desperately stop the Japanese.
The Japanese soldiers had good marksmanship and were very familiar with fighting in the streets. The guards who blocked the attack were shot and fell to the ground one after another.
Snapped!
Snapped!
Da da da--
The crisp sound of gunfire echoed in the streets, occasionally mixed with the explosion of melon grenades. The soldiers in the guard platoon were unable to stop the Japanese soldiers' pursuit.
When Liu Xing and the others were blocked by the Japs into a building, they saw that the Japs' last line of defense was about to fall, when suddenly loud shouts of death rang out from the outside.
Among the ruins, countless Chinese soldiers came to kill them. The Japanese hurriedly fired covertly, trying to establish a defensive line.
Da da da--
The machine gun bullets, which were like bouncing beans, made the Japanese jump away, and they quickly ran eastward along the street.
"Who is your commander?"
Yang Ling asked Qin Shou and the others to chase the Japs, while he put away his rifle and strode into the dilapidated building.
"Sir Yang!" Wu Jiang recognized Yang Ling who was covered in blood at a glance: "You are here like this?"
Yang Ling saw Wu Jiang with a bandage on his chest and hurriedly went to meet him: "Old Wu——"
Wu Jiang and Yang Ling gave each other a manly bear hug. Yang Ling punched Wu Jiang twice and said with a smile: "Old Wu, I thought you were killed by the Japanese."
"I am destined to die." Wu Jiang was not good at words, but he was still grinning at this moment.
The two of them fought side by side among the corpses on the Songhu battlefield for several days and nights, and the two sides forged a deep friendship. How could it not make people happy to meet old friends on the battlefield now?
"By the way, Chief Liu is here too." Wu Jiang hurriedly got out of the way and pointed at Liu Xing and the others whose faces were blackened by gunpowder smoke not far away.
It was hard to find anywhere, but it took no effort to get here. By some strange combination of circumstances, I met Liu Xing, the deputy commander of the garrison.
"Sir Liu!" Yang Ling snapped to attention and saluted Liu Xing.
At this moment, Liu Xing's uniform was no longer straight and he was chased by the Japanese in a panic. Yang Ling saved his life and showed a gentle smile to Yang Ling.
"Captain Yang, it's all thanks to you this time, otherwise I would have told you here." He first expressed his gratitude to Yang Ling and the others.
Yang Ling also responded modestly, which greatly increased Liu Xing's favor.
"How many people are there in your guerrilla camp now?"
"Report to Chief Liu, there are more than 1,100 brothers!"
Liu Xing was surprised when he heard this: "Why are there suddenly so many people in your guerrilla camp?"
Yang Ling smiled and explained: "We fought along the way and encountered many scattered soldiers from our brothers' troops. I gathered them all into the camp."
When Liu Xing heard that Yang Ling was able to gather friendly stragglers, he secretly admired him. He asked, "Can your battalion continue to fight now?"
"able!"
"Okay, now I'll give you a mission to clear out all the enemies that have infiltrated these streets."