Outside Datong City, a steady stream of probing attacks were planned and stopped simultaneously at three o'clock in the morning.
On the offensive position, groups of Eighth Route Army soldiers were squatting in the trenches, holding guns and looking solemn, waiting for new offensive orders.
In the previous exploratory attacks, only one infantry company was dispatched in each attack.
This time, the four-pronged offensive force dispatched four main battalions.
Ammunition handlers shuttled back and forth in the trenches, delivering box after box of light and heavy machine gun bullets to each machine gun.
On the machine gun position, except for the machine gunner who was staring at the city wall with a serious face, the assistant shooter and ammunition hand were all lying on the side, loading bullets into the magazines and preparing more magazines to ensure that the machine gun firepower would not be interrupted after the attack started.
On the artillery position, all usable mortars were set up.
In the artillery shell storage pit not far away, boxes after boxes of artillery shells were opened, fuses were installed, and then the gunners sent them to the artillery.
The next attack was related to whether the troops could enter Datong City before dawn. Both the garrison and the reinforcements from northwestern Shanxi had to move out their belongings.
When the attack time comes, use your strongest offensive to attack the city.
At the offensive position in the east of the city, the car bombs that the Japanese army judged did not appear. However, Li Hao prepared more than 20 heavy machine guns, nearly 30 mortars, six mountain cannons, 16 heavy artillery pieces, and more for the Japanese and puppet troops in the east of the city.
There were nearly 4,000 attacking troops.
Everyone is like a leopard ready to attack, rushing out when the time to attack comes...
"Captain Li, it's almost time..." Chief of Staff Zhou reminded, staring at his watch.
"Let's begin!" Li Hao said calmly, as if he was giving an ordinary order.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The mortar was the first to respond.
A total of ten mortars roared at the same time, firing shells towards the city.
"Bombardment, concealment..." On the east side of the city, the Japanese captain did not realize that this was an extraordinary attack.
It was exactly the same as Li Hao's judgment, and he directly regarded it as a feint attack he had encountered before.
Immediately order: "The artillery will counterattack immediately and suppress the enemy's artillery fire."
Two minutes later, the Japanese captain was confused, and ten more mortars from the Eighth Route Army outside the city joined the battle.
The artillery shells hit your own artillery positions as if they cost nothing.
In order to preserve their strength, the artillery had to stop firing and move their positions.
As a result, there were at least ten mortars outside the city staring at the city.
The attacking force happened to appear. More than 500 Eighth Route Army troops rushed towards the city wall like a wave.
"No, this is not the previous feint attack, the Eighth Route Army has launched a general attack on us!" The captain's eyes widened quickly, and he shouted with a look of shock.
Then he yelled at the subordinates next to him: "What are you doing standing still?"
"All the remaining soldiers in the unit participated in the battle and repulsed the Eighth Route Army's attack."
"The messenger immediately reported to the headquarters that the Eighth Route Army in the east of the city formally attacked the city and requested reinforcements.
"Rumble..." As soon as the words came out, several different explosions sounded not far away.
Ordinary mortar shells hit the top of the city, and the damage to the city wall is almost zero.
These cannonballs were obviously different, and one of them hit the battlement right on the wall.
In the splashing firelight, the battlements made of bricks and stones were instantly blown to pieces, and the flying stones exploded everywhere like flowers.
A heavy machine gun team hiding behind the battlements was blown up on the spot.
The heavy machine gun and a machine gunner were blown into parts and minced meat, and the remaining machine gunners were blown away...
The scene was a mess and very tragic.
The captain was blinded by the explosion, but his reaction was not slow at all. He quickly ordered: "What are you freaking out about? Counterattack immediately to block the oncoming Eighth Route Army..."
"Woooooooo..."
A series of screams suddenly sounded in the air, easily overpowering the sound of guns and artillery on the battlefield, and finally reached the ears of the captain.
"It's a heavy artillery..." The captain's face instantly turned pale and he exclaimed subconsciously.
"Boom..." Then he heard a thunder-like explosion coming from more than 300 meters to his left.
The city walls beneath my feet seemed to be shaking slightly from the explosion.
The huge fireball that soared into the sky was ten meters high, and the thick black smoke column, wrapped in flames, shot straight into the sky.
After the atmosphere at the explosion point dissipated a bit, the captain finally saw clearly what was going on there.
A nearly fifty-meter-long section of the city wall was covered by artillery fire, the battlements were blasted with gaps everywhere, and several craters were blasted out of the ground of the city wall.
All the soldiers guarding this section of the city wall fell to the ground, and some were blown to pieces. It was very tragic.
What frightened the captain the most was that a small two-meter-wide gap was blown out in the middle of this section of the city wall.
A large piece of the city wall brick was blown away, exposing the khaki soil wrapped inside, and then leaking out from the gap.
If the Eighth Route Army's artillery continues to blast from this gap, after more than ten rounds of shelling, the gap will definitely get bigger and bigger, and eventually it will become a breakthrough for the Eighth Route Army to advance into the city.
The captain immediately ordered: "All imperial troops continue to fight where they are."
"The Imperial Army and the police came to me and blocked the gap with sandbags... Armed foreigners supervised the battle. If they were afraid of the enemy and refused, they would be shot directly. I must block the gap opened by the explosion in the city wall."
"Where is the messenger? Continue to contact the headquarters. The Eighth Route Army has dispatched heavy artillery to attack the east of the city. There are signs that the city wall has been blown open. I want reinforcements to build a temporary defense line behind the gap to prevent the Eighth Route Army from entering the city through the gap."
On the battlefield in the west of the city, Commander Wang of the 12th Regiment and Commander Zhang of the 6th Regiment stood together at the observation port of the headquarters, their expressions more relaxed than ever.
The attack tonight went very smoothly.
The two temporary artillery batteries formed by the two regiments still had thirteen mortars left. After deducting the five that were used to reinforce the east of the city and the ones that were blown up in the feint attack, the Japanese still had two mortars left. They were no match for the Eighth Route Army.
The two regiment commanders specially assigned four mortars to attack the remaining two cannons of the Japanese army.
Another nine mortars stared at the top of the city and fired shells wherever there were heavy machine guns. It was like target practice, uprooting one firepower point after another.
They had never played such a clean offense before.
"Captain Wang, if the fight continues like this, we might be able to advance into Datong City before Chengdong does!" Commander Zhang of the Sixth Regiment said with expectation.
"Impossible!" Captain Wang was very self-aware.
"There are heavy artillery in the east of the city, which can directly blow open the city wall. If we want to enter the city, we can only send troops to rush to the foot of the city wall and blast them. The casualties will be too high."
"It doesn't matter that the Japanese are being suppressed by us now, but they have too many people and many light and heavy machine guns. According to the current attack rhythm, it may not be possible to blow up all the machine gun fire points on the city wall in three hours."
"I think we should fight according to the rules and use artillery shells to slowly consume the Japanese on the wall."
"When the east of the city is breached, the Japanese and puppet troops will naturally abandon the city wall, and then we will rush in and beat up the drowned dogs."
Captain Zhang thought for a moment and agreed: "I listen to you! But our offensive needs to be strengthened, otherwise we won't even know the Japanese are sending troops from here to reinforce the east of the city."
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