Chapter 17 A Different Kind of Help

Tang Jingzhong, the regimental commander, watched his attacking troops, who had been full of momentum just moments ago.

They were immediately disrupted by the sudden barrage of artillery fire. The defense line that had clearly begun to collapse was now stabilizing again.

Especially the attacking troops he had sent up; they were now enveloped in clouds of smoke.

Only occasionally could he see severed limbs and broken arms being blasted into the air.

He pointed in the direction from which the shells were flying, "Artillery! Artillery!"

He himself had six cannons placed in front of the position, and these cannons had been bombarding the opposite Nationalist army's defense line just moments before.

Now was the time for these artillerymen to perform.

Zheng Zhi opened his eyes wide in confusion, struggling to hold his legs in his arms.

They had been severed by shrapnel in the earlier explosion.

Now, he only hoped that whoever collected the bodies later would bury his legs with him.

That way, in the next life, he could still be a complete person.

At this moment, he earnestly hoped that the people on this continent could be kind enough to grant him this final wish.

Clutching his legs, Zheng Zhi's thoughts suddenly returned to the day before, when they passed through a village, and he remembered the woman's stomach he had personally ripped open.

Before she died, the woman kept looking at the child impaled on his bayonet, repeatedly saying, "Give me back my child!"

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhi suddenly shouted, "Give me back my legs!"

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong witnessed his own artillery position being hit by shells just as he gave the order.

These shells exploded right next to the soldiers.

Injuring people but not the cannons!

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong breathed a sigh of relief: people could be replaced, but it was good that the cannons were still there.

As he urged them on, someone rushed forward.

These artillerymen knew that the best way to deal with artillery fire was, of course, with artillery shells.

What these artillerymen couldn't imagine was that they were bombed again before they even reached the cannons.

When this happened for the third time, not a single soldier was willing to approach the artillery position anymore.

Although the soldiers on Wanwan Island were brave and unafraid of death, their bravery was only for the sake of promotion.

With several batches of men dying in a row, they were naturally unwilling to keep rushing forward.

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong watched as the two companies under his command that were attacking were blocked by a suddenly charging force.

The soldiers fought desperately, but they were no match for the sheer number of the enemy.

The troops he had arranged behind these two companies were unable to rush up and support them due to the enemy's artillery bombardment.

What kind of force was this?

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong had no choice but to halt the attack.

He began to request assistance from Detachment Commander Chongteng Qianqiu, asking the detachment commander to call in air support.

Lin Fan waited until the charging troops had advanced the position three hundred meters, then he ordered the mortars to bombard all the nearby Japanese soldiers.

He wanted to push those Japanese soldiers further away before ordering the entire team to clear the battlefield.

Today, the Special Forces Detachment had twelve vehicles following them, so they could carry even more spoils of war.

Under Liu Neng's guidance, Battalion Commander Shi saw the Lin Company Commander, who was different from everyone else.

At this moment, Company Commander Lin was carrying a mortar on his shoulder, charging forward.

By this time, the sounds of gunfire and cannons on the battlefield had stopped, and even Chongteng Qianqiu Detachment's mountain guns had ceased firing.

The current round of fighting was over, so what did he mean by charging forward?

Lin Fan's charge forward at this moment was not a solo act.

The entire Direct-Controlled Team was charging. Lin Fan wanted to establish a small, temporary mortar position in front of the Special Forces Detachment.

To buy time for the soldiers of the Special Forces Detachment to clear the battlefield behind them.

Their earlier barrage of artillery fire had suppressed the Japanese artillery position.

Now, Lin Fan wanted to rush up and seize the cannons that were visible to the naked eye in those artillery positions.

But those cannons were fifteen hundred meters ahead of the position.

Lin Fan needed to advance his artillery position forward.

At the same time, Lin Fan ordered the anti-aircraft gun that was being used for training to be dragged onto the position and carefully concealed.

This was a treasure that could not be lost.

Lin Fan and his men moved quickly, but Feng Junya led a group of men even faster.

He had received Lin Fan's order to take a hundred men to seize the six cannons fifteen hundred meters away.

Chen Sichuan was also dispatched by Lin Fan to provide support.

Battalion Commander Shi had never seen such reinforcements before. After rushing onto the position, they not only reclaimed all the defense lines that had just been lost in a single charge, but they were still charging forward.

Weren't these soldiers tired?

Were they trying to attack the Japanese command post?

Judging from the two teams that had just rushed out, Battalion Commander Shi immediately understood: this wasn't a company at all. The two teams that were charging were clearly two full-strength companies.

With the support of Lin Fan and the entire mortar team, Feng Junya's charge went smoothly.

The Japanese soldiers blocking their path were always caught off guard by the infantrymen of the Direct-Controlled Team when they were unable to lift their heads due to the mortar fire.

The flaming rifles spat out bullets, startling the soldiers who had been reveling in the idea of breaking through the defense line.

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong watched as this team charged up, it was simply too fierce.

Were they heading towards his command post?

A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall!

When Feng Junya and his men charged to within eight hundred meters of his command post, Tang Jingzhong ordered, "The Third Infantry Battalion, rush to protect the regimental headquarters immediately.

The First and Second Infantry Battalions, surround this small team that has charged up."

Feng Junya's target was never his command post.

Lin Fan also didn't realize that there was a Japanese command post five hundred meters to the right of the artillery position.

Lin Fan was only concerned about the two teams that had charged out.

When Feng Junya and his men rushed to the Japanese artillery position and began to pack up the base plates and tripods.

Tang Jingzhong finally understood: this team was aiming for this.

To forcibly seize his equipment on the battlefield!

How could he let them drag these cannons away like this?

What infuriated Tang Jingzhong the most was that the soldiers who had charged in were also carrying boxes of shells away.

And that wasn't all. Less than three minutes after the first team charged up,

another team arrived, and this time they really carried away all the shells.

These people were simply bandits!

Bandits!

Professional ones at that! They spent less than ten minutes in his artillery position in total.

And they emptied the entire position.

Then they began to retreat, running away quickly.

In just ten minutes, some of the soldiers from the two battalions under Tang Jingzhong's command had arrived.

These people quickly intercepted them.

Lin Fan frowned. The Japanese were arriving too quickly.

And there were too many of them.

While he directed the artillery to bombard and intercept the Japanese soldiers who had just arrived on the battlefield, he ordered Liu Laopao and Xiao Dongbei to lead their respective men to

support those two teams and bring them back.

Feng Junya looked at the Japanese soldiers who were firing at them from a distance, and he was truly angry.

He ordered, "Put down the tripods! Blast them!"

They had seized three Type 92 infantry guns this time, which could be fired as soon as they were set up.

In any case, all the shells were captured, so there was no need to save them.

They would fire them however they wanted to vent their anger.

Feng Junya also had another thought. Every shell fired at this time was hitting the Japanese, and not only was it hitting the Japanese, but it was also reducing the burden on his team.

He had just seen that everyone in the entire team was carrying shells.

He had been too ruthless this time and should have taken fewer boxes.

But now was not the time to sum up the lessons, only to fire these shells.

At a distance of two or three hundred meters, the direct-fire guns opened fire on the charging Japanese soldiers.

Tang Jingzhong watched as those Nationalist soldiers used the cannons they had seized from his position, using his own shells to hit his own men.

And these people were hitting their targets accurately.

They were always able to hit his soldiers.

At a distance of a few hundred meters, using the power of artillery shells, of course, they could be accurate.

In fact, even if the shell's impact point was ten meters off, it would be fatal to soldiers without bunker protection.

Tang Jingzhong knew he was finished!

Six cannons had been directly snatched from the battlefield.

No one could forgive such a defeat.

He himself could not forgive himself: to have his cannons snatched away by Nationalist soldiers on the battlefield.

Weren't these Nationalist soldiers supposed to be only able to hide in bunkers and defend?

Even if they had organized counterattacks, when had their artillery fire been able to suppress his artillery fire?

No matter what Tang Jingzhong Regiment thought, Feng Junya stayed where he was, he was already firing up a storm.

Perhaps he had found the feeling. Every shell could explode next to the Japanese soldiers, and he could personally watch the shells he fired blast the opposing Japanese soldiers, causing heavy casualties.

This feeling was really too good.

Liu Laopao rushed up at this time with the order: "Captain Feng! The company commander told you to retreat quickly.

Stop playing around!"

Feng Junya was anxious: "Pack up the cannons! Retreat!"

Then he roared at Liu Laopao, "Am I playing around?

Am I playing around?

I'm fighting the Japanese. Didn't you just see?

Every time I fire a cannon, several Japanese soldiers fly up.

In the company commander's words: I'm killing several Japanese soldiers every minute, how could this be playing around?"

Liu Laopao said disdainfully, "If the Japanese knew that they were being played to death by you.

I'm afraid they would be so angry that they would come back to life.

Only you know whether you're playing around."

A burst of mechanical roaring suddenly came from a distance.

The veterans of the Special Forces Company were familiar with this sound, they themselves had once had seven of these things.

"Tanks!"

Liu Laopao and Feng Junya's expressions changed.

Feng Junya quickly picked up the three cannons and ran.

The other three cannons were already about to return to the Nationalist army's defense line.

Battalion Commander Shi and his soldiers couldn't believe their eyes:

Where did these reinforcements come from?

They actually snatched back the cannons that had just bombarded their position in one fell swoop.

This was much more difficult than capturing the commander of the three armies in ancient times.

Tang Jingzhong also saw that three tanks had come to support him.

Detachment Commander Chongteng Qianqiu had immediately requested the nearby tank unit to dispatch three tanks after receiving his call for help.

Lin Fan also saw the three tanks approaching from a distance.

He immediately ordered, "Artillery position! Retreat three hundred meters!"

Lin Fan wanted to return to his position.

The 88mm anti-aircraft gun that he had been dragging along with him for training was at a distance of three hundred meters.

In less than a minute, Lin Fan had quickly adjusted the anti-aircraft gun and lowered the muzzle.

He fired the first shot at the tanks that had just appeared for less than three minutes.

After firing the first shot, Lin Fan immediately began to adjust the muzzle, not even looking at the result.

There were plenty of people to help Lin Fan see the results.

Battalion Commander Shi and his battalion watched as the man called Company Commander Lin, who had just been firing mortars,

now began to operate this clearly very advanced German-imported cannon.

And he blew up a Japanese tank with one shot.

All the soldiers couldn't help but cheer.

Even though they were now busy repairing the trenches and fortifications.

This was the order that Battalion Commander Shi had just given: take advantage of the Japanese retreat to

repair the trenches and fortifications that had just been destroyed.

To prepare for the next battle.

As for those bunkers that had been destroyed by the Japanese, they could no longer be repaired.

Battalion Commander Shi knew: the next battle would be even more difficult.

Without the protection of sturdy bunkers, these positions at key points would be too vulnerable to direct fire from the Japanese artillery.

Lin Fan was operating the anti-aircraft gun for direct fire and had already fired the second shell.

This time, it was the same as before, a direct hit.

Battalion Commander Shi's soldiers simply jumped out of the trenches and all stared straight at the Japanese's third tank.

So far, the Japanese's three tanks had not fired a single shot since they appeared.

Two of them had already been blown up.

The third shell did not disappoint everyone, the one in the distance was blown up again.

This time, not only Battalion Commander Shi and his battalion, but all the Nationalist soldiers on the entire front line cheered.

Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong and the Japanese soldiers of Chongteng Detachment on Wanwan Island saw that the tanks they had placed their hopes on had been turned into scrap metal as soon as they entered the battlefield.

Their morale plummeted.

Lin Fan simply stopped using mortars and used this anti-aircraft gun to bombard the Japanese soldiers who were firing at Feng Junya and the others.

This 88mm anti-aircraft gun could fire twenty-five shells per minute.

Once Lin Fan started firing, he no longer had to worry about the barrel overheating and exploding.

Several shells in a row were fired, dispelling the thoughts of those Wanwan natives who had been planning to charge forward desperately, wanting to get promoted and make a fortune.

Regimental Commander Tang Shengzhi watched as his six cannons were dragged into the Nationalist army's position.

He was so angry that he vomited blood, he really opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood.

If he didn't get these cannons back, he didn't know what fate awaited him.

Now he finally came out of his command post, he wanted to go to the front line in person to urge the infantry of his entire regiment to charge.

He was the regimental commander, and his regiment had a force of four thousand eight hundred men.

Tang Jingzhong believed: if he couldn't get those six cannons back, he would definitely die.

If he was going to die, these soldiers who had lost their weapons shouldn't think about living either.

Instead of having himself die alone, it was better to have these soldiers go and get the cannons back. If they couldn't get back the lost cannons, they should die under the Nationalist army's artillery fire!

The regimental commander, who had calculated the gains and losses in his mind, ordered the First Battalion, which had already been severely damaged, to continue charging.

This time he specifically ordered: "All members of the First Battalion, charge forward, only advance, no retreat."

The commander of the First Battalion was a real Japanese: his name was Yanashita Sansho.

Although Battalion Commander Yanashita Sansho was Japanese, his position was below Tang Jingzhong.

He had long had some complaints in his heart.

This time he didn't dare to have the slightest dissatisfaction: the cannons were snatched away just now because the soldiers of his battalion didn't stop those Nationalist soldiers.

Battalion Commander Yanashita Sansho knew that this incident was very serious.

Relying on his identity as a Japanese was not enough to suppress it. The only solution was to get the cannons back.

His battalion had more than six hundred soldiers left, certainly not as many as the people on the opposite position.

Fortunately, the regiment had also sent the Second Battalion to follow behind his team.

This time the number of people was much more than the defenders.

The more than six hundred soldiers of the Yanashita Battalion quickly charged forward.

Lin Fan no longer continued to use the anti-aircraft gun.

He was afraid that there wouldn't be enough shells for him to use.

Now Lin Fan had re-arranged the six cannons that had just been snatched back into an artillery position. These six cannons were aimed at the area fifty meters in front of Battalion Commander Shi's defense line.

The mortars operated by Wu Xiaobao and Zhao Long were bombing the rearmost team of the Japanese.

Lin Fan let his artillerymen practice, practice, and summarize more towards the Japanese.

In any case, his team had won three thousand mortar shells from Qian Youcai.

Supporting a few small battles was not a problem at all.

And now there were plenty of shells in Jiangyin Fortress. If it weren't for the fact that they were now far away from the fortress, Lin Fan would not have stopped using that 88mm anti-aircraft gun.

After all, that cannon had a fast rate of fire and great power.

Yanashita Sansho commanded his soldiers to charge to a place two hundred meters away from the defenders' defense line.

He already understood the whole story, but he still didn't understand.

What kind of operation was the defenders doing?

The artillery fire was bombarding the rear team that posed no direct threat to them at all, and his team, which was charging in the front, was not bombed even once.

Lin Fan's bombing not only failed to scare away the Japanese soldiers of the entire Tang Jingzhong Regiment, but instead gave those Japanese soldiers the illusion that the team charging in the front would not be bombed.

So these Japanese soldiers charged even faster.

This was what both Lin Fan and Tang Jingzhong wanted to see.

Lin Fan wanted a quick victory.

Tang Jingzhong had the same idea: he wanted his soldiers to launch a human wave charge.

Relying on their large number, they would break through the opposite defense line.

In any case: on this battlefield, the highest commanders of both sides reached a high degree of agreement on this point.

Battalion Commander Shi watched Lin Fan keep busy. The company commander wasn't able to personally go and answer the questions the regiment commander wanted to ask.