Devil's Army

Chapter 2120 Huaiqing Street Ambush

When the Japanese infantry came within firing range, the soldiers all looked at the battalion commander.

The battalion commander did not give the order to fire; he wanted to wait until the Japanese soldiers got closer before suddenly opening fire.

The Japanese army suspected that there was a devilish force lying in ambush in Huaiqing Street, so they advanced cautiously, ready to pounce and counterattack at any time.

The Japanese troops were only about 100 meters away from the fortifications of the First Battalion on Huaiqing Street. The company commander anxiously said to the battalion commander…

"Commander, let's attack! The Japanese are advancing fast, while our firepower is weak. If we don't attack soon, the Japanese will break through our lines."

"Alright, fire!" The battalion commander nodded and shot down the Japanese corporal who was holding the white flag at the front.

Immediately, bullets from light and heavy machine guns and rifles swarmed towards the Japanese troops in front of Huaiqing Street like locusts.

Upon hearing the gunfire, the Japanese soldiers immediately dropped to the ground and quickly returned fire.

The soldiers of the First Battalion hid in Huaiqing Street, where there were both natural and man-made bunkers.

With the Japanese troops exposed in front of Huaiqing Street, they were completely out of sight, putting them at a significant disadvantage in the exchange of fire.

The remaining two mortars of the battalion continued to bombard the Japanese soldiers lying on the ground.

The cannons were glowing red-hot, but the artillerymen hadn't stopped firing because they had no replacements.

Soon, Japanese tanks rumbled over and unleashed a barrage of fire on Huaiqing Street.

Amid a series of explosions, Huaiqing Street was reduced to ashes.

The first battalion of the regiment consisted of only half a battalion, less than four hundred men, who were guarding the main street that led through the city gate. They had to hold off the combined forces of Japanese and Korean troops, who outnumbered them ten to one and were equipped with tanks. The pressure was immense.

The remaining two mortars of the battalion were also destroyed by Japanese tank fire.

Soon after, the Japanese Type 92 infantry guns also arrived, repeatedly bombarding the street corner along with tank guns.

Bricks and stones flew everywhere on Huaiqing Street, and houses collapsed in large numbers.

Before the dust had settled, the Japanese and Korean puppet troops, with bayonets fixed, surged towards the street corner position in a dark mass.

The officers and soldiers of the First Battalion built a temporary defensive line using broken walls, rubble, and sandbags. Light and heavy machine guns intertwined to form a fire net, and hand grenades exploded one after another in the enemy ranks, forcefully pushing back the second wave of Japanese attacks.

Before long, Japanese tanks roared in, their tracks crushing corpses and broken bricks, their thick armored shields pounding into the center of the street.

The rocket troops of the first battalion had all been killed in the battle at Liushuifeng.

Without rocket launchers, they had no choice but to fight with their bare hands.

The demolition expert strapped together cluster grenades and crawled forward, using the blind spot of the broken wall as a cover.

Some soldiers were hit by the tank's machine gun, but still dragged their mangled bodies toward the tracks, and with a loud crash, they perished together with the steel behemoth.

The breach was torn open several times, only to be recaptured by the suicide squad using bayonets, rifle butts, and grenades.

When the company commander and platoon leader of the first battalion were killed in action, the squad leader took their place; when the squad leader fell, the veteran soldiers took the lead.

The wounded refused to leave the front lines, continuing to fire even with blood-soaked cloths wrapped around their wounds; when ammunition ran out, they would engage in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, the shouts of battle, the clanging of metal, and screams mingling with the smoke of gunpowder, creating a deafening roar in the narrow streets.

From dawn till dusk, the bloody battle raged on Huaiqing Street, turning it into a river of blood.

The battalion fought to the last man, with fewer than 100 men remaining, but they still held the position.

The corpses of Japanese and Korean puppet troops lay strewn across the ground, and tanks lay broken and burning at street corners, temporarily halting their offensive.

The setting sun shone on the ruins, which resembled broken spears, and every inch of scorched earth was soaked with the blood of a battalion of soldiers.

At this moment, the communications soldier jogged up to the third deputy company commander and handed him a telegram from the third regimental commander.

It turned out that the First Battalion had already held off the Japanese army's attacks for five days at Liushuifeng and Huaiqing Street, completing the task assigned by the Third Regiment Commander to hold off the Japanese army's attacks for at least three days. They were then ordered to take advantage of the Japanese army's lack of night fighting skills and withdraw into Yanji County.