Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 981 Sharp Spike Fangs

As the sun fell to the west, the combined fleet of the three countries and the Far East fired thousands of shells into the dense forest behind the beach in Subic Bay. Although seaplanes were dispatched for reconnaissance and calibration in advance, even the pilots above the dense forest could not confirm those shells. What was hit, the opponent was clearly prepared and fully concealed the personnel and materials.As soon as the shelling was over, the two deputy commanders of the Joint Command, French Vice Admiral Desai and Dutch Vice Admiral Rupert, couldn't wait to board the "Malayan".

Bernie greeted him: "Gentlemen, what can I do for you? How about having dinner together?"

Desai tilted his neck and nodded: "Thank you, in fact, we want to know your next move."

"Come and sit." Bernie pointed to the fully set tableware on the table and the champagne bottle leaning in the beautiful little flower basket.

Desai exchanged glances with the red-nosed Dutch general, and sat down happily.Bernie gestured to order the orderly to serve the food, and went to open the champagne himself: "Gentlemen, I know what you will think, the beginning was not smooth, and it was different from what we thought. But we have at least achieved one goal, the enemy's landing ship The team escaped, their landing force may or may not starve to death, but at least they will not be able to push inland for a while, and the Americans can buy a little more time to organize defenses, how about it? Gentlemen, we still have There are two goals to go, and there may be surprises for us."

Desai shook his head: "You know what I think? The enemy knows where we are going and what we are doing. Everything is under their control! There is no secret to our actions!"

Bernie nodded disapprovingly: "It's understandable, the enemy's submarine, sir, the submarine can find our whereabouts."

"We have to do something, we can't let the other party lead us by the nose." Desai raised his voice.

"Yes, do something." Bernie looked at Lieutenant General Rupert, "What do you think? Baron?"

The Dutchman tied up his napkin: "I agree with Mr. Desai's suggestion, do something."

Bernie spread his hands: "Okay, Mr. Desai, what do you want to do?"

Desai had a plan in mind: "If you don't go to Lingayen Bay, the fleet will break into Manila Bay at night to rescue the US Asian fleet, and then go straight to Halong Bay to destroy the landing fleet there, buying some time for us French."

"Why not go to Lingayen Bay? Even if we go to Manila Bay to rescue the Americans first, we can reach Lingayen Bay tomorrow morning. After finishing our business there, it will not be too late to go to Halong Bay."

Bernie finally uncorked the bottle. "I like French wine. Well, that's the decision. Two hours ago, the US Asia Fleet sent a telegram asking us to rescue them first. It seems that they can't hold on anymore. We will do what they asked for. Good thing to be grateful for. At the same time as we go to Manila Bay, the two fastest cruisers in the fleet will go to Lingayen Bay to investigate the situation, God bless them."

At [-]:[-] p.m., on the north bank of the Ford River in Hawaii, the [-]th Mobile Artillery Brigade of the Dragon Army Marine Corps.

"Fire!"

Dozens of cannon muzzles shot out sparkling fireworks almost simultaneously, the wet ground trembled, and the stagnant water in the mud puddles rippled tremblingly.

"Attack!" The artillery shells roared and exploded, and ferocious black-gray smoke clouds rose from the horizon. After 10 minutes of rapid shooting, as the three green signal flares rose into the sky, the tracks clanged and the leather boots fluttered. Stamping on the ground, bayonets shining brightly, the Fifth Route Army of the Dragon Army centered on Pearl City, and began to weave "double pockets" to trap the enemy in front of them.

Li Liang's troops, who were in charge of the main frontal attack, spread out about two kilometers on both sides of the road, closely following the barrage line advanced by their own artillery, and advanced steadily with an unstoppable momentum.The expected resistance did not materialize, and the artillery did not fire special smoke bombs due to the wrong wind direction.But apart from the bomb craters along the way, there are cannons and vehicles, corpses and rifles, bullet bags and wide-brimmed hats, shell casings and ammunition boxes all over the road. There is no artillery fire, no flying bullets, and no bayonets. American soldiers rushing over.

Feeling restless and apprehensive, Li Liang urged the troops to move on, an hour later.The whole team arrived at the north end of the Pearl Bridge without firing a shot, and the infantry did not shoot a single shot, and joined forces with a leading tank company of Yin Xuefeng's troops who were in charge of detouring from the east road.However, the bridge had been blown up, and here and there sporadic fire and bullets came from the south bank, where the two armies halted, gaining nothing in an hour's attack.

In the meantime, at about [-]:[-], a support formation composed of [-] carrier-based aircraft flew to the battlefield.Since no enemy targets were found between the Fort River and the Pearl River, only dragon army vehicles with eye-catching dragon flags were seen all over the ground, so they had no choice but to turn to Pearl City, where they dropped hundreds of ordinary bombs carried randomly. , evenly distributed, almost every building in this small urban area will eat one coin.

Yu Chonghan's army, which was detouring from the west, crashed into the Xicheng District of Pearl City in one breath. Its vanguard, a chariot company and a motorized infantry company that followed the car, rushed all the way, passing through the entire area within a few minutes. Xicheng District, but when they approached the central bridge connecting Xicheng and Dongcheng, they were suddenly intercepted by violent artillery fire. 3 tanks and 1 amphibious personnel carrier were shot and damaged. Attacking from behind, the vanguard retreated while fighting, and temporarily withdrew from the urban area.

Chen Changjie rubbed his chin after listening to the report of the vanguard commander, and pondered: "How could there be defenders? And cannons? Could it be that the enemy troops gathered between the two rivers have already retreated to Pearl City? Or did they come from Honolulu?" The reinforcements from the front have arrived ahead of time, and I don’t have enough infantry and cannons, but no matter what, my mission is to take down Pearl City in one go, and I must not stop here!”

Chariots cannot be used in the urban area, but the enemy army should have no other anti-tank capabilities except for direct artillery fire. Then, the tank platoon is used as a unit, and the three vehicles are alternately covering, leading the mechanized infantry who get off the vehicle to rise up. Attack and see.

After thinking about it this way, Chen Changjie quickly ordered to concentrate all the self-propelled howitzers on hand, and under the guidance of the commander of the vanguard, cover and shoot deep into the bridgehead area that was attacked just now, in order to destroy the enemy artillery that may be deployed in that area. .

Since there are only three roads into the urban area, Chen Changjie decided to deploy only four tank platoons. Among them, two tank platoons were deployed on the main road passing through the urban area to guide two dismounted mechanized infantry companies to make assaults, and the other two roads were deployed on each of the two tank platoons. A tank platoon leads a dismounted infantry company to attack. Since the 37mm guns of the Wolverine tanks are not powerful enough in street fighting, three of the four tank platoons have "Spike" support with 75mm infantry guns. Chariot, this kind of chariot is equipped with multiple heavy machine guns in addition to being able to shoot more than 3 grenades, and its firepower is very powerful.

As soon as the "Spike Fang" was launched, the situation took a turn for the worse. It was unusual for the artillery to shoot at close range, and the several machine guns on the vehicle could shoot in four directions at the same time, without any dead ends.I saw that the wooden houses painted with white paint were either blown up by cannons or smashed into sieves by machine guns. The remaining American soldiers escaped from the houses in despair. The bullet in the eye was swept away, and blood was spilled on the street immediately, and the brains were smeared on the ground.

Pearl City is not very big, and the area of ​​Xicheng District only accounts for one-third of the whole city. The previous air raids have destroyed many buildings. At this time, there are not many houses for "Spike" to vent. Within an hour, Xicheng District was in ruins, and the captured American soldiers also formed a long line behind the marching troops.

Seeing that the "Spike" driving at the forefront rumbled past the American tank that had been beaten and paralyzed by the bridge just now, when it was about to drive to the bridge, a shell roared and knocked down the collapsed building a few meters away. The two-story building on one side was smashed with bricks and trees, and it was a mess.

The leading "Spike" did not stop, but increased its horsepower and rushed to the bridge deck, but the two "Spike" behind it stopped immediately. Search the opposite bank, and then turn the turret, a burst of intensive bursts, the other bank was shot into flames, the walls smashed and the house fell.

The rear of the "Spike" car in front spouted black smoke, drove across the bridge in the blink of an eye, drove to the bridgehead on the opposite bank, turned the turret and gun mount, and fired fiercely in all directions. The infantrymen of the marines followed closely behind. When they came up, one of the squads braved the sniper shots from the opposite bank, protected a light machine gun team, and rushed to the bridge first.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and the stone arch bridge, which was no more than [-] meters long, shattered and collapsed instantly under the feet of the infantry. The whole squad and the machine gun team were not spared. The vehicle body was still on the bridge, but it slid backward into the river along with the collapsed bridge surface. The river water penetrated through the opened upper hatch, forcing the amphibious chariot into the water surface.

In a large mansion in the eastern suburbs of Pearl City, Admiral Scully was enjoying the dinner provided by his master's house, including corn chowder, fish nuggets in tomato sauce, and mixed fruit cakes.The phone rang, and the adjutant on the side hurriedly threw down his knife and fork to answer it. Soon, he covered the microphone and turned back to report: "The enemy has started to attack. We have lost control of the situation and request to retreat."

"Tell him that I have ordered the 7th Artillery Company to rush over and ask him to hold on. I will lead a large force to attack later, and we will surely break through."

The adjutant relayed the original text, but did not hear back.

"The phone is disconnected." Scully sighed, put down the knife and fork, and nodded to the host: "Mr. Cook, thank you and your family for your hospitality. I think I have to go back to my post immediately."

"God bless you, General." Mr. Cook, the owner of the house, showed a worried expression.

"Don't worry, we will call back." Scully nodded insincerely.

(End of this chapter)