Chapter 302

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Tenth Division Headquarters.

Isogai Rensuke was planning tomorrow's breakout operation, "Here, General Tsuchiharu's Rapid Detachment will assault southward from here, and we will also launch our breakout in this direction!

By then, concentrate all available tanks, rapid-fire guns, elite infantry, and heavy artillery units......

The heavy artillery will conduct a forty-minute sudden bombardment on the designated assault area, expending all stored high-explosive shells and smoke grenades! Open a path for the assault force!"

"Hai!" everyone responded in unison.

"Not good! Division Commander! The Chinese army on the front at Taierzhuang has suddenly launched a large-scale raid! The offensive is extremely fierce!" a communications staff officer rushed in unsteadily, shouting loudly.

Isogai Rensuke furrowed his brow, took the telegram, and quickly scanned it.

Isogai Rensuke handed the telegram to Tei Bujakuki, saying worriedly, "It seems the Chinese can no longer sit still. They must have caught wind of the Fourteenth Division's imminent relief, so they want to launch a fierce attack before we escape, disrupting our army's deployment."

Detachment Commander Seiya Kei said worriedly, "The Seto Detachment has fought bitterly for days; I don't know if I can hold out any longer......"

"Hold out even if you can't!" Isogai Rensuke said, "Reinforcements are already on the way. Just hold on for one more night, and tomorrow at dawn will be the turning point. The Tenth Division has not yet reached the point of collapse at the first touch. You immediately go to the frontline to command from the front!"

"Hai!" Major General Seiya Kei stood at attention, quickly left the headquarters, and rushed to the frontline to block the Xia State Army's counterattack.

Outside Taierzhuang, at the rocket artillery launch position.

Twenty-four oddly shaped trucks were deployed in three rows, each with sixteen thick, long launch tubes fixed at the rear, their dark muzzles pointing toward the Seto Detachment's position.

Lv Muzhi stood beside a command vehicle, holding a pocket watch in his hand. Li Zongren stood at his side, his eyes filled with curiosity and anticipation.

"Are they all calibrated?" Lv Muzhi asked the artillery battalion commander beside him, a bespectacled major who looked more like a technician.

Twenty-four rocket artillery pieces formed a rocket artillery battalion. The artillerymen in the battalion had also come to Xuzhou from the southwest with the military train. Apart from testing and target practice at the military factory, this was the first time the rocket artillery battalion was committed to actual combat after its formation.

"Report to Lu Commander! All twenty-four launch vehicles, firing parameters have been set according to the target area coordinates!"

"Sixteen tubes per vehicle, all loaded with high-explosive fragmentation rockets!" The voice of the major battalion commander of the rocket artillery battalion trembled slightly with excitement.

This weapon, codenamed "Sichuan-Chongqing Girl," they had trained and broken in for a long time, and today was its first actual combat use.

Lv Muzhi nodded, looking at Li Zongren: "De Gong, let's open our eyes together. On such a scale, I'm seeing it for the first time too!"

He raised his arm toward the battalion commander awaiting orders: "Rocket Artillery Battalion, entire battalion—prepare!"

The soldiers beside all the launch vehicles quickly completed their final checks, ready to fire at any moment.

Three, two, one

"Fire!"

Lv Muzhi's arm came down hard.

About half a second later, twenty-four launch vehicles, sixteen launch tubes per vehicle, three hundred eighty-four launch tubes across the entire battalion, erupted in a terrifying roar far exceeding a conventional artillery salvo!

It was not the intermittent bang-bang of cannon fire, but a continuous, violent roar.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh——!!!!

Countless dazzling tail flames surged out from the launch tubes, scorching heat waves sweeping the surroundings, grass and trees bending low, dust flying.

Countless rocket shells trailed long tail flames, like a meteor storm, crashing down on the Seto Detachment's position in the northwest like a sky-covering, earth-shrouding deluge!

Li Zongren instinctively retreated half a step. Despite being over a hundred meters from the launch vehicles, he could still feel the violent trembling of the earth beneath his feet and the scorching, violent energy in the air.

Li Zongren had originally been staring with his mouth open in surprise, but then he was fed a mouthful of dust kicked up by the rocket artillery, finally covering his mouth with his hand, momentarily speechless.

When the last rocket shell left the rack, only a cloud of smoke and dust remained on the position. The soldiers of the rocket artillery battalion quickly boarded the rocket artillery vehicles and drove away from the scene.

Of those three hundred eighty-four rocket artillery shells, some had just landed on the Japanese position, while others were still flying through the air.

Li Zongren shouted loudly behind Lv Muzhi: "These rocket artillery pieces sure have a fierce temper. The codename 'Sichuan-Chongqing Girl' you gave this big killer is indeed apt!"

At this very moment, the Seto Detachment's position did not yet know that great disaster was imminent.

Detachment Commander Seiya Kei had just sent reinforcements to an urgent frontline battalion, hung up the telephone, and was about to take a sip of water to moisten his parched throat.

Then, he heard a strange sound.

It was a piercing whistle he had never heard before, coming from extremely high in the sky, quickly growing louder, covering the existing gun and cannon sounds on the battlefield, filling the entire battlefield!

"What sound?!"

The first wave of rocket shells struck the Seto Detachment's defensive line like a sudden meteor shower!

Boom! Boom boom boom boom!!!

The explosion sounds completely merged into one!

The Japanese position seemed to be grabbed by an invisible giant hand, shaking and swaying wildly!

Fireballs and smoke columns rising to the sky were thick and dense, instantly swallowing large areas of the position.

This was not the density and power that conventional bombardment could achieve; even Lv Muzhi's Heavy Artillery Regiment could not deliver so much firepower all at once!

Seiya Kei watched helplessly as a machine gun emplacement he relied heavily on in the distance was hit by a rocket shell in the blink of an eye, blowing both men and emplacement into nothingness!

Lv Muzhi's rocket artillery battalion, with an astonishing rate of fire, poured more than three hundred high-explosive rocket shells onto the core position of the Seto Detachment in less than a minute!

The entire target area was completely covered by firelight, thick smoke, and dust.

The air was scorching to the point of being unbreathable, filled with the strong smell of gunpowder, blood, and burnt odor.

The once-clear trench lines, firepower points, and obstacles were now a chaotic ruin.

Mutilated limbs, twisted weapons, and burning supplies were scattered across the shell-cratered scorched earth.

Many Japanese soldiers either died in the explosions or were shaken until bleeding from their seven orifices, curled up in collapsed cover, losing their combat effectiveness.

The command system was completely paralyzed, telephone lines were blown apart.

Seiya Kei lay in the corner of a relatively sturdy cover, his eardrums buzzing, his mouth and nose full of dust.

What in the world is this artillery fire?! A Heavy Artillery Brigade? No! Even if two Heavy Artillery Brigades launched a sudden assault at the same time, it would be absolutely impossible to unleash such a terrifying density of shells in such a short time!

This firepower intensity is simply like... like one hundred, no, more than two hundred large-caliber heavy artillery pieces firing shells simultaneously!

"Detachment Commander!" A staff officer, his face covered in blood and his hat nowhere to be found, crawled in: "Tang Enbo's troops have already charged onto the Second Battalion's position! The Second Battalion's heavy weapons have been completely lost! They are reporting an emergency!"

"Your Excellency Detachment Commander, the enemy's Sichuan Army Third Battalion is launching an attack on its position!" A messenger also ran in.

Seiya Kei was stunned; more than two hundred cannons were bombarding his position—how could this kind of firepower possibly be something he could stop?