Chapter 414: Republic of China: Starting from the First Class of Whampoa Chapter 424: One Against Four

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Inside Hanyang Town, airdrop boxes piled like mountains were scattered among the ruined walls, some parachutes still hanging on the charred beams.

The paratroopers had no time to wipe the gunpowder smoke from their faces, gathering in groups of three or five, skillfully cutting the ropes with daggers.

They pried open the wooden crates, which were filled with a large amount of equipment inside.

"Quick! There's a big one here, come over a few people!"

A young paratrooper shouted.

It was a disassembled M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun, its thick barrel lying quietly inside the airdrop supply box.

Four or five paratroopers immediately gathered around, their movements swift as wind, clearly having mastered this weapon in the training camp.

The machine gun tripod was heavily planted on the muddy ground, followed by the heat sink, and finally the thick barrel was steadily screwed into the receiver.

"Assembly complete! Ammunition boxes, carry them over quickly!"

Not only this life-harvesting heavy weapon, but many more airdrop boxes were filled with brand new M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifles and Tomson Submachine Guns.

These weapons were originally meant to replace equipment damaged in combat, but now the firepower had become dense to the point of excess.

Ammunition boxes piled like mountains, orange-yellow copper bullets everywhere, boxes of hand grenades pried open and placed within easy reach.

However.

Although the firepower temporarily suppressed the Japanese charge, the Japanese army's attacks regardless of cost still made the Airborne Regiment pay a cruel price.

The battle lasted thirty hours, from time to time soldiers covered in blood were carried down from the frontline position.

The cellar of Hanyang Town Elementary School was originally a shelter for children to avoid the flames of war.

Now, this place had become a temporary field hospital and a shelter for some of the townspeople.

Under dim light, Primary School Teacher Chen tightly hugged several young students, huddled in the corner.

Two paratroopers carried a makeshift stretcher quickly down the stairs, the wounded man on the stretcher had his thigh sliced open by shrapnel.

Teacher Chen was stunned, looking at that face far too young, now twisted by severe pain.

The wounded man's mud-covered hands gripped the edge of the stretcher tightly.

"Hold on, brother, support is arriving soon."

The medic quickly knelt on the muddy ground, skillfully cutting open the wounded man's uniform.

On the thigh, the torn flesh at the wound was shocking to behold.

The medic took out a syringe filled with morphine from the medical kit.

Directly stabbing into the wounded man's thigh through his pants.

With the injection of morphine, the wounded man's violent trembling gradually subsided, his gaze beginning to turn vacant.

Next, a large amount of hemostatic powder was sprinkled on the wound, and the medic tightly bound it with bandages.

In this cellar there were not only the wounded and students, but also over a hundred disarmed Puppet Army prisoners squatting.

These puppet soldiers shrank in the shadows, watching the scenes before them, their eyes full of incredible shock.

These paratroopers had actually survived for so long in the belly of the Japanese army!

"These people... are they made of iron, truly divine soldiers descended from heaven?"

A Puppet Army Platoon Leader muttered to himself, touching his unharmed shoulder, suddenly feeling an inexplicable shame.

Heavy footsteps sounded on the cellar stairs.

Lv Ziqing walked into the cellar carrying a Tomson Submachine Gun, his face covered in black ash.

He looked around at the puppet soldiers hiding in the dark.

"The Japanese outside are fighting desperately, we are also fighting desperately, but you are hiding here like turtles?"

He raised the Tomson Submachine Gun in his hand.

"This is a Tomson Submachine Gun,. 45 caliber bullets, come fight the Japanese with me, these are yours!"

The puppet soldiers looked at each other, some lowered their heads, others still hesitating to shrink into the shadows.

Seeing this scene, Teacher Chen looked at the students in his arms and stood up.

"Commander, if you don't disdain me, Chen is willing to lend a hand to our army!"

"I am unwilling to see the Japanese return again, forcing me to impose slave education on my students!"

Teacher Chen walked up to Lv Ziqing, extending a somewhat trembling but extremely firm hand, asking Lv Ziqing for a weapon.

Lv Ziqing looked at Teacher Chen, smiled, and contemptuously glanced at the puppet soldiers still shrinking in the corner.

"See?"

"You, seven-foot men, wearing military uniforms, your courage is not even as good as a schoolteacher!"

"Did your parents raise you just so you could die-heartedly be traitors, disgracing your ancestors here?"

A puppet soldier stood up, his face flushed red.

"Commander! Don't say it! I, Sun Danao, may be useless, but I'm not made of mud!"

He stepped forward quickly: "Commander, please issue me a gun, dying on the battlefield can be considered redemption!"

"Damn it, anyway it's all death, I'd rather die on the charge than let a scholar laugh at me!"

With someone taking the lead, the remaining puppet soldiers also stood up one after another, coming forward one by one to ask for weapons.

The fighting outside the cellar was still fierce, but the atmosphere inside the cellar had already changed.

Several local strongmen also stood up from the corner, voluntarily volunteering to join the stretcher team.

"Commander, we don't know how to fight, but we have strength; we can't let our wounded brothers lie in the mud!"

Lv Ziqing nodded and gave a look to the adjutant beside him.

"Give weapons to those willing to fight; Mr. Chen will lead the team to transport supplies to the rear."

"As long as one of us is still breathing, we absolutely cannot fall into the hands of the devils!"

The children who were originally terrified in the cellar gradually quieted down.

They watched Teacher Chen, usually refined and elegant, now throwing himself forward like a warrior without hesitation.

A new force poured into the ranks of the paratroopers.

Although the combat power of these puppet troops was limited, their appearance alleviated the exhaustion of energy and manpower suffered by the paratroopers due to prolonged combat.

The machine gunner numbly pulled the trigger, while beside him, a man who was originally a puppet soldier was drenched in sweat as he fed him ammunition belts.

The men of Hanyang Town carried stretchers one by one, carrying the wounded paratroopers back to the cellar.

"Regimental Commander! There's a situation to the south! A large number of Japanese troops are charging from the direction of Fenglingdu!"

After hearing the report, Lv Ziqing not only did not panic, but was very excited.

"This shows that the devils at Fenglingdu have already collapsed; these are stray dogs trying to escape back!"

"Send a telegram to Commander Lu asking if our army has already landed at Fenglingdu? Request immediate support! Request immediate support!"

The words had just fallen when Lv Muzhi directly sent a telegram.

"Reinforcements will arrive in one hour; please have your troops continue to hold the position!"

After receiving the definite news, Lv Ziqing checked the remaining rounds in the magazine of the submachine gun in his hand and shouted at the officers beside him:

"Brothers! Fenglingdu has been taken!"

"Our task is almost complete!"

At this time, Lieutenant General Yoshida Kenbu, commander of the 37th Division, was extremely annoyed because he could not spare all his forces to retake Hanyang Town.

Not only the 37th Division, but other Japanese army units were the same, with large numbers of troops being firmly restrained.

Yan Laoxi's Jinsui Army appeared wave after wave in the plains of Shanxi, launching a full-scale attack on the Japanese troops around Linfen, obviously putting all their eggs in one basket with the Central Government.

In addition, the Central Army within Shanxi launched counterattacks against the Japanese army, such as Fan Hanjie's 27th Army around Lingchuan and Wu Shiming's 98th Army in Qinyuan, both attacking the Japanese 36th Division at Jincheng and Changzhi.

The Eighth Route Army also came down from the mountains in groups; the Eighth Route Army in the Jin Dongnan area launched attacks on the Independent Mixed 4th Brigade on the Zhengtai Line and the 36th Division at Changzhi.

There was also the Taiyue Column on Taiyue Mountain, personally commanded by Chen Geng, launching an attack on the 41st Division at Linfen on the Tongpu Railway Line.

Thus, after fighting for nearly a day, only part of Hirata Kenbu's 37th Division was alone trying to retake Hanyang Town.

As the 37th Division was a three-unit division, one of its three infantry regiments had already been used at Fenglingdu; the remaining two infantry regiments, along with accompanying tanks and artillery, totaling over eight thousand men, were equivalent to four against one.

After spending a whole day, they still could not take Hanyang Town, which was defended by 2000 paratroopers!