Chapter 377: The Army Besieges the City! Jingzhou

Just as Zuozuomu Dao Yi was preparing to issue the order to advance southward into Changde.

Outside, the Messenger rushed over in a hurry, even stumbling and falling.

Zuozuomu Dao Yi shouted angrily, "Baka! The dignity of the Imperial Japan has been completely thrown away by you!"

"Hey!" the Messenger immediately stood up.

"It's bad, Division Commander, the Chinese army, the Chinese army…" the Messenger trembled as he recalled the situation.

"What does that mean?" Major General Zhuan Tian Shengshou stepped forward, steadied the Messenger's shoulder, and helped him calm down.

Thud!

Boom!

Boom!

Countless artillery blasts rang out, shaking Zuozuomu Dao Yi's command post as if the earth were trembling, and debris from the roof fell down.

"Division Commander, Major General, the Chinese army's tank units are already outside the city," the Messenger finally managed to report in one breath.

Zuozuomu Dao Yi and Zhuan Tian Shengshou exchanged glances; they no longer needed the Messenger, as they had already heard the artillery fire outside.

At the instant Zuozuomu Dao Yi heard the cannon fire, he also assumed the Chinese army was bombarding Jingzhou City.

Jingzhou is surrounded by water on all sides, easy to defend and hard to attack; even if the city walls were blown open, a direct assault would not be that simple.

Just the moat outside the city walls is not something attacking troops can easily breach.

Clearly, at this moment the Chinese army appeared outside Jingzhou, catching Zuozuomu Dao Yi off guard, because Jingmen is a full sixty to seventy kilometers from Jingzhou.

If it were a marching operation, it would take three days.

And after the Chinese army seized Jingmen that morning, they immediately moved southward to attack Jingzhou.

Indeed, just as Zuozuomu Dao Yi had thought.

Jiang Anguo originally intended for Hu Lian's 11th Division 34th Regiment to rest at Wuli Pu, but Hu Lian refused outright; the troops of the 11th Division were full of fighting spirit and high morale.

Thus, the lightning war once again displayed its brilliance on the Jianghan Plain.

Xu Guozhang stood atop tank No. 018, gripping the trigger of a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, "Dammit, let those Little Devils taste the power of a heavy machine gun."

Rat-a-tat-tat!

A burst of 12.7 mm rounds flew out; this thing will kill a person if it hits the body, unless it only strikes the palm or foot, in which case the victim just loses a limb.

If it hits a person's abdomen, the body is split in two.

"Dammit! This thing! Really the hell of a kick," Xu Guozhang spat out the cigarette butt from his mouth. He had tried many machine guns, but none matched the MG42 and this heavy machine gun's kick.

Xu Guozhang didn't know that the heavy machine gun mounted on the Hilman tank was actually an anti‑aircraft gun for shooting down aircraft.

When the anti‑aircraft gun is laid flat, the Little Devils are either dead or maimed.

Of course, the Little Devils on the city walls aren't fools; when they saw the rolling thick smoke in the distance and recognized a tank—not the familiar Type 92 or Type 95 tanks.

Their heads were already hidden under the wall; if they stuck their heads out, they'd have already moved away.

Xu Guozhang quickly exhausted his 12.7 mm ammo and shifted his gaze to a 7.62 mm M1919A4 machine gun; after getting used to the good stuff, he looked down on this light machine gun.

Nevertheless, these two 7.62 mm guns had abundant firepower, with over six thousand rounds.

If this were in the past, that amount of ammunition would be enough for a single battalion of the 150th Division for one battle.

"Division Commander, you should come down."

Xu Guozhang was about to unleash his fire again when a guard beside him pulled him down.

At this moment the tanks were preparing to advance; you might think a Major General division commander sitting on a tank has a target that's far too large.

Xu Guozhang had no choice but to follow the guard to a safe spot.

Xu Guozhang came to Jiang Anguo and said, "Brother, this tank is really powerful!"

Jiang Anguo smiled, "Old Xu, just stay put. We'll do another 'Guan Yu Battles Jingzhou' again, haha!"

"Got it!" Xu Guozhang shouted loudly.

Outside the North Gate of Jingzhou, June 3 1942, 18:15.

In the distance the sunset glow lingered, and the earth trembled.

"All tanks, advance three hundred meters!" Tank Battalion Commander Zhang Bing's voice rang through the radio to the formation.

The roar thundered like a drum!

Fifty M4A2 "Sherman" medium tanks rolled over rice fields and trenches, their tracks churning up mud, diesel engines belching black smoke.

Jiang Anguo saw that Sherman tanks on the Jianghan Plain had no rivals, an absolute armored force; each equipped with a 76 mm main gun, dual machine guns, frontal armor 63 mm thick, turret armor over 76 mm, far surpassing any Japanese anti‑tank weapon.

Jiang Anguo stood at a distance watching the tanks roar.

"I've wanted to do this for a long time," Jiang Anguo muttered.

Always limited by terrain, his system couldn't exert any advantage, just like the current tank units on the plain, moving as if into an uninhabited realm.

The Little Devils are only hiding inside Jingzhou; if they fought outside the city, Jiang Anguo, with his four to five thousand men, would dare to take on fifty thousand Little Devils.

Five hundred meters from Jingzhou's city wall, the tank formation lined up neatly, their barrels proudly pointing at the millennial ancient city.

"Fire at me!" Zhang Bing ordered.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fifty 76 mm main guns fired simultaneously, high‑explosive shells tearing through the air with a whistling rush!

The first volley struck the North Gate tower with precision.

Blue bricks shattered, rammed earth collapsed, and Ming‑era wall bricks flew away like paper.

A watchtower was hit directly; a fireball rose ten meters high, wooden beams ignited and fell, killing three Japanese sentries.

"Baka! Enemy attack! It's tanks!" On the tower, the Japanese 39th Division's guard squad was in chaos.

They had never seen such a steel behemoth!

Not just a few, but fifty!

It's not a light reconnaissance vehicle; it's a heavily armored, heavy‑cannon mobile fortress!

"Quick! Set up the Type 94 anti‑tank gun!" the Company Captain roared.

They had just brought the gun into position when the second round of shells arrived.

Boom!

The anti‑tank gun and its crew were blown to pieces, flesh and blood mixed with metal fragments splattering the city wall.

The Japanese Army on the city tower also reacted swiftly, but when they saw their anti‑tank shells hit the opposing Chinese army's Tank and only produced a 'ding' sound, one can imagine how desperate they felt.

In truth, they only have those thin‑skinned Tanks, and the one they bully is an agricultural nation.

But when these industrial behemoths actually appear before them, they have no capability or equipment to cope.

A rookie slumped on the ground, his crotch soaked with urine, muttering, "Heaven... Amaterasu... Save us..."

The veteran grabbed his collar and said, "Stop being foolish! The gods won't come! Only death!"

Before the words finished, the Tertiary round of simultaneous fire rained down.

A two‑meter breach was blown open in the middle of the city wall; rubble tumbled into the moat, stirring up turbid waves.

The machine‑gun team hidden behind the women's wall was annihilated; the Type 92 heavy machine gun was twisted and deformed, hanging on the broken flagpole.

Zhang Bing raised his binoculars and coldly ordered, "Continue suppression! Focus bombardment on the city gate and Corner Tower! Open a path for the infantry!"

The Sherman group roared again.

Shells fell like rain, turning the walls of Jingzhou into a furnace.

This ancient city, which has witnessed the rise and fall of the State of Chu, the flames of the Three Kingdoms, and the succession of dynasties.

Today, with blood and fire, it bears witness to the invaders' doom.

On the city tower, the Japanese Army is either dead or fled; no one dares to show their head again.