Chapter 383: Cannon Fire at Jingzhou South Gate

The order was transmitted.

The Sherman tank slowly adjusted its barrel, aligning the 76mm main gun on the city tower;

The 105mm howitzer calibrated its parameters, setting the fuse for airburst;

The MG42 General Machine Gun team advanced three hundred meters, ready to suppress any Japanese Army attempting to retake the city.

Hu Lian nodded, "Good. This is what the townsfolk who leapt from the city deserve!"

Xu Guozhang wiped away his tears, gripped his submachine gun, "Brothers, prepare to charge! Little Devils in Jingzhou City, none shall be left!"

All three were enraged by the Little Devils, and prisoners were no longer even a consideration.

But they were certain that Jingzhou would be taken, with no uncertainty.

Seeing this scene, all officers of the 11th Division felt uneasy; they enlisted to protect the civilians, yet now the civilians were leaping off the walls before them.

It was to avoid becoming a soft spot for the Huaxia army's assault on Jingzhou.

All troops of the 11th Division were eager to launch a charge now and capture Jingzhou.

Fortunately, everyone restrained their fury and strictly followed tactical orders.

The artillery began forward suppression of the Japanese Army, the MG42 General Machine Gun aimed at the Japanese fire point on the city tower.

Sasaki Toichi could not believe the changes in the opposing Chinese army, "Nani! Why, why is this happening, while escorting a batch of 'prisoners' up here?"

Then, as fate would have it, Sasaki Toichi was disappointed; none of the Jingzhou civilians were cowards—after witnessing the earlier mass leapt, they also jumped when they were brought up.

The MG42 General Machine Gun roared angrily toward the gate tower, suppressing the Little Devils so they could barely lift their heads.

"Division commander, be careful," a Japanese guard pressed onto Sasaki Toichi.

Sasaki Toichi pushed the soldier off himself, brushed his cheek, which was drenched in blood; the soldier who had just covered him now had half his head blown off by a 7.92mm bullet.

"Baka! Counterattack, counterattack!" Sasaki Toichi realized that further exploiting the civilians was now meaningless.

The opposing Chinese army had gone mad, caring nothing for the civilians inside the city.

Twelve P-38 "Lightning" fighters streaked over Jingzhou like silver shuttles, their roaring engines shaking the city tower tiles.

The Huaxia troops on the ground let out cheers, for their reinforcements had arrived.

Sasaki Toichi stood on the North Gate tower, a cold sneer curling his mouth, "It seems the Chinese main force really comes from the north; they intend a strong assault on the North Gate!"

He had already redeployed four thousand of the last five thousand troops of the 39th Division to the north city wall, the horse path, and the barbican, arranging layers of heavy machine guns and 92mm infantry guns.

In his view, as long as they held the first wave, the Huaxia army would suffer heavy losses; however, he did not expect the Huaxia firepower to be so fierce, now bombarding the Jingzhou walls recklessly.

Jingzhou's "surrounded by water on all sides, easy to defend but hard to attack" terrain was his natural barrier.

Sasaki Toichi never imagined that Jiang Anguo had no intention of attacking from the north.

The moment the P-38s reached Jingzhou's sky, the formation suddenly split in two!

Six fighters dived straight at the North Gate, machine‑gunning in a feint attack;

The other six lowered their noses, swooping like hawks toward the South Gate watergate—the sole river gate of the Jingxiang River through the city, normally only for civilian boats and weakly defended.

The Japanese Army would never have expected Jiang Anguo to dispatch a special force to attack from the South Gate.

The Guard Company, however, was superior in both personnel and equipment to any other unit under Jiang Anguo.

Precisely because of this, Jiang Anguo repeatedly sent the Guard Company on the most dangerous missions.

Meanwhile, outside the South Gate in the Reed Swamp, Guard Company Commander Jiang Xingxue lay on a boat, eyes fixed on the watergate.

"Now!" he growled low, "Mortars, fire!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The three 80mm mortars had already calibrated their settings; shells whistled out, striking precisely the stone foundations on both sides of the watergate.

The explosion raised a murky water column, scattering shards of stone.

But this was only a signal.

An hour earlier, Jiang Xingxue had sent five swimmers, who under cover of darkness slipped into the Jingxiang River and firmly tied a two‑kilogram charge to the watergate iron gate and its load‑bearing beam.

Jiang Xingxue twitched his ear, hearing aircraft; indeed, several dark specks were approaching Jingzhou, and he immediately transmitted orders.

"Fire signal flares!" Jiang Xingxue ordered.

Whoosh—Bang!

A red signal flare shot upward, dazzling in the morning light.

In the sky, squadron leader pilot Chen Jie immediately spotted the flare.

He released the bomb button in his hand.

"Change the bombing area!" he radioed urgently, "Target acquired! Follow me!"

Six P-38 Lightnings swiftly turned, forming a three‑by‑three formation, diving toward the wall above the watergate.

Rattle‑rattle—!

Machine Gun Bullets suppressed the lone Japanese Army company on the wall, pinning them firmly against the rampart.

Sasaki Toichi assumed all Chinese forces were north of the city, so naturally they placed fewer troops elsewhere; the west held two companies, while inside and east there were even fewer, only a single Japanese company of under two hundred men.

At that moment.

Boom!!!

The explosives tied to the watergate were hit by mortar fire and detonated!

A violent explosion rang out!

The ground shuddered violently, and the river surged backward!

The entire watergate and the thirty‑meter wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, smoke and spray soaring, forming a gray‑black water curtain.

"Machine Gunners, autocannons, suppress the Japanese on the tower!" Jiang Xingxue ordered.

The MG42 General Machine Gun's roar instantly tore the battlefield air, bullets pouring down like a storm, the reeds ahead falling in massive swaths.

The 20mm autocannon on the landing craft fired at the Japanese on the tower; a single shell flipped several Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese Army in the southern city, still not understanding what had happened, suffered successive attacks, and had already lost more than half its numbers in the first round of aerial bombing.

"Charge!" Jiang Xingxue raised the MP40 submachine gun in his hand and leapt forward from the reeds.

The Guard Company, over a hundred elite men, surged like tigers from their scabbards, wading across the breach. Some held Mauser rifles and fired in bursts, some tossed Hand Grenades to clear obstacles, and the engineers followed closely, stacking Sandbags to build a temporary bridgehead.

Inside the city, the Japanese Army was completely bewildered.

The South Gate garrison was only a company; caught off guard, they were shattered by aerial fire and ground assault. Some leapt into the river to flee, and many more raised their hands in surrender.

At the North Gate, Zuozuo Mu kept shouting, "Hold! The Imperial's survival hinges on this battle!"

The fighting was unusually fierce; under the absolute suppression of artillery, several sections of the wall were blown down by 105mm howitzers, and under the cover of artillery and machine guns, engineers, shielded by Sherman tanks, had already erected several floating bridges across the moat.

The troops of the 11th Division crossed the floating bridges, surged beneath the wall, and had already begun close‑quarters combat with the Japanese Army, bayonets flashing red.

Until a signalman staggered in, shouting, "Division Commander! South Gate… South Gate has collapsed! The Chinese army has split its forces; they launched an attack from the South Gate and have now entered the city!"

Zuozuo Mu seemed struck by lightning as his telescope slipped from his hands and fell to the ground.

He could not believe that, amid such fierce fighting at the northern city, the Chinese army still had a unit that launched an attack from the South Gate of Jingzhou.

ps: Nanyang Democratic Republic (try it; if it passes, continue, if not, write up to 1945).