Rise From Eight Hundred

However, as howitzer, field artillery, and mountain artillery shells exploded hundreds or even tens of meters in front of Cangcheng, the sound of artillery gradually became sparse.

"As I said before, hide well, the real artillery attack of the devils is coming." Tightening his helmet strap, the young deputy squad leader hid his body deep in the fortifications and said to the two signalmen whose faces were already pale.

The storm is coming, and this terrible silence indicates that a bigger storm is coming.

Sure enough, after about five minutes, the sky over Cangcheng was filled with continuous whistling of shells!

Moreover, the whistling of shells this time was short and sharp, like screaming directly in the ear!

For those who are a little timid, let alone waiting for the shells to fall to the ground and explode, just listening to the whistling of the shells on the top of their heads can scare them to death.

The young deputy squad leader had already put his fists under his chest, and at the same time, he curled up desperately and stuck to the ground tightly.

He had taught this tactical move to two signalmen before he went to the observation post on the city wall. If they were not killed by the explosion but were killed by the violent vibration of the shells, it would be too unfair.

And this move was also learned with blood in the battle of Dachang Town, where the 43rd Army also encountered the bombardment of 105 howitzers and even 150 howitzers. In the early days of the war, many Chinese soldiers were not hit by the shock waves of the shells, but still lay in the trenches or even died quietly in the individual anti-artillery holes.

They were killed by the shock waves generated by the close-range explosion of large-caliber shells.

As for closing their eyes tightly, it has nothing to do with tactics, nor is it because they are afraid of being blinded by the dust. It is purely because it is a national habit to close their eyes and ask for blessings from ancestors.

No Chinese stares with big eyes and silently prays for blessings from ancestors, right?

He did everything he could, but whether he could survive such a bombardment could not rely on courage or tactics, but only luck.

Not only was he betting, but all the Chinese soldiers within the range of the Japanese artillery were betting that their luck was not so bad that they would not be hit by the shells in the bullet shelter.

Those hastily dug bullet shelters could defend against 75-caliber artillery or even 105-caliber howitzers, but they could never defend against 127-caliber naval guns. The tens of kilograms of projectiles flying in the air at a speed of 800 meters per second could only be defended by permanent fortifications cast with reinforced concrete.

The next moment, the young deputy squad leader's ears, which had been stuffed with cotton, suddenly burst into a loud bang. The huge sound wave was like a sharp thorn, piercing his eardrum in an instant, causing him to suffocate with a headache!

If he hadn't plugged his ears in advance, he was sure that even if he didn't die, his ears would become a decoration from now on.

The young deputy squad leader hiding in the observation post fortifications did not see that clouds of thick gunpowder smoke rose inside and outside the warehouse city, just like wild flowers constantly emerging in the spring grass, and finally formed a piece.

The entire Cangcheng was completely shrouded in gunpowder smoke.

And an orange-red flame with black smoke exploded on the city wall about 120 meters away from him.

Bricks, stones and broken wood flew across the fortifications like raindrops, and continuous collisions could be heard in the fortifications, just like the end of the world.

The two signalmen were obviously lucky. If they had not chosen to hide in this fortification with their deputy squad leader because of fear, one of them would have been blown to pieces with the fortifications closer to the explosion point, and not even a bone residue could be found.

However, this meant that all of them were not lucky enough.

This was just the first round of the Japanese artillery bombardment, and the city wall, which was only three meters wide, was hit by artillery shells.

Once the Japanese army started shelling, it usually lasted more than 20 minutes.

Sure enough, as time went on, continuous artillery fire exploded on the top of the city.

The ancient city wall, which originally looked quite majestic and full of vicissitudes of time, gradually began to shake, and the people staying on the city wall were like sitting on a small boat in the huge waves of the sea.

The whole person felt like vomiting, which was the result of the strong vibration of the internal organs. If the posture was not correct, it would not be vomiting, but vomiting blood.

Continuous huge explosions sounded inside and outside Cangcheng, but the three Sichuan soldiers in the fortifications could not hear anything.

Because their ears were temporarily deafened at the moment when the shell exploded on the top of the city wall.

This temporary deafness caused by huge sound waves may not immediately create three disabled people, but hearing loss is certain.

The dialogue between soldiers has always been loud, which is inevitably related to participating in similar battles. Even in peacetime, the gene of loud voices has been passed down.

What allows them to judge whether the Japanese army is still bombarding is no longer the sound, but the violent shaking of the city wall below them.

At this moment, the young deputy squad leader was not worried about whether he would be hit by a cannon and turned into slag, but more worried about whether the city wall would collapse because it could not withstand the bombardment of the shells. In that case, it would not only be him and his companions who would die, but also the four infantry companies and one fire support company responsible for the defense of the entire Cangcheng, with 750 people.

If the defense of the city wall is lost, all the firepower points will be forced to be exposed in the open air and be ravaged by various artillery fire from the Japanese army...

But in fact, when the 105mm howitzer with a shell weighing more than 22 kilograms exploded on the top of the city wall, not only were the battlements and the fortifications within 30 meters around it swept away, but also a gap was blown open in the five-meter-high city wall.

A large gap more than three meters high and four meters wide.

From a distance, it looked like a belt that was about to be completely broken.

If the Japanese shells could hit this area accurately as if they had eyes, it would probably not take too many to tear open a flat area here that was enough for infantry to attack.

Fortunately, there were no laser-guided shells in this era, and shells also relied on probability. The probability of two shells falling into the same crater was not much different from the probability of spending two pieces to win 5 million in the future.

However, the Japanese shells seemed to be endless, one after another, one row after another, one wave after another, endlessly.

Not to mention that the inside and outside of Cangcheng had long been shrouded in gunpowder smoke, the residential area where the Songjiang Security Group, which Tang Dao reminded, was stationed was also filled with fireworks.

The elegant Jiangnan buildings with white walls and black tiles were like cheap building blocks in the face of the raging artillery fire. They were easily pushed down by the shock wave and turned into ruins. If they were hit directly by artillery fire, they would be full of debris, and only the remaining foundation proved that there was a house here.

Junichi Watanabe reported to Shigeharu Suematsu that the Chinese also set up defense lines in the houses outside Songjiang City. The commander of the 114th Division, who was furious and wanted to give the Chinese a big gift, simply included the entire city of Songjiang in the artillery regiment's artillery target.

Including the city of Songjiang, there were gradually rising clouds of terrible smoke and dust, which were the masterpieces of the 105 howitzers and 127 naval guns with a range of up to 10 kilometers.

Fortunately, the six large air-raid shelters were used to resist more terrible bombs, which were enough to ensure the safety of the soldiers hiding in them. That is, the artillery that could only be hidden in the semi-permanent fortifications was somewhat worrying.

Fortunately, the strategic depth of Songjiang, which covers an area of ​​2 square kilometers, is sufficient for the bombardment density of more than 40 artillery pieces. The Japanese artillery without specific bombardment coordinates was just a few random shots for the not-small Songjiang City.

Except for Cangcheng, other locations were actually more like Japanese artillery using artillery fire to vent the anger of their own general division commander.

In a trance, I don’t know how long it has been. In the senses of the three young soldiers curled up, it seemed like only a moment had passed, and it seemed like a hundred years had passed...

Until the young deputy squad leader felt that the trembling of the city wall under him was finally no longer as violent as before, and the sound of the artillery seemed very close, and seemed very far away.

Filling the nasal cavity was the smell of burnt and extremely choking gunpowder.

I stood up blankly and opened my eyes.

I pinched my arm a few times and felt the pain, then I was sure that I was still alive and not meeting the Jade Emperor.

Really, the air was filled with thick and substantial gunpowder smoke, so white that people couldn't tell the sky from the ground. When I exhaled into my lungs, I coughed violently and almost cried.

When I walked out of the fortifications, I had to be careful to land, for fear of falling off the city wall by accident.

It was not until the autumn wind blew for a while that the gunpowder smoke covering the city wall finally dispersed, and the vision gradually became clear.

The young deputy squad leader's heart suddenly tightened.