Traveling through 1937, I came to fight against the Kwantung Army

Chapter 618 The First Battle (12)

Under the gloomy sky, the sea breeze, carrying a fishy smell, slapped against the fences of Haizhou Port.

A huge cargo ship was docked at the dock. Stevedores were busy moving wooden boxes on forklifts. The noisy sounds of machines and people's shouts were intertwined.

"Stop!" A rough and cold voice sounded.

Lin Jiwen, who was directing the loading and unloading work, looked over.

An angry man appeared behind him. He was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt with a slightly open collar. His hair was combed shiny and his eyes were full of ruthlessness and greed. Lin Jiwen had seen this man several times. His name was Wang Chuanzhong. He was the head of a department of the Haizhou Tianlong Gang.

Lin Jiwen was the former company commander of the 5th Company of the 1st Armored Regiment. He was from Quanzhou, Fujian, and was also a member of the advance team. He came here with Cheng Yue and was in charge of affairs at the dock!

When he saw Wang Chuanzhong coming, he immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Brother Zhong, what's wrong? Didn't we pay our protection fee?"

Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and Haizhou is no exception. Haizhou is rich in resources and has active foreign trade, but there is no army here, only a police station.

Although the city pays a lot of taxes to the British every year, the British are extremely stingy and reluctant to invest. The police department is also seriously underfunded. There are more than 10 Chinese people in the entire Haizhou City, but there are less than police officers, who can't manage it at all, so the gangs here are also unusually active! The Tianlong Gang is the largest local gang in Haizhou!

Cheng Yue and his gang did not want to cause trouble and only wanted to develop in a low-key manner and plan for the long term. Therefore, when the Tianlong Gang first came to collect protection money, Cheng Yue arranged for it to be paid on time, preferring to have less trouble than more.

"Stop talking nonsense. Starting from this month, our Lord Long said that the protection fee of your Xinyue Company will increase from 1000 to 3000!" Wang Chuanzhong said coldly.

The transaction currency in Haizhou is basically silver dollars. Of course, British pounds are also accepted, but they are seldom circulated. At 3000 silver dollars a month, a dock worker can only earn 20 silver dollars after working hard for a month. This is a considerable sum of money!

A chilling light flashed across Lin Jiwen's eyes, but he immediately returned to normal. He asked calmly,

"May I ask, Brother Zhong, why did you suddenly increase our protection fee?"

"Why? I have so many subordinates at this dock. You don't need workers to unload the cargo now. What do my subordinates eat and drink?"

Ever since Cheng Yue brought in the forklift, it used to take at least 30 people to load and unload his cargo ship, but now it only requires 3 people to help. Moreover, when the forklift is idle, it is rented to other cargo ships at the dock, which greatly reduces the workload of the dock workers!

Lin Jiwen felt a little contemptuous in his heart. The Tianlong Gang was a double-edged swordsman. Many coolies wanted to make a living at the dock. They could do so as long as they paid 5 dollars a month. If they didn't pay, they would not be able to get work at the dock. In addition, except for the companies run by the British, all other local Chinese companies at the dock had to pay protection fees.

No wonder it is said that overseas, Chinese people love to bully Chinese people the most!

Behind Wang Chuanzhong were several younger brothers, who were wearing the same style of black shirts, with their hands in their pockets, and their faces full of arrogance and disdain.

Although there were many people, in Lin Jiwen's eyes, these people were just a pile of meat. He remembered Cheng Yue's instructions, took a deep breath, and said slowly,

"Brother Zhong, business has been bad recently and the goods are much less. I really can't afford so much money. Can you please be flexible..."

"Make concessions?" Wang Chuanzhong's eyes widened in anger, and he grabbed Lin Jiwen by the collar. "My word is final at this dock. I provide you with protection, and you should pay some money. Don't talk nonsense to me. If you don't pay the money within three days, you can forget about starting work!"

After saying that, Wang Chuanzhong left with his little brothers in a swagger.

Eastern Front battlefield,

Yantai Peak position,

Company commander Xia Rongqiang leaned his automatic rifle against a rock, took out a cigarette, took out his lighter, lit it, took a deep breath, and two long streams of white smoke came out of his nose.

They have been holding their positions for two days. The enemies on the eastern front are mainly the South Korean Capital Division and the 3rd Division!

However, although these two divisions had the support of American planes and tanks, their attack power was not very good.

Xia Rongqiang's company withstood the three-dimensional offensive of a regiment of the Korean army. Of course, it was mainly because the terrain here was dangerous, high above, and easy to defend but difficult to attack!

He took out a photo from his arms. It was a photo of his wife and their one-year-old son. Whenever he had free time, Xia Rongqiang would take out the photo, which would make him feel full of strength!

There was a buzzing sound in the sky.

"Take cover! The plane is coming!"

Soon, a group of U.S. military aircraft arrived over the position.

Bombs were dropped from the belly of the plane.

There was a loud explosion on the battlefield, and huge columns of smoke rose up.

Xia Rongqiang held his head, covered his ears, and crawled into a crack in the rock. Their position was not chosen on the top of the mountain, but halfway up the mountain. They also used explosives to blast the mountain and created many natural cave shelters!

When the plane was about to leave, Xia Rongqiang looked up and felt a little strange. There were so many planes today, more than a dozen, almost five times the usual number!

After the plane left, the soldiers tacitly hid in the cracks of the rocks. Sure enough, the enemy began a fierce artillery bombardment!

Today's shelling lasted much longer than yesterday, and it lasted for half an hour before it slowly stopped!

After a while, a voice roared,

"Company commander, the enemy is coming!"

"Everyone, get ready for battle!" Xia Rongqiang ordered loudly.

Hundreds of enemy troops had gathered at the foot of the mountain, forming a black mass and began to move up the mountain.

Xia Rongqiang moved his fingers and switched the automatic rifle to continuous fire mode. His crosshairs were already aimed at several overlapping figures!

It was about a hundred meters away.

Xia Rongqiang then pulled the trigger fiercely.

For a moment, the soldiers opened fire with their machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles!

Bullets flew over like raindrops. In an instant, a group of enemy soldiers fell down, and the rest were so scared that they retreated hastily!

Xia Rongqiang was a little surprised. Today's enemy was different from yesterday's. He looked carefully through the telescope and said,

"Xiao Dai, Xiao Dai, count how many of us are left!"

Xiao Dai is his correspondent.

no reply,

A voice said,

"Captain, Xiao Dai was killed in the air raid just now!"

Xia Rongqiang was stunned for a moment, and before he could feel sad, he immediately said,

"Zifei, then go and count the number of people!"

"Yes!"

Through the telescope, he saw that today's enemies were dressed very differently from yesterday's enemies. Even at the foot of the mountain, there were American flags, which were different from the Taegeukgi flag from before!

"Americans! It must be the US military!" Xia Rongqiang felt an inexplicable joy, and he longed to fight the US military!

"No wonder the firepower is so strong today!" he muttered in his heart!

"Report to the company commander, there are currently 57 people left in the company, 16 of whom are injured!" Soldier Li Zifei said loudly!

Xia Rongqiang came back to his senses, he put down the telescope, and a sense of sadness came over him! There were 155 people in the company, and now only one third of them were left. He thought to himself, I don’t know if I can survive tonight!

"Company commander, there are a lot of tanks coming down the mountain!" a soldier shouted.

Xia Rongqiang hurriedly raised the telescope again, and saw more than forty tanks coming from the foot of the mountain and rushing towards the west!

Their position was only about 1000 meters away from the road at the foot of the mountain. Originally, there was a mortar and two 12.7mm machine guns on the position that could block the road. Now all the heavy weapons had been destroyed, and they could only watch the enemy advance to the rear!

"Zifei, go to the battalion headquarters from the back mountain and report the situation to the battalion commander. Tell him that we are requesting support!"

Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound in the sky, like the whisper of death. Several P51 fighter planes swooped down from the clouds like black lightning, with machine guns and rockets mounted under their wings clearly visible.

The P51 fighter jets quickly approached the armored convoy at the foot of the mountain. The machine guns roared, flames spurted out from the muzzles, dense bullets poured on the armored vehicles like raindrops, and the sound of metal colliding was endless.

At the same time, several rockets flew out from under the wings. One rocket directly hit the turret of a tank, and the huge impact force blew the turret away. The tank exploded immediately, and flames shot up into the sky, and thick smoke quickly rose up. Another armored vehicle was not spared, and was hit by several bullets in vital parts, igniting a raging fire. The soldiers inside the vehicle screamed in pain and struggled to escape this purgatory-like scene.

On the highway, the armored convoy fell into chaos, and the soldiers panicked and jumped out of the vehicles, looking for cover to avoid the attack. Some soldiers tried to fight back with the vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft machine guns, but their resistance seemed insignificant under the powerful firepower suppression of the P51 fighters.

Several P51 fighters shuttled flexibly in the air, constantly adjusting their attack angles, and launched rounds of attacks on the armored convoy. Under the baptism of artillery fire, the armored vehicles on the ground were destroyed one after another, and the wreckage was scattered all over the ground. The battlefield was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and burning.

On the battlefield, the volunteer soldiers who witnessed this scene cheered.

"Our air force is coming!"

"Long live the Air Force!"

Two lines of tears fell from Xia Rongqiang's face. The Air Force finally joined the war. Now, it's time to let the Americans suffer!

Several soldiers suddenly ran over from the back hill, and one of them shouted loudly,

"Captain Xia, the battalion commander orders you to retreat immediately!"

Iwon City, North Korea,

Tenth Army Headquarters,

Lieutenant General Almond, commander of the Tenth Army, was quite ambitious.

The failure on the Western Front gave him an opportunity to show his abilities. The Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces, MacArthur, had just sent him a telegram, ordering him to continue the assault to capture Jiangjie and promising to send him additional reinforcements!

In contrast to the Volunteer Army's strategy of attacking the east and the west, the US military is now attacking the west and the east!

Walker's 8th Army will set up a defense line in the Pyongyang area, while the 10th Army on the eastern front will attack and advance, closing the Soviet-North Korean border on the right, bypassing Jiangjie on the left, and outflanking the rear of the Volunteer Army on the western front!

On the Eastern Front, the 10th Army’s attack route is not far from the coast and can receive air support from seven aircraft carrier formations!

The defeat on the Western Front made MacArthur furious. His boasting had turned into a joke. While MacArthur was gathering reinforcements from Japan and the mainland, he continued to maintain the offensive on the Eastern Front!