Chapter 718: 718 Tanks in the yard

Chapter 718: 718 Tanks in the yard

Chapter 718 718 Tanks in the yard

The further south you go, the less good the weather conditions become, and the sky is covered with clouds, which seriously affects the actions of the Tang Air Force.

But the rain did stop. Although there were still dark clouds in many places, it was just cloudy but no rain.

Tang's battle group assaulted all the way to the southwest, even approaching Wangchun City, a city in the southwest of the Great China Empire.

Wangchun City has a pleasant climate, hence its name. The city is not large in size, but it has a population of 300,000, and there are many power plants and train stations.

The reason why it is so advanced is that this kind of infrastructure is actually contracted by builders from the Tang Dynasty. After all, this is the hub city for Dahua railway construction.

To the south of Wangchun City is the rear area of ​​the Dahua Empire's troops attacking Xicong. Passing Tengyun City and heading south is Nanfengkou. The Dahua Empire's troops attacking Xicong attacked eastward from the Nanfengkou Railway.

 So, if the Dahua Empire wants to stop the Tang army's attack, it is best to defend Wangchun City, and secondly, it must also stabilize its position in Tengyun City.

 In short, if Nanfengkou is lost, everything will be over. So Han Zhiyuan rushed to Wangchun City in person, hoping to block the Tang army's attack here.

The target of the Tang Army's offensive was also Wangchun City. Once this was captured, the Tang Army's flanks would be covered and they could continue to move south without having to worry about the Dahua Army launching a large-scale counterattack from the western flank.

 This is a strategic stronghold and a focus that both sides will inevitably compete for.

The troops invested by the Tang Army were three temporarily formed battle groups. The strength of these three battle groups was only a few thousand.

The troops assembled by the Dahua Empire in Wangchun City were not many, with only more than 10,000 people barely mobilized from nearby. The Tang Army was superior in weapons such as tanks and artillery, and the Dahua Empire was superior in terms of military strength.

On the fifth day after the Dahua border defense line was breached by the Tang army, the Tang army rushed to Wangchun City, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the Dahua Empire army.

Han Zhiyuan thought that the Tang Army would attack Wangchun City in two days at the earliest, but in fact the Tang Army arrived at the outskirts of Wangchun City that day and directly launched an attack on Wangchun City.

 An infantry battalion, under the cover of armored vehicles and assault guns and tanks, easily broke through the outer defense line of the Dahua army. The combat capabilities of the two sides were not at the same level at all.

The battle-hardened grenadiers of the Tang Army are extremely powerful in street fighting. They are armed with assault rifles, and their combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of the Dahua army armed with commission rifles.

What's more, most of the Dahua troops temporarily assembled in Wangchun City were new recruits with almost zero combat experience, and there was no way to hold their positions.

The Tang army launched only one charge and entered Wangchun City. They blew open the city's ancient walls and rushed into the urban area to start street fighting.

 The Dahua army, which lost its command, quickly collapsed, and many people even surrendered directly and handed over their weapons.

"What's going on in the east side of the city?" In the city lord's palace, a worried Han Zhiyuan was walking back and forth in his temporary headquarters, extremely upset.

The gunfire in the city became more and more intensive, and Han Zhiyuan's personal guard commander even advised Han Zhiyuan to leave here immediately.

However, Han Zhiyuan did not leave. He was a famous warrior in the Great China Empire. When it came to bravery, he believed that he could not lose to anyone.

He would never be able to abandon the city and run away at this time. In fact, all he could think about was how to defend this place and block the attacking Tang army.

As long as he stabilizes his position here, the shortcomings of the long front of the attacking Tang army will be highlighted, and eventually become a weakness, and they will be forced to retreat and give up the captured land.

 This is the best result for the Great China Empire and for him personally, and it is also the "hope" that he must work hard to strive for.

Now he has 10,000 troops in his hands, backed by a large city. Counting the panicked and collapsed civilians, there are hundreds of thousands of people here! It would take time for Tang Jun to control the city. He did not believe that Tang Jun had the guts to really rush into the city and fight him in street battles.

"There is no news from the east of the city, and the telephone line has not been laid yet." Han Zhiyuan's command staff just arrived at Wangchun City yesterday, and all preparations have not been done. They don't know this city any better than Tang Jun. So an officer answered Han Zhiyuan's question with some embarrassment, his voice getting weaker and weaker.

"Hurry up and pick it up for me! I want to ask where the people from the 3rd City Defense Regiment are and whether they are still at their original defensive positions!" Han Zhiyuan became more and more angry as he spoke, and finally scolded in a cold voice: "Go and confirm it yourself! Pick it up! Good phone line! If you don’t talk, you don’t have to come back!”

The officer immediately saluted and said: "Yes! General! I'll look for it right away! If I can't find it, I won't come back!"

As soon as the officer left the hall of the city lord's palace, a cannonball dropped nearby and the ground shook.

That was a 150 mm caliber artillery piece from the Tang Army shelling the city. The impact point of the artillery shell was only about a hundred meters away from the city lord's palace.

The terrible explosion scared everyone and couldn't help but shrink their necks, and then the chandelier in the hall of the City Lord's Mansion began to shake due to the vibration. From time to time, ash falls from the roof and hits the blueprints spread on the table, making a continuous splashing sound.

On the dusty map, the attack posture of the Tang Army is marked - judging from the position on this map, the Tang Army should still be a hundred kilometers away.

 But in fact, the Tang Army was already attacking the city, not only with a large number of armored vehicles and tanks, but also with 150 mm caliber heavy artillery!

Of course Han Zhiyuan knew that the Tang Army had a self-propelled artillery called the Wild Bee, which used the chassis of a tank. Its off-road capability was close to that of the No. 4 tank, and it could accompany the tank in the attack.

 So he envied the commanders of the Tang Army very much, because the commanders of the Tang Army could try some tactics that he had never dared to think of in the past.

"Report! General!" A messenger with a bandage on his head ran into the hall. Regardless of the blood on his body, he knelt on the ground and cried: "General! The 2nd regiment is over! The 2nd regiment is over!"

The area defended by the 2nd Regiment is the most dangerous northeast side of Wangchun City. That direction is the main attack direction of the Tang Army going south.

In order to enable this regiment to withstand the offensive pressure of the Tang Army, Han Zhiyuan reinforced the 2nd Regiment with more than 1,000 elite soldiers he brought.

 But what he didn't expect was that in the end, it was the 2nd Regiment that had problems first, and the defense line garrisoned by more than 2,000 people would be over.

"What are you shouting for! Who are you mourning for?" Han Zhiyuan scolded him coldly, and immediately asked: "Speak to me! What happened to the 2nd regiment?"

The soldier who came to deliver the news sobbed and quickly told what happened: The Tang Army indeed invested its main elite force in the east. Under the cover of tanks, the outer defensive positions of the 2nd Regiment were lost one after another.

The leader of the 2nd Recycling Regiment has not yet realized the seriousness of the problem. He is thinking that after resisting for a while, he can order the troops to withdraw near the city wall and organize the troops there to continue fighting.

 But before he actually ordered the troops to retreat, the entire army was defeated by the Tang army's intensive artillery fire and terrifying tanks.

A battalion of more than 500 people stationed on the position seemed to have only managed to return less than 20 of them. The Tang army followed the fleeing Dahua army and rushed directly to the city wall. Then the combat engineers immediately deployed bombs and blew up the building. It has a thick city wall that has been built for more than three hundred years.

Then the Tang army swarmed in, and the 2nd Regiment retreated steadily. Knowing that they had lost their position and the situation was not good, the commander of the 2nd Regiment shot himself. Then the remaining 2nd Regiment troops collapsed.

The person who came to deliver the letter was the one who begged the 2nd regimental leader to come back and deliver the letter before he died. During the time he came to the City Lord's Mansion, the 2nd Regiment... no longer existed.

The 3rd regiment was contacted to make up for it. The 2nd regiment seemed to be completely hopeless. Now Han Zhiyuan suddenly felt that the situation was not good.

The combat troops he brought were only about 2,000 at most, including guards. The remaining 8,000 were city defense troops, as well as second-line garrisons mobilized from nearby areas.

If these troops are stabilized, they can still fight with the wind, but if the wind goes against them, the speed of collapse of these troops is basically the same as the speed of the enemy's attack.

"The situation is not good! Let people pack up their things! Retreat to the west of the city!" Although his courage was still there, Han Zhiyuan didn't want to die meaninglessly here, so he planned to continue retreating south with his elite troops.

At worst, we can go to Tengyun and continue to hold on, so we can keep the green hills and don’t have to worry about having no firewood, right? He comforted himself in his mind, and then began to arrange for people to sort out the files, and then burn them all as firewood.

Hearing Han Zhiyuan's instructions, the officers on the left and right immediately began to get busy. Some of them organized documents, and some began to stuff telegrams and newspapers into the trash can.

After a while, someone lit a match and threw it into the iron trash can. The paper was not completely burned, and the choking gray smoke that came out immediately irritated everyone's noses.

Things were still burning here, and Han Zhiyuan heard gunshots not far away. He was startled, then quickly walked out of the room, walked through the corridor, and saw his guard captain.

"What happened? Where is the shooting going on?" Han Zhiyuan saw the guard captain holding a pistol and asked immediately.

The guard captain turned pale and replied: "General! Something bad has happened. A tank of the Tang Army is at the corner of the street! My people are preventing the Tang Army around the tank from approaching here!"

"What?" Han Zhiyuan's voice suddenly became louder after hearing the news. He subconsciously held down the pistol at his waist and ordered: "Hold on! Cover the retreat of the command headquarters!"

 Before he finished speaking, the courtyard wall was knocked down by a No. 4 tank. The tank was majestic, rolling its not-so-wide tracks and twisting its huge body before appearing in front of everyone.

"Ah!" A female secretary in the headquarters screamed, and the civilian officers in the yard suddenly ran like dogs and scurried away.

 (End of this chapter)