coobybook Chapter 604 Comrade Xiuqin, don’t worry, Li Yunlong will definitely be fine!
Chapter 604 Comrade Xiuqin, don’t worry, Li Yunlong will definitely be fine!
With the support of the air force, Colonel Songyuan became truly confident. As long as the air force could destroy the enemy's artillery, he was confident that he could capture Ping'an County. Due to the lack of intelligence channels and the betrayal of Hirata Kojiro and others, it was very difficult for Li Yunlong to obtain intelligence on the Japanese, and he had no idea that the Japanese air force was attacking.
Relying on his keen sense of the battlefield, Li Yunlong ordered his troops to strengthen the air defense alert again. Lin Zhenhua even found ways to raise a fighter squadron on standby, ready to support Li Yunlong in combat at any time.
Early the next morning, a squadron of Japanese fighter planes and a squadron of Japanese bombers arrived over Ping'an County. As soon as Li Yunlong discovered the Japanese air force's attack, he immediately notified Lin Zhenhua.
"College student, the Japanese have sent two squadrons of fighter planes, including nine Zero fighters, three Type 15 dive bombers, and three Type horizontal bombers. They are about kilometers away from Ping'an County. Fortunately, I listened to your advice and deployed an air defense lookout post in Anjiaji, otherwise it would be impossible to detect the Japanese fighter planes in advance!" Li Yunlong asked for help in an anxious tone.
Lin Zhenhua immediately ordered Liu Haishan to lead the team to attack. After making all the arrangements, he picked up the intercom beside him and replied calmly: "Lao Li, a squadron of fighter support has arrived and is expected to reach the battlefield in 20 minutes. You have to hold on for 20 minutes. As long as the air support arrives, the Japanese air force will no longer pose a huge threat to you!"
After learning that air support was on the way, Li Yunlong was completely relieved. The air defense alarm had already sounded, and the people had already run into their homes, cellars and air-raid shelters for shelter. Ping'an County was completely empty. Even if the Japanese had sneaked into the city, it would be difficult to cause chaos at this time, not to mention that he had arranged patrols in advance to prevent the Japanese from doing this.
"Pass on my order. Use half of the machine guns for air defense, and the remaining half for dealing with the Japanese infantry. The three anti-aircraft companies should immediately prepare for air defense. You must destroy the Japanese bombers for me at all costs!"
Li Yunlong's order was immediately executed, and the air defense force was increased from three companies to four companies, which was equivalent to using a battalion of troops for air defense operations. A battalion of troops was responsible for guarding the city gate, and three companies of troops served as reserves. From this, it can be seen that Li Yunlong had fallen into the dilemma of insufficient troops.
After hearing Li Yunlong sound the air defense alarm, Colonel Songyuan did not take it too seriously. He had been looking for the weakness of Ping'an County, but after a whole day, he still couldn't find it. He could only rely on the power of the air force to blow up the city walls or gates. Otherwise, it would be difficult to enter the city at a small cost.
"Order the Hirano Battalion to prepare for the attack. The artillery units should immediately open fire to find out the enemy's firing points and have the aviation forces in the air to destroy them."
Under the order of Colonel Songyuan, two squadrons of Japanese artillery immediately launched an artillery attack on Ping'an County to guide the air force. The air support mission was carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Kazuo Furumura, commander of the 18nd Bomber Squadron of the 79th Wing of the th Division. He had rich combat experience and had participated in hundreds of air battles.
After arriving over Ping'an County, he did not directly order his pilots to launch an attack. Instead, he spent three minutes circling over Ping'an County before giving the order to attack.
"Order the fighter unit to attack the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower, and the bomber unit to eliminate the enemy's firepower points. The dive bombers are responsible for blowing up the walls and gates of Ping'an County, and the horizontal bombers are responsible for bombing the enemy's positions. The attack will begin immediately. For safety reasons, the fighter unit needs to dispatch a squadron of fighters to be responsible for early warning. Our enemy is not as weak as we thought. Their air force battalion has been severely damaged by us many times, but we still haven't completely eliminated it. We must be extremely careful and must not be careless."
"If my guess is correct, the enemy's fighter planes have probably already taken off from Maoershan Airport. This attack will last for ten minutes. Regardless of the effectiveness of the attack, we must withdraw from the battle immediately. We must create a time difference with the enemy and do our best to destroy the enemy's artillery before the enemy's air force arrives."
It has to be said that Gucun Yifu is difficult to deal with. His time plan is very accurate. It takes a total of 23 minutes for the independent regiment's air force battalion to attack and arrive. He just took advantage of this time difference to attack the defenders of Ping'an County. Liu Haishan really met his match this time.
Li Yunlong, who was closely following the movements of the Japanese air force, soon discovered the Japanese's sinister intentions. He did not expect that the Japanese did not directly launch a concentrated fire attack, but adopted a dispersed attack method, causing great trouble to the air defense forces.
"Damn it, the Japs are targeting our artillery. You have to stop their bombers at all costs! Pass on my order. Use light and heavy machine guns to block the Japs' dive routes. Replace all the anti-aircraft guns with new shells. Hit the Japs' bombers hard. We must protect the safety of our artillery positions."
"Zhu Zi, increase the intensity of the bombardment for me. Give me as many artillery as possible at any cost."
This time, Li Yunlong mobilized all the forces he could to carry out air defense operations, but was still successfully penetrated by the Japanese fighters and bombers. More than a dozen artillery pieces were destroyed on the spot, and the casualties exceeded hundreds.
After two consecutive breakthroughs, the Japanese air force quickly withdrew from the battle and started an air battle with the independent regiment's air force battalion that arrived late, which also made Li Yunlong breathe a sigh of relief.
In the past ten minutes, the casualties of the troops have reached 300, and 22 artillery pieces have been lost. A wall was collapsed by the large-caliber bombs of the devils. The most hateful thing is that with so much anti-aircraft firepower, only two devil bombers were shot down. This was completely beyond Li Yunlong's previous expectations.
The Japanese bomber squadron that completed the bombing successfully evacuated the battlefield under the cover of the fighter squadron. The fighter units of both sides engaged in a fierce battle in the sky near Ping'an County. This air battle lasted for two hours before it ended. In the end, no one gained an advantage. They had to withdraw from the battlefield because they had run out of ammunition.
During this period, Colonel Matsubara was not idle. He immediately ordered the Hirano Battalion to launch an attack, attempting to break into Ping'an County through the opened gap.
As soon as the city wall collapsed, Li Yunlong urgently mobilized a company of reserve troops to rush to the gap to defend it. Because the order was issued very timely, the gap was blocked before the Japanese invaders arrived.
The two tanks rushed forward like bulls, blocking the gap tightly. The tank gunners inside quickly aimed at the attacking Japanese infantry and launched a fierce bombardment. In just ten minutes, they had used up all the 50 rounds of artillery shells they carried and successfully held out until the arrival of subsequent reinforcements.
The enemy and our side fought fiercely at the gap. Li Yunlong even deployed all his reserve troops. After paying the price of nearly 300 casualties, he finally blocked the gap with sandbags.
The Hirano Battalion, which had failed in the attack, retreated to the camp. They thought they would be punished by Colonel Matsubara, but unexpectedly, Colonel Matsubara not only did not punish them, but instead gave them an extra meal at noon and allowed them to continue the attack in the afternoon.
"Hirano-kun, you fought very well in this morning's battle. Although you didn't break into Ping'an County, you caused huge casualties to the enemy. I am very satisfied with your results. It is impossible for us to capture Ping'an County in a very short time. You have to know that our opponent is Li Yunlong. Even General Aoki suffered a great loss at his hands. Such a result is completely acceptable."
"General Aoki is already heading towards Ping'an County. He will be in charge of commanding the attack on Ping'an County next. Facing our large-scale attack, the 2000-plus men under Li Yunlong's command can only hold out for two or three days at most before being forced to retreat. By then, we can completely stay in the wild." Colonel Matsubara explained calmly.
Ichiro Hirano also showed a relaxed smile on his face. As Colonel Matsubara's confidant, he knew that even if he was punished, it was definitely not out of Colonel Matsubara's intention. After all, Kojiro Hirata and others were watching from the side. If he did not give some punishment, it would be really unreasonable.
He really didn't expect that Colonel Matsubara could withstand the pressure and didn't give them any punishment. He even gave them extra meals, which made him completely relieved.
"Your Excellency, Li Yunlong is very cunning. He actually hid armored vehicles and tanks in Ping'an County. We didn't get any intelligence about this before, which is why we were completely unprepared. Otherwise, we would never have given Li Yunlong the opportunity to plug the gap!"
While the two were talking, under pressure, Yamamoto Ikki had to sneak into the Zhaojiayu base according to Hirata Kojiro's request. Under the leadership of Zhu Ziming, they came to Zhaojiayu. Since the risk of action during the day was too great, they changed the time of action to the night.
Zhao Xiuqin was very worried when she learned that Li Yunlong was trapped in Ping'an County. She hurried to the independent regiment headquarters and found Zhao Gang and Lin Zhenhua, wanting them to send troops to rescue him.
"Comrade Xiuqin, don't worry. The Air Force Battalion has already gone to rescue. Old Li has more than 2000 people around him, and we have continuous reinforcements. There will be absolutely no problem in holding on to Ping'an County!" Zhao Gang assured in a serious tone.