The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 207 Liberation of Tengchong City

Li Mingcheng ran among the rubble, panting heavily. As his feet in leather military boots kept moving forward, the gap in the city wall in front of him became particularly clear in the smoke.

It was a collapsed pile of bricks and stones, emitting black smoke. The Japanese were firing from behind the ruins, and the bullets were stirring up dirt and rubble on the ground around him.

But these sporadic firepower could no longer stop the offensive of the soldiers of the 1st Company.

He held the M1 carbine at his waist, flipped off the safety, and quickly pulled the trigger with his index finger.

A series of 7.62mm carbine bullets were fired, and two Japanese soldiers who were pulling the bolts of their Type 99 rifles were knocked down immediately. The remaining Japanese soldiers were immediately suppressed back into the ruins by the fierce firepower.

"Charge in!" Li Mingcheng shouted, climbed up the rubble first, and rushed towards the gap.

Several grenades with pull rings pulled flew out of the hands of the soldiers around Li Mingcheng, and the black iron lumps drew an arc and flew towards the Japanese hiding place.

The shock wave of the explosion and the flying shrapnel blew the hiding Japanese soldiers to the ground, and screams rang out one after another.

The soldiers behind him surged forward like a tide, following Li Mingcheng one by one.

"Push the Japs back!" Li Mingcheng waved his hand, and several soldiers fired countless bullets from their submachine guns and M1 Garands at a hidden hole under the city wall.

That was a cave dug by the Japanese to hide their soldiers, which could also be used to avoid artillery fire and air raids. But now it has become a cage for them to trap their beasts.

A few Japanese soldiers inside wanted to rush out to fight, but they were immediately stopped by a net of bullets.

"Burn these cowards!" Li Mingcheng shouted again, and immediately soldiers with fuel tanks on their backs and flamethrowers ran over.

Long tongues of fire gushed out like a dazzling fire dragon, instantly rushing into the cave where the soldiers were hiding. The blazing flames engulfed everything, and the Japanese soldiers inside had nowhere to hide and could only wail loudly.

"It's dark out, get on board!" The Japanese's shrill shouts came into Li Mingcheng's ears from the cave.

Then, "Boom, boom!" two explosions were heard. Li Mingcheng knew that the Japanese in the cave could not bear the pain of the fire and committed suicide with a grenade.

Li Mingcheng stared at the smoking hole and sneered twice: "Haha, what a relief."

Seeing that the breakthrough point on the city wall was firmly controlled by his side, Li Mingcheng immediately mobilized his troops and prepared to break into the city.

"You, go meet Lieutenant Hu from the tank platoon and tell him to send two vehicles to guard this breakthrough point." Li Mingcheng pulled over a communications soldier carrying a walkie-talkie and gave the order directly.

"You, contact Captain Song from the weapons company. I order him to use mortars to fire smoke bombs to block the open space in front in 10 minutes." Li Mingcheng said, pointing to an area between the city wall and the building area in the city.

This open space was obviously the killing zone prepared by the Japanese. Li Mingcheng keenly judged that the hidden Japanese must have aimed at this area with light and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

The Japs were waiting for the Anmin Army to cross this open area without any cover and then suddenly open fire, causing heavy casualties to their side, so he called for the cover of smoke bombs without hesitation.

"You, inform the higher-ups that we have taken the No. 2 gap. Do not bombard it." Li Mingcheng pulled over the third communications soldier, who was also the last communications soldier in the battalion headquarters who had a radio.

According to the plan, if the attack on the gap in the city wall is blocked, the division's heavy artillery will bombard the gap again.

It would be unfair if we were targeted by our own firepower due to poor communication.

Therefore, while Li Mingcheng asked the signalman to report, he took out a signal gun and fired two green flares into the sky, indicating that the gap had been taken.

As the signal flares streaked green light in the sky, the soldiers of the Anmin Army quickly built a defense line at the gap in the city wall. Heavy machine guns and mortars gradually arrived, and the roar of tanks became clearer and clearer.

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Not long after, the whistling sound of mortar shells passing through the air came from behind, and Li Mingcheng knew that the artillery fire he had called for had arrived.

He used the ruins as cover, cautiously stuck half of his head out, and stared at the area of ​​houses in front of him.

The smoke bomb landed accurately in that area. A series of muffled sounds were heard, and then with the violent reaction of the smoke agent, a large amount of white smoke filled the house area and the open ground, quickly obscuring Li Mingcheng's vision.

He sneered and said to himself, "Since we can't see anything, the devils can see nothing either."

"Everyone, wear gas masks!"

Although it was just a smoke bomb, the smoke produced by the white phosphorus smoke agent still contained a small amount of toxins, so Li Mingcheng immediately gave the order.

More than a hundred soldiers from the 1st Company immediately took out gas masks from the boxes hanging around their waists, quickly put them on their faces, and replaced them with brand new filter canisters.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Li Mingcheng patted the shoulder of the deputy battalion commander Lao Qian who had rushed over, and signaled him to lead the 2nd and 3rd companies to guard the breakthrough point.

Before he could do anything else, the captain of the 1st Company waved his hand and led the soldiers into the smoke.

The soldiers ran quickly across the open area covered with smoke. The Japanese on the opposite side could not see the real situation and could only fire blindly.

However, due to insufficient supplies and lack of ammunition, the blindly firing Japanese machine guns soon stopped firing.

Soldiers armed with submachine guns, carbines, shotguns and other melee weapons quickly rushed into the residential area.

Li Mingcheng and the surrounding soldiers quickly transformed into "evil ghosts in the smoke" and engaged in a firefight with the Japanese inside the building.

It is said that a gun is fast from seven steps away, and accurate and fast within seven steps.

The Japanese soldiers, armed only with samurai swords, Nambu pistols, bayonets and other weapons, were obviously no match for the "bullet throwers" such as submachine guns and shotguns, and died in hatred due to the excessive iron content in their bodies.

"Tututu, da da da"

The sound of gunfire echoed for a long time in the narrow building area.

Every shot from the shotgun at close range almost knocked down a Japanese soldier.

In the smoke, soldiers on both sides wore gas masks, which limited their ability to make sounds. The only sounds left were the clash of weapons, the sounds of fighting, and the heavy thuds of soldiers falling to the ground.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, Li Mingcheng grabbed the gas mask off his face, gasping for breath, and big beads of sweat kept dripping from his head.

This is a restaurant on the street, but it is obvious that the restaurant has long been reduced to a semi-ruin by the war.

He walked forward and kicked the six bodies of Japanese soldiers lying on the ground in front of him. After confirming that they were all dead, he waved and led a few soldiers to continue forward.

Soon the construction area here was completely controlled by Li Mingcheng's battalion, and Deputy Battalion Commander Lao Qian immediately brought the 3rd Company and the Weapons Company to deploy defenses.

The other two M4A3 (105) tanks in the tank platoon also roared onto the street, their tracks rolling over the obstacles piled up by the Japanese with debris.

Li Mingcheng watched as the cast iron shovel opened the attack passage leading to the city center, and immediately signaled the infantry to follow.

The streets and alleys in Tengchong City are dense and the houses are connected. The remaining Japanese soldiers used the houses to set up defenses and built forts in every lane, but they could not stop the attack of Li Mingcheng's camp.

After a loud bang, two tanks began to demolish the Japanese's illegal buildings using 105mm high-explosive grenades.

Bricks, stones and rubble flew everywhere, and the buildings where the Japanese soldiers hid were destroyed one after another.

The desperate Japanese could only launch a helpless counterattack, but were killed by the soldiers led by Li Mingcheng who were well prepared.

Li Mingcheng took over the government office, hospital, restaurant, and other key points one after another. Li Mingcheng, who was attacking centripetally, was about to lead his troops to the center of the county town, and the liberation of Tengchong was a foregone conclusion.