In the evening, more than 1,200 Japanese soldiers from the Yamazaki Brigade had already taken up their attack formation in front of the four-row warehouse. The artillery and heavy machine gun squadrons had already entered their designated positions and were ready to attack the warehouse defenders at any time.
Because they were afraid that the artillery fire would spread to the foreigner's concession, which was only a river away from the Sihang warehouse, the Japanese East China Military Command gave a death order to the Takeuchi United Army. They were not allowed to use aircraft, heavy artillery, and tanks to attack the warehouse defenders.
Therefore, Yamazaki Ichiro did not have many weapons to rely on in this warehouse assault. He only had two 75mm field cannons and eight Type 92 heavy machine guns. Against the impregnable Four-row Warehouse, such firepower was obviously insufficient.
Yamazaki Ichiro himself was indeed a top student who graduated from the Imperial Military Academy. Before launching the attack, he carefully studied the architectural blueprints of the four rows of warehouses. At the same time, he learned from the experience of the Yoshida Squadron's destruction and prepared a large number of 10mm wavy steel plates in the frontline attack force to deal with the warehouse defenders.
At this moment, the Yamazaki Brigade's suicide squad consisting of engineers, artillery, and infantry had already assembled. A hundred Japanese soldiers each had a piece of wavy steel plate and formed three steel plate arrays. The engineers in the middle held shovels and steel drills, while the artillery carried a large number of explosives.
In the temporary command room, Yamazaki Ichiro was sitting on a chair with his white-gloved hands holding onto the gilded commander's sword. He gave the order to attack,"
"Target is a four-row warehouse. Attack!”
Then, the two field cannons and eight Type 92 heavy machine guns on the Japanese's position opened fire at the same time. The fire net formed by the shells and bullets instantly pierced through the outer walls of the warehouse. The dust from the impact of the shells flew into the warehouse.
The two squadrons of feint troops used the cover of gunfire to charge at the defenders of the warehouse. Their target was the north wall in front of the warehouse.
This was Yamazaki Ichiro's strategy of creating a diversion. The real point of attack was the west side of the warehouse.
At the same time, the Japanese's three steel plate formations began to advance quickly towards the west side of the warehouse, where the walls were the weakest.
The dense and fierce gunfire alarmed the foreigners in the concession across the river. The Western Military Observer Group, composed of Britain, France, the United States, and other countries, immediately released the airships in the air and looked down at the entire battlefield from high altitude, monitoring and broadcasting the defense of the four warehouses in real time.
The guardrails along the Suzhou Creek were crowded with people watching the battle. Countless Chinese who had not yet cooled down began to cheer for the warehouse guards on the other side of the river.
A few female students in navy blue shirts, knee-length dresses, white socks, and small leather shoes tried their best to squeeze through the cheering crowd. They gathered on the guardrail and anxiously watched the battle on the other side of the river.
One of them had short hair, a tall figure, delicate facial features, and fair skin. She was the girl that Guo Zixu had saved on the battlefield.
Her name was Chen Qiuling, and she was eighteen years old. She was a high school student at the Zhabei Church's Virgin Mary Girls 'School.
"Qiuling, they will all die, right?”
This female student was also one of the people saved by Guo Zixu. From that day on, in their hearts, they had a different kind of feeling for the group of people who did not hesitate to rebel on the battlefield.
Therefore, after learning from the newspapers and broadcasts that only the Sihang warehouse and the national army were still resisting on the entire Songhu battlefield, they risked being hit by stray bullets to cheer for the remaining lone army.
Chen Qiuling's watery eyes had long been blurred by tears, but she shook her head firmly. The image of the man holding a rifle kneeling on one knee and calmly pulling the trigger to kill the Japanese appeared in her mind again. Then, she said word by word,"
"No, they definitely won't. They are all heroes. The Japanese won't kill them.”
In the warehouse, Shangguan Biaozhi, who was in charge of commanding the frontline defense team, was patrolling around with a musket. He turned a blind eye to the continuous gunfire and bullets from the Japanese outside the wall.
"Get your f * cking spirits up. Without my order, no one is allowed to shoot first. Wait for the Japanese's assault team to approach and fight together!”
At this moment, the defenders of the warehouse had not had the time to change into the weapons and equipment provided by Guo Zixu. They were still mainly equipped with the equipment of the German Machinists of the national army. Most of the rifles were Mauser rifles. There were also light machine guns of the Soviet style, heavy machine guns of Maxim, and a small number of artillery cannons and grenade launchers.
At the Japanese's position, Yamazaki Ichiro was observing the battlefield through binoculars. When he saw that the two squadrons were about to advance to less than 200 meters away from the main gate of the warehouse, he curled his lips in disdain.
"Send a signal to the frontline attack troops to speed up the advance. Try to take down the opposing position in the first round of charge!”
"Ha Yi!"
With this order, the two squadrons of Japanese soldiers who were in charge of feinting attacks began to give up on charging under cover. Instead, they directly trotted towards the warehouse with their guns.
100 meters.
Fifty meters.
When they were less than 30 meters away from the warehouse, Shangguan Biaoji ordered,""Beat him up!"
Soon after, the soldiers who couldn't hold it in any longer began to pull the trigger at the Japanese soldiers. The three Maxim heavy machine guns and ten Ukrainian light machine guns formed an airtight net in front of the warehouse, mercilessly harvesting row after row of Japanese soldiers.
"Baka, pay attention to concealment!"
"Where's the grenade launcher? Find the machine gun position of the Chinese people and hit them hard.”
At the Japanese artillery position, the two field cannons were also quickly adjusting their firing elements and firing shells at the firing points of the warehouse guards.
The battle in the north of the warehouse instantly became white-hot. People from both sides kept falling. The Japanese in charge of feinting the attack burst out with powerful combat power and firepower. They launched a deadly charge again and again, getting closer and closer to the main door of the warehouse.
Shangguan Biaoshi's eyes were bloodshot. He personally held a jeep and continuously returned fire to the Japanese attacking forces. He placed all his focus on the battle at the north gate, but he did not notice that the Japanese's three steel plate phalanxes had quietly approached the west wall of the warehouse.
By the time they reacted, the Japanese's steel plate formation had already reached the foot of the western wall of the warehouse. The engineers in the front row began to swing their shovels and steel drills desperately, trying to cut a hole in the reinforced concrete wall so that they could place the explosives.
At the same time, the Japanese artillery and heavy machine gun units also gave up on suppressing the east side of the warehouse and turned their focus to the west wall.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Da da da, da, da.
Bang bang bang, bang, bang.
Gunshots, explosions, and the sound of walls being chiseled were mixed together and alternated.
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