Chapter 442: Don’t let the hero down!
"Captain! Get out of the car! Quickly!"
The staff officer was shouting outside, and Zhang Zhikai seized the last bit of time, edited the last paragraph of text in the command vehicle's electronic system, clicked send, and then got out of the vehicle.
This was already the third round of attack they had faced since the battle began.
We were not well prepared in the first round and suffered heavy losses, but at least we managed to repel the enemy under the fire cover from the high ground;
The second round of attack took place that night. The greenskins chose to attack the high ground and the foot of the mountain at the same time, and also mobilized several Squig war beasts. But at this time, the human troops had already prepared their positions. With the efforts of the artillery support company and the anti-armor company, the Squig beasts were destroyed, and this round of attack stopped. However, the losses of the 7th Regiment were also very heavy, and the casualties of the front-line troops had exceeded half.
Then, the greenskins' attack finally stopped for a while, giving them a full half day of rest.
The third round of attack began at dawn on the third day of their garrison here.
And this time, the greenskins are obviously serious.
The Gaomenling position was hit by unprecedented artillery fire from the other side of the river, with countless rockets, as if every inch of land on Gaomenling was covered several times. Under such heavy firepower, the troops on the mountain did not dare to show their heads to support the ground.
The ground forces led by Zhang Zhikai were attacked by a concentrated group of green-skinned orcs, including a Squiggle war beast and more than twenty killing tanks.
This brought a huge test to the 7th Regiment's position.
The position was breached, so much so that the regiment headquarters where Zhang Zhikai was located came under direct attack from the green-skinned orcs.
A killing tank and twenty or so greenskins caused chaos at the regiment headquarters.
One company had already received the order to rush back.
With so many people coming back, they should be able to eliminate the invading enemies. Although it will make the manpower on the front lines more strained, the brains in the rear cannot be lost.
If the regiment command post represented by Zhang Zhikai were destroyed, all the troops on the front line would immediately become blind and deaf.
But he had to survive.
After sending the last message to the division headquarters reporting the situation at Gaomenling, the major left the command vehicle.
When he got out of the car, the staff officer who had called out to him before had been shattered into pieces.
Not far away, the killing jar that the guard mentioned was already in sight. It was this orc armor that killed the staff officer.
Their next target was the command vehicle in which Zhang Zhikai was riding.
One rocket fired and the car was destroyed.
Zhang Zhikai was covered in cold sweat.
He wanted to kill the enemy, but at this moment, he could only take out a laser pistol from his waist.
What can this little flashlight do with a killing jar?
He could only run.
The killing jar was also running towards him. The chainsaw axe swung left and right as the killing jar ran, and the harsh sound of the chainsaw made people clearly think that if they were hit by this thing, the end would be extremely tragic.
But how could he, with just two legs, outrun the orc mecha?
In other words, the other party tried to kill people with a chainsaw and enjoy the pleasure of blood flying. Otherwise, if he was directly shot at with a large-caliber miniature machine gun, his fate would be exactly the same as that of his staff officer.
And at this critical moment, a loud bang of fire exploded on the side of the killing tank.
Zhang Zhikai looked in the direction of the firing and saw a young Alliance soldier who had put down his rocket launcher and gave him a thumbs up with a dirty face.
He recognized who it was: a member of his guard company.
He sent two-thirds of his guards to Gaomenling, with another guard platoon beside him.
At the critical moment, they really played a role and saved lives.
He was of course happy to be saved, but at this moment he shouted at him with horror: "Be careful!"
Behind the guard, an orc was holding up a crude, rough weapon with an exaggeratedly large muzzle, pointing it at the soldier from the guard company.
Zhang Zhikai also raised his pistol. Red laser beams shot out from the muzzle three times in succession.
His personal combat skills were actually not too bad. He hit the target with all three shots, leaving three holes in the body of the green-skinned orc.
The power of a laser gun is stronger than that of a normal live ammunition weapon. When a finger-thick laser beam hits an enemy, it will not only cause such great penetration damage, but also cause a burst of high heat in the target's body in an instant. From the front, it looks like a hole, but from the back, it looks like a big pit.
However, after being hit by three lasers in a row, the orc still did not die.
The big gun in his hand fired.
The young soldier who had just saved Zhang Zhikai's life had his upper body blown into pieces in an instant.
The orc roared and turned the muzzle of the gun towards Zhang Zhikai, reached out to pull the bolt, and tried to fire another shot.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Zhang Zhikai yelled and continued to pull the trigger. Before the orc fired the next bullet, he hit it with three lasers again.
After enduring such damage, the beast finally fell down.
Zhang Zhikai panted, looked around, and called upon several staff officers to join him in advancing instead of retreating.
They entered the battle line outside the barracks and personally joined the front line in the battle against the invading greenskins.
When a front-line infantry platoon arrived to support, the enemies were finally wiped out.
However, the second lieutenant platoon leader who returned also clearly reported the situation on the front line to Zhang Zhikai.
I can't bear it anymore.
Otherwise, the enemy would not have been leaked into the command center.
At this moment, Zhang Zhikai is facing an extremely painful choice.
The situation on the high ground is completely unknown now. The enemy is still bombing and there has been no news of the defenders on Gaomenling for a long time. Assuming the worst case scenario, it is possible that the entire army will be wiped out.
The troops at the foot of the mountain originally only accounted for about two-thirds of the entire regiment. Now, it is good enough that there are still one-third left.
Losing half of the personnel is not as simple as reducing combat effectiveness by half. Most of the lost soldiers are from the front-line combat companies, logistics troops, signal troops, air defense troops, artillery units, etc. The casualty ratio is definitely much lower than that of the front-line combat companies.
Such a high casualty ratio means that many companies on the front line may only have three or five squads left.
Although the logistics soldiers, artillery soldiers who had run out of ammunition, and anti-aircraft soldiers were all deployed to the front line to replenish a lot of manpower, the combat effectiveness of these soldiers was definitely different from that of the front-line combat infantry - the subjects of their usual training were different, and the tactical coordination was also different.
In this sense, Gaomenling has actually been lost.
His troops no longer have the ability to continue holding on.
The artillery support company is almost running out of ammunition!
If there is no reinforcement and supply, even if we can survive this wave of attack, we will definitely not be able to withstand the next one.
Logically speaking, we should retreat.
The difference between retreating and not retreating is simply whether the next time the greenskins attack, they will directly take Gaomenling, or kill all 7th Regiments before taking Gaomenling.
In fact, the greenskins seemed to have noticed the weakness of the 7th Regiment.
The attack in front was too fierce and the losses were heavy, so the greenskins did not continue to fight this time and retreated for a while.
But this is obviously not a retreat, but an attempt to accumulate strength.
The orc boss in charge of the opposite side is reorganizing his troops. He doesn't want to rush in and fight randomly, but instead plans to gather the troops together, focus on one point, and attack with all his might.
What should I do?
Zhang Zhikai was extremely conflicted. He wanted to order a retreat several times, but on the other hand, he was thinking about his brothers on Gaomenling, what if they were still alive?
On the other hand, I also think of what the teacher said before:
"I only want Gaomenling!"
When he was most confused, the signalman came to him.
Zhang Zhikai's eyes lit up!
"Has the division headquarters replied?"
Is this good news?
Zhang Zhikai is full of expectations.
The message he sent just before the command vehicle was blown up was to inform the division headquarters of the current tragic situation of the 7th Regiment and request support.
It would be good to transfer a new regiment, a battalion or even a company from a brother regiment.
If it really doesn't work, the air force can come over and bomb me a round, or the division's artillery battalion can turn their guns around and help me fire a few times, that's fine too.
Anyway, let’s have something!
The signalman looked a little unhappy, but at this critical moment, he did not hesitate: "It is indeed a letter from the division headquarters... The division commander and the political commissar have both died, and now the chief of staff has taken over the overall command. He said that there is no soldier in the entire division who can reinforce the 7th Regiment. The aviation team has been wiped out, and the artillery battalion was also destroyed in the fire confrontation with the greenskins on the other side. The 7th Regiment can only rely on itself."
In a word, Zhang Zhikai seemed to see the tragic situation of the entire division.
It turned out that it was not just the 11th and 7th Regiments that were wiped out, but the entire 326th Division.
Zhang Zhikai said with difficulty: "I understand."
"Captain...what should we do now?" someone asked.
Zhang Zhikai looked around and saw his partner, the regiment political commissar.
"Political Commissar Wang, what is your opinion?" he asked softly.
Political Commissar Wang's calf was injured, with a large piece of flesh taken away by the flying shrapnel. He could only walk with a limp, enduring the pain.
Hearing the question, he did not hesitate, smiled and said: "You lead the people to retreat, I will stay and cover you."
"Old Wang..."
"Don't look like that. Our mission has failed, but I'm not stupid. Don't you know that this is not your fault, nor is it the fault of anyone in our 7th Regiment? We are all great and heroes. It has come to this point. Even if the whole regiment dies here, it won't change the outcome. So let's retreat and leave a seed for the regiment."
Zhang Zhikai gritted his teeth and made a decision.
withdraw!
In that case, there is no need to hesitate.
He planned to send the signalman to issue orders to each company.
The choice of person to cover the rear also needs careful consideration.
Just as he was about to give the order, the explosion sounds coming from Gaomenling finally stopped.
Has the situation changed?
He paused his command.
Then, he received news from the Sharp Knife Company, which was responsible for the forward reconnaissance work, that the greenskins who were originally accumulating strength and preparing for another battle had retreated!
The situation on the battlefield must have changed!
Otherwise it wouldn't be possible!
"Send someone to Gaomenling right away to see if our brothers are still there! And see if anything happened on the other side of the river!"
Zhang Zhikai immediately gave the order.
The scouts set out, but before they could send back any news, another good thing happened.
On the high ground, the 1st Battalion's radio called.
"Captain! We won!"
Zhang Zhikai was extremely excited!
The brothers of the 1st Battalion on the high ground were subjected to such high-intensity artillery bombardment for a whole day, but some of them were still alive!
In addition, he was even more excited by the news from his comrades on the high ground.
Twenty minutes later, Zhang Zhikai climbed up Gaomenling himself.
This place is already a wasteland, with shell holes everywhere, no vegetation at all, and even few large rocks.
But he no longer cared about these.
Holding the telescope, he looked towards the south.
In the wilderness, the greenskins are being torn to pieces by an Alliance army!
This alliance army came from the west side of the river, with armored troops as the vanguard. What can be seen among them is not only the lion and the lion king, but also something bigger:
Titan!
Zhang Zhikai alone saw four Titans through the telescope in Lingao!
The War Dog-class Titans continuously fired rapid-fire grenades and rocket launchers, accurately spreading the terrifying firepower to all places that needed firepower support.
Although its position is slightly behind that of the Lion King and the Lion, and it is determined to let the cheaper tanks absorb the firepower of the greenskins, but in fact, when it is needed to take action, it will never hesitate.
Zhang Zhikai personally saw a giant Squiggle beast that was still rampaging on the battlefield and knocked over two Lions after being bombarded by several heavy artillery and rocket launchers. However, a War Dog took the opportunity to approach it and suddenly hit the beast's head from the side with its gravity fist.
The outer steel armor, tough scales and skin, and solid skull were all unable to withstand the heavy punch, and the entire head was somewhat deformed.
Its body bent over and fell down, and at this time, Titan fired a few grenades into its relatively vulnerable belly, completely ending the life of this war monster.
Winner!
A win indeed!
At this moment, Zhang Zhikai couldn't help but shed tears!
The images of his sacrificed comrades flashed through his mind one after another.
The 7th Regiment, the 326th Division, and even all the participating troops paid an unimaginable price in this difficult riverbank blocking battle.
And these costs finally paid off.
"My fallen comrades, you can't see this scene, I will see it for you!"
…
Pobov had not expected that the riverbank blocking battle would be so brutal.
First, the scale of the greenskins' gathering was beyond expectations. There were already more than two million enemies on the south bank of the river, and they were attacking on all fronts.
He thought that the river bank was bound to be lost and his plan was going to go terribly wrong.
While he was stepping up preparations for the general offensive and preparing to launch Plan B, he discovered that the river bank, which had been bombarded and attacked from all sides, was still holding strong!
The 326th, 376th and 442nd Divisions under the 1st Army Group of the Union Army were almost completely destroyed, with more than 100,000 casualties.
Taking into account the losses of the defense forces, the total number would probably be over 250,000.
But they finally held on, and Perbov vowed that the sacrifices of those heroes would never be in vain!
(End of this chapter)
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