178: Flags Flying

Lu Fan left Zhang Zhizhong's headquarters in a fit of rage.

The afterglow of the setting sun stretched his shadow long, but it could not dispel the heaviness in his heart.

If not for the blind commands from Jinling, the upcoming battle wouldn't be so difficult to handle.

Returning to the Security Team's hidden base, the members immediately swarmed around him.

Their faces still bore the lingering resentment from witnessing the tragic state of the Suicide Squad earlier.

"Boss, how did it go?"

"What exactly is going on with the higher-ups?"

"What are they doing? How could they launch this kind of attack at a time like this?"

Lu Fan looked around at the smoke-stained but determined faces and shook his head heavily.

He briefly explained the situation; due to the blind commands from Jinling, the original plans had been completely disrupted.

With the artillery almost entirely lost and the lack of heavy fire support, the next battle would face a grim reality.

"Brothers," he took a deep breath to analyze the situation for everyone, "The devils before us are compressed by the riverbank, seemingly like rats in a trap."

"But they have naval guns and tanks, and now we've lost our artillery suppression."

"If we want to take out this portion of the devils, a frontal assault is the only way."

"That undoubtedly means gnawing on the hardest bone. Casualties... will be very, very high, perhaps even..."

He paused for a moment and painfully spat out the words: "Not one in ten would survive."

Surprisingly, the expected hesitation and fear did not appear.

After a brief silence, Li Zhenshan was the first to roar, "What's there to fear! If my head falls off, it's just a bowl-sized scar. What's the damn worry?"

"Exactly! In eighteen years, I'll be a hero again. We can't just watch those brothers die for nothing!"

"Right! Screw them! Avenge our fallen brothers!"

"Boss! Give the order! Not a single one of us in the Security Team is a coward!"

"It's just naval guns, right? Let's fight them to the death!"

The crowd was indignant, their fighting spirit high, even more intense than before.

Grief and the sacrifice of the Friendly Forces instead ignited a stronger will to fight.

Lu Fan looked at the hot-blooded men before him, took a deep breath, and nodded heavily. "Good..."

"In that case, we will use our own way to send these bastards to hell."

Li Zhenshan grinned and asked, "Boss, just say the word, what do we do!"

At those words, Lu Fan knelt on the ground and quickly sketched a simple battle map with a stone.

"Listen! The plan has changed!" Lu Fan's eyes burned like torches. "Old Li!"

"Here!"

"Your tank squad is the primary key."

"Don't get bogged down killing infantry; your task is extreme penetration."

"Use the cover of night and speed to charge deep into the enemy lines, locate, and prioritize destroying all the devils' remaining tanks."

"Smash their counter-attacking fist. Can you do it?"

"Mission guaranteed! I'll grind them into iron pancakes!" Li Zhenshan's eyes gleamed.

"Good!" Lu Fan continued his orders. "The rest of the personnel will be split into two groups."

"Group one: advance with the tanks, coordinate infantry and armor, clear out the devils' infantry around the tanks, and protect the tanks' flanks."

"Simultaneously eliminate as many enemy forces as possible. Second Pillar, you lead the team..."

Second Pillar was stunned for a moment; he hadn't expected to be a leader. Then he readily agreed, "Mission guaranteed!"

"Group two: everyone equipped with rocket launchers, riding off-road motorcycles, using mobility to conduct guerrilla warfare along the riverbank."

"Bai Jinbiao will lead this group. Your task isn't to sink the ships, but to harass them! Remember, harassment!"

"Look for opportunities to fire a shot at those vessels close to the shore."

"The principle is to fire one shot and move, maximizing the dispersion of the naval gun fire."

"Relieve the pressure on the main frontal assault force. Understood?"

"Understood!"

"Everyone rest up, check your equipment, and resupply your ammo! We move out at nine tonight sharp!"

Night fell slowly, temporarily veiling the day's tragedy.

At nine o'clock sharp, the night was thick.

Lu Fan detached from the main force and took the lead.

The Bionic Flight Suit started silently, carrying him into the night sky as he glided toward the center of the Huangpu River like a bat in the dark.

He tightly gripped the atomic no. 4 gun, which had only one energy charge left, hovering above the river parallel to the ships.

He calmly aimed at the main turrets of the most threatening Japanese Army destroyers and gunboats.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled the trigger.

A beam of light that warped space shot out silently toward the target.

The single beam passed through, skewering a long string of ships; though there was no earth-shattering explosion.

But the barrels of the attacked naval guns instantly warped, melted, and deformed due to incomprehensible heat.

With one blow, over forty percent of the Japanese Army's naval main guns on the river were instantly paralyzed, no longer a threat!

"Move out!"

Almost as soon as Lu Fan succeeded, Li Zhenshan roared through the radio on the ground.

The engines of twenty type 80 tanks roared like a steel torrent, suddenly bursting from the darkness at full speed, thrusting straight into the devils' beachhead positions.

The japanese were dazed by this sudden armored assault and hurriedly organized a counterattack.

"Aim at the devils' tanks! Fire!"

"Boom!" "Boom!"

With A-Fu's assistance, the tank guns fired with precision.

Turning the Type 89 and Type 95 tanks that tried to counterattack into torches one by one.

Infantry on motorcycles followed closely behind the tanks, using submachine guns and machine guns to frantically suppress the devils in the trenches and bunkers.

But the good times didn't last long as the ships anchored on the river began to fire.

The battlefield situation began to tilt back toward the devils.

The Security Team simply steeled their hearts and charged directly into the devils' defensive positions.

Soldiers from both sides fired frantically at close range; people were constantly hit and fell, and casualties instantly skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, the motorized rocket launcher squad maneuvered at high speed along the riverbank.

From time to time, they stopped to fire rockets at the vessels on the river.

Although it was difficult to sink them, the firelight from the explosions and the damage from occasional hits on the hulls...

...also successfully drew the fire and attention of the remaining naval guns, sharing the immense pressure for the main frontal assault force.

The battle was exceptionally brutal; the struggle for every inch of land was accompanied by blood and lives.

The devils' ferocity and desperate counterattacks caused great difficulty, but the Security Team pushed forward with difficulty using their equipment and will.

Just as the battle fell into a stalemate, a thunderous charge bugle and even denser sounds of gunfire and artillery erupted from the rear.

General Zhang Zhizhong heard the dense gunfire and guessed that the Security Team had entered the battle.

Realizing it was an opportunity, he ordered all mobile units...

...including the 36th Division, 87th Division, and the remnants of the 88th Division, to all join the general offensive.

"Kill!!"

Countless Chinese soldiers surged from the second line of defense like a tide, pouncing on the Japanese Army's beachhead positions.

Through the opening torn by the Security Team's sharp blade, the main force of the Huaxia army finally utilized its numerical advantage.

They formed an overwhelming offensive against the remaining japanese.

The bloody battle lasted for several hours, and the beachhead positions were completely stained red.

Seeing that the shore troops were about to be annihilated and most of their own naval guns were paralyzed...

...the remaining devils' vessels, facing the tank squad that had freed itself to strike back, finally had no choice but to pull up their anchor chains.

Dragging their damaged hulls, they retreated miserably toward the open sea outside the Yangtze River Estuary.

It was the darkest time before dawn; the gunfire on the shore finally ceased, and the smoke from the battle between tanks and warships...

...had not yet dissipated. The air was filled with a heavy smell of blood and burning.

The battlefield was strewn with corpses, but the flag flying, in the end, was the flag of Huaxia.