Chapter 151: Chaotic Battle of Shenyang (3)

"This is our best gun crew; they are the benchmark gun," said the artillery division commander, knowing that Li Qiang had a background as a tank soldier and that artillery was his specialty. He introduced the five soldiers standing in a row before Li Qiang, saying, "From left to right, they are the vehicle commander, gun commander, driver, and two loaders."

The young soldiers had the faint down of first beards just sprouting on their chins. They puffed out their chests and stood even straighter, not offering a salute.

Li Qiang scanned the five soldiers, nodded, and ordered the artillery division commander, "Begin the deployment of the mission."

"Understood!"

An artillery staff officer issued the bombardment mission to the five soldiers. To prevent the impact error of the shells from being too large, they selected a 300mm rocket launcher—the type of artillery that required the largest emplacement area and had the highest probability of avoiding friendly fire. After the gun commander calculated the firing data, the loaders loaded the shells according to the number of charge packets, and then the gun commander executed the aiming operation. Several staff officers repeatedly calculated and checked to avoid any errors.

Once preparations were complete, the soldiers looked at the staff officers, the staff officers looked at the division commander, and the division commander looked at Li Qiang.

Li Qiang commanded, "Pay close attention to reconnoitering this gun. The moment it finishes firing all its rockets, bombard it immediately to prevent secondary explosions of the ammunition!"

The order was quickly transmitted to the forward-deployed BL904 ground artillery locating and surveying radar. After marking this gun, they waited anxiously yet patiently, observing and carefully counting the number of launched rockets.

Finally, having counted all 12 rockets launched from the tubes, they immediately reported the news back to the artillery emplacement.

Li Qiang ordered, "Fire! Five-round volley!"

He did not dare to order a rapid-fire barrage; after all, the target was located within the survivor civilian residential area, and caution was paramount.

The gun commander calmly initiated the firing, waiting for feedback from the BL904 ground artillery locating and surveying radar. A few seconds later, the feedback arrived: a direct hit on the target. Upon hearing the news, the gun commander calculated the firing data once more, loaded, and fired, repeating the process until five shells had been dispatched.

Braving the artillery shells scattering across the sky, the soldiers awaited news from the BL904 ground artillery locating and surveying radar. Finally, confirmation came back: that rocket launcher had not fired again, nor had any massive explosion been detected at the enemy rocket emplacement.

"Clear out all their rocket launchers for me!" Li Qiang ordered fiercely.

The operation to clear out the Qipanshan Base's rocket launchers proceeded slowly yet steadily. Despite the shells flying haphazardly overhead, the artillerists showed no panic; flying shells were just flying shells. Without hundreds or thousands of rounds of actual combat, one could never forge a seasoned artillery corps.

All artillery staff officers were assigned directly to the sides of the 155mm howitzers, where they would personally execute the calculations to prevent any mistakes.

The losses in artillery between the two sides were utterly disproportionate. Only by chance would a Special Committee artillery piece be hit, whereas whenever the Special Committee took action, a hit was guaranteed.

Those within the Special Committee whose marksmanship was subpar during peacetime were barred from missions; roughly only one-third of the artillerymen had work to do. The idle gunners felt deeply ashamed and took it upon themselves to help carry shells and perform rough labor, leaving all tasks requiring high technical proficiency to the experts. There were highly skilled gun commanders who, ignoring the random enemy shells bursting all around, simply demanded that several guns be parked near their own. Once they completed the aiming for one, they would leap down, climb onto another artillery vehicle to conduct the aiming operations, while the rest of the firing and loading duties were handled by other gunners.

Taken completely by surprise and thrown into a panic at the onset of the bombardment, the enemy had nearly halted their fire altogether.

After a short while, they began firing wildly and indiscriminately, disregarding impact points, as if determined to spit out everything that could possibly be crammed into a gun barrel. Many shells flew far beyond the urban area of Shenyang, and one could only hear the distant sounds of shells landing and exploding, disappearing without a trace.

Three hours passed, and the enemy's guns finally fell silent. A threat came over the radio: "If you sons of bitches dare to fire again, see if I don't tie every last civilian in the base to the gun barrels!"

Li Qiang snatched the microphone and scolded harshly, "You people are capable of forcing civilians to charge ahead; is there anything you wouldn't do? Utterly despicable! In a war between two armies, each relies on their own abilities. Whoever gave the order to kill civilians—if I catch you, I'll make you wish your parents had never given birth to you!"

Despite saying this, Li Qiang still ordered the bombardment to cease. His logistical base had been uprooted, and his ammunition supplies were running low.

Ever since he had been trapped in a tank surrounded and gnawed upon by zombies through the entire night, the worldview of the once-innocent soldier Li Qiang had undergone a massive transformation. The Party cell's lifestyle meetings had repeatedly warned him to mind his bellicose and anti-human tendencies. Although Li Qiang was accustomed to the collective life of a soldier and remained extremely cautious, a murderous aura would still frequently leak out of him.

Li Qiang had once mentioned this to Li Fengyi. After hearing it, Li Fengyi thought that a person's first career in life leaves the most profound impression, branding them with a distinct, lifelong mark.

Those veterans from the founding years of the nation had started killing en masse in their teens, and by the time the country was founded, they were only in their thirties or forties. The fact that they did not turn into professional serial killers seemed largely thanks to the psychological counseling provided by the Party cell meetings.

During the artillery duel, the special forces captured a few "tongues"—civilians who had been forced to charge at the very front. The early northern winter was already bitterly cold, and they were dressed in rags with sallow, starved complexions.

The rescued civilians revealed that the scoundrel Wu Nianfu had now seized control of the base, and his troops were composed of security guards, gangsters, and prison convicts he had recruited. The original Liberation Army garrison, for reasons unknown, had been nearly wiped out.

At first, their two-way radios and household radios were permitted for use, and electricity was supplied so they could listen to the Special Committee's broadcasts. Later, the base strictly ordered them confiscated, and many who resisted were killed. These captives were the relatives and friends of those victims, forced at gunpoint to run in the front lines.

The 345th Regiment adjusted its defensive line, allowing the civilians into an area cordoned off by armored vehicles, and then easily repelled the enemy's assault.

"They're just a bunch of bandits with no combat effectiveness whatsoever!" reported the commander of the 345th Regiment. "They're just extremely vicious, treating their own lives and the lives of others as utterly worthless."

With the increasing number of survivor refugees and prisoners, the situation at the Qipanshan Base gradually came to light.

When the end times struck, Mayor Wu Nianfu could well be described as abandoning his wife and children, fleeing his jurisdiction in the protection of public security police officers along with his second and third mistresses. On the road, he encountered a People's Armed Police unit heading out to execute a rescue mission in his jurisdiction, and the mayor ordered them to follow him and stand by.

He then took the police officers to a prison, brought out an inmate, and, at that inmate's request, reorganized the prison inmates. The prison was a crouching tiger, hidden dragon of criminals. Following that, he incorporated gang members and security guards into his ranks. During the transfer process, the Armed Police command post fell into a zombie encirclement, and the command staff were nearly all casualties. Mayor Wu thus took over the Armed Police unit.

After meeting with the survivor force guarded by the Shenyang military, Mayor Wu, acting as the representative of the government and the Party, formed a new leadership team with the Shenyang military. He recruited a large number of civilians, arming them under the guise of hiring security guards.