27: Street fighting

The Black Hawk Empire was struck dizzy and quickly retreated to the street corner.

After some discussion among the Commanders, these few hundred men split into two groups, moving up from the side alleys on both sides of the main road, with a considerable portion heading directly to the tall buildings along the street.

However, the Tianyu Republic's defensive line also stretched over a hundred meters, and the exits of the side alleys were similarly blocked by gunfire, forcing the Black Hawk Unit to retreat again.

Left with no choice, the Imperial Forces began to occupy the buildings and streets on both sides of the main road, preparing to gradually approach the defensive line from an elevated position.

The building where Li Xiao was located was also assigned a platoon of troops, and his position was less than sixty meters from Tianyu’s defensive line, with one side of the windows facing the school.

This platoon of paratroopers did not realize there would be an ambush in the hotel; the lead soldier pushed open the glass door and charged in, and Zhang Shuang, from the shadows, pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Orange muzzle flashes erupted from the darkness, two Imperial Soldiers were instantly riddled with bullets, and subsequent Imperial Soldiers entering quickly raised their guns to return fire.

At this moment, intersecting lines of fire from both left and right sides caused the enemies to fall before their bullets even left the barrel.

Seeing the unfavorable situation, the Black Hawk Unit quickly retreated, and then a large number of grenades and flashbangs were thrown in.

The muffled explosions of the flashbangs indoors made it almost impossible for Zhang Shuang and the two others to hear the commotion at the main entrance, and the fragmentation from the grenades also made it difficult for them to open fire.

After the first wave of breaching weapons was expended, the Black Hawk Unit attempted to break in again; this time, Zhang Shuang and his team couldn't fire immediately, but Di Yun and another infantryman from the flank did.

Relying on his high HP, Di Yun directly stepped out and exchanged fire with the enemy, taking out three of the opponent's assault troops at the cost of only four hundred points of damage.

At the same time, Ye Ming, upstairs, under Li Xiao's command, threw a C4 explosives towards the downstairs entrance.

The violent explosion shattered the display windows of the adjacent shops, killing four or five people instantly and injuring over a dozen.

The failure of this platoon's assault did not attract the attention of the rest of the Black Hawk Unit, as they had already engaged in full-scale combat with the Tianyu side.

"Continue the attack!"

Under the Commander's order, another squad of assault troops began to charge the hotel; this time, they sent a soldier in the back row carrying a rocket launcher, aiming precisely at Zhang Shuang's position.

"Oh no! Zhang Shuang is in trouble!"

Li Xiao roared, his gun continuously firing at that soldier, but his marksmanship was too poor, and several consecutive shots missed.

The power of a rocket launcher is more than twenty times that of a fragmentation grenade; although Zhang Shuang's HP had been boosted to four thousand points before this, if this shot hit squarely, Zhang Shuang would either die or lose his combat ability.

Just as Li Xiao opened his information panel to find Zhang Shuang's information to replenish his HP, a gunshot rang out from above, and a bullet hit the soldier's arm.

Disturbed by this, the rocket that was launched at the same moment immediately veered off target, hitting the lobby wall and blasting a large crater on the spot.

At this moment, Ye Ming's second C4 explosives also dropped, and with another thunderous explosion, the entire assault squad was wiped out.

With two squads dead and the remaining squad either injured or incapacitated, the Commander had no choice but to retreat immediately.

"Quick! Quickly clear the battlefield and maintain vigilance!"

There was no one downstairs, but the fighting elsewhere was exceptionally fierce.

After clearing the bodies at the entrance, the five people downstairs went up to the second floor with some weapons and all the captured ammunition.

Li Xiao found that defending the first-floor lobby was very difficult, and it was better to retreat to the second floor and defend the stairwell, where enemies couldn't spread out their gunfire in the narrow stairwell, while their own throwing weapons and firepower could be highly concentrated.

"Zhang Shuang and the two others continue to monitor the stairwell; the rest attack the perimeter enemies!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

After the Black Hawk Unit adopted the method of setting up guns from high points and advancing on the ground, the Tianyu Republic seemed to be struggling to cope.

To suppress the firepower coverage from high positions, their ground firepower was considerably dispersed.

The two hundred-man assault team of the Black Hawk Empire pushed forward, using the street-side shops and vehicles for cover; even when attacked by Tianyu Republic's mortars and rockets, they were not deterred.

Li Xiao and his team poured out damage from the building, causing considerable casualties to the Black Hawk's frontline assault troops, especially Yan Yizhou, who specialized in targeting the wounded, almost one shot, one kill.

Of course, their attack also drew the wrath of the Black Hawk Imperial Forces; multiple platoons and squads continuously fired rocket launchers at them, but they had clear visibility and could observe the incoming rockets.

Even if they couldn't dodge in time, Li Xiao had given each of them at least two thousand HP or more, so even if they were grazed by rocket shrapnel, they wouldn't die on the spot.

However, even though Li Xiao and his team had cumulatively killed seventy or eighty Black Hawk Unit members, they still couldn't prevent the Tian Yu Forces' defensive line from being breached.

After nearly half of the four hundred-plus Black Hawk Unit members were killed, they finally wiped out the Tianyu's desperate unit and then headed straight for the north of the city.

"Strange! Why aren't they coming to encircle and annihilate us?"

"Perhaps eliminating us is insignificant compared to their objective," Li Xiao shook his head. "No matter what, Xi City will probably change hands before dawn."

Everyone went down to the ground floor and could already hear the roar of cannons in the north of the city; the paratroopers had completely eroded the Tian Yu Forces' defensive line from within.

At this moment, Liu Nian also sent him a voice message.

"Lao Xiao, you're not still in there, are you? I've already pulled out, you should hurry, Xi City is about to fall!"

"I'm also on the run, what a shame, I was still thinking about casually strolling through Xi City in the future."

Li Xiao bluffed a couple of sentences, hung up the voice message, and led everyone to clear the battlefield on the street; anyway, these bodies and equipment would disappear after twenty-four hours, so there was no reason not to pick them up.

Since collecting two to three hundred bodies was too slow, he simply used both last night's and tonight's conscription orders, as six more people meant six more pairs of hands.

Among these six people, there were three infantry professions, one Engineer, one Scout, and the remaining one was a Communications Soldier.

After about half an hour of clearing, Li Xiao's backpack contained two hundred assault rifles, three heavy machine guns, five squad machine guns, and over seven thousand rounds of rifle and machine gun ammunition.

In addition, there were two rocket launchers and two mortars; unfortunately, the mortar shells had already been used up by the Tian Yu Forces, leaving only three rockets.

"Now I know what it means when the enemy provides us with guns and cannons..."

With this haul of military spoils, Li Xiao considered his trip worthwhile tonight.

They crossed the street, climbed over an empty wall, and arrived at the previous sewer; at that moment, a team happened to be descending into the pit, and upon closer inspection, guess what? It was Yun Dongliu again!