The battle started at 9:00 AM and had continued until 11:30 AM. In two and a half hours, the Japanese garrison commander, Colonel Tanaka, had witnessed the destruction of two fortresses with his own eyes.

There were a total of 12 fortresses on the defense line. The main bodies of the four fortresses located on both sides of the railway and highway were reinforced concrete structures, equipped with Japanese Type 38 150mm howitzers.

The other eight fortresses had reinforced concrete main frames with brick and stone walls reinforced with cement. Due to their structure, they were only equipped with 75mm guns. With the power of the Northeast Army's siege artillery, a single hit was enough to completely destroy these secondary fortresses.

The rear headquarters said reinforcements had already set off, but Colonel Tanaka felt he couldn't wait any longer. He ordered his subordinates to immediately connect to the internal telephone of Fortress No. 9. The adjutant vigorously cranked the handle of the field telephone, and the connection was made very quickly.

Just as he clarified that he was calling from the command post, Captain Nomura, the garrison commander of Fortress No. 9 on the other end, shouted immediately, "The squadron we sent out to seize the ruins has been completely wiped out. Please send reinforcements immediately, Colonel Tanaka. Otherwise, Fortress No. 9 has absolutely no troops left to defend it."

The adjutant was shocked and quickly asked, "What exactly happened!"

A huge noise came from the receiver. The sound transformed into an ear-piercing electrical screech, making the adjutant feel his teeth ache. At the same time, a huge explosion was heard from outside.

The sound in the receiver cut off. The observer at the high point of the command room turned around and shouted to everyone, "Fortress No. 9 has been destroyed. It should be an ammunition cook-off!"

The adjutant dropped the receiver and ran towards the observation port. Colonel Tanaka beat him to it, rushing to the observation port to look out. He saw smoke and fire rising from the location of Fortress No. 9, but the once tall figure of the fortress was nowhere to be seen. Colonel Tanaka felt utterly disheartened.

Three of the four strong fortresses supporting the defense line had been destroyed, greatly reducing the utility of this defense line. Can the defense line, planned to withstand 50,000 Northeast Army troops, not even hold out for four hours?

Garrison Commander Colonel Tanaka knew very well that if those few terrifying siege mortars of the Northeast Army continued to exist, even the Port Arthur Fortress might not be able to withstand their continuous bombardment. Since death was inevitable either way, Colonel Tanaka ordered the adjutant who had run to his side, "Immediately notify the nearby fortresses. Have them leave behind artillerymen and minimum defensive forces, and all other officers and soldiers assemble at the command post. Launch an attack on the Northeast Army's artillery positions!"

The adjutant also understood the current situation clearly; this was indeed the best choice. But...

Colonel Tanaka had already realized his fate at this moment. He shouted loudly to his subordinate who showed hesitation, "Tell each fortress that it is only a matter of time before all fortresses are destroyed. The enemy will never let us retreat to Port Arthur. If our army retreats hastily, we will only be pursued by the Northeast Army cavalry and wiped out on the retreat route. Rather than being killed dishonorably on the road of retreat, it is better to die bravely in battle. Assemble troops from all fortresses and launch an attack on the Northeast Army's artillery positions!"

After hearing this, the adjutant also understood the situation at this time. Colonel Tanaka continued, "The assault force will be divided into front and rear teams. I will be with the rear team and launch an assault on the Northeast Army!"

Since the commander was already fearless of life and death, the adjutant felt his blood surge and answered loudly, "Commander, please let your subordinate charge together by your side!"

Colonel Tanaka nodded. "Contact the other fortresses first."

The adjutant ran to execute the order with grief and indignation, but because he was too agitated, he forgot the matter he had intended to report to Colonel Tanaka earlier: the commander of Fortress No. 9 said that the counterattack squadron dispatched had been completely wiped out.

Since the start of the battle, the Northeast Air Force had been continuously reconnoitering over the Japanese fortresses. The Japanese troops appeared the size of ants in the observation scopes of the reconnaissance planes, but it was enough for the sharp-eyed observers to notice. The news was immediately sent to the ground via preset wireless short codes.

The 13th Army Headquarters also received the telegram. Commander Song Junsheng did not contact the attacking division commanders but chatted about the content of the telegram with Staff Officer Yu Cen, sent by the General Staff Headquarters. Commander Song Junsheng greatly appreciated a young man like Yu Cen who dared to deliver the 'Declaration of War'.

Yu Cen finished reading the content, thought for a moment, and sighed, "The Japanese army is quite elite."

Song Junsheng nodded; this was also his feeling. So far, relying on intelligence provided by air force reconnaissance planes, the Japanese army had not panicked at all after being suddenly attacked and immediately adopted the best counterattack plan. As long as an army dares to fight and is brave in battle, it has a chance of victory.

Having understood Yu Cen's character through conversation, Song Junsheng liked this young officer very much. Just then, three division chiefs of staff called to inform the Army Staff Headquarters of the latest situation and proposed that the troops were prepared to deal a heavy blow to the Japanese army.

As the Army Commander, Song Junsheng agreed to the plans of the division commanders but added a final instruction: "Be cautious."

This was something Song Junsheng felt he must emphasize. Up to now, the Japanese army's reactions were within the scope considered when formulating the operational plan. If the division commanders felt victory was in their grasp at this time and failed to execute the operational plan completely because they wanted to pursue greater results, they would be severely criticized after the war even if they won. Naturally, they could not be allowed to become complacent at this time.

Twenty minutes later, new news arrived. The 1st Group Army was attacking from north to south, with the 3rd Division on the left flank (east side of the battle line). The 3rd Division mobilized the 120mm artillery assigned to the divisional artillery battalion to begin bombarding the Japanese brick-and-cement fortresses. After being hit by four 120mm shells in succession, a large hole was blasted in the outer wall of the fortress.

Before the battle, the 3rd Division gave this fortress the code name 'Fortress No. 2'. This was the second fortress from right to left among the four fortresses the 3rd Division had to destroy. As the gray cement wall collapsed with a crash, revealing a huge gap, all artillery fire inside the fortress stopped. There were no longer machine guns conducting tentative strafing towards the Northeast Army positions. Li Xiaoyi, Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment on the front line, immediately raised his binoculars and lay on the trench at the very front of the troops to observe.

After watching for less than a minute, Li Xiaoyi retracted into the trench and ordered the signal soldier, "Go get the artillery company commander."

As soon as the artillery company commander arrived, Li Xiaoyi pulled him up to check together. Li Xiaoyi pointed out several positions, and the artillery company commander nodded repeatedly. For several years, the Northeast Army had always regarded the Japanese army as a hypothetical enemy. The positions pointed out by Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi, in the view of the artillery company commander, were exactly the positions where the Japanese army would habitually deploy machine guns and other firing points.

The two retracted into the trench. Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi immediately spread out a map and marked the locations of those points on it. The artillery company commander finished looking, then lay on the trench to observe for a moment longer, agreeing with Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi's judgment.

Soon, the artillery company commander returned to the artillery position with the map. The Northeast Army had plenty of maps. Quickly, artillery observers entered observation positions with another map marked with targets. The artillery company then operated the 80mm mortars to prepare for firing. Compared with the 120mm mortars, the 80mm mortars were much slimmer. So within a minute, the test firing was ready.

The first shell landed. The observer immediately reported the deviation of the impact point, and the artillery crew adjusted quickly. Three shells were fired in succession, and the third one accurately hit the target point. The observer immediately reported, "Company Commander, that should be a firing position for a Japanese heavy machine gun. I saw parts of the Japanese heavy machine gun being blown into the air."

This was the first time in his life that the artillery company commander had destroyed an enemy firing point, and a sense of pride and excitement arose spontaneously. However, the artillery company commander's training experience made him calm down instantly. "Continue to observe the second point. The artillery company will start the first test shot in one and a half minutes."

The Japanese squad leader on the opposite side hadn't expected his unit to be exposed. Before the battle began, the squad leader had led his troops to carefully hide in the positions in front of the fortress. This was a carefully dug and arranged trench. After the excavation, front-on inspections were conducted multiple times, and the unit's location could not be seen at all from the attacker's angle.

However, the Northeast Army was able to fire three rounds of rapid fire in succession, destroying one heavy machine gun and two light machine guns. The sergeants operating the machine guns were also two dead and one wounded. Sergeants were professional veteran soldiers and the combat backbone of the army. Losing them, the unit was left with only the squad leader, the deputy squad leader, and a group of soldiers. Combat effectiveness was lost significantly.

The squad leader had intended to ambush carefully and counterattack suddenly after the Northeast Army began to attack, catching the Northeast Army off guard. Unexpectedly, the one caught off guard was himself.

Just then, the Northeast Army's mortars fired again. This time it was not the 80mm mortars, but 60mm mortars. Shells flew into the Japanese trenches one after another and exploded inside.

Originally, this forward-deployed squad could rely on the artillery of the fortress behind them to strike the approaching Northeast Army artillery, so they didn't have to worry about being accurately hit by enemy artillery at close range. Now that the fortress behind them had been destroyed, they, armed only with rifles, were completely passively taking a beating.

Seeing the situation had reached this point, the squad leader knew that if he waited any longer, his unit would be completely blasted to pieces first. Since the sergeants were already lost, the squad leader hardened his heart and ordered the deputy squad leader and himself to each lead half of the troops, flanking out from the left and right of the trench, and launching an attack on the Northeast Army in two teams. Retreating to the fortress now had no meaning; even if they were to die, they should die in the attack.

A Japanese squad had between 50 and 70 men, equivalent to the strength of two platoons of the Northeast Army. Although there were losses in the trenches, more than forty people participated in the attack.

When the Japanese rushed out of the trenches, using various terrain features as cover while launching an attack on the Northeast Army positions, Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi was both surprised and delighted. All of this was quite consistent with the experience accumulated in confrontation training.

During exercises, seeing comrades playing the role of the Japanese army counterattacking regardless of life and death, Li Xiaoyi actually doubted whether the Japanese army could go to this extent. Now Li Xiaoyi could be sure that the higher-ups' definition of the Japanese army was correct. This army not only had a considerable degree of combat capability but also lost nothing to the Northeast Army in terms of courage.

When the Japanese approached the Northeast Army's position, the two forces stood up almost simultaneously to launch the attack. Such tactics were obviously designed to make it easy for the Northeast Army to be unable to attend to both the left and right.

However, the squad and platoon tactics that formed the tactical foundation of the Northeast Army were completely different from those of the Japanese army. Even a single squad was divided into three combat teams (fireteams), each equipped with weapons capable of fighting independently, and had undergone extensive training. Not to mention the Japanese dividing into two teams; even if they divided into ten teams, a Northeast Army platoon had enough combat teams to implement one-on-one confrontation.

The Northeast Army's machine guns and rifles began firing. The Japanese were shot dead or wounded and fell to the ground in the volley. Those Japanese soldiers who were not wounded adopted crawling tactics, preparing to continue approaching the Northeast Army positions to rush in with a short assault.

As the Japanese struggled to get closer, Northeast Army grenades flew over one after another. At this time, the Japanese troops finally experienced despair; the Northeast Army gave them absolutely no chance.

From the start of observation to the implementation of shelling, and then to the end of the battle, it took a total of no more than twenty minutes. Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi, who had annihilated the enemy position, commanded the troops to advance and soon occupied the position of the Japanese squad just now. The battalion commander did not underestimate the enemy and advance rashly. He observed the terrain and the direction of the trenches, then dispatched two squads to advance left and right along the trenches.

The soldiers at the head of the two squads held submachine guns and pulled out entrenching shovels, advancing carefully. Before long, gunfire erupted, and shouts of killing rang out. Battalion Commander Li Xiaoyi immediately heard that the Northeast Army had fired first. There was no need for the battalion commander to order; the platoon leaders to which the two squads belonged had already followed up the attack.

Soon, the battle report came: the troops encountered Japanese soldiers in the trenches and had cleanly eliminated the enemy.

The troops continued to advance along the trenches. Before long, they reached a fork in the trench. The troops advanced along the trench towards the fortress. Finally, the troops approached the fortress. There was an obvious slope for multiple people to go up and down in the trench here. Climbing up the slope, the fortress was right in front of them.

The hole blasted by the 120mm artillery looked like a dark, large mouth from a distance. Walking close enough to touch, one discovered it was a huge gap more than two meters high and two meters wide. A thick smell of gunpowder smoke and blood emanated from the gap.

The submachine gunner of the infantry platoon that arrived here first didn't care if the bullets in the magazine were finished or not. He directly swapped in a new magazine, pulled the bolt to chamber a round, and flashed into the hole first, moving to a convenient cover position.

But no sound came from inside the fortress. The lifeless fortress seemed as if no one existed inside at all.

A combat team entered the fortress and covered each other as they advanced inward. When they had entered a dozen meters, they found the light inside was too dim. Coming in from the bright outside, they couldn't adapt completely for a moment. The combat team stopped, trying hard to look around. Finally, the rifleman made a hand signal.

The other two team members immediately crouched down, as if to speak with the rifleman. When his comrades entered relatively safe positions, the rifleman raised his rifle and pulled the trigger repeatedly at a spot.

Semi-automatic rifles require a trigger pull for each shot. But loading is completed by internal mechanics, so accuracy is high and the rate of fire is fast. In the blink of an eye, three bullets were fired in. With a scream, a Japanese soldier in the shadows was wounded, while other hidden Japanese soldiers opened fire fiercely at the combat team.

The submachine gunner hid behind a half-collapsed wall and began to sweep with fire. The grenadier hid at the other end of the wall, pulled the string, and threw a grenade out.

Only then did the Northeast Army troops outside the fortress send another combat team into the fortress. Since the enemy had been exposed, it was time to use the advantage in troop strength and equipment to finish them off. The battle to seize the fortress erupted fiercely between the attacking and defending sides.