Phi-Fic Chapter 1148 The People's Hearts Still Remain
Chapter 1148 The People's Hearts Still Remain
汉口
The situation is similar to that on Wang Laohu's side. During the day today, in addition to strengthening air force patrols, multiple air defense weapons were also deployed here.
When people woke up this morning, they saw Japanese planes descending from the sky, trailing black smoke. This seems to have been happening quite frequently in the last two days.
"Those Japanese devils haven't been as arrogant these past few days. Before, we had to hide every day. Seeing them like this, I don't know what to say. We should have gotten Commander Li to handle this a long time ago. Those guys are just sitting around doing nothing, expecting them to stop the Japanese planes? Isn't that nonsense?"
One of the rickshaw drivers said with a smile that the last few times, they didn't dare to come out during the day.
If someone does this kind of work and doesn't go out for even a day, their whole family will go hungry.
Back then, there was no other way; we couldn't risk our lives just to make money, so we had to cut back on food and clothing. Now the situation is different. As long as the air defense command doesn't issue the highest level of alert, everyone just needs to find somewhere to take shelter. According to the air defense command, people only need to go to air-raid shelters when the highest level of alert is issued.
There's no need to worry at other times. Don't be fooled by their aggressive demeanor; the air defense command has the capability to deal with them and has already deployed enough mobile air defense vehicles in their direction of advance.
“Who says otherwise? If you ask me, we should appoint Commander Li as our city defense commander. Pujiang is a dangerous place, isn’t it? How many Japanese soldiers has our Commander Li killed? It’s said that the Japanese are so angry they’re about to faint. These commanders all have impressive titles, but if we’re talking about defending Hankou, I don’t think they have the ability.”
Another rickshaw driver backed his rickshaw into a corner. It was their rest time since there were no customers. Before, basking in the sun here was the happiest time of their day. But now they had to worry about airplanes overhead, and it had been almost two weeks since they'd last sunbathed here. Now that everyone was back to their old routines, things didn't seem so bad anymore.
Of course, the brothers all understood that this happened after Commander Li took over as commander of the air defense command.
In the past, air raid sirens sounded from morning till night.
Those people didn't care about the lives of the people outside. According to their ideas, if they spotted a Japanese plane, they would sound the air raid siren. If you wanted to go in, go in; if you didn't want to, then forget it.
"It's a pity this thing isn't for elections. If it were an election, we'd each have one vote, and we'd definitely put Commander Li in power. If we hand this city over to those useless guys, it might fall into the hands of the Japanese in a couple of days. I've heard that the Japanese have almost wiped out the Jiangnan region."
Some drivers simply bought a few fried dough sticks and quickly grabbed a bite to eat.
They eat at irregular times each day, and can only eat properly when there are no guests.
Sometimes, when guests arrive halfway through a meal, all they can do is stuff the food into their clothes and quickly pull the cart away.
By the time the guests arrived at their destination, the food was basically cold and hard, which wasn't good for their stomachs. Of course, for these people, stomachs and such were no longer important.
"Make way, make way, brothers, please make way."
Just as they were talking, several armored vehicles came by. They quickly pushed their own rickshaws, knowing that they were marked with the insignia of the Air Defense Command and that these vehicles were all mobile air defense vehicles.
The so-called mobile air defense vehicles are mostly converted armored vehicles, with some converted trucks. The trucks are equipped with two anti-aircraft machine guns, all 12.7mm large-caliber, and both are twin-mounted. The armored vehicles are equipped with quadruple-mounted anti-aircraft guns. These vehicles appear to be temporarily stationed throughout the city on orders from the air defense command.
Whenever this thing appeared, many people understood that Japanese aircraft were very likely to appear in the vicinity, and the probability was extremely high. It was said to be detected using some kind of radar. So when the anti-aircraft vehicle appeared, many people went to inquire, and most soldiers would advise them to take shelter in air-raid shelters, as this area was likely a key bombing zone for the Japanese. As for areas where the anti-aircraft vehicle didn't appear, the chances of Japanese bombing were relatively low.
After witnessing this, the drivers, unwilling to go into the air-raid shelter, hurried to another area. They figured they had legs to run; if they wanted to go somewhere else, they could simply run a short distance, without needing to hide in an air-raid shelter.
But the other street vendors were different; they left all sorts of goods lying around on the main road. There wasn't enough time for them to move to another area, so they quickly found a place to store their goods and rushed down to the air-raid shelter. As long as they survived, they could always make a comeback.
Sure enough, less than ten minutes later, air raid sirens sounded in the surrounding cars, and people scattered in panic. Although there were soldiers directing operations on the streets, the civilians hadn't yet developed a habit of dealing with such situations. After all, the Japanese hadn't been bombing Hankou for very long, and the air defense command had acted like idiots, never having done anything like it before. Now, Li Shaoyi was essentially starting from scratch.
Even so, many ordinary people have already found their own way. When they set up stalls or go out for a stroll, the first thing they ask is where the nearest air-raid shelter is. After finding the entrance, they wander around the area.
Even after hearing the alarm, they remained calm and went over. According to the air defense command, there were still about ten minutes left after hearing the alarm.
At this moment, 15 small dots have appeared on the air defense command's radar. The scale of the Japanese bombing is increasing. At first, only a single-digit number of planes came, but after we improved our air defense capabilities, the number of Japanese planes has now doubled.
However, according to Li Shaoyi, even if 50 planes came, we would have the ability to deal with them; it's just a matter of whether the Japanese would be willing to give them up.
Temporary air-raid shelters were set up in open areas, and the local people were urged to hurry into the air-raid shelters, ready to have a head-on confrontation with the Japanese planes.