Chapter 154: Tiger's Authority

A large group of well-trained and fully armed soldiers were buried alive by the sealed entrance?

To Lin, it seemed that at the very least, he could have Noah use an anti-tank rocket launcher to blast away some of the cement blocks blocking the entrance to the mall. The chaotic and panicked situation just now was mainly due to people's nervousness and fear. Once he stabilized everyone, he calmly led his men to the entrance of the mall, using the flashlight to carefully observe the situation: the collapse of the cement beams was the main reason for the blockage, with no major damage to the load-bearing pillars and walls on both sides. However, due to the collapse of the upper structure, haphazardly moving the cement blocks would only cause more debris to fall, which was why the soldiers' previous attempts in the chaos were futile. Judging the situation calmly, Lin, who was not from an engineering background, easily made the correct decision—to only move the lower part below the beam, and to avoid moving the bulky cement blocks as much as possible.

The continuous booming outside still sounded like the onset of a fierce storm. Resisting the fear from within, the soldiers followed Lin's command one after another, using entrenching tools, rifles, and gun belts as tools to gradually clear the larger and smaller cement blocks blocking the entrance. Lin also kept a close eye on the air conditions inside the underground mall. As time passed, although there was a significant increase in the murky feeling in the air, there was no serious lack of oxygen, which further confirmed the existence of ventilation ducts. So, he sent Bruck and Wolfrum with flashlights to find the ventilation ducts, while he himself occasionally joined in to move the rocks. After laboring for over half an hour, a small gap had been dug out under the beam, and faint light could be seen from the outside. At this time, the Soviet shelling also stopped.

Knowing that the ground attack by the Soviet army was about to begin, Lin felt somewhat anxious. The more than one hundred soldiers here were likely an important reserve force for the street barricade defense line. If they were trapped here for a long time, the German soldiers on the barricade might be forced to abandon their positions due to sustained losses. Even if they managed to escape the predicament successfully, facing the Soviet tanks and armored vehicles alone, the soldiers might not have the determination to fight to the death.

Unexpectedly, a loud "clang" rang out, bringing the second potential lifeline to the trapped German soldiers—a ventilation duct. However, upon investigation by Bruck, it was found that to climb out through the ventilation duct, there was a three-meter vertical well along the way, barely accommodating one person, but with smooth walls. It required someone agile to climb up first and then help others through with a rope. This was just one aspect; it was still uncertain whether the exit of this ventilation duct could smoothly return to the street because its exit might be located on the top floor where the stairs were broken.

With two options, two hopes, and an abundance of labor, Lin had Bruck select a few volunteers from among the soldiers to help, while the rest continued to clear the cement blocks at the entrance in batches. Tirelessly, after a considerable amount of time had passed, a dog-hole-sized opening had been excavated under the beam. Fresh air and the sound of gunfire and explosions poured in from this "dog hole," leaving the soldiers both excited and apprehensive: leaving this place of death, but returning to a battlefield equally filled with death.

For the opening too narrow for adults to pass through, someone suggested using explosives or grenades to widen it, but Lin decisively vetoed it, and the fellow immediately revealed his rank as an SS lieutenant. Intentionally not illuminating this person with the flashlight, Lin sternly rejected him aloud. Seeing that the surrounding soldiers did not support him, the lieutenant had no choice but to swallow his pride. Following Lin's arrangement, energetic "replacements" stepped forward to widen the passage, and after a difficult attempt by a small soldier, the seemingly very narrow opening finally became an escape route.

Hope brought prestige, and Lin would certainly not miss this opportunity to make a name for himself. He loudly declared, "Brothers, before leaving here, remember my words, Lin Gargo of Berlin's 11th Night Combat Detachment: Enduring humiliation is not shameful, but shameful is to die without doing anything!"

After this, the soldiers began to crawl out of the "dog hole" one by one, and more and more people gathered at the entrance of the underground mall, while fewer people waited in line on the other side of the ventilation duct. However, the channel explored by Bruck and others still played a positive role in speeding up the soldiers' evacuation. About twenty minutes later, Lin, as the last person to leave the mall, proudly crawled out of the conveniently sized opening.

By now, night had fallen, but as on the previous nights, the darkness was dispelled by the artillery fire, and the entire city seemed to have all its lighting facilities turned on, even the deep streets were not completely dark. Lin glanced at the time; although it didn't feel like a long time, it had been nearly two hundred minutes since entering the underground mall. This meant that without some of the reserve soldiers, those SS soldiers had been holding the street barricade for at least two and a half hours!

The soldiers who returned to the ground each followed an officer or companion to their positions. Lin stood still for a few minutes, and Bruck finally led the last few soldiers down from the ruins of a nearby building. At this moment, to Lin's surprise and delight, apart from his original six soldiers and the National Defense Army gunner Helvich, there were four more soldiers armed with submachine guns or assault rifles who hadn't left. They had been separated during the daytime battle and returned to the unit voluntarily before they joined in combat under this calm and quick-thinking young officer.

Suddenly, Lin felt as if he were back in front of the computer, seeing a prompt appear on the screen: A group of griffins admire your name and voluntarily join your team. Do you accept? Then, since there were still vacancies in the heroes' team, why not accept with joy?

The team suddenly grew much larger, although it was still halved compared to when Lin led them out of the Army Library the night before. Thinking of those subordinates who had passed away before they even got to know each other, and Lin couldn't even remember all their names, his mood was like the desolate street swept by the cold wind, boundlessly bleak.

The brutal battle wouldn't change its pace because of people's emotions. Just as Lin was somewhat dazed by the mixture of joy and sorrow, two consecutive loud bangs came from the direction of the street barricade, and flames soaring into the sky seemed to be as high as three or four floors, quickly spreading into two peculiar mushroom clouds. After that, figures from the direction of the barricade began to retreat towards them. Judging from the situation, Lin didn't immediately advance or retreat, but ordered to "prepare for battle" on the spot.

Some people were retreating, and there were quite a few of them, indicating that the street barricade defense line was indeed on the verge of collapse— the main barricade defended by the National Defense Army had held for most of the day after Lin arrived, but this one had only lasted for about four hours, even with full calculation. Could it be that the combat effectiveness of the SS troops was so weak?

Looking out with wide eyes, the previously seemingly sturdy barricade was now incomplete. In the dim light, half of the four anti-tank gun positions had no one, and it was unclear whether they had been destroyed by Soviet shelling or if the gunners had left and never returned. Thinking of this, Lin was worried that Helvich would rush forward to operate the gun at all costs. Fortunately, this sergeant still quietly followed behind him, empty-handed.

Boom!

Another loud bang, and the towering flames that followed were definitely not something ordinary shells could cause. Considering that under such circumstances, Soviet infantry had no need to come up carrying explosive packs, and the German machine guns and submachine guns on the defense line wouldn't let them succeed, a terrible thought suddenly came to Lin's mind: Could they have encountered the legendary "Stalin's Hammer"?

In the world of tanks, the Soviet S-51 top-tier gun was based on this type of self-propelled gun, the full name of which was the B4 Model M1931 203mm howitzer. Although it was developed and equipped with the Soviet army's standard weapons in the early 1930s, it was a treasure held by the Soviet General Staff, and in the Battle of Berlin, it finally had the opportunity to show its worth. It was said to have even been used to fire directly at the Reichstag... Standing behind the barricade, Lin naturally couldn't observe the Soviet heavy artillery located in the distance and heavily guarded, and the consecutive huge explosions had occurred 23 times before and after, shaking the earth just as many times. Under such intense shelling, the German barricade had finally become a real ruin, and then, the figures of Soviet tanks appeared under the remaining burning debris!

Just as Lin was about to order a retreat, he suddenly heard a strong roar from behind, and in an instant, the harsh sound of metal friction came. In the astonished eyes of the soldiers, a majestic and fierce-looking behemoth drove out from beside the ruins of a building at the street corner. The high turret hatch opened, and a tank soldier wearing a boat-shaped cap leaned out, shouting to the soldiers who were retreating or crouching in the ruins:

"Infantry brothers, we will stop the enemy's advance here. Please cover our flanks! Let us fight gloriously for the victory of the Fuhrer and the victory of Germany!"