The Japanese army followed the train, entered the territory of Shandong, and after catching up with the 12 divisions in front, they did not continue to advance, obviously the Japanese were also quite vigilant, at least in Shandong, even if there was a train to travel, reduce fatigue, but in the case of the unknown enemy situation in front, they still chose to walk.

The 12 divisions in the vanguard, although the troops are divided into six routes, but when they entered the territory of Shandong, they found that the vast majority of places in Shandong have been fortified and cleared, with the help of the six-way army, the method of dispersing the opponent is almost impossible to achieve, but because of the different distances between each other, there is a dogtooth staggering, this kind of dogs and teeth are staggered, it is fatal for the army, the speed and combat effectiveness of the Northwest Army, after showing in front of the Japanese, the Japanese have reduced the distance between each other, and began to gradually hold together.

At a distance of 50 kilometers from Dezhou, 12 divisions and 15 subsequent divisions actually reconciled, and ahead was Dezhou, and Hebei entered the first battle in Shandong. Obviously, Japan also has an eyeliner on the Shandong side, knowing that Texas is a key, and since it has entered the war zone, it is impossible to go directly by train, relying on walking and pulling horses, and walking slowly.

Of course, an army of nearly 27 divisions, almost 700,000 people, such a huge team, it is impossible to deploy in such a node city as Texas, and the 27 divisions have undergone a simple reorganization to form three parts, one before and two behind, showing a zigzag shape and moving forward.

The two sides made slow contact, and the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army at the front was the former Minister of War Kawamura Keiaki, who led 9 divisions. 220,000 people, the first to approach Texas.

Japan because of successive losses. Most of the officers of the Young Zhuang faction died. The wounded and wounded of the newly formed divisions and regiments were not able to do so, and this was a sign of a large number of officers, most of whom were over 60 years old.

Kawamura Keiaki is also an evergreen tree in the Japanese military, born in a samurai family with the Satsuma Domain, and has been in contact with the military since he was a child, and has participated in most of Japan's important wars, such as the Sino-Japanese War in modern times. The Russo-Japanese War and so on, the war achievements were outstanding, and in 1907 he was promoted to viscount, and even the recent high-profile marshal candidate, you know, the marshal of Japan is not available in every era, and it needs to be considered in many ways, and the emperor can give it directly.

It was precisely because of the battle in Shandong that too many troops were lost. And because of the support of the Entente, Japan obtained a large amount of munitions and was able to form a large number of divisions, soldiers, and so on. It can be quickly filled with the help of conscription among the poor, plus military academy graduates and officers of the reserve forces. However, senior military officers are extremely important, and they have to be a last resort. Among them were a large number of veterans, the Japanese military department. I also hope that these veterans with outstanding achievements can give them new surprises......

The Japanese army carried by Kawamura Jingming is huge, 9 fully equipped divisions, with a total of 240 artillery pieces of more than 100 mm, an average of 27 guns per division, and almost 300 guns of more than 75 guns, these are absolutely advantageous to the Beiyang Army, the most important thing is that they urgently replaced the American artillery, among the 240 guns, but there are about 40 guns of more than 150 mm, and even have 203 mm guns, this heavy big guy's, It took a lot of effort for Kawamura to get here.

If, say, their opponent is Beiyang, it is the revolutionary, and there is no artillery of more than 150 mm, it is enough to overwhelm the opponent, but it is a pity that his opponent is the Northwest, and he has already made comprehensive preparations for their arrival.

Stationed in Dezhou, itself is only the second division of the first army, the special forces detected that when the other side has a large number of personnel, Cai Ye took the initiative to adjust, so that the premise of the third division, came to Dezhou, itself Texas this node, the area is only about 12 square kilometers, can barely allow a division to be stationed, but in the past few months, a large number of defensive positions have been built on the periphery, almost four or five layers, barely enough to accommodate two divisions, in Cai Yi's view, the northwest is originally known for defense, as long as it is well defended, the two divisions are almost 60,000 people, it should not be a problem to resist four or five times the enemy army.

The northwest is 20 kilometers around Dezhou, seeing the Japanese movements, the Japanese army on the back shrank backwards, shrinking to a distance of 5 kilometers from Dezhou, while the other two sides, holding the original position, a total of 6 regiments and 3 artillery regiments were placed on the front, and on the side, in a roundabout position, a full 5 regiments were placed, and in the city of Texas, only three regiments were left in reserve.

Obviously, Cai Yi's purpose is very simple, that is, to completely annihilate the nine Japanese divisions and regiments, and only under the premise of forming superior forces in a certain area and comprehensively encircling them, can it be considered effective.

There are only 60,000 troops, and they want to annihilate 220,000 Japanese divisions, which seems crazy, in fact, for the northwest, it is conservative, the speed of the northwest expansion is fast, but it is in the military academy to train a large number of low-level officers, it is said that the northwest army in training, is also extremely strict, on average, each qualified soldier, 120 rounds of ammunition per month, as for the gunner, at least 12 shells, such a training scale, much higher than Germany, let alone Japan, so, the accuracy of the soldiers is quite high, all kinds of technical and tactical levels, mastered quite in place, not to mention artillery, a division, with 155 guns 12, 108 guns 24, and 96 75 guns, such firepower, almost equivalent to several Japanese divisions, this is still a strengthened Japanese division, there was no comparison at all before.

In addition to these long-range cannons, mortars are almost delegated to the platoon level, large and small caliber artillery, almost more than 1,000 pieces, in the joint firepower, it is absolutely a complete explosion of the Japanese army, the most important thing is that a division is equipped with more than 1,300 machine guns, an average of 20 people have one, almost to the squad level, the hand is also a semi-automatic AK11 rifle, this rifle can be fired in bursts or single, the degree of firepower is far higher than the Japanese army.

Because of this, as long as the tactics are appropriate, after defeating the opponent's superior firepower, with the advantage of artillery, it will inevitably be able to achieve great results. Besides, the civil fortifications in the northwest are also very powerful, the perfect position, directly buried, not distressed at all, retreated, it is still a complete, or even more powerful position, the northwest has a strong enough production capacity, almost the trenches and defensive battles, to the extreme, and is really not afraid of the opponent's 9 divisions to press down.

Kawamura Jingming knows very well that he must get off to a good start, in the battle between Japan and the northwest, after several losses, now his morale is gone, he shoulders the mission of boosting morale, not to mention that there is an iron wall in front of him, even if it is a sword mountain and a sea of fire, he must come to attack.

The Japanese army in the north of Texas, after a short period of assembly, formed a shock camp, rushed towards the city of Texas, it seems that there are a lot of personnel, the momentum is violent, but in fact, there is no order, at least compared to today, there are more and more automatic weapons.

Zheng Chunyun, the commander of the 2nd Division, and Wang Haibo, the commander of the 3rd Division, both shook their heads slightly, the reputation of the Japanese really doesn't know how it was created, the tactical level is so poor, and why such a poor unit can still go to the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War in a row.

Zheng Chunyun was surprised, the Japanese are not as good as Germany, nor as good as Britain and France, but they are similar to Russia, the fundamental reason why Zheng Chunyun said this is actually that their training in the northwest is partly born from the German training method, but more, it is the training method that Yang Yuanzhao has been exposed to by later generations.

In the past 100 years, the improvement of technology and equipment has not increased by a hundredfold, from artillery, to aircraft, to missiles, step by step, the development of the army has almost gone to the extreme, and in this case, only a stronger army can be truly peaceful.

Not to mention the simplest intensive charge of the Japanese army, even if Germany is barely able to make an attack on air and ground now, this is not a level of attack at all.

The Japanese army rushed up, first of all, the preparation of artillery fire, which the Japanese seemed to do decently, but when it came to the fixed system in the northwest, even if it took more than ten days, the excavated fortifications did not have much effect. What's more, it took several months to finally build a perfect fortification, so that 6 regiments of the army could hide in it, these caliber artillery did not pose any threat to them at all, and the power of Japanese artillery had not yet been improved, and it was still a generation of artillery, even if it was American, they had an empty range but no arc, they could not be adjusted, and they could only use the surface to kill.

After the artillery fire was prepared, everyone rushed forward, and at this time, on the other side of Texas City, the strategic artillery of the Second Army, the new 155 mm artillery, was ready to go, although their caliber was larger than the size of the Japanese, but the higher pipe-to-body ratio, more powerful shells, and more reasonable arrangement, so that his range was at least more than double that of the ordinary 155 artillery. Rather, it was to attack the Japanese soldiers who were charging like a tide, and the artillery shells used were also anti-personnel shells developed by many parties in the northwest.

Anti-personnel shells will make the shrapnel explosion more dispersed, and some also add special steel balls and explosive pieces, which will make the lethality of the artillery fire within a radius high, and there is not much gap.

The observers had already begun to observe, the sounding balloon had also flown up, and on both sides, the chasing troops, composed of armored four-wheel drives, were ready to go, and the hearts of the two divisions were very big, ready to eat the nine divisions that were the vanguard in one fell swoop.

At this time, the five divisions and Kawamura Keiaki did not feel the slightest sense that danger was coming to them, and his rigid brain was still stuck in the Russo-Japanese War, when their army won the Russo-Japanese War with such a charge that was not afraid of death, and this time, he also thought the same. (To be continued.) )