Li Zhilong was very glad that the Japanese army on the opposite side was not equipped with heavy artillery, and after he moved the remaining heavy artillery of the heavy artillery regiment back and the Japanese field artillery could not threaten the heavy artillery, the Japanese attack became very cautious. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

But even so, the Fourth Division suffered heavy losses.

Because they knew a lot of the tactics and tactics of the Liaodong Army that had defeated them, this time the Japanese followed the example and used the tactics that the Liaodong Army had used to deal with them to clean up the Liaodong Army.

What artillery dispersed the shelling, what shelling guerrilla, what artillery cover the defenders in the offensive......

Although Li Zhilong still had dozens of heavy artillery pieces in his hand, the order took too long to pass because of the distance. The Japanese army, on the other hand, adopted the method of artillery guerrilla warfare, which was to fight several games and change positions.

From the beginning of the heavy artillery moving back, the heavy artillery in Li Zhilong's hand became an ornament, and several strands lost their effect.

As soon as the chief of staff of the Fourth Division rushed in front of Yang Xingguo, he reported with a look of grievance.

"Division commander, the Japanese army is too ruthless to cover artillery fire at every turn, the battle just now, if we hadn't equipped ourselves with mortars and used mortars to repel the Japanese attack, the position would have changed hands by now."

"But even so, we lost more than a company of troops, and most of them were bombed by the Japanese."

"The Japanese army was indeed ruthless enough, and after several artillery fires, at least hundreds of them were accidentally injured by their own shells." Li Zhilong replied with a gloomy face.

At this time, the chief of staff continued to speak: "The Japanese army has a superiority in strength, and they can withstand accidental injuries. We can't do it, the battle has been fought so far, and the loss of just two battalions has already made us feel a sense of breaking our bones. ”

"Now we are holding our positions, and although we have a regiment, a third of our troops are recruits drawn from the garrison regiment. At this rate of loss, our forces will only last for a day at most. ”

Li Zhilong frowned and replied: "There is only one way, choose the right opportunity, take the initiative to retreat, and use the movement warfare that the commander often says to consume them in large quantities, and strive to drag the Japanese army in the territory of Donggang." ”

"If we hold on for half a day tomorrow, if the Japanese offensive is still so fierce, there will be only one way to retreat. In addition, just in case, two garrison regiments were dispatched to assist the Donggang garrison regiment, which had been disabled, and all the people in Donggang County and on both sides of the pipeline were transferred to prepare for the movement war. ”

At this time, the Liaodong Army in the Haizhou direction had already begun to retreat. The two main divisions plus the two regiments of the cavalry division, the combat unit of more than 20,000 people before the war, at this time there were less than 15,000 people left, and this was the result of the cavalry division not participating in the battle.

After reading the battle reports summarized by various divisions and regiments, Li Zhilong couldn't help frowning even if he had already prepared in his heart.

The two cavalry regiments had almost no losses, which meant that the losses of nearly 10,000 men under their command came from the 5th Division and the Guards Division.

"The losses are too great, and after this battle, the Guards Division and the Fifth Division are disabled. I don't know if the battlefield capture can make up for the losses, otherwise the already weak foundation of our Liaodong Army will definitely become thinner. Yang Xingguo said to Sun Liechen with a gloomy face.

Sun Liechen's expression was also very solemn at the beginning, but when he heard the word seized, the solemn expression on his face was directly replaced by a smile, and he hurriedly comforted Yang Xingguo: "Commander, capture can definitely make up for the loss, this time not only will we not make it worse, but we will also make a lot of money." ”

"The division directly opposite us, because of the collapse of the battlefield, all the baggage and heavy weapons they had hoarded on the garrison and defensive line were captured by us."

"The same is true of the two divisions on both wings, in order to withdraw from the battlefield as soon as possible, they also gave up all their baggage and heavy weapons."

"Take artillery as an example, although the three divisions were not equipped with heavy artillery, even the field artillery suffered a lot of losses in the artillery battle. However, all the remaining field artillery pieces of the three divisions and regiments are combined, and there are still more than 40 guns, and there are even more field artillery regiments to form a field artillery regiment. ”

"This is still secondary, we will shoot one less field artillery shell, this time we will definitely be able to replenish it fiercely. The field artillery shells in the reserves of the three divisions were almost not used, and all of them were abandoned by the Japanese and then fell into our hands. ”

"In addition, the 3rd Guards Regiment also dragged back at least one regiment of heavy artillery from the positions of the Japanese heavy artillery brigades. As for the heavy artillery shells, there will be much more after replenishing all our losses. In addition, there are light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and ammunition, because there are too many of them, and they are too messy, it is impossible to count them in a few days. But it's already certain that we're going to win this battle. ”

"After all, it took us only 10,000 losses to defeat and eliminate nearly 40,000 elite Japanese troops."

Yang Xingguo's face finally looked a lot better, but he still ordered with a serious face: "No matter what the result is, the two divisions are already a sure thing. More importantly, the casualties of the troops were so great that they could not stop and recuperate. ”

"Although Li Zhilong's side did not report, I am sure that his side must have fought more fiercely than ours. Therefore, we must immediately reinforce Li Zhilong and force the Japanese army to retreat. If possible, bite off a piece of meat from the Japanese army and eat it to make up for the losses as much as possible. ”

"Chief of Staff, you go down and arrange it immediately, the Fifth Division will stay to monitor the remaining Japanese troops here, and clean up the battlefield by the way. At the same time, orders were given to all the garrison regiments in Anshan and Yingkou to send one battalion of garrison troops each to Haizhou at a rapid marching speed to replenish the losses of the Fifth Division, so that the Fifth Division must reach full strength within 10 days. ”

"For the rest of the troops, leave the light and serious wounded to be taken care of by the Fifth Division, and the rest of the people will join me to reinforce Donggang!"

The more than 10,000 Liaodong Army was like a huge war machine, with the order issued, when it quickly began to operate.

The chief of staff of the Japanese army has returned to the headquarters.

When he heard that the two divisions on both flanks had withdrawn five or six thousand men each, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He congratulated the army commander and said: "Fortunately, we reacted quickly, otherwise more than 10,000 people in the two divisions would definitely be eaten by the Liaodong Army." ”

The army commander also replied with an expression of the rest of his life: "Yes, we didn't expect that the appetite of the Liaodong Army would be so big, and it planned to eat forty or fifty thousand of us at a time." Fortunately, we reacted quickly, otherwise our army would have existed in name only. ”

"Yaga!" Hearing this, the chief of staff, who was holding back the anger in his stomach, couldn't help but scold.

"We will avenge this revenge sooner or later, army commander, according to intelligence, the main force of the Liaodong Army against us has retreated, and if nothing else, they must have gone to Gaizhou. I suggest that the situation be reported to the commander-in-chief immediately, and the troops in the direction of Gaizhou should be allowed to retreat, so as not to be flanked by the Liaodong Army. ”

After receiving the report, Dashanyan was shocked and did not dare to slack off.

Even if he had just received a report on the Donggang defense line not long ago, he would be able to break through the Liaodong Army's defense line in Donggang in one day at most and enter Liaozhong.

He still sent a telegram to the Donggang troops at the first time, ordering the attacking troops to retreat immediately.

At this time, Dashan Yan could no longer afford to gamble. Before the war, all the Japanese troops in Lushun combined numbered nearly 150,000 men. At present, nearly 40,000 people have been lost in the direction of Gaizhou, and if tens of thousands more are lost in the direction of Donggang, then the Manchurian army will really lose more than half, and it will not be able to stand Lushun, the only Japanese stronghold in the Great Qing Dynasty. (To be continued.) )