108131908 Far Eastern madman

The brightest rice sect on Deng Yao's side disappeared today. Darkness began to envelop Dashano

But the fierce sound of gunfire did not disappear with the fall of night, on the contrary, the sound of gunfire became more dense after nightfall, like a storm, and the sky was lit up with flashes from time to time. This is painful for those military personnel who suffer from night blindness.

The Beiyang Army, which was trapped in the encirclement, tried to break out of the encirclement with the help of the cover of night, and they almost frantically took out the last ammunition, desperately pouring fire on the positions of the troops of the United Front.

Night fighting, a helpless choice, but as soldiers and officers on both sides of the war, the orders of the superiors must be carried out, and for the Beiyang Army. The night battle is probably their only chance.

"Woohoo there were a few long whistles in the middle of the night. Overcast. But it was deafening, especially for the Beiyang Army, the armored train was simply a nightmarish existence, and it was stuck on the way to the north. The Beiyang Army could only break through to the west or east.

But to the west is the zone of control of the United Front. You can't go there, you can only go east, go east all the way, you can go to Chenzhou, and when you get to Chenzhou to turn around and go north, you can go back to Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, even if you can't go there, you can continue to advance eastward, go to Anhui, and even go to Shandong, which is the territory of Beiyang, for the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Army, that is the place they yearn for, and it is also where their confidence in breaking through the siege lies.

However, the defense line in the east was stronger, and the Southern Army had long expected that the Beiyang Army would choose the east side as the direction of Tukko, so they arranged a large number of heavy weapons on the defense line, and the most elite troops were also transferred to the eastern front first.

On the way to break through, more and more soldiers lost their last fighting spirit and surrendered to the Southern Army in a structured manner, or simply lay down in trenches and foxholes, and refused to charge forward no matter how the officers beat them, and those officers and soldiers suffering from night blindness were even more desolate, they could not distinguish the direction at all, and many died under the guns of their own people.

At this point, the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Army are no longer fighting for Beiyang, nor are they fighting for Yuan Shikai and Yuan Laoshuai, they are just fighting for themselves and for their lives. No one is willing to do the errand of sending them to death.

In order to meet the breakthrough of the 4th and 7th divisions of Beiyang. The remnants of the 3rd and 9th Beiyang Divisions, which were outside the encirclement, also launched an attack after dark, and the main direction of attack was also the Eastern Front, which was far from the railway line, and the armored train units of the United Front could not provide effective support. The RUF forces there fought very hard.

In order to provide more effective support to the troops on the Eastern Front, the former enemy command of the United Front decided to transfer most of the field artillery to the Eastern Front for artillery support within visual distance, and a large number of mortars were also transferred, and the flares fired by them reflected the positions of the Eastern Front as if it were daylight, and all those who were exposed became the targets of bullets and shells.

Not all the artillery was fighting, and at the same time that the field artillery and the Beiyang Army breakthrough troops were engaged in hand-to-hand combat, in a small forest not far from the city wall in the north of Xinyang City. A RUF artillery unit could only listen to the sound of artillery from the northeast in the woods, but could not provide any artillery support to its own troops.

This artillery unit had only two cannons. However, the firepower of these two cannons is enough to withstand more than a dozen field guns, and they are truly indestructible.

This is a heavy artillery unit under the command of the United Front, equipped with two Austro-Hungarian Skoda small mm howitzers, this kind of cannon can not only be used to defend the fortress, but also can use the artillery to maneuver in the field, long-distance artillery support for their own troops, is a sharp weapon in the hands of artillery in the hands of this era.

However, due to the small number of artillery shells, and the fact that the command seemed to intend to win by surprise, from the outbreak of the Xinyang battle to the present, these two heavy howitzers have not fired a single shell, and only conducted several test firings before the war to calibrate the firing coordinates, and the use of not explosive shells, but solid shells.

Also for the sake of secrecy, the heavy howitzer was almost always covered in tarpaulin, disguised as two large tents, in which sentries stood guard, and no one was allowed to approach without permission.

Although this small unit is only the size of an artillery company, the actual establishment is an artillery regiment. And the commander is of high rank, a colonel.

This colonel's name is Shen Shangyuan, who was originally the pipe band of the machine gun battalion of the Qing army's Jiujiang Jinjipo Fortress, after the revolutionary army launched the Jiujiang Campaign, he led his troops to revolt and joined the revolutionary army, and later guarded Jiujiang with Wu Zhenhan, deputy commander-in-chief of the Republican Army. made great contributions to the recovery of Wuhan, and was therefore promoted to regiment commander, and later came to Wuhan, and was transferred to the military academy to teach, and also served as the commander of the Turtle Fortress Battery, in charge of the four heavy howitzers.

After the start of the "Dawn in the South" operation, Shen Shangnuan was ordered to carry two heavy howitzers to Xinyang to assist Lan Tianwei in establishing a blocking position.

It is worth mentioning that Shen Shangyuan also studied at the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School back then, and he was also a classmate of Lan Tianwei.

Guarding two heavy howitzers, but could only watch others firing artillery, Shen Shangqian was also a little disappointed in his heart, but considering the overall situation of the entire battle, he still conscientiously implemented Lan Tianwei's order of "no cannon without an order". Every day, in addition to being a competent soldier and drawing on a map. His only job was to wait in this grove for the order of Commander Lan, the order to open fire.

It is now night, but the training of the troops has not ended, and the artillery firing at night has tested the skills of the artillerymen, in order to master the essentials of shooting more skillfully. Shen Shangyi was taking advantage of the night to supervise a night

。

Because the shells of this heavy howitzer are too heavy for manpower to move, they can only rely on small cars, so the exercise site looks more like a camp for engineering troops, and the soldiers are also all kinds of guys, not to mention laymen, even if the former enemy commander officer comes, he may not be able to call him by name.

Carry the shell, lower the barrel, and feed the shell into the chamber; The soldiers who raised the gun body and carried out the drill in strict accordance with the operating procedures, without any words, while Shen Shangyao stood aside without saying a word, watching the movements of the officers and soldiers, holding a hanging watch in his hand, and carefully calculating the time for the shell to be loaded.

Although the officers and soldiers were already moving fast, even the German artillery might not be able to compare, but Shen Shangyi still felt that the shell reloading time was too long. He asked the officers and men to further shorten the reloading time of artillery shells and exert stronger firepower in the limited time. Destroy the fighting spirit of the enemy army with heavy firepower.

There is no way, now China's national strength is weak. Only a small number of mountain artillery, field artillery, like this heavy howitzer can not be self-made, everything depends on imports, but like this kind of heavy howitzer is not said to be imported to get imported, when the Republican Army got the four heavy howitzers from the Germans, the Germans stuck their necks in the shells, each howitzer has an average of only more than 200 high-explosive shells, and with the current manufacturing capacity of the arsenal, it is not possible to imitate this large-caliber high-explosive bomb, can only be filled with solid iron bullets.

Since there are few cannons, it is necessary to use this small number of cannons to fire more shells and deal a fatal blow to the enemy in a short time.

Artillery is the pursuit of a density and intensity of firepower.

For the sake of this density and intensity of firepower, Shen Shangqian urged his subordinates to seriously repeat the drill, and before he knew it, the exercise went on for several hours, and it was not until eleven o'clock in the evening that Shen Shangqian ordered the exercise to end and ordered the soldiers to take a bath and prepare to rest.

"What are we?"

"We are artillerymen!"

"What is the responsibility of the artilleryman?"

"Unstoppable!"

The shouts of the officers and soldiers echoed in the woods, making the already unquiet night even more noisy.

At this time, the artillery fire in the northeast direction was still continuing, and it was more dense than when the net was in the night. Apparently, the fighting there is still going on.

Shen Shangqian was very surprised, he really didn't expect that the Beiyang Army would still have the will to fight until now, and even the Republican Army was a little worried about fighting at night. Why is it that the Beiyang Army has been able to persist in fighting until now? He clearly remembered that the gunfire had been quiet more than an hour ago, but now why was the battle fierce again?

Soon, Shen Shangqian's doubts were solved by an order.

The order was given by field telephone and came from the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, Lan Tianwei.

The command is simple and unambiguous:

"I hereby order your artillery to use high-explosive shells. Instantaneous fuse, quickly with the heaviest fire, fire at the following two coordinates: the first target coordinates, the second target coordinates,. ”

Shen Shangyuan did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered the artillery to assemble, immediately took off his gun jacket, and prepared to fire. At the same time, the former enemy headquarters sent a liaison officer with the same content to ensure the correctness of the coordinates, and this liaison officer was not an ordinary staff officer, but Wu Luzhen, a senior staff officer of the former enemy headquarters.

Just when the artillerymen were busy, Shen Shangyuan unfolded the map and compared it with a ruler, "I found that the coordinates of those two targets were basically at the edge of the extreme range of the heavy howitzer, and at this range." Whether you can hit the target or not, basically depends on Meng.

Perhaps seeing Shen Shangqian's hesitation, Wu Luzhen pointed to the two coordinates on the map and said: "Here, this is the division headquarters of the Beiyang Ninth Division, and here, it is the former enemy headquarters of the Beiyang Second Army. According to the disguised reconnaissance of our scouts just now, Feng Guozhang himself is likely to be in these two

"Feng Guozhang replied to Xinyang?"

Shen Shangyuan was slightly stunned, in the afternoon he heard that Feng Guozhang ran back to Changle Pass with his headquarters, and now he actually returned to Xinyang with his troops, this speed is indeed fast enough, worthy of being a Beiyang general.

Wu Luzhen nodded, pointed to the northeast, and said, "Otherwise, this Beiyang Army would have died down a long time ago." Where will the fight be until now? Feng Guozhang's troops arrived in Xinyang an hour ago, and now, together with the Beiyang Third Division and the Ninth Division, are attacking the positions of our army on the Eastern Front, desperately trying to rescue the Beiyang Fourth Division and the Seventh Division. Colonel Shen. Can our army defeat the Beiyang Second Army in one fell swoop. It's up to you now! ”

"Report! Howitzers are ready. You can shoot with fire! ”

Without waiting for Shen Shangqian to reply, an adjutant ran up to him and stood up and saluted.

Shen Shangqian turned around, and the two heavy howitzers had raised their muzzles and pointed to the north.

"Calibrate the coordinates, square!"

Shen Shangqian handed a note to the adjutant, then turned his head and smiled faintly at Wu Luzhen. Without saying a word, he put on the military cap, straightened his uniform, and walked to the side of the gun emplacement.

"Soldiers, listen up! The target we are about to shoot at is the command of the Beiyang Army! In order to break the morale of the Beiyang Army, our unit must concentrate fire with the most fierce firepower! Now I order, hit the first target first, five shells for each cannon! Listen to me. ”

Shen Shangqian's words lifted everyone's spirits, and they quickly operated the cannon step by step, quickly loaded the shells, and adjusted the cannon body and gun mount according to the coordinate orientation.

In order to avoid the storm at the muzzle, most of them retreated to the rear, leaving only a few artillery on the gun emplacements. They will be responsible for firing.

Everyone's eyes were on Shen Shangyuan, waiting for him to give the order.

Shen Shangwei slowly raised his right hand, slightly stunned. Then he waved his hand downward.

"Fire!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The earth shook with two deafening cannon shots, and two cannonballs flew into the night sky and swooped down to the north with a long whistling sound.

Most of the people present subconsciously looked to the north, only Shen Shangxiang's eyes never left the two heavy howitzers.

"Everybody is like! Reload the shells! ”

In the night, Shen Shangqian's order sounded exceptionally clear and firm.

This is the invincible heavy artillery.