Matsushita Benming cried with a sad face, looking at the only Type 89 150mm cannon that everyone rushed out at the last moment, and at this time he had forgotten the pain of his broken arm.

In order to rush those heavy artillery, at this time, most of his brigade had died. All that remained were the wounded seventy or so men gathered around the heavy artillery, and a group of men sent from the infantry to help, if it weren't for them, I am afraid that this last cannon would not have been saved.

"Where's Mitsubishi-kun?" Matsushita Benming suddenly saw another Reading Heavy Artillery Brigade with a Cao Chang he knew, and couldn't help but ask about their team leader.

"They're all dead! The cannons are all ruined! Not a single cannon is left, it's all destroyed! The somewhat sluggish Cao Chang spoke a little upside down, but Panasonic looked at the two dozen people behind them and understood. The other brigade was worse than them, they didn't have a single heavy artillery left.

"How so?" Matsushita muttered to himself, and everyone next to him was silent.

"How so?" The commander of the 116th Division, Lieutenant General Kishige Shimizu, was also depressed.

Ten minutes, only ten minutes.

The cannons had wiped out their heavy artillery units twenty kilometers away. They fired twenty huge cannon shells, and they destroyed the fifteen heavy cannons that the devils were leaning on as a barrier.

The remaining cannon was not used again. Even if it has gone back three kilometers, it is still not safe. Kishige Shimizu knew that the giant cannon of the vanguard army could hit 50 kilometers. The Kwantung Army had already suffered a lot of losses.

The information from the base camp was that this huge cannon still had thick protection, and anyway, even if the 150-mm heavy artillery shells bombarded it, it would only tickle it. Besides, more than 20 kilometers away, I can only stare dryly. Matsushita and the others immediately made a decision, and the order to evacuate immediately was not wrong, and they could only blame the speed of that giant cannon for being too fast.

Although the shells of the naval guns seemed to have been fired by two guns according to the trajectory, everyone did not believe that the giant cannons could fire so fast in succession. Since the cannon can attack up to 50 kilometers away, the barrel cannot be short. Even if autoloading is available, successive rapid firing will deform the long barrel and even threaten to explode. Although the naval guns used by the Yamato also reached 1.8 rounds per minute, if ten rounds in a row were so fast, something would definitely go wrong. The opinion of the crowd was in favor of the Vanguard Army's placement of four guns.

"The vanguard army may have deployed four huge cannons of at least 300 mm caliber in Xinxiang?" Tada Jun, who was in charge of the commander-in-chief of Zhengzhou, also gasped when he heard this. It turned out that huge artillery shells were also being fired near Xinxiang, but it seemed that there were only two, and after the bombardment stopped for a while. After all, the barrel life of each giant cannon is limited, and it has to be replaced after a hundred rounds.

After a long time, it seems that the giant cannon there still exists, and it seems to have become four.

"Four cannons?" Tada Jun had a headache.

In this era without missiles, the giant cannon is a symbol of invincibility. If it's on the coast, you can still have naval guns to bombard it, but if you're inland, how can you deal with this huge cannon? The only train cannon he had had already been blown up in the battle with the Vanguard Army's cannons, so where else could he deal with them?

At this time, under the escort of the giant cannon, the rocket artillery began to exert its power again. The 116th Division, which was rapidly advancing, heard the roar of rocket artillery again.

After another wave of more than 1,000 132-mm rockets bombarded, Qing Shui was extremely distressed, and most of the wing disappeared again. Even if the attack is dispersed, it is equivalent to the blow of more than a thousand heavy artillery, and the death of more than 2,000 people is still considered a small number. The huge consumption of rocket launches made Meng Xiang feel painful.

People say that when the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold. Although rocket artillery is cheap, rockets are not cheap at all. Especially in a launch of thousands, all the people who hit out were golden beans.

Flesh hurts to flesh, but it's better than being killed or injured like a devil.

Kishige Shimizu was hesitating at this time, whether to rush forward or retreat. Retreating, the operation was only afraid of failure. But rushing forward, even with the reloading time of the rocket artillery for up to ten minutes, the devils could not rush in front of the position of the vanguard army three kilometers away.

"The 120th Wing was left to build fortifications. All the others withdrew. He could only come up with one idea.

Since he had paid four or five thousand casualties to attack here, he retreated like this, not to mention that the military orders from above were difficult to disobey, even he was reluctant to do so.

The fortifications in the field are also dug trenches. This thing is best suited to withstand artillery fire. Although he had not faced the central military many times before, their level of digging trenches was not bad at all. The rise of trench warfare in World War I led to similarly rigorous training for his veterans. With an order, the remaining 120 Wing immediately began digging trenches on the spot.

It is impossible to dig a trench without three or two days. But the 120 Wing was located in two small mounds that temporarily protected it from bombardment rocket artillery. In this bombardment, their wing also suffered the least losses. So he wanted to use the topography of these two mounds to temporarily gain a foothold and advance step by step.

At this time, Jiaozuo was already surrounded by trenches, and they planned to dig all the way to Xinxiang City. But the order for a general offensive shattered all these plans.

In winter, the soil is frozen like steel, and when the sapper shovels dig down, they only dig out a layer of floating soil with ice slag, and there are white marks underneath. But even so, the soldiers of the 120th Wing are still digging desperately, they know that they will not dig a foxhole that can accommodate them before the rocket artillery attack, and just wait for someone to collect the body for you. Even with the terrain of the mound, luck does not befall everyone's head.

A new round of rocket attacks blasted towards the large forces of the evacuated 116th Division, and the 120th Wing was too small and scattered to be far less concentrated than the retreating 116th Division. A fiery cloud under the shaking of the heavens and the earth swept away the thirst for life of more than a thousand devils.

The 116th Division withdrew and counted, and it had lost nearly 6,000 people, and Shimizu Xizhong almost couldn't help crying. How had they ever seen such a play? Before they could touch a single figure of the vanguard army, a third of the troops had been killed.

"It's just unbeatable! The vanguard army has that kind of blizzard, and the soldiers of the Empire, no matter how brave they are, will not be able to rush close. The blows of that kind of artillery are no longer bombarded one by one, but cleaned up piece by piece. Within the range of their blows, there is simply no place to dodge. How does this make people charge? Qing Shui Xi scratched his head firmly.

It is said that the rigid tactics of the First World War encountered the advanced weapons of the middle and late World War II, and it can only be sad. You must know that even Soviet Russia did not use rocket artillery on such a large scale at the beginning. 100 rocket artillery pieces will be attributed to the establishment of the army level, and 116 can only be considered unlucky if only one division encounters it.

"Defend in place, dig and build fortifications!" After withdrawing more than ten miles under the continuous tailing of rockets, the remaining men and horses of the 116th Division stabilized their formation and began to build a new position.

Shimizu Kishige understood that in the face of the fierce firepower of the vanguard army, only by hiding in the trenches underground, could he be stable and conservative. Even if it is an attack, without the cover of trenches, a collective charge on an open flat ground is purely looking for death. The firepower of the Platoon of the Vanguard Army was even stronger than that of the Americans in World War II.

In the past, due to his arrogance, digging trenches and building fortifications were simple, and he did not regard the vanguard army as an equal opponent. Even if trenches are dug in the defensive places now, when attacking, they still hold the old tactic of collective charge. This may be effective against the Central Army, but it is no longer effective against the Vanguard Army. The machine guns and submachine guns of the vanguard alone were enough to stop their tidal attacks. Not to mention the fact that there is also a large artillery defense.

Officers in the middle and lower ranks are already adjusting their tactics, but among the officers in the upper ranks, people still hold the old ideas. That's why it was repeatedly broken by the vanguard army. And this time, starting from the base camp, a lot of new tactics were tested in response to the characteristics of the strong firepower of the vanguard army. It's just that there are more conservative forces in the army, and it's not a good tactic that can be promoted.

However, Kishige Shimizu made up his mind and took the lead in adjusting the tactical play against the vanguard army in the 116th Division. I have not experienced the pain of defeat in the face of the vanguard army, and I cannot experience that feeling of helplessness.

Kishige Shimizu planned to increase the offensive and defense of trench operations, but he did not forget about the tank units of the vanguard army. The tank appeared in World War I as a steel monster that broke trench warfare, and with its existence, the balance of trench warfare was broken.

However, at this time, Qing Shui Xizhong couldn't take care of it. Without more firepower, no more means of attack, trench warfare seemed to be his only reliance.

He thought about it for a long time, but the weapons on the ground no longer seemed to have such a combination of rocket artillery and giant artillery that could restrain the vanguard. In the end, war is about strength.

Since the weapons on the ground can't deal with it, the only thing to count on is the plane in the sky.

"Why hasn't the plane in the sky broken through yet?" He turned to the sky. This time, Zhengzhou's planes were also dispatched, and the earliest battlefield of this battle was the sky.

Over the Yellow River near Zhengzhou, the engines of airplanes sounded incessantly.

He himself also considered aerial bombardment, but in the face of the fighters of the vanguard army, they did not gain air supremacy, and there was no ground offensive at all. He said that after suffering several losses in front of the air force of the vanguard army, he had already understood that it would be impossible to see the hope of victory without destroying the planes of the vanguard army.

Fifty Zero fighters were dispatched to Zhengzhou this time.

He said that he wanted to take advantage of the appearance of new fighters to make a surprise attack on the vanguard, so the first attack was still those old planes, and the other planes were all ambushed, waiting for the vanguard planes to be introduced into the ambush circle. However, he still did not expect that the radar station had already discovered their traces, and since the place of battle was within the direct jurisdiction of the sub-base, the information obtained by the vanguard army was more detailed.

"They still want to set up an ambush? Fifty planes just want to ambush us? Shen Dexie sneered.

"Eat them slowly first, don't rush to attack. Anyway, they're in a better hurry than we are. He commanded.

Although the air battle in the sky near the Yellow River in Zhengzhou continued, it was not very intense. The devil's plane was wandering, and the vanguard planes were not in a hurry, there were more than 30 of them above, and the smell of playing was stronger.

Qing Shui looked at the sky with joy, and the first thing he saw was a reconnaissance plane of the vanguard army above his head.

"Not good!" His heart throbbed. The appearance of reconnaissance aircraft of the Vanguard Army was always accompanied by bad news.

"Boom!" Sure enough, before he could order the troops to strengthen concealment, a huge cannon shell fell in a crowded place, and immediately it was as if it had been hit by a meteorite, and hundreds of people fell from the inside out around a huge crater, and there was no one in the crowded area at that crater.

"Boom!" Another loud bang. Before the rest of the people dispersed, another huge cannon shell fell in the denseness.

"Spread out! Disperse! Qing Shui shouted loudly with joy.

"Boom, boom!" There were several more alarming loud noises, and the convoy transporting ammunition was hit by a huge cannon shell, causing a series of explosions, and the flames flying in all directions flew directly hundreds of meters away.

"Boom!" The only heavy cannon was blasted into the sky by the huge cannon shells that caught up. A broken gun carriage that flew out smashed directly into Matsushita Motomei's head, and his brains splashed everywhere.

Huge artillery shells go down and fall in places with a lot of people, and there are hundreds of casualties at a time. Caught off guard, the 116th Division had another six or seven hundred people who became cannon fodder.

"Keep retreating!" Chief of Staff Yoshiichiro Mihato Osaku reminded.

"All retreat!"

They continued to retreat, and were driven by the cannons all the way out of the twenty miles, and the scattered targets were no longer worthy of the cannons' bombardment, and the sharp whistling of the cannonballs disappeared from their ears.

This time, the 116th Division did not dare to gather any more troops after counting the number of people, but in the end it was accurate to count the number of people, and the number of dead and missing people had exceeded 8,000. Moreover, the 120th Wing was also left on the front position, unable to respond.

"If you don't knock out those giant cannons, you can't say anything about attacking!" Qing Shui said sadly.

"If we don't knock out those cannons, we won't be able to attack at all!" At this time, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, also said such things, and shook his head at Koga Feng, the commander of the Huaxia Fleet of the Saimoto Navy.

After the Great War in the Yellow Sea last year, the former commander of the Huaxia Fleet, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, stepped down with a big black cauldron on his back and was replaced by Koga Mineichi. At this time, the Huaxia fleet was readjusted, and in order to deal with the vanguard army, its strength was stronger than before.

It's just that the Navy has always been opposed to dealing with the vanguard at this time, mainly because only the Kaga can sail on their aircraft carrier, and the Akagi is under intense repair, and it will take another month to complete the repair and transformation. In the last battle with the Vanguard, he himself realized that the aircraft carrier's anti-aircraft firepower was insufficient and was installing new anti-aircraft guns. Even on ordinary warships, all kinds of anti-aircraft guns are being modified or retrofitted.

Therefore, the order made by the base camp to attack the vanguard army this time was not prepared by the navy. They want to delay for a few more months, if not longer. At that time, the Flying Dragon and even the Xianghe aircraft carrier could have been built. With their accession, the Navy will be a little more sure.

But the order had already been issued, and after the appearance of the Zero aircraft this time, the navy also snatched fifty planes, so the air combat mission of attacking Shanhaiguan was assumed.

They need to cooperate with the Kwantung Army to open the road to Shanhaiguan and at least knock out the giant artillery there.

For this attack, they dispatched two battleships, the Nagato and the Mutsu. Only their thick armor can withstand the bombardment of the cannons.

A large fleet consisting mainly of two Nagato-class ships and the Kaga sailed all the way to Lushun. The submarine forces of the Vanguard Army were not given an opportunity in the middle. Since the last accident of the Nie Zheng submarine, Meng Xiang has strictly forbidden the submarine force to launch suicide attacks. The navy of the vanguard army with a thin foundation needs more opportunities for growth, and if it destroys others, it can't escape itself, so it can only fight its own strength to the fullest. Now the situation with the vanguard does not require their sacrifice.

This time, this huge fleet was accompanied by only three troop carriers, and the 6th Brigade was brought in by the Reading Power Mix. With such a small number of men and a huge risk, it is not worth the attack of the new killer of the submarine.

"We need to clean up the giant cannons at the mouth of the Bohai Sea first." Koga said depressedly.

He said that he had already found out that the plane of the vanguard army took off from Weihai. At this time, the focus of the attack was to first destroy those airfields in Weihai. And around Weihai, it is observed that there are also huge artillery positions. In addition, there is a huge artillery position in the Temple Island archipelago that needs to be cleared. If you don't clean up there, Bohai Haikou will be stuck by them.

Therefore, the first goal of their attack was to clear the giant artillery positions on the Weihai and Miaodao Islands.

"Come on! Try the Red Police's Giant Artillery Array! Meng Xiang said excitedly.

Although there are only two cannons that can be used in a sub-base, there is no limit to the number of cannons that can be built. As long as the star value is enough, you can make it. For this attack, Meng Xiang removed some other buildings and built twelve cannons in one fell swoop to form three positions.

"Bombardment!" Since everyone knew that the vanguard army's giant cannon had a long firing distance, Meng Xiang unceremoniously began to bombard his fleet directly at a distance of sixty kilometers.

"Attention, it's almost 27 nautical miles, and it's almost within the range of the Vanguard Army's giant artillery." As soon as Kogamine's words fell, two huge whistling sounds that stirred the air already sounded in the sky.

"Closer to thirty nautical miles, can their artillery hit 55 kilometers? Or even farther? Koga was taken aback. The shells fired precisely at the aircraft carrier Kaga.

A shell landed near the Kaga, and a column of water swept down an airplane. The other shot fell at a distance of three or four meters from the destroyer Fanfeng, and the shells that fell into the water hit the hull directly under the water, immediately tearing a large hole. How could the destroyer Sail Wind be able to withstand such an attack? Before the surrounding ships could come to the rescue, the destroyer Sail Wind had already sunk into the sea.

"Watch out for the cannon!" Koga Mineichi's reminder was a little redundant, and seeing the appearance of the destroyer Sailkaze, the other ships raised their vigilance.

The carrier Kaga immediately stopped moving forward, and its mission this time was to defend the entire fleet, and the attack on the ground and the ships was mainly carried out by two battleships.

Now that the cannon threatened it, the Kaga immediately began to retreat. As long as the range of carrier-based aircraft is sufficient, the distance of the aircraft carrier does not care about the distance. The Kaga retreated ten kilometers in a row, and such a distance was already very safe.

"Keep going!" Koga Mine ordered quietly.

Even if the giant cannon can hit here, the accuracy is very different, and the destroyer Sail Wind just happened to it. Such a long range is not unusual, and the Germans' train guns can reach 60 km.

Those destroyers followed with fear, although they could be sunk with a single shot, but their small size was far less attractive than those large ships, and they also needed to take on the task of driving out those torpedo boats and even shallow sea submarines, and it was impossible to retreat like the Kaga aircraft carrier.

Along the way, the cannonballs of the cannon kept falling.

The thick armor of the two Nagato-class battleships could not be penetrated, but the thickness of the armored deck was only 125 mm at the thickest, the top of the turret was only 250 mm after the modification, and the 280 mm caliber shells of the giant guns were enough to destroy them.

However, the cannon did not target them, and the armor of the other main parts of the Nagato was above 300 mm, and even if the armor of the command tower reached 336 mm, these were not something that the cannon could penetrate. Their targets were concentrated on the cruisers that were escorting, as well as other battleships.

The Kongo was crippled, and it had not been repaired at this time, and the battleship Kirishima was sunk, as if to take revenge, and the battleships accompanying it this time were two other ships of the Kongo class, Hiei and Haruna.