readx; Night has completely fallen on this land, there is no moon tonight is extremely dark, even if there is a kerosene lamp emitting a faint light, but the small headquarters of the front line of the national army is still very dim, the major with glasses spread out a hand-drawn topographic map of the vicinity in his hand, while looking at it and pondering, after a long time he put away the topographic map in his hand, and then stood up, straightened his collar and walked out, the adjutant at the door seemed to have been waiting for him, and when he came out, he hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Battalion commander!"

The battalion commander of the major nodded, then took out his pocket watch and looked at it: "Let's start soon!" ”

The adjutant said, "Fifteen minutes away!" ”

The battalion commander of the major had no other expression and did not speak, just stood like this, looking at the night sky in the distance. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

More than ten minutes later, suddenly there were several shells in the rear across the night sky, the major battalion commander's face changed slightly at this time, and then took out his pocket watch to look at it, the time at this time was exactly five o'clock in the morning, and there was already a faint light in the distant skyline, and it has always been a fine tradition of the national army to carry out a surprise attack before dawn, and many front-line officers like to use this way to forcibly break through the enemy's defense line.

At this time, the battalion commander of the major spoke: "Order, each company will attack according to the predetermined plan!" Before he finished speaking, several explosions were heard on the positions of the Beiyang Army in the distance, and at the same time, more shells crossed the air and fell on the positions of the Beiyang Army, and the explosions were even denser than the night attack last night.

At this time, the battalion commander of the major did not continue to stay in place, but turned around and returned to the battalion headquarters, and said to the adjutant before turning around: "Wake me up if you have something, don't make noise about me if you have nothing to do!" "It's as if the work has been done after giving the order to attack, and the rest is no longer concerned.

The adjutant naturally knew that his battalion commander had not slept all night, this battalion was the first battalion of the 92nd Regiment of the Ninth Division, in the first half of the night, their battalion served as the vanguard of the whole division and arrived at the periphery of Chaohu Lake first, and engaged with the defending Beiyang Army. And contact was made with the artillery regiment in the rear, and the artillery regiment promised to provide artillery support to the first battalion on time in the early hours of the morning.

After spending a night arranging the plan, all that remains is to wait for the outcome, and waiting for news is not the style of the commander of the first battalion. Cheng Zixian, the commander of the first battalion, is a graduate of the fourth phase of the Fuzhou Military Academy, and his grades at the time of graduation were not among the best like those who were proud of the sky, but only ranked 28th. Cheng Zixian, like the vast majority of graduates of the Fuzhou military ranks, was sent to various units to serve as grass-roots officers after graduation, first as a platoon commander, and then as a company commander for a while, or as a civilian officer at the grass-roots level. Generally speaking, it is not a problem for these graduates of the Fuzhou Military Academy to be steadily promoted to become a company commander. However, if you want to get rid of the rank of lieutenant officer and be promoted to the rank of colonel, then the difficulty will suddenly become greater, and after becoming a captain, you have to continue to climb up, and in addition to the two positions of substantive battalion and deputy regiment commander in the field army, there is only the way of civilian officers, such as serving as an adjutant of a major general, or serving in the army headquarters or directly in the general headquarters.

Although Cheng Zixian's grades were not too good when he graduated, he made a lot of contributions by virtue of his qualifications and the attack on Wuhu, making him one of the many captains who was promoted to major and became the commander of the first battalion. This promotion speed is also faster than that of ordinary graduates of the Fuzhou Military Academy, but it is far from those who were born in the Fuzhou Military Academy with excellent grades and were promoted quickly, as far as Cheng Zixian knows, among the classmates who graduated at the same time with him, except for those who sacrificed their lives for the party and the country, most of them have become school officers, and the rest are basically hovering at the level of captain. Unfortunately, none of them have been promoted to generals in this issue, only seven or eight colonels. Compared with the graduates of the previous periods, it is a little worse, needless to say that the first phase of the Fuzhou Military Academy has been promoted to generals, such as Yu Ruofei, commander of the guard division, Chen Jingfei, chief of staff of the Third Army, and Ye Dongqing, commander of the second mixed brigade. In the second phase, Ji Liangtong is now the brigade commander of the second mixed brigade. In the third period, there was also a Dai Yanghong as the brigade commander of the Third Mixed Brigade, and even in the fifth period, there was a Deng Panzhi who served as the chief of staff of the Fourth Army, so that when you calculate it, there is only no general in the fourth period.

After Cheng Zixian gave the order to attack, he went to sleep by himself, and after the relevant battle plan of the first battalion had been arranged last night, if there were no accidents, there would naturally be no mistakes, even if it didn't go well, it would be enough for Cheng Zixian to go for an hour or two.

But less than half an hour after he lay down, his adjutant walked in: "Battalion commander! ”

Cheng Zixian half-squinted, lifted the military coat on his body, his face was a little bad at this time, and immediately said: "Something happened ahead?" ”

The adjutant hurriedly said: "The second company of the front line has reported that they have broken through the enemy's defense line and are advancing to the enemy's depth!" ”

Cheng Zixian didn't react after hearing this, and immediately asked again: "Have you broken through the defense line?" It's only been less than half an hour, right? ”

The adjutant also felt a little strange: "It is indeed unexpected by us!" ”

Cheng Zixian didn't get up, he took a map and looked at it, although he arranged the battle plan this time, calculated and put two companies into the operation, and attacked with the support of the rear artillery, but he didn't think about it, and he didn't plan to say that he would take down the opponent's defensive position once he said it, and the current attack was just a fire test, and after he slept for a few hours, the rear artillery regiment was estimated to be in place, and the other units of the 92nd Regiment that came to support it also arrived, with a large number of artillery support, With the cooperation of his brother troops, after protecting his left and right flanks, he will gather the strength of the whole battalion and launch a surprise attack to open a gap for the whole regiment. Before this, he didn't think that he would be able to position the enemy now, you must know that when he launched a fire test last night, he found that the enemy had thousands of troops, and the combat effectiveness was good, unlike those ordinary local troops, and later confirmed the enemy number, it should be the troops of the third division's ** brigade, which is why he did not continue the strong attack yesterday.

But he didn't expect that it was only half an hour's work, and a tentative attack opened a gap in the enemy's position, and his troops had been able to advance in depth, which made him deeply surprised and at the same time felt that the Beiyang Army on the opposite side was not cheating.

However, Zixian quickly put the idea of the enemy's deception behind him, hmph, even if there was really a trap ahead, he was going to rush forward in a few hours according to the order, and at that time, his main force would also arrive to reinforce him. Moreover, there are more than 700 people in one of his own battalions, and if the other party wants to lay some trap to eat his own battalion, even if the Beiyang Army is in battle, it will be at least two or three times the enemy, and Cheng Zixian does not believe that his battalion can't support it for even a few hours.

Immediately, after some hurried consideration, he quickly made a decision: "Order the first company to increase the intensity of the attack, the third company to reinforce the second company, and the machine gun company to send two mortars and two light machine guns to reinforce the second company!" ”

At the time of the original attack, the battalion headquarters had already strengthened the second company and the first company with two mortars and two light machine guns, but now in the establishment of the national army, the battalion infantry company has not changed from the previous one, but the battalion machine gun company is about to be expanded, and at the beginning of the training of the battalion machine gun company was only three light machine guns and six 60 mm mortars, and even many parts could not be fully equipped last year, and after last year and this year, the output of various ordnance of the Fuzhou Arsenal has increased significantly. In particular, the output of machine guns and mortars continued to rise, and when the output of ordnance increased, in addition to replenishing the divisions with full strength, there was also a part of the surplus, and considering that the Fuzhou Arsenal was still in continuous production, Chen Jingyun decided to further increase the firepower of the infantry battalion, and to expand the machine gun company under the battalion, the main source of firepower of the infantry battalion, with the intention of increasing it to eight 60-millimeter mortars and eight light machine guns. The regimental mortar company and heavy machine gun company were expanded, and the number of 600-millimeter mortars increased to 12 80 mortars, and the number of heavy machine guns increased to 12 heavy machine guns. However, because the Ninth Division served as the vanguard of the whole army crossing the river in Wuhu, it had a relatively large priority in all weapons quotas, and it was only when the guard division, the second division, and the seventh division in southern Jiangsu had not been expanded, and the ninth division had already completed the expansion. It was the first unit in the National Army to complete the expansion plan.

After the expansion of the Ninth Division, the main artillery regiment of the Ninth Division had 24 75-mm field guns and 12 75-mm mountain guns, and the three infantry regiments had a total of 36 80-mm mortars, 72 60-mm mortars, 36 heavy machine guns, and 72 light machine guns. Although the number of artillery regiments is still inferior to that of the artillery regiment of the Beiyang Army, it has a large number of mortars as a supplement, and the firepower of machine guns and other light weapons surpasses that of the Beiyang Army. After this expansion, the strength of the army has also increased considerably, with an infantry battalion climbing from 700 to 800, and an infantry regiment climbing from 2,500 to 3,000. The total number of a division has grown from more than 9,600 in the past to more than 11,500 today, which is close to the central division of the Beiyang Army.

If the Nationalist Army wants to complete the expansion of all a dozen divisions, it is not feasible to do so without a year and a half of effort, and considering that all units will suffer some losses in the war, it may occupy nearly half of the output of the Fuzhou Arsenal to replenish these losses, and it will be even more difficult to free up production to provide ordnance for the expansion of the troops, so in a short period of time, only the Ninth Division will complete the expansion.

After Cheng Zixian transferred some reinforcements to the second company, he didn't sleep, but got up and waited for the news, and sure enough, the news came soon, and the first company had also broken through the frontal enemy.

"What the hell is going on?" Cheng Zixian thought about it carefully, and then said: "Are the troops in front of you still the ** Brigade of the Beiyang Third Division?" ”

The sergeant who came to give the order didn't seem to know very well, and immediately said: "I don't know this very well, they are all wearing blue-gray military uniforms!" ”

This is equivalent to not saying it, the Beiyang Army and the Anhui Army are wearing blue-gray military uniforms, and there is no good way to distinguish them except for the official number!

This time, Cheng Zixian did not immediately send reinforcements to the first company, but waited, and ordered the second company of the front line to slow down the pace of attack and cooperate with the first company, and the two covered each other to avoid being attacked on the flank.

Although Cheng Zixian hasn't noticed anything wrong, his intuition has already told him that this matter is not so simple, and there is definitely something behind this that he doesn't know is going to happen or is happening!