"Put!" Zhou Zunshi gave an order, and 12 M1938 120mm mortars beside him. This time the 81st Division attacked, and he followed with an artillery battalion under his command.

The M1938 120mm mortar weighed only 285 kilograms, which allowed Zhou to carry the 12 mortars onto the train.

At the sound of an order, the 120-mm mortar spoke first. With a range of 5.7 kilometers, they easily hit the Devil defense line on the opposite side, which was less than three kilometers. But the amazing 16-kilogram high-explosive bomb blew up the devil's position.

With those 12 loud bangs, the three or four 80-mm mortars in the mortar regiment also began their own attacks. The 57-kilogram mortar was moved to the front because it had a maximum range of only 2.4 km. Although it fired 3.5 kilograms of three or four mortar shells, this time Zhou Zunshi arranged more than 60 guns in front.

The close-range bombardment of this artillery was no worse than that of a 75-mm mountain gun. For a while, there were clusters of fireworks on the forward positions of the 109th Devil Division, and the sound of explosions was endless. Eighteen 80-mm and 24 50-mm mortars carried by Lin Fengjun's regiment also joined the bombardment, adding some momentum to the shelling.

When the five 105mm Le.FH16 howitzers began to roar, there was an immediate change on the battlefield. In the face of the 105-mm bombardment, the commander of the 109th Wing, Kurosawa Shozo Nakasa, could only shake his head and sigh bitterly, whether it was the remaining more than 20 75-mm mountain guns under his command or the 12 75-mm field guns, they could not hit others, and could only resist the mortar bombardment.

But then the bombardment was added with a threat from the air.

The cluster bombs of the HS-123 attack aircraft were not only effective against the infantry, but they were still beating everywhere when they were thrown on the artillery positions. This kind of bomb, which can be used against light armored units, also worked very well against these 75 mountain guns. Especially for those artillery who have little protection, the lethality is even greater.

Stuka, on the other hand, threw the bomb directly onto the shell pile, which could easily cause a martyrdom and explode a large area.

"Another one!" With the smoke rising from the field artillery position below him, Huang Yiyang laughed. He didn't change his mechanic anymore, and kept using his favorite Stuka direct ground attack. The martyrdom of the field artillery position just now has added a strong mark to his credit book.

Kurosawa Shozo looked at the lone Type 88 75mm anti-aircraft gun that was still fighting in the distance, and his heart was sad. The entire division had only 12 anti-aircraft guns, but most of them were 20 mm. Although it was known that the threat of the aircraft of the Vanguard Army was to strengthen the air defense, it was not replenished in a short time.

In the whole of China, only the 15th Anti-aircraft Artillery Wing in North China and the newly formed 16th Wing in the Yangtze River valley were the only ones in China.

There were only a dozen anti-aircraft guns of more than 70 mm in the 15th Wing. As far as he knew, there were only about 200 anti-aircraft guns of more than 70 mm in the whole empire, and most of them were placed in the mainland and northeast.

This time, three 75-mm anti-aircraft guns were urgently replenished in the division, but two were destroyed by the bombardment of 105-mm howitzers.

Although there were two HS-123s, the other 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were blown up. Of all the anti-aircraft guns, only this one remained.

"Boom!" After a loud bang, the 70-mm Type 88 anti-aircraft gun in his field of vision was also gone, and a Stuka in the sky was flapping its wings and rushing into the air.

The hijab on the head of the 109th Division was lifted, and everything was laid out in front of the aircraft of the vanguard army. The 20 cannons of the HS-123 were constantly firing, and the sound of 50 kg bombs and cluster bombs was incessant.

Reconnaissance aircraft in the sky flew lower, directly reporting the most accurate coordinates. In addition to the 120 mortars and 105 mm howitzers that continue to bombard the already few artillery positions of the Devils, the other 80 and 50 mortars have turned to the machine gun and grenadier positions of the Devil infantry.

"This battle was fought, and before the charge, the little devil over there lost at least half of it first!" Lin Fengjun put down the binoculars and sighed.

"This is the vanguard, if it was before, we would have been bombed like this. In the past, a plane from a devil was enough for us to have a headache. Even if there is a brigade of artillery on the set, we can only be bombed. Yun Qichang turned around and looked at the more than a dozen 80 mortar artillery positions in Lin Feng's regiment not far away, and also sighed.

80 mortars of the Vanguard Army have already been arranged in battalions, and there are six in one battalion.

"Brigade Commander, when are we going to start rushing?" Lin Fengjun looked at the devils on the opposite side who were hugging their heads and dodging around, and his heart was itching.

Yun Qichang glanced at Niu Eighteen, the deputy brigade commander who was silent, but he was holding a telescope to watch, and he couldn't bear it in his heart, but he smiled in his mouth: "Calm down, this will have to wait until the artillery plows the devil's position a few times." ”

On the opposite side, Lieutenant General Shigemu Yamaoka, commander of the 109th Division, was also looking forward to the infantry of the vanguard army starting to charge, and it was too embarrassing to be passively bombed like this. But when I waited left and right, I didn't see the infantry on that side charge, but the shells kept falling.

"How many shells do they have?" He couldn't help but ask.

The chief of staff of the 109th Division next to him, Ochiai Shikuro Osa, frowned, and was also helpless.

The vanguard of all kinds of shells over there had already fired two or three thousand rounds, but there was no sign of stopping at all.

"How many did they bring? Not distressed at all? The bombardment of the artillery of the vanguard army subverted the impression in his mind that the artillery of China was reluctant to even use training shells.

Of course, Meng Xiang was distressed, but compared to the pension after the infantry was killed, it was still cheaper to make artillery shells at the base.

Some time ago, in order to stabilize the signs of instability in the army, a new pension system for the vanguard army was promulgated. After the death of the pioneer officers and men, they will continue to be paid for 20 years, and they will be paid to the designated beneficiaries on time every year and on a monthly basis. Because all kinds of systems are not perfect, insurance and the like, there are not many market pension systems, but with the network of Taiping Bank and Pioneer Express, the files of the soldiers under them are constantly being improved. Based on the families of these officers and soldiers, it has continued to expand outward.

So when a soldier is killed, it is equivalent to an extra salary. With the vanguard army's generous salary at this time, this large amount is definitely a headache. The soldiers who died in the former vanguard army also began to follow the new regulations. Since then, the vanguard army has lost more than 6,000 officers and soldiers, and in addition to the clones who do not need to spend money, this is a big burden.

As the war continues, and 20 years later, this burden continues to grow, and may even one day crush the finances.

But when the families of those officers and soldiers received the first new pension, some of the unstable voices in the vanguard army all calmed down. This is also one of the reasons why Meng Xiang is relieved to drag out the troops to fight.

Compared with this cost, the cheap discount shells at the base show the superiority of the surname-price ratio. Therefore, there is a saying that the infantry used artillery shells to comb the devil's position several times before charging.

For deserters, there is no pension in addition to the military legal treatment. This alone is enough to make the soldiers of the vanguard army who have relieved their worries not afraid to kill the enemy. Meng Xiang does not require any heroic characters for the officers and soldiers, as long as they can do their own work like screws, so that the vanguard army can become a stable and growing war killing machine.

As long as Meng Xiang himself does not do anything that will lose the support of the people, the preferential treatment is enough to win over the position of the vast majority of officers and soldiers. All that remains is to carry out further social reforms.

"Those trucks are too slow!" Zhou Zunshi couldn't help complaining, while the shells were squandering, the logistics were tight. At the time of the vanguard defense, it was not obvious. But as the vanguard continued to attack, the pressure on logistics increased dramatically. Just the consumption of ammunition, the ever-increasing convoy will be busy.

In order to unify the accessories, the vanguard army used all the Opel series trucks at this time, and the 3-ton Opel truck became the main force. Although the military vehicles made in the base are constantly being produced, there is still a shortage of vehicles. The production line of the tank factory is not only to produce trucks, but also tanks and artillery. Even if the trucks are produced, some of them will be appropriated for civilian construction. The Eastern Front defense line also needed trucks, and it seemed that there were more than 600 trucks in number and many of them disappeared in a minute. At this time, a tank factory at the main base was working hard to produce trucks, but the time was tight and it was not possible to build them all at once.

Not only are there a shortage of trucks, but there is also a shortage of drivers, and the drivers trained by the Pioneer Army are used in tanks. More than 1,000 vehicles of various types in the vanguard army have drawn a large number of drivers from the society, and even Zhou Bai jokingly said that he needs to drive himself.

At this time, Meng Xiang was also thinking about the problem of logistics supply and the shortage of personnel.

"The problem of personnel is nothing more than self-cultivation and external introduction. At this time, the vanguard army was well paid, and the introduction of external personnel was relatively smooth, but there were many people and complicated things. Some problems have been suppressed with the implementation of preferential benefits such as pensions, but they are only latent and will erupt in the future. It must be addressed at the root. Until then, there should not be too many outsiders. Pharmacist Tang sat beside Meng Xiang and said slowly.