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Manchuria is the Balkans of the East, where Japan and Russia fought a war ten years ago, and today, war is raging again. With China's declaration of war on Japan, Japan immediately declared war on China, and the world's attention shifted from the Balkans, where the smoke of gunpowder had dissipated, to the Far East.

The news of the declaration of war between China and Japan reached the Charlottenburg Palace for the first time, and Emperor Wilhelm II did not have much expectations for the Sino-Japanese war in the Far East, with the national strength of China and Japan, this is nothing more than a Russo-Japanese War, China will lose a lot even if it wins, and it is impossible to end the war in a short time, and Germany will be completely prepared for war this year. As for waging war, it seemed that everyone expected it, especially after the diplomatic failure of the second Moroccan incident, the whole German public opinion boiled, and the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party all condemned the government for cowardly retreat and sacrificed German dignity, and even gave him an insulting nickname: 'Cowardly Willy'.

In the midst of this wave of public opinion, Moltke Jr., the chief of the General Staff, said: 'If we slip away with our tails between our legs again and avoid this kind of thing...... I'm also resigning,... I will first build yì to abolish our army and navy and put us under the protection of Japan. So that we can earn money undisturbed and become mentally retarded,' and Chancellor Holwig, who two years ago 'could never build a war to fight,' is now getting used to the idea of war as a solution.

To fight or not to fight, that's a real question! Emperor Wilhelm II pondered this stern question when. The doorbell rang, and his attendant reported outside the door, "Your Majesty." Your Excellency the Prime Minister says I have something urgent to see you! ”

After the emperor changed into a new military uniform, the chancellor, Holwig, finally met him. "陛xià. Our Ambassador was summoned earlier today by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Grey, who has a good idea of the war taking place in the Far East. Holwig looked at the emperor in a straight uniform, and seemed slightly excited in his words. Britain did not want China to win the war, so he suggested that we, as we had done last time, give Russia a guarantee that the Russian army would intervene in the war. ”

"That's good news." The Emperor smiled, "But what we hope is that Russia's plans to expand its army will be stopped, and there are ...... That's right. I don't think the French would approve of the Russians doing this, and they were very afraid that the cowardly Frenchmen would tremble as soon as my cousin transferred his huge army to the Far East. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, so England wants us to make a promise to France as well." The prime minister said euphemistically according to the emperor's meaning, this is actually what he wants to say this time.

"It can't be! Teobade, we can't promise the British. The Emperor's beard suddenly curled, and he looked a little angry. We can't do things that are contrary to our allies. ”

"陛xià. China is not our ally. The prime minister retorted. Moreover, Sir Grey privately promised us that Britain would most likely remain neutral in the event of a future war in Europe. ”

"Quite possibly?" The emperor's beard lowered slightly. His eyes lit up, and he asked urgently, "What do you mean by a very good possibility?" ”

"Sir Grey's exact words were: If we can do this, then when there is war in Europe. Britain will likely choose neutrality. The Prime Minister repeated the original words on the telegram, "Your Majesty." The promises of the British were not important, the point was that the war in the Far East would consume the Russian army. The Chinese army, according to the assessment of the General Staff, does not lag behind. They will help us achieve this goal. Moreover, if we can give France a security promise, it will be very advantageous for us to have failed their plan to complete the preparations for war in 1916, no matter how many land forces Russia has expended in the Far East. ”

The prime minister's words seemed to make a lot of sense, but the emperor did not answer after he finished speaking, but walked back and forth in the hall for a few steps, and he asked puzzledly: "Does Russia have the money to send troops now?" Even if the French reluctantly agreed to Russia sending troops to the Far East, they would not pay a single word for the war in the Far East. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." The prime minister knew that the emperor was already moved, and a smile appeared on his face, "I think the Japanese should pay this money." In addition, the tsar had long wanted to annex Mongolia, which he regretted the most three years ago. ”

The plot at Charlottenburg Palace continued, while in the east, the fighting intensified. With the increase in the thickness of the ice on the Yalu River in winter, the Japanese Army, which had long been prepared for war, launched an intensive artillery bombardment on the Fuxing Army on the other side of the river on a foggy morning; in addition to the 75mm rapid-fire guns, some 120mm large-caliber guns joined the bombardment, and the shells exploded large and small dense craters on the frozen earth, and white snow foam and shrapnel flew together.

The Japanese artillery shells were fired not only at the positions of the Fuxing Army, but also at the county seat of Ji'an, and after two hours of shelling, the county town of Ji'an, which was already empty, was in shambles. And at the moment when the artillery fire stopped, a group of Japanese soldiers dressed in blue clothes and wearing yellow hats rushed out on the other side of the river, and these Japanese soldiers rushed and shouted, screaming more and more miserable than the other, but before they had rushed halfway, the "......bang bang" Makqin machine gun sound rang out, the sound was extremely low, like a suppressed roar. Many of these machine-gun firing points were placed on both sides of the position, and their fire efficiency was almost five times that of longitudinal fire, so that many Japanese troops fell to the ground in pieces as soon as they broke out of the mountain shelters.

However, the 5th Division was the main division after all, and at the same time as the machine guns roared, the observers on the artillery lookout balloons began to direct the Japanese artillery to fire at the enemy's machine gun positions. At this time, the morning fog dissipates, and the entire battlefield can be seen very realistically from the high balloons, and the Japanese shells will fall around the machine gun positions in less than five minutes of machine gun fire, and once the Japanese artillery shells are approaching, the machine gun crew will cease fire and move to another preset position, and the missing fire will also be supplemented by other machine guns. Not to be outdone, the mortars were not to be outdone amid the roar of the machine guns, because the mortars also had to change positions. Therefore, the mortars are all fired in a hurry, although the shooting accuracy is somewhat lacking. But the victory lies in the large number, and the Japanese army that exploded like these shells cried wolf.

In an extremely secluded mountain col. The commander of the 42nd Wing of the 5th Division, Saburo Migen, carefully observed the impact. In the past two years, although China has advocated afforestation, the small saplings that have just been planted have not yet grown, and the mountains behind the county seat are completely white, and they are not as mottled as the mountains with trees more than ten kilometers away - in the winter of Manchuria, the leaves of most of the trees except the pine trees will fall off, and the white snow, brown branches, and cyan pines are mixed with three colors. It's like the military uniform on the Chinese army.

Zhongsa is no stranger to the performance of the Makqin machine gun, although the arrangement of the machine gun side fire is very novel, but this is only a matter of thinking, what makes him really worried is that the mortar shells of the Chinese army are raining down, he can't guess the rate of fire of the mortars used by the Chinese army, you must know that the new 75mm light mortar equipped with his new equipment can only fire one shot per minute, if the mortar of the Chinese army is also this rate of fire, then there will be thousands of mortars opposite him.

Nakasa in the col is constantly calculating in his heart, and the Japanese army under the mountain ridge who is attacking for the first time. It quickly collapsed under the interception of machine guns and mortars. In the interval of the battle, the infantry of the Reconstruction Army in the trenches in front of them, who had not fired a single shot, reluctantly opened fire on the wounded Japanese soldiers who were lucky enough to not die but wanted to struggle back into the battle, but after a round of point firing, this behavior was stopped by the non-commissioned officers. In mountain warfare. The wounded are the most troublesome, and putting these half-crippled Japanese soldiers back can not only consume the supplies of the Japanese army. It was more demoralizing to the Japanese army, while point fire would only have the opposite effect.

"Your Excellency. The firepower of the Chinese army is too strong, we should continue the shelling. Until their fortifications are completely broken. The staff officer of the wing said that he had previously questioned the artillery bombardment plan - for the trench fortifications of the Chinese army, only by concentrating 200 shells on one point could completely tear down the defensive barbed wire, but now more than 60 artillery guns on his side are shelling the entire defensive position, and after the shelling, although those barbed wire fences have been lost, they are still strong.

"Nope! We don't have that many shells, and now the rivers are frozen and we can't bring them up from downstream, as we did in the summer. Sangen Saburo Nakasa vetoed, "Nor can soldiers develop the habit of relying on artillery." A hundred kilometers from here to Tonghua were fortified by the Zhina Army, and if they had to be destroyed by shells, they would need four or five thousand shells for each artillery. It is impossible for us to have so many shells, and even if there were, after penetrating deep into China, it would be difficult to transport. Sanyuan Saburo Nakasa finished negating the staff officer, and then ordered in a deep voice: "Prepare for the next impact!" Also, send out squads to attack the positions of the Shina Army from the flanks! ”

"Hay!" The adjutant took the order, and the order of the wing commander to attack again was quickly conveyed.

The Japanese army was arranging the next attack, and Yao Guangxing, the commander of the Fuxing Corps stationed in this section of the Ji'an defense line, was reporting the battle situation to his superiors by telephone: "...... It was the 5th Division that attacked...... Yes, at present, I only see the 5th Division, and there are about 60 artillery pieces, and there are about 10 120-caliber field guns in it...... Yes, you must be right, there are 120 guns. …… Judging by the artillery, the Japanese army had more than one division...... Be! … Be! Be!! Mission completion guaranteed! ”

When Yao Guangxing was still shouting 'yes,' the other end of the phone was cut off, and now the entire Yalu River from Linjiang to Andong was being shelled by the Japanese army, with the main attack on that side and a feint attack on that side, and the division staff headquarters had to quickly understand the intelligence from all over the place so that it could report to the Shenyang Command in order to determine the true strategic intentions of the Japanese army.

"it!" Yao Guangxing, who was born in a wooden handle, only reported to his superiors, and as soon as he put down the microphone and the mantra came again, he habitually wanted to grab the military hat and scratch his head again, but now he was wearing the latest newly changed Shenwu steel helmet on his head, and a slap suddenly grabbed the steel surface. "it!" He didn't take off his hat and said another mantra.

"Oops, old Yao, don't it! What the hell does the division say? Seeing that the head of the regiment didn't speak, political commissar Hu Youwei was in a hurry.

"The chief of staff told us to withdraw after a day of vigilance, and we also want to pay attention to the gas bombs in the small nose, if the little nose puts that thing, then we will withdraw in advance." Yao Guangxing said the order of the division headquarters, and he was very unwilling. "Damn, isn't this position just given to Little Nose for nothing? It took us nearly a thousand barrels of ash to build it up! ”

"Since the division headquarters has orders, then strictly implement the orders of the division headquarters." Hu Youwei had also received a notice from the General Political Department before, which told him to stabilize his warrior feelings when he strategically retreated. Let the warriors know that this is not an escape, but a lure of 'birds' to go deeper.

"Commander. Why don't we take a surprise attack before we leave! "Zhong Hua, the commander of the third battalion, began to come up with bad ideas, and the third battalion was a reserve. I couldn't eat meat, but now I was about to withdraw without much fighting, and I was suddenly unwilling.

"Hmm..." Yao Guangxing's eyes rolled, he glanced at the political commissar, and said, "This is also a way." We are all familiar with the terrain on both sides of the Yalu River, so when we withdraw, we will hide a few companies in that place and wait until it gets dark to reach the North Korean side......"

"Regiment commander, the order from the division headquarters is to retreat. As soon as the war began, the Japanese army must be heavily guarded, and the assault was effective and ineffective, not to mention how could the troops withdraw after the battle? The regimental staff officers also began to speak out, the 1st Army changed from the end of the Russo-Japanese War to the Mountain Army, before the founding of the country, this unit was more trained to be used to each company commander fighting separately, so there were still many company commanders who could not turn the corner when fighting in the large corps.

While the front-line officers were discussing, in the Shenyang Headquarters, the staff officers of the headquarters were reporting the enemy situation to Qi Qingyuan and others: "... Although there was artillery shelling and small-scale offensives along the entire Yalu River from Linjiang to Andong. However, combined with the intelligence on the Korean side, it can be preliminarily concluded that the main direction of the Japanese attack is Ji'an, which is the closest to Tonghua, with a distance of 70 kilometers in a straight line. The marching distance was also only one hundred and ten kilometers, which was the shortest of all the offensive routes; The second direction should be the confluence of the Hunjiang and Yalu rivers, which should be aimed at the flank of the Ji'an defenders. Choosing this place, the Japanese army could march north along the Hunjiang River, but this route was slightly longer. There are one hundred and sixty kilometers. ”

"The confluence of the Hunjiang and Yalu rivers?" Qi Qingyuan remembered here, and it was from here that he was injured and sent to Tianjin for treatment. He suddenly felt a little dizzy and asked, "I remember that there is no way to this place." ”

"Yes." Chief of Staff Major General Huang Fujin said. "The General Staff Department has done an investigation, once the winter freezes, the Hunjiang River is a ready-made road, from this north to Shajianzi more than 30 kilometers, there is a dirt road to Huairen County, this road only needs to walk 50 kilometers to Huairen to the county seat, the county seat has a railway. The Japanese chose these two directions as the main direction of attack, and they had a quick decision. Once Tonghua is occupied, the production capacity of Jilin Machinery Bureau is too small, and our ammunition can only be supplied by the Guannei, but the section of Huludao and Qinhuangdao of the Jingfeng Railway is too close to the sea, and once it is cut off, then the logistics of our army will be ......."

Walking in the summer and the river in the winter is the usual practice in Tohoku. Qi Qingyuan actually thought that the Japanese army would follow the route of the Russo-Japanese War - the 16,000-strong railway garrison of the South Manchurian Railway was now retreating in the area south of Yingkou, plus the two divisions stationed in Kwantung Prefecture, these three divisions and the subsequent divisions from Japan would soon be able to gather 100,000 troops to attack Liaoyang and Shenyang in the north. It is strange that Japan is not attacking along the railways, but rather abandoning the railways in order to take the shortest route.

"Qingyuan, don't drill the horns, when the Japanese army on Ji'an's side approaches Tonghua, the Japanese army in Yingkou and Andong will begin to advance north. What if we catch up with it and the ammunition occupied by Tonghua is cut off? If they don't, they can march in line with the drums. Huang Fujin deduced: "The General Staff was worried a few years ago that the Manchus and the Japanese army would join forces to attack Tonghua, and the defense plan on Ji'an's side had made a lot of plans, and now it is finally time to use it." ”

"I just don't understand why Dogday doesn't take the railroad and takes the mountain road? Whether the logistics can support the attack of those divisions and regiments is not to mention, not to mention the rest of Ji'an to Tonghua, just one old ridge is enough for them, they really think that we are Qing soldiers, and they will be defeated as soon as they rush? Qi Qingyuan is the kind of person who studies everything deeply, and at the same time has an active brain, not only seeing the trees but not the forest, especially the rare jumping thinking (Yang Ruiyu) is excellent, which is why he stands out from many classmates. He just couldn't understand why the Japanese army came to the mountains to die.

Seeing that Qi Qingyuan was really serious, Huang Fujin scolded with a smile: "Aren't you fucking Japanese brain-dead idiots bad?" Don't you want to sue a friend in Sùshan County and teach him that this road is not going to lead and another way? ”

Huang Fujin said that Qi Qingyuan laughed, in fact, this is also his thinking inertia, if he attacks the northeast, he will never choose Ji'an as the main direction of attack, the revival army is famous for mountain warfare, and then fight mountain warfare with regular divisions, especially in the face of the blockade of machine guns and barbed wire trenches in the mountains, it is really a death to go there.

Indeed, people and people think differently. The information that the enemy and the enemy have is also different, and after years of exploration, it was discovered that Tonghua is the industrial base of the entire northeast. The Japanese thought about how to take it completely without damaging it. At the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war. The choice of the Ji'an strategy was personally made by General Hasegawa Yoshimichi, chief of staff of the General Staff Headquarters, and its purpose was to achieve a quick victory: to quickly take Tonghua, you can immediately cut off the ammunition supply of the entire Northeast China army, and Tonghua also has a light coal railway leading to Fushun, that is to say, taking Tonghua can also be very light along this railway to attack Mukden City.

According to the battle plan of the General Staff Headquarters, the 5th and 8th Divisions were to quickly occupy the positions of the Chinese Army on the west side of the Yalu River on the 6th day of December, and demanded that the defenders of China be annihilated or defeated; In terms of specific combat mission allocation, the 5th Division attacked Ji'an County. The 8th Division attacked Yangyutou (now Jiefang Village), 28 miles east of the county seat, but to the surprise of the Japanese army, the two divisions were crushed by the defenders of China in two large-scale attacks.

After the commander of the 42nd Wing, Sanyuan Saburo Nakasa, heard the order from the brigade commander to conquer it, he was only worried for a while, from here to the Tonghua mountains and ravines, every dangerous place in the army could turn it into the 203rd Heights. Have these people from the General Staff Headquarters really come to Fengtian Mountain to see it?

Nakasa secretly discussed but quickly conveyed the order to attack, and even he himself packed his bags and prepared to go to the battlefield to assault - this is not because he is not afraid of death, but because of his background in the non-Changzhou domain, if the attack fails and he will survive on his own. And if you don't rush to the front line during the war, the road to the army will never be said, and retirement will be looked down upon. Offensive. Constant offensive This is the first rule of the Japanese Army.

When the 42nd Wing was preparing to fight to the death, the county seat on the other side of the river was on the back of Yushan. Yao Guangxing, the commander of the revival corps, was holding a telescope, his gaze crossing the corpse-strewn river and the mountainside on the other side of the river. I saw that there were constantly Japanese soldiers leaning over and entering the first line of trenches halfway up the mountain in front of the ridge line. Yao Guangxing immediately understood that this was the prelude to the Japanese army's large-scale attack, and the soldiers must be secretive when they entered the first trench, but in winter, the ground was frozen, and the reason why the trenches were not dug deep made the Japanese hats cross the trenches and expose them above the ridgeline, and the circle of yellow on the hats was extremely conspicuous against the white-brown background.

"How? Lao Zhang, you big guys should also move. Yao Guangxing rubbed his hands after putting down the binoculars, which was not cold, but excited. He looked at Zhang Xianpan, the commander of the divisional artillery regiment standing beside him, and said. "Before they can start fighting, first give his mother's shuttle, and then help me suppress his mother's enemy artillery, and my soldiers will also run out of the trench and rush. It's cold, and if you don't rush those bunnies, they're going to freeze into popsicles...... Don't worry, the credit will be yours, at first glance? ”

Yao Guangxing knew the ability of his artillery, and although the division headquarters gave such and such restrictions, he didn't say that he couldn't counterattack when defending! Before the Japanese attack, the artillery regiment suddenly fired a burst of rapid fire, and then suppressed the Japanese artillery, and the infantry made a surprise attack. However, Zhang Xianpan smiled when he heard what he said, and pointed to the Japanese artillery observation balloon in front of him swinging in the air and said: "If you can find a way to knock that thing down, then I will listen to you once, suppress the Japanese artillery and let you fight back." ”

"Balloon ......" Yao Guangxing was a little dumbfounded, he knew what that thing was for, and he knew what it was inside, but it was too far away, whether it was a rifle or a machine gun, it couldn't reach it.

"What is at stake in the small-nosed cannon?" Yao Guangxing still didn't believe that the balloon was a threat to his own infantry. "My machine guns and mortars and small-nosed artillery didn't hit any of them, and it was more than a mile to rush through the trench by the river......

Yao Guangxing muttered, but the artillery commander did not agree to his counterattack plan in the end, and in his opinion, the artillery observation balloon floating behind the Japanese position was a vicious eye. Because their artillery positions are arranged on the back of the mountain, the Japanese artillery can't hit them at all, but the Japanese artillery will also adopt the same arrangement, so it's a joke to suppress them, as long as the eye in the air is there, the infantry that is attacking on their own side is likely to be hit by the Japanese artillery under the guidance of the observation balloon, although more than 700 meters can quickly rush over, but what if the Japanese artillery can react as quickly as themselves? Even if they caught a tail, the infantry couldn't stand it; And even if they rushed over, how could they retreat under the interception of the Japanese artillery?

Zhang Xianpan refused the infantry, only feeling that the Japanese army was about to attack, so he picked up the phone and said: "I'm Zhang Xianpan!" I ordered: the whole regiment to shoot, target: area 5, area 6; grenade, charge three; Three-minute rapid fire! Put!! (The novel "Heroes of the Late Qing Dynasty" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lottery gift for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner "Add Friends", search for the official account "ddxiaoshuo" and follow, hurry up! (To be continued......)