PS: Correction of the previous chapter:

Wing Commander Arikawa Ying No. 1 Zhongzuo held a high-powered telescope and looked at the defense line of the China Army, which was different from what he saw in Liaodong, the defense line of the China Army on the opposite side was clear and complete:

The Yangcun area is a strategic point, although it is located in the Zhili Plain, it is located between the east and west lakes, the west lake is huge, 30 kilometers long, and there are three rivers passing through; The lake in the east is smaller, and because of the dry weather, the river is small, and it has been broken into two parts, and it has become half of the upper and lower parts, and many places are already muddy ponds overgrown with weeds. The two lakes sandwich a long and narrow plain about 20 kilometers long, about 15 kilometers wide, 40 degrees west of due north, and the Longfeng River and the North Canal stretching out from the west lake lake to the north cut the northern part of the plain again, and the plain sandwiched by the river is narrow, but it is longer. Yangcun is next to the North Canal on the east side, and the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is built around the west lake, it first goes north along the North Canal on the east side of the lake, and then turns a corner at the top of the lake, crossing the North Canal and the Longfeng River, and heading northwest.

All of this made the longitudinal area of our army's attack from the south extremely narrow, with a width of less than 15 kilometers, and it became very difficult to expand the front or detour the flank of the Zhina Army -- the east side was better, and it could pass between Hudian and Longwan Minhe River, but the west side would be tragic, which would not only have to cross the Yongding River and the Longfeng River, but also detour the Yongding River on the west side of the lake, which was really a big project.

The first line of attack of the Chinese army was between the two lakes and lakes in the east and west, and more than ten meters behind it was its customary roof-shaped barbed wire......

The planes of the Chinese army burst the Japanese observation balloons one after another as if they were shooting targets, causing the officers and reporters of the foreign military observation groups to exclaim in a burst of exclamations, and the aircraft had only been born for 11 years at this time. It is still very rare to use it in combat, and now I see that the aircraft can be used like this. Everyone was amazed, and Colonel Bailler muttered, "Oh. Oh, God! How is this done? ”

When the last artillery observation balloon was destroyed, Donald, a reporter from the Far Eastern Times, quickly pressed the shutter of the camera, and under the explosion of magnesium powder, the rapidly burning balloon and the Japanese soldiers desperately shouting in the hanging basket were burned on the camera negative in an instant, and Donald, who felt that he had completed a very meaningful work, shouted excitedly to everyone: "Gentlemen, the Chinese have defiled a holy movement and completely violated the Hague Declaration, and the civilized world should punish these damned yellow-skinned monkeys!" ”

Donald said to the Japanese that the yellow-skinned monkey was obviously unwise, but he had captured the evidence at this time. So he looked very excited, and when Mo Lixun next to him saw him like this, he had to laugh and say: "Sir, I have to remind you that the Hague Declaration clearly stipulates that no bombs can be dropped on the ground on the aircraft, not that machine guns cannot be installed, and at the same time, the Chinese did not sign the declaration." ”

"In short, the Chinese defiled a holy movement, and they led flight to war. This must be condemned by the civilized world. "I hope all the journalists in this room will point this out in detail in the news." ”

Donald was thinking of using this as yet another incriminating crime against China, while the officers were secretly imagining how a machine gun could burn an observation balloon—an important thing, because the observation balloon is the eye of the artilleryman. The more clearly you can see on the balloon, the more accurate the shell can be, and effectively destroy the enemy's artillery observation balloon. will greatly reduce the power of enemy artillery; And, if just now the plane strafed the ground. So what happens?

The United States and Italy two years ago did a solid job of aircraft ground warfare, but neither of them has achieved the desired results. Today, the Renaissance Army planes used machine guns to strafe the Japanese Army's balloons, and they were directed their minds to the plane's ground attack.

The situation of the war observation group was different, and after cursing on the Japanese side, the commander of the 16th Division, who had just arrived at the front, Lieutenant General Nagaoka Kashishi, began to shout. Nagaoka is the most interesting person among the senior officers of the entire Japanese army, and the most interesting thing about him is his beard that is more than 70 centimeters long, this beard is not Chinese-style vertical, but Western-style horizontal, so long that the beard is horizontal between the lips and nose, making the whole face look like a big cat, how funny to look at.

Lieutenant General Nagaoka did not think that his beard was ridiculous, but rather that it was a sign of majesty. Seeing his own balloons being destroyed one after another, he was the first president of the Provisional Military Balloon Research Association, and he was just furious, and scolded in his mouth: "Damn rice animal! Damn the Chinese people! Damn rice animal! The abominable Chinese ......"

As a rare open-minded person in the top echelons of the army, although Nagaoka had neglected airplanes before, after the Wright brothers developed the airplane, he immediately apologized to his subordinates who had denied him for studying flight operations, and tried his best to urge the Japanese military to pay attention to flight research. Last year, the US military was aware of the fact that the US military was studying combat subjects such as machine-gun combat and photography, and he also urged Japanese planes to conduct such experiments. Last year, as long as the army plane flew into the side of the Liaodong China Army, there was no return, and he thought that it was the rice animals that were making trouble, and today he saw that the China plane was also equipped with machine guns, and he finally affirmed that this was taught to the China people by the rice people.

"What about Tokugawa? What about Tokugawa? What about his flying team? Nagaoka was furious, constantly chanting the name of Captain Tokugawa Yoshitoshi of the Naoli Dispatch Army Aircraft Squadron, and he remembered that after the Liaodong aircraft could not be used, the army went down to buy the latest flying planes at his urging, and thought that the formation flight could defeat the despicable Shina Army flying team. But now, the flying squadron did not move at all, but the balloon rose first.

"Your Excellency, last night's tsunami damaged two flying planes, and the other planes are still on board, and the command thinks that this is not ammunition and can be unloaded slowly." Because of the preference of the commander, the adjutant not only paid attention to the affairs of the 16th Division, but also the affairs of the flying squadron, so that he knew the situation of the flying squadron very well.

"Connect the call from the headquarters right away, I want to talk to Kuroki!" Nagaoka's beard seemed to be a little longer, and he looked very excited, like the last Russo-Japanese War, he felt that the army was making a fool again—the numbness of new technologies and weapons caused heavy casualties among the soldiers.

No matter what kind of sensation the plane caused, the war continued, under the command of Major General Watanabe Iwanosuke. A 105mm cannon wing, with a total of twenty-four field guns, was quickly transported to the front in accordance with the specific plan of the chief of staff of the dispatch army. The cannons of this wing were to suppress the artillery of the Chinese army, and they were to be placed outside the range of the artillery fire of the Chinese army. According to the plan. The east side of the long and narrow plain of Yangcun is the focus of their army's attack, and while attacking here, there will be a division of troops that will make a roundabout attack on the east side, and at night they will pass through the area between Hudian and Longwan River in the east, and attack the area from the rear of Yangcun to the county seat of Wuqing.

Heavy artillery and shells were already on flatbed trains, and before dark, they were transported to the point. Sappers and horses, which had been prepared long ago, unloaded the artillery with skids. However, the artillery was unloaded by Major General Watanabe, but he was not in a hurry, he just ordered the artillery and ammunition to be lined up on the side of the railway, and did not rush into the position.

After the last glimmer of light in the west stopped, Lei Yizhen, who was sitting in Beijing, had already rushed to the front. In the brightly lit war room, staff officers are adjusting the situation map of friend and foe according to the airship and the information gathered from various places. In addition to marking the area where today's sortie pushed the Japanese army back two kilometers, the two new divisions of the Japanese army that had just disembarked today and had already reinforced the front line were also marked on the map.

When it was the turn of the last wing of artillerymen, a staff officer looked at the photo and said, "It's not normal, where are they going?" ”

Heavy artillery is a major focus of the General Staff, especially this long-barreled cannon. Listening to his voice, Chief of Staff Xu Dachun took the photo in his hand, and then glanced at Lei Yizhen: "Cannon!" Large-caliber cannon!! The devil wants to use his own way to control his body. ”

As soon as Xu Dachun said cannon, Li Chengyuan, who had just gotten off the airship next to him, grabbed the photo and said, "Really? After looking at it carefully, he smiled and said: "The devil's imitation Krupp cannon." I guess it's called the 38 style. Caliber 105mm, I don't know how the range performance is, but it is definitely outside the range of our field artillery. It seems that they are trying to suppress our artillery with this cannon. ”

"So, I said that after the devil suffered. It is to return the body of others in the way of others. Xu Dachun said. Next, the devil is afraid that there will be a big move. ”

Lei Yizhen didn't care about the devil cannon, but asked, "How is the recruit division today." I heard that it was messy when I was impacted? ”

"It's a bit messy, and I've forgotten all about training." Xu Dachun said. "But if we attack them, it's a little messy, but these peasant soldiers are the same as the previous batch, except for a few people, the general people's physique is relatively weak, they are out of breath when they run a few steps, and their strength is not enough when they fight with the white-knuckle battle, compared with the regular division of the devil, it really takes two or three to fight one."

When Xu Dachun said that there was chaos earlier, Lei Yizhen didn't react, but when he heard him say that the physique of the recruit, he could only close his eyes. Although the peasant soldiers recruited in the Guannai have been selected, because of long-term malnutrition, the physique and strength of these people cannot be compared with the peasant soldiers outside the Guan, and they are even worse than the regular divisions.

He shook his head and said: "I can't take care of my body for a while, hurry up and train my combat skills, otherwise it will really be a tragedy as soon as I get on the field." Are the Japanese going ashore fast now? Approximate time when they will attack? ”

"After the tsunami, the piers were destroyed, and people could come down, but horses and cannons could only be used in small boats, which was more troublesome, and a few thousand horses in one division alone was a big problem. There were more than two divisions down today, and as soon as they came ashore, they were sent to the front by Kuroki, and I don't know if he wanted to attack or if he was worried about our attack. Xu Dachun said: "Now there are six divisions on the front line, and two more divisions will come tomorrow, and the number of troops will be more than ours." I think they will attack tomorrow, or even tonight, with a white-knuckle assault at night, plus a flank roundabout attack, isn't this the devil's forte? ”

Hearing that Xu Dachun talked about the devil's specialty dish, the staff officer in the house, and Tao Dayong, who had just entered the door, laughed, and as soon as he entered the door, he said loudly: "I can't figure it out, why do devils use the same tactic again and again, and it doesn't work at all?" Especially the flank attack, looking at the battle examples in the northeast, their flanks detoured again and again, even if the previous group of people died, the next group of people would be dispatched, the next group of people would die, and the next group of ......"

Tao Dayong can't be said to be a wise general, he can only be a brave general, but even him. He also despised the stubborn and unchanging tactics of the Japanese, and many methods failed at most twice, and he would find another way. But the Japanese seem to have no brains, and they continue to use one method after countless times. If such a commander had been in the Baath Army, he would have been removed from his post and shot.

Others don't know, Lei Yizhen knows more about the Japanese Army, he said: "The Japanese Army studied Germany, and at the beginning, Colonel Merkel of Germany was a qualified tactical commander, but he was not a good corps-level commander, that is to say, the best of the Japanese was the operational commander below the division level, not the army, and there were several more divisions. The coordination of the divisions is very problematic. We can see this in the Russo-Japanese War; In addition, the campaign idea of the army-level commander is not good, and fortunately, it is the Russian army that will only be beaten and will not counterattack, if the troops of the great powers are changed, and they attack with their own strength inferior to the opponent, the opponent can only counterattack with a fierce punch, then his entire defense line will collapse.

And the tactics below the division level of the Japanese army are mostly used to attack in a roundabout way, which is the most common infantry tactic, and we will too. It's just that the gentleman only asks us to defend, and that's ......

The firepower of these roundabout squads has been specially strengthened, the commanders have rich combat experience, and the Japanese intelligence department has a clear understanding of the roads, hydrology, and other information in the theater before the war. In addition, the Japanese soldiers themselves are not bad, and when they encounter troops like the Manchu Huai Army, they have no firepower. If you want to have a will, you have no will, and you have to have a strategy without a strategy. If you want to organize it, you can't organize it, so you can't beat it. If you can't resist it, if you want to maneuver, you can't maneuver, and if you want to retreat, the whole line will be scattered, and in this way, the Japanese will chase all the way from Pyongyang to the Yalu River.

Look at the Russians, Kuropagent suffered a loss during the battle of Mukden, and other times it was just because he was timid and kept retreating, and the Japanese couldn't take advantage of him at all, even if Mukden suffered a loss that time, it was also demoralized, and the revolutionary party made trouble later, if the Russian army played normally......"

Lei Yizhen said and began to assume the war, he didn't want to talk about it anymore, in his opinion, the Japanese army is a force that emphasizes will to fight, and it is precisely because of this that they do not care about the use of new weapons and new tactics, and because of this, they will attack again and again with the same method. In the eyes of those stubborn commanders, the failure of tactics is not a mistake in the method, but the lack of the soldier's will to fight, so after the defeat they will only constantly emphasize the will to fight, instead of improving the method, and it will be a tragedy for such a unit to meet a strong enemy.

Without thinking much about the tactics of the Japanese army, Lei Yizhen asked, "Where did their cavalry go?" ”

"Here." Xu Dachun pointed to a place on the west side of Langfang and said: "The last reconnaissance during the day found that they were here, although Gyeonggi is a plain, but the river is crisscrossed, this is still May, if it is July or August, the river will skyrocket." This place is really not a good place to use cavalry in summer and autumn. ”

Xu Dachun said this, Lei Yizhen also agreed, the Guanwai armored division canceled the battle plan, thinking that the Japanese soldiers were approaching the city, Mr. also wanted to transfer the armored division into Beijing, but as soon as he saw the spider web-like water web on the Gyeonggi Plain, this matter was not followed. Beijing, and even the entire North China Plain, is basically the best winter battle, in the winter when the river is frozen firm, the cavalry and infantry can be invincible, and move forward, but this is the area north of the Huai River, and this is not the case between Huainan and the Yangtze River. Japan chose to attack Beijing in the summer, and it really picked the time.

When the front command of the reconstruction army was discussing the Japanese army, he saw that Watanabe Iwanosuke, who was completely dark, began to direct the sappers and artillerymen to drag the cannons into the gun position, twenty-four guns, each of which was towed by eight horses, plus ammunition trucks, which made nearly a thousand horses, and fortunately the position was not far from the railway, and in the middle of the night, these guns arrived at the position. After the cannon was set to hoe, he looked at the muzzles of the guns that wanted to go north under the starlight, and the commander, Major General Watanabe, was very pleased, this time he could let the people of China also taste the power of the Japanese artillery, he wiped his sweat, and thought so happily.

According to the order of the headquarters, the attack was launched in the second half of the night, but before the attack was launched, Lieutenant General Iguchi Shengwu, commander of the 15th Division who had just been transferred to the front line, rushed to the headquarters that had already moved out of Tianjin. Why attack now? ”

In the Russo-Japanese War, the chief of staff of the Manchurian Army, Kodama Gentaro, had two extremely dependent staff officers, who he loved to call the two Manjushri Bodhisattvas, one of these two Bodhisattvas was Matsukawa Toshiyin, and the other was Iguchi Shogo, the former was a drastic faction, and the battle plan was always based on attack. The latter is conservative, and the battle plan is mostly defensive. Cautious everywhere, the former is already the commander of the 10th Division. The latter was the commander of the 15th Division.

As a division that has just disembarked today, Iguchi Province fully understands the weakness of his side, that is, the troops have not all disembarked, the trenches have not been completely arranged, and the artillery and ammunition have not been replenished in place. He doesn't care what it is. Anyway, if the enemy does not attack, the Japanese army will be able to attack in three or four days, and I don't want the headquarters to give an order to attack tonight, and it is an order to attack on the whole line, which makes Lieutenant General Iguchi very annoyed.

The staff officers of the Famous Command of Iguchi Province knew that no one dared to answer his question, and only after he shouted a few words, the chief of staff of the dispatch army, Fujii Shigeta, came out and said, "Iguchi-kun is here, please sit here." ”

After the Russo-Japanese War, Iguchi Province once summed up the gains and losses of various armies. He had the most opinion on the first army at that time, which is now the duo of Kuroki Weizhen and Fujii Shigeta, believing that Fujii Shigeta's battle plan was a poison. When he got the attack plan from the headquarters this evening, he was very dissatisfied. Now that he has seen the poison, he is even more dissatisfied: "Fujii-kun, our army only has six divisions. And they were all tired, and some divisions did not replenish after the losses in Liaodong. The front-line artillery also suffered heavy losses in the afternoon, and now at this time the offensive is launched. It's just stupid! ”

The words before the well mouth were not loud, but when it came to stupidity, the voice was so loud that the staff officers in the room looked at it.

"Iguchi-kun, it is precisely because the situation on the front line is not good that we have to use guò to attack to stabilize the defensive line. The Chinese were only lightly trained peasants, they were not really soldiers, and as long as they attacked their flanks in a roundabout way while attacking head-on, the entire defense line of the Chinese army would collapse, if not collapse, and retreat in great strides. "Fujii Shigta used his own rhetoric to give Kuroki the decision to round the field, in fact, he didn't want to attack now, if he attacked tomorrow, then in the case of sufficient troops and firepower, the effect would be better, but Kuroki wanted to attack, then he could only make a battle plan as the chief of staff. As for why Admiral Kuroki is trying his best to attack now......

"It's sending the soldiers to death!" Iguchi listened to Fujii's explanation, and became more and more dissatisfied, but now he was only the commander of the division, not the staff of the chief of staff of the Manchurian Army, and Kodama had also passed away, as for the commander-in-chief, Marshal Oyama Iwa, he might not pay attention to this attack of the Naoli Dispatch Army.

"Iguchi-kun, which battle does not require the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers, the empire is based on the sacrifice of the soldiers. The last time we fought against Lu, we also continued to attack Lu Country under the condition of insufficient artillery shells and insufficient troops, which made Lu Country finally defeated, this time we still have to continue to attack, so that the people of China are exhausted, too busy to take care of, and finally collapse, isn't this the previous plan made by the base camp? Facing the wellhead, Fujii Shigeta said it with confidence, and to be honest, his plan was not excessive, and the Japanese Army had always fought like this.

"Then look at how many phone lines you have! See how many machine guns you have! See how many flying planes you have! Iguchi said angrily: "The Chinese army has the advantage of reconnaissance, firepower, and coordination, what do we have, do we have the advantage of the dead?" ”

The voice of Iguchi finally woke up Kuroki Weizhen, who was sleeping in the back room, and when Kuroki came out, he was questioning Fujii, and when he saw this scene, Kuroki cleared his throat and said in a harmonious voice: "The staff officer of Iguchi is here!" Apparently, Kuroki remembered that he was still a staff officer of the Manchurian Army and not the commander of the 15th Division.

Kuroki is a general and a rare veteran in the army, and when he saw him come out, Iguchi bowed and said, "I have seen Your Excellency the commander." ”

Seeing this, Kuroki continued, "Is Iguchi-kun worried that our attack will fail? ”

"Yes, Your Excellency! I'm worried. The Chinese army had a firepower advantage over our army, and their trenches were extremely strong, breaking one layer or another, which we learned about when we were in Liaodong. If we do not have enough troops to break through several trenches of the Chinese army in a row, then the offensive will definitely fail. "Wellhead Province I said.

"Iguchi-kun is right about this, but what is more important than occupying the positions of the Chinese army is to hit the morale of the Chinese people, and to always grasp the rhythm of the offensive and keep the entire war under the control of our army, which is more important than occupying and destroying." Kuroki is a veteran after all, and his words are different from Fujii's.

"But if the offensive fails, will we still be able to seize the initiative on the battlefield?" Iguchi asked again. But his eyes swept away Kuroki Weizhen's shoulders - the commander of the four armies of the Russo-Japanese War, only Kuroki was still a general, and the other three had already been promoted to marshal, is this the reason why Kuroki wants to keep attacking to gain military achievements?

"In the Zhili Plain, our troops will be more than the strength of the Chinese army, especially under the rapid attack, the troops of the Chinese army outside the pass will not have time to be transferred into the pass, and their troops will be even less." Kuroki didn't know what Iguchi thought about himself, but he still explained his own way of thinking. "As long as it can attack quickly, the under-armed Chinese army will eventually fail. Iguchi-kun, please go back, if there is anything we will discuss after the war. ”

Seeing that Kuroki was bent on persisting in the attack, Iguchi could only sigh, he bowed deeply to Kuroki, and withdrew from the headquarters in great disappointment, it was already late at night outside, and the attack was about to start in a few hours. (To be continued......)