The Chinese and Japanese armies fought in the moonlight, in the sun, in the trenches, and in pursuit...... For the consuls in the concession, the war on the northern outskirts of Tianjin seemed to have begun yesterday afternoon, with the Chinese army attacking, then repulsed by the Japanese, and then the Japanese attacking in the middle of the night, but the result was that it was impossible to observe at night, but the consuls were more inclined to the Chinese to be repulsed, and at the same time Yangcun had been occupied, and the Japanese were now fifteen miles closer to Beijing.

As soon as the British Consul General in Tientsin got out of bed, Mr. Frank Frank Frank was thinking about what would happen after China's defeat: although Japan was an ally of Great Britain, it was a tricky matter for the victorious Japan to annex South Manchuria and East Mongolia, after all, it was not only Japan but also Russia that had declared war on China. If Japan agrees to annex South Manchuria and East Mongolia, it will inevitably agree to Russia's annexation of Outer Mongolia and North Manchuria, and even Xinjiang; The Russians are always extremely greedy for land, and Outer Mongolia and Northern Manchuria are fine, but if Xinjiang is also annexed by them, then Tibet will be in danger, and Tibet will be dangerous to India......

Lu Fuli frowned deeply as he brushed his teeth while thinking about the things that would happen in the near future, although he was not the foreign secretary of Britain, but as an imperial official who was interested in a diplomatic career, constantly thinking about things from the standpoint of the empire would be of great help to his future promotion.

"Sir!" The secretary of the consulate suddenly ran in very recklessly, and before Lu Fuli could get angry, he said eagerly: "Sir, the Japanese army has failed, their defense line has been broken by the Chinese, and the Chinese are pursuing!" ”

"What...... Whatever! Lu Fuli's mouth was full of tooth powder, and he no longer had the heart to brush his teeth. After wiping his mouth clean, he immediately said, "How bad is the situation?" Japanese... The Japanese, aren't they always on the offensive? ”

"Yes. That's true, but who knows? Colonel Pereira (Boreir) has already sent over. He built a concession and the authorities immediately gathered forces to prevent the Chinese from entering the restricted area. The secretary finally finished what he was going to say, but he was pushed away by Lu Fuli because he was blocking the way of Mr. Consul.

As an experienced army officer, Colonel Blaile was correct in his judgment, but he underestimated the stubbornness of the Japanese army, and after receiving the order to attack to the death to crush the attack of the Chinese army, the five divisions on the frontal front burst out with unparalleled courage: the artillery immediately replaced the shrapnel and special ammunition and began to carry out indiscriminate shelling of the front line, while the infantry except for building fortifications with the help of craters and using machine guns to stop the advance of the Chinese army. Other soldiers engaged in frenzied white-knuckle combat, and some were fully loaded with collision grenades, desperate to die with the enemy. The 4th Division on the west side of the railway was okay, but the 38th Division on the east side was suddenly startled by this way of fighting for their lives, and in the face of the Japanese who were frantically moving forward, if it wasn't for the shotguns that were incorporated into the infantry squad early, the 38th Division would have been frightened and fled.

Although the army was advancing, the division headquarters had a very clear understanding of the situation at the front because of the radio and wired telephones. The vanguard of the 38th Division encountered the strong resistance of the 9th Division and the 15th Division, especially after advancing for four kilometers, and as the Japanese artillery retreated, their own artillery could no longer suppress it. And their own infantry began to be directly exposed to the Japanese guns, and were blocked by the Japanese army with flesh and artillery.

After understanding the frontline dilemma. Division Commander Qian Ding suddenly thought that the artillery regiment had moved forward, and he hurriedly asked: "When will Boying's artillery regiment be able to cover the infantry in front of the breakthrough?" ”

"I don't know yet. I guess it's almost there. Chief of Staff Yang Shujie replied. This time, he brought not only an artillery regiment, but also an artillery regiment of the 142nd Division. Otherwise, you won't be able to kill the Japanese. ”

The artillery regiment has every division, but according to the military system of the Baath Army, it is not completely subordinate to the division, and as long as the mission requires it and is approved by the theater commander, the divisional artillery regiment can be borrowed by other units at any time. At this time of attacking, Zhang Fang, who had a premonition that the Japanese army would desperately resist, immediately pointed forward and applied for additional artillery, so the artillery regiment of the 142nd Division next to him was transferred over. Two artillery regiments, one hundred and eight artillery pieces, if they were really pulled close, would really be enough for the Japanese to drink a pot, but these one hundred and eight artillery pieces must advance with the troops, and if they fall behind, the attack will inevitably be delayed.

Therefore, the mobility of artillery, or mobile artillery, is the real key to the victory of infantry divisions with artillery as the core. In China, where there are no horses that have spent decades and countless dollars to establish a horse government like Japan, and there are no Western horses, only local ponies, and considering the poor road conditions in the country, tractors are the only alternative to Western horses. Although the price of a single horsepower is five times more expensive than a local horse, and two and a half times more expensive than an imported Yanmar, it is a supreme weapon for artillerymen. Diesel engines are strong, reliable, powerful, and trouble-free, so every artilleryman likes them, a tractor can often hang three or even four field guns, galloping on official roads or dirt roads, with them, the mobility of artillery has been maximized.

Wang Jiongwu, deputy battalion of the 142nd Division's artillery regiment, was a little anxious in the sound of tractors, ...... was moving forward quickly on the dirt road, jolting in potholes, and the connection between the artillery trucks and the oil drums hanging on the tractor were rattling...... Bang bang ...... 'rattle. The guide sitting next to him was actually an officer of the local peasant association, who was out of breath by the oncoming wind, and he shouted intermittently: "Comrade, comrade...... In front of us, we have to go to the entrance of our village, and as long as you ...... to the south of the village, it is... It's ......"

Before the guide's words were finished, a unique whistling sound of heavy artillery came into the air, and Wang Jiongwu was shocked in his heart, this should be the devil's 105 cannon, which means that there is a devil's artillery nearby......

"Lie down!" Between the light and flint, Wang Jiongwu shouted, and in a trance, he suddenly felt that it was not himself shouting, but someone else shouting again. Just as he shouted to lie down, the driver and guide of the tractor were pushed out of the car by him.

The tractor had not completely stopped, and several people rolled on the mud floor with inherent inertia before stopping, and at this time Wang Jiongwu only remembered that he had shouted the order, but he couldn't hear those words.

The loud sound of the destruction made him deaf in his ears, and when he tried to drag the two people around him to hide in the ditch in front of him, he fell weakly. At this time, the earth is like the plank of a canopy boat in my hometown, swaying. Difficult to stand firm. The smell of burnt, picric acid explosives and sweat took him breathless, and then he was sick with the bile spitting out of his stomach. He spat at the spit. Coughing, extremely disgusted by his weakness, and though his eyes were full of tears, Ann finally lifted his head as heavy as iron. At this time, the shelling continued, and the shrapnel mixed with the cannon fire exploded like fireworks in the air, and countless tiny shotguns shot down from the air, as if to pierce the whole earth into a hornet's nest, and some shells carried chlorine gas and fell to the ground. With a 'porphyry' sound, yellow-green smoke began to rise, in a vain attempt to envelop every qiē.

"Hygienist! Hygienist! Sir! Sir! ”

There were some voices shouting hazyly, Wang Jiongwu just wanted to turn his head, a fierce 105 grenade exploded not far away, the ground shook suddenly, and at the same time, the scorching air wave like a scraper rolled with the yellow smoke unique to the explosion of picric acid explosives, Wang Jiongwu fell again, and his face was down. The continuous tremors above his head, the roar that was getting closer and closer, filled all the pores, ears, eyes, heart and lungs of his body. He felt breathless and wanted to cough, but he couldn't. I want to vomit, but I can't, and I even want to crawl to a safe place. I don't know where to climb either.

The long, life-long shelling finally stopped, and the originally mighty tractor was swept aside by artillery fire. The field artillery they dragged was also staggering, and the queue of shells dragged behind them was even worse. Some of the ammunition trucks were killed, and several large craters were blown out of the yellow-brown ground, shattered into pieces of shell bodies, and intertwined with the remains of a few unfortunate soldiers.

Wang Jiongwu jumped up from the ground and wanted to run to the back, but his leg did not obey and fell again. He stood up again, ran, and then said to the deputy commander of the company, who had just gotten up: "Quick! Push the moving cannon into the village! Fast! Then, he grabbed the infantry company commander who was still confused and forgot what he was calling for a while, and pointed to a small hill in front of him, "Take your people, go there!" Right away! See if there is an observatory. Fast! Just go! ”

With Wang Jiongwu's order, the whole artillery battalion was active again, although I don't know why the Japanese army stopped shelling, but taking advantage of this rare opportunity, the entire artillery battalion was busy, the overturned tractor was righted again, after the pilot checked it, several shirtless strong men started it again, listening to the sound of the tractor's 'sudden ......', Wang Jiongwu's heart suddenly settled down a lot, under his command, all the movable artillery trucks hid in an empty village next to him, before the infantry swept around, he did not dare to move forward.

The waiting village was also hit by artillery fire just now, the house at the west end of the village was already on fire, black smoke was floating over the fence, and sparks and black ash were helplessly sprinkled on the camouflage uniform. Listening to the rumbling artillery in front and waiting for more than half an hour, the infantry company commander ran back, and he twisted his eyebrows and reported: "There is a devil's position in front, and they are all dead people." ”

"Dead people?!" Wang Jiongwuqi said, he thought that he was targeted by the Japanese artillery observation station, but it is unlikely that he will think about it, after all, his infantry has swept once, but what happened to the cannon just now, was it beaten by a ghost?

"Hmm!" The company commander nodded. "We all scattered and searched, but we didn't find anything like a steering wheel or a gun mirror."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Wang Jiongwu nodded to signal that the company commander was okay for the time being, and he turned his head and asked the adjutant, "Have the losses come out?" ”

"Hmm!" Zhao Wenxin, who was not yet eighteen years old and had just graduated from the military academy for less than half a year, nodded. "Half of the guns are missing, only eight tractors are good, and six carts of ammunition are missing."

Wang Jiongwu had already estimated the loss, and he nodded before asking: "What does the communication say, does the battalion commander have an order?" ”

"The battalion commander didn't, the commander did." Zhao Wenxin seemed to be a little happy, "According to the news given by the airship, we are the battalion at the front, and one kilometer further, we can knock out the heavy artillery of the Japanese." ”

The young man was a little excited, but Wang Jiongwu looked at the map in a daze, and after a while, he said: "Order to go down, the wounded will be left to guard, to wait for the follow-up troops, and we will set off immediately." ”

"Yes!" Zhao Wenxin replied loudly. Fifteen minutes later, the artillery team began to move forward at a rapid rate again.

Not far from the village was a neat Japanese trench, but it was now riddled with craters. The passages were also blocked with mud, and there were wooden and Japanese corpses standing in the mud, and there were bloodstained fragments of human bodies, military uniforms, empty bullet casings, water bottles, and cracked rifle butts stuck to the breastwork, which had been directly hit by their own artillery fire a few hours earlier.

The artillery team moved forward quickly, slowing only as it passed the collapsed trench. Wang Jiongwu glanced at this former hell and couldn't help but think of the cannon he had just received, fortunately it was just a cannon and not a continuous bombardment. Otherwise, there will be no bones left.

Under the guidance of the guide, the artillery team did not stop until it was about five kilometers away from Beicang. Seeing that the soldiers who finally arrived at the place did not wait for Wang Jiongwu's orders, they began to build field artillery fortifications, and everyone knew that the infantry on the front line was waiting for them, and everyone thought about firing the shells back and hitting the Japanese artillery positions that had just shelled them.

"A-2 calls the eagle! A two call the eagle! A 2 has arrived at the designated position, and A 2 has arrived at the designated position. "At the same time as the field artillery positions were being constructed, the signal corps had already deployed the radio. As soon as he was ready, he began to call the aerial observatory set up on the airship.

With some static interference, the headset soon had the voice of the airship observer, "Eagle received, Eagle received." Shooting mission: 200 yards northeast from checkpoint 2, eight nests of snakes and rats, shoot directly without test firing! ”

The observer's words in the headset were clear, and the communications soldier repeated the order sentence by sentence, and Wang Jiongwu next to him heard the 'shooting mission'. Immediately shouted: "The whole battalion is in place at once!" At the same time, as the signal corpsman repeated the order, the draftsman began to use a fan-shaped ruler to measure the direction and distance between the target and the position of the battalion on the drawing, and the calculator pulled the vernier of the firing ruler according to the distance reported by the cartographer to read out the corresponding shooting elevation angle.

But I heard the command from behind. Wang Jiongwu hesitated, he understood what the concept of snake and rat nest was, that was the big goal. It's not that he who only has nine guns left now can cope with it, and his own shells are not enough. I didn't know what to do after beating this nest, I just thought about it for a moment. He decided to ask for help, "Call the regimental headquarters immediately to see if there is any artillery battalion nearby." ”

The deputy battalion gave the order, and the communications chief immediately connected the wired telephone of the rear artillery regiment, and after four minutes of coordination, one artillery battalion of the 4th Division and two guns of the 38th Division took over. Holding the somewhat hot microphone held by the communications soldier, Wang Jiongwu quickly but clearly ordered: "The commander of the second battalion of A calls the second battalion of C, the fourth and second companies of Ding, and the fourth and third companies of Ding, shooting mission: coordinates A6-3H, all units, grenades, three groups, instantaneous signal tubes, and at the same time playing, ready to report!" ”

Wang Jiongwu's voice echoed in the microphone, and the three artillery companies that had been contacted by telephone were also the same as he had just heard, and when he heard the 'shooting mission,' the commanders of each unit immediately ordered the troops to take their positions, and the drawing hand marked the direction and distance according to the target, and the calculation hand added a special requirement of 'simultaneous bombing', in addition to reading the elevation angle of the shot through the guò shooting ruler, he also had to read out the corresponding flight time of the shell.

According to the Ba'ath Army Artillery Discipline, the standard reaction time is three minutes from the time the company or battalion commander issues a firing mission to the time when the guns are ready to report back. There was silence in the wired microphone for more than two minutes, and Ding 42 Company was the first to report that it was ready, it was the closest, and it only took 26 seconds for the shell to fly to the target, then it took 33 seconds for the 2nd C Battalion, and finally it was Ding 43 Company on the edge of the range, and he had the longest bullet time, which took 41 seconds.

Hearing that the three units were all ready to be returned, Major Wang Jiongwu wiped his sweat vigorously, and then shouted loudly: "All units, T plus sixty seconds to play at the same time, ready to count down!" Five, four, three, two, one, T! ”

The order was to bomb at the same time sixty seconds after the T time, and for the 42nd Company, because the flight time of its shells was twenty-six seconds, its salvo time was T plus thirty-four seconds; As for the 2nd Battalion, because the flight time of its shells is 33 seconds, the salvo time is in T plus 27 seconds; And the farthest Ding 43 Company, according to the above, its salvo time is T plus 19 seconds, and finally the 2nd Battalion itself, according to the calculation, it should fire at T plus 23 seconds.

Holding the chronograph in his hand, Wang Jiongwu stared at the hands and was extremely calm, only looking at the time of T plus nineteen seconds, he said into the microphone: "Ding Si Sanlian, launch!" After waiting for the time to add twenty-three seconds, he ordered again: "Second Battalion, launch!" The pointer moved forward second by second, and every time it was time to shoot, Wang Jiongwu would clearly order a certain unit to shoot into the microphone, and only wait for the four artillery units to finish firing before he began the next round of attacks.

There is no doubt that the artillery of the Fuxing Army is actually a copy of the Time-On-Target (TOT) of the American Army in the later generations, and the original intention of artillery commander Li Chengyuan to come up with this set of things is actually to miss the example of killing Feng Guozhang with a salvo of the whole regiment of artillery a few years ago, when the immature Fuxing Army arranged the entire artillery regiment together. But as the war became more and more intense, the opponents became more and more cunning. The arrangement of artillery is more flexible and scattered, and at this time it is not so easy to fire a salvo from the whole regiment. Different distances, different shooting elevation angles, etc., will make the entire shelling unable to reach the target at the same time, which brings a problem, when the first shell lands, the enemy will immediately dodge or choose to take cover, especially the veterans, they can always find their place in the shelling gap, so after the first few shells achieve high damage, the power of the later shells is greatly reduced. But if the shells fired by the artillery everywhere can hit at the same time, then the enemy will have no chance of dodging.

During last month's training, 12 artillery regiments in the North China Theater practiced the tactics of simultaneous shelling, and when T plus 60 seconds, a total of 648 artillery shells were fired. Because the target of the shot was only one hectare, the shells and shells collided and exploded in the air before they fell, and although there was a slight error in the time after the shells fell, after the first round of simultaneous firing, the defenders of this area judged that they were completely wiped out - even if they were veterans of a hundred battles. It is also impossible to dodge such a volley of concentrated fire.

An artillery battalion, two artillery batteries and nine guns of the battalion are a total of 39 guns, and the simultaneous firing means that 39 shells fall on the heads of the Japanese at the same time, according to the calculation, if a 75mm field gun uses an instantaneous fuse, it can kill and injure unobstructed targets. Its side is thirty meters, and its depth is twenty-five meters, which means that it has a killing range of 750 square meters. Thirty-nine shells, even if there is overlap. The area of damage should also be more than 15 hectares. Fifteen hectares may not be large, but it is enough for the retreating dense Japanese army.

After the latest Ding 42 consecutive volleys. As long as the second was completed in the hands of Major Wang Jiongwu, 39 shells smashed down on the head of the retreating 15th Division.

-- At dawn, the Baxing Army began to attack with the barrage, digging several holes in the two trenches of the Japanese front line, and in the face of the overwhelming Shina Army, the wings that came up behind did not play any role in hindering them, and these wings were very light and were suppressed and routed by the mortars and machine guns carried by the Shina Army, and in the end, it was the Japanese artillery that carried out indiscriminate barrage fire to block them.

After a night of fighting, Lieutenant General Iguchi Shengwu, who had served as a staff officer of the Manchurian Army, finally discovered that the Su zhì of the Chinese Army should be above his own army, and of course this was his impression after observing the firepower of the Fuxing Army, especially the artillery. As for yesterday afternoon's charge of tens of thousands of people on the front of the 15-kilometer plant, similar to the chaotic rush of tens of thousands of people in the days when they were lined up to be shot, he did not think that this was the army making a fool of itself -- even if there were 15 kilometers in front of it, and tens of thousands of people lined up in several rows, it was still a sea of people -- but he thought that this was a conscious exercise of the new recruits by the commander of the Zhina, especially when the battlefield was suppressed by the artillery of the Zhina, and these recruits charged back and shouted for a while, and when the next attack came, their courage would be completely different from before. If he can completely suppress the enemy artillery, and he has a lot of new soldiers, he is willing to drive them out and rush back.

Although Lieutenant General Iguchi admired the training of recruits by the commander of the Chinese army, he did not care, what he really cared about was the defense system of the Chinese army, as well as the entire infantry and artillery coordination system. Unlike the Japanese artillery, which could only assist in response to the situation, Jingguchi, who was born as an artillery soldier and had a staff officer, found that the North China China Army had raised the artillery to an unparalleled height, and the coordination between the artillery infantry and the use of the artillery itself seemed to be much better than that of the Liaodong China Army; What is even more terrifying is the judgment he made based on this: if a soldier of China and a soldier of the Great Japanese Army fought, it must be a Japanese victory; If 10,000 Chinese soldiers and 10,000 Japanese soldiers fought, it was estimated that the Japanese army would still win; However, if 100,000 Shina soldiers were to fight 100,000 Japanese soldiers, the result would be a victory for the Shina army, which was good at using artillery and paying attention to coordination with artillery.

Such an inference made Iguchi break out in a cold sweat, and thinking that he should do his best to report his judgment to the Manchurian headquarters and even the Japanese base camp, he hurriedly ordered the division headquarters to retreat, but his fate was ill-fated, and he never had a chance to go back.

The seconds ticked, the seconds on the chronograph finally returned to the original point, and countless shells suddenly roared above the head of Iguchi Province, and the earth-shattering explosion, Iguchi Province Province spit out half of the word "fast", and he never woke up.

On May 16, the third year of Taisho, Lieutenant General Iguchi Province, who had participated in the Sino-Japanese War and the Rilu War and made great contributions to the empire, died on the front line of Naoli at the age of 59.

The star falls, the destiny of heaven cannot be violated, and the imperial kingdom is wailing! (To be continued......)