The battle of Shimuling began at noon, and more than 100 artillery pieces of the Qing army bombarded the positions of the revolutionary army for half an hour, which was different from what the revolutionary army speculated, the Qing army did not use chlorine gas cannons as soon as they came up, but used howitzers, but it was obvious that the Qing artillery's armor was uneven, and the timing fuses of many howitzer shotguns were not set well, the fuse time was too short, and the shells only exploded in the air, like a special fireworks.

But even so, the revolutionary army in the trench did not dare to take it lightly, except for a few observers, everyone else was hiding in the cat's ear hole, they had long been told that in every 75mm grenade shotgun, there were 295 pieces of shrapnel of 10 grams that were blown out in the explosion, and these shrapnel flying down in the air could not be dodged by lying down, and only hidden in the anti-artillery hole in the trench could be unscathed.

At the same time as the Qing army was bombarded, following the orders of the grassroots officers, rows of infantry scattered according to the new army's drill were half-bent down and rushed in small steps from 800 meters away, while their horse teams also went out to detour back to the sides of the revolutionary army's battle formation according to the drill code, preparing to assault the revolutionary army's flank. However, it was obvious that they did not trust their own artillery, and all the Qing infantry soldiers fell far behind the shells, for fear of being accidentally injured by those shrapnel that exploded in the air. In the telescope, the brigade commander Xu Shunda shook his head happily when he saw the Qing army so plain, the infantry did not follow the barrage closely, and rushing over like this was obviously sending him to death, and the horse team, do you have a flank on your side? The Shimuling position has extended to the east to the foot of Tianchi Mountain, and the connection is also through the Zhutang pit, and the horse team has no way around.

Xu Shunda was thinking about the Qing army's horse team. "Bang... Bang... Bang... Bang" In the dull sound of Makqin machine guns, the infantry of the Qing army was completely suppressed, and then ignored the officer's orders. It was completely scattered. Xu Shunda put down the binoculars and laughed, at this moment, he just wanted to take the team all the way north to Beijing.

knew that a rash charge would be scattered by the revolutionary party's machine guns, but Wenhua, who received an urgent rescue letter from Tie Zhong, just didn't listen, and had to ask Cai Ye for emergency rescue, Cai Ye had no choice. I can only let the 17th bid of the 5th town try to rush, and sure enough, it will not be a while to rush up. was repelled by the revolutionary party.

Seeing that his subordinates were scattered in front of the revolutionary party, Xu Hongbin dared to hurriedly run over and said: "Commander, the revolutionary party has dug a trench and covered it with steel wire, so you can't fight like this!" Fighting like this is to fight the team out, and it can't shake them in the slightest! ”

The Qing army was scattered. Cai Yi frowned, but Wenhua was furious. He was going to let Cai Ye release the chlorine cannon, and then increase the charging force, and make many contact charges, but he didn't want the underground standard to run over and say that he couldn't charge. He glared at Xu Hongbin and said angrily: "There are 36,000 of our friendly troops in the mountain, and now they are in a desperate situation, if our army cannot be rescued immediately, they will be completely annihilated by the revolutionary party." There are no immortals in war, and what we have to do now is to step up our attacks. Break through the pass and rescue the Western Route Army. I'll start with that. If there are people who are greedy for life and afraid of death in this battle, I will show the emperor and will not spare him! ”

As soon as Wenhua opened his mouth, he took the righteousness and said that Xu Hongbin was speechless. Wu Jiezhang didn't dare to speak on the side, and Cai Yi was also silent. Only Sun Zong spoke first: "Marshal, now we are discussing the method of the Western Route Army, if we want to break through the pass, there are two ways, one is to continue to charge like just now, and the other is to dig the trench in front of the revolutionary party. The former seemed to be quick, but the revolutionaries had deployed more than 30 machine guns at Shimuling, and it was impossible to charge, and now the fastest way was to dig trenches. As long as we can dig into the entrance, then our army will rush forward, and we will definitely be able to repel the revolutionary party and rescue the Western Route Army. ”

"You ...... You're just afraid of death. Wenhua was speechless by Sun Zongxian's words. He could only say some angry words, but after the horse servant beside him only whispered a few words in his ear, he said again: "Although there are many machine guns of the revolutionary party on the opposite side, there is only one target for the garrison force, and if we use the forces of the two targets to repeatedly attack, we will definitely be able to win a big victory." The Russians who fought against Lushunkou in those years were so resolute in their charge, and today's Daxin Army will never be weaker than the Japanese Army. If there is no such thing as a chlorine gas cannon, what civilization is not civilized, and it cannot be civilized when dealing with the chaotic party. ”

Wenhua mentioned the Russo-Japanese War and the chlorine cannon, Cai Yi's face was cold, he had carefully studied the history of the Russo-Japanese War, especially the First Battle of Lushun, which was completely a meat bullet attack. And the chlorine shell, I haven't heard of any country using it against its own people, once it is used this time, then he must be famous for eternity.

"Brother Xiufeng, the Japanese Army fought Lushun, and finally dug the tunnel to the top of the mountain, and relied on eighteen 280 mm cannons to take the 203rd Heights. Although Shimuling is not in danger of Lushun, it is difficult to fight without digging a tunnel. The civil engineering job, which seems to be slow, is actually the fastest. There is also the chlorine cannon, it is daytime, once it is used by someone to see it and spread it, the emperor's Shengming, it will be ......" Cai Yi smiled bitterly, in order to convince Wenhua, he had to bring out the matter of Lushun, as well as the emperor's Shengming, so that although he had the upper hand in words, but Wenhua was even more dissatisfied, he only felt that Cai Ye was sarcastic that he was a straw bag, and he didn't even understand the battle of Lushun.

"Then you dig it! If I don't rescue the Western Route Army, I will definitely tell the emperor. Wen Hua looked at the silent people in the military tent, knowing that these Han people all had this in mind, so he threw down his sleeves and left in anger.

Wen Hua threw away the cruel words and went out again, he only felt that it was the responsibility of Cai Yi and Wu Jiezhang to rescue Tie Zhong, and he was at most a spectator, as for the 4th town of the Manchurian New Army, it was pressed behind the 5th and 14th towns, saying that it was to protect the baggage and ammunition, but in fact, it was the method of using the Han to control the Han more than 200 years ago. When the new army was sent to death, when the battle was won, the credit was naturally the greatest for the Manchurian and Mongolian new army.

As soon as Wenhua left, I don't know why, thinking of his arrangement and words, Cai Ye suddenly felt like the commander of the green camp two hundred years ago, at that time, it was also like today, the Manchus drove the Han people to kill the Han people, and today he is being driven by the Manchus to do the same thing! Thinking of this, he. Cai Ye was very annoyed, but just as he clenched his fists, Liang Qichao's words came back to his ears. "It doesn't matter whether the emperor is Han or Manchu, the key is to make the people well-fed, warmly dressed, and able to live a peaceful life...... The country must be rich and strong in order not to be bullied by foreigners, and now is not the time for the Manchu and Han disputes. Now is the time for the Sino-foreign controversy......"

Liang Qichao's words only made Cai Yi's clenched fist loosen again, but he felt that Yang was even more hateful at this time! Revival will be hateful! The revolutionary party is hateful! These people cannot strengthen the country, they can only disrupt the country. Now it has spent 10,000,000 taels to exterminate the Zhejiang bandits, and it has consumed most of the strong soldiers trained earlier, which is the fifth town, which has been replenished and consumed several times. It's not the original Fifth Town anymore. Come to think of it. Cai Ye suddenly said calmly: "We have to rush again, this time to change the chlorine gas shell." ”

The generals who were sitting were happy because Cai Yi stopped Wenhua's chaotic command because of his words, but unexpectedly Wenhua agreed to dig a tunnel, and Cai Yi was about to send troops to rush again. Wu Jiezhang looked at him in surprise and said, "Brother Songpo, what are you...... That chlorine cannonball is really dry, if we use it today, we will be poked in the back in the future! ”

After Wu Jiezhang finished speaking, Sun Zongxian next to him was about to speak. Cai Ye preemptively said: "We are officials, they are bandits." As long as you can exterminate the bandits. I am also very clear and clear, that is, I will be poked in the backbone and scolded by the slave in the future, and I Cai Ye also admit it, if China continues to war, it will be destroyed! Pass my military order to let the artillery team change to chlorine gas cannons and bombard the bandit positions. ”

only felt that Cai Ye had been hit by the magic barrier, and Sun Zongxian sighed and said, "Songpo, you are so ...... Ay!. ”

After Sun Zong finished speaking, Wu Jiezhang next to him wanted to say something, but he held back. Seeing this, the staff officer next to him immediately passed the military order back. After a while, the Qing artillery replaced the shells, and after the sound of the cannons, the chlorine gas ejected from the chamber.

The valley was originally windless, because it was a suppressive design, and the artillery of the Qing army fired at a normal rate of two rounds per minute, although it was only two rounds per minute, but one hundred and eight guns could spit out more than two hundred shells in one minute. Just when I thought that the Qing army was shooting another howitzer shotgun, several shells fell in front of the trench, and after the explosion of "bang", a stream of green things rose from the ground with snowflakes, and then more places rose such green smoke after the shells exploded.

"Poison gas! Gas! Gas!! The observer outside shouted. Although all the soldiers had been told that the Qing army was likely to use chlorine cannons, had been trained before, and had equipped the front-line troops with gas masks, the soldiers were still very afraid of such ghostly green smoke, which in their eyes was simply a lifeline of black and white.

The soldiers in charge of the observation screamed so loudly that the revolutionary soldiers in the defensive holes in the trenches were shocked when they heard the sounds, and then the officers everywhere shouted: "Wear masks!" Wear a mask! All officers...... Examine...... Soldier Mask!! Mask! The company commanders and platoon commanders in charge of this section of the defense line shouted loudly, and some of them even ran out of the anti-artillery holes, ignoring the chlorine gas, and only shouted along the trenches! The officer's cry finally calmed the soldiers' hearts, and each soldier's mask was checked to make sure it was completely sealed, under the inspection of the squad leader.

The officers in the trench ran and screamed, and the regimental commander and brigade commander behind the trench saw in the telescope that the yellow-green thing was rising from his own trench, and the entire line of defense was already blurred in the chlorine gas. But even so, the artillery of the Qing army did not stop, but continued to drop chlorine bombs, only to make green smoke billowing near the trench. Xu Shunda saw that the mirror was full of chlorine gas, so he only pulled the telescope and threw it to the soldiers next to him, and then pulled out the captured Bai Langlin Quqi ruler pistol, opened the safety and fired seven shots at the sky, shouting: "I, Xu Shunda, will not kill Cai Ye in this life, and I will not be a man!" ”

The brigade commander was excited, and the regiment commander next to him, Ni Jin, hurriedly stopped: "Brother Mengwu, we have gas masks, and the Tartars can't hurt us." As long as Cai Ye is dragged in, we will be able to slaughter these scum who are willing to be slaves tomorrow! ”

After Xu Shunda finished the seven shots, the anger in his heart stopped for a while, and then nodded: "Okay!" Then follow the plan and let them in to fight. Remove! As soon as Xu Shunda said to withdraw, the military horn on the source of Lei Wu sounded, and the soldiers on the front line all followed the sound and withdrew from the first trench under the arrangement of the officer, leaving only one empty position for the Qing army.

The revolutionary army withdrew from the first trench in an orderly manner, while the artillery shells of the Qing soldiers only stopped for half an hour, facing the trench surrounded by chlorine gas. The infantry of the Qing army waited for the chlorine gas to dissipate, and then drove to the barbed wire fence in fear. They were still scared at first, but when the barbed wire was cut, the revolutionaries did not fight back. Then we knew that the revolutionary party in the trenches would either die or disperse.

The front team of the Qing army waved the red flag of success, which only relieved the town commanders a few miles away. Wu Jiezhang, Sun Zongxian, and a few other co-ordinators who were reluctant to release the chlorine gas cannon before all laughed, although they had known the power of this thing for a long time, but after trying it today, they realized that it was so easy to fight with things, as long as they put a chlorine gas cannon and then accept the position.

And everybody rejoiced. Cai Ye was expressionless, and his face sank even deeper. He only put down the binoculars, and then said to the adjutant, "The 9th Association will accept the entire position immediately." But beware of the mines of the rebels, they will most likely be buried in the trenches......"

Before Cai Ye finished speaking, he only heard a roar on the side of the revolutionary party's trench, and the Qing military camp that went to explore the way saw the revolutionary party withdrawing. He hurriedly jumped into the trench - although the new army no longer pays attention to cutting heads. But the dead revolutionaries in the trenches may have some silver or other things of value on them, but the revolutionary army, though they retreated, did not want to be so cheap, and the trenches were covered with all kinds of accompanying and pressurized mines, and as soon as these people entered, they immediately went to the western sky. Hong Zicheng, the commander of the Ninth Association, was about to be ordered to lead the team, but he didn't want to be as Cai Ye said, his own soldiers were really blown up by mines. At this time, his heart suddenly became a little hairy. However, Cai Yi's military order had been issued, and he led the team with a salute to Cai Yi.

Under the divine power of the chlorine cannon. Shimuling was occupied by the 9th Association of the Qing Army, and the same method was concocted, and the Zhutangkeng on the west side of Shimuling was also occupied by the 27th Seventh Association after the chlorine cannon bombardment, so that as long as the Leiwuyuan was occupied again, then two miles later it was still the banner mountain that was still held by the Qing army. The revolutionary army was defeated and the Qing army won a great victory, and the remnants of the two teams on the banner mountain rejoiced when they saw this, and the flags on the mountain were only waving more fancy than singing. Although the shouts on the mountain were not very understandable to the bottom of the mountain, but looking at their appearance and listening to the sound of artillery outside, everyone could only feel that reinforcements were about to come in, and for a while the morale of the Qing army in the valley was raised again.

He Zhaoxian looked at the Qing army jumping and jumping on the mountain, spat at the mouth with disdain, and then said: "Give the artillery an order to blow up the banner mountain for me!" Also, immediately after the shelling, send someone to occupy the high ground for me! ”

"Yes! Teachers. The adjutant beside him said loudly, he, like everyone else, had long been displeased with the two hundred Tartars in the Banner Mountain, and now that the task of luring the enemy had been completed, of course this piece of incense bait would be eaten immediately.

As soon as the adjutant left, in less than half a minute, the artillery from the north and east opened fire, and as soon as the shells fell on the flag mountain, the Yellow Dragon Flag on the mountain was blown away, and then the cannon sound continued, leaving only the scum of the more than 200 Qing troops. After the artillery stopped for a while, the infantry of the revolutionary army rushed forward and eliminated the half-dead and non-dead Qing troops. After that, the troops did not care about anything else, but began to build fortifications in order to prepare for the next hard battle.

Seeing that the last stronghold of his army was occupied by the revolutionary party, the Qing army in the valley that had just recovered some morale was dying again, and Cai Ye outside the mountain saw that the banner mountain was quickly occupied by the revolutionary party, so he said to Sun Zong first: "You call the artillery team to see if their artillery can hit the banner mountain?" ”

As soon as Cai Yi asked here, Sun Zong quickly replied after going first, and said: "Zheng Yunqing said that the firing range of the mountain artillery is only four kilometers, and now the artillery array is behind us, and it is four kilometers away from the banner mountain. However, once the artillery array moved forward, he was very worried about the revolutionary party artillery team on the side of Meiling Village, whose artillery could hit five kilometers, and moved over just within the range of the revolutionary party. ”

"We have one hundred and eight cannons, and the revolutionaries only have a few cannons, can't they hold down their artillery team?" Cai Ye said very strangely. Zheng Shiqi is a person from Beiyang, he is the town commander in the 5th town, and many times he has to worry about the feelings of those officers in the original Beiyang department. After all, in addition to the officers from the Beiyang department, it is difficult to trust Cai Yi, an officer who stayed in the United States, and there are too many revolutionary parties among them.

"Zheng Yunqing is saying that the artillery team of the revolutionary party must be placed on the other side of the mountain, and the artillery shells on our side cannot be hit at all, unless they shoot in a different direction, or also change the chlorine gas cannon. So that their artillery can be suppressed! Sun Zong said first.

"Then continue to fire chlorine gas cannons and suppress all the artillery arrays of the revolutionary party." Since I was the first year of junior high school, I no longer care about fifteen. As soon as Cai gave the order, the artillery of the Qing army began to move forward, but it was not so simple for the artillery to move forward, and more than 100 artillery pieces in the two towns only waited until the sun went down in the afternoon before they were moved to the place under the interference of the revolutionary artillery.

The Qing army outside is pushing closer and closer, while the revolutionary army inside is shrinking and tightening. The Qing army, which had lost artillery support and was completely suppressed by mortar grenadiers with machine guns, was ravaged by the revolutionary army like a toothless tiger, Jigong Bridge was broken through by Wang Jinfa, Qudou Village was also occupied, and the Qing troops in Wu Village and Pengjia Village were even more heavily bombarded and persuaded to surrender under the fierce shelling and persuasion on all sides, and finally the remnants of the 3rd town of the Manchurian and Mongolian New Army only protected the headquarters and shrank to less than one square kilometer of Huayigang and Kaokengyuan, and organized a death squad to break through the valley mouth under the banner mountain, but the highlands on all sides of this place were already in the hands of the revolutionary army, They died several waves of people and finally lost their sharpness, and only froze there waiting for Cai Ye outside to come to the rescue. When the night fell, Feng Guozhang's Western Route Army had basically finished eating, and while the two armies were eating and the armistice was being eaten, the revolutionary army was sharpening its knives and waiting for Cai Ye to go further.

Having moved to the wartime headquarters of Anshan Temple, Zhou Sixu was introducing the current shape to the map. "There are still more than 5,000 Qing troops left on the Huayigang side, according to investigation, all of them are Manchurians, Mongols and Han military banners, these people are worried that we will kill them all after being captured, and the second is that Cai Yi, who is close at hand, can save them, so they will not surrender. The command post of the entire Feng Guozhang department is also there, according to the information of the prisoners, now the Qing army is commanded by Tie Zhong, and he refuses to surrender. ”

As soon as Zhou Sixu said that Tie Zhong refused to surrender, Wang Jinfa, who was present at the meeting, said: "Damn, you still refuse to surrender!" The headquarters will give the order, and I will lead someone to rush in and take out Tie Zhong's head for everyone. ”

The revolutionary army did not want to behead, so as soon as Wang Jinfa said this, everyone laughed, knowing that he was addicted to beheading generals and capturing the flag again. But everyone is familiar with him, just laughing. Zhou Sixu continued: "These 5,000 people basically have no heavy weapons, and the machine guns are estimated to have run out of bullets. Now that the 6th Division has attacked, it is estimated that they will surrender after a single artillery shot, but we must prevent them from escaping at night to spread the news to Cai's department, in case there is a change on Cai's side.

Now Cai's troops have occupied Shimuling and Zhutangkeng, which are garrisoned by the new armies of the two associations. There are two other new armies of the Association at the remaining bridge south of Shimuling, and finally their baggage troops, as well as the 4th town of Manmeng, which has been deployed in Huizeli, Longmen Bridge, Baihe Bridge, and Hengshan Town. Now they mainly have two ways to retreat, one is to return to the east to Zhuge Village, and then to Yongchang Town and Lanxi County; Another way is to retreat to Longyou County through Hengshan Town.

Now our plan is to take advantage of the night to let Zhang Gong's 15th Division divide into two routes, one to take Yongchang Town or Lanxi County, and the other to take Liantang or Longyou County, as long as the two places are occupied, then the back road of Cai's division will be cut off, and the 6th Division is responsible for the entire Meilingguan position, it is best to attract the Qing army to drag on here overnight.

At present, our army has suffered more than 4,000 casualties, and in addition to the more than one brigade transferred this morning, there are still more than 46,000 people who can fight, and the troops have won the battle, their morale is high, and their ammunition and artillery shells are relatively sufficient. ”

The situation was under control, and Lin Wenqian happily lit a cigarette: "That means, as long as tonight passes, then Cai Yi's East Route Army can also start the pot?" ”

"That's right. As long as Lanxi and Longyou are occupied by us, especially on Longyou's side, the fourth town of Manmeng is in Hengshan Town, if they retreat to Longyou County overnight, then it is unlikely that they want to encircle and annihilate the entire East Route Army. When the time comes, only the 5th and 14th towns will be annihilated, and they will probably run away. Zhou Sixu said. (To be continued......)