Li Mingrui looked at it and listened to his report. Yang Zhen, whose face was still calm without a trace of waves, seemed to have not paid attention to these tanks at all, and said with some concern: "Commander, the cavalry of the little devil is not very good, but these tanks with excellent protection and machine guns that do not work at all should not be underestimated." ”

"I heard that during the Battle of Songhu, many units of the national army were not defeated by the Japanese army, but were brutally crushed by the Japanese tanks. Even many troops who were able to resist the Japanese attack before were frightened by the Japanese tanks. Especially those local troops who have never seen tanks. ”

"You'll have to think of a way, but don't underestimate these twenty tanks. Otherwise, these tanks will bring huge casualties to our army. These tanks have always been a scourge for us. There are also those warships on the river, although the tonnage is not large, but it is like a mobile battery. ”

"But Commander, I can solve those warships hanging alone on the river. Tonight, I'll take one of them into the water and touch it quietly. An hour to settle the battle, guaranteed to deliver these warships to your hands. But tanks I can't do it. Their station is in the middle of the whole position of the little devils, and I tried several times last night, but I couldn't do it because the Japanese army was too vigilant. ”

Regarding Li Mingrui's report, Yang Zhen nodded with satisfaction. It's just that for his worries, Yang Zhen smiled and said, "You don't have to worry, these tanks will be ours tonight." As for the old ships of the puppet Manchurian army, we have no air supremacy, which is equivalent to a live target, and it is basically useless to ask for it. ”

Looking at Yang Zhen's confident expression, Li Mingrui scratched his head, but he didn't know that the commander had such a big confidence. You know, these tanks are not that easy to deal with. Or are they all their own? Could it be that in addition to his own reconnaissance battalion, the commander has some other mysterious troops?

For Li Mingrui's incomprehension, Yang Zhen smiled and did not answer him, but waved his hand and said, "You bring gas masks, and leave a company to lurk again on the line of the Lianjiang Estuary." Tell them to tell me the movements of the Japanese army on the front line of the Lianjiang Estuary. Especially tonight, every move of the Japanese army must be firmly watched by me. ”

"The radio station of the company you left behind has always been left on for me, and I will evacuate as soon as I receive a notice from headquarters. As for your main force, don't care about the warships on the river, your next goal is to cross the river and head south. ”

"After crossing the river, you immediately secretly infiltrated Jiamusi. Half of the walls of Jiamusi were blown up last time and have not yet been repaired. And the Japanese army is empty, and there should be no big problem to infiltrate it with your training. The company led by Dong Ping has already arrived here with me, so you go and join them immediately. ”

Hearing Yang Zhen's order, Li Mingrui didn't ask why. He believed that he should let himself know, and even if he didn't ask, the commander would tell him. If you shouldn't know about it, it's useless to ask. The commander does not like people who talk a lot, and he never says a word more.

Li Mingrui, who knew Yang Zhen's character, didn't gossip a word, and after nodding heavily, he turned around and left to find his instructor. As for who will be left behind, Li Mingrui already has a number in his heart. The task of infiltrating Jiamusi is not easy, and Dong Ping will go south with him this time, so as not to have no one to consult with at that time.

Since neither he nor Dong Ping can stay, then Huang Dali, an old scout oil, will be the best candidate to stay. Huang Dali is a veteran scout, although he has a lot of problems. But there is one thing that no one can deny, and that is that this guy is exceptionally experienced. Know when to hold out and when to retreat. Keeping him is a good choice.

After Li Mingrui left, Yang Zhen looked at the sky that had gradually darkened because it was already early autumn, and with the change of seasons, the days were getting shorter and shorter. After pondering for a while, he did not take the car, but took the reins handed by Xiaohuzi, turned over and got on the horse, and ran towards the artillery position with the reins of the horse.

When he arrived at an unusually well-guarded birch forest less than five kilometers away from the Lianjiang estuary, Yang Zhen turned over and dismounted and walked into the woods. And behind him, all the entourage, including Xiaohuzi, were not allowed to enter, but were left outside the woods.

Walk into the birch forest and look at the artillerymen who are nervously building artillery bunkers and putting the finishing touches on the artillery. And under the command of a person wearing Yang Zhen's military uniform, but his body does not look like a Chinese, and behind him is a big name following the command of two guards, who are nervously installing fuses on these secret weapons and checking the safety one by one, after seizing a large number of poison gas shells from the Japanese army, Yang Zhen nodded with satisfaction after the officers and soldiers of the newly established two chemical companies with a full set of chemical protective clothing captured in Qunce Mountain at this time.

Seeing Yang Zhen coming, Ma Qichang, who was carrying out the final homework on the map to determine the target again, hurriedly stood up and saluted.

In order to ensure that the artillery could accurately enter the Japanese army's position in the shortest possible time, Yang Zhen concentrated all the strength of the two field artillery battalions at hand this time, and designated Ma Qichang, deputy commander of the artillery and head of the field artillery regiment, to personally command.

Yang Zhen waved his hand to signal Ma Qichang to relax, then carefully looked at the homework he had basically completed on the map and said: "How about it, in the case of no one correcting it, can your artillery achieve the first hit." Did you know that once these things go wrong, it's not just the little devils who are unlucky. ”

In response to Yang Zhen's question, Ma Qichang said confidently: "Commander, don't worry." Since the establishment of our army's base areas, except for the deep mountains and old forests in the west. It took me a whole month to mark all the terrain on the north bank of our Songhua River. ”

"As for the most important outpost position of our army, the Lianjiang Estuary line is the most important of them. I've been here three times to see the terrain and make the most detailed markings on the map. All the terrain and landforms here are in my head. Now that I have the most detailed map of the Japanese army provided by Battalion Commander Li, I can shoot these shells into the Japanese positions even with my eyes closed. ”

"And the commander, although I chose the artillery position here for the sake of concealment. But to the east of this wood, that is, in front of the mouth of the Lianjiang River, a rocket artillery battalion was deployed to suppress possible Japanese counterattack artillery fire. At the same time, I built a large number of reserve positions behind this wood. I'm going to use artillery to fight the devils in guerrilla.

"Also, I had the engineer company dig a few holes behind each artillery position and cover all the shells in the ground. At the same time, all two engineer companies of the two artillery regiments were dispatched to carry the artillery shells in cooperation with the chemical company. You know, once these things are hit by Japanese counter-fire fire, it's us. ”

After listening to Ma Qichang's deployment, Yang Zhen nodded with satisfaction and said, "Have you brought all the gas masks of your artillery?" If there is a shortage, be sure to raise it immediately. I'll ask Zhang Zhenhua to transfer you from the infantry right away. You people are all our treasures, don't be hurt by yourself. ”

Regarding Yang Zhen's words of concern, Ma Qichang smiled honestly and said, "Commander, you have brought it all." I've personally checked it twice, and all the gas masks are not a lot. However, the artillery shells that were replenished this time, together with the mountain artillery shells of the mountain artillery battalions of each brigade, were only 2,600 rounds, and the field artillery regiment directly under them had only 1,200 rounds. ”

"Now that the troops are about to cross the river, once they need to fight a tough battle, is there a little less shelling? Although we only have two battalions here, we also have twenty-four field guns. On average, only 50 shells were allocated to each gun. Even by the standards of the Japanese army, this is not enough for a base. ”

"Commander, this cannon is not like a rifle. The rifle was out of bullets, and at least there were bayonets to withstand it. The cannon has no shells, but it has become a deaf man's ear. You can't let these artillerymen, who have spent so much effort cultivating, go and charge with rifles. ”

Hearing this, Yang Zhen smiled and pointed at Ma Qichang's nose and said, "Don't be greedy, you kid." It was these shells that were assembled by the workers of the arsenal who risked their lives to disassemble the fuses that were transported from Jiangbei and get them out. Our own production of mountain artillery shell fuses has not been up to par due to raw materials, and it has not been able to form a large-scale production capacity for the time being. ”

After that, Yang Zhen patted Ma Qichang on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, there will be bread and shells." As for the fuze, the arsenal is organizing manpower to carry out trial production with the assistance of experts from Jiangbei and military experts transferred from Kannai. In terms of progress, it's pretty much the same now. As long as the raw materials are in place, large-scale production can begin. By that time, you'll have as many shells as you need. ”

"We are going to mass-produce not only seventy-five-millimeter mountain artillery shells, but also one hundred and fifty-millimeter howitzer shells. However, our previous use of shells was a bit too big. We captured 100,000 shells in the secret warehouse of the Japanese army in Qunce Mountain, and it took less than a year to consume the embers. This has to be said to be a bit of a Lang fee. ”

"In addition to the daily training that consumed tens of thousands of shells, only Qunce Mountain, Guanmenzuizi Mountain, and Jiangnan Mountain, plus this operation. In just a few battles, the embers of the reserve shells were consumed. Isn't it a bit extravagant to shoot barrage and cover shots at every turn in battle? ”

"Of course, the responsibility for this lies first and foremost with me, the commander, because I am too superstitious about the power of artillery fire. But you and Qiu Jintang also have to review it carefully and come up with a revised plan. Think about it carefully, and in future battles, we should not only make the greatest use of artillery fire to kill and injure the enemy, but also pay attention to saving shells. After all, our most difficult time has not yet come. ”

Yang Zhen's words fell, and Ma Qichang nodded heavily and fell silent. The inventory of shells has actually been exhausted, which is both unexpected and expected for Ma Qichang. Before he joined the army, whether it was in the old Northeast Army or the puppet Manchurian army, he had never seen such a commander who was willing to exert his strength and spend so much money to train the troops.

Mortars, infantry guns, rapid-fire guns, small-caliber artillery and portable guns are not counted in the entire unit. Artillery of more than 75 mm alone now has a heavy artillery battalion, a field artillery regiment, and a rocket artillery regiment, and each of the three brigades has a 12-gun mountain artillery battalion. With only 36 75-mm mountain artillery guns from the mountain artillery battalions of the three brigades and 36 75-mm mountain artillery guns from the field artillery regiments directly under them, the number of mountain artillery pieces reached 72.

These mountain artillery pieces are not counted as infantry artillery coordinated training, and the daily training of artillery personnel in one month alone requires the consumption of more than 1,000 shells. Coupled with the coordinated training of infantry and artillery, tens of thousands of shells were consumed cumulatively. Not to mention the average troops, even Zhang Dashuai, who had a lot of money back then, was reluctant to do so. When I was in the old Northeast Army, I only had five shells per gun in a year of live-fire training.

Although there is a shortage of artillery talents, the change in shape requires artillery to form combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time, which makes the training intensity high and the number of live ammunition fired. But Ma Qichang's generosity towards Yang Zhen can't help but smack his tongue. He had never seen a commander who had concentrated all his artillery and bombarded the sides of the trenches that were crowded with recruits with live ammunition in order to train the recruits to be brave. And this kind of training, which in his opinion is just a senseless consumption of shells, is not a once.

The nearest point of the shell was less than five meters from the trench. This kind of training is what the commander dares to do. Replaced by the general commander of the troops, first, he was reluctant to accept these shells. Second, we cannot afford the casualties that come with this kind of training. Ma Qichang once saw a missed shell fall into the trench, killing more than 20 recruits at once.

However, Ma Qichang also admired Yang Zhen's courage at this point. After several trainings, at least those recruits arrived on the battlefield, and they did not go to the battlefield like ordinary army recruits, and their legs weakened first when they heard the sound of artillery. The fact that recruits are afraid of artillery and veterans who are afraid of machine guns has never appeared in the troops.

As for the consumption in the battle, Ma Qichang didn't have anything to say. As the commander of the artillery of the whole army, he naturally had a good idea of the number of shells consumed in each battle. Even in the battle of Guannai Zuizi Mountain, which consumed the least amount, nearly 10,000 shells were fired.

In the first phase of the campaign, the battle to encircle and annihilate the 1st Division of the 24th and 25th Divisions did not include the three divisions of the northern front, and the eastern and western fronts alone consumed more than 40,000 rounds of artillery shells. In addition to the roundabout Jiamusi, and more than 20,000 rounds were fought in the first battle of Qunce Mountain. The bottom of the library is gone, which is also normal.

Looking at Ma Qichang in contemplation, Yang Zhen smiled and said, "Okay, don't think about it. In the future, both you and the headquarters should pay attention when fighting. There is no fear of mistakes, as long as we can correctly understand and correct them. You go and get me that Ozaki Mountain. Let's sit down and study the plan a little more to see if there's anything missing. ”