Apalikov pondered for a while, nodded and said: "The opinion of the chief of staff is very reasonable, without the support of howitzers, this will bring great difficulties to our offensive, Commander Obumochaev, what do you think?"

Obumochaev shook his head and said: " Although there is no howitzer support now, our division still has a regimental field artillery battalion, a total of 54 field guns, although the power of field artillery is not as good as howitzers, but there are a large number, according to the information we have, the overseas Chinese army is recruited after they came to China, and the weapons used are also based on the previous battles captured, because the number of artillery is not much, it is said that the overseas Chinese are buying weapons from the Hubei Governor Zhang Zhidong, so relying on the existing 54 field guns of our division, it can completely provide fire support for the attack, and I also believe that our Russian warriors have enough courage and strength to defeat any enemy。 Bayi Middle School?wen network? (1) (8) 8 (1) Z (8) .COM"

After a pause, Obumochaev said: "Now we must break through the defense line of the overseas Chinese as soon as possible, only in this way can we attack Shanhaiguan with all our strength, and the howitzer is best left to attack Shanhaiguan, as long as we break through this defense line, then the remaining defense line of the overseas Chinese will be easy." ”

According to the establishment of the Russian army, each regiment will be equipped with a field artillery battalion, equipped with 18 M1877 87mm field guns, and a division will have three main regiments, which will have three field artillery battalions, with a total of 54 M1877 87mm field guns. Generally, the weight of field guns is relatively light, usually about 2 tons, and the shells are not heavy, so they are used as regimental support firepower and can follow the army.

Obumochaev was born in a Russian military family, 45 years old this year, belongs to the Young Zhuang faction in the Russian ** circles, and the Young Zhuang faction is usually a radical faction, and it was 3 years ago, Obu Mochaev studied in France for a year as a military exchange activity of the Franco-Russian alliance. At this time, the dominant idea of the French 6th Army was to attack, and it attached importance to the spiritual combat power of the soldiers, and put the spiritual combat power in an overwhelming position, believing that the outcome of the war was governed by the strength of the spiritual combat power of both sides, and the party with strong spiritual combat power could use continuous movement and oppression to promote the collapse of the defenders. Therefore, field artillery is no longer regarded as a defensive rather than offensive weapon, and medium-caliber light field artillery should be driven by manpower to closely follow the infantry to carry out battlefield maneuvers and support the infantry's offensive.

This theory is also to Obumochaev's appetite, because of the emphasis on offense, the importance of the soldiers' spiritual combat power, this is actually the leading idea of the Russian 6th Army, so after returning to China, Obumochaev was promoted to division commander, but also in his own division to promote this tactical concept, this time with the Russian army to attack Northeast China, Obumochaev is ambitious, on the one hand to establish his own merits, on the other hand, but also to verify his own tactical theory on the battlefield.

In the previous battles, the Russian army almost did not encounter any resistance in Northeast China, and although there was a saber rattling with Japan when fighting for the Korean Peninsula, Bi Jing did not really fight, and Obumochaev did not have the opportunity to verify his advanced tactical theory, and he also felt quite regretful in his heart, and now is the right time, overseas Chinese are not an incompetent opponent, and only in the battle with such an opponent can they verify whether their tactical theory is effective, so Obumochaev did not wait for the howitzer artillery to arrive, and he urgently asked to fight。 Of course, Obumochaev also firmly believed that his troops would definitely be able to break through the positions of overseas Chinese and achieve victory.

Apalikov thought about it for a while, and also felt that Obumochaev was reasonable, although the defense line of overseas Chinese was located about 1o kilometers northwest of Shanhaiguan, it was like a bone, sandwiched in the throat of the Russian army, so that the Russian army could not attack Shanhaiguan with all its strength, and it was necessary to break through the positions of overseas Chinese first. Therefore, Apalikov somewhat understood the intention of the overseas Chinese, that is, to use the defense line outside the customs to consume the Russian army, and the terrain of Shanhaiguan is dangerous, and the city wall is high and thick, so it is indeed necessary to use heavy howitzers to blast it out, and it cannot be consumed too much on the defense line outside the customs.

And let Obumochaev attack the overseas Chinese, if he can break through the defense line of the overseas Chinese, it is naturally good, if he can't break through, he can also test the strength of the overseas Chinese, and he can be sure of his heart. Although Russia also collected a lot of information about overseas Chinese, Bi Jing had never fought with overseas Chinese armies, so he did not have an intuitive understanding of the strength of overseas Chinese armies.

So Apalkov nodded and said, "Okay, Commander Obumochaev, early tomorrow morning, you will lead the Fifth Division to attack the positions of the overseas Chinese, and I will personally supervise the battle for you, hoping that you can show me a perfect victory." ”

Obumochaev immediately stood up and saluted, and said: "Yes, Your Excellency, commander, please rest assured. ”

Early the next morning, Obumochaev led the Russian army in an attack and launched an attack on the positions of the KPA.

Although Obumochaev was full of confidence in victory, after all, he was a soldier with a formal military education, and when he really arrived on the battlefield, he still did not dare to be careless, after all, the enemy army had already arranged its position, and although Obumochaev advocated attacking, he also knew that it would pay a heavy price to attack the enemy's position where the defense line had been arranged. Therefore, instead of sending the 6th Army to attack the enemy's defensive line, it first launched a blow to the enemy's position with artillery in order to weaken the defense of the enemy's position.

Now the Russian army is equipped with the 877 type 87mm field gun, or in the era of the Three Emperors Alliance, the German-Russian cooperation developed a type of artillery, but by this time, this type of artillery has passed, although the caliber of this type of artillery is relatively large in the field artillery, but in terms of performance, it has long lagged behind the German 1897 type 77mm field gun, and it can not be compared with the French 1896 type 75mm field gun. However, now the Russian army's latest 19oo-style 76mm field artillery has just been set up, and it has not yet been equipped with the Russian army in large quantities, so the Russian army can only continue to use this old field gun at present.

In this era, the firing range of field artillery was generally between 5-7 km, but about 5 km was the best. Yesterday evening, Obumochaev had already determined the location of the artillery positions, and the three field artillery battalions were arranged in three positions, each of which was about 3ooo kilometers apart and about 5ooo kilometers from the first line of defense of the KPA. And between the two artillery positions about 1ooo meters in front, each regiment is arranged, and the remaining regiment and other units are arranged in the rear of the artillery positions about 15oo meters, for the front command of the Russian army, and the commander Lieutenant General Apalikov and the chief of staff Lieutenant General Sokolov are also observing the battle at the front command.

After the Russian armies were stationed in their positions, Obumochaev ordered three field artillery battalions to take turns firing at the positions of the KPA.

Although it was only field artillery, there were many of them after all, so the momentum of the shelling was quite alarming, and in the blink of an eye, the KPA position was covered with an explosion, and thick smoke dispersed.

The first round of shelling by the Russian army lasted for nearly ten minutes, and each artillery gun fired about 15 rounds, pouring a total of about 8oo shells into the positions of the KPA, while the other side did not react at all, and seemed to have no power to return fire. Obumochaev, as well as Apalikov and Sokolov, were also very satisfied with the results of this round of shelling, believing that even if the KPA positions were not blown up, at least half of the KPA's defenses could be knocked out. Obumochaev immediately ordered a regiment to attack the KPA positions, and at the same time ordered the field artillery battalions on both sides to continue firing, maintaining pressure on the KPA positions and providing fire support to the infantry, while the field artillery battalion in the center advanced and charged with the synchronized troops. This is also the offensive supremacy of Obumochaev.

A regiment of Russian troops immediately formed a formation and advanced towards the KPA position, which was still shrouded in thick gunsmoke. But at this moment, the artillery on the KPA position also roared, although the momentum of the artillery fire was much smaller than that of the Russian army, but the shell fell into the ranks of the Russian army and exploded, still blowing up the Russian soldiers to the ground with blood and flesh, wounded and killed to the ground.

However, this is also expected by Obumochaev, because it is impossible for the other side not to counterattack, if only one round of artillery bombardment can be used to carry overseas Chinese, then the Eight-Nation Coalition should really hang themselves, so the other side's return fire is also normal, and the casualties caused to the Russian army are also losses that the attacking side must pay. Moreover, Obumochaev is also a battle-hardened man, and he can judge from the enemy's return fire that the enemy's artillery is much less than his own, and the losses inflicted on him are very limited. As long as the Russian army breaks through this distance, enters the dead corner of the opponent's artillery, and attacks the opponent's position, Obumochaev also firmly believes that the fighting spirit of the Russian army will definitely be able to overwhelm the opponent.

In fact, not only Obumochaev, but also Apalkov and Sokolov also judged almost the same way, so both of them were also full of confidence in the outcome of this fight.

Of course, this does not mean that Obumochaev sat back and watched the Russian army in the process of breaking through, allowing the People's Army artillery to strike, after all, the Russian artillery is not vegetarian, and as soon as the opponent's artillery opens, it also exposes its position, although at this time the field artillery battalion in the middle is preparing to break through and cannot return fire, but the artillery on the left and right sides is still firing and bombarding, so Obumochaev immediately sent someone to give an order to the field artillery battalions on the left and right to judge the position of the enemy's artillery positions and strike at the enemy's artillery positions.

But soon Obumochaev received a reply from the field artillery battalions on the left and right, and the smoke on the enemy's position was too great to judge the position of the enemy's artillery position for the time being, so he could only wait for the smoke to dissipate.

When Obumochaev heard this, he also frowned slightly, although such a situation is a common thing on the battlefield and is not unexpected, but in Obumochaev's heart, he still feels a little uncomfortable, and it seems that something is not quite right.

But at this time, the Russian army had advanced to a position about 2ooo meters away from the KPA position, where it was almost in the dead end of the artillery, and it was about to enter a positional battle, and everything was basically carried out according to Obumochaev's plan, and there was nothing wrong with it.