Yes, from about 6 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese artillery fire began to rage, and in just four hours, the position of the main defense line of Niangziguan had already suffered three rounds of bombardment.

The Japanese infantry, on the other hand, had not yet launched an attack.

A whole infantry wing, just like an industrious little bee, began to build field fortifications 1,200 meters away from the front of the main position of Niangzi Pass.

Yoshito Takagi was also a very sober-minded army general in the Japanese army, and although he was extremely eager to capture Niangzi Pass, he knew that the Chinese troops on the opposite line had as many as one or two infantry divisions, and the rush for quick success would only lead to heavy casualties.

He now has 12 105 howitzers and 12 75 caliber field guns in his hands, and he can completely rely on the strength of the artillery to wear down the strength of the Chinese little by little, and then, after they are weak, he will finish the battle.

Moreover, since he learned that the enemy on the other battlefield was Liu Lang and the Independent Regiment, Yoshito Takagi would not make the same mistakes that the stupid Eighth Division had made. After a long time of attacking, he suffered heavy losses, not to mention that he was attacked by Liu Lang's elite soldiers, and finally lost all his heavy equipment, and was beaten on his ass by Liu Lang.

Therefore, while constantly letting the artillery kill and wound the Chinese troops on the ground, the Japanese army sweated like rain to dig fortifications under the autumn sun.

Although the Third Army learned the lesson of the first artillery bombardment, only one infantry platoon was placed as a warning force on the forward position, and the rest of the infantry companies were all reduced to the second line of defense several hundred meters behind, but the losses were still not small.

Not to mention the power of the 105 howitzers of the Japanese invaders, the power of the 75 field guns that also participated in the shelling later was also not small.

If the 75 mountain gun is a small-caliber howitzer, then the 75 field gun belongs to a small-caliber cannon. Compared with howitzers, cannons are direct-aiming guns, with fast muzzle velocity, relatively low trajectory and straight elongation, high kinetic energy, high shell charge, and relatively larger damage radius. Compared to howitzers, cannons are more suitable for point-to-point attacks in straight lines. Especially for those important fortifications that were exposed to the field of view, the field artillery was more useful.

Originally, the battlefield was located in a mountainous area, and the mountain artillery as a curved artillery was obviously more suitable for fighting on such a battlefield. However, because of the topography of Niangzi Pass, except for the most frontal pass, all positions are built along the mountain. In particular, the first line of defense is in the open field halfway up the mountain.

The devil, who had already moved his artillery position forward to a position of 4,000 meters only 8 miles away from the front line of Niangzi Pass, through the careful observation of the artillery observation instrument, used 75 field guns to aim at the position with a large number of fortification traces and bombarded wildly.

However, those field anti-artillery fortifications that are paved with logs and used nearly one meter of thick soil as an anti-artillery layer often hide from the officers and men, and even if one cannon cannot be exploded, if it is aimed at more than a dozen cannons, no matter how strong the fortifications are, there will be a day when they will be blown open.

After two successive rounds of such shelling, the two infantry platoons that were on alert in the front-line positions were almost completely killed and wounded. But even so, the commanders in the second line of defense could only grit their teeth and continue to go to the infantry.

If the Japanese army can successfully attack the first line of defense without a little resistance, the attack of the devils with a foothold will make the second line of defense even more precarious. If the forward position of the Niangzi Pass defense line is lost, there will be a fault in the Niangzi Pass regional defense line, which originally formed a whole, and the devil can eat all the troops of the defensive position in one bite.

And if Niangzi Pass is lost, the devil will drive straight in, and the blow to the entire Niangzi Pass theater will be fatal, and even the battlefields on both wings will be divided and surrounded, and there will be no chance to retreat.

No one dares but this responsibility.

can only continue to send people to the battlefield, even if they know that they are dead.

Although it is clear from the binoculars, many devils are shirtless, digging trenches and fortifications without defense, and they can kill at least several people with a single shot. However, their own artillery fire did not fire a single shot.

"Bastard, what about our artillery? Didn't Lao Tzu remember that the theater command was equipped with four mountain guns for our division? Ordered them to fire at Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu's soldiers could not die in vain. A middle-aged soldier with a colonel's badge crouched in the bunker of the second line of defense, looking at the Japanese position opposite with a telescope, and finally couldn't help but roar angrily.

"Tuanza, I've already asked. No, it doesn't. A hint of bitterness flashed across the face of a lieutenant colonel on the side.

"Why not? Give Lao Tzu the division, and Lao Tzu will personally ask for orders from the division. ”

"The reply given to me by the division headquarters is that the only four mountain guns cannot be easily fired, and if the exposed position is retaliated by the Japanese artillery, our army will not have any anti-suppression ability when the Japanese infantry attacks the position on a large scale." The bitterness on the lieutenant colonel's face became more and more intense.

"Special mother, this battle is really a wreck." The colonel of the national army slammed his steel helmet to the ground, "If you want Lao Tzu to guard the Niangzi Pass, I will send a few mountain cannons away, and I am so scared that I don't dare to shoot a single shot." This battle can't be fought. ”

"Tuanza, be careful, it's wartime." The lieutenant colonel of the national army raised his eyes to look around and reminded in a whisper.

"Hey! Seeing that the brothers could only fill with their lives, Lao Tzu's heart hurt! The colonel of the national army angrily refocused his gaze on the front-line position after the third round of shelling, and watched an infantry platoon that had just been sent out of the trench to hand over the body to the stretcher team, and his eyes were gloomy.

As the commander of an army, the most heart-wrenching thing is not that his soldier is shrouded in horse leather, but that he is going to die before he even sees the face of the enemy. They have not even had a chance to fire a single shot at the enemy.

This is the sorrow of the vast majority of soldiers in that era. Don't laugh at them for a division, a brigade being chased and beaten by Japanese invaders who are far inferior to them. Only those who have experienced the battlefield understand that even if they are trying to survive, they are forced to do it.

It's human beings, and they all want to live. Under the fire of artillery in the sky, how many people have a heroic iron will? Many of them, a year or half a year ago, were just farmers with hoes, and they simply wanted to live.

Perhaps, only when there is no retreat and no escape, they will fight to the death against the water, even if there is artillery fire above their heads that can melt all steel.

Now, the group of soldiers in front of Niangzi Pass has no way to retreat. As soon as they retreated, it was Taiyuan. To the north of Taiyuan, there are still 80,000 ferocious Japanese criminals. If it is attacked from both sides, the 100,000 troops here will also disappear.

You can only defend it, and you can only defend it.

Whether it was the Third Army, or the 7th Army, which was responsible for the entire south of Niangzi Pass, or the 26th Route Army and the 22nd Group Army, which were making great strides, no one dared to retreat.

The main defense line of Niangzi Pass was bombarded by howitzers and field artillery for three consecutive rounds, and the old pass side was also not much better.

The artillery position of the 105 howitzer with a firing range of more than 10,000 meters is between Jiuguan and Niangzi Pass, and it is possible to effortlessly adjust the muzzle to attack two positions 7,000 meters apart.

Through the binoculars, Cai Dadao's special squad informed Liu Lang of the location of the Japanese artillery position through walkie-talkies. But Liu Lang could only sigh.

The firing distance of the Bofors mountain artillery was as high as 9,000 meters, far exceeding the Japanese 41 mountain artillery, but as soon as Zhao Ergou transported the six Bofors mountain guns to the position closest to the Japanese artillery position through three jumpers, the six Bofors fired a total of 30 shells at the fastest speed, and they were counterfired by their howitzers.

If it weren't for the fact that the Japanese artillery had not yet figured out the position of the artillery battalion of the independent regiment in front of the dozen guns, the Bofors mountain artillery with the carrying capacity of three jumpers ran quite fast, and the more than 100 shells that followed to cover the entire valley could turn the mountain artillery battery of the artillery battalion into dust in the valley.

This is the advantage of heavy artillery, the shells are powerful and the range is long. Even the Bofors Mountain Cannon, which has excellent performance, can only barely fire at it, let alone suppress it.

However, more than a dozen shells that were only two or three hundred meters away from the Japanese artillery positions also frightened this howitzer brigade. He took the initiative to retreat the position back by nearly 1,000 meters.

As for sending infantry to sneak attack, through the information sent by the special forces who were a thousand meters away from the artillery position, Liu Lang could only give up temporarily.

Obviously, in the first battle of the Great Wall, whether it was the Fourth Infantry Brigade or the Eighth Division, Liu Lang's tactics of sneaking up on the artillery unit twice had been thoroughly understood by the Japanese commanders.

This time, Yoshito Takagi prepared a full three infantry squadrons for the howitzer brigade, which could resist the attack of an infantry regiment for at least four hours.

If Liu Lang still expects to ambush and attack the Japanese artillery like the Great Wall battle a few years ago, then don't even think about it. The warning range of its artillery position has been extended by 800 meters, and the special forces can only hide in the mountains and forests 1,000 meters away to quietly observe and avoid being discovered.

Even if you want to fight a cold gun attack, it's difficult.

From 9 o'clock in the morning, the 105 howitzers launched artillery fire covering the main position and the two flanks of Jiuguan for half an hour, and at least more than 300 shells were poured on the entire front-line position.

After seeing the power of the Japanese howitzers, the officers and men of the 772nd Regiment finally knew why the number of the national army far exceeded that of the Japanese invaders, but they were defeated in successive battles. Compared with the artillery of the Japanese invaders, the mountain artillery and mortars of those old opponents they encountered on the road of the 10,000-mile strategic transfer were simply children's games, and they were not at the same level at all.

The only thing that made Regiment Commander Ye and Deputy Regiment Commander Wang, who were on the front line, fortunate was that they not only spent six days and six nights digging trenches on the stone hill in the front-line position with the help of Liu Lang's supervision and the help of the engineer company of the Independent Regiment, but also used the infantry platoon as a unit to blast with explosives on the defensive line of each infantry platoon, and built a medium-sized anti-artillery hole with two layers of logs supported by logs as the top, and two meters of loess enough to hide more than 30 people on it, as long as it was not hit head-on by a bomb of more than 250 pounds, it would basically not collapse.

Of course, the most important thing is the anti-slope tunnel fortifications of the three lines of defense built by Liu Langli, whether it is the two wings or the main position of the first line of defense, only one infantry platoon is left as the early blocking force, and the main force is hidden in the fortifications behind the mountain that cannot be covered by artillery fire.

Therefore, although they were bombed for more than half an hour, the casualties of the 1st Battalion and the 772nd Regiment of the Independent Regiment, which had been prepared for a long time, were not as heavy as those of the Third Army.

The Japanese army's fierce artillery fire leveled many hard-built fortifications, but on the entire old pass defense line, only six people were sacrificed and three were seriously wounded, and the strength of an infantry company located on the front line was basically not greatly damaged.

However, the Japanese only used howitzers.