The Beiyang Army, which had not slept well at all, ran back along the same road out of breath, and the officers at all levels urged the soldiers of the Beiyang Army one by one, and ran for an hour for six or seven miles, which was also considered a high speed for the Beiyang Army. Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with retreating the original way, everyone is familiar with the original road, and the original road is the closest to the Beiyang Army Brigade. If the opponent was not the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the choice of the Beiyang Army was absolutely reasonable. But the opponent was the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and with the exception of the combat sappers, the infantrymen carried an sapper shovel as long as they did not march lightly. The North China Plain is an earthen plain, which is easy to establish defensive positions, and the vertical and horizontal ditches dug by the vast number of people on the North China Plain greatly reduce the difficulty of arranging the positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

The retreating Beiyang Army ran headlong into the defensive positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Dressed in camouflage uniforms and wearing straw hats woven from wheat straw on their heads, the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army even waited for the vanguard of the Beiyang Army to be less than thirty distance away from them before calmly firing their guns. The Beiyang Army, which was running at the front, fell to the ground one after another like wheat under the dense firepower.

Encountering a head-on attack, the follow-up troops of the Beiyang Army immediately panicked. They either stopped in terror or fled to the side of the road in panic. There was a ditch on the side of the road, and they jumped into it, or jumped over it, trying to hide farther away.

The trenches dug specifically were very different from the ditches dug spontaneously by the people, the trenches were convenient for combat, and the ditches dug spontaneously were either deep or shallow, wide or narrow. Some old ditches are so deep that after jumping in, they can't even expose their rifles to the ground, let alone fighting, and it's difficult to climb out. After the Beiyang Army at the forefront was attacked, it became scattered in an instant, and completely lost its combat effectiveness.

As soon as the Beiyang Army behind saw that it couldn't rush over, it gathered into a group and waited for the officers to give orders for the time being. Before the officer's order came, the shells of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were whistling and flying, and the shells exploded in the dense crowd of the Beiyang Army, bursting with shrapnel frantically, reaping the lives of the Beiyang Army like a sickle wielded by death. Under the blow of the artillery bombardment, the troops of the second formation of the Beiyang Army scattered and fled with corpses all over the ground, and collapsed in an instant.

When he arrived at the front line, the winding road for one or two miles was full of corpses and wounded soldiers of the Beiyang Army, and the unwounded Beiyang Army was either lying on the ground or hiding in the roadside ditch, and only a very small number of people shot in the direction of the position of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. On the opposite side, the positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were as silent as death.

"Where the hell is the BJP?" The brigade commander dragged out the vanguard battalion commander who had escaped with his life, and shouted angrily.

The battalion commander was from the vanguard battalion, and his trembling fingers probably pointed out the range of the exchange of fire. The Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants occupied all the slopes of the nearby plains, which, although not high, were extremely advantageous.

"Strike east and west." The brigade commander frowned and gave orders to the two battalion commanders. Bypassing from both sides when you encounter a blockade in front of you is the most basic tactic.

The attempt soon bore fruit, and not long after the two battalions of the Beiyang Army crossed the harvested wheat fields and advanced to the east and west, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, which had already been deployed there, began to shoot. The two battalions were on the verge of collapse under rifle, machine-gun, and mortar attacks, and the brigade commander could see clearly through the binoculars, and did not know whether to hide or be killed. It's as fast as juggling.

Comedy often ends abruptly, but tragedy always continues. As soon as the tentative operation to the left and right failed, the brigade commander of the Beiyang Army felt a slight vibration of the ground under his feet, and with the dense gunfire in the direction of the rear team, the Beiyang Army behind the palace began to run forward as if being chased. The brigade commander raised his binoculars, and a brigade of cavalry appeared on the horizon. The People's Party used cavalry to launch an attack on the rear of the Beiyang Army.

"Go and hold me back! Go ahead and hold me off now! The brigade commander of the Beiyang Army shouted at the throat to the two regiment commanders who had just run over to listen to the order. If they were killed by cavalry on the main road, the troops would simply disperse.

"Hurry up and line up!" As soon as the brigade commander took the two regiment commanders under his command, he yelled at the other battalion commander beside him.

"How do you line up?" The battalion commander was already confused by this change, and he asked in a daze.

The brigade commander couldn't bear it anymore, and when he saw the battalion commander's stupid appearance, he couldn't hold back any longer, and went up and slapped the battalion commander with two big mouths. The battalion commander was already frightened enough by the drastic change in the situation, and these two mouths stunned him when they arrived. And the brigade commander only vented his fear, and after the fight, seeing that the battalion commander had no intention of resisting, he grabbed the battalion commander's neck, pointed his finger to the road in front and roared angrily: "Go to the place where the grave in front is located and line up for me, if the cavalry of the People's Party rushes over, you will use a platoon gun to resist me!" ”

After shouting, the brigade commander pushed the battalion commander violently and let go of his hand by the way. "You resist me, in case the People's Party's horse team rushes over, we will all be finished if we can't withstand it!"

After receiving clear instructions and two slaps that were effective in sobering the battalion commander's mind, the battalion commander ran to his troops, shouted and kicked his own soldiers, and began to set up a platoon of guns near the cemetery nearly two hundred meters away.

After giving a somewhat rational order, the brigade commander was a little clearer at this time, and he turned his head and shouted: "Herald! Hurry up and let the two regiment commanders bring their troops over and set up a position here for me to defend. Tell them that we are only twenty miles away from Mr. Wu, and Mr. Wu will be able to rush over to rescue us immediately! ”

That's a good order, albeit late. And not long after the order was given, a slight buzzing sound was heard in the sky, and the brigade commander could not help but shudder, which was the characteristic sound of the planes of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. The herald also froze in fright, and the brigade commander kicked the nearest herald, "They hurry to give the order." At this time, if you run slowly, everyone will die together! ”

The Air Force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army still dropped bombs routinely, and this time the number of bombs dropped was even far less than in previous days. After all, there is no need to count on the accuracy of the bomb, and the field troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army have besieged the Beiyang Army, and it would be bad if one accidentally blew up his own comrades.

It can be seen clearly from the air that the small black dots of the Beiyang Army on the ground are gradually concentrating towards the center, and in the farther distance, the yellow-brown lines are slowly moving, firmly encircling these Beiyang Army. At this moment, except for the direction of the Beiyang retreat, a red and two green signal flares rose in all the yellow-brown lines. This is a signal for the troops to arrive at the designated position. The encirclement of the Beiyang Army by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army has been completed, and all that remains is a war of annihilation.

The pilots of the reconnaissance planes began to return one after another, and it was indeed a happy thing to fly the planes in the sky, but the time for these planes to stay in the air was extremely limited, and the safety of the planes was not guaranteed. It is very likely that the last trip flew well, and the next trip will have an accident. When the Air Force was a flying group, it lost its position as a captain. After the expansion into an air division, three division commanders were lost. As an independent service, the Air Force also lost a commander-in-chief to an explosion of an aircraft. The accumulation of these bloody lessons and experiences has reduced the failure rate of aircraft in the air to less than 20%. Therefore, these daring pilots who are not afraid of life and death will definitely not violate the regulations of air combat.

The intelligence of the Air Force and the Army had already reached the commander of the 18th Army, who was in charge of the annihilation war. The army commander finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he would not be defeated in a hundred battles, and the only clear assessment of the Beiyang Army by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army so far was that it was "not good at" movement warfare.

In Chen Ke's original time and space, the reason why sports warfare was the PLA's ability to run rampant in the world was that "movement" itself was an important part of operations. Whether it is the movement of the front line to engage the enemy, or the choice of the march of the troops. Including all kinds of movements on the enemy's side, this is all considered in sports warfare. The Americans cattle in great industrial power, whether it is strategic bombing, tactical bombing, saturation fire attack. Heavy artillery cuts mountains, bombs wash the ground. The purpose is nothing more than to weaken the enemy's movement to the maximum, disintegrate the enemy's defenses, and prepare for the final victorious blow. Even so, in North Korea, they were still driven back to the 38th parallel from the Yalu River by the volunteers who carried out the movement warfare.

The commander of the 18th Army naturally could not know who his real "teacher" was, but he knew that the military education system created by Chen Ke was currently specialized in sports research, and as a military commander trained by this education system, he could only command under this concept of war. Even so, the Beiyang Army, which was transferred to a state of field warfare, was no match for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

The commander ordered the staff officers: "All units carry out centripetal attacks, and since they have wrapped the enemy's dumplings, they will eat them." ”

Fighting the enemy with an unstable foothold is the most basic tactic, if it finds that after being encircled, the Beiyang Army immediately builds a position desperately, tries to resist on the spot, and desperately contacts the Wu Peifu field group, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army will still be able to solve this brigade, but the price paid will be much greater. But this brigade commander was so stupid that he fell into the net laid by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and it was completely futile to struggle to the death from this net, and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would never give them a chance.

Mu Husan was recently transferred from a battalion commander in the army to work in the army staff headquarters according to the transfer order, and this was the only system that the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army learned from the German General Staff Headquarters. While issuing the commander's order together with the other staff officers, he ruminated on the development of the war situation in his heart. In the military guiding concept of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, what can be compared with the 16-character formula of concentrating forces to fight a war of annihilation is that "you fight yours, I will fight mine." Lin Husan was also worried that the Beiyang Army would give full play to its advantages and choose the method of defending itself on the spot and resisting stubbornly. The Beiyang Army followed up the track of the movement war of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and the difficulty of the battle was greatly reduced.

Chen Ke has repeatedly stressed that when tactics and equipment have been decided, the highest requirement for commanders is to be mentally firm.

Mu Husan still remembers the situation when he heard Chen Ke say this, Chen Ke's attitude was high, his eyes were shining, his left hand swept diagonally in the air, and his voice was full of an irresistible concentration, "What am I doing now, what can I do now, only the most determined and best commander can use the conditions he already has in his hands to complete the combat mission." Because this choice requires the commander to be realistic in the first place, a realistic commander will neither expect any assistance that will not be possible at all, nor will he be confused to complete the errand according to the order. Any seeking truth from facts can only be based on one's own preparation and judgment of the facts of the moment. Comrades, the only way to victory is to rely on oneself, and relying on oneself means facing countless hardships and sacrifices. I believe that you will encounter such cases countless times in your future revolutionary military career, and I hope that comrades can see this from those experiences. ”

Looking at it now, the commander of the Beiyang Army is obviously unqualified, he gave up the best choice of holding on to the spot that can be done at the moment, and chose "the possibility of escaping" driven by fear. The possibility of "possibly falling into a worse situation" brought about by the "possibility of escaping" was completely ignored by the Beiyang commander. Then the officer of the Beiyang Army led his subordinates to an even worse situation. "It's easy to die first, it's hard to die later!" This old saying that Chen Ke often said suddenly popped up in Mu Husan's mind.

However, Mu Husan did not let his thoughts expand infinitely in this tactical rumination, the battle has just begun now, if he thinks that the overall situation has been decided now, it is not only unrealistic, but it is more likely that the boiled duck will fly away because of this distraction. Mu Husan took all thoughts that had nothing to do with the battle out of his mind and began to concentrate on his staff work.

The brief distraction of Mu Husan, a staff officer of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, may have delayed his work for a little, but this time did not bring much opportunity to the brigade commander of the Beiyang Army. Not long after the flare was raised, the troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, which had cut off the Beiyang Army and Wu Peifu's field group, switched from defense to offensive. The shelling, which had ceased for a while, began to continue, and the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, dressed in camouflage uniforms and wearing rice stalk caps in steel helmets, began to attack under the cover of shells.

They did not carry out a tidal charge, and small units cleared the Beiyang Army hiding in the ditches first. The Beiyang Army, which was originally hiding in a ditch trying to escape the war, was the first to be attacked. The grenade whizzed into the ditch, and in the smoke and dust after the explosion, the Beiyang Army, which was not killed, screamed in tattered clothes and blood. Some lucky fellows crawled out of the ditches in the fields in a panic, and they didn't want their guns, but just ran in the direction of the Beiyang Army. The bullets easily caught up with these guys from behind at dozens of times the speed, knocking them to the ground one by one.

The 1st Brigade of the 4th Army of the Beiyang Army, which was besieged, proved that it was not in vain that it was able to repel the Japanese in Rizhao, and during the period when the offensive of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was at a standstill, the brigade commander had done his best to line up his troops in a hollow phalanx. At least in the direction of the blocked retreat, as well as on the back road of the Beiyang Army, the brigade commander each mobilized a battalion of troops to form a defense line of 1,000 men on the road. The two battalions lined up in a fairly standard "line to shoot" pattern, with the soldiers standing or crouching in order to maintain the density and continuity of fire in a three-stage pattern. Heavy machine guns were also placed in the front line, holding down the position.

And other Beiyang armies also entered the military formation, trying to join the ranks of the hollow phalanx for the last resistance.

Seeing the troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army rushing towards this side with the defeated soldiers of the Beiyang Army, the brigade commander shouted: "Shoot! ”

"Brigade Commander, there are our brothers ahead!" The battalion commander couldn't help but say when he saw those surviving guys rushing towards the front of the Beiyang Army.

"When they came running, the People's Party followed! It would have been a capital offense for these people to reload the array, so start fighting now! The brigade commander didn't take the lives of the Beiyang Army into account at all, he shouted sharply.

The battalion commander, of course, saw the People's Party following behind, gritted his teeth, and he drew his saber and rushed to the team and shouted: "Ready!" Shoot! ”

The discipline of the Beiyang Army was very strict, and the battalion commander's order was quickly transmitted to the company commander, and the company commander naturally saw the comrades of the Beiyang Army running like rabbits, but the battalion commander gave an order, according to the military discipline of Beiyang, it is a capital crime not to carry out the military order. Regardless of the fact that the soldiers of the Beiyang Army were getting closer and closer, the company commanders shouted: "Shoot! ”

Dense gunfire rang out in the array of the Beiyang Army, first rifles, then machine guns. The Beiyang Army who fled for their lives never expected that their own people would actually fire, and some of the clever ones did not come straight to the front of the Beiyang Army formation, and saved their lives in the fierce shooting, and those who were dizzy and went straight to the front of the military formation were caught off guard, and they were all shot in the chest and fell to the ground and died.

These people were cleared between the Beiyang Army and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and the fighters on both sides were completely exposed to each other's guns. Beiyang's platoon gun formations are well-trained, and once the shooting starts, it will not stop. The training of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to lie down was also the most basic tactical action. Only a few fighters of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were shot and fell, and the other fighters instinctively lay on the ground, and the fighters who had a better hiding place immediately set up their guns and fired, and the fighters who were completely on the ground rolled sideways and entered a relatively better position.

The firepower of the Beiyang Army seemed to suppress the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and the commanders of the Beiyang Army felt this from the gunfire. Some of the officers in the shallow city even had smiles on their faces. However, after a moment, the fierce sound of gunfire made their smiles disappear again, and then they continued to give orders to the Beiyang Army soldiers in a louder voice.

After the two sides entered the stage of close-range shooting, the battle entered a more intense and brutal stage.