On September 17, the weather was fine, autumn had arrived, and the harvest had entered the beginning stage, but in Shandong, war was enveloping the northwest of the peninsula - Longkou!

In this war, he has lost 85,000 troops.

At this time, more than 300,000 people had been assembled in Longkou, of which 230,000 were combat troops and the rest were auxiliary personnel.

The East China Army also assembled 14 divisions in Shandong, totaling more than 200,000 people, and also assembled 100,000 militia to protect the rear.

The number of logistics personnel directly and indirectly involved in the battlefield has increased to 250,000.

At the same time, the number of artillery pieces of various types put into the battlefield by the East China Army exceeded 2,000, and the number of aircraft also increased to more than 800.

In the early morning of the 17th, the army suddenly launched an artillery bombardment on the positions of the East China Army.

More than 800 artillery pieces of the Yue army opened fire one after another, and the shells fiercely crossed the defense line of the Yue army in front and hit the defense line of the East China Army.

It's just that the East China Army has already dug a strong enough defense line, and as soon as the artillery bombardment began, the soldiers of the East China Army hid in the underground fortifications.

Not to be outdone, two howitzer divisions and one rapid-fire artillery division of the East China Army launched a ferocious counterattack on the artillery fire of the Yue Army. At the same time, reconnaissance planes and bombers of the East China Air Force took off urgently and began to guide the artillery division and bomb the artillery of the Japanese army.

1,134 howitzers and rapid-fire guns fired one after another, and the shells whistled like raindrops towards the approximate direction where the artillery was located.

Immediately inflicted a heavy blow on the artillery of the army.

The artillery of the army was arranged at night and appeared to be extremely scattered.

However, even if these artillery pieces were dispersed, as long as the artillery was fired, the artillery of the East China Army would be able to find their approximate position, and the first wave of return fire was in a state of blind fighting, relying on their feelings to return fire at the approximate position of the artillery of the Yue Army.

Soon, the scouts, who had occupied the commanding heights, directed the artillery units to the first specific targets through telescopes.

The southeast of the Longkou area is a mountainous area, and the northwest part of the mountainous area is where the confrontation between the two sides is located, and this mountainous area has enough commanding heights.

These commanding heights have basically been occupied by the East China Army in the previous artillery suppression.

The overwhelming bombers, as before, took off and plunged directly behind the defense line of the Yue army, and began to hover in the sky in search of the artillery of the Yue army.

When the bombers destroy a battery of artillery guns, if there are still bombs, they go to look for the next target.

With the counterattack of the artillery units and air force units of the East China Army, the more than 800 artillery pieces that the army had arranged overnight were destroyed one after another.

The commander of the Yue Army seemed to have expected such a situation to happen, and regardless of the loss of those artillery, the Yue Army artillery did not return fire during the attack, but concentrated on shelling the infantry positions of the East China Army.

However, this concentration was soon interrupted, and less than half an hour after the shelling began, the artillery of the Japanese army was destroyed one after another, and the momentum of the shelling became weaker and weaker.

Kaga Sanyu frowned in the command headquarters, the East China Army had knocked out most of the artillery of the Yue Army so quickly, which obviously exceeded his expectations.

However, the arrow is ready to fly, and it has to be sent.

Immediately, the command of the army gave the order to attack.

The soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Japanese Army, who had been prepared for a long time, began to jump out of the trenches, and the artillery bombardment of the Japanese Army also stopped, and began to quickly hide the artillery.

"Attention of all troops, the army has begun to attack, the artillery is preparing to carry out strikes, and the bomber units are preparing to carry out positional bombardment......" A unified order from the command headquarters came from the walkie-talkie.

The infantry in the trenches began to move their machine guns to their positions, watching the rushing Japanese troops in the distance wait. The platoons of mortars had already been concentrated in the rear, and 1,620 artillery guns were moved to the positions one after another, aiming their guns at the front of the troops who jumped out of the trenches.

The artillery bombardment destroyed a section of barbed wire on the front line, and the Japanese army, having jumped out of the trench, began to assemble towards the gap.

The East China Army, which was defending the position here, immediately pulled the trigger of the machine gun and frantically strafed the large number of Japanese troops pouring in from the gap.

Almost at the same time, a large number of mortars assembled in the rear began to rain shells on this section.

Dense shells rained down from the sky like raindrops, falling on the heads of the Yue army like a rain of fire, and the Yue army who jumped out of the trench was instantly killed and wounded everywhere.

However, the army behind continued to rush forward.

The command headquarters of the Yue army was far away from the front line, and it was obviously impossible to know the situation on the front line at the first time, and the disgust of the battlefield command doomed the offensive of the Yue army to a tragic end.

The Longkou defense line immediately turned into a large meat grinder, and the army frantically launched a charge, either being swept down by machine guns or being killed and wounded by dense shells flying from the sky.

Soon, bomber formations joined the bombing of the attacking army.

Bombers were overwhelming, and the sky was full of planes.

These bombardments could not fly too low, because the artillery was bombing the area, and if they flew too low, they could be injured by their own shells.

Wherever there were many people throwing bombs, the pilots had already bombed them in large numbers, and the bombs fell from the sky with a terrifying whistling sound, blowing the soldiers below to pieces.

Zhang Jiyu, commander of the First Army of the East China Army on the front line, looked at the battlefield with a telescope and couldn't help frowning.

Sigou was no longer Wuxia Amon at this time, and he could see the problem at a glance.

What's the problem?

Defend too hard!

With such a tight defense, the army command learned the news, and the fool would continue to order the attack.

The location of the army's attack this time happened to be the position of the First Army, which made him feel excited just now, but the blow to the little devil was too fierce.

Yang Lie, the deputy commander on the side, looked at the scene in front of him excitedly, the blood of the whole person seemed to be burning, since following the principal for several years, the army has worked together to finally create a powerful East China Army today, how can this not make people's blood boil, when he saw the joy, Yang Lie laughed and said: "Haha, the little devil is estimated to cry for a while!" ”

"It doesn't work! Within a few hours, the army would abandon the attack. Zhang Jiyu said to Yang Lie: "Although the little devil will cry at that time, but the great opportunity will be missed, we will also cry." ”

Yang Lie was stunned, and quickly reacted to what Zhang Jiyu meant, and asked, "What does the military commander mean?" ”

"There is a teaching in the textbook, immediately arrange a pocket, let the previous soldiers retreat, and then gradually reduce the shelling, induce the Japanese army to go deeper, and then annihilate." Zhang Jiyu said.

This textbook is a trench warfare textbook written by Xia Jun himself, which summarizes various tactics and many taboos in trench warfare in World War I.

For example, it would be foolish to attack an enemy who has dug a strong trench in the absence of assault weapons.

The Russo-Russian War is a typical example of trench warfare, but during the Russo-Russian War, although machine guns were put into the battlefield, they were not used in large quantities, so after the real Russian-Russian war, neither the Russian army nor the Russian army realized the catastrophic consequences of the frontal attack.

During the First World War, many weapons were new, and countries had not broken out into war for a long time, just like the European countries, since the Franco-Prussian War, there has been no large-scale war for 30 years, and in Asia, the Russo-Russian War has also passed for nearly ten years, these countries basically do not know how to use these weapons correctly, Zhang Jiyu's decision was immediately supported by Yang Lie, only by inducing the army to invest more troops, can the maximum results be achieved, this lure the enemy has skills.

The two men and the staff officers urgently worked out a battle plan, which was immediately submitted to the High Command.

In the headquarters, after Chen Xuanyu read this battle plan, he immediately approved its implementation.

The 1st Army was approved, and the soldiers on the front-line positions suddenly received an order to retreat!

This order left many soldiers scratching their heads, but they still followed the order and began to retreat one by one. Although it is said that the soldiers on the front line have retreated, the troops who broke through the gap are still not happy, the cannonballs in the sky are still falling like raindrops, and the planes in the sky are still dropping bombs at them.

The advancing army was killed and wounded by these artillery fire and bombs, but what made them excited was that the people in front of them had already retreated.

…… The army headquarters!

As soon as the offensive began, news from the front came back one after another.

When the headquarters heard that the counterattack of the East China Army was extremely fierce and that the front-line troops had suffered heavy casualties, the atmosphere in the headquarters was suddenly depressed.

Kaga Sanyu gritted his teeth and gave the order to continue the attack, Kaga Sanyu knew that if he could not take the opportunity to attack at this time, once the East China Army replenished the shells, it would be difficult for the Yue army to carry out a counteroffensive, and now their artillery had lost most of it.

Half an hour later, however, news came from the front.

This time it's good news.

The East China Army began to retreat!

This news made the personnel in the command of the army excited, and Kaga Sanyu felt a little abnormal, but after a while, a news came back that the artillery bombardment of the East China Army began to weaken.

"Yo Si." Kaga Sanyu nodded and judged: "The people of Shina have no more shells, and they are just starting to retreat, and it is said that the counteroffensive of the Imperial Army will be successful." ”

Kaga Sanyou's expression was straight, and he ordered: "Order, let the first and second divisions continue to advance, go around to the rear of the Shina people, and carry out a devastating blow to the Shina people." Prepare the 3rd and 4th Divisions to attack the frontal line of the Shina at any time in order to flank them on both sides. ”

…… On the battlefield, the ferocious artillery attack of the East China Army finally slowly weakened, and although it still maintained the state of artillery bombardment against the attacking army, it was no longer as dense as before, which could almost make people feel suffocated.

This made the attacking soldiers extremely excited, and they continued to move forward with a roar.

However, the blows from the planes in the sky continued, which hindered the advance of the army. The shelling and bombardment made the army march on the corpses.

However, the army, which saw the dawn of victory, was very indifferent to these casualties.

The army in front has fallen, but the army in the back is constantly replenishing. These troops continued to attack in accordance with the orders of the headquarters!

And yet they don't know that they are on their way to a death trap!

(To be continued)