"Go ahead...... Keep moving! The commander of the first battalion of the second regiment led by the second division of the 15th Army shouted out of breath. Unlike a battlefield march, each foot of a snow charge has half a leg in the thick snow, and it takes a lot of effort to use the strength of the leg to wade through the snow, and it takes even more effort to pull the leg out of the snow and take a big step forward.

Half an hour has passed since the bugle sounded, and the first battalion flanked around the road has only advanced more than 600 meters. Every fighter was out of breath, and some of the less energetic ones even stopped halfway and began to gasp. The commander of the first battalion was in a hurry. You must know that in the battles in Shandong, Hebei, and other areas of the liberated areas, the troops can rush to the head in one breath in three minutes with a short distance of 600 meters, and immediately plunge into a fierce battle. He tried his best to encourage his comrades to move forward, but the oncoming north wind was extremely fierce, and he was also tired enough, and he found that the sound could not be heard by his comrades at all. Gritting his teeth, the commander of the first battalion continued to trudge forward with difficulty in the thick snow.

Webb, the commander of the 15th Army, used a telescope on a high ground to see clearly the situation of the troops' charge, and after the order to attack was given, the speed of the charge was much slower than expected. Except for the 1st Division, which launched a surprise attack with dog sleds, and finally rushed into the Japanese defense circle in a relatively short time, and the troops behind increased their marching speed along the road pressed by the sleds, the flanking teams all encountered difficult situations without exception.

Even if he knew that there was a problem with his orders, Webb could not change the operational command. After the troops were dispersed, if the comrades were to turn back again, not only would they consume their physical strength out of thin air, but they would also take less time to advance along the road opened up by the 1st Division again.

"Order the sled troops to clear the way!" Webb issued a new order. However, the dog sled troops could not be mobilized so quickly, and the troops relied entirely on manpower to carry out the charge, and they had to maintain it for a while.

The 38th Army, which broke away from the 15th Army, had a tough style, and the character of the army commander Webb was also quite straightforward. Therefore, the tactics adopted by the 15th Army were very direct, that is, the infantry squad and platoon tactics that were all too common in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. This was a fairly common tactic in other areas, and when the battle of the 15th Army unfolded in the thick snow, it seemed unreasonable.

Weber also made a profound review and self-criticism of this after the war. The military review meeting of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army did not allow empty talk and nonsense, and after summing up, the final conclusion was that "although the 15th Army has learned a lot of experience and felt all kinds of inconveniences brought about by the bitter cold of winter, it is far from truly accepting the objective existence of the cold and heavy snow like the 18th Army, and subconsciously, the 15th Army still regards this natural environment as its own enemy to overcome, and has not been able to turn these natural conditions into a part of its own battle." ”

But even so, the battle of the 15th Army was still remarkable, first of all, the 1st Division inserted into the defensive position of the Japanese 7th Division with lightning speed. It was said that it was a defensive position, but due to the complete flattening of the Manchurian Railway and the extremely cold weather in winter, the Japanese army was not able to grasp the strength of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army at all. The 7th Division's focus was on the north rather than the south. Not long after they discovered that the large forces of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were rushing over, there was confusion in all directions of the entire deployment. The commanders and fighters of the 15th Army had already begun a fierce battle with the 7th Division before the Japanese army had fully organized the battle line.

The battle continued to shorten the distance in the course of the fire, and from the first shots, it took less than 20 minutes for the battle to develop to the stage of fighting bayonets. Fortunately, the situation for the Japanese army was just as bad. Although the 7th Division had the advantage of defense, the problem of the Japanese army's consistent lack of attention to logistics was undoubtedly revealed at this time. The tent had a poor windproof and cold-proof function, the military uniform was not thick enough, and the warmth was low. When the Japanese army heard the battle order, began to assemble and set up formations, and finally made their bodies feel a little warmer, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had already crossed the snow and rushed to the front. Although the process is not what Weber originally envisioned, it is balanced by a series of internal and external factors.

As a result, the vanguard of the 1st Division, with the strength of two battalions, began to fight against the 7th Division of the Japanese Army. Rushing and attacking was the characteristic of the 15th Army, and the Japanese troops that initially faced it were insufficient in numbers and preparations, and there was no unified command. The hastily prepared troops could not even attack on the scale of a large group, and many of them were squads of dozens of people who came to participate in the battle.

Facing the Japanese troops in black uniforms, the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army first fired with machine guns, then rifles, and threw grenades to clear the way. Having approached the scattered opponents, the troops stabbed with bayonets and fired at point-blank range with pistols. In a matter of moments, three Japanese forces of less than 100 men were eliminated one after another and rushed into the Japanese camp.

The regimental headquarters of the first division and the first regiment of the 15th Army followed the first wave of troops into the Japanese camp, and the regimental headquarters followed the second battalion to kill in. ”

Without thinking about it, the regimental commander replied, "The first battalion continues to advance, and the second battalion sweeps the surrounding tents for the enemy." As soon as the 3rd Battalion followed, the 2nd Battalion struck to the left. ”

The second battalion commander had a sad face, "Regiment commander, comrades are tired!" Can you set up a position and rest first, so that you can take a breath evenly. ”

"If you are tired, you will rest at the regiment headquarters, and I will rush forward with the comrades of the second battalion!" The regimental commander shouted angrily. The physical strength required to charge in the snow was indeed far beyond imagination, and all the comrades, including the regiment commander, were very tired. However, the troops have only just entered the enemy's camp, and if they cannot take advantage of the enemy's confusion to immediately advance in depth, after the enemy has stabilized the line, the troops that break through at the moment will be attacked by at least semi-circular firepower, and will even be surrounded by the enemy. At that time, it was called the heavens, not the earth, and the earth.

The second battalion commander knew that the regiment commander would not change his mind, so he took two breaths and ran back to his unit to begin directing the battle.

The sound of gunfire and explosions became a little farther away from the Japanese camp as the first battalion continued to attack. The commander of the 1st regiment and the political commissar waited anxiously, and finally waited for the vanguard of the 3rd battalion of the 1st regiment and the 1st battalion of the 2nd regiment to arrive at the area already under control, and the regimental commander handed over the controlled area to the troops of the 2nd regiment, and he ordered the 2nd battalion to attack to the left, and he and the regimental headquarters joined up with the 3rd battalion, and followed the road opened up by the 1st battalion to continue the offensive to the north.

Walking through the dense tents of the Japanese army, the further north you go, the denser the Japanese army becomes. In this winter, of course, it is impossible for the Japanese army to take off their uniforms and sleep. Some of the Japanese soldiers were still sleepy-eyed, and this kind of guy basically didn't understand what was going on, and he lost his life. Although there was still some apprehension in his heart, the commander of the regiment urged the troops to move forward quickly. The remnants of the Japanese army in the many tents were theoretically incapable of changing the course of the war. But once the attack is blocked, the situation is passive.

When the third battalion was about to catch up with the first battalion, a large group of Japanese troops suddenly appeared in the right front, and the two sides were separated by dense tents, and by the time they found each other, the distance was less than 100 meters. The commanders of the two armies immediately organized a platoon of guns. After all, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was well-trained, and while the comrades in the front row squatted down to put the platoon guns, the comrades in the back row lay down almost at the same time. This kind of contest of wills instantly knocked down many fighters in the queues of both sides. There was also a lot of snow in the Japanese camp, and the people jumped on it as if they had thrown themselves into a very simple bunker, and they had light machine guns to shoot at the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, which took advantage of a lot. However, the enemy was outnumbered, and the Japanese soon dispersed their forces, bypassed through the gaps in the tents, and soon the counter-fire again turned into a bayonet battle.

Unlike the situation of bayonet battles on snowy nights encountered by the 18th Army, now the sky is clear, the wind has blown away the clouds, the blue sky, the bright sun, and the howling wind. The soldiers of the Chinese and Japanese armies who are fighting each other can see every detail of each other very clearly.

Because of the participation in the siege of Jinan, the 15th Army even better understood the role of bayonets in close combat than the 18th Army, in the city of Jinan, the troops faced a dense enemy, and it was too late to load the bullets after the bullets were finished, in order to be able to kill the swarming enemy, the 38th Army had more than one bayonet battle with the enemy. And every bayonet battle was very effective in defeating the offensive of the Beiyang Army. Since then, the 38th Army, as well as the four divisions separated from the 38th Army, have attached great importance to bayonet warfare. In such a short distance battle, the 15th Army directly chose bayonet battles. The Japanese still thought that the Chinese army could be easily defeated in bayonet warfare. They walked around the tent with bayonets, and saw that the commanders and fighters of the 15th Army on the opposite side had already rushed forward with bayonets.

The 15th Army was mainly Shandong soldiers, who were much larger than the Japanese army. Moreover, the People's Party vigorously developed the animal husbandry industry, and the food of the soldiers after enlisting in the army was generally very good. As soon as the Japanese army fought with the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the physical disparity between the two sides was revealed. When the bayonets intersected, the soldiers from Shandong were almost stationary, while the Japanese soldiers staggered and retreated a step or two. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army adopted the tactic of fighting bayonets in groups of three, and if the Japanese army's posture was slightly flawed, the other two fighters could immediately take advantage of the situation and solve the lives of the Japanese soldiers.

When the formation of the two sides was relatively dense, the pistols of the middle and low-level commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army fired even more shots at close range. As long as the pistol doesn't malfunction mechanically, each bullet can kill an enemy, at least injuring them. The Japanese soldiers, who were lucky enough not to die under the pistols, were immediately stabbed to death with bayonets by the soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army who rushed up.

The battlefield is the most non-negotiable place, because every mistake costs lives. The Japanese Seventh Division did not expect to be so proficient in hand-to-hand combat against the Handicraft Peasant Revolutionary Army, and to make matters worse, the Japanese also believed that their opponents still had the characteristics of the Chinese army during the First Sino-Japanese War. Even if the firepower is superior, when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, morale will be greatly damaged, or even collapse directly. For such a rigid idea, the Japanese army paid a heavy price. If there is no light enemy, it is possible for the Japanese troops inserting the 1st and 3rd battalions from the diagonal rear to intercept the 3rd battalion, or at least delay the advance of the 3rd battalion. In the bayonet battle, this Japanese army of more than 400 people was wiped out in an instant. Some Japanese soldiers even screamed in fright and hid in tents, which of course could not have been rushed by the comrades of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. After everyone dispersed a little, some comrades threw grenades into the tent, and after a loud bang, the tent was blown up from the inside out like a balloon, and the enemy hiding in the tent was completely shattered, and his flesh and blood were blurred and charred, and even if he did not die, he lost most of his life. In the bitter cold, they couldn't breathe for long.

The regimental headquarters of the 1st Regiment commanded the 3rd Battalion, leaving a small number of troops to pursue the fleeing remnants of the enemy, and the main force continued to rush forward. At this time, the first battalion had been attacked by the enemy from many sides, although the enemy had not yet been able to unify the command, but the ants bit the elephant to death, and the enemy was fiercely fired on three sides, and the first battalion was almost unable to raise its head. The reinforcements of the third battalion first suppressed the enemy on the right, allowing the first battalion to slow down. The battle between China and Japan finally entered a positional battle, and the Japanese army finally blocked the offensive of a regiment. By this time the regiment had already penetrated the Japanese camp to a depth of more than 400 meters. With a breakthrough, the follow-up units of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army entered the camp of the Japanese army. Perhaps because the weather was too cold, in the temperature of minus 20 degrees, although the fighting became more and more intense, there were no "fires". This brought some trouble to the follow-up troops to check the tents of the Japanese army. Some of the tents were hiding from Japanese soldiers, causing a few casualties during the search. It's just that these casualties are nothing compared to the Japanese counterattack.

The commander of the 7th Division did not expect that a large force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would suddenly appear behind him, and the attack of this army was so sharp that the vanguard unit actually attacked the tent of the division headquarters less than 200 meters away. In the chaotic headquarters of the 7th Division, the division commander howled: "Order the nearby wings to counterattack immediately!" ”

The staff officers, as well as the Japanese brigade and wing commanders who were in a meeting, got up to convey orders or gather their troops. In fact, at this time, it was no wonder that the commander of the Japanese Seventh Division was so panicked, the offensive line of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army happened to split the Japanese camp in half, and the offensive line of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was coming straight to the Japanese division. This could not but give the Japanese army the illusion that the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was fully aware of the deployment of the Japanese camps.

It's just that this anxiety is obviously wrong, and if the commander of the Japanese division had not moved his troops in this way, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would have not noticed that there would be big fish ahead. Such a move paid too much attention to the frontal defense, and Liu Jiqi, the commander of the 1st Division of the 15th Army, who had already followed the troops into the Japanese camp, always paid attention to observation. The enemy's abnormal movement made him keenly sense that the enemy's movement was not right. He ordered the artillery units that had already rushed into the Japanese camp, "all the artillery shells and ran six rapid shots!" After finishing speaking, Liu Jiqi added, "Each shell extends a little forward." ”

The artillerymen who followed had 12 mortars, and the artillerymen were equally tired and panting, and after receiving the order, the comrades immediately opened fire. Because of poor control and uneven ground, one of the shells in the first round of artillery shelling flew relatively far, drawing a beautiful arc with extremely high curvature, and the shells pierced the top of the tent of the Japanese Seventh Division from top to bottom, and then pierced straight into the table in front of the commander of the Seventh Division. This was the first time that the commander of the 7th Division had seen a mortar shell fired from the breech, and it was also the last weapon he had ever seen in his life. A violent explosion tore apart the wooden tabletop. A relatively thick piece of wood was inserted deep into the division commander's wide open mouth, and a section of the wood chip penetrated the division commander's throat and cervical vertebrae, revealing a long section from the back of his head. In the post-war report, it was recorded that the division commander was "like a hedgehog" when he was pierced by a lot of flying wooden chips.

This unexpected luck basically sealed the victory, and the Japanese 7th Division, which had lost its supreme commander, lost its overall command. Coupled with the capture of the campsite, they will not be able to make up their minds to retreat for a while. As a result, the 2nd and 3rd Divisions, which were outflanked from both flanks, finally did their best to reach the intended destination, and finally formed an encirclement of the Japanese army. The battle continued until late at night. Sporadic fighting even continued into the early hours of the next morning. The Japanese 7th Division was eventually wiped out.

The day after the destruction of the 7th Division, that is, at noon on February 26, 1916, the 18th Army also successfully annihilated the 6th Division of the Japanese Army. After the two armies converged on the night of the 26th, they took advantage of the darkness to move south, and on February 27, they laid siege to Andong with heavy troops, capturing this important border city in one day.

March 1, 1916. With the exception of the 19th Division of the Japanese Army, which was trying to escape in Changbai Mountain, and the Japanese troops entrenched in Lushun, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had already solved the main force of the Japanese army in the northeast. On March 4, the news finally reached Wuhan, the central seat.