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Chapter 1654: The Battle of Shajiao

At three o'clock in the morning, the county seat of Shajiao. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Siamese soldiers were beaten with sticks by the officers and forced to the forward position, and the entire river fortifications built by the Siamese were in chaos.

On the other side of the river, it was not the Second Army of the Anjia Army that captured the Yalan Pass, but the main group composed of the army directly under the Gu Front Army and the First Army, which was rapidly advancing after the battlefield was cleaned up by Shisofeng.

A two-story bungalow in Wana Village, east of Shajiao City, was once the residence of a wealthy Chinese businessman, but after the outbreak of the war, it had been urgently relocated, and it was now requisitioned as the temporary headquarters of the front army. Under the dim candlelight, Lieutenant General Gao Guodong, chief of staff, finished talking with the commanders of each division and strode behind Gu Changfeng: "Commander, all divisions have been prepared, and the artillery brigade directly under the front army and the artillery brigade of the group army have entered the preset position, and they can attack the enemy at any time!" ”

Gu Changfeng was discussing the enemy situation with political commissar Xie Chi, when he heard the sound, he stood up, strode to the window, looked at the other side of the Bangbagong River with a telescope, and couldn't see anything in the dark, raised his hand and said: "Let's start, first test the thickness of the opponent's turtle shell with artillery fire!" ”

The communications staff officer quickly conveyed Gu Changfeng's order, looked out from the window where Gu Changfeng was, and saw that in the darkness east of the river, a burst of yellow light suddenly flashed, like lightning, and the sky suddenly lit up, and then a thunderous sound was connected, and finally there was a violent shaking of the earth!

In the terrible whistling sound, hundreds of shells, large and small, exploded everywhere on the fortifications on the other side of the river almost at the same time, and the orange explosion points that erupted in the night were shining on the beachhead of the riverbank. The shells were so dense that they were like a thundershower, and occasionally 203mm, 280mm, and 330mm large-caliber shells flew by, dragging the sound of trains in the air, falling to the ground, and the whole earth shook like a dustpan! The explosion of the shells finally merged into a loud bang, "booming" and echoing across the battlefield, and any other sound was suppressed!

The Siamese soldiers, who were hiding in the trenches, were subjected to such intense shelling that they suffered heavy casualties, and the survivors fled into the bomb shelters in a hurry. They desperately opened their mouths and covered their buzzing ears, enduring the loud shaking and the loud sound of the cannonball exploding that pierced people's hearts.

For the dead, the sudden disappearance of life is not a kind of happiness for them, and the living Siamese soldiers are like sitting on a large ship that may capsize at any moment, shaking violently with the vibration of the explosion, and their hearts and lungs are about to be shaken out.

The smoke filled the airways and lungs, and it was so hot that people couldn't breathe.

After being covered by artillery fire for a quarter of an hour, Siam's artillery began to return fire, and a variety of artillery of various calibers purchased from Europe, the United States and Japan began to spit out tongues of fire and explode on the positions of the South Chinese Army on the other side of the Bang Pak Gong River.

The two banks of the Bangpagong River suddenly became a world of shrapnel flying, and the river reflected the flashes of explosions, and the river seemed to be bloody.

Gu Changfeng calmly looked ahead with a telescope, the enemy's artillery fire was like a headless and brainless fly, shooting aimlessly, causing very little damage to his own troops. The Anjia Army, on the other hand, observed that the balloons had already risen into the air in the rear, and the artillery fire was almost entirely concentrated on the enemy's trenches and hastily constructed machine-gun bunkers and pillboxes.

Through the flash of artillery fire, Gu Changfeng could clearly see that the deer barricades made of logs and steel supports in front of the enemy's position were lifted into the sky layer by layer, and the shells were like a rolling cumulonimbus cloud, gradually spreading the rain of dead bullets forward. Occasionally, a 330mm cannon shell fell, and the ground was seen like a volcanic eruption, and the earth was blown up dozens of meters high. The makeshift machine-gun bunker made of bricks and cement disappeared in an instant under such a terrible shell attack, like papier-mâché.

Gu Changfeng put down the binoculars, turned his head and said, "Are the enemy's artillery positions confirmed?" By using new artillery shells with rocket installations to cover the enemy's positions, I demand that not a single shell threaten our safety until the general offensive is launched. ”

Gao Guodong immediately called the artillery unit, and then said: "The enemy's position is within the range of our artillery, but in order to ensure the accuracy of the shooting, artillery shells equipped with rocket devices will still be used, and it is expected that in two minutes, the enemy's artillery position can be completely suppressed." ”

Gu Changfeng nodded and continued to hold the telescope to watch.

Two minutes later, the dense artillery shells fell on the artillery positions of the Siamese, and the shells of various calibers suddenly swept the artillery positions of the Siamese people into the sky, and nearly 100 cannons of the two artillery regiments in the central cluster of Siam were instantly dumbfired, and more than 3,000 artillery soldiers seemed to be in hell.

Also enduring the sound of artillery shells and violent oscillations were the officers and men of the 1st Division of the Anjia Army and the officers and men of the Engineer Brigade directly under the Front Army, who were tasked with forcibly crossing the river, establishing bridgeheads, clearing deer barricades, and erecting pontoon bridges.

The artillery bombardment of this magnitude could not arouse much emotion among the officers and men, who leaned against the walls of the trenches, clung to automatic and semi-automatic rifles, and had their eyes half-closed, but their ears were propped up, waiting for the commanders' orders to attack at any time.

The barrage of shells gradually became sparse, whistles rang out in the front trenches, and the military commanders, political cadres, and non-commissioned officers of the various companies and platoons all straightened up, ready to attack, and waited for the final order to attack.

Three red flares rose into the sky from the rear, rose to an altitude of several hundred meters, and then slowly fell. In the red light, countless officers and soldiers jumped into the trenches and, inspired by the red flag and the charge horn, rushed towards the Bang Pa Gong River.

The general-purpose machine guns on the starting position roared almost at the same time, and the fire flowed to the opposite bank incessantly, seemingly forming a path of fire, guiding the direction of the infantry attack.

This time, the 1st Division used two regiments and a total of 10 infantry battalions to attack, of which five battalions contained the attack on both flanks to attract fire and attention from the opposite bank, two battalions covered the pontoon bridge laid by the engineers, and three battalions served as the main attack, covering them behind with more than 200 general-purpose machine guns, each of which was frantically spewing tongues of fire.

"Kill—"

The remnants of the Siamese army, driven out of the anti-artillery holes by the commanders, crawled on the almost flattened trenches, and fired at the east bank of the river with machine guns and rifles, but such thin firepower could not stop the officers and men of Anjia who were like tigers descending from the mountains.

The soldiers came to the Bangpakorn River, pushed the hovercraft and rushed into the river.

It was late August, when the Siam River was swelling, and the river was turbulent and the waves were falling one after another, and many hovercraft were overturned by the waves, along with the soldiers above, and were swept into the river.

Taking advantage of the fact that the troops crossing the river slowed down in the struggle with the river, the firepower points on the entire position on the left bank of the Bangpagong River were quickly revived with reinforcements from the troops sent by Sha Yu City in the rear!

A light and heavy machine gun formed a powerful crossfire, coupled with the roar of the Type 38 rifle "Eight Hooks", like a waterfall of bullets, strafing rows into the river!

Countless hovercraft were hit by bullets, and the gas in the air cushion quickly overflowed, dried up, and coupled with the current of the water, they quickly capsized. At the same time, the enemy's concealed mortars also began to diffuse at the surface of the river, and from time to time hovercraft were hit, and as the bombs exploded, the officers and soldiers on it died instantly.

The main force of the Anjia Army is equipped with 75mm mountain artillery, field artillery, and 70mm infantry guns at the division and regiment level, and when they are aimed at the opposite side of the river, they will be beaten violently, and the enemy's heavy machine gun fire points cannot be transferred, and they will quickly be dumbed in the shelling, but the light machine guns and mortars react quickly, and they will change places after a while, and the losses will be small.

While suppressing the opponent with artillery fire, the general-purpose machine guns on the starting position of the Anjia Army on the east bank of the river fired in the direction of the fire fired by the machine guns on the opposite side, and the copper shells that popped out spread a layer on the ground of the improvised trenches in a blink of an eye. The mortarsmen quickly set up their mortars and fired one shot after another at the enemy trenches, and the Siamese suffered heavy casualties, but with a steady stream of reinforcements from the follow-up troops, they were still firing wildly at the river.

Finally a hovercraft landed on the other side of the river, and the infantry jumped from the boat and rushed towards the Siamese front-line positions.

The sound of enemy mortar fire rang out again, and shells continued to explode in the ranks of the charge. The shells were dense and fast, and every time they exploded, human limbs flew with them.

In order to defend the defense line on the riverbank, the Shalu garrison sent a border police force, and although a large number of border policemen were not skilled in archery, they were superior to the large number of people, and the rows of guns caused great trouble to the charging officers and men of Anjia.

In the light of the flames, the soldiers who rushed to the front suddenly emptied, and disappeared with a shout.

The infantry quickly stopped, lay on the ground in squads, and desperately dug fortifications. It turned out that in front of them, an anti-tank trench five meters wide and three meters deep suddenly appeared, which was urgently dug by the defenders of Shalu in the evening at the suggestion of the Japanese advisers, with the help of three regiments of soldiers.

This anti-tank trench can only be passed through by blowing up a gentle slope with explosives, and the infantry can only establish positions here and cover the sappers with fire to blow it up!

By this time, the first group of engineers had already arrived on the opposite shore in hovercraft, and some of them were divided to blow up the trench, while the other part was left on the shore to drive piles. On the east bank of the Bangpagong River, heavy military trucks threw prefabricated components of the sapper bridge into the river, and the sappers were divided into small groups and floated towards the other side of the river holding the components.

As early as the time when the Siamese artillery position was damaged, Gu Changfeng, who felt that there was no problem in taking the riverbank position, had already returned to the room downstairs.

Standing in front of the map, with the help of the bright horse lantern light, Gu Changfeng was pondering the enemy's possible response plan after taking the sand bar, when the political commissar Xie Chi walked in and told him about the trench that suddenly appeared on the east bank of the river.

Gu Changfeng waved his hand: "Lao Xie, let Wang Xulun and Cai Shaohua worry about this matter, let's do everything we should do, and they have to be responsible for the rest." Anyway, I gave them twelve hours, whatever they wanted, we just had to wait to get into the sand! ”

Xie Chi was slightly stunned, and then smiled: "You, you are really calm, aren't you afraid that they will fight our family foundation?" ”

Gu Changfeng shook his head: "The enemy's trenches and artillery positions, we have helped them solve them, and the rest of the small problems can't be solved, what else do you want them to do?" Believe the brothers, the battle should be over by noon at the latest, and I am afraid that there will be no hard battles to fight in the future! ”

Xie Chi was interested when he heard it: "What, have you found anything?" ”

Gu Changfeng smiled: "It's just a hunch, I haven't thought about it yet...... It is estimated that the battle situation will be clear tomorrow, and I will tell you about it then! ”

"Boom-"

Several earth-shattering explosions came, Xie Chi hurriedly walked out of the room, and turned back after a few minutes, with an excited face: "The sappers blew up the enemy's anti-tank trench, and the three main attack battalions stepped on the collapsed slope to break into the enemy's position, and they were fighting fiercely with the enemy at close range. The pontoon bridge for the sappers is being built, and the follow-up troops are using hovercraft, wooden rafts and other means to cross the river for reinforcements. ”

Gu Changfeng nodded, did not speak, his eyes fell on the city of Ba Jinfu west of Sha Yu on the map, thinking about the commander of the enemy's central cluster. How will Marshal Chunhawang dispatch troops to block the line of defense that has been almost opened.