Chapter 652 Iron Fist Force (I)

The hills and low mountains are undulating. As far as the eye can see, there is occasionally a small alluvial plain between hills and low mountains, which is typical of the northern part of the Liaodong Peninsula.

In this hilly, low mountain, and plain area, a railway lurks in the middle, and this railway is the so-called "South Manchurian Railway".

"South Manchurian Railway" is part of the so-called "China East Qing Railway", and "China East Qing Railway" is also referred to as "East China Railway" or "East Qing Railway", this railway was built by Tsarist Russia, officially started construction in 1898, with Harbin as the center, divided into east, west and south three lines, six at the same time began to face the construction, in the shape of "T" across Northeast China, and in 1903 the whole line was completed and opened to traffic, of which the north is the trunk line, connecting Manchuria to Suifenhe, the south is a branch line, starting from the long ' Spring's Kuanchengzi Station, finally Lushun, the southern branch line is the South Manchurian Railway.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan and Russia signed a treaty that formally defined their sphere of influence in northeastern China. Northeast China was thus divided into "North Manchuria" and "South Manchuria", and the "Eastern Railway" was therefore divided into two parts, known as the "North Manchurian Railway" and the "South Manchurian Railway", with Russia controlling the North Manchurian Railway and Japan controlling the South Manchurian Railway.

After Japan took over the South Manchuria Railway, it immediately set about setting up a "South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd.", which is the so-called "Manchurian Railway," and the Japanese politician Goto Shinpei served as the first president of the Manchurian Railway.

In order to facilitate Japan's expansion of its influence in China, after obtaining the exclusive right to operate the South Manchurian Railway, the Manchurian Railway carried out a series of rectifications on this railway, first of all, changing the original Russian-made broad gauge to an international standard gauge, and adopting the same specifications as the Kanwai Railway built by China itself. It even went to the Beijing-Tianjin area in one go, and this was only a small beginning of the Manchurian Railway's service to Japan's expansionist policy toward China.

It is worth mentioning that Japan's strategic railway construction in Korea also uses international standard gauge, and in a sense, Japan's Far East strategy can indeed be called "far-sighted".

In addition to changing the gauge of the South Manchurian Railway. The Manchurian Railway also drew up a "Outline for the Construction of the Manchurian Railway," according to which the Japanese government should use Dalian as the center of the entire South Manchurian Railway's "transportation" network, rather than Shenyang, which was favored by the military department, because the Manchurian Railway believed that only by relying on Dalian could it implement the Far East expansion strategy that was "most in line with the interests of the Japanese Empire." For this reason, it did not hesitate to fight with the military department, and finally subdued the Japanese military department.

In fact, the Manchurian Railway is the core institution of the Japanese government's expansionist policy in Northeast China, and the so-called Japanese Kwantung Garrison, Road Guard, and even the later Kwantung Army are just thugs who serve the interests of the Manchurian Railway, after years of operation, the Manchurian Railway has now extended its tentacles to all areas of social life, in order to meet its economic plundering of the Northeast region, the Manchurian Railway even once conducted an in-depth and detailed investigation of the socio-economic conditions in the Northeast region.

However, with the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the fall of the Beiyang government, the expansion momentum of the Manchurian Railway was finally suppressed, and this suppression came from the United Front government. It is precisely for this reason that in the Japanese government, the politicians who represent the interests of the Manchurian Railway are often the most hostile to the Chinese central government, and in this Sino-Japanese war, the Manchurian Railway has become the key target of the Chinese central government.

Immediately after the start of the war, the Central Government of China declared the South Manchurian region to be a war zone, and all Japanese political and corporate property in all theaters of war was not protected by law, especially the South Manchurian Railway, which had become the property of the Central Government of China in a legal sense after the official declaration of war between China and Japan.

Therefore, when China's army troops advanced to the Liaodong Peninsula from Shenyang, Jinzhou, Liaoyang, Yingkou and other assembly areas, the receiving personnel sent by the Ministry of Railways also marched to the Liaodong Peninsula with the troops, taking over the control of all railways along the way.

As the supreme commander of the armored train unit, Shen Shanglian personally led the armored train unit to move from Guannai to Shenyang, and as soon as the army order to attack was issued, he immediately led an armored train to the forefront, opening the way for the main force, and assisting the local troops in disarming the Japanese troops in those "railway garrison areas."

The official name of the armored train unit is "railway artillery", and Shen Shanglian is an artillery officer, when the republican army attacked Jiujiang City, Shen Shanglian, who was the pipe belt of the Golden "Chicken" Slope Fortress, responded to the uprising, fought back, and made great contributions to the recovery of Jiujiang City, and it was from that time. He gradually entered Zhao Bei's sight, and eventually became Zhao Bei's descendant general, not only in charge of the heavy artillery unit, but also responsible for teaching artillery courses in the Army University, which laid a good foundation for him to command the artillery unit in the future, now, Shen Shanglian's subordinate officers, staff officers, many of them were his Army University students, the existence of this layer of teacher-student relationship, for the command of the troops, is undoubtedly very advantageous.

The reason why the armored train unit is called "railway artillery" is mainly because this unit is equipped with a very powerful weapon: the train gun. This is a kind of heavy naval gun with a caliber of 280 mm, with a long range and great power, and is a sharp weapon to deal with fortresses and permanent fortifications.

Because the train cannon is very heavy and can only rely on railway maneuvering, therefore, the South Manchurian Railway must ensure that it falls into the hands of the Chinese army intact, and the reason why Shen Shanglian led the armored train to walk in front of the main force is precisely for this purpose.

But armored trains are not bombers, fighters of the Air Force after all. The speed of advance was constrained by many factors, and the Japanese railway garrisons along the way were a problem, although the other side lacked heavy weapons and had weak combat effectiveness, as long as the Japanese sabotaged the railway, it would block the advance of the railway artillery.

At first, due to the suddenness of the attack, the Japanese railway garrison was taken by surprise and had to retreat in the direction of Gaiping, but soon, they came to their senses. Actions began to delay the advance of the Chinese army.

When Shen Shanglian led the armored train unit to rush to Boluo Fort, which was only more than 20 kilometers away from Gaiping, he had to stop, for a very simple reason, because a local railway bridge was blown up by the Japanese railway garrison retreating from the north, and the South Manchurian railway 'traffic' was interrupted, and he had to wait for the engineering troops behind to catch up and repair the bridge before the armored train could continue to advance.

Boluo Fort is a small town, located in the north of the "neutral zone line" of the Luda lease, the population of the town is not much, the permanent population is only more than 1,000 people, but because it is not far from the Japanese lease, and is located on the South Manchurian railway line, the business is relatively prosperous, the "traffic" is also more convenient, in peacetime, the floating population here can almost exceed 5,000 people, most of them are from the direction of Dalian, with Shandong and Jiangsu people in the majority, they come to the northeast to "break through the Guandong".

It was a time of war, and because the central government had taken measures before the start of the war, temporarily halting the migration to the northeast by sea, the town of Boroburg now seemed a little deserted, and in addition to the "riot" disturbance when the Japanese railway garrison retreated from the town yesterday, many residents of the town had fled, and most of the remaining residents were old and weak.

Now, Shen Shanglian is sitting in Boluo Fort, evacuating the residents of the town, while waiting for the arrival of the follow-up main force. His troops had sappers, but they lacked the necessary heavy equipment and equipment to repair the railway bridge, so they had to wait for the main force of sappers to come.

After the war began yesterday, when the Japanese railway garrison retreated from here, they not only blew up the railway bridge here, but also engaged in a brief 'exchange' of fire with the local Chinese troops stationed in the town. In the face of the superior firepower and strength of the Japanese army, the infantry company of the Chinese local army was no opponent at all and could only be evacuated, so the current railway artillery was the only Chinese army in the town.

Shen Shanglian was a little worried that the Japanese troops in the direction of Gaiping would attack Boluo Fort, so he repeatedly sent telegrams to the main forces behind him through the radio station carried on the train, urging them to speed up and rush over.

According to the operational plan formulated by the General Staff Headquarters, the Chinese Army's Liaodong offensive was divided into the eastern front and the western front, with Xiuyan as the focus of the attack on the eastern front and the eastern column in charge, and Gaiping as the focus of the attack on the western front, and the western column as the responsible column.

Originally, the General Staff ordered the First Army of the Western Front to launch an attack on Xiuyan first, and its intention was mainly to attract the attention of the Japanese troops in the Gaiping direction of the Eastern Front, so that they could send reinforcements to rescue the Japanese troops in Xiuyan, but this tactical intention could not be realized at present, according to the air force reconnaissance yesterday afternoon, the Japanese troops in the Gaiping direction had no sign of reinforcements in the direction of Xiuyan at all, and it was obvious that the Japanese commander attached great importance to the defense of Gaiping, because after all, this was an important part of the South Manchurian Railway. Once the Chinese army occupies Gaiping, then the Chinese army units will be able to pounce directly on the Arthur area through the South Manchurian Railway.

It was precisely under the order of Lan Tianwei, chief of staff of the army, that Wu Luzhen, the former commander-in-chief of the army's offensive troops, commanded the second, third, fourth, and fifth armies to march southward, concentrating superior forces, striving to conquer Gaiping as soon as possible, and then continuing to advance southward, making a posture of attacking Lushun. The Japanese government was induced to dispatch army reinforcements from the sea in the direction of Lushun to lay a good foundation for the next tactical arrangement.

In fact, in the eyes of Wu Luzhen, Lan Tianwei and others, with the current strength of the West Road Column, coupled with the superior firepower of the railway artillery, it may not take two days to conquer Gaiping, but as a chess piece in the entire strategic plan of the center, they can only move forward step by step according to the center's arrangement.

Shen Shanglian and his railway artillery unit are also a pawn on the strategic chessboard of the center, but as a technical unit, due to the advantages of defense and mobility, he can greatly advance to the front of the main force, and now, his unit is the closest to the front line in the entire Western Route Column.

The code name of Shen Shanglian's unit in the Western Route Column is "Iron Fist", and from this code name it can be understood what role this unit will play in the Battle of Gaiping.