Even though the war was imminent, the factories in the Huizhou heavy industry base did not stop production, and in order to hide the secrets of the steel base to the greatest extent, the steel base suspended operations after receiving accurate information about the landing site of the Japanese army, reducing personnel exchanges with the outside world. Therefore, all the production tasks were pressed on the new factory, and the steel base was too close to the battlefield for Lu Liang to take risks.

In addition to the suspension of the operation of the steel base and the halt of construction near the battlefield, the rest of Guangdong did not stop the pace of construction because of the war, but accelerated the pace of construction because of the war. War is the best catalyst, more than 100,000 soldiers need a lot of supplies, except for heavy industrial enterprises such as military factories and automobile factories, the rest of the materials come from civilian factories. Orders from the military have allowed the factories to expand production and recruit new workers. Minecarts, supplies, and gold and silver from the seabed allowed Guangdong to develop by leaps and bounds in a way that defied the laws of the economy.

Heavy industry enterprises are also expanding and maturing, but Lu Liang does not want to equip the army with tanks, aircraft, armored vehicles, etc. at this stage, the reason for this is that the shortage of skilled workers is only objective and can be solved, and the most fundamental reason is that once these equipment are known to the outside world, they will be imitated, and if they get the real thing, they will smooth out the advantages of Lu Liang in a short time.

The intelligence and industrial capabilities of the Western powers cannot be underestimated, and the beginning of the 20th century was an era of rapid development of science and technology, and the fact that those weapons that changed the way of warfare did not appear now was not a problem of inability to produce them, but a matter of ideas. Until Lu Liang was sure that he had a more powerful production capacity than the great powers, he would not rashly produce those weapons. Even the artillery and individual equipment of the current army are very likely to be obtained and copied by the West. Lü Liang's plan was that his army must have a generational advantage over the enemy's equipment.

In addition, those equipment require soldiers to have a higher level of literacy, at least at the elementary school level. Therefore, war has always been backed by the strength of the whole country, and from now on, high-quality talent is the biggest shortcoming of Lu Liang, and this just takes time. It is impossible for every plane, every truck, and every warship to be operated by gene human soldiers, if all of them are used to produce gene people, and the resources collected by submarine mining vehicles are also used to produce gene people, the steel base can produce a hundred people per day, such a speed is simply not enough to meet the demand, not to mention that the steel base has other production tasks.

On the Qingxi battlefield, outside the town that suffered more than 20,000 rounds of shells of various calibers, the Zhenguo army has been evacuated, and the rest will be handed over to the local administrative department to organize the militia and young people to clean up.

At this point, the turning point of this war has arrived, the Japanese army has only three divisions landed, and after the fourth division is completely annihilated, its strength is no longer enough to control the vast area around Humen. According to intelligence, the second landing force has already departed from the port of Yokohama and is expected to arrive on 18 April. This period was the best time, and the General Staff resolutely ordered to hit the superior forces and eat up the Japanese army again, striving to achieve the goal of prompting the Japanese army to withdraw its troops.

On April 15, after the departure of the Fourth Division, the rest of the Japanese army was not idle, and Kuroki Weizhen decided to hit all the artillery of the First Army after consulting with Nishikuanjiro and others, and left only one infantry brigade in the Humen area, and organized the strength of two infantry brigades again in Zhangmu to try to open the gap.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Heimu Weizhen personally came to the front line on the Zhangmu battlefield, and 176 cannons of the three divisions and regiments were placed in eight artillery positions, and it took more than two hours to place these guns and carry the shells. The high-ranking officers were stimulated by such a spectacular sight and trembled, and when had the army used such a large-scale artillery bombardment! If they knew that the Fourth Division, which they had high hopes for at this time, had been completely wiped out, they would probably be able to tremble and go crazy.

Such a large movement of the Japanese army had already been detected by the 1st Division, and the observers on the detection balloons on the artillery positions could see it clearly, and even recorded the position of the Japanese artillery. More than a hundred artillery pieces, even at the level of the XIX century, were enough to attract attention, and the 1st Division had only ninety guns that could be used in artillery battles, and although it had an absolute qualitative advantage, the difference in quantity could not be ignored.

The problem was that it was not only the 1st Division on the Zhangmu position, and the General Staff immediately drew up an operational plan after the battle of Qingxi, and the 3rd Division of the 1st Army in Guangzhou quickly moved to the Zhangmu area. From receiving the order to arriving in Zhangmu, the 3rd Division took only one and a half hours, and they were in a state of first-level combat readiness ready to set off at any time, and through the convenient road network and trucks, they quickly arrived in Zhangmu and were ready to attack.

The number of artillery pieces in the two divisions reached two hundred and sixty, of which one hundred and eighty-six could be used for artillery battles (except mortars). War is never a simple pile of numbers, and there are many factors that determine victory or defeat, so let the real battle speak.

The artillery battle began at 9:10 a.m., and nearly 500 artillery pieces rang out across the land, and the sound of explosions and roars kept the fertility rate of the animals to a minimum, and it was not until two years later that it returned to normal. From the very beginning, the artillery of the Zhenguo Army firmly suppressed the Japanese artillery, and the losses of both sides were rising, but there were very few shells falling on the artillery positions of the Zhenguo Army, and they were originally on the commanding heights of Guanyin Mountain, occupying a geographical advantage, coupled with the long range and great power of the artillery, it was easy to occupy the advantage. The shells of the Japanese artillery fell around Guanyin Mountain, and most of them contributed to the felling of Guanyin Mountain, and the small-caliber field artillery could not threaten the artillery positions of the Zhenguo Army at all.

The largest number of the Japanese army was precisely small-caliber field guns, the rate of fire was not low, but it did not have much effect. Kuroki Weizhen also saw through the telescope that his army had suffered heavy losses on the artillery positions, and there were constantly shells exploding, and if it weren't for the distance between the artillery, the losses would have been greater. On the other hand, on the side of Guanyin Mountain, the density of firepower has not weakened at all, but has a tendency to become more and more intense.

Of course, it is getting better and better, the proficiency of the artillery of the Zhenguo Army is increasing, and the small losses also make them let go of the tension in their hearts, under the guidance of the artillery command, the speed of their loading and firing is constantly accelerating, and the artillery of the whole mountain facing the front of the battlefield is deafening.

"General Kuroki, our artillery is obviously inferior to the Zhenguo Army, and continuing to fight with their artillery will only increase unnecessary losses, I suggest that the muzzle of the gun be aimed at the enemy's barbed wire and other fortifications, as long as the infantry breaks through the enemy's position, the artillery on Guanyin Mountain will no longer work." After more than a day of fighting, Nishikanjiro finally admitted that his artillery was inadequate, and even the artillery of the entire First Army could not fight against the enemy's artillery, so he concentrated his forces to break through his main position.

After nearly 20 minutes of artillery fighting, more than 40 artillery pieces were destroyed, and the remaining 130 guns still caused huge damage to the Zhangmu position.

"Quick, enter the anti-artillery hole, all in, three companies, leave two observation posts! The rest of the people are all in! "The shouts from the positions were so faint in the sound of the explosions, and the inexperienced side of the recruits was exposed, overwhelmed by such a massive shelling, and the casualties were mounting.

"Lao Dong, don't worry about that heavy machine gun, run to the hole! Jiang Maosheng, pulling the deputy platoon commander! Le Fei dragged a recruit to staggering in the trenches, and it was the first time he had faced an artillery bombardment of this scale, but fortunately he quickly reacted and organized the soldiers to move to the anti-artillery holes. After a few minutes of chaos, most of the soldiers entered the anti-artillery hole, and Le Fei counted that three people in his platoon were injured and two died, which was already the largest casualty since the launch!

After staying in the anti-artillery hole for less than ten minutes, and before he could come out of the grief of losing his comrades, news came from outside - the Japanese infantry had attacked!

"Check the equipment, go out with me and fight with the little devils!" A company commander stood up and shouted, and Lefei pulled a shrunken recruit to follow the group out. "Get into position! Machine gunners, stand up and check the weapons and ammunition! "Le Fei arranged the soldiers in the platoon.

The heavy machine gun had been blown into a pile of parts, and Dong Dashan scolded, but fortunately, the other one was fine. The artillery bombardment on the position continued, but it was weaker than just now, and the artillery brothers on Guanyin Mountain were also desperately suppressing the Japanese artillery fire. With the shells in place, the soldiers simply cleaned up their messy positions, and the Japanese infantry had pressed to the last layer of barbed wire.

The shelling minimized the blocking effect of the barbed wire, the speed of the passage of the Japanese infantry increased, and the last layer of barbed wire did not give much help to the soldiers of the Zhenguo Army, and some Japanese infantry rushed through the barbed wire fence and rushed over with a whoa.

"Dada-da-da!" The machine guns opened fire in time, and the heavy machine guns placed in the pillboxes were not affected by the shelling, and they also opened fire one after another, rifles, submachine guns, grenades, mortars, and multi-layered firepower immediately played a role, and the Japanese offensive dozens of meters away was stalled.