What made Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace happy was that the Fourth Division gave a positive response to his request, after all, it was the troops he had led, but after the reinforcements arrived, he immediately scolded, "Why did the entire division come over?" ”

At this time, the Osaka Division was still the elite of the Japanese Army, and its ranking in the country was even the first of the six field divisions, especially since they have now been replaced with the Murata 22-year rifle that uses the magazine design and no longer needs to be reloaded for every shot (Baidu Encyclopedia is incorrectly dated, this rifle was designed in 1889 AD, not 1897, the latter is confused with the Murata 30-year rifle.) Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info), it is even more like a tiger with wings. What the hell would such an elite division be dispatched to support the Guards Division against a mere battalion of Chinese troops?

The reason was simple: the 4th Division's attack on the Yokosuka naval base had suffered a serious setback, and it had taken the opportunity to get out after receiving a request from the Guards Division. Although the current Fourth Division is more capable of fighting than its juniors, there is one characteristic that has always been consistent, that is, this division and regiment have never made senseless sacrifices, and only fought battles that they can win......

Although there are only two battalions and regimental headquarters directly under the Yokosuka Naval Base, there are many fortress heavy artillery here, and it is also coincidental that the Japanese government was afraid of the second ship of Dingzhen and rushed to the hospital to treat the "Osaka Baby" (named because it is an imitation of the Osaka Arsenal) - 280mm heavy howitzer as a fortress gun, this thing has a large angle of fire, but the accuracy is poor, the muzzle velocity is low, and the effect of hitting the warship is very poor, but it is very powerful against the army. And the key thing is that it can shell at all angles 360 ゚, unlike many fortress guns that can only deal with targets at sea......

Although the basic establishment of the Marine Corps was set according to the requirements of field warfare, because the main task of coming to Japan this time was to garrison the fortresses, the authorities specially strengthened many technical units, including a fortress artillery company, and those fortress heavy artillery did not worry about finding no one to operate them, so those "Osaka Treasures" quickly gave the Osaka Division a taste of greatness. A 217-kilogram shell was replaced with white explosives, which were far more powerful than black powder, and as long as they didn't go too far, they could destroy a squad directly, and the shock it produced was enough to deter the Osaka vendors, who were not known for their bravery.

However, the rate of fire of these old fortress guns was always a big problem, so their main effect was actually to demoralize the Japanese army rather than the actual killing effect; The Fourth Division really suffered huge casualties, or the field artillery company brought by the Marine Corps, because of the convenience of being in the harbor for supply, this time they brought a full 18 75 misses according to the regulations, and when shelling at full speed, they could shoot 9 shells in one second, and 540 shells in one minute, which is equivalent to the sum of the artillery fire of the seven standing divisions of the Japanese army, and this does not take into account the advantages of better and more powerful Chinese artillery shell charges......

What the Fourth Division did not expect was that the firing range of this kind of artillery was even farther than that of many fortress guns, and even if it fired a grenade shotgun, it had a maximum range of more than 9 kilometers, and as a result, the Osaka Division, which thought it was in a safe position and marched with confidence, suddenly suffered heavy losses, only to see bullets raining down and shrapnel like wind, and there was no place to hide, and the screams and howls were incessant, and even the deafening explosions could not completely cover it.

After retreating several miles in one breath and leaving the enemy's artillery range, the commander of the Fourth Division, Shizugo Yamazawa, who had only been in office for half a year, was shocked and ordered his troops to go to the nearest town to repair a little, and at the same time let people count the losses.

As a result, the number of dead and wounded was in the thousands, which was almost equivalent to the reimbursement of an entire team.

Seeing the results of this statistic, the generals of the Fourth Division all turned pale.

After discovering that the enemy's strength was completely beyond imagination, the 4th Division was cowardly from top to bottom, and at this time, the telegram sent by the Guards Division asking for help was like dozing off and someone sent a pillow, and Shizugo Yamazawa immediately ordered the troops to immediately go north to join the Guards Division, first work together to eliminate Huang Haitao's second battalion, and then discuss with his old boss how to recapture the Yokosuka base.

However, Prince Nengjiu of the Northern Shirakawa Palace did not welcome the arrival of this old subordinate, and the little work that was far from enough to offset the crime would be divided in half, not to mention, and he was also brought into a bigger pit, this old subordinate and the fourth division of the army are really compatible!

Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace was about to drive the Fourth Division back to the south on the spot, but was easily gagged by his old subordinates, "The troops that can make more than 10,000 elite soldiers and strong generals of the Guards Division helpless must be the trump card of trump cards, how can they be underestimated because there are few people?" If it is not enough to send a cavalry brigade over, wouldn't it be a big mistake? As the saying goes, 'the lion fights the rabbit, and also uses all his strength.' Moreover, our opponent is not a weak rabbit, but a fierce pig. ”

After the Japanese Fourth Division went north, it objectively did put unprecedented pressure on Huang Haitao's second battalion, and Huang Haitao realized that the situation was not good after seeing the sand and dust raised on the distant horizon, the number of enemies was difficult to estimate, and even worse was that they were just blocking the way of the second battalion, what should I do?

But the more critical the situation, the more he can show the talent of a general, Huang Haitao just pondered for a moment, and then made a key decision, "All retreat east to the sea and march quickly!" ”

The 4th Division was well-trained, and even if it marched on the size of a division, it was quite fast, as could be seen from the fact that they had been able to approach the Yokosuka naval base so early, but no matter how fast the march of a large army was, it could not be compared with a small force of several hundred men, especially since the Osaka Division had just suffered a heavy setback, and its morale was quite low, so the speed could not be faster. Fortunately, it was an internal battle, and nearly 3,000 wounded could be placed nearby, otherwise it would be even more troublesome to be dragged down by them again.

Seeing that the sun was gradually sinking in the west, but the enemy was running farther and farther, if it weren't for the cavalry brigade that had been following, he might have lost his target, Yamazawa Shizugo couldn't help but worry that the second battalion would be surrounded by the night, which would be a great shame.

After pondering for a while, Shizugo Yamazawa finally made up his mind and sent an order to the cavalry brigade to slow down the enemy's march no matter what, even if it was to break some men and horses...... (To be continued.) )