Compared with the confrontation of thousands of cannons on the European battlefield during World War I, the artillery battle on the Zhangmu battlefield is negligible in scale, but the cruelty is not weak at all. The field artillery wing of the 2nd Division had 3 artillery brigades, 54 field guns, and 1 heavy artillery brigade, 18 heavy guns (referring to the figures during the Russo-Japanese War), for a total of 72 cannons. The bombardment of this magnitude was a severe test for the recruits of the 1st Division of the 2nd Army, who were hiding in the trenches, and the positions were tormented by the baptism of shells, and although the losses of the soldiers were not large, unless they hit the trenches directly, the probability of such a low was very low, but the soldiers' spirits were greatly tormented. Fortunately, the heavy machine guns, which were at the heart of the fortifications, were protected by reinforced concrete bunker-type fortifications, which could not be damaged even if they were directly hit by shells, and the power of shells in this period was not comparable to that of World War II. Of course, the soldiers in the bunker in this situation must not be comfortable.

The 1st Division, of course, did not sit still, they had much more powerful artillery, and according to the trajectory of the shelling of the Japanese artillery and the data provided by the artillery observers on the detection balloons, the counterattack was immediately launched.

Before the war, the Zhenguo Army had already begun a new reorganization, and in accordance with the establishment of the German infantry division during World War II, the brigade level combat unit was abolished, and the infantry division had jurisdiction over the division headquarters, infantry regiment, artillery regiment, communications battalion, engineer battalion, division baggage team, and reconnaissance battalion. But the Second and Third Armies had not yet begun, and each division had three brigade-sized combat units. The 1st Division has 48 105-mm howitzers, 8 122-mm howitzers, 36 Type 92 infantry guns, plus 16 120-mm mortars and 24 60-mm mortars, bringing the number of artillery pieces in the 1st Division to 132.

After the artillery began to counterattack, it immediately suppressed the Japanese artillery, more numbers, longer range, stronger power, and faster rate of fire, the artillery of the first division was at least forty years ahead of the Japanese army, which was not a scientific and technological contest in a century. The artillery battle reached its peak at the first time, countless shells flew over the heads of soldiers on both sides and fell into the artillery positions, and every second soldiers and artillery were killed in this artillery battle.

"Report to the commander of the division, the artillery wing Liangtian Dazuo has received news that our artillery is gradually falling into the upper hand, and so far 7 cannons have been destroyed, and the enemy's firepower has not weakened at all." The signal corps reported to Nishikanjiro.

"Nani! No way! How could the Zhenguo army have such a powerful artillery, ordered Liangtian not to stop the artillery battle, the suppression of artillery fire is the best cover for our infantry attack, and without artillery, how can we break through the fortifications in front? Although he couldn't believe it, Nishikanjiro still accepted the reality, and just by listening to the voice, he could feel the motivation of the artillery battle, and it was obvious that the Zhenguo Army had artillery that was on par with the Japanese army, and even had a powerful artillery. Now the infantry can only seize the opportunity of the enemy artillery to take into account the frontal battlefield and attack fiercely, otherwise the losses will be even greater.

"Onboard!" The sound of Japanese soldiers shouting came from the battlefield, and after the Japanese artillery fire shifted the target, Le Fei immediately led people to repair the fortifications, although the soldiers in the platoon were all discouraged, but none of them were injured, I have to say that fortunately, there were soldiers in other platoons who were injured by shelling. Soon the enemy entered the pre-defined strike range, the infantry artillery participated in suppressing the shelling of the enemy artillery, all kinds of mortars became the main force attacking the enemy's infantry, and one shell after another fell into the dense formation of the Japanese army - yes, the tactics of dense charging in this era were the mainstream, and it was not until after the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War that the tactics of charging were improved.

It was the high rate of fire that led to the improvement of tactics, especially the machine gun, which was the core of the tactics. Nearly a thousand Japanese infantrymen rushed to the front of the barbed wire, and they were at a loss for anything about these strange things - the barbed wire was more than a meter high, and it was covered with barbs, and even the wing commander could not think of a way to get through these obstacles. The soldiers of the 1st Division did not give them much time, the heavy machine guns and light machine guns opened fire at the same time, "poof, poof", the figure of bullets drilling into the body continued to sound, and the Japanese soldiers who were almost on target fell in pieces, in this era that has not yet undergone the baptism of large-scale machine gun battles, the soldiers could not imagine the vulnerability of the infantry in the face of machine guns.

So sometimes I have to admire the fanatical spirit of the Japanese soldiers in the face of death, the strafing bullets brought a rain of blood, and the soldiers who were hit fell on the barbed wire gave the Japanese army inspiration, and soon there were Japanese officers who organized the soldiers to throw the corpses on the barbed wire, trying to pave a road that could be passed. Of course, more soldiers would fall there as the work was carried out, and the Japanese infantry kept gathering in front of the barbed wire, turning into undead and then being thrown over the barbed wire by their companions as paving material. Some Japanese soldiers hid in the craters and opened fire to cover the work of their comrades, but unfortunately this was the outermost part of the barbed wire fortifications, which was within the range of mortars and machine guns, which was too far for rifles and did not cause damage to the soldiers in the trenches of the 1st Division.

The bullet of the Japanese single-shot rifle will be erratic if it exceeds 200 meters, and even if the effective range reaches the level of a machine gun, the infantry cannot accurately hit the enemy at a distance of several hundred meters, and without the help of a scope, the human eye is quite blurry when seeing the human body hundreds of meters away, and the machine gun is different, it can strafe indiscriminately, and what is needed is the effect of fire suppression, not accurate shooting. What made the Japanese even more desperate was that the enemy was hiding in the trenches, and even if only soldiers operating machine guns were exposed.

"We have to find a way through that barbed wire!" Nishikanjiro slapped his hands hard in the rear, how could the war evolve into the way it is now? There was such an unprecedented form of defense, for which the Japanese army was not prepared at all. In order to get through that terrible fortification, it was necessary to break it with high-intensity artillery bombardment, but unfortunately, unfavorable news came again - the artillery losses were huge, and fifteen minutes after the start of the artillery battle the Japanese had already lost 21 guns, which accounted for a third of the artillery of the 2nd Division!

There was a gap in the number of artillery, and the gap in quality was even more obvious, and the artillery cluster of the 1st Division, which used advanced equipment such as circumferential sights, goniometers, and fuse mounters, and used more advanced shell charges, had an advantage in the face of the Japanese artillery at the level of the 19th century. The artillery battle has already presented a one-sided situation, and the Japanese artillery has no power to return to heaven.

Le Fei and the infantry in the platoon watched a slaughter feast, but unfortunately only the machine gunners of Perry participated in person, and the rest of the people held their guns excitedly, and did not pull the trigger of their rifles until the Japanese gave the order to retreat. Compared with the regret of the soldiers, Le Fei breathed a sigh of relief, the firepower of the Japanese army was obviously inferior to his side, which meant that the soldiers had more perfect fire cover when fighting, and the damage would be smaller, and he did not want to see his platoon seriously reduced after the battle.

After the first wave of attacks, the battle damage report delivered to Nishikanjiro was terrible, with a company losing more than half of its infantry and more than a third of its artillery. How will the next battle be fought? Ask for tactical guidance, it's better to wait until you kill yourself! He saw that it was not that his soldiers were not brave, nor that the officers were careless, but that the difference in firepower between the two sides was too great. Although there was also a gap in equipment during the Sino-Qing War, it was not as obvious as it is now, is this still the army of China?

The sporadic artillery battles continued, and most of the Japanese artillery stopped shelling and moved with the help of artillery and horses—and if this continued, the field artillery wing was likely to be wiped out, and every artillery unit was now invaluable to the Imperial Japanese Army.

It was only about 3:40 p.m., and there was still a long time before dark, and Nishikanjiro, who was unwilling to be defeated, once again ordered to organize a second attack. These high-ranking Japanese officers had the same brains as Nogi Noshinori, but fortunately Nishikanjiro was quite flexible, and while organizing the second attack, he ordered an infantry wing to go around from the flanks and back, in an attempt to attack the artillery positions of the 1st Division placed on Mount Kannon.

The front of the Zhangmu battlefield was wide enough to accommodate the attack waves of two wings, and Nishikanjiro arranged it exactly that, believing that the enemy's firepower was dense, and if he used a dense formation to hit a point, it was likely to cause huge casualties, and it would become a target for the enemy's machine guns (the Japanese called machine guns at this time). Spreading out is conducive to reducing casualties and expanding the attack surface so that the enemy cannot concentrate firepower. The premise of his arrangement was that the firepower of the Zhenguo Army's canisters exposed during the first attack did not exceed 50 guns, and it was impossible to take care of the entire battlefield several kilometers wide.

The attack began again, with the difference that many Japanese soldiers carried planks, branches, canvas, etc. on their shoulders, with the obvious aim of paving a path through the barbed wire. Nearly 3,000 men from the two infantry wings were scattered across the battlefield, the artillery of the first division was fully fired, the smoke of gunpowder once again filled and obscured half of the sky, and the craters turned the battlefield into a spark surface, and the blood and stumps made this place comparable to hell.