The Ming Empire's 20 mm cannon with a fast rate of fire and a bomb supply system was originally designed for naval patrol boats, but was eventually moved to a new type of tank and used as the main weapon system. The penetration performance of this 20 mm cannon is quite good, and as a first-generation tank weapon, it is simply tailor-made.

At this distance, the rebels simply did not have any weapons capable of penetrating the front armor plate of Tank No. 1, including machine guns of 8 mm caliber, which were clearly not intended for Tank No. 1.

With the help of 10 tanks of the 1st Janissary Division, the Forces nouvelles quickly formed a fire suppression along the Willow River. This suppression helped the Forces nouvelles to establish a small bridgehead across the Willow River within an hour of the attack. Then the rebels went from preventing the Ming army from crossing the river to finding a way to destroy the Ming army's pontoon bridge with artillery.

However, after the Ming army seized the bridgehead, they began to repeatedly suppress the rebels with artillery fire, and then released smoke and began to cover the pontoon bridge and the boats. Soon, a regiment of the vanguard of the 2nd Division of the New 1st Army rushed to the opposite bank, but it suffered from the lack of offensive means and could not really pry open the rebels' defensive positions.

Smoke generators are also a special weapon prepared by Wang Jue, which can form a dense smoke upstream to cover the Ming troops who are crossing the river. However, this thing does have certain drawbacks, that is, it will also block the view of friendly forces, affecting the use of support firepower.

Without making Wang Jue wait for a long time, Zhang Jianjun began to order the construction of a second pontoon bridge at the same time, and the equipment in his hand for crossing the river was very sufficient, because the new army was indeed more than a little stronger than the ordinary old army in terms of transportation. Moreover, thanks to the efforts of the engineering units directly under the command, the second pontoon bridge was built at a faster pace, and soon it had crossed the center line of the Liuhe River and extended to the opposite bank.

The Weiyuan heavy machine guns, which were mounted on the positions of the Forces nouvelles, had begun to extend to the flanks to cover the second pontoon bridge from being discovered by the rebels in the smoke. They suppressed the rebel machine-gun positions in the distance, and even the surrounding troops waiting to cross the river began to fire with rifles in their hands, disrupting the rebels as much as possible.

"Commander! In just 20 minutes of firefighting, our troops lost at least 400 people, the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division almost lost its strength, and the 2nd Battalion also lost its combat effectiveness. Now the 3rd Battalion is crossing the river, and the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment has also begun to get on board. An officer with a sad face reported the losses to the anxious Zhang Jianjun, but in fact he only counted some of the soldiers lost while crossing the river, and did not get an accurate loss report.

In fact, the Forces nouvelles have now lost more than 550 casualties, and the corpses on the other side can even be built into positions. The battle between the two sides near the river beach was simply fierce, and the mud under their feet was not because of the river, but because there was so much blood flowing.

At this time, the attacking forces of the New Army, in fact, had not yet touched the first defensive position of the rebels, they only destroyed the minefield and barbed wire, and established a temporary bridgehead in a narrow place. Of course, at this time, the rebels were mobilizing artillery to block the river, and by the way, they were also using artillery to suppress the more than 300 soldiers of the New Army in this bridgehead.

Wang Jue, who was standing at the headquarters and watching the tragic battle in front of him, put down the binoculars in his hand, and then his eyes looked at Wu Yan, the general of the Praetorian Guard, and commanded: "General Wu Yan, join your Praetorian Guard and build another bridgehead, can you do it?" ”

Wu Yan was stunned, he didn't expect that the disciple of His Majesty the Emperor in front of him would really dare to use the Praetorian Guards to consume in such a difficult battle. If it were other generals, maybe they would rather use their main forces at this time than easily touch His Majesty the Emperor's pro-army, right?

As if seeing Wu Yan's thoughts, Wang Jue smiled slightly and then explained: "The Son of Heaven's army is an army that wants to fight to the death for the Son of Heaven on the real battlefield, and the only thing that your Praetorian Guard can be proud of is that you must fulfill your promise to the Son of Heaven with your life under the most difficult conditions on the battlefield." How? Don't dare to fight? ”

Wu Yan looked at Wang Jue, as if he wanted to see through the young man in front of him who was much younger than him, he didn't know what the other party was thinking in his head, but he knew that maybe there might be one in front of him. The Praetorian Guard is the army of the Son of Heaven, if he can really lead this army to victory and move towards a more brilliant future, then he, the abandoned son thrown out by the Jinyi Guard, may become a hot new star tomorrow.

"Let the infantry of the 2nd Regiment of the Praetorian Guard begin to cross the river! Attack 500 meters upstream of the pontoon area! After Wu Yan thought of this, he directly instructed the commander of the Praetorian Guard beside him: "You have been mixed with the new army for 2 months, try what you have learned!" ”

Without the slightest hesitation, the Praetorian Guard officer behind him smashed his right fist on his chest and loudly answered the order: "Yes! Commander! I will personally lead the troops to attack! Give me half an hour and I'll be sure to open the current impasse! ”

Shortly after the Praetorian Guard officer left Wang Jue's headquarters with his people, the rebels' artillery bombardment of the pontoon bridge erected by the Ming army finally made a meritorious service. A shell landed on the pontoon, which had not yet been built, directly destroying several load-bearing boats under the pontoon, and the huge explosion swept away part of the bridge deck, almost destroying another pontoon bridge with it.

Knowing that they could not let the Ming army cross the river, the rebels frantically launched a counterattack, they opened fire fiercely at the invisible smoke, and some positions were even exposed prematurely, suppressed by the Ming army's firepower, and lost many soldiers.

The Janissaries attacked as soon as they received the order to attack, and they also used rowing to attack the defensive positions on the opposite side, thinking that the attention of the rebels was attracted by the pontoon area, where the fire was not as dense as when the Ming army crossed the river at the beginning.

However, soon the rebels discovered a different Ming army unit that began to cross the river under the cover of smoke, and it can be seen from the different uniforms of these Ming troops that they may be the main force of the Ming army. So the artillery fire that attacked the pontoon bridge dispersed and began to target the Ming troops upstream. By this time the battle had been fought for almost an hour and a half, and the only results achieved by the Ming army were two unfinished pontoon bridges on the river and a small bridgehead on the opposite bank.