13th, early morning, 4:30.

The field airfield in Qinhuangdao was already full of people, and eight towering lighthouses illuminated the entire apron as bright as day, and the soldiers trotted all the way to the belly of the plane with small carts pushing the 130-kilogram and 30-kilogram aerial bombs that had just been taken out of the warehouse, and then carried them up and fixed them on the pylons, and finally pulled out the safety bolts on them and installed the fuses.

In mid-February, the Northeast is still in late winter, the days are short and the nights are long, it is already half past four in the morning, and the sky is still dark! Originally, the plane should not have been allowed to take off at risk, but the news from Huludao made Liu Yongyao, the commander of the Second Aviation Division, grit his teeth and give an order to be happy. Fortunately, after only an hour of flying eastward, the sky will begin to gradually increase and the dive bomber can be visually positioned.

However, for the sake of safety, the 2nd Aviation Division still adopted the method of flying at a large interval, that is, to widen the distance between a group of planes in the air for three minutes, and wait until the dive bombers have taken off, and then the fighters will take off immediately after they have taken off, and then re-form an air formation before arriving at Huludao.

Since the Qinhuangdao airfield was not as large as the Huludao airfield, the Second Aviation Division had only one fighter group, two dive bomber groups, and a reconnaissance squadron. A total of 41 F old fighters, 82 A1B light dive bombers, and 14 A1C reconnaissance bombers. In fact, these three aircraft are developed on the basis of the PS-1, and the appearance of the fighter and the dive bomber is basically the same, but the dive bomber is more robust, can carry more bombs, and is equipped with instruments for dive bombing such as fixed dive angles.

Considering that the current army air force is far inferior to the national air force in terms of weaponry and pilot technology, all 82 dive bombers will be used in this sortie, while the escort fighters will only dispatch two squadrons, a total of 26 aircraft, and a 30-kilogram bomb will also be mounted on these 26 F1Bs.

Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Qinhuangdao Fortress, was also at this airfield at this time, and was seeing off the pilots together with his student in Huangpu, Liu Yongyao, the current lieutenant general of the Second Aviation Division.

"When will these planes arrive?" Zhang Zhizhong asked, looking at an A1B bomber that had already begun to taxi on the runway.

"There are more than one hundred and fifty kilometers, about to fly a small ... , the first bomb can be dropped on my head at half past five! It's a pity that this airfield is a little smaller, and only more than a hundred planes can be put down, and the one in Huludao has now been destroyed by my own naval guns, and it will not be repaired in a few weeks. Liu Yongyao shook his head: "By the way, teacher, have the people in G retreated?" I heard from my classmates in the army that in the past two days, one of the regiments of the Central G has reached Funing, and there are also their Red Guards in the mountains to the north. It seems that they are still threatening to recover Qinhuangdao, should they be serious? ”

Zhang Zhizhong smiled bitterly, Luo Yaoguo's sudden order to seize Shanhaiguan and Qinhuangdao brought new ports and military airports to the Kuomintang army in western Liaoning, but it brought the already tense relationship between the two parties to the brink of rupture at the end. Although the Chinese side has agreed in principle to send Zhang Xueliang to Xi'an to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the "Shanhaiguan Incident" with Chiang Kai-shek, it has not given up exerting military pressure, and Zhang Zhizhong's 20th Division is now stranded in Qinhuangdao and Shanhaiguan to defend against a possible attack by the Red Army.

At such a critical moment, there is an elite infantry division that is pinned down by "its own people" in the rear and has no place for it! It's a bit laughable.

But without its own 20th division, the Kuomintang army in western Liaoning was fighting against the 12 divisions of the Japanese army with nine divisions, and the strength was obviously at a disadvantage, and the other side had a huge main fleet into Bohai Bay! This battle is indeed a bit dangerous, but I hope that Chairman Chiang and Zhang Xueliang can negotiate in Xi'an, so that the main force of the Kuomintang army can go north as soon as possible......

However, before the arrival of a large number of troops, it could only rely on air superiority to make up for it, and this time the air support task undertaken by the 2nd Aviation Division was very arduous. According to the plan, the 2nd Aviation Division will make at least 500 sorties today to provide air support to the defenders on the Huludao front, and this bombing volume is not worth mentioning in World War II, but it was still a relatively terrifying number in the early thirties.

According to calculations, that is to say, each pilot has to fly at least five sorties today, nearly 10 hours, which is also a great test for the fighter itself.

It is certainly not only Liu Yongyao's Second Aviation Division that will be tested on February 13, 1931, but also on the Huludao front, there are more people who have to experience the test of life and death in this war to defend the country!

Lou! Rumble! Rumble......

After half an hour of indiscriminate bombardment of the Tashan front, the Japanese artillery finally extended its firepower to the rear, and although the firepower was completely dispersed and not as dense and ferocious as when it concentrated on the front line of the Kuomintang army, it caused a lot of trouble to the movement of the rear of the Kuomintang army.

The reserves and artillery units in the rear could only brave the shells that fell from time to time to rush to the designated area and prepare for this longest day!

"Quick! Fast! We must get there before Bendevil's tank rushes up! Leave those shells alone, don't stop!

The person who shouted loudly was named Shi Jue, a graduate of the third phase of the Huangpu Artillery Department and the fourth phase of the Lu University, and was now the commander of the combat defense artillery battalion directly under the Fourth Division, and his battalion had 18 civilian 18-type 37-mm combat defense guns. Because in this time and space, the Kuomintang army has always had the "most powerful" armored forces in the world, and others have a headache when they see their tanks, and they never need to worry about defending tanks, so these combat defense artillery battalions at the division level have never been useful, and they have always been known as the "safest" and "slowest to be promoted" troops. But this time, Ben actually wanted to wear it, and took out more than 100 tanks at one time to work hard, which can make the officers of these super slow combat defense artillery battalions happy, and the battalion commanders of the three combat defense artillery battalions are holding back their strength to urge them to rush to the front line, and they only treat the Japanese artillery shells that keep falling......

And at this moment, on this battlefield filled with the smell of spicy gunsmoke, there is also the proud captain of the First Tank Wing, Maeda Toshiwei. Seeing the Kuomintang army position that had been bombarded by heavy artillery on the opposite side from the telescope, Hou Ye was in a very good mood. What made him even happier was his more than 100 Type 89 medium tanks, which were really guaranteed by Amaterasu, and today more than 80% of these broken vehicles can be started! To be honest, the machinery industry is really not good at the moment...... I am afraid that it is still a long way from South China, which was "controlled" by British, American, and German imperialism.

Seeing that almost eighty percent of the tanks had been started, Maeda Marquis stood on the roof of an armored car in high spirits, raised his head and looked at the entire formation, all the Type 89 medium tanks that the Great Capital Empire could concentrate were here, a full one hundred and twenty-four. Ninety-nine of them were moving, and now they were divided into three rows, and thirty-three were not in a row, each separated by five meters .......

......, all of them were measured with a ruler.

In addition, one hundred and twenty wheeled armored vehicles (armored vehicles of better quality than tanks) were also lined up behind the tanks, each row was forty units, and a brigade of infantry was mounted on these armored vehicles.

At this time, a herald came to him on horseback: "Report to the chief, the fourth and sixteenth wings are ready, please give the order to attack!" "Roar! Let them begin. Maeda Marquis frowned slightly, to be honest, he was resolutely opposed to the tactics of letting the infantry take the lead in the tanks, and the whole world had never heard of this kind of tactics. But the misers in the military department wanted to do this, and in the face of Maeda's opposition,

also ridiculed him, a pampered marquis, for not knowing how to take care of his belongings......

"Hay! ..., the herald saluted Maeda, then turned his horse's head to report to the infantry in front.

Seeing that the herald had gone to report the news, Maeda Hou Ye straightened his waist again, his eyes swept around his subordinates, and saw that all the people had stretched their necks and waited for Lord Hou's lecture, so he nodded with satisfaction and said loudly: "His Majesty's samurai! You are all the bravest warriors of Your Majesty, you are all the elite of the Imperial Army, and today you will be driving the chariots produced by the Empire, galloping on the future land of the Empire! Your exploits today will forever be recorded in the Empire's merit books, and no matter who of you sacrifices your life for the country today, the heroic spirits will be able to enter the Jingguo Shrine and become a god for the 80 million people! Now let's chant together for the Great Ben Empire Half-Planted! His Majesty the Emperor is half-planted! "Half-planted! Half-planted! Half-planted! "I heard what the co-captain just said. Everyone's emotions were greatly mobilized, and they all raised their hands and shouted loudly. The jumbled screaming lasted about five minutes. Marquis Maeda calculated the time, and the infantry in front should have started to charge, so he waved his hand vigorously. The officers and soldiers below immediately stopped cheering and took their places. Maeda took another flag handed over by his subordinates, and then held it high: "Attention everyone! At a speed of eight kilometers per hour, the target is directly in front of the target, and the armored corps assaults!! With that, he waved the flag down.

With the heavy waving of the flag, more than 200 tanks and armored vehicles that had been started began to crawl forward slowly, and in an instant, billowing pungent gas came out of the exhaust pipe, and slowly drove towards the position of the Kuomintang army in front according to the three horizontal columns arranged in advance. It took about twenty minutes for the chariot to pass through the forward positions of the Japanese army and drive into the midst of the battle. Maeda looked at the ground around him, and he was surprised by the sheer number of dead bodies and craters. And look at the military uniforms, these dead bodies are all Japanese soldiers!

"It looks like the round of lowly front launched by the infantry has failed! It's really stupid, why not the armored forces to lead the infantry to attack? With more than 200 tanks and armored vehicles in such a narrow attack area, the Chinese army will definitely collapse! Looking at the chariot strewn with corpses, Maeda couldn't help but say. He raised the flag again and waved it left and right, giving the order for the final assault. Then he closed his hatch, and soon all the engine of the tank began to turn with maximum power, roaring and quickly rushing towards the opposite position. At the same time, in order to cover the assault tank troops, the Japanese infantry organized a full-line charge, and countless earth-colored figures, holding long rifles with bayonets, screamed and swooped down on the positions defended by the 11th Division of the Kuomintang Army.

The first to meet the fierce onslaught of the Japanese armoured group was the high wall of artillery fire fired by the powerful artillery group before the two armies disarmed. Since the fleet withdrew from the sea off Huludao after finally completing the shelling of the port of Hujiedao, the Kuomintang artillery group of up to 900 guns had begun to exert its full power. The Japanese artillery of 1,000 guns should have been fired continuously and overheated, and at this time they could only be fired at a lower rate of fire, so the first round of the Japanese offensive launched on the whole front was repelled by this dense artillery fire.

And now it's Maeda's turn again! The Kuomintang artillery observation post set up at the top of Baita Hill behind the defensive line immediately spotted these rumbling tanks, and the 54 howitzer companies behind the battle line all tilted their fire on the heads of these tanks.

One after another, the scorching shells landed on the path of the chariot troops, and the huge waves of air generated by the explosion rolled up the thick dust on the ground, as if a huge whirlpool swallowed everything around it. Maeda and his armored unit were like a headlong hell composed of scorching shock boo and whistling shrapnel, and dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were hit and caught fire in just a few minutes, but this armored force had no way to retreat at this time, so it could only grit its teeth and cover its head and accelerate forward.

The flares rose into the sky one by one, illuminating the already slightly white sky, illuminating the earth, illuminating the Japanese troops who had thrown themselves into the attack, and also illuminating the Tashan defense line of the Kuomintang army. The artillery was still roaring, and the howitzers on both sides, the defenders' anti-aircraft and infantry guns, the attacking tanks and armored vehicles were all trying their best to attack each other. Dark red shells pierced the battlefield, and the sound of fires and explosions filled the forward positions of the two armies.

Including Huang Wei, commander of the 21st Brigade, the vast majority of Kuomintang officers and men on this battlefield were deeply shocked for a while when they saw the scene of hundreds of tanks launching a cluster attack for the first time. They had only seen the charging of the Kuomintang armored forces on the movie screen before, but that kind of war on the screen, even if it was a real record of a war, there was no way to compare it with the immersive feeling of the war.

Like the infantry of all countries in this era, the current Kuomintang army has no good way to deal with the surging tanks. The Kuomintang army in this time and space was equipped with an anti-tank gun battalion at the division level, but it was only eighteen 37-mm anti-tank guns, and at the regimental level, it was equipped with 12.7

Millimeter caliber anti-tank guns, in addition to anti-tank grenades, anti-tank mines, anti-tank Molotov cocktails, etc., if you take into account the rapid consumption of anti-tank weapons on the battlefield, no infantry division in the world now has enough firepower to destroy a tank regiment, of course, the 11th Division of the Kuomintang Army is no exception.

Fortunately, however, due to their preparations, the three anti-tank battalions originally attached to the 1st, 4th, and 18th Divisions were transferred and placed under the direct control of the group army headquarters.

Seeing his tanks and soldiers approaching step by step, Huang Wei, who was on the front line to command and supervise the battle, suppressed the tension in his heart, glanced at the sixteen 3mm anti-aircraft guns that had been arranged, and sighed softly. These guns belonged to the 4th Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Shi Jue, and they were the first to arrive at the battlefield in the face of artillery fire, but two guns and 18 officers and men were killed and wounded by Japanese artillery fire on the road...... The safest class" is also starting to die now, and it looks like no class is safe in war, right?

"Aim! Open the point! ”

At the moment when the shouts with a slight Guangxi accent sounded, nearly 50 3-mm guns deployed on the defending line opened fire one after another. The sound of cannon fire came from all over the position, and countless shells dragging the scorching orange tail flame through the air crashed into the ranks of the attackers in an instant.

Under the light of the flares, dozens of slowly advancing iron bumps immediately ignited into fireballs, and some even exploded the ammunition, blasting open and throwing tank parts and my own stumps and broken arms everywhere!

"Well done! Kill them all! ”

A cheer resounded in the defenders' trenches, and if anyone could pay attention to it at this time, they would find that the tense muscles on the faces of all the Kuomintang officers and soldiers were loose. Because anti-tank guns can destroy the iron guys that rumble down on them, there is no need for soldiers in the forward trenches to risk their own lives to stop them with grenades, bags, and Molotov cocktails. Although these officers and soldiers are brave enough to fight and die for the country and the nation, they are ...... After all, they are the Kuomintang, and they still cherish their own lives, and it is of course the best not to die!

Huang Wei also breathed a sigh of relief, if it weren't for these dozens of anti-tank guns that rained in time, these hundreds of tanks would have run over their own defense lines and corpses by now...... After a burst of intense anti-tank fire, most of the Japanese tanks and armored vehicles were reduced to piles of charred wreckage, and the remaining dozens of vehicles were reversed and retreated.

"Hidden! Hide! Shelling is about to begin" As soon as the Japanese retreated, the shouts of the officers came from the trenches again. As soon as the shelling stops, it is an infantry charge, and as soon as the infantry charge ends, it is naturally the next round of shelling! The so-called positional warfare is such a round after round that repeatedly consumes the lives and materials of both sides until one of them can no longer support it... @ws