Han Fuyu's 20th Division Artillery Regiment and 29th Division Artillery Battalion, with a total of 12 75mm mountain guns and more than 30 60mm mortars, began shelling Heishi Pass after receiving the order.

In this reorganization, the Northwest Army has a quota of 12 divisions, which are numbered from 20 to 31 divisions in accordance with the central organization. These twelve divisions are the elite main force of the Northwest Army, and they are basically developed by the old troops when Feng Yuxiang started. The other extra units were later organized into provisional divisions by Feng Yuxiang himself, such as Pang Bingxun's provisional 14th Division.

Since the military expenses of the Northwest Army have always been in short supply, not to mention weapons and equipment, even military salaries are often in arrears. Therefore, even the twelve main divisions of his elite lineage are only equipped with three 75mm mountain guns, plus a few 60mm mortars, which can barely be regarded as an artillery battalion. It would be good for a temporary division like Pang Bingxun to have one or two guns, and there are not many mortars.

However, Han Fuyu's 20th Division can be said to be an exception, his unit has an artillery regiment, with nine 75mm mountain guns and more than 30 60mm mortars, but Han Fuyu did not leave the mortars in the artillery regiment, but dispersed them to the brigades to strengthen the firepower.

Han Fuyu has a lot of cannons, this is not Feng Yuxiang towards Han Fuyu and his 20th division, this is all captured by Han Fuyu himself. During the Second Northern Expedition, Han Fuyu led his troops to Beiping, where he surrendered the weapons of Bao Yulin's brigade. The Northeast Army deserves to be the best equipped in the whole [***] team, and there is an artillery battalion of 6 75mm mountain guns and more than a dozen mortars in this Bao Yulin brigade. Later, although under pressure from the central authorities and Feng Yuxiang, Han Fuyu returned to the Northeast Army the dilapidated weapons that had been replaced by the officers and soldiers from the Northeast and some of the 20th Divisions, but he did not return these mountain artillery, mortars, machine guns, and even slightly newer rifles.

Since Bao Yulin's brigade was stationed in Beiping at the request of the diplomatic missions of various countries stationed in Beiping at that time, the diplomatic missions of various countries put a lot of pressure on the political axe of Nanjing on the disarming of Bao Brigade, and these pressures were naturally transferred to Han Fuyu through Feng Yuxiang. But the fat that has already reached his mouth, Han Fuyu will spit it out again, that is not Han Fuyu's style. People can put it, and some weapons can be returned, but he doesn't even think about these mountain artillery and mortars that he fancies.

Later, after the incident passed, Feng Yuxiang asked Han Fuyu to hand over the six mountain cannons, but Han Fuyu insisted on not doing it, but he had enough of being bombarded by the artillery of the Northeast Army. was so angry that Feng Yuxiang scolded Han Fuyu several times in the telegram.

The artillery regiment of the 20th Division was carefully cared for by Han Fuyu like a baby, no matter how difficult it was, Han Fuyu never owed the artillery regiment a salary, and under normal circumstances, Han Fuyu was reluctant to use his treasure easily.

This time, Han Fuyu was really anxious, the nine mountain guns of his artillery regiment plus the three mountain guns of the 29th Division Artillery Battalion, a total of 12 mountain guns, plus more than 30 mortars, these guns fired at the same time, and the momentum was very amazing. Immediately, the black stone was closed and exploded in smoke, and earth, rocks, and trees flew sideways. It's just that due to the dense vegetation on the mountain, the position of Pang Bingxun's troops on the mountain is basically not visible at the bottom of the mountain, the shelling is very blind, and the bombing points are very scattered. So, although the momentum is amazing, the actual effect is very limited.

Although there is an artillery regiment, there are still not many shells, which is also one of the reasons why Han Fuyu easily does not use his baby artillery regiment. The shelling stopped ten minutes later, and Wan Guozhen sent a battalion to attack with the cooperation of two ironclad vehicles, one in front and one in the back.

The two ironclad cars drove slowly onto the bridge, one after the other, while constantly spraying bullets outward. Each ironclad was made up of four cars, the first and last of which had a turret with a small-caliber gun that could be turned, and four machine guns on either side of the four cars that could fire outward.

The first car had already passed through the iron bridge, but there was still no movement on the hills on both sides, and the battalion that had been attacking had already gone to the iron bridge, and the forward followed closely behind the iron armored car that had taken the lead, and had even set foot on the east bank of Luoshui.

At this moment, dense gunfire suddenly rang out on the hills on both sides, and the soldiers of the attacking battalion stood on the bare bridge without shelter, and immediately shot one after another, and many soldiers could not stand after being shot, and were even directly squeezed off the bridge by the chaotic crowd and fell into the turbulent water.

Although people were constantly shot and fell to the ground, the soldiers of the 20th Division were very fierce, and they still rushed to the opposite bridgehead regardless of their surnames, and the shots from the mountains on both sides gradually concentrated on the bridgehead. Under intensive energetic fire, the soldiers of the 60 brigade on the bridge deck became more and more scarce. Although the machine gun cannons on the ironclad car fired desperately, and even the small guns on the car were very accurate because they were close to Pang Bingxun's blocking position, and the soldiers of Pang Bingxun's unit were constantly killed and wounded by artillery fire, but the vitality of the mountains on both sides did not weaken significantly.

The mortars on the top of the hill also began to bombard the bridgehead at this time, because the attacking troops had already rushed to the vicinity of the bridgehead, the crowd at the bridgehead was very dense, and every time the shell fell, someone would be killed, or even swept into the river by the air wave of the explosion. There was even a mortar shell that fell on the turret of the ironclad car and exploded, although the power of the 60mm mortar was limited and could not cause harm to the personnel in the ironclad car, but it blew up the gun barrel on the turret, and the car was firing non-stop, and as soon as the gun barrel outside was broken, the shell that the ironclad car was firing exploded in the gun chamber, and immediately blew up the turret and flew high, and then fell into the river valley.

Han Fuyu really couldn't bear to watch his soldiers die like this anymore, so he had to order a retreat. A battalion of about 500 men withdrew to the west of the river, and only more than 200 people were mostly wounded.

Looking at this battalion with heavy casualties, Wan Guozhen ran over in a hurry and shouted loudly: "Commander-in-chief, let me attack again, I won't believe that I can't rush over." ”

Li Shuchun looked at the corpse at the head of the bridge, and said with a calm face: "Commander-in-chief, the bridge deck is too narrow for the troops to spread, and if you attack like this, no matter how many troops you invest, it will be useless." ”

Han Fuyu Tie blushed, looked at Wan Guozhen and said: "Bring all the machine guns up to cover the attack, and after the shelling, put a battalion on the bridge deck and send a regiment to wade across the river." ”

There was a turn and an order to the staff officer: "Go and pass on my order, order the artillery regiment to shoot all the shells for me and blow up the lame man." ”

The shelling lasted for half an hour, and after the shelling, Wan Guozhen organized the troops to attack again.

(To be continued)