readx;

Chapter 924: The Awe-inspiring Expansion of Righteousness (6)

At 7 o'clock in the morning of 1 August, the decisive "decisive battle of Minjiang" in the protracted Sichuan civil war finally began. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The total number of troops invested by both sides in this battle was as high as 300,000 people, and if Liu Wenhui accepted the advice of An Yi and Jiang Yunshan, including the 250,000 migrant workers jointly mobilized by the Liu family and the major families under his command, the scale of this battle far exceeded any war since the Republic of China.

What puzzled the generals of Liu Xiang's various units on the front line was that as soon as the artillery positions set up by the various units on the east bank sounded, the defenders of Liu Wenhui's troops, which were several hundred meters deep on the west bank, shouldered their weapons, turned around and ran, and the divisions and brigades of the coalition army, which were already ready to force the crossing, saw this and their morale was greatly boosted; under the high command of the commanders at all levels, they rushed down the river embankment without hesitation, carried the sampan prepared in advance, jumped onto the fishing boat ferry tied to the shore, and rowed hard to the opposite shore amid the rumbling sound of cannons.

On the other side of Meishan City, the fierce general Tang Shizun was surrounded by a group of guards and generals, went out to observe, stood on the top of the uplifted hillside of more than 30 meters, looked at both sides of the Minjiang River, the river embankment with the sound of people roaring and shaking the sky, densely packed with brothers from various brigades under his command, most of the 25,000 officers and soldiers had rushed down the river embankment, and hundreds of large and small ships driven by the warriors of the two regiments who served as assault missions had already crossed halfway, and the defenders on the west bank who were filled with gunpowder smoke did not organize a decent resistance to resist them, and most of the shells occasionally fired from the rear of the defenders entered the riverThe water column stirred up by the explosion was sparsely scattered, and on the two-kilometer-long river, only a handful of troop carriers were directly hit and torn apart.

Tang Shizun was not as excited and optimistic as the generals around him, he felt a little strange in his heart, worried that this was Liu Wenhui's trick, but after thinking about it carefully, with Liu Wenhui's pitiful strength now, it would be distributed on a two-hundred-kilometer-long front, even if he wanted to play tricks, he couldn't play anywhere, otherwise as long as a section of the river was broken, Liu Wenhui's entire defense line would be torn apart, so although Tang Shizun was not very down-to-earth in his heart, he did not make any adjustments, and decided to observe for a while.

After the other allied forces launched their offensives, they encountered almost the same situation, only the attack in the direction of Jiazhou was hit by fierce artillery fire from the west bank at the beginning, and Wang Zhanxu's main division was repelled by Liu Wenhui's garrison with strong artillery fire in three charges, and Wang Zhanxu's three brigades were still unable to rush to the river to carry out a forced crossing after more than 40 minutes of fierce fighting, but paid the price of more than 600 casualties.

Tang Shizun received the battle reports from the armies of his neighbors, and after a little analysis, he made a judgment on the distribution of Liu Wenhui's main force, and he no longer doubted that Liu Wenhui could play any tricks, and directly shouted out the bold words of "taking Meishan in one go".

In less than ten minutes, Tang Shizun's two assault regiments successfully arrived on the opposite bank, and along the steep river embankment, the shouts of killing shook the sky, and they swarmed up, and more than 3,000 warriors almost did not encounter decent resistance, and successfully rushed up the river embankment and launched a fierce charge against the enemy's deep position.

On the surface of the river, dense boats, bamboo platoons, and high-morale officers and soldiers almost completely covered the two-kilometer-long river, and in the blink of an eye, the four regiments that followed closely behind the assault regiment also successfully landed on the shore, and under the leadership of the commanders of various units, they shouted in unison, rushed up the river embankment, and followed the warriors of the two assault regiments into the battlefield.

"Boom-boom-boom-"

Thousands of officers and men of the assault regiment rushed to the front of the defenders' position 200 meters deep, and finally stepped on a dense mine and a series of earth-shattering huge explosions, one after another, in the rolling explosion smoke and the flames of the explosion, the stumps and broken arms flew all over the sky, and the mud and stone branches and leaves shot into the sky and covered the sky like rain, and more than 3,000 warriors were instantly shrouded in the thick smoke of gunpowder.

"Minefield? Where did they get so many mines? Why hasn't there been any information in advance? Tang Shizun exclaimed in annoyance.

The chief of staff behind him replied very helplessly: "It must have been quietly purchased from the Xiangxi Arsenal, otherwise it was bought directly from the Anjiajun in southern Sichuan, Zhang Hongluan in Xiangxi and An Wazi in southern Sichuan are not good things, as long as there is money, I am afraid that he will sell it to his own mother." ”

Tang Shizun cursed a few words in annoyance, raised his telescope to observe for a moment, and gave an order very resolutely:

"There is no turning back from the bow! If you pass the order, you must not retreat, otherwise you will squeeze all the divisions that are crossing the river into the river and charge! Immediately launch the most resolute charge, even if the sword mountain and the sea of fire must be forced through, as long as you rush through the 100-meter area, Meishan is ours! ”

The officers and men of the two main divisions were very resolute in carrying out Tang Shizun's orders, and the follow-up nearly 10,000 officers and men were still on the river bank and on the boats, and they had already launched a huge charge on the river embankment, and on the two-kilometer-long west bank, the sound of killing shook the sky and roared like thunder, and more than 15,000 officers and men rushed like a tide towards the smoky and dusty defenders' positions.

Four kilometers behind the defenders' positions on the west bank, hundreds of sturdy pack horses screamed and struggled forward under the whip of the leather whips, dragging 36 75 field guns and wagons full of shells, rushing towards the battlefield with thick smoke and gunfire, and a few minutes later, they were quickly pulled to the artillery position built by the sappers with all their might, and the hundreds of officers and men who were panting untied the ropes connecting the artillery, and in the midst of the scolding of the officers, they took their horses and quickly retreated, and more than 500 artillery men shouted trumpets and pushed one artillery gun after another into the gun position. Hurriedly carry out pre-launch preparations.

The artillery staff officer of the An Jiajun, who was dressed in the uniform of the Sichuan Military Academy, stood on the earthen bag behind the side of the artillery position, handed over the shooting yuan he had just obtained to the commander of the artillery regiment of Liu Wenhui's Second Division, took a step back, stared coldly at everything in front of him, and secretly lamented the technical ability and physical fitness of Liu Wenhui's artillery.

Commander Liu of the Second Division Artillery Regiment had a very unsightly face, pushed away the three battalion commanders who were standing in front of him and were waiting for orders, rushed to the central high ground directly in front of the position, and personally issued various orders. When the officers and men of the regiment saw the regiment commander standing on a high place with a hideous face and roaring angrily, they no longer dared to slack off, and the small flags on the gun emplacements were quickly raised with the roar of the regiment commander.

More than 6,000 officers and men inside and outside the first line of the defenders lost nearly half of their losses in the enemy's frenzied attack, forcing the 5,000 officers and men in the second line of trenches to come forward to replenish and finally repel the third large-scale attack of the charging enemy.

As soon as the officers and men of the defenders in the trenches let go of the hot weapons in their hands, grabbed the water bottle hanging on their bodies and hurriedly drank their saliva, the twenty guns of the Tang-style Zunbu Artillery Regiment, which had moved forward to the starting position on the east bank, began to fire a salvo. After nine rounds of rapid and accurate volleys, the two positions of the defenders on the west bank were blown to pieces, and the two-kilometer-long battlefield was blazing with red light, and gunpowder smoke and mud rose into the sky to obscure the sky and the sun.

On the high ground on the east bank, Tang Shizun nodded with satisfaction, looked at the artillery position in front of the left that had just stopped shelling, and praised loudly:

"Hu Laosi, the turtle son's artillery regiment, this time it is a good fight! Not only did the overall movement be fast, but also played very accurately, and cleared the enemy's two positions for my main force, which was indispensable. Ha ha...... Chief of Staff, order the reserves to prepare to cross the river! ”

"Yes!"

On the high ground behind the defensive position on the west bank, Lin Yungen, the commander-in-chief of the enemy in front of the Meishan Front of Liu Wenhui's department and the commander of the Second Division, watched the battle silently surrounded by a group of generals and colonels.

The battle has been going on for two hours so far, both the offensive and defensive sides have paid a huge price, although the defender's strength is much lower than the attacker's strength, but with the help of favorable terrain and trenches dug in advance, despite the hard fighting, it can withstand the attack of the enemy three times its size, and the main force of Tang Shizun is more than 100,000 meters away from the front of the position.

After a while, after receiving the news that the reserve troops of the Tang-style Zunbu on the east bank had been assembled and began to cross the river, the corners of Lin Yungen's closed mouth flashed with a sneer: "Inform the artillery, you can open fire!" ”

"Yes!" The colonel's staff officer ran to the telephone behind the bunker.

Lin Yunhe raised his binoculars to observe for a moment, and said to Chen Nengfang, the commander of the third division beside him: "Senior Commander Chen, my senior brother has fought hard for two hours, and he has already exceeded the task, paid the price of more than half of the casualties, and finally blocked the enemy in front of the third trench, and it will be up to your third division to go down." After our long-concealed artillery regiment destroyed the enemy artillery on the east bank, there was no suspense in this battle. ”

"Brother Yun Gen rest assured, it's handed over to the younger brother, it must be called Tang Shi Zunyou has no return, Brother Yun Gen is waiting for the good news of the little brother!" Chen Nengfang and his chief of staff saluted and ran down the heights.

Lin Yun called his chief of staff: "Yun Shen, you take the mortar company of our division to the left flank position, and order the brothers of the 16th Regiment and the 17th Regiment, no matter how hard and tired you are, you have to grit your teeth for Lao Tzu, and when the artillery stops, when the third division brother launches a counter-charge, lead the mortar company and the remaining brothers of the two regiments to bypass, the mortar company shells the enemy's ships on the opposite bank with all its strength, and the brothers of the two regiments wait for the enemy to retreat to the river bank, and immediately launch an all-out attack, striving not to let an enemy escape to Jiangdong!" “

"Yes!"

Five minutes later, the 36 artillery pieces behind the defenders' positions roared in unison, and more than 60 mortars on the left and right sides of the front also launched a dense coverage design, and the Tang-style Zunbu artillery position on the east bank and a reserve brigade on the west bank were all covered by heavy artillery fire.

Fifteen minutes passed, Tang Shizun's artillery position was unrecognizable, it was a mess, there was hardly a complete artillery piece in sight, a brigade and two reserve regiments that rushed up to the west bank were heavily killed and wounded under the dense mortar shelling, the muddy water of the Minjiang River was full of corpses and desolate, and the rushing river water was dyed with a constant stream of blood on the shore and in the water.

What is even more serious is that after the defenders' artillery completed the attack on the enemy's artillery positions, they began to adjust their direction and bombarded the ships under the embankment and on the river on the east bank.

As the artillery stopped, the 12,000 fresh troops of the 3rd Division led by Chen Nengfang rushed out of the position, shouting and killing the Tang-style Zunbu attacking troops who had lost their soul and fighting spirit, and the more than 4,000 officers and men of the 2nd Division who survived on the trenches were also inspired by the earth-shattering shouts of friendly troops, and jumped out of the trenches one after another, rushing forward to the dense enemy who began to break and flee.

Tang Shizun's face on the high ground on the east bank turned pale, and from the moment the dense artillery fire suddenly sounded on the west bank, he understood that he had fallen into the trap carefully arranged by Liu Wenhui to lure the enemy, and the fiasco of nearly 30,000 soldiers in the whole army was inevitable.

Under the sudden appearance of the enemy's powerful firepower, Tang Shizun and his generals across a big river, even if they have great ability, they are powerless to return to the sky.