With dark clouds in the sky, Pyongyang is not the largest city in North Korea in this era. It's just that because of her geographical location, she is particularly set off. Successive Korean emperors have set up heavy troops here to defend them. Even after the invasion, he was unable to set up a forward post in Pyongyang, but the army still had heavy troops in the city of Pyongyang.

Nampo and Pyongyang complement each other from east to west, and Nampo is also known as the open sea of Pyongyang. In this place where she can be attacked and defended, no ruler will watch her fall into the hands of others.

At this time, Pyongyang was not large in scale, the south of the city was a river, the width of the river was not much narrower than the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, green mountains and green waters, the sound of birds chirping everywhere, there was no chaotic sound of cars and people, and there was no sight of high-rise buildings. In the blink of an eye, it gives people an extremely refreshing feeling. But in such a land, there will be the largest and most tragic war in her history, an asymmetrical war.

Eighty kilometers north of Pyongyang, there is a mountainous area on the northwest side, and the endless mountains block people's view, and on the inside of this mountain full of life, it is the location of the headquarters of the Eastern Expeditionary Corps in this Pyongyang campaign.

As of August 16 (the calendar of that era is really difficult to check, especially the number of the month of the lunar calendar is the day of the month of the solar calendar, so here, the ranger once again chose to be lazy, according to the lunar calendar is automatically one month slower than the solar calendar as the basis, and he has done so in the future.) The Eastern Expeditionary Corps, the participating troops in the Pyongyang campaign, had basically entered the designated positions and occupied the best offensive areas.

The Eastern Expeditionary Corps' plan for the Pyongyang campaign remained the same. Wang Ruijie's 68th Army was still in charge of the frontal battlefield of the Pyongyang campaign. The Ninth Army in Pyongju East was divided into two parts, the first part was the 911th Division and the 912th Division, which together formed the right flank offensive force, which was mainly responsible for the war on the right flank of Pyongyang. The second part is composed of the 913th Division and the 914th Division, which together form the left flank offensive force, which is responsible for the fighting on the right flank of Pyongyang. In addition, Ren Chong's 72nd Army, together with a brigade of armored units, was responsible for defending the rear battlefield south of Pyongyang, and its main task was to intercept the retreating Japanese army.

The tactical arrangement of the Yue Army happened to hit Long Yuhui's meaning, so Long Yuhui began to arrange for the 72nd Army and the 9th Army to secretly surround the whole of Pyongyang from all sides as soon as he learned the news. At this time, the number of people is not equal to the advantage, and the Soviet Union has created the tactics of crowd in history, in the face of machine guns and artillery, still can not play any role.

At noon on 16 July, the artillery units of the Wehrmacht first launched the first round of artillery attacks, under the jurisdiction of the 68th Army, the 72nd Army, the 0681 Artillery Brigade, the 0721 Artillery Brigade, and the 0901 Artillery Division of the Ninth Army, three artillery divisions, a total of more than 100 heavy artillery pieces of 120 mm caliber, nearly 200 or so 105 mm guns, and a total of more than 300 heavy artillery pieces.

At this time, a famous soldier was nervously hiding in various places in Pyongyang, holding a cold lunch in his hand, and eating a mouthful. At this point, they are satisfied with just these foods. The sea route was cut off, and after a year of long-term looting, it was difficult for the army to scavenge a single grain on the Korean Peninsula. Even if the North Korean people are threatened with massacres, they still cannot solve their food crisis. At present, the grain consumed by the troops is still pulled out of a hidden combat readiness warehouse.

It's just that there are more people and less meat, and Rao is still unable to solve the problem of rations for more than 400,000 soldiers. The only way to solve it is to dilute the grain endlessly, add all kinds of wild vegetables, and even see the shadow of some book covers. The situation of the Red Army's Long March in history is not at all exaggerated in terms of what happened to the army at this time.

The scout troops on the periphery did not find anything different, and the Chinese defense forces, as always, went out to fight, opened meals, and prepared for war. But if there is no idea of attacking, if there is no attack, then there is no threat to the lives of the army. Between starvation and being killed, the army that has not yet run out of ammunition and food and is sane will never choose to be killed. It's just that these scouts of the army are bitter, and every time they smell the smell of meat emanating from the Wehrmacht barracks, even if they are a few kilometers away, the scouts will leave saliva in their mouths, and they can't wait to rush up and eat a bite immediately.

On the ground of the heavy artillery of the 0681 artillery brigade formation, a piece of artillery was adjusted by the artillerymen at will to shoot Zhu Yuan, this time the shelling did not need any reconnaissance, did not need any guidance from the troops, and did not need anyone's correction. Here, the artillerymen had no friendly troops, no accidental wounds, everything in front of them was the enemy, everything within the range of artillery fire, except for the Wehrmacht officers and men, was the enemy.

Here, the artillerymen, who have long been suffocated, can open fire to their heart's content, enjoy the rumbling sound of the shell when it is stimulated out of the chamber, and enjoy the sharp chirp when the shell tears through the air.

'Boom, boom! ’

If the shells are still male and female, then the shells here in the Wehrmacht must be male, and the shells in the army are female. The mother's surname is inherently irresistible to the common surname, and no male surname can resist the temptation of a female surname. Of course, the premise is that you are not in a same-name relationship, or have some other problem.

As if they were predetermined, and as if they were looking for their own targets, the shells appeared in Pyongyang in an orderly manner. The officers and men of the Yue Army, who were having lunch with their hearts broken, had no time to be surprised, and they were taken away by the oncoming shells.

There was a wave of heat in the air, mixed with pieces of shrapnel and sand, and it hurt people in the distance. If it was shrapnel, it would have been declared dead on the spot. Within the scope of the shells, the soldiers of the Japanese army, who did not have any cover, fell in pieces, as if harvesting wheat, and a gust of wind passed, and suddenly there was a large field of vision.

Compared with the soldiers outside the city, the soldiers of the army hiding inside the city of Pyongyang were much luckier, and the use of trenches was used by the Boers on the battlefield in South Africa a few years ago. And the battlefield in South Africa also happened to have people in and out, so here, the use of trenches in the ranks of the army has also generally increased. However, the progress of my research on trenches is very disappointing.

The army only connected the trenches together, and with the height of Yue himself, each trench was about 1.2 meters, plus some dirt covering the front of the trench, the total was only about 1.5 meters. What can such a trench stop?

But this can't be blamed on me, first of all, their concept of trenches is just the last vestige of ideas they got from the battlefields in South Africa. Before fighting a real opponent, I didn't know the specific use of trenches. Therefore, they can only dig a pit of a little more than one meter in the ground according to the method they have figured out by themselves, and put some mud in front of them to cover it, so that when they meet again, the soldiers can quickly jump out of the trench without being affected.

The soldiers of the Japanese army hiding in the trenches enjoyed the call from heaven and the baptism of artillery. Without the anti-artillery hole, the army can only helplessly hold their hands tightly on their heads, without the protection of steel helmets, at this time, they can only do this. Some clever soldiers did not hesitate to flip over the ammunition box around them, scattered the ammunition inside to the ground, and then blocked the ammunition box on their heads, hoping to avoid shrapnel scratches. It is only now that the army finally understands one thing, that is, why the Chinese National Defense Forces have a helmet in their hands.

"Your Excellency, the artillery fire of the people of China is too fierce, the soldiers can no longer resist, we must make a way to deal with it, otherwise, there will be many soldiers who die under the fire of the people, and our battle will also fail!" The chief of staff, Nakamura Wolf, Osa, was embarrassed and stumbled from the outside to a basement and came to the commander of the Nanpo Military Station, Yoshimura Nakaishi.

"Yes, the artillery fire of the people of China is indeed too fierce, and we must make corresponding countermeasures, what about the artillery? Let our artillery return fire and suppress the artillery fire of the Chinese people. Yoshimura Nakashi looked at the basement with some distraction, and his original confidence was gone.

Yes, since the moment the Chinese Defense Forces opened fire, Nakashi Yoshimura knew that they had lost. Although he did not know to what extent the artillery of the Chinese people had developed. But he has been in the army for many years, and he can still hear the caliber of the shell just from the sound of the shell exploding. All of them were heavy artillery pieces of more than 120 mm, and the sharp roar of shells and the roaring explosions made Yoshimura Nakaishi deeply understand that the artillery units of the Japanese army could not resist the artillery of the Chinese people.

Although there is also artillery in the army, the artillery of the army is not so powerful, and the caliber is not very large, but in this era, smoothbore guns are still the mainstream, and the complex manufacturing process and high-condition steelmaking process have stumped the development of firearms in many countries. After such a shell is fired, it is basically difficult to control its hit rate, and the trajectory sounds rather chaotic. Although the artillery units of the Chinese Empire were very messy, it is not difficult to hear from the trajectory of their shells that their artillery is much more advanced than that of the Chinese army. At least in terms of accuracy, it is far better than the army.

"Based on the density of the artillery fire, the enemy has invested at least 100 artillery pieces, and so far we have not been able to accurately locate the enemy's artillery. Therefore, we roughly judged that the enemy's artillery was most likely set up in the rear, in a place that we could not observe. Or rather, their artillery was behind their infantry. And our scout troops have not been able to get past the enemy's infantry units, and we still don't know what is behind the enemy's infantry units. "Yudaisa's analysis is reasonable.

You must know that in addition to the Wehrmacht, at this time, the so-called elite troops of all countries in the world, all artillery with a caliber of less than 155 mm, the firing range is basically very short. At this time, only the Chinese Empire was using rifled guns in the whole world, and the shells used by the artillery units were also specially treated. Their explosion power is not the maximum, but such a design will allow them to reach the maximum range, and when exploding, they also have a certain amount of power.

In the face of such a Wehrmacht, which is ahead of the Wehrmacht in all respects, it is not a shame that the Wehrmacht has difficulty finding the specific location of the Wehrmacht's artillery units. And Yuosa Nakamura is very correct in saying that the artillery units of the Wehrmacht are behind the infantry. Although the headquarters of the Eastern Expeditionary Corps is located about 80 kilometers from Pyongyang, it is only 30 or 40 miles away from the troops on the outer line outside Pyongyang. The infantry was less than ten kilometers away from the army's outer line troops. At such a distance, the artillery units are equipped with 155 heavy howitzers, which can completely cover most of Pyongyang.

"It seems that we still don't know enough about the people of China."

Yoshimura Nakashi turned to roar angrily: "Didn't those bastards from the Ministry of Intelligence say that there are a large number of recruits in the Chinese Defense Force? Isn't it said that the artillery units in the Chinese Defense Forces are not outstanding? So what is in front of us now? I reckon that when the news from here comes back to Japan, His Majesty the Emperor will also feel how ridiculous the claims of those bastards from the Ministry of Intelligence are......"

Anger is inevitable, as a commander, the dissatisfaction with the intelligence department is just a verbal scolding, and the person who can achieve this position is not a fool. They all know exactly what they have to do and how they have to do it. A commander, at this critical juncture, will never do anything that affects his own morale.

Yoshimura Nakashi returned to normal, slowly let out a sigh, and said, "That's it, since we don't have the strength to fight back, let's wait quietly for a long time." I hope that this time the intelligence department's statement is correct, and the troops are ordered to protect themselves as much as possible and minimize casualties in the shelling. ”

"Yes!" The chief of staff took the order and left.

At this time, the problem in front of Yoshimura Nakashi can only be solved by such a solution. Let your own artillery units fight back? Obviously, this is a task that cannot be accomplished, not to mention that their side does not know where the enemy artillery is, and even if it does, what if it does? Could it be that artillery will increase the firing range by several times?

However, Lingji Village Nakaishi was depressed that the Chinese Defense Forces were like an upstart, and suddenly all the equipment was completely new, and the Chinese Defense Forces, which had never heard of large-scale heavy artillery before, suddenly had so many more artillery, and one shell after another fell as if they didn't need money, and they fell like hail in a huge area of the army's position.

After an hour of shelling, the first wave of Wehrmacht shelling finally stopped slowly, and in the accompaniment of explosions, the troops who had spent an hour finally returned to quiet again. It's just that at this time, there are still wails that accompany them.

Because they did not have any experience in anti-artillery operations, the troops of the Yue Army suffered heavy losses in this artillery attack, and quietly and without a trace, they suddenly took the lives of more than 10,000 soldiers of the Yue Army. As for the Wehrmacht, more than 10,000 shells were fired in an hour. On average, each artillery gun fired 1.6 shells per minute, while the army positions were attacked by an average of nearly 200 shells per minute.

Fortunately, however, this artillery attack did not result in the destruction of the entire unit of the army, and the more than 100 artillery pieces were relatively in the area they were responsible for, and within a huge battlefield, if they wanted to create a battlefield atmosphere, they had to launch an all-out attack, and it was not enough to concentrate all their firepower and bombard a little, nor could they achieve the expected results.

The soldiers of the Japanese army suffered serious losses in this artillery attack, and the officers of the Japanese army suffered some serious losses in this artillery attack, and even some soldiers and officers seemed to be unable to bear such tremendous pressure in their spirits, and they behaved a little crazy, and even their speech became a little unclear.

The Wehrmacht artillery took a short break, which also gave the army a little respite. Continuous and high-intensity artillery bombardment, not to mention that he himself could not withstand it, even the artillery could not withstand such a high-intensity shelling. The chamber of the cannon was steaming hot, and a wet garment was put on and immediately dried, and after it was removed, the garment was already stamped with yellow or black marks.

The artillerymen, who had rested for an hour and a half, recovered their physical strength to a certain extent, the artillery also returned to its past, and the chambers of the guns were deliberately cooled down as before the shelling. Taking advantage of this opportunity to recuperate, the artillerymen were also supplied in time, and more than 10,000 shells were once again sent to the artillery position.

At 3:30 p.m., the artillerymen, who had been silent for a long time, finally sounded their voices again, the first time that the Wehrmacht had used this tactic, and it was also a tactic used by the whole world in the following decades. Bombardment the enemy with artillery clusters to achieve the purpose of deterring the enemy, so as to cover the infantry to rush up quickly and fight the enemy.

Compared with the first round of shelling, the second round of shelling was much easier for the army, with the first experience, the second time can be regarded as knowing some experience, although they could not dodge the direct hit of the shell, but within a certain range, it was still possible for them to minimize the possibility of their own injury.

On the afternoon and evening of the 16th, more than 100 heavy artillery pieces of the Wehrmacht bombarded the Chinese army every hour and a half, so that the Chinese army was full of artillery fire during this day! Heavy casualties!

(To be continued)