After more than half of the artillery was blown up, the general of the army and the new commander-in-chief of the Manchurian Army, Nozu Guanmichi, were already a little unable to sit still, this matter was really beyond the scope of his patience, so he had to pick up Nogi Noshinori's set, and organize the troops to dig trenches frantically forward on the position, digging forward layer by layer, organizing machine guns and the remaining artillery for cover.

In view of the fact that the three-year-old rapid-fire cannon is weaker than the opponent's three-inch Lucia field gun in all other aspects, especially considering that the three-inch Lucia field gun is technically quoted from the French M1897 75mm howitzer (the first generation of the legendary Miss 75, the second generation in 1906), so that this field gun can frantically maintain a terrifying rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute under the premise of sacrificing accuracy, The artillery of the army is better at attracting Russian artillery to attack them by means of mobile warfare, and providing valuable time for the infantry to attack.

Without the containment and cover of the artillery unit, Nozu Kando can only fight for willpower and bayonet technology, which is what the army is good at, and he is also very sure of this, because Nozu has already seen the level of the Russian army's bayonet offensive, if the Russian army has not purchased a large number of shotguns, he does not believe that the Russian army can surpass the army in white-knuckle combat.

In fact, the way to dig trenches and advance forward was Uehara's idea, because this thing was really what he was best at, and he used the "zigzag" strategy to keep rushing forward.

Song Biao almost deliberately tolerated the opponent's digging of the position to 400 meters in front of Luo Datai, and then suddenly counterattacked with dozens of mortars, blowing up the sappers and ordinary soldiers of the army to death.

There's really nothing to be done about it now.

After thinking about it for so long, Nozu Kando finally came up with a more shrewd plan, that is, to dig trenches diagonally along the three positions of Luodatai, Jianshanzi, and Honggouling at night, and then strive to launch a fierce attack on multiple positions at the same time, avoiding the enemy's advantage in the fierce firepower of a few positions alone.

It's a stupid idea, but it's really practical, so ginger is still old and spicy, although it looks more stupid, it's actually really practical, it's to sacrifice more soldiers.

There's no way, Nozu Kando has come to this conclusion after thinking about it for a long time, and the only countermeasure is to do it like this.

It does seem to be a bit brutal, but this is how the entire history of human warfare has basically come over, and the entire Russo-Russian War has also come over like this, which has also illuminated the path and foundation for the development of the entire First World War.

It was really a sea of people battle, and the army opened a very domineering 3.5-kilometer-long war zone, divided into six trenches and attacked forward.

At this time, the army should know that the front they assaulted was the burial place of the ancestors of the Manchurian royal family, commonly known as the Tokyo Mausoleum, also known as the Houjin Ancestral Mausoleum.

Song Biao naturally did not have the responsibility to protect the Later Jin Zuling, so he basically put his position in the area near this area.

Because Kodama Gentaro finally launched an extremely powerful general attack on the western position, he used the most classic big move of digging trenches and building roads as soon as he came up, which is really a stupid method with no technical content at all, but it is also difficult to deal with.

The situation on Lieutenant Colonel Martos's side is very uncomfortable, but fortunately, the offensive is complicated, and there are special designs for this situation, especially the number of mortars is really sufficient, Song Biao's original plan to arrange an artillery squad for an infantry platoon was not formed in the end because of the insufficient number of mortar shells, so in addition to the 7th Infantry Regiment in Siberia, each infantry regiment built a direct artillery support platoon at the company level, with three mortars per platoon.

Mortars and machine guns had to be used separately, that is, the artillery was deployed back and forth, constantly suppressing the opponent's forward rhythm.

Nozu Kando made a mistake, he thought that the range of the Russian mortars was the same as that of the Japanese army, and it was also at a distance of 450 meters, so when he dug all the way to a distance of 500 meters from the position, he finally stopped the momentum of moving forward.

Although this distance was too long, he still had to prepare to launch a fierce attack, but this wave of troops did not return, and the entire onslaught lasted for two days, but he did not let Nozu Guandao take the position.

The damage on both sides was severe, and it was said that for every three soldiers killed by the army, one Russian soldier could be killed. If Song Biao was crazy enough, he could have killed the Yue army frantically on a single position, and only a few hundred people would cause thousands or even 10,000 casualties in the Yue army.

Song Biao can't do this, he can't waste ammunition without a bottom line because he pities the lives of his soldiers, especially mortar shells, howitzer shells, special chains for Hatch Chase machine guns, and ammunition for shotguns, except for the ammunition for 143 Makqin machine guns, Mosin Nagant rifles and Type 03 rifles, which can be used basically without moderation, everything else needs to be saved as much as possible.

He had to trade his work for time, only in this way could he save the victory and ensure that the last few soldiers could survive, which was an extremely cruel decision for any field commander, who could only watch his soldiers die on the front line, while he had to save enough ammunition in his hands to face the battle that followed.

It was so devastating and tortured that it was difficult for any other person to comprehend the self-reproach and strength he was enduring.

Kodama Gentaro encountered the same situation on the west side as Nozu Guandao, and the two sides fought until June 15, when Nozu Guandao changed his method, turned from offensive to defensive on the diagonal position, and concentrated his forces to storm the Jiahe Bridge, which had been blown up at this time, and Nozu Guandao could only use the original bridge piers to rebuild the pontoon bridge and rush over, and sent a division to storm the Wangshui Platform.

Song Biao didn't have much strength to fight this part, and the troops he stationed at Wangshuitai were a reserve infantry regiment of Hu Dalin, and Wangshuitai was lost on the afternoon of the 15th, and even Hu Dalin was killed in battle, and at night, he could only personally command the two main infantry regiments to recapture the position, and at the same time blow up the pontoon bridge at night.

Since then, the two sides have been tug-of-war back and forth here, and Nozu Guandao generally suffered, because his artillery was not as fierce as Song Biao's artillery brigade, and he could not force himself to rush through the pontoon bridge several times.

It was not until June 18 that Kodama Gentaro commanded the 7th Division of Lieutenant General Omatoshi Osako to seize the Yanagiling position, and Song Biao, who had bought enough time, did not waste his troops to fight for the position, because it was no longer necessary, most of the fortifications, blockade lines, and pillboxes were all gone, and it was impossible to defend them if they were captured.

This kind of large-scale high-quality, high-level battle is ultimately a matter of time and numbers.

When Song Biao came out of Fushun, he had a force of 44,000 troops, and he did not lose many people in the Sandaoling raid that killed General Kawamura Jingming, but the Liaoyang raid that killed Marshal Dashanyan did a lot of damage, losing more than 3,700 people before and after.

After that, the engineer regiment and the transport regiment were split and reorganized into ten infantry regiments, an artillery brigade, and a cavalry brigade, and even then the size of the force was less than 40,000.

The battle of Liaoyang was fought until June 19, and Song Biao had only 24,000 people left in his hands, which was still the result of filling the two militia brigades into each infantry regiment as recruits.

The army is three main infantry divisions, three reserve infantry brigades, one artillery brigade, two artillery wings, one cavalry brigade, plus a number of infantry brigades of the general station, and a large force of 104,000 people rushed over.

As a result, the 104,000 people fought for a full ten days and did not recapture Liaoyang, losing 65,000 people, on the surface, the balance of victory has been tilted in favor of the Yue army, and the capture of Liaoyang is only a matter of time, but in the entire northeast battlefield, due to the large-scale deployment of the main force of the Yue army to counterattack Liaoyang, the five group armies of the Russian army have been pressed up on a large scale, except for the third army of Ximu Nonori and the first army of Heimu, the positions of the rest of the armies have been basically lost and forced to shrink.

As the supreme chief of staff, Gentaro Kodama chose the backup plan that the whole army would shrink towards the Liaoyang area, and the Fifth Army and the Second Army would be responsible for breaking the defense line in Lighthouse Town, so that most of the army could withdraw from the battlefield.

If Nozu Kando and Kodama Gentaro still had enough time, they could slowly rely on their numerical superiority to kill Song Biao, but at this time, they had no time left, so they could only continue to transfer the 10th Division and two artillery wings to accelerate the attack on Liaoyang.

Due to the serious shortage of troops and the long position, Song Biao gave up the Wangshuitai and Wangbaotai positions, and held the last line of defense around the county seat, while trying to rely on the series of solid defense lines of Lushan, Shoushan, and Longding Mountain to resist the army to the end.

When Song Biao compressed the defensive line, his machine-gun superiority was manifested, and although all the mortar shells were gone, the field artillery, cannons, and 28 centimeter howitzers were still extremely powerful, and in turn bombarded the positions of the Yue army at Liumuling.

At this time, Song Biao had already put the headquarters back to the Thousand Buddha Temple in the county seat, and confronted the opponent intensively around the county seat, but fortunately, the number of artillery shells was sufficient, enough for his artillery to constantly suppress the opponent, so that the army lacked the opportunity to storm the city wall.

Maybe Song Biao can't be regarded as an extremely clever front-line commander-in-chief, but he has at least achieved a watertight point in this war, and has not caught too many mistakes for his opponent, and the only two mistakes have not caused a rout.

Hold on, hold on.

On the evening of June 22, 1905, Song Biao was in the headquarters for the final inventory of materials, and all the staff officers were busy calculating, and everyone had endless work to do.

Reinforcements from Brigadier General Samsolov, who was closest to them, were about to arrive at Plum Blossom Ridge, perhaps before 9 o'clock this evening, and the army had sent some troops to try to intercept them, so it could also arrive tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.

Song Biao naturally didn't dare to pin his hopes on others, he counted all the materials and quickly calculated in his mind how long he could still hold on.

The mortar shells ran out, and at the end there were only twenty-five flares left, and only 600,000 rounds of Hatch Kess machine gun shells remained, an average of less than 10,000 rounds per unit.

There are 80,000 rounds of ammunition left for the shotguns, an average of 20 rounds per shot, and the 75 centimeters of the army's 31-year-style mountain guns have been exhausted, and the 42 15 centimeters of howitzers, Lucia's three-inch field guns, and 15 centimeters of Italian bronze mortars each have an average ammunition reserve of more than 300 rounds each, which can be used for a long time.

At this point in the battle, all he had left was this, but fortunately he still had 143 Maxim machine guns with plenty of ammunition, which were densely deployed around the entire perimeter of the position.

The army didn't know how much ammunition he still had, but he knew that the army didn't have much ammunition, especially the shells of the 31-year-old mountain artillery had run out, and in the last two days, the army had frantically relied on the number of soldiers to attack, and there was no longer artillery suppression and cover.

At this moment, Song Biao was extremely tired, his eyes were already bloodshot and red, he had only slept for a few hours in the past three days, and his whole spirit was tense, and he tried his best to quickly calculate every possibility.

He thought about it a lot and re-read the entire operational deployment map several times, and then called Major Tuvaniel and Jiang Fangzhen over, and asked them to start to replace all the Hatch Kaisi machine guns to the Longding Mountain and Shoushan defense lines overnight, and concentrate all the Makqin machine guns on the outer defense lines of the county.

Jiang Fangzhen was slightly surprised, and reminded: "Division, do the thirty-two machine guns in the Lushan defense line have to be replaced?" ”

Song Biao nodded and said: "Go and change, it is impossible for the army to waste troops in Lushan now, all the shells in our position have been used up, and the threat of Lushan to the Jiahe Bridge has been lost, and four Makqin machine guns are kept in key positions." If, by noon to-morrow, the mountain division of His Excellency Brigadier General Samsolov has not arrived, then withdraw the last four machine guns of the Lushan position and do as I say! ”

Jiang Fangzhen nodded silently, and could only go out to handle these things.

Waiting for Jiang Fangzhen to leave, Song Biao instructed Tu Vaniele and Shu Fangde to make the latest adjustments at a speed, the time was too tight for the Yue army, and this night might be the last battle between Kodama Gentaro and Nozu Guandao.

It may also be the last battle to be launched before tomorrow morning, which will depend on the outcome of the battle between the Japanese army and Brigadier General Samsolov near Meihualing, but this result will not change much things, at most it will only buy the Japanese army a day or two, because the Russian First Army has already occupied Benxi, and the front is located in Beitai Town, which is only 30 kilometers away from Liaoyang.

If it weren't for the Fourth Army's stubborn defense and breakdown in the lighthouse defense line, the Russian Second Army and the Fourth Army might have broken through this defense line yesterday, and they were only 10 kilometers away from Liaoyang.

Since it was the last battle, it was impossible for Kodama Gentaro to waste his troops and ammunition to attack Lushan.

This is the simplest truth.

The next step of the army can only be to attack the outer defense line of the county from the two main positions of Wangshuitai and Wangbaotai, which is Song Biao's final bottom line, this defense line is built while fighting, and it is only 300 meters away from the county city wall, which makes the machine guns above the city wall can strafe the front line of the position, correspondingly, once the army captures this defense line, it can immediately seize the city wall, and it can only be street fighting.

When it comes to this battle, both sides have no skills to speak of, and in the end it is really a contest of willpower.

After making the final deployment, Song Biao slept briefly, and Colonel Brusilov temporarily replaced him in charge of deploying the troops.

Even if Song Biao fell asleep, the whole person was tense, as soon as the artillery sound sounded on the position, he suddenly woke up from the bunk, opened his eyes and heard the sound of artillery, he knew that the army had a new artillery wing and artillery shells sent over, there were more than 200 three-year-old mountain guns in front and behind at the same time in multiple positions sounded, as if they were embattled overnight, the north and south sides of the county were full of artillery fire, and even the direction of Lushan and Shoushan also had continuous shelling sounds.

In addition to the three-year-old mountain artillery, there is obviously a new howitzer with a higher muzzle velocity, which should be a 12 percent howitzer purchased by the army from Germany, according to the information transmitted by the Russian army from the front line, the number of these howitzers exceeds 30, and the second brigade of field artillery deployed in the third army is also the most advanced new weapon of the army.

Song Biao's temporary command post was located in the basement on the west side of the Thousand Buddha Temple, several times in the basement, the roaring cannon still shook the entire basement non-stop, he hurriedly walked out, Colonel Brusilov ran down urgently, and the two almost collided together.

Seeing Song Biao, Colonel Brusilov said: "The army has begun to attack...... ”

He looked into Song Biao's eyes, and actually didn't confirm whether his conjecture was correct.

Song Biao looked at the time at 4:35 in the morning, maybe it would be dawn in a few dozen minutes, and then he raised his head and said: "It should be the last general attack, except for Zhang Yahu's department stationed in the defense line of Longding Mountain, the other troops should be transferred as much as possible." ”

(To be continued)