At three o'clock in the morning, as soon as the sky was bright, the anti-United Nations troops in the area of the Jinshan position in Barnyard Valley began to take action. The artillery got up a little earlier than the infantry. In particular, the artillery observers, who were to provide the artillery units of the anti-United Nations artillery divisions with data on shelling targets in order to prepare for artillery fire before the general offensive.

Hundreds of artillery pieces stood quietly on the position, which was half of the household belongings of the Anti-Union Artillery Division, with a total of 16 Type 38 75-mm field guns, 12 Type 41 75-mm mountain guns, 12 Type 94 75-mm mountain guns, 24 Type 92 infantry guns, 24 Type 94 flat-fire guns, and 160 mortars of various kinds.

Zhu Guang, commander of the artillery division, walked around nervously, constantly urging the observers, asking them to transmit the target as soon as possible. Several anti-union artillery officers were also nervously adjusting the cannons and calculating according to the information sent back by the observers, and their foreheads were sweating early in the morning.

With the concerted efforts of everyone, the artillery pieces were finally adjusted to shoot Zhu Yuan. Zhu Guang excitedly reported to Meng Qingshan: "Commander-in-chief, the artillery division is ready, please instruct!" ”

Meng Qingshan was busy here, and his subordinate departments kept transmitting the situation back to the command headquarters, and the operators of the communications battalion were very busy.

"The 14th Regiment of the Guards Brigade is ready, please instruct!"

"The 12th Regiment of the Guards Brigade has entered the attack position, please instruct!"

"The 111th Regiment of the Armored Brigade is ready for attack, please instruct!"

"The 112th Regiment of the Armored Brigade is ready for battle, please instruct!"

…………

"The cavalry brigade has arrived at the intended location, please instruct!"

"The three regiments of the 1st Military Region are ready to attack, please instruct!"

"All the officers and men of the Fourth Division have rushed to the designated place. Please instruct! ”

…………

With the southernmost Fourth Division entering the designated location, the units of the Anti-Japanese Union for this operation finally completed all the preparations before the war. Just waiting for the order to attack.

Chief of Staff Liu Yalou hurriedly reported to Meng Qingshan: "Commander-in-chief, all departments are ready. There is no anomalous behavior of the enemy in person. The battle is ready to start, please instruct! ”

Meng Qingshan rolled up his sleeves and looked at the watch in his hand, it was already 3:50 in the morning, and said in a deep voice: "Inform all units to attack the Japanese army at four o'clock in the morning, now go and inform the artillery division to open fire immediately, and all units will quickly attack the enemy in front of them after hearing the sound of artillery!" ”

The order was quickly transmitted to the artillery division, and Zhu Guang used so many cannons for the second time, and he was not nervous at all and was very excited, so he first looked at the watch in his hand. Then he raised the command flag with his right hand and shouted: "All cannons are in place." ”

Listening to Zhu Guang's shout, the artilleryman immediately put the shells into the cannon and shouted: "No. 1 is in position." ”

"Number two is in place."

"Number three is in place."

Zhu Guang heard that the artillery was ready, waved the flag, and shouted: "Open the cannon!" ”

With this order, one shell after another roared towards the enemy position, and the loud rumbling sound was the horn sound of the Heihe siege.

A series of violent explosions startled Captain Ono Tasei who had just gotten up to wash, and the water glass fell to the ground. He turned around and yelled, "What's going on?" "Ono Tasei is a group leader of the 52nd Infantry Wing of the Sixth National Border Garrison. Responsible for the defense line of Aihui's position (Beizhentai). Due to the successive losses of the Japanese army in Heihe, coupled with the harassment of small units sent by the anti-union forces, the entire line has been shrunk for the sake of the safety of the position, and the Jinshan position in Barnyard Valley has become the outpost position of the Japanese army. And this position is not enough for the number of infantry squadrons. Beizhentai belonged to the second line of defense, but the last line of defense, and the Japanese deployed three infantry squadrons and one artillery squadron here. It is precisely because of this that this position has become the object of the artillery division's key care. As long as the Japanese troops on this position are eliminated, the Japanese troops in the rest of the place will not be enough.

Ono Tasei was lucky. Because he did not sleep on the position today, but returned to the barracks to rest, and many of his men were killed by shells while standing guard. The herald Aokawa hurriedly rushed into the soldier's tongue and shouted in horror: "Captain Ono, it's not good, our position is under heavy shelling!" Before the words fell, a cannonball landed in the courtyard and blew Qingchuan to the ground, and the huge wave of air also pushed Ono who was standing at the door to the ground.

He struggled to get up, felt the heat on his face, and hurriedly touched it with his hands, and his hands were covered with blood. I don't know if it's Qingchuan's or his own. None of that matters, though. The position was shelled, and it was definitely the Shina attack, and Ono Tasei rushed out of the barracks to find that the entire barracks were in chaos. The soldiers were so dazed by the explosion that they knew they were running around. Ono rushed over and kicked the soldiers in the ass viciously, regrouping them and driving them into position with them under artillery fire.

When he arrived at the position, he found that there were corpses of his men everywhere, except for the few people hiding in the tunnel, there was not a single living person, "Baga! Damn, who the hell is that team that actually dispatched such a huge artillery fire, there is simply no way to have such a powerful armament in Manchuria.

"Woo woo woo boom" reached the ears of the Japanese troops in the tunnel with a whistling sound that broke through the air, followed by a violent explosion, which sounded less than 20 meters away from the position. The violent explosion immediately blew out a huge crater on the flat hill, and the slag that was blown into the air fell into the trenches, and the heads of the Japanese soldiers were not small cannons at all, but heavy artillery, and this group of Japanese soldiers was so frightened that they didn't know what to do.

Ono Tasei saw from the underground facility that the artillery fire under the mountain was still continuing, and he shook the phone, "Moxi Moxi, I'm Ono Tasei please give the phone to His Excellency Major General Hamada Shinosuke, hurry, hurry." ”

"Did something happen to Ono-kun?"

"Your Excellency, General, our position is under heavy shelling by unknown forces, request for support, request for support."

"Nani! Ono-kun holds on, and if you can't let the position fall into the hands of the Shina people, I will immediately send troops to support you. ”

"Hello!"

Ono Tasei put down the phone and said to the soldiers beside him: "Soldiers, don't worry, I have already told the commander about the matter here, the commander is mobilizing troops to reinforce here, for the sake of the Great East Asian Holy War, for the sake of His Majesty the Emperor, immediately return to their respective posts to block the enemy, and not let them capture our positions." ”

"Hello!"

Although they were a little panicked when they encountered fierce bombardment that they had never encountered before, they quickly calmed down and evaded the shelling under the supervision of their respective captains, and were even able to judge the landing point from the flight screams of the shells in the intensive artillery bombardment, and evade them in time, so the losses were not large and the morale was not damaged. At this moment, he had already entered the position and sat in the trench, sorted out his weapons, and waited for the group of enemies who dared to attack to send him to the door, but he waited for a long time and did not wait for the sound of the attack of the Zhina.

Ten minutes later, there was a sudden sound of a motor, the sound of a car. Soldier Tatazaburo said excitedly: "Listen, it's the automatic convoy (i.e., the car team), and our reinforcements have arrived!" ”

The soldiers burst into cheers and shouted hooray.

"Onboard! Onboard! ”

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Long live the Great East Asia Holy War!"

Ono Tasei didn't cheer with the soldiers, but he felt that something was wrong, because reinforcements couldn't have arrived so soon. Soon, the facts confirmed his conjecture, the convoy did not come from the direction of Xigangzi, nor from the eastern position, but from the foot of the mountain. It was only because the sound of the shelling just now shook the soldiers that they had a delusion.

Headed were three wheeled armored vehicles and three tanks, one on each of the roof and sides of the armored vehicles. The machine gunners in the car spotted the Japanese troops in the position, and the bullets suddenly strafed at them. Several unsuspecting soldiers were killed on the spot, and tanks opened fire on the Japanese troops on the position, killing several Japanese soldiers on the spot.

The infantry followed behind the tanks and rushed towards the positions, and the Japanese soldiers hurriedly fired desperately at the armored vehicles and tanks. The bullets hit the steel plate and sparks flew everywhere, but it did not affect the advance of the tanks and armored vehicles in the slightest. Amid the frightened cries of the Japanese soldiers, the armored car crashed into it. The position was smashed to pieces like papier-mâché, and several Japanese soldiers were either killed or swept into pieces by machine guns, and the Japanese had to retreat to the second line of defense. (To be continued.) )