Bula Town, Wutai Province, which has been quiet for several years, is once again lively, and many of those who have been working here look at the large units coming and going on the streets, and many of them recall the scene of three years ago.

When the 70th Brigade launched an offensive that year, it was as lively as this.

It's just that ordinary people don't know that this offensive cannot be compared with three years ago, because the offensive three years ago was at most the operation of one division of the 35th Division, and the main attacking force was only the 70th Brigade.

However, this operation was carried out simultaneously in the direction of Nebuchu and Tuchak, and the troops invested in the early stage included at least four infantry divisions, four cavalry brigades, and a number of independent units.

Moreover, more troops are still being mobilized, and if some of the fighting continues, the number of troops participating in the war may exceed 100,000 or even 150,000.

For these strategic layouts, ordinary people naturally don't know, even if it is Su Jinyu, he only knows that the Twelfth Army has begun to mobilize, and this battle may be a battle of tens of thousands of people, but he doesn't know that there will be a larger battle on Nebuchu's side.

In this war machine of the Empire, everyone is only responsible for one or one of the points, and except for a few real high-ranking generals, very few people actually know how big the battle will be waged by the Empire.

On September 15, when the Russian-Turkish war was at its most intense, Lin Zhe officially approved the battle order, and with the formal approval of the battle order, it was transmitted to the garrison generals in various frontiers through telegrams.

The garrisons in Central Asia were ordered to maintain the highest state of combat readiness, but their task was not to launch an attack, but to prepare for an attack by the Russians, because the Imperial forces in this direction of Central Asia were quite insufficient, and the distance made it more difficult for the Empire to maintain a large number of troops in the Central Asian direction than in Siberia, so in the case of insufficient strength, maintaining a strategic defense became the best choice.

However, in the Siberian direction, to be more precise, in the area east of Lake Belga, several forces of the empire attacked at the same time.

The first to launch an offensive was the garrison located in the town of Bula, and the troops led by Su Jinyu as the vanguard of the whole army, bypassed the main strongholds of the Russian army such as Tuchak, with cavalry as the core, and went straight to the shore of Lake Belga, their task was very simple, that is, to cut off the connection between the Russian troops on the east and west sides of Lake Belga.

And this is also the reason why the troops under Su Jinyu are mainly cavalry, because only cavalry can penetrate hundreds of kilometers in the shortest time, and at the same time can maintain mobility and attack the Russian army trying to cross this area at any time.

However, because Su Jinyu's troops were mainly cavalry, they were extremely lacking in the ability to attack fortifications, because they did not take care of the Russian strongholds along the way, but chose to detour.

As for these strongholds of the Russian army, especially Tuchak, which is a town where the Russian army is heavily stationed, it was handed over to the main forces of the 35th Division.

If it was Su Jinyu's cavalry that was the first to attack, then it was the Fifth Army in the direction of Nebuchu that launched a large-scale offensive first.

The day after Lin Zhe signed the battle order, the two divisions of the Fifth Army, namely the 13th Division and the 14th Division, which had already been prepared early, had launched a large-scale attack on the outlying strongholds of Nebuchu.

The two infantry divisions were accompanied by a cavalry brigade and an artillery brigade.

This artillery brigade is different from ordinary field artillery, because most of the artillery they are equipped with is mainly heavy artillery, with two heavy artillery regiments and a siege artillery battalion.

It has more than 30 120-mm cannons, more than 10 150-mm howitzers, and more than 10 super-large caliber mortars.

At present, the artillery units of the Imperial Army, usually divided into regimental artillery, are equipped with small-caliber light artillery, mainly four-pounder guns in the early years, and in the later period, they were replaced with light howitzers of 70 mm caliber, the range and power are not good, but they are better than the small size, the weight is only more than 100 kilograms, and the mobility is better than that of ordinary mountain artillery.

This kind of light howitzer, known as the 'Sixteen-Year Infantry Cannon', is similar to the 92 infantry gun of the Japanese Army in later generations, but it is naturally incomparable in terms of performance, and can only be said to be the type of appearance.

Basically, in the main force, each infantry regiment will be equipped with four of these guns to support the fire as the artillery directly under the infantry regiment.

One level further up is the artillery of the divisional artillery regiment.

The establishment of the Imperial Army is a very typical 'square division' of one division, two brigades and four regiments, and the strength of a division such as the 35th Division, which is stationed on the border all the year round, is maintained at more than 18,000 in peacetime, and before this offensive was launched, a large number of auxiliary personnel were urgently assigned, mainly non-combatants such as baggage and engineering, so that when the 35th Division participated in this battle, its total strength was already more than 20,000.

This is also the reason why the commanders of all divisions in the empire have the rank of lieutenant general.

Since the empire first adopted this two-brigade and four-regiment system in the sixties, it has basically spread to all parts of the world, and traditional army powers such as Germany, the Russian army, and France have tried to use it one after another, while several weak and small countries around the empire are naturally keeping up with the pace of the empire, and may not be able to keep up with their combat effectiveness or weapons and equipment, but the establishment generally follows the pace of the imperial army.

The number of this division is so large, and the artillery in this subordinate artillery regiment cannot be less, and the commander of an artillery regiment belonging to a division is usually the most senior artillery colonel, and it has three artillery battalions, each artillery battalion has three artillery companies, and each artillery company has six artillery guns.

Among the four artillery battalions, the regular infantry units are generally equipped with two battalions of 75-mm field guns and one battalion of 75-mm mountain guns. However, in some special areas, such as those deployed in the southern mountains, it is possible to maintain only one battalion of field artillery and two battalions of mountain artillery.

The entire division belonged to the artillery regiment, and the number of artillery guns reached fifty-four guns.

In addition to infantry, the cavalry will also have a cavalry artillery unit directly under it, usually the cavalry brigade will be equipped with a cavalry artillery battalion, but although this cavalry artillery battalion is claimed to be cavalry artillery, it is actually equipped with 15-year-old mountain artillery.

Above the division and brigade, there are more independent artillery units, and these independent artillery units generally exist as independent artillery regiments and artillery brigades. According to the different nature of operations, taking the independent artillery regiment as an example, there are field artillery regiments, heavy artillery regiments, siege artillery regiments, etc., and the field artillery regiments are generally equipped with artillery that can keep up with infantry mobility, such as 75-mm field guns, 100-mm field guns, 120-mm howitzers, etc.

The heavy artillery regiments are different, they are mostly equipped with large-caliber artillery, including 120 mm cannons, 150 mm cannons, etc.

Siege artillery is mainly equipped with large-caliber mortars, and the smallest caliber has to be 200 millimeters, and the main mortars currently used by the Imperial Army are mainly 200 millimeters and 280 millimeters.

It couldn't be better for demolishing cities.

However, in addition to the field artillery regiment, the heavy artillery regiment and the siege artillery regiment behind are all quite worrying in terms of mobility, and it is very troublesome to use them, unless there is a long-term preparation time, otherwise the war will be over before they can play.

Therefore, a large number of independent artillery of the Imperial Army was still dominated by field artillery.

If the independent artillery and the divisional and brigade artillery are combined, the artillery equipped with the most guns of 70 mm, 75 mm, and 100 mm calibers is the most.

As for artillery guns of more than this caliber, especially steel breech-loading rifled guns in service with the new generation, the number is relatively small.

This is also the general status quo of the armies of contemporary countries, this will only be in the seventies, has not yet entered the World War I period in the later generations, although all countries want more heavy artillery, but limited by factors such as cost and the mobility of heavy artillery, in fact, the artillery attached to each country is still dominated by a variety of small and medium-caliber artillery.

Now when the Fifth Army attacked Nebuchu, it was supported by heavy artillery units, two heavy artillery regiments and a mortar battalion supporting the operation, the 120 mm cannon on the top had a long range and high accuracy, and was specially used for long-range artillery bombardment, while the 150 mm long-barreled howitzer was used to support the infantry to launch an attack, and those large-caliber mortars were used to specialize in surface killing.

In addition to the army's own artillery firepower, the navy also gave limited support.

And this limitation is relative to the Navy itself, because for the Navy, it is not a matter if there are no dozens or hundreds of large-caliber guns for shelling.

This time, the navy transferred some shallow water gunboats from the major coastal defense fleets, and finally concentrated 13 shallow water gunboat subfleets, the guns attached to the shallow water gunboats are not worth mentioning for the capital ships, but for the army's artillery, they are all veritable heavy guns.

The main guns of these shallow-water gunboats are mainly 150 mm and 120 mm, and there are also a bunch of 100 mm, 80 mm and other caliber guns.

And more importantly, these are long-barreled naval guns!

Whether it is the rate of fire, the range or the accuracy, it will far exceed the army's cannon!

For example, the same 120-millimeter artillery and the army's 120-millimeter cannon have a barrel length of only 24 times the caliber, but the navy is the most cutting-edge, and the 120-millimeter naval guns used as secondary guns on various capital ships have already reached 35 times the barrel.

Even for ships like shallow water gunboats, it is impossible to use the most advanced naval guns in order to control costs, but even the old model with a 30-fold barrel is much stronger than the army's.

On the first day, the navy's shallow gunboat detachment exerted only about 40 guns in its artillery bombardment of the city of Nebuchu, but the momentum and effect of its shelling were much greater than the army's hundreds of guns.

Amid the rumbling of artillery, a senior general of the army looked at the artillery bombardment of his own army with a telescope, and then looked at the shelling of the navy, and after a long time, he sighed and said to his subordinates: The artillery construction of our army still has a long way to go!

There is basically no suspense about whose artillery is better than the army and navy, and the cost of a naval gun in the navy is several times or even more than ten times that of your army.

When the army's artillery procurement personnel were still having a headache over the cost difference of several hundred yuan, the navy purchased a main gun at random, and it was tens of thousands of yuan.

However, to the satisfaction of the senior generals of the army, this war with Russia took place inland, and the navy sent a few shallow gunboats to brush up their presence at most, and it was their army itself that really fought the war.

If it were the same as when Xindong Province was fighting coastal cities, it is estimated that the army would have to watch the show under the navy's 250-millimeter naval guns, and perhaps the navy would directly send marines to land and fight after a burst of shelling with the main guns of the warships.

What's the matter with the Army? (To be continued.) )