Ruili in May, located on the edge of the western tropical region, should have ushered in the rainy season, but for several days it was sunny and cloudless, which made people who longed for the rainy season feel worried.

"If only it rained."

Looking at the clear sky outside the window, Zhuge Sheng was enjoying the good tea, and at the same time said to Tie Sanqian, who was drinking a dime and a pound of tea on the side: "Third child, look at the tea you drink, a dime and a catty, and you are really willing." What are you doing with such a high salary? ”

Unlike Zhuge Sheng, who has a family and a room, Tie Sanqian has no children until now, and he is often accompanied by green lights every night, and he spends his time reading and studying. The officer who came out of the militia regiment, he was the most uneducated person back then, and even wrote a letter to the family with Zhuge Sheng, and now he can not only read and write normally, but also understand some professional terms on the works of military dependents.

"It's just a few military salaries, if you don't bring it to life or die, you just need to keep enough money for the old mother and father at home."

The old rules inherited from the militia group, starting from Zhang Shusheng, no matter how high or low the position, there shall be no special offerings. Food, clothing, housing and transportation, all converted into the salary of the corresponding position, are responsible for themselves.

Tie Sanqian is an alternative, after all, he is a high-level member of the Southwest Army, and the monthly salary of more than 100 yuan is already a very high figure in the eyes of ordinary people. However, in addition to his own food and drink, all the others were divided into two parts, one was given to his old parents who lived in Dongchuan, and one was subsidized into the canteen of the second division.

In his words, you don't have to worry about eating and drinking, you can take care of your old age, and what do you do with so much money. Of course, with him taking the lead, other officers also competed to imitate him, and a private salary subsidy was added to the army canteen every month.

"You're also the boss, and it's time to start a family." After Zhuge Sheng drank the tea in the purple clay pot, he felt sincerely admired that this old brother who was also a bandit could have this opinion, it can be said that he watched Tie Sanqian all the way from an illiterate and simple-minded bandit to today's position. "Let's go, rest well, and go to the position to have a look."

"Yu Cheng!! How did you dig your position? Can you kick the rags with both feet and block the enemy's artillery? All re-ruggedized. ”

Standing on the defensive line of his company, Dai Anlan frowned, obviously the trenches that had been reinforced, but he was still not satisfied. The battle of Dumb Yamaguchi impressed him too much. The artillery of the British is different from the waste artillery of the Dian army, it is very accurate and powerful, otherwise it would not have buried so many brothers.

In his opinion, the terrain of Mengmao Town is really a good blocking position, with an open front position, and intricate terrain on both sides. As long as the British did not retreat to Burma and re-chose one direction to attack Kunming, then this was the important place they had to take.

The second company, which had been replenished, would join the larger battle against the British under his own leadership.

In order to deal with it, the 2nd Division of the Garrison Division showed full enthusiasm for the construction of positions.

At the forefront, there is a dense barbed wire, mine array, and then the first line of defense, which stretches in zigzags. The intricate trench in which only one head can be exposed, and only when necessary does it rush up from the stairs on the wall of the trench, the safety of the soldiers is maximized.

The trenches present a complex distribution, and structurally, it is not simply a trench dug. Except for the most advanced positions, which are relatively simple in order to guard against the enemy at all times, the other trenches are all extremely complete.

The curved trenches are mainly tamped, and then sand bags are used to make sandbags as individual shooting bunkers. There are often individual bunkers on the trench wall that just fit one person, because there is not enough cement, when digging, the soldiers choose a hole at a tricky angle, supplemented by thickened hard rock, and the anti-artillery is enough.

Every large section there will be a class anti-artillery hole, and the reinforcement effect is better.

In the curved trench system, there are also special observation posts, company-platoon command bunkers, machine-gun bunkers, and mortar bunkers. Specialized communication ditches allow support and retreating troops to attack, support, and retreat quickly.

Although the entire defense system is very complicated, for the Southwest Army, which has always regarded the excavation of fortifications as a special training subject, these are the same contents as regular training.

For the well-trained Southwest Army, it was just a process that was repeated many times.

Zhang Shusheng has a clear understanding of World War II, the trench excavation and position construction is definitely an important part of World War II, before the emergence of weapons of mass destruction and precision attack weapons, the tactics of crowds are still the theme of World War II.

And the scientific trench system and complete war fortifications are the nemesis of crowd tactics.

However, the most regrettable thing is that because of the serious shortage of cement and the lack of time, the entire division position, except for the machine fortress and the command bunker, is made of earth and stone fortifications.

"The level of construction of the position still can't catch up with a few main forces, it's a little worse." After looking around, Zhuge Sheng stood in front of a machine gun fortress made of large pieces of hard stone and cement and said with emotion. "The vanguard of the British will arrive at noon, and the early confrontation between the two armies will buy a few more days to perfect these fortifications."

Tie Sanqian nodded. The British were not heavenly soldiers, they also needed to march, and they needed heavy troops to catch up with the main forces. The defensive line of the 2nd Division was already beginning to take shape, so the British had to find a way to break through it.

This arduous offensive and defensive battle is inevitable.

"Third child, when the battle starts, you have to pay attention to protect yourself!" Zhuge Sheng had already foreseen that the battle from tomorrow would be a fierce battle, and Tie Sanqian's old habit of running to the front line to participate in the battle, he never stopped him.

"Well, the eldest brother just needs to command the troops. The moment of truth... It's better not to be soft. ”

The meaning of Tie Sanqian's words, Zhuge Sheng couldn't hear it, he was warning himself that various situations may arise in the war, and in case of unforeseen circumstances, the battle team will be the most direct means.

After all, this is not the previous main division, but the reserve division, the Dian army, and the Gui army, a garrison division composed of three types of troops, and no one dares to pat their chests to guarantee that absolutely no one will run away without permission. Although, this did not happen in the battle of Dumb Mountain in front, but it was a desperate battle, which surprised Zhuge Sheng and the others.

―――――――― arrived at noon, and the soldiers, who had just finished their marching meals, were once again in their places, and the commanders of the battalions and regiments had received orders from their superiors that the enemy's vanguard would arrive in half an hour, and ordered the units in charge of the first line of defense to be ready for a head-on attack.

A very wiped and wiped Makqin heavy machine gun was once again hit by the soldiers, trying to change the angle of fire, the deputy shooter next to him was checking the ammunition supply belt and the reserve ammunition supply belt, because he did not have time to replace the new CH24 new machine gun, and the special cooling water for the Maxim machine gun had been placed next to it.

One mortar after another was adjusted by the gunners to shoot Zhu Yuan, and when the order was given, the shells would fly to the forward position that had already been marked.

One by one, the soldiers clenched the steel guns in their hands, checked the bullets and grenades, adjusted the rulers, and aimed at the front of the position at three points and one line.

The artillery regiment in the rear is a major feature of the Second Division, as a garrison division, because it is necessary to form artillery to support firepower, Zhang Shusheng waved his pen and approved artillery for each division.

Unlike machine guns, the heavy machine guns were not replaced because the existing Makqin heavy machine guns were completely adapted to combat needs, and the artillery, which was originally a blank one, was naturally newly formed.

Although the financial resources of the three provinces are used to jointly govern the government, although the expenditure is huge, it is still possible to form an artillery regiment for a few divisions. After all, this is not the intensity of attrition in a big war, an artillery regiment of a division is only more than 30 guns, and a total of several garrison divisions do not need too many two or three hundred guns. Not to mention the large-caliber heavy artillery in stock, even the newly built infantry artillery factory can produce it in half a year. Today's southwest is no longer the poor and white militia of a few years ago.

However, before the battle, Zhuge Sheng gave a special order to the artillery regiment to fire with all its strength if necessary, and also let the British taste the crying and shouting of their mothers by the 105mm field artillery of the division.

Half an hour later, the Indian Division, the vanguard of the British, finally arrived in front of the Mengmao Town defensive line, which was somewhat different from the estimate of the Second Division, and they did not even launch a rash attack, but only put on an offensive posture. Zhuge Sheng, who got the news, if he hadn't known that the fourth division, the main force of the British two kilometers behind, almost couldn't help but attack with the whole division and give this Indian division a meat dish.

"Oh God, Carmen, is this what you call the cowardly, hasty squadron [***]?"

Major General Knox, the commander-in-chief of the Sino-British War and the commander of the British Fourth Division, angrily put down his binoculars, eager to kick the coward's ass on the spot, and in order to cover up his defeat, he reported his battlefield intelligence as follows: A regiment's squadron [***] shamefully ambushed him at the Dumb Pass, killed a large number of cowardly Indian idiots, and fled in a hurry with a large number of casualties.

In fact, he was in the Dumb Pass at the time, and he didn't even see a single corpse, although the battle was really fierce. I believed him for the time being.

But when Major General Knox saw the well-constructed position in the distance, he understood that the other side was not cowardly fleeing, but was waiting for them here.

From the telescope, you can see the bunkers one by one, as well as the perfect fortifications built on the terrain, is all this really done by the Chinese?

Well, although this country has produced many great military strategists, it is a poor, backward, ignorant, dirty, and cowardly who cannot even produce pistols, and there is not a single military strategist alive.

How would they have constructed such a well-developed scientific front?

Knox, who had experienced World War I, could not figure out at all why even the Chinese would construct such defensive positions that only appeared on the European battlefield.

Is it a vile and filthy German? Could it be that there are Germans in the [***] team opposite?

Right! It must be like this, the Germans have started to be restless again all these years, they must have colluded with that damn Zhang Shusheng, it was they who sold him weapons, it was they who sold him machines and technology, so that they brought themselves to this damn place.

Of course, Major General Noske is still very happy to be here, because it means that he will have a vigorous victory. He had even foreseen himself becoming a hero to the whole of Britain, and it was he, General Nosk, who led an expedition to defeat the filthy Chinese [***] lord Zhang Shusheng, execute a righteous trial, and bring justice back to the British and the damned Indians.

During the First World War, he was born at the wrong time, just a poor deputy regiment commander, with empty ambitions, but no place to work hard. Perhaps this time, when he returned to England with great feats, everything would be a reason for envy and envy: promotions, titles, royal summons from His Majesty George V...... "Dear General Knox, Chinese army is very cunning, especially their commander, very talented, except for the fierce artillery, he has broken all my offensive arrangements. "Major Carmen, though exculpating himself, also told the truth. In fact, he was really able to think that there was a regiment of troops on the opposite side, because no matter how he attacked, there would always be a steady stream of troops on the hill to stop him.

Perhaps they are using a regiment to play with one of their own battalions, and their own battalion is regarded as the object of military training. This is Major Carmen's understanding. Of course, when it is explained, it becomes that although the Chinese are cunning, the soldiers are very poor, and it takes a regiment to block the fierce attack of one of their own battalions.

"Carmen, I will give you a regiment of brave Indian soldiers, and it is up to you to organize the first attack." Although I look down on the Chinese on the other side very much, and I don't believe that the Germans can turn waste into strong soldiers, but they have fought with the Germans on the battlefield, what are the Chinese?

However, the tentative surname attack is still needed, in Knox's opinion, as long as the tentative surname attack is effective, he will launch a general attack in the next two days, level Ruili in one fell swoop, and then go straight to Kunming.

"Damn China, it's just too big. It is really unimaginable that a province, from Ruili to Kunming, is hundreds of kilometers. The battle must be resolved in a hurry. ”

If China were only as big as Germany, he would be sure to crush the whole of China within a few days.

Knox temporarily stripped the guy who had long been disappointing him from the position of regimental commander and handed it over to Major Carmen, who had "successfully fought with a regiment", to take temporary command.

The mountain artillery unit that had arrived in the early stage had little need to make any extra preparations, and began to roar violently at four o'clock in the afternoon. Dense mountain artillery shells, not like money, smashed into the positions of the Chinese on the opposite side.

"Shelling, concealment!!"

The concise and clear orders were shouted out by the platoon commanders of each company, and for a while it seemed that even the distant artillery sound was masked. Bending over and hooking their bodies, the soldiers quickly hid in the anti-artillery holes, leaving only the battlefield observers and command bunkers to stare at the movement in front of the position.

The shelling, which lasted for 10 minutes, caused serious damage to the first line of defense of the Southwest Army, and the dense shells even forcibly blew up a lot of barbed wire, and the first line of defense that was bombarded by concentrated artillery was blown up everywhere by shells.

"The enemy is attacking, hurry, hurry!!"

Amid the shouts of the company platoon commander, the soldiers came out of their bunkers one after another and took their positions, except for minor losses, the result of the shelling was nothing more than the devastation and the smell of gunpowder smoke that permeated the entire battlefield.

When the Indians, who had been sternly warned, roared and launched a charge, they did not know that on the opposite side of the gunsmoke-filled position, the soldiers of the Southwest Army had been waiting for a long time.

When the first anti-infantry broadsword mine of the chain mine array was stepped on by the Indians, Tie Sanqian, who was on the front line, immediately picked up the battlefield phone next to him and almost shouted and gave the order.

"Fire!!"

(To be continued)