After learning that the Caucasian Front had actually used the Chinese expeditionary force that had just arrived in Armenia alone, the generals of the Turkish army in front of them saw this as an opportunity.

Although the Ottoman Turks also had the title of the sick man of Europe in Europe, this did not prevent the Turks from seeing the Chinese expeditionary force as a weak and bully opponent. Quite a few Turkish generals, including the commander of the Turkish army, Abdulla Kerim, almost regarded the line of defense that the expeditionary force was responsible for as a breach.

Of course, not every Turkish officer is like this, but what these Turkish officers suspect is not the combat effectiveness of the Chinese expeditionary force, but whether the Russians are doing this some kind of conspiracy?

You must know that in the past period of time, Yudenrich has shown a very high military quality. A mistake like the one now, in the opinion of some Turkish officers, should not have appeared.

Therefore, many Turkish officers wondered, could this be a trap? Or are those squadrons in front of them actually pretending to be Russians?

After such an idea was proposed, Abdullah Kerim was also taken aback.

After all, his predecessor Sier, because of the defeat in the battle of Salkamers, gave up his command and returned to Constantinople to stand trial, and it was because of this that he was able to serve as the new commander of the Turkish army.

And now, if there is another defeat like the battle of Salkammish, I am afraid that he will have to return to Constantinople with his predecessor to be punished, Abdullah Kerim has become much more cautious at this point.

After receiving the proposal of the officers, Abdullah Kerim even sent a number of scouts to reconnoitre, until it was confirmed that the opposite side was indeed the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

The results of the investigation after the incident showed that the army in front of him was indeed a Chinese expeditionary force, which made Abdullah Kerim breathe a sigh of relief and at the same time became much more embarrassed. After all, although Ottoman Turkey also has the title of "Europe's sick man", this does not mean that they can afford China.

As a European country, although the Ottoman Turks were the weakest of the great powers, it did not mean that they did not have the arrogance of being a European country. And as the commander of the Turkish army, he actually attaches so much importance to a weak yellow country, which obviously makes Abdullah Kerim unhappy...

As a result of his embarrassment, Abdullah Kerim ignored the dissuasion of the officers around him and insisted on using the opposite squadron as a breakthrough.

Of course, Abdullah Kerim also had his own reasons when he made this decision.

"What if it's a conspiracy of the Russians? Since it is not the Russian [***] team on the opposite side, as long as we break through the defense line before the Russian [***] team makes a move? Could it be that our brave Turkish warriors could not break through the line of a yellow army? ”

This remark was supported by many Turkish generals in the headquarters, and in their opinion, even if there was any conspiracy, it would be enough to take the line of defense in charge of the central [***] team before the Russians arrived.

The Turks are clearly confident that they will be able to achieve this goal.

Seeing that their colleagues were like this, the Turks who dissuaded them in the end also kept silent.

Because in fact, the vast majority of these dissuaded Turks also look down on the [***] team, and they are so cautious only because there is a Russian [***] team next to the expeditionary force, in other words, they are only guarding against the Russian [***] team.

And now that Abdullah Kerim has said so, it is clear that they can only follow orders...

(After the defeat at the Battle of Salkammish, the then commander of the Turkish army, Sier, returned to Constantinople and was replaced by Abdulla Kerim.) As for the Russian army, adjustments were also made, and Vorontsov, who led the Russian army to victory, was replaced by Yudenrich, because Vorontsov did not pursue the victory after the defeat of the Turkish army, and for this reason Vorontsov was replaced by Yudenrich, who had a more active surname. ）

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After the engineer battalion under the infantry division had already started to build the fortifications with sappers, shovels and other tools together with the infantry in the division, Jiang Baili also began to discuss some deployment issues with his subordinates.

As for the controversy that took place in the Turkish military headquarters, Jiang Baili did not know, and he was not interested in knowing. Because the task of the Chinese expeditionary force in this battle was only to defend within the defense line and resist the attack of the Turkish army.

As for the follow-up counterattack and other matters, it is for the Caucasian Front to consider.

“……… How are the machine guns and other firing points arranged?! ”

In the fortifications that were under construction and were about to be completed, looking at the sappers and ordinary soldiers who were still busy, Jiang Baili asked Zhang Shaozeng beside him.

At this time, the senior Chinese generals in Armenia, in addition to Jiang Baili himself, were only lieutenant generals and major generals such as Zhang Shaozeng. Therefore, Jiang Baili needs to rely on these people for many things in Armenia, not to mention that the three infantry divisions in Armenia now are almost all their old troops.

After listening to Cai Yi's question, Zhang Shaozeng and others hurriedly replied.

"Please rest assured, Commander, everything has been arranged."

When he said this, Zhang Shaozeng and the others had some pride on their faces.

If you take the initiative to attack, let's not mention whether you can win for the time being, anyway, the casualties will definitely be not small, but if it is defense...

Before the Battle of the Somme, if there was any country that paid the most attention to the use of machine guns, it was definitely China. As with the Air Force, almost all of the Wehrmacht's infantry divisions were armed with a large number of machine guns.

For example, in the A and B infantry divisions in China, each squad will be equipped with a Madsen light machine gun, and the whole division will be equipped with a total of 432 Madsen machine guns. As for the more important Makqin heavy machine guns, each regiment will be equipped with a heavy machine gun company, a company of 6 guns, plus the heavy machine gun battalion directly under the division headquarters, the whole division has a total of 48 Makqin heavy machine guns.

In other words, an infantry division can be rationed a total of 480 light and heavy machine guns.

After the Battle of the Somme, the great powers began to pay attention to the use of machine guns, and by the end of the European War, Britain and Germany were only equipped with 400 (including 336 light machine guns) and 324 (including 216 light machine guns).

As for France and the United States, the former is armed with 684 (including 576 light machine guns), and the latter is armed with 1,000 (including 775 light machine guns――――――).

Although the Great Powers were armed with so many machine guns at the end of the European War, the Battle of the Somme had not yet begun. Therefore, although the great powers have loved to attach importance to machine guns, the number of machine gun equipment of the great powers is still too small. Seriously, only Germany has more numbers, after all, it was Germany that first paid attention to machine guns in history, but even then it was still less than the Wehrmacht.

And as I just said, each division is equipped with 480 machine guns, and it is only the domestic infantry divisions.

After all, after the end of the Shandong Campaign, the atmosphere in the country is quite peaceful now, and there is no need to worry about other problems at all. However, for the Chinese Expeditionary Force, in order to enable the officers and men of the Expeditionary Force to successfully complete the war in the Caucasus, although they could not use their brains on the issue of artillery (relying on a Siberian railway alone, there would be problems with logistics if there were too many artillery), Yan Guang used a lot of brains on machine guns.

Therefore, the three infantry divisions that were finally formed into an expeditionary force and rushed to the Caucasian theater were reinforced in terms of machine guns. Of course, light machine guns are enough for now, so in the end only heavy machine guns are strengthened.

Originally, in the Wehrmacht, a regiment was attached to a heavy machine gun company, and four heavy machine gun companies were in the heavy machine gun battalion of the division headquarters, with a total of 48 Maxim heavy machine guns.

However, before the expeditionary force took the train to Europe, Yan Guang changed the number of heavy machine guns.

What was originally a heavy machine gun company attached to a regiment became a regiment attached to a heavy machine gun battalion. The four heavy machine-gun battalions of the four infantry regiments combined for a total of 96 Maxim heavy machine guns, plus a heavy machine-gun battalion at the division headquarters, for a total of 120 heavy machine guns in the division.

Combined with the 432 light machine guns originally equipped, the reinforced infantry division was equipped with a total of 552 light and heavy machine guns, a level that was second only to the United States and France even at the end of the European War―――――― although it is now second only to them.

In fact, Yan Guang also thought about changing the number of machine guns in all Class A infantry divisions. Changed the number of light machine guns in each squad from one to two. At the same time, in the case of one heavy machine-gun battalion per regiment, the divisional heavy machine-gun battalion was changed to a heavy machine-gun regiment.

As a result, a Class A infantry division would have a staggering 1,010 machine guns, 10 more than the number of machine guns at the end of the European War.

It's a pity that in recent times, although China's industrial strength has made amazing progress, steel production is about to reach a record of 2 million tons per year. However, this figure is nothing compared to the United States, because the steel production of the United States during the same period has almost reached 33 million―――――― this figure is nearly 10 million higher than the combined output of the five powers of Britain, Germany, France and Russia...

That is, each infantry division is equipped with 1,000 machine guns, and the Americans have this capital, but Yan Guang does not.

So far, this plan has only been a plan, and so far it has only been possible to equip the expeditionary force with some heavy machine guns. In the future, it is to prepare to realize the plan, and it can only be realized for the elite who join the expeditionary force, or the domestic Class A infantry division, but those Type B infantry divisions that occupy the majority do not need to think about it...

If before the Battle of the Somme, European and American military strategists of this era paid the most attention to artillery firepower, then as China's leading military strategists, after experiencing the Shandong Campaign, Jiang Baili and Cai Ye knew very well that in the future, it would not only be the number of artillery that would determine the victory or defeat of the land, but also the machine guns.

Therefore, Yan Guang strengthened the machine gun for the expeditionary force, and Jiang Baili and Cai Ye also made a lot of efforts in it.

Therefore, looking at the 552 light and heavy machine guns in each division and the 1,656 light and heavy machine guns in the whole army, although Jiang Baili was very cautious, he was not worried about the outcome of this battle.

"More than 1,600 machine guns can definitely guarantee the smooth success of this battle."

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Jiang Baili and others were preparing, and the Turks on the opposite side were also preparing.

It's just that maybe it's really because of the low quality of the Turkish army, so although the Turks think they are very secretive, they are still clearly seen by Jiang Baili and others.

"The Turks are going to do it..."

Looking at the Turks who had long been exposed clearly but unconsciously, in the forward command of the Caucasian Front, Jiang Baili put down his binoculars and smiled at Nikolai and Yudenrichy beside him.

And hearing Jiang Baili's words, Nikolai and Yudenrich also laughed.

Just two days ago, the defensive line for which the expeditionary force was responsible had been completed.

On the day of the completion of the construction, Nikolai and Yudenrich both went to the line of defense in charge of the expeditionary force to see it, and the results made Nikolai and Yudenrichie and others quite satisfied. Because the fortifications built by the expeditionary force seemed to Nikolai and others to be seamless, even if they wanted to add something, they couldn't add anything.

Of course, there is also something strange about Nikolai in the camp of the expeditionary force, that is, the many light and heavy machine guns that the expeditionary force has, Nikolai and Yudenrich, as well as the accompanying Russian generals, secretly do not know what these Chinese are equipped with so many machine guns.

It's just that Nikolai and Yudenrich, two people, looked thoughtfully at the many machine guns on the defensive line.

Jiang Baili just smiled at Nikolai and Yudenrich's thoughtful looks, but said nothing. Although the machine gun was shown so early, it is likely to inspire the Russian army, and even the Germans on the opposite side (there are also many Germans in the Turkish army, for example, the Battle of the Dardanelles was commanded by the Germans, and the Turks only contributed below).

But unless Jiang Baili is not ready to take out the machine gun and use it, otherwise, this kind of thing can't be hidden if he wants to, since this is the case, it is better to show it generously, anyway, Jiang Baili is not afraid of anything.

And although the machine gun did play a major role in the Shandong Campaign, and it also brought great casualties to the Yue army, it was only that time after all, and Jiang Baili also needed to improve his thinking on the application of machine guns on the Caucasian battlefield.

And it is clear that the 100,000 Turkish troops on the opposite side are a good object ...

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The poor organization of the Turkish army is indeed not a slander of others.

Because after arriving at the front line of Van City, the Turks actually spent nearly a week to prepare.

And when they were ready, like the armies of many great powers of this era, the Turks started with artillery fire. It's just that at any one time, Turkey is not known for its industrial prowess, even a hundred years later.

Therefore, the Turkish army is equipped with almost less artillery than the Russian army.

You must know that the Russian army is already one of the very few artillery pieces among the great powers, and it is estimated that it can be less than that of Russia.

Moreover, the artillery units of the Turkish army, not only in terms of the number of artillery, but also in terms of accuracy, are also very poor.

Therefore, at the beginning of the war, although the Turks also fired a lot of artillery, very few of them were able to accurately hit the positions of the expeditionary force. Fortunately, gradually, the Turkish artillery also corrected the landing point provided by the scouts on the hot air balloon, which also made the accuracy of the Turkish artillery much better, otherwise I am afraid that the Wehrmacht officers and soldiers in the position would have to come out of the fortifications to see the Turks release their empty guns.

Although the Turkish artillery fired a lot of artillery, because the accuracy of the Turkish artillery was too poor, and the caliber of the artillery equipped by the Turkish artillery was somewhat small, the Turkish artillery did not cause much damage to the Wehrmacht.

It was at this time that the artillery units of the Russian army and the Wehrmacht also moved.

In the past, the artillery units of the Russian army and the artillery units of Turkey were originally half a pound and eight taels in terms of strength, but because of the arrival of the Wehrmacht, plus more than 200 artillery pieces of various calibers from the three artillery regiments of the Wehrmacht, the artillery units of the coalition forces had just opened fire, and the artillery of the Turkish army had already been suppressed.

In particular, the artillery of the Wehrmacht, after the Shandong Campaign, as well as the artillery skills trained with live ammunition in the past, made the Wehrmacht's performance very amazing, especially in terms of accuracy, which made the Russian officers in the headquarters look sideways.

Although the quality of the artillery of the Wehrmacht is still a little different from that of Britain, Germany and France, it is more than one head higher than that of the Russian army...

It's just that although the Russian generals were secretly worried about the quality of the Wehrmacht artillery, Nikolai and Yudenrich still hurriedly sent people to Jiang Baili and asked Jiang Baili to order the artillery to cease fire quickly. Not for anything else, but if the Turks were to be frightened, I am afraid that the Turks might not attack the Wehrmacht positions as planned.

Jiang Baili also thought deeply of the words of Nikolai and others, and to be honest, he did not expect that the artillery of the Turks would be wasted to this point. Therefore, Jiang Baili hurriedly ordered his subordinate artillery to cease fire, so as not to frighten the Turks.

And after the Wehrmacht artillery ceased fire, the Turkish artillery and the Russian artillery soon entered the process of going back and forth, but because of the reason just now, the Turkish artillery suffered some losses and inevitably fell into the disadvantage in the artillery battle.

Fortunately, the artillery battle only lasted less than an hour before it stopped, and after the artillery battle stopped, the Turkish generals, who had already fallen into the disadvantage because of the artillery battle, hurriedly ordered the troops to launch an attack on the defensive line on the periphery of Van City, and the focus of it was the defense line that the Wehrmacht was responsible for...

Seeing that the Turks really used themselves as a breakthrough as they thought, Jiang Baili had a smile on his face. After smiling, Jiang Baili hurriedly gave an order to the generals below, ordering them to wait until the Turks approached before firing. After all, there are now more than 1,000 machine guns on the defensive line, and the scene of more than 1,000 machine guns firing at the same time has never even seen Jiang Baili himself. If the Turks had been scared before they could post it, then the rest of the battle would not have continued.

The generals below also acted according to Jiang Baili's order after receiving it.

The machine gunners and others all waited for their time, and only ordinary infantry were allowed to return fire with rifles.

However, it was just an ordinary rifle, which caused a lot of casualties to the Turkish army, especially after entering the range of 300 meters, the Turkish army, which concentrated 30,000 troops and was ready to break through the defense line of the expeditionary force in one shot, soon paid hundreds of casualties under the guns of the officers and men of the expedition.

It's just a few hundred casualties, which is nothing to the Turks who poured in, because a few hundred casualties are simply not worth mentioning to 30,000 Turkish troops. Such casualties stimulated the Turkish army, especially after entering the distance of the charge, the Turkish soldiers accelerated their pace...

"300 meters...... 290 m ...... 280 m ...... 270 m ...... 260 m ...... 250 meters..."

Looking at the first batch of Turkish troops rushing up with a telescope, Jiang Baili has been silently counting the distance between the two sides, and waited until the Turkish army entered the distance of 250 meters, Jiang Baili hurriedly grabbed the microphone on the side and said loudly to Zhang Shaozeng and others, who had been waiting for a long time.

"The units opened fire at will!!"

Through the microphone, Jiang Baili's order was transmitted to all corners of the defense line, and with Jiang Baili's order, more than 1,600 light and heavy machine guns that had been hidden for a long time opened fire together, and a series of tongues of fire from the muzzle of the machine guns swept down the Turkish troops that poured up.

In just an instant, the Turks, who were in an extremely dense formation, had already paid three or four thousand casualties, and under the rage of more than 1,600 light and heavy machine guns, the casualties of the Turks continued to increase.

Not to mention the more than 1,600 machine guns, as well as sniper rifles, mortars, infantry guns, grenade launchers and many other culprits. So in just five or six minutes, the Turkish army that had been used had been crushed by the expeditionary force on the defensive line.

It was just when the charge was just under the way, due to the weakness of the expeditionary force, the Turkish army that poured up had already entered an extremely close distance of 250 meters. And at this distance, in the face of dense fire composed of more than 1,600 machine guns, the charge is naturally self-defeating, but retreat is also a dead end...

For a time, the Turkish troops, which were only more than 20,000 people left, were in a predicament, and there was also chaos in the Turkish army headquarters in the rear, especially the commander of the Turkish army, Kerim, after seeing the attacking troops lying down three or four thousand people in an instant, he fainted directly because of the smooth attack, which made the already chaotic headquarters even more chaotic.

It's just that at this time, the Sino-Russian coalition forces on the opposite side will not take care of the emotions of the Turks.

After seeing that the Turks fell three or four thousand people in an instant, Nikolai and other Russian generals were naturally extremely shocked, but Nikolai and Yudenrichie were not ordinary generals after all, and recovered after a while, and contacted Jiang Baili after recovering, Nikolai congratulated Jiang Baili in the microphone, and also hoped that Jiang Baili could order the machine gunners on the defensive line to stop firing after 20 minutes.

Because in 20 minutes, Nikolai and Yudenrichi will send the Cossack cavalry, who had done well in the battle of Salkamish, to eat all the remaining 20,000 Turkish troops in front of them―――――― although according to the current situation, they do not know how many Turks will be left on the battlefield after 20 minutes.

Jiang Baili naturally had no doubts about the proposal of Nikolai and others, because this was a plan that had already been formulated. Although compared to the planned time, it is obviously a little earlier.

Twenty minutes later, it seemed that there were less than 20,000 remaining in the Turkish army, which was still intact on the battlefield. However, just when the Turkish soldiers on the battlefield were in despair, the machine guns that were like devilish flames suddenly stopped firing.

Allah testified that when the machine guns stopped firing, the Turks on the battlefield felt as if even the gray sky had become much clearer.

But before the remaining Turks could continue to thank Allah, there was already a shock on the ground, and in a short time, nearly 20,000 Cossack cavalry had appeared on their flanks ...

"Allah, have you forsaken us..."

Looking at the Cossack cavalry that appeared, a Turkish general, who had lost his officer's command sword, muttered in despair.

(To be continued)