In the early days, the Feng army attached the most importance to the 80mm mortar, believing that the gun could effectively serve as a battalion and regimental support artillery, supplementing the lack of the number of barreled artillery.

This period was roughly before the first half of the Russo-Japanese War, that is, before 1905, and the focus of mortar development in the Feng army was mainly inclined to 80 mm mortars.

However, in the course of the Russo-Japanese War, with the large number of heavy machine guns installed by various countries and warlords, the Feng army put anti-machine gun operations on the number one development agenda, and the specific table is that in just one year, the number of 60 mm mortars in the Feng army increased significantly, while the original 80 mm mortars were originally focused on maintaining the original scale and did not expand on a large scale.

After the Battle of Tongzhou last year, although the 60-mm mortar showed anti-machine gun capability, the Feng army found itself facing the enemy's perfect trench defense system, and the existing artillery units were equipped with a large number of 75-mm guns The shelling effect on the trenches was extremely limited, far from the shelling effect required by the superior troops, because at that time, when the artillery fired a grenade, unless the shell directly hit the trench, the damage to the enemy soldiers could be said to be equal to zero, even if it was a grenade shot. But unless the character is good and the shell just hits the enemy's trench and explodes, the killing effect is limited, and the enemy is not stupid, people will not be stupid to stay in the trench and let you shell, they will enter the anti-artillery hole during the shelling, and the shelling effect of the grenade will be directly equal to zero.

In this case, the artillery unit found that the 120 mm heavy mortar is quite effective, on the one hand, the curved projectile trajectory can allow these heavy mortars to move to a closer distance to fire at the same time, effectively protect their own safety, and the second, that is, most importantly, this 120 mm mortar shell is very powerful, even if the fragments of the explosion do not directly hit the enemy, but the huge shock wave generated after the explosion can also give the enemy great damage.

Why was heavy artillery rampant on the Western Front in World War I? Because the effect of small and medium-caliber artillery on the enemy in the trench is very low, but more than 120 mm, especially 150 mm heavy artillery, even if it does not hit directly, but the shock wave can give the enemy enough damage, a shell can even directly collapse the anti-artillery hole.

Naturally, the contemporary Chinese battlefield cannot be compared with the Western Front War of World War I in history, but because of the emergence of Zhao Dongyun, the heavy machine guns began to be equipped with troops from various countries in large quantities during the Russo-Japanese War, and the number of heavy machine guns of domestic warlords is quite large, and because of the so-called trench defense theory that Zhao Dongyun came up with a few years ago, a large number of positional warfare with defensive warfare as the core appeared on the domestic battlefield.

For example, last year's Tongzhou Campaign, and now the Battle of Wuhan Three Towns in Hubei are actually very typical positional warfare, in this case, after the artillery unit found that the 120 mm heavy mortars were quite useful, the military naturally did not hesitate to increase the number of 120 mm mortars, in the past, the divisional artillery regiment had a battalion of 12 guns, but now it has increased to 1 battalion of 16 guns, and the mixed brigade also has a company of nine 120 mm heavy mortars, not only that, Today, three divisions of the Feng Army belong to heavy mortar battalions, three heavy mortar companies belonging to mixed brigades, and three independent heavy mortar battalions are equipped with more than 100 120-mm heavy mortars.

Even in order to increase the power of the existing 120-mm mortar, the military planned to load the shells of the gun with picric acid explosives to increase the explosive power.

Today, after several years of development, the mortar unit of the Feng army has been initially perfected, its tactical positioning is clear, the caliber is multi-level, and it constitutes a 60-mm mortar as a company-platoon level support firepower to hit the enemy's front-line machine gun fire points and civil fortifications; The 80-mm mortar serves as the main artillery support fire of the battalion and regimental units, supplementing the insufficient fire density of traditional artillery; The 120-mm heavy mortar acted as a large-caliber howitzer, which was lacking in the Bong army, destroying the enemy's strong lines with high-powered heavy shells.

Among the above three caliber mortars, the latter actually belongs to the jurisdiction of artillery, and 80mm mortars are mainly deployed at the battalion and regiment level, so the vast majority of the artillery support that ordinary soldiers see and can get on a daily basis is actually from 60mm mortars.

Now Li Cungao commands the two 60-millimeter mortars of the second company, which is the direct artillery support force they can obtain.

The coverage of the two 60-millimeter mortars, after firing the maximum combat rate of the mortar, filled the area where the shells landed in a short period of time with a burst of white smoke, which was the smoke from the explosives of black powder shells.

Although the direct army that had just rushed up expected to be counterattacked by the Feng army, they did not expect to be bombarded by more than 30 shells in a short period of time.

It wasn't until two minutes later that Li Cungao saw the soldiers of the direct army retreating backwards from the smoke of gunpowder.

"Good fight!" Li Cungao showed excitement: "Go to the back and get the shells up, whether you can hold it today depends on this mortar!" ”

The heavy shelling just now has almost wiped out all the shells carried by these two mortars, and if the shells are not replenished from the rear in time, it will be difficult to defend the next day.

However, on the other side of the front, several officers of the direct army wearing blue-gray military uniforms put down their binoculars with dark faces: "Who led the team, who gave him the order to retreat, this is all rushing up, why did you still retreat?" ”

Another captain also looked frightened: "Is this the 60 mm cannon of the Feng army?" I think there are at least six or more! ”

The major beside him said with a dark face: "There are six fart gates, if only six of the people who rushed up just now can come back, it would be good, and the shelling just now will be at most three, not more than four!" ”

It is not a secret that the mortars equipped by the Feng army in large quantities, especially the 60 mm mortars are well known to outsiders, Wang Shizhen even captured two of the guns during the Tongzhou Battle last year, and from last year to the present, there are a lot of the guns that have been circulated by various means and ways, so the performance of the gun is not a secret, many people know that although this mortar looks inconspicuous, but when it really fights, it is very violent, and the maximum rate of fire can easily exceed 15 rounds.

"But they hit so hard just now, it is estimated that their shells are about the same, let the fourth company rush again, they should not have too many shells!" The major gave the order decisively.

The direct army estimated well, there are not many shells for these two mortars under Li Cungao, but what the generals of the direct army did not expect is that this is Tangshan, where the Fuyuan machine qì factory is located, there is nothing else in Tangshan, but the shells and bullets are absolutely enough, otherwise Li Cungao will not let go of his hands and feet, and he will shoot out more than 30 mortar shells in a single artillery counterattack, because he has fired so many mortar shells, and the rear will send him more mortar shells.

In the afternoon and evening, the explosions and gunfire in Hanhezhuang did not stop, and the clicking of heavy machine guns and the explosion of mortars sounded from beginning to end, and the second company of the Feng army guarding Hanhezhuang faced the attack of more than one battalion of direct troops, relying on enough ammunition for one battalion to fight several large-scale battles and constantly spilling out, and finally lasted until the dawn of night.

As night fell, the guns and cannons of all fronts in Tangshan, including Hanhezhuang, stopped one after another, and night battles were rare in an era when most of the soldiers were night blind and the troops were strict and lacked night combat training.

Seeing that the sky had darkened, Han Wuduo was also secretly relieved, this day finally survived, sitting on the ammunition box in the anti-aircraft gun, Han Wuduo felt that his whole person was full of exhaustion, in the past four hours, the second company he led was attacked by more than an infantry battalion of the direct army, and the battalion was also supported by the artillery of an artillery battalion of the rear army in the early stage, and the second company of Han Wuduo was under great defensive pressure.

Towards evening, a heavy machine gun under his command was fired for too long, and the cooling water stored in advance was not enough, and the commander of the machine gun was young and nervous, and after facing the enemy's attack, he forcibly ordered the heavy machine gun lacking cooling water to continue firing, and finally the barrel of the gun was completely scrapped.

After the loss of a heavy machine gun, the pressure on the second company became even greater, but fortunately soon night came, and the opposing direct troops stopped attacking, which gave the second company a chance to breathe.

"Lieutenant Li, you first take people to repair the defense line and machine gun fortress, and I will go to the battalion headquarters to ask for another heavy machine gun, otherwise I am afraid that it will be difficult to defend tomorrow!" Han Wuduo didn't go to Li Cungao, he just went out directly after saying that, when the battle just happened in the afternoon, Li Cungao saw his cowardice in his eyes, so Han Wuduo didn't want to be embarrassed in front of his subordinates, so he left after speaking.

Li Cungao looked at Han Wuduo's departing figure, and didn't say anything, since this afternoon, this Han Wuduo can no longer gain his respect, when the war first broke out, Han Wuduo has always been in a state of panic, and almost all the first two hours of battle were commanded by Li Cungao instead of him.

This person is not a loss of the top five graduates of the infantry section of the provincial army officer school, although he has just entered the battlefield and is also the first time to command a company-level unit, but he has shown amazing tactical ability, so that although the second company was fiercely attacked by the direct army, it still blocked it.

And then after Han Wuduo calmed down, he took over the command again, but as soon as he took over the command, he issued a retreat order and asked the troops to withdraw to the second line of defense, which naturally made Li Cungao quite dissatisfied, he worked hard to command in order to hold the first line of defense for two hours, but this defensive battle was actively abandoned, how could this make him convinced.

After retreating, Li Cungao commanded the mortars to fight a successful counterattack, and when he wanted to command the infantry to reoccupy the first line of trenches, he was opposed by Han Wuduo and was forced to give up, which made Li Cungao even more dissatisfied.

When Han Wuduo went to the battalion headquarters to ask for machine gun support and ammunition support, Li Cungao also wrote today's battle report in the darkness of the night, in which he naturally unceremoniously belittled Han Wuduo as useless, and even directly asked his superiors to send another company commander over.