The speed of the march of the troops is based on the slowest of them. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This is true for both the army and the navy, as in the case of the 103rd Brigade, when it was still thirty kilometers away from Ulan-Ude, it bypassed the "road" according to the plan and attacked Ulan-Ude along the railway from the other direction, although the 103rd Brigade was supported by more than 100 trucks for loading ammunition and towing artillery, but their marching degree could only be based on the speed of infantry units, which mostly relied on foot, and according to the marching regulations, they often marched at 4-5 kilometers per hour, the forced march is 10 kilometers per day, and the forced march is 50 kilometers per day to form gradually.

In the Northeast Army, forced marching on foot has always been a compulsory training subject for soldiers, and every day when you open your eyes, it is a five-kilometer armed cross-country, which is a compulsory course for the army.

According to Tang Haoran, who formulated this rule, the long-distance forced march on foot is a test of the soldier's will, which can eliminate those soldiers who are not strong enough, and it is based on this point of view that long-distance forced march is an indispensable subject in the training and basic training of new recruits. In particular, the forced march of enlistment training can eliminate about 20% of the untrained recruits every time, but because of this, the Northeast Army can proudly claim one point without hesitation - Lao Tzu's march is the best in the world.

And now, the 103rd Brigade, like his brothers, is interpreting that they are worthy of the name of the first in the army.

From 4 o'clock in the morning, nearly 10,000 officers and men of the 103rd Brigade marched non-stop towards Ulan-Ude, and by this time, they had broken away from the main force. The reason why they are here. It was to attack Ulan-Ude from the flanks. Now they've been marching for four hours, and they've even captured a train station along the way, and everyone from officers to soldiers is gasping for air. However, the will honed by countless forced march training still makes them grit their teeth and persist, and the long-distance forced march tests the will and competes in the quality.

At this time, Wu Qianli felt the sweat on his forehead and couldn't open his eyes, he wiped the sweat with the towel around his neck, and as soon as he wiped off the sweat, he saw his deputy battalion commander, the same appearance - he was carrying a backpack, a satchel, a pistol, a kettle, a small shovel, a command flag, a telescope and other full equipment. In addition, he had two rifles hanging from his body, and he carried a heavy machine gun mount on his shoulder.

It's hard to think that the deputy battalion commander, who looks polite and polite, can really "carry" like a camel at this time! At this time, several stragglers rushed to his side and embarrassedly took the weapons that belonged to them from his body. The officers and men of the battalion looked as if they had just been fished out of the river - sweat soaked everyone's uniforms.

"It's really tired......

As a machine gunner, Ding Yunjie should probably be glad that he was carrying a light machine gun. Instead of the Type 95 heavy machine gun, the Type 99 LMG is actually a lighter version of the Type 95 heavy machine gun, with a lighter barrel and a 30-round magazine, which is much lighter than the Type 95 heavy machine gun, which weighs up to 13.5 kg.

In fact, there is not much difference between this Type 99 light machine gun and the Type 95 heavy machine gun. It can likewise use the nine-five-style 100-round drum, even if necessary. It can also be used as a heavy machine gun with a tripod, but its lighter barrel allows it to change the barrel every 200 rounds fired, while the ten-kilogram light machine gun is more flexible for front-line troops.

And this kind of light machine gun finalized last year was not until this year, after summing up the experience of the Battle of Vladivostok, it was determined that it was the standard equipment of the infantry squad, according to the newly promulgated standard, each infantry squad should be equipped with a light machine gun, but in fact, limited by the production of only a very small number of troops can meet this standard, and the 103 brigade, each infantry platoon has two light machine guns, and correspondingly, the heavy machine guns have been reduced from five to three at the beginning.

Even so, the 103rd Brigade, like other fraternal units, still has the epoch-making firepower of this era.

However, as a machine gunner, Ding Yunjie didn't think so much, for him, he was contending with heavy machine guns, and the forcible march that lasted for four hours had seriously overdrawn his physical strength, and even, they also threw away non-essential combat materials such as blankets and raincoats, just to be able to arrive in Ulan-Ude within the agreed time and attack the defenders.

Listening to the heavy wheezing sound of his comrades-in-arms around him, Ding Yunjie, who was out of breath, began to use the magic weapon that he had been training in forced marches all the time - the method of attention transfer and fantasy. Slowly, his mind began to come back home. He imagined the apples in the apple tree at home, and the sweet date cake...... Thinking about all this, he only felt that the legs filled with lead would seem to be lighter again.

"Order the troops to rest for twenty minutes!"

Wu Peifu, who was sitting in the ground car, looked at these officers and soldiers who seemed to have been fished out of the water, and said to the chief of staff beside him.

At the sound of the order, the troops who had been jogging immediately stopped, and then the soldiers sat on the grass on both sides of the railway, took out the water bottle from their waists, drank it heavily, and after drinking the water, they took off their shoes and socks and checked their feet. At this time, the busiest people are the various company and platoon hygienists, who carry medicine boxes on their backs to check the soles of their feet for the soldiers who need them, and help them pick up blood blisters and bleed, which is the lightest and will not affect the march, as for some soldiers with cracked soles of feet, they can go to the car to rest for a while.

"Gollum, Gollum......"

After gulping down the water in the kettle, Ding Yunjie felt that his throat like fire would be more comfortable, and after a long sigh of relief, he raised his swollen legs, and after saying hello to the deputy shooter next to him, he carried three or four kettles to the nearby creek to fetch water, which was full of soldiers with water.

While the soldiers were loading water, Wu Peifu looked at the map with a serious expression, and the map was spread out on the hood of the car by him.

"Again, we are only 7.5 kilometers away from Ulan-Ude!"

It's close!

"Well, though, the Russians don't seem to be reacting yet......"

As he spoke, he deliberately looked in the direction of Ulan-Ude. Now he couldn't help but be curious. Curious about the opponents they have never met. Didn't they find the Northeast Army persecuted from multiple directions until now?

Really didn't find out!

In the early morning, Ulan-Ude is as calm as ever, and the people of the city are trying to enjoy this beautiful sunny day as in the past.

May 18, it's a Sunday.

The women were preparing breakfast for their families and thinking about what they should wear when they went to church, for those in the back. War seems to be a distant thing, both for civilians and for the soldiers, who also do not feel the danger.

As usual, when Colonel Nikolaev woke up, the first thing he did was not to care about the affairs of the infantry brigade, but to ask about his own letters, whether his wife had sent new letters, and it seemed to him that there was nothing more important to him than to get a letter from his wife.

But it turned out to be disappointing, and no letter came. After a moment of disappointment, of course. Again, as usual, after a brief freshening-up, he went to the officers' canteen, in fact, a simple wooden house, where the officers of the 13th Brigade of Western Siberia gathered together and enjoyed breakfast as usual.

Compared to ordinary soldiers, the breakfast of the officers was undoubtedly extremely rich, except for the black bread, which was no different from the ordinary soldiers, they also had eggs, milk, red sausages and other meals, which was the prerogative of the officers.

At the breakfast enjoyed by the officers, they naturally talked about the war, for them, the war hundreds of kilometers away seemed to be extremely distant, in fact, in this era, this is a very common thing, in this era, the front line more than ten kilometers away can be called the "rear", then hundreds of kilometers away, is simply the rear, just like in Ulan-Ude, although they are in the middle of the war, but the troops stationed here, as in peacetime, still "live" in peacetime.

Although improvised fortifications were built near the barracks, in reality, both officers and soldiers alike, stubbornly believed in the fact that the enemy was too far away.

While enjoying breakfast, they talked about the war and cheered for the victory at the front, as if for them this was the only way they could intervene in the war.

"Gentlemen, let's toast to yesterday's victory!"

At the suggestion of Major Yedakov, the crowd once again toasted Kuropatkin's victory, not vodka, of course, but black tea.

"I believe that if everything goes well, we will soon be able to thwart the attack of the Chinese!"

Yes, no one will doubt this, until now, the Chinese have not been able to cross the Shikle River, as if it was a natural obstacle that blocked the Chinese from advancing.

"What do you think, Sir?"

When the subordinate threw the question, Colonel Nikolaev was silent for a moment, and then spoke slowly.

"Now, Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, you have successfully blocked the Chinese's offensive, you know, this is not an easy thing, after all, the railway in the Chinese is very close to the front line, and the logistics on the side of Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief are very difficult......"

Logistics, which is precisely the key to restraining both, in the process of retreating, the Russian army destroyed the railway, which brought certain trouble to the Chinese, but for Kuropatkin, he also faced the same difficulties - his supplies needed to be transferred from Irkutsk through Lake Baikal and Ulan-Ude, but the unfinished railway was not only the Circum-Baikal line, the Ulan-Ude to Chita railway, there was also a section of the railway that was not completed.

"I think that after overcoming logistical problems, soon, we will be able to launch a counteroffensive against the Chinese!"

It was not easy to overcome the logistical problems, but since the outbreak of the war, the railway engineers have been working hard, and there is a backlog of tens of thousands of tons of supplies in Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, and it is only necessary to wait until the railway is fully built and the front line will have enough supplies, and then no one will be able to stop the Far Eastern Army.

At least, for this, Senior Colonel Nikolaev can be said to be convinced.

"Sir, if that's the case, when will we get to the front?"

Yedakov's question made everyone aim at Colonel Nikolaev.

"Yes, Your Excellency, if we stay here, the war may soon be over."

It seems that for them, before the end of the war, going to the front line is the last chance to fight for honor, of course, this is also because Kuropatkin successfully disintegrated the Chinese offensive, although the impact of the airship disaster has not been eliminated, but now at least no one will doubt that Russia can defeat the Chinese, at least the unstoppable momentum at the beginning of the war, has been successfully blocked.

"Soon, gentlemen, soon, we will ......"

Before Colonel Nikolaev could finish speaking, a herald suddenly burst into the dining room in a hurry.

"Your Excellency Colonel, the command orders your troops to enter positions immediately!"

"What? Whose order is this? ”

Colonel Nikolaev looked at the herald officer sent by the headquarters in astonishment.

"It's an order from Your Excellency the General! Your Excellency, Chinese has now come to ......"

Before the herald could finish speaking, an explosion came, not from a distance, but directly from the barracks, and the dense shells fell directly near the barracks.

What's going on?

In the smoke of the shells, Colonel Nikolaev, who rushed out of the restaurant, looked in surprise at the panicked soldiers in the barracks.

"It's not an airship, it's an artillery bombardment!"

The instinct of the servicemen made Nikolaev judge from the whistling of shells that this was by no means some airship bombardment! It's the artillery that is shelling them!

But when did the Chinese get here?

"Sir, the Chinese are attacking us?"

Just when Nikolaev was surprised at how the Chinese had suddenly come to Ulan-Ude, an officer brought a new news in horror that Chinese had appeared outside the barracks, and they were attacking the barracks under the cover of artillery.

Now Nikolaev doesn't even need to pick up a telescope to see the Chinese - on the half-human grass, groups of Chinese soldiers are approaching the camp in a line of skirmishers, and the soldiers are desperately shooting at the edge of the barracks, trying to stop the Chinese's attack.

Where did these enemies come from? Did they fly over too? (To be continued.) )