On the night of December 25, the night of Christmas in the West, Xiao Zhenlei was at the headquarters in Qingmiao Village when he heard the staff officer report to him the telegrams sent by the troops.

"Sun Ming and Lin Qingshu sent a telegram that they had captured Laiwu and surrendered hundreds of patrol battalions; News came from Li Yingshi's department that they had captured Pingyin at 3 p.m. today, and that Liu Chenglong's department was collecting ships to build a pontoon bridge, which was expected to be completed before dawn tomorrow, and that they could cross the Yellow River and advance to Dong'a at about 8 a.m. Huang Yingjie's department and the cavalry brigade have just passed through the Laiwu area! ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded when he heard this, the speed of these roads was planned, only the speed of the cavalry brigade was slightly slower, probably due to the drag of Huang Yingjie's department that slowed down the marching speed of the cavalry brigade, after thinking about it, Xiao Zhenlei ordered: "Give an order to the cavalry brigade, order them to speed up and go first, don't worry about Huang Yingjie's department, let them be sure to raid Zibo City before noon tomorrow, take it in one fell swoop, and then wait for Huang Yingjie's department!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The combat staff officer agreed, quickly took notes, and turned to leave.

A communications staff officer came over and said, "Chief Report, from Shanghai, Mr. Sun Wen wishes you a successful start and hopes to meet you at an early date."

Xiao Zhenlei was stunned, waved his hand, and said: "Call Mr. Sun back, thank him for his blessings, and say that I ask him to take care of his health, go north to Nanjing to support the provisional government, and go south to meet him when my Northern Expedition is successful!" ”

"Yes!"

"Report to the chief, the artillery brigade has arrived, the baggage troops have arrived!"

"Very good, tomorrow I am afraid that there will be a fierce battle, order the artillery brigade to quickly choose an artillery position!"

The next day. In the early morning of December 26, Xiao Zhenlei woke up and washed up casually and was nibbling on steamed buns. The communications staff officer came to report: "Report sir, just an hour ago. Bai Wenwei's department, which occupied Jiguan Mountain yesterday, was fiercely attacked by the enemy, and the enemy's attacking force is expected to have a target force, and Bai Wenwei's department sent someone to report and ask for reinforcements! ”

Jiguan Mountain is in the northeast of Dingjiazhuang, Bai Wenwei is equivalent to a detour and inserted into Jin Yunpeng's back ribs, this taste is not comfortable, Jin Yunpeng is worried that Bai Wenwei may rush down from Jiguan Mountain at any time, and he can't prevent it, so he can only take Jiguan Mountain before the war. Annihilating Bai Wenwei's department reassured him.

And Bai Wenwei is not Xiao Zhenlei's descendant troops, when the reorganization of the Third Army in Jiangsu, it only reorganized the Ninth Town of Nanyang in terms of establishment, increased some troops, and did not change its appearance in weapons, this time it was also because he went lightly, only carrying heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns, and there was no artillery, as for weapons such as mortars and grenadiers, Xiao Zhenlei would definitely not give him them. Therefore, as soon as the battle began, he suffered a big loss because he had no artillery support, and lost more than 100 people after being bombarded by the artillery under Jin Yunpeng for a while, and then Xu Hongbin led the 17th standard to launch a fierce attack on him. With the coordinated tactical cooperation of infantry artillery, Xu Hongbin's troops attacked all the way to the halfway up the mountain, and Bai Wenwei fired together regardless of the danger of heavy firepower exposure to repel Xu Hongbin's attack. However, this also exposed the position of their heavy firepower, allowing Xu Hongbin's artillery unit to blow up a third of the heavy machine guns.

Xiao Zhenlei slapped the table and was furious when he heard this: "Ask for reinforcements? This battle has just begun, and he asked for reinforcements? You go to the telegram and ask him. There are more than 1,000 people under his command, and even a small cockscomb mountain can't hold it. What does he eat? Give him a death order, give Lao Tzu two days, and you are not allowed to retreat a step within two days, otherwise military law will be engaged! ”

"Yes!"

Xiao Zhenlei said again: "In addition, inform the He Qibu of the Jiangxi Army that after breakfast, launch a tentative attack on the frontal position of the Fifth Town of Beiyang opposite, so that the large-caliber howitzer regiment of the artillery brigade can be ready, raise a hot air balloon for observation, and be ready to shell the opponent's artillery position at any time!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

At 8 o'clock in the morning, He Qiqi's troops launched a tentative attack on the frontal position of the Fifth Town of Beiyang, with an attacking force of one battalion, and Xiao Zhenlei personally went to the frontline headquarters to observe the battle situation.

There should be only one company of troops defending on the opposite side, and only one company can be placed on this defensive line. The artillery battalion of the first division of the Jiangxi army carried out an artillery bombardment of the opposite position for ten minutes, the rumbling artillery sound sounded in the rear of the position, the position of the Beiyang Army was bombarded by shells and dusty, although it was in the ice and snow, but at this time the position was like a boiling cauldron, every shell landed on the ground to set off the dust and snow slag that rushed to the sky, leaving craters and taking away a number of lives, although the Beiyang Army was well-trained, the trenches that could be dug in this ice and snow were not very complete, and the anti-artillery holes did not have time to dig, This burst of artillery bombardment caused a company under the nineteenth standard of defense to lose a small and half of its men.

After the artillery bombardment on the side of the Gan army began, Jin Yunpeng hurried to the front command headquarters to observe the shelling of the other side and the situation on his own position.

The artillery bombardment was nearing its end, and because the artillery fire began to look, two companies of the 1st Division of the Jiangxi Army broke out of the trenches and dispersed to attack the position of the Beiyang Army.

Jin Yunpeng observed for a while and said, "Which team is attacking this one?" There were quite a few artillery pieces, and at least one and a half men were lost in front."

"Qi Yu command, this should be the men and horses of the first division of the Jiangxi army!"

"The first division of the Gan army? It's adapted from the fifty-three standard, right? If it is the original fifty-three standard, the combat effectiveness will definitely be stronger than now, after the addition of new recruits, the combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced, which is estimated to have two teams of people! On our side, due to the weather and tools, the trenches are still not dug perfectly, and the opponent's artillery has caused a lot of losses to the company in front. ”

"Yes, Lord Dominion!"

Seeing the attacking, the two companies of the Jiangxi army have entered the middle area of the two positions, the battle officially began, bursts of gunfire rang out on the position of the Beiyang Army, puffs of green smoke rose from the trenches, and the soldiers of the Jiangxi army who rushed over from time to time were shot and fell to the ground and never got up, the heavy machine guns on the position of the Beiyang Army also kept firing, and the attacking soldiers fell one by one, but the attacking troops also began to counterattack, and the soldiers rushed over and opened fire at the same time. However, the hit rate is much more limited.

After half an hour of fighting, two companies of the attacking Gan army retreated. Thirty or forty people were lost, and the combat effectiveness was still a lot worse than that of the Beiyang Army. The main reason for this is that the Jiangxi army has just been expanded, and each division has increased by more than half of its personnel, so it is no wonder that the combat effectiveness has not declined.

Then He Qiqi launched several tentative attacks on the entire defense line, and in the afternoon, Xiao Zhenlei learned the general firepower of the Beiyang Army on the opposite side after getting the comprehensive assessment of the staff officers, in fact, the firepower of the Beiyang Army is not very fierce, and a company with a heavy machine gun is very good. However, the Jiangxi army has just been recovered and reorganized, and Xiao Zhenlei did not have time to change the clothes of the Jiangxi army, and the weapons used by the Jiangxi army at this time are still the weapons of the past, which are no different from the new armies in other places.

At the end of the day's fighting, the 1st Division of the Gan Army suffered more than 200 casualties, including more than 100 killed.

In the evening, Xiao Zhenlei received a telegram from Shanghai again, which said that Sun Wen was assassinated by assassins sent by the Qing court when he was listening to a play in Hartung Garden, but fortunately, Ma Boyang and Sun Wen's bodyguards Yin sisters found out early. The Assassin was stopped in time and captured on the spot, and the Assassin is currently being interrogated, and it is believed that news will come soon.

After Xiao Zhenlei read the telegram, he immediately asked people to send a telegram to express condolences. And let Ma Hanlong, Ma Boyang and others be vigilant and never relax.

Later, Xiao Zhenlei received another telegram that Liu Chenglong's troops had captured Dong'a today. At present, the main army is divided into two routes, all the way to attack Liaocheng. All the way along the Yellow River to the north towards Jinan. The cavalry brigade had already raided Zibo at noon today in accordance with the stipulated time. The Qing court did not expect that Xiao Zhenlei would send a cavalry to raid Zibo, and the Qing soldiers in Zibo were successfully attacked by the cavalry brigade without reacting.

The reason why Xiao Zhenlei was able to command and mobilize all the troops of the coalition forces so easily was because he equipped each unit with portable transmitters, although this kind of transmitter was not as light as it was twenty or thirty years later, but it was very close, and these portable transmitters were developed under the guidance of Tesla and equipped into each unit.

On the contrary, the Beiyang Army did not have such portable transmitters, and could only rely on the cavalry to transmit orders and information, and there was no telephone communication between the position and the headquarters, so it relied entirely on the two legs of the communications corps.

On December 27, Xiao Zhenlei ordered the He Qibu of the Jiangxi Army to concentrate on attacking one of the positions of the Beiyang Army, under the attack of superior forces, the Beiyang position was suddenly crumbling, Jin Yunpeng had to order the artillery to provide cannon fodder support, Xiao Zhenlei wanted the other party to expose the location of the artillery position.

Under normal circumstances, the artillery positions of both sides will not be deployed within the range of each other's artillery, which will give the other side a chance to destroy, and the artillery positions are generally deployed in the two or three lines of defense in front of the enemy within the maximum range of fire, if they are too far ahead, they will enter the range of the enemy's artillery, which is deployed under the condition that both sides have the same artillery range.

However, if one side does not know how long the range of the other side's artillery is, it will often suffer a great loss, just like this time Xiao Zhenlei launched a large-scale all-out attack, just to let Jin Yunpeng expose the artillery position, because he has a large-caliber, 60 times the barrel howitzer in his hand, such howitzers generally have a range of more than 10,000 meters, and some even reach more than 14,000 meters, and the artillery used by the Beiyang Army is generally a Krupp 75mm mountain gun, this kind of artillery may be a good guy for the new army in other places, But for Xiao Zhenlei, it is a bit insufficient, his Jiangsu First Army and the Second Army, as well as the five divisions of the two Zhejiang armies, are equipped with large-caliber and ultra-long howitzer regiments.

In the case of a full-scale attack on the position, in order to inflict maximum damage on the attacking First Division of the Jiangxi Army, Jin Yunpeng immediately ordered the artillery standard to provide all-round artillery support. The artillery on the side of the Beiyang Army rang out, and shells fell among the attacking soldiers, and from time to time soldiers were killed or thrown to the ground by air waves.

The balloon raised in the sky on the side of the revolutionary army quickly discovered the location of the artillery position of the Beiyang Army, and the observer immediately wrote down the coordinates and threw them on the ground, and the artillery on the ground immediately began to calculate after seeing the coordinates.

A few minutes later, the operational staff officer reported: "Sir, the howitzer regiment is ready to open fire at any time to destroy the enemy's artillery positions!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei waved his hand: "Let's start, the sooner we destroy it, the smaller the loss of our soldiers!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

The howitzer regiment began the first round of test firing and carried out the analysis of the impact point, and calibrated the shooting elements, and soon the calibration was completed, and the second round of salvo began, and Zheng Shiqi, the fifth standard commander of the Beiyang Fifth Town Artillery Corps, who had found that his position was exposed, and was under the range of the opponent's artillery, ordered the artillery team to evacuate immediately from the place, and his order had just been issued, and the artillery of the artillery team was hit by overwhelming artillery fire before they had time to retreat.

Jin Yunpeng, who was commanding the operation in the command headquarters, heard a huge explosion, walked out of the command headquarters and looked at the rear, only to see a huge smoke rising from the artillery position, where the flames were soaring into the sky, and explosions continued to sound, his face changed, and he immediately said to Ma Ben: "Go and see, what happened!" ”

After Ma Ben left, Jin Yunpeng had a bad premonition, and within two minutes, the coalition forces stopped attacking, and the attacking troops all retreated, which made Jin Yunpeng's heart even more bottomless, the quieter the scene, the more uneasy he became, and he guessed that the commander-in-chief Xiao Zhenlei on the opposite side must be planning some conspiracy.

The general headquarters of the coalition army, He Qiqi shouted a report and was allowed to enter by 4, Xiao Zhenlei saw him coming, and after he stood up and saluted, he also asked politely: "Division Commander He, what are the casualties of the first division of the Jiangxi army, have you counted them?" ”

He Qiqi's face was full of gunsmoke, exhaustion and bitterness, and when he saw Xiao Zhenlei asking, he immediately stood up and said: "Report to the president, our division killed 242 people, seriously injured 134 people, and slightly injured 262 people!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei didn't expect such a large casualty of the First Division of the Jiangxi Army this time, thought for a while and said: "The casualties are a little bigger, so let's withdraw the troops and rest for a period of time, and let the Hua Chunming Division of the Fourth Division of the Jiangsu Second Army take over!" ”

He Qiqi gritted his teeth and said: "President, the battle has been fought like this, I am really unwilling to let me withdraw, now there is no artillery support in the fifth town of Beiyang, please give me another chance, this time I concentrate my forces to attack one place, I can't break through its defense line, if I still can't attack this time, I will lead my troops to withdraw!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei considered that it was indeed inappropriate to let the Jiangxi army withdraw and replace it with the Fourth Division of the Soviet Army now, so that there was a suspicion of letting the Fourth Division of the Soviet Army pick peaches, and after thinking for a while, he agreed: "Okay, rest for the night tonight, and arrange personnel to send the wounded to the rear for treatment, and you will organize another attack tomorrow morning!" ”

"Thank you for your understanding!" (To be continued......) R1292