In the blink of an eye, it was the middle of September, and more than a month had passed since the start of the Sino-Japanese war, during which time Japan had been bombed by Chinese bombers more than 30 times, and the frequent bombing almost once a day had already caused most of Japan's big cities, especially the industrially and economically developed ones, to be bombed into ruins, and Japan's economy was on the verge of collapse.

In Europe, the war on the Western Front was relatively calm for the time being, the Entente had no intention of landing on the west coast of France for the time being, and the two camps were fighting fiercely on the southern Alps, but for the time being, neither side could help the other.

On the Eastern Front, although Tsarist Russia lost 1.7 million troops in the war in the past six months, with the continuous retreat, the supply lines of the Germans became longer and longer, and finally the pace of the German offensive slowed down, and Tsarist Russia began to rearrange its defenses.

In Siberia, due to the Chinese troops, the Japanese offensive in Siberia stopped, and the areas east of the Ural Mountains were taken over by the Chinese army, and the Japanese army carried out several tentative attacks in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Chinese army, and after more than 20,000 casualties, the Japanese became honest, because Japan is not stupid, they can see that the Chinese do not want to beat them in Siberia now, and with their current strength, they have no way to take the Chinese country, and they do not want to take out the territory they have just grabbed. Therefore, I can only live in Siberia honestly.

For more than a month, the European battlefield has been relatively calm, and both sides are licking their wounds. However, in the East, the Chinese top brass can't wait to send troops. After all, it's already mid-September, and we're going to be winter in just over two months. Due to the cold climate, it was extremely inconvenient to launch an attack in winter, even though it was on his own land, Xiao Zhenlei did not want the war to drag on until winter.

For this reason, Xiao Zhenlei prepared to inquire about the situation on the front line, and he called Jiang Baili and asked, "How is the situation on the Liaodong Peninsula?" Why hasn't the fight started yet? ”

Jiang Baili said: "I have already given Chen Jizu a combat order in the name of the General Staff Officer, I believe they will move soon!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei frowned and said: "The efficiency is too slow, it is already September 16th, and we must recapture the Liaodong Peninsula and end the war before the Gregorian New Year." Prepare for the Japanese army to attack Korea next year! ”

Jiang Baili said: "Understood! In addition, a telegram was sent from the front line, saying that there were more than 70 hilltop batteries in the Arthur Pass Fortress, which were too powerful and too threatening to our attacking troops, and that the Japanese had four or five hundred thousand shells in the fortress, and that such a huge number of shells could support the war for a long time, and they hoped that they could request the Air Force to dispatch bomber groups to eliminate these batteries at certain points."

Xiao Zhenlei waved his hand and said, "No, I have already said it." It is a matter of principle that the Air Force cannot be used for bombing at home, and not all the people in the Arthur Pass fortress are Japanese, except for the Japanese. The vast majority of them are still our people, and it would be good if they sent a group of planes to bomb and only blew up the Japanese batteries. What if the bomb hits our own people? The people are innocent, the Qing court was incompetent and lost Lushun. The people there have endured the humiliation and exploitation of Japan for so many years, and now if our bombs hit them. How unfortunate are they? ”

Jiang Baili was silent for a few seconds and said: "They also put forward a plan, that is, let the intelligence department send strong agents with the cooperation of local intelligence personnel to find an opportunity to blow up the ammunition depot of the Japanese army in the fortress of Lushunkou, as long as the ammunition depot is blown up, the Japanese in Lushunkou will be finished!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and agreed: "Yes, just do it, let them contact the Internal Affairs Investigation Bureau and the Iron and Blood Investigation Bureau, and try their best to come up with a plan and implement it, in addition, tell Chen Jizu, don't keep staring at Lushunkou, pick up the soft pinch first, and then beat down the rest of the Liaodong Peninsula first, this hard bone of Lushunkou can be left to gnaw at the end, he wants to move Lushunkou before Jinzhou and Dalian have moved, does he want to eat a fat man?" His heart is too big! You tell him that if he hasn't conquered the Liaodong Peninsula before the winter, let him stop seeing me and go home and farm."

Jiang Baili saluted: "Yes!" ”

Mukden.

After receiving the telegram sent by the General Staff in the name of Xiao Zhenlei, Chen Jizu knew that Xiao Zhenlei was already very dissatisfied with his procrastination in the war, and he was also anxious; on the one hand, he ordered the military intelligence department to cooperate closely with the Internal Affairs Investigation Bureau and the iron-blooded investigation to try to blow up the ammunition depot in the Lushunkou fortress as soon as possible; on the other hand, he ordered the Second Army to march to the front line, and the Japanese army deployed in Pulandian and Piziwo, the bandits of the Zongshe Party, and the Mongolian horse team were all in a state of combat readiness.

In the early morning of September 18, 1915, the field artillery regiment of the 4th Division of the Second Army and the mountain artillery battalions of each regiment launched a fierce artillery attack on the Japanese defensive positions on the north bank of the Anzi River in Pulandian. At the same time, the field running regiment of the Fifth Division and the mountain artillery battalions of each regiment launched a fierce artillery attack on the Japanese defensive positions in the area of Piziwo.

The artillery bombardment in both places took the large-scale concentrated use of artillery, after the test firing calibration of the artillery bombardment, all the artillery under the order of the artillery commander carried out a salvo, carpet shelling of the Japanese position, this concentrated artillery large-scale use and began to fire caused by the destructive power is very large, the entire Japanese position after a few rounds of salvo fire, the position trench was almost razed to the ground, many Japanese soldiers were buried in the trench during the shelling, and they didn't even know how to die, Even the underground command post of the Japanese troops in the forward positions was filled in under such heavy shelling, and all the Japanese officers in the command post were buried inside.

Within less than five minutes of the start of the shelling, the bandits and Mongolian cavalry of the Zongshe Party organization were frightened by such a fierce shelling, and soon collapsed, and the bandits and cavalry of the horse team immediately dropped their guns and ammunition and turned to run, but these bandits and the Mongolian cavalry did not experience large-scale battles at all, and in this case, they did not know how to hide honestly, and they still wanted to escape, and on the way to turn around and flee, most of them were overwhelmed by the dense artillery fire.

There were still a small number of bandits and Mongolian cavalry in the trenches who did not turn around and run away, these were all confused at this time, no one thought that the artillery fire of the government army would be so fierce, these were hiding in the simple anti-artillery holes and shivering, no one dared to run out at this time, the fate of the bandits and horse cavalry who ran out just now made them all frightened.

Not only were these bandits and horse cavalry frightened, but even the Japanese troops did not expect that the artillery fire of the Chinese army would be so fierce, and the Japanese high-ranking did not know until now that the artillery equipment of the Chinese National Defense Force was so powerful.

Yujiro Nakamura, the commander of the Japanese rear headquarters, was awakened by the heavy shelling while he was asleep, and he turned over and approved his military uniform and came to the headquarters and asked loudly: "What's the matter?" Was it the people of China who carried out the shelling? So there would be such heavy artillery fire? ”

A staff officer came over and stood up and saluted: "Yes, General, the people of China started shelling five minutes ago, they started a massive salvo after just two rounds of test firing, and now it is the fourth round!" Just now, a telegram was sent from the Piziwo side, and the people of China also launched an artillery bombardment there, and the scale was similar to ours."

Yujiro Nakamura nodded and said: "I'll command here tonight, and when the shelling is over, I will immediately send people to the forward positions to check the losses, so that the front-line troops will be ready for battle, and when the shelling is over, I'm afraid that the people will attack!" ”

The staff officer immediately bowed his head and said, "Hey! ”

At this time, the vice president of the Manchurian Railway, Kunizawa Shinbei, ran in in a row of miserable eyes, and when he saw Yujiro Nakamura, he immediately said: "General, general, it's over, it's all over!" ”

Yujiro Nakamura frowned and shouted, "Kunizawa-kun, what's going on?" Why do you look like a wolf, why don't you tell me clearly, what's all over? ”

Guoze Xinbing Wei said as if he was mourning: "General, our trench is only dug one meter and two deep, with the average height of our soldiers, digging this depth is just enough for the soldiers to fight in the trench very comfortably, but this depth is basically unable to withstand such a strong artillery fire, and a few more rounds of fierce shelling like this, our trench will be completely filled, and then all the soldiers in the trench will be buried alive in it!" ”

Although Yujiro Nakamura has a very high military rank and seniority, this person has no experience in actually commanding operations, and he does not know anything about these common-sense situations on the front line, and he does not have a clear and definite concept of the destruction of trenches and the casualties of soldiers under such heavy artillery fire, he calmly frowned: "Kunize Zejun, is there really such a strict zhòng?" Didn't we build a lot of anti-artillery holes in our trenches? Won't the soldiers hide in the bomb holes? ”

Kunizawa Shinbei listened to Yujiro Nakamura's words, and couldn't wait to pull out his command knife and stab this idiot, scolding in his heart how could Tokyo stupidly let this old ghost fool in front of him become the president of the Manchurian Railway, although he scolded fiercely in his heart, but it was not good to come out at the beginning, after all, now is not the time to make internal contradictions, he patiently explained: "General, the anti-artillery holes we built can only block the explosion of artillery shells of caliber below 75 mm, if it exceeds this caliber, The wood on the top of the anti-artillery shell will not be able to withstand the collapse, once the anti-artillery hole is blown up, the people hiding in it will all be buried alive, and there are also trenches, one meter and two deep can not withstand such a large-scale shelling, several rounds of shells smashed down, and soon they were filled in, and our soldiers in the trenches were not saved, now it depends on whose life is big, it's over, we have six independent garrison battalions of Mantie, five thousand people! ”

Although Nakamura Yujiro has no actual experience in commanding the battle, and there is no relevant common sense and military knowledge, but he is not stupid, from the explanation and description of Kunizawa Shinbei, he finally understands the serious consequences of this large-scale artillery bombardment, that is, these 5,000 people are completely finished, and the defense line he commands will soon be broken through by the Chinese army, thinking of this, his face turned pale for a while, and his body staggered and fell to the ground. (To be continued......)