On July 10, it had been three days since the weather turned clear, and in the scorching heat of July, the dirt roads became dry and hard under the strong sunlight for only one day, and all kinds of mountain artillery, howitzers and other heavy weapons were quickly transported to the front line. ∏∈ ∏∈ point ∏∈ small ∏∈ said, www.

On 11 July, Zhang Xiaozhun convened a military meeting again and announced the launch of the plan for crossing the river, and for this plan, the time was set for the launch of the offensive on all fronts in the early morning of 12 July. However, since Wang Zhanyuan's second division had already arrived at Liujiamiao Station by train and joined the Jiangfang, and Li Chun's troops had also arrived in Xiaogan and would soon arrive in Hankou, the pressure on the Northern Expeditionary Army was not ordinarily great.

The top brass of the Beiyang Army also realized that the Northern Expeditionary Army might launch a battle to cross the river in the next few days, so the defense along the Yangtze River became more stringent, and there was hardly a small fishing boat on the river.

On the evening of the 12th, the ships of the Yangtze River Fleet, which had received orders to cooperate with the operation, quietly came to the Wuchang section of the river from Jiujiang under the cover of night, and more than 1,000 small fishing boats on the south bank of the Yangtze River gathered, and the soldiers stepped onto the fishing boats one by one. Preparations were also made on the artillery positions in the rear of the river defense.

Considering that the firepower of the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army was relatively weak in the basic combat units with companies and platoons as combat units, Zhang Xiaozhun handed over the responsibility of the 31st Division and the 4th Reserve Division of the Third Army in East China in this battle of crossing the river, and the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army was responsible for the defense of the river as a reserve force.

In the daytime, thousands of fishing boats gather on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and these fishing boats are scattered over more than ten kilometers of shore waters, and the scene is extremely spectacular.

Soldiers in squads stepped onto fishing boats. The light machine gunner prostrate on the bow of the ship and mount the machine gun in the bow and load the magazine. Pull the bolt to load the bullet and aim the muzzle at the north bank. The other soldiers were squatting or lying on their stomachs, a squad had a grenadier in addition to a light machine gun, and the soldier in charge of operating the grenadier had also fixed the grenadier in the stern of the ship, and could fire as soon as the position on the opposite shore came into range of the grenadier,

The platoon commander and the units directly under the platoon headquarters also had several fishing boats alone, some of which were grouped with grenadiers and some were set up with light machine guns, which were set up separately for the purpose of strengthening the firepower of the platoon, and heavy firepower such as heavy machine guns and mortars were all deployed on the shore to provide fire support for the combat units crossing the river at any time. This kind of weapon on the fishing boat played little role, after all, the fishing boat is not very stable when driving, it is easy to affect the accuracy of shooting, and the terrain is low when meeting, heavy machine gunners and mortars cannot observe the fire point on the opposite shore, this weapon can only provide timely fire support on the terrain and shore.

In the early hours of the morning, with Zhang Xiaozhun's order, the battle of crossing the river officially began, in the night sky. The bright tails from the flight of bullets and shells shone incessantly in the sky, like two meteor showers flying in opposite directions, explosions, fires and smoke from time to time on both sides of the shore, and the sound of rifles, machine guns and artillery was deafening.

Rifles fire like artillery fire. Machine guns fire firecrackers, small-caliber artillery fires like a roller coaster, and large-caliber guns fire like a train. Many recruits who had not experienced such large-scale battles were temporarily deaf by the sound of artillery.

The first to fire artillery was the Yangtze River fleet, on both sides of the line of more than ten kilometers of the crossing line. The Yangtze River Fleet launched a salvo of naval guns, although the caliber of these naval guns was not comparable to that of land howitzers. However, the victory lies in the fact that the ships can move at any time, and they can also carry out fire strikes on military structures that penetrate deep into the hinterland of the river defense on the opposite bank.

The second is the artillery unit of three divisions, the mountain artillery battalion and the howitzer regiment, but the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army has only one mountain artillery regiment, and the number of artillery is still insufficient, mainly relying on the artillery of the 31st Division and the 4th Reserve Division, and all divisions of the East China Army are full of personnel, and they are more detailed than the Beiyang Army in terms of establishment, each division has one or two thousand more people, and the number of artillery in the artillery unit is much more than that of the Beiyang Army, and the ammunition is sufficient.

Finally, there were the mortars and heavy machine guns of the various company and platoon units, all of which were deployed on the shore, constantly striking at the firing points on the other side of the river.

Half an hour after the shelling, the attacking troops, who had already been prepared, began to row their boats towards the north bank of the river, one squad at a time, with a few men in the front in charge of firing cover, a few soldiers in the back rowing, and rows of fishing boats heading towards the opposite shore with sharp arrows off the string.

When the fishing boats arrived at the position in the center of the river, they could already shoot at the opposite bank, and the first row of fishing boats began to fire at the opposite bank, and at this time, the Northern Expeditionary Army carried out a more fierce fire attack on the north bank of the Yangtze River defended by the Beiyang Army, and countless shells fell on the positions on the north bank of the river, blowing up huge pits, bursting up huge fires, and thick smoke billowing into the sky.

Many fishing boats continue to have soldiers killed, and some fishing boats began to leak after being shot through bullets, slowly sinking into the river, and many fishing boats rushed to the river beach under the desperate oars of the soldiers, shuttling in the fire net prepared by bullets and shells, fortunately this section of the river water level is much lower than the land ground, and there is no river bank embankment, if you change to other sections, under the bombardment of a large number of artillery, the causeway will definitely not be able to withstand the blow of artillery fire under the strong pressure of the river and collapse, when the river water pours into the city, Millions of people in the entire city will be flooded, and that will be the greatest tragedy.

As the defensive side, Li Yuanhong's two divisions of the Hubei Army and Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division suffered extremely heavy losses; in this crossing of the river, the Northern Expeditionary Army invested all its artillery and the naval guns of the Yangtze River Fleet opened fire together, and Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division had just arrived, and had not fought with the East China Army, did not understand the firepower situation in East China, and had no psychological preparation for the heavy artillery units of the East China Army without knowing it.

Under the overwhelming fierce artillery fire, the officers and men of Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division were almost stunned, and the trenches dug in advance were very shallow, and they were scrapped at all under the bombardment of this kind of artillery fire, and the Second Division had suffered heavy casualties after half an hour, and the trenches were almost razed to the ground, and it was too late to rush to repair in this case, and the ensuing artillery fire caused greater casualties to the Second Division.

When Wang Zhanyuan, who was sitting at Liujiamiao Station, learned the news, there was no way to withdraw the troops, the heralds could not enter, and the soldiers could only expose their bodies and die faster when they retreated to the rear. Wang Zhanyuan could only watch as his troops were annihilated in the fire.

"It's over, it's over. My second division, damn Li Yuanhong. The Southern Army has so many artillery pieces and doesn't call someone to come and tell me, so I lost a regiment in vain, this is the most elite regiment of my second division, damn the Northern Expeditionary Army, how can they have so many artillery? Wang Zhanyuan watched his third brigade Wang Jinjing being hit by the destruction of his life, and he was so distressed that he scolded him more than once.

Chief of Staff He Peirong's face was also extremely ugly, he still maintained his sanity at this time, and persuaded: "Division commander, rest your anger, rest your anger, the fire hurts your body." We lack understanding of the Northern Expeditionary Army on the other side of the river in advance, I'm afraid Li Yuanhong is not much more than we know, I estimate that his losses will not be smaller than ours, it seems that the first line of defense on the river beach is not able to withstand it, now we still find a way to organize and strengthen the second line of defense, if they break through the second line of defense, our command here will be directly threatened! ”

Although Wang Zhanyuan listened to He Peirong's persuasion, he was still furious, and he had hated Li Yuanhong to death. In his opinion, if it weren't for Li Yuanhong's incompetence, how could he let the Northern Expeditionary Army reach the south bank of the Yangtze River? You must know that Li Yuanhong also has three integrated divisions under him, and the Northern Expeditionary Army on the other side has only three divisions. Why can't his three divisions win against the other party's three divisions?

After complaining, Wang Zhanyuan could only forcibly suppress his anger, and he also knew that now was not the time to get angry. Holding back his anger, he asked, "Who is the commander on the other side?" ”

He Peirong said: "You should have heard of it, called Zhang Xiaozhun." The word Yunnong, one of the three masters of China in the Japanese non-commissioned officer school. The other two are Jiang Fangzhen and Cai Yi, and now the three of them have become famous all over the world, Cai Yi is the governor of Yunnan and the commander of the Western Route Army of the Northern Expedition, Jiang Baili is the chief of the general staff of the East China Army and the chief of staff of the General Headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and Zhang Xiaozhun is now the commander of the Third Army of the East China Army and the commander of the Middle Route Army of the Northern Expedition! ”

"Hey, it's really not small!" Wang Zhanyuan snorted and spat a mouthful, and said: "I am younger than us, but the official is much older than us, and I, Wang Zhanyuan, still don't believe it, can it be that I am from the Beiyang Martial Arts Academy and can't be a non-commissioned officer who came back from studying in Japan, hum!" ”

He Peirong reminded: "Commander, it is said that Zhang Xiaozhun and Jiang Fangzhen are both studying in Germany!" ”

"Study abroad, are you saying that Lao Tzu is uneducated? I'm rubbing, is studying abroad very good? The foreigner's set may not work here, only by fighting can you know who is more powerful, okay, let Shi Zhensheng's Fifth Infantry Regiment enter the second line of defense, try to send people to the first line of defense on the river beach to pass the order, if Han Chenghao is not dead, let the remnants of the Sixth Infantry Regiment retreat to the second line of defense to help Shi Zhensheng's department defend! Let the Cui Pei Department of the Artillery Regiment and the Nan Yuan Chao Department of the Cavalry Regiment be ready and wait for the order! ”

"Yes, Commander!"

On the river beach, the fishing boats of the Northern Expeditionary Army finally rushed to the shore, because the water level of the river was too high, directly above the beach, and the fishing boats almost rushed to the first line of defense of the Beiyang Army's river beach.

Commanding a battalion commander on the front line of the Northern Expeditionary Army, sitting on one of the fishing boats, saw that the fishing boat in front had rushed to the shore, and the soldiers began to charge the enemy position, he immediately said to the guards around him: "Send a signal to the artillery immediately, and immediately carry out an extended artillery strike!" ”

"Yes!" The guard answered and took out a pistol and fired a shot into the sky, a colorful flare rose into the sky, blooming gorgeous flowers in the black night sky, and soon, many boats on the river also fired signal flares into the sky, and the artillery of the Northern Expeditionary Army on the south bank began to carry out extended artillery strikes.

After a short pause, the artillery fire regained its might and gradually extended towards the second line of defense of the Beiyang Army, which frightened Shi Zhensheng, the commander of the Fifth Infantry Regiment of the Second Beiyang Division, who had just led his troops into the position, and immediately issued an order for all officers and men to hide in the trenches, and not to show any body parts without an order.

On the riverside, the officers and men of the Northern Expeditionary Army jumped off the fishing boat and rushed to the first direction of the Beiyang Army with their rifles, and all the soldiers and officers shouted earth-shattering: "Kill, kill - recover Hankou, recover Hanyang, capture Li Yuanhong and Wang Zhanyuan alive!" ”

"Boom, boom, boom, boom" The overwhelming shells fell on the first line ?——of defense by the river, and the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army, who had just rushed into the first line of defense, were immediately hit by heavy artillery fire.

"Concealment, concealment—" The soldiers quickly found a place to hide under the shouts of the officers, but the effect was not too ideal, the trenches here had been almost razed to the ground, and there were very few trenches to protect them.

A battalion-level officer shouted to the herald next to him: "Send a signal to the headquarters, we need artillery support, let the field artillery regiment defeat the opponent's mountain artillery regiment!" ”

"Yes!"

At present, the artillery regiments of the Beiyang Army are generally equipped with Krupp 75 mm caliber mountain guns, while the body diameter ratio of field artillery is more than 14 times, and the body diameter ratio is more than 40 times that is called cannon, and the body diameter ratio is less than 40 times is called howitzer.

The field gun is a bit bulkier than the mountain artillery, but its range is much longer than the mountain artillery, it can be a howitzer or a cannon, mainly because of the size of the gun's body diameter.

As the signal was sent, the artillery on the south bank of the Yangtze River also saw the situation here, and the field artillery regiment immediately launched a counterattack after calculating and calibrating the shooting Zhuyuan, and a large number of shells fell on the artillery positions of the Second Beiyang Division and the Hubei Army.

Under the orders of the headquarters, the troops continued to attack the second line of defense of the Beiyang Army and the Hubei Army, and then thousands of mortars and grenadiers provided a large amount of artillery support for the attacking troops.

Today's attack in the dark of night is much smaller than the daytime, but it also causes a lot of inconvenience because of the lack of light, and the night also brings great trouble to the defenders, because in the dark light, if the other side makes a surprise attack, it is difficult to find out where the other side has touched.

After several hours of hard fighting, the second line of defense of the Beiyang Army and the Hubei Army was already in danger, and the dark night provided a good cover for the surprise attack of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the defense line of the Beiyang Army and the Hubei Army began to have loopholes, which was the first to withstand the Hubei Army, and after suffering extremely heavy losses, Li Yuanhong actually ordered the troops to retreat in the direction of Hanchuan. (To be continued......) R527