3:30 a.m. on July 6.

The sky was dark, and Xie Niancheng started from the station with torches, and detoured back to the east from the west, almost a dozen miles away.

I didn't encounter any trouble along the way, and by the time I made a detour back to the east of the city, it was already a little bright.

The troops assembled in an open field, about 1,500 meters from the foot of the hill in the highlands east of the city.

Xie Niancheng ordered the reconnaissance platoon to walk over, and the others rested in place.

In less than twenty minutes, sporadic gunfire was heard from the front, and it was supposed that the men of the reconnaissance platoon and the enemy sentries exchanged fire.

The high ground in the east of the city is about 700 meters wide and the main peak is 200 meters high.

Hearing the gunshots, the regiment commander hurriedly took a few people up the mountain to check.

A battalion commander reported to him: "Report to the regiment commander, five of the twelve sentries under the mountain have returned, and the others have all been touched!" ”

The regiment commander picked up the binoculars and saw many people moving towards the mountain in the distance, and ordered: "Call everyone to Lao Tzu and enter the position!" If the student soldiers dare to attack the mountain, they will be beaten hard! ”

"Student soldiers" is Chen Tongming's contemptuous name for the instructors of the Qingpu student army as the backbone.

More than 700 soldiers of the two battalions on the mountain entered the trenches one after another, and the tactical literacy of this unit was not high, that is, two trenches were dug at the foot of the mountain, on the mountainside, and on the top of the mountain, and one company of soldiers was placed in each trench, and the whole regiment had two heavy machine guns, all of which were arranged on the top of the mountain. The headquarters at the top of the hill simply erected a fortress.

This response is the experience summed up in these years of war, if they are also riflemen, in the case of similar soldiers, they will not be able to attack without more than three times the number of troops.

Xie Niancheng and the officers, who had already moved to about a kilometer from the foot of the mountain, breathed a long sigh of relief when they saw the opponent's reaction, and they held on to the hill and waited for the third battalion to arrange the artillery positions and heavy machine gun positions.

Xie Niancheng passed down the order: "The infantry company continues to advance to the 600-meter line, and the artillery company builds a position on the spot. ”

……

At this time, the commander of the enemy battalion on the mountain continued to ask for instructions: "Regiment commander, what about hundreds of people, are they still moving forward, can they fight or not?" ”

"Spank! Don't bullets cost money? We'll talk about it later. ”

With the plain experience of these soldiers, the probability of hitting the target with a rifle from 400 meters away is almost 0, let alone a distance of 1,000 meters.

Xie Niancheng attached great importance to the first battle of the troops, he arrived at the first company, Su Wei to the second company, and Huang Xue to the third company, all of which advanced together to a position 600 meters away from the foot of the mountain.

The company commanders began to order: "The fire platoon builds positions, and the infantry looks for concealment and prepares to charge." ”

It was almost eight o'clock, and the sky was already completely bright.

The commander of the enemy battalion on the mountain said: "Tuanzao, no, what are these troops in green doing?" ”

The regiment commander also saw the revolutionary army erecting mortars and heavy machine guns 600 meters away.

", what's that? Tell the order to go down and see. ”

"Bang bang bang-"

For a while, the guns were indiscriminate, but unfortunately the distance of 600 meters was too far for the old rifles in their hands, and thousands of rounds of ammunition were wasted, and not a single person was hit.

"W-"

"Boom-"

A grenade fired from an 80 mortar landed on the mountain.

Wen Deyun on the artillery position here is already arranging a test firing.

The regiment commander on the mountain was shocked and angry: "Damn, it's really a cannon, a heavy machine gun, give Lao Tzu a fight." ”

"Da Da Da-"

Two heavy machine guns at the top of the hill howled.

The first string of bullets did not hit anyone, and the officers of the third battalion under the mountain shouted: "Hide." ”

Everyone was hiding, and the strafing of heavy machine guns from a distance of six hundred meters posed little real threat to those who were deliberately concealed.

Seeing that the revolutionary army on the opposite side was hiding, the enemy troops guarding the mountain could not do anything.

Before the regiment commander could get complacent, Wen Deyun gave an order: "Ten rapid fires, the first to sixth artillery hit the enemy's No. 1 firing point, and the seventh to twelfth artillery hit the enemy's No. 2 firing point, fire!" ”

"Through, through, through, through......"

In less than a minute, 120 rounds of 80-mm mortar shells flew up the hill, and the two heavy machine guns had only sandbags as cover.

"Tick Tick Tick Tick T

The trumpeters of each company blew the trumpets of the charge, and the hidden soldiers got up and charged.

Without waiting for the order of the enemy commander, the defenders on the hill began to shoot.

Occasionally, a few unlucky revolutionary soldiers were wounded and fell to the ground, and a military doctor immediately came to the rescue.

Due to the long distance and the insufficient lethality of the bullets, the injuries of these fighters were not too severe, and they were quickly carried away from the line of fire.

The charge lasted less than twenty seconds, and after advancing more than 100 meters, the revolutionary soldiers all lay down again.

This charge detected the personnel and firepower configuration of the defenders.

At a distance of 600 meters, the positions of the fire platoons of each company have also been constructed and test firing has begun.

"Fire preparation, a cardinal, slow fire, go!" Xie Niancheng ordered.

The mortar base is 60 rounds, and the rate of slow fire is 6 rounds per minute.

More than 20 mortars and more than 40 machine guns began to pour fire on the mountain, and more than 1,000 shells fell in 10 minutes, which was extremely shocking to the defenders on the mountain.

The shells of the 60 guns were less than three catties, and the power of hitting the mountains was not very great, but the 80 guns smashed down with eight catties of shells, and the movement was really not small.

The whole hill resounded, and the head of the forest department hid next to a boulder at first, and he hid when the shelling fell. After being covered by fire for a few minutes, he knew that the situation was not good, so he ran down the mountain with two orderlies, and explained to the battalion commander before he ran: "This must be the main force of the student soldiers, you hold on, I will go down first to transfer the third battalion, and then go back to the city to ask for help, you must resist." ”

The troops on both sides in the west and south of the city also heard the rumbling of artillery on the eastern heights.

"Isn't it, how many cannons do you need?"

Experienced officers and soldiers on both sides could not believe their ears.

The scheduled start time of the general offensive of the Cantonese army and the instructor was nine o'clock, and when they heard the movement in the east, commanders at all levels passed down orders one after another: "The east has broken through, and the general offensive will start at nine o'clock, and we must not fall behind other troops!" ”

After ten minutes of fire preparation, the defenders on the hill were all lying in the trenches and did not dare to show their heads.

The actual casualties caused by these 1,200 shells were only about 100, but for the troops guarding the mountain, these 15% casualties had already broken through their psychological limit.

As soon as the artillery stopped, the defenders of the first-line position at the foot of the mountain began to run towards the mountainside, and the soldiers of the second-line position on the mountainside began to run to the top of the mountain.

The warlords at the top of the hill began to open fire, forcing the routs back to the trenches, and for a time there was chaos up and down the mountain.

Commanders at all levels of the Yamashita Revolutionary Army began to issue the last order one after another: "Artillery, 10 rounds of rapid fire followed by free fire, infantry to meet the enemy 150 meters from the extended fire." ”

"Heavy machine guns suppress enemy fire!"

"Light machine guns follow the charge!"

"On the bayonet - the artillery began to charge after a rapid fire!"

The military order began to spread, the infantry drew their bayonets from their waists, Xie Niancheng weighed the pistol in his hand, felt not very powerful, and crawled to the company of standard-bearers, "Give me the rifle and bayonet!" ”

The standard-bearer saw that it was the battalion commander, and hurriedly took the Mauser rifle on his back and the bayonet on his waist to Xie Niancheng.

Xie Niancheng loaded the bayonet with the gun, and he liked this heavy feeling very much. Turning his head to look at the gunsmoke-filled mountain opposite, Xie Niancheng's heart did not have a trace of fear, only excitement and eagerness.

He looked at the soldiers lying around, all of them clenched their guns, and the expressions on their faces were the same as his, full of confidence and eagerness for the upcoming charge!

"Blow the trumpet."

Xie Niancheng gave an order to the commander who followed him closely.

"Tick Tick Tick Tick T

The trumpeter lay on the ground and blew the trumpet.

Large and small guns were fired together with light and heavy machine guns, and this time the fire was three times denser than the last time.

The defenders, in disarray, hurriedly jumped into the trenches, and not a single one dared to show their heads.

After the ten shells were fired, Xie Niancheng was the first to stand up and shouted: "Kill"

When the officers and soldiers on the ground saw their battalion commander standing up first, their blood began to boil, and they jumped up from the ground one by one, and began to shout at the top of their voices: "Kill—"

Xu Geng began to charge, Su Wei began to charge, and Huang Xue began to charge......

The reconnaissance platoon and the cavalry platoon also rushed from the direction of the artillery positions on horseback......

The soldiers of the engineer baggage company followed Wu Yongqiang, and the soldiers of the supplementary battalion followed Mangzi, and those with guns and shovels also rushed over one by one......

Nearly 1,000 voices roared together: "Kill—" and the sound of gunfire on the cover played an incomparably gorgeous and perfect set of music.

The artillerymen, seeing the flag-bearers with military flags rushing to less than two hundred meters from the foot of the mountain, began to adjust the angle of the guns and shoot at the top of the hill.

The defenders hiding in the trenches at the foot of the hill felt that no shells were falling around, and as soon as they stretched out their heads, they saw countless figures with bright bayonets, rushing from the direction of the sun, and quickly hid in the trenches, kneeling with their heads in their hands, not daring to resist.

When the enemy at the top of the hill saw this formation, he boldly put a few shots, and the timid turned around and fled, and a battalion commander was killed on the spot, and the overseers also fled.

The battalion at the foot of the anti-slope hill rushed with the defeated soldiers before reaching the top of the hill, but unexpectedly, the shells of the revolutionary army began to rain down on the crowd again.

After a single shell, the casualties of this battalion exceeded those of the two battalions guarding the mountain.

I don't know which of the defeated soldiers shouted: "Mom, the shells will still turn, run away-"

The battalion did not fire a single shot, and fled with the rout soldiers who had fled down the hill to Tamsui City, three miles away.

Xie Niancheng rushed up the mountain with the troops in one breath, looking at the bayonet still shining in his hand, somewhat unsatisfied.

But as the supreme commander of the whole battalion, he did not get dizzy, and immediately passed down the order: "All companies rush to repair the fortifications and pay attention to concealment." The engineer and baggage companies and the supplementary battalion quickly cleaned up the battlefield and notified the artillery company to move its position to the foot of the hill ......"

The first battle of the third battalion was perfect, and the results of the inventory of the battlefield came out, and no one was killed in the first battle of the third battalion, only six were seriously wounded and twenty-nine were lightly wounded; One hundred and thirteen of the enemy were killed, of whom sixty-seven died of wounds; 462 enemy prisoners, including 170 wounded.

In this battle, half of the combat soldiers of one regiment of the opposing side were killed.