After seeing the succession of the First Guards Mixed Brigade equipped with rear-loading rifles and using new infantry tactics, Shi Langyi, who was in charge of the Jiujiang Campaign, on the one hand, paid more and more attention to the mixed brigade and let the brigade undertake more and more important combat tasks.

In the face of Shi Langyi's request, the headquarters was not very easy to reply, this rear-loading rifle is not to say that there is none, this squeezing can also make up thousands of them to support the Western Expeditionary Force, but the key is that there is a great difference between this rear-loading rifle and the front-loading rifle in use.

Soldiers who use rear-loading rifles must have undergone new training, otherwise the soldiers will not even be able to load, and more importantly, the reason why the combat effectiveness of the troops equipped with rear-loading rifles is not only the unilateral factor of rear-loading rifles, but also a large number of new infantry tactics explored by the Sixth Army.

Needless to say, the Eighth Division and the Ninth Division, which belong to the Sixth Army, were the first units in the Chinese Army to use rear-loading rifles, and all kinds of new tactics were explored by them.

The follow-up Second Guards Division and the 13th Infantry Division were also newly organized units, and they began to train according to various new tactics from the beginning of their formation.

Even if it is the 1st Guards Division and the 14th Infantry Division, which are expected to be equipped with new rifles, these units will not directly receive the new guns and rush to the battlefield, but at least they will undergo several months of adaptive training.

If we say that a certain unit of the Fourth Army, such as the Fourth Division, was directly reequipped with breech-loading rifles. Without special training, they simply cannot take advantage of the advantages of rear-loading rifles.

At that time, the Fourth Division would at best be a line of troops with breech-loading rifles, rather than a new model of the Sixth Army.

So for Shi Langyi's request. The High Command took a more cautious approach, but also promised to send more troops equipped with breech-loading rifles to join the Western Expedition. In the future, a rest plan will also be arranged, so that the main forces of front-line operations will be redressed one after another.

However, Shi Langyi was in a hurry, saying that the main force of the Fourth Army still uses backward front-loading rifles, which has caused the troops to suffer many unnecessary losses, and the empire obviously has more advanced weapons, why not use them?

If there is a defeat at the front, who is to blame?

In this regard, Chen Yuntao and other commanders of the general command had to send troops in advance to reinforce southern Anhui.

However, the reinforcements have changed, and the 6th and 7th Divisions belonging to the Seventh Army were previously planned to be transferred to reinforce the Western Front, but the recent battles have made it very clear. Units armed with breech-loading rifles will be able to achieve additional tactical superiority, which even surpasses the overall quality of the troops.

Therefore, the headquarters sent out another army in southern Jiangsu and equipped with breech-loading rifles, and at the same time, after reporting to Lin Zhe and getting approval, it transferred some troops from the Guards Army, which had already begun to replace breech-loading rifles, and then formed the Second Guards Mixed Brigade and joined the Fifth Army's combat sequence.

At that time, the 13th Infantry Division and the 2nd Guards Mixed Brigade, two units equipped with breech-loading rifles, formed a brand-new Fifth Army and rushed to fight in the Jiujiang area.

At the same time, due to the existence of the Fourth Army and the Fifth Army in Jiangxi and Huguang in the future, so many troops also need to be the same as the original Northern Expedition troops. A commander-in-chief is needed.

Therefore, Lin Zhe specially ordered Shi Langyi to be the commander-in-chief of the Western Expedition, and Lin Chengfei, the commander of the Fifth Army, to be the deputy commander of the Western Expedition.

Due to the transfer of the Fifth Army, the Seventh Army's plan for the transfer was suspended, and its defense area was expanded from the previous areas of Shanghai and Zhejiang to the entire southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and northern Jiangsu. In the future, the 4th Mixed Brigade and the 5th Mixed Brigade will also join the Seventh Army's operational sequence.

Its military headquarters is still set up in Shanghai!

The Chinese army increased the proportion of troops using breech-loading rifles, and the effect was quite obvious, when the 13th Division arrived at Jiujiang with the navy's transport ships. The division, together with the 1st Guards Mixed Brigade, became the absolute main force in the attack on Jiujiang.

And the many new tactics used by these two troops also opened the eyes of senior generals such as Xu Pengan and Du Yongtao, who had all heard of how powerful Shi Qingxuan's Sixth Army was in the past. I have also seen some exercises of the Sixth Army, but I have not seen the operations of the Sixth Army with my own eyes.

Now we see the mode of operation of the 13th Infantry Division and the 1st Guards Mixed Brigade. It was an eye-opener for them, and at the same time, they couldn't help but look forward to the replacement of their troops with rear-loading rifles.

"If we are allowed to fight against the 13th Division, if we fight hand-to-hand at close range, it should be a sure win, but it is not easy to rush over, you see that although they are scattered, but they are scattered but not chaotic, their firepower density far exceeds the firepower of our troops, if the two sides are fighting against each other for rifle shooting, I am afraid it will not be easy!" Xu Pengan took back the binoculars and sighed.

And Du Yongtao on the side also said: "Yes, they use this kind of skirmish line to attack, the lethality of artillery to them is greatly reduced, and they can lie down to load and shoot during the march, so that the hit rate of rifle bullets on them is greatly reduced, even if we can hide behind the chest wall, this is still a great loss for shooting."

If they defend and we attack, I'm afraid we will suffer even more, people hide in the trenches and can't come out, our current dense line formation is a living target for others, how many die! ”

Just when Du Yongtao and Xu Pengan sighed at the strong combat strength of the 1st Guards Mixed Brigade and the 13th Infantry Division, Lin Chengting in Jiujiang City was full of ruthlessness.

"Damn, what kind of guns are these Chinese soldiers using? Not only can it be reloaded from the rear load, but the rate of fire is so fast! Lin Chengting already felt that the whole world was out of his control.

In the early years, when he first dealt with the Chinese army, he knew that the Chinese army's muskets were sharp, but although the Mini rifles used by the Chinese army in recent years had a longer range, they were ultimately front-loading rifles, at most they were farther, but the rate of fire was still not faster than other front-loading guns.

As early as last year, he also heard that when the Chinese army was fighting with those foreigners in Shanghai, it used new rifles, but these were all hearsay, and the spies under his command failed to get foreign guns for him to test one or two, so the so-called new rifles of the Chinese army had only a general impact, thinking that it should be an improved version of the current 1856 Linde rifle of the Chinese army.

But he didn't expect that the Chinese army using this new rifle would be so powerful.

Even if you use a new rifle, what is more important is that some tactics of the Chinese army have never been seen at all, and it can even be said that it is unstoppable.

In the past two days, in the face of the Chinese army's skirmisher attack, Lin Chengting thought hard and did not come up with a good way to crack it.

Don't look at other people's skirmish line attack is very simple, but in fact it is not easy to stop, first of all, their soldiers are very open, which makes artillery, especially the artillery that fires solid bullets, worthless, a shot will hit one or two people if you are lucky, and if you are unlucky, you will not have one.

As for grenades, I'm sorry, only the Chinese army currently uses grenades on a large scale among the many new armies in China, and the other new armies, the Jianghuai New Army and the Duxing'a New Army in the past have some grenades, but they are all imported, and the number is not much, not to mention that the elastic performance of the grenades they import is quite poor, the dud rate is very high, and the lethality is very average.

Without a large number of grenades with excellent performance, the artillery of the Zhenhu Army, which could only fire solid bullets, had a very limited lethality to the stragglers of the Chinese Army, and it could even be said that it could be ignored.

In addition, if they were intercepted by rifle fire, the flintlock pistols they used had to wait until about 100 meters, or even a distance of 100 meters, to have a good lethal effect.

But now, before they rushed to a hundred meters, they only began to spread out the formation at a distance of about two hundred meters, and then used various obstacles such as terrain to crawl over on the ground, and there was no dense formation at all for the soldiers of the Zhenhu army to shoot.

As for saying that you want to shoot those Chinese soldiers lying on their stomachs, the hit rate is quite low, not to mention, when you stretch out your body to shoot, the Chinese soldiers lying on the ground are not fools, and they will definitely intercept them with fire as soon as possible.

The huge difference in the rate of fire between the two sides led to heavy losses on the part of the Zhenhu army when firing at each other.

If you say that you have suffered heavy losses but can hold your position, it will be forgotten, but the key is that you can't hold it!

In just two days, just two days, the Chinese army relied on the 13th Division and the 1st Guards Mixed Brigade to basically clear the tactical stronghold of the Zhenhu Army outside Jiujiang City, and then joined other troops to completely include Jiujiang.

When the shells of the Chinese army began to bombard the Jiujiang city wall, everyone, including Lin Chengting, knew that he had lost the battle of Jiujiang.

"Dashuai, I'm afraid that Jiujiang can't hold it now, before they are completely surrounded, let's break through immediately, and when we return to Nanchang, we will gather other forces to make a comeback!" The people beside him looked at Lin Chengting, who was speechless, and couldn't help but speak.

But Lin Chengting didn't speak, but kept looking at the Chinese soldiers outside the city, and after a long, long time, he turned back slightly, and said to himself in a voice that only he could hear: "Is this the general trend?" But I'm not reconciled! ”

Immediately, he turned around and went down the city wall, and said to the people around him as he walked: "The person who went into the city to deliver the letter the day before yesterday is there, bring him to me!" ”

Hearing Lin Chengting say this suddenly, the faces of several people next to him changed drastically, the messenger in Lin Chengting's mouth was not an ordinary messenger, but a messenger of the Chinese army, and the letter he sent was a letter of surrender.

However, although their faces changed drastically, none of them dared to oppose Lin Chengting's words, let alone question anything, Lin Chengting's status in the Zhenhu Army was the same as Lin Zhe's status in the Chinese Army and Duxing'a's status in the Manchurian Army, which was unshakable.

About an hour later, Lin Chengting met the envoy of the Chinese army who had entered the city the day before yesterday to deliver a message. (To be continued.) )