Craftsman Zhang bowed down and said flatteringly: "The villain understands, and the villain will prepare." ”

After Craftsman Zhang finished speaking, he walked out backwards, Yuan Shikai looked at his back and sneered, Snitch, I will let you die tomorrow without a place to be buried.

Yuan Shikai's side began to actively prepare to use rockets to attack, but Zhang Jiancheng's side, but there was no intention of counterattacking, Zhang Jiancheng ordered his subordinates to strengthen the fortifications and wait for Yuan Shikai's next attack.

Zhang Jiancheng's troops were rapid reaction troops, and it stands to reason that they should give full play to the advantages of mobility and flexibility, take the initiative to attack, and inflict heavy losses on the Qing army, but Lin Fei's overall plan for this campaign was to focus on defense against the enemy coming from Guangdong, and to focus on counterattack against the enemy attacking from Guizhou.

The reason for this deployment is because Lin Fei plans to take the opportunity to conquer Guizhou, and for Guangdong, Lin Fei has no plan, Guangdong is the place where the British have been operating for the longest time, and if Lin Fei takes Guangdong, it means uprooting the forces that the British have painstakingly operated for more than 50 years.

Britain and China have a deep enmity like the sea, if Lin Fei makes such a move to stimulate the British, there is no doubt that the Second World War in the South Seas will break out.

Since Lin Fei wanted to defend in Guangdong, Zhang Jiancheng adopted the method of trench defense, anyway, the Qing army had no artillery, and could only use flesh and blood to rush in the face of the trenches, so hiding in the trenches and shooting was the best way to kill and injure the Qing army in large quantities.

After turning the day, a subordinate suddenly came down and reported to Zhang Jiancheng: "Captain, the Qing army is piling up a high slope more than 500 meters away from our army's trench. ”

Piling up a high slope meant that the Qing army would use the high slope to set up weapons such as Makqin machine guns on it, and then fire at the Chinese army.

Zhang Jiancheng sneered and said to himself: "Yuan Shikai, this trick is left over from our majesty's play, and now you want to use it on us, it's ridiculous!" Someone, order the artillery regiment to level the high slope for me. "The artillery regiment is equipped with HP-2 howitzers, which are more than enough to level high slopes.

The subordinates were embarrassed for a while, "Captain, our artillery regiment has no more shells. ”

Zhang Jiancheng frowned and said angrily: "How can there be no shells? ”

"Yesterday, the charge of the Qing army was too fierce, and the commander of the artillery regiment was a novice and inexperienced, so he gave an order for full rapid fire, and as a result, the shells of both bases were exhausted."

"What about the backup shells, why haven't they been delivered yet?"

"It rained heavily in Mengyang County, and the transport team was delayed on the road, and it is estimated that the shells will not be delivered until two days later."

Zhang Jiancheng snorted, slapped the fortifications in front of him with his hand, scolded a dirty word in a low voice, and then carefully looked at the progress of the mound with a telescope.

Zhang Jiancheng returned to the command post after giving the order, but in the evening, a subordinate suddenly came to report: "Captain, the Qing army suddenly gathered a large number of troops near Gaopo, it seems that they want to break through the defense line of our army in one fell swoop. ”

Yuan Shikai's henchman Qing Army is about to make a move! Zhang Jiancheng suddenly became excited, he walked to the front of the map, looked at it carefully, and asked, "Where is the advance base of the Qing army?" ”

"According to the Qing soldiers who surrendered, in this county town called Zhaoqing, it is almost 30 kilometers away from us."

"Thirty kilometers, for our rapid reaction force, is two hours away, and if you count the detours, it is only three hours."

Jiang Yuanlong, the commander of the 1500th Division, heard Zhang Jiancheng's words and hurriedly asked, "Captain Zhang, you want to surprise the Qing army's advance base, don't you plan to defend here?" ”

"I'm planning to defend here, but Yuan Shikai is full of tricks, if we defend it again, we will be passive, I think, it's time to give Yuan Shikai some color to see, if we lay the advance base of the Qing army, then Yuan Shikai's henchman new army will become rootless grass."

"Then Captain Zhang, you personally lead the troops to a sneak attack, I can just defend this place alone."

Zhang Jiancheng laughed, "I won't go in person for this sneak attack, the girls of the Qing Kingdom are all compatriots, and they can't be obscene, unlike ...... in Japan and Vietnam."

Zhang Jiancheng likes to joke the most, Jiang Yuanlong had no choice but to smile helplessly, and at this moment, a subordinate suddenly came down to report: "Captain, division commander, no, Yuan Shikai's new army is pushing ten carts up the dirt slope, and each of those carts is equipped with two large cylinders, very similar to the rocket launchers we are preparing to equip." ”

Zhang Jiancheng had already received a report from Lin Fei, saying that Yuan Shikai was most likely equipped with rockets, and asked Zhang Jiancheng to take precautions, Zhang Jiancheng was shocked when he heard such a report from his subordinates, "Let's go, let's go and see." ”

Zhang Jiancheng took Jiang Yuanlong and others to the opposite side of the high slope piled up by the Qing army, only to see that the Qing army was laboriously pushing ten carts up the dirt slope, the cart did not look sinking, and one person could push it, but the mound was not strong, and the car went up and down to drop the soil, and the Qing soldiers could only shoot the soil while pushing the cart, making it embarrassing.

Zhang Jiancheng raised his hand, calculated the distance, and said with a smile: "Within the range of our mortars, order the artillery company to bring the mortars over and blow up all these big trucks for me." ”

"Understood!" The herald immediately went to transfer the artillery company, and the front-line commander had already transferred the two mortars of the artillery company, just waiting for Zhang Jiancheng to give an order, and now Zhang Jiancheng gave an order, the two mortars fired together, and the two shells "swished" to fall on the Qing position.

Due to the darkness of the sky, which led to inaccurate ranging, both shells did not hit the target, but exploded more than thirty meters from the target.

As soon as the Qing soldiers saw that the Huaxia army had hit the shells, they panicked, and they didn't push the cart up the high slope, but lined up directly under the high slope, lit the fuse, Yuan Shikai's rocket, this is coming.

Zhang Jiancheng stared at Yuan Shikai's rockets in the distance with wide eyes, what he didn't expect was that suddenly a cart carrying rockets exploded, the intensity of the explosion was not great, the cart was not blown up, but a large ball of fire flashed out from the cart.

The other nine carts fired rockets one after another, but those rockets did not land on the Huaxia Army's position at all, but landed more than 100 meters in front of the Huaxia Army's position.

The rockets did not explode when they landed, they only jumped a few times after they landed, and then they did not move like dead fish, and the tail flame was extinguished.

Zhang Jiancheng and Jiang Yuanlong, as well as all the members of the command headquarters, all looked at each other when they saw this scene, how could this legendary rocket of the Qing army not even explode, and it could only fly three or four hundred meters, this thing, is it a rocket, or a monkey......

Zhang Jiancheng didn't know at this time that the rocket that Yuan Shikai boasted about was a monkey......

After Yuan Shikai got the captured rocket, he did not hand it over to the Western powers, but wanted to imitate it himself, but that rocket was the crystallization of Lin Fei and many experts' efforts, and the Western powers may not be able to imitate it, how could Yuan Shikai imitate it successfully.

Yuan Shikai recruited talents and wanted to imitate rockets, that Zhang craftsman didn't know where he heard the news that Yuan Shikai wanted to imitate rockets, so he came to apply, Zhang craftsman turned out to be a craftsman who made fireworks and firecrackers, how to make rockets, he came to Yuan Shikai here, but he wanted to mix a few money.

Craftsman Zhang heard someone tell the scene of the rocket launch -- a rocket came out with a tail flame, exploded on the ground, and suddenly had an idea.

Yuan Shikai gave a lot of silver, Zhang Craftsman is also a dog, in order to reward the silver, he actually created a number of large Flying Monkeys, dedicated to Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai did not understand military technology at all, let Zhang Craftsman try to shoot, found that this rocket can also drag the tail flame to fly out, can also land and explode, so he thought that the rocket was successfully developed, and gave Zhang Craftsman a large amount of reward.

However, Yuan Shikai ignored a huge problem, that is, the range of Zhang Gonggong's rockets was too close, only three or four hundred meters, which was of no use value on the battlefield, and Yuan Shikai's new army had to pile up mounds in order to make the rockets hit farther.

Craftsman Zhang's rocket, the warhead is filled with black powder, and there is no waterproof sealing equipment on the bomb body, which can explode in the dry north, but when it comes to the humid and rainy Guangdong, it will not explode due to moisture for a long time, so it did not explode today.

Yuan Shikai saw that the rockets were fired, but they did not have the terrifying killing effect of Lin Fei's rockets, so he was furious, jumped to his feet and scolded, and then wanted to find Craftsman Zhang, but the person had already disappeared, it turned out that the craftsman knew that his rockets were going to be ganged up today, and he had already fled with the silver.

Yuan Shikai was deceived by a craftsman who made fireworks and firecrackers, and this incident became a joke through the ages and went down in history......

Yuan Shikai was furious and ordered his new army to attack the position of the Huaxia army, and the 5,000 new army immediately opened a scattered line and attacked the trenches.

Zhang Jiancheng was very relieved of the combat effectiveness of the 1500th Division, so he decided to send a rapid reaction force to surprise attack Zhaoqing County, the advance base of the Qing army, and when Zhaoqing County was defeated, he ordered the 1500th Division to attack and annihilate Yuan Shikai's new army in two flanking attacks.

The rapid reaction force immediately set off and rushed straight to Zhaoqing County, Yuan Shikai's new army was still attacking, what Zhang Jiancheng didn't expect was that these people had been brainwashed by Yuan Shikai, and there was only one thought in their heads - dedication to the Qing Empire, the will to fight and the spirit of not being afraid of death were already on par with the Japanese army.

Yuan Shikai's new army was so elite that Zhang Jiancheng also sent out the rapid reaction force, leaving the reserve division against the enemy, and the defense line of the Huaxia Army seemed to be precarious.