Li Zhuang and Hua Zhenji put down the urgent information just sent by the herald, and then turned around and said: "The latest information sent by the military headquarters just now, the enemy's 11th Division in the direction of Baodi is about to arrive at our department, and the military headquarters orders our department to stop the 11th Division!" ”

"It seems that the enemy's reaction is faster than we imagined, it's only been two days, and the enemy has already sent reinforcements from Yutian, Baodi and other directions to reinforce Huanxizhuang!" A lieutenant colonel next to him frowned and said, "In this way, there is not much time left for us to conquer Huanxi Village!" ”

Hua Zhenji: "From now on, we can ignore the battle on Huanxizhuang's side for now, and stop this 11th Division first!" ”

Since the Feng army gathered a large number of troops to make a breakthrough from Fengdengwu in one fell swoop, and then went south to storm Huanxizhuang, the reaction of the direct army on the opposite side can be described as quite rapid, not only the first mixed brigade quickly shrunk the defensive line, trying to defend Huanxizhuang, but also Yutian, Baodi, Yinfeng and other directions of the direct army is also quickly reinforcing in the direction of Huanxizhuang, if it continues to drag on, then it will not be the Feng army besieging the first mixed brigade of Huanxizhuang Zhifeng, but the direct army of multiple directions besieging the first army of the Feng army.

Just when Hua Zhenji turned west and was about to intercept the 11th Division, on a small hillside on the eastern front line of Huanxizhuang, Zhao Dongyun was already leading a group of senior generals to the front line.

Zhao Dongyun, who put down the binoculars, said: "The attack strength of the front-line troops is still not enough, pass on my order, and the second independent mortar battalion can be transferred to reinforce it." ”

In order to conquer Huanxizhuang, Zhao Dongyun not only invested the third division, the fifth mixed brigade, and the second cavalry brigade of the First Army, but also the tenth division and the first independent heavy artillery battalion on the frontal front, but even if so many troops were invested, in fact, the task of the first army was relatively heavy, and they also needed to divide troops to intercept the reinforcements of the direct army, and they needed to leave troops in the direction of Fengdengwu to intercept the direct army of Yutian going south, and they needed to leave troops in Lizhuang to intercept the direct army of Baodi moving eastward. The one who actually launched an attack on Huanxizhuang from the north side was only a third division.

Therefore, only the third division and the tenth division really launched an attack on the Huanxizhuang defense line!

Although the strength of the 1st Mixed Brigade on the opposite side was far inferior to that of the attacking Feng army, the battle became extremely difficult from the beginning, but the 1st Mixed Brigade defended to the ground according to civil fortifications, and it was impossible for the Feng army to launch a frontal charge regardless of casualties, because although many Feng generals believed that it was inevitable to conquer the Huanxizhuang front, how long would it take to conquer it?

Two days? Three days or five days?

Once the Feng army can't drag on for a long time, wait for Lu Yongxiang's first division to come up with reinforcements, and then wait for the direct troops in the direction of Yutian and Baodi to arrive one after another, then not to mention that the first army will fall into the dangerous realm of being fought on multiple fronts, and if the battle of Huanxizhuang drags on for a long time, it will not only announce that its strategic intention of annihilating and encircling the first division and the first mixed brigade of the direct army will fail, but it is more likely to form a stalemate on the front line of Huanxizhuang, and this stalemate is difficult for the Feng army that is short of time.

Now that the situation is so tense, there is not much time left for Zhao Dongyun, and he must invest more strength to take Huanxizhuang as much as possible.

"Order the Ninth Division again and let them strengthen the offensive of the First Division, doesn't it mean that Lu Yongxiang has already transferred most of the troops to the north, why has the attack of the Ninth Division not had any effect!" To be honest, Zhao Dongyun was quite dissatisfied with the actions of the Ninth Division on Yinfeng's side.

The Ninth Division was supposed to contain Lu Yongxiang's First Division, but according to the intelligence from the front, Lu Yongxiang had already dispatched at least one brigade north to reinforce it, which means that the Ninth Division's offensive was not fierce enough, and Lu Yongxiang still had the spare strength to send troops north for reinforcements, so the Ninth Division's containment task had been a complete failure.

You must know that in order to contain the first division, the independent heavy artillery battalion, that is, the 100-mm cannon battalion, was specially strengthened to the Yinfeng line, which failed to contain the first division, which made Zhao Dongyun quite dissatisfied.

When Xu Bangjie received Zhao Dongyun's order to strengthen the offensive, his eyebrows were also wrinkled, he and Zhao Dongyun have worked together for many years, and he can be regarded as a senior senior general in the Soviet Feng Army, and he has also understood Zhao Dongyun's character for so many years, don't look at this order, he did not express any dissatisfaction, but Xu Bangjie knew that the reason why Zhao Dongyun specially issued such an order to himself to strengthen the offensive was already quite dissatisfied with his actions.

"When will the heavy artillery battalion be ready, it's been a day, isn't it ready?" Xu Bangjie frowned and asked.

"Lieutenant Colonel Wei of the heavy artillery battalion said that it may take night to complete the erection of the position!" The combat staff officer next to him saw Xu Bangjie, whose face was not very good, and he also said cautiously.

"Captain Qin, you personally go and tell Wei Anpo that at five o'clock this afternoon, they must be ready to launch a counter-artillery battle to cooperate with our counteroffensive!" Xu Bangjie said that after that, he would go out directly, he would personally arrange the counterattack in the future, and now that his ninth division has not made progress for a long time, he must come up with a look at the past results, otherwise Zhao Dongyun will be very angry.

Not long after, the combat staff officer Captain Qin rode the fast horse of the herald directly to the heavy artillery battalion, and at this time the heavy artillery battalion was busy green, and the artillery and a large number of civilians were driving the huge 100-millimeter cannon that was dragging the horse with great difficulty.

These 100-millimeter cannons were extremely heavy, and in this era when there were no motor vehicles to pull them, in order to pull these heavy guns into battle, each heavy artillery gun itself plus ammunition carts, but it was equipped with a large number of horses to pull it, otherwise it would not be possible to maneuver on the battlefield at all.

This is still in the case of the North China Plain, if these heavy artillery run to the water network, mountains, and hilly areas in the south, the mobility of this heavy artillery is not wanted.

Captain Qin came to Wei Anpo, and then took out a warrant: "Lieutenant Colonel Wei, this is General Xu's warrant, he asked your battalion to be ready at five o'clock this afternoon, and then launch an artillery bombardment to cooperate with our attack!" ”

Wei Anpo took the warrant, and then looked at the twelve heavy artillery pieces under his command that were still on the march: "Our unit just arrived in Tangshan yesterday, it would be good to be able to launch an operation tomorrow, if it is this afternoon, I am afraid it will be very difficult!" ”

Due to the low mobility of his heavy artillery battalion and the shortage of railway capacity some time ago, his heavy artillery battalion was the last unit to arrive in Tangshan by rail, and it was directly transported from Mukden to Tangshan.

In the end, the command had to mobilize a large number of horses from various units to replace them, which was a lot of delay.

Wei Anpo did not refute or complain about anything, although he had just arrived at the Tangshan front line yesterday, but he already knew that he had launched a large-scale counteroffensive against the direct army, although he was not a senior general, and he did not know the highest strategic intentions, but he also knew that the current war situation was tense, and Xu Bangjie at the top demanded himself so strictly, there must have been a not very good situation, and he could not stay out of this situation.

Immediately, he said: "Please also report to General Xu, just say that our department will definitely support your troops on time!" ”

Immediately, he said to the staff officer beside him: "Let the brothers work harder, there is not much time left for us!" ”

In order to speed up the arrival of artillery, not only the horses, but also the soldiers of the artillery battalion and many hired people also acted as humanoid animals, and the people pulled the heavy artillery and ammunition trucks to the front line, and then hundreds of people continued to move and quickly built an artillery position.

This artillery position is said to be on the front line, but in fact it is still in the rear, so in order to speed up the speed, Wei Anpo gave up many defensive fortifications, and did not build an artillery position in strict accordance with the regulations, so he hurriedly completed the preparations at four o'clock in the afternoon.

At this time, some of Wei Anpo's artillerymen took a temporary rest, while some continued to work, and they still had to test the shelling of Zhuyuan.

Near five o'clock in the afternoon, another operational staff officer of the 9th Division rushed to the position of the heavy artillery battalion, and this time, in addition to Xu Bangjie's order, he also sent Zhu Yuan, that is, the artillery position of the 1st Division of the opposite direct army.

Because the main purpose of this operation was to destroy the artillery positions of the direct army, and the two sides were too far apart to be calibrated by visual methods, but at this time, the artillery balloons with a large number of imported equipment in the Feng army played an extremely important role.

As the three huge artillery balloons were lifted into the air one after another, these two artillery balloons were larger than the balloons equipped by the Feng Army and the Zhi Army, rose higher, saw farther, and of course the price was more expensive, these three large artillery balloons were imported from Germany specifically for the purpose of providing proofreading for this heavy artillery battalion.

Wei Anpo put down the pocket watch in his hand: "It's almost time, let's start, first proofread and shoot at the No. 1 position!" ”

As his order passed on, soon two 100-millimeter cannons raised their muzzle flames one after another, and then two 100-millimeter shells rushed into the sky, and then went straight to the artillery positions of the direct army in the distance.

It didn't take long for the observers on the balloon to see through their binoculars two fireworks rising near the artillery position of the direct army in the distance, and then urgently informed the artillery officers below of the location of the shells so that they could correct the firing points.

A few seconds later, three more artillery shells shot into the sky, and when these three shells fell near the artillery position of the direct army, the position of the artillery battalion of the direct army over the mountain was already in chaos.