The artillery fire of the Zhousheng (Zhouwan and Shengzhou) front and the Xiaogushan front was sounded at the same time, and at 11:30 o'clock, the Japanese launched an artillery bombardment on time. The artillery of nearly five wings of the 11th Division, the 112th Division and the Heavy Artillery Wing directly under the 2nd Army (the 11th Division is a standing A division regiment, and the artillery is organized into a brigade) opened fire at the same time.

In the general headquarters near the fort on the south bank of Madang Fortress, the telephone rang non-stop, the communications staff officers shuttled back and forth, and the combat staff officers pricked up their ears to listen to the telephone, and at the same time planted the small red flag that was detailed to represent the strength of each Japanese brigade to the corresponding position on the sand table. The front-line commanders on all fronts called almost simultaneously, and they braved the deafening explosion to report the first-hand front-line battle report to the general headquarters for Ouyang Yun's general scheduling.

"It's finally begun!" Madang Fortress is so big, and the distance from the farthest Xiaogu Mountain is only more than 20 kilometers away, at this distance, the explosion of heavy artillery can still be heard clearly, from the first explosion to the sound of explosions one after another, Ouyang Yun listened to it, but felt relieved. No one knows that after Ouyang Yun made the decision to raid Anqing, what he was most worried about during this time was not that the Japanese army was concentrating troops to attack Madang, but that he was worried about the safety of the Jiangbei troops. Madang Fortress went up, and the Japanese Yangtze River Fleet completely controlled the channel, in this case, the army that raided Anqing wanted to return to the south bank, but it was impossible to send troops to Jiangbei as cheaply, and it was bound to pay a considerable price. In this case, if Okamura Ninji gave up attacking Madang and instead concentrated his forces to besiege Jiangbei's army, it would not only destroy Ouyang Yun's established strategy, but also make his later arrangements impossible to implement. Moreover, if the army in Jiangbei suffered too large losses, or even forced to retreat to Fujian and Guangdong, then the 3rd Xue Division stationed in Madang and the 12th Xue Division stationed in Hukou would become lone troops. During this time, the Japanese army strengthened the anti-reconnaissance and anti-infiltration work in the area where it was stationed, which made it difficult for the scouts of the Cadet Army to infiltrate and obtain first-hand detailed information.

Ouyang Yun's background limited his command level - after all, he was only a top soldier on the front line, although he had been growing up, but compared to those tacticians, he still looked immature. In the final analysis, the reason why the Cadet Army has been able to achieve such brilliant results against Japan since its formation is that it has made meritorious contributions to advanced equipment and some strange fighting methods, which has made him always make some mistakes in the details and on the back road after making major strategic arrangements. Fortunately, Chen Shichang and his group of young staff officers have grown up, and with their assistance, these mistakes can always be resolved one by one before they occur.

It was Chen Shichang and the group of young staff officers he led who discovered the predicament of the Jiangbei troops, and when they were doing the deduction, Chen Shichang changed his angle and moved the main force of the 2nd Army (the Tiangu Detachment and the Heiyan Detachment of the 11th Division, the 112th Division and the Botian Detachment) from Wangjiang, Huangmei and other places to the Anqing area.

Jiangbei now has more than three divisions, of which the tank unit equipped with amphibious tanks has reached the size of more than one and a half brigades. Although this unit is not fully mechanized because the trucks can't drive through, its equipment has far exceeded that compared to ordinary soldiers who are just little devils equipped with 38 big covers. Under the command of Deng Changyou, commander of the Sixth Division, the Jiangbei troops first surrounded and annihilated the devils of the two brigades of Dawangmiao with a thunderous force, and then concentrated on the Anqing airfield after annihilating the troops stationed along the river in Anqing, and formed a joint encirclement of the devils of the four brigades in the area two days later.

The defenders of Anqing Airport could have escaped, but because Okamura Ningji still hoped to use them to drag the main force of the Cadet Army, and at the same time, because there were still many aviation units in the Second Air Corps that could not be evacuated, these people were the elite of the empire, far more valuable than the infantry, in order to protect these operations, they could only choose to stay.

Okamura Ninji can sit back and watch the devils of a brigade be destroyed for the sake of the horse, but Shunroku Hata does not dare to do so. So far, the regular troops of the Japanese army in the whole country are only 37 divisions and regiments, and the strength of one brigade is not much, but it has already accounted for nearly one-seventieth of the troops. Therefore, after learning that the Japanese army was surrounded, he issued an order, asking the 2nd Army and the 11th Army to send troops to rescue, and it was necessary to rescue the defenders of Anqing.

The Japanese army began to mobilize nearby troops to reinforce Anqing, and two days later, the strength of a division moved closer to Anqing from the northeast, and in this case, the situation of the Jiangbei team changed. Although they still surrounded the Japanese army in Anqing, they also had the possibility of being counter-surrounded. Since then, the Anqing war situation has entered a stalemate stage, at this time, if the Japanese army temporarily abandons the Hankou strategy, the anti-Chen Shichang does not know if the commander-in-chief of Lu Dao is aware of this, and he reported this discovery to Ouyang Yun with very euphemistic words: "Commander-in-chief!" Is it enough to stop in Anqing? The Japanese army still has a total of seven divisions and six divisions of puppet troops in Jiangbei, and if the enemy concentrates his forces in Anqing, then Commander Deng will be in danger. The 2nd Army did not move, and only fought a small battle at Jiujiang and Hukou, and did not allow Okamura Ning to engage in the trick of repairing the plank road and secretly crossing Chencang. Commander-in-chief, should we send some reconnaissance planes over? After the destruction of the Anqing airport, the Japanese air defense capability has been greatly weakened, and there should be no problem for the old reconnaissance planes to come over. ”

The advanced fighters of the Cadet Corps should give priority to ensuring the needs of the Taiwan Corps, and the range of the old-fashioned reconnaissance planes can also be over, but because their air limits and speed are lagging behind the ordinary fighters of the Japanese army, they have not left the territory of their jurisdiction before this, except for serving as reconnaissance missions around Fujian, Guangdong, and Qiong.

The 2nd Army did not immediately attack Madang as expected, which had already attracted Ouyang Yun's attention, he thought about it seriously, and immediately realized that Chen Shichang's worries were not superfluous, and he couldn't help but regret that this bait was too big. But do you want to stop the original plan? In this way, although the Jiangbei troops can get rid of the possible danger, Madang's side is about to fall into a stalemate, which is contrary to Ouyang Yun's original intention of a quick victory. Looking at the map seriously, he said: "Wait a little longer, Xiao Yi and they have completed the task of sneaking up on the airport, and now they have begun to infiltrate the operation, and recently, they have not sent any inappropriate information back." ”

"Well, that's a safe way to go."

After Xiao Yi and the others retreated to the Dawang Temple, they immediately broke into pieces and began to radiate around with the Dawang Temple as the center of the team. Ouyang Yun's new order to them was to find out the layout of the Japanese army in each direction as much as possible, and focus on searching for the Japanese artillery positions.

After the collapse of the Second Air Corps of the Japanese Army, the most threatening vehicle for the Cadet Army is now the heavy artillery of more than 120 mm, and as long as the heavy artillery unit of the Japanese army is solved, Ouyang Yun is confident that the tank unit alone will completely change the situation of the battle in Madangzhou.

In Ouyang Yun's ardent anticipation, Okamura Ningji finally launched the Madang Raiders. Madang officially started fighting, the Japanese army's intentions were completely clear, and Ouyang Yun's heart finally fell into his stomach.

After the Japanese artillery bombardment began, the Japanese Yangtze River Fleet, which had been wandering along the river in Anqing, finally appeared in the upper reaches of Madang Fortress. Half an hour later, at the same time as the Japanese shore artillery began the third round of shelling, nearly 30 gunboats of various displacements lined up on the water surface of Sankou Kiln, about 20 kilometers upstream of the fortress, and began to bombard the Madang battery under the personal command of the fleet commander Suketsu Kamakura.

The Cadet Corps deployed a large number of reconnaissance forces on the south bank of the upper reaches of the fortress, and the minesweepers of the Japanese fleet of the unit appeared on the surface of the Yamaguchi kiln, and the general headquarters received relevant intelligence reports.

Before receiving this information, Ouyang Yun was still thinking about the scale of the Japanese army's attack this time, was it a battle? It was still a tentative attack of a certain scale, and when he saw this information, he understood that Gangcun seemed to be preparing to go down in one go.

The Japanese Yangtze River Fleet has a total of about 110 gunboats of various types, of which 17 are the main battleships equipped with 240 mm guns. These seventeen main battleships were the target that Ouyang Yun wanted to solve the most, and before these seventeen battleships did not show up, Ouyang Yun did not want to fully expand the artillery power of the fortress.

He said to Yang Jianfeng, a communications staff officer standing on the side: "Give me Zhang Tianquan's call!" ”

The leader of the communication staff group is Huang Hua, and this is his busiest time, in order not to delay the commander-in-chief to give orders, he specially selected Yang Jianfeng, who has strong business ability, to serve Ouyang Yun specifically. As soon as the war started, the general headquarters was boiling, and Yang Jianfeng was tense at the moment, and when he heard this, he immediately picked up an idle phone, dialed it and handed it to him.

Zhang Tianquan was originally the brigade commander of the heavy artillery brigade directly under the Beishang Corps, and now he is the commander of the Madang Battery.

Madang Fort began to be built during the Opium War, according to the topography of Madang Mountain, from the top of the mountain to the cliff at the bottom of the mountain, a total of three forts were built, and later after the reinforcement of governments at all levels, before the Cadet Army took over, it had a total of ten forts, equipped with a number of various coastal defense guns of 240 mm caliber to 150 mm caliber. After the Xuebing Army took over, Ouyang Yun used the 150 mm heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade directly under the regiment to set up three artillery positions in the east, north, and west directions of Madang Mountain, and now, the entire Madang Fortress alone has more than 130 cannons used as fortress guns, and if you add the artillery regiments of the 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 13th divisions, now Ouyang Yun has more than 500 artillery pieces in his hands.

The preparations of the Japanese army were quite in place, and the advance troops of the Yangtze River Fleet opened fire directly without correcting their ballistics, and judging from the landing point of the shells, the shooting points were still very accurate, and many shells smashed directly on the protection of the forts, and for a while the masonry and cement flew wildly, and after the first round of shelling, steel bars were exposed in many places.

Outside, the sound of artillery was like thunder, and in the various bunkers, bunkers, and tunnels of the fort, the artillerymen were sitting precariously without a trace of panic.

Zhang Tianquan held the phone in his hand and kept a straight posture listening to Ouyang Yun's teachings.

Ouyang Yun's order was very concise: "Brigade Commander Zhang, implement the second plan!" ”