"Yaga! This is heavy artillery, heavy artillery over 100 mm! A Japanese lieutenant on the front line shouted with a black face, not to mention that he was an artillery officer, he could hear it as soon as he heard it, this explosion was definitely not the explosion of a three-inch caliber shell, even other inexperienced officers and soldiers could distinguish it.

On the battlefield, distinguishing the caliber and quantity of enemy artillery by the sound of the explosion of shells is the basic skill of a qualified soldier!

And as if to prove what he said, before the words fell, there was a whistling sound in the sky, and the Japanese lieutenant's face was as gray as he shouted: "Retreat, retreat!" ”

Although the explosion did not destroy the artillery, and fortunately did not detonate the ammunition, it still caused many casualties to the Japanese artillery, and this caused panic in this artillery position, because any experienced artilleryman knew that the two rounds of shelling just now must have been proofreading fire, and this third round of shelling was the official bombardment. Moreover, in the process of shelling, the opponent will definitely continue to correct the trajectory, and when the fourth and fifth rounds of fire come over, this artillery position will become a real hell on earth.

At this time, the entire artillery position was already completely chaotic, some people wanted to pull up their horses, put the artillery on and then retreat, and some people just spread their feet and ran away.

Although the firing speed of the two naval guns was far less fast than that of the 75th Gun, in the face of the chaotic Japanese position, the firing speed of the two heavy guns was still much faster than the retreat speed of the Japanese artillery. The situation was even more obvious in the fourth and fifth rounds of shelling in this situation. Every time a shell falls into an artillery position and explodes, a large number of shell fragments scatter in all directions. Then harvesting the lives of everyone it encountered, one of the shells fell near the artillery, directly overturning the cannon to the ground, and the gun wheel jumped out of the way, and the barrel was even deformed. Of course. The shells piled up next to the artillery were not spared, and the loud, serial explosions and gunsmoke swept the entire position......

After the smoke that rose into the sky cleared, the Japanese artillery position had completely collapsed. Some of the surviving Japanese artillery persisted in dragging the guns back, but many more fled backwards, the huge craters left by the explosion of the shells were littered with broken corpses and twisted artillery.

Listen to the proofreading report on the balloon. The front-line officers of the Qin and Chu armies laughed heartily, and the officers of the Chu army in charge of the heavy artillery operation drew a big cross on the map where the No. 1 artillery position was written. Then the eyes surrendered to the artillery position No. 2 on the other side, and the Japanese artillery arranged a total of four positions.

Japanese command.

Saigo Congdao looked at the battle report that came urgently, and his face suddenly darkened. He has been working in the naval department for a while, and he doesn't think about where the heavy artillery of the Qing army came from, and the Qing army fleet has so many ships. I can remove both doors casually, too. What he has to think about now is how the Japanese army will continue to resist under heavy artillery bombardment!

On this day, the fighting on the eastern and western fronts was not as fierce as yesterday. What's more is that the focus of the two heavy guns on the Western Front is clear, and the Japanese artillery positions, four were swept away by three, and the only one left is still on the Eastern Front on the back. The fortifications of the civil structure were destroyed a lot, and a single shell could directly 'shatter' a section of the breastwork. Every shell exploded like a hammer on the nerves of the Japanese.

It was clear to everyone that after the complete destruction and suppression of the fortifications and artillery on the surface. What awaits them. The Qing army, supported by superior firepower, could completely use bayonets to annihilate the delusions of the Rapid Expedition.

Watch a detachment's subordinates shouting and rushing to the front, running and quickly approaching the position of the Qing army. Before Captain Tanaka could relax, he heard a dense and intense burst of gunfire. In a moment, the running subordinates fell to the ground crookedly. A detachment was in the middle of the attack in an instant, much to Captain Tanaka's surprise.

"Shoot! Suppressive Shooting-" Tanaka Nobusawa immediately ordered, the Japanese army was equipped with a part of the repeating guns, and Tanaka Nobusawa's squadron. It belongs to the elite troops of the Satsuma Domain, and has a certain percentage of repeating gun configurations. Hear the command. The soldiers immediately began to pull the bolt in their hands.

At dusk, the Japanese launched a counterattack on the Eastern Front. This is the only way Saigo can think of from Michido and Tanigan Castle.

There is only a dead end for the troops in Turtle Mountain. Most of the surface fortifications on the Western Front were destroyed. More than half of the artillery was lost, and what was even more troublesome was that the remaining artillery could only hide in the woods, and it was impossible to build artillery positions in a regular manner. Because the hot air balloons of the Qing people always float in the sky.

Maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's the day after tomorrow, no matter how late it is, it won't exceed the day after tomorrow, and the Qing army will definitely launch a formal offensive, and the Western Front will not be able to hold it.

So, the Japanese launched a counterattack on the Eastern Front. As long as a road can be opened, even if it is a dense forest and mountainous area to the east, which is more unsuitable for the Japanese army, Saigo will recognize it. He wants to withdraw there with his troops, and even if he has to fight a decisive battle in the end, he must first let the artillery superiority of the Qing army disappear!

In a word, it is worth dying to die.

Tanaka Nobusawa felt that the enemy on the opposite side reacted extremely quickly, and a few shells flew out of nowhere, drawing an arc with great curvature and heading straight for the Japanese position. One of them exploded four or five meters away from him, but the power was really average. Tanaka Nobusawa felt like he had been hit hard, it hurt, and his chest was tight, but it was like that, there was no threat to his life. Such a powerful cannonball is far worse than the seven or five cannons, or even the five or seven cannons.

"Is it a mortar?" Thinking of the curved trajectory of the cannonball, Tanaka Shinzawa consciously told him that it was the mortar that was gradually being eliminated from the battlefield.

The gunners of the Qing army had no intention of accepting it when they saw it, and the shells were fired one after another. Explosions kept on the Japanese positions. But Tanaka's squadron was, after all, the elite troops of the Satsuma Domain, and they all lay on the ground or hid behind safe concealment, crawling forward to continue the attack.

The shells come and go as fast as they go. After a crackling burst of artillery bombardment, suddenly the Qing army's position on the opposite side became silent. Just when the Tanaka squadron was in shock, but had to start getting up and forming a whole team, yes, the whole team. The current normal state of the Japanese offensive is still a dense queue. Several more shells flew over, three of which accurately concentrated a detachment (squad level) of Tanaka's squadron, and the sound of explosions, mixed with the howl of ghosts and wolves, sounded in the array of Japanese troops.

On this night, not only the attack of Tanaka's squadron was frustrated, but several Japanese offensive sites were attacked head-on by the Qin-Chu coalition forces. However, Saigo's attack will not be so small, and the first attack seems to be testing the defense points and defense strength of the coalition forces. After the Japanese offensive stopped for less than an hour, Gu Gancheng personally reorganized his troops, and Saigo Congdao dragged all the remaining more than ten artillery pieces on the Western Front to the Eastern Front.

This time the Japanese attack did not meet with too resolute resistance, and the offensive went very smoothly. Several Japanese units, including the Nakata squadron, which had gone into battle for the second time, easily occupied the positions of the coalition forces that had resisted stubbornly and prevented them from advancing. It's just that they didn't find too many corpses of coalition soldiers on the bombed-up messy position, and there were not too many traces of blood, except for scattered bullet casings and trenches that could prove that troops had resisted here. Coalition forces also don't know when they have withdrawn.

Just when the Japanese army was puzzled, there was suddenly another muffled sound in the distance. With the screech of shells, the Japanese troops who rushed to the positions of the coalition forces were fiercely attacked by a wave of shells. This time, the cannonball was much more powerful than Fang Cai. In the rumbling explosion, some Japanese soldiers were simply blown up in the air.

As the commander of the assault force, Sakuma Zomattai simply could not stand such losses. - The artillery fire of the Qing army was too accurate!

In his telescope, he could probably see the flashes of artillery fire in the shadowy mountains opposite, but he couldn't see the Coalition troops.

The shun of this attack can be said to have been given to him by the enemy. These positions, the artillery of the Qing army has long been determined, as long as the Japanese army breaks into these positions, the artillery opens fire according to the shooting of Zhuyuan, it is really a dozen and one accurate!

Saigo immediately ordered the artillery to start suppressing the artillery units of the coalition forces, and the assault troops first held the area that had been occupied.

The coalition firepower had weakened considerably, and Tanaka Nobusawa breathed a sigh of relief. After a short pause in the offensive, the various assault units of the Japanese army received orders to fiercely attack the enemy opposite. The order required each squadron to send elite vanguard detachments to carry out power reconnaissance, and a fierce and short battle ensued.

Tanaka Nobusawa was very lucky to bump into a group of Chu soldiers, relying on the repeating pistol in his hand, relying on the well-trained marksmanship of the squadron soldiers, twenty minutes or half an hour? In two attacks, Tanaka Nobusawa defeated the Chu army in front of him at the cost of more than 20 casualties. Soon, however, the nightmare for him and his men came, and the pursuing Tanaka squadron ran headlong into a Qin army that had come to support.

This Qin army team is not large in number, it is just a small team. There were more than 170 people in Tanaka's squadron, and there were more than 120 people in the fight so far, but Tanaka Nobuzawa quickly discovered that the tactics of the soldiers of the Qin army on the opposite side were very obscene!

These Qing soldiers did not implement key defenses at all, and even said that they had no positions at all. The enemy on the opposite side is completely in the field, fighting and retreating. The occasional raised dirt slope, the rocks that can often be seen on the ground, or a few trees, can be a shield for their resistance. Moreover, in addition to rifles, these Qing soldiers frequently used grenades and pistols to suppress the pursuit of Tanaka's squadron with fierce short-range fire. (To be continued) R580