After the military meeting of the 1st Siberian Front for the assault on the city of Darkhan, the commanders of the various corps and divisions left the headquarters of the Front in the large camp, and the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, sat alone in the headquarters and sighed after looking at the military map on the table for a long time.

In fact, he was not fully sure of the capture of Darkhan City, although the First Siberian Front Army had 21 infantry corps, 7 heavy artillery divisions, and even 12 siege guns with a caliber of 203 mm from Europe, with a strength of 650,000 people, but the Russians, who had fought with the Dingbei Army for so long and suffered so many losses, already had a clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Dingbei Army. The city of Darkhan had already been built by the Dingbei Army as much as a turtle shell, and Kuropatkin was worried that if he could not take it for a long time, his own supply problems would occur.

What worries him even more is that if his First Siberian Front Army is dragged in Darkhan City, the Dingbei Army troops besieging and annihilating the Siberian Second Front, and the Dingbei Army troops besieging Vladivostok, if they all pounce over, plus the strong fortifications of Darkhan City, then his Siberian First Front Army will be in danger, so no matter how strong the Dingbei Army's combat effectiveness is and how strong the fortifications are, Kuropatkin is determined not to consider casualties, and use the tactics of the sea of people to repeatedly attack the fortifications of the Dingbei Army, which is to fill it with human lives. It is also necessary to defeat the Dingbei army of Darkhan City and occupy Darkhan City.

Kuropatkin got up and walked out of the headquarters, looked in the direction of the city of Darkhan, his eyes became more and more determined, and then ordered the staff of the command to immediately send people to rush back to the city of Haktu on fast horses to convey his orders, and also sent a telegram to the commander of the newly formed Second Siberian Front, Antonovich, the commander of the Third Front, Ivanov, the defenders of Irkutsk, and Tsar Nicholas II of St. Petersburg.

On April 18, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the 1st Siberian Front gathered 1,800 guns with a caliber of more than 75 mm, including nearly 500 large-caliber guns of 7 heavy artillery divisions, and even 12 siege guns with a caliber of 210 mm, and carried out a 20-minute artillery bombardment of the mountain fortification group outside the city of Jungdalhan.

After that, Kuropatkin threw in the strength of 1 corps at once and launched an attack on 8 mountain fortifications on the front.

The attacking troops of the Russian army, nearly 30,000 people, shouted Ulla, and rushed to the mountain fortifications of the Dingbei Army with a bayonet in their hands. Many Russian soldiers also carry explosive bags and grenades, although the Russian army is equipped with grenades, but not all Russian soldiers have them, only some Russian soldiers called grenadiers are equipped with grenades and even explosive bags.

When the Russian artillery bombarded the mountain fortification group just now, the artillery of the Dingbei Army did not fire back, and it was at this time that as 30,000 Russian soldiers launched a charge, the Dingbei Army also concentrated more than 1,000 artillery pieces with a caliber of more than 75 mm and fired fiercely at these charging Russian troops.

Countless shells fell in the crowd of Russian infantry charges, and in an instant, flesh and blood flew sideways, and pieces of Russian officers and soldiers were killed, in the face of such fierce artillery fire, the Russian army did not have the slightest intention of retreating, and the Russian officers and soldiers who were not killed continued to shout that Ulla rushed to the mountain fortifications built by the eight Dingbei Army in front.

After the artillery of the Dingbei Army opened fire, it didn't take long for the Russian artillery to launch a suppressive shelling. The terrain of the mountain fortifications outside Darkhan is not as steep as the mountain fortifications outside the inner city of Svobod, which is not conducive to hiding the artillery units in the middle of the mountain fortifications, and the artillery of the Dingbei Army is set up on the artillery position behind the mountain fortifications, so after the Russian artillery fired, most of the artillery of the Dingbei Army immediately launched a return fire, and the Russian army engaged in a tragic artillery battle, and a small part of the artillery continued to shell the charging Russian army.

The remnants of the Russian army that launched the charge dodged the shells of the Dingbei Army and rushed up the gentle slope of the 8 mountain fortifications in front of it, and the terrain of the mountain fortifications outside the city of Darkhan was much more gentle than that of the mountain fortifications outside the inner city of Svobod, which also made it easier for the Russian assault troops to rush up the mountain fortifications, but the firepower on the mountain fortifications was comparable, and the Russian officers and soldiers who rushed up the gentle slope were subjected to countless light and heavy machine gun fire from the pillboxes and bunkers above, and rows of Russian officers and soldiers fell on the gentle slope.

But the officers and soldiers of the Russian charge still did not flinch, stepping on the corpses of their companions and continuing to shout Ula and rush towards the top of the mountain fortifications. It turned out that before launching the charge, the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, had already issued a military order, and the troops that launched the charge were only allowed to advance and not retreat, and anyone who dared to retreat would be killed!

And the Russian army has set up a large row of old Makqin heavy machine guns behind the assault troops, if anyone dares to retreat, these Russian heavy machine gunners will definitely not have mercy on the retreating Russian officers and soldiers, these heavy machine gunners have received an order, all the Russian officers and soldiers who retreat without authorization are shot with machine guns.

Moreover, Commander Kuropatkin threatened the Russian soldiers that if they chose to be cowards on this battlefield, they would not only be shot with heavy machine guns by the law enforcement team behind, but his family would also be affected in the future.

Anyway, they all died, and the officers and soldiers of the Russian army still chose to die on the road of the charge, which was better than dying in the hands of their own people, at least there would be a pension for their families if they died in battle, so the Russian officers and soldiers did not even care about their own lives, and faced the artillery fire of the Dingbei Army and the bullets fired from the pillboxes and bunkers on the mountain fortifications, and the rifles with bayonets were rushed.

The Russian army rushed up the gentle slope of the mountain fortifications, and began to use explosives bags and grenades to attack one after another surface bunkers and bunkers inside the mountain, although the Russian army almost every time they blew up a bunker or bunker, they had to pay a huge price, but in the end there was still some progress, and many bunkers and bunkers were completely blown up by the Russian army.

Although the attacking Russian army showed the spirit of not fearing death, the officers and soldiers of the Dingbei Army were not frightened by the momentum of the Russian army, and they desperately blocked the attack of the Russian army.

Some pillboxes or bunkers were killed by the Russian grenadiers who threw grenades into the defenders of the Dingbei Army, but in the tunnels connected to these fortifications, someone immediately rushed into the bunkers or bunkers from the pits and continued to shoot at the Russian army.

Kuropatkin, commander of the Russian Siberian Theater of Operations, had been observing the attack on the front line with a telescope in the back, and saw that although the 1st Army sent had very heroically attacked the mountain fortifications, and even blew up some pillboxes and bunkers on top of the mountain fortifications, the casualties of this army were really large.

But Kuropatkin still did not give the order to return the attacking troops with heavy losses, but sent another army to strengthen the attack.

Although the artillery unit of the Dingbei Army was still engaged in an artillery battle with the Russian artillery, a part of the artillery still blew up the second wave of charging Russian troops, and they fell on the way to charge one by one.

There are also individual Russian soldiers who can't stand this kind of fierce shelling, and the stumps and broken arms that are constantly flying around them collapse and flee backwards, but if they don't run a few steps back, they will be killed by the Russian officers with pistols.

Otherwise, such a deserter not only disturbed the morale of the army, but also he fled backwards, and the heavy machine gun behind him must shoot the deserter, so that the Russian officers and soldiers who were still attacking around him were not unlucky, and they were very likely to be killed by mistake by heavy machine guns, so the Russian officers around him would not hesitate to enforce battlefield discipline on this kind of collapsed soldier.

The second wave of Russian troops converged with the first wave of Russian troops on the gentle slopes of the eight mountain fortifications in the front, and continued to attack pillboxes and bunkers one by one regardless of casualties, but for each blow up, the number of Russian casualties was more than ten times that of the pillboxes or bunkers and the casualties of the Dingbei Army.

On the evening of April 18, the Russian army sent three waves of attack troops, that is, three Russian infantry corps, to try to seize the eight mountain fortifications on the front, but the Russian officers and soldiers of the three armies suffered heavy losses and still did not control any of the mountain fortifications.

The artillery battle between the Russian artillery unit and the artillery unit of the Dingbei Army caused heavy losses on both sides, the Russian artillery unit relied on quantity, and the artillery unit of the Dingbei Army relied on quality, and everyone was barely evenly divided. The Russian army lost 236 artillery pieces with a caliber of more than 75 mm on this day, and the artillery units of the Dingbei Army lost 125 artillery pieces with a caliber of more than 75 mm.

A staff officer of the command headquarters asked the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, whether to let the attacking troops retreat back and rest and recuperate, after all, the losses of the attacking troops of the three armies were really too great, and some of the troops had been fighting from noon to evening, and the officers and men were already very tired.

But Kuropatkin shook his head and said: "We are tired, the Dingbei army is even more tired, send another army to attack, wait for this army to attack the mountain fortifications, let the first two waves of attack the two armies withdraw, and let the other armies hurry up and rest, prepare to continue the attack overnight, and do not give the Dingbei army in the mountain fortifications any respite." ”

The Dingbei Army didn't expect that the sky was about to get dark, and the Russian army's offensive still did not stop, but strengthened, but the Dingbei Army was not afraid at all, the east wind was blowing the war drums, and who was afraid of whom!

In the face of the continuous attacks of the Russian army, the officers and soldiers of Dingbei who guarded the mountain fortifications also showed a fighting spirit that was not afraid of sacrifice, and used the fortifications on the mountain to spread several layers of Russian corpses on the gentle slope of the mountain fortifications, and as long as the pillboxes and bunkers were not blown up, the machine guns inside would not stop firing.

And because of the large-scale attack of the Russian army regardless of casualties, it is somewhat difficult to sustain if it only relies on the pillboxes and bunkers on the mountain fortifications, so the officers and soldiers of Dingbei in the mountain fortifications tunnels even braved the artillery fire of the Russian army and went up to the trenches on the surface, cooperating with the pillboxes and bunkers to block the attacking Russian army. R1152