The commander of the Russian 61st Army, Partoliev, after receiving the order of the commander Kuropatkin, heard that his 61st Army still let his 61st Army attack, and it was not an order to retreat at all, showing a wry smile, but he felt a little relieved to hear that his troops only needed to attack the two mountain fortifications on both sides of the road, which also reduced the pressure on the attack of his troops, and the meaning of the commander Kuropatkin, as well as tanks and armored vehicles that would cooperate with his troops to attack, suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, The infantry brigade, which was preparing for the attack, was then ordered to adjust the attack plan and focus on the two hills in front of each side of the road.

Commander Kuropatkin saw the attack of his own troops on the front line, and found that if he wanted to capture this piece of hills, he didn't know how many troops would be lost, and he might have to fill the lives of hundreds of thousands of Russian officers and soldiers here, but he didn't care about the casualties, he was the same as the theater commander Kuropatkin, he was very indifferent to the lives of ordinary Russian soldiers, if he could achieve the goal of relieving Vladivostok and complete the tasks given to him by the theater commander and His Majesty the Tsar, Even if the entire Siberian Second Front has lost more than 700,000 troops, his brows will not wrinkle, anyway, Russia has nothing else, and there are many gray cattle such as ordinary Russian soldiers, and by the way, a few more can be pulled out.

But if you want to reach Vladivostok, there may be many places to be conquered later, and he is not prepared to lose too many troops here, as long as he can get through the mountain fortifications built by the Dingbei army.

After a while, 6 Russian heavy steam tanks and 12 armored vehicles came to the improvised positions before the attack of the Russian 61st Army, and joined the Russian infantry of 1 brigade that was about to attack. A charge was made on two hills on either side of the road, and one of them was the 3111th Heights guarded by the 1st Battalion of the 138th Regiment.

Battalion Commander Cai Xiangyu at the observation port inside the tunnel. A large force of Russian troops, under the cover of tanks and armored vehicles, was seen attacking their own hill and another hill across the road, the 137 heights. With a sneer, he said to the platoon commander of the communication platoon beside him: "Contact the artillery, carry out a covering shelling of the 15th and 16th areas in front of our 138 heights, and order all units to enter the mountain surface fortifications, and at the same time stick to the tunnel and dark fortifications, and give Lao Tzu a hard beating!" ”

Immediately, the shells of the Dingbei Army fell on the heads of the charging Russian army, and then the Russian artillery launched an artillery bombardment to suppress the artillery fire of the Dingbei Army, so that the artillery of the Dingbei Army lost some artillery, but the attacking Russian army also lost a lot under the bombardment of the artillery of the Dingbei Army, and even 3 steam tanks were directly hit by the shells on the top. On the way to the charge, 8 armored vehicles were also destroyed, and the Russian infantry suffered heavy losses, but the remaining 3 Russian tanks, 4 armored vehicles and the remaining infantry finally broke through the shelling range of the Dingbei Army's artillery and launched an attack on the top of the mountain from the foot of the mountain.

The slope of the two hills that were attacked was relatively gentle, and the Russian tanks and armored vehicles drove slowly up the mountain, but then they were fired by the anti-aircraft guns in the mountain bunker fortifications, and each of the steam tanks with the same speed was instantly hit by several 57-mm anti-aircraft guns, even the old armor of the steam tank's thick 100 mm front could not withstand the armor-piercing shells of the Dingbei Army. Without playing any role, not even a single shell was fired, and the steam tanks launched by the Russian army were completely wiped out.

Subsequently, the remaining 4 Russian armored vehicles with very thin armor did not escape the armor-piercing shells of the battle defense guns. All destroyed.

The infantry, which had already suffered heavy losses from the artillery bombardment of the Dingbei Army, saw that the tanks and armored vehicles had just reached the gentle slope of the hill and were destroyed by the enemy, and the momentum of the charge instantly dropped to the valley. At first, some Russian soldiers slowed down the pace of the charge, and soon some Russian soldiers turned and fled behind. Then more and more Russian soldiers turned and fled, completely ignoring the officers' loud and urgent orders to move on. Some officers stopped the fleeing Russian soldiers, and even killed several soldiers who turned around and fled with pistols, but it could not prevent the demoralized remnants of the Russian army from fleeing backwards, and finally the officers had no choice but to flee behind with the rout. The light and heavy machine guns in the mountain fortifications had not yet exerted much power, and the Russian attack was defeated.

The commander of the Russian 61st Army, Partoliev, saw the officers and soldiers of this brigade routing in the back, and immediately said angrily: "Waste, don't you dare to charge without tanks and armored vehicles, order the brigade commander of this brigade to immediately collect the rout, and then personally lead the rest of the people to attack again, only to advance, and not to order those who retreat to engage in military law!" ”

Oleglev, the commander of the Second Siberian Front Army in the back, looked at the tanks and armored vehicles and infantry and was repelled by the Dingbei Army, and his brows furrowed into a figure-eight shape, he found that the mountain fortifications of the Dingbei Army of the Qing Dynasty were very difficult to deal with, they didn't even enter the mountain surface fortifications, they relied on the countless hidden forts built to resist the attack of their own troops, and in this mountain fortification group, there was also hidden enemy heavy artillery, constantly firing shells to intercept the attacking team, The suppression effect of their own artillery on the artillery of the Dingbei Army of the Qing Dynasty was not ideal.

The effect of tanks and armored vehicles in combination with infantry attacks was also very bad, not only to withstand the bombardment of the heavy artillery of the Dingbei Army, but also many of the fortifications of the Dingbei Army that could penetrate the front armor of the steam tank.

The entire mountain fortifications of the Dingbei Army were even more difficult to overcome than he expected, but no matter how difficult it was, it must be overcome, otherwise his entire Siberian Second Front Army would be blocked here and unable to move.

Oleg ordered to the heralds beside him: "Let the commander of the 61st Army, Partoliev, intensify the attack, tell him that there are no tanks and armored vehicles to cooperate with them for the time being, let them carry forward the fighting spirit of the Russian Army, and not be afraid of sacrifice, and at the same time order the artillery to suppress the artillery of the Northern Army as much as possible, so that the troops of the 62nd Army will also move forward to the front line, and prepare to strengthen the attack force on the front line." ”

After receiving the commander's order, the commander of the 61st Army, Partoliev, had no choice but to strengthen the attack, and in the fourth attack of the 61st Army, in addition to the brigade that had just been defeated and retreated, there was still more than 1,000 people left, and a brigade of more than 3,000 people was sent to launch the attack together.

But before the fourth offensive of the 61st Army could be launched, it was interrupted by 4 airships that suddenly appeared in the sky. The Hercules, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, which were originally in Hailanpao, received a telegram from Yu Lichen, commander of the Svobodney defense system, saying that the Russian Siberian Second Front had launched an attack on the mountain fortifications outside the inner city of Svobod today, requesting air support from the airship troops.

So Zhang Guoxin, the commander of the airship unit, led four airships loaded with bombs to fly to the mountain fortifications outside the inner city of Svobod, and the other four airships of the airship force were in Kulen, preparing to provide air support to the Dingbei army in Darkhan City. And because the target of the bombing was mainly infantry, the bombs carried by the 4 airships were all 100 kg bombs.

The commander of the 61st Army, Partoliev, was about to order more than 4,000 Russian officers and soldiers to launch the fourth attack of the 61st Army today, when suddenly the staff officer of the military headquarters next to him shouted: "Oh my God! Couldn't those things be the giant airships of the Dingbei Army? ”

Partolyev looked up and was immediately shocked, there were 4 behemoths in the air quickly approaching the direction of his army, isn't this the legendary giant airship that bombed the Russian Navy and the French Navy to the extreme!

Partolyev shouted: "Quick! Tell the departments to be careful with the bombs on their heads, pull out the anti-aircraft guns assigned to our army, and aim them at the giant airships of the enemy in the sky! ”

Zhang Guoxin, the captain and commander of the airship unit on the Hercules super airship, saw from the observation window at the lower part of the airship that it flew to the head of the Russian front-line troops, and some of the Russian troops below happened to be gathered together, so he immediately ordered: "Each boat maintains an altitude of 2,000 meters, starts to drop bombs, be careful of the Russian anti-aircraft guns, if the airbag is hit and affects the normal flight, return to Hailan Pao immediately." ”

Then 4 airships threw bombs on the head of the 61st Army, especially the Russian officers and soldiers of the 2 brigades who were assembled to launch the fourth attack, and the bombs fell from the sky, and the bombs that blew up made them cry and cry out for their mothers, and every bomb that fell into the crowd would bring a piece of stump and broken arm, accompanied by the mud with ice and snow that was blown up, and then fell to the ground like scattered flowers of the goddess.

The entire 61st Army was only equipped with 12 47 mm modified anti-aircraft guns, and the shells were just ordinary shells, not shells that automatically exploded with a delay, although they constantly fired at the airship in the sky, but the threat to the airship was not too great, if the anti-aircraft gun was more than 4000 meters away from the diagonal distance of the airship, the range of the anti-aircraft gun was not enough at all. It is the shell that hits the airship, and the alloy armor of the gondola compartment under the airship is not at all penetrated by these 47mm ordinary shells, and the airbag is hit in 1 or 2 places, and it does not affect the normal flight of the airship.

The 61st Army bombarded indiscriminately, and the four airships continued to fly forward, and then came to the top of the Russian 62nd Army, which was approaching the front line of the Russian attack on the order of Commander Oleglev, and threw bombs again, although the 62nd Army had taken dispersed and concealed when it saw the airships bombing the 61st Army, but it was still bombed enough by the 4 airships, and the entire establishment was chaotic, and there were also a lot of losses in personnel.

The bombing of the 62nd Army by 4 airships was just incidental, Zhang Guoxin's target was the artillery position of the Second Siberian Front, and the bombing of the 62nd Army was just because they were unlucky enough to be under the flight route of the airship, and there was no reason not to eat the fat sent to the door, so the 62nd Army was piggybacked by the 4 airships and threw a bomb.

The 4 airships did not waste much time on the 62nd Army and continued to fly in the direction of the Russian battalion, flying towards the artillery positions of the Russian army. (To be continued......) R1292