Episode 32 Tank, Forward!

At this moment, behind the woods, there is an infantry trench, in front of the trench temporarily pulled barbed wire, several 37 mm anti-tank guns behind the barbed wire, each separated by more than ten meters distance, from time to time to the Qing army to shoot a cannon, and then hurriedly push the small cannon to another place.

Behind the cannon was a deafening, resounding roar of engines. Dozens of trucks kept staggering, and a staff officer, like a band conductor, kept giving instructions to a certain car to stop at a certain location, and then let a certain parked car start.

The tank engine and truck engine of the Ming army were both gasoline engines, and the sound difference was not large. Coupled with the fact that these trucks all opened their hoods, they were much louder, dozens of them were driving around, and with the occasional fire of anti-tank guns, it sounded like a tank cluster from a distance.

In the woods, several Ming army officers observed several trucks pretending to be armored vehicles outside the woods, and after each car dangled outside for a while, and after dodging a few Qing artillery shells, the officers would give a signal to let a car withdraw in, and then arrange for a truck behind the woods to drive out, always keeping eight to ten "armored vehicles" in front of them, always pressing a layer of confusion and fear on the hearts of the Qing army.

There was an explosion, and another car was hit by the Qing army. Several Ming army officers watched as the two drivers rolled down covered in flames, and then were killed by the Qing army. The Heavy also escaped, and with a bit of luck, he jumped all the way into the woods.

"Long ...... "Sir......" he threw himself to the ground with a blackened face, gasping for air, "I'm back...... The kid next to me...... I'm afraid I'm going to die......"

"Okay, brother, good work!"

The two officers put the soldier's arms on their shoulders and carried him back. At the same time, a few soldiers behind the woods stuffed a machine gun into the passenger seat of a truck, smashed the windshield from the inside, and the barrel of the gun sticked out. The driver drove the car, and the machine gunner sat next to him to operate the machine gun, like an armored car.

"Alright, brothers, it's your turn! Let Qingyu taste great! ”

The officer closed the door and guided the car through the woods, through the trenches on the planks, and joined the ranks of the Qing army.

Just as the car rushed out, five hundred meters to the south, the mountain artillery position of the Qing army opened fire. Thirty-six 75mm mountain guns roared in unison, and the grove and the trucks in front of them were suddenly caught in an explosion of fire.

These 36 75 mountain guns were the largest caliber weapons carried by the Sixth Division of the Eight Banners of the Qing Army. This time, their mission was to run lightly and quickly, so they did not bring bulky large-caliber howitzers. That kind of thing dragged down the trip, and it took a long time to get it from the pontoon, and with this dense fog environment, long-range artillery could not be used. Although the caliber of this mountain artillery is not small, 75 mm, the characteristics of the mountain artillery are that it is particularly light, and the large caliber can also be very light, which can completely keep up with the front-line troops, which is very suitable for the hilly terrain near Nanjing, and is also suitable for the needs of "close combat" under dense fog conditions.

Another salvo fired, and a total of 72 shells were eaten in the woods, and there were blazing fires in several places, mixed with heavy black smoke, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke and a strong smell of gasoline.

The cars in the woods were parked in dense numbers, and six of them were shot and exploded at once. Dozens of other trucks, under the command of the officer, dumped out of the woods and retreated north.

On the opposite side, the first regiment of the Qing army rushed over with bayonets and shouting.

The machine guns of the Ming army in the trenches fired like crazy, and the Qing soldiers who rushed up fell to the ground as if they were cutting wheat. Originally, the machine guns did not have much effect in this dense fog, and the Qing army rushed very close to be seen by the machine gunners. But the barbed wire fence a few meters away in front of the Ming army's trenches played a big role, and the Qing army rushed there to stop, thinking that whether it was drilling or turning, it would have to stop for a few seconds. On the other hand, the barbed wire is full of wolf fangs and thorns, and those who are hooked on their clothes and pull on the belt of their guns cannot be turned over smoothly.

And the distance from the barbed wire to the trenches was just enough for the machine guns to see. For a moment, blood splattered on the barbed wire, and the dead bodies were plopped.

After dozens of people died, the Qing soldiers in the rear stopped rushing forward stupidly, and fell on the spot, throwing grenades like raindrops. The Ming machine gunners quickly retracted their heads into the trenches, and after an explosion, they threw themselves in front of the machine guns and continued to fire, but many Qing soldiers had already taken the opportunity to jump over the barbed wire fence and jump into the trenches to fight.

The Ming infantry desperately resisted with submachine guns, but the trenches were too narrow to be used, and the Qing army kept jumping in from the front and back, left and right, the Ming army resisted for a while, and a whistle sounded in the woods. As if hearing a signal, the Ming machine gun crew climbed out of the trench and retreated with machine guns on their shoulders. The other Ming soldiers also stopped fighting hard, and climbed out of the trenches and ran into the woods.

More than 1,000 Qing soldiers rushed into the woods, cautiously advancing with guns in hand. Because several trucks near and far were burning, it was not so dark, and the thick fog fluttered strangely in the light of the fire, red and red, like hell.

The Ming army, which was desperately resisting just now, is now running cleanly, only occasionally seeing corpses on the ground.

The sound of gunfire is over, now it is quiet, and the sound of tank engines, which was still in a patch just now, is now gone.

A Qing soldier clutched his bayonet and rifle, and while bending forward, he swallowed dry saliva and whispered:

"Hey, there's an ambush up ahead, right?"

The scalp of the companion next to him exploded, and he scolded in a low voice:

"Shut up your stinky mouth!"

As the search advanced for dozens of meters, the woods became denser and denser, and the black hole in front of me was unfathomable, and it felt like something was waiting.

"Boom !!"

There was a loud bang in the firelight, and one of the Qing soldiers at the front was blown off one leg and staggered to the ground. All the Qing soldiers immediately lay on the ground, covering their heads, waiting for more shells to fall.

The stump leg spun around in mid-air a few times and slammed into the face of the soldier in the last row behind him, causing him to let out a strange scream.

Lin Zi was quiet for a while, and nothing happened. Only the Qing soldier who had his leg broken couldn't stop screaming. A company commander shouted:

"Get up, it's a mine!"

Then he ordered everyone to stay where they were, and let the signal corps run to the rear to ask the regimental headquarters to send a platoon of engineers to clear mines.

The sappers soon came up, flashlights, and slowly moved forward to detect mines.

Following the sappers were several staff officers from the division headquarters. They were ordered by the division commander to inspect the area.

Several staff officers followed behind the sappers, also flashlights, shining on the ground, looking for ruts and other marks.

"It's all tire prints over here."

"Me too."

……

"Did anyone see the track print?"

"Nope."

"I don't have any here."

……

The infantrymen sat on the ground, leaning against the trees, gasping for breath, temporarily relaxing their nerves. Many soldiers unscrewed their kettles to drink water, and many soldiers took out half of their unfinished paper cigarettes, lit them with matches, and smoked them beautifully.

"Hey," a few officers began to whisper in all directions, "don't smack matches and expose your target!" ”

"Grandma's bear...... Damn," the Qing soldiers threw the matches on the ground and cursed in a low voice, "There are so many things to draw a match, and those minesweepers are still flashlights, and they will be exposed early!" ”

They put matches back in their bosoms and borrowed fires from each other's cigarette butts. All kinds of whispered complaints and abuses were everywhere, and the nest that had been saved up in the middle of the night broke out one after another.

"Donkey Day! What kind of bird battle are we fighting in the second half of the night! ”

"What I said was how beautifully the battle of annihilation fought in the first half of the night! But what's it called in the middle of the night!

"The Ming army doesn't pull it out to fight in a dignified manner, just a small bite after a small bite."

"Small mouths? Eat our vanguard reconnaissance battalion in one bite, still small? ”

"You deserve to eat it! Scouting a bird went and killed so many of us, he ......"

A soldier next to him pounced, grabbed him by the collar and shouted:

"Who are you? Who do you? Do you kid have to say it again? ”

Seeing that he was about to fight, the officer hurriedly came over to stop and said:

"What, one by one? Interesting, huh? There's nowhere to go, right? What kind of hero is his brother fighting? Let me tell you, it's the gentlemen who are saving up, and when we enter Nanjing, we will toss as you want! ”

Saying this, these Qing soldiers stopped arguing, and launched one after another:

"When I enter Nanjing, I will kill people when I see them, don't stop them!"

"Kill people when you see them, do you have so many bullets?"

"Damn, Lao Tzu uses a bayonet, tied up and picked one by one."

"Lao Tzu burned the palace with a fire."

"Hey, if you want to talk about Nanming's good things, what's the most?"

"What?"

"Pretty woman!"

"Yes, yes, yes! Ha ha! ”

At the mention of women, the eyes of these Qing soldiers lit up, and they began to swear with red faces:

"***, as long as you hit Nanjing, search from house to house, let's go to the Qinhuai River to find it, there are all Mrs. Guan, Miss Guan."

"I'll come to seventeen or eighteen a day, no, I want fifteen or sixteen, don't fight with me......"

……

These Qing soldiers said with red faces, and they forgot about the slump they had been saving up for the middle of the night for the time being.

The sapper platoon probed for mines for a long time, and the mine detectors went through the forest, and only found four other mines. It seems that the Ming army really retreated in a hurry, and only had time to lay these five mines.

Moreover, the tire prints on the ground are dense and intertwined, and it seems that many cars have driven here. But only one trace of a track was found, and, judging by the depth, it was not yet a tank, just an armored vehicle.

At the rear division headquarters, Ha Feng'a heard the report on the phone and bit his cigarette fiercely:

"Order the first regiment to arrange for the reconnaissance troops to move forward, and the first regiment and the second regiment will immediately follow through the woods, and the mountain artillery battalion will also follow me!"

Hanging up the phone, Ha Fenga gritted his teeth and said:

"I knew it was so! …… So, where did all the tanks of the People's Guard go? ”

……

On the Yuhua platform, Xiang Xiaoqiang was staring at the map in the meditation room, and suddenly, there was a thunderous cannon sound in the distance in the south. It wasn't very loud, it looked like a mountain cannon. According to the confessions of the captured prisoners of the Qing army's reconnaissance battalion, the main artillery carried by the Sixth Division of the Eighth Banner this time was 75-mm mountain artillery.

There is also a crisp sound of artillery in the mountain artillery, which should be the Ming army in the position of the Outer Qinhuai River returning fire, which is the sound of medium-caliber mortars.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the pocket watch on the table, it was now half past four, and there was still half an hour before the scheduled general attack of the main force at five o'clock.

It won't start to light until half past five, and it's still a little early, so I still have to hold on here for a while. If it were to be launched on Rommel's side now, then the main battle would be fought in the dark of night, which would be too bad for the armored cluster.

At this time, the communications corps came to report that the vanguard of the Qing army had made fire contact with our army on the front line of the Qinhuai River.

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, looked at his watch again, and ordered:

"Order the heavy artillery positions and fire at the predetermined area."

"Yes!"

The signal soldiers saluted and ran out, and after a while, there was a dense muffled sound in the distance on the left and right. A moment later, explosions were heard from the south, far and near. You can feel the earth trembling here.

Fired at the heavy artillery positions deployed by Xiaoqiang on both sides of Yuhuatai.

Shells from 36 105-mm howitzers and 12 150-mm howitzers screamed in the air and swooped down on the Qing army's assembly area south of the Qinhuai River.

However, although the power of heavy artillery is great, after all, there are only a few dozen guns, and the lethality is really limited to cover an area of 25 square kilometers. If there is no heavy fog and it is daytime, it is completely possible to send planes to observe and guide the artillery bombardment, so that the shells can be concentrated in the assembly area of the Qing army. Even if you don't send planes, you can observe far away from Yuhuatai alone.

At this time, the communication soldier asked Xiang Xiaoqiang to listen to the phone. Xiang Xiaoqiang went to the meditation room next door and picked up the microphone, it turned out to be from the Purple Mountain Fortress, the chief of the army general staff. The fort on the top of Purple Mountain observed a large flash of light in the southern area, and the chief of the general staff specially called to confirm whether it was our artillery or the Qing army's artillery firing.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately confirmed that this was the heavy artillery position of the People's Guard, and then fired at the Qing army's assembly area. Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly remembered an idea, and asked with the mentality of trying it out:

"Chief of Staff, at present, there are too few artillery pieces in our department, the area that needs to be bombarded is too large, and the vitality is too weak, and I am afraid that we will not be able to kill enough prisoners before the tank impacts. Can the High Command order the artillery groups on the Yangtze River defense line to turn the guns around and assist in the bombardment of this area? ”

The Chief of Staff of the Army hesitated for a moment and said:

"I'm afraid not, the battle on the Yangtze River defense line is tight. But wait a minute, I can help you ask. ”

After a while, he came back and told Xiang Xiaoqiang that it was unrealistic to mobilize the artillery group of the Yangtze River defense line to participate in the bombardment. First, the fighting was tight, and the artillery there had to bombard the other side of the river with all their might, and second, the artillery on the defensive line was all installed in the fortifications, and the firing range was all towards the other side of the river, and it was impossible to turn around and shoot backwards. As for those all-steel turrets, which are capable of rotating 360 degrees, the caliber is too small and the range is insufficient.

Xiang Xiaoqiang put down the phone helplessly. It seems that after a while, the casualties of the armored forces will be greater. The sparse shells under the eye are like tickling.

The phone rang suddenly, and Xiang Xiaoqiang grabbed the phone, and Zhu Yourong's voice came from inside:

"Xiang Qing! Xiang Qing, do you want a gun? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was surprised, Zhu Yourong hadn't slept yet! Looks like she's excited tonight too. Zhu Yourong's voice was indeed excited, and he asked anxiously:

"How many cannons do you want from Xiang Qing?"

Zhu Yourong called himself "Xiang Qing", so he should have fought in the Central Command Hall. She is generally reluctant to call herself "Teacher Xiang" in front of the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs. But she asked, did she have a cannon?

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Your Majesty, do you have a cannon?"

朱优榕 says:

"I thought of an idea, and they all said no, I told you about it!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't know what whimsical things she was going to do again, and said with a wry smile:

"Your Majesty, please speak."

"I thought, isn't there hundreds of anti-aircraft guns in our Nanjing City, as well as around the Purple Mountain? Well, isn't it possible to ......"

Zhu Yourong's voice fell short as he spoke. But Xiang Xiaoqiang's mind immediately appeared in the famous 88 guns of World War II to join the great power of land warfare.

Those anti-aircraft guns in Nanjing knew to Xiaoqiang that he saw them every day in the city, and they were produced by the Ming Dynasty with a 75 mm caliber, and the range and power were no problem, so they should be competent.

His whole body immediately became excited, and he said in a loud voice:

"Your Majesty, yes, surely, I know yes! …… Even if we haven't done this before, we can give it a try. Your Majesty, can you help the ministers coordinate? ”

Zhu Yourong also seemed very happy, she found that she could help Xiang Xiaoqiang at the most critical time.

……

An order spread throughout the anti-aircraft artillery units inside and outside the city of Nanjing. Ten minutes later, all the 75-mm anti-aircraft guns shook their barrels and aimed at the area selected by Xiang Xiaoqiang, and the shells removed the time-delay fuse and replaced it with an instantaneous one.

Xiang Xiaoqiang gave an order on the phone, hundreds of anti-aircraft guns inside and outside Nanjing roared, spewed flames, and one after another 75-millimeter high-explosive bombs hit the air and landed on the Qing army's assembly area south of the Qinhuai River and north of Moling Town in a curved trajectory.

This is the first time in the military history of the Southern Ming Dynasty to increase the elevation angle of the cannon as a long-range howitzer. …… Xiang Xiaoqiang doesn't know if it's the first time in the world's military history.

……

The large-caliber howitzers of the People's Guard were exploding in the distance, and in the tent of the division headquarters of the Sixth Division of the Eight Banners, Ha Feng'a pushed away the steel helmet handed to him by the staff officer and reprimanded:

"Take it away, you don't need it! I'm afraid to wear it myself! ”

Then he glanced contemptuously in the direction from which the cannon was coming and snorted in his nose.

The 150-mm shells of the People's Guard were very perverted, and they shook the ground when they fell, and even the ground trembled here, but there were only a few cannons, and they couldn't observe such a big fog, and they fell sporadically in the distance, and most of the brothers didn't even have to enter the foxhole.

Outside the Qinhuai River ahead, the Ming army couldn't hold on. Their small-caliber mortars were no match for their dozens of mountain guns at all, and they were so pressed that they couldn't raise their heads. Thanks to the fog, their heavy howitzers only dared to shoot in depth, and did not dare to use them to bombard our troops attacking by the river. It's easy to hurt themselves that way.

Now the Ming army on the north bank of the river no longer dares to defend the shore and shoot machine guns, and every time a new machine gun point appears on the opposite bank, it will quickly fall into the sea of mountain artillery.

Originally, Hafenga planned to let his sappers build a pontoon bridge, but when he attacked the river, he found that there was already a pontoon bridge of the Ming army on the river, and it is estimated that the Ming army vehicles just now withdrew to the north bank from here. But the bridge has been blown up, and sappers are rushing to repair it, which will be repaired soon.

That's when ......

Haphona seemed to hear a large, dense cannon fire to the north.

No, the Ming Army's current troops in Nanjing are only the People's Guard! How many cannons are there in the People's Guard, and I have counted them myself, how can there be so many?

Besides, Nanjing City is not far to the north, how can the Ming army have such a large artillery position?

But the truth is brutal.

Moments later, the air above his head howled, and a widespread, dense hail of cannonballs fell.

Haphona shouted in despair:

"Lying down ————"

Just arrived and fell to the ground, around, in front, back, left and right, the shells exploded like dumplings. The small tent collapsed in an instant, and the staff officers were all covered with canvas, lying on the mud ground and holding their heads, feeling only large pieces of dirt, stones, branches, and small tree trunks...... It slammed into the back again and again.

There was only one thought in Hafeng's mind - why did he refuse that steel helmet just now.

……

Anti-aircraft artillery shelled for a full fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes later, the sound of the cannon stopped abruptly, and the last shell also landed and exploded, and a small cypress tree flew into the air, spun around a few times, and fell heavily.

10 kilometers to the south, Moling Town.

Li Gensheng stood beside the armored command vehicle, looked at the sky-high flames in the north, and muttered for a long time:

"Oh my God, Lord Xiang...... Where did you get so many cannons......"

Then he looked at his watch, and it was already 4:55. Li Gensheng took the wireless telephone in the armored car and said in a deep voice:

"Attention all...... Attention to all...... I'm a fox, I'm a fox...... Authorities are now reporting finally. ”

There was a "sizzle" on the radio, and one voice after another was heard:

"The elephant is ready."

"The lion is ready."

"The tiger is ready."

"The wolverine is ready."

"The mountain dogs are ready."

"Zebra ready."

……

Li Gensheng listened to the final reports of various units on the radio, and his heart was very excited. This is the first large-scale group battle since the establishment of its own mobile team, tank battalion, mechanized regiment, and motorized regiment.

Li Gensheng turned his head and saw that Rommel beside him was also full of excitement, with one hand on the belt around his waist, and the other hand caressing the Iron Cross on his neckline, staring intently at the steel figure looming in the fog in front of him.

This entire battle plan was conceived by Rommel. Now it is his "work" that is about to become a reality under his own order.

Li Gensheng raised the microphone to his mouth and said loudly:

"All-activated-"

Suddenly, the roar of the engine sounded in front of the back, on the left and right. The engines of more than a hundred tanks and armored vehicles, hundreds of trucks shook at the same time, and the ground under their feet trembled. Even the armored command vehicle next to him, its steel door was trembling slightly.

The air soon filled with the smell of engine exhaust. A staff officer in the command vehicle poked his head out and said something to him. But the noise was too loud to be heard at all.

Li Gensheng knew that this was to ask him to get in the car and direct the advance. Together with Rommel, he climbed into the command car, took a headset, then looked at his watch, and said into the microphone:

"Five...... Four...... Three...... Two...... One...... All ———— moving forward!! ”

……

A Lightning Type 3 command tank was holding a small pennant aloft, and the commander of the tank battalion, Shi Shengli, showed half of his body, his black leather gloves touched the steel plate on the top of the turret, and his right arm waved forward, wearing a headset and ordered:

"Tank, forward!"