Unlike Ma Jizeng, who suffered from gains and losses, Major General Zhou Wenbing, the brigade commander of the 11th Mixed Brigade of the Sixth Beiyang Division, was full of spirit and confidence at the moment, and he said to Huang Zhenkui and Zhang Zhonghe, the commanders of the two main regiments under his command: "In this battle, we must show the prestige of our Beiyang Army no matter what, and wait for the attack to follow the old rules, and the heavy artillery regiment under the division will strike first, and then you will each organize a battalion of troops, with the 21st Regiment on the left and the 22nd Regiment on the right. I don't make any key breakthroughs, they are all key points, and a charge will give me a position. As long as we pass the Zhujiaqiao section, there is an endless plain behind us, and we can run to Changde. ”

When Huang Zhenkui heard this, he rubbed his hands and said: "These unsightly things actually dare to play positional warfare here, I thought they only dared to nest on the shore and shoot black guns." Brigade commander, I didn't say it, you will see later, my old Huang will drive these turtle grandsons to the Yuanjiang River to feed Wang Ba with a charge, and avenge my brother who died last night. ”

Zhang Zhonghe didn't seem to buy Zhou Wenbing, the brigade commander: "I said Brigade Commander Zhou, this leading troops to fight always has to talk about the rules, my brother has already reconnoitred, there is at least one regiment of enemy troops on the opposite side, you let the two battalions have no focus, do not play side fists, that is forcing us to fight a war of attrition." Zhang is not talented, he has led soldiers for so many years, and it is the first time I have seen you command blindly, such a battle must be fought by yourself, and our brothers from the 21st Regiment will not accompany you. ”

Zhou Wenbing's face was immediately angry and white for a while, not long after his brigade commander took office, Zhang Zhonghe was an old gangster again, often singing against himself, and he has always endured it for the sake of the overall situation. But this time Zhou Wenbing didn't plan to endure it: "Zhang Zhonghe, I see that your old boy drank too much yellow soup, do you know what the result of disobedience before the battle is?" I advise you, obey orders, and don't make fun of your own head. ”

Zhang Zhonghe was furious when he heard this: "The surname is Zhou, don't think that you TM is the brigade commander and can be embarrassed in front of my Lao Zhang, when Chun Shuai saw my Lao Zhang, he had to pat his shoulder and encourage a few words, what kind of thing are you, dare to teach Lao Tzu a lesson." ”

Zhou Wenbing was also angry at this time, he slapped the table and said: "Zhang Zhonghe, you are a son of a bitch, you can scold the mother again, and see if Lao Tzu doesn't kill your turtle grandson today." ”

Zhang Zhonghe slapped the shell gun on the table: "Zhou Wenbing, you bastard, who are you scaring TM, the gun is here, if you can't kill me, you are a king and eight turtles." ”

Zhou Wenbing was really anxious now, and as soon as he snatched the gun from Zhang Zhonghe's hand, he was about to pull it out. Frightened, Huang Zhenkui and other officers hurriedly went up and hugged Zhou Wenbing. And Zhang Zhonghe was not ambiguous, seeing that Zhou Wenbing really moved the killing machine, he also roared angrily, and he was about to smash people when he picked up the stool, so that the officers went to hug him again. The fun was a lot......

Zuihou Ma Jizeng appeared, two people and fifty boards, and asked them to immediately organize troops to attack forward. Losing peace before the battle is a taboo for leading troops, but changing generals in the battle is even more taboo for soldiers, so Ma Jizeng can only play 50 boards each to calm down the situation. But after such a commotion, almost a morning passed.

Seeing that the Beiyang Army on the opposite side had not launched an attack for a long time, Liu Xuyi, who had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, was inevitably a little nervous and uneasy. He thought about it for a while, and according to what he learned in the military academy, he issued a relatively standardized order to the herald: "Leave one company in the first-line position, and the other troops will move to the second line to hide, and then enter the first-line position after the enemy's artillery bombardment is over." ”

This is a tactic that Wang Zhenyu stole from the German army during World War II, and was specially used to deal with the artillery tactics before the Soviet attack. However, the most important use of this tactic is the Chinese volunteers during the Korean War, you must know that the Yankees are much more generous than the Russians, and it really doesn't cost money to fire shells.

After grinding until one o'clock in the afternoon, the old soldiers of Beiyang finished eating noon and took a nap, and finally lazily prepared to start work. As a division commander, Ma Jizeng doesn't care about these, he is a very pragmatic person, in his opinion, it doesn't matter what military discipline or regulations, as long as you can fight, you can fight.

Zhang Songbai, commander of the Sixth Artillery Regiment of the Sixth Beiyang Division, basked in the sun for a while, feeling that this weather was not the season for sunbathing, and there was such a chill, so he quickly stood up and patted the dust on his sleeve.

"Monkey cubs, are you ready?" Zhang Songbai asked the same as every time he fought, but this time his performance was a little more relaxed.

"Report to the regimental commander, all 24 heavy guns are in position, all of them have just carried out basic test firing, and according to the observations of artillery observers, they are basically correct, please give the order," the regimental chief of staff immediately replied with a salute.

Zhang Songbai is actually very proud of the Sixth Artillery Regiment, every time he fights, as long as the cannon on this side sounds, there is no position that the infantry cannot take. It's a pity that when the military merits are counted, the grandsons of the infantry don't remember the merits of the artillery, and only when they can't hit the position will they shout and shout indiscriminately: Where is the artillery?

"Let's fire, the grandsons of the 11th Brigade are probably in a hurry," Zhang Songbai ordered lightly.

"Order, all running positions, 12 rapid fire, fire" A small red flag waved forward, and twenty-four mountain guns of 75 mm caliber unceremoniously let out their own roar.

"Boom, boom, boom......" The entire front-line position was bombed with gunpowder smoke one after another, and from time to time unlucky soldiers of the Youth Army were blown into the sky. And many more of the youth soldiers honestly hid in improvised artillery holes, praying to the gods in the sky to protect themselves from being hit by shells.

Ma Jizeng looked at the smoke of the Youth Army's position through the telescope, and said very proudly: "These Xiangxi buns, I'm afraid I haven't even seen a cannon, go, tell Zhang Monkey (Zhang Songbai's nickname) to save some ammunition." In addition, tell the 11th Brigade to let them charge and take the entire position in one go. ”

The whistle of the offensive was blown, and the 11th Brigade invested three battalions of troops in the first attack in accordance with the plan adjusted by Ma Jizeng himself, striving to achieve a one-time breakthrough.

Liu Xuyi deserves to be the top student of the first crash course of the Xiangxi Army Military Academy, and the entire position was built by him. The defense line is set up in a trapezoidal and Z-shaped shape, making full use of the favorable terrain of the north mountain and south water of Zhujiaqiao. The width of the frontal line of defense is 240 meters, the depth is 40 meters. The entire position was connected by 12 solid firepower points made of cement and steel bar, which can be said to be the earliest modern fortifications in Chinese history. And its solidity had been tested in the shelling just now, not a single one of them was broken, and the young officers and men who were hiding inside were all unharmed. Outside of the main position, there were a number of auxiliary positions and a large number of foxholes, which were used to prevent the enemy from using outflanking tactics to copy the back of the main position. The width of the entire battlefield was set at 3,000 meters, and beyond this range, there were three regiments of 402, 403, and 404. If the Beiyang Sixth Division did not know how to raise and had to fight beyond this range, these brother troops would not hesitate to attack.

Wan Yaohuang took the method of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger to an extreme......

In accordance with the requirements of the usual drills, the three battalions of Beiyang soldiers lined up in a neat queue and attacked the position of the youth army according to a unified rhythm. Don't get me wrong, this is not a queue to shoot, but a tactic, as you can see in Europe. The offensive position of the Beiyang Army was 500 meters away from the main position of the 401st Regiment, and the maximum effective killing radius of rifles in this period was more than 200 meters, so it was safe to stand more densely.

The artillery preparation of the Beiyang Sixth Division was a bit perfunctory, and it ended hastily with less than 300 rounds of less than 300 rounds at the main position of the 401st Regiment. Because the military industrial system is not self-sufficient, this expensive thing is used up with one shot less and one shot, and once it is used up, it is very difficult to replenish it.

So don't look at the heat of this cannonball, but the actual effect is so bad.

On this side, the first battalion of the 401st Regiment, which was responsible for guarding the main position, under the leadership of the battalion commander, Major Wang Kewen, entered the main position during the interval when the artillery fire stopped, and the 30 mortars assigned to the 1st battalion were also supported 200 meters behind the main position. Liu Xuyi also has a trump card in his hand, that is, ten 75 mm caliber mountain guns, which were placed on the mountain on the north side, and were successfully covered up by the ridge line and camouflage of the mountain. These big guys, who weigh more than 700 pounds, were all brought up the mountain by the officers and men of the regimental artillery brigade and the second battalion, and they still had trouble going down the mountain after this battle.

But it doesn't matter, Liu Xuyi's psychology is very clear, maybe the 401st Regiment can be brilliant in the whole war and even appear in the first battle of Zhujiaqiao. Liu Xuyi set up his headquarters less than 500 meters away from the main position, and then got in touch with Wang Kewen, who was in charge of the defense of the main position, through the artillery telephone line.

At this moment, Wang Kewen was holding a telescope and looking in the direction of the Beiyang Army's attack.

Wang Kewen is different from many officers of the same level at present, he is not from the second battalion, or even from the Tiger Brigade, he was originally a captain of the new army in the Hongjiang area, and he was promoted to the head of the team under the care of Liu Xuyi. In the Battle of Hongjiang, Wang Kewen did not show any power to turn the tide, but he was able to escape from the front line with his own team of men and horses, and he deserved to be a prisoner of war in the end.

After Liu Xuyi surrendered, he found this tired and half-dead guy from the ranks of railway workers and sent him to the second crash course of the Xiangxi Army Military Academy. From this point of view, Wang Kewen can be regarded as Liu Xuyi's absolute cronies and descendants, and Liu Xuyi naturally put the heaviest burden of this battle on his shoulders......