During this period, Japan was equipped with three types of heavy machine guns, including the Bao type, the 38 type and the three-year type, of which the three-year type was the latest development in Japan, and it was also a new machine gun (1914) that was only equipped this year, and the number was very rare, and because this year was the third year of Taisho, it was also called the three-year type. This is also where the name triennial comes from.

However, in general, these three heavy machine guns are actually inseparable from the shadow of the French Hazikes machine gun, and it is not wrong to say that they are the improved version of the Hazikes machine gun.

And the Hazikes machine gun we know, although it is a good machine gun, but compared to Maxim after all, it is still a little worse.

In addition, the Japanese army at this time was not used to the concept of air defense, so a few shots, at most, were just damage to the plane flying overhead. But even so, it was enough to alert the people of Lu Airlines. After all, there is such a secret as the 'Shooting Coordinator' on the 'Winged Fire Snake', and if even one plane falls into the hands of the Japanese, it is likely that the Japanese will have the same plane.

Of course, at this time, the Japanese already knew that Chinese planes could carry machine guns to fight, but at this time, Japanese planes had almost been shot down, so it didn't matter whether they knew or not.

On the other hand, since the planes were almost completely lost, Japan also thought about buying them from other countries. But at this time, Britain, France and other countries were fighting with Germany, and they had no time to pay attention to it, and they still had to maintain face neutrality after all. As for the United States, let's not talk about America's dislike of Japan. In order to maintain a wartime neutral posture alone, it was impossible for them to sell weapons to belligerents. The same is true for China, but Yan Shao had already imported everything he needed from the Allies, the Entente, and the United States. And although arms exports have been banned, the United States and Mexico have not banned the export of oil, so there is no hurry in this regard...

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Although the war broke out on the territory of their own country, considering that the people nearby had almost evacuated, and their own side had already won a big victory in Longkou Bay, Cai Ye and Jiang Baili's mentality was very good, and there was no sense of urgency to take the initiative at all.

For them. It is stupid to take the initiative to attack, after all, the Japanese army on the opposite side is different from the Beiyang Army and other miscellaneous armies. Not only is it well-trained but also well-equipped. Of course, it is not impossible to fight hard, but that kind of casualties are definitely not what they are happy to see.

Turn. The advantage of the Wehrmacht lies in local operations, and there is also the superiority in equipment.

Since this is the case, Cai Ye and Jiang Baili naturally hope to give full play to their own advantages rather than rushing forward brainlessly.

And compared to Cai Yi. The mentality of Mitsutomi Kamio and other Japanese generals was much more urgent. After all, I have just experienced the incident of Longkou Bay. The Japanese government is under great pressure, and in order to alleviate this pressure, the Japanese government has sent telegrams to Mitsutomi Kamio several times, asking him to launch an offensive as much as possible and strive to win a victory to stabilize the situation in the country...

Looking at the telegram in his hand, to be honest, Mitsutomi Kamio really wanted to slap this telegram in the face of the politicians in the country. After all, there is a war going on in front of him, and it is simply nonsense to let him start fighting without knowing anything. Especially Longkou Bay. And the previous series of defeats have cast an indelible shadow on him.

But the military order is like a mountain, and the pressure on his shoulders is not small at the moment.

So after a moment of hesitation. Kamio Mitsutomi can only act according to domestic orders.

"Order, let the troops prepare, and in an hour the artillery will start shelling first, and after the shelling is over......... Let's see how it works..."

"Yes!"

Unlike Kamio Mitsutomi, the Japanese troops squatting in the defense line at this time were obviously much more excited about this order.

After all, the contradictions between the Japanese army and navy have been going on for a long time, although the Longkou Bay incident has eased the contradictions between the two sides. But after a few days, the most classic relationship between the Japanese army and navy was restored. When talking about the affairs of Longkou Bay, although some of the army has the mentality that they are all their own people, more of them are in the same way, gathering together to ridicule the navy as in the past, and some of the army even hype up the fact that Japan only relies on the army...

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After some preparations, the long-awaited shelling of the Japanese finally began.

Just like Jiang Baili and Cai Yi thought, Japan's artillery training was indeed good. With just a few shellings, the position has already been identified. Seeing a sea of fire burning in the opposite position, the Japanese in the fortifications also cheered excitedly.

It wasn't long before they were happy that they heard a sharp whistling sound approaching quickly, and then the scene on the other side followed them.

Due to the requirements in Japan, Mitsutomi Kamio prepared ammunition very well this time. On the side of Cai Yi and Jiang Baili, Yan Shao had already hoarded a large amount of ammunition before the war in Shandong, so there was no need to be stingy on this point. The artillery battle between the two sides was very fierce, and it was not inferior to that of the European side.

Looking at this large-scale artillery battle in the Far East, the faces of the observer groups from Europe almost changed.

"Oh God..."

Seeing that the positions of both sides were almost turned into a sea of fire, standing on a relatively safe high ground somewhere, Mikore, who took off his binoculars, couldn't help but marvel.

"I've never seen such a large-scale artillery battle in my life..."

"Not only have you not seen it, but I haven't seen it either..."Standing beside Mikore, Riva from France couldn't help but shake his head. According to the information provided to us by the Japanese, the two sides of this artillery battle may have prepared nearly 1,000 artillery pieces, and this kind of artillery battle has never happened even in the European theater, and now it is actually happening on this land, it is really..."

At this, a hint of wariness flashed in Riva's eyes.

"It seems that these yellow people can't be underestimated..."

No wonder he thought so. After all, there has not been such a large-scale war in Europe for many years. More than 200,000 people, and nearly a thousand artillery pieces, these are unimaginable for people of this era. As white. In this era dominated by whites, Riva still has a sense of superiority, not to mention that he is still the French military attache in Japan from Japan, and he is not like Lei to China? Copa has the same affection for those people.

Originally, he was quite happy to be there alone, but suddenly, the yellow country, which he had always looked down on, suddenly took out nearly a thousand artillery pieces to fight, how could he not be on guard?

However, after seeing the artillery battle on the battlefield, Riva couldn't help but think about if these troops in front of him moved to Europe. How nice would that be?

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Moving these troops to Europe to help is definitely not just Riva's own idea, I am afraid that everyone present has this idea. Before that. They never felt that their country needed help, and even if it was Japan, they only looked at the navy, and the army could only be said to be incidental. But now. Looking at the large-scale artillery battle in front of them, which had never happened even in Europe, such an idea was born in their hearts.

Of course, this is also because there have not been any large-scale battles in Europe at this time, otherwise they will understand that although the scale of this artillery battle in front of them is not small, there is still a big gap compared with Europe, just like the Battle of the Somme, the Allies alone moved thousands of artillery―――――― counting mortars. However, even if you don't count it, there are more than 2,000 guns, and the number of large-caliber heavy guns is definitely quite a lot. This is by no means comparable between China and Japan at this time.

While Riva and Mikore and other Allied viewing groups were enjoying watching there, the officers and soldiers in the defense line, whether it was China or Japan, were not in such a good mood as them.

Although they had strengthened the fortifications as much as possible before the start of the war, after the outbreak of the war, the troops in the front-line positions still had a sense of the end of the world under the shelling, and some of the fortifications that were directly hit were directly buried after the collapse, which was the same on both sides...

Fortunately, they were not lazy when digging fortifications, and whether it was on the Chinese side or the Japanese side, the number of heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 200mm was very small, and the main composition of the artillery was still 75mm, otherwise it would be difficult to imagine the casualties.

But on the whole, this artillery battle still has a certain advantage on the side of the Wehrmacht. After all, under Yan Shao's vigorous procurement, the number of heavy artillery pieces of 150mm caliber of the Wehrmacht has exceeded 100, and even 18 heavy artillery pieces of caliber above 200mm, plus more than 300 75mm and 105mm light howitzers, which are higher than those of Japan in terms of quantity and quality.

Moreover, at this time, the sky on the battlefield belonged to the Wehrmacht, although the aircraft at this time were basically of little use, but it was no problem to use it for reconnaissance, so the advantage of the Wehrmacht's side directly overwhelmed the gap in training, making it occupy a large advantage.

However, the Japanese were also very well trained, and as soon as they found that the Wehrmacht shells were falling on their side, they immediately moved them. By the time the Wehrmacht tried a few rounds and found the right feeling, the Japanese artillery had already moved to the next artillery position...

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The whole artillery battle lasted for more than two hours, and I don't know how many shells were fired. However, for a number of reasons, the artillery losses of both sides were not very large. On the contrary, the ordinary soldiers on both sides in the front-line positions suffered great losses, and after two hours of shelling, I am afraid that there were thousands of casualties.

"The appetizers are over, it's time for dinner..."

Seeing that the shelling had stopped on the other side, Cai Yi waved his hand and ordered his side to stop first.

At the same time, in his own headquarters, after looking at the situation on the other side with a telescope, Mitsutomi Kamio also ordered. "Let the 23rd Brigade and the 27th Brigade go together..."

"Yes!"

Having received an order, the 23 Brigade, together with the 27 Brigade, launched a charge in the direction that had already been predetermined. And the shelling that had already stopped sounded again, only this time their shelling was no longer just a front-line position ...

Watching the troops charge forward, Mitsutomi Kamio's hand gripped the binoculars tightly.

At this time, he actually hopes to do more testing to see if there are any weaknesses on the other side. Instead of attacking without trying anything, as is the case now. In that case, it would be irresponsible to the soldiers.

But the pressure at home is just too great. He couldn't help but continue to make a slow and tentative attack. So there is no other way but to obey domestic orders. After all, after all, it is not the era when the Shaozhuang faction is in power in the later generations, and Kamio Mitsutomi has no way to disobey the orders from the country.

At the same time, the Japanese soldiers on the opposite side turned out of the fortifications, and the Wehrmacht troops in the front-line positions were also ready.

"Remember it all, put these little devils closer and then fight. Don't just start firing in a hurry! ”

Inside the position, some officers walked up to the machine gunner and whispered.

The word 'little devil' came up unconsciously when Yan Shao was talking to people after the Japanese army landed in Longkou Bay. Not surprising either. After all, this word had too deep an impact on the people of Yan Shao's era. However, the term is still very new to the people of this era. In addition, Yan Shao's influence was too great, so it was quickly accepted by people and became a mantra for many people.

At this time, the Wehrmacht had an extremely large number of machine gun equipment. It can even be said that the country with the largest number of machine guns was armed with all the armies of the same era. Basically every infantry division was armed with almost seven hundred light and heavy machine guns. Five infantry divisions together have more than 3,000...

The power of more than 3,000 machine guns firing at the same time can be known by thinking about the later Battle of the Somme. Therefore, in order to avoid scaring the Japanese away, Cai Ye and Jiang Baili's order was to put them in―――――― they didn't think that the Japanese could break through the first line of defense at all, even if the passage between the second line of defense and the first line of defense had been blocked by Japanese artillery fire at this time, if anything unexpected happened, the reserves would not be able to reinforce in time.

In the open space between the two sides, the barbed wire fence that had been arranged had already been blown up in the shelling just now. Therefore, the advance of the Japanese army was very smooth. Even when they drove to a distance of 500 meters from the Wehrmacht line, they did not encounter any attack.

This was exciting for the Japanese army at the same time. It also made Kamio Mitsutomi feel that something was wrong.

But at this time, the troops had already rushed up, and it was impossible for Kamio Mitsutomi to call the troops back because of a little problem in his heart, so he could only hold the telescope tightly and watch the movement ahead tightly...

1000 meters...

800 meters...

600 meters...

550 meters...

500 meters...

"Fire!" Seeing that the Japanese had finally entered a distance of 500 meters, the officer standing next to the machine gunner suddenly shouted. At the same time, thousands of machine guns from the front-line positions also opened fire in unison, and the salvo was fired at the Japanese troops who were advancing here...

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This time, Cai Ye and Jiang Baili had a total of 100,000 troops in five infantry divisions, and more than 3,000 machine guns in five infantry divisions. Of course, these more than 3,000 machine guns certainly cannot all be unknown to the front-line positions, but there are still more than 2,000. And more than two thousand machine guns firing at the same time, how spectacular should this be the sight?

Others don't know, but Kamio Mitsutomi, who has been staring at the battlefield, can see it clearly, but because of this...

More than 2,000 machine guns fired at the same time, although the majority of them were light machine guns, and the number of heavy machine guns was relatively small. However, more than 2,000 tongues of fire were still like sickles, knocking down the Japanese troops who had already entered a distance of 500 meters like cutting wheat...

Almost instantly, the Japanese paid thousands of casualties, but the machine gunners did not release the trigger. The Japanese, who were charging, did not seem to intend to retreat either, but continued to charge with a dense barrage of bullets...

It was only in the face of a rain of bullets composed of more than 2,000 machine guns that the Japanese troops of the two brigades could not take a single step forward at all. Not only that, but due to the casualties caused by the dense rain of bullets, the gap between the Japanese and Wehrmacht positions became larger and larger due to the increase in corpses.

In just a few minutes, the Japanese casualties were no less than 3,000...

Looking at such huge casualties, Kamio Mitsutomi was simply bleeding in his heart, after all, it was more than 3,000 people, and if it was placed in China, it was already more than the strength of a reinforced regiment. However, at this moment, just more than ten minutes have passed, and more than 3,000 people have fallen under the machine guns of the Chinese...

"Your Excellency..."

Seeing such huge casualties, the troops were unable to move forward, and an officer walked up to Mitsutomi Kamio's side.

"Your Excellency, would you like to send some more reinforcements?"

This officer was from the Shaozhuang faction, and he didn't know what it was to retreat, so seeing the huge casualties of the troops at this moment, he not only thought about persuading Kamio Mitsutomi to withdraw the troops, but even thought that he should send more troops up.

"As long as more reinforcements are sent, we will definitely be able to break through the Chinese defense..."

"Send more?"

Listening to the words of his subordinates, Kamio Mitsutomi shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Do you want to send them to death again..."

Kamio Mitsutomi is not a young Zhuang faction, and although he is as aggressive as other Japanese generals, he can't let his subordinates know that they will die and send them to death.

Seeing that the casualties on the front line were getting bigger and bigger, after several hesitations, Kamio Mitsutomi finally made a decision.

"Summons, let them take down!!"

Hearing Mitsutomi Kamio's order, the officer was taken aback.

At least for Kamio Mitsutomi, there was no point in continuing like this. (To be continued......)