The officers and men of the reconnaissance battalion crossed the river very quickly, the soldiers on the raft either paddled with wooden pulp, or pulled the tow rope forward, and the soldiers in the water pulled the tow rope with all their might, and in less than a stick of incense, the soldiers of a reinforced battalion had all rushed to the opposite bank, but the heavy equipment was not brought over, and there were only those rifles, revolvers, grenades, and a few machine guns resting on the raft, and the ammunition was even more pitiful, but the task to be undertaken was quite heavy, even so, The officers and men of the reconnaissance battalion were not afraid at all, and after quickly arranging their formation on the shore, they quickly moved towards the place where the pillbox on the top of the hill was located in two directions according to the predetermined battle plan.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

Luck is like roulette, it was on the side of the Qing army before, but in the blink of an eye, it ran to the Russian side, no, just when the officers and soldiers of the Qing army reconnaissance battalion were about to arrive at the bunker, the time for the Russian army to change shifts came, but when the closed bunker door opened, two Russian soldiers who were far away came out of the door one after the other, there is no doubt that the Russian soldier found something wrong at first sight, and was about to shout, Wu Yuankui, who was lurking nearby, had to kill him on the spot, Although there was no sound, the Russian soldier who was behind happened to see the death of his comrade, and even though he shouted, although he was quickly killed by Wu Yuankui's dagger flying out, as soon as the shouting sounded, the entire bunker was suddenly in chaos.

◎%"Rush in and kill!" ”

Seeing that the surprise attack was no longer possible, Zheng Zaishan, who had just led his troops to the pillbox, was suddenly anxious, broke his throat, and led his troops to rush into the pillbox, and the battle began in an instant on the narrow pillbox walkway, although the Russian officers and soldiers resisted desperately, but under the attack at first glance, the morale of the army was extremely low, and it was impossible to be the opponent of the Qing army equipped with such melee weapons as revolvers, a bloody battle, the Qing army reconnaissance battalion wiped out more than 100 Russian officers and soldiers in the bunker at the cost of more than a dozen casualties, Although it didn't take too long, the fierce gunfire brought about a sudden awakening of all the Russian officers and soldiers in the surrounding bunkers.

"All companies are here, dig trenches, move quickly!"

Although the Russian army in the bunker was completely annihilated with small casualties, Zheng Zaishan's face did not see the slightest joy, no side, it had already alarmed the Russian army, and there was not much time left for the Qing army, but as soon as the day dawned, the Russian army's counterattack was obvious, if it could not hold out until the first brigade of the first division crossed the Angara River, the entire campaign plan had the possibility of failure, even if Zheng Zaishan was really reluctant to put his elite troops into the defensive battle, at this critical juncture, he could only be prepared for a hard battle.

The officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty are equipped with sapper shovels, and the reconnaissance battalion is naturally no exception, but they were in a hurry to rush to the crossing, but not all of them brought the sapper shovels, and in general, only one-third of the soldiers could be divided, as for the rest of the people, they had to dig the ground with the bayonets of the Russian army, but even so, they did not see any complaints from the officers and soldiers, and they were all digging in full swing, but fortunately, the military skills of the officers and soldiers were the top of the whole army, and the action was very fast, and they finally rushed before dawn. Two trenches were dug on both sides of the 343 heights, which converged into two concentric circles around the mountain, and there were communication trenches between the front and rear trenches, and at this time, the engineers of the first brigade responsible for building the pontoon bridge were still busy, and the bridge deck was only more than half paved, and it may take about an hour before it was completed.

"Battalion commander, Lao Maozi is coming from the left and right sides!"

As soon as the trench was dug, Zheng Zaishan didn't even have time to catch his breath, and he heard the sentry standing on the top of the bunker tower shouting.

"Send a signal to the artillery position, first give Lao Maozi some color and see!"

Hearing the sound, Zheng Zaishan hurriedly stood up straight, picked up the telescope and looked down the mountain, and saw groups of Russian soldiers assembling at the pillbox closest to the 343 Heights, obviously preparing to launch a forcible attack on the mountain.

"Attention to all artillery battalions, one battalion, seven holes and eight ...... in the dense position, two battalions, three holes and two ...... in the dense position."

With the waving of the two small flags in the hands of the sentinels of the reconnaissance battalion, the artillery positions of the Qing army, which had already been assembled on the other side of the river, suddenly became busy -- in addition to the artillery battalion belonging to the 1st Brigade, the divisional artillery regiments of the 3rd and 4th Divisions, which had not participated in the battle yesterday, were all transferred to the opposite side of the 343 Heights, and hundreds of artillery pieces of various types were lined up along the river, and each artillery position was nervously adjusting its secret positions according to the order of Lin Gaoyang, commander of the artillery regiment of the 3rd Division, who was in charge of command.

"All gun positions are available, three rapid fires, hit me!"

The Qing army has a lot of artillery, and the training is also very strict, not to mention the side, the earliest military school is the artillery command college, over the years, although there has never been a war, but the Qing army has never slacked off in the construction of artillery units, this point, from the Qing army's familiar skills and tactics of each artillery position, it can be seen in general, almost Lin Gaoyang finished reporting the secret position, and the artillery positions have been roughly adjusted, with Lin Gaoyang's order, the fire attack began!

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Since the Western Expedition to Junggar, the artillery manufacturing technology of the Qing Dynasty is changing with each passing day, and the artillery developed has made innovative progress compared with the old artillery, the round flowering shell has long been eliminated, replaced by a conical integrated shell, the firing range is longer, the power is greater, as for the rate of fire is also stronger than the old artillery, the dense artillery fire covered, the Russian officers and soldiers who are assembling suddenly fell into bad luck, the legs are fast can still hide in the solid bunker made of blue strip stone, the legs are slow, It could only be blown to minced meat by intensive artillery fire, and before the attack on the mountain was launched, the two regiments of Russian troops assembled on standby had been completely disabled.

"Don't give me casualty figures, I just need the high ground, give me a siege on three sides, and those who dare to retreat will be shot!"

In the face of a heavy defeat, Lieutenant General Benezovsky, commander of the Third Russian Frontier Army, who was responsible for commanding the recapture of the 343 Heights, was furious on the spot, and no matter how frightened Major General Ivan Kuzovsky, the commander of the 1st Division, who came to report to him, roared angrily.

"Yes!"

In the face of such a tough attitude of his own boss, how dare Major General Ivan Kuzhovsky say more, and in desperation, he could only respond respectfully, ran back to the front line, and continued to deploy troops to prepare for the attack on the mountain.

The 343 highlands are not cone-shaped mountains, but like ingots, they are a whole composed of three small hills, but the mountains on the left and right sides are low, the slope is not large, there is almost no danger to defend, the Qing army has limited strength, naturally will not deploy troops on the two hills, as for the surging Angara River not far in front of the mountain, and the slope of the back mountain is relatively large, there are cliffs in many places, the surface that can launch the charge is not wide, it is not suitable for the infantry group to charge, but because of the fierceness of the Qing artillery, Ivan · Major General Kuzhovsky no longer dared to place the main forces of the attack on the left and right flanks, but mobilized all the heavy forces behind the mountain, and only sent one company of troops on each flank as a diversion.

The enemy has changed, this time the Russian army will attack the center of gravity of the mountain on the back mountain, Zheng Zaishan naturally did not dare to sit idly by, on the left and right sides of each left two squads of troops to block the small force of the enemy, the rest of the troops are all transferred to the back mountain, because the Qing army's trenches are through the concentric circles, the whole adjustment action is very fast, not waiting for the Russian army to adjust in place, the Qing army has been prepared to meet the battle in the trenches in the back mountain, only four machine guns have also been transferred to the back mountain, but not deployed in the first trench, Instead, it was placed on a position near the top of the mountain.

"Fire!"

The Russian army's artillery possession is far less than that of the Qing army, but a division also has a battalion of light artillery troops, Major General Ivan Kuzovsky achieved the goal of capturing the 343 heights in one fell swoop, and even the reconnaissance attack was saved, as soon as it came up, all 27 guns were put into the attack, with the order of its artillery commander, 27 guns began to roar, when even if the Qing army position on the mountainside was filled with gunsmoke, but it did not cause too much loss to the Qing army guarding the mountain, there were many boulders and steep slopes in the back mountain, When the Qing army dug trenches, they made full use of these natural obstacles and skillfully built a lot of anti-artillery positions, and the Russian artillery just rang out, and the astute Qing soldiers hid in the anti-artillery positions early.

"Battalion commander, Lao Maozi is here!"

As soon as the rumbling artillery stopped, a battalion of Russian soldiers had already started a charge with a shout, and rushed towards the 343 heights as fast as possible, when even a Qing army observation post shouted a warning signal.

"All machine gun positions are on alert, and the rest of the people go into the trenches and give Lao Tzu a hard beat!"

Hearing the warning message, Zheng Zaishan hurriedly poked his head out of the anti-artillery position, only glanced at the scale of the incoming enemy, and immediately issued a loud order.

"Bah, Bah, Bah......"

Just when the Russian soldiers rushed to the foot of the mountain, the gunfire on the Qing army's position rang out rhythmically, although the density of firepower was far from dense, but the accuracy of the shooting was amazingly high......