Long Jiguang's heart sank suddenly, and he hurriedly asked, "How far is it from here?" What are their intentions? ”

The sentry replied, "It's less than ten miles from here, and the intent is unknown." ”

Long Jiguang raised his leg and kicked: "Then why don't you hurry up and explore?" ”

As soon as the sentry left, Long Mingzao couldn't wait to say: "Marshal, that army of unknown origin is undoubtedly the Third Brigade of the Hubei Army!" Looking at the whole of Guangdong, the only ones who can not be afraid of our army are the first division, the second division and the independent brigade of the Guangdong army, and now the second division and the independent brigade are scattered, and the commander of the first division, Zhong Bo'an (Zhong Dingji), is an idle cloud and wild crane, indifferent to political affairs, and is in the city of Guangzhou at the moment. At present, the only one who can appear in the northwest of our army and is not afraid at all is the Third Brigade of the Hubei Army. The matter is urgent, please make a decision as soon as possible! ”

Long Jiguang was regretting why he didn't follow Long Mingzao's advice just now to take Guangzhou first, and when he heard this, he hurriedly asked: "If we think according to Mingzao, how should we deal with it?" Is it too late to capture Guangzhou now? ”

Long Mingzao said: "Dashuai, we can't go to Guangzhou now!" We have just finished the whole team, and the whole army is panicked, if the two armies face each other, there is no strength in a battle; Moreover, the Hubei army must be tired from a long-distance attack, so we can even win the battle with more strikes and fewer blows. If the marshal took advantage of the darkness of night with a few battalions of elite soldiers to seize Guangzhou, all the officers and men thought that the marshal had abandoned the army and fled, and the enemy troops suddenly appeared on the left, and it was easy to collapse at the touch of a panic. If the Hubei army follows and pursues, even if we successfully capture Guangzhou, we will fall into a battle without a battle and defense, and the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

Long Jiguang said, "No! Since ancient times, night battles have been taboo in soldiers. Even if the troops are strong and the generals are resourceful, the slightest carelessness will wipe out the whole army, not to mention that our army is now panicked like a frightened bird? The third brother is the master of the whole army. Can you risk your life? It is better for the third brother to lead the 8 battalions that were not damaged to rush to Guangzhou, and the foolish brother will lead the remnants to intercept the enemy here! ”

As the two armies got closer and closer, all kinds of information were also reported to Long Jiguang. Sure enough, as Long Mingzao expected, the person who came was the Third Brigade of the Hubei Army. The two of them had already made a judgment in their strategy just now, and at this time, Long Jiguang did not hesitate anymore, and immediately ordered: "All battalions are defending on the spot and preparing to meet the enemy!" ”

It is said that it was long before Jijun found out. Deng Xihou, the commander of the fifth battalion of the Hubei army, already knew the general situation of the enemy in front of him, but he did not dare to be careless. Although the combat strength of the Ji army will be greatly reduced after the bombing by aircraft, after all, there are more than 10,000 people in the Ji army. The fifth battalion only had more than 2,000 men, and even if the planes bombed it a few more times, the remaining strength should not be underestimated.

By the time the Jijun approached about five or six miles, it was already completely dark. The faint last quarter moon glows dimly and faintly. The ground became darker and darker. Deng Xihou ordered the vanguard to stop, and then the mortars fired several flares at the position of the Ji army. Flares fell from the sky, and the dazzling light illuminated the positions of the Jijun army as clearly as day. With the help of the telescope in his hand, it can be found that the Ji army is building fortifications in situ, preparing for the upcoming big war. If the telescopes were advanced enough, you might still be able to see the frightened expressions of the officers and soldiers of Ji at the moment when the flares suddenly lit up.

When the flares were extinguished in the boundless darkness, the dull sound of mortars sounded one after another on the positions of the Ji army, and occasionally mixed with the sharp whistling of several Krupp 75-mm mountain guns.

For the fire reconnaissance of the Ji army. Deng Xihou did not order his troops to return fire, but sent scouts to reconnoiter the area between the Ji army and the city of Guangzhou. The results of the investigation made Deng Xihou overjoyed. I don't know if Long Jiguang was not thoughtful, or because he didn't have enough troops, he actually only placed a battalion in that critical position. He immediately ordered his troops to quietly move to the area between the Ji army and Guangzhou under the cover of night, in order to prevent the Ji army from turning around and taking Guangzhou after dawn.

After the Hubei army fired the flares, Long Jiguang and the others on the opposite side thought that what should be a fierce battle like a storm followed, but who knew that the other party fell into a deathly silence, and there was no reaction even if the shelling was fired. It's a pity that there are no flares in the hands of the Ji army, which are weapons tailored for the Northwest Army by the Ordnance Science Research Institute, so they have to secretly speculate in their hearts: Is it the calm before the storm? Long Jiguang, Long Mingzao and the others all held their breath and quietly waited for the coming of the war.

Who knew that this wait was more than ten or twenty minutes, and the other party still did not move, Long Mingzao couldn't hold back his temperament, and asked tentatively: "Marshal, the Hubei army has not reacted, I don't know if it has been disengaged, or if it is ready to wait for work." Why don't we send one up to try the depth and see what the situation is? ”

Long Jiguang was also anxious, and nodded when he heard this: "It's okay, then send a company over to investigate the situation!" ”

After the company reached five or six miles away, it was already more than an hour later, and the news came back to everyone: Judging from the traces on the ground, the Third Brigade of the Hubei Army had disengaged and its whereabouts were unknown. Long Jinguang, who was depressed on the side, muttered at this time: "Could it be that the Hubei army took advantage of the darkness to take advantage of the darkness to wave a shot here, drag our army, and then directly attack Guangzhou?" ”

Before the words fell, I heard a few sporadic gunshots from the direction of Guangzhou, and then a staff officer ran quickly into the camp tent and prayed breathlessly: "Marshal Qiqi, our battalion has found traces of the Hubei army in front of the battalion, and after reconnaissance, it is found that the enemy army is building fortifications, intending to block our army from entering the city. The battalion commander ordered the lowly to come to ask for instructions, what should my battalion do? ”

Long Ji snorted and said, "What else can I do?" To this day, the only way to do this is to concentrate the strength of the whole army to break through the blockade of the Hubei army and seize the city of Guangzhou. If you can't break through the blockade, you should withdraw to Zhaoqing as soon as possible, so as not to be surrounded by the Hubei army! ”

Long Jinguang immediately replied: "What the third brother said is very true! ”

Long Mingzao also said: "The handsome man is reasonable! ”

It is rare for Long Mingzao and Long Jingguang to maintain the same opinion. Seeing this, Long Jiguang quickly made up his mind and began to dispatch troops, trying to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Hubei army to fight to the death.

The soldiers of the Jijun army were all born into poor families, and because of the unreasonable diet structure, most of them suffered from night blindness, and they had to carry torches in the event of large-scale military movements at night. Otherwise, the soldiers will not be able to find the generals, and they will be in chaos before the battle. The lit torch will invisibly tell the other party the mobilization information.

As soon as he saw the torches moving on the Ji army's side, Deng Xihou immediately understood that they were desperate. On the one hand, all companies and platoons were ordered to arrange their firing points as soon as possible and prepare for battle; On the one hand, he could no longer care about frugality, and ordered the heavy mortar company of the regiment to carry out a key bombardment of the assembly area of the Ji army, disrupting the offensive rhythm of the Ji army. It's just that the deterrent power of mortars is obviously smaller than that of aerial bombs, and for the Ji army, there is a feeling that "after the plane, there is no fear of artillery, and the return of Wuyue does not look at the mountains".

When the battalions gradually arrived at the forward positions, Long Jiguang immediately ordered the three battalions with relatively outstanding combat strength and relatively intact formation to launch a charge at the same time. He wanted to break through the defense line of the Hubei army in one fell swoop with crowd tactics. Killing 1,500 people at the same time on a not very wide front is indeed a huge momentum. When the two battalions of Jijun jumped out of the trench and rushed towards each other, Long Jiguang, who was supervising the battle in the rear, felt that his blood was full of chances of victory.

The Ji army had just rushed out a few dozen steps. Mortars of various calibers were fired one after another, and then the Zhonggong 1911 rifle of the Northwest Army was also added. Seeing that victory was in sight, Long Jiguang invested two battalions of troops as backup at one time. When the Ji army charging in front was only a stone's throw away from the Hubei army's trenches, the crisp popping sound of seven or eight Makqin heavy machine guns suddenly sounded on both sides of the Hubei army's position. Jijun suddenly fell to the ground like a bundle of straw. Never got up again.

This is another original stunt of the Northwest Army: the machine gun cross-fire method. However, it is the first time it has been used in real combat.

In fact, as early as the beginning when Sun Yuanqi exchanged an aircraft for a patent for a Makqin heavy machine gun from the United States, the Beiping Iron Works began to mass-produce the Makqin heavy machine gun, and the Ordnance Science Research Institute also began to study the cooperative combat method of the Makqin heavy machine gun and the Zhonggong 1911 rifle. They did an interesting experiment with the grouping charge tactics that were very popular in Europe, Japan, and even most of the old armies in China:

They used 250 balloons to represent the charging soldiers, each suspended at different heights between 0.5 and 1.8 meters, each 2 meters apart, scattered over a range of more than 100 meters wide and several meters deep, and then fired from the front by a skilled machine gun shooter from 400 meters away with a Maxim heavy machine gun. The Heavy fired a total of 250 rounds and only hit 37 balloons. A lot of bullets hit the gaps between the balloons. And the Heavy had to reaim every time he hit a balloon, wasting a lot of valuable time. In the real battle, the enemy had already rushed forward very quickly.

Then they changed the way and placed machine guns on the flanks of the 250 balloons, and the situation was very different. As far as the eye can see, 250 balloons form a dense plane with a width of 0.5 meters to 1.8 meters, with a narrow front and a long depth, which greatly increases the density of the target. The same machine gunner, the same machine gun, with the same 250 rounds, as a result hit 240 balloons!

It is said that in real history, the German ** team used the Maxim heavy machine gun and this machine gun cross-fire combat method to kill 60,000 British soldiers (one says 20,000) on the first day of the Battle of the Somme! In the entire history of mankind, millions of people have died under the heavy machine gun of Makqin, and it is the famous "widow manufacturing machine" and "leftover woman producer". Fortunately, the Maxim heavy machine gun was very expensive and not something that ordinary people could afford, so it did not cause more killings. - However, Sun Yuanqi is definitely not included in this "ordinary person", with his financial resources and his arsenal, it is enough to ensure that each regiment is equipped with 10 such heavy machine guns, far exceeding the 6 elite of Beiyang, and he is proud of the whole country!

The dark night concealed the brutal killing, and Long Jiguang, who was watching the battle, could only see seven or eight chains of fire constantly shuttling and swaying on the battlefield, and all kinds of hoarse screams came from his ears, and even the rumbling cannons could not hide it. Ten minutes later, the heavy machine guns stopped hissing, but the five battalions of soldiers who had been charging on the battlefield did not see anyone returning. The breeze blew, and only the heavy smell of blood came to the nostrils and was disgusting.

Long Jiguang was a little puzzled: What about the more than 2,000 people in the five battalions that charged? Why is there no movement? (To be continued.) )

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