Chapter 13: Changing Guards (22)

The first to bear the brunt was Weber's 414th Regiment. Wei Jiebo was wrong, very wrong! Now is not the era of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Wei Jiebo is not Wu Dinggui, and the offender is not Li Xubin. The most important thing is that the invaders had artillery in their hands, and there were quite a few, eighteen mountain guns, twenty-four infantry guns, and countless hand guns. On the other side of the Fengluo River, the mountain artillery began to tear open the artillery jacket and fill the ammunition. The cannonballs fell on Wei Jiebo's position, and the whole piece of bluestone was blown to shreds, and the fortifications of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era were completely unable to resist the artillery fire of this era.

"Division, division, the opponent's artillery fire is too fierce, the fortifications are completely ineffective, the space is narrow, it is difficult to dodge, and I request to retreat to the south of Longshushui to deploy defenses." Wei Jiebo's voice was like crying, accompanied by a fierce background sound, coming from the walkie-talkie.

Li Benyi decisively asked Wei Jiebo's troops to withdraw from their positions, retreat to the south bank of Longshushui, and then cut off the pontoon bridge and waited for the battle.

Gong Qingyuan ordered Li Baicheng to prepare for the shelling. In Gong Qingyuan's opinion, everything that Wei Jiebo had enjoyed on the north bank of Longshu Water before, Shen Xilin should also taste it next. Just because you have artillery doesn't mean I don't!

The Japanese puppet army easily crossed the Fengluo River and entered Sanhe Town, and the forward pointed directly at the north bank of Longshushui, if it were not for the dismantling of the pontoon bridge, the Japanese puppet army would have rushed directly to the south bank.

Just when Shen Xilin was standing by the Longshu River with great ambition, and the first regiment entered the triangle formed by the Longshu Water and the Fengluo River, and many people were enjoying the scenery created by their own artillery before, Li Baicheng's artillery fire rang out!

The number of artillery fires on both sides was basically the same, the mountain artillery was 18, Li Baicheng transferred one to Shengqiao, only 17 remained, the founding army had 24 infantry guns, Li Baicheng did not, but there were 82 mortars and 18 guns. Compared to the 70 infantry guns and the 82 mortars, the firing range was approximately equal, the shell weight was approximately equal, the rate of fire infantry artillery was superior, and the flexibility of the mortar was superior. The difference is that the bunker where Wei Jiebo was hiding before has been completely destroyed by the artillery of the Founding Army, and now the vanguard regiment of the Founding Army on it is completely exposed. Based on the latter reason, the effect of the shelling was better than that of Li Baicheng.

It was only shelled for ten minutes, and the puppet army that crossed the Fengluo River retreated to the north of the Fengluo River under the leadership of Shen Xilin.

The number of casualties of the puppet army is slightly higher than that of Wei Jiebo.

In the first round, the two sides were tied.

Because of the barrier of the river, the war was separated on both sides of the river, and as night fell, the flames of the war in the three rivers were extinguished today.

The war in Sanhe came to an end, but the fire of Shengqiao was ignited again, and this time, like a textbook, the 176th Division Field Supplement Regiment taught the 138th Division a solid lesson in unity.

All the hand cannons of the guard battalion, as well as the hand cannons of each company of the three battalions, were all gathered after dinner, and a total of forty-five Nissan Type 89 grenadiers, each of which usually had sixteen shells for two people, and this time the harvest was larger in the mud river, and there was a team of pack horses specially for transporting the Type 91*, so that the grenadiers became quite wealthy. Their job was to take advantage of the darkness and before midnight to throw all the shells across the trench from the west side of the Japanese barracks. The commander-in-chief of the operation was Huang Yingyi, chief of staff of the guard battalion, and the cover was Liu Wukui's heavy firepower company.

To the west of the Japanese barracks was a Japanese merchant quarter, which was relatively densely populated, with men and women, adults and children. Without the protection of the bunker, the entire residential area is within the range of the hand cannon.

The grenadiers were a little depressed, they did not expect that this mission would be a heavy mission. The grenadier bears not much combat weight in peacetime, the 91 type* is 0.45 kg each, and the eight rounds of ammunition bag are only 3.6 kg, and the entire combat system with the grenadier is less than 7 kg, which is much lighter than a Czech light machine gun. But tonight, in addition to their own battle loads, they also need to shoulder a sandbag of more than a hundred catties. When they lurked about ten meters from the trench, they put together sandbags into a simple bunker to prevent Japanese machine-gun fire.

Since they didn't need much accuracy, the grenadiers were in a recumbent position, lying behind cover to fire shells. The assistant also lay down and prepared ammunition for the shooter, and as for observation, it was not needed, because even the dumbest shooter would not throw the shell in the opposite direction. Immediately after the first round of shells was fired, the dormitory area was set on fire, and at the same time, it also attracted a frantic strafing of machine gun fire, the bullets hit the sandbags of the bunker, and the soot was everywhere, and the grenadiers knew that if it were not for these sandbags, they would have died many times.

Soon, the Makqin machine gun rang out, completely suppressing the opponent's firepower, because the opponent had fire, he could see the moving figure target, and the accuracy was better. And here it was black and linen, and only the flame mouth and the red line drawn by the bullet from the barrel of the Maxim gun could be seen. Soon, the other party was silent. With a sound of retreat, first the grenadiers retreated, followed by Liu Wukui's team.

As the attacking team retreated, the wailing of the Japanese camp sounded, and it was not lively.

Jin Tongxuan told the guard battalion to rest first, and at three o'clock in the second half of the night, this style of play would be repeated again, but the location was changed to the east of the Japanese battalion. Xie Yi asked Jin Tongxuan flatteringly, such a meaningful thing, we must do something for the 138th Division Field Supplement Regiment, we can't just look at the excitement like this, we must actively participate. Jin Tongxuan was also not polite, and asked each of them to prepare a large sandbag, and when the assault on the east side started, transport it to the west side of the previous assault, and silently build a combat wall as high as one and a half meters high and as long as 100 meters. Xie Bi happily went down to set up the task, he knew that this was to prepare for tomorrow's battle, and tomorrow, the strong attack would start from the west.

At three o'clock in the second half of the night, the harassment war in the east began, and after experiencing it once, there was nothing new in this operation, but the reaction of the Japanese army was slightly more fierce than that in the west, after all, the east side was the barracks of the Japanese army, and hundreds of 91 type * were thrown into it, causing certain casualties and arousing the anger of the Japanese army. The Japanese were also prepared and responded with their own grenadiers, and the shells flew to the east, killing one commando and wounding three.

At dawn, the Japanese army began to count their battle damage, and a total of 1,500 guns* were thrown in from the left and right, causing considerable losses, the houses were basically burned down, more than half of the merchants were killed and wounded, and the damage to the soldiers was also quite large, with more than 300 casualties. When the Japanese saw a high wall that appeared out of nowhere in the west, and saw the barrels of guns sticking out of the high wall, they knew that everything that happened last night was for this wall, and the appearance of this wall must have been to prepare for a decisive battle.

Not only the Japanese puppet army, but even the officers and soldiers of the 138th Division Field Supplement Regiment headed by Xie Bi also agreed that the decisive battle of Shengqiao was about to begin.

To their surprise, until noon, the expected general attack did not appear, behind the wall of the covering fortifications, there were no legendary machine guns, but dozens of water beads, with scopes and snipers, all at once and again to eliminate the living forces in the barracks, the Japanese army did not dare to rise, and was extremely aggrieved.

It's not that Mo Di doesn't want to fight, but he is worried that it is too easy to eat Shengqiao's Japanese puppet army here, and whether Shen Xilin, who came from the north, will retreat when he hears the wind, so that Li Benyi will be busy for nothing.

Li Benyi is busy, but not in vain. In Sanhe, because there are artillery on both sides, no one dares to get too close, Shen Xilin is north of the Fengluo River, Li Benyi is south of Longshushui, and not far to the east, the water of the Fengluo River will flow into Longshushui and go straight down to Chaohu Lake.

Move the crossing point eastward. At about the same time, Li Benyi and Shen Xilin had this idea at the same time.

Li Benyi told Gong Qingyuan his thoughts, and Gong Qingyuan's first reaction was that he couldn't prevent it. From Tongda along the Longshu water to the mouth of Chaohu Lake, about thirty miles, there is nowhere to cross the river, how to defend. Not to mention the lack of troops, the mobility is also insufficient. After thinking for a while, he said to Li Benyi: "Ask Mo Di for help." ”

"Why?" Li Benyi was a little reluctant, he really couldn't fight without the invincible!

"We want to borrow his reconnaissance company to determine Shen Xilin's new crossing point." Gong Qingyuan said.

"We have our own reconnaissance company, why do we have to use him?" Li Benyi was puzzled.

"We don't have a walkie-talkie, even if we hear the news, we can't convey it back in time, and let people send it back, but I'm afraid that the daylilies will be cold." Gong Qingyuan said.

"Oh!" Li Benyi's voice lowered by two tones and said, "I'll send a telegram to Modi." "I'm a little convinced, I've been in Mingguang Jiashan for so long, and this little brother is already far ahead of me. Gong Qingyuan comforted him and said that the 176th Division's field supplement regiment has always been a unit run by Modi and has great autonomy, and several division commanders of the 176th Division have a very good attitude towards Modi, and let it go, which makes Modi make an independent kingdom-like existence. In particular, the director of the county party department in Yuexi is Li Pinhe, Li Pinxian's younger brother, if he changes one, Mo Di will not reach this level. The opportunity of 138 came, and Li Pinxian's own nephew became the deputy division commander, which to a certain extent means that the 138th division was included in Li Pinxian's lineage. Before Li Benyi and Li Pinxian did business together, they were just business partners, but with Li Yingjun, the situation is very different.

After receiving Li Benyi's telegram, Mo Di did not say a word and asked Zhang Shenghu to go to help in the war. In Mo Di's mind, Li Benyi is a brother-like existence, and his needs must be completed if he has the conditions, and he must complete them if he does not have the conditions to create conditions. It was not only a Zhang Shenghu reconnaissance company that was transferred to reinforcements, but also two battalions of Xie Qi's department, and Huang Yingyi, who did not belong to this department, and Mo Dou asked him to temporarily serve as the chief of staff of Xie Qi's department. Before leaving, Mo Di called Xie Qi, Huang Yingyi, Ouyang Jin, and Zhang Shenghu together, and ordered: "Except for the reconnaissance company, the others should not participate too much in the battle on Chief Li's side, you are camped at the Xinhekou south of Longshushui, and keep in touch with Zhang Shenghu on the north bank at all times. "Since Xie Bi is also the commander of the first battalion of the 138th Division's Field Supplement Regiment and is responsible for specific affairs, Mo Di handed over the person in charge of this brigade to Huang Yingyi, and Xie Bi and Ouyang Jin have no opinion on this.

The troops were in a hurry, and the reinforcements set out immediately, and they must reach the mouth of the new river this evening. At that time, Zhang Shenghu's troops changed into the military uniforms of the founding army, crossed the river at night, and tomorrow, every hour, reported the situation of the enemy troops to Li Benyi and Huang Yingyi's troops.

Inside Shen Xilin's big tent, the lights were bright, and he was looking for a suitable place to cross the river. The method he adopted was to invite the villagers who were familiar with the local terrain to the big tent through the local squire, set a table of good dishes, pour a glass of good wine, and slowly ask for advice. The squire told Shen Xilin that this Longshu River, also called the Bayang River, is the dividing line between Feixi and the Lujiang River, the north bank of the river is Feixi, the south bank is the Lujiang River, and the opposite side of the three rivers in Feixi is the same size of the Lujiang River. To the east of the mouth of Longshushui and Fengluo River, the river surface is wide, the river level is gentle, there is nowhere to cross the river, especially in the south of Canggui, there is a sandbar as long as one mile in the middle of the river of Longshushui, the river is divided into two, the opposite side is the new estuary of Baishi of Lujiang River, it is a good place to cross the river. Shen Xilin hurriedly asked someone to send the map, and when he looked at it, sure enough, this place was a good place to build a bridge. Moreover, from here, you can go straight down to the Sheng Bridge, and there is no need to entangle with Li Benyi in Mikawa.

Therefore, he ordered to use the first part to stay still and maintain a confrontation, creating the illusion of continuing to attack here, so as to attract Li Benyi's attention. Shen Xilin led a large team of men and horses and quietly moved to Nanying.