readx; Chapter 382: The Battle of Yili (2)

"According to the airship and ground reconnaissance reports, the US ** team outside Yili is still continuously increasing, and it is mixed with a large number of artillery, but the Americans' precautions are quite strict, so our reconnaissance troops have not been able to figure out their unit numbers and specific numbers so far, but judging from the scale of their stationing, it is no less than 300,000!" The spacious conference room was full of senior officers of the Huo Family's army, and they listened carefully to Yang Junchen, chief of staff of the 48th Division, explaining the current battle situation. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Does the MIA have the latest intelligence?" Cao Guozhao asked.

"Not yet!" Hearing this, Cao Guozhao nodded, after the war began, the Americans were several times stricter about intelligence, and because of the difference in skin color, the ability of the Huo Jiajun Military Intelligence Bureau to obtain high-level intelligence has weakened a lot. Just like this American military operation, if it weren't for the reconnaissance of the airship, I am afraid they would not have thought that the Americans had quietly transferred most of the military strength of the Northern Front Army to the periphery of Erie City.

'Smack' Zhao Danyang slapped on the oval conference table, "Damn, I didn't expect the Americans to target us, more than 300,000 people, it's really not old or young!"

"That's right, this time we can finally fight a good battle!" Liu Changyou, commander of the Fifth Division of the Servant Army, said with a smile.

"Lao Cao, what do the military region headquarters and the theater headquarters say? Now that we have more than 300,000 US ** troops in front of us, I am afraid that our four divisions and less than 80,000 troops will not be able to withstand the Americans for long!" Pi Chushan, commander of the Ninth Division of the Servant Army, said with a hint of worry in his tone.

Hearing his words, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly quieted down. Although everyone was very confident in the combat strength of the troops in their hands, there were only two regular divisions stationed in the city of Erie, 48 and 51, and the remaining 5th and 9th divisions of the servant army, although they had been replenished with a certain amount of automatic fire and a certain amount of artillery before the war. However, there is still a gap between the combat strength and the regular army of the Huo family's army, and now it is facing tremendous pressure from more than 300,000 Americans, or even more troops. Although they have strong fortifications to rely on, they are not confident that they will be able to block the enemy's crazy attack in the case of 'one force to ten times'!

Looking at everyone's eyes on him, Cao Guozhao smiled faintly, "Don't worry, everyone." The headquarters of the military region and the theater headquarters have already made arrangements for the situation here, and all the 24 airships of the theater headquarters have been allocated to us for use, and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th cavalry divisions will all support us in the operation!" Cao Guozhao continued: "And the theater headquarters did not ask us to defend Yili, but allowed us to retreat at the right time!"

"Retreat?"

"Yes, but the theater headquarters requires us to use the fortifications in our hands to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. And it must be held out for more than a week. Only then did we be allowed to retreat!" After a pause, Cao Guozhao's eyes suddenly became stern, "Everyone, as more and more American ** teams gather in front of Yili, a big battle that will really test us will also be on the verge of breaking out, and the military region and the theater headquarters have given us the greatest support, and now there is only one goal in front of us, that is, to beat the Americans with the weapons in our hands." Let them understand that our Chinese People's Army is not so easy to provoke!"

"Yes!

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At 8 o'clock in the morning on February 7, 1885, the golden sun was just beginning to shine on the earth. The cold of the winter night began to slowly dissipate, and the snow on the ground melted away after the last few sunny days, revealing the land overgrown with yellow-black weeds, leaving only the trees with stems and branches like loyal guards guarding the roads and fields, and the undulating Appalachian Plateau in the distance slowly rose like a dragon from the shores of Lake Erie and stretched into the distance.

The desolate earth and the silvery Lake Erie in the distance make for a beautiful landscape painting, but the winter scenery does not attract Johnston's attention in the slightest. Now all he could see was the sturdy fortress in the distance, which was full of fortifications of all kinds.

"Are the troops ready?" asked Johnston, putting down the binoculars in his hand, with a solemn expression.

"Commander, all of them are ready, eight 254mm mortars, 24 203mm and 86 152mm heavy howitzers, and 426 other artillery pieces of 75mm caliber or above are ready for shelling! Moreover, the 250,000 people of the 2nd Army, the Seventh Army, the 24th Army, the 25th Army, the 38th Army, the 40th Army, the 41st Army, the 42nd Army, and the 44th Army, which are the first batch to attack, are all ready for attack!" Brock Senna said with a hint of excitement in his tone.

"Whew!" took a deep breath, and Johnston couldn't help but feel excited about this large-scale war that he had commanded for the first time since the end of the Civil War twenty years later.

"Let's start!" After calming his boiling mood, Johnston gave the order to attack with a solemn expression, and also ignited the Battle of Erie, the most deadly and wounded battle in the Sino-American War of 1885!

"......Boom!" Under the command of the banner, the thick 254mm caliber heavy mortar roared, this heavy artillery was commissioned by the Americans to destroy the strong fortresses built by the Huo family army along the Mississippi River and the Ohio River, and commissioned the most famous German artillery factory Krupp to develop and manufacture, this is known in Germany as ' Carl's heavy mortar has a maximum range of 12 times the diameter and 3,000 meters, and although after each shelling, it takes nearly half an hour to adjust the high and low machine, clean the chamber, and reload the shells and propellants, but the heavy shells weighing one ton and containing 140 kilograms of maroon explosives are out-and-out violent weapons.

Looking at the eight huge columns of smoke in the telescope, and the shattered fortifications that had been blown up, Johnston's solemn face couldn't help but show an excited smile, and it was at this moment that he truly appreciated the power of heavy artillery.

"Hit me hard, and destroy all the enemy fortifications!" Johnston said quickly.

More and more artillery pieces were stripped off, and they were covered with camouflage in order to avoid the high-altitude reconnaissance of the Huo family's army, and then quickly roared under the control of the artillery, the roar of five hundred artillery pieces was really earth-shattering, and as the orange-red flames continued to light up, the choking black smoke filled the entire sky, making the originally warm winter sun lose its previous peace.

"Good guys, the Americans are really big this time, there are hundreds of artillery pieces at the beginning, if we hadn't been prepared for it, and the front of the fortress was filled with steel plates with a thickness of 100mm, I'm afraid it would really not be able to withstand their shelling of this intensity!" Yang Junchen said as he looked at the battlefield in front of him through a deep observation window.

"That's right, but the commander of the U.S. army is not simple, the use of artillery is very skillful, fire suppression, in-depth artillery bombardment, and concentrated use, it seems that he has learned a lot from us!" Liu Changyou still said.

"Hehe, Joseph Johnston, the commander of the U.S. Northern Corps, is a top student of the West Point Military Academy, who has experienced the test of the Civil War, and is one of the few outstanding generals in the United States now.

"It's a pity that he still hasn't learned the essence of our artillery tactics!" Cao Guozhao paused, picked up the telescope and looked through the observation window in the fortress for a while, and then continued: "Now that almost fifteen minutes have passed, I believe that the coordinates of the American artillery positions should also be marked, and then we should also use the colors! Let them know what artillery is and what is the real artillery tactics!"

"Tell the artillerymen, don't be stingy with shells, give me a hard shot, the first target is the enemy's eight heavy artillery, you must destroy them first!" Turning around, Cao Guozhao looked at the confidential staff officer and said with a serious expression. Although the fortifications of the Huo family army were built very strongly, the various hidden forts and tunnels in front of the fortress could not stop this powerful heavy artillery, and the heavy artillery also had a strong deterrent effect on the morale of the soldiers, so Cao Guozhao destroyed these eight 'Karl' heavy guns for the first time.

"Yes, Commander!"

After receiving the order, the Huojia Army artillerymen, whose eyes were red and had long been stimulated by the enemy's artillery fire, couldn't wait to start loading shells, and the four 210mm guns removed from the captured Dutch battleships "Jewel" and "Grand Duke", "Turquoise" and "Prince" The six 180mm main guns removed from the three ironclad ships of the Oranch, as well as the 12 203mm heavy howitzers transported by the Huo Jiajun from the rear, and the 54 152mm heavy howitzers with a range of more than 10,000 meters constitute the sharp weapons of the Huojia Army's artillery counterattack!

Compared with the U.S. ** team, which basically relied on shouting and flags to transmit orders, the Huo Jiajun, which had begun to use radio to transmit military orders on a large scale, staged a salvo of more than 200 artillery pieces at this moment, and the sound of neat artillery even added in an instant the number of American artillery that was almost twice the number of artillery pieces of Huo's army.

In just five or six seconds, several hundred shells had already smashed into the US artillery positions that had already exposed their positions, and the TNT, which was far more powerful than the maroon explosives still used by the Americans, destroyed the eight heavy mortars that the Americans had placed in front almost instantly! The scattered shrapnel detonated the shells that the Americans had placed in the open air, and the dazzling orange-red pillars of fire spread out in all directions with a huge roar. The shock wave spread in a circle, making the surrounding American soldiers like a crushed tomato, stumps and broken arms flying all over the sky, at this moment, the cruelty of the war is undoubtedly revealed! )