Between the highway from Hexian to Liaoxian, Captain Nishino held a quadruple observation binocular, and a pair of yin owl eyes looked around vigilantly.

Today, since the squadron he led set out from He County, it has been repeatedly attacked by cold guns on Tubalu.

As the veteran squadron leader of the First Army, Nishino was stationed in Shanxi at the end of 38 years, and once led the squadron to break into the so-called Tubalu base area several times, and also encountered dozens of cold gun attacks on the Tubalu.

In his previous experience.

The weapons of the Tubalu are poor, the bullets are few, and the training is also poor, so the cold gun attack is generally very close and the accuracy is very low, and it is often five or six attacks to cause effective casualties to the locust army.

And the Imperial Army can also quickly counteract and eliminate the attackers.

Don't be afraid.

But today's cold gun...

Nishino took a deep breath and suppressed the thick irritability in his heart.

The closest one was three hundred meters away, and the farthest was even more than five hundred meters, and the other party fired only ten shots, killing six of his soldiers and wounding one.

Extremely high precision.

In his entire Nishino squadron, there was not a single samurai who could have such marksmanship.

What's even more troublesome is that the enemy quickly retreated with the help of the terrain to escape with the help of the terrain after firing a shot, and his Nishino squadron didn't even see the opponent's back several times.

The lessons of the Hejin squadron and the Dahe squadron made him dare not rashly send troops to pursue.

"Damn, what the hell is going on on the dirt road!"

The old devil of Nishino scolded in his heart.

What exactly is the reason?

In just half a year, the Eighth Route was like being reborn, annihilating two infantry squadrons of the empire in a row, not to mention, the power of the cold gun was so huge, so that he was helpless for an infantry wing.

So how will we sweep it up in the future?

Not only irritability, but also a hint of gloom surfaced in Captain Nishino's heart.

At this time, a devil staff officer with a map in his hand ran in front of him:

"Squadron Leader."

"It's Songjiazhuang in front!"

"We are only seven kilometers away from Liao County."

"Yo Si."

The old devil in Nishino suddenly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

No matter what the conspiracy of the dirt eight roads is, there is nothing to be afraid of.

Seven kilometers away.

Even if the assembly and departure time is counted, the Beijing Brigade stationed in Liao County will only need about 40 minutes to reach Songjiazhuang in the case of a rapid march, which is faster than the plane in Taiyuan.

And at this distance, even if his radio station is damaged, the Beijing Brigade can also detect the movement here.

Unless Tubalu dispatched more than 10,000 troops, it would be impossible to annihilate him in front of the Beijing Brigade.

But if Tubalu is seven kilometers away from Liao County and gathers more than 10,000 troops, the imperial intelligence department has not yet discovered it, and the empire will not occupy the Republic of China, so return to China honestly.

Thinking of this, the old devil in Nishino put away the telescope in his hand and gave the order to speed up:

"Speed up."

Being beaten by a cold gun for a day brought not only casualties to the Nishino squadron, but also the low morale of the squadron, as well as the exhaustion of the soldiers' physical strength and energy brought by high vigilance.

He needed to rush to Liao County as soon as possible to rest.

··

"The devil is coming!"

Songjiazhuang, close to the county side.

The second battalion of the separate regiment was hidden.

Li Yunlong held up the Zeiss eight-fold optical telescope that had been seized from Sakata and imported from Germany, and saw the Nishino squadron approaching in the distance.

"Haha, Wang Xikui, this kid has done a good job!"

Seeing that the three squads of the devils gathered, but they were separated, pulling out a march distance of 800 meters, Li Yunlong was overjoyed.

Before he could make a move, the devil divided himself by himself.

Happy to open the door!

"Let Xu Ping prepare."

Following Li Yunlong's order, lurking on the left side of the road, thirty-five artillery squads were organized into five artillery batteries, and the reinforced artillery company of the independent regiment, armed with thirty-five 60 mortars, began to enter the position.

For this battle, Li Yunlong concentrated all the artillery of the third battalion and the artillery platoon of the second battalion into the artillery company, bringing the number of artillery pieces covered by the artillery fire to 35.

And the first round of artillery fire alone covered it, three thousand shells were prepared, with an average of fifteen shells on the head of each devil.

The 60 mortar, both in terms of power and range, is very unsuitable as a suppression artillery, in essence, it is just an infantry accompanying artillery, but how to say that sentence - the caliber is not enough, the number is to make up.

Thirty-five 60 mortars, against a squadron of two hundred devils, how can it be enough.

In order to avoid being discovered by devils, the artillery was previously concealed a kilometer away from the road.

However, the location of each artillery position, the firing range of each cannon and the ballistic elements, Xu Ping had personally calculated and marked them in advance, just waiting for the devil to come.

Under Xu Ping's command, 35 artillery squads entered the preset positions, and behind the artillery squads were more than 200 mules and horses carrying ammunition boxes full of ammunition.

In the artillery drill code, it is required to avoid mules and horses directly entering the gun position as much as possible, and the direct handling of shells should be completed by the ammunition man.

Because livestock, even trained military horses, can easily lose control when they hear a violent explosion and see the fire from the muzzle of the cannon, which will cause unnecessary danger to the battlefield.

But the system, ordinary military mules and horses, does not have this problem.

Just when the 35th group of runners had completed the erection of the artillery fire, adjusted the height and pitch, and the ammunition crews stacked a total of 3,000 shells next to the running position, the Nishino squadron arrived at the predetermined shelling position.

"Fire!"

Li Yunlong gave the order to open fire.

"Full rapid-fire."

"Shoot out the shells."

Xu Ping accurately executed Li Yunlong's order.

Bang bang bang ·

The sound of the 60 mortars firing was not loud, the sound was relatively low, like the prelude to the sound of a big drum, and the gunner only needed to stuff a piece of cotton to easily insulate the sound.

So when the thirty-five sonatas sounded one after the other, it sounded particularly pleasant.

···

"Enemy attack."

"Lie down."

Although it was already close to Liao County, less than ten kilometers away, Captain Nishino was still very vigilant.

It is impossible to ambush here,

But that mysterious top shooter of the Dirt Eight Road is very likely to launch a final attack.

It's just that Nishino didn't expect that he didn't wait for a mysterious bullet, but waited for a dense mortar shell like a rain all over the sky.

American M2 type 60 mortars with a maximum range of 30 rounds per minute.

A total of thirty-five cannons.

At this time, the shells that fell on the head of the Xiye squadron on the road near Heshun and Hexian through Songjia Village reached 1,050 shells per minute at the fastest time.

Each devil had five shells on his head.

Although the speed of shelling began to decrease after a minute due to the physical strength and proficiency of the gunners, the adjustment of the firing angle of the bottom plate, and the overheating of the barrel, more than four minutes before the start of the battle, three thousand rounds of 60 mortar shells fell on the head of the Nishino squadron.

Such a per capita density cannot be said to be rare in the history of warfare, after all, compared to the last European war, this is far behind.

But on the head of the devil, it is absolutely rare.

After all, it's April 40, and the devil hasn't had any decent opponents since the beginning, and the last time he encountered a strong enemy and fought a fierce land battle, it was Nogi Noshinori.

On that occasion, nearly 20,000 devils were shattered, and Tsarist Russia surrendered, but although the devil locust trusted Nogi Sakanishi, he obviously did not trust his ability, and after the war, he was relieved of real power, given a vacant position, and sent to teach at a university.

A few years later, Nogi Noshinori committed suicide, so that the devil Locust saw an opportunity to strengthen the spirit of bushido, and conveniently sealed a god of war.

The vigilant Nishino spotted the cannonballs falling all over the sky.

The muzzle velocity of mortar shells is low, and the velocity will be further reduced after discharge, coupled with the large arc trajectory, as long as you are vigilant enough, you can detect it a second or two before it falls.

But at this time, the devil who reacted slowly didn't even have time to lie down.

And it's too dense.

More than a thousand shells per minute.

The killing diameter of the 60 mortar shell is also about ten meters and a half, plus the pre-calibrated firing elements, even if the accuracy is not enough, it is enough to envelop the entire Nishino squadron.

Boom Boom · ·

Dense explosions rose in the ranks of the Nishino squadron, and the smoke and dust that rolled up almost obscured the entire Nishino squadron.

The devils were indeed dispersed, but they were still marching troops, and they were not large skirmish lines that could withstand artillery bombardment, and in the face of the dense artillery fire prepared in advance, they suffered heavy casualties almost immediately.

A little better than the Bukawazu squadron.

In Ma Rongshun's field of vision, who was observing from the front, he could see one devil after another, falling in pieces.

It's even much faster than last time!

The description of cutting wheat can no longer describe the speed at which the devil fell. It's like hundreds of strong men, rushing into the wheat field, brandishing sickles, and struggling to harvest.

Ma Rongshun couldn't help but think of what those experts who taught cultural learning once said - artillery is the god of war.

Even, just some 60 mortars.

But the number is enough to compensate for the lack of power and caliber.

"Spread out."

"Request tactical guidance."

In the face of unprecedented intensive shelling, the old devil of Nishino commanded in a timely and correct manner.

Lie down, spread out, look for cover,

And let the radio send a report to the headquarters as soon as possible.

But at the moment he was facing an artillery cluster.

Although it was only a weak 60 mortar with a short firing range, artillery was artillery.

More powerful than guns, longer range, fragmentation kills, more efficient than guns, and more difficult to deal with.

The devil obviously couldn't launch a counterattack in time like last time, and the one that was specially strengthened, the Type 92 infantry gun, which had been in traction and dragging, was also unable to play because it was focused on.

All the devil can do is to spread out as much as possible and retreat to avoid excessive casualties.

Unconsciously, in just a few minutes, the devil formation had stretched out for more than a kilometer, and the devils gathered together were only half a squad at most.

"Attack!"

When the shelling was nearing its end, five reinforced companies led by Li Yunlong, Kong Jie, Zhang Dabiao, Shen Quan, and a veteran Red Army battalion commander cut into the battlefield from all directions.

Push the battle into the second phase.

···

Meanwhile.

Taiyuan Airport.

Five fully loaded Type 97 attack planes have already taken off.

The Beijing Brigade in Liao County also began to assemble.

(End of chapter)