My client Li Yunlong

Chapter 127 Covered by artillery fire, that’s the beauty!

"Looking for the Japanese artillery positions."

Through the walkie-talkie, Xu Ping, commander of the artillery battalion of the independent regiment, issued orders to three groups of forward artillery observation posts.

On a vast battlefield spanning several kilometers, even on flat and open terrain, even if enemy artillery fire continues, it is not easy to find the location of enemy artillery.

Not to mention, the observation post also needs to guide the artillery to annihilate the enemy artillery.

Concealing artillery positions is a basic skill of any artillery unit.

It is impossible to observe the complete artillery trajectory with the naked eye, and then calculate the enemy's artillery position backwards, even for slow mortars, let alone high-velocity barrel guns.

Otherwise, future generations will not vigorously develop anti-artillery radars.

Following Xu Ping's order, three groups of artillery observation posts, divided into six groups, mounted on the latest equipped military horses, spread out from the flanks, looking for suitable commanding heights.

"We need time."

Xu Ping reported to Zhang Dabiao who was in charge of the command.

Although there are high-magnification and high-definition observation scopes, walkie-talkies, six groups of observation posts, and new military horses, it still takes a lot of time to find and locate the Japanese artillery positions.

"understood."

After hanging up the communication, Zhang Dabiao turned his attention to the battlefield where the fierce fighting was taking place.

He knew that finding enemy artillery positions would take time.

And it's long.

Different from what was expected before the war.

According to reports from the frontline troops, the two Japanese brigades advanced staggeredly, with one attacking and the other covering, with the cavalry squadron conducting reconnaissance on both wings and the artillery brigades providing fire cover from the rear.

There is also a reserve team.

Steady and steady, step by step.

Completely segmented surrounded by ideas.

Although the 82st and [-]nd Battalions of the Independent Regiment, which are heavily equipped with new [-] mortars, are currently able to suppress the attack of a Japanese regiment in the plains, even against the Japanese mountain artillery.

However, considering the task of attracting the Japanese attack, the first and second battalions of the Independent Regiment could only display part of their firepower to retreat the Japanese steadily.

then,

Zhang Dabiao then turned his attention to the Japanese artillery.

You can't be beaten in vain!
"Order one-third of the mortars of the [-]st and [-]nd Battalions to fire."

Zhang Dabiao lifted some restrictions on battalion artillery.

····
boom boom boom

On a rare commanding height on the left side of Li County, as the muzzles of five Type [-] mountain guns bloomed in the strong wind, five shells drew a straight arc and fell to the position on Tubal Road in the distance.

"This is real artillery."

The Nishida Wing Headquarters, who was also on the artillery position, looked at the smoke of explosions in the distance, and Nishida raised a proud smile on his lips.

Mortars are a crooked thing after all.

Only barrel guns with excellent accuracy and range are real artillery.

Cannonballs that fail to hit the enemy are just fireworks, not even as good as fireworks.

"United Captain."

The chief of staff on the side finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked:

"What exactly does Tubalu want to do?"

Wing-level command should logically be given by the wing commander, and the chief of staff and wing staff are responsible for execution.

But this time, Colonel Nishida insisted on going his own way and directly overstepped his authority to command the staff and troops. As the chief of staff, he never knew what his commander wanted to do.

Although this is also the normal behavior of the Locust Army.

"What do you want?"

Nishida sneered:
"The troops commanded by Li Yunlong are on the opposite side, what else can we do?"

"Drag the battle into the night, and then send a small force to attack our wing headquarters."

"Attack on Wing Headquarters."

The chief of staff of the Westfield United Team suddenly understood, and then made a flattering move.

"The captain has insight into Ruozhu."

Throughout the battle between Li Yunlong and the Locust Army, whether it was the Bantian Alliance or the Shandao Alliance, the headquarters of the alliance was attacked, and the occupation gradually failed.

According to the investigation by the First Army Headquarters, if Li Yunlong had not led the team to attack the Shandao Regiment headquarters and destroyed the regiment's command system, with the strength of the Shandao Regiment at that time, it would have definitely been possible to break out.

Although there may be heavy losses,
But there will definitely not be an outcome of total annihilation later.

"I'll wait here for him."

Nishino said in a disdainful tone:
"I want to see if they dare to come."

"If you dare not come, we will severely damage his troops."

Compared with other Japanese soldiers, Nishida obviously has one advantage, that is, he has a little bit of self-awareness.

From the beginning, Nishino knew that it would be impossible to annihilate the independent regiment.

Therefore, the goal was to attract the small force that raided his headquarters and to severely damage the main force of the independent regiment.

For this goal, he even left the flag guard team in the Lixian military camp.

"The captain is wise."

The Japanese chief of staff once again flattered me.

Judging from the situation at this time, the [-]st and [-]nd Battalions of the Xitian Regiment, which were under the cover of artillery, attacked alternately, but they firmly grabbed the [-]st and [-]nd Battalions of the Independent Regiment and pressed them hard.

There are considerable advantages.

Even if Tubal Road counterattacked with a large number of 75mm mortars, which were as powerful as the Imperial 82 Mountain Cannon, it was only a partial recovery, but it was unable to change the overall situation.

A mortar is a mortar after all, and its range and accuracy are far inferior to the Imperial Mountain Cannon.

Cannonballs that fail to hit can only be fireworks.

The battle continues on the offensive.

Although the night is getting darker at this time, there is a full moon hanging high tonight, and on the vast plains on the left side of Li County, the field of vision is enough to clearly see people and things several kilometers away.

From the Japs' perspective, facing the steady attack of the Locust Army, although the Independent Regiment tried its best to resist and once blocked the Imperial Army's attack, after a stalemate for a period of time, they still retreated steadily and suffered heavy losses.

"Keep attacking."

Seeing this, Nishitano commanded the troops to continue the attack.

Therefore, the artillery positions also had to move forward.

The requirements for the Type [-] mountain artillery position were low. Coupled with the pre-prepared positions and the assistance of the third brigade, the transfer was completed in more than half an hour. The five Type [-] mountain cannons once again dropped shells towards the retreat not far away. between the positions of the first and second battalions.

As the two sides came into contact again, the time had reached ten o'clock at night.

"Come on, Li Yunlong!"

On the second artillery position, some troops of the [-]rd Infantry Brigade and the cavalry units directly under the regiment were arranged to spread around to prevent Tubal Road from using mortars to raid his artillery position.
The corners of Nishino's lips curled up, and his tone was ferocious and proud.

···
at the same time.

"Report."

"Enemy artillery position discovered."

"Location··"

"Five Type [-] mountain guns, surrounded by a large number of Japanese infantry."

The artillery observation post finally discovered the location of the Japanese artillery position.

At this time,
"Set off."

Li Yunlong has already approached the outside of the Japanese camp.

···
"Discovered the Japanese artillery position."

"Location···"

"There are a large number of Japanese infantry around, it seems to be the Japanese regiment headquarters."

"Ha ha··"

Xu Ping was overjoyed after receiving the information from the observation post.

He didn't expect that there was not only an artillery brigade with five Type [-] mountain guns, but also hundreds of Japs around. Even if it wasn't the Japs regiment headquarters, it was still a big fish.

Two big fish in one net.

"calibration."

Xu Ping immediately began to direct the bombardment.

Following Xu Ping's order, the artillery staff immediately calculated the distance:

"azimuth 223···"

"The distance is five kilometers."

Twenty new long-range 82 mortars pointed at the position of the Japanese artillery brigade. "Remote charge."

The ammunition hand began to adjust the mortar tail charge. For a five-kilometer range, the maximum charge was required and the fuze was adjusted.

"Fire."

"Fire!"

"Observation guides."

Following Xu Ping's order, the two new long-range 82 mortars began to project shells at the Japanese artillery position five kilometers away at a slow rate of fire of two rounds per minute.

At the same time, Xu Ping ordered the forward observation posts to observe the calibrated firing.

···
At night, relying only on the moonlight, the Japanese were naturally unable to detect the dark falling mortar shells.

Boom boom··
The first two rounds of artillery shells deviated far from the target and landed 500 meters away on the east side of the Japanese artillery position.

Although the technical level of the new 82 mortar has reached the millennium level of later generations, and its accuracy is comparable to that of old barrel guns, such as the 1903, its five-kilometer range is still too far.

It is impossible to achieve a first hit.

"Enemy shelling!"

After discovering that a nearby artillery shell exploded, Nishino did not panic at first.

This was within his expectation.

Although mortars have many shortcomings such as low accuracy and short range, their high mobility makes even the Type [-] infantry gun outmatched. Night is also the best cover for penetration. Looking at the battles commanded by Li Yunlong, this person likes it the most What is used is the interleaving tactic.

Using small groups of troops to harass his artillery positions is an inevitable move for the enemy.

"The first and second cavalry teams spread out to look for enemy artillery positions."

He responded immediately.

Nishida was prepared for this.

The 82 mortar equipped by the Eighth Route Army has a maximum range of about three kilometers, but at this distance, the accuracy will become very low, so it needs to be close to about two kilometers to form an effective threat to the artillery brigade.

When the cavalry squadron is on alert to the surrounding area, it is impossible for large-scale enemy troops to penetrate and approach. Only small groups of troops can approach within two kilometers, carrying at most one or two artillery pieces and hundreds of rounds of artillery shells.

Not much of a threat.

At this time, Xi Tianye was still confident.

However, as the artillery shells gradually approached the artillery position, the artillery battalion's five-gun 100-type mountain gun bombardment began to be affected, but the cavalry squadron's more than [-] people never found the enemy's artillery position.

He started to feel something was wrong.

"Captain, the enemy has artillery observation posts providing real-time corrections!"

"Or very close to us!"

The shells fired gradually and accurately made the captain of the Japanese artillery team realize that something was wrong, and he shouted:
"We need to move positions."

"Report, the enemy's frontline artillery fire suddenly increased, and the attack of the First Battalion was blocked."

At this time, the first and second battalions, which had been beaten and retreating, finally opened up their firepower. The battalion's six 82 mortars, a total of twelve mortars, opened fire at full speed.

The artillery fire tripled.

The attacking Westfield United First and Second Battalions were immediately unable to withstand the attack, and the attacking forward troops suffered heavy losses.

"idiot!"

"Continue the bombardment!"

After thinking for a moment, Nishitano gritted his teeth and decided to fight:
"The security team goes to search for enemy artillery observation posts."

"Hi."

The artillery battalion captain had no choice but to continue to provide artillery support and fire suppression to the front line.

Nishino's decision was not actually a mistake.

The terrain of the mountain artillery brigade of the Xitian Wing is flat and open, and there is a lack of suitable locations for artillery observation posts in the surrounding area. In theory, soldiers from a squadron can easily find enemy observation posts if they spread out and search.

It was nighttime, and even with moonlight illumination, if you wanted to accurately observe the impact point of the artillery shell, you had to be very close, within one kilometer.

But the problem is...
"Hey, this sight glass is really good."

On a tree trunk on the top of a hill about two kilometers away from the Japanese artillery position, an independent regiment soldier held a large observation mirror and looked at the panicked Japanese on the Japanese artillery position in the distance, with a sly smile on his lips. .

A telescope is a good thing,

But there is also a disadvantage,
That's tunnel vision.

The greater the magnification, the narrower the field of view.

This is one of the reasons why snipers must be equipped with an observer. The observation field of view of the sniper scope is too small, making it difficult to accurately judge the battlefield situation.

However, large-magnification telescopes also have the problem of poor field of view. They have a wide field of view and are bulky, making them unsuitable for mobile portability.

Also, telescopes are very poor at night.

The observation scope equipped with the new 82 mortar not only has a magnification of up to [-] times, but also can adjust the magnification, as well as simple ranging and characterization.

As well as being very clear at night.

At least, it is much clearer than the artillery mirror used to capture the Japanese.

Although the observation scope accompanying the mortar does not have night vision technology, it relies on decades of advanced optical technology to make nighttime observation much better.

Relying on this observation scope, the artillery observation post can accurately observe the Japanese artillery positions at a distance of nearly two kilometers and provide calibration.

"Hit!"

At this time, the observer discovered that two school-fired artillery shells had landed 50 meters around the Japanese artillery position.

"Hit."

The correspondent at the rear immediately reported the news.

"Adjust pitch."

"Full speed attack."

After receiving the report, Xu Ping was about to order the remaining eighteen artillery pieces to adjust their pitch and firing angle, and then launch a full-speed bombardment of the Japanese artillery positions.

Less than a minute later, twenty 1 long-range mortars dropped shells weighing 82 kilograms at a rate of [-] rounds per minute at the location of the Japanese artillery brigade and the wing headquarters.

Nishino did not wait for the expected small force of the Independent Regiment, but instead waited for artillery shells falling from the sky.

"Nani!"

From the moment two artillery shells accurately landed in the artillery position, two artillery soldiers were injured, and the guard troops never discovered the location of the enemy's artillery, Nishino had the idea of ​​​​retreating.

But he didn't expect that before he could make up his mind, what followed was a hail of bullets, two Type [-] mountain cannons that were destroyed in the first round, and a large number of casualties among soldiers.

At this moment, Nishitano suddenly understood.

The range of the enemy's artillery must be far beyond his imagination.

He thought the enemy artillery was nearby, within a kilometer or two, but in fact, it might be as far away as four or five kilometers away.

"Can a mortar go this far?"

"It turns out that artillery fire coverage is the way to go!"

"Group bombardment is the most beautiful!"

Looking at the fireballs exploding all over the sky, at this moment, Nishino's ten years of persistence began to waver.

Although his heart was shocked and complicated, it was hard to describe, but Nishido’s movements were not slow at all:

"retreat!"

"Transfer!"

But at this moment, a communications soldier suddenly ran over in a panic:

"Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty."

"The military camp telegraphed that the camp of the flag protection team was attacked. The flag protection team suffered heavy losses and the regiment flag was captured by the enemy."

There were less than 2000 people in a military camp that could house 200 people. It was still around [-] o'clock in the night, and Li Yunlong also had the detailed location of the regiment flag, so the battle process became very simple.

Approach quietly, then launch a sudden attack, capture the flag, and then break out.

"Nani!"

This news made Nishitano suddenly stunned, and he stood upright in the sky full of gunfire.

It turned out that Li Yunlong's goal was not him, but the Westfield United flag.At this moment, Nishino finally understood that the purpose of the independent regiment's attack tonight was not to attack his regiment headquarters and kill him, but to capture his regiment flag.

How did Li Yunlong know the location of the alliance flag?

Is there a traitor in the empire?
Nishida didn't have time to clarify the doubts in his heart.

Another round of shells fell.

"Captain, be careful."

A Japanese soldier realized something was wrong and quickly reminded him.

But it's too late.

An 82-meter mortar shell landed at the feet of Nishitano. After the explosion, the Japanese colonel disappeared into the night.

(End of this chapter)