My client Li Yunlong

Chapter 79 Artillery Coverage, Elementary Edition
On the road from He County to Liao County, Captain Nishino held a four-fold observation telescope and looked around with a pair of sinister eyes.

Today, the squadron he led has been repeatedly attacked by Tubal Road since its departure from Hexian County.

As a veteran squadron leader of the First Army, Nishino was stationed in Shanxi at the end of 38. He once led the squadron to break into the so-called Tubal Road base area several times, and also encountered more than dozens of cold gun attacks from Tubal Road.

in his previous experience.

Tubal Road has poor weapons, few bullets, and poor training. Therefore, cold gun attacks are usually very close and the accuracy is very low. It often takes five or six attacks to cause effective casualties to the Locust Army.

Moreover, the imperial army could quickly counterattack and eliminate the attackers.

Not enough to be afraid of.

But today’s cold shot...
Nishino took a deep breath and suppressed the deep irritation in his heart.

The closest one was 300 meters away, and the farthest one was even more than 500 meters away. The other party only fired ten shots, killing six of his soldiers and wounding one.

Extremely high precision.

In his entire Nishino squadron, there was no samurai with such marksmanship.

What's even more troublesome is that the enemy retreats quickly after firing a shot and uses the terrain to escape. His Nishino Squadron didn't even see the opponent's back several times.

The lessons learned from Hejin Squadron and Dahe Squadron made him dare not send troops to pursue them rashly.

"Damn it, what happened on Tubal Road!"

The old devil, Nishino, cursed in his heart.

What is the reason?
In just half a year, the Eighth Route Army seemed to be completely transformed. Not only did they annihilate two infantry squadrons of the empire, but the power of the cold guns was so huge that even an infantry regiment was helpless.

How will we clean up in the future?

Not just irritability, but also a hint of haze emerged in Captain Nishino's mind.

At this time, a Japanese staff officer holding a map ran up to him:
"Squadron leader."

"Songjiazhuang is ahead!"

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

"Yo Xi."

Old Japanese Nishino breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter what conspiracy Tubalu has, it is nothing to fear.

Seven kilometers distance.

Even including the assembly and departure time, it only takes about 10 minutes for the Beijing Brigade stationed in Liao County to reach Songjiazhuang under urgent marching conditions, which is faster than the plane from Taiyuan.

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

Unless Tubalu mobilized more than [-] troops, it would be impossible to annihilate him in front of the Beijing Brigade.

But if Tubal Road is seven kilometers away from Liao County and has assembled more than [-] troops, and the imperial intelligence department has not discovered it, the empire should stop occupying the Republic of China and return home honestly.

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

"Speed ​​up."

Being beaten coldly for a day brought not only casualties to the Nishino Squadron, but also the squadron's low morale, as well as the physical and mental exhaustion of the soldiers caused by high vigilance.

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

·
"The devil is coming!"

Songjiazhuang, close to He County.

The hideout of the Second Battalion of the Independent Regiment.

Li Yunlong held up the Zeiss eight-power optical telescope seized from Sakata and imported by the Japanese from Germany, and saw the Nishino Squadron gradually approaching in the distance.

"Haha, Wang Xikui has done a great job!"

Li Yunlong was overjoyed when he saw the three Japanese squads gathering, but each separated, stretching out a marching distance of 800 meters.

Before he even took action, the Japanese divided him up.

Great opening!
"Let Xu Ping get ready."

Following Li Yunlong's order, lurking on the left side of the road, there were 35 artillery squads organized into five artillery companies, and the independent regiment's artillery reinforcement company equipped with 35 60-mm 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 participating in the artillery fire coverage to 35.

And for the first round of artillery fire coverage alone, [-] shells were prepared, with an average of fifteen shells on each Japanese soldier's head.

The 60mm mortar is very unsuitable for suppressing artillery in terms of power and range. In essence, it is just an infantry accompanying artillery piece. But as the saying goes - the caliber is not enough, the quantity must be made up.

35 60mm mortars are enough to deal with a Japanese squadron of 200 people.

In order to avoid being discovered by the Japanese, the artillery units were hidden one kilometer away from the road.

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

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

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

Because animals, even trained military horses, can easily lose control when they hear violent explosions or see muzzle flashes, causing unnecessary danger to the battlefield.

But ordinary military mules and horses produced by the system do not have this problem.

Just as the 35th group of running teams completed the artillery fire erection, adjusted the height and pitch, and the ammunition handlers piled a total of [-] rounds of artillery shells next to the running positions, the Nishino Squadron arrived at the scheduled bombardment position.

"fire!"

Li Yunlong gave the order to fire.

"Fire at full speed." "Shot all the shells."

Xu Ping carried out Li Yunlong's orders accurately.

bang bang bang...

The sound of the 60 mortar firing is not loud, and the sound is relatively low, like the prelude of a big drum. The gunner only needs to stuff a piece of cotton to easily isolate the sound.

So when the 35 sonatas sound one after another, it sounds particularly pleasant.

···
"Enemy attack."

"Lie down."

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

It is impossible for Tuba Road to ambush here,
But the mysterious Tubalu top shooter is very likely to launch the final attack.

But Nishino never expected that instead of an elusive bullet, he would be waiting for mortar shells that were as dense as rain all over the sky.

The American M2-60 mortar has a maximum range of 30 rounds per minute.

A total of 35 guns.

At this time, the artillery shells falling on the head of the Xiye Squadron passing through Songjia Village and approaching Heshun, that is, on the Hexian Highway, reached 1050 shells per minute at the fastest rate.

Each Japanese soldier had five shells on his head.

Although the shelling speed began to slow down after one minute due to the gunner's physical strength and proficiency, the adjustment of the firing angle of the base plate, and the overheating of the gun barrel, more than four minutes before the war began, 1 60 mortar shells fell on the West Field Head of the squadron.

Such a density per capita cannot be said to be rare in the history of war. After all, it is far worse than the last European War.

But it is definitely rare to put it on the head of a Japanese.

After all, it is April [-], and the Japanese have not come into contact with any decent opponents since the beginning. The last time they encountered a strong enemy and fought a fierce land battle was Nogi Nogi.

That time, nearly [-] Japanese soldiers were crushed, and Tsarist Russia surrendered. Although the Japanese soldiers trusted Nogizakanishi, they obviously did not trust his abilities. After the war, he was removed from real power and given a false position, sending him to teach at a university.

A few years later, Nogi Nogi committed suicide, allowing Jaizi Tianchu to see an opportunity to strengthen the spirit of Bushido, and he conferred the title of God of War.

The vigilant Nishino discovered shells falling all over the sky.

The initial velocity of mortar shells is low, and the speed will further decrease after exiting the barrel. Coupled with the large arc trajectory, as long as you are alert enough, you can detect it a second or two before it falls.

But in this little time, the slow-reacting Japs didn't even have time to lie down.

And it’s too dense.

More than a thousand rounds per minute.

The killing diameter of the 60 mortar shells is about ten and a half meters, and coupled with the pre-calibrated shooting elements, even if the accuracy is not enough, it is enough to cover the entire Nishino Squadron.

boom boom boom

Dense explosions rose up in the queue of Nishino Squadron, and the smoke and dust almost covered the entire Nishino Squadron.

The Japs were indeed dispersed, but they were still a marching column, and they were not a large skirmish line that could withstand artillery fire. Facing the intensive artillery fire prepared in advance, they suffered heavy casualties almost instantly in one encounter.

Not at all better than Kawazu Squadron.

Ma Rongshun, who was observing from the front line, could see Japanese soldiers falling down one after another.

Even faster than last time!
The description of cutting wheat can no longer describe the speed at which the Japanese fell.It was like hundreds of strong men rushing into the wheat field, waving sickles, and working hard to harvest.

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

Even if it's just some 60 mortars.

But the quantity more than makes up for the lack of power and caliber.

"spread."

"Requesting tactical guidance."

Faced with an unprecedented intensive bombardment, Mr. Nishino's command was timely and correct.

Drop down, spread out, take cover,
And immediately asked the radio station to send a report to the headquarters.

But now he was facing a cluster of artillery.

Although it is only a 60mm mortar with weak power and short range, artillery is artillery.

It is more powerful than a gun, has a longer range, kills with fragments, is more efficient than a gun, and is more difficult to deal with.

The Japanese were obviously unable to launch a timely counterattack like last time. The specially strengthened Type [-] infantry gun, which had been towed, was unable to function because of the focus.

All the Japanese could do was to spread out and retreat as much as possible to avoid excessive casualties.

Unknowingly, in just a few minutes, the Japanese formation had spread over a kilometer, and the number of Japanese soldiers gathered together was only half a squad at most.

"attack!"

When the bombardment came to an end, five reinforced companies led by Li Yunlong, Kong Jie, Zhang Dabiao, Shen Quan, and an old Red Army battalion commander personally entered the battlefield from all directions.

Push the battle into the second stage.

···
at the same time.

Taiyuan Airport.

Five fully loaded Type [-] attack aircraft had already taken off.

The Beijing Brigade in Liao County also began to gather.

(End of this chapter)