Chapter 149 Wind and Red Flag Overturn 5
[149] The wind and the red flag turn over the earth (5)
Yao Fan kept letting the soldiers rest until eight o'clock in the morning before getting up to wash. A forced cold face refreshed the soldiers.
After breakfast, the kettle was filled with water, and the whole army set out again. Go to Guozhuang Town, ten kilometers to the west.
So at noon, when Wang Zheng's 4,000-horse army rushed to Zhanggezhuang, even 939 soldiers including Yao Fan had rushed to Guozhuang Town and carried out an assault on the town, capturing the Qing army that came to the town in advance.
The escaped Qing army scout also reported the news back to Zhanggezhuang.
The war is imminent.
Xie Jiaxiang sweated and urged the horse to run to Yao Fan and shouted, "Chairman! The Qing army came to the south! There are countless people!"
Li Hainiu looked at Yao Fan nervously: "Chairman, do you want to mobilize before the war?"
Yao Fan laughed and said, "That's right. We all know that we were mobilized before the war. OK! Let the soldiers line up, and I'll say a few words.
Standing in front of the neat queue, Yao Fan looked at the cold and resolute faces of the soldiers before the war and shouted, "Comrades, in our north is the largest Qing army cluster in Shandong. Defeat them is our goal today!
After this period of learning, each of us has greatly improved our minds, and we have awakened! Understand that the Manchu Dynasty is the prison of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups!
In order to overthrow this dynasty! End the brutal repression! End the endless exploitation and plunder! End the dark old society! Today, we will use our blood and life to defend the rise of Shandong Commune!
In order to build a new society where everyone is equal! A great country where all ethnic groups are united! I will shed the last drop of blood with you and fight against the enemy!"
After saying these simple words, Yao Fan and the officers waved their fists in the air and led all the soldiers to shout:
"H Long live Shandong Commune!"
"Hangt Long live the People's Revolutionary Army!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
............
The chill of late autumn hit people, and the heavy force of the Qing army has set up a camp in the field south of Zhanggezhuang.
At the same time, they rode out and scouted vigilantly around. When they found that Yao Fan's large troops were getting closer and closer from south to north, these scouts tried to launch a small attack. As a result, before they could get close, they were defeated by the company responsible for vigilance in Yao Fan's troops.
After confirming the intention of Yao Fan's large army to go north to fight, the Qing army no longer sent cavalry to harass, but contracted back and began the formal decisive battle deployment.
Yao Fan, who came an hour after the march, held a telescope to observe on a high hill 1.5 kilometers away from the Qing army's camp.
The fence outside the Qing army battalion is an all-wood structure. The pine pillar, which has never peeled off the bark, is as thick as the calf. It is stood up by one by one by the logistics auxiliary soldiers, tightly twisted with hemp rope, and fixed horizontally with thick logs, and also tightly twisted with hemp rope.
The camp is 20 meters away, facing Yao Fan's army in the south. A cannon is placed every ten steps horizontally, and 24 cannons are lined up. The thick cast iron cannon lies on the heavy wooden frame. The four wheels of the wooden frame are also bulky and solid. The outer layer of the wheel is not wrapped in rubber, not even the iron sheet. The wooden wheel is about 20 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters high, and looks like a cutting board of logs.
Each infantry battalion of the Huai Army is equipped with six artillery pieces, each equipped with 8 gunners and 12 auxiliary soldiers. Wang Zhengqi's four infantry battalions had 24 12-pound front-equipped smoothblower guns, each equipped with 20 shells, with a theoretical range of 3,000 meters. However, in actual combat, the shelling of the Huai Army was limited to the naked eye, and no further away, it was purely blind.
The two wings of the artillery position are 2,000 Huai troops with foreign guns in four infantry battalions, arranged in parallel according to the two battalions on the left and right. Each infantry battalion of the Huai Army is divided into ten sentries, each with 50 people, equipped with two chief and deputy sentries. Yao Fan saw that the front of each battalion of the Huai Army was divided into three sentries on the left, center and right. Each sentry was lined up in two horizontal lines, and the three sentries were lined up. There was a response sentry with the same horizontal line behind each sentry. As for the remaining four sentries, they were still lined up in a horizontal line, and there were densely standing behind the middle response sentry. The formation of the whole battalion seems to be a bold letter "T".
The weapons of the Huai army have reached the appearance of the modern army, and the long guns and knives have been abandoned. The 2,000 infantrymen used are all rifles. Yao Fan carefully observed and found that they are actually very unified. The Enfield 1853 smoothbore rifle and the American version of the former - M1855 Springfield rifles, both of which are front-mounted rifles. .
But Yao Fan did not pay attention to the formation of the four battalions of infantry on the left and right wings of the Qing army. What really cared about was the eight cavalry battalions with large blades and short spears on the edge of the two wings of the Qing army.
According to Yao Fan's plan, he hopes to crush the infantry in the middle of the Huai army before the Huai army cavalry launches a quick charge to his two wings.
Yao Fan turned around and faced the back of the high hill.
The whole army has set up a long formation, and the left and right wings have sparsely launched a thin loose line. The first battalion, second battalion and third battalion in the middle of the road gathered ten companies of heavy troops, winding backwards like a dragon.
The green helmet and blue uniforms reflect the solemn faces of the soldiers. Under the coldness and calmness on everyone's faces, there is excitement and anger.
The soldiers are ready! I'm going to have a good time today!
Yao Fan ordered: "Prepare for a series of cannons!" Launch a continuous rapid-fire shelling on the enemy's central artillery position!"
"The two-wing scattered column immediately unfolded, wrapped left and right, and launched a long-range shooting at the enemy cavalry cluster!"
"The first battalion of the Central Committee instructed four machine gun teams to prepare and go forward to test the infantry on the right side of the enemy's artillery line! Let's see how the enemy's morale is!"
............
Yao Fan's orders passed down like thunder and lightning. After Gaoqiu, the helmet surged, and the vigorous soldiers had completed their preparations. They took out all the bullets and * in the backpack and put them on the ground neatly. They ran on the field like tigers one by one, jumping briskly in front of Yao Fan with Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, and their agile movements condensed the discipline and tenacity they learned during this period of training and actual combat!
Wang Zhengqi stood after standing on the right side of the Qing army and looked at the rubber bandits rebel soldiers with green helmets, blue clothes and green rubber shoes in the distance with a monocular telescope on a two-meter-high earth platform.
"Will Yao Fan lead the army? The front is so scattered! Two hundred people in the west have been pulled into more than one, but they are still scattered! More than 100 people in the east actually scattered into a one-mile wide!"
"Go on the order! Xu Zidirectional on the left wing and Wang Zhengtai on the right wing, the two cavalry battalions came forward to meet the enemy, approached and dispersed, launching a full charge against the two wings of the rubber thief! After breaking through the military line, gather together, and then attack the middle road of the rubber thief northward, and cooperate with our Chinese army to attack back and forth! The left-wing Yuan Yunbing and right-wing Luo Guangmai followed the front camp and repeatedly charged the enemy's two wing troops! Don't let go of anyone!"
Wang Zhengqi's orders were passed on one after another. In his opinion, the group of rubber thieves in front of him would be destroyed in an instant.
"These rubber thieves dare to underestimate me!"
"The foreign guns and cannons are in hand, and the two thousand iron riders are towering. I don't pay attention to the millions of troops of the Taiping Army. These rubber thieves are only a thousand, and they dare to make trouble!
"It's presumptuous!"
Wang Zheng raised his nose and stared, and his chest was full of blood. He despised the green-haired rubber thief. Because Yao Fan's army wore green helmets and red flags, the squires who escaped from Jimo were called green hat soldiers, but the more outrageous it became, and it became green-haired red-faced. Finally, even the Qing army called them "green-haired rubber thieves".
Yao Fan did not bring a red flag when he sent troops this time. Although the artillery of the Qing army was very bad, Yao Fan did not want to give his opponent a target.
Four artillery squads of a company have set up four 82mm mortars on the high hill. After aiming, they are ready to start fire strikes on Qing positions 1,500 meters away.
It was hard to have a chance to show his skills, and Gui Ba seemed too excited.
"A row of preparations! 45 in elevation! Ruler 012! No. 2 charge! Kill the bomb! One test shot! Let it go!"
Although Gui Ba's excited voice trembled, the carefully calculated data was very accurate against the optical sight on the mortar. A shell landed directly on the westernmost part of the Qing army's artillery position, directly destroying a 12-pound cast iron front-loaded smoothbore gun that needed six horses and weighed 5 tons, with a radius of more than 20 meters. All the artillery and auxiliary soldiers of the Qing army were killed collectively, and some soldiers around them were blown out of their abdomen, their hands and feet were broken, and they rolled all over the ground.
Yao Fan saw the chaos of the Qing army in the distance through the telescope, and he was so happy that he quickly shouted, "Gui Ba! Good fight!"
Guiba saw the target and shouted excitedly, "All five rapid shots in a row!"
For a while, the mortars sounded, and 20 shells were roared over in seven seconds!