Chapter 192 Battle of Tongzhou 1

Zhao Dongyun said: "Light machine guns are used for attack. Naturally, they cannot be used together with heavy machine guns, nor are they suitable for them to be placed above the team level. It is best to be assigned to the infantry shed, so as to provide the support of accompanying firepower for the attacking infantry to the greatest extent, but considering that our light machine guns now The number is still relatively small, and it is still difficult to directly allocate it to the shed. In this way, let the machine gun be arranged in the platoon first, and each row will be equipped first. Later, when the hand is loose, the number of equipment will be appropriately increased.

"Now we only have 100 on hand, and even one row is not enough. In this way, we will first assign the ninth standard and the eleventh standard, and the other tenth and twelfth standards will be equipped later, and the remaining 20 will be distributed to the two towns in Jinzhou!"

A battalion in the Beiyang Army has four teams, each with three platoons and three sheds in each platoon. According to the calculation of each platoon equipped with a light machine gun, each infantry battalion needs about 12 light machine guns, and a town has 12 infantry battalions, so other heavyweights, logistics, cavalry and guards, gendarmes, etc. are not considered. Other troops, only these 12 infantry battalions, need at least 144 light machine guns.

Now the 100 pieces bought are not enough at all. After all, Zhao Dongyun has not only 12 infantry battalions, but also two towns behind him waiting to be equipped with light machine guns, so he first used more than 70 sets to equip the two targets of the third town. The remaining 20 pieces will be allocated to about 10 pieces each in the first town and the second towns of Fengtian to serve as preliminary training and training machine gunners.

The batch of Madsen light machine guns purchased by Zhao Dongyun is not the original version, but the 7.92 caliber version specially used by Denmark to supply the German army. After all, China's contemporary standard bullet caliber is 7.92 mm, so Zhao Dongyun naturally bought the original 6.5 mm version in Denmark, but has to work with Germany. The 7.92mm version of the same diameter.

At the same time as this batch of military purchases, Fuyuan Machinery Factory introduced Madsen's patent and carried out imitation production contracts. The contemporary Fuyuan Machinery Factory has grown up. This imitation of a patent-authorized light machine gun does not need to be as troublesome as before. A little modification and additional machinery and equipment can be purchased. Enough to produce a production line for light machine guns, Zhao Dongyun is expected to use a large number of domestic Madsen light machine guns by next year.

As for now, there are only 100 on hand, no more!

Even if these 100 light machine guns have just been assigned to the army, it is difficult for them to form combat effectiveness in a short time. At least the current battle of Tongzhou has to rely on the old method!

On the Tongzhou front, the sixth town under Wang Shizhen built a half-month-long trench defense line and spread for more than ten kilometers, extending south with the Nanyuan defense line.

On the opposite side of the defense line, the third town under Zhao Dongyun also dug up trenches. On the one hand, it is to prevent the sixth town from fighting back, and on the other hand, these trenches are not only used for defensive operations, but also for attack.

The curved trench is like a tunnel, allowing soldiers to effectively avoid the hunting of enemy artillery and heavy machine guns, so that soldiers can move from the rear to the front line. After moving to the front-line trenches, the soldiers of the third town as the attacking side will continue to dig forward secretly and try to get closer.

In a newly dug trench, Han Duotian did not care about the prestige of his officer, but squatted directly in the mud, holding a pencil in his hand to write and draw on a simple map.

At this time, several roars suddenly came. As soon as Han Duotian, who had been in the army for many years, he knew that it was the enemy's shelling. The shell fell relatively close and blew up a crater in the flat ground behind the trench. After the dust raised by the shells fell, it directly poured Han Duotian.

Han Duotian, who still had a rumble in his ears, got up from the ground, shook his head and shook off a lot of dust, then spit twice, and then shouted, "Damn it, I won't let people live. I haven't stop this day!"

Han Duotian took his platoon to start work overnight and finally dug a trench forward, but it was discovered by the enemy opposite at dawn, so the enemy began to fire this side to suppress it. Although the artillery fire was not dense, a shell may fall after ten minutes. But the Beiyang army on the opposite side has been doing this all day, causing no casualties, but the morale of the soldiers has been greatly damaged.

"Damn, the artillery men behind are also eating, and they have been beaten by the opposite side for most of the day, and they still don't fight back!"

The two sides fought against each other. Naturally, you hit me and I hit you in the artillery battle between the two sides, but today, I was pressed by at least one artillery team on the opposite side, and then the artillery behind me did not move at all, which naturally made Han Duotian on the front line extremely dissatisfied.

Sure enough, after the enemy launched another small-scale shelling, the infantry on the front line still failed to get the support of the rear artillery. Only the 80mm mortars in the battalion fired a few shots, indicating a counterattack...

What Han Duotian didn't know was that on a small mountain behind the front, several artillery officers were holding binoculars and writing in their hands.

Wu Peifu, wearing the rank of assistant leader, looked at the explosions in the distance, then put down the telescope and then said to several officers behind him, "What's going on? Are the parameters enough? Can you find out their artillery positions!"

However, no one answered him immediately at this time. The officers were still writing and drawing, and it didn't take long for a young deputy cadet to shout with a happy face, "Find out, if my calculation is not wrong, they should be here!"

After saying that, he drew a circle on a map with a pen. Wu Peifu looked at the map and said, "Why can't I find their artillery position? It turned out that it was hiding behind this!"

Then he looked at several other officers: "What do you think?"

Several other people also said: "From their ballistics, they should have been close to the launch of mountain cannons, and they should have arrived and deployed in two days. If the direction is not wrong, we should be able to eliminate their artillery position by relying on our range!"

Wu Peifu nodded and said, "Well, that's right. Since the opposite side is bold enough to attack, let's not be polite. Let's fight according to the current Zhuyuan for a while, and then look at the situation!"

Wu Peifu ordered that the low-ranking officers acted separately, and from behind everyone, there were more than a dozen artillery. This is the first artillery battalion of the third town, equipped with field guns, and the effective range is much farther than the mountain guns of the same caliber, and these The long-managed field gun is the only long-range gun that can be obtained in the third town.

Wu Peifu did not go down the mountain, but continued to observe the distant front. He hoped to see the fireworks rise after the shelling with his own eyes!

Wu Peifu has been in the army for many years. Since he joined the army and entered the third town, he climbed up step by step, from the most basic gunner to the platoon leader. During this period, he was appreciated by Liu Tingui and recommended it to Zhao Dongyun. Then he had to enter the third town camp school to study artillery. After graduation last year, he worked for the gunnery in the third town. Officer of the army.

However, last year, Zhao Dongyun expanded his army and suddenly established the first town and the second town of Fengtian, which also represented the need to establish two new artillery standards. The officers of the artillery first series were naturally promoted one by one. Wu Peifu also took this opportunity to be promoted to the first battalion management belt of the third standard of the artillery team, thus entering the middle-level officers. The ranks.

This time, I came to Beijing to fight, not to mention whether I will win or lose, but the opportunity to fight is quite rare. Almost all the officers of the artillery in the third town of Fengtian Town are from the artillery standard of the third town of the army, and most of these people are Wu Peifu's bosses and predecessors, but most of them are forced to fight with Fengtiandi. One town and the second town stayed in Jinzhou together, but his descendants got the opportunity to fight.

This opportunity is very important for his fledgling middle-level officer. Without combat achievements, he can't compete with those predecessors for promotion!

Today, he is going to have a beautiful artillery battle to make his superiors really notice himself!

After a while, someone around him whispered, "Bed, brothers are ready!"

After listening, Wu Peifu took out his pocket watch and compared the preparation time with the previous training time. Then he nodded: "Well, you did a good job!"

Then he officially ordered: "Take three rounds first!"

With his order officially issued, the artillery officers in the rear artillery positions commanded the gunners to fire one after another. For a while, there was a loud rumbling sound from this small artillery position, and then shells invisible to the naked eye flew to the sky and headed far away.

After hearing a roar in the front-line trench, Han Duotian thought that the enemy's shells were coming again, but then he found something wrong and immediately laughed and said, "These shells are finally working!"

However, he soon found something wrong, because he did not find the smoke and dust of the explosion in the opposite enemy position, and another sentence came out of his mouth, "Damn, where did this shell fly?"

However, before he finished his words, he heard a loud rumble from afar. Obviously, the shell that had just flew over their heads hit the enemy's rear. As for the target, it was unknown to Han Duotian.

However, at this time, the artillery that had been lifted into the air shot on the balloon, and a soldier looked at it with a telescope and shouted loudly: "It's hit, hit!"

Anyway, there was an explosion, and the shell must have landed, but it can't be regarded as killing the enemy's artillery position!

There are several kilometers apart, and there is a small highland blocking the view, so they can see the smoke and dust raised after the explosion, but they can't see whether the enemy's artillery position has been destroyed.

For the sake of conservatism, Wu Peifu ordered again: "Three more strikes!"

If it is really hit, these dozens of shells are considered to be a follow-up supplement. If they are hit in the wrong place, hundreds of shells worth thousands of silver will be thrown into the water.

However, Wu Peifu was not sure whether his counter- shelling was successful, but Han Duotian on the front line could then feel that the enemy's gunfire threat had disappeared.

Since Wu Peifu's field artillery battalion began to carry out counter shelling operations, no enemy shells have fallen on Han Duotian's position.

At this time, Han Duotian also vaguely guessed that the enemy's artillery position had been destroyed or threatened, so the position was urgently transferred. However, no matter which was a good thing for Han Duotian.

"Get up and continue to dig. Damn, you were lazy when you were shot. Now you are lazy even if you don't have a gun. Commander raised you for nothing!" Han Duotian began to scold the commanders again and continued to dig trenches.

Then until a few hours in the evening, Han Duotian's position was not bombarded, which dug a long distance, and then a short period of something happened at night. At this time, the trench where Han Duotian was located has become an obvious prominent part.

At dawn the next day, Han Duotian's newly excavated trenches welcomed hundreds of other comrades-in-arms. There were not only many people, but also two 60mm mortars and two heavy machine guns.