Chapter 390 Procrastination and Fierce War

The landing site of the Fourth Soviet Army crossing the river is about two kilometers north of Ma'anshan in the east of Dangtu County on the other side of Hezhou. After landing, the 17th Brigade of the Feng Army expanded five kilometers to the southwest, the expected scope of operation to intercept the Anhui army is about the area of Ma'anshan in the future.

Watching the deployment of the Wan army in this area, the Anhui army deployed the 7th Division of the Liangjiang Army in Dangtu. Of course, it is impossible for a thousand people to hide in Dangtu County, but spread along the Yangtze River, forming a Yangtze River defense line of more than 20 kilometers long. .

On this Dangtu defense line, the key defense area is Dangtu County, where there is a whole brigade of the 14th Brigade of the two rivers army, artillery regiments and other troops. It is the key garrison area of the Anhui army in the direction of Dangtu. It not only strictly prevents the Feng army from directly landing in Dangtu using Jiangxinzhou, but also the 14th Brigade and artillery Soldiers and other troops are also the main mobile reinforcements of the defense line. Once they find that the Feng army has landed on a large scale from other directions, the 14th Brigade, artillery and other troops must quickly march to reinforce. Of course, their mission does not mean that they will not directly defeat the Feng army, because individuals know that once the Feng army will cross Jiang, it must be a large-scale crossing of the river, and the number of troops crossing the river may reach tens of thousands.

The Feng army of such a scale is definitely not something that can be defeated by one or two rivers and the seventh division, and it is even difficult to stop the Feng army from crossing the river.

So once the Feng army landed on the front line of Dangtu, what is the role of the Seventh Division of the Two Rivers?

One word: drag!

The requirements are not high. As long as the 7th Division of the Liangjiang Army can drag the Feng army's crossing force for more than two days, the troops urgently reinforced from the east and west of Wuhu and Jinling can initially arrive. If it can be delayed for more than three days, then the second mixed brigade and the fourth division of the central army, the main force of the Anhui army, can meet each other. After arriving, with the resistance of the main force of the Anhui army, Duan Qirui was sure to block the offensive momentum of the Feng army. Of course, this was only Duan Qirui's conservative estimate. In his heart, he still wanted to annihilate the Feng army crossing the river on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Because that is almost a strategic turning point representing the Soviet-Wan War, once the Anhui army can annihilate the Feng army's troops crossing the river, the heavily damaged Feng army will never be able to launch the river crossing battle again in a short time. Although the Anhui army does not have enough strength to launch a large-scale counterattack to recover the north of the river, at least it can make the Soviet Union The war between Anhui has returned to a strategic standoff.

And time is very precious for Duan Qirui. Soon after he took Guangdong, he needed time to rectify Guangdong and completely integrate Guangdong, a rich province, into his ruling system. Then relying on more than half of southern China, he was confident that he would surpass the Soviet system in terms of financial resources, and then expand more troops and wait for the right time. The actual Northern Expedition was launched.

This strategic idea has been clearly reflected in the deployment of the entire Yangtze River defense line of the Anhui army.

On the vast Yangtze River defense line, the Anhui army only focused on a few areas, while the two main forces of the 4th Division and the 2nd Mixed Brigade were regarded as mobile troops. When the Feng army crossed the river there, they went there.

When it comes to the direction of Dangtu, the tactical deployment of the 7th Division of Liangjiang also reflects this thinking, that is, the main deployment of Dangtu County, and a small number of troops are deployed in other areas. The purpose of these troops deployed as battalions is not to block the Feng army's river crossing, but It serves as an early warning.

The Anhui infantry battalion stationed by the Ma'anshan River is a force of this nature.

In the first time they found that the Feng army crossed the river, they had sent messengers to ride fast horses to Dangtu to report the letter!

At the same time, the two infantry battalions stationed in Xishan and Jiuhua Mountain also quickly went to Ma'anshan. The two infantry battalions and the infantry battalions previously in Ma'anshan belong to the 25th Infantry Regiment of the 13th Brigade of the 7th Division of Liangjiang.

The 25th Infantry Regiment of the Liangjiang Army, that is, the main force of the Anhui Army deployed in Ma'anshan.

When the second battalion of the regiment said that it was found that a large number of Feng troops crossing the river, the commander of the regiment did not dare to neglect it. He immediately led two regiments to Ma'anshan quickly, but they still arrived a little late. By the time they arrived, it had been nearly two hours since the Feng army crossed the river. At this time, the 30th of the Feng army The third regiment has successfully landed and advanced to the southwest to expand the depth of the beach defense.

In this case, the 1st Battalion of the 33rd Regiment of the Feng Army, which went to seize the head rock, and chased the enemy, and the 2nd Battalion of the 33rd Regiment of the Feng Army, which went to the front line of Yushan Lake, was directly opposite the 25th Regiment of the Anhui Army with reinforcements.

Fang Qingkun, who commanded the whole regiment in the rear, looked at the Anhui army in dark blue military uniform in the telescope and roughly estimated that the number of Anhui troops reinforced this time was quite large, and at least thousands of people had been found alone. Considering that the Anhui army was not in the open area to let Fang Qingkun count, so Fang Qingkun estimated that the enemy should be a regiment.

Fang Qingkun is as conceited as many Feng army officers. He doesn't think that an Anhui infantry battalion can fight against his two battalions now, but now it is an extraordinary time. His task is not to defeat how many enemy troops, but to consolidate the beachhead positions and delay with the Anhui army opposite. Time is the same as the main source, Fang Qingkun also wants to delay the time and wait for the rear troops to set up a pontoon bridge and cross the river.

However, although both want to delay the time, one difference is that Fang Qingkun's 33rd Regiment wants to delay the time is that after taking the rain mountain lake and the human head rock and other areas, and using these two areas to form a preliminary defensive position, it is to delay under the premise of ensuring the beach head position. Time.

However, although the Anhui army on the opposite side also has to delay time, their delay is not blindly avoiding the war. On the contrary, if they want to delay the offensive of the Feng army, it is very necessary to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Feng army to attack the Feng army as much as possible in the early stage, especially on the first day of the Feng army crossing the river. The team should be able to directly attack the crossing force of the Feng army and slow down the crossing speed of the main force of the Feng army.

To put simply, the contradiction between the two is that the Anhui army wants to delay blocking the Feng army's river crossing at the beach, while the 33rd Regiment, which has crossed the river, needs to stop the Anhui army outside the beach head position and delay the subsequent reinforcements of the Anhui army.

When these factors are combined, there is a very interesting situation, that is, although the commanders of both sides have been ordered to delay the time, they do want to do so. However, in fact, since the beginning of contact between the two sides, There was an extremely fierce battle between them.

After the 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion of the 33rd Regiment of the Feng Army met the 25th Regiment of the Anhui Liangjiang Army, which was rapidly marching south on the front line of Yushan Lake and Rentouji, there was no so-called restraint between the two sides, and even the firepower test was not carried out. The two sides fought directly as soon as they met.

After the rattling of the machine gun stopped, it sounded again on the edge of the Yangtze River, accompanied by the crisp gunfire, and occasionally a few explosions.

These explosions are mainly composed of grenades from both sides, while the mortars that have always been used by the Feng army are relatively few. This is not that Fang Qingkun does not like to use mortars, but because the existing mortars in his hands are limited and cannot be wasted at will.

Now all the ammunition of the 33rd Regiment has been carried with you. Although it has been well prepared before departure, in order to destroy the two machine gun fortresses that caused great casualties to the Feng army, the 33rd Regiment's mortar shells have been consumed a lot, and before crossing the river, the senior officers of the Feng army The generals, including Meng Enyuan and Lin Yongquan, believed that the Anhui army's counterattack would come very fast and fiercely. Once the enemy's main force came to counterattack, they could rely on the 17th Brigade itself.

Considering that there is no pontoon bridge and only a small number of ships can transport ammunition, the ammunition that the 17th Brigade can use for combat in the next three days, especially mortar shells, will be very nervous.

Except for anti-machine gun operations, if it is not necessary in other situations, Fang Qingkun is unwilling to waste the precious mortars in his hand!

Fang Qingkun refused to use too many mortar shells, so for the front-line infantry of the 33rd Regiment, the pressure may naturally be great. The Feng army, especially the troops of the three main divisions, have long been used to launching attacks under the cover of mortar firepower. Now without the cover of mortar firepower, they really feel a little unaccustomed for a while.

But they are not used to fighting. As usual, they are scattered around, and then try to carry out a roundabout attack at the same time. Occasionally, they use 60mm mortars to hit the machine gun fire point of the Anhui army. However, it has not been a day or two since the Anhui army fought with the Feng army. It has been half a year. For In the case of the Feng army using 60mm mortars for anti-machine gun warfare, in addition to imitating and equipping 60mm mortars, they also specially targeted these tactics of the Feng army and improved many machine gun tactics.

For example, in the past, the heavy machine guns of the direct army and the Anhui army were rarely maneuvered. They were generally fixed in a fort and then the battle was destroyed. Anyway, it was not a big problem to use heavy machine guns like this before the mortar appeared. Anyway, the rifles and even the machine guns could not be shot off. Artillery, if you have the ability, you can let a field cannon or mountain cannon play precision bombing, otherwise you'd better not expect traditional barrel artillery anti-machine guns.

But this situation has been greatly changed in the Soviet War and the previous Soviet-Wan War. The Feng army's mortars, especially the 60mm mortars, are almost heavy machine gun killers. Under the command of skilled mortar commanders, three rapid shots can be completely destroyed. Destroy a surround heavy machine gun position.

Some people may say that the open surrounding new machine gun position is not useful. Why don't you use the fortress machine gun position? The reason here is also simple.

A fixed fortress with complete protection and can resist mortars or machine gun fortifications must spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build. Not to mention those cement fortifications, no warlord in contemporary China has enough money to buy cement to build fortifications. The Anhui army can't do it, nor can the Feng army, as for civil engineering. It is okay to build these fortifications, but it takes more time to build these fortifications, and it is difficult to use them for encounter field battles.

For example, the current battle between the two armies of Jiangsu and Anhui is a typical encounter. First of all, not to mention building a machine gun fortress, even the infantry trenches are too late to dig, and they lie directly on the top of the hill and fight.

In this case, the Feng army's 60mm mortar anti-machine gun operation was relatively smooth!

When the mortar troops destroyed another heavy machine gun of the Anhui army, the infantry of the Feng army once again launched a charge towards the temporary position of the Anhui army!