Chapter 675 Closed 2

Azerbaijan, outside Tbilisi.

In the morning mist, the city of Tbilisi is particularly beautiful. The golden dawn shines on the red tiles, as if it makes people enter the beautiful fairy tale world of the Caucasus.

But the sporadic gunfire broke the silence. After receiving the news that Russia refused to continue the negotiations, the Xinhua and Ottoman troops who successfully captured Baku and Batumi and flocked here along the railway.

Outside the city, the cold barrel slowly rose. The soldiers removed the shells from the truck, wiped them clean, installed the fuses and stuffed them into the gun.

"Nine catties?"

"Nine catties!"

In the busy artillery position, Hao Ren shouted and passed by a "war hammer" self-propelled howitzer that entered the position under the command of soldiers. The latest L35/152mm self-propelled gun beside him not only did not make him feel excited, but his lips were so anxious that his lips were dry.

From the artillery company commander, to the battalion commander, and then to the regiment commander, he, nicknamed "Hao Cannon", with his solid artillery skills, has become one of the top artillery in the army, but this temper has not changed for more than ten years, and he is still shouting.

Hearing the shout of the regimental commander, the new young second lieutenant immediately ran over and saluted, "Captain, Sun Jiujin came to report."

"Come on, come on." Hao Cannon waved his hand and looked impatient with this kind of false gift. He pointed to the list in his hand and asked, "Tell me, what's going on? 36 self-propelled 152, 48 traction 105, all 84 cannons, you just bring such a little ammunition?! There are only three bases on average. Are you kidding?!"

"The regiment leader, I."

"Don't me, me, mine, I don't want to explain, no matter what you do, before noon, I want to see the transport team!" Hao Cannon waved his hand and stuffed the list into Sun Jiujin's arms, and he didn't even want to listen to the explanation.

Holding the list stuffed by the regimental commander, Sun Jiujin was about to cry.

Baku has taken it down, and the forward base is about to be built. Moreover, the Baghdad railway can be temporarily opened seven days ago, but thousands of kilometers from Mosul to Baku rely on the road. Not only is the road difficult, but also there are not so many trucks in my hands.

As for the smoothest supply line, it is to take the Baghdad Railway to Ankara, and then from Ankara to Erzurum, but the distance is almost around most of the Ottoman Empire, and the old Ottoman railway is less efficient than that of Russia. Even if it reaches the destination, it will be transferred from Erzurum to Baku, and then along the railway. It's more than 500 kilometers away. It's killing you!

Sun Jiujin muttered and ran to the communication car. At this moment, he could only hope that the transport team from Erzurum last night could arrive in time, or there would be no shells. It is estimated that the commander's saliva could drown himself.

One after another "warhammer" self-propelled howitzers began to enter the position under the command of soldiers. These tracked self-propelled howitzers are the new favorite of the Xinhua Artillery, with a total weight of 21 tons and a specially developed five pairs of load-bearing wheel chassis. The road speed is 30 kilometers per hour and 10 kilometers per hour across the road, the maximum speed The driving distance is 200 kilometers, and it is initially equipped with the ability to accompany the armored forces.

There are 5 crew members, a driver and 4 gun squad crews. The weapon is a 152mm/35-caliber barrel howitzer with a maximum range of 8,500 meters. In order to reduce recoil, the engineer also invented the muzzle recoil.

From the appearance, it is still a little simple, mainly to reduce weight. "Warhammer" adopts an open turret with unprotected armor, and it can only carry 12 shells and propellant kits. The continuous fire strength is insufficient, but considering that it is brought to the artillery after service. There is no mobility, and this disadvantage is not a pity.

With all the preparations of the Xinhua Artillery, the belated Ottoman Artillery also worked hard to pull out all their possessions, but compared with the neat and uniform former, the equipment in their hands was really a little shabby.

Hao Cannon will not look down on others like ordinary soldiers. After all, Xinhua was not as good as the Ottomans today, but the uneven caliber and system made him frown.

The most commonly used Ottoman artillery is the 105mm howitzer purchased from Germany before the war. This kind of cannon is the same as the new 105mm gun, but the latter has a truck towing, so it has a longer body and more powerful. In addition to the 105, he also saw the 100mm Russian gun, 75mm "French "Miss Guo" and even the American 76mm short-tube gun.

He really admires Osman's logistics officers. If this kind of complicated caliber were on his side, he would probably scold his mother dozens of times a day!

When the Xinhua Artillery looked at their companions, the Ottoman Artillery also looked at their allies drooling, and several officers were even more diligently drilling into the position, looking back and forth, and their eyes were full of envy.

Since the end of the Battle of Mesopotamia and the Xinhua Army began to cross the Arabian Peninsula and arrive in Kuwait, the Ottoman soldiers finally knew how big the gap between them was between them and the other. Thousands of trucks, planes, tanks and cannons, and even a large number of bicycles were transported to make the soldiers easier. If it hadn't been for the mine clearance in the Strait of Hormuz, I believe that the number of cannons in front of me would have been several times larger.

Compared with the soldiers, Kemal, the commander-in-chief of the Transcaucasian Allies standing in the distance, was not only happy, but also worried. He was happy that according to the agreement between Xinhua and Ottomans, as long as Russia signed, half of Azerbaijan, including Baku and Batumi, would be handed over to Osman, although Xinhua would take half of the Baku stones. The share of oil exploitation, but even the remaining half, is enough to make Mohammed V ecstatic, because this means that millions of oil revenues every year are more than the current taxes in the Ottoman country.

But in addition to joy, it is also full of worries, because at present, whether it is the quality and equipment of soldiers, Xinhua is far better than Ottoman, and even comparable to Germany. As they continue to arrive in Kuwait, and the Baghdad Railway is about to be officially opened, the whole of Mesopotamia is shrouded.

The hookup between Ibn Saud and Limo has surfaced. Through the marriage, the two quickly came together, making the whole Arabian Peninsula change color in an instant. Under the seducing of the Baku oil field and the promise not to compete for control of the Suez Canal after the war, Mohammed V has promised Ibn Saud and Da Kewei. The special reading officially announced that Xinhua has become the most powerful military presence in the region!

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" He didn't know that no one could predict the future, but it was clear how Tbilisi would be hit hard after the Xinhua Artillery opened fire.

"General Kemal, it's all ready." Zhao Sheng walked into the headquarters and saluted.

"Very good." Kemal politely replied. Although he was the commander of the Allies in the Caucasus, he knew that it was his turn because Xinhua did not want to intervene too much, so he smiled politely and said, "Let's start."

"Yes."

In Zhao Sheng's response, 84 Xinhua howitzers took the lead in opening their voices, and the thin smoke gushed out along the sides of the muzzle of the gun, like a fanned black cloud. A few seconds later, when the first mass of smoke rose from Tbilisi, the famous Caucasian city seemed to have been thrown into the stormy waves.

"Boom, rumble!"

The continuous sound of cannons made all the Ottoman officers who watched the battle dumbfounded. After seeing the dense Xinhua cannons, they thought it would be very powerful, but when they really roared in front of them, they knew that it was still not enough to estimate.

A cannonball exploded from all over the city of Tbilisi. Beautiful buildings full of Russian charm collapsed in the gunfire. Houses, warehouses and even worthless stone piles collapsed quickly as long as they were hit.

In particular, the power of the "Warhammer" 152mm self-propelled howitzer is even more amazing. The shelling launched by the 105mm howitzer is not comparable to it at all. Even the tall and solid buildings in the city that were used by the Russian army as bunkers, all made of granite are under the tiles of hundreds of 152mm shells. The gravel flew, the walls and columns cracked, and the once prosperous city suddenly turned into a pile of ruins.

"May God bless you!"

Standing in the command post, Kemal was also fascinated by such fierce artillery fire. He believed that even if he commanded the defense, he could only choose to retreat or surrender under such fierce artillery fire.

The shells were still falling like rain. The Ottoman artillery, who had come to help, found that they could not get involved at all, so they simply gave their 105mm shells to the Xinhua Artillery to make up for the lack of ammunition from afar.

A moment later, when a truck full of ammunition finally arrived, Hao Cannon went crazy. In order to show the strength of Xinhua to the Ottoman officers, he ordered a full-speed shelling. The shells fired in the position for a while could only be described as overwhelming and overwhelming.

When Hao's artillery prepared to tell Osman what fire was called a fire attack for nearly 70 minutes, the city of Tbilisiris had been wrapped in a gunpowder and smoke regiment. In 1795, the city was set on fire by the Persians, turning Tbilisi into a piece of scorched earth. More than a hundred years later, the Chinese artillery once again used powerful cannons to take the city Almost flattened from the map.

At 12 o'clock at noon, when Kemal gave the offensive order, the Ottoman army enjoyed what it called idle walking for the first time. After being covered by blazing artillery, it was stationed here. The Russian army, which had no intention to fight because of the country's civil strife, immediately chose to retreat.

On July 1, 1916, Tbilisi was captured, and 200,000 main forces of the Ottoman Third Army cooperated with the Xinhua Sixth Step Division to chase and fight fiercely. With the help of overwhelming shells, they occupied all of Georgia in just ten days.

At the same time, the Northwest New China Army and the German Eastern Front Army also cooperated with Austria-Hungary and other [***] teams to launch a full-scale attack on Russia. Almost every day, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who were unwilling to continue fighting chose to lay down their weapons.

When the news that the alliance began to attack Russia came back to St. Petersburg, almost everyone knew that the Russian gate was almost completely closed.

(to be continued)