Chapter 9 Shock 1

Zhao Dongyun said, "It's enough to put a team and four machine guns in one place!"

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's words, everyone's face changed slightly, and even Wu Changchun was slightly dissatisfied and said, "These two places are difficult to defend head-on. How can a team defend it? As for the machine gun, it can't be used without firing a few shots. How can it face the continuous charge of the enemy!"

Zhao Dongyun also knew that it was not easy to convince them. He immediately said, "As you all know, there is a trial machine gun team in my camp. In addition to four old Maxim machine guns, there are also four newly purchased new Maxim machine guns. As long as the enemy does not launch 2,000 Attacks on a larger scale, then I have the confidence to defend it!

The south side of No. 4 and No. 5 certainly gives the southern army the convenience of attacking, but on the other hand, it gives great convenience to the defenders. As long as they are condescending, machine guns on these two sides, and the Confederate army insists on charging, it is basically as much as they want to die.

After saying that, he got up and said, "You still have many questions about the machine gun. You might as well go with me to see the test firing of the machine gun!"

The reason why he invited everyone to watch the machine gun test is that in addition to convincing Wu Changchun and others, he also needs to let the referee know that his machine gun team under Zhao Dongyun is not a good thing.

After all, this is just a drill. Although it is a live-fire exercise, it will not really hit the friendly forces opposite. In the face of machine guns, which is relatively new, the referee has to correctly understand the power of the machine gun, so that the referee can impartially decide the role of the machine gun in the exercise.

On Hill 4, Zhao Dongyun's former soldiers are trying to dig trenches, and in front of the trenches are a large number of obstacles formed by wooden stakes.

In the eyes of several referees, the effect of obstacles such as wooden piles and horse rejection in front of the battle is very limited and can't stop the advance of enemy infantry at all. However, the trenches dug by Zhao Dongyun's soldiers are quite interesting. These days, there are also fortress fixed fortifications, but I have never seen the whole mountain like Zhao Dongyun. They are all dug into a section of ditches. One person in the depth of these ditches is high, and it takes a ladder to climb out of the trench to countercharge.

In addition to these deeper trenches, some of the highlights of the trenches are the construction of several heavy machine gun fortresses with sandbags, and the heavy machine guns in this machine gun fortress are the target of this trip. Yes, this time they came to judge the real effectiveness of machine guns.

With Zhao Dongyun's order, he soon placed some simulated targets for the attacking army, that is, some tree stumps and so on on the southern offensive surface. Then, with Zhao Dongyun's nodding, one left and one right two heavy machine guns began to shoot fiercely.

This is not an empty bullet of the exercise, but a live ammunition. Almost when the two machine guns were cross-strike, those wooden stakes were like facing a rainstorm. Soon many bullet holes appeared, and then more and more bullet holes were torn to pieces by the bullets moved by the storm.

And in front of a position in the middle, many officers with binoculars were speechless, and those present were all veteran professional officers. Those who could serve as referees were even middle and senior officers drawn from various armies. They could imagine in their minds if this was a real battle without even thinking deeply. What will happen:

Hundreds and even thousands of people of the Southern Army crowded on this seemingly smooth ramp. When they shouted to launch a charge to completely defeat their opponents, suddenly two dense bullet rains came from the left and right sides, and the bullets were constantly connected like a death sickle, no The lives of the soldiers of the attacking army were harvested.

Under such an oblique cross-sweeping, how many soldiers' lives does it take for the attacker to rush over?

If there are more than a dozen guns on this front, how dense will the firepower be?

Although Wu Changchun and others can't imagine that during the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese army would pay nearly 670,000 casualties in order to conquer a small Lushun, although they still don't know that the German heavy machine guns killed and injured tens of thousands of Allied troops in one day during World War I.

But they can still imagine that the casualties of soldiers to break through this line of heavy machine guns are unbearable for any general.

At first, they thought that this dense firepower could not last long, but when they saw those heavy machine guns shooting continuously, they immediately left this idea behind, because as long as there was enough water to cool down, the Maxim machine gun could continue to fight for a long time. Until there is no bullet or mechanical failure.

Thanks to Zhao Dongyun's live-fire exercise to prove the combat effectiveness of the machine gun, a group of officers in the Wuwei Army knew the strong defensive ability of the machine gun in advance, especially after the referees recognized the lethality of the machine gun, which led to the whole exercise.

On the 19th, the Southern Army and the Northern Army were ready. At the same time, Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai and other Beiyang bosses and some important ministers have arrived one after another!

At noon that day, the exercise officially began!

Because it was an exercise, empty bombs were used, but in the name of live-fire exercises, the artillery teams on both sides carried out a large number of live-fire shells on the scheduled exercise area, which made a group of court magnates very satisfied.

The next exercise process is a little boring for these adults, because at this time, the exercises of both sides rely on many exercise referees to collect the orders of the commanders of both sides in time, and then report them to the exercise referee, and finally determine the casualties, victory or defeat of the exercise of both sides according to many exercise rules. In addition to the first day of the exercise, both sides used empty bombs during the exercise, which was a very boring process for ordinary people.

On the afternoon and evening of the 19th, both the north and the south were very cautious. The attacking Confederates did not immediately launch a large-scale attack, but sent a brigade of cavalry to scout, prepare artillery positions, raise artillery balloons and many other preparations.

The Northern Army continued to use this precious time to build positions. In addition to the No. 4 and No. 5 positions valued by Zhao Dongyun, the construction of Ping Villa's own fortifications is also the focus. At the same time, Zhao Dongyun also made a small-scale military adjustment based on the information of the Southern Army learned from the investigation.

However, Zhao Dongyun's small-scale adjustment fell into the eyes of Duan Qirui and others who observed the exercise, but it was a little difficult to see through. Duan Qirui looked at the sand table in front of him, which marked the deployment of troops from the north and south with various small flags. Duan Qirui could see at a glance during this deployment. Zhao Dongyun was high on No. 4 and No. 5 There are too few troops deployed on the other side.

And what puzzled him more was that Wu Changchun even deployed the six guns of the artillery team behind these two positions, so that they ventured out the artillery. Do they know that as long as the Southern Army makes a large-scale raid, they can declare the complete defeat of the entire Northern Army?

Wang Shizhen looked at the sand table and then said to Duan Qirui, "Brother Duan, it seems that you are a timid descendant. If you add a few machine guns to the two teams, you dare to guard such an important place!"

Feng Guozhang on one side also showed a trace of doubt: "His machine gun team practiced quickly and became an army in less than a month, but I don't know how effective it is!"

Duan Qirui was also a little worried about Zhao Dongyun's troop deployment. According to Duan Qirui's view, this time the Northern Army was already in a weak force, and there was only one way for the southern army to go north to block several times, that is, to defend Ping Villa and rely on the fortifications and complex terrain in Ping Villa to consume the morale and soldiers of the attacking side. Force.

But Zhao Dongyun is now taking the risk of putting his troops forward. Once he fails here, it will cause a chain reaction. At that time, there is no way to defend Ping Villa.

Under the understanding of the people, the exercise referees successively reported the command of both sides and other situations, and many referees in the court judged according to various rules.

"Southern Artillery Battalion continues to shell Hill 4 and Hill 5!" The referee of the exercise said, "It was ruled that there were 20 casualties of the defenders stationed at No. 4 and No. 5!"

"The Northern Army carried out continuous shelling of the No. 9 and No. 10 areas of the Southern Army, causing a sentry to collapse in the front and rear camp of the Southern Army!"

Like other battles in this era, the first appearance of the two sides was always artillery. Thirty minutes after the artillery of both sides continued to shell, at 8:20 a.m., the southern army, which had gathered a lot of reconnaissance situations, also found the northern army on the 4th and 5th highlands.

"The left and right battalions of the southern army have lined up to attack Hill 45!" Although the official battle had just begun, the commander of the Confederate army obviously knew the threat of the northern artillery in these two places, so the first wave of attacks was aimed at these two places, preparing to eliminate the northern artillery in these two places, and even planned to deploy at least one team of artillery here after capturing this place. .

However, the next exercise referee's voice made a group of senior generals of the court silently: "The left battalion and right battalion of the southern army advanced 300 meters in front of position 45 and were fiercely strafed by the machine gun team of the second battalion of the northern army, ruling that 150 people in the left battalion on the front road of the southern army and 170 casualties in the right battalion."

With the in and out of the exercise referee, another exercise referee continued to say: "The southern army continued to attack on the front road, encountered the continuous strafing of the machine gun team of the 2nd Battalion of the Northern Army, and the infantry fire of the front team of the 2nd Battalion. It advanced to 200 meters and ruled that there were 500 casualties in the two battalions on the front road of the Southern Army!"

At this time, several senior generals who watched the exercise finally couldn't help speaking, and Feng Guozhang said directly: "How can it be? How long has it been? At most, it's only two quarters. Even if the two battalions on the front road of the Southern Army can't help fighting, it is impossible for more than 1,000 people to be casualties in just two quarter of an hour. Half of it!"