Chapter 256 Artillery

The Feng army relies on the Beijing-Feng Railway to carry out fast maneuvers. The speed of entering the customs can be said to be very fast. Since the official entry at dawn of the 12th, only one day, an infantry regiment of its leading force has arrived in Tangshan lightly. In the afternoon and evening of the 13th, two infantry regiments have arrived one after another. On the 14th, the artillery regiment also arrived in Tangshan one after another.

In addition to the infantry and artillery units of the third division, the third cavalry regiment and the first cavalry brigade of the third division were also the first troops to enter the customs. However, the first cavalry brigade did not directly enter Tangshan, but bypassed Tangshan and moved closer to Yutian and Zunhua. The task of the department was not to participate in the cruelty in the direction of Tangshan. Positional warfare, in which case, is to use cavalry as infantry, which is a very wasteful and stupid. Their task is to launch an attack on the front lines of Yutian and Zunhua. On the one hand, it is to intercept the possible south of the direct army in the direction of Chengde, and on the other hand, it is to try to work with the fourth mixed brigade in the direction of Chengde, including and annihilate this area. Thousands of direct troops then threatened the capital from the northeast to cooperate with the westward advance of the main forces in the direction of Tangshan.

In just two days, the Feng army transported an infantry division and a cavalry brigade, with a total strength of more than 20,000 people, up to thousands of military horses, dozens of artillery, hundreds of mortars, heavy machine guns and other materials by train to the Tangshan front line 150 kilometers away, even if such maneuver speed can be put in later generations. In the war, it was also extremely amazing.

For this reason, the Transportation Department under the Army Command of the Three Eastern Provinces and the Railway Department under the Transportation Bureau of the Eastern Three Provinces Government Council almost raided almost all the train skins on the Beijing-Feng Railway, and even seconded some train skins of the Middle East Railway Company in various names in advance, and temporarily suspended the private transportation business of the Beijing-Feng Railway. The transportation capacity of the Feng Railway has almost reached the extreme, which can transport more than 20,000 people and all their heavy weapons and equipment, military horses, etc. to Tangshan in two days.

However, this limit speed can only be temporary. Fengjun transported more than 20,000 people to the Tangshan front line in two days, but next, Fengjun will be much slower to carry out the second wave of large-scale railway transportation, mainly because the railway is a single-track railway and cannot be opened at the same time, which also caused the train to After Shanhaiguan set out to Tangshan, it could not return to Shanhaiguan for the second transportation in time. This exchange will take a lot of time, and it is also extremely important that the Tangshan front line troops are still in a state of combat, and the demand for various combat materials is very large. In order to supplement all kinds of combat materials to the front line, this It squeezed the originally tense railway transportation space, which caused the transportation of the second army, the main force of the Feng army personally led by Zhao Dongyun, to become much slower. It could not transport 20,000 people and all the artillery and horses at one time as before, which could only be transported in one day.

Of course, the main force of the Feng army led by Zhao Dongyun did not arrive in Tangshan, which does not mean that the two armies will not fight!

On the 13th, Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade temporarily suspended their attack on Tangshan and built a preliminary defense line at a distance of about three to five kilometers. On that day, although the Feng army was reinforced by two infantry regiments, the strategic focus was still to defend Tangshan, so Lu Yongxiang did not take the initiative to retreat. Attacking, they did not leave the fixed fortifications and went out to play in the field with Lu Yongxiang. As a result, the 13th showed strange calm throughout the day, and even the artillery battle between the artillery stopped.

However, this situation did not last long. The next day, that is, on June 14, after the 3rd Division's artillery regiment, that is, the 3rd Artillery Regiment, arrived in Tangshan, although the number of artillery under the Feng army was not as good as the direct army, its performance was more advanced, indirectly offset A numerical disadvantage.

Most of the artillery equipped by the direct army are Japanese artillery. The main models are mainly 31-year-style mountain cannons and wild guns, and 38-year-style field guns and mountain cannons, mainly purchased and equipped from Japan in 1903 and 1904 to the Beiyang Standing Army Zuozhen and Beijing Flag Standing Army, that is, that is, Today's first division and seventh division. After the outbreak of the civil war last year, Wang Yingkai purchased large-scale artillery from Japan, most of which were 31-year wild guns and mountain cannons returned by the Japanese army. The second-hand artillery purchased in this batch mainly supplemented the 7th Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade, but there are also some of the latest 38-year-style field guns in Japan. , mountain cannons, together with the 38-year rifles and heavy machine guns, have become the equipment of the new 11th and 12th Divisions, but the number purchased is not much.

To put, in the current troops of the direct army, the 1st Division, 7th Division and 1st Mixed Brigade of the old army are equipped with 31-year artillery, 30-year rifles, and Maxim heavy machine guns, while the 11th and 12th Divisions of the subsequent new division are equipped with 38-year wild guns, 38-style mountain guns and 38-style steps. A new generation of weapons such as guns and 38-year heavy machine guns.

Although the above two series of weapons are only a few years apart, their performance is very different, especially artillery!

Because the direct army continues to use the old Beiyang system, the artillery is 18 battalions, while the Feng army has been reduced to 16 battalions, which has led to four battalions and even two types of artillery battalions in Tangshan. However, the number is different. The Feng army has eight fewer artillery pieces than the direct army. In addition, two of the mountain artillery battalion belonging to the seventh mixed brigade was damaged in the war, so together, the number of Feng army's guns is ten fewer than that of the direct army.

The direct army has 72 75mm artillery pieces of four battalions, while the Feng army only has 62 75mm artillery pieces.

But in the artillery battle that began on the 15th, the artillery of the Feng army gained an advantage!

When the range of the guns between the two sides is small and the caliber is the same, then rapid fire has become the only factor to distinguish the winner.

In the early morning of the 15th, the 32 field guns of the Feng army began to shell the direct army's positions at a long distance. The direct army on the opposite side were not willing to show weakness and immediately used field guns to fight back. At this time, because the infantry positions on both sides were between 2,000 and 4,000 meters apart, and the range of the mountain guns was also short, there was no participation. Come with this cannonball.

Then, although only the field guns from both sides participated in the war, more than 60 field guns were continuously bombed, not to mention how many results there were. The rumble of cannons alone was enough to shock others.

In this artillery battle between the two sides, the front-line infantry on both sides could only tremble and hide in the front-line trenches and artillery holes, praying that the shells would not fall to their side.

"This way of playing is completely burning money. In this day's artillery battle, I'm afraid the cost of shells will exceed 100,000 yuan!" Even Li Chun, one of the senior generals, couldn't help sighing at the overwhelming artillery battle between the two sides. Looking at the country, it is estimated that only his own army and the artillery units of the direct army on the opposite side could let go of their hands and feet. If it were for several other warlords, it would have no shells if they didn't fired two shots!

Because Fengjun has a Fuyuan machine factory, the shell supplement is relatively sufficient, and Wang Yingkai is at least the central government and took over most of the resources of Beiyang in Yuan Shikai's era, especially a large number of reserves in Baoding, Shandong, Beijing and other places. You should know that the Beiyang army in Yuan Shikai's era in the past few years It is a large reserve of shells, bullets and other expendable combat materials, most of which are accepted by Wang Yingkai.

In addition, Wang Yingkai not only took over the small treasury and other families in Beiyang, but also took over the household department of the former Qing Dynasty, the Daqing Bank, and raided the house in Beijing, etc., and Wang Yingkai spent most of this money on purchasing ordnance and expanding the army. He not only imported a large amount from Japan. Rifles and artillery have imported many shells, bullets, etc. from Japan, so there is no shortage of shells and bullets of the direct army, at least for a short time.

However, Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and Wu Fengling are much different. There are not many ammunition they can take away when they go south, and the consumption is not small. Although Qirui now controls the Jiangnan region, he can search for a lot of money to support the army in the future. Even now he controls the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. However, this money can't be searched in a day or two. Even if you have money, you can't get a lot of arms in a day or two. It takes time.

So at present, the troops that can afford large-scale shelling and shoot out thousands of shells a day are actually only two families, not by the Feng army and the direct army, but on the size or wealth of the territory they occupy, but because they have a large amount of ammunition previously stored.

On the 15th, the shelling of the two armies was already large-scale. However, on the 16th, with the stationing of the third division in Tangshan to stabilize the situation, Meng Enyuan tried to attack westward, and his troops began to gradually attack westward. Although the speed was slow, it also dug the trenches only one kilometer or even five or even five or six hundred The distance of meters.

The proximity of the infantry distance between the two sides means that the artillery units of both sides can also move further forward, and the two mountain artillery battalions of the 3rd Division and the 7th Mixed Brigade are also close to deploy, shelling the direct positions three or four kilometers away.

The direct army on the opposite side is similar. When the infantry troops of the Feng army approached, they also entered the range of the straight army's mountain artillery, so the mountain artillery units of both sides also joined the artillery battle.

Starting on the afternoon of the 17th, the scale of artillery battle between the two sides further increased, and a total of more than 100 barreled guns were fiercely shelled on infantry positions ranging from hundreds of meters to 1,000 meters in width.

The proximity not only allowed mountaineers, such as artillery, to participate in the battle, but also allowed a large number of 80mm and 120mm mortars in the Feng army to join the artillery battle, and the participation of a large number of mortars also gave the Feng army more artillery advantages, if not for 80 in the army. The millimeter and 120mm mortars exerted their firepower, and Meng Enyuan would not let the infantry troops leave the strong fortifications and move forward.

"Teacher, you can't fight like this. The artillery fire on the opposite side is too fierce. I'm afraid the infantry brothers in front of you can't hold on for long!" In the headquarters of the First Division, a lieutenant colonel said to Lu Yongxiang worriedly, "If it's just wild guns and mountain cannons, it's okay, but the mortars of the opposite Feng army are really too threatening, especially those 120 mm mortars coming, and our defense holes can't hold up at all!"

Although the 120mm mortar has many shortcomings such as short range and poor accuracy, its power is unspeakable. Even if the fragments of the shell are not hit, the shock wave alone is enough to make the enemy uncomfortable. Many soldiers were abruptly shocked by the shock wave and their ears were bleeding. To direct death.

Lu Yongxiang also looked worried. When he first attacked Tangshan, he had great confidence that even if he could not conquer Tangshan in a short time, it was still no problem to stop the enemy in Tangshan, which was also the main reason why he built a defense line outside Tangshan.

However, it seems that the defense ability of the opposite Fengjun is not only not weak, but also the ability of this attack, especially the artillery battle, is almost twice as good as its own, which is very difficult to fight.

Just when Lu Yongxiang was worried, Zhao Dongyun had already led a large number of generals on his special train to Tangshan.