Chapter 320 The Response of the Anhui Army

In Xuzhou City, Duan Qirui looked outside the city and didn't say anything for a long time. At this time, Xuzhou City looked very quiet. Without the continuous rumble of cannons before, even the sound of machine guns could not be heard, but occasionally a few crisp rifle sounds.

Outside the city, the position held by the two armies of Feng Anhui is calm as if it is unreal!

However, Duan Qirui and many senior generals of the Anhui army behind him knew that this was only a short silence before the storm came. According to the information from the previous Anhui army investigation, the Feng army has gathered at least 5,000 offensive troops here, and there are also a large number of artillery troops, etc. After the army completes the final offensive preparation, then this place will become a Shura hell, and I don't know how many soldiers of the two armies will be buried!

Sure enough, at noon that day, the Feng army outside the city began the same pre-attack shelling!

As one of the few troops in China that can play infantry and cannon coordination, the Feng army's offensive tactics, especially the tactics of frontal attack are actually very old-fashioned. They are always the first to fire with artillery, carrying out continuous shelling ranging from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and then the infantry began to charge, and the artillery began to extend deep. Strike with artillery to isolate the reinforcements of the enemy.

However, this is only superficial. The Anhui army has been fighting with the Feng army on the front line in Jiangbei for nearly a month, and has basically figured out the Feng army's offensive routine. This coordinated attack is only the most basic, but in fact, it is the actual infantry attack that threatens the Anhui army more.

The biggest difference between Fengjun and other warlord forces in contemporary China is that their offensive tactics are different from those of all warlords in China, and even the armies of the great powers. They never play the kind of people who launched a sea of people on the whole front during the Russo-Japanese War, but every time they attacked, The width of the attack will reach several kilometers, and the strength of a regiment or even a whole division will be invested, but if you look closely, you will find that the attack of this whole front is actually independent of each other. It is definitely not an order from the division commander or brigade commander, and then tens of thousands of people rush out.

On the contrary, on the surface, the Feng army launched an attack on the whole front, but in fact, although there are many troops participating in the war, there is often only one regiment or even only one battalion that really launched an attack on the Anhui army, and this battalion is often equipped with support weapons of the whole regiment, especially light machine guns.

Concentrate technical weapons, especially light machine guns and 60 mm mortars, into a certain force, and then use this force as a fist to break through the enemy's defense line. This seemingly simple tactic makes the Feng army tired of trying. Basically, this tactic can be seen in every offensive battle.

After the large-scale concentration of mortars and light machine guns, the infantry battalion that acts as fists often has a strong firepower density, and even allows each infantry squad to have a light machine gun as a support firepower, coupled with mortars and heavy machine guns, in fact, this specially strengthened fist In terms of firepower, the head infantry battalion is no less than the infantry battalions in the armies of the great powers during the interwar period (after World War I and before World War II).

The attack launched by the infantry battalion with this fire density is very difficult to resist, including the Anhui army and even the Feng army itself!

Coupled with the fixed-point clearance ability of the 60mm mortar equipped by the Feng army and the cover ability of light machine guns in offensive warfare, the Anhui army on the opposite side were quite passive in defensive operations. If Xuzhou hadn't had Duan Qirui operated for more than half a year, he would have built With a large number of permanent civil and even cement fortifications, temporary excavation of civil works alone cannot stop the strong attack of the Feng army.

Compared with other warlords in China, to be honest, the defensive ability embodied in the war is actually not strong. You see, the fifth brigade in the Battle of Bazhou was not once beaten to death by Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division and was almost hit hard.

But the offensive ability of Fengjun is much stronger than that of other warlords! Fengjun has two more important weapons and equipment than other warlords: mortars and light machine guns. In fact, these two are offensive weapons, which greatly strengthens the Feng army's ability to attack, especially in tough battles.

As for defensive warfare, in addition to artillery and rifles, the defensive warfare these days actually relies on three things: trenches, machine guns and barbed wire. And these troops are available, as well as other warlord troops, and everyone is almost the same.

Many generals of the Feng army also know their advantages there, so throughout the many battles of the Feng army, except for the early stage of the battles of Shijiazhuang and Bazhou, they have rarely experienced defensive battles, often focusing on offensive battles, even when they need to defend, they use attack instead of defense.

The generals of the Anhui army have fought with the Feng army for at least a month, and have also fought many large and small battles, although they have never won a series of peripheral battles on the Jiangbei front, such as the Xiao County Campaign on the West Front, the Battle of Qicheng and the Zizhuang Campaign on the North Front, the Haizhou Campaign, the Pizhou Campaign and the Muyang Campaign on the Eastern Front. Over.

But I also found out some details of the Feng army. As soon as I saw that the Feng army began a large-scale shelling again, those Anhui soldiers did not panic as before, but hid in the cannon holes one by one. Those who could hide without the cannon holes were also lying in the trenches. In this case, as long as the soldiers of the Anhui army If the soldiers don't run around, basically this shelling will not cause them too many casualties.

This bombardment is no more or less than what the textbook says, just 20 minutes!

At this time, before the large-scale confrontation with the Feng army, the soldiers of the Anhui army will come out of the cannon hole, then lie on the trenches, set up several shots, and then wait for the large-scale charge of the Feng army. In the past, the Anhui army did this, so the artillery watchers of the Feng army opposite often met with joy. Then two or three minutes later, guide the artillery troops to make a rapid shot, and often the results of two or three minutes of rapid shooting will be greater than the results of a day's shelling.

It's just that the current Anhui army has learned to be smart. After the Feng army's shelling stopped, those Anhui soldiers still did not walk out of the artillery hole on a large scale, but only a small number of Anhui soldiers came out to observe.

In this case, the Feng army artillery on the opposite side did not carry out temporary rapid shelling!

At this time, the Feng army on the other side also began to charge. More than ten heavy machine guns in the rear of the Feng army began to fire together to suppress fire, resulting in countless bullets falling on almost every front of the opposite Anhui army, forcing the Anhui soldiers to continue to hide in the trenches.

At the same time, the explosion around the soldiers of the Anhui army continued to sound, but the explosion did not communicate with the previous one. After fighting with the Feng army for a long time, even the veterans of the Anhui army could hear it. Today, the explosion sound is a mortar fired by the Feng army mortar on the opposite side. The shell, and the sound of the explosion is large and small. If you listen carefully, you will know that there are not only 80mm mortars commonly used by the Feng army, but also 120mm heavy mortars.

Although the 120mm heavy mortar has a range of less than 3,000 meters and its accuracy is even more unbearable, its power is unspeakable, especially after the military used bitter acid instead of black gunpowder as a 120mm mortar shell, the explosive power is greater than ever.

Fengjun's bitter acid has been successfully developed before, but there are still some defects in the specific application. Originally, Fengjun planned to change the TN`T charge directly after the development of T`NT, but the gap between ideal and reality is too big. The gunpowder factory on the other side of Fuchang has been unable to imitate the finished T`NT, plus Fuchang In recent years, I have not been idle. I have improved the process many times, and referred to many tips for the application of bitter acid in Japan. Finally, the application safety of bitter acid has been greatly improved. At least now, the self-produced 75mm shell equipped with bitter acid will not explode without hitting it.

Although this bitter acid can be safely applied, the output is not high for the time being, so Fu Factory continues to import a large number of T`NT as a shell charge. Today's Fengjun can be regarded as bitter acid and T`NT charge coexisting. Well, black gunpowder is also available. Although bitter acid can be produced by itself, The price of installing self-produced bitter acid shells will not be much cheaper than that of imported T`NT shells, which is under cost control considerations, so the shells needed for the current 80mm and 60mm mortars in Fengjun still use black gunpowder as the charge.

However, the charge in the shell of this 120mm heavy mortar has been replaced with domestic bitter acid, and the 75mm mountaineering gun has also begun to use bitter acid. As for the shells needed for the 75mm field gun and 100mm cannon, it continues to use imported TN`T. For the charge.

Now, after these 120mm heavy mortar shells fall on enemy positions, an explosion will free up a yellow smoke, which is obviously different from the white smoke after the explosion of 80mm and 60mm mortar shells using black gunpowder.

When countless heavy machine gun bullets were spilled on the Anhui position, and many mortar shells fell into the Anhui army's position and even fell directly into the trenches, the infantry of the Feng army also launched an attack under the cover of such dense firepower!

The Feng army launched a charge, and the Anhui army on the opposite side also faced the suppressed firepower of the Feng army and began to lie on the trenches and shoot back with a rifle. However, the interception effect of the rifle was very limited, and it was still a few heavy machine guns that served as a heavy defense.

With the click of the heavy machine gun of the Anhui army on the opposite side, the Feng army soldiers charging in front quickly fell down, and then the 60mm mortars of the company accompanying the attack quickly measured Zhuyuan, and then fired quickly at the heavy machine gun position of the Anhui army.

In a big front in Xuzhou, cement fortifications are not used everywhere. Contemporary cement is still fresh and expensive. It is not easy for Duan Qirui to get a batch of machine gun fortresses to build a few. It is impossible to pour cement castles on the whole front. Base. The fortresses in front of us are just ordinary ring sandbag machine gun fortifications. This kind of fortifications has little problem with resisting bullets, but they have no resistance in the face of intensive bombing of mortars.

After several mortar shells fell on the heavy machine gun position, the sound of heavy machine guns of the Anhui army stopped, and the Feng army infantry officers on the front line were willing to let go of this opportunity. They immediately stood up like chicken blood, and then waved military knives to command the soldiers to continue the attack.

Duan Qirui in the distance saw this scene through the telescope. Although he could not hear the shouts of the Feng army officers, he seemed to see that they had risen again and launched an attack.

Taking a deep breath, he withdrew his sight. He knew that the outer position just now was finished!

However, although what was lost was only the outer position of an infantry battalion, which could not affect the safety of the whole Xuzhou defense line, it made him frown after personally watching the attack of the Feng army.

To be honest, although he fought with Zhao Dongyun's Fengjun for a long time, he still visited the extremely dangerous front line for the first time and then observed the attack of Fengjun.

He was still a little disbelieving when he heard his officers talk about Fengjun's various offensive tactics, but now he frowned when he saw it with his own eyes.

If the Feng army opposite is the same as the Feng army infantry battalion just now, how long can the Xuzhou defense line you painstakingly manage can hold on? One week? Half a month?

You should know that although the scale of the battle in your eyes is not large, both sides have invested in a battalion, but it clearly reflects the tactics and quality of the Feng and Anhui armies.

The various response made by the infantry battalion under his command in the face of the attack is actually incomparable even if it is harsh. Duan Qirui is confident that the response ability of his subordinates is not weaker than that of the Japanese or Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War.

After all, it was the direct force of his fourth division. The combat quality of both officers and soldiers was not bad, but why was it still defeated under the attack of the same force of the Feng army, so that the final lost position was forced to retreat to the second position?

"The threat of the small cannon of the Feng army opposite is much greater than their artillery!" Duan Qirui replayed the battle just now over and over again in his mind!

"From the beginning of the enemy's shelling to the enemy's assault, although our firepower was suppressed and unable to move due to the enemy's huge firepower, our army still did not show its defeat, especially when our army's heavy machine guns began to shoot firepower suppression or once suppressed the enemy. The attack. However, the enemy's 60mm small cannon took the opportunity to shell our machine gun position at this time, so that the machine gun position was severely damaged. Without machine gun firepower to suppress the enemy **, relying on the advantage of firepower to directly break into the position.

It is not a secret that the Feng army is equipped with mortars on a large scale. With the entry of the Feng army last year and this year, the mortars have basically become the standard configuration of the Feng army in the hearts of other warlords. At first, those warlords did not pay much attention to this mortar, thinking that It is a substitute made by the Feng army because it has no money to equip artillery. Anyway, this thing has a short range and poor accuracy, and in the Feng army's previous operations, in fact, the 80mm and 120mm mortars have indeed played a role in supplementing the lack of artillery.

But only after fighting with the Feng army in person will they know that this mortar is not a substitute for the lack of artillery, but has its own special advantages. Not to mention the role of the mortar for later generations or other armies, but for the contemporary Feng army, 60 milli The mission of the Mi mortar is quite clear: that is, anti-machine gun combat, and artillery support to bomb infantry is secondary.

Since entering the customs, I don't know how many machine gun positions have been destroyed by the small 60mm mortars in this area.

"We also captured a few doors in front of us. We will send them back to Jinling Arsenal and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau for them to imitate!" Duan Qirui has now really seen the important role of mortars in the Feng army. Isn't this Feng army using mortars? I can also use them.

It only takes time to imitate and produce. After the Anhui army imitated and produced mortars on a large scale, it is estimated that the battle of Xuzhou would have ended long ago.

Although the Xuzhou Campaign is large, the number of people participating in the battle has exceeded 150,000. If you add other troops in the surrounding areas, it has already exceeded 200,000, but such a large-scale force is said to be concentrated in one place, and then everyone will play a decisive battle to win or lose.

It is no longer the era of cold weapons, nor the era of firearms during the Napoleonic War. Although there will be a large number of people participating in modern wars, the specific wars are very scattered. Just like just now, the scale of the battle is often dominated by only one battalion, and regimental scale is rare.

But it is worth noting that battalion-scale battles will occur in several places at the same time.

After a contemporary division deploys all its forces, the width of the battlefield can reach more than 15 kilometers, so the charge of tens of thousands of people in contemporary wars is also scattered several kilometers or even more than ten kilometers, so you will never see tens of thousands of people charging in front of you at the same time.

However, this small-scale but frequent small-scale battle formed the core of this Xuzhou battle between Feng and Anhui.

That's why you see that Duan Qirui is so concerned about the victory or defeat of a battalion-scale battle!

After leaving the front line, Duan Qirui convened a large group of Anhui generals to hold a meeting. The content of the discussion is related to today's battle, that is, how to deal with Fengjun's battalion-level offensive tactics?

This topic seems simple, but in fact it is not easy to really solve it!