241 The Land of the Fourth World

Everyone shouted together, and the face closest to him turned red with excitement.

"No, no!" Li wanted to wave his hand repeatedly.

But no matter how he explained and declined, dozens of bowls were still held high, and no one wanted to put them down.

"The soldiers of the revolutionary army have all drunk, and you don't want to drink a sip of our bar!" People still shouted loudly.

The confidential secretary, Mei Di, whispered in Li Xiang's ear, "If you don't drink this bowl of wine today, I'm afraid you can't walk."

Li Xiang bowed deeply to the crowd and said loudly, "I'll drink, I'll drink."

With that, he took a wine bowl and raised it above his head.

The crowd suddenly calmed down, and they were waiting for Marshal Li to drink this bowl of gratitude.

Li Xiang said gratefully, "I thank you for looking up to me so much. If I have any credit, it is your trust and support that I can take the army to fight against the evil Beiyang warlords. In fact, the real meritorious officials are you, our brave and unyielding soldiers and civilians who fight for freedom and democracy. You are the real heroes. Taking this opportunity today, I would also like to present this bowl of wine to our comrades-in-arms who died on the battlefield on behalf of everyone.

In the crowd, there was a sudden silence, and only endless tears flowed silently.

Li wanted to drink half a bowl of wine, and then gently poured the remaining half bowl of wine on the ground. The old wine went into the soil, and a layer of fine silver-white bubbles suddenly appeared.

"People who don't want to be slaves, get up..."

The heart turned into a song, and suddenly sounded on Taihang Mountain...

............

Li wanted to rush to the field army headquarters to attack Handan and work with the leaders of the field army to carry out intense pre-war mobilization and preparation.

On this day, Lin Tiechang and Ji Yulin presided over an expanded meeting of the former committee attended by cadres above the military and above to study the allocation of combat tasks and arrange pre-war preparations. Li wanted to attend the meeting.

At the meeting, the front-line commanders jointly studied and formulated the operational deployment to attack Handan. Li wanted to be drowsy by Chen Chang's tedious meeting.

"Mshal, say a few words." Lin Tiechang suddenly said.

"Well." Li wanted to raise his head. He really couldn't get a word in this professional field, but at least he hung up the legendary "famous general" title, and the airs could not be put down.

Li wanted to stand up and slowly lit a cigarette. Then he sorted out his thoughts at this time, and then began to fool: "Battle is not brave enough to beat the world. Our National Revolutionary Army has never lacked courage and has never been afraid of the enemy. But what we need more is wisdom and technology! I now ask the commander to seriously carry forward military democracy and learn to fight tough battles by fighting Handan. Our team has fought any hard battle, but it has not fought a tough battle. The Lanzhou Campaign does not count. The Lanzhou garrison Ma Jiajun is not like the enemy of Handan. The Beiyang Army is a modern army with modern military training, and its weapons and equipment are also very advanced.

For most people on the battlefield, this is indeed a strange war. There are also many young soldiers in the army who grew up in the superstition of big knives, bows and arrows, but now they have to redefend the old-fashioned bravery, strategic tactics, military assessment, logistical supplies, troop management, and unrealistic fantasies or fears before the battle in the rain of steel and gunpowder. Position and examination.

I think everyone has discussed it very well. If you don't understand it at this time, you should discuss it well. In this war, we will learn how to carry out a new and efficient killing like Westerners or Japanese - although we don't necessarily like this way.

No one will like it unless it's really a war maniac.

The more Li Xiang said, the more he said, and systematically summed up a few points: "The first is to carefully plan and unify the command; the second is to strengthen the organizational discipline, stipulate that the militia will not enter the city and the field army will not live in the city; the third is to cherish the people's resources and material resources; the fourth is to strengthen the guarantee role of the leadership of the party committee and the work of the branch; the fifth is to cultivate the ability to attack. Good style of work. He emphasized that commanders at all levels can take down big cities and manage big cities well.

Although Li Xiang did not say a clear combat deployment, he won a round of applause.

After the meeting, the field army headquarters conveyed Li Xiang's call for "braveness and technology" as a slogan to all troops, demanding resolute implementation.

Li Xiang came to inspect the position of the artillery brigade of the Xibozhang Village Military Region stationed in the northwest of Handan.

On the same day, Li Xiang spoke to the cadres above the artillery brigade, pointing out: "We should study the use of artillery to open a breakthrough for the infantry, destroy the enemy bunker, and support the infantry to develop in depth."

He said to the cadres above the first regiment: "If you fight Handan, you can learn to fight tough battles, learn to fight big cities, and open up the fortress of the Central Plains, which is of great military, political and economic significance.

At Li Xiang's proposal, the Field Army Command was presided over by Commander-in-Chief Lin Tiechang. A meeting of artillery and engineers was held in Anguo to focus on the battle of positions; how to fight low castles and find dark castles; and how to carry out tunnel operations and how artillery and engineers cooperate.

In order to be sure of conquering Handan, Li Xiang, together with Lin Tiechang, Ji Yulin and other field army leaders, carried out tense pre-war mobilization and preparation for attack, and worked out a thorough combat plan together.

The field army has formulated a careful battle plan: after attacking Handan, if the Beiyang army draws the main force to the south to reinforce, it will annihilate one of him halfway, defeat it and continue to attack the city; if the Beiyang army does not reinforce, it will conquer Handan in one fell swoop.

At this moment, hundreds of thousands of people in the liberated area are also preparing for the battle. In less than ten days, nearly 100,000 militiamen, migrant workers and more than 10,000 pairs of stretchers, more than 10,000 livestock, more than 4,000 carts, more than 80,000 shells, more than 1.5 million bullets, more than 60,000 catties of explosives, more than 200,000 catties of various attack equipment and 240,000 catties of staple food were sent to the front line.

The battle is about to begin, and Li wants to be sent back to Wuchang by soft and hard foam.

In the early morning, the peripheral attack battle began.

The attack was fierce. At dawn, the third column occupied Lintan Town, Nancheng Township, Xinzhuangying, Kangzhuang, Shucun, Kang Ercheng and other places in the western and southern suburbs.

The 4th column occupied Beituotou, Nantatou, Donglechi, Dongjun Shibao, Liujia Village, Liulin, Chenshang Song Village and Zhongbao Village in the eastern suburbs and the northeast suburbs; the troops of the Taihang Mountain Military Region occupied Nanshang Song Village, Xichengzi Village, Nanbao and Li Nanliuzhuang in the southeast suburbs.

At dawn on the second day, the independent 1st and 2nd brigades of the Taihangshan Military Region were from the northeast respectively. Attacked on both sides of the northwest, the 9th Regiment of the enemy security guard annihilated the first part, occupied the Huangliang Railway Station, cut off the enemy's only way outward, and the enemy became a turtle in the urn.

At the same time, the 4th Northwest Military Division liberated North Zhangzhuang Town.

At 17:00 on the third day, the 10th Brigade of the 4th Column, under the command of brigade commander Qiu Wei and political commissar Fu Chongbi, began to attack Pengjiazhai. Pengjiazhai sounds extraordinary. In fact, this cottage is no more than four or five feet high and a circumference of sixty or seventy feet. But in the northwest of Handan, Yima Pingchuan, it is a huge thing. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a pole running across Handan. There was a hill on it, and there was a bunker on it. After Lei Zhenchun wiped out this group of poles, he built three layers of bunkers with cement with the stockade on the mountain as the core. There are two deep trenches and two power grids at the foot of the mountain. Guarding the enemy is a reinforced company of the police force. There are 4 heavy machine guns, 9 light machine guns and 4 60 guns. It has become a cross-fire net. The enemy calls it "Iron Pengjiazhai" and is ready to hold on for a long time. This "shanzhai" is a roadblock for 4 verticals to march from the northwest.

The 10th Brigade is to nibble down the hard bone of Pengjiazhai. The field artillery group assigned to the 10th Brigade fired directly at the core fortifications of Pengjiazhai at a distance of 300 meters. The shell exploded on the core fortification. The smoke dissipated, but the fortifications were found intact from the telescope. The first attack did not work. Obviously, the 10th Brigade encountered the first difficult bone in the Handan War.

If one move doesn't work, another move. The leader of the 10th Brigade instructed the troops to dig trenches to approach the enemy and put hundreds of kilograms of explosives in front of the core fortifications. There was an explosion, and the troops rushed up with thick smoke. The enemy was not killed, and the core fortifications were still intact, but the enemy had been stunned and lost its resistance. The 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 30th Regiment of the 10th Brigade rushed to the front and stuffed the blasting cylinder from the shooting hole without waiting for the enemy to wake up, and the enemy of a reinforced company was wiped out. The last stronghold outside the outer city ditch was removed. The leaders of the 10th Brigade timely commanded the troops to bombard the enemy's power plant on Pengjiazhai on the gun rack, destroying the power generation equipment. The whole lights in Handan suddenly went out, and the power grid used by the defenders to block the attack of our National Revolutionary Army no longer worked.

At midnight, when the battle was in full play, Li wanted to call Lin Tiechang, who was commanding the battle on the front line, to inquire about the situation of the offensive battle. Li Xiang once again proposed to go to the front line to have a look in person. Lin Tiechang and others resolutely disagreed. Li Xiangcai did not insist any more. He encouraged everyone on the phone and said, "Good call, congratulations! According to the original plan, continue to fight, and the comrades behind are looking at you! You must take it down, and play it beautifully!"

At 16:00 p.m., the National Revolutionary Army launched an all-line attack on the foreign market ditch.

The 20th Regiment of the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Column was first successfully blasting in the Outer West Barracks, blowing up two 8-meter to 10-meter-wide gaps in the Outer City Ditch. The 2nd Battalion of the regiment took the smoke curtain of the explosion across the ditch, seized the enemy's forward positions, developed to the two wings, and occupied Mazhuang. The 1st and 3rd Battalion then occupied Mengyi Village and Nanshilipu. The 21st Regiment also broke out one after another, occupying Xidatun Village, Xi Xingtai Village and other key points, and destroying an armored train modified on the railway.

At 16:30, the 22nd Regiment of the 8th Brigade broke through by the northwest ladder of Zhucun, and the 23rd Regiment broke through from the west of the East Village. Two regiments attacked the Lanhai fortress, and most of the enemy Zhao County police force was annihilated.

The battle ended on the morning of the second day. Except for Haocun, Su Cao, Longhu and Hanshan, the strongholds between the enemy and the ditches outside the city were all conquered by the National Revolutionary Army. The ditch defense line of Handan Wai City has all been broken through.