Fifteen minutes after the bombardment started, the Japanese plane came again.
Eighth Route Army observers located 12 kilometers south of Taiyuan City immediately used high-power walkie-talkies to transmit the news to each artillery group.
After receiving the news, each artillery position immediately stopped firing and hid the personnel and shell boxes.
"Everyone."
17 aircraft lined up in flight formation and flew towards the target. The outline of Taiyuan City was faintly seen. On the communication channel, the captain of the flight team, Kinji Mukai, spoke solemnly:
"In this battle, our mission remains unchanged. It is still to eliminate the artillery units of the Eighth Route Army!"
As soon as these words came out, the communication channel fell silent, and not a single pilot made a sound.
It was completely different from the lively scenes in the communication channels during the bombing of the Central Army in the first few days of the battle. The Central Army had no aviation troops and very few anti-aircraft weapons, so it could only be beaten on the ground.
Moreover, often as soon as the ground troops attacked, the Central Army was quickly defeated under the offensive. When they fled, they took their family documents and looted property with them and huddled together on the road.
One aerial bomb can blow up a large area.
However, starting from yesterday's batch bombing missions on the Eighth Route, the Japanese pilots' nightmare began.
Four planes were shot down yesterday, and three planes were shot down this morning. Even two ace pilots were shot down. There has never been such a heavy loss since the establishment of the 32nd Flying Team of the Kwantung Army.
After flying back to Xinxiang Airport, the Japanese pilots finished breakfast, inspected the aircraft, refueled and mounted aerial bombs, and took off again when they arrived in Taiyuan at 10 noon.
Among the 17 aircraft, there are 2 Type III liaison aircraft, 2 reconnaissance aircraft, 6 fighter jets and 7 attack aircraft.
The weather at this time was sunny and the visibility was excellent.
As if sensing the depressed atmosphere among the pilots, Kinji Mukai's hoarse voice rang out in the communication channel again: "The Imperial Japanese Army is invincible, Amaterasu bless us!"
"Gentlemen, I know that the enemy has a large number of anti-aircraft weapons, but it is the honor of being a pilot of the Imperial Army of Japan to devote oneself to His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire of Japan!"
As soon as these words came out, all the Japanese pilots looked crazy.
"Put aerial bombs on their heads, blow up their cannons, and blow up their artillery to pieces."
A Japanese pilot said through gritted teeth on the wireless channel.
"My plane is the last-minute bomb. When necessary, I will die together with the enemy!"
A Japanese pilot said sharply.
Other Japanese pilots all agreed and stated that even if they died, they would support the Eighth Route Artillerymen.
Yossi, upon hearing these echoes, Kinji Mukai's lips curved into a cold arc.
Faintly seeing the camouflage net set up by the Eighth Route Artillery in front, Kinji Mukai added: "The liaison aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft are responsible for conveying the location of the Eighth Route Artillery position to the First Army Artillery Co., Ltd., observing the impact points of the bombs, and the fighter jets cover the attack aircraft to attract Chinese anti-aircraft firepower."
"Gentlemen, please, attack!"
The murderous pilots pulled the control stick and flew the plane roaring through the clouds towards the Eighth Route Army artillery position.
"Report to the left, we have found a target ahead, do you want to attack?"
There was a Japanese pilot calling on the radio.
Kinji Mukai raised his telescope and looked down, his face suddenly turned gloomy, and he saw that the ground below was actually covered with camouflage nets, there must be more than 200 of them at least.
These camouflage nets are spaced thirty or forty meters apart. Looking from top to bottom, it is impossible to tell which camouflage net hides the Eighth Route Artillery.
Moreover, there is smoke coming out from under these camouflage nets, and you can't find it by looking at the traces left by the gunfire.
Mukai Kinji looked around at the surrounding terrain, and there was nothing but flat ground.
According to the news conveyed by the First Army Headquarters, there are artillery positions of the Eighth Route Army in the four directions of Taiyuan, east, west, north and south.
At that moment, Mukai Kinji ordered:
"The artillery of the Eighth Route Army was hidden under these camouflage nets, and the liaison plane immediately guided the artillery to counterattack."
"Attack aircraft and fighter jets, blow up all the camouflage nets!"
"attack!"
With a loud shout, Kinji Mukai took the lead in pulling the joystick, and the nose of the aircraft suddenly sank, diving towards the camouflage net on the ground.
However, the Japanese pilots did not dare to dive and attack at low altitude, but dropped aerial bombs at an altitude of four to five hundred meters.
The hit rate at this altitude is very low, but it is not that easy for the No. 8 machine gun to hit the aircraft.
The Japanese pilots quickly pulled up the control stick while dropping the aerial bombs.
…
"Every anti-aircraft gun position, listen to my order and fire again!"
"Calm down, everyone!"
Ding Wei grabbed the walkie-talkie and said with a stern expression.
The south city wall is the direction in which the 1st attack group is responsible for attacking, and its commander is Ding Wei.
He has 100 machine guns in his hands, including 70 machine guns set up by Li Yunlong and more than 20 machine guns brought by the artillery group, as well as the 10 machine guns originally given by Li Yunlong to the New Second Regiment.
Now these machine guns are naturally under the command of Ding Wei.
The Japanese planes reinforced Taiyuan from Xinxiang Airport in the heart of Henan Province, flying from south to north. The first thing they wanted to do was to attack the artillery positions of the 1st attack group.
The surrounding area is flat ground, and apart from the many camouflage nets, the cannon has no other means of concealment.
But Ding Wei is good at thinking about how to kill Japanese aircraft as much as possible.
Based on previous air defense experiences, Ding Wei found that the maneuverability of the Japanese aircraft was at its worst when it climbed upwards after dropping bombs in a dive attack.
At this time, it is difficult for the Japanese plane to change direction.
Therefore, Ding Wei temporarily transferred dozens of low-power walkie-talkies from each company to each machine gun group, and tuned all the walkie-talkies to the same channel.
Convenient for unified command.
"Prepare!"
Ding Wei held up a telescope in one hand and stared at the Japanese plane intently, and held a low-power walkie-talkie in the other.
The Japanese plane dropped its bombs, and Ding Wei's shouts also sounded simultaneously: "Fire!"
In an instant, dark red ballistics filled the sky, and more than 100 tracer bullets formed a death-like whip, which suddenly hit the Japanese plane.
Although the Japanese pilots were very cautious and did not dare to dive and attack at low altitude, they could not hold up too many machine guns and there were plenty of artillery shells.
The accuracy is not enough, so I have to make up the quantity.
In addition, with the popularity of "How to Jerk Off", soldiers all know how to jerk off in advance.
When an aircraft increases its power to climb upwards, especially a bulky attack aircraft, it loses speed and maneuverability and is immediately hit by a whip.
As the aerial bombs dropped by the Japanese exploded, the Japanese planes fell one after another.
Of course, no matter how powerful the anti-aircraft firepower is, it is almost impossible to shoot down all the aircraft.
In the end, 7 of the 13 aircraft in the dive attack were shot down, including 2 fighters and 5 attack aircraft, leaving 4 fighters and 2 attack aircraft.
As for the other two reconnaissance planes and the two liaison planes, they were far away and flying very high, so there was no chance of shooting them down.
However, the soldiers cheered loudly as they watched a wave of attacks shoot down seven aircraft.
The remaining four fighter jets and two attack aircraft, two of which were wounded, dropped aerial bombs at high altitudes in a hurry and flew away.
The Japanese pilots were indeed unafraid of death, but if they wanted to fly their planes to hit the cannons, they had to first find the Eighth Route Army's cannons.
The Eighth Route Infantry can be seen, but if you use a plane to launch a suicide attack on the Eighth Route Infantry, isn't that because you have water in your head?
Ding Wei raised his telescope and looked high in the sky. Although 6 Japanese planes had flown away, there were still 4 planes circling at high altitude, which were out of reach of the machine guns at this altitude.
Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound sounded in the sky, and an artillery shell was fired from Taiyuan City. The artillery shell fell around the Eighth Route Army artillery position, and there was a deafening explosion.
A ball of fire and smoke suddenly rose.
Ding Wei looked at the Japanese planes in the sky and seemed to understand something.
At this time, the communications officer in charge of the high-power walkie-talkie turned to Ding Wei and said: "Report to the regimental commander, the commander-in-chief wants to talk to you."
Ding Wei quickly walked to the high-power walkie-talkie, picked up the high-power walkie-talkie and put it to his ear: "Hey, Commander-in-Chief, I am Ding Wei!"
"Old Ding, what's going on over there now?"
Li Yunlong's questioning voice rang in Ding Wei's ears.
"what's the situation?"
"The situation is good. A wave of rapid fire from machine guns shot down 7 Japanese planes. Now all the Japanese fighters and bombers have flown away, and there are still 4 reconnaissance planes left."
Ding Wei sounded happy.
Li Yunlong's tone was extremely surprised: "What are you talking about? You shot down 7 Japanese planes there. You kid won't lie to me, right?"
Ding Wei replied: "Yes, there are seven of them. I can see them very clearly. If you don't believe it, you can come and see for yourself. The wreckage of the Japanese planes is still burning."
Li Yunlong sounded excited: "Including the three we shot down this morning, wouldn't we have shot down 10 planes in total?"
Shooting down Japanese planes is a long-term business.
Destroying an aircraft will yield 3 mountain guns, killing a pilot will yield 1 howitzer, 5 radios and 10 tons of food.
Now that Ding Wei is also under the command of Li Yunlong, the planes shot down by Ding Wei's troops will naturally be counted in the long-term business.
Shooting down these 10 planes earned Li Yunlong 30 75mm mountain guns, 10 105mm howitzers, 50 radios and 100 tons of grain.
There is still room to equip an artillery regiment.
"That's right!"
Li Yunlong was overjoyed and laughed: "Haha, Old Ding, you did a great job. After this battle is over, I decided to reward you with seven 75mm mountain cannons."
Ding Wei suddenly widened his eyes and breathed quickly: "Really?! Lao Li, no, Commander-in-Chief, do you really want to reward me with 7 mountain cannons?"
Li Yunlong said: "That's nonsense. If it's not true, is it still false?"
"Haha, that's interesting!"
Ding Wei sounded grateful, thinking that labor and management were going to make a fortune. Before the war started, they made a fortune of 70 machine guns, and less than half an hour after the war started, they made a fortune of 7 mountain cannons.
Ding Wei could not imagine how much money the New Second Regiment would make in this battle once Taiyuan was captured, but he was full of expectations.
In addition to the New First Regiment being transferred to northwestern Shanxi, Ding Wei, the New Second Regiment and Kong Jie's independent regiment are also going to northwestern Shanxi.
Although northwest Shanxi is very poor and cannot support too many troops, the 8,000 men of the New Regiment do not need to be supported by the common people at all and are completely self-sufficient. There is even surplus food to support the common people and fraternal troops.
Moreover, the area of northwestern Shanxi is not smaller than that of southeastern Shanxi. It can easily accommodate 30 regiments, let alone 3 regiments.
Of course, the premise is that so many troops can be fed.
"Old Ding, congratulations!"
"Old Ding, if we have 7 mountain cannons, you have to treat us to a drink!"
The voice of Kong Jie and Cheng Shi came suddenly from the high-power walkie-talkie.
The two brothers have been eavesdropping on the high-power walkie-talkie channel.
Ding Wei was overjoyed and said haha: "Easy to say."
Li Yunlong said: "There are also Lao Kong and Lao Cheng. You two and Lao Ding are the same. As long as you can shoot down one plane, I will reward you with a mountain cannon."
Cheng Shifa and Kong Jie quickly looked at the planes in the sky. The Japanese planes were too high and too far away. They lamented that they had no chance to make a fortune.
While everyone was talking, two more artillery shells were fired from Taiyuan City, fell and exploded around the artillery position of the 1st attack group.
After looking at the impact points of the shells with a telescope, Ding Wei found that the impact points of the artillery shells fired by the Japanese artillery were getting closer and closer to the fake artillery position.
Ding Wei raised his eyebrows slightly. If the Japanese artillery had been adjusted to shoot at Zhu Yuan, they would probably have to concentrate their artillery fire to plow through all the camouflage nets.
"In which direction are the Japanese firing?"
Li Yunlong heard the sound of gunfire on the high-power walkie-talkie and asked.
Ding Wei said: "They are firing artillery towards me. The Japanese reconnaissance planes in the sky are observing the impact point of the bomb. The impact point is getting closer and closer to our artillery position."
Li Yunlong asked: "Old Ding, can you shoot down the Japanese reconnaissance plane?"
Ding Wei shook his head: "It can't be shot down. The distance is too high and too far. If it could be shot down, I would have taken action long ago. The Japanese artillery positions should be located in the city. Can the Sharp Sword Squadron guide our artillery to counterattack?"
"There is no way!" Lu Yingjun was also in the channel. After hearing Ding Wei's words, he immediately said:
"Judging from the trajectory of the artillery shells, the Japanese artillery position was located in the city, very close to the city wall. The Japanese artillery used the city wall as a reverse slope position, and our artillery could not hit it."
Ding Weidao: "If we don't suppress and kill the Japanese artillery, under the guidance of the Japanese reconnaissance planes, the Japanese artillery will definitely counter-suppress our artillery and even kill our artillery positions."
"Damn! Can a living person be choked to death by urinating?"
Li Yunlong scolded: "While the Japanese fighter jets and bombers were flying away, they continued to fire on labor and capital. After the city wall collapsed, the infantry immediately rushed to occupy the city wall, and the Japanese cannons would be useless."
"yes!"
Ding Wei, Cheng Shifa and Kong Jie agreed in unison on the walkie-talkies.
As Li Yunlong's order was issued, the artillerymen began to get busy again, stuffing the cannonballs into the barrels one after another, and then hitting the outer city wall of Taiyuan.
Explosions like landslides and ground cracking spread rapidly from the direction of the Taiyuan city wall to all directions.
…
Outside the north of Taiyuan City.
The artillery position a few kilometers behind the headquarters continued to operate. Under the guidance of the swordsmen, it fired fiercely at the northern city wall.
Under the concentrated bombardment of artillery fire, the northeast section of the city wall was the first to be breached, and the broken bricks and earth blocks were spread out into a slope under the city.
Coincidentally, when the Japanese army attacked Taiyuan, the Japanese artillery, guided by aircraft, was the first to collapse the city wall in the northeast.
Li Yunlong picked up his telescope and looked at the gap in the city wall that had been made. The gap was less than 10 meters, which was a very narrow section.
not enough.
The perimeter of Taiyuan City Wall is 12 kilometers, and the length of each wall is 3 kilometers.
Making a gap is not enough.
Li Yunlong ordered to the Sharp Sword Squadron: "Concentrate your artillery fire on one point of the city wall and try to create a few more gaps, so that the pressure on our infantry attacking the city will be much less."
As Li Yunlong issued the order, the members of the Sharp Sword Squadron quickly used the walkie-talkies to report a series of shooting points to the howitzers and mountain artillery respectively.
The previous shelling was to hit the enemy's artillery fortress, so it was all free fire.
Now concentrate the artillery fire on a certain point of the city wall. The city wall will soon be unable to withstand it and collapse again, leaving a gap.
Li Yunlong's artillery team saw this scene in the mirror and immediately became happy: "Okay, just fight like this and make a few more gaps, and the infantry can attack."
"Chief of Staff Wang, immediately convey this shelling method to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd attack groups."
"yes!"
Wang Dehou turned around and called with a high-power walkie-talkie.
"Look, what is that?"
Guard Huang Erhu pointed to the sky in the direction of Taiyuan and said that he did not have a telescope and could only see a small dot the size of an ant.
Li Yunlong glanced at Huang Erhu, raised the telescope on his chest and looked over Taiyuan.
"What is that?"
I saw a balloon hanging with a basket slowly rising into the sky. Captain Li was also a little confused. He had never seen such a thing before.
Zhao Gang, Wang Dehou and Xing Zhiguo also raised their telescopes to look.
Wang Dehou put down the telescope and said to Li Yunlong: "Commander-in-Chief, this is the observation balloon of the Japanese army. When Japan and Russia were fighting for Lushun in the northeast, the Japanese army used observation balloons to open the eyes of the artillery. The use of observation balloons brought great benefits to the Japanese army.
Advantage, in the end the Japanese army also defeated the Russian army. There are records of the Japanese army using observation balloons in the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Jinling a few years ago."
"Chief of Staff Wang is indeed from the headquarters. He is really well-informed."
Li Yunlong nodded, first praised, and then asked: "How high can this thing fly?"
"It can fly very high." Wang Dehou said, "But the Japs will definitely not fly that high. The highest estimate is only 2 kilometers. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the Japs' observers to clearly see the artillery positions and the impact points of the bombs."
Li Yunlong thought about it and found that 2 kilometers is 2,000 meters, which is within the range of the machine gun.
If the vertical height between the Japanese balloon and the ground is 2,000 meters, then the Japanese observer must be 3,000 meters away from the impact point or the Eighth Route Army's artillery position.
However, the Japanese balloon had just risen at this time, and it was still a little far away, so the machine gun could not reach it.
Li Yunlong immediately ordered: "Order all machine gun positions to shoot down the balloon for me. If I can't shoot down the reconnaissance plane, I still can't shoot down your balloon?"
"Yes!" Chief of Staff Wang picked up the walkie-talkie and gave orders to each machine gun position.
"Old Li, there's a situation."
Zhao Gang said suddenly.
"what's the situation?"
Zhao Gang pointed to the gap that was first opened by the artillery shell and said: "Look, the Japanese and puppet troops are blocking and repairing the gap."
Li Yunlong turned the artillery mirror, and then put his eyes in front of the periscope. Through the field of view of the artillery mirror, he saw Japanese soldiers and puppet troops transporting sandbags to the gap in an attempt to seal and repair the gap.
Li Yunlong sneered: "Let the Sword Squadron guide the two howitzers and kill these sons of bitches for me."