The Siamese soldiers were beaten with sticks by the officers and forced to the forward position. The entire river defense fortifications built by the Siamese were in chaos.
What was approaching Shaxi on the other side was not the Second Group Army of the Anjia Army that had captured the Yalan Pass, but the main force group composed of the direct army of the Gu Front Army and the First Group Army that was rapidly advancing after Shi Soufeng cleared the battlefield.
A two-story bungalow in Wana Village east of Shaxi City was once the residence of a wealthy Chinese businessman. After the outbreak of the war, it had been urgently moved and was now requisitioned as the temporary headquarters of the front army. Under the dim candle light, Staff Sgt.
After speaking with the commanders of each division, Lieutenant General Chang Gao Guodong strode behind Gu Changfeng: "Commander, all divisions have been prepared. The artillery brigade directly under the front army and the artillery brigade of the group army have entered the preset positions and are ready to attack the enemy at any time.
!”
Gu Changfeng was discussing the enemy situation with political commissar Xie Chi. When he heard the sound, he stood up and strode to the window. He used his binoculars to look at the other side of the Bangba Gong River. It was so dark that he couldn't see anything. He raised his hands and said: "
Let’s get started, first use artillery fire to test the thickness of your opponent’s turtle shell!”
The communications staff officer quickly conveyed Gu Changfeng's order. Looking out of the window where Gu Changfeng was, he saw a sudden burst of yellow light flashing through the darkness in Hedong. Like lightning, the sky suddenly brightened.
It stood up, and then there were muffled thunderous sounds, and finally the earth shook violently!
Amidst the shrill whistling sounds, hundreds of large and small artillery shells exploded everywhere on the fortifications on the other side of the river almost simultaneously. A series of orange explosions exploded in the night, shining brightly on the beachhead of the river bank.
One piece. The shells were densely packed like a thunderstorm, and occasionally there were 203mm, 2
80mm and 330mm large-caliber artillery shells flew past, dragging the sound of trains in the air, and then fell to the ground. The whole earth shook like a dustpan! The explosions of the artillery shells finally merged into a loud noise, "Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom," "
"The ground echoed on the battlefield, and any other sounds were suppressed!
The Siamese soldiers hiding in the trenches were bombarded with such intensity that they suffered heavy casualties. The survivors hurriedly fled into the air raid shelters. They opened their mouths desperately, covered their buzzing ears, and endured the huge shock.
There is a loud noise like the explosion of a cannonball that pierces people's hearts.
For the dead, the sudden disappearance of life is not a blessing for them. The living Siamese soldiers seem to be sitting on a large ship that may capsize at any time. With the vibration of the explosion, they are violently shaken.
It was shaking, as if the heart and lungs were being shaken out.
The smoke filled the respiratory tract and lungs, making it so hot that it made people breathless.
After being covered by artillery fire for a quarter of an hour, Siamese artillery began to fight back. Cannons of various calibers purchased from Europe, the United States and Japan began to spit out tongues of fire and explode on the South China Army position on the other side of the Bang Prakong River.
Both sides of the Bang Pakong River suddenly became a world of flying shrapnel. The river water reflected the flashes of explosions, and what seemed to be blood flowing all over the river.
Gu Changfeng calmly looked ahead with his binoculars. The enemy's artillery fire was like mindless flies, shooting aimlessly and indiscriminately, causing minimal damage to his own troops. But Anjiajun was different. The rear observation balloon had already taken off, and the artillery fire was
Almost all of them were concentrated on the enemy's trenches and hastily built machine gun bunkers and bunkers. Large-caliber grenades and cannon bombs blasted terrible gaps in the position.
Through the flash of artillery fire, Gu Changfeng could clearly see that the Luzhai made of logs and steel supports in front of the enemy's position was lifted up into the sky layer by layer. The shells were like a rolling cumulonimbus cloud, blowing away the dead shells. The rain gradually spread forward. Occasionally, a 330mm cannon shell fell, and the ground was like a volcanic eruption, and the soil was blown up dozens of meters high. The temporary machine gun bunker built with bricks and cement was under such terrifying shells. Under attack, it disappeared instantly like paper.
Gu Changfeng put down his telescope, turned around and said, "Are you sure the enemy's artillery positions are there? Use new artillery shells equipped with rocket devices to cover the enemy positions. I require that no artillery shell threatens our safety before the general offensive is launched."
Gao Guodong immediately called the artillery unit and then said: "The enemy's position is within the range of our artillery. However, in order to ensure shooting accuracy, artillery shells equipped with rocket devices will still be used. It is expected that in two minutes, the enemy's artillery can be fired Conduct comprehensive suppression of the position."
Gu Changfeng nodded and continued to look through the binoculars.
Two minutes later, dense artillery shells fell on the Siamese artillery position. Artillery shells of various calibers knocked the Siamese artillery position upside down at once. Nearly a hundred cannons from the two artillery regiments in the Siam central cluster instantly misfired. , more than 3,000 artillerymen felt as if they were in hell, with fierce artillery fire hitting their heads and faces, picking up pieces of flesh and blood.
Those who endured the sound of shell explosions and violent vibrations were the officers and soldiers of the First Division of the Anjia Army and the soldiers of the Engineer Brigade directly under the Front Army who were responsible for the main attack. They were responsible for forcing the crossing, establishing bridgeheads, clearing Luzhai and erecting pontoon bridges.
Such a scale of shelling could no longer arouse too many emotions among the officers and soldiers. They leaned against the trench wall, holding automatic and semi-automatic rifles, with their eyes half closed but their ears propped up, waiting for the commander's order to attack at any time.
The barrage of artillery shells gradually became sparse, and whistles sounded in the trenches ahead. The military officers, political cadres, and grassroots non-commissioned officers of each company and platoon all straightened up, ready to go, waiting for the final order to launch an attack.
Three red signal flares rose into the sky from the rear, rose to an altitude of several hundred meters, and then slowly fell. In the red light, countless officers and soldiers jumped onto the trenches, and, inspired by the red flag and the Charge, rushed toward the Bang Pakong River.
The general-purpose machine guns on the starting position roared almost at the same time, and streams of fire continued to pour towards the other side, seemingly forming roads of fire, guiding the direction of the infantry's attack.
This time, the First Division used two regiments and a total of ten infantry battalions to attack. Five of them were on both wings to contain the attack, attracting firepower and attention from the other side. Two battalions covered the engineers laying the pontoon bridge, and three battalions were responsible for the main attack. They were covered by more than two hundred general-purpose machine guns, each of which was spitting out tongues of fire crazily.
"kill--"
The officers and soldiers shouted and charged forward continuously. The remaining troops of the Siamese Army were driven out of the artillery holes by the commanders. They crawled on the trenches that were almost flattened by the bombing and fired at the east bank of the river with machine guns and rifles. However, Such thin firepower could not stop the Anjia officers and soldiers like tigers descending the mountain.
The soldiers came to the Bang Pakong River and pushed the hovercraft into the river.
It was late August, when the Siam River was swollen. The river was turbulent and the waves were spraying one after another. Many hovercrafts were overturned by the waves and were swept into the river together with the soldiers on them.
Taking advantage of the river-crossing troops slowing down in the struggle with the river water, the firepower points on the entire left bank of the Bangpagong River were quickly resurrected with the reinforcements from the troops sent by Shaxi City in the rear!
A series of light and heavy machine guns formed a powerful crossfire, coupled with the "eight hook" whistle of the Type 38 rifle, a waterfall of bullets fired into the river row after row!
Countless hovercrafts were hit by bullets. The gas in the cushions quickly overflowed and dried up. Coupled with the mischief of the water flow, they quickly capsized. At the same time, the enemy's concealed mortars also began to diffuse the surface of the river, and hovercrafts appeared from time to time.
After being hit, as the bomb exploded, the officers and soldiers above died instantly.
The main force of the Anjia Army was equipped with 75mm mountain artillery, field artillery, and 70mm infantry artillery at the division and regimental levels. They aimed at the other side of the river and beat them hard. The enemy's heavy machine gun firepower could not be transferred. It quickly misfired in the shelling, but it was the light machine gun.
React quickly with mortars and change places after a short period of fighting, resulting in smaller losses.
While the artillery fire suppressed the opponent, the general-purpose machine gun on the Anjia Army's starting position on the east bank of the river fired in the direction of the fire from the machine gun on the opposite side. The copper shells that popped out covered the ground of the simple trench in a blink of an eye. The mortar crew quickly
The mortars were set up and fired one after another at the enemy's trenches. The Siamese suffered heavy casualties, but with the continuous reinforcements from the follow-up troops, they still fired wildly at the river.
Finally, a hovercraft landed on the other side of the river. The infantry jumped from the boat and rushed towards the Siamese's first line of position.
The enemy's mortar fire sounded again, and shells continued to explode among the charging ranks. The shells were dense and fast, and with each explosion, human limbs flew up.
In order to defend the river bank defense line, the Shaxi garrison dispatched border police troops. Although the large number of border police officers were not good at shooting, they were better in numbers. They fired bursts of fire, causing great trouble to the charging Anjia officers and soldiers.
In the flickering light of the fire, the soldiers at the front suddenly disappeared from sight, shouted loudly, and disappeared.
The infantrymen stopped quickly, lying on the ground in squad units, digging desperately for fortifications. It turned out that in front of them, an anti-tank trench five meters wide and three meters deep suddenly appeared. This was the Shaxi garrison in the evening.
At the suggestion of Japanese consultants, three regiments of soldiers were used to dig it out urgently. This trench did not exist during the routine reconnaissance by aircraft during the day yesterday, but now it has become an insurmountable chasm blocking the infantry.
This anti-tank trench can only be passed by blasting it into a gentle slope with explosives. The infantry can only establish a position here and use firepower to cover the engineers to blast it open!
At this time, the first batch of engineering troops had already arrived on the other side by hovercraft, and some of them were sent to blow up the trench, while the other part stayed on the shore to drive pilings. On the east bank of the Bang Pakong River, heavy military trucks piled up the prefabricated components of the engineering bridge.
After being thrown into the river, the engineers were divided into groups and floated to the other side of the river holding the components. From time to time, someone was shot and fell on the components.
When the Siamese artillery position suffered disaster, Gu Changfeng, who felt that there was no problem in taking over the river bank position, had already returned to the room downstairs.
Standing in front of the map, with the bright light of the lantern, Gu Changfeng was thinking about the enemy's possible response plan after taking Shaxi. At this time, political commissar Xie Chi walked in and told him about the trench that suddenly appeared on the east bank of the river.
Gu Changfeng waved his hand: "Lao Xie, let Wang Xulun and Cai Shaohua worry about this matter. We have done everything we should do, and they have to take responsibility for the rest. Anyway, I gave them twelve
Hours, you can fight as you like, we just have to wait until we get into Shaxi!"
Xie Chi was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "You, you are so calm, aren't you afraid that they will wipe out our family fortune?"
Gu Changfeng shook his head: "We have helped them solve the enemy's trenches and artillery positions. If we can't solve the remaining minor problems, what else do we need them to do? Believe me brothers, the battle should be over by noon at the latest. Let's continue.
I’m afraid there won’t be any tough battles if we go down!”
Xie Chi became interested when he heard this: "What, did you find anything?"
Gu Changfeng smiled: "It's just a hunch, I haven't thought about the details yet... I guess the situation of the battle will be clear tomorrow, and I'll tell you about it then!"
"Boom boom——"
Several earth-shaking explosions were heard, and Xie Chi hurriedly walked out of the room. After a few minutes, he turned back with excitement on his face: "The engineers blew up the enemy's anti-tank trench. The three main attack battalions stepped on the collapsed trench."
The slope broke into the enemy's position, and they are fighting fiercely at close range. The engineers' pontoon bridge is being built, and the follow-up troops are using hovercrafts, rafts and other river crossing tools to continuously cross the river for reinforcements."
Gu Changfeng nodded without saying anything. His eyes fell on the city of Prachinfu to the west of Shaxi on the map, thinking about how Marshal Bing Chunhawang, commander of the enemy's central cluster, would deploy his troops and generals to block the defense line that was almost open.