The 1st Brigade of the 9th Division of the Anhui Army is indeed a rare elite unit. More than 5,000 officers and soldiers from the three regiments, under the command of the brigade commander Chi Buhuai, all waded across the river, and rushed towards the river one by one with the sound of gunfire and smoke.
The rolling Fengxian County town took only twenty minutes to cross a two-and-a-half-kilometer deserted area.
Many soldiers of the Anhui Army threw away their loose straw sandals that were swollen by the river water, picked up their weapons and rushed into the battlefield fearlessly. One by one, the captains followed the fine traditions of the Anhui Army, waving their swords and charging ahead until they rushed to the battlefield.
Only two kilometers away from the blazing city wall, the forward troops were blocked by fire from a small group of revolutionary troops, and the two sides immediately entered into a fierce battle.
Chi Buhuai, the commander of the first brigade, received a report that the second forward regiment was in contact with the enemy and exchanged fire. He was in high spirits. He waved his riding whip and issued an order in a hurry:
"Charge as a whole, defeat this revolutionary army that dares to block our army's advance, and charge them all the way into the city!"
As soon as the order came out, dust suddenly flew up, gunshots rang out, and shouts of killing broke out. Qi Xiuping, the commander of the Special Agent Battalion of the Independent Division who was responsible for luring the enemy, saw the enemy's main force coming like a tide, and after three minutes of strong fire resistance,
, and decisively issued a retreat order.
More than 400 soldiers in old-style gray cloth uniforms carried their injured brothers around them, turned around and fled eastward. The extremely courageous Qi Xiuping led his adjutant and two guards to escort him back. He grabbed him and ran past him.
The machine gunner grabbed the Czech light machine gun, shouted "Run", turned around and fired wildly at the pursuing enemy. After finishing a magazine, he put the machine gun on his shoulder and threw off his two long legs.
Escape at full speed.
Under the hail of bullets, Qi Xiuping crossed the first trench filled with prisoners who were scared to death, jumped into the second trench guarded by the teaching regiment, and immediately turned around. He saw that there were still more than a hundred brothers under his command behind, and they ran away one by one.
Staggering and embarrassed, he couldn't help but cursed loudly: "You idiot, hurry up! You are so slow to even escape with your life, how can you still hang yourself..."
The enemy's bullets passed over the trenches in pieces, making a "whisking" sound through the air. Zhao Rui, the leader of the teaching regiment, who was more than ten meters away from Qi Xiuping, had been carefully observing the battlefield situation.
In the past two hours, the teaching group has fired tens of thousands of machine gun and rifle bullets and thrown more than 500 grenades into the empty flat area three kilometers behind. In addition to making a mess in the mud and grass,
Not a single enemy was killed, and when he was feeling very angry, he suddenly received an order to stop shooting. Zhao Rui knew that the enemy had fallen into the trap and had begun to enter the ambush circle. He immediately ordered all the brothers in the regiment to change directions and quickly change the barrels of the machine guns.
Add water to cool the heavy machine gun and closely monitor the current battlefield.
When the teaching team was ready, gunshots and shouts of death gradually approached. Qi Xiuping also led the special agent battalion that went out to lure the enemy and fled back in panic. Behind them, there were at least two thousand enemies chasing them five to six hundred meters away.
Reluctantly, Zhao Rui and the surrounding soldiers heard Qi Xiuping talking nonsense at the top of his voice. They had no time to laugh and immediately entered a tense battle-prepared state.
Hearing the battalion commander's greeting, the brothers who were lagging behind and climbing over the first trench blushed. They no longer ignored the screams from the trench, almost stepping on the bodies of the prisoners.
trench, and then jumped into the second trench with a few lunges.
The swarming pursuers finally saw clearly the two trenches lying in front of them and the more than a dozen battle flags of the teaching regiment that were hunting for wind. The company and battalion commanders at the front had not yet decided whether to launch a desperate charge or lie down.
Waiting for the next order, the one hundred and twenty light and heavy machine guns on the teaching regiment's position sprayed out angry tongues of flames almost simultaneously. In the blink of an eye, they swept down a large area of the enemy who were more than 300 meters away and had no time to get down, forcing the enemy to have to get down urgently.
He lowered his gun and fired back.
The fierce firefight was deafening, and the strong smell of gunpowder spread everywhere, which was very painful for the more than 4,000 prisoners lying in the first trench. Bullets flew like a violent storm over their heads. The officers and soldiers of the 9th Division in front
Counterattack bullets shot into the mud ridge in front of the trench from time to time, making a "chirp" sound, but the prisoners could only hold their heads helplessly, crouch in the shallow trench and resign themselves to their fate.
On the southern line, more than 5,000 officers and soldiers of the 72nd Division on the south bank of the Baiyi River finally received the order from the division commander Pan Shanzhai. They shook off the camouflaged weeds and branches and rushed to the 4.5-kilometer-long river bank. Each machine gunner immediately entered the preset.
In the position, machine guns were immediately set up on sandbags. Thousands of soldiers crawled in the depressions, picked up their weapons and began to aim. As long as the cannon was fired later, the five thousand soldiers who were waiting for the position could launch an attack on the enemies that were constantly pouring into the battlefield and were already far away.
shooting.
On both sides of the small wooden bridge four kilometers west of the city, hundreds of engineers from the Ninth Division Engineer Battalion of the Anhui Army were erecting long felled tree trunks to the fracture. The water on the bridge was filled with shouts and curses.
The big logs connected the seven-meter-wide fracture. A platoon of engineers immediately rushed to the bridge deck with cloth bags and hammers, and fixed the logs with horse nails. There was still a company of officers and soldiers under the bridge working on the support beams.
Final reinforcement.
The fighting to the east became increasingly fierce. All 11,000 officers and soldiers of the two infantry brigades of the Ninth Division were engaged in the battle. Battle reports were sent one after another to the Tutu Temple to the west of the bridge. Division Commander Jiang Jicheng and a group of deputies and staff gathered around the map
They started the discussion nervously and were surprised by the unexpectedly powerful blocking firepower of the revolutionary army.
"Shouldn't the enemy's main force be engaged in a fierce battle with our main defenders at the other end of Fengcheng? Then what's going on with this blocking enemy force that suddenly appears in front of us now?" Jiang Jicheng frowned and said to himself.
A group of generals and generals were all talking about one analysis: "Could Fengcheng have been captured by the revolutionary army?" Another one said: "Maybe this enemy in front of them is the enemy's reinforcements." But no one thought that from the beginning to the end,
It was An Yi who was making the plans.
At this moment, a mortar shell roared through the air, landed five meters behind the Tutu Temple, and exploded violently. The shock wave blew away a large area of the old tile roof of the small temple, and the cracked tiles were mixed with old
The rotten leaves and dust fell like a heavy rain, and the rotten beams shook violently, making bursts of harsh "chirping" sounds, and gradually tilted to the left.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Jiang Jicheng's chief of bodyguards quickly picked up Jiang Jicheng and rushed out of the temple gate, came to the courtyard and lay down. A group of generals and captains who were slightly slow to react rushed out of the temple gate without thinking about anything, only hearing a "boom"
There was a loud noise, and the entire small temple collapsed. Several staff officers and a radio station that had no time to escape were all trapped inside, and the dust and smoke caused by the collapse rose into the sky.
At the same time, two mortar shells also fell near the newly erected small bridge not far away. One blasted the pack horses of the engineering battalion at the bridge head into pieces. Dozens of frightened tall pack horses screamed,
Running around wildly, one fell on the river and stirred up a water column several meters high. Two of the six lieutenants who were inspecting the bridge were knocked into the river, and the entire bridge was in chaos.
The disgraced Jiang Jicheng got up from the ground, stood out from the bloody sand in his mouth, looked around, and yelled at the head of the security regiment who came after hearing the news: "What's going on? What are your security officers and soldiers doing? Why?
Even the division headquarters was almost taken over by someone?"
The leader of the guard regiment lowered his head and was speechless. Seeing this, the bald and hatless chief of staff quickly stepped forward to comfort him: "Master, it is probably a small sneak attack force sent by the enemy. Due to the limited strength, the guard regiment's
The warning range is usually within two kilometers, but mortars can easily hit three or four kilometers away. After firing one or two shells, they can pick up and run away, making it difficult to guard against!
It seems that the enemy is far more familiar with the terrain than we are. He must have calculated that we will enter the small temple to do this. It is obviously unsafe here. I suggest that the teacher cross the bridge as soon as possible. There is a short slope and a kilometer and a half ahead.
There is an ancestral hall of the Hou family in the woods and on a low slope. I have asked the deputy of the guard regiment to lead a company to clean it up. It is about three kilometers away from the battlefield. It is well concealed and can be easily commanded nearby."
Jiang Jicheng looked at the radio station dug out from the rubble by a group of officers and soldiers and the two dying communications staff officers. He took off his military hat in annoyance and slapped it hard: "Then leave quickly! Give me the order and set up the phone line immediately. When I arrive,
During the ancestral hall, you must be able to communicate with the two brigade commanders in front."
"yes!"
Forced step by step by the elite Special Forces Brigade of the Independent Division, the Ninth Division Headquarters crossed the newly repaired wooden bridge and drove to the Hou family ancestral hall 1.6 kilometers east. All the officers and soldiers of the division's guard regiment had already rushed to Hou.
A cordon was opened around the ancestral hall, and dozens of trembling villagers from seven households around the ancestral hall were rushed to the back village more than 200 meters away to the north. The logistics departments rushed into the people's homes and occupied them.
Then the intense work began.
Just after the division headquarters had settled down, and before further discussions on the war began, an earth-shattering shelling sound suddenly came from the eastern battlefield, which immediately frightened Jiang Jicheng and his deputies. From the analysis of the intensity of the shelling, the sudden appearance of the current
The artillery of the Revolutionary Army must not be smaller than four battalions, otherwise there would never be such a violent bombing effect.
Jiang Jicheng, who had always been calm and composed even if the mountain collapsed, finally panicked and suddenly realized that he might have fallen into a big trap. The dozen or so generals around him looked at each other with blank expressions and dull eyes, and suddenly came the intensive artillery fire.
The panic caused by the sound spread everywhere.
The front foot of the Ninth Division's headquarters had just crossed the bridge, and the enemy's artillery regiment's long line of the 109th Regiment finally reached the bridge. One of the several mortar shells that had flown in ten minutes ago landed on the stone piers and logs.
At the junction of the bridge decks, the bridge deck was shaken loose. Twenty-four K-type artillery pieces dragged by draft horses could not pass the bridge deck. They were all crowded on the wide flat land at the head of the West Bridge, waiting anxiously.
The fierce sound of gunfire from the east became more and more intense. The Major General Commander of the 109th Regiment came galloping on horseback, surrounded by several adjutants and guards. He dismounted and rushed to the end of the small bridge. He saw the busy engineers on the bridge still there.
Swinging a hammer and a steel drill while dripping with sweat, he shouted in annoyance who is the commander?
He crossed his arms and glared angrily at the engineer battalion commander who was running towards him. The commander, who was used to being domineering, opened his mouth and was about to curse a few loudly when his body suddenly shook, and then he fell backwards to the sky. Beside him,
The adjutant and guards were shocked when they saw this, and they knelt down to help. They saw black and red blood coming out of the gun hole on the commander's eyebrow. His eyes were wide open in shock, and his pupils were dilated. The adjutant was so frightened that he fell to the ground, his brain
Chaos.
The engineer battalion commander and several guards who had just arrived immediately shouted for an enemy attack. The officers and soldiers on the entire bridge were running around in confusion. Before anyone else could react, a rain of bullets rained down, and shouts came from all directions.
The sound of killing was loud, and more than a thousand officers and soldiers of the 109th Regiment, who took off their hats and rifles and sat down to rest and catch their breath, fell instantly in large numbers.
The captains who jumped up, waved their guns and shouted in an attempt to form a formation and defend themselves were all hit in the head by bullets that flew accurately. Hundreds of leaderless remnants screamed and wailed, and fled in all directions. Most of them lay down around the artillery and the large carriage transporting the artillery shells.
beside.
The sound of gunfire got closer and closer, the rain of bullets came fiercely, and the grenades flew toward the densely populated areas of officers and soldiers and exploded loudly. Within a few minutes, more than half of the 109th Regiment's 1,000 artillerymen and more than 400 engineers were killed or injured, and they completely lost their ability to resist.
Nearly a thousand officers and soldiers of the Independent Division wearing strange camouflage uniforms and steel helmets rushed into the enemy group from three directions. The new machine guns in their hands kept firing bursts of fire. Any enemy who held a weapon in his hand and resisted stubbornly.
In the blink of an eye, they were all beaten into pieces.
Li Yuanjiang, the commander of the infantry battalion of the artillery regiment, rushed to the bridge with a machine gun. When he saw three enemy soldiers under the bridge swimming desperately to the downstream, he didn't even think about picking up the gun and fired several bursts, beating the three fleeing enemies until they were bloody.
He stopped moving, put away his gun, pointed at the bridge, and issued an order loudly:
"Move the pile of logs over and place six machine gun fire points thirty meters along both sides of the bridge to prevent the enemy from escaping!"
"yes!"
"Third company commander——"
"arrive!"
The third company commander came quickly.
Li Yuanjiang pointed to the high ground on both sides: "Your third company will be responsible for guarding the two wings, protecting the brothers of the first and second companies and forcing the enemy's artillery to launch shelling."
"yes!"
Deputy Zong Xingzhen of the Special Forces Brigade, wearing a special combat uniform with a face full of paint, strode over, escorted by two of his brothers:
"Yuanjiang, these are the shooting coordinates that Lao Li urgently sent. The Hou family ancestral hall is 1.6 kilometers east. Get ready quickly. I will lead a team of brothers to guard you. Just give the order to fire. I am making trouble.
Come and solve it for you."
"Very good……"
Five minutes later, Li Yuanjiang, who was standing on the big carriage, raised two small red and green flags high and shouted out parameters one by one. Twenty-four artillery pieces and eight mortars were arranged in a haphazard manner sixty meters away from the bridge head.
In the open space of more than 10 meters, one or two corpses of enemy artillerymen who were still twitching were lying next to each artillery piece. More than 300 captured enemy artillerymen were all stripped of their shirts. They followed the command in horror and slowly adjusted their positions.
Shooting boundary.
As the whistle in Li Yuanjiang's mouth made a long, sharp sound, twenty rounds of artillery shells were filled into the barrel with a burst of metal collision, and entered the firing state.
When Li Yuanjiang saw that the preparations were complete, he suddenly waved the signal flag held high in his hand forward and roared at the top of his lungs: "Hit——"