The Sixth Strategic Artillery Corps of the Qing Imperial Army was the most elite artillery force in the entire Qing army, even superior to the First Artillery Corps stationed in the Beijing-Tianjin area. As a strategic force that threatens Nanjing, the Sixth Artillery Corps has long been
Stationed in Pukou.
This army consists of three heavy howitzer divisions and one anti-aircraft artillery division. This division has 375 heavy howitzers and 54 anti-aircraft guns. It is an extremely powerful deterrent force and the most terrifying threat to Nanjing. Li Guoliang
As mentioned last time, this is just its book preparation. In fact, there must be a huge shortfall.
The actual discrepancy with the books is also a consistent phenomenon of the Qing army. But this time, Li Guoliang took it somewhat for granted. As the first sharp sword that threatens the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Sixth Artillery Corps has always had Emperor Guangwu's "high attention" and "
"Friendly care", the entire army has always been fully loaded, and every gun and every shell is consistent with the accounts. In other words, the Sixth Artillery Corps really has 357 heavy howitzers.
.
However, today is Sunday. The cannons are not resting, but the people are.
Army Commander Sun Fushan took a car yesterday afternoon and went to his villa in Langya Mountain in Chuzhou to spend the weekend. Langya Mountain is a good place. It is not only a scenic spot, but also has a rich cultural atmosphere. It has been a place where literati and poets have sex with prostitutes since ancient times.
The famous Drunkard's Pavilion is here. Ouyang Xiu's article made the area here very valuable for hundreds of years. Now the mountains are full of small villas, which are bought by local officials, nearby officials, and senior officers of the garrison.
Down.
The largest garrison in the area is the army in Pukou. On weekends, most of the officers ran out of the military camp to have fun, usually only in Pukou. But in the Pukou War at the beginning of the year, Pukou was bombed to pieces, and there is still no trace of it until now.
Recovering. Normally, the officers and officers of the Qing army should be more honest and stay in the barracks on weekends, but no, they have reason to run further and simply go to Chuzhou
Went to play. Chuzhou County is more than 50 kilometers away from Pukou Town, and it is the first stop on the Tianjin-Puzhou Railway going north. Senior officers of the Qing army took sedans, mid-level officers took military vehicles, and junior officers "got" a train ticket. Once a week
Six, they rushed to Chuzhou in droves. On Sunday in Pukou, the only people left behind were basically a small number of lieutenants, a large number of non-commissioned officers, and almost all first-class and second-class privates.
…
At 4:50 in the morning, at the observation post of the anti-aircraft artillery division on the top of Shiziling Mountain in Laoshan, Pukou, all the soldiers in the squad were dozing in the observation fort. Only one private, Wang Jinbao, was sitting on the top of the bunker on duty. This place is ten kilometers away from the riverside.
It is the most ideal observation post. If the weather is good during the day and the field of view is not too good, you can see all the way to the river with the naked eye. If you use a telescope, you can see the Purple Mountain all the way.
But now, although the moon is very bright, it is still dark in the distance, and you can't even see the bottom of the mountain.
Wang Jinbao sat on a stool, his elbows propped up on a waist-high sandbag. There was a telephone and a hand-cranked air raid siren placed on the sandbag. He shrank his head in the cool breeze whistling on the top of the mountain, complaining in his heart.
Written by: Grandma, also an artilleryman
, the howitzer divisions behind the mountain can all sleep, but the anti-aircraft artillery divisions have to take turns on duty... The superiors keep emphasizing that Nanming's aircraft are powerful, and constantly rectify the anti-aircraft artillery divisions, but now they have to keep their eyes open while sleeping.
One eye...
He yawned long and estimated that the time was almost up. It was time to go down and look at the monitor's watch. If it was already one o'clock, he would call Li Wang to come up and take over. It was time for me to go to bed...
Wang Jinbao stood up, opened the entrance to the top of the bunker, and was about to climb down the ladder when he suddenly stopped.
Behind him, a "buzzing" sound came faintly.
At first he thought he had heard wrongly, and hesitated for a few seconds at the entrance of the cave, whether to turn around and take a look. Because he really wanted to sleep, he put his hands on the lid.
But the "buzzing" sound behind him quickly became louder and clearer. Wang Jinbao became a little nervous and knew he couldn't ignore it. He closed the lid, stood up and turned around, holding the sandbag and looking hard at the sky to the south.
But the sky was dark, and from time to time a cloud slowly moved under the moon, so I really couldn't see anything.
The phone at his hand rang suddenly, startling him. He immediately grabbed the receiver, and another voice inside shouted nervously:
"Hey, Shiziling? I'm Damashan! Do you hear the buzzing in the south?"
Damashan is another peak of Laoshan and one of the four mountaintop observation posts of the Anti-aircraft Artillery Division.
Wang Jinbao became even more nervous and said immediately:
"I heard it, I heard it! Phew, the sound is louder again!"
"Do you think it's a plane?"
"This... doesn't look like it! Normally Nanming planes come and fly around, but they don't make sounds like this."
That's right. In the past, when Nanming planes flew over to provoke, the sound was very clear, and the direction could be clearly distinguished. But now, the sound is much deeper, and it seems to be ringing throughout the sky.
Unless there are...many airplanes. Very, very, very many airplanes added together can make this kind of sound.
"I said..." Wang Jinbao said in a trembling voice, "Did you ask the officer? Ask the officer to come up and listen..."
The voice on the other end of the phone also trembled:
"I'm afraid it's too late... The more I hear it, the more it sounds like an airplane... Let's sound the alarm..."
Wang Jinbao swallowed dryly and said:
"Okay, sound the alarm..."
After saying that, he put down the phone, put his hand on the air raid siren, grabbed the crank handle, hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and shook it hard.
"Woo——————"
Loud air defense sirens resounded throughout the countryside. At the same time, the same siren came from a distant hilltop. Within a few seconds, all observation posts on the four hilltops sounded the air defense sirens.
There was an explosion in the observation fort below. A squad of soldiers were shouting, yelling and swearing while wearing helmets. They all lay down by the observation window and looked out. The squad leader climbed up the ladder with "kick, kick, kick".
He came up, lifted the top cover, and shouted loudly:
"Wang Jinbao! What's going on?! Is there an air raid?"
Before Wang Jinbao could answer, he cursed:
"How can there be an air raid in the middle of the night!... If it's a false alarm, let's see if I can kill you!"
Then he jumped up, grabbed the telescope and looked into the southern night sky. But it was so dark that he couldn't see anything.
"What's going on!" He turned to Wang Jinbao and shouted, "What the hell did your mother see!"
Wang Jinbao shook the handle with difficulty and said while breathing heavily:
"Planes... planes... are so loud! Listen to them a lot!"
But the sirens around him were deafening, completely covering up all the sounds coming from far away. The squad leader looked hard, but couldn't see anything. He listened hard, but couldn't hear anything other than the air-raid siren.
"There are so many planes... there are so many planes... Damn it, if it's a false alarm, let's see if I can kill you."
The squad leader was also scared, but he still cursed fiercely, as if this would make the air raid curse go away.
The phone rang again. The monitor grabbed the receiver and said loudly:
"Hey, ah, yes! Yes, sir! Yes... it's an air raid. One of our brothers said he heard the sound of planes, saying it sounded like a lot!... Ah, ah, this... early warning? No, no, it's an air raid siren.
!Yes! Yes!”
He put down the phone and slapped Wang Jinbao on the head:
"Shake the ball! I know how to shake it! The battalion commander asked if it was an advance warning or an air raid warning!"
An advance warning is a "forecast" issued when an air attack is likely to occur. It sounds for 36 seconds, stops for 24 seconds, and repeats for 3 minutes. An air raid warning is an alarm for when an air attack is imminent or has already occurred.
This one sounds for 6 seconds and stops for 6 seconds, and the rhythm is more rapid.
But now Wang Jinbao became nervous and shook the siren endlessly, completely turning it into an early warning. On the other three hills, one turned into an early warning and two turned into an air raid warning, exactly two to two.
"ah!"
Wang Jinbao reacted and quickly let go.
The handle was still rotating with inertia, and the alarm chirp slowly turned from high pitch to low pitch, and finally stopped. The surrounding area became quiet.
In the distance, there were only the sirens from three other mountains, and a clearer sound...
Roar. Deafening roar.
The whole sky was roaring, and it was right overhead.
Several soldiers raised their heads in horror, watching a big black shadow pass under the moon, and then another...
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, more aircraft silhouettes came into view in the night sky.
...More than a dozen in one wave, one after another, there are hundreds of them...
After a few seconds, these soldiers all entered a state of detachment, looking up at this spectacular sight they had never seen before.
They were almost in a trance, and no one spoke.
"I said!" A soldier gently touched his companion and said loudly, "Let's report it! Here...here...it's none of our business!"
"Yeah..." Another soldier said to himself, "...it's none of our business anymore..."
…
Farther north, sirens also sounded one after another at this time. This came from the anti-aircraft artillery position behind the mountain.
A squad of Qing soldiers in the observation post all climbed to the top of the bunker to take a look. Everyone held on to the sandbags and looked far away. However, just now they were all looking south, and now they are all looking north.
Because they all guessed what would happen next.
Sure enough, in the distance at the foot of the mountain in the north, light pillars pointed to the sky one after another, waving slowly, trying their best to find enemy aircraft in the night sky.
Almost at the same time, several long strings of illumination bombs suddenly appeared in the sky, hundreds of them. They slowly spread out, spraying bright light and falling downwards. From the top of Laoshan Mountain, it looked very beautiful from a distance.
Like fireflies.
The land for a few kilometers to the north was now like daylight.
Countless trees, short barracks, roads, railways, sentries, towers, chimneys, water towers... most importantly, the cannons still covered with gun jackets, everything was exposed.
The Qing soldiers on the observation post on the top of the mountain all grabbed telescopes and looked. Now with the help of high-power telescopes, not only the cannons, but even the knots on the barbed wire fence could be seen clearly.
On the howitzer position, the soldiers were like little ants, holding up their pants and rushing out of the barracks crazily. In groups, they gathered around the cannon and undressed their cannons.
The response of the anti-aircraft gun positions was relatively fast, because the anti-aircraft guns were usually "naked" on standby and did not need to remove their gun jackets. Now half of the anti-aircraft gun groups were in place, and the gun barrels were rapidly rising and adjusting their angles.
But it was too late.
Before the few Qing soldiers on the observation post could react, a dense row of fire flashed across the artillery position in the distance, followed by thick smoke and fireballs.
Then another row...and then another row...
Row after row, overwhelming.
The sound of explosions also came over at this time. It wasn't very loud, but it was very dense, just like the firecrackers set off during the New Year. You couldn't tell the difference between one sound and another, they were all mixed together.
This... this is too dense...
The Qing soldiers on the top of the mountain were all dumbfounded. Before anyone could even utter a exclamation, thick smoke and flames were already billowing from the artillery position at the foot of the mountain.
…
"I wonder if their infantry will come over yet."
After watching for a long time, Wang Jinbao suddenly said.
"It looks like we have to come over."
Another soldier said.
"Ah... I haven't been home for more than a year. I wonder how I am doing."
The third soldier suddenly said such an inexplicable sentence.
However, several soldiers understood it and all expressed the same emotion.