The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

"This Xu Xiangqian, he killed the enemy in one round?"

……

Tonglu Town North, 11 minutes ago.

The First Regiment advanced along the west bank of the Fuchun River. On the west bank lay a narrow, 600-meter-wide rice paddy belt, and beyond it stretched a long, unnamed mountain. The First Battalion of the First Regiment fanned out into three columns, centered on the dirt road through the rice paddies. Atop the unnamed mountain sat the reconnaissance team of the regimental reconnaissance company.

Suddenly, the reconnaissance team on the mountain fired two bursts of tracer bullets with a Madsen light machine gun, and the bullets hit three hundred meters in front of the first battalion.

This was the battlefield signal agreed upon long ago by the reconnaissance company and the infantry company.

Seeing the tracer bullets being fired, the First Battalion, without the need for the commander's command, prepared for the attack within seconds. At this point, the sound of gunfire rang out from three hundred meters away, and bullets flew one after another towards the endless, nameless mountains.

Qiu Qingquan: "They only noticed someone on the mountain firing tracer bullets at them. Third Company, forward!"

Before he finished speaking, there were two bangs from the rear. The two mortars accompanying the First Battalion had fired two flares, illuminating a large area of ​​300 meters in front of the First Battalion.

Lin Biao: "Second Company, advance in tactical formation!"

Zeng Zesheng: "Company One, forward!"

Just like in the previous exercises, the 2nd and 3rd Companies of the 1st Battalion advanced slightly on the two wings, while the 1st Company stayed slightly back in the center, forming a "bracket" over 600 meters wide that advanced forward.

The advancing first battalion soon saw the panicked enemy troops under the flares. This group of enemy troops had just been attacking, chasing the 26th Army Zhang Guowei Division, which had already fled far away. However, in just less than a minute, they went from attacking to being attacked.

Qiu Qingquan: "Old Lu! Ridge!"

"I see!"

The squad leader named "Lao Lu" beside Qiu Qingquan quickly turned the muzzle of his gun. He put the Madsen light machine gun on his shoulder and switched it to semi-automatic mode. "Da", "Da", "Da", "Da". Two hundred meters away, two Beiyang soldiers who were walking along the ridge of the field, one of them holding a Mauser pistol, were shot one after another and fell into the dry rice field.

Around Qiu Qingquan, each four-man combat team opened fire one after another, and the sounds of three volleys of rifles and bursts of Madsen light machine guns merged into one.

"Beep beep—" Qiu Qingquan blew the whistle, "Everyone, jump 50 meters!"

The third company leaped forward, and the first and second companies immediately blew their whistles and leaped forward. Everyone knew what to do in this wave of charge, because after the charge, both sides were within grenade throwing range.

Dozens of grenades were thrown almost simultaneously, followed by a series of explosions. After the explosions, Wu Zhonghao, the second platoon leader of the second company, stood up, holding his Bergmann submachine gun. However, he looked left and right and there seemed to be no targets worth shooting at.

First Battalion Commander Song Xilian: "Beep-beep!"

The first regiment commander Xu Xiangqian rushed to the front line from the rear, and the battle of the first battalion was over.

More than 300 prisoners were captured and dozens of corpses were left on the ground. This is an estimate. It was the first day of the lunar calendar and there was not even a moon, so the ground could not be seen clearly.

Song Xilian: "According to the confessions of the prisoners, they were from the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 38th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Allied Forces. The commander of the 2nd Battalion was captured, and the commander of the 3rd Battalion was beaten to death in the fields. The 1st Battalion of the 38th Regiment was at the ferry, which was 2 kilometers ahead."

Xu Xiangqian: "There are only 400 people in two battalions, including those who were captured and laid down?"

Song Xilian: "More than 200 people fled backwards."

Xu Xiangqian: "Signalman! Fire the green signal flare. Song Xilian, your First Battalion continues to advance. The Second Battalion is not far behind you. The reconnaissance company is now near the ferry. The First and Second Battalions will advance together to wipe out this 38th Regiment first!"

……

Direction of the second regiment.

The Second Regiment and the First Regiment were actually moving north together, but there was a long mountain between the two regiments.

The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment led the charge, marching for about an hour at night before encountering their first enemy battle. The 1st Battalion quickly dispatched the over 100 enemy troops and quickly resumed their march. The 2nd Regiment had set out late, and the divisional headquarters tasked it with rapidly advancing 20 kilometers to locate the headquarters of the 10th Allied Division. Therefore, both the reconnaissance team and the infantry were pressing forward with all their might.

"Commander, Commander!"

Hu Lian, the second company commander of the first battalion, trotted all the way to the side of the battalion commander Li Yutang.

Li Yutang: "What's going on?"

Hu Lian: "We just wiped out a company from the 2nd Battalion of the 37th Regiment of the enemy. The location of this battalion and the rest of the 37th Regiment is unknown!"

Li Yutang: "This company is too far forward. The rest of the 37th Regiment should be ahead of us."

Hu Lian: "Battalion Commander, there were gunshots and artillery fire just now. If they were not far ahead, they should have heard it. I have a feeling they are trying to escape."

Li Yutang: "Is your feeling correct?"

……

The 37th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Allied Forces really wanted to get away.

There was no other reason except that Zheng Junyan had repeatedly told them before the battle to stop while things were going well and to escape immediately if things got bad.

The 10th Division of the Allied Forces has a long history. Its predecessor was the 10th Division of the Beiyang Army. Although it was not the old Sixth Regiment, its division number was relatively early.

Lu Yongxiang, a warlord of the Anhui clique, rose to prominence as the commander of the 10th Division, turning it into his own private army. He used it to control Zhejiang and establish his own regional warlord. Later, the 10th Division became the 10th Zhejiang Army Division, and after Lu Yongxiang was ousted, it became the 10th Jiangsu Army Division, and then the current 10th Allied Forces Division.

The 37th Regiment is the first regiment of the 10th Division. Its importance is self-evident. Zheng Junyan asked the 37th Regiment to preserve its strength, which is the most important thing.

It was pitch black at night. Tang Liqin, commander of the 37th Regiment, had already given up pursuit and planned to stay where he was for the night. Then, a burst of gunfire and artillery fire broke out ahead. A few moments later, several fleeing soldiers came running back, saying they had been suddenly killed in the blink of an eye by a Northern Expedition force while they were resting.

Tang Liqin immediately felt something was wrong, because the Northern Expedition Army they were chasing and fighting during the day had very poor combat effectiveness and it was impossible for them to fight back at this time.

Things have changed, we have to retreat!

The 37th Regiment set off immediately. This pursuit involved no baggage or their most prized Japanese infantry guns, allowing them to run at high speed. However, they retreated less than two kilometers before being pinned to the ground by fierce fire from both sides in the darkness.

"What? What?! Is it a flare?"

Tang Liqin looked at the two glowing flares slowly falling from the sky, feeling like crying but unable to shed tears.

The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment had just rushed forward, almost brazenly, infiltrating behind the 37th Regiment and occupying advantageous terrain. The crews of the two mortars also rushed forward, carrying their guns and catching up with the battle. The first round of flares was a blind fire, illuminating an area and completely exposing the Beiyang Army troops on both sides of the mountain road.

Wei Lihuang could now see the flares ahead, like two distant lights on a nighttime road. Gunfire rang out from the direction of the flares.

"Captain! Time is running out. I think we should issue combat orders while we're on the march! Have the troops deploy as they march!"

Xu Jishen said to Wei Lihuang.

"Okay! The General Staff will issue the military order directly!"

Xu Jishen: "Second Battalion! Companies 4 and 5 advance along the left side of the road, Company 6 goes up the left hill. Third Battalion! Companies 7 and 8 are in the center of the road, Company 9 is on the right. Change formation immediately and fight in 10 minutes!"

Wei Lihuang: "Add the Engineer Company! Have them join us and fight together with the 9th Company!"

Chapter 138

11pm on January 4th.

Chen Tianheng rode his horse forward, but not very fast.

Ahead of him were four horses, and the soldiers and guides of the divisional guard company, each holding a torch, trying to illuminate the way ahead. Behind him were Chen Mingren, Lu Deming, Huang Wei, Qian Deng Ruoxian... the staff of the First Division.

At this point in the battle, the First Division's headquarters had to move forward and establish a forward command post. Chen Tianheng had seen the signal flares fired into the sky by the First Regiment during the first battle tonight. However, they couldn't use signal flares to notify division headquarters during the second battle. It was the First Regiment's communications troopers who returned to report, forcing Chen Tianheng to immediately depart for the front lines.

"Master!"

Xu Xiangqian saluted. Chen Tianheng looked around. In the night, many soldiers were holding torches, illuminating the Zhejiang-style houses.

"Is this the place where Zheng Junyan's 38th and 39th Regiments were annihilated?"

……

The first regiment annihilated the 39th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Allied Forces and the first battalion of the 38th Regiment. The 39th Regiment had some shortages, so a total of about two thousand enemy troops were eliminated.

The situation at that time was that at 7:30 in the evening, the 1st Regiment defeated the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 38th Regiment in an encounter, continued to advance along the river, and found the camping place of the 10th Division of the Allied Forces at the ferry mentioned by the prisoners.

However, what was slightly different from the intelligence was that it was not just the 1st Battalion of the 38th Regiment that was camped here, there was also the 39th Regiment!

The reconnaissance company of the First Regiment circled the camp and confirmed that the enemy had no intention of escaping. Xu Xiangqian waited for the three battalions of the First Regiment and the six mortars to arrive, and then launched a fierce attack on the enemy at 8:6.

These more than 2,000 enemy troops were stationed between the ferry, Dongling Village and Lianwu. After the offensive battle started, the ace division of the five-province coalition performed very poorly and ended the battle in just two hours. Two regimental commanders and more than 1,800 soldiers were captured.

Xu Xiangqian expected the 10th Allied Forces Division to perform poorly. It wasn't that the 10th Allied Forces Division was a dud, but Xu Xiangqian knew they were too tired.

The 1st Regiment of the 1st Division was very tired after a forced march and immediately joined the battle. The 10th Division of the Allied Forces was not having an easy time either. They had been engaged in the battle since last night. First, they launched a night attack on Wu Chongren's troops of the 26th Army, then they chased after the remnants of Wu Chongren, and then they fought with Zhang Guowei's troops of the 26th Army and repelled the latter.

It was not until the afternoon of January 4th that Zhang Guowei's troops were repelled. The two regiments of the Allied Forces could no longer hold on and were trying to end the battle as quickly as possible and retreat back to the ferry... Let's do tomorrow's work tomorrow.

As a result, the First Division swung their swords and attacked.

"The Second Regiment also entered the battlefield an hour after you set out. They advanced along this narrow strip of land to the west."

Chen Tianheng, holding a torch, drew a diagram on the ground with a stick. "The Second Regiment encountered a small enemy force here. The prisoners identified it as the 37th Regiment. Based on this, the Second Regiment sensed a large number of enemy troops ahead and quickly launched a tactical encirclement at night. This is the information the Second Regiment relayed just before I set out. If the Second Regiment had functioned normally, the battle would have been over by now."

Xu Xiangqian: "Division Commander, we noticed that a green signal flare was fired from the west 10 minutes ago, and a red signal flare was fired from there 45 minutes ago. Based on the estimated location, that is where the Second Regiment is engaging a large group of enemies."

"Oh? It seems the Second Regiment's attack capability is up to par." Chen Tianheng nodded with satisfaction. "Before setting off, the Second Regiment already knew the division's combat intent for this battle. After dealing with the enemy in front of them, they will advance quickly and head straight for Tangjiabu. If they find the headquarters of the 10th Division, its direct troops, and the 40th Regiment in Tangjiabu, they will surround them and wait for the 1st and 3rd Regiments to arrive and annihilate them. If there is no division headquarters or a large number of enemies in Tangjiabu, they will turn west and complete the blockade of the 11th Division's retreat. The First Regiment's operations will also revolve around this goal. Now I've brought the First Regiment's replacement battalion here. The replacement battalion will clean up the battlefield and escort the prisoners back. The First Regiment will quickly withdraw from the battlefield cleaning work and prepare for the next stage of the battle!"

Xu Xiangqian and Li Hanfan: "Yes!"

The three settlements of Dukou, Dongling Village, and Lianwu form a triangle, less than 500 meters apart. Dukou has a hotel, a restaurant, and a dozen or so houses. Lianwu is a row of piers for building wooden boats and a dozen simple houses for shipbuilders. Dongling Village is a small village of more than 70 households.

The enemy group that Xu Xiangqian had surrounded and annihilated was located in this triangle. Within the area illuminated by the torches, a chaotic mess of tents, guns, ammunition boxes, and military supplies could be seen everywhere, some of the ammunition boxes still half-opened.

"Stop, stop, ouch, you stop..."

Two soldiers struggle to control an unstable draft horse.

Chen Tianheng: "The Allied 10th Division once had an artillery regiment. This was the standard configuration during the Beiyang era: one artillery barrage per town. But during the retreat from Nanchang, a ship transporting artillery capsized, and the artillery regiment became an artillery battalion. So, no mountain artillery was found at the bases of the two regiments this time?"

Xu Xiangqian: "We didn't find any enemy artillery when we cleaned up the battlefield. They didn't fire any artillery shells when we attacked."

Chen Tianheng continued walking through the messy camp with a torch. "No, isn't this their artillery?"

Xu Xiangqian: "Ah? This thing is also a cannon?!"

The two came to a large iron statue. Chen Tianheng said, "Yes, and this can be considered a mortar or trench gun. The French 'Little Toad'."

Xu Xiangqian: "Ha, this piece of iron, placed on the ground, does look like a squatting toad. But where is its barrel?"

Chen Tianheng had never actually operated this early trench gun from World War I. He squatted down and studied it for a while, then turned a wheel on the iron barrel, and the barrel, which was originally pointing horizontally forward, slowly rose up.

The inner diameter of the "Little Toad"'s barrel is only 58 mm and is very short. Coupled with the bulky base, it does not look like a cannon.

Chen Tianheng searched around the iron pile for a while and said, "There are artillery shells. Tell the replacement battalion guarding the prisoners to help me find their artillerymen among the prisoners immediately."

The replacement battalion quickly found three Beiyang soldiers. There were probably more captured artillerymen among the prisoners, and the replacement battalion would carefully identify them from the more than a thousand people.

With the assistance of the Beiyang artillery sergeant, the barrel of the "Little Toad" was lifted to the appropriate position. The sergeant opened the safety, and Chen Tianheng picked up a mortar shell from the ammunition box with both hands.

Xu Xiangqian: "My dear, division commander, didn't you just say this was a 58mm mortar?"

Chen Tianheng: "The Little Toad is an over-caliber trench gun. Its barrel is used solely to burn the propellant to propel the projectile. A large portion of the projectile itself is inserted outside the barrel, so it is very, very large. This shell weighs, uh, 20 kilograms. They also have heavier shells, 35 kilograms each, but the range is much worse, only a little over 600 meters."

Chen Tianheng handed the shells to the Beiyang artillery sergeant, and he and Xu Xiangqian retreated to a safe distance, allowing the three sergeants to test fire a shot.

"Boom-"

Smoke filled the air as the massive, finned shell vanished from the barrel. The whistling sound faded into the night, and then, with a bang, a column of water tens of meters high erupted from the center of the Fuchun River.

The Little Toad Mortar has this advantage: it is powerful. Its shells weigh more than three times as much as a current Stokes mortar, and if it is a 35 kg heavy shell, it is nearly six times as much.

Chen Tianheng said to the three artillery sergeants, "Go back and find your captured colleagues and enough people to operate these three guns. I ask you to help fight this battle for two days, at most, and one month's salary."

"Yes, yes, sir," replied the leading sergeant, "but sir, we've had this gun for over two years, and we've never hit anyone with it."

Chen Tianheng: "This is used for blasting each other when both sides are hiding in the trenches... I'm curious why your Division Commander Zheng Junyan or Commander Sun Chuanfang bought this kind of gun."

Xu Xiangqian: "This mortar doesn't seem to be difficult to use. It's quite powerful."

Chen Tianheng: "You will know when these three guns are disassembled."

……

Xu Xiangqian hadn't expected this "little toad" to be so heavy. A single gun weighed 400 kilograms, almost as heavy as a 75mm mountain gun. Even a single disassembled component weighed dozens of kilograms, requiring only one wheelbarrow to carry it. The 1st Regiment's Stokes mortar weighed just over 50 kilograms.

The three-barreled Little Toad, broken down into its components, was being pushed by a dozen or so carts. The even more bizarre aspect of the Little Toad cannon was that some of its parts were too heavy and bulky to be carried by mules or horses, requiring either a large four-wheeled carriage or a cart.

There were more carts pushing artillery shells behind the "Little Toad Fleet". As Chen Tianheng watched, the long team of carts left the ferry and went away with the first regiment.

Behind Chen Tianheng were other directly affiliated units of the First Division, who had just arrived at the ferry from Tonglu Town.

"Report to the division commander, the artillery battalion is also behind, a little later than the division headquarters, and is expected to arrive in 10 minutes." Zhang Yuanyelie of the artillery battalion reported.

Chen Tianheng: "Your artillery battalion has arrived at the ferry and will rest there, but do not unload the artillery and ammunition from the vehicles. Now I have to set up the radio..."

The biggest difference from regimental commander to division commander is that the troops under his command are no longer within Chen Tianheng's visual communication range.

Visual communication involves flag signals and flares. The maximum communication range of flares is about 5 kilometers. At this distance, a flare fired into the sky from the front allows command to instantly know what's happening, with virtually no delay. However, as we all know, flares can only transmit 1 to 2 bits of data at a time.

If the troops ran further, the flares would be useless. Each regiment of the 1st Division was equipped with a radio, but the transmission and reception of Morse code radios took a long time, and it also took time for the radios to be put into operation from the marching state.

Therefore, the most important thing about division-level combat command is to enable each regiment to have the ability to fight independently, based on the overall combat objectives assigned by the division commander, and to judge what to do based on battlefield intelligence.

"Report! The Second Regiment has arrived at Tangjiabu!"

Qian Deng Ruoxian: "It's dark, don't ride the horse so fast, be careful next time."

The signalman came galloping on horseback and handed the mailbox to the staff of the First Division before he had time to dismount, and conveyed the verbal message that Wei Lihuang asked him to remember.