The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 111: Talking about Artillery
This night was chaotic yet orderly.

After the artillery officers who came to observe the terrain left, an observation team was left behind. Under the protection of a squad of infantry sent by He Wei, they surveyed the terrain overnight and conducted geodesic operations. He Wei not only received a promise to strengthen a mountain artillery company, but also I also learned a lot of artillery information. It turns out that the total number of artillery reinforcements given to the 88th Division this time includes three artillery battalions, eight Bofors mountain guns, twelve Taisho six-year-old mountain guns and twelve Jin-made 32mm field guns. There are [-] artillery pieces of various types, which is enough for a field artillery regiment. However, due to air defense and mobility problems, the three battalions have not yet concentrated their advance and placement, and the selection of placement positions is even more problematic.

He Wei was very happy to have a company of mountain artillery support, but he yearned even more for the artillery salvoes of the entire battalion and regiment and the Japanese artillery bombardment. From the first day after traveling through time, he was basically bombarded by artillery every day. , the defense was bombed, the counterattack was bombed, dodging artillery has basically become a daily necessity. Of course, he felt uncomfortable. He had long wanted to find an opportunity to attack the Japanese artillery, but when he saw the situation of the artillery unit, his revenge Action may have to be pushed back.

In the early morning, the command post of the Sixth Company was filled with the aroma of meat. A group of officers were feasting around the table. He Wei was naturally among them. However, the officers around him were not Hu Zhaowu and Fang Jing, but a group of artillery officers with rank. Artillery officer.

Needless to say, the current food treatment of the Sixth Company is not good. How could the food of a group of guys who cling to the front line be poor? Even the condemned prisoners were given a delicious meal before they were executed. Yesterday's victory was not in vain. In order to reward the troops guarding Yanzhuang, the Tenth Division headquarters allocated some funds to purchase some eggs, vegetables, and pickles.

The [-]th Army Headquarters sent another batch of cans, including canned pork, canned beef and soybeans, and canned sardines produced by Shanghai Taikang Company, as well as canned fat peaches, canned pears, canned green beans, and canned spicy soy sauce produced by Shanghai Merlin Company. , canned biscuits, the variety is not lacking.

The materials purchased by the Tenth Division were shared by the Sixth Company and the Third Battalion of the 57th Regiment in Yanzhuang. However, when the [-]th Army Headquarters allocated these cans, they specified that they could only be given to the Sixth Company!

Of course, these cans with rich varieties, categories, and excellent workmanship cannot be purchased in large quantities by the No. 14 Army. They are the consolation materials sent by patriotic groups and people in the rear who raised funds in the past. They are all in short supply. The origin of these cans is Songhu. The region has now become a pot of porridge. Naturally, only the sixth company on the front line can enjoy such high-end delicacies.

Liang Mancang, the cooking squad leader of the Sixth Company, saw so many different kinds of cans for the first time. How to handle, adjust and process these delicacies became a difficult problem for the cooking squad leader who was born as a farmer, so Liang Mancang carried a canned food on his back. The [-]-year-old Gai found He Wei.

After understanding all the ingredients available, He Wei lived up to Liang Mancang's expectations and drew up a set of menus. During the war, it was definitely not possible to guarantee three meals a day like daily life, so He Wei settled on two meals a day. According to the rules, you must strive to be full and well-fed at every meal. The habit of eating too little for breakfast, too much for lunch, and too little for dinner is nonsense on the battlefield.

The first meal of the day is indispensable boiled eggs. This is a good way to supplement protein. The preparation of scrambled eggs takes time and oil. If you boil them in boiling water, you can cook eggs for a row of people in one pot. , the first meal is served with three dishes in addition to eggs. The first dish is fried canned sardines with green vegetables, the second dish is fried canned green beans with unfinished pork, the third dish is fried salty sauerkraut with canned beef and soybeans, and the fourth dish The dish is fried canned pork slices, with small pickles as accompaniment, and rice as the staple food.

In addition to these stir-fried vegetables, those canned fruits used to supplement vitamins are distributed according to the standard of two per class per meal, and must be eaten after the meal.

All the biscuit cans have been stored as emergency supplies at the most critical moment. Now there are hot meals and hot dishes to eat, and the dishes are rich, but no one with normal taste will give this thing a second glance.

The second meal of the day is much simpler. Spicy soy sauce, canned pork and beef, vegetables, and canned green beans are mixed together to make fried rice. It is simple and hassle-free.

After He Wei's instruction and the menu, Liang Mancang quickly showed off his excellent cooking skills. Early in the morning, pots of delicious and sumptuous meals were distributed to the lunch boxes and enamel rice of each officer and soldier on the battlefield. Among them, good food can stabilize people's hearts and improve their combat effectiveness. For most officers and soldiers, the current food of the Sixth Company may be the most sumptuous and delicious meal they have ever eaten since birth. .

"It's delicious, it's delicious."

"This meat is so delicious."

In the command post, the officers were full of food. Liang Mancang was very sensible. In addition to the dishes ordered by He Wei, he also made a pickle and egg drop soup with pickles and eggs as a supplement for the officers, and fried it for each officer. He asked for a poached egg, and He Wei didn't refuse it hypocritically. It didn't matter to him that officers had better food than soldiers. It was the pla that advocated equality between officers and soldiers. It also referred to equality in political status, and the same material treatment for officers and soldiers from all walks of life. There is a difference.

Stir-fried sardines with green vegetables, stir-fried pork with green beans, stir-fried pickled cabbage with canned beef and soybeans, fried canned pork slices, pickles, poached eggs topped with spicy soy sauce, pickled egg drop soup, colorful and delicious dishes filled the table. He Wei, as the protagonist, kept One picks up food for this one and advises the other one to eat more.

Among the artillery officers present, the one with the highest rank is an artillery major who is about thirty years old. This gentleman is Major Cao Huiguo, the commander of the second battalion of the fifth artillery regiment. With him, there are also the battalion of the second battalion. The department's lieutenant surveyor and the captain of the fourth company of the battalion, the second lieutenant observer and two platoon commanders.

The fourth company is the mountain artillery company that will be assigned to He Wei.

Cao Huiguo swallowed the poached eggs drizzled with spicy soy sauce into his mouth and said with satisfaction: "It's so delicious. It's so delicious. I haven't eaten such delicious food since I left Nanjing and went to the north. Brother, you are really good." What a blessing."

He Wei smiled: "Eat more, everyone. The food of our infantry troops is not as good as that of your artillery troops. In the past few days, we have to risk our lives before going into battle just to have a few good meals."

"Brother, where are you from Huangpu?"

asked the captain of the fourth company.

He Wei said: "I am an eleventh-generation student."

The company commander said with some regret: "Seeing that you are a lieutenant, I thought you were from the ninth or tenth period. Maybe we have met. I am from the eighth period. These are the platoon commanders and platoon leaders of my company. Observation, they are all graduates of the ninth and tenth periods.”

"As expected of the elite of the national army. In our infantry unit, even the teaching corps, officers and cadres cannot all graduate from Huangpu. Brother, your artillery unit is really powerful. We may have met each other before. Your regiment I remember that the station was located in the newly built Tongguang Barracks in the suburbs outside Tongjimen and Guanghuamen in Nanjing. It was very close to the Central Military Academy. I occasionally saw troops from your regiment pulling cannons out to fight in the wild." He Weichi holding something and giving a thumbs up.

Battalion Commander Cao Huiguo shook his head. He graduated from the seventh artillery section of Huangpu Military Academy and said: "Actually, this was not the case before. Our fifth artillery regiment was just a new unit among the independent artillery units of the national army. After the Central Plains War, In that year, the old artillery teaching regiment of the Central Military Academy expanded into two regiments, and all the latest modified [-]-type field guns purchased from Japan by the teaching regiment were given to the Fourth Independent Artillery Regiment."

"Our Fifth Independent Artillery Regiment can only use various old artillery. Some are trophies of artillery from the Northern Expedition, and some are more than ten years old antiques passed down from the late Qing Dynasty. The officers are also like birds. There are Baoding Shenghe who can only shoot directly. Old Beiyang, there are still illiterate company commanders who cannot read a few Chinese characters, do not know the logarithm table and sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent and trigonometric functions. There are also some soldiers who have been bandits. Fortunately, in the 22nd year of the Republic of China, more than 100 new models were bought from Sweden. Mountain artillery, this regiment was included in the reloading sequence, and I was the lieutenant platoon leader who was transferred to the fifth artillery regiment at that time. Only then did our regiment become more developed, otherwise it would still be a bad unit."

After several conversations with Cao Huiguo, He Wei learned that the artillery unit that seems to be so awesome now has such a past. It turned out that in the early days, the independent artillery unit of the National Army only had eight independent artillery regiments, and seven of these eight regiments had The first is the surrender troops during the Northern Expedition, which are the old artillery units left behind by the old Beiyang and various local armies. During this period, the artillery units were really not as good as the infantry units.

The reason is that the artillery force has a small establishment, backward equipment, and outdated tactics. The fifth artillery regiment is also one of the worst among the eight artillery regiments. However, when the government determined to reorganize the army and import a large number of new artillery from abroad, Since a large amount of precious money has been spent on the purchase of artillery, Supreme Leader Chang Kaishen specifically requested that new artillery should not be allowed to establish a new artillery unit. After all, the cost of an artillery unit is much higher than that of infantry. No matter how bad an artillery regiment is, it will not have enough people. After all, one month's military pay and office expenses would cost [-] yuan!

Therefore, under the micro-management of the supreme leader Chang Kaishen, no new artillery regiment was established. Among the original independent artillery regiments, the two artillery regiments with the worst personnel and the worst equipment were selected to replace them with new mountain artillery.

As a result, the First Independent Artillery Regiment and the Fifth Independent Artillery Regiment, the worst among the eight independent artillery regiments, experienced a turn of events and were able to replace themselves with the latest Bofors Mountain Cannon!The original strange old cannons left over from the late Qing Dynasty were all replaced, as were the officers. Those officers from the old Beiyang and warlord forces were all paid to be dismissed, and replaced by Huangpu students who had received German-style training, and officers. The young officers of the Education Corps and the Army Artillery College have been given a new look with their equipment and personnel. Within a year, they have transformed from the worst artillery regiment to the new elite of the national army's artillery!

He Wei nodded: "That's it."

The second lieutenant observer of Huangpu Tenth Phase looked at the lieutenant rank on He Wei's collar with some envy and said, "Platoon Commander He, your food is only comparable to what I had when I was training at the Nanjing Artillery School. We don’t eat your money in vain. Although the land surveying work has not been completed now, the open area in front of your position has been basically surveyed. As long as the enemy comes quickly, we can kill them."

When it came to artillery operations, He Wei also had his own thoughts. He said to Cao Huiguo: "Now artillery operations focus on covering positions and indirect shooting. In my opinion, there are no natural conditions nearby that can be used as covering positions. Why not simply place the artillery position behind our infantry position and use sandbags and piles of soil as simple shelters? Moreover, there are plains nearby, and the Japanese army also has tanks, so the artillery position should be set up next to the infantry defensive position. It will also be beneficial to our protection in the future.”

"There are now three battalions of artillery. If you need help building a position, sir, just ask. Our infantry will never be vague."

Cao Huiguo said: "It seems that you also know a bit about artillery operations. Now you can only do this. There are plains everywhere, and that's the only way. Alas, everyone is the Central Army. Let me give you a thorough understanding, brother. Our regiment commander has great fighting intentions and enthusiasm, but apart from our battalion, the other two battalions are really useless. The mountain artillery battalion of the Second Division and the field artillery battalion of the Jinsui Army can only directly aim and shoot. , It’s not enough, I probably won’t ask them to move to the front line, our artillery position is enough for my battalion.”

He Wei was instantly surprised and said: "What about the other two battalions?"

An artillery lieutenant said: "It should be used as a mobile force. How can they let them shoot directly from such a long distance?"

He Wei had always wanted to clean up the Japanese artillery, but he never revealed it to these artillery officers, and he was not familiar with the models and performance of the artillery they were equipped with.

"What kind of artillery are our battalions equipped with? What's the range?"

A second lieutenant answered He Wei's question in detail.

"Our battalion is equipped with eight Bofors 75mm mountain guns. The range is [-] meters when using the No. [-] weak charge, the range is [-] meters when using the No. [-] strong charge, and the range is [-] meters when using the No. [-] strongest charge."

"The mountain artillery battalion of the Second Division is equipped with Japanese-made Taisho 75-type [-]mm mountain artillery, with a range of [-] meters."

"The Jinsui Army Field Artillery Battalion is equipped with Jin-made Type 88 [-]mm field guns. According to Battalion Commander Zhao, the range can reach [-] meters."

He Wei smiled bitterly and nodded: "There are a lot of artillery, but the performance is really poor."

Just as people in the room were eating and drinking, suddenly Tao Heiwa walked in.

After yesterday's experience of killing people with his own hands, after one night, this boy seemed to have grown up several years. His original naivety, innocence and cowardice had disappeared a lot, replaced by competence, spirit, sharpness, and even his voice was a bit louder. .

"Platoon commander, there are many troops coming behind our position, and they also bring artillery."

(End of this chapter)