The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 198 National Defense Fortifications

At dawn, more than two thousand officers and soldiers of the 956th Regiment arrived at the designated position one after another. He Wei also joined Cai Rubai, the commander of the 956th Regiment, and led the troops into the designated position.

Walking in the positions left by the 960th Regiment, He Wei stepped on the cold cement floor, smelling the strange smell of grass, soil and rust. Looking at the stretching defense fortifications, he had to secretly curse that he was still Underestimating the size of the defense fortifications.

The position of the 960th Regiment is completely based on the defense fortifications built before the war. The main position is based on a machine gun bunker with a reinforced concrete structure and a concealed part, mixed with some cement structure traffic trenches. The 960th Regiment also On this basis, a large number of communication trenches and foxholes were excavated, connecting the hidden parts of the machine gun bunker and the cement structure communication trenches, forming a long line of defense.

The location of its deployment is mainly high ground and commanding heights. It can be regarded as a good and appropriate combination of the fortifications and the nearby natural terrain, which is much better than He Wei expected.

Although He Wei is a time traveler, time travelers also have blind spots in knowledge. In fact, by August 1937, a total of 8 national defense fortifications had been completed around Nanjing. Among them, in the southeastern area of ​​​​Nanjing, from Banqiao through Chunhua, Tangshan and Longtan, the First Regiment of the Independent Engineer Corps of the Chinese Army completed 533 fortifications. Regardless of quality, this number is definitely a large number from a quantitative perspective. Well, He Wei knew nothing about it. He only remembered with vague memories that there were many fortifications outside Nanjing, and the quality seemed not to be very good.

Originally, He Wei didn't have high hopes for these defense fortifications, because he went out for field training many times when he was a student in the military academy, and participated in major military exercises with the core scenario of defending the capital, and he also saw many military exercises outside Nanjing. of fortifications.

There were actually big problems with the fortifications that He Wei saw at that time. Most of the fortifications on flat ground stood alone and protruded from the ground, without using the terrain and background. In places with grave mounds and small highlands, fortifications were not placed on the side slopes or reverse slopes of the highlands as much as possible, but were built on flat land near the highlands.

Some machine gun fortifications are built on the top of mountains with large perforations. They only aim to have a wide range of fire, without taking into account the consequences of being easily destroyed by enemy artillery. Some fortifications are also located at a low level, or are sinking due to weak original foundations, which will inevitably affect the range of firearms. Machine gun fortifications are often limited to terrain conditions and have to be built on the ground, which is not enough cover.

In short, the combination of fortifications and natural terrain features was not achieved.

Of course, in addition to this, there are many other problems, such as the overgrown weeds and thorns near many bunker fortifications and lack of maintenance, rusty door locks, water accumulation in the bunkers, lack of specialized units for maintenance, etc., etc., all kinds of problems are related to The shortcomings are numerous.

The engineering instructors and terrain instructors who took He Wei to participate in the exercise were very critical of the built fortifications. Some old instructors and engineering school students who were cooperating in the exercise also secretly pointed out that there were problems with the materials of those defense fortifications. The materials used are not produced by the military. From reinforced concrete to wood and nails and wires, they are all contracted out.

It is not just materials that are contracted out. Although most national defense fortifications are constructed by independent engineering groups directly under the Ministry of Military Affairs, due to the large amount of projects and the limited number of independent engineering units, many national defense fortifications are directly outsourced to local governments. He Wei thought that among the construction companies and factories, there must be collusion between government and businessmen, corruption, and shady secrets such as harming the public and enriching private interests.

It's just that the users of these fortifications have to use their lives and flesh and blood to endorse their shameless behavior.

But today's batch of fortifications, He Wei looked at at a glance, were more than twice as good as those he had seen before. Both the construction and layout and the quality of materials were pretty good.

Various orders came from time to time in the fortifications. The officers and soldiers of the 956th Regiment had entered the fortifications one after another under the command of the officers. He Wei and Cai Rubai walked around under the leadership of a captain.

This captain was from the 959th Regiment deployed on the left wing. When the 960th Regiment was forced to withdraw to support the 74th Army, Chen Peizhi immediately transferred a company from the 960th Regiment and deployed it in the 960th Regiment. During the reconnaissance and surveillance of the fortifications, the captain and company commander led He Wei and Cai Rubai to familiarize themselves with the fortifications while constantly introducing them to various conditions in the position.

"We did some research when we took over the position. The person who handed over the position fortifications to us was a nearby county government official. According to them, the nearby defense fortifications were built by the First Independent Engineer Regiment directly under the Ministry of Military Affairs. The fortifications were commissioned by Staff Staff The headquarters' fortification group design includes various bunkers. The main position is basically built along the nearby commanding heights and hills. Its types include light machine gun fortifications, heavy machine gun fortifications, small artillery fortifications, concealment units, observation posts, and command posts. Wait, and the various fire bunkers are divided into front fire and side fire, in general they are quite complete."

The captain and company commander introduced the fortifications to He Wei and Cai Rubai in detail. He Wei saw that he was wearing glasses, and he had a gentle and scholarly air. He did not look like one of those old and rough officers who came from the army. He looked like he had received formal training in the system. Military education, so He Wei asked: "Brother, did you go to a martial arts school or a military academy?"

The captain smiled and replied: "Sir, I am a graduate of the second batch of Guangdong Military and Political School. I graduated last year and was assigned to our division as a platoon commander. Three months after the bloody battle in Songhu, my company commander was killed and I was promoted to company commander. , Oh, I almost forgot, now it cannot be called the Guangdong Military and Political School, it should be called the Guangzhou branch of the Central Military Academy. Our second batch of students are also compared to the eleventh batch of graduates of Whampoa Military Academy, and we can also be regarded as the chairman of the committee. students.”

He Wei nodded, and now he understood. After Chen Jitang of Guangdong stepped down, the Central Military and Political Forces in Guangdong were completely taken over by the Central Military and Political Forces in Guangdong. Chen Jitang caused the military and political school to be swallowed up by the central government and was directly changed into the Guangzhou Branch of the Central Military Academy. , was later renamed the Fourth Branch of the Central Military Academy and became the branch of the Whampoa Military Academy. It trained a large number of junior officers during the Anti-Japanese War.

Speaking of which, this person became his classmate at the same time, but He Wei had no intention of chatting and making friends. Firstly, the Guangzhou branch was actually the product of the central government's elimination of Chen Jitang and took the opportunity to eat up the military and political forces in Guangdong. Secondly, he was one of the Huangpu graduates. There are also various chains of contempt among people.

For example, those who were admitted to the Nanjing Military Academy before the opening of each branch to expand enrollment despised those who were admitted to the military academy after the Anti-Japanese War. After the military academy was moved to Chengdu, those from the main school in Chengdu looked down on those from each branch, and those who graduated from the main school and branch looked down on other junior military academies, Bi Xuhe. As someone who came from a generation training background, there were too many chains of contempt, so He Wei naturally didn't bother to get involved.

The officer continued to lead He Wei and Cai Rubai through the position, but this time he showed a sad look.

"These fortifications are generally relatively strong, but there are many problems."

"What's the problem?" Cai Rubai asked. ,

"There are many problems. The diagrams of these defense fortifications are no longer there. Each of these fortifications is equipped with a cyanotype paper diagram, indicating its type and number, its location, and the relationship between its adjacent fortifications. Its front points and distances record the size of its firing range. In this way, it is impossible to know how many heavy machine gun bunkers there are and where the headquarters is. These things are stored in the nearby county government, but we I asked the county government for it in many ways, but they said they were unable to do anything and just said it was all destroyed and lost.”

As he spoke, the captain sighed softly and said: "This is relatively easy to handle. Fortunately, most of these fortifications are deployed on high ground and commanding heights, with a wide range of fire. Most of the fortifications are relatively obvious and are not buried by weeds and debris. , so this is not a problem. The real big problem is that we cannot open some fortifications now."

"Each fortification has a special lock and key, with the words "M", "K", "4B" and "F" engraved on it. If the key is lost, the steel door at the entrance cannot be opened. The locks of these steel doors are extremely strong, as if they were made of a single piece of steel. Even if they are locked, they cannot be opened with a pickaxe, nor can they be pried open with rifle butts and iron plates. In vain, the shock will cause pain in the hands and the heart will be broken. sweat. This lock and key are usually kept by the troops who monitor the fortifications. Currently, they are kept by the security chiefs and armor chiefs of the nearby villages and Zhuangzi. Now the war is in chaos, and everyone in the village has already fled. Where can anyone be found? All the locks that could be broken were broken, and some couldn't be broken. We could only watch and sigh. "

He Wei asked: "Can it be blown up? With explosives and grenades?"

The captain shook his head helplessly: "Don't talk about grenades and explosives. We used armor-piercing bullets from French Hotchkiss heavy machine guns and 82mm mortar bombs, but it couldn't explode."

Cai Rubai immediately looked embarrassed after hearing this, while He Wei was pacing behind a bunker, fiddling with the door locks and thinking about some way to open the remaining bunker doors. Then he thought of the armor-piercing bullets the captain had mentioned.

He Wei suddenly had a flash of inspiration, patted his head and said: "The heavy machine gun's steel-core bullet cannot penetrate, so use the armor-piercing bullet of the tank defense cannon. I have a 47mm tank defense cannon and reinforcements in my camp." For the 37mm tank defense gun, you can try firing the armor-piercing projectile at the lock."

Cai Rubai also clapped his hands and cheered: "Yes, yes, battalion commander He has a tank defense cannon in his hand. The armor-piercing bullets can penetrate even the Japanese's iron bastards. It's easy to make a lock."

The captain and company commander also looked happy after learning about it, and then said: "Two sirs, I am the infantry company commander of the 959th Regiment. If the tank defense cannon can penetrate the lock, can you also help us?" The regiment fought a dozen times, but the left-wing position guarded by our regiment was also blocked by many fortifications and the door could not be opened, so the brothers could only squat outside the fortifications and watch."

He Wei patted him on the shoulder and said, "What's the point? If it works, I'll give you a dozen of them."

After solving the problem of the bunker door lock, the few people continued to move forward. He Wei happened to see several bunkers that had been opened, so he got in. Cai Rubai knew that He Wei had many ways to fight, so he also went in with the captain. , this bunker is a heavy machine gun shooting bunker. It is very spacious inside, and a heavy machine gun squad of the 956th Regiment has already entered. A sergeant squad leader saw a few people coming in and immediately raised his hands in salute.

"Hello, sir."

He Wei nodded and walked towards the shooting port of the bunker. At this time, a French Hotchkiss heavy machine gun was placed on the heavy machine gun shooting arm behind the shooting port. He Wei held the machine gun and swung it left and right. few times.

Then I discovered that although the bunker was not small, it only had one shooting port on the front. The shooting port was narrow inside and wide outside. There was a cement rainproof eaves outside the machine gun shooting port, but there were no other shooting ports on the side of the bunker. It was obvious that the designer of the bunker paid too much attention to frontal shooting and ignored side shooting. In He Wei's view, this was undoubtedly a huge flaw.

"Sir, there are many problems with this bunker. I took a look and found that this machine gun bunker focuses too much on frontal shooting and ignores side shooting. Moreover, the bunker's shooting opening is too large, making it easy to be attacked in wartime. I want to clear the entire defense line. Let’s go and see what’s wrong with it, and try to make some corrections before the Japanese come over, do you think?”

Hearing He Wei say that he wanted to transform the position, Cai Rubai certainly gave him a hundred supports. He nodded in agreement immediately, patted his chest and told He Wei that if he had any requests, he could just ask for it. We walked through the designated positions of the 56th Regiment. ''

The final conclusion is actually an enlarged version of the shortcomings of the machine gun bunker: all fortifications, whether they are light and heavy machine gun fortifications or small artillery fortifications, have the disadvantage of only focusing on frontal shooting and ignoring side shooting, and the firing ports of all bunkers , also has the problem of the shooting port being too large. In short, there are many major problems and minor problems. Some can be remedied, while others cannot be changed much.

Seeing that the Japanese were about to attack, He Wei could not sit idly by, so he moved around the 956th Regiment's position with extremely high efficiency, solving the current problems in the 956th Regiment's position. After learning about it, He Wei went to the regiment command post of the 956th Regiment in a hurry.

Under the surprised gazes of Cai Rubai and others, the major in charge of the 956th Regiment asked for the red and blue pencils and drawings used for tactical homework, and began to draw on the paper. It took about half an hour, and finally In the eyes of everyone ranging from surprise to shock, a defense system configuration diagram including the fortification reconstruction plan and peripheral defense deployment was given.

This defense configuration diagram is a relatively reasonable optimization plan given by He Wei based on his own experience in the Xinkou battlefield, combined with the 956th Regiment's position and the firepower of its troops.

He Wei added all the blasting mine cannons and civil bunker fortifications that He Wei had used on the Xinkou battlefield. Coupled with the existing large number of permanent and semi-permanent reinforced concrete fortifications, this area is mainly composed of national defense fortifications. The firepower and defense of the core position have been optimized to the greatest extent in the hands of He Wei, and the real actual combat test will soon come.

(End of this chapter)