Years of the Republic of China 1913

Fang Zida, dressed in military uniform, came to the preset position. According to the order of the division headquarters, the three front lines of defense were almost completed.The middle and lower-level officers of the Eighth Division are all graduates from military academies, and their basic military level is far higher than that of Fang Zida, a half-baked deputy division commander who has become a monk on the way. When he walked around the battlefield, he couldn't help but sigh when he saw that all the work was done in an orderly manner. The military quality of the Eighth Division is indeed very strong.

Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment and Zhang Huafu's first battalion of the 30th regiment were stationed on the first line of defense.The predecessor of Li Shimao's provisional 33rd regiment was Lin Hu's independent regiment. Although the independent regiment was split and reorganized by Fang Zida, the overall airs remained. The braided army temporarily formed the 33rd regiment and took the initiative to fight. After consideration, Fang Zida agreed to Li Shimao's request, and transferred the first battalion of the 30th regiment to Li Shimao's unified command, and appointed him as the front-line commander.

Li Jun's 29th Regiment, Zhang Huafu's 30th Regiment were on the second line of defense, He Sui's 32nd Regiment, and the 8th Cavalry Regiment served as the general reserve, guarding the last line of defense, namely Nanjing City.

This arrangement can be described as quite satisfactory. After listening to the opinions of the staff and discussing with everyone, Fang Zida finally chose this most secure posture to deal with the enemy.This was his first battle after taking office as the deputy commander of the Eighth Division, and it was also a battle of great significance. Fang Zida, who knew his military level well, would not be so arrogant as to engage in dangerous military operations, interspersed with sports, and used the smallest Fang Zida still has the self-knowledge of the trick to achieve the greatest victory at the cost.

The battle is imminent. According to the reconnaissance report, Zhang Xun's forward has arrived in Yizheng, and it is estimated that the two armies will be in contact tomorrow morning.At the last moment, Fang Zida had to be cautious, and accompanied by the brigade commander Huang Kaiyuan, he went to the front line in person.

"Deputy Commander Fang, Brigadier Huang!"

Knowing that Fang Zida and others had arrived, the frontline commander Li Shimao hurried over.

"Commander Li, thank you for your hard work." Replying a not-so-standard military salute, Fang Zida smiled and pointed to the sizzling battle field and said, "Captain Li is worthy of being the general of my eighth division. He prepared like this in just one day. It was true that I handed over the provisional 33rd Regiment to you."

"Haha, that's it!" Li Shimao was very proud, and said with a smile: "Don't forget that my old Li first learned the army in Japan, and then entered the artillery department of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy. In terms of this level, it is not my old Li who blows the gun." , the entire Eighth Division is ranked in the top three even if it’s not number one.”

"I'm talking about Quansun. If you say you're fat, you'll still be panting? If you don't fight this battle well, Deputy Master Fang won't be polite to you!" Huang Kaiyuan joked at the side. Recently, although Huang Kaiyuan's fighting skills are worse than Fang Zida's, he is slick and good at observing words and expressions. Although he has a high position in the Eighth Division, he doesn't actually have much military power in his hands. Fang Zida is very easy to use.After a few times, Huang Kaiyuan also understood Fang Zida's attitude, and even positioned himself as Fang Zida's foil. After coming and going, the two formed a tacit understanding.

"Deputy Commander Fang, please don't worry. With me temporarily forming the 33rd Regiment, Zhang Xun will come and go!" Li Shimao stood up straight and said loudly: "To tell you the truth, Deputy Commander Fang, Brigadier Huang, if you want to attack other troops, I will Li Shimao didn't dare to speak big words, but the whole group of Zhang Xun was holding his breath when he hit Zhang Xun."

Understanding what Li Shimao said, Fang Zida patted him on the shoulder to encourage him, and then continued to inspect the position accompanied by him.After walking around, Fang Zida suddenly realized that something was wrong with the position. He stopped to take a closer look, and couldn't help frowning.

"Deputy Master Fang?" Huang Kaiyuan was keenly aware of Fang Zida's change, and asked suspiciously.

Looking at the dug trench, Fang Zida asked, "Commander Li, what's the matter with this trench?"

"What's the matter? Deputy Master Fang, what's the problem?" Li Shimao looked in the direction of his finger and asked strangely.

Pointing to the straight trenches, Fang Zida asked, "Such a shape? Is there no problem?"

"Shape? The shape is right!" Li Shimao was puzzled by the question, and even Huang Kaiyuan didn't see any problem after looking at it for a long time. The two looked at Fang Zida suspiciously.

"That's right?" Fang Zida asked a few more words, and after reconfirmation, he realized that Li Shimao's trenches were indeed dug according to the textbook, and there was no mistake at all. What's more, when he was studying military affairs in Japan, the instructors taught him the same way, so when Fang Zi When Da pointed out that there was a problem with the straight trenches, he even wondered if Fang Zida deliberately found trouble?

"Damn little Japanese devil!" The question turned in his mind, and Fang Zida quickly understood why this happened.With a wry smile, he asked Li Shimao what would happen if the opponent's bullet fell into the trench during the attack.Li Shimao was originally the commander of the artillery regiment, but when he thought about it for a while, his expression changed drastically, and he immediately understood what was going on.

"How could this be? Could it be that... we learned something wrong in Japan?" Li Shimao asked Fang Zida for advice in a hurry with a different expression in his anxious expression.Fang Zida did not hide his secrets, told him about the zigzag trenches, and asked all defensive positions to dig trenches in this way, and Li Shimao hurriedly arranged after receiving the order.

"Deputy Commander Fang, I didn't expect you to be really good at fighting! Admire! Admire!" Huang Kaiyuan raised his thumb in praise when he left the position. Fang Zida just shook his head modestly and didn't explain much.But he secretly sighed in his heart, fortunately he came here, if he didn't find this problem, then there would be heavy casualties in the fight.

Fortunately, the trenches were discovered early, and they rested overnight, and the position was finally completed before dawn the next day.When the front line reported at around ten o'clock the next morning, Zhang Xun's troops finally arrived.

The menacing braided commander Zhang Xun led his team to approach Nanjing. When he ran into the first line of defense of the Eighth Division head-on, he was not surprised.On the contrary, Zhang Xun was very excited, stopped the forward to monitor the Eighth Division, and launched a fierce attack after all the successor troops arrived at noon.

Zhang Xun brought more than 6000 soldiers and horses to the south, and after the capture of Xuzhou, he transferred more than 1000 people from his old nest, and the total force reached 7000.All the way to the south, they plundered a lot of property, and the morale of the officers and soldiers was high. Zhang Xun's troops looked down on the Eighth Division in front of them at all. rushed up.

All of a sudden, the front line was full of gunshots, and the battle was extremely fierce. Although Zhang Xun's braided army was extremely brave, the soldiers of the Eighth Division were also good at fighting. .When the attack was blocked, Zhang Xun didn't care about it, and continued to increase his offensive strength. He invested a battalion force at once, and decided to use firepower and crowds to knock out a gap and capture the position.

"Damn it! These braided soldiers are crazy!" Platoon leader Cao Wenlian stared at another wave of braided soldiers charging forward, raising his rifle and firing continuously.

"Platoon leader! We can't go on like this! Where's our cannon? Why don't we fire it?" Soldier Zhang Xiaochuan had already died, and his shoulder was rubbed by shrapnel during the frontal shelling, biting off a piece of flesh.It has only been an hour since the start of the war, and the opponent has launched two attacks, and there have been many casualties in the forward positions.

"The cannon is at the back, what's the hurry! When it's time to fire the cannon, it will of course fire! Follow me and beat me hard, and kill these braided soldiers!" Cao Wenlian cursed with wide eyes, hid in the trench and loaded himself with bullets, and continued to raise his body and shoot.

When Zhang Xun attacked, the artillery of the Eighth Division did not fire back. It was not that Fang Zida did not make arrangements.The Artillery Regiment of the Eighth Division is known as a regiment, but in fact there is only one battalion that can be put into battle.What's more, the terrain of Nanjing is different from other places. On the plains, Zhang Xun's cannons have a long range and great power. I am afraid that the artillery of the Eighth Division will be disabled after a few bombardments with them.Good steel should be used wisely. Zhang Xun's braided army is now in full swing, and head-to-head is not enough. Now rely on positional warfare to kill the opponent as much as possible, and wait until the time is right before giving the final blow.

The battles of this era, cannons, single-shot rifles, bayonets, trenches...these are the themes.The offensive side relies entirely on courage and human life to fill it in, and the same is true for the defensive side.The collision between flesh and blood can best reflect the cruelty and bloodiness of war. Under the successive attacks of the braided army like wolves and tigers, Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment couldn't stand it.

"Quick! Hurry up and fight them back!" Hearing the news that a position was breached by the enemy, Li Shimao grabbed his gun anxiously and led his men to rush over. After running for [-] meters, he saw a position near the north. Hundreds of soldiers were fighting in a group, while the braided soldiers surged towards the outside of the position, screaming and attacking here.

"Comrades! Come with me!" Holding a rifle with a bayonet attached, Li Shimao rushed to the front and stabbed into the braided soldier who was fighting with his own soldiers. He drew out his gun, and a stream of dirty blood sprayed him full face.Dodging the braided soldiers rushing towards him from the left, and another thrust after he dodges, Li Shimao shouted loudly: "Kill! Kill me! Kill his mother's braided soldiers!"

"Kill! Kill!"

You come and go, this position has changed hands several times, until the sunset, the attacking braided army slowly retreated.Li Shimao, who was almost exhausted, sat on the ground panting loudly, throwing the blood-stained rifle beside him.

"Captain, drink some water first."

Swallowing water, Li Shimao returned to the regiment headquarters, asked the ambulance soldiers to bandage the wound on his arm, and hurriedly asked about the battle situation.

"Head, good news, the Braided Army has sent us all back..."

"Who asked this, what I want is casualties! What are the casualties of our regiment?"

"Preliminary statistics show that our regiment killed 384 people, seriously injured 75 people, and slightly injured 205 people...." The staff reported sadly, but he raised his spirits again: "The braided army didn't ask for favors. There are more than 200 corpses on the army position, and it is estimated that there are no less than 800 casualties."

"What! There are so many casualties?" Li Shimao didn't seem to listen to the rest of the words. When he learned that the temporary 33rd regiment had nearly 700 casualties on the first day alone, Li Shimao's heart tightened.Zhang Xun's braided army's combat effectiveness was underestimated by him. He never expected that relying on the positions and trenches, he would have such a large number of casualties. On the surface, the two sides had a tie today, but in fact he suffered a big loss .