The 280 mm caliber heavy howitzer was originally a coastal defense fortress defense heavy artillery in Liefeng, which was extremely bulky and weighed 50,000 pounds and fired 400 pounds of heavy artillery shells. In other words, this kind of artillery has no maneuverability.

When attacking Cangzhou, some people in Liefeng had already advocated using this heavy artillery to participate in the Cangzhou strategic battle, but this artillery could not be moved at will. It was dismantled and transported from the local fortress in Tokyo Bay to Lushunkou, and then installed on a re-slim cement base, which took a long time.

Therefore, Aishui Sanfeng refused with the body of the 280 heavy howitzer gun was too heavy and took too long. He forcibly removed six 280 heavy howitzers from the coastal defense fortress near Tokyo, and transported them to Cangzhou one day after the end of the first general attack and transferred them to the 11th Army for use.

The 11th Army was only willing to build a cannon base to conduct six test shots, but the effect was unexpectedly good, with a high hit rate and good destructive power to the fortifications. Even the carefully and slender semi-permanent fortifications of Liu Jun could not withstand such bombardment, and the permanent fortifications could only withstand several shells.

In this case, the base camp urgently searched the 280 heavy howitzers from Liefeng locals to send them to the front line, but for the Liefeng Army, the number of such 400-pound large shells is really short of. Aishui Sanhuang urgently called: "In this battle, the imperial kingdom is in full swing, please use the security shells from each fortress! In addition, it is expected that in the second attack, each cannon will be added to 300 shells, please give additional supplements!"

The North China Army and the South Manchu Army were helpless. Emperor Renxiao could only order the reduction of the 280 shells of the local fortresses, and ordered the arsenals to work overtime to rush to control it.

Today is the first time that the Liefeng Army has used this kind of artillery on a large scale on the battlefield. After the largest artillery on land is fired, it will make a sound similar to the howling of the train. It not only brings terrifying spiritual shock to people, but also reaches an amazing level of destructive power. The Liefeng people call this artillery "train bullets".

On that day, the Liefeng Army concentrated artillery and fired 60,000 shells, including 400 heavy artillery shells. More than a thousand bullets fell in the "Liuyi Fortress" alone. In some frontier positions, bunkers, trenches, chest walls, horse-rejecting horses and other fortifications were destroyed. The rear contact was also cut off in the rain of bullets. Liu Jun officers and soldiers recalled: "The enemy's train was really powerful. I saw a huge smoke pillar with sand and stones all over the sky suddenly rising like a big tree. Every few minutes, such a terrifying tree rose. Then we could hear the terrifying roar, but we were still stuck on it!"

The Liefeng Army's attack learned from the lessons of the last general attack. In addition to the fierce artillery preparations, the infantry also actively carried out civil engineering operations under the cover of the engineers. The tunnel responded to the Liujun fortifications at a speed of five meters a day and night, and the distance between the enemy fortifications on both sides was only a few dozen meters apart.

The artillery bombardment of the Liefeng people lasted for six hours. At 18:00 p.m., the Liefeng Army finally launched an assault. Under the cover of the artillery, their infantry jumped out and rushed towards the Liu Jun fortifications shrouded in smoke.

However, the Liefeng people were surprised to find that the Liu army was still standing on it. First, the Liu army artillery that had been lurking for a long time disrupted the Liefeng people's combat formation with grenades. The four-flying bullets made the Liefeng people scream and shout, and then the bullets shot towards them like raindrops. The first wave of the Liefeng army was quickly repelled. Shortly after the second wave began, the Liu army used carefully prepared huge rocks and rolling stones to knock the Liefeng army down.

Under the fierce firepower of the Liu army, I saw that the Liefeng Army was corpses everywhere in front of the position, and the remaining soldiers fled in panic. Even if they charge repeatedly, they could not make any progress. They often didn't even take down an inch of the position.

Before the second battalion of the 22nd Regiment of the 11th Division rushed into the "Weiping Fortress", it used gunpowder from the engineer squad to blew open the chest wall, and took advantage of the opportunity of the defenders being in chaos and rushed into the fortress, and once occupied a corner of the fortress. However, when the commander died in battle, a captain took the initiative to command it, all of them roared in. Before the Liefeng people began to expand the occupied area, they were wiped out in front of the snow-bright bayonet. Several teams of Liefeng troops attempted to attack from the back flank, and ended up being wiped out between the dense rain of gunfire.

The fate of the 101st Division was even more miserable. They carefully organized the 101th Regiment of the Engineers and the two squadrons of the subordinate independent engineers to forcibly build the bridge. As a result, when the troops rushed to the fire rain, they found that the trench was twelve meters wide and the bridge was too short to be built at all. The entire division was completely exposed, and they were killed and injured under the bombardment of dense artillery.

The most intense battle occurred in the "Fortress No. 66" in front of the "Tianshan Fort". A brigade of the Liefeng Army used blasting methods to open up the ground path along the engineers in advance to launch a charge from the front, and then two infantry squadrons also launched a sudden attack from the side. The Second Regiment of the Hu Bo Division of the Liu Army resisted stubbornly on the mountain and launched multiple counterattacks under the side food of Lieutenant Yun Zong. However, the Liefeng people had more and more troops. In the end, there were only more than 20 people in the position, including the wounded, and the troops that the Liefeng people rushed to the position reached more than two brigades.

At this critical moment, Ding Ning personally sent five infantry companies to arrive. The two sides fought on the position and forced the two brigades of the Liefeng Army to the field to withstand the rapid attack of artillery fire.

However, the Liefeng Army launched a charge again, but suffered heavy artillery fire and suffered huge casualties. One hour, the Liefeng people rushed to the position again, and the infantry forcibly rushed into the position through the outer trenches. The defenders immediately concentrated artillery fire to block the breakthrough, and then attacked the subsequent echelons to stop the Liefeng Army from developing in depth. At the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the Liefeng Army was not yet stable in its foothold and the subsequent echelons had not arrived, they launched a counterattack with two infantry companies to regain the frontier position.

The battle on the hills on the left wing was also fierce. The defenders suffered great casualties under the terrifying artillery fire preparation of the Liefeng Army. However, when the Liefeng Army rushed up, the defenders gathered all their troops to launch a bayonet charge, and drove the Liefeng Army down with the support of an infantry company of reinforcements. However, the Liefeng Army quickly mobilized two heavy artillery groups to launch a fire assault, and the surface positions were almost completely destroyed. Then the Liefeng Army used artillery fire to attack the top of the mountain in one fell swoop. After bloody hand-to-hand combat, it finally captured it. However, before they were sent back, the Liu army concentrated artillery fire to bombard it. The Liefeng Army suffered heavy casualties in the dense formation.

After occupying the hill, the Liefeng Army once again attacked Fort No. 66. Several infantry companies on the fortress actually suffered the attack from the entire brigade of the Liefeng Army. Although Ding Ning sent five infantry companies again, they were bombarded by the extremely dense artillery fire of the Liefeng Army, and reinforcements were sniped. After several fierce battles, the defenders only had more than 20 officers and soldiers left fort No. 66. After receiving the flag-tongued instructions from Ding Ning, they were forced to retreat.

Another goal of the Liefeng Army captured was the "Chenshan Fortress". The Liefeng Army captured the fortress the next day. However, it was quickly recaptured by the Liu army. The First Division personally supervised the battle, and finally captured it again after half a day of fierce fighting.

After capturing several key points, the Liefeng Army once again turned to attack the Tianshan Fortress, and two infantry brigades initiated the first and immediately repelled. Then the Liefeng Army assembled three infantry brigades at the foot of the Tianshan Fort.

After careful calculations by the Liefengren, this was a shooting dead corner area in Liu Jundi, and he was preparing to take advantage of the night to launch a decisive charge towards the Tianshan Fortress and capture the Tianshan Fortress in one fell swoop.

However, Meng Dingguo was extremely cunning and discovered the attempts of the Liefeng people in advance. He immediately drew two artillery battalions from Side Hebei, and after camouflage maneuvers, he quietly entered the artillery reserve position.

The Liefeng Army scheduled to launch a decisive charge at 21 o'clock. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Meng Dingguo personally directed the artillery bombardment, and a total of 61 rounds of ammunition were fired, all hitting the target. The three brigades of the 101th Infantry Division almost fell in a pool of blood.

The losses of the 101th Infantry Division were already extremely heavy. This time the shelling wiped out almost all the three infantry brigades that were pieced together. The commander of the Ito Division immediately asked Mitsuko Ai: "Commander, please decisively order the attack to be suspended!"

After three days of attack, although the 11th Army captured several key points, the troops had already suffered 11,000 casualties. Aishui Sanhuang felt that the troops were in great danger and needed to be replenished. Although the shells were reserved, they could not support artillery battles of this intensity.

Although Qianwang Shendu Zhongzuo once asked to launch another decisive charge, after hard thinking, Aishui Sangui finally ordered: "Stop the second general attack on the whole line!"

The Liefeng Army moved into close operation and carried out large-scale tunnel combat. Although the Liu army only suffered more than 3,200 casualties in this battle, its position was seriously damaged and its ammunition was consumed greatly. In addition to ordering various factories to work overtime, some ammunition can only be drawn from the strategic reserves.

The battle between the two sides was even more bloody. Both sides organized tunnels and anti-tunnel operations. The 101th Division finally exploded a tunnel. As a result, there were many people in the Liu army who were born in Shandong coal miners, who were specialized in tunnels and anti-tunnel operations. When they heard the sound of the work of the engineers, they immediately detonated the explosives arranged early and destroyed the tunnels on the 101th Division.

The Liefeng Army spent a lot of money and transported twelve 280 howitzers from the local area, plus the existing six, the total number reached as many as eighteen. At the same time, the captured Fengtian Arsenal was used to fully start construction and strategic reserves, giving the 11th Army four parts of ammunition.

At the same time, due to the inconvenience of command of the four-unit division, the Liefeng people adapted some divisions into three-unit divisions on the battlefield, and no longer had a brigade organization, but were under the division's "infantry commander" under the division's division's division's responsibilities were similar to those of the "infantry commander" who served as the "infantry commander" in the land.

In this case, a group of two-headed divisions were immediately expanded, and the special divisions were also completely organized. Although the later special divisions could only be organized in three-unit system, a group of three-headed guard divisions were added, the organization of these guard divisions generally did not have large-scale artillery and cavalry units.

In just one month, the Liefeng people expanded the number of infantry divisions to more than forty. Of course, the strength of the individual divisions has dropped significantly, but the Liefeng people can proudly declare: "Our millions of imperial troops are the strongest army in the world!"

Thanks to Albion, Cape provided a batch of military loans almost at the same time, and these ordnances and ammunition were mainly transported through Carthage's neutral merchant fleet, although Carthage is now also transporting military supplies to Liu Jingxiao.

The total number of two fleets reached twenty large merchant ships, and the entire Liefeng military industry expanded wildly, with the output reaching ten times that of the pre-war period. The equipment of the new division was much weaker than that of the regular division and the special division, so they barely collected all the equipment.

However, the Liefeng people are already working to expand the next batch of divisions. This division is completely prepared for combat in the rear-occupied areas. There is even no infantry gang system. Instead, it is directly under the brigades under its jurisdiction, and the entire division is only more than 10,000 yuan.

Liu Jingxiao fought in Cangzhou, but relied on the coalition forces of the seven provinces he commanded. In addition, only Taiwan Xiao Diji symbolically gave out a small number of troops. On Pinghan Road, Lu Ziyun's "Hebei Volunteer Alliance General Command" had nearly 50,000 newly reorganized miscellaneous troops, which were fighting hard with the Liefeng Army in Baoding.

Although Lu Ziyun's troops have a good morale, their training is average and their equipment is average. Lu Ziyun also specially asked Liu Jingxiao to send more troops, especially after the Liefeng Army sent a newly formed 32nd Division to Baoding, Lu Ziyun's pressure suddenly increased.

The troops under him were able to fully control the land, and there were only more than 10,000 people and two infantry battalions sent by Liu Jingxiao. In addition, although various miscellaneous brands were willing to obey Lu Ziyun's orders after being adapted, they were often unable to be transferred. For this reason, Lu Ziyun specifically asked Liu Jingxiao to add four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion to Pinghan Road, and at the same time asked to add 100 officers.

Cangzhou fought hard, and the Liu army was also seriously injured. Although it could recruit some military personnel on the spot, the consul still replenished supplies from the rear. Especially with the development of the war, the pressure on various provinces has become increasingly greater. So far, the seven provinces have sent a total of 240,000 troops and 60,000 troops with military personnel. However, this number is far from meeting the needs of the troops, and more troops have many shortages.

Therefore, it seems that there are not many Lu Ziyun's request for the four infantry battalions and another artillery battalion, but in fact it makes Liu Jingxiao heartbroken.

Liu Jingxiao's infantry battalion usually has more than 500 people, and the artillery battalion is also about 300 people. This is 1,800 officers and soldiers, plus 2,000 officers, which is enough to supplement the shortage of a division.

However, due to the important location of Pinghan Road, Liu Jingxiao finally gave six infantry battalions, two independent artillery battalions, and 200 company and platoon officers who had undergone emergency training.
Chapter completed!