lcionline Chapter 233: Bombing the North and South Army Trenches
Chapter 233: Bombing the North and South Army Trenches
At the northern and southern army garrisons, the commanders of the 312th Division and the 73rd Division came to the headquarters.
The commander of the 312th Division said, "Commander Zheng, how should we arrange our troops to attack the Nanshan Army's position?"
"Commander Ma, let's each send two battalions to the position." The commander of the 73rd Division said after hesitating for a moment.
The 73rd Division had only 312 people, while the 73th Division had people. They had to rely on the other side when attacking, so the commander of the rd Division was relatively polite in his words.
He also didn't want to argue with the commander of the 312th Division, which would only make the other party unhappy, so he simply used the arrangement method of the 45th Division and the th Division.
The commander of the 312th Division nodded, thinking this was fair, and said, "Okay, this is how we'll arrange the first trench."
"While the troops are attacking, have the engineers speed up the digging of the horizontal trenches."
"Okay." The commander of the 73rd Division immediately gave orders to send two battalions and an engineering company into the trench.
At the Nanshan Army position, Wei Hanzhou couldn't help but smile when he saw the North-South coalition finally enter the trench: "These people are finally here, but unfortunately there are not many of them."
"The other side has deployed more than 2,000 people, which is not a small number." Seeing Wei Hanzhou looking dissatisfied, Xue He comforted him.
A standard battalion of the Northern and Southern armies had 500 people. If the Northern and Southern armies deployed four battalions, there would be 2,000 people in total. With the addition of two engineering companies, the total number of people was more than 2,300.
Wei Hanzhou was just complaining. Being able to cause harm to more than 2,000 people would only have this effect, even with a round of heavy artillery fire.
After entering the trenches, the soldiers of the Northern and Southern armies began to set up light and heavy machine guns and shoot at the Nanshan Army.
The heavy machine guns on the North-South Allied Forces' positions in the first line also began firing at the Nanshan Army's positions.
Xue He immediately ordered the Nanshan Army soldiers to open fire to suppress the firepower of the northern and southern armies. Under the attack of numerous general-purpose machine guns and the sniper's call, the northern and southern armies could only occasionally fight back.
At the same time, snipers also aimed at the Northern and Southern Allied Forces on the first line of defense. Whether it was the heavy machine gunners or the officers who appeared in the sight, they were all killed one by one.
Wei Hanzhou saw that the northern and southern armies had entered the position, so he ordered: "Xiao Zhang, prepare to detonate."
"Yes, Captain." The man named Xiao Zhang and another soldier immediately pressed the detonator to detonate the gunpowder.
"Boom, boom, boom."
Explosions occurred continuously in the trenches on the front lines of the Northern and Southern armies, countless people were blown away, and their limbs and arms were scattered everywhere.
Because the bomb was buried under the North-South Allied Forces, most of the more than 2,000 North-South Allied Forces were killed and most of the rest were seriously injured.
Wei Hanzhou was delighted when he saw this: "Great, this result is comparable to a heavy artillery bombardment."
"Thank you Captain Wei for your cooperation." Xue He was also very happy. Although the idea was his, he was also grateful for the cooperation of the special forces team.
The annihilation of nearly two thousand North-South coalition forces not only greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers on the battlefield, but also temporarily reduced the pressure on the defense.
Wei Hanzhou did not stay here for long. After saying goodbye to Xue He, he led the special forces team back to Xinyuan County to report the results of the battle to Fang Jian.
Seeing the explosion in the trench, the faces of the commanders of the 312th and 73rd divisions changed.
The commander of the 312th Division immediately shouted, "Come on, go and see what's going on."
The commander of the 312th Division was wary because he had no idea what was going on and did not send a large force into the trenches.
The Nanshan Army did not send soldiers to re-shoot the wounded in the trenches, after all, the trenches were not far from the opposite positions.
After several soldiers from the Southern Army's reconnaissance company conducted a reconnaissance, an officer from the reconnaissance company came to report: "Division Commander, the Southern Army has buried explosives in the position, and the situation just now was caused by the detonation of the explosives."
"What?" Upon hearing this reason, the faces of the commanders of the 312th and 73rd divisions turned very ugly.
The two looked at each other, and the commander of the 73rd Division said, "Commander Ma, the most urgent task is to send troops to rescue the wounded on the front line, and then attack the Nanshan Army position again."
The two divisions each sent a battalion into the position to collect the wounded in the trenches and clean up the battlefield.
As soldiers from the two battalions entered the trenches and began to carry the wounded, many of them stepped on the mines at the back of the trenches, causing a series of mine explosions.
"Send someone to check out what happened?" the commander of the 312th Division said angrily to the staff officer beside him.
The Nanshan Army detonated explosives, causing them to lose nearly two thousand men. When they were gathering the wounded, another explosion occurred, nearly driving the commander of the 312th Division crazy.
Adding the casualties from yesterday's attack, the two divisions had lost nearly 3,000 men. The point was, losing 3,000 men without achieving any results, how could he not be angry.
Soon the staff officer who went to investigate the situation finally came back. During this short period of time, several explosions occurred in the trench.
The soldiers who were collecting the wounded were all nervous, fearing that they would be the next.
The staff officer came to the commander of the 312th Division and reported: "Report to the commander, the trenches have been mined by the Nanshan Army."
"Good, good, good, these Nanshan troops really broadened my horizons." The commander of the 312th Division gritted his teeth. At this time, he had made up his mind to break through the opposite position.
"Commander Zheng, continue to send people to attack. The Nanshan Army's deployment proves that trench warfare is effective, otherwise they would not have deployed it this way."
From yesterday till now, they have suffered heavy casualties but have not achieved any results, and they have no way to explain to their superiors. In order to avoid being blamed, the best way is to capture the opposing position.
Thinking of this, the commander of the 73rd Division nodded slightly: "Okay."
The two men each sent two battalions into the trenches, continuing to dig trenches and collect the wounded on the one hand, and attacking the Nanshan Army positions on the other.
After a part of the people entered the position, they immediately fired at the Nanshan Army's position. The two sides fired at each other, and the North-South Allied Forces were completely suppressed.
When collecting the wounded and carrying stretchers back through the longitudinal trench, many people stepped on the mines in the longitudinal trench.
This scene made the commanders of the 73rd and 312th Divisions grit their teeth again.
The wounded and dead bodies were taken out of the trenches throughout the morning, and a new trench was dug. In the process, many lives were lost by the North-South Allied Forces.
During lunch, the two division commanders were very silent. The number of casualties in the morning made them feel heartbroken and sad.
After learning about the battle situation in the morning, the two commanders in the rear headquarters also looked very unhappy.
They didn't care about the number of casualties, but they cared about the fact that they hadn't made any progress in the whole morning. If they continued like this, they would never be able to defeat Xinyuan City.
After a long silence, Chang Yunxian said, "If this continues, things will inevitably change over time."
Now the northern and southern armies are only united on the surface, which is fine in the short term, but if it lasts longer, not to mention the problems of logistics and supply, Chang Yun will be worried about the top leaders of the northern government.
Wu Peisheng is not the real person in power in the Northern Government. If other ideas arise within the Northern Government, Chang Yunxian will be very passive.
After all, the main force of the Southern Army was tied up in Nanshan, and the seven southern provinces were like a piece of sweet cake in the eyes of the Northern government.