The next day, 9 am.
Outside Yixing City in Huai Province, a troop was marching slowly on the vast plain.
These soldiers, wearing khaki military uniforms, were marching toward Changxing County, 13 kilometers away.
This was the vanguard force sent by Qi Lu, consisting of the 9th Zhi Division and four garrison brigades.
At this moment, under the leadership of Ma Mengjiang, they are preparing to launch a probing attack towards Changxing County.
Among them, the 9th Zhi Division is a direct unit of Qi Xieyuan, with a total of 15,000 soldiers. All soldiers are equipped with rifles. In addition, there are 40 Type 38 and Taisho 3-year-old heavy machine guns, and 8 Type 31 75mm mountain guns.
The picture shows the Taisho three-year-old heavy machine gun
Together with the four garrison brigades, the total number of this vanguard force reached 36,000.
However, the equipment of these garrison brigades is very poor. Most of the soldiers wear straw sandals, and there are basically no artillery and only a few heavy machine guns.
Ma Mengjiang was riding a horse in high spirits, looking calm and calm.
The deputy division commander Jin Tianxiong on the side had a frown on his face, and he couldn't help but ask after thinking over and over again:
"Master Majesty, what do you mean by General Qi letting his direct troops like us take the lead? Lu Yongxiang has 70,000 soldiers and horses. He is a tough guy. Logically speaking, shouldn't those cannon fodder garrison brigades be the vanguard?"
Ma Mengjiang chuckled, took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and lit it, "Old Jin, you have to know that Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Yu Province, although he claims to have 70,000 soldiers and horses, half of these soldiers and horses are After the Zhijiang-Anhui War, he was reduced to nothing more than a rotten fish."
"Remnant troops like this have incomparable combat effectiveness. The mountain artillery battery of our division can defeat them and take Changxing with just one round of shelling."
Hao Feng, chief of staff of the 29th Division, took the opportunity to take over the conversation and began to flatter Ma Mengjiang.
"Oh, Lao Jin, you said you could do it when you were startled. We, Master Master, said it would be okay."
"What's more, Lu Yongxiang's direct troops are mainly stationed in Hangcheng. There is only one garrison brigade in Changxing City. We now have more than 30,000 people. Can't we still win a garrison brigade of 5,000 people?"
At ten o'clock in the morning, the vanguard of more than 30,000 people marched slowly outside Trumpet Valley.
As the name suggests, Trumpet Valley is a valley surrounded by Hutou Ridge and Dachao Mountain.
The length of the valley is about five or six kilometers. Because the shape of the valley resembles a trumpet, it was named Trumpet Valley.
At this moment, Ma Mengjiang and the others were at the entrance to Trumpet Valley.
The entrance to Trumpet Valley looks quite wide, about two kilometers wide.
But anyone who has walked through it knows that the farther you go into the valley, the narrower it gets.
The mouth of the valley looks like a bloody mouth, as if it will eat people in the next second.
Jin Tianxiong felt a little uneasy in his heart and couldn't help but remind him:
"Master Ma, we are going to Changxing County through Trumpet Valley. Why don't we ask the soldiers to explore Hutou Ridge and Dachao Mountain first in case there is an ambush."
Ma Mengjiang glanced at his watch, with some impatient expression on his face, "Deputy Commander Jin, we just declared war on Lu Yongxiang yesterday. He didn't have time to send more troops to Changxing County. According to the intelligence, there is only one garrison brigade in Changxing County. How is this possible? If you have the guts, come out of the city to ambush us and order the troops to move forward."
After saying that, Ma Mengjiang swung his whip, slapped the horse on the butt, and took the lead in rushing towards Trumpet Valley.
…
On the tree-lined Hutou Ridge in Trumpet Valley, leafy shrubs and dwarf trees grow wildly, turning the entire mountain range into a sea of green.
Li Yuanjie, the commander of the second battalion of the teaching group, was huddled in the bushes, watching these guys directly enter the trap through the telescope, and couldn't help but laugh.
"Haha, you didn't even send troops to conduct reconnaissance, and you dared to walk in so arrogantly. It's true that there is a way to heaven but you don't take it, and there is no door to hell for you to break in."
You must know that there are currently nearly 6,000 people ambushed in Hutou Ridge and Dachao Mountain, most of whom are equipped with assault rifles and semi-automatic rifles.
Nearly two hundred MG42 general-purpose machine guns are dispersedly deployed in the central area of Trumpet Valley.
32 M19 60mm mortars, 18 M1943 120mm mortars, and 36 Browning M2HB heavy machine guns. These weapons are deployed at the entrance of Trumpet Valley due to their long range.
In addition to the 60 large-caliber howitzers on the rear artillery position, and the 50 M5A1 light tanks ambushed at the exit of Trumpet Valley.
This kind of formation means that Fuso's Class A division accidentally got into this ambush circle.
Haha, we can only walk in intact and send them out piece by piece.
At the same time, the six howitzer positions seven kilometers away were busy at the moment.
The engine of the M4 HST-18T crawler tractor roared, and thick black smoke came out of the exhaust pipe. It began to drag 60 heavy howitzers into the gun position.
Then the artilleryman removed the latch on the open-leg frame, separated the hoe with force, and then placed it in the hoe pit that had been dug.
The loader wielded a sledgehammer and began to pound the hoe nails to improve the stability of the artillery firing.
If the garrison hoe is not placed properly, the artillery barrel will deflect during the firing process, causing the artillery shell to be unable to accurately hit the target on the next shot.
The azimuth, high and low aiming hands began to install artillery sights and peripheral sights.
Unlike the 105mm howitzer's cartridge-warhead integrated ammunition, the 155mm howitzer generally uses separate ammunition because the warhead is too heavy, and the warhead and propellant are loaded separately.
M1A1 155mm howitzer and warhead
At this moment, there are 20 M44 warheads weighing 43 kilograms and cylindrical nitroglycerin propellant packs neatly stacked on the canvas.
Fuze and chargers were also busy installing fuzes on the shells and preparing propellant packs according to their division of labor.
Ten minutes later, the howitzers of the six artillery positions were all deployed and ready for shelling at any time.
The thick 155 mm 23.4 times caliber gun barrel is raised high, making people's hair stand on end looking at it from a distance.
"Attention all gun openers and openers, open the blockade!" Upon receiving the order, the openers quickly opened the breech safety, and then checked whether the firing mechanism could be reset.
At this moment, the artillery forward observation post hidden in Trumpet Valley in advance also sent coordinates, which proved that most of the enemy troops had entered the ambush circle.
The commander did not dare to delay, and quickly issued the command like a bell, "Attention to the height and position of each gun, aiming hand! Scale 235, datum to the right 056!"
"Attention No. 1 gun loaders and chargers! Test fire a high-explosive grenade, instant fuse, No. 3 propellant, prepare to load!"
After the order was issued, each gun sighter began to operate the height machine to adjust the artillery elevation, operated the direction machine to adjust the gun's shooting direction, and visually inspected the precision sight again.
The loader of the No. 1 gun used a long rammer to force the fuse-loaded warhead into the gun bore, forcing the warhead cartridge belt to engage with the positive wire in the gun bore.
Then the propellant package is loaded into the chamber, the screw-type breech is closed, and finally the primer is installed.
"Cannon No. 1, loading completed!"
"Ready ~ release!"
When the firing order is given, the gunner pulls the gun rope, and the firing pin fires the primer to ignite the explosive package.
"Boom!"
The powerful explosion generates a stream of gas in the barrel of the gun, pushing the warhead to rotate at high speed along the rifling, and fly out of the barrel at a speed of 564 meters per second.
