"I'm talking about Qiu Fan, why is there no movement from the Jinsui Army?"
After seeing the shelling, the Jinsui Army made no further moves. Zhao Gang asked Li Qiufan in confusion.
"I guess they just want to test our firepower. They can't be the ones calling us to get up."
Li Qiufan took a bite of the sweet potato in his hand and replied to Zhao Gang.
On the Jinsui Army side, after Wang Tiansheng returned to the temporary command post, he directly called all the commanders of the units over.
"This group of Eighth Route Army soldiers has something, you can't underestimate them!"
Wang Tiansheng's tone was very serious, and his expression was very serious as he warned these generals.
Everyone agreed after hearing this. It could be seen from the artillery fire just now that this group of Eighth Route Army was not the Tubal Army in their impression.
"Order, the Third Army and the Sixth Army will attack the Eighth Route Army from the front in twenty minutes."
"The 36th Army and the newly formed 19th Army are responsible for the flank attack, and the artillery brigade is responsible for artillery support."
"Now that we're here, let's test how powerful the Eighth Route Army is!"
Wang Tiansheng directly issued the order to attack. This time the Jinsui Army came with a total of five armies plus an artillery brigade.
At this time, Wang Tiansheng directly sent four armies to attack, leaving only one army to take charge.
This also shows that he attaches great importance to Li Qiufan's department. If there are too few people, it will simply be a tactic to add fuel to the fire.
After receiving the order, the four armies responsible for the attack began to mobilize, which was also discovered by Li Qiufan who was observing them.
"Send a message to each division immediately. The enemy is about to launch an attack. Let them prepare!"
Li Qiufan did not expect that the other party would not move but would mobilize nearly 80,000 people. This really put pressure on him.
"Tell Li Xiping to have his garrison men prepared and ready to support at any time!"
Li Qiufan was a little worried and asked someone to give Li Xiping a heads up. He was really afraid that any position would not be able to withstand the pressure from such a fierce attack.
While Li Qiufan was issuing orders, the Jinsui Army on the opposite side had also arrived at the designated position.
The Third Army and the Sixth Army, which were responsible for the frontal attack, directly dispatched three divisions with more than 20,000 troops to charge against the First and Second Divisions.
At the same time that the Jinsui Army began to charge, the artillery brigade responsible for artillery support also took action.
Countless artillery shells began to pour towards the positions of the First and Second Divisions, covering the charging Jinsui Army soldiers.
"Send a report to the heavy artillery brigade and ask them to suppress the enemy's offensive edge for me!"
Seeing the artillery bombardment starting on the opposite side, Li Qiufan also gave an order to the heavy artillery brigade to suppress the charging Jinsui Army with fire.
After receiving the order, Lao Ma immediately opened fire, but still did not use the cannon and howitzer.
The charging Jinsui Army was covered by fierce artillery fire, and was suppressed directly and miserable.
Several Jinsui Army division commanders could only be helpless and furious when they saw the overwhelming artillery shells. They really couldn't figure out where the Eighth Route Army came from such strong firepower.
The first wave of charges were suppressed before they could reach the position. Everyone in the Jinsui Army looked a little ugly.
On Li Qiufan's side, the cadres who came to study showed shock after seeing such a powerful firepower configuration.
Although they had been shocked by the strength of Li Qiufan's troops once before, they thought it was just a large number of people.
But after a round of artillery fire, this firepower configuration directly caused everyone to break through the defense. Is this still the Eighth Route Army?
"Qiu Fan, Lao Ma's artillery fire is really good. He didn't even let the Jinsui army rush to the position before he hit them back!"
Seeing that the Jinsui Army's charge was repelled, Zhao Gang excitedly said to Li Qiufan.
"Don't be too happy too early. This is just a tentative attack. You will be sad later!"
Li Qiufan shook his head at Zhao Gang. He hadn't started exerting his strength yet. It was too early to be happy now.
The Jinsui Army who charged frontally was repulsed, but the flanks became lively.
The 36th Army and the newly formed 19th Army, which were responsible for attacking both sides, sent half of their troops to attack the positions of the 3rd and 4th Divisions.
The two sides were fighting back and forth, and for a while it was even more lively than the front battlefield.
After Wang Tiansheng saw the situation on the battlefields everywhere, he immediately issued new orders.
Order the Third Army and the Sixth Army to launch an all-out attack to draw the attention of the Eighth Route Army, and then open up the situation from the flank battlefield.
The army he left behind before was the Second Army, an elite unit of the Shanxi-Sui Army. The weapons and equipment equipped by the entire army were unmatched by other units.
Moreover, the soldiers of the Second Army were basically veterans who had participated in the Anti-Japanese War, soldiers who had survived hundreds of battles at the hands of the Japanese.
This is also a trump card in Wang Tiansheng's hand, giving him a trump card for confidence.
After receiving Wang Tiansheng's order, the Third Army and the Sixth Army began to organize the second round of attack.
This time the two armies dispatched most of their troops, a total of more than 30,000 people, and began to charge towards the Eighth Route Army's positions.
Li Qiufan frowned when he saw this scene. He didn't expect that the other party would start attacking with all his strength.
This operation of the Jinsui Army made Li Qiufan wary, always feeling that the other party was planning something.
But nothing could be seen at this moment, so Li Qiufan could only use troops to cover up the water and earth.
After the full-scale attack began on the frontal battlefield, the artillery focus of both the enemy and ours shifted, which suddenly left the flanks without artillery support.
Seeing that the Eighth Route Army's attention was attracted, Wang Tiansheng immediately asked the Second Army to send two divisions to the left wing, and cooperated with the newly formed 19th Army to launch an attack on Li Qiufan's Fourth Division.
This sudden addition of new troops doubled the pressure on the Fourth Division. Moreover, these newly added Jinsui troops were different from the previous ones and had rich battlefield experience.
Suddenly, the fourth division was directly charged into the position by the opponent, and the front line position was captured in an instant.
Since the Fourth Division was established the latest, and its soldiers were all surrendered from the original Shanxi-Sui Army, its combat effectiveness is also the weakest.
After encountering the elite unit of the Second Army of the Jinsui Army, the entire defense line was directly torn apart.
The commander of the Fourth Division, Zheng Yuan, was once a general of the Shanxi-Sui Army. When he saw this scene, he immediately understood something and hurriedly asked the telegraph operator to send a telegram asking for help to Li Qiufan.
After receiving the telegram from the Fourth Division, Li Qiufan immediately understood the other party's intention and cursed a few times with an ugly face.
"Go and notify Li Xiping immediately and ask him to lead the garrison division to support the Fourth Division's position. Hurry!"
Li Qiufan frowned. The telegram sent to him by Zheng Yuan expressed his suspicion that it was the elite troops of the Jinsui Army who attacked the Fourth Division's position.
"Send a report to the heavy artillery brigade and tell Lao Ma to stop hiding and let him concentrate all the artillery fire on me to push back the Shanxi-Sui Army in front!"
Now that the other party has shown his sword, Li Qiufan no longer needs to hide it.
