Time flew by during the intense military training, while Zhao Gang was still leading the civilian staff of the regiment, racking his brains to arrange the artistic performances.
Xu Gaoxiang's good news arrived first. In the regiment headquarters, Li Yunlong, who received Xu Gaoxiang's notice, laughed and ran out of the room.
"Hahahahaha, monk, monk, go and call the political commissar and Wang Chengzhu, our cannon is coming!"
Li Yunlong rode horseback and rushed to the outside of Baiwan Valley first. Zhao Gang, who was notified by the monk, also put down his work and joined Wang Chengzhu, who was leading the artillery battalion to come in a swarm, and rushed to the outside of Baiwan Valley together.
In order to facilitate the entry and exit of material personnel, after a period of expansion, the road conditions in Baiwanyu have improved a lot.
Compared with the last time Xu Gaoxiang used a truck to transport the mechanical equipment, there were no longer many bumps and bumps, and the road surface was much wider and smoother.
Therefore, when a truck loaded with artillery shells and propellant, with a cannon behind it, walked on the road, it was very stable and fast.
The speed of the truck was very fast. Li Yunlong's horseman had just run out of the mountain pass when he saw two trucks approaching.
Xu Gaoxiang, who was sitting in the cab of the truck, of course saw Li Yunlong and immediately stopped the convoy.
Li Yunlong jumped off his horse and shouted with a smile from a distance, "Brother, please let me, Old Li, wait! What I didn't say, you have to..."
Li Yunlong came to the truck, and before he could say a few words to Xu Gaoxiang, he was completely distracted by the howitzer being towed behind the truck, and he immediately got close to it.
"Hahaha, what a treasure!" Li Yunlong touched the thick muzzle with gleaming eyes, grinning from ear to ear.
Xu Gaoxiang followed him with a smile and watched Li Yunlong touching the howitzer curiously.
"Old Li, fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission. Two M2A1 105mm howitzers are delivered!"
Li Yunlong was so happy that he almost leaned on the howitzer and took a few bites.
"Brother, tell me quickly, how far can this cannon go? How powerful is it?!"
Xu Gaoxiang told Li Yunlong the general artillery data, "This is a light towed howitzer of the US Army, with a 22-fold barrel and a caliber of 105 mm!"
"The range is more than 11 kilometers. It uses semi-molded ammunition and M1 high-explosive bombs. The killing range is between 20-30 meters!"
"The maximum rate of fire is 16 rounds per minute!"
"The total weight of the howitzer is about 2,300 kilograms. Under normal circumstances, it needs to be towed by a truck. Under special circumstances, it can also be disassembled into parts and transported by a camel and horse cart!"
"As per the old rules, it comes with a base of two hundred and fifty rounds of artillery shells and their propellants, including one hundred and fifty rounds of conventional high-explosive rounds, and fifty rounds each of anti-armor high-explosive rounds and smoke grenades!"
Listening to Xu Gaoxiang's explanation, Li Yunlong became more and more excited. For a moment, his blood surged, and he wished he could pull the cannon and attack the county town now.
At this time, Zhao Gang and the people from the artillery camp behind him also rushed over.
Li Yunlong immediately greeted loudly, "Hahaha, Lao Zhao, Zhu Zhu, come and see our cannon!"
Of course, Zhao Gang would not leave others alone like Li Yunlong, "Xiao Xu, the road is still safe and you haven't encountered any unexpected situations, right?!"
"It's okay, it's been a smooth journey. Thank you Zhao Gang for your concern, haha." Xu Gaoxiang first greeted Zhao Gang cordially.
Then, Xu Gaoxiang deliberately turned his head and curled his lips and squinted at Li Yunlong, "Hey, it's not like a certain guy who cares about his cannon. I feel like my heart has been hurt."
Li Yunlong quickly made up for it, "Hey, Lao Li, wasn't I too impatient? It's not my fault, it's not my fault. I will make a toast to Brother Xu later to apologize!"
"It just so happened that our old Zhao also arranged a cultural performance, so Brother Xu stayed and had a lot of fun with us!"
The three of them were chatting here, and over there Wang Chengzhu was leading people from the artillery battalion to inspect the howitzer.
Although it was different from the cannons he had fired before, Wang Chengzhu quickly mastered the operation method of this howitzer after trying it like this.
A soldier on the side glanced at the inside of the cannon's muzzle excitedly and said, "Battalion Commander, the quality of this cannon is really good. It can definitely hit far and accurately!"
"Old Liu, help me and pull the gun mount away." Wang Chengzhu couldn't help but unload the gun directly from the truck.
Under the watch of the artillery battalion soldiers, Wang Chengzhu led a standard eight-man artillery crew and deployed the M2A2 105mm howitzer directly here.
Hearing the commotion, Li Yunlong didn't care to continue chatting with Xu Gaoxiang, and pulled Zhao Gang into the crowd.
In just a few minutes, under the manipulation of Wang Chengzhu and others, the howitzer had raised its barrel high and was ready to fire.
Li Yunlong was so happy to see that he was hunting, he immediately raised his head and looked into the distance, and soon fixed his gaze on a bare rocky mountaintop in the far distance.
Zhao Gang and Xu Gaoxiang immediately understood what Li Yunlong was thinking. They couldn't help but want to shoot a cannonball to see.
Being in the hinterland of the base, there was no fear of being discovered by the Japs, so Zhao Gang had no objection to Li Yunlong's idea.
Li Yunlong stretched out his thumb and gestured, "About five kilometers!"
Xu Gaoxiang was amused and pointed to the bed of the truck, "Haha, the shells and propellant are all on it, let's fire a few shots and see!"
Li Yunlong laughed, "Brother and Lao Zhao still understand me!"
Then, Li Yunlong shouted to Wang Chengzhu, pointing to the hilltop in the distance, "Zhuzhu, fire two shots to see, the target is that hilltop!"
With Li Yunlong's permission, Wang Chengzhu, whose hands had been itching for a long time, immediately climbed into the truck and brought down a box of shells and propellant.
With Li Yunlong, three people, and the artillery battalion soldiers watching, Wang Chengzhu kept shouting various coordinates and data, and he and the artillery crew continued to adjust the howitzer's firing angle and orientation.
The rest of the artillery crew quickly arranged the required propellant in the shell and installed the fuse of the shell.
As Wang Chengzhu finished aiming, he shouted, "Load!"
The gun crew pushed the assembled shell into the barrel and locked the breech.
"Reloading complete!"
After shouting, the artillery crew quickly retreated to prepare for loading the next shell.
Wang Chengzhu personally pulled the gun rope, no longer hesitated, and pulled hard.
"boom!"
The gun roared, and under the powerful recoil, the gun barrel slid backwards, and the shells roared towards the target hill.
In just ten seconds, a large flower of soil and gravel exploded on the exposed hilltop.
Through the telescope, Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang looked at the conspicuous irregular pit after the dirt and gravel fell. It must be at least two meters deep and three to four meters in diameter.
"Hahaha, okay! This power is really good!"
It can be said that as long as the little devil stays within ten meters of the explosion point, he will definitely die, and there is a high probability of being killed by fragments within twenty meters.
Xu Gaoxiang shook his head to relieve the buzzing in his ears, "How is it? Lao Li, are you satisfied?!"
Li Yunlong was extremely satisfied, "Brother Xu, I regret it. I should have asked you to get more cannons!"
Zhao Gang couldn't help but agree with these words. If he had known this, compared with the disadvantage of inconvenient transfer, it would be completely worth overcoming!
