Fang Zida, dressed in military uniform, arrived at the preset position. According to the order of the division headquarters, the three lines of defense on the front line were almost completed. The middle and lower-level officers of the 8th Division were all graduates of the military academy, and their basic military level was much higher than that of Fang Zida, a half-assed deputy division commander who became a monk by the way.

, walking around the position and seeing that all the work was done in an orderly manner, he couldn't help but sigh that the military quality of the Eighth Division was indeed very strong.

Stationed on the first line of defense are Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment and Zhang Huafu's 30th regiment and one battalion. The predecessor of Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment was the Lin Hu ** regiment. Although the ** regiment was split and reorganized by Fang Zida, the overall structure

Still there, after adjusting and replenishing the personnel, its combat effectiveness has not dropped much, and this time it is Zhang Xun's braided army that is fighting. The temporary 33rd regiment took the initiative to ask for a fight. After consideration, Fang Zida agreed to Li Shimao's request and transferred one of the 30th regiment.

The battalion was placed under the unified command of Li Shimao, who was appointed as the frontline commander.

Li Jun's 29th Regiment, Zhang Huafu's 30th Regiment were on the second line of defense, and He Sui's 32nd Regiment and the 8th Cavalry Regiment were the general reserve to guard the last line of defense, which was the city of Nanjing.

This arrangement was quite satisfactory. After listening to the opinions of his staff and discussing with everyone, Fang Zida finally chose this most secure posture to respond to the enemy. This was his first battle after taking office as the deputy commander of the Eighth Division, and it was also a significant one.

In the battle, Fang Zida, who knew his military level well, would not be so blindly arrogant that he would engage in tricks such as risking his troops, interfering with the movement, and achieving the greatest victory at the lowest cost. Fang Zida still had this self-knowledge.

The war was just around the corner. According to reconnaissance reports, Zhang Xun's forwards had arrived in Yizheng, and it was expected that the two armies would be in contact tomorrow morning. At the last moment, Fang Zida had to be cautious and went to the front line in person, accompanied by brigade commander Huang Kaiyuan.

"Deputy Commander Fang, Brigadier Huang!"

Upon learning of the arrival of Fang Zida and others, frontline commander Li Shimao hurried over.

"Captain Li, thank you for your hard work." After returning a less than standard military salute, Fang Zida smiled and pointed at the heated battlefield and said: "Captain Li is indeed the tiger general of our eighth division. He prepared like this in just one day.

It was indeed right to entrust you with the temporary 33rd regiment."

"Haha, that's right!" Li Shimao was very proud and said with a smile: "Don't forget that I, Old Li, first studied the Army in Japan, and then entered the artillery department of the Japanese Military Academy. In terms of this level, I am not the best.

, the entire Eighth Division is ranked among the top three, not counting the number one."

"I'm talking about Quan Sun, why are you gasping for breath after being called fat? If this battle doesn't go well, Deputy Commander Fang won't be polite to you!" Huang Kaiyuan joked from the side. Huang Kaiyuan and Fang Zida have been walking around very much in recent days.

Recently, although Huang Kaiyuan's fighting skills were worse than Fang Zida's, he was a well-rounded and observant man. Although he had a high position in the Eighth Division, he actually didn't have much military power in his hands. Fang Zida used it very smoothly. After several times, Huang Kaiyuan also

After understanding Fang Zida's attitude, he positioned himself as Fang Zida's foil. After going back and forth, the two formed a tacit understanding.

"Please rest assured, Deputy Commander Fang, I have temporarily organized the 33rd Regiment, no matter whether Zhang Xun comes or not!" Li Shimao stood up straight and said loudly: "To be honest, Deputy Commander Fang, Brigadier Huang, if you want to attack other troops, I will

Li Shimao didn't dare to speak big words, but when he hit this piece of honor, everyone in our regiment was holding their breath."

Understanding the meaning of Li Shimao's words, Fang Zida patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him a few words, and then continued to inspect the position accompanied by him. After walking around, Fang Zida suddenly found that something was wrong with the position. He stopped and took a closer look, and couldn't help but frown.

He raised his eyebrows.

"Deputy Commander Fang?" Huang Kaiyuan was keenly aware of Fang Zida's changes and asked doubtfully.

Looking at the dug trench, Fang Zida asked: "Captain Li, what's going on with this trench?"

"What's wrong? Deputy Commander Fang, what's the problem?" Li Shimao looked in the direction of his finger and asked strangely.

Pointing to the straight trench, Fang Zida asked: "Such a shape? Is there no problem?"

"Shape? The shape is correct!" Li Shimao was confused by the question. Even Huang Kaiyuan didn't see the problem after looking at it for a long time. The two of them looked at Fang Zida in confusion.

"That's right?" Fang Zida asked a few more questions. After confirming again, he realized that Li Shimao's trenches were indeed dug according to the textbook, and there was nothing wrong at all. What's more, when he studied military affairs in Japan, the instructor also taught him this way, so when Fang Zida

When Da pointed out that there was a problem with the straight trenches, he even wondered if Fang Zida was deliberately making trouble?

"Damn Japanese kid!" The question came to his mind, and Fang Zida quickly understood why this was the case. He smiled bitterly and asked Li Shimao what would happen if a stray bomb fell into the trench when the opponent attacked. Li Shimao was the one who

The artillery regiment commander's expression changed drastically when he thought about it for a moment, and he immediately understood what was going on.

"How could this happen? Did... we learn something wrong in Japan?" With a different expression in his anxious look, Li Shimao hurriedly asked someone to stop and asked Fang Zida for advice. Fang Zida didn't hide his secrets either.

Li Shimao told him about the Chinese-shaped trenches and required all defensive positions to dig trenches in this way. After receiving the order, Li Shimao hurriedly made arrangements.

"Deputy Commander Fang, I didn't expect you to be really good at fighting! I admire you! I admire you!" When leaving the position, Huang Kaiyuan raised his thumbs and praised. Fang Zida just shook his head modestly and did not explain much. But he was secretly thinking in his heart.

Sigh, it's a good thing that I came here. If I hadn't discovered this problem, the casualties would have been huge in a fight.

Fortunately, the trench incident was discovered early, and after resting overnight, the position was finally completed before dawn the next day. When the front line reported at around ten o'clock the next morning, Zhang Xun's troops finally arrived.

The aggressive commander Zhang Xun led his troops to approach Nanjing. When he ran into the first line of defense of the Eighth Division, he was not surprised. On the contrary, Zhang Xun was so excited that he stopped the forward to monitor the Eighth Division and waited until all the follow-up troops arrived at noon.

After gathering together, they launched a fierce attack.

Zhang Xun led more than 6,000 troops when he went south. In addition, more than 1,000 troops were transferred from his hometown after capturing Xuzhou, and the total force reached 7,000. He went south with great momentum and plundered a lot of property. The morale of the officers and soldiers was high, and Zhang Xun's troops were strong.

I simply looked down on the Eighth Division in front of me. After setting up a formation, I fired a burst of artillery fire. Before the smoke cleared, hundreds of braided troops rushed up.

For a time, the front line was full of gunfire, and the fighting was extremely fierce. Although Zhang Xun's braided army was extremely brave, the soldiers of the 8th Division were also good at fighting. Moreover, they had the position to rely on, and they were beaten back after several consecutive attacks.

.The attack was blocked, Zhang Xun didn't care, and continued to increase the intensity of the attack. He immediately invested a battalion of troops and decided to use firepower and a sea of ​​people to create a gap and capture the position.

"Damn it! These braided soldiers are all crazy!" Platoon leader Cao Wenlian stared at another wave of braided soldiers charging towards them, raising the rifle in his hand and firing continuously.

"Platoon leader! This can't go on like this! Where is our cannon? Why don't you fire?" Soldier Zhang Xiaochuan has already lost his temper. During the shelling, his shoulder was grazed by shrapnel and bit off a piece of flesh. The war has only begun so far.

In the past hour, the opponent launched two attacks, and there were already many casualties in the forward positions.

"The cannon is at the back, why are you so anxious! When it comes time to fire, it will naturally fire! Follow me and beat hard and kill these braided soldiers!" Cao Wenlian glared and cursed, hiding in the trench filled with bullets, and continued to raise his body to shoot.

When Zhang Xun attacked, the artillery of the Eighth Division did not fire back. It was not that Fang Zida had not made arrangements. The artillery regiment of the Eighth Division was called a regiment, but in fact only one battalion could be put into battle. What's more, the terrain of Nanjing and other places

Different, in the plain area, Zhang Xun's cannons have a long range and are powerful. If they fight against them, the artillery of the 8th Division will be disabled within a few hits. Good steel should be used on the blade, and Zhang Xun's braided army is now in full swing.

Since head-on confrontation is not enough, we now rely on positional warfare to wear down the opponent as much as possible, and wait until the time is right to strike the final blow.

The battles of this era, artillery, single-shot rifles, bayonets, trenches...these are the themes. The offensive side completely relies on courage and human lives to fill it, and the same is true for the defensive side. The collision between flesh and blood is the best expression of

The war was cruel and bloody, and Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment was unable to withstand the continuous attacks of the Braid Army like wolves and tigers.

"Hurry! Fight them back quickly!" Hearing the news that a position was broken through by the enemy, Li Shimao was so anxious that he grabbed his gun and rushed over with his men. After running a hundred meters, he saw a position to the north.

Hundreds of soldiers are fighting in a group, and the braided soldiers rushing from the outside of the position are shouting and attacking here.

"Comrades! Come with me!" Li Shimao rushed to the front with a rifle with a bayonet and stabbed the braided soldier who was fighting with his own soldiers. He pulled out his gun and sprayed him with blood.

With his face full, he avoided the braided soldier rushing towards him from the left, and another thrust came after him. Li Shimao shouted loudly: "Kill! Kill it for me! Kill the fucking braided soldier!"

"Kill! Kill!"

You came and I came, and this position changed hands several times. It was not until the sun set that the attacking braided army slowly retreated. Li Shimao, who was almost out of strength, sat on the ground and gasped loudly, with his blood-stained rifle thrown beside him.

"Captain, please drink some water first."

Drinking a gulp of water, Li Shimao returned to the regiment headquarters, asked the ambulance soldiers to bandage the wound on his arm, and asked urgently about the situation of the battle.

"Captain, good news, the braided army has fought back all of us..."

"Who is asking this? What I want is casualties! What are the casualties of our regiment?"

"Preliminary statistics show that our regiment has 384 killed, 75 seriously injured, and 205 lightly injured..." the staff officer reported sadly, but he regained his energy and said: "The Braided Army didn't ask for a favor, just left behind us.

There were more than 200 corpses on the military position, and the casualties were estimated to be no less than 800."

"What! Are there so many casualties?" He didn't seem to listen to what was said behind him. When he learned that the temporary 33rd regiment had suffered nearly 700 casualties on the first day alone, Li Shimao felt nervous. The combat effectiveness of Zhang Xun's braided army was underestimated by him.

He never thought that relying on the position and the trenches, he would suffer such heavy casualties. On the surface, the two sides had a tie today, but in fact, he suffered a big loss.
Chapter completed!