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"Young Marshal, it's already 6 o'clock and it will be dark in an hour. Should the bombing continue?" Fang Yue asked with a little concern.

In this Lancang River Campaign, Xu Le was responsible for the command along the Shanyang coast, while Fang Yue was responsible for the command along the Gongguo coast.

Xu Le thought for a moment and said, "How many shells have we fired today?"

"All the army's artillery with a caliber of 122 mm and above was used. Not counting the bombs dropped by the air force, about 800 shells were fired, and nearly 30 tons of ammunition exploded on the Japanese's -kilometer defense line along the coast."

Seeing Fang Yue's somewhat embarrassed expression, Xu Le asked in confusion: "Chief Staff Officer Fang, are you worried about something?"

Fang Yue handed the telescope to Xu Le and said, "Young Marshal, take a look first. According to intelligence, most of the main forces of the Japanese have been mobilized to Baoshan County, which is the west bank of the Lancang River, and have deployed multiple lines of defense!

But we bombarded them for a whole day. Regardless of the effectiveness of the bombing, the land on the opposite side was basically blown up several layers. The Japanese were not fools. Faced with such fierce bombardment, they must have made corresponding adjustments. If we continue to bombard them, the effect will be minimal.

Moreover, we are here to recover our homeland. The land across the way is our Tang Dynasty’s land, the foundation of our people’s survival.

If the bombing continues, I'm afraid this area will become a wasteland in the next few years!"

Xu Le paced around a few times and finally nodded heavily: "You are right. After all, this is our own land. We can't let it be destroyed by our own hands before we drive the Japanese away. It's getting dark soon and the vision is getting blurry. Let's take this opportunity to prepare to force a crossing of the Lancang River!"

"Okay!" Fang Yue immediately straightened his expression: "The 60th Army is ready, and the people in charge of logistics have also prepared dozens of rafts for the follow-up infantry to cross the river!"

Xu Le raised his hand and looked at his watch: "The time now is 6 o'clock, and the general attack is scheduled for one hour! Order the artillery battalions of each division to cease fire, and the artillery brigades to extend their trajectory and bomb deep into the enemy's territory!"

.....

Two miles east of Shanyang Town, the 2th Army has completely changed today. Except for Commander An, the Chief of Staff, and a few officers who are equipped with pistols, all other officers and soldiers only retain the MG60 general-purpose machine guns.

On average, 10 people are responsible for one machine gun, with one shooter firing, two assistant shooters changing the ammunition belt and barrel, and the rest are all ammunition handlers to ensure that the machine gun does not stop firing.

Chief of Staff Niu looked at the darkening sky and said, "Commander, it's going to be dark soon. Why hasn't the order to attack come yet? Are we not going to fight today? Now is the best opportunity!"

Commander An narrowed his eyes and snorted coldly: "You are the only one who talks too much. You are the only one who knows that now is a good time? The Xu family army is full of talented people, how could they not know how to seize the opportunity? We are now under the command of the young marshal, and we only need to wait for orders!"

The chief of staff scratched his head in embarrassment, then said with longing and excitement: "Commander, I used to think that our 60th Army was closer to Burma, and its equipment and ammunition were better than the rest of the National Guard. When it was fully established, it had more than 20 heavy machine guns. At that time, I thought our army's firepower was strong enough.

But until what I saw today, I realized that I have always been narrow-minded, and my vision is ridiculously narrow!

First we faced the Japs' incessant artillery fire, and then the dense barrage of bullets. I felt that we were nothing in front of the Japs!

And now? The artillery of Xu's army has not stopped for a whole day. We are far enough from the west bank of the Lancang River, about 15 kilometers away, and the artillery position of Xu's army is still a few kilometers behind us, and all the shells have been fired at the enemy's position.

Commander, don't blame me for my shallow knowledge. Even the British troops in Burma don't have cannons with such a long range!"

The corner of General An's mouth twitched slightly. If he was not the commander of the army, the highest officer in the army, he should have said what the chief of staff said.

Just to save face, he pretended to be calm.

After hearing what the chief of staff said, he immediately mocked: "I usually warn you not to underestimate yourself! As the saying goes, there are always people who are better than you. You are scared by this little scene. Do you deserve your rank of major general?

Let me tell you, yesterday I was invited by Young Marshal Xu to visit their artillery positions. In the past, you always thought that the Japanese artillery was good, and a 105mm caliber cannon would make you excited.

I tell you, in Xu's army, people don't even look down on small caliber rifles like 105mm, they don't even have one!"

The chief of staff scratched his head embarrassedly again. He didn't know if his head was really itchy, but it was true that he hadn't washed his hair for many days.

"Commander, a 105mm cannon can knock out a small bunker with one shot. Do the Xu family troops really not think highly of it?"

"Haha!" Commander An sneered, and said with a hint of pride: "So you don't have much experience, let me tell you, their smallest caliber is 122mm, and even this caliber is only one type of their regimental-level ground support firepower.

Their division-level suppression artillery is all 152mm. Let me tell you, the power is so great that our 60th Army’s current headquarters is big enough. It only takes one shot to turn our headquarters into ashes!"

Sisss.....

There were long hissing sounds all around, as if one had walked into a snake's den.

Commander An turned around and saw that there were dozens of people surrounding him!

"Commander, can you tell me more? What kind of cannons does Xu's army have?"

"Yes, tell me more. How many of the 152-caliber ones do Xu's army have?"

"Oh my goodness, the Japanese's support artillery is just the Type 75 infantry gun and the 105mm mountain gun, and the suppression artillery is nothing more than 120 caliber, at most 122 caliber. However, the caliber is only used as support firepower in Xu's army. This is a rich man!"

......

Seeing the atmosphere become like this, Commander An also became interested, so he took a sip of water and continued to explain:

“I haven’t seen all of their artillery formations, but I would guess that there are at least hundreds of 152-caliber guns alone, and they are all self-propelled guns!

Do you know what a self-propelled gun is? It's a cannon mounted on a vehicle, and it can be driven to any place to fire. It's not like us, where we had to find mules to pull our cannons. It was a lot of work!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was another round of sighs, including from the chief of staff, who all marveled at how awesome Xu's army was!

Seeing this, Commander An's mouth curled up even higher, as if those cannons all belonged to him.

"Let me tell you, the Xu family army also has a kind of rocket launcher. I have never heard of this kind of artillery. It can fire more than ten shells at the same time."

The chief of staff immediately pushed and pulled the commander's arm and said, "Come on, commander, you're the only one who's been to the Xu family army's camp, just tell us about it, there's nothing wrong with that!"

Commander An waved his hands, "I really don't know. I just looked at it from a distance. I don't know what the rocket launcher looks like!"

At this moment, a soldier hurried over, squeezed into the crowd with great effort, and shouted: "Report to the army commander, Commander Xu ordered all our troops to rush to the designated positions and prepare to force a crossing of the Lancang River!"

"Everyone, get ready for battle and rush to the battlefield as quickly as possible!"

Commander An slapped his thigh, then took the lead and rushed forward with a machine gun.