Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

In the trenches, as the smoke gradually became thinner, the Fuso soldiers raised their rifles or used the bayonets on the muzzles to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the First Army soldiers, or directly fired back. As the vanguard assault team, the First Army soldiers took out the M1897 pump-action shotguns from their backs. The shotgun, known as the trench sweeper, had been the nightmare of soldiers stationed in trench positions as early as World War I. The powerful automatic shotgun could often shoot the enemy in front of them into a sieve with one shot.

On the battlefield, shouts of killing rang out one after another, accompanied by the smoke and flames of war, and fierce gunshots that sounded like popping beans. The Fuso Kwantung Army was retreating step by step under the offensive like a tiger descending from the mountain.

At the rear of the battlefield, Okada Yasushi, who had been paying attention to the battlefield situation, clenched his fists, his expression was distorted, and veins bulged on his cheeks. Even though his side had the advantage on the defense, they were once again turned around by Su Zhengyang's First Army and their tricky and unexpected tactics.

"Sato! Pass my order down, have all artillery units open fire at the trench positions occupied by the enemy and carry out indiscriminate fire coverage!"

Behind Okada Yasushi, a Japanese colonel in green officer uniform frowned and said, "Commander Okada, we have more than three regiments of soldiers still fighting with the enemy in the trenches. If we open fire directly, I'm afraid our brave warriors of the Kwantung Army will also be affected."

Okada Yasushi grabbed Sato's collar in anger and said viciously: "You have no right to question my orders! Do you understand? If we don't stop the enemy, once they gain a foothold, they will gradually erode our manpower and advance layer by layer. Once Crane City is lost, we will all be sinners of the Kwantung Army!"

"Ha! I understand, Commander."

As Okada Yasushi's order was issued, the three artillery positions hidden behind the trench positions began to converge towards the soldiers of the First Army and opened fire in several positions that had absolute advantages. Deafening roars of artillery fire and explosions rang out one after another.

Several soldiers of the First Army were blown away by the 105MM howitzer that exploded not far away, and fell in a pool of blood.

As a large number of artillery shells came overwhelmingly, the First Army suffered heavy casualties. At the same time, the Fuso soldiers who were fighting with the First Army soldiers in the trenches were also affected. A large number of Fuso soldiers were blown to pieces by the sudden explosion of artillery shells. Until their death, they could not understand why they died under the artillery fire of their own people.

On the hillside of the main peak of Qinghualing, Su Zhengyang stood in the cold wind, observing the situation on the battlefield with a telescope.

"Fuso is already in a desperate situation. They don't even care about the lives of their own soldiers and directly launch an indiscriminate heavy fire bombing."

"Immediately provide the coordinates of the enemy artillery position to Hata and have him launch a long-range rocket strike back immediately!"

"Yes, Commander!"

At this time, on the trench position occupied by the First Army, the commanders on the front battlefield found the large bunker built by Fuso at the end of the trench position, and hurriedly called on their soldiers to give up the entanglement with the Fuso soldiers and hide in the bunker to temporarily avoid the enemy's artillery bombardment.

Two consecutive rounds of indiscriminate bombing by hundreds of artillery pieces on the Fuso side caused serious losses to the First Army. The commanders headed by Liu Chengxu did not expect that the Fuso side would be so cruel and completely disregard the lives and safety of their soldiers.

"The damned Japs are completely crazy!"

"Immediately let our artillery unit launch a counterattack, and at the same time report the situation to the commander and request long-range fire support from the rocket battalion!"

Five minutes later, a large number of rockets took off, dragging long tails of flames, and whistled towards the area where the Fuso artillery positions were located.

At this time, Okada Yasushi was already completely immersed in the joy of inflicting huge losses on the First Army, but he forgot that once his own artillery positions were exposed, the rocket launchers of the Northern Expedition Corps would be able to eliminate Fuso's convenient artillery positions.

A total of thirty or forty rockets fell in the Fuso No. 150 artillery position area, and continuous explosions were heard. Hundreds of artillery pieces of different calibers were instantly blown into a pile of broken parts under the huge power of the MM rockets. The soldiers of the Fuso artillery unit who were still firing at the trench positions in the front were blown to the ground. In just a few breaths, at least hundreds of people were killed in the rocket explosions.

After destroying the enemy's No. 1 artillery position, under Hata's command, five Katyusha self-propelled rocket launchers aimed at Fuso's No. 2 artillery position.

In terms of range, the Katyusha rocket launcher completely defeated the Fuso artillery cluster. In addition, most of their artillery positions were located behind the trench positions, about one kilometer away, so they were not afraid that large numbers of rockets would accidentally injure their own people.

In less than fifteen minutes, on the Fuso side, artillery positions No. 1 to 5 were eliminated one after another, and thousands of artillerymen and nearly a thousand artillery pieces were killed by the indiscriminate coverage of rockets.

Okada Yasushi wiped the sweat from his forehead. At this stage of the battle, Fuso actually had no better way to defend. Their individual combat capability and equipment were inferior to the enemy, and even their long-range firepower was completely crushed by the enemy. How should they fight this battle?

"Brothers! The Japanese artillery position has been taken out! Follow me! Kill these bastards!"

In the bunker at the front line, a young man in a major's uniform yelled, took the lead with an MP38 submachine gun, and launched a frantic attack on the remaining enemy troops in the trenches outside the bunker.

The battle lasted for four hours, and more than half of Fuso's frontline positions were lost. Under the threat of long-range fire from rocket launchers, the remaining artillery units did not dare to open fire easily. Once their positions were exposed, they would be covered by long-range fire. With the mobility of heavy artillery, they had no time to move their positions.

Fuso had an extremely frustrating fight in this battle. After completely occupying most of the front-line positions, the artillery units of the First Army also deployed their troops. Artillery and mortars of various calibers began to launch a continuous ground-washing bombardment at Fuso's remaining positions.

Especially the 203MM-caliber Thor's Hammer. The huge shell hit one of the bunkers in the Fuso trench position, and it collapsed the bunker that had withstood countless shells. More than Fuso soldiers hiding in it were completely buried alive under the ruins...

"Commander, according to the current situation, it will take at most one day to completely break through the Fuso Kwantung Army's defensive position in front of Crane City. As long as we take Crane City and annihilate the five major divisions stationed here, and the hundreds of thousands of Fuso fresh troops, we will be able to advance all the way to Liaodong City, the capital of Hakushu, with unstoppable force!"

Zhou Weiguo, who was standing behind Su Zhengyang, expressed his opinion. From his point of view, whether in terms of combat capability, firepower configuration, or the level of advanced equipment, the Northwest Revolutionary Army had already completely crushed the Fuso Kwantung Army. The defeat of the Kwantung Army was only a matter of time.