Canteen System Assistance Notes

Although he successfully earned the golden "Zhu Laozong Shooter" skill badge after changing his gun and won a place in the military sub-district shooting competition, he was obviously not satisfied with the gun that could only fire 6.5mm "copper-headed lead bullets".

He was losing interest. He filled in "artillery" on his application form; at least he had to get involved with some large-caliber equipment.

However, the assistant instructor he had known before suggested that if he really wanted to do something "big", he might as well study communications.

Communications, communications, communications...

So, now Guo Shun was climbing the water-eroded slopes of the Loess Plateau. His company headquarters had split up, with one group led by Captain Hammer heading deeper into the area, while the other was heading to the artillery observation group.

He parked his bicycle at the bottom of the ditch and carried the radio on his back. To be honest, this new radio was already very light and only one person could carry it. However, as a "Zhu Laozong Shooter" with great marksmanship, Guo Shun was always reluctant to part with it.

He insisted on carrying that precious "Winchester M70" on his back.

This customized "three-line caliber" precision hunting rifle can shoot a distance of one and a half miles away when used with a 6x hunting scope! It is said that after carrying the radio, this thing must be handed back and replaced with a lighter short rifle. Guo Shun

肯。

So, no matter how strong he was, he had to succeed. The comrade in front of him had a small whiteboard on his back with climbing lines, wind roses, and trigonometric transformation formulas drawn on it. He no longer had the mood to read it and just used his hands and feet to climb up.

But suddenly, he felt a lightness on his back. Guo Shun turned around and saw a dark-skinned scholar appear. He took the spare battery pack from the radio's backpack and put it on his shoulder.

“Instructor!”

"Hey, keep climbing. Now that you're at the Artillery Observation Depot, just learn from those instructors!" Lei Zhende pushed him. "We're going to get the first Artillery Observation Depot armband in our regiment, and we're waiting for you to pass the exam."

Ten days had passed since the Nationalist Army launched a full-scale offensive against the border region, accusing the Eighth Route Army of "not engaging in resistance, roaming around without fighting, and instead causing chaos in the countryside and persecuting the gentry." As a telegraph operator and sharpshooter, and a trainee striving to become an artillery observer, Guo Shun had heard the urgent appeals and stern warnings broadcast on the Fushi Xinhua Broadcasting Station several times, and had intercepted several Nationalist Army "victory telegrams."

For example, "Our army attacked 23 Eighth Route Army bunkers today, killing 945 Eighth Route Army soldiers, and made rapid progress." Another example is "The Red Bandits fled in a panic, leaving behind 236 rifles and countless ammunition." The numbers are both zero and whole, and it seems to be true.

Anyway, victory is not exaggerated. Guo Shun finally climbed to the top of the dirt field. Over there, the artillery reconnaissance team that had arrived earlier was setting up equipment with several soldiers from the reconnaissance row. In just over ten minutes, they had dug out several standing pits that could accommodate the artillery observation team's equipment.

A noisy beeping sound was heard, and a light lit up on the small screen on Guo Shun's chest. He pressed a button and activated the "one-click deciphering of KMT telegrams" function. Soon, a message appeared.

"Our army has launched a fierce attack on the Red Army's strong positions on the front line."

Oh!

Guo Shun crouched on the hilltop, lowered his radio, and readied his rifle. But peering through the scope, in the early morning sun, the Nationalist army's blue-gray uniforms looked like damp quilts, thick and heavy. They must have just finished breakfast and hadn't even deployed into attack formation yet. They were marching toward the campsite, like giant caterpillars.

How can this be called "a fierce attack has been launched"?

"Which unit is that down there?"

The instructor also lay down. He pulled Guo Shun's display screen over, glanced at the decoded message on it, and asked, "We are about to open fire, so we have to know who is on the other side.

"The 28th Division of the 0th Army, formerly the Hunan Army, just finished restructuring and was assigned to Hu Baoan's side, and they're here right now. The division commander is that Li Mengbi, a member of the Whampoa Military Academy class!" The artillery observer nearby turned the handle, raising the rabbit-ear-shaped artillery telescope and the bamboo-shaped one-meter rangefinder, then covered them with khaki camouflage netting. "I don't know why, but the 1st Division, which was leading the way, has gone back, and been replaced by some 8th Division. We've been waiting for days in vain."

"Not quite. Look, over there, next to the fire room where they burn wood, that thing covered in a gun jacket, that should be a cannon, right? Looking at the barrel, I think it can't be the 28th Division's own cannon, it must be the artillery company left behind by the 1st Division!"

The artillery observation position had been established, along with the angle-measuring gun scopes, rangefinders, and imagers, as well as the telephone lines to the rear guidance radio. Aside from a few men from company headquarters, the entire platoon of soldiers spread out around the perimeter, forming a loose perimeter. The Nationalist troops at the foot of the mountain had not posted sentries to the higher ground beyond, but rather a few single posts at the foot of the mountain, leaving the reconnaissance platoon empty-handed.

The army that was crawling forward was divided into two parts. One part continued to move forward and began to slowly expand, launching an attack on our positions a few kilometers away; while the other part began to advance to the place where the original troops started, and the officers began to organize the troops, probably to prepare to go to support if the front line failed to break through.

After all, the entire battlefield was only about 800 meters wide, with the Beiluo River running through its middle. The Nationalist Army's entire division was like a long sausage, trapped in this earthen ditch. If it weren't for the winter dry season, when the Beiluo River could be waded across, the Nationalist Army's formation would have been stretched to the size of chicken intestines.

one-one-one-one-one-one

Some of the Nationalist mortars were also slowly deployed on the riverbank, forming an 82mm mortar array. The formation was quite regular, but the speed was terrible. As for the three barreled guns covered in gun casings, they had not even begun to be unloaded and deployed at this point. The gun observers were shaking their heads, wondering what a mess it was.

“距离1250;方位125，折密位20-83又20分;高程负003。"负责测距的炮观员从目镜上退下来，报出了一组数据。

"My distance is 1000... That's off by a quarter." Guo Shun squinted his eyes, estimated it himself, and tried to use the proportional ruler to measure the distance to the target. The accuracy of ranging is not only the guarantee of accurate shooting, but also the reliance of artillery fire. It is a skill he needs to practice hard. However, compared with the one-meter machine with strong ranging capabilities of the artillery observers, the Warner Switch on his gun, which was from 20 years ago, even with a 6-fold magnification distance, and with the addition of scales and nitrogen flushing by the Fushi Optical Factory, it is difficult to see things more than one kilometer away.

"It's okay, take your time. Try it a few times and you'll get more and more accurate." Guo Shun comforted himself, "Anyway, this fire stick in my hand can't hit far. This thing is just a telescope." He turned his head slightly and glanced at the artillery observation radio at the back of the slope.

Over there, several artillery observers were working on a map, plotting their positions. Based on the enemy's positional information and using trigonometric calculations, they sent back information about the area the artillery needed to hit. Since they had relatively ample time, they would immediately set several predetermined targets and calculate the information.

Guo Shun knew that this was not the end - according to the artillery textbooks, at a location 16 miles away from his current position, the artillery commander there would convert this position data into actual artillery operation elements, and ultimately assign these elements to the flying warhead to hit the corresponding area.

Then comes the artillery cycle of calibration, damage assessment, and feedback, until the enemy is engulfed in flames or is attacked themselves instead of retreating.

Well...after being attacked, Guo Shun started searching the national army below and finally came to the conclusion: At present, he is very safe and there is no problem.

As the sun rose higher, the Nationalist troops at the foot of the mountain were still slowly carrying out their work - the second unit that looked to be at the regimental level was finally released from its camping state and was slowly marching towards the front line; and in the still overcrowded camp, the third unit that looked to be at the regimental level began to form up, and the fourth was loosely distributed to both sides of the Beiluo River, and began to dig the soil on the spot with some tools.

At this time, the sound of gunfire finally began to be heard from the left side of Guo Shun and his men, that is, the north of the battlefield.

The battle finally began.

The Nationalist troops at the foot of the mountain were in turmoil, but under the suppression of the officers, they quickly returned to normal. Perhaps, in their understanding, this place was more than six miles away from the battlefield, and they had artillery support, so they were naturally safe.

After all, the National Army was able to take artillery shells while marching in formation 3 kilometers in front of the Japanese army in the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, and suffered heavy losses as soon as the encounter started. The experience of the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan was accumulated by 1944, and they had not learned enough lessons to enable the marching division-level units to have a 5-kilometer situational awareness capability. What's more, it was 1940 now. The 82mm mortars on the north side of the battlefield finally began to slowly fire ammunition at our positions, and those field guns covered with gun covers and mounted on large carts did not finally begin to unload the carts and dig hoes until the fighting on the front battlefield started.

Finally, after watching this slow sword technique for an unknown period of time, the artillery observation team that Guo Shun was in finally got the signal they wanted.

A string of codes came over the unmonitorable frequency band, in a way that was impossible to monitor. The gunner pressed the earpiece on his ear, adjusted the microphone hanging from his throat, and announced the first set of orders. "All battalion, prepare to fire! Exposed personnel! Airburst grenades, time fuse, timer 18.3, charge 3!"

"Take the parameters of the temporary 001 marker, add 3 to the scale, 0-30 to the left, all battalion, six rounds of rapid fire, fire!"

Chapter 274: February Incident (3) Air-blasting Pyrotechnics

Chapter 274: February Incident (3) Air-blasting Pyrotechnics

The 25-pounder was a terrible cannon. Its semi-fixed cartridge design meant that this thing, with an actual caliber of only more than 80 mm, had a charge adjustment process similar to that of large-caliber artillery, making it difficult to fully utilize the rapid-fire advantage of its semi-automatic gun port. At the same time, the British came up with an extremely terrible red, blue, and white three-color propellant bag design. During combat, artillerymen were only allowed to extract different colored propellant bags from the sealed cartridges to achieve the required amount of propellant.

However, this is a very good fool-proof design. Distinguishing colors is much simpler than counting numbers. Even Indian artillerymen can play with the 25-pounder very well under the guidance of individual artillery officers.

Even so, before the Eighth Route Army completed its metricization of the 25-pounder, this transitional artillery piece dominated the country. Apart from the two Japanese cannons and the Nationalist Army's German 150mm gun, its maximum range of 13.5 kilometers (Vickers mount version) and burst rate of fire of up to 12 rounds per minute allowed it to pour sufficient effective firepower into the target area within a minute, creating a devastating rain of bullets and suppressing a large number of mountain artillery pieces.

Especially now, when the 12 25-pound guns from the front command fired 72 shells at the 28th Division of the 90th Army of the National Army in 40 seconds without any test firing, the explosion was like a storm, shattering not only the tranquility of the morning, but also the hearts of many people.

-------one

Guo Shun had heard the whistling of artillery shells, but he basically heard it in the military sub-district.

The sound of the old-fashioned mountain cannon is duller, like an old man with leaky teeth whistling; the sound of the 75mm M1 mountain cannon is sharper, like holding a leaf in the mouth and blowing out a long flute-like note; and the sound of the mortar is like the feeling of the fluffy feathers on the wings of the flying birds in memory passing through the air.

What reached his ears now was more like the terrifying howling of a strong wind blowing through a cave.

About five minutes after the artillery observation team reported the data, a sharp whistling sound came from north to south, like a bitter winter north wind, sweeping south from the high-pressure air mass of Siberia. It passed over the ridges and earth of the Loess Plateau, pierced through the cold sunlight and air, and smashed down on the heads of the massed Nationalist troops.

Boom, the shell exploded in the air.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of smoke streaks burst out from the center of the explosion like angry hedgehogs from the black and red explosion fireball. They were like a summer afternoon thunderstorm, splashing down on the gray and black sea of ​​people, and raising a black and red dust cloud on the ground.

That's not just soil, it's blood!

As vicious as a cannon, they even use airburst grenades!

The 25-pound airburst grenade wasn't the later-day grenade, loaded with steel arrows and capable of raining down a torrential downpour of steel. It was simply a conventional grenade with a time-delay fuse, allowing it to explode mid-air. Yet, the extended lethality of the airburst was still vividly demonstrated by the laws of physics: the cascading, irregular fragments, like a fine net, gently scooped through the pond of Nationalist troops, each time easily sifting through dozens of lives. One, two, three, four rounds... In this raging storm of iron and steel, the density of personnel was meaningless; the iron law of probability governed the division between life and death.

By the time the six rapid rounds of fire were over, the smoke-filled Yangzhuang River had become a brutal slaughterhouse. All the screams and wails that hadn't yet been uttered were shrouded in dust and blood mist, and there was an eerie silence for several seconds. The next moment, the surviving Nationalist soldiers erupted in terrifying cries and began to flee towards any place that seemed free of the enemy!

According to the original plan, our army was to lure at least three regiments of the Kuomintang's First Army into the valley north of the Yangzhuang River and south of the Huijia River. Then, using high-intensity firepower and infantry assaults, we would completely annihilate this arrogant "Number One Division in the World." Afterwards, we would unwaveringly attack the Kuomintang troops wherever they could, constantly encircling and annihilating any lagging units.

However, a dozen days ago, Chiang Kai-shek, unwilling to pursue another "capture Chiang" campaign, pulled this unit back and replaced it with the 28th Division of the 90th Army, originally in the second echelon. This weakened the entire KMT offensive. The deployment became one of frontal defense with a reinforced battalion using semi-permanent fortifications, while other units moved deep behind enemy lines, forming a larger encirclement that would completely absorb the KMT's attack on the West Extension Highway.

Of course, it would be best if the National Army continued to add fuel to the fire according to their traditional skills during the Long March. This would be the best.

However, the 28th Division at the foot of the mountain was actually collapsed by this round of artillery fire - they suffered nearly 600 casualties in this round of rapid fire. After losing the suppression and control of the officers, the remnants of the Nationalist Army simply abandoned the brothers of the two regiments in front of them and fled madly to the south.

This is too much! The duck has just been put into the pot, how can you escape?

The artillery observation team on the mound immediately called for a second round of blocking fire, extending the impact point 800 meters south, intending to stop the Kuomintang troops in the small village of Yangzhuang River. However, the Kuomintang troops' mobility was truly terrifying when fleeing. In the short five or six minutes of artillery fire reaction time, although many people instinctively gathered together and disappeared in the explosion, many of them completed the 800-meter obstacle course, waded across the ice-covered Beiluo River, and fled for their lives along the same route they had come.

The sound of gunfire and artillery began to be heard from the valley on the north side, which was much more intense than before. Our other troops began to encircle and annihilate more than two regiments of Kuomintang troops on the front line.

Including the Kuomintang troops wiped out in the artillery bombardment, the 28th Division had lost more than three regiments of its troops here. The remaining troops that escaped were really harmless - this was already a very successful annihilation battle.

But the only problem was that the 28th Division, which was at the forefront, was quickly destroyed in less than an hour. Would this lead to a complete retreat of the Nationalist Army? If the remaining two divisions, one cavalry division, and several security brigades of the Nationalist Army were determined to turn around and run, and then gathered together on the north side of the Guanzhong Plain, it would be very troublesome if a fight broke out.

Guo Shun began to tense up. He tried to suppress the urge to fire down the mountain and looked at the instructor lying on the side. Just now, he had reported the situation down the mountain to the company commander and division headquarters. The artillery commander had also described the current damage and the Kuomintang troops' escape.

Instructor Lei Zhende was seen reloading his empty pistol magazine. Other soldiers around him were also checking their gear and weapons, pulling out grenades and reloading them. Yes, if necessary, the reconnaissance platoon can still fight...

In our platoon, there are three light machine guns; because of the bicycles, everyone has plenty of ammunition, and the amount of grenades they carry is far more than that of the average unit.

Although we only have one platoon, at this critical moment,

Stabbing the fleeing soldiers on the opposite side can also have a great effect!

Why are you nervous?! Didn't I even stop a whole brigade of the Japanese?

Guo Shun gritted his teeth, pulled the bolt, and checked his M7O and the other equipment he was carrying, making sure his weapons were in perfect condition and ready for action. When the time came, he would aim at the officers and machine gunners and fire. Anyone who dared to poke their head out would be killed!

However, Guo Shun's battle preparation was destined to be in vain.

The radio station behind them quickly brought two messages. The first was a new order drafted by the division headquarters based on the order from the front command, instructing the entire artillery observation team not to open fire and remain hidden. They only needed to report the position of the national army in a timely manner and cut off the several regiments that had been surrounded. They should not intercept the fleeing soldiers and waste combat power.

At the same time, have the artillery observation team quickly contact Wang Tiechui's reconnaissance company!

Guo Shun turned over, flipped open the display on his chest, pressed the button on the top, and scrolled down to a message. Sure enough, it was from Captain Wang Tiechui, the company commander. The words were brief, the message clear. He extended the foldable antenna, pointed it in the direction the company commander was running, and quickly connected to the other party's voice.

"Coke Cola, this is Sprite, please reply if you get it!"

"Roger that, Sprite! Give the 'cap' to Mirinda!"

Chapter 275: February Incident (4)

As a bicycle reconnaissance company in the division reconnaissance battalion, Wang Tiechui's radio equipment can be described as luxurious.

At a time when most field army units could only equip companies with radios, his company headquarters had two "integrated stations that could send short messages", allowing voice calls and the sending of digital telegrams; and each of the three infantry platoons and the firepower platoon had a "voice station", which could communicate with the company headquarters' voice radio within a range of 5 kilometers.

The "Mirinda" artillery observation team they were given was equipped with an "advanced station" that could set up an antenna, capable of sending messages and voice within a range of 50 kilometers. It could even use the "slow scan TV mode" to send 720p grayscale photos for damage assessment. Of course, it might take five or six minutes to transmit a picture.

If nothing else, hackrf is awesome.

However, this also brought a big problem to the Eighth Route Army, which had just been regularized. If the reconnaissance company wanted to call for an artillery attack, and the division headquarters' artillery fire was temporarily out of reach and needed coordination from the front command, if Wang Tiechui wanted to communicate using traditional means of communication, then he would need to use his own radio to contact the division headquarters first, and then the division headquarters would forward the information to the front command, and then the front command would forward it to the artillery command unit, and finally the artillery command unit would conduct the shooting. Of course, this still required Tiechui and his men to provide the data for the artillery attack.

This means that once long-range artillery is separated from its own direct artillery reconnaissance and artillery command to provide fire support to other units, it will take at least half an hour to move around - although this is the normal reaction speed of long-range artillery in World War II, it is really slow for the highly mobile and flexible Eighth Route Army.

How can we open up the chain of command with enough radio stations, compress the response time of artillery fire to an acceptable range, or even compress the reaction delay of the command system to a sufficiently low level?

In the pro-communist dimension, obtaining new equipment is much easier than in history, but obtaining new ideas and putting them into practice is not easy.

After consulting numerous sources and consulting with a certain comrade, the Central Committee began its own experiment in this area. This was no easy task. In addition to modifying the hardware, it also required reshaping the thinking of many people. However, as a learning-oriented military, they were keenly aware of one point:

Once you cross this hurdle, there will be an extremely vast new world.

-―-—-—-—

As "Cola", Wang Tiechui led the remaining two platoons of the reconnaissance company to the east of the battlefield. After crossing the flat loess mountains, he and the reconnaissance platoon 2 *Bingfeng* were squatting on a hilltop, looking at the village called Longshou at the foot of the mountain, while the reconnaissance platoon 3 "Taigang" had already taken position on the protruding ridge on the other side.

His original mission was to lead the entire "Pepsi" field regiment, which had been flanking from behind, to strike hard at the center of the Nationalist army advancing along the river valley road. On this section of the Xiyan Highway, eight regiments from the Nationalist 28th and 8th Divisions were spread out in front and behind—or, to put it in actual terms, five regiments: the eight regiments listed on the books totaled four regiments' strength.

As the source of "northern goods," the commercial sector's intelligence system could provide a piece of information that even the Nationalist generals could not obtain: their vacancy rate. After all, by simply performing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations on the food purchased by the Nationalist army, the food distributed, and the food resold, the transportation and commerce departments could roughly calculate the Nationalist army's actual food consumption. By adding approximately 2% to the result (because the Nationalist army's per-person quota was too small), the approximate full-strength rate of the Nationalist army could be obtained.

However, as a joke during the Republic of China era, a more accurate estimate of the number of Nationalist troops actually came from another part of the Eighth Route Army's commercial system: the Yongchang Department Store, which primarily dealt in the cloth and garment trade. As for the reason, they counted the number of old men's pants bought and resold by the Nationalist troops, and thus obtained the number of Nationalist troops accurate to ten digits.

Wang Tiechui naturally didn't know these details, but he still wanted to complete the task with the least casualties: there was nothing wrong with making a detour and then hitting the middle of the country, but which specific node of the National Army to hit was a place that could be fine-tuned.

He decided to destroy the national army's command center.

The Nationalist army's radio stations weren't even fully distributed down to the regimental level, and all of them were conventional, constant-amplitude radios. During offensive operations, almost all orders were relayed by signalmen. Once divisional headquarters were destroyed, the remaining Nationalist troops would become a swarm of erratic, thermodynamically moving troops, spontaneously gathering into groups that could be easily captured.

This was the experience he summed up during the battle of Shanchengbao, which he heard from his old platoon leader Wu Jin.

Therefore, the small village in front of him with two sets of wire antennas must be the headquarters of the National Army.

The National Army has no habit or experience of hiding antennas. Compared with the series of high-gain, small-sized omnidirectional or directional antennas developed in the border areas, their antenna scale is very

It is so big that it often needs to be lifted up with bamboo poles.

A clothesline that only humans can use.

The two antennas are far apart, obviously not just one radio station, so there are probably two division headquarters here.

However, Wang Tiechui couldn't just charge down - as the national army in Guanzhong area, Hu Qinzhai's direct line, even if they were not the "direct line of the direct line", they also had their own privileges.

That is to recruit "replenishing soldiers" for a battalion or regiment unit outside the regular staff.

These "supplementary units" that the division commanders need to pay for themselves are in a sense the private soldiers of the superiors. They are well fed, fully armed, and have strong combat effectiveness.

It is not appropriate to force a charge.

He decided to wait until the main force of the regiment arrived before launching the attack.

But at this moment, a new piece of news came - just now, their own Mirinda led a round of artillery fire, and the effect was too good. In one round, the combat power of an entire regiment of the National Army was directly wiped out, and the death was tragic, and even the National Army in front began to flee.

No wonder there was a commotion on the eastern battlefield after the artillery fire! Something has changed!

Coke! This is Taigang. "Reconnaissance Platoon 3, Taigang" is squatting on a ridge further east called West Songtou, with an even better view to the east. The platoon leader over there called into the Hammer frequency band, "I've seen fleeing Kuomintang soldiers over here! They're coming from the east, three kilometers away from the headquarters!"