1890 King of Southeast Asia

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The commander-in-chief of the Korean Garrison Command opened his mouth wide, looking at the dust rising in the distance, muttering to himself, his face full of disbelief.

Just a minute ago, the dust was not a deep pit, but a 280mm siege howitzer position weighing ten tons.

This 280mm siege gun is a veteran. In history, it was not only active on both sides of the Russo-Japanese War, but later Japan sold it to the White Army. After the White Army lost, it was acquired and equipped by the Soviet Union.

Before the start of the Second War, these artillery pieces were deployed on the Soviet-German border, and were later captured by the German army, which also used them.

The 280mm heavy siege howitzer, with a barrel weight of 2 tons, a total weight of 26 tons, a caliber of 280 mm, fired 217 kg iron bullets, and a maximum range of 7,650 meters.

This was in the 1880s. Japan improved on the basis of the Italian 280mm heavy howitzer, introduced Italian technology, and finally succeeded in the late 19th century. It was originally used for coastal defense.

Later, during the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan besieged Vladivostok, the Russians used machine guns and rapid-fire artillery to teach them a lesson. They suffered heavy casualties and were unable to conquer the city, so they transferred the artillery from the coastal artillery and converted it into a siege howitzer.

It is worth mentioning that the original Italian artillery was also copied by Krupp and converted into a siege mortar.

The two types of artillery derived from the Italian 280mm heavy howitzer, except for the different rifling rotation directions, are basically the same in terms of shooting parameters, and even the shells can be used universally.

The cannon copied by Krupp was exported to the Russian Empire, about ten of them participated in the Russo-Japanese War.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's fuse technology was not up to standard, and duds would appear from time to time. After the Russian Empire's army had used up its own shells, it often picked up Japanese duds, replaced them with its own fuses, and then fired back.

It really got a hit, using the 280mm howitzer shells produced in Japan to destroy Japan's 280mm heavy howitzer.

"What is the Intelligence Department doing? Why didn't they know in advance such important information as the enemy's deployment of heavy artillery?" The commander of the garrison army, Hasegawa Yoshimichi, looked at the map in his hand and asked with difficulty.

The map in his hand was the "newest" map given to him by the Japanese Intelligence Department. Compared with the Qing-Japanese War period, it was a little blurry, but considering the impact of the change of dynasties, Hasegawa Yoshimichi was very pleased.

The map showed that the Chinese built three lines of defense in Jiuliancheng and the surrounding area, using a lot of reinforced concrete, each one stronger than the other.

Some machine gun firepower and artillery positions were also marked.

But if Hasegawa Yoshimichi went to Jiuliancheng in person, he would find that except for the fortifications on both sides of the road, many other fortifications did not exist at all.

This map was dictated by the Japanese Intelligence Department under great pressure, after they bribed many ordinary people to go around Jiuliancheng.

Not only was the error large, but many things were marked wrong, and even the key areas could not be outlined.

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For example, his 280mm heavy artillery was arranged according to the blind spot of the artillery on the bunker, but this bunker artillery only exists on his own map.

After avoiding the artillery of the bunker in the enemy's front position, his 280mm artillery was arranged behind a mound and reinforced the mound to prevent the enemy's light field artillery from moving and attacking.

In theory, everything should be fine. His 280mm siege artillery should knock down the bunkers carefully built by the Chinese one by one, and then the morale should be low and disintegrate.

But who knew that after just two shots, he was counterattacked by larger caliber artillery?

"General, this should be the power of the 305mm artillery. The artillery observed that dust appeared on a mountain eight kilometers away. It should be their artillery position." The chief of staff of the garrison army took the courage and stepped forward and said.

"Eight kilometers? Yoshi, where is it? Can the artillery counterattack? The enemy's heavy artillery must be destroyed." Hasegawa Yoshimichi nodded when he heard it.

Their 105mm cannon has a range of ten kilometers, so eight kilometers is still within reach. I believe that the Chinese will not deploy too many 305mm heavy artillery.

After all, China needs to defend more than just Jiuliancheng. This kind of large-caliber artillery should be placed in the south, around the estuary to prevent sea attacks.

"About two o'clock, on that hill." The chief of staff pointed to the blurred peak in the distance.

"Where?" Hasegawa Yoshimichi didn't see it clearly, but he subconsciously felt that something was wrong, so he took out the map and asked the chief of staff.

"It's probably this location, it should be this mountain..." As soon as he pointed it out on the map, the chief of staff also found something wrong.

"North of Jiuliancheng, about three kilometers, if it is really 305mm artillery, the area of ​​200 square kilometers will be directly controlled." Hasegawa Yoshimichi calmed down at this time and looked at the mountain in the distance.

Based on the estimated control area of ​​8 kilometers, Hasegawa Yoshimichi was not sure how far it was, let alone how far the gun could hit.

"Too high, a 10cm mm cannon can't hit so high at such a distance, and the Chinese must have strengthened their defenses for such an important place."

"Launch an attack from here, either destroy it from a long distance with stronger artillery, or push the front line to a position where the siege guns can reach with an absolute advantage in manpower."

Hasegawa Yoshimichi's voice was calm, as if he was discussing tactics with someone.

The chief of staff looked at him in horror, knowing Hasegawa Yoshimichi and what he wanted to do.

"Order, stop the attack, all retreat and defend, to prevent the Chinese from attacking."

"Hai!" The chief of staff sweated profusely, the next sentence might be the one he didn't want to see.

"Order! The 108th Division, the 112th Division, and the 117th Division, go north immediately, no mistakes!"

"From now on, the heavy artillery will stop firing, and from tomorrow, each division will send out a small unit to launch a tentative attack on the entire front."

"Damn intelligence department, send a telegram to the headquarters, and ask the intelligence department why the intelligence they gave us is incomplete."

"Execute the order!" Hasegawa Yoshimichi calmly threw down the map, turned around and left without a trace of nostalgia.

"Hai!" The chief of staff lowered his head deeply behind him, his forehead was already covered with sweat.

It is said that the Japanese attacked by surprise, but in fact, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan wrote a new infantry drill manual due to huge casualties, and changed the way of attacking by surprise.

However, Japan's improvement at this time was still very limited. Although it was changed to a group attack, the group was too dense and the formation was too large, not flexible.

But no matter how you look at it, it is much better than the pig-rush attack.

But because it was just implemented not long ago, only the active service was trained in this way, and the reserve was still playing the pig-rush attack.

Because they were afraid of too many casualties and thus affecting morale, and because of their trust in the intelligence department (Hasegawa Yoshimichi participated in the Japan-Qing War, at that time, he got clearer intelligence than the Qing Army generals.) So they chose to launch artillery attacks directly and push the front line over.

It's not that he didn't think about the danger, but according to the intelligence he got, the Chinese people's fortifications in the Jiuliancheng area were not very strong, and there were not many cannons.

He believed it, so he decisively pressed everything.

Why did the chief of staff look like this?

Because the mission of the Korean garrison was to enter the Chinese territory and put pressure on China at all costs in the shortest time.

There was no clear tactic, or even a clear strategy. They only asked the Korean garrison to enter. The 700,000 heavy troops, one-third of the Japanese Empire's military strength, was just a very vague tactic.

This very abnormal order let the chief of staff know that they were just bait, bait that could be sacrificed.

Moreover, the mainland would no longer provide any support other than supplies. This was what he heard from Hasegawa Yoshimichi's words.

Since there was no support, there was no way to talk about more powerful heavy artillery. If you want to make a breakthrough, there is only one way to choose - that pile of lives.

As long as the number of Japanese soldiers exceeds the speed at which the Chinese kill people, the front line will naturally move forward.

The chief of staff understood that the three special divisions named by Hasegawa Yoshimichi before leaving were prepared to consume the enemy with a weaker combat effectiveness.

Consume the enemy's energy and the enemy's bullets and shells.

If the enemy can't hold on first, then these divisions can still survive. If the enemy is very well prepared, these people probably can't return to Japan.

Knowing that it was impossible, they still sent tens of thousands of Japanese to die. This is why the chief of staff was shaking with cold sweat.

After all, they were not defending their homeland...

…………

On the afternoon of October 12, the Japanese army stopped the full-line attack and switched to a small-scale attack, trying to test and contain the Chinese.

On October 13 and 14, the Japanese army used multiple small units to test the Chinese firepower points. More than a thousand casualties in two days, and hundreds of firepower points were found.

On October 15, the Japanese army stopped testing. In the Jiuliancheng area, the Japanese army used 105mm cannons to hit the firepower points on the Jiuliancheng defense line from a distance.

Some firepower points collapsed and shattered after being hit by one shot, and some firepower points were pitted on the outside after being hit by more than a dozen shots.

If you look closely at the broken ones, you will find that except for the outer layer of cement paste, the inside is all sand and soil.

This is a camouflaged firepower point built by Huaxia. The main purpose is to deter and attract the Japanese army. Obviously, he did it.

It's just a pile of dirt and then a layer of cement. The cost should not be too cheap. Just let them do it during normal training. The most expensive thing is probably the half pound of cement?

And a 105mm cannon shell has risen to more than 30 US dollars at this time. It may not hit the target at a distance.

The Japanese bombarded for a few minutes, and the 32nd Division pulled out 152mm field guns and 152mm heavy cannons to counter the Japanese army.

The Japanese army was far away, at the edge of the range of China's 152mm howitzers. The accuracy at this distance was not very high, so no shells were wasted.

The artillery battle lasted for a long time. Of course, it was mainly Japan that was beaten unilaterally. In the end, Japan lost more than 20 105mm cannons, but also knocked down dozens of real firepower points.

At 2:30 pm on the 15th, the ground offensive began...

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