1890 King of Southeast Asia

On November 3, the Ottomans were still huddled in the barracks as usual, with only a few on-duty personnel in the trenches.

This is the norm on the border. After all, the two sides have always had material exchanges. The Ottoman soldiers on the front line could not imagine that the Chinese had no martial ethics, and the interval between the declaration of war and the official start of the war was less than an hour.

The Ottomans dared to relax so much because they built a complete trench system with the help of the Germans, the trench system of the Western Front.

In various important locations within more than 20 kilometers around the railway, the Ottomans built several large positions, and then connected them with trenches to form a comprehensive defense system covering hundreds of square kilometers.

All trenches were reinforced with logs or thick wooden boards, and firepower support points, front-line command posts, ammunition depots, etc. were reinforced with concrete.

The Ottomans also dug a lot of basements on the front line, the shallowest of which was less than 5 meters underground and connected to the trenches. Kitchens, ventilation, drainage, telephone lines and other facilities were all available. Soldiers lived here during the war.

Behind the second-line position are field hospitals, underground warehouses, headquarters, artillery positions, etc.

If this set of positions is placed in Europe, and two armies are put in to defend, and the attackers do not have super heavy artillery support such as the "Big Berta" that exceeds the specifications, they can only use human lives to wear down the defenders' material reserves.

Therefore, the Ottomans are very confident in this place, or they cannot be unsure. Throwing two armies here is all the strength the Ottomans can draw before the outbreak of the war.

After the completion of the position, the German advisory group of the Ottomans said that this position can at least stop the Chinese for 3 months, unless the Chinese can withstand 500,000 casualties and attack at all costs.

However, it seems that this is not the case now.

The 105mm field artillery shells fell, and the initial artillery fire basically did not affect the trench system, but with the continuous correction of the Chinese front-line artillery observers, the artillery fire soon became accurate.

The 19th Regiment gathered more than 70 armored vehicles and rushed quickly to the Ottoman Empire's first-line position. After the artillery bombardment knocked out several machine gun bunkers around, the empty first-line position could not stop the attack of the 19th Regiment at all. The armored vehicles quickly came to the barbed wire.

Wheeled armored vehicles cannot be directly pressed over, but armored vehicles are manned.

Tong Tong Tong~~

Smoke bombs flew out, emitting gray-black smoke, interfering with the remaining enemy's vision.

At the same time, more than a dozen groups of soldiers got off the armored vehicles, holding engineer pliers and cutting them, and then tied the interrupted wire with a rope, and the other end of the rope was connected to the car.

Ong! !

After tying it up, the armored vehicle engine roared, and the car suddenly backed up, pulling out the broken wire mesh and pulling out a gap.

The single process took no more than 1 minute, and the whole process did not exceed 3 minutes. Several large gaps had appeared in the barbed wire of the Ottoman first line.

More than 50 armored vehicles that did not participate in cutting the barbed wire rushed in along the gap and rushed straight to the trench 200 meters away.

Except for the 0-star rifle counterattack, the entire breakthrough process did not encounter any other resistance. The armored vehicles stopped at the edge of the trench, and the infantry got off the vehicles and quickly cleared the trench with grenades and shotguns.

Fifteen minutes after the start of the war, the trenches hundreds of meters wide on both sides of the railway were occupied by the 6th Army of the Chinese Empire. At this time, the Ottomans could not even react.

"Sandbags!"

"Planks, bring the planks."

"Doctor, someone is injured, be careful of the rats hiding in the hole!"

"Drive a car over to press it down and see if it can pass."

After occupying the trench, the soldiers moved towards the settlement next to the railway. There were not many soldiers there, but there were many people, and the road conditions were complicated. They only controlled it, not attacked it.

They have completed the first phase of the task, and now they need to reinforce the trenches again and build several bridges on the trenches for armored vehicles and trucks to pass through.

As for why they didn't walk along the railway when the railway was empty?

Woohoo~~

"Avoid the artillery!" The soldiers who were paving the road and building the bridge heard the sound, shouted and jumped into the trench.

boo!

boo!

boo! ...

A dozen shells fell, some of which were 150 caliber, but most of them were only 75 caliber.

The large-caliber artillery was aimed at the railway, smashing several holes on the railway and blowing up more than ten meters of rails.

The 75mm artillery was aimed at the surrounding area of ​​the railway, including the trenches that were close to it. Two shells fell directly into the trenches, and the screams of the soldiers could still be heard after the explosion.

boo! boo! boo...

The dust from the previous round of shelling had not yet settled, and a new round of shelling came again, but this round only had 75mm shells, probably because the 150mm shells had not been reloaded in time.

"Have these Ottomans already anticipated our goal?" Huang Zhengfang did not expect the counterattack to come so quickly.

Of course, it is normal for the Ottomans to counterattack, and it would be abnormal not to counterattack. However, Huang Zhengfang's unhesitating order to fire at the railway was out of his impression of the Ottomans.

But that was all. When the war started, Huang Zhengfang set his target on the enemy's trenches instead of attacking the railway.

If Huang Zhengfang arranged the defense, he would also use several cannons to aim at the railway line. The first is to prevent the enemy from using the railway line, and the second is to cause casualties to the enemy passing through the railway line.

This was originally a bait.

"The enemy's reaction is very decisive, but the more decisive they are, the more vulnerable they are now. There is no sign of the shelling extending to the two sides. I suggest that the 18th Regiment pass quickly and go to the second line." The chief of staff noticed that the earthen bridge built by the soldiers of the 19th Regiment was not attacked.

"The enemy is too anxious, which reveals a flaw. Let the 18th Regiment attack, and the 19th Regiment consolidate the position." Huang Zhengfang nodded.

The chief of staff 1 said that he also felt the problem of the Ottomans. The shelling came too fast and too decisively.

They received the news of the war when they were well prepared and had more communication equipment than the Ottomans, but the Ottomans responded immediately.

Huang Zhengfang did not believe that the Ottomans knew the news of the war in advance. It can be seen from the fact that the two wings of the trenches have not been attacked that the Ottomans are indeed unprepared.

When the 19th Regiment rushed up the trench, it was unknown whether the Ottomans had a company on the several kilometers of positions directly facing them.

Therefore, the chief of staff guessed that the bombardment was a decision made by some officers of the Ottoman Empire, and it was a decision made without the unified command structure.

Otherwise, now that the bombardment has stopped, the infantry should come up to retake the position, and the bombardment is too concentrated, concentrated on the railway and both sides, and has little impact outside this area. It does not look like offensive artillery preparation.

It is more like a defensive destruction bombardment of the railway according to the pre-set coordinates.

It is just too hasty. Normally, it should wait until the Chinese vehicles pass through the railway before bombarding, which can cause a lot of losses to the Chinese.

Now, it is just part of the railway that has been blown up, and only the rails and sleepers have been blown up. The roadbed is still there, and the well-prepared engineers can repair it two hours after the bombardment ends.

And the Ottoman Empire has also exposed the position of the artillery.

"Has the artillery found the coordinates of the enemy artillery?" Huang Zhengfang looked at the soldiers of the 18th Regiment who were quickly approaching the "bridge" on the trench and felt relieved.

"The heavy artillery is more than 5 kilometers behind the trench, and the small and medium-caliber artillery is 3 to 4 kilometers away, which is beyond the range of our artillery."

"The artillery is moving forward and is expected to counterattack in half an hour." The artillery staff replied.

"Half an hour is too long..." In half an hour, the enemy's artillery didn't know where to go.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz~~

Suddenly, a buzzing sound like a fly came from my ears, and the sound became louder and rougher.

"It's the Air Force's planes. Contact them and ask them to find the enemy's artillery positions. The artillery will fire a few rounds at the maximum range in the direction of the enemy's positions to scare the Ottomans and ask them to move their positions." Huang Zhengfang said happily.

"Oh my God, how many planes are there!" The chief of staff stuck his head out of the window and saw dozens of huge monsters flying in the sky.

For this operation, the Air Force dispatched the 1st to 4th Air Force Divisions, of which the 1st and 2nd Divisions' fighter-bombers and air superiority fighters were normally matched, with a total of more than 200 combat aircraft.

The 3rd and 4th Divisions are heavy bomber divisions, with 96 heavy bombers with 3 or 4 engines - many of which are not mass-produced and are used to fill the gap.

The production progress of heavy bombers is relatively slow because they are being improved at any time. Many prototypes cannot be mass-produced due to price, working hours, performance and other issues, but the prototypes can still be used after some modification.

In the first batch of attacks, 96 heavy bombers and dozens of fighter-bombers were dispatched to bomb transportation hubs, barracks, warehouses that have been explored, and headquarters and other departments.

"We have won this battle, let the engineers prepare to repair the railway." Huang Zhengfang observed the surroundings. The soldiers were staring at the planes in the sky, and some showed expressions of fear or confusion.

In the past, the Qing Empire and the Ottoman Empire had the same title - the sick man of Asia.

During the Nanhua government era, science was vigorously promoted and adult education was carried out. After the fall of the Qing Empire, the interim government also vigorously carried out universal education. Although the time was short and the effect was not obvious, the soldiers had gradually left the stage of ignorance.

At least, all soldiers, reserve soldiers, workers, etc. will receive education, including slides of airplanes, airships and other flying objects.

Soldiers who know about the existence of airplanes will be confused, panicked and frightened when they see their own airplanes, so what about the Ottomans who don't know about airplanes?

It's not that Huang Zhengfang looks down on the Ottoman Empire, but in Europe and the United States where airplanes are very popular, most people have never seen an airplane, especially the main component of soldiers - farmers.

"The road ahead is clear, we just need to capture prisoners." The chief of staff also nodded in agreement.

He has seen airplanes, but this is the first time he has seen a fleet of airplanes.

The feeling brought by a single airplane is far less intense than that of a fleet of airplanes.

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