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

"Send a telegram to Xing Jun of the 122nd Brigade right now. I've been waiting here for six hours. Even if it's just a waste of time, the reinforcements should be here by now. Ask Xing Jun what the hell he's doing."

"What did the 79th Division say?"

"Reporting to the division commander, Commander Yuan of the 79th Division has reported that the 27th Brigade, which is stationed in Bansha County and is closest to us, is ready to rush to Zhenyuan City for assistance, but the journey is long, and the earliest they can arrive in Zhenyuan City is tomorrow morning."

Yue Zhongxiang nodded and said, "Damn it, this Yuan Jing is a little unreliable. Let's put our hopes on our own people. Tell Xing Jun to speed up. If his 122nd Brigade's support troops don't arrive within two hours, I'll make him pay for it!"

Inside the 122nd Brigade Headquarters in Hengshui County, Xing Jun frowned and said, "What on earth is Pan Long doing? If we take the Hukou Mountain route, we should be near Zhenyuan City at least. Send me a telegram immediately and ask for the specific locations of the 31st and 32nd Regiments."

After a while, the messenger appeared in front of Xing Jun again.

"Reporting to the commander, the chief of staff called back and said that if we go to Hukou Mountain, we might be ambushed by the Northwest Revolutionary Army. To be on the safe side, he has taken the 31st and 32nd Regiments and detoured from Gushan Town. It is expected to arrive at the north side of Zhenyuan City in two and a half hours!"

Xing Jun grabbed the telegram and glanced at it. He cursed angrily, "Damn Pan Long, who the hell let him act on his own? If he's too late, Zhenyuan City will fall, and the safety of the division commander will be in jeopardy. I'll take him to the military court!"

Pan Long led two regiments of troops to take a detour. This was already a fait accompli. Xing Jun had no choice but to calm down and order again: "Tell Pan Long to speed up for me. If he can't reach Zhenyuan City within two hours, I will shoot him dead when I come back!"

On the other side, Pan Long, who was leading the 31st and 32nd Regiments at full speed, frowned. Gushan Town was supposed to be where a fire platoon of the 123rd Regiment of the 33rd Brigade was stationed. He sent a telegram to the fire platoon of Gushan Town, but received no response.

This made Pan Long have a bad feeling. It was sunset at this time, and the whole Gushan Town was shrouded in a crimson sunset glow, like a beautiful painting. Smoke was curling above the town, and there seemed to be nothing unusual.

"Let the reconnaissance platoon go to the front to check the situation. The others will stay where they are and wait for orders."

Half an hour later, the scout appeared in front of Pan Long with a panicked look.

"Chief of Staff, it's bad. Three miles south of Gushan Town, the Northwest Revolutionary Army has established a military defense position along the official road. There are at least one regiment of soldiers and a lot of heavy firepower waiting for us to charge forward."

Pan Long was shocked. Just as he expected, even if he took a detour through the official road, the Northwest Revolutionary Army would definitely find ways to block the reinforcements.

"Notify everyone to prepare for battle. The 31st Regiment will send out two battalions first to test the enemy's firepower. Push out our four 75MM mountain cannons and fire a round of shells at their positions before launching a charge!"

On a high ground not far from Gushan Town, the commander of the 104th Regiment, Xu Ke, was holding a telescope and looking towards the positions of the 31st and 32nd Regiments. He saw about two battalions of soldiers pouring out like a tide and rushing towards the positions of the 3th and 104th Regiments of the 105rd Brigade. When the two battalions arrived not far from the positions, they stopped outside the range of their own heavy firepower, as if waiting for something.

Sure enough, four 4MM mountain cannons were slowly pushed out from a gentle slope not far from the enemy troops, apparently preparing to launch artillery bombardment on the defensive positions of the two regiments.

"You call this a cannon! Call the artillery company commander sent by the brigade commander and inform the brothers to take cover and be careful of the enemy's artillery bombardment."

"Yes, leader!"

At the positions of the 104th and 105th Regiments, the soldiers who received the notice hid in the trenches at the first opportunity. The enemy's four mountain cannons fired in succession, firing twenty to thirty shells in succession. Due to advance preparations, the soldiers on the positions did not suffer large-scale casualties.

"Immediately have your artillerymen fire at the positions of the enemy's 31st and 32nd Regiments. Today I'm going to show them what real artillery is!"

Five minutes later, the first and second battalions of the 31st regiment launched a charge towards the position. There were nearly a thousand people, but they didn't even make a wave before they were completely engulfed by the intensive heavy firepower of the 104th regiment. A large number of soldiers were shot into sieves under the dense rain of bullets, and their corpses fell on the position. Blood spread out, dyeing a large area of ​​land red.

The soldiers of the two battalions were completely routed and defeated. In the end, only less than a hundred people were left and barely escaped back to the camp.

Looking at the soldiers in front of him who were terrified, at a loss, and covered in blood, Pan Long frowned and scolded, "Where are the others? How come only you guys came back?"

"Chief of Staff! The enemy's firepower is too terrible. We don't know how many light and heavy machine guns there are. Our artillery attack seems to have no effect at all. As soon as we rushed forward, more than half of them died on the battlefield. We are the only ones left alive. Everyone else is gone!"

The deputy battalion commander of the first battalion spoke to Pan Long in a crying voice.

"You are afraid of fighting and run away from the battlefield! You are not worthy of being a soldier, nor a battalion commander!"

Pan Long took out his pistol and shot the deputy battalion commander dead.

"I will personally lead you to fight. The people of the Northwest Revolutionary Army are human, not gods! Zhenyuan City is still waiting for our rescue. No matter what the cost, you must kill them!"

As soon as Pan Long finished speaking, he heard a burst of intensive artillery roars. First, the four cannons on their artillery position were completely blown to ashes by more than a dozen shells. Then, an even more intensive rain of shells fell towards his head.

Boom boom boom!

The sound of exploding shells was incessant. In the artillery positions of the 104th Regiment, twelve 75MM mountain cannons and two 105mm howitzers fired at the same time. The dense artillery shells directly bombarded the positions of the 31st and 32nd Regiments. After more than ten minutes of continuous artillery bombardment, even the rats in the underground holes were probably all shaken to death.

The troops of the two regiments were in a plain area, and the open areas around the official road were complete sitting ducks for artillery fire. After several rounds of artillery fire, almost half of the remaining three to four thousand soldiers in the two regiments were killed in the artillery fire, and the rest were mostly wounded.

The wailing sounds echoed throughout the wilderness. The ground was covered with charred shell craters. Pan Long staggered to his feet and shook his swollen head.

If the guard had not protected him tightly, Pan Long might have been blown to pieces.

Beep, beep, beep...

The sunset glowed like blood, and in the hazy night, the inspiring charge horn sounded. Soldiers from two regiments of the 3rd Brigade of the Northwest Revolutionary Army launched a full-scale attack, launching the final offensive against the remnants of the 31st and 32nd Regiments!