Chapter 357 The problem of artillery transportation
However, after arranging the wounded and leaving behind a large amount of supplies and seizures, the Great Wall Regiment was not completely lightly armed.
Zhao Ergou's artillery battery was full of big guys.
The two Bofors mountain cannons have a long range and powerful accurate shells. They are a powerful weapon to crush the Japanese Type 41 mountain cannon. Especially after the Japanese army only has a few infantry guns left, they are simply the worst way to beat the little devils.
The stick must be followed along.
However, the Swedish mountain artillery, which seems to have good maneuverability on the plains, still has some shortcomings in mountain combat and is still a bit bulky.
Especially in a pursuit battle like this, it has been dismantled into eleven pieces, but each part weighs more than fifty kilograms, which still becomes a huge burden.
If manpower is used, these two big treasures will not only require up to fifty artillerymen to take turns carrying them on their shoulders, but walking dozens of kilometers a day will also be a terrifying nightmare for these artillerymen.
Fortunately, although the dozens of large trucks in the baggage train have basically been damaged by the bumps of thousands of miles of road, the Sichuan horses and mules towing the trucks are still there. They can barely bear some transportation capacity.
But Liu Lang no longer knew how to kick Zhao Ergou's ass. That guy actually disobeyed the military order to explode the cannons. He dug a hole overnight and buried five Japanese mountain cannons in the hope that he would be able to retrieve them later.
He actually dismantled the four cannons. All the soldiers, including him, the company commander, carried poles and prepared to carry the four Japanese mountain cannons on their shoulders and follow the large troops.
"Are you crazy? You can carry these cannons for ten miles, but can you carry them for a hundred miles?" Liu Lang looked at the people standing neatly carrying the mountain cannon parts and carrying the shells.
The artillery company numbered more than a hundred men, and their noses were almost crooked with anger.
Of course it's not that Liu Lang doesn't want cannons. In the upcoming field battle with the Eighth Division, if there are a few more mountain cannons, the little devils of the Eighth Division who can only be beaten passively will definitely be beaten until they cry.
However, the huge power of the cannon is not in vain. Its weight of hundreds of kilograms makes transportation a problem that plagues all armies. Otherwise, a 3,000-person artillery regiment of the Japanese army would only have a total of 32 mountain cannons. That thing
, requiring a large amount of manpower and animal power to transport.
As for the howitzers of the Japanese heavy artillery brigade, which weighed several tons, Liu Lang never thought about it. Without trucks towing them, the so-called heavy artillery would be a joke.
But when it comes to towing trucks, even if the trucks are placed there properly, can the entire Great Wall Group find more than two drivers?
Even in the Republic decades later, car drivers were still a scarce profession at the beginning. Soldiers who dared to drive trucks and kill everyone after just a few trainings could only appear in anti-Japanese dramas. Think about the future.
Those "female drivers" in the Republic who have gone through endless difficulties before finally getting a driver's license and driving an automatic transmission and still being a killer on the road know that driving is not as easy as imagined, let alone towing a car behind.
Cannon.
"Sir, don't worry. Even if we are exhausted, our brothers in the artillery company will not hold back our infantry brothers. We will keep up with them. Just let us keep these cannons!" Zhao Ergou
His lips moved with difficulty, and he looked at Liu Lang with pleading eyes.
For artillerymen, guns are their lifeblood, more important than their wives. On this point, Zhao Ergou, who has always been a scoundrel, is more serious than ever.
Liu Lang wanted to say no, because he knew very well that with just a hundred guns and twenty or thirty mules and horses, it would be difficult for them to transport these six mountain cannons and a dozen mortars for more than thirty miles.
, especially since the Japanese mountain cannon does not have many shells left, the total number will not exceed one hundred, and that is the result of Zhao Ergou hiding it secretly.
But starting from the company commander Zhao Ergou, from the platoon leader to the squad leader to the soldiers, everyone's weight would never be less than thirty kilograms, and their pleading eyes still made Liu Lang hesitate.
Just when Liu Lang gritted his teeth and was still ready to ruthlessly ask them to abandon the cannon, Bai Yunyue, who was in charge of logistics, ran over excitedly and reported the situation in Liu Lang's ear.
Liu Lang raised his eyebrows and glanced at the excited Lao Bai suspiciously. How could it be such a coincidence? Could it be that Zhao Ergou had secretly promised Vice President Bai Tuan some favors? Zhao Ergou is a man of his own. In these eight days,
After the war, Qi Guangyuan, Dong Shengtang and the others had become as close as a family, so it was no problem to capture an honest man like Bai Yunyue.
No wonder Liu Lang was suspicious. Just now he was saying that the artillery was too heavy for the artillery company to transport over long distances. Bai Yunyue came over and told him that the ten howitzers of the Japanese heavy artillery brigade had been destroyed, but they stayed on
Several tracked heavy artillery tractors in the distance were miraculously not destroyed by the war and were preserved.
What surprised Liu Lang even more was that the regiments of Qi Guangyuan and Dong Shengtang were extremely poor. The baggage company directly under the regiment mostly relied on human-powered wheelbarrows to transport supplies. There were only a few mules and horses. Not to mention mechanization, there were no mules.
The one they used actually had someone who had driven a truck and was an experienced driver.
The old driver who was lucky enough to survive after a big battle couldn't help but feel itchy when he saw these strange-looking big machines. He went up and fiddled with them a few times, and actually started the track-pulled heavy artillery tractor.
Listening to Bai Yunyue's description, Liu Lang knew what kind of tractor the Japanese Kwantung Army equipped the heavy artillery brigade. It should be the predecessor of the Type 92 heavy artillery tractor that the Japanese army will serve in the future. The power should be more than 30 horsepower.
, Otherwise, it would be impossible to pull those big guys weighing several tons.
You must know that today's China is not like the future where it can build roads to villages. These heavy artillery can only be pulled by tractors in the wilderness and move forward with difficulty.
If these heavy artillery tractors can be used, then the transportation of the artillery battery should not be a big problem.
"Let's go take a look." Liu Lang raised his eyebrows and said to Bai Yunyue.
Just after taking two steps, Liu Lang looked back at Zhao Ergou, who was still standing there and looking a little pitiful. He said angrily: "You are still dazed and knitting, so I can keep up with you."
"
The three infantry battalions have already set off ahead, and the rest, except for Zhao Ergou's artillery, are the heavy baggage troops led by Bai Yunyue who are responsible for transporting supplies.
They are not so much baggage soldiers as they are wounded soldiers. When the war is at its fiercest, both baggage soldiers and strong men have to go on board. Since the war has started, there are not many professional baggage soldiers. Simply, three infantry battalion commanders
After discussing, we sent all the guys in our team who were slightly injured but not seriously injured and could still work to Bai Yunyue. Firstly, it would strengthen his logistics and secondly, let these guys be raised and live for a while.
Time is another dynamic hero.
When Liu Lang rushed to the location of the logistics department with the sweaty artillery company carrying cannon parts, he saw a group of lightly wounded soldiers with bandages on their heads or slings hanging on their arms.
Where to cheer.
In the field, a crawler tractor with two rows of seats and a big head was moving forward, backward and turning left and right, seemingly performing a driving show.
Watching the tractor moving back and forth roaring with black smoke, Liu Lang frowned slightly. There was a car, and someone seemed to know how to drive it, but where was the fuel? Where did it come from?
When Bai Yunyue saw Liu Lang frowning, his heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly shouted to the tractor: "Mo Songzi, what are you showing off for? Stop the car quickly and come over to me."
"Coming, coming." A short man in his thirties, wearing a tattered blue national army uniform with exposed cotton and a Japanese yellow velvet hat on his head, looked a bit nondescript from the tractor's deputy.
Jumped out of the driver's seat.
Running to Liu Lang and Bai Yunyue, this guy who was dressed in a nondescript manner but with a smart face smiled and saluted Liu Lang and Bai Yunyue each with a military salute and said, "Sir, Mo Songzi is here to report."
As expected, he was an experienced driver. Liu Lang had a preliminary impression of this driver.