Three hundred and ninetieth chapters unexpected battle
The originally peaceful defense line of Chongguang City was filled with rumbles of cannon fire early in the morning.
Amidst the rumble of artillery, many soldiers and middle- and low-level officers stationed on the front line were stunned.
"What's going on? Where did the shells come from!"
"The Southern Navy is coming!"
"How is it possible? Aren't they several kilometers away? How could their artillery hit them?"
Many people have questions!
It's not like they didn't know that the Southern Navy on the opposite side was preparing to attack the Chongguang City Fortress, but their camp was a few kilometers away. Even if they wanted to attack, they would have to move to the city first, at least about two thousand meters away.
However, now there is not a single person in the South Navy, only shells are constantly falling!
This way of fighting exceeds many people's imagination.
However, this was only limited to ordinary soldiers and some middle and low-level officers. However, many senior officers in the Guang'an Army knew that this was really a cannon attack from the South Korean Navy opposite.
As for why it can hit so far.
No need to ask, the one on the other side must have used rifled artillery!
It is no secret that the troops under Lin Ziran's command were the first to use breech-loaded rifled guns.
Lin Ziran led his troops to capture Luo'an County and then Luohai County. In several battles during this period, breech-loading rifled guns were used.
Anyone who is well-informed knows that Lin Ziran has a breech-loading rifled artillery that can shoot very far and is very powerful.
However, according to past intelligence, Lin Ziran did not have many such artillery pieces. When he set up Jiang Fortress, there were only a few, and later when he moved south to Luohai County, there were only dozens of them.
But now, looking at this formation, there are at least two hundred breech-loaded rifled guns on the opposite side.
Could it be that after Lin Ziran captured Luohai City, he used the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau to mass-produce these breech-loading rifled cannons?
Thinking of this possibility, many Guang'an generals looked unhappy.
One of the commanders, Zhongqing, rushed to the top of the city and saw a messy fort.
"How can this be?"
Seeing this scene, Commander Zhongqing completely collapsed.
This is the largest fort on the entire defense line in the Chongguang City Fortress. It is equipped with at least eighty artillery pieces, more than half of which are large-caliber smoothbore heavy artillery.
But now, the entire fort is in a mess, the artillery is swaying here and there, and there are heavy casualties.
More importantly, there are still shells falling continuously!
Under such fierce bombardment, the fort was completely defeated without even firing a shot.
Once the fire support of this fort is lost, the defensive strength of the entire Chongguang City Fortress and even the entire defense line will be directly reduced by half.
"It's over..."
This is not just his idea, but also the idea of many other middle and high-level generals in Guang'an who witnessed the opponent's shelling!
Although the enemy's infantry has not yet appeared, looking at the artillery fire, it seems likely that our defense line will collapse before it can be attacked.
"Quick, let them withdraw temporarily. Don't stay on the defensive line. Pull them out first!"
If you continue to stay on the defensive line, you can only act as a living target!
After this large number of personnel were withdrawn, the casualties were finally reduced, but even so, the Guang'an Army also suffered heavy losses.
The three main forts all suffered devastating blows, and the ammunition stored in one of the forts was even triggered to explode.
The defenses on other forts were also destroyed, a large number of artillery pieces were staggered, and even the gun mounts were damaged. In comparison, the casualties were actually more severe.
In the early rapid fire artillery bombardment, in addition to bombarding these forts, more artillery shells did not fall within the defense line, but fell in the camp behind the Chongguang City defense line.
The Guang'an Army also has 40,000 to 50,000 troops. A large number of troops are not actually on the defense line, but in the barracks at the rear.
According to the usual concept, these barracks in the rear are more than a thousand meters away from the defense line, so they are absolutely safe.
Even the enemy's breech-mounted artillery can only hit more than four thousand meters according to past intelligence. Judging from the position of the artillery unit of the Southern Navy, it is impossible to hit these places.
But it can't stand up to Lin Ziran's artillery unit, which has a large number of long-range 100mm cannons!
At the same time, there are a batch of 75mm field guns improved and produced by the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, with an effective range of 5,500 meters. If deployed slightly closer, they can barely hit the enemy's barracks.
This also resulted in the enemy's almost unprotected barracks being intensively bombarded by dozens of artillery pieces, causing heavy casualties.
The forts in front suffered devastating blows, the first-line city walls, trenches and other defense lines were also bombarded. Even the barracks, material storage warehouses and other places in the rear suffered devastating blows.
This series of events all happened within just half an hour!
Half an hour later, the enemy's shelling outside the city finally weakened its offensive slightly, and the shelling was no longer so intensive.
But at this time, the generals of the Guang'an Army discovered that many of their troops had been defeated and collapsed.
More than 20,000 people who were left to guard the rear barracks suffered heavy casualties on the spot after the fierce shelling, which also caused riots. Many soldiers ran away on the spot and headed north never to look back.
Although there are no specific statistics yet, this violent bombardment caused at least thousands of casualties in the barracks, and tens of thousands of people dispersed and fled north.
The generals who defended the city only had time to gather more than 8,000 intact troops!
As we know, the front line of defense was hit by more violent shelling, but only two or three people were killed or injured, and there was no situation where the organized troops fled.
The two sides have not yet come into face-to-face contact, and the defenders in Chongguang City have already lost more than 10,000 troops!
This situation was not expected by the Guang'an Army themselves, not even Lin Ziran outside the city.
Of course, in fact, Lin Ziran and the others don’t know it either!
They were on the hilltop outside the city, and all they could see through their binoculars were clouds of exploding fire and smoke, but they couldn't see anything more detailed.
After seeing that the shelling suppressed the opponent, Lin Ziran felt relieved and ordered Kong De: "Keep up the shelling, don't let them catch their breath!"
Comte said: "I humble my duty and obey my orders!"
Then he said to Wu Guanlin: "Let the first division and the fifth division launch according to the planned plan!"
Wu Guanlin said: "Yes!"
Not long after, Xu Zhongshu, who personally led the first division out, also received the order from the messenger. There were no surprises and everything unfolded according to the planned plan.
Xu Zhong immediately wrote: "Send the order to the entire army to make detours according to the predetermined plan!"
In this battle plan, the First Division is still responsible for the task they are best at, attacking in a roundabout way!
The task of frontal attack was undertaken by the Fifth Division.
However, the Fifth Division's frontal attack was actually just to contain the enemy's forces. If it wanted to break through the Chongguang City defense line, it would have to rely on the First Division's roundabout breakthrough.