The Chinese Army is not unfamiliar with Chita. As an important strategic fulcrum in Siberia, Chita's location is very prominent. The army intelligence department had long sent personnel to understand the situation and drew maps. However, the Russian Siberian Third Army was not stationed in Chita at that time. In the past, Chita had only two infantry regiments. Later, the Third Army moved here when the outbreak of the Sino-Russian War. After 1906, with the strategic deployment of Nicholas II, the Russian troops stationed in Chita gradually increased to the current 200,000.

The General Staff proposed the combat plan for the Sixth and Seventh Army to capture Chita before December. At the same time, they also ordered the engineering troops to assemble in Hailar. Once Chita is occupied, they will repair the roads as much as possible and connect the Suiman Railway and the Siberian Railway.

Although it is October, not everyone can understand the coldness of Siberia. The coldness here is unreasonable! People who have never been here cannot adapt to the severe cold weather here.

The time to start the battle was in midsummer, but the emperor finally ordered that the Russians must wait for the first shot, so Liu Shaoqing had to change the combat plan. Fortunately, the soldiers of these two troops were basically from Northeast China, but they were not unfamiliar with this kind of weather.

Liu Shaoqing made full preparations in Manzhouli. The newly formed third artillery brigade was sent to Manzhouli and temporarily under Duan Qirui's command. In addition, the sixth and seventh two armies were equipped with as many fire as possible as possible. At the same time, tens of thousands of tons of calculated materials were stockpiled in Hailar. The trains transporting shells for the front line traveled between Manzhouli and Hailar.

In Chita, although General Nazarubayev has 200,000 troops in his hands, there are only three cavalry divisions and five infantry divisions. The other troops can be called "water-filled pork".

One quarter of these temporary recruited reserve soldiers did not have rifles, and more than half of them did not have any military training records. Even the army that could obtain weapons was equipped with various equipment. Some infantry battalions only had one machine gun and three small-caliber artillery.

What's even more terrible is that when Nazarubayev sent Chita's continued weaponry and equipment telegram to Petersburg, the one sent through the Siberian Railway turned out to be boxes of statues of gods!

Even so, Nicholas II, far away in St. Petersburg, still forced him to attack China!

The Tsar's orders drove General Nazarubayev crazy! In the vast Siberia, any gathering point of human beings in this era is like an isolated island on the ocean, and there is not even an inch of railway from Chita to Manzhouli.

It is simply a fantasy to attack China over hundreds of kilometers under such circumstances. However, Nazarubayev did this! On the one hand, the reason was out of incompetence, and on the other hand, the reason was out of helplessness.

In just one year, Chita gathered 200,000 troops. However, Russia, which had just experienced civil strife, could not provide enough food to transport it to the Far East. Chita alone could not support so many Russian soldiers.

Since that's the case, they will starve to death anyway, so it's better to send them to the front line.

This is the attitude of the Russian generals—or nobles—to the lower-class soldiers.

On October 19, the Russian army assembled three-fifths of its troops and launched an attack on the Chinese army stationed in Manzhouli. Before that, Nazarubayev ordered the entire army and the residents of Chita to build city defense fortifications. He used limited resources to dig out three trenches around the city and built concrete fortifications to cover artillery. In addition, he also built a large number of civil fortifications, which may not be able to withstand the bombardment of enemy artillery fire in summer, but in winter, due to the permafrost, it can at least withstand small and medium-caliber artillery.

This may be the only thing he did right.

Manzhouli Chinese Army Position.

The Sixth Army has long built a solid defensive position here with battalions and regiments. The infantry platoons deployed defense with machine guns as the core, and the riflemen and grenade launchers were placed on both wings to provide fire cover. The former serves as a supplement to machine gun firepower, while the latter provides curved firepower to attack the opponent's light machine gun positions or mortar teams. The firepower points are deployed relatively scattered, striving to form an intersecting firepower net between each other. The entire defense line is scattered but not chaotic.

Relatively speaking, the Russians' fighting rules seem fierce and violent.

Frontline commander Lieutenant General Flanger concentrated almost all of his automatic weapons and artillery to strike at one of them, and then covered the infantry to break through the position.

After receiving the support of artillery, the Russian army of an infantry regiment launched an attack on a section of trench guarded by the Third Battalion on the opposite side. They concentrated as many as 12 Madson machine guns and Maxine machine guns in the attack front, less than 200 meters, as well as 4 mortars and 2 rapid-fire guns. They formed a barrage with the bullets like pouring rain to block the guards on the front. A Type 02 heavy machine gun of the Third Battalion just fired a long point and was targeted by two Maxine machine guns. After paying the price of a shooter, the remaining machine gun team had to transfer their positions.

The Russians fought fiercely, and fire snakes provided strong fire cover for the subsequent troops. A large number of Russian soldiers wearing gray military uniforms rushed up. They held rifles in their hands - or wooden sticks tied with bayonets, ready to completely crush their opponents in close combat.

Duan Qirui looked at the scene in front of him and sneered: "Sure enough, I haven't made any progress!"

The Guards had already experienced the Russian combat methods during the First Sino-Russian War. At that time, Liu Shaoqing called this combat method "queuing and shooting"!

Liu Shaoqing was puzzled. The Europeans used this tactic during the Sino-French War in 1882. Later, Chen Shangfa and his friends found that the Dutch were even more bizarre in Lanfang, and they even beat the war drums and lined up to kill them. Later, the Japanese also played this way. Now it is the 20th century, why don’t the Russians know how to update the tactics?

Chief of Staff Li Chun smiled and said, "Since they want to die, it's better to help them."

Duan Qirui snorted coldly, "Are wasted ammunition!"

As the commanders of the General Command were issued, the large-caliber howitzers of each brigade began to suppress and fire the Russian artillery fire. A total of 54 105mm howitzers, 54 120mm mortars and 108 75mm howitzers were exerted together. In an instant, the Russian position fell into a sea of ​​fire!

Losing the suppression of artillery fire, the Guards' light and heavy machine guns began to show their power, and the Russian army, who was attacking, was in a dilemma.

When the heavy artillery units of the Russian army were defeated, the Russian infantry involved in the attack did not realize that the advantage of long-range firepower had been transferred to the other party, and they still hit the troops as previewed in advance to hit the other party.

The other party was right in front of him, and the Russians could even see the other party's expressions clearly. However, the dense rain of bullets shot from the front and side locked the Russian infantry on the way to attack like a spider web.

The Russians dare not continue to charge. If they lift their bodies a little higher, they will be destroyed by a bullet that they didn't know was shot from that. Although lying on the ground reduces the probability of being killed by bullets, the small-caliber mortars in the trench can still effectively kill these enemies who are lying on the ground.

The goal is right in front of you, but the distance between them is difficult to cross.

"If the firepower you concentrate can be guaranteed not to be destroyed by the opponent, or can be outside the opponent's firepower strike, then concentrated firepower attack is indeed more effective. However, if you are within the range of the opponent's long-range firepower strike and dare to concentrate most of the heavy weapons in your hands openly, you are looking for death."

If Flanger could hear Rudendolf's words, he might not have lost his heavy firepower so early. However, it would be too late to say anything now.

The carefully arranged positions allow enemies entering from any direction to be under the blow of circular firepower.

The impact of a weapon depends on the density, but it is definitely not determined simply by the density. If a machine gun has a good position, the effect it plays may be better than 3 or even more machine guns - this is why the British emphasized side fire in machine gun shooting!

Use efficiency to make up for the shortage of numbers. At the same time, after the mortar and grenade launcher remove the machine guns and mortars that are more threatening to the opponent, the fire net composed of machine guns is enough to lock any infantry unit tightly.

The Russian army hopes to rely on the machine guns and light artillery in their hands to suppress the firepower of the Guards, but unfortunately, they are not as good as their opponents in terms of weapon performance, quantity or shooter level.

The magazine of the Madson machine gun is too small, so it may be OK to use it to light-fire and suppress it. But if it continues to strafuse, it is better to wash and sleep. The Guards' light machine gun uses a turntable to supply ammunition and can accommodate 75 rounds of bullets, while the Type 02 heavy machine gun is equipped with 250 rounds of bullet links.

The Russian Maxine machine guns have good continuous suppression firepower, but the huge muzzle flame and volume make them the preferred targets for the Guards mortars.

This is also why the Guards eliminated Maxim with the Type 02 heavy machine gun. In contrast, the Type 02 is lighter, easier to maintain, and more concealed. Its only has a slightly lower firing rate.

As for the Russian small-caliber artillery and mortars, they are completely incomparable to the 70mm infantry artillery of the Guards.

The 70 mm infantry artillery launched by the Guards moved all the commanders and fighters below the regiment to cry. The performance was so excellent! If it weren't for the cavalry needs and trench combat, they even felt that the mortar could stand aside.

Some Russian troops also tried to disperse the firepower and then used alternating cover to steadily. However, the quality of the soldiers could not keep up with the officers' ideas.

The Russians with rough fighting styles were unable to grasp the rhythm of the attack. Faced with the sudden fire point, they had only one way of fighting - that is, to hit the opponent hard until the bullets in the Madson machine gun were shot out, and then to change to a new magazine to continue shooting until they were sent to the west by a grenade or mortar shell.

Relatively speaking, the support fire points of the Guards are always changing. A machine gun team rarely shoots more than one bullet link in one place. Light machine guns are more flexible. Their mission is to swing and attack on the flanks. Moreover, the cooperation between the fire points between companies and platoons is also very delicate. There are very few cases where two machine guns fire bullets at the same time. Everyone should try their best to ensure the continuity of firepower and not give the other party any chance.

As for the company, the small-caliber rapid-fire guns and mortars belonging to the platoon are mainly responsible for anti-fire point tasks. They look for the opponent's heavy fire points based on gun groups. Then they use explosive fire to destroy the opponent in the shortest time possible, and then transfer the position to re-install the gun in a new place.

The ‘Boer Cannon’ was first adopted by the Boer people in the Second Boer War. At that time, Feng Guozhang and others keenly discovered the role of this small-caliber rapid-fire cannon in the war, and then began to be equipped and used in the Guards.

The small-caliber rapid-fire gun in the company only needs two people to operate, and the 60mm mortar team has only three people, so their transfer speed is very fast. In the eyes of the Russians, they are as unpredictable as swimming god of death, and will give you a fatal blow at any time.

This tactical habit of the Guards was developed from the Sino-French War. At that time, if the Black Flag Army, which was short of soldiers and weapons, could not change the place with one shot, it would not have been possible to end the war.

Guerrilla, this is the essence of the Guards’ combat! Even in positional warfare, it is still a move!
Chapter completed!