The artillery unit composed of two 200mm self-propelled artillery, escorted by the army, left the Liaoyang battlefield and advanced towards the Shoushan position.

In fact, the 200mm self-propelled artillery unit is not just a simple truck or heavy crane. It is as simple as arranging a 200mm cannon. It is a huge team. There are more than 160 people responsible for operating artillery for maintenance. There are only more than 10 people in the artillery truck. Of course, under special circumstances, up to 60 people can be used, which is also the minimum number of personnel to operate artillery, but the time required to arrange artillery is more than twice the full capacity.

In addition to the artillery carriages, the artillery troops also need personnel and vehicles for the supply of shells. The 200mm artillery is equipped with a shell weight of 145 kilograms. Each can of course carry a part. As the most basic shell, there are 18 shells in total, but this number is obviously not enough for a battle. Therefore, a 200mm self-propelled artillery unit is equipped with a truck that can carry 24 shells, and there are 6 double-pull carriages, each carriage can carry 4 shells. In this way, each 200mm self-propelled artillery is actually equipped with 42 shells, and there are two carriages carrying other logistics supplies. Therefore, a 200mm self-propelled artillery unit is equipped with a total of 8 carriages.

Generally speaking, the three cars operate at the same time as the carriage and the escort army. The 200mm self-propelled artillery is not allowed to move alone from the escort army. However, if an emergency occurs and absolute safety is guaranteed, the self-propelled artillery, shell trucks and cavalry can take the lead and arrive at the artillery position first. The carriage and other personnel can then move slowly.

There are more than 80 logistics personnel responsible for transporting shells and other materials, so this team consisting of two 200mm self-propelled artillery has a total of about 600 people, almost reaching the size of a battalion.

Due to the poor road conditions on the battlefield, the three motor vehicles in the team can only travel at a speed of about 10 kilometers per hour, but this speed also requires people to speed up their walking to catch up. With the marching speed of this era, it is not too slow.

When the 200mm self-propelled artillery unit was marching, the cavalry platoon was divided into three teams, and they were patrolling 2,000-3,000 meters in front of the team. One battalion responsible for escorting them was arranged about 500 meters behind the left and right of the convoy, and a company guarded was in the front of the convoy. Once there was danger, it was necessary to ensure that the convoy was at least 500 meters away from the dangerous place.

Another 200mm self-propelled artillery unit is equipped with two small drones, which can be alerted and reconnaissed within 5,000 meters of the army. Of course, this type of drone is not a large drone carried on warships, but a relatively simple small 4-rotor drone, which is the so-called "flight camera". This kind of drone has a low flight height, a small radius, poor accuracy, and low cost. Although it brought a lot during crossing, it could not do detailed military reconnaissance and could only conduct close-range alert reconnaissance. Therefore, it has been placed in the warehouse without much effect until the armored train and self-propelled artillery unit were established, and it was able to be used. It can be said that after such layers of protection, the safety of the 200mm self-propelled artillery unit is absolutely guaranteed.

In fact, the truck carrying propelling artillery has been modified. The cab and the front engine are covered with a layer of 35mm steel plates, and a layer of 20mm steel plates are added to the roof. Even the windshield in front of the car is equipped with a flap-type 20mm steel plate, which can defend against rifles and locomotive bullets of any caliber, but cannot resist artillery. Of course, the self-propelled artillery wins with range and basically will not appear within the range of the enemy's artillery.

The distance from Liaoyang to Shoushan is about 18 kilometers, but the self-propelled artillery troops have high requirements for roads, so some places that can be taken near the road cannot be detoured, and it is about 3 kilometers more. When they walked to a place called Wangbaotai, the drone discovered a Japanese army, and then the cavalry also discovered it. After reconnaissance by the drone, it was confirmed that the number of this Japanese army was about 2,000.

The cross-travel soldiers responsible for commanding this self-propelled artillery unit were Huang Taisong, Lu Ling and Yang Fei, among which Huang Taisong was the captain and artillery commander, Lu Ling was the driver, and Yang Fei was the drone operator.

Although the scope of control of both sides has not been completely determined, self-propelled artillery has an advantage in range, so its range of activities is basically on the edge of the control of the People's Army. It is not surprising to encounter a small group of Japanese troops, but it is still very unexpected to encounter more than 2,000 Japanese troops.

So Huang Taisong immediately ordered the guards to organize positions to defend immediately, and at the same time contacted the 3rd Army and asked the 3rd Army to send troops to reinforce. The 3rd Army also responded quickly, requiring the self-propelled artillery troops to hold on the spot for an hour, and the supporting troops would arrive.

It turned out that this Japanese army was sent out by Liaoyang City and operated within the gap between several battlefield positions of the People's Army. Of course, due to losses in the battle, the three subordinate brigades had merged into two, so the number of people was only more than 2,000. The goal of this team was to find weak links or valuable targets of the People's Army, such as logistics troops, material bases, field hospitals and even command centers to conduct strikes, interfere with and restrain the People's Army's offensive operations, or find opportunities to turn the situation around. However, they did not expect to encounter a self-propelled artillery force.

Shortly after the People's Army discovered this Japanese army, the Japanese army also discovered the People's Army. Although the Japanese army did not have high-tech products such as drones, it sent a large number of scouts, and the number of self-propelled artillery troops was large, and the movement was not small. Two 200mm self-propelled artillery vehicles were obvious targets, so it was difficult not to be discovered. Moreover, the Japanese scouts even discovered self-propelled artillery.

Although this was the first time the Japanese army saw a self-propelled artillery, it was not difficult to judge what weapon it was as long as they saw the thick and long gun barrel on the vehicle. Moreover, the Japanese army now knows that the People's Army has equipped the armored train cannons, so it can be confirmed that this must be similar to the armored train cannons. It is a large-caliber artillery used to move the navy's naval guns to the land, and it can be moved at will without rails. It is also possible to imagine how much threat such a weapon can pose to the Japanese army.

So the Japanese army determined that this was definitely the valuable target they were looking for, so the Japanese commander immediately decided to attack the People's Army and to destroy these two train cannons that did not require rails. However, this Japanese army launched light attacks and did not carry any heavy weapons. It only had three 37mm rapid-fire cannons, and its main weapons were rifles and machine guns.

Fortunately, the People's Army had drones, so the Japanese army was discovered about 5,000 meters in advance, and it also won half an hour of preparation time for itself.

The battalion commander responsible for escorting the self-propelled artillery unit was Zhang Fangping. He was originally a farmer in Baoding, Hebei Province. He had participated in the Boxer Regiment. After being defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance, he hid in the countryside with more than 20 regiments for some time. Later, the People's Army defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance and captured Beijing. The People's Army, who joined when recruiting troops, has now been promoted to battalion commander.

Although the People's Army has only been established for five years, it is now divided into levels and qualifications. Anyone who joined the army before the Crossing Group entered Shandong and participated in the battle with the Eight-Nation Alliance can be considered a senior in the People's Army. Moreover, this group of soldiers basically have practical experience. As long as their qualifications are not too bad, they have basically been promoted to battalion-level officers. Even if they cannot become battalion commanders, they can also serve as deputy positions, or in logistics and auxiliary departments. Soldiers with some cultural backgrounds will become battalion instructors after education and study, taking the path of political work, or technical troops, such as artillery; and a few talented soldiers are even promoted to regiment level. Although they are not the main positions, they are also the targets that the People's Army focuses on training.

Secondly, after the time travelers gained their foothold in Shandong, they joined the army when recruiting soldiers. This group of people mainly participated in Shandong's bandit war, had certain practical experience, and was the backbone of the People's Army. They are now basically serving as platoon-company officers, but some people are still squad leaders for various reasons, and they are ordinary soldiers.

The last group was after they were confirmed to participate in the Liaodong war. During the expansion, the number of soldiers joined the People's Army was the largest, but most of them were ordinary soldiers, but basically had no practical experience. Only a few soldiers with outstanding training or outstanding quality could serve as squad leaders.

However, they are also battalion commanders, but there are differences. Those who serve as battalion commanders in the main division and Marine Corps are all qualified and capable soldiers. They will be promoted earlier to battalion commanders. Among officers at the same level, the qualifications are also higher. The ordinary division is second, and the reserve division is second, and the second is of course the reserve regiment.

Zhang Fangping has medium qualifications, so every promotion is with the expansion and promotion of the People's Army. It is neither fast nor slow. It is stable and it takes almost a year to be promoted to battalion commander. Of course, this is compared with the People's Army. Among other armies, it is rare to be promoted to battalion commander in 4 or 5 years.

Although Zhang Fangping's qualifications are average, he has had several battles after all, and his combat experience is much better than the bandit war. Moreover, every time he is promoted, he participated in the training class of middle and lower-level officers. Therefore, he not only has practical experience, but also has certain theoretical knowledge. Of course, he also knows that the responsibility of escorting these two self-propelled artillery is heavy, because this is a heavy firepower support weapon that the entire army must rely on, and there must be no mistakes.

Of course, if you only need to hold on for an hour, reinforcements will come to reinforce, so Zhang Fangping was not too panicked. So he immediately arranged a defense circle according to the knowledge learned by Bai Ji and his usual training. First, he ordered the 1st and 2nd companies to go forward 500 meters in the direction of the enemy and arranged a defensive position. The two companies were about 300 meters apart; he ordered the 3rd company and the escort company of the self-propelled artillery force to go forward 300 meters in the left and right directions respectively, and arranged two defensive positions. His battalion headquarters was located 300 meters behind the position in front, which was just the center of the defense circle and was also the position of the mortar position.
Chapter completed!