In the trench, soldiers carrying ammunition boxes were occasionally seen shuttle back and forth, equiping each shooting point with certain ammunition. There were only one thousand garrison troops left in the industrial area, so the distribution of soldiers in the trench was relatively sparse, and not every point had people to defend. At this time, only two hundred soldiers were lurking in the front trenches. However, sentries were on guard every other section to observe. Once the enemy was found attacking from a certain direction, the eight hundred people prepared to be in the back would immediately reinforce that direction.

Hundreds of defense forces in Songjiang City had already sent people to find out that Yan Lisan was building a trench position, but because the main force of the Qing army was not outside Songjiang City at this time, the five or six hundred defense forces were only responsible for guarding the government office and county town, and did not dare to go out of the city to provoke. Their combat effectiveness was not as good as the new army in other places outside the city, and it was not the main target of Yan Lisan's consideration. He only needed to leave some people to curb these hundreds of defense forces so that they could not leave the city easily.

As the night gradually became quiet, the quiet and flat industrial zone avenue began to become lively. Motor howitzers, cannons and heavy machine guns with wheels were pushed out of the warehouse. Although cannons and grenades were loaded with rubber wheels, they also seemed very bulky. Therefore, each howitzer and cannon were equipped with two horses to pull, which also saved the soldiers' physical strength.

The light and heavy mortars were carried to the carriage by the soldiers and started to move forward. The rest of the soldiers lined up with guns. There were a large number of soldiers behind them responsible for using ox carts and carriages to carry ammunition boxes and other supplies. The sound of footsteps came from the ground. The troops then began to run and advance, gradually leaving the narrow passage left in the industrial zone and the trenches in front, bypassing Songjiang County, and quickly raided from the wilderness of the western suburbs of Songjiang.

Yan Lisan, with these five battalions and 5,000 troops, had already left the industrial zone a few kilometers away and was advancing quickly towards Tianmashan Town in the west of Songjiang with the moonlight.

At this time, more than 100 special forces had already been dressed up as ordinary farmers and passed through Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Zhenjiang. Their mission was to immediately destroy the Nanjing-Zhenjiang section of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway after the troops launched an attack, making it impossible for Nanjing to transport troops to the Suzhou, Xi and Changjiang areas in time.

Yan Lisan himself was preparing to intercept several trains leading from Shanghai to Nanjing and transport goods at night to quickly transport troops to Suzhou. However, once the battle started and he advanced to Suzhou, the enemy would probably destroy the railways along the line. However, his troops were closer to the Suzhou-Xiang and Changzhou-Xiang than the main force of the Qing army in Nanjing. With rapid maneuver, he could enter the three places before the Qing army.

The terrain of Songjiang is relatively flat, with hilly areas and some small mountains occasionally distributed. The Qing army garrison was also flattering. However, behind the garrison, there was a stretchy mountain range that had already fallen into Yan Lisan's eyes and became the area he focused on at this time. The vanguard troops he sent were advancing towards this small mountain range, with obvious intentions, to intersect and circumnate behind the enemy and block the enemy's retreat.

In addition, Ma Chaoyun's division was responsible for the guards of Shanghai and the southern part of Songjiang, and also the task of attacking Shanghai. There were no large garrison troops in the urban area of ​​Shanghai at this time. The main forces of the Qing soldiers were concentrated in the areas north of Songjiang and Qingpu. Li Tiancheng was still holding his troops at this time, preparing to once Yan Lisan defeated the main force of the Qing soldiers, he could enter Shanghai downtown area in a swagger and control Shanghai, a large taxpayer with many merchants, a developed trade, the richest place in the Qing Dynasty, and there were also the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and other arsenals established by the Qing government in Shanghai.

Yan Lisan was wearing a gray robe. At the age of nineteen, he still looked a little immature, but after several years of military career, he became more and more calm, with more youthful spirit, and a bit mighty and fortitude.

"Report to the Chief of Staff, there is no movement in the enemy's garrison. Our army is still twenty-five and six kilometers away from their main camp!" The messenger read the reconnaissance report sent back by the scout.

"Okay, pass my order, the Second and Fifth Artillery Battalions accelerated their march. The Fifth Artillery Battalion began to operate independently, advance rapidly in the northeast direction, stationed in the field on the right side of Tianmashan Town, near the two thousand Qing soldiers stationed in Daying Town, fifteen kilometers away from them, using favorable terrain to arrange artillery attack points. The First and Third Infantry Battalions marched towards the middle of the Dianshan Lake and Daying Town, preparing to penetrate and detour, and detour the rear of the enemy's army to block the enemy's retreat route. The Fourth Infantry Battalion and the Second Infantry Battalion approached Xinheling, the garrison of the 4,000 people led by the enemy commander Zeng Shanbao."

"The first and third infantry battalions penetrate directly like two enemy troops, and march quickly and quickly to advance towards the enemy's rear. The first battalion must divide some of its troops to prevent the enemy from attacking the first and third battalions from the eastern Daying Town. With the support of the artillery fire of the fifth battalion, it can maneuver quickly and penetrate to the rear of the opponent's camp." Yan Lisan ordered the troops to disperse immediately and advance from three directions. The central part of the main enemy's 4,000 people were pointed directly at the Second Artillery Battalion and the Fourth Infantry Battalion.

The total of various armed forces of the Qing soldiers in Songjiang City was only more than 300, and their combat effectiveness was far less than that of the new army in the north of the city. Therefore, Yan Lisan ordered the 6th battalion left behind to control the Songjiang city. It has not yet entered the city. After breaking the main force of the Qing army, Songjiang City naturally failed to attack. Those ordinary yamen runners, police, and garrison troops did not dare to confront Yan Lisan's troops.

The Qing army was mainly stationed in the eastern part of Dianshan Lake, where 4,000 Qing soldiers were stationed in the eastern part of Dianshan Lake. They were divided into these two groups. The 4,000 people near Dianshan Lake were led by Zeng Shanbao, the commander of the infantry, and the other four battalions were led by Xiao Shan, the official of Biao Tong, with a total of 6,000 troops, which was comparable to Yan Lisan's troops.

These two places are the only way to Songjiang to Suzhou. Zeng Shanbao planned to set off from the two places at the same time, advance in two ways, bypass Songjiang County, one to the southwest and the other to the southeast, forming a siege towards Songjiang Industrial Zone, compressing Yan Lisan's troops into the Huangpu River coast, and then allowing more than 500 patrol battalions and guards in Songjiang to go out of the city to cooperate in combat, launching a general attack from three directions, destroying Yan Lisan in one fell swoop. However, Zeng Shanbao did not understand Yan Lisan's true strength, and the investigation showed that Yan Lisan had less than 3,000 troops.

However, the actual strength of the two sides is: the Qing army was mainly infantry, the rifles were made of Hanyang, which imitated the German Mauser 98, and the Li family army imitated the Type 81 automatic rifle. In the case of good light, it was obviously more powerful than the Hanyang. The Qing army had only more than one hundred horses, while Yan Lisan had two cavalrymen, which had 300 cavalry cavalry; the Qing army had only dozens of small-caliber steel cannons, with a range and firepower far less than Yan Lisan's large-caliber howitzers and cannons, and the number was much smaller than that of the Li family army, and the Li family army also had a large number of mortars.

Therefore, the two sides only have little difference in number, and the firepower equipment is very different. In terms of training, the Li family army adopted advanced military training programs and tactical awareness training in later generations. Yan Lisan also had two companies of special forces, which could carry out a variety of special combat tasks. In addition, the Qing soldiers were not familiar with the Li family army and did not know that the opponent's firepower was so strong, so they would not be sufficient in targeted training and preparation. Yan Lisan knew the new army well, and both sides showed their superiority.

In addition, if you win this time, Yan Lisan needs to control the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, which is the lifeline of the Qing government's rapid transport of troops to Shanghai. Therefore, once Zeng Shanbao's troops was eliminated, it was necessary to occupy Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou as soon as possible, and cut off the opponent's railway lines so that their soldiers and strategic materials could not be transported to southern Jiangsu quickly by railway. In this way, when the Qing government increased its troops again, Yan Lisan had already completed the defense in the three places. The ones welcoming the Qing soldiers would be very arduous trench warfare. This was not the strength of the new army and the old-style defense force. Facing the fierce artillery fire strikes by the enemy, it was not easy to cross the complex trench positions and occupy a city.

Yan Lisan used an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion's forces of two thousand people in the direction of Dianshan Lake. He planned to charge the enemy's positions after the artillery carried out saturation strikes. Since Dianshan Lake was to the west, the enemy could only retreat north or northeast, so he used the troops of two infantry battalions to insert into the middle of the two opponent's troops. Their task was to penetrate directly to the rear of the enemy and block the opponent's retreat, but they were also surrounded by two enemy troops in the middle and could not advance. Therefore, once the battle started, the artillery of the Fifth Artillery Battalion must be fierce and completely restrain the two thousand people in the opposite Daying Town, so that the first and third infantry battalions can be smoothly inserted into the rear of the local area to prevent the enemy from escaping.

Yan Lisan considered that if the other party was bombarded and retreated immediately, they were likely to escape from the north, that is, in the rear.

Therefore, after repeated consideration, Yan Lisan decided that when the artillery battalion approached the range of the opponent's position, the Fifth Artillery Battalion used fierce artillery to attack in order to reduce the vital strength of the two thousand people in the Daying Town of the opponent as soon as possible. The Second Artillery Battalion was different. When the artillery was just firing, it would attack with a small amount of artillery fire, which made the other 4,000 enemy troops underestimate the artillery fire strength of our army, and their number was twice that of the army that was attacking the front, and they might not choose to turn around and retreat immediately for a while. This provided time for the two battalions directly into the rear of the enemy. Before the 4,000 people led by Zeng Shanbao were determined to retreat, they arrived at the rear of the enemy and blocked the enemy's retreat.

In the Qing army's defense camp, the commander Zeng Shanbao was sleeping soundly in his barracks. The court's general attack order had not been issued yet. He was just deploying troops these days, and his two teams would rush towards Li Tiancheng's industrial zone at any time.
Chapter completed!