The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 136 Preparing for Bombardment
Under the firepower of more than a dozen Maxim heavy machine guns on the top of the city wall, the British troops below the city were temporarily unable to organize themselves. They retreated in a hurry, trying to stay away from the city walls with dense firepower, and began to evacuate to the east.

Although a large number of British troops outside the city were suddenly attacked from both sides and there was serious chaos for a while, Teng Yuzhao could see that it was just chaos and was far from the point of collapse. As long as they were a little away from the firepower range of the city, they would be able to reorganize the blocking formation quickly and launch a large-scale firepower counterattack against the oncoming troops.

Seeing such a scene, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but sigh secretly that these powers, as old military powers, indeed have profound military foundation.

If the British troops under the city at this moment were replaced by any other troops in the country, including his current vanguard troops, it would be almost impossible for them to barely maintain their troops from collapsing when suddenly subjected to such intensive firepower attacks.

Although the Russian troops in the east also suffered heavy casualties due to the sudden and intensive heavy machine gun fire from the city, they still lay on the ground and fired at the vanguard troops on the city, while at the same time sending more than a thousand troops to run to the northeast corner. It seemed that they wanted to support the retreat of the British troops in the northeast corner.

Seeing such a battle situation, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel relieved. The outcome of this battle was already doomed. Although he couldn't guarantee whether he could destroy the coalition forces outside the city, at least the coalition forces that attacked Dongjuzi would definitely be wiped out by him, and Dongjuzi could finally be saved.

However, the number of coalition forces made Teng Yuzao feel a little strange.

If there were only more than a thousand Russian soldiers who attacked Dongjuzi, and the Russian soldiers outside the city to the east were estimated to be less than two thousand at most, then the British troops in the northeast corner, even if the corpses on the ground were counted, would be no more than a thousand. The number seems a little less?
Moreover, there was another point that puzzled Teng Yuzao, because among the Allied reinforcements that attacked Dongjuzi, he only saw British and Russian troops, and did not see Japanese, German and American troops. Could it be that there was some deviation in history?
But the battle was so intense that Teng Yuzhao had no time to think about it.

Teng Yuzao pointed to the area between the British and Russian troops that were approaching each other and asked the lieutenant staff officer of the artillery battalion who had just set up the artillery scope.

"The artillery is ready to fire at this area. The bombardment area is 300 meters long and 100 meters wide, with the center as the base point."

"My Lord, I need to test shoot."

The artillery staff officer pressed his eyes against the artillery telescope, observing the firing parameters in the shelling area while speaking without raising his head.

"Okay, you can arrange a test firing right away. It would be best if you could start the bombardment when the British and Russian armies meet. You can decide the exact timing of the bombardment."

While Teng Yuzhao was giving combat orders to the artillery staff, he regretted not bringing an artillery staff officer with him.

This artillery staff officer should be a student of Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Front Army's camp school. Teng Yuzhao had never seen him before, but from the professional perspective of Teng Yuzhao, who had studied artillery, this student's level was still very good. After a quick observation and aiming, the staff officer began to shake the handle of the magnetic telephone that had been pulled over and started to contact the artillery battalion for a test firing.

Teng Yuzhao raised the telescope and looked towards the northeast again. The reinforcements from Tianjin City should have been in conflict with the coalition rescue forces. Teng Yuzhao really wanted to confirm whether the Cossack cavalry regiment was among the coalition forces blocking the reinforcements from Tianjin City.

Due to the long distance, Teng Yuzao could not see the battle situation there clearly, but he could barely see the larger outlines of the cavalry units. What made Teng Yuzao feel a little cold in his heart was that there were indeed cavalry there.

"Teacher." Taking this opportunity, Wu Peifu moved closer to Teng Yuzhao and reported loudly amid the dense gunfire.

"When I went up to the roof with the three heavy machine guns of the assault brigade, I found that there were about 2,000 German, Japanese and American coalition forces in the south, running towards his concession. The British troops in the northeast corner also dispatched more than 1,000 people, bypassing the Russian troops at the east gate and chasing the troops of the three countries towards the concession."

Wu Peifu pointed to the southwest and said, "We can still see the British artillery left behind."

As soon as they broke through Dongjuzi, the allied forces of Britain, Japan, Germany and the United States rushed to the concession impatiently. There is no doubt that it was the attack on the concession by Nie Shicheng and Zhang Decheng that made the foreigners in the concession feel nervous.

Teng Yuzhao raised his telescope and looked towards the southwest concession. As expected, through the sparse trees along the way, he could vaguely see a dozen British soldiers driving horses pulling cannons on the way to the concession. Teng Yuzhao even saw several Allied officers running back from the concession in a hurry, standing on the side of the road looking here with telescopes.

Teng Yuzhao estimated that these should be the Allied Forces that had just left here and were heading for the concession. When they heard the sudden intensive gunfire and bugle calls here, they knew that reinforcements had arrived and were hesitating whether to rush back to rescue here or continue to go to the concession.

According to Wu Peifu, there were more than 3,000 coalition forces that left here. If they rush back, there will be about 6,000 coalition forces here. If we count the coalition forces that blocked the reinforcements coming out of Tianjin City in the east, the total number will be close to 7,000. In terms of numbers alone, he no longer has the advantage.

The total number of people in the First Regiment and the Assault Brigade, even if there were no casualties, was no more than 4,000. If we add in the Wuwei Vanguard Army and the Training Army that had not yet dispersed, as well as the people from Wang Decheng's Boxer Rebellion who were here, Teng Yuzhao estimated that there should still be more than 1,000 people.

By this calculation, his final military strength would be less than 6,000 men at most. Even without considering combat experience and fighting qualities, he no longer had an advantage in terms of military strength.

What's more, there are still remnants of the Russian army in Dongjuzi, and the assault brigade may not be able to get away in a short time.

Thinking of the remnants of the Allied Forces in Dongjuzi, Teng Yuzhao noticed that the gunshots and shouts that were originally concentrated on the south side of Dongjuzi had approached the East Gate at some point. One could even hear from the gunshots and shouts that they were getting closer and closer to the East Gate.

Wu Peifu also noticed this situation. After listening carefully for a while, he said nervously.

"Teacher, from the rooftop I chose, we can see most of the southern city wall. The three Maxim heavy machine guns can completely block the foreign devils' retreat. Now the three heavy machine guns are no longer firing. This should be because the foreign devils who broke into the East Bureau found that they could no longer get out of the southern city wall, so they are panicking and trying to escape from here."

Thanks: Petrov, a book friend, for his sincere advice. I will write the rest of this book according to his advice. I also hope you will give me good suggestions in the future. Please feel free to give me your advice!!!

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(End of this chapter)