The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 336: Not Many Shells
Before Liu Shijiu finished speaking, the commander of the mortar battalion smiled bitterly and spoke carefully.

"Captain, this won't work. From the information given to me by Commander Liu, these three villages are not very big."

"Let's take the largest village ahead for example. One round of incendiary bombs will almost set the entire village on fire. Then two more rounds of artillery shells will be enough. That's more than 300 87mm caliber artillery shells!"

Worried that Liu Shijiu might be dissatisfied, the captain continued to speak.

"Captain, Liu Xie said that after we defeat the German devils here, our mortar battalion will be of great use next. I estimate that there will be a tough battle ahead."

The captain reached out and picked up a small shell with a strange shape from a shell box on the ground, held it in front of Liu Shijiu and said.

"Captain, this type of artillery shell with tail fins is still a bit troublesome to manufacture. The camp office can only produce a hundred or so shells a day at most."

"So, we don't have many shells. In the past two months, the camp office has only produced less than 8,000 shells, and I only brought 7,000 shells. If the shells are gone, no matter how good our mortars are, they will just be decorations."

Hearing that there were few shells, Liu Shijiu did not continue to insist, but nodded and said, "Okay, I'll do as you say."

Liu Shijiu turned around and asked Wang Decheng who had just arrived, "Chengde, have our troops reached the edge of the village?"

"Deputy Captain Liu just said that all the troops have arrived at the attack position and are just waiting for your order."

Liu Shijiu nodded and said to the captain, "Let's fire in a quarter of an hour."

Seeing that Liu Shijiu was about to leave after speaking, the captain hurriedly said, "Captain, I need to test fire."

Liu Shijiu said without even turning his head, "This is your business, you can arrange it."

"But you better remember this, kid. Once your incendiary bomb explodes in the village, it will be the assault column's attack order. A quarter of an hour later, your shell must explode in the village where the foreign devils are stationed."

As Liu Shijiu walked, he said to Wang Decheng who was following behind him, "Brother Chengde, you have to keep a close eye on the attacks on the other two villages."

"Tell those bastards down there that the attacking force should get as far forward as possible. Once the mortars officially start bombarding, there is no need to wait for the bombardment to stop. The attacking force should start to move and attack the two villages from the front and both sides of our position."

"Don't just stare at the streets. Tell them to climb over the walls and rush into the village. You have to confuse and disrupt these German devils as quickly as possible."

Two hundred meters away from the village, at the edge of the dried green tent, Liu Shijiu squatted quietly between the ridges, staring intently at the village in front where the main force of the German army was stationed.

In the green tent behind him, Zhu Kaishan, leaning on a heavy sword in his hand and kneeling on one knee between the ridges of the field, squatted there quietly with more than 800 members of the sword team.

Although the village where the main force of the German army was stationed had only a few hundred households, because the road from Tongzhou to the capital passed through the middle of the village, a large market had gradually formed here, which could almost be called a town.

Therefore, although its area is not very large, there are many houses inside and they are very densely packed.

A main road that runs through the village from east to west passed right in front of Liu Shijiu.

Since this is where the main force of the German army and their headquarters are located, the German army's defenses are still very strict.

Not only did the German army build sandbag fortifications on both sides of the main road at the entrance of the village, but in the light of the two lanterns hanging behind the fortifications, one could vaguely see that almost a platoon of German soldiers were moving behind the sandbag fortifications. The two Maxim heavy machine guns on the fortifications were particularly eye-catching.

The German army also lit two large bonfires on both sides of the road in front of the village entrance, and the blazing flames illuminated the village entrance.

Looking into the village from the entrance, one could still see the dim flickering light of flashlights on the streets. It was obvious that the German army still had patrols in the village.

Liu Shijiu even saw some flickering lights on the roofs of some houses near the edge of the village. It was obvious that someone was smoking on the roof. Zhu Kaishan smiled and said, "Brother, the foreigners' defense of the village looks intimidating, but it's actually not that great. We have already discovered it right under their noses, but they don't know it yet."

Liu Shijiu glanced at Zhu Kaishan and said, "Brother, don't underestimate these German devils. I fought with them in Tianjin. These German devils are all very fierce and vigilant."

"We were able to get under their noses tonight because the foreign devils believed that our vanguard army would never be able to break out of the East City."

"Also, the foreign devils have been frightened by our harassment wars over the past half month. They dare not easily send out patrols, and are even unwilling to set up guard positions too far outside the village."

"However, Deputy Chief of Staff Wei's intelligence said that the Germans have built trenches two miles outside the village, facing the direction of Qihuamen. They probably just didn't expect that we wouldn't be able to break out from here."

"But we wanted to destroy them, and we even went around behind them to attack them. This was definitely something they never expected, so we succeeded."

Zhu Kaishan nodded and said, "That's right, brother."

Then, Zhu Kaishan said with some concern, "Brother, the two heavy machine guns the foreign devils have at the entrance of the village are a bit annoying! It would be great if there were a dozen sharpshooters here."

Liu Shijiu shook his head and said, "Brother, sharpshooters are good, but it's a pity! It's not easy to practice the shooting skills of these people. The Marshal said that the sharpshooters' shooting skills are good for three reasons."

"First, some people are gifted in shooting with foreign rifles. Second, some people are willing to use their brains and work hard. The third is the stupid way, which is to keep training and shooting. After firing thousands of rounds, your shooting skills will be close to being a sharpshooter."

"It's just that although this sharpshooter is good, it's difficult for us to train him now. We don't have many bullets. We rely on captured ones, but we don't have that much bullets for training."

Liu Shijiu smacked his lips and said, "Our scouts are still more useful."

Liu Shijiu pursed his lips and looked at the dark field near the village and said, "I'm sure that the scouts we sent out have probably reached the edge of the village by now. Once the fight starts, these people will be the first to rush into the village."

Seeing Zhu Kaishan just nodded silently, his eyes still looking at the two heavy machine guns at the entrance of the village.

Liu Shijiu shook his head slightly and said, "Brother, those two heavy machine guns are good things, but it depends on who holds them. In the hands of the foreigners, they are just bluffing toys, but in front of us, they are just decorations."

"As long as people on both sides of the village rush into the village, the foreign devils at the entrance of the village will have to run back with the two heavy machine guns. Then we will chase them in. Not only will none of these dozens of foreign devils escape, but the two heavy machine guns will also be ours."

Liu Shijiu laughed softly and patted Zhu Kaishan's hand that was leaning on the broadsword, saying, "Brother, you can't swing your broadsword all day long. You should practice your spear skills more."

Zhu Kaishan is good at swordsmanship, which makes him proud of his martial arts prowess. He doesn't care much about using foreign guns. In the recent military training, Zhu Kaishan also began to train with the new recruits in the use of firearms.

But for some reason, Zhu Kaishan's marksmanship was very poor, even worse than those of the new recruits.

Zhu Kaishan disliked the Browning issued to him because it was too small, saying it was for women, so he replaced it with two Mauser pistols.

Under the pressure of Liu Shijiu, Zhu Kaishan can now use this difficult-to-control pistol and can barely hit the target twenty or thirty meters away.

As a whistling sound came from far away and got closer, Liu Shijiu, who was about to say something, had to shut his mouth.

Liu Shijiu knew that this should be the start of the mortar test firing. He really wanted to see whether this mortar was really as magical as the battalion commander said.

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(End of this chapter)