The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 343: Definitely Win

As Wu Peifu gave the order, after the sound of a gunshot, the originally quiet wilderness suddenly became noisy.

"Da da da da da da", more than a dozen scarlet flames of Maxim heavy machine guns suddenly spurted out from the green tent that stretched for five or six miles on the west side of the road. The dense rain of bullets swept towards the dense Russian army columns that were tired and panting on the road two hundred meters away like a strong wind.

Almost at the same time as the Guards' Maxim heavy machine guns opened fire, more than twenty scarlet Maxim heavy machine gun flames suddenly appeared at the edge of the green tent across the road. The fierce and hot rain of bullets, as fierce as the scythe of the god of death, swept across the Russian army that was in chaos on the road, hitting the Russian army with blood and flesh flying, limbs and arms broken, and they were swept to the ground one by one.

At the same time, with a more intensive "bang bang bang" sound of rifle fire and the "swish swish swish" sound of artillery shells cutting through the air, thirty-six strong flashes suddenly burst out violently in the chaotic Russian army on the road.

Almost at the same time as these strong lights flashed, "boom boom boom", a series of deafening and violent explosions suddenly sounded. The huge explosions covered all the sounds on the battlefield. Almost everyone's eardrums were hit by the sudden strong impact. Their ears instantly lost hearing and became buzzing.

Teng Yuzhao even felt that the huge mound of earth where he was standing was shaking violently.

He knew that this was his thirty-six conscienceless cannons showing their power again.

These thirty-six heartless cannons fired explosive packs, each of which contained a full ten kilograms of high explosive. The thirty-six rounds added up to a full three hundred and sixty kilograms of explosives, so their power was naturally extraordinary.

At this moment, the flares fired by the artillery unit also lit up the sky above the road within the ambush circle.

Obviously, only six flares were not enough to cover the entire battlefield that stretched for thousands of meters. However, with the faint light from the flares, Teng Yuzhao could still vaguely see that on the road covered by a dense crowd of Russian soldiers in khaki uniforms, there were many large circular open spaces radiating out.

In these suddenly appeared open spaces, there was not a single ochre-colored figure, or even anything at all, only large pits with fresh soil turned over.

All Russian troops within a range of 20 to 30 meters around the big pit were blown away. Further away, large numbers of Russian troops were lying on the ground.

Even in the light of the flares, one could see Russian soldiers' bodies and rifles scattered all over the sky, falling from the air like rain.

The Russian army's dense formation allowed the unscrupulous artillery to exert its maximum power.

However, the nightmare of the Russian army was far from over. Not only were they still being subjected to the crazy strafing of more than 30 Maxim heavy machine guns and the intensive fire of tens of thousands of rifles, but more than 200 artillery shells were raining down from the sky, landing accurately on the already dizzy and chaotic Russian army on the road.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM" violent and intensive explosions rang out in the Russian army. In an instant, a long trail of dust carrying the broken limbs of the Russian soldiers rose from the ground on the road.

Looking from the large mound where Teng Yuzhao was, the smoke and dust raised by the explosion of the shells looked like an angry earth dragon that suddenly rose from the ground, rising into the air with its fangs and claws bared.

With the sudden rise of this earth dragon, the section of the road where the Russian troops were located in the ambush circle, as well as the area within dozens of meters on both sides of the road, were almost completely covered by thick smoke and dust.

In the area where the Russian troops were located, there were loud explosions and rising smoke and dust one after another.

During this time, heavy explosive packs fired by unscrupulous cannons continued to explode in the smoke, and then higher and thicker smoke rose high. From a distance, it looked like an artificial fountain suddenly spurted out from the smoke.

Although the violent explosion lasted only a short time, about one or two minutes, Teng Yuzhao felt that the bombardment lasted a very long time.

This kind of artillery bombardment scene with more than 200 artillery pieces was the first time that Teng Yuzhao, who had lived two lives, had seen.

Especially since there was a violent explosion just 300 meters away from him. The shocking bombardment scene shocked even him, who had lived two lives!
It was not until the shelling stopped completely that Teng Yuzhao came to his senses for a long time, looking at the devastated, broken, and hellish road within the ambush circle filled with the broken corpses and limbs of the Russian soldiers.

This is the explosive effect of nearly 3,000 large and small artillery shells. Even if one shell killed or injured three Russian soldiers, the Russian casualties would be 10,000. The title of God of War is absolutely well-deserved.

After a long time, Teng Yuzhao was awakened by a Russian soldier who stood up tremblingly from among the corpses of Russian soldiers in the smoke that had not yet completely dissipated.

Teng Yuzao suddenly discovered that the gunfire on the battlefield had stopped at some point. At this moment, the entire ambush circle was unusually silent, so quiet that it was even a little frightening.

Teng Yuzhao felt emotional in his heart that both the Russian and vanguard troops on the battlefield must have been so shocked by the intensive and fierce shelling and explosions that they were stunned and forgot to fire.

Teng Yuzhao listened carefully. Although the artillery fire on the battlefield where the remnants of the German army were being encircled and annihilated had not stopped, it seemed to have become much less frequent. Teng Yuzhao even felt that the artillery fire there was weak.

However, from the direction of the blocking position of the Guards Association in the south, not only was the sound of artillery fire heard, but it was also very fierce.

However, judging from the sound of the artillery shells exploding there, although dense and fierce, the caliber was very small. This should be the reinforcements from the southern city coalition forces, which were shelling the blocking positions of the Guards Association.

Teng Yuzhao turned around and saw Wu Peifu, a staff officer beside him, several of his personal guards, and even the observer of the artillery brigade and several signalmen behind the bunker, all standing there in a daze, with their eyes wide open and their mouths open, staring blankly at the battlefield in front of them, without saying a word.

Teng Yuzhao didn't bother to wake these people up from their astonishment. He snatched the bugle from the hands of his personal guards, raised it to his lips and blew the charge horn loudly.

As Teng Yuzhao blew the bugle in his hand, loud charge bugles were blown in succession in the ambush circle, and then, deafening shouts of killing suddenly broke out on the battlefield.

Under the light of the flares that were still rising, Teng Yuzhao could see the assault column on the opposite side and the officers and soldiers of the Guards Association on the west side. They were holding rifles with sharp bayonets and wielding broadswords. They swarmed out of the green tents on both sides and shouted as they charged towards the road inside the ambush circle.

Teng Yuzhao knew that he had won this battle.

Even if there were still more than 10,000 Russian troops able to fight, they had already become frightened birds and would definitely not be a match for the more than 10,000 assault columns and guards whose morale was greatly boosted. If the remnants of the Russian army did not try to break out of the ambush circle, there would be only one fate waiting for them, and that was death.

When Teng Yuzhao put down the bugle and turned around to return it to his personal guard, he found that Wu Peifu beside him had disappeared, and only the staff officer was still standing there with a red face.

Teng Yuzhao estimated that Wu Peifu was probably dissatisfied with his slow response and was ashamed to face Teng Yuzhao. At this time, he should run to organize his reserve troops and take advantage of the situation to attack.

Teng Yuzhao, who was in a good mood, glanced at the artillerymen who were busy packing up their observation mirrors and collecting telephone lines, handed the bugle in his hand back to the guard whose face was also flushed, then reached out and patted the guard gently and said to the staff officer.

"Tell Wu Ziyu that I'm going to the blocking position in the south. The commander here wants him to discuss it with Captain Liu Zong."

"Remember, tell him that if a few Russian troops escape the ambush, they should not chase them too far, but just disperse the remaining fleeing enemies."

"Then, the Imperial Guard Association quickly cleaned up the battlefield and retreated back to the city on their own."

"All troops of the assault column must rush to the south to block the battlefield as soon as possible and support the battle there."

Amid the dense "da da da" fire from the Maxim heavy machine guns, the blocking position of the Southern Guards Association was destroyed.

Behind the sandbag bunker that had been blown to pieces, a gunshot rang out, and a new recruit from the Guards Association, who was pale-faced and without a rifle in his hand, was crawling backwards when he was shot in the chest by Li Jinyu, who was running towards him with gauze wrapped around his head. He fell to the ground.

Amid the sound of gunfire, Li Jinyu shouted fiercely, "Everyone listen to me. Anyone who retreats in battle will be killed without mercy."

Then he shouted at a messenger behind him, "Pass on my order. Tell the guards in the battalion, including officers, that anyone who retreats in fear of the enemy can be shot on the spot without permission."

Including this one, this is the third new recruit of the Guards Association who was shot on the spot by Li Jinyu.

The coalition forces from the south of the city only launched a round of exploratory attacks upon their arrival. After finding out the general situation of the Imperial Guards' blocking positions, they immediately began a long and fierce artillery bombardment on the three battalions of the Imperial Guards.

Although the caliber of the artillery they brought was not large, only 54mm small cannons, the artillery fire was extremely fierce.
(End of this chapter)