The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 368 This League Flag Does Not Count

The entire ambush area of ​​the 1st and 2nd Mixed Brigade was in a mess.

From the official road all the way eastward, the more than 200-meter-wide open space in the fields near the road and between the green tents were littered with the corpses of the soldiers of the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces.

The scene on the official road was especially unbearable to look at. Everywhere were the broken limbs of the Allied forces, as well as minced meat and bloody, colorful intestines. At a glance, they could be seen almost everywhere, covering the ground.

Such a horrifying scene made Teng Yuzhao feel a little nervous. The guards in the squad following closely behind him also frowned, trying their best not to look at the mutilated bodies of the coalition forces on the ground.

From a distance, Teng Yuzhao saw the shadows of the coalition forces' cannons.

However, the scene he saw quickly cooled down Teng Yuzhao's fiery heart, because most of the cannons were blown to the ground, and some of the barrels were even blown to one side.

Fortunately, although some of the French 1897mm recoilless cannons, or Ms, that he had coveted, had fallen to the ground, Teng Yuzhao found after a careful inspection that they were all injured or killed by the packhorses that were pulling the cannons, and were dragged off the roadbed and fell among the ditches in the fields by the horses. There were actually guns intact, which finally prevented Teng Yuzhao from being completely disappointed.

These sixteen "Miss France" guns are enough for Liu Changfa to form another artillery battalion.

The British Army also retained some of its cannons. Although these cannons were almost useless for the vanguard army for the time being, they would still be useful in the future. Even if they were reserved for future use, they would be very good and would save him a lot of money on purchasing cannons.

Teng Yuzao counted the remaining cannons and found that there were nine 105-caliber cannons produced by the British arms company Armstrong that could still be used, but all the 150mm cannons were destroyed without exception.

However, the M1897 mm artillery seized today was classified as a field gun in the French model.

A notable feature of the so-called field artillery is that it cannot be disassembled and transported, and the overall weight of the artillery is also relatively heavy.

Fortunately, the French had not yet added steel shields to this type of artillery, which made the artillery much lighter and not difficult to transport.

Seeing Teng Yuzhao circling around the cannons with a look of regret on his face, Liu Yuzhi, who came hurriedly, said a little embarrassedly.

"Marshal, we are bombarding indiscriminately. It is difficult to avoid these cannons."

Li Xiance also saw what Teng Yuzao was thinking, and said with a wry smile, "Marshal, it's just a few cannons. We two brothers will definitely get a few more for you after a while."

Teng Yuzao smiled and shook his head. "These large-caliber artillery pieces are intact, but they are of no great use to us for now. It's hard for us to find the shells."

"I just feel bad that two of these French guns were blown up."

Teng Yuzao pointed at the sixteen barreled cannons and said, "Although the French call this type of cannon a field cannon, it is not very heavy and is easy to haul. In particular, its firing speed is extremely fast, much faster than the mountain cannons we have now. It is almost five to six times faster than the German Krupp mountain cannons we have now."

“Five to six times!”

Teng Yuzhao's words surprised both Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze.

Li Xianze said in astonishment, "Marshal, doesn't that mean that these three French cannons are equivalent to the artillery of a battalion of the artillery corps?"

Teng Yuzao sighed and said regretfully, "It's about the same. After firing, the barrel of these new French artillery pieces hardly moves. The recoil is reduced by the extension and retraction of the barrel. There is no need to quickly recalibrate the firing parameters after each shot."

"So, its firing speed is extremely fast. Sixteen French guns are almost equivalent to adding five more artillery battalions to the Artillery Association."

Looking at the two people's stunned expressions of surprise, Teng Yuzhao shook his head and said.

"So many cannons were destroyed."

"You two should stay away. When I came here, I called Qingyun and told him that there were these French cannons here. Do you think he would be in a good mood when he saw so many cannons destroyed when he came here?"

Teng Yuzao chuckled, "I think he will be here soon."

Li Xianze smacked his lips and said, "It wasn't us brothers who blew up the cannon. He blew it up himself. Can he still take it out on us brothers?"

Teng Yuzao smiled maliciously and said, "It is true that he blew up the cannon himself, but he is furious and might take it out on someone else. Besides, you are the chief officers here, who do you think he will show his displeasure to?"

Teng Yuzhao said hurriedly when he saw Liu Changfa and a group of officers and soldiers from the artillery brigade trotting towards him from afar.

"I still need to go check on the assault column. You guys should hurry up and clean up the battlefield."

As soon as Teng Yuzao turned around, he heard Li Xianze shouting anxiously, "Zhang Tiefeng, call some people to help Commander Liu to transport these cannons away immediately."

Zhang Tiefeng is the commander of Li Xianze's Second Battalion. Calling Zhang Tiefeng at this time must mean that he is asked to take the bullet.

Sure enough, when Teng Yuzhao looked back again, Li Xianze had already pulled Liu Yuzhi and quickly hid among the officers and soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield, and disappeared without a trace.

The ambush area of ​​the assault column was even more terrifying than the ambush areas of the 1st and 2nd Mixed Brigades. Teng Yuzhao even saw some of the assault column's own recruits still vomiting.

This area was not only filled with the broken limbs and arms of the Japanese supply soldiers, but also many headless corpses whose heads had been chopped off by swords. You could even often see the bloody mutilated corpses of Japanese soldiers who had been split in half by the sword's shoulder or back, or cut in half at the waist with a single blow.

Such a horrifying scene, not to mention the new recruits, even the veterans from other troops may not be able to withstand such a horrifying visual impact.

However, the veterans of the assault column were completely different.

They were already accustomed to such bloody scenes. They were responsible for cleaning the weapons, ammunition and other equipment from the horrific corpses of the Japanese soldiers. They even searched for their money.

The biggest difference between the assault column and other units of the vanguard army is that they have a broadsword team that is good at hand-to-hand combat.

Although, some time ago, when weapons were insufficient, several other troops also temporarily set up broadsword teams, the assault column's broadsword team was not without weapons. On the contrary, the assault column's broadsword team was well equipped.

Each of them not only had a big knife, but also a Mauser pistol and two Teng grenades.

"Commander!"

Teng Yuzhao had just arrived at the ambush area of ​​the assault column. Before he could go to the pack horses and carts that had been gathered back on the official road to check the seized weapons, ammunition and supplies, Liu Shijiu's loud voice started shouting excitedly.

Teng Yuzhao looked in the direction of the voice and saw Liu Shijiu, Wang Decheng and Zhu Kaishan, waving a Japanese military flag in their hands and running towards him in a hurry.

Teng Yuzao smiled and said to Liu Shijiu and the other two who came closer, "You fought well, especially Brother Kaishan. Not only did your broadsword team perform bravely and invincibly, but your method was also very good. I saw clearly that it was your broadsword team that was the first to charge onto the official road. From the time the cannons started firing, in less than ten seconds you had already rushed onto the official road, making it impossible for the Japanese to organize any resistance."

"It was because you attacked the official road in time that the loss of the assault column was minimized. This has a lot to do with your good idea and the bravery of your officers and soldiers of the Big Sword Team. I will give you a credit."

Teng Yuzhao personally expressed that he would commend himself, which made Zhu Kaishan so happy that he couldn't close his mouth, but his smile made his face look even longer.

Zhu Kaishan grinned and said, "What merit or not? I heard that those Japanese devils killed a lot of our people during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This can be considered as revenge for them."

Wang Decheng was also very happy and said, "Marshal, Brother Kaishan's idea is indeed very good. I just asked and found that the casualties of our assault column are at most 300 to 400 people, and most of them are lightly injured."

Teng Yuzhao was about to encourage Zhu Kaishan a few more words when Liu Shijiu handed over the Japanese military flag in his hand.

"Marshal, this is the Japanese flag captured by the Big Sword Team. Should this be commended as well?"

Teng Yuzao took the Japanese army flag and said with a smile, "Of course you should be commended, this means that your assault column has completely wiped out the Japanese Army's Fourth Division's baggage regiment in this battle, so you should be commended." Liu Shijiu grinned and said, "Last time I saw the Marshal saw the captured Japanese army flag, he was so happy that he looked like he had seen a treasure. I thought it was so difficult to capture this flag, is this also very common?"

Liu Nineteen curled his lips again and said with disdain.

"When I get the chance, I'll get a few more for the Marshal."

Seeing that Liu Shijiu was wrong, Teng Yuzao had to correct him in order to avoid being branded as someone who was unclear about rewards and punishments.

"Brother, the Japanese's regimental flags were all awarded by the Japanese emperor himself. They are indeed very rare. Because when the Japanese knew that their military flags were going to be seized, they would burn their regimental flags. The Japanese called this act of burning flags "feng chao ."

"Otherwise, once their wing flag is seized, their wing will be cancelled by their country."

"So, they all have flag guards, and they value the flag more than their own lives."

Teng Yuzao changed the subject and said, "However, not all the regiment flags of the Japanese were awarded by the Emperor himself. Only the regiment flags of their infantry and cavalry regiments were awarded by the Emperor himself."

"The flags of the Japanese artillery and engineering regiments were not granted by the Emperor. Even if their flags were seized, it would not matter much. Therefore, the Japanese did not guard such flags very strictly and did not care much about them."

After hearing what Teng Yuzao said, Liu Shijiu glared and cursed, "Damn it, how come they surrendered it so easily? It turns out that the Japanese didn't take their broken flag seriously!"

Then Liu Nineteen stretched out his hand to take the flag back, and said fiercely, "Chengde, go and burn this damn flag, so that I don't have to look at it as an eyesore."

Teng Yuzao quickly retracted his hand, "No, this won't do. Even though this little devil's regiment flag belongs to the baggage troop, it is still a piece of evidence. We can't burn it."

Teng Yuzao said to Liu Shijiu again, "We must search carefully, not only the ranks of the Japanese officers, but also their sabers, documents and other belongings. Take everything away."

"Also, I saw you guys killed the commander of the Japanese baggage regiment. He was a colonel. It must have been the sharpshooter from your assault column who killed him. Investigate it carefully. This is a great achievement."

Teng Yuzhao did not mention himself, such credit should be given to the soldiers below.

In any case, both shots hit the Japanese colonel who was riding on his horse, which was a rare achievement for these sharpshooters who had just been trained.

These sharpshooters need to be encouraged to practice their shooting skills hard so that they can play a greater role in the future.

Liu Nineteen frowned and said, "I have arranged two of the best sharpshooters in our assault column to kill this little Japanese colonel."

"But they all said that they didn't kill the Japanese soldier. Someone else fired a shot before them, and this shot hit the Japanese soldier's temple. It was this shot that killed the Japanese colonel directly."

"Their two shots, one hit the Japanese in the face and the other hit his left rib, neither of them was fatal. The credit is not theirs."

Teng Yuzhao secretly sighed when he heard Liu Shijiu's somewhat unwilling words.

Liu Shijiu was very honest and even refused to admit that it was his sharpshooter who killed the Japanese colonel. This was quite a feat!

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Maybe they remembered it wrongly, or maybe someone else in your assault column fired the shot. Since it happened in your ambush area, it must have been your people who killed him. The credit should always go to your assault column."

Liu Nineteen waved his hands and said with some regret, "Marshal, I, Liu Nineteen, am not the kind of person who would steal the credit for other people's work."

"Except for short guns, our assault team only has the old Russian water-repeating rifles. We don't have any other types of rifles. The old Russian water-repeating rifles have small caliber bullets, but this rifle has a larger caliber than the water-repeating rifles."

Liu Shijiu's words made Teng Yuzao smile bitterly.

He forgot that the Mauser rifle is 7.9 caliber, while the Mosin-Nagant is 7.62 caliber.

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "I wanted to give this credit to you, but I didn't expect you to be so stubborn."

Seeing that Liu Shijiu was still trying to refuse, Teng Yuzao had no choice but to tell the truth.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I fired that shot, so I don't want the credit. Your men were able to hit the Japanese colonel on horseback, and their marksmanship is pretty good, so give them the credit."

"Haha, then I would like to thank the Marshal for the grace he has bestowed on them on behalf of my two brothers!"

Originally Liu Shijiu was a little discouraged, but when he heard that the shot was fired by Teng Yuzhao, he immediately thanked the Marshal for his grace on behalf of the two sharpshooters.

Seeing that Teng Yuzhao was a little surprised that Liu Shijiu's attitude changed so quickly, Liu Shijiu smiled and said.

"I don't care about other people's contributions, but the Marshal's contributions are different. You don't need such a small contribution, so it's just right for those two guys."

In fact, Teng Yuzhao had not finished speaking. He wanted to encourage Zhu Kaishan and Wang Decheng a few more words, but at this moment, a faint sound of artillery came from the south, interrupting the words Teng Yuzhao was about to say.

The sudden sound of artillery fire made Liu Shijiu and others listen attentively.

Teng Yuzhao knew that the artillery fire from the south at this time should be the Imperial Guards blocking the Allied Forces reinforcements coming from Langfang. This was the Imperial Guards blocking the enemy alone, and Wu Peifu had already led his troops to pursue the remaining enemy.

In particular, the remaining enemies who escaped might suddenly rush out from behind the defense line that was blocking the rescue coalition forces, and thus might break through their defense line in one fell swoop.

Teng Yuzhao suppressed his worries and said with a nonchalant smile.

"Brother, did you hear that? The foreign devils from Langfang have come out to support the coalition forces that were ambushed by us. The Imperial Guards are chasing and killing the fleeing enemies and blocking them."

Without waiting for Teng Yuzao to finish his words, Liu Shijiu rolled up his sleeves and spoke anxiously.

"Marshal, there are only a few thousand foreign devils in Langfang. How dare they show up? Let us send up the assault column. I will definitely take Langfang for you!"

Teng Yuzao was very happy with Liu Shijiu's bellicosity, but now was not the right time.

Teng Yuzao waved his hands and said, "Brother, you know that this batch of military supplies is extremely important to our Vanguard Army. It not only affects whether we can continue to fight the foreign devils, but also affects the future development of our Vanguard Army."

"So, the most important thing now is not to kill another two or three thousand foreign devils, but how to transport these captured items away as quickly as possible."

"Don't worry about anything else. You need to clean up the battlefield quickly and take away as much captured items as possible, especially weapons and ammunition. Don't leave anything behind."

"besides."

Teng Yuzhao pointed to the official road, where the officers and soldiers were loading the ammunition and supplies scattered on the ground back onto the carts.

"Tell your people to not only be fast, but also make sure to tie it tightly. Next, we have to march back to Yanjiachang quickly."

After giving instructions to Liu Shijiu, Teng Yuzao hurried back to the headquarters.

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(End of this chapter)