The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 370: Cover Up
Amid the staff officer's excited shouts, Li Jinyu also saw the major general.

"Guard Platoon."

As Li Jinyu shouted, a strong second lieutenant jumped in front of Li Jinyu.

Li Jinyu pointed at the Japanese major general and said, "See that officer? When the Japanese soldiers climb over our sandbag bunkers, you lead your guard platoon and aim your rifle at the Japanese soldier. Make sure to kill him!"

"Yes."

The guard platoon leader responded and turned hurriedly to greet his men.

Following the command from the Japanese major general, the chaotic Japanese army no longer hesitated and rushed towards the bunker like a swarm of bees, carrying the major general with them.

In front of the bunker, the short Japanese soldiers first threw their rifles behind the bunker, and then scrambled to climb onto the bunker.

On the bunker, seeing the approaching American troops, they couldn't help but let out a burst of ghostly cheers, then climbed down, picked up the guns on the ground, and ran towards the American attack team.

In the chaos, the Japanese major general ran a few steps to the bunker, then rushed forward, pressed the bunker with both hands, and actually jumped up directly.

"Bang, bang, bang", at this moment, a burst of dense gunfire sounded beside Li Jinyu. The Japanese major general who had already risen was shaken by the dense bullets, and his arms became limp and he fell onto the bunker.

The charging American troops heard gunshots behind the bunker and knew that friendly forces had broken through here. They were hesitating whether to organize cover and support on the spot or to seize the bunker first, when hundreds of remnants of the Japanese army had already climbed over the bunker in a mess.

At this moment, the sky was filled with the whistling sound of dense artillery shells cutting through the air. The panicked American attacking troops suddenly became chaotic and fell to the ground one after another.

"Boom boom boom" a series of dense explosions suddenly rang out in the front and back two waves of US attacking teams.

Although the U.S. troops reacted quickly enough and almost all of them lay down on the ground, their formation was still too dense. Even if they lay down in time, it was not very effective in avoiding mortar shells with a killing radius of more than ten meters. Even if they lay on the ground, they would still be blown away by mortar shells falling nearby.

The two waves of US troops were hit by 81 mortar shells each, and there were still three to four hundred US soldiers killed or injured.

Such a short but extremely fierce bombardment immediately caused chaos in the US offensive team. In order to avoid the subsequent bombardment, many US soldiers got up and ran back.

"Blow the trumpet."

Li Jinyu stood up and shouted loudly to the bugler behind him.

As soon as the bugle sounded, shouts of killing suddenly rang out from the green tents on both sides of the blocking position, and a large group of soldiers swarmed out.

The officers and soldiers of the vanguard army are generally young, basically young men between 18 and 20 years old. Those over 30 or even 40 are all men who know martial arts, and there are even experts in climbing over walls and ridges. After the officers and soldiers rushed to the bunker, most of them just pushed with one hand and landed on the other side of the bunker.

Many people even rushed to the bunker and jumped directly over. No one needed to crawl over like the short Japanese soldiers.

The officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guards Corps crossed the bunker and did not stop. They just rushed forward and fired bullets from their rifles at the Japanese and American forces that were already in chaos.

There is no need to aim at this time. As long as the bullet can be fired, regardless of whether it hits the vital point or not, it can make the already chaotic coalition forces even more chaotic.

Li Jinyu, holding a pistol, rushed to the bunker with a group of mortar officers and soldiers, and quickly began to deploy them. As soon as a row of twenty-seven mortars was deployed, the sentry who climbed onto the bunker roughly reported the shooting parameters based on visual estimation.

As the sentry shouted loudly, "Platoon one, fire," nine mortar shells flew into the air with a series of "bangs" and fell with a whistling sound into the second wave of American soldiers who seemed to be still trying to find a position to prepare for resistance.

Although there were only nine shells this time, the second wave of US troops had to get up from the ground because they were facing the vanguard troops launching the charge and the US-Japanese coalition forces that were retreating towards them. Otherwise, they would probably be trampled by the chaotic troops fleeing over.

Therefore, this round of nine salvos caused no less casualties to the US military than the previous round, and a bloody storm immediately broke out among the US military crowd. Not only were broken limbs and arms flying all over the sky, but many US soldiers were blown into the air by the strong shock wave generated by the explosion.

Some of the American troops in the front still wanted to resist, but after hearing the continuous fierce explosions from behind and seeing the officers and soldiers of the vanguard army continuously crossing the bunkers and rushing towards them with sharp bayonets, they could no longer hold back and turned around and began to flee backwards with the chaotic crowd.

The bullets that kept coming from behind knocked the fleeing coalition forces to the ground one by one, making them run faster. Some of them even threw away their rifles and started running as fast as they could.

According to Li Jinyu's request, the mortar sentry directed a platoon of mortars to continuously fire shells at the second wave of American troops that had not yet completely fallen into chaos.

While ordering the other two platoons to move forward, they followed the charging soldiers and took turns to establish firing positions so as to provide fire support to the charging officers and soldiers at any time.

At this time, the three battalions of soldiers from the Imperial Guard who were chasing the fleeing remnants of the Japanese army had also arrived. Under Li Jinyu's order, the three battalions rushed out of the bunkers and pounced on the Japanese and American coalition forces that had begun to flee.

If they don't run away, it will be easy for six battalions of more than 6,000 troops to deal with the 2,000 US-Japanese coalition forces. It will only be a matter of time before they are destroyed.

After checking the Japanese major general who was killed, Li Jinyu asked his staff to tear off the shoulder straps of the Japanese major general while searching for his identification documents while crossing the bunker.

Just as Li Jinyu, holding his pistol and preparing to rush out of the bunker with the charging troops under the protection of the guard platoon, Wu Peifu's voice sounded behind him.

Wu Peifu, who was running with sweat all over his forehead, came closer and saw at a glance the Japanese major general who had been hit by at least six bullets and was lying on his back on the bunker, already dead. He was overjoyed and breathed a sigh of relief.

Wu Peifu, panting, slapped Li Jinyu's shoulder hard, and without waiting to catch his breath, he said with relief.

"Mingguang, the major general we killed was the brigade commander of the Japanese. This was a credit given to us by Commander Hu. If we let him get away, we would be so embarrassed."

Li Jinyu looked at the guard platoon leader who had a very happy look on his face and said with a smile.

"This Japanese brigade commander is quite skilled. If it weren't for the guard platoon, it would have been easy for him to escape."

"Good! Give the guard platoon a great reward."

Wu Peifu's words made the guard platoon leader's face flush with excitement.

You know, since the guard platoon is not a front-line unit, it is not easy for them to get merit. However, this is his first time to get merit, and it is a great merit. How can he not be excited?

To be promoted in the vanguard army, one must not only be a graduate of the Beiyang Military Academy or the Camp Academy, or at least have mastered the corresponding tactics and strategies of modern warfare, but also have to have made contributions, so that one can be promoted quickly.

Wu Peifu didn't have time to say anything more. He looked over the bunker at the fleeing coalition forces and said.

"Mingguang, well done. We two have the same idea. We are going to attack Langfang in one go. If possible, we will take Langfang as well."

(End of this chapter)