The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 40: Allied Bombardment

However, he and his officers should really wear a watch as soon as possible, even if it is a pocket watch. This is very necessary for fighting modern warfare with the coalition forces. At least in the coordination of infantry and artillery, the concept of time must be strictly observed.

At this time, Western armies did not have the concept of infantry-artillery coordination. At most, the Tsarist Russian army was slightly better. They had some idea of ​​infantry-artillery coordination in their use of artillery in the attack, but it was still a long way from true coordinated operations.

Teng Yuzhao has always been very puzzled. At this time, as far as the army weapons are concerned, there is not much difference compared with the World War II period decades later. At least compared with the Chinese and Japanese weapons on the Chinese battlefield during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression more than 30 years later, there is not much difference. It can even be said that this period is a replica of that era.

For example, in terms of guns, the rifles used in the West today are almost all modernized guns, with only some minor improvements later on. For example, the G98 was still partially equipped by the German army during World War II; the Japanese Type rifle, compared with the later Type rifle, only has an additional dust cover.

The same is true for pistols. Most of the pistols had already appeared during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Although the Qing government's military combat concepts were extremely conservative, stubborn and backward, its desire and pursuit for advanced weapons is still worthy of praise. The Beiyang Zhili Army almost had the most advanced weapons of the era, and they also had weapons that were more advanced than many European powers. The British commander of the Eight-Nation Alliance once mentioned this in his report to the country. After they captured Tianjin, they even found more than 98 German-made G rifles, hundreds of cannons and Maxim heavy machine guns, which were the most advanced in the West at that time, in the warehouse in Xigu.

Even the Wuwei Army was not inferior to the Allied Forces in terms of heavy machine guns. Among the Allied Forces, each division had only 20 to 30 heavy machine guns at that time, and the Russian army had only 18 heavy machine guns in a single division.

In terms of artillery, apart from the shorter range and more diverse models and calibers, other aspects are not much different.

The only things they didn't have were light machine guns and submachine guns, as well as mortars, grenade launchers, and, yes, grenades.

Hand grenades originally appeared in the West more than a hundred years ago. They even had a special type of soldier called grenadiers. However, the West generally had no interest in this kind of close combat weapon. It was not until World War I, when hand grenades began to flourish due to the large-scale trench warfare.

During this period, the armies of the major Western powers were not equipped with hand grenades, but Teng Yuzhao remembered that Sweden seemed to have a kind of grenade similar to a landmine. In addition, the French were equipped with a small number of poison gas grenades, which were used by the Allied Forces.

However, the Qing army at that time had good equipment but was completely vulnerable in battle, which made Teng Yuzhao very helpless and puzzled.

Teng Yuzhao looked up at the eastern sky. From the position of the bright morning star in the sky, Teng Yuzhao estimated that the current time was roughly around 4:30. According to the sunrise time in Tianjin in July, which is around 5:10, the sky would lighten in another half an hour, and the coalition forces should start their attack at that time.

Teng Yuzhao turned around and waved to the two guards who followed him to the top of the fort, indicating that they should return to the machine gun bunker.

However, Teng Yuzhao's judgment was wrong. As soon as he returned to the fort, the red phone rang again. As soon as Wei Jinghai picked up the phone, Liu Yuzhi's voice came from the receiver again.

"The observation post reports that the coalition forces on the other side have been dispatched. There are more than fifty large and small ships leaving the concession and heading towards us."

According to Christian's warning, the coalition forces should have artillery support for today's attack. Why are they crossing the river before the bombardment? Teng Yuzao thought for a moment, then took the phone and said quickly, "Yuxuan, the coalition forces that are crossing the river to attack our army this time are likely Russian troops. Only the Russian army will transport the attacking troops as close to the launch point as possible before launching an attack. Now, they are the first to transport troops across the river without launching an artillery bombardment. This is very much like the Russian style."

"The Russian Army's combat style is rough and tough, and extremely threatening. You must be careful."

Teng Yuzao continued, "Also, the coalition forces will soon launch an artillery attack. Wake up the soldiers. Except for a few observation posts left in the trenches, all others should go into the cat-ear caves to prevent artillery attacks."

Sure enough, less than ten minutes after Teng Yuzhao’s order was issued and before daybreak, the sky was filled with the piercing whistling sound of shells cutting through the air, followed by the sound of fierce artillery explosions in the woods behind the defensive position.

"Boom, boom, boom", a series of violent explosions occurred one after another in the woods behind him. With the help of the flames produced by the exploding shells, he could see clearly that the entire forest was blown into pieces by the shells, and many tree trunks as thick as bowls were even broken by the violent explosions and then thrown high into the air. The rubble and soil that were blown up were flying all over the sky, so that several pieces of rubble were thrown in from the entrance and exit of the machine gun bunker.

Watching the violent explosion, Wei Jinghai said with lingering fear, "Your Excellency is wise. If we stayed in the tent, it would be very dangerous."

Teng Yuzao did not take Wei Jinghai's words seriously. If he stayed in the tent to rest, he would have left early. He had expected that the coalition forces' artillery bombardment before the attack would not spare this patch of woods.

A staff officer asked in confusion, "Why do these foreign devils only bomb the empty woods and not our trenches?"

Wei Jinghai smiled and said, "Look at the sky outside. It's just getting a little bright now. The foreigners can't see the situation here clearly. Your Excellency's judgment is very accurate. The foreigners must have thought that our troops were resting in the woods, so they directly bombarded there. I guess when the foreigners can see our defense line clearly, they will regret wasting a lot of shells in vain."

Wei Jinghai's words made several staff officers laugh.

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Ningbo is right. We can ambush troops in the woods behind. The coalition forces must have already measured the shooting parameters. They must have thought that our vanguard troops would camp in the woods like other troops, so they bombarded there in advance."

"but."

Teng Yuzao said to several staff officers, "Tell me, they started firing artillery before the coalition infantry crossed the river. What is their intention?"

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(End of this chapter)