The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 402 The Difficulties of Leaving Some Captives
Teng Yuzhao looked in the direction of the gunshots and saw thousands of Japanese troops and fake British soldiers pouring out from the north and south of the two hills.

As if stimulated by the intensive artillery bombardment just now, the Japanese troops rushing out from both sides of the hill launched a fierce attack. With several heavy machine guns mounted on the hillside, a large group of Japanese troops formed a skirmish line formation and pounced on the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard who were reinforcing the positions on the mountain behind the hill.

The fake British soldiers, who usually lacked courage but were the fastest in running away, now seemed to be energized. They fired their guns indiscriminately and howled as they rushed to the back of the hill on the right.

The offensive of the Japanese and fake British troops was slightly slowed down after being hit by firepower from the Imperial Guards' blocking forces.

"Da da da, bang bang bang", the two battalions of the Guards Association responsible for covering the flanks and rear of the hill position opened fire, and separately fought against the Japanese troops and fake British troops rushing over from the left and right sides.

"Marshal, let the mortar battalion open fire."

Wu Peifu, with sweat on his forehead and an anxious look on his face, ran up with two staff officers and two communications soldiers, holding a telephone with the line unplugged.

Teng Yuzhao knew that Wu Peifu, facing such fierce fighting and critical situation, was already feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

Teng Yuzhao felt that Wu Peifu's performance was normal. If Wu Peifu had been able to show command with composure from the beginning, and remained calm in the face of danger and emergencies, Teng Yuzhao would have felt strange.

Teng Yuzhao turned around, took the telescope from a personal guard who had followed him, and looked towards the other side of the river in the distance.

The main force of the coalition forces had originally stopped seven or eight hundred meters away and had already dispersed. Now, more than ten thousand people had gathered again and were rapidly approaching the stone bridge.

Teng Yuzao said to Wu Peifu, "Order the nearly 2,000 men Mingguang brought back not to rest, but to engage in battle immediately. Together with your guard battalion, they will all be under Mingguang's unified command. Tell him to defeat the Japanese troops on the left as quickly as possible. In ten minutes, the mortar battalion will provide him with artillery support."

Teng Yuzao hesitated for a moment, then said, "We also need to tell him that we don't need to take any prisoners if we defeat the Japanese troops on the left wing, but we must take them if they flee to the front of our hill position. This order applies to all the troops of the Imperial Guards."

"Order the mortar battalion to concentrate the firepower of the five sentries. Ten minutes later, shell the Japanese troops on the left. I will only give them three minutes to fire. You must fire accurately and destroy this Japanese regiment."

Teng Yuzao suddenly asked Wu Peifu, "Did the foreign devils bombard your artillery battalion's position?"

"It was bombarded. Fortunately, we moved quickly. That position was blown to pieces by the foreigners' artillery fire."

"That's good. This means the foreigners' artillery positions are not too far from us. The mortar battalion must quickly identify the enemy's artillery positions."

"Then use the remaining sentry of the mortar battalion and the artillery battalion of your Guards Association. While the mortar battalion is shelling the Japanese troops on the left, you must immediately cover the foreign devils' artillery positions with artillery fire. The foreign devils' artillery positions are no more than five kilometers away from us, and our mortars should be able to hit them."

"Then ask the mortar battalion to shell the left side. After the deadline, quickly adjust the muzzle and shell the front of the front position. Target the areas where the foreign devils gather near the bridgeheads on the east and west sides of the stone bridge. There is no time limit. Try to inflict as much damage as possible on the foreign devils."

"Strictly order all artillery units to move their positions three minutes after opening fire, especially the mortar battalions, as they can move quickly."

"Yes."

Wu Peifu signaled a staff officer to convey the order immediately. The staff officer did not bother to use the telephone, but turned around, ran a few steps, jumped into the trench, and then went into the shelter to convey Teng Yuzhao's order.

Wu Peifu brought this telephone with him to directly convey Teng Yuzao's order. If the order is simple, it's fine. If it's a little longer, it would be more direct and faster to go back to the shelter and convey it directly. Teng Yuzao turned around and ordered a guard, "Send an order, ask Xu Ting to lead the special guard squadron to the right immediately, flank the fake British army, and cooperate with the battalion of the Guards Association to block the attack of the fake British army."

Seeing Teng Yuzhao take over the command, Wu Peifu couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief. His mind became clearer and he wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.

"Teacher, you are worried that if you kill prisoners again in front of the position, you might be seen by the foreign devils on the other side."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "This is just one of them."

"Second, your troops are insufficient. The foreign devils on the other side have more than 200 cannons. Don't expect that we can blow them all up."

"The bombardment can only destroy part of the enemy's artillery at most. It just serves as a threat and diversion. Their artillery has a longer range than ours. I'm afraid some of their large-caliber artillery is left behind and has not been deployed in time."

"Since we can't destroy all of the enemy's artillery, we can't clean up the battlefield. Do you know that in order to prepare for this military expansion, even the 30-year rifles that we promised to buy for Zhang Zhidong in order to win over Zhang Zhidong and split the Southeast Mutual Protection Alliance have been temporarily suspended."

"Most recently, Qionglin only shipped French Lebel rifles and a small number of Italian Carcano rifles to Wuchang."

"But even so, our weapons are still lacking! But with these prisoners, the foreign devils won't dare to fire easily, and we can clean up the battlefield calmly."

Wu Peifu was not aware of the suspension of the sale of weapons to Zhang Zhidong that Teng Yuzao disliked, but he knew that Teng Yuzao had disliked Japanese weapons in the past, but now he was not willing to let go of even the Japanese Army's Type 30 rifles, so he could tell that there must be a big gap in the number of weapons for military expansion.

Wu Peifu said, "Teacher, rest assured. I will supervise it personally. If anyone dares to disobey me in this matter, I will punish him severely."

The whistling sound of artillery shells finally rang out again, but this time the whistling sound was getting farther and farther away. It was the artillery from the sentry arranged by the mortar battalion, shelling the artillery positions of the coalition forces east of the Juma River.

There are more than 200 artillery pieces. Even if the coalition forces have 24 or even 28 artillery pieces in a large-scale artillery battalion, there must be seven or eight battalions. It is impossible for these seven or eight battalions to be deployed at the same time in such a short time. Moreover, although the coalition forces' artillery bombardment just now was very fierce, the number would definitely not exceed 100.

The most important thing is that Teng Yuzhao believed that the coalition forces destroyed the artillery positions of the Guards Association and would probably think that the six artillery pieces of the Guards Association had been destroyed by them and there was no need to move the artillery positions.

It is even possible that the coalition artillery will not pay any attention to the pitiful six mountain cannons of the Guards Association. They are absolutely sure to destroy them in a short time.

Letting a sentry's mortar bombard the coalition artillery position was to give the coalition a severe blow.

Although there is only one post, it has twenty-seven mortars. Coupled with the mortars' terrifying firing speed, nearly two hundred shells can be fired in almost one minute, which is enough to cover two or three artillery positions of the coalition forces.

There was another whistling sound of a shell cutting through the air, but this time the whistling sound did not seem to be getting farther and farther away, but seemed to be always nearby.

However, this feeling soon had an answer.

"Boom boom boom", a series of dense and violent explosions rang out in the Japanese army's ranks on the left side of the position. Then, more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers were covered by the rising smoke and dust.

(End of this chapter)