The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 403: The Japanese who bore the brunt
Groups of artillery shells continued to fall from the sky, swooping down rapidly from the altitude with the screams of death, and then plunging headfirst into the smoke and dust covering the Japanese army, reaping the lives of the Japanese soldiers while raising even more smoke and dust.

The series of violent explosions not only made the smoke covering the Japanese troops thicker, but the shock waves generated by the explosions also stirred the thick smoke and dust, causing it to churn back and forth endlessly, as if there was a ferocious beast in the smoke and dust, madly chasing and devouring the lives of the Japanese soldiers in the smoke and dust.

The intensive bombardment lasted for twelve rounds before it stopped.

The mortar battalion has a total of six posts, each with twenty-seven mortars. If one post is missing, the battalion will have 135 mortars. Twelve rounds of shelling will mean more than 1,500 shells.

You have to know that this is an 87mm mortar shell. If we only consider its killing power against infantry, it is more powerful than mountain and field artillery of the same caliber.

Although there had been a similar scale of artillery bombardment when the Russian reinforcements were ambushed east of the capital, it was at night and the shocking scene was far less direct than it is now, and it was far less stimulating to everyone's auditory and visual senses.

With such a fierce bombardment, not to mention more than 3,000 Japanese troops, even if there were one or two times more Japanese troops, they would also be stunned and even their fighting will would be directly destroyed.

Looking at the smoke rising into the sky, Teng Yuzhao felt somewhat helpless.

What made Teng Yuzhao feel helpless was that the gunners of the mortar battalion were still not very skilled. Under normal circumstances, they would definitely not fire only twelve rounds in one minute, that is, only one round every five seconds.

Another reason why Teng Yuzhao was helpless was that if he had more mortars and more artillery shells, he would have been able to annihilate at least half of the Allied Forces in Zhili before they could figure out his mortars.

Teng Yuzhao sighed lightly, and when he wanted to check the situation on the battlefield, he noticed that the sound of gunfire on the battlefield seemed to be much less frequent.

However, Teng Yuzhao was certain that the fighting had never stopped, whether it was the attack and defense of the hill in the front or the attack by the fake British army on the right, it would never end because of his fierce bombardment of the Japanese army on the left. At most, it would only slow down.

Teng Yuzhao estimated that this should be the concentrated bombardment of mortars. The scene was so shocking that even the coalition's attacking forces were a little frightened, and even inadvertently slowed down their offensive rhythm.

Teng Yuzhao raised his telescope and turned the lens toward the distance on the east bank of the Juma River. Behind two sparse woods, thick smoke was already rising, and there were even flashes of light from the explosion.

Needless to say, the ammunition on the coalition artillery positions must have been covered by the sudden intensive mortar fire, which detonated the ammunition, and the thick smoke was caused by the coalition artillery being blown up by the mortar post.

The coalition forces' artillery bombardment just now targeted not only the two hill positions, but also the artillery positions of the Guards Artillery Battalion. The coalition forces must have thought that their intensive and fierce artillery bombardment had completely destroyed their own artillery, which was why they were a little careless.

Not only did these two artillery positions not move their firing positions, but even the other artillery pieces were not deployed.

However, although the Japanese army was bombarded with shocking and fierce artillery fire, and even the artillery positions of the Allied forces were destroyed and some artillery pieces were blown up, the large Allied force on the east bank of the river was still rapidly approaching the stone bridge under the desperate drive of the officers.

It can be imagined that the commander of the coalition forces should have seen that the two positions were in danger due to the continuous and fierce attacks by the Russian army on the Guards Hill positions.

As long as the Russian army can successfully occupy these two small hills with extremely low elevations, Teng Yuzhao will no longer have any way to stop them. As long as their large troops rush across the Juma River, it will be natural to launch a pursuit battle.

Now, they want to increase the military strength on the west bank as quickly as possible, and then take these two frontal positions in one fell swoop to reverse the situation on the battlefield.

"Teacher! Look quickly!" Wu Peifu shouted in surprise. Teng Yuzhao turned the telescope and looked in the direction of Wu Peifu's finger.

In the area where the Japanese army regiment was originally stationed, there were still some miscellaneous trees and some withered thatch all over the ground. But now, not a single tree in that area was intact, and there were bomb craters everywhere. In many places, the thatch was burning, emitting clusters of black smoke.

Japanese soldiers' bodies and broken guns were scattered everywhere, on the hills and in the depressions. Teng Yuzao even saw a Japanese soldier's body hanging on the half-broken trunk of a tree whose crown had been blown off.
In the area, the more than a thousand remaining Japanese soldiers, covered in dust and grievances, were all in a state of disarray. They were running around in disorder, some looking for a safe hiding place, and some rescuing their companions.

There were still a few sober officers, waving their sabers and shouting desperately, as if they were trying to gather their troops for battle.

"Ding da da ding ding", a loud military bugle call suddenly sounded, followed by a large group of vanguard officers and soldiers rushing out from the hillsides and valleys with bayonets in hand.

Those officers and soldiers covered in gunpowder and even wrapped in bandages were obviously the blocking troops brought back by Li Jinyu. Those with relatively neat uniforms were Wu Peifu's guard battalion and the battalion of the Guard Association responsible for guarding the left wing of the blocking position.

More than 4,000 officers and soldiers, whose morale was high and obviously inspired by their own powerful artillery fire, shouted and charged towards the more than a thousand frightened remaining Japanese troops. The consequences can be imagined.

Without any orders from Japanese officers, the remaining Japanese troops turned around and ran away.

Although most of the Japanese soldiers were between 1.5 and 1.6 meters tall, they were not slow when it came to escaping. They stretched out their short legs and desperately fled towards the river along the shallow valley. Li Jinyu, with more than 4,000 officers and soldiers shouting, followed closely in pursuit.

At this moment, a series of explosions sounded on both sides of the Juma River.

Looking from Teng Yuzhao's position, he could see that on both sides of the Juma River centered on the stone bridge, there were large numbers of coalition forces gathered in the area. There were bursts of flashes and smoke. In the smoke, the coalition forces' broken limbs and arms and damaged guns were once again flying around in the air.

The smoke and dust that terrified the coalition forces rose into the sky again.

"Well fried!"

Wu Peifu, who was also holding a telescope, couldn't help but praise loudly again.

The area where the mortars were concentrated was exactly where the coalition forces were most concentrated, preparing to quickly rush across the stone bridge, or where the coalition forces had already crossed the stone bridge and were assembling under the organization of officers to follow up the Russian army and launch an attack on the two hill positions.

Although it was only for a moment, Teng Yuzhao's telescope field of view was filled with billowing smoke and dust, and the effect of the shelling could no longer be seen. However, because of the example of the Japanese army, the situation there would definitely not be any better. In this area with a larger population, the casualties of the coalition forces would be even more serious.

Teng Yuzhao could finally breathe a sigh of relief. In this battle, even if they could not force the coalition forces to temporarily stop the attack and retreat to the east bank of the Juma River, they were also unable to immediately launch a full-scale pursuit of the retreating vanguard army.

Thinking about how he even regretted not blowing up the stone bridge, Teng Yuzao couldn't help but sigh.
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(End of this chapter)