The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 426 When Will the Artillery Arrive?
Seeing Duan Qirui staring at the observation balloon of special color, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but speak as he walked quickly up the hill.

"Brother Zhiquan, do you still remember the hydrogen balloon we made at the Beiyang Military Academy?"

Originally, Teng Yuzhao wanted to leave Duan Qirui with Wei Jinghai, but Duan Qirui insisted on coming along.

Since Wei Jinghai had to stay there, commanding and coordinating the troops in Laishui and the battlefields here, the person who came here with Teng Yuzhao was the new director of the General Staff Office, Zuo Mingyang. The former director had died after being wounded in the battle of Anping.

Duan Qirui was very surprised by Teng Yuzao's words. He said in astonishment, "Xingfu, this is the hydrogen balloon that we jointly made!"

"Yes, that's it."

After saying this, Teng Yuzhao took a few quick steps and arrived at the top of the hill, where he entered an even smaller and simpler command post.

It is not accurate to call this a command center. Strictly speaking, it can only be called an observation post.

Under two intersecting boulders high up on the hill, a short cave shelter with passages on both sides was formed. After sandbags were piled up in front, it became a sturdy observation post.

As the place was too small, the people from the General Staff Office who came with Teng Yuzhao simply set up a simple open-air command post on the hillside behind the boulder.

It is called simple not only because the facilities are too simple, but also because it has very few staff. There are only Chief of Staff Zuo Mingyang, three communications staff officers and a squad of communications soldiers.

As soon as he arrived at the observation post, Teng Yuzhao couldn't wait to pick up the telescope and look towards the mountain road, where the gunfire was becoming more and more frequent.

Obviously, the cavalry units of the Japanese-Russian Allied Forces were the first to rush back. In their eagerness to recapture the lost cannons, they wanted to rush into the valley, and thus were the first to be hit by the firepower of the assault column's positions on the hill and on the slopes on both sides of the hill behind it.

Because now, in that wide but extremely shallow valley, and on the hillsides on both sides of the valley, were filled with the corpses of the Japanese-Russian Allied Forces cavalry and horses.

Teng Yuzhao doesn't care about the battles that have already taken place, he cares about the current situation on the battlefield.

Because the ambush circle this time was too narrow and long, and the battlefield situation was ever-changing, the battlefield information conveyed by the communications soldiers would be seriously delayed. Therefore, battlefield command would have to rely on the self-performance of these generals and on-the-spot decisions.

As for Teng Yuzhao, he only made some necessary remedial actions within the range of his sight and at the necessary moment.

At this time, a large number of Japanese and Russian troops had gathered on both sides of the mountain road under the charge of the assault column and the Guards Association. The dense Japanese-Russian joint forces were relying on the ditches and ridges on the side of the road, setting up heavy machine guns and firing fiercely at the hills on both sides of the front and rear, suppressing the vanguard troops on the hills with firepower, and covering the dense soldiers as they launched a fierce charge on more than a dozen hills to the front and rear at the same time.

Moreover, fierce fighting did not take place only in this place, but also along the mountain road that stretched for more than ten miles, and fierce fighting had taken place in almost all sections of the road where the coalition forces were.

Obviously, the coalition forces had realized that their situation was not good, and they intended to seize the hills on both sides as quickly as possible, and then establish their foothold, so that they could easily hold on and wait for reinforcements or escape.

There were not many Japanese-Russian coalition forces on the mountain road. After all, their targets would be too obvious if they stayed on the road. Except for the troops that were charging, most of the coalition forces hid in the wormwood and bushes beside the mountain road. The ditches and ridges were already crowded with coalition officers and soldiers.

The scene before him made Duan Qirui both excited and worried, and he kept looking back at the rising hydrogen balloon.

"Xingfu, when will your artillery arrive?" "Now is the time when the foreign coalition forces are the most densely populated and chaotic. Launching an artillery attack at this time will definitely cause them great damage."

Although Duan Qirui was very anxious, he also knew that it would take time for the artillery not only to drag the heavy artillery all the way, but also to arrange them on the position and adjust the firing parameters, which also took time, after all, there were more than a hundred artillery pieces.

But by that time, I'm afraid some of the positions have already been breached by the coalition forces.

Moreover, this is the case after the artillery positions have been built first.

Teng Yuzao said without turning his head, "You are right. Now is the best time. The artillery at the blocking position should have arrived. They will soon fire together with the artillery that has already been here."

Teng Yuzao's words gave Duan Qirui a glimmer of hope, and he asked anxiously, "Xingfu, you mean that not only will the artillery at the blocking position arrive in time, but you also have artillery that has already been here."

"Correct!"

As if to verify Teng Yuzhao's words, as soon as he finished speaking, the whistling sound of artillery shells was heard, and there was no test firing, but a burst of artillery shells came one after another.

The sound of artillery fire startled Duan Qirui. What surprised Duan Qirui was that he could hear from the whistling sound of the shells that it was definitely a huge artillery group bombarding the Allied Forces, and the number of cannons was definitely as many as two or three hundred.

What surprised him most was that there were large-caliber heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 100 mm, as well as artillery with a low initial velocity that had just arrived.

Duan Qirui was very surprised. He wondered where Teng Yuzhao got so many cannons, even large-caliber heavy cannons.

In particular, how could those artillery pieces with low initial velocity get here in such a short time and be quickly deployed for shelling.

As the whistling sound of artillery shells came to an abrupt end, it was replaced by a continuous "boom boom boom" sound of violent explosions.

In an area more than ten miles long and nearly two hundred meters wide with the mountain road as the center, clouds of dust rose up amid the continuous rumbling sounds of explosions. The smoke and dust spread rapidly under the strong wind caused by the shock wave generated by the subsequent explosion and the mountain wind that became even stronger due to the violent explosion, and soon completely covered this section of the mountain road.

Duan Qirui had never seen so many cannons and such fierce bombardment before. He was surprised at first, then delighted, and later he even danced with excitement.

The shelling lasted for about twenty minutes before it stopped.

Teng Yuzhao and Duan Qirui in the observation post did not say a word, but instead held up their binoculars and nervously looked at the mountain road. They were both eager to know the effect of this fierce bombardment.

What Teng Yuzhao was worried about was whether the fierce and intensive bombardment of thousands of artillery shells fired this time could inflict heavy damage on the tens of thousands of coalition forces.

This was because the only way he could hope to completely wipe out these 50,000 coalition forces was to inflict heavy casualties on them through this fierce bombardment.

If he couldn't, his wish would be in vain. At least it would be impossible to completely wipe out this army, because after a series of battles, the artillery corps might have used up all the shells they carried...

(End of this chapter)