The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 430 Chaos is Inevitable
Duan Qirui was not as worried as Teng Yuzhao. He was just eager to see what kind of damage and casualties such fierce bombardment would cause.

However, the more they tried to see the situation on the battlefield clearly, the less they succeeded.

Because, although the mountain wind that became stronger after the artillery bombardment quickly blew away the smoke and dust caused by the explosion, flames had already started on the battlefield. Under the influence of the mountain wind, the flames spread rapidly, and the area of ​​hundreds of meters centered on the mountain road was filled with flames and smoke.

The intensive and fierce bombardment had ignited the withered wormwood, and the flames were spreading rapidly to the hillsides on both sides. Such a scene made Teng Yuzhao a little stunned.

He didn't expect that the artillery fire might ignite a forest fire, and that the forest fire would also affect his ambush troops.

Wildfires can certainly cause trouble to the coalition forces, but they can also cause considerable inconvenience to ambush troops.

Fortunately, although the wormwood was extremely flammable, it also burned quickly. Soon the smoke began to dissipate, and the situation on the battlefield was finally completely exposed to the two men.

Although the flames had spread to the hills on both sides of the mountain road, the fires in the wasteland on both sides of the mountain road and on the hillsides had basically been extinguished, emitting only a faint blue smoke.

Only the low bushes were still emitting flames.

The mountain road and the hills on both sides were dotted with bomb craters of all sizes. Near almost every bomb crater, there were more or less coalition corpses. Most of them were not only in a state of disrepair, but almost all of them were charred black by the burning bushes and wormwood.

The air was filled with a strong smell of barbecue, which made people feel nauseous.

Most of the remaining coalition forces could not stand the steaming and baking of the wormwood embers on the hillside, and had already retreated to the vicinity of the mountain road. Judging from the number, it is estimated that there are still 20,000 to 30,000 remaining coalition forces.

Just as the line of sight returned, the sound of heavy machine gun fire, which had been silent for a while, was first heard, followed by the sound of intensive rifle fire.

Although the ambush positions were mainly set up on the top of the hills, they were generally far away from the mountain roads, about two to three hundred meters away, and it was difficult for ordinary soldiers to hit the targets at such a long distance even on the training ground, but now it didn’t matter anymore.

The number of the 20,000 to 30,000 Japanese-Russian coalition forces gathered on the mountain road was too large. Although they were scattered over more than ten miles of mountain road, there were still two to three thousand people near every mile of the mountain road, which was still very dense.

As a result, the vanguard officers and soldiers in the ambush position did not need to aim and shoot. They just had to fire the bullets from their rifles. Such intensive and random shooting was enough to create a volley effect.

Duan Qirui noticed that not only were the vanguard officers and soldiers on the hills on both sides of the mountain road firing intensively at the Allied forces near the mountain road, but the gunfire on the western mountain road was also very intensive, and the gunfire there was getting closer.

Duan Qirui judged that this should be Hu Dianjia who was at the blocking position and led his troops back along the mountain road, and the encirclement of the 50,000 coalition forces had been completely formed.

Naturally, the coalition forces did not want to become living targets and be shot continuously, so they soon began to take new actions.

Under the organization of Japanese and Russian officers, a part of the troops prepared to launch attacks on ambush positions on both sides to attract the firepower of the ambush.

The main force of the Japanese-Russian coalition began to retreat eastward in panic, braving the dense hail of bullets, firing back at the ambush positions on both sides.

Although the retreating coalition forces continued to fire back, they were still killed one by one on the mountain road by heavy machine gun fire and dense rifle bullets.

Moreover, Duan Qirui also noticed that behind the ambush position, teams of vanguard officers and soldiers, seemingly organized as sentries, were rushing over from the west. Except for a small number of troops who ran to the ambush positions along the way where gunfire was intense to join the battle, the vast majority of the troops were running towards the ambush area further east.

Duan Qirui knew that this was probably because the ambush area was constantly compressed from the west by Hu Dianjia's Third Mixed Brigade, which rushed along the mountain road, causing the ambush troops along the way to free up their hands and run to the front to strengthen the troops here. As the encirclement continued to shrink, the ambush troops of the vanguard army would become more and more concentrated, and eventually they would form an absolute force advantage over the remnants of the coalition forces, and then annihilate the coalition forces in one fell swoop, achieving the brilliant result of annihilating the powerful foreign coalition forces of 50,000 with the same number of troops.

Such a brilliant record has never been seen in the battles against the great powers in the past hundred years.

Although such a brilliant achievement was almost within reach, Duan Qirui was still a little worried.

"Xingfu, the commanders of the troops who rushed to the front to continue to participate in the battle are very decisive. This will allow you to ambush more and more troops in front of you, so that you can use troops continuously to the maximum extent, and finally gain an advantage in manpower when encircling and annihilating the foreign coalition forces."

"Just like that, I'm afraid it will cause chaos in the ambush area ahead!"

Before Duan Qirui finished his words, the whistling sound of artillery shells was heard again, and then artillery shells continued to fall into the Allied forces retreating eastward along the mountain road, killing and injuring the retreating Allied forces one after another.

Both Teng Yuzao and Duan Qirui heard that it was the mortars that were firing at the retreating Allied forces.

Although the level of intensive bombardment could no longer be achieved due to the artillery shells, it still caused great chaos to the coalition forces and delayed their retreat under the intensive rain of bullets.

At this point in the battle, Teng Yuzhao was no longer worried about whether he could win, and he was in a much happier mood.

In response to Duan Qirui's worries, Teng Yuzao just smiled.

"Brother Zhiquan, you don't have to worry too much. This was arranged before the war. There will indeed be some confusion, but it won't have much of an impact. They have all been ordered to absolutely follow the command of the nearest senior officer."

Duan Qirui nodded and asked again somewhat unwillingly.

"Not only does your new artillery have a high firing angle and can fire at close range, it also has a wide angle of direction! You can quickly adjust the firing angle and chase after the foreign coalition forces. This artillery is great!"

Although Teng Yuzhao knew that Duan Qirui had no ill intentions in trying to spy on the secrets of his so-called new artillery, but was only obsessed with his expertise in artillery, Teng Yuzhao still did not want to reveal the secret too early to someone who did not belong to the vanguard army.

Teng Yuzao simply said, "Yes, its elevation angle is between 45 and 85 degrees. Of course, if you don't mind getting blasted, you can also adjust its elevation angle to 90 degrees."

"As for the direction angle, it can be adjusted from zero to any angle of 360 degrees in a few seconds."

Although Teng Yuzao stopped talking, this information was enough to surprise Duan Qirui.

If what Teng Yuzhao said is true, then this kind of artillery is the most flexible artillery in the world with a wide firing range.

And this kind of artillery was not designed and manufactured by the great powers, but was actually the work of Teng Yuzhao!

"Boom boom boom", a more intense burst of artillery sound rang out. It was a cannon with a caliber of more than 100 mm firing. Duan Qirui hurriedly raised his telescope to observe.

This time the shelling location was on the mountain road ahead of the Allied Forces' eastward retreat. The shells that had just been fired exploded among the Japanese troops retreating in the front. The violent explosion blew many Japanese soldiers directly into the air.

(End of this chapter)