The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 458 The Prelude to the War
The third day of the first lunar month was the day after Teng Yuzhao held a military meeting.

The British, French and German allied forces in Tangyin launched an attack on Luzhou Prefecture.

On that day, the vanguard of the coalition forces occupied Lin County on the edge of Taihang Mountains.

The next day, British cavalry units appeared near Hejian.

It is impossible for a heavy troop of more than 200,000 armed with a large number of artillery to march too fast. In this era when everything depends on walking, even without heavy weapons such as artillery and baggage, they can only travel 50 to 60 miles a day at most, and no more than 70 miles at most.

Especially in mountainous areas, it is even more impossible for their large army to march quickly.

It was not until five days later, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, that the main force of the Tangyin coalition forces arrived in Linxian and Hejian areas.

In fact, this coalition force not only included troops from Britain, France and Germany, but also the Italian invading army, which had always followed the German army. However, the Italian army of only a few thousand people was really too small compared to the British, French and German troops, which each had tens of thousands of people, and was not even worth mentioning.

This was when the German and French troops each had 10,000 men ready to attack Niangzi Pass and the major towns along the line from Tianjin to Tangyin, all of which were garrisoned by troops from the United States, Britain, France, Austria, Italy and other countries, with some Cossack cavalry supporting them. Otherwise, the small number of Italian troops would have been even more unbearable.

This time when they marched into Luzhou Prefecture, the Italian troops, whose combat effectiveness was average, did not follow the coalition forces into the mountains, but stayed in Tangyin.

Tangyin was the coalition's military base outside the mountains. All relevant weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies were assembled here and then transported to the front by the Italian army.

The Italian army has now been regarded by the Allied forces as their baggage train.

In later generations, it would be rare or almost impossible for an army of more than 200,000 to gather in such a small area, but at this time it was a very normal phenomenon.

The main reason is that, at a time when there is a lack of large numbers of automatic weapons, in order to ensure a continuous density of firepower, it is not uncommon for both sides to concentrate tens of thousands of people each, even when fighting for a small city.

However, the coalition forces, which lacked experience in mountain warfare, did not pay much attention to this.

Although the section from Tangyin to Hejian is already a mountainous area, the mountains in this area are not high, and there are even many hills. This section can only be regarded as a semi-mountainous and semi-hilly terrain. But even so, it took the coalition forces, who were not used to mountain warfare, six days to move all the troops into place.

In Hejian and Linxian areas, the coalition forces rested for another day before setting out from Hejian and officially entering the mountains. For them, the most difficult period began.

Starting from Hejian, the Allied Forces split into two routes. The British and French Allied Forces were on one route and went directly westward into the depths of the mountains.

The German army formed a separate route, turning southwest to Yuankang, and then turning west into the mountains in the area farther north of Linqi. Their primary goal was to occupy Nanzhai and advance in two directions with the British and French forces to attack Ling County from the northeast and southwest.

Just half a day after the British and French allied forces set out from Hejian, they encountered a strong resistance from the vanguard army, and their nightmare finally began.

Although judging from the gunshots, the enemy had only a battalion of troops, the more than 20,000 British and French forward troops were completely unable to maneuver on the rugged and narrow mountain road.

The vanguard army chose this blocking position very cleverly. The only way to get through here is this road that passes halfway up the mountain.

If they wanted to take a detour and go around the flank to get behind the blocking troops, they would be blocked by the high mountains on both sides, making it impossible to pass.

Only a small force with light equipment can bypass this place from both sides.

Not only was it impossible to carry heavy weapons like artillery, but even carrying a heavy machine gun was extremely difficult. On the narrow and rugged path, only one person could carry it on their back, and it was impossible for two people to carry it through.

This section of mountain road is very winding and it is completely ups and downs. There is almost no straight road.

As a result, the coalition forces found it difficult to find a large flat area to set up artillery positions when they wanted to bombard and block the enemy.

In desperation, the commander of the Allied vanguard had to urge the artillery behind to catch up and set up firing positions as soon as possible, while ordering the troops to launch infantry attacks on the enemy occupying the strategic position. Although it was only the vanguard of the Allied forces, this vanguard, composed of two regiments from Britain and France, had nearly 20,000 people, and it was not a problem to deal with the vanguard of just over a thousand people.

If it were on a plain, or even in a mountainous area with slightly gentler slopes, such an opponent would not be worth mentioning at all. However, in this mountainous terrain with steep slopes and some very steep places, it is a completely different situation.

Due to the terrain, the British and French forces could only send two companies of troops at a time to launch an upward attack.

The enemy was fearless and opened fire when two French companies crawled to within a hundred meters of the blocking position during the first attack by the Allied forces.

After that, they would place the attacking troops about fifty or sixty meters away from the position before opening fire, and it was not a volley, but rather a random shooting. Occasionally, they would throw a few grenades from a high position, which looked very simple to the coalition forces.

In most cases, after this simple, even crude, high-power grenade exploded and blew the attacking coalition soldiers high into the air, the attacking forces would be defeated and retreat.

Although the hand grenade was first invented by the Chinese, it has been around in Europe for hundreds of years.

Hand grenades were already very popular during the Napoleonic era, but due to the development of cannons, Europeans rarely attacked castles or engaged in offensive and defensive battles such as street fighting. Therefore, the extremely powerful hand grenades were no longer useful in complex terrain.

At this time, hand grenades, which can be regarded as the poor man's weapon, have been generally abandoned by various countries as early as 20 or 30 years ago.

During the invasion of Zhili this time, after the Allied Forces suffered greatly from the simple hand grenades used in large quantities by the vanguard troops, they once again became interested in this infantry weapon that posed a great threat to them.

With this surge in troops, the coalition forces generally requested that their respective countries send them grenades.

However, apart from the British, who still had stocks of usable grenades, other countries had no ready-made stocks.

Some of these grenades are no longer usable due to poor storage, while others have simply been destroyed long ago.

After being defeated in several attacks, the Allied forces replaced the British troops with grenades and launched an attack on the vanguard army's blocking positions, trying to blow up the enemy's blocking positions with grenades as well.

Moreover, in order to quickly defeat the enemy after rushing to the position, the British army organized a battalion to launch an attack at one time.

However, this time, not only were the attacking troops defeated and forced to retreat quickly, but the casualties were even more severe, with more than 500 people killed or injured at one time.

It turned out that the British egg-shaped hand grenades with pre-made fragments were not only heavy, but also had a short throwing distance, especially when thrown up a hillside, where the distance was much closer. The British army was completely at a disadvantage when throwing grenades at the vanguard troops on the blocking positions.

The worst thing was that because the British grenades were egg-shaped, they would roll down the hillside after landing, and the rolling grenades could just happen to explode their own attacking troops. Under the combined explosion of grenades from both sides, the attacking British front troops were almost completely enveloped in fire and smoke.

A large part of the casualties caused to the British army in this attack were caused by their own grenades.

The situation was not alleviated until the British and French allied artillery was dragged up from behind, barely set up on the mountain road, and launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the opposing vanguard army's blocking positions.

After nearly half an hour of fierce artillery bombardment of the blocking position, the coalition forces finally rushed into the blocking position.

However, apart from some damaged guns and bloodstains left on the sniping position, there was no trace of the enemy's sniping troops, not even a single corpse.

The exasperated Allied commander wanted to give chase, but he could do nothing as he looked at the vast mountains where the wind was howling and blowing up gusts of residual snow from time to time.

After the vanguard troops crossed the blocking position, it was almost dark, so they could only cook on the spot and continue their advance tomorrow.

Almost the same scene was happening to the German troops on another route, except that the German troops were a little more tenacious and fierce than the British and French forces. Under the cover of artillery fire and heavy machine guns, they rushed into the vanguard army's blocking positions several times. After several fierce hand-to-hand combats between the two sides, the vanguard army withdrew from their positions.

(End of this chapter)