The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 465: Destroy the Russians

"it is good!"

Liu Changfa's answer made Teng Yuzao excited, and Teng Yuzao gave Liu Changfa some instructions.

"Qingyun, we have avoided the main roads and the mobile troops are all on the small roads. This will make it difficult for your mountain artillery to move its artillery position."

"So, your mountain artillery positions should be deployed as close as possible to the middle of our encirclement and the Russian troops in front, or simply moved forward a little."

"In this way, after firing five rounds, the mountain artillery position does not need to move forward any further, but can quickly turn the muzzle and launch an artillery attack on the Russian troops outside the encirclement."

The mountain artillery battalion moved forward to the border area between the ambush circle and the Russian troops outside, or even further forward. As long as the Russian troops in the ambush circle were still within the range of the mountain artillery, there would be no problem at all.

There was no need to worry about being hit back by Russian artillery fire outside the encirclement, because the Russian army would set out soon, and the Russian artillery should be ready to set out with the army. Even if the Russian army immediately pulled the artillery back to the position and deployed it, it would take a long time.

Moreover, this was when the Russian army built artillery positions.

Judging from the night attacks in recent days, the artillery did not participate when the Russian army counterattacked the harassment of the Eighth Regiment.

This is mainly because all artillery now lacks night-time observation and aiming equipment, and it is simply impossible to effectively bombard randomly appearing targets at any time at night.

Liu Changfa was naturally aware of the problem that Teng Yuzhao's mountain cannon was inconvenient to move, and he had no objection.

Teng Yuzao continued, "After five rounds of bombardment, take away all the mortars in the artillery town immediately, rush to the front as quickly as possible, and continue to bombard the Russians outside the encirclement."

"You must make full use of your mortar's advantages of easy mobility, fast position building and fast firing time. Bring your mortar as far up the mountain as possible so that you can be in a commanding position and not only suppress the Russian artillery, but also use artillery fire to block the Russian reinforcements that are coming to rescue the encircled troops. At the same time, do your best to inflict the greatest damage to the Russian infantry."

Regarding the artillery town, Teng Yuzhao made detailed arrangements for almost every detail, including some artillery positions that could be built in advance in front of and behind the mortars.

This cannot be blamed on Teng Yuzao. It is not that he has to do everything himself or even interfere with the orders of his subordinates, but that Teng Yuzao has his own reasons.

Although their troops were at a disadvantage, they still had to destroy the Russian troops with superior forces to the greatest extent possible. Finally, they succeeded in forcing the Russian troops to flee, and continued to erode and weaken the enemy during the pursuit.

To achieve these goals, it would be impossible without making full use of the mortar, a powerful mountain warfare weapon in his hands.

In particular, this battle was related to whether the outcome would be decided in one battle, so Teng Yuzhao had to be extremely cautious and meticulous and not dare to be negligent in the slightest.

Seeing that Teng Yuzhao had not mentioned his Eighth Town for a long time, Li Jinyu became a little anxious. Without caring too much, he asked hurriedly.

"Marshal, we are the Eighth Town."

Although Teng Yuzao knew very well that Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment had suffered considerable losses from harassing the Russian army in the past few days, he still spoke with some apology.

"Mingguang, although your troops are very tired and even suffered heavy casualties, we are still a little short of manpower now, so I'm sorry to trouble you!"

After hearing what Teng Yuzhao said, Li Jinyu knew that he had not been left behind in this battle, so he immediately stood up and spoke.

"Please rest assured, Marshal. Even if there is only one person left in the Eighth Town, we will continue to fight!"

"Well done!"

Teng Yuzao said without further ado, "Your mission is to lead your troops to seize the hilltops on both sides of the junction of the encirclement and the Russians in front, cut off the connection between the two sides of the Russians, and resolutely block the Russian reinforcements."

Teng Yuzao then instructed, "After the fourth and fifth towns have eliminated the Russians in the encirclement, they will immediately rush to the front and attack the Russians from both sides, giving the Russians the illusion that they will continue to eliminate some of them, forcing the main force of the Russians to flee."

"So, they don't have time to clean up the battlefield. You can only send part of the troops back to clean up the battlefield, and the rest of the people can follow along the way." Teng Yuzhao finally looked at Li Xiance, and Li Xiance hurriedly assured.

"Don't worry, Marshal. The Second Town will definitely defend Shexian County and Henan Dianzi, block the Russians' escape route to the northwest and Licheng, and force them to flee to the Qingzhang River Valley in the southeast."

Li Xiangze's answer made Teng Yuzao very satisfied. Li Xiangze guessed the intention of letting the second town defend Shexian and Henandianzi, and Teng Yuzao was not surprised.

Only the second town remained in Shexian and Henandianzi. Teng Yuzhao had arranged for them to urgently build defensive fortifications three days ago.

But Teng Yuzao still warned, "Kangnian, your mission is not easy. If the Russians think they will be surrounded and annihilated by us, they will definitely try to escape. By the time they reach Shexian, they may have already launched a strong attack."

"But your troops are separated on both sides of the Qingzhang River. The Russians will have at least twice as many troops as you do. Even the Japanese vanguard may arrive there. You must be fully prepared."

Although Teng Yuzao was very confident in Li Xianze's command and ability to respond to changing situations, he still couldn't help but give him some instructions.

Several generals felt something was amiss regarding Teng Yuzao's repeated instructions and warnings today, and they all deeply understood Teng Yuzao's feelings at the moment.

Liu Shijiu waved his hands fiercely and said resolutely, "Marshal, this battle is of great importance. It is related to the final development of our vanguard army and the future of you and us. We are all very clear about this."

Liu Shijiu glared and spoke hatefully to Li Xianze, Liu Changfa, Wu Peifu, Li Jinyu, and Chief of Staff Zuo Mingyang.

"In this battle, there is only the enemy but no us. For the sake of the vanguard army, for the commander-in-chief, and for our own lives and property, we will risk it all!"

"If we fail to complete the mission assigned by the Marshal, we will die on the battlefield!"

Liu Shijiu's passionate words made the blood boil for several people, and they all showed a determination. Even Teng Yuzao's heart beat faster with Liu Shijiu's highly inspiring words.

Teng Yuzhao knew that Zuo Mingyang was also a member of the Endeavor Society, so there was no need to hide what Liu Shijiu had said, as it might not stand up to scrutiny by those with ulterior motives.

However, Teng Yuzao could only pretend that he didn't understand the implied meaning of Liu Shijiu's words.

As soon as Liu Shijiu finished speaking, Wu Peifu shouted first, "Please rest assured, Marshal! There is only the enemy but no us! If I don't succeed in this battle, I will die! I will not let you down!"

"There is no enemy but me! If we fail in this battle, we will die! We will not let the Marshal down!"

Following Wu Peifu's words, Li Xianze, Liu Changfa, Li Jinyu and Zuo Mingyang all followed suit and shouted loudly in a resounding voice.

Teng Yuzao nodded and encouraged everyone.

"Although we should consider defeat before victory when marching and fighting, I can tell you that we will definitely win this battle."

"The Russians have more than 100,000 troops, tens of thousands more than us, and their training is even better than ours. But they are fighting in the mountains, and the roads in this area are narrow. There is no wide area at all. No matter how many troops the Russians have, they cannot deploy them."

"This long, straight line marching column, once we cut off its tail, the Russians' snake head and body will not be able to rescue in time unless they break through the blockade of the Eighth Town and the Artillery Town."

"Moreover, after the harassment we have been doing for the past few days, the Russians may look scary with more than 100,000 men, but they are already exhausted. They are a completely exhausted army. Your three towns have been gathering their strength for a few days. We can take advantage of their rest and defeat the Russians and achieve our goals without any problem."

"The most important, and even the most confident key to our victory, is that our artillery is far more numerous than the Russians."

"In this battle, we not only have powerful artillery firepower to back us up, but we also managed to catch the Russians by surprise. In this battle, we have the advantage in local forces, so it's hard not to win this battle."

"Hurry up and prepare, let's wipe out these old Russians!"

(End of this chapter)