The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 468 Covered by artillery fire
On the entire battlefield, Teng Yuzhao was most concerned about the direction of Longhu Village.

Although the number of Russian troops there is smaller than that in the two villages of Gunao and Shipo, as well as the military camps surrounding the village, the location of Longhu Village is very important.

If the artillery coverage this time fails to inflict heavy damage on the Russian troops there, it will inevitably create great difficulties for the Fifth Regiment's troops to complete the task of blocking the Russian troops in the encirclement from escaping to the east.

If a gap appeared there, a large number of the more than 60,000 Russian troops in the encirclement would escape.

Even if the fleeing Russian troops were defeated during the subsequent pursuit, as long as they were not completely wiped out and the remnants of the fleeing Russian troops still had a certain degree of combat effectiveness, Teng Yuzhao would have to leave enough troops behind him to prevent these remaining enemies from rushing out from behind when he launched a pursuit and encirclement and annihilation of the main force of the Russian army, thus disrupting his overall combat plan.

Under the increasingly strong sunlight, the mist in the valley had completely dissipated, and the scenery in Teng Yuzhao's field of view had become very clear. He could clearly see that chaos had occurred in the Russian camp in Longhu Village.

Because of the sudden and extremely terrifying sound of dense artillery shells whistling, the Russian soldiers in the camp had a premonition that this shelling would be extremely terrifying. At such a moment, no one would be stupid enough to stay in the camp that would definitely be the target of the enemy's shelling.

With this idea in mind, a large group of Russian officers and soldiers have begun to run around frantically in the camp. Only a small number of Russian soldiers seem to be running to get their weapons under the command of their officers, but their movements are hindered by the madly running Russian soldiers. Many people bump into each other and become a mess.

Especially in Longhu Village, a large group of Russian troops rushed out from houses and yards of various sizes, poured into the narrow streets of the village, and pushed each other to run out of the village.

Teng Yuzhao knew that these Russian soldiers were probably frightened by the sudden whistling sound of artillery shells. It was estimated that many of them had never heard the whistling sound of so many artillery shells at the same time.

Just when Teng Yuzhao was worried that the Russian army might disperse, making the shelling less effective, a blinding flash appeared in his field of vision, and then the Longhu Village and the surrounding large Russian camps were instantly covered by rising smoke and dust.

As smoke and dust rose, "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM", Teng Yuzhao's ears finally rang with the sound of explosions as dense as a storm. The strong shock wave formed by the dense explosions even made Teng Yuzhao feel the vibration coming from under his feet.

After the first round of shelling, Teng Yuzhao still wanted to observe the effect of the shelling, but he found that it was impossible to do so. The large area centered on Longhu Village had been completely covered by the smoke and dust produced by the explosion of the shells at that moment.

Through the sight, all you can see is a large cloud of smoke and dust still surging and rolling, just like a raging sandstorm suddenly blowing up from the flat ground.

Teng Yuzhao turned the sight unwillingly and swept the lens along the valley. The two large areas centered on Gunao Village and Shipo Village were almost identical to the horrifying scene in Longhu Village. They were also tightly shrouded by the billowing smoke and dust, and no situation could be seen at all.

What is different is that the smoke and dust produced by the artillery explosion in Gunao Village not only covers a larger area, but also rolls higher.

The most ferocious area was where Shipo Village was located. In addition to the shells from nearly a hundred mountain artillery pieces that fell here, there were also smoke and dust from more than seventy heavy mortar shells. The rising smoke and dust was like a fountain, rising into the sky in the smoke and dust.

Moreover, since the mountain artillery has a slower firing rate, in order to make up for the insufficient artillery fire density per unit time in this area, the heavy mortars here did not stop after five rounds of shelling. They continued to fire until the mountain artillery group finished five rounds.

The only thing that Teng Yuzhao could see clearly was that in the southern mountains, the Russian troops who had just withdrawn from their guard positions on the mountain were standing there in a daze, staring blankly in the direction of their camp.

Regardless of whether it was the Fourth and Fifth Regiments commanded by Liu Shijiu in the south, or the Regiment of Wu Peifu in the north, they were blocked by the valleys and mountains.
After the artillery fire stopped in Longhu Village and Gunao Village, Teng Yuzao saw iron-gray figures appearing on the edge of the mountain on the south side. They did not rush directly to the battlefield, but quickly spread out to form three lines of skirmishers facing the three artillery fire areas. Then the three lines of skirmishers began to expand again, obviously to eventually connect with each other.

Near the valley entrance in the direction of Longhu Village, the strange figure from the Fifth Town finally appeared.

The smoke and dust produced by the explosions near Longhu Village and Gunao Village finally began to dissipate gradually, and Teng Yuzhao could finally see the scene caused by the intensive artillery fire.

The scene there shocked Teng Yuzao, who had lived two lives. In just over ten seconds, the scene in the two areas, which had just been densely populated with houses and tents and crowded with people, had completely changed.

There were no intact houses left in the two mountain villages. All that was left were ruins with smoke and flames rising from them. Not a single densely packed Russian tent was intact. Some had been blown to pieces or were set on fire by the shock wave of the explosion.

The ground inside the camp was riddled with craters, making Teng Yuzhao feel as if he had arrived on the moon.

What surprised Teng Yuzhao the most was that there was not a single moving figure in the camp where the Russian troops were stationed. Could it be that all the soldiers were killed by just this round of artillery fire?
According to Teng Yuzao's estimation of the size of these two Russian military camps, there must be more than 40,000 Russian troops in these two places!
Just as Teng Yuzhao was in a daze, a Russian soldier suddenly got up from the ground in the Russian camp and rushed out of the camp like crazy.

As the first Russian soldier got up from the ground, a large number of Russian soldiers emerged from the ground like mushrooms after rain between the two bomb craters, and then began to flee in all directions. Many of them had nothing in their hands.

According to Teng Yuzhao's visual estimation, there were more than 20,000 Russian soldiers who had crawled up from the ground and were still able to move. This time the artillery fire coverage caused casualties to the Russian army, even if not half, at least 40%.

These surviving Russian soldiers must have been completely frightened by the intensive artillery fire that they would never forget. They must have been lying on the ground desperately to avoid the artillery fire, otherwise the raging shrapnel would have taken their lives.

However, it was too late for these Russian troops who wanted to escape. The whistling sound of dense artillery shells rang out again. After adjusting the artillery parameters, the two artillery groups began to launch a second intensive artillery attack.

However, Teng Yuzhao was no longer paying attention to the situations in these two places. The lens of his artillery sight had already turned to Shibo Village, where the smoke and dust had just dissipated.

The situation in Shibo Village is different from that in Longhu Village and Gunao Village.

The small Shibo Village no longer exists. Not only are there no intact houses left in the village, there are not even many ruins left. Not to mention the tents in the Russian camp, which are definitely gone.

Moreover, the bomb craters here are much larger and deeper than those near Longhu Village and Gunao Village.

As for how many casualties the heavy mortars and mountain artillery groups caused to the Russian army, Teng Yuzhao had no way of estimating it, because Liu Changfa should have learned the lessons from Longhu Village and Gunao Village. As soon as he could see the outline of Shipo Village and the Russian camp, Liu Changfa had already ordered the adjustment of 72 heavy mortars with faster firing parameters to launch a second artillery coverage.

The mountain artillery group launched its second bombardment several dozen seconds later.

However, Teng Yuzao was no longer worried about whether the ambush could achieve a perfect victory. He was only considering the time. Moreover, according to his estimation, this time Liu Shijiu, who was eager to fight to his heart's content, would be very disappointed.
(End of this chapter)