The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 472: The Foreigner Fell on His Back

Teng Yuzhao's prediction turned out to be correct. The main force of the Russian army marched quickly all the way and escaped to Shexian County at noon that day.

After discovering the blocking position of the Second Town, the Russian army did not hesitate at all and was very decisive. They did not even have time to eat lunch. They immediately turned around at Gengle, passed through Laozhang Village and plunged into the Qingzhang River Valley, fleeing hastily to the southeast along the river valley.

Teng Yuzhao led his troops on a forced march and received a report on the enemy situation at Jianbingling from Li Xianze, who sent a fast horse to deliver it. The remnants of the Russian army had indeed fled into the Qingzhang River Valley, and he had led his troops to pursue the Russian army into the Qingzhang River Valley.

At the same time, Li Xiance reported to Teng Yuzhao that he had contacted Pan Jinshan, who was still desperately blocking the Japanese army in the Qingzhang River Valley, and told Pan Jinshan that there was no need to confront the Japanese army anymore, and from now on, they could just harass the Japanese army day and night.

Since the remnants of the Russian army had already fled into the Qingzhang River Valley, Teng Yuzhao no longer had to hesitate.

The mortar unit of the Fifth Regiment was immediately ordered to return to its base. The officers and basic troops left behind to form the new Third Brigade continued to rush to Shexian. Wu Peifu personally led the First and Second Brigade of the Fifth Regiment as well as the troops directly under the Fifth Regiment to go directly south from Jianbingling, and rushed to Xida and Dongda near Hezhang in the Qingzhang River Valley via Shijing, Wangjia, and Haozhao to occupy positions.

At the same time, powerful troops should be sent to control Kuangkou.

There is a road leading into the mountains in Dongda and Xida, which can bypass Hezhang and escape to Cizhou. The war order controls these two places, blocking the way for the Japanese-Russian coalition forces to bypass Hezhang.

The terrain of Kuangkou is dangerous and it is the narrowest section of the Qingzhang River Valley. The Qingzhang River makes a "J"-shaped bend here. As long as this place is defended, the Japanese-Russian Allied Forces in the valley will not be able to escape to Hezhang, and they will not be able to reach Dongda and Xida, as they will be completely blocked in the valley.

At the same time, he asked Wu Peifu that if Hu Dianjia had not yet controlled Hezhang when he arrived in Xida, he should attack the Japanese army from behind and cooperate with Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment to quickly capture Hezhang and completely block the exit of the Qingzhang River Valley.

Teng Yuzhao led his troops to Shexian County after three o'clock in the afternoon, just a few hours later than the extremely exhausted Russian army.

In She County, Teng Yuzhao met Yang Shixiang.

Yang Shixiang told Teng Yuzhao that he had received an imperial edict from the court, asking him to immediately rush to Wuchang to meet up with Li Hongzhang, take a boat to Shanghai, and prepare to go north to start peace negotiations with the foreigners.

Teng Yuzhao was not particularly surprised by the imperial court's edict at this time. According to his guess, this should be because the imperial court had no hope that he could defeat the hundreds of thousands of coalition forces and was preparing a response strategy in advance.

Teng Yuzhao did not even bother to eat. He had a secret discussion with Yang Shixiang for more than an hour before Yang Shixiang hurriedly left under the escort of a team of guards.

In order to avoid affecting the morale of the troops, Teng Yuzao did not spread the imperial edict to Yang Shixiang or the content of the conversation between Teng Yuzao and Yang Shixiang. People including Li Xianze, Liu Shijiu, and Wu Peifu all suspected that something must have happened, but since Teng Yuzao did not say anything, these people did not dare to ask.

As they were eager to catch up with the fleeing Russian army, the troops did not have lunch and only munched on dry food on the road. Although Teng Yuzhao was very anxious, he had no choice but to order the troops to rest on the spot and have a good dinner in advance. Before dark, he led Liu Shijiu's Fourth Regiment and the Artillery Regiment to chase into the Qingzhang River Valley.

Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment and the troops left behind by Wu Peifu did not set out with Teng Yuzhao. They all stayed behind to form their own troops.

In order to form his Third Brigade, Wu Peifu not only left behind a group of officers, but also drew a battalion of troops from each of the other two brigades of the Fifth Regiment. He used these troops as the backbone to form his Third Brigade.

The organization work of the Third Brigade of the Fifth Town was carried out in full swing until the early morning of the next day and was hastily completed.

There is no shortage of heavy machine guns and rifles, the only thing missing is mortars.

The mortars that originally belonged to the Third Brigade were taken away by Wu Peifu, who saw that mortars could exert great power in mountain warfare.

The reorganization of Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment was much more complicated. Li Jinyu worked tirelessly until the evening of the next day before he completed the reorganization of the new Eighth Regiment. He then only let the troops rest for one night. Early the next morning, he led the Eighth Regiment and the Third Brigade of the Fifth Regiment, as well as the remaining recruits, into the Qingzhang River Valley in the cold wind to chase after Teng Yuzhao.

There are more than a thousand extra recruits, which will be handed over to Liu Shijiu's Fourth Regiment to supplement the troops.

Although She County still has a large number of captured weapons and ammunition and many wounded soldiers, Li Jinyu does not need to worry about it. She County not only has people from the camp office and a guard troop of a post, but also more than a thousand baggage troops who have just received weapons.

The Qingzhang River Valley is a hundred-mile-long valley that runs straight to the southeast. The valley is very wide and flat. The widest part is several miles wide, and the narrowest part is only a few hundred meters.

Although there are roads in the valley, many places are not suitable for large troops to pass through, especially large troops carrying heavy weapons.

If they travel light, they can reach Hezhang in two days at most, but a large force carrying many artillery pieces will not be able to do so quickly.

Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment did not carry any cannons, and even had a small number of mortars, all of which were small-caliber, so they marched very quickly. However, they only caught up with Teng Yuzhao in a mountain village called Zhaoyi in the river valley in the early morning of the third day.

Although there were still occasional sounds of gunfire and artillery fire in the distance of the valley, it was very quiet in the densely packed military camps near Guxin and on the surrounding river beaches.

They even lit many bonfires in the camp without any scruples.

As Li Jinyu walked along, he could even hear the snoring of the soldiers in the tents.

Not only because this is the entrance to the river valley north of She County, but also because the river valley is wide and there are many fields on the river beach, this village is very large, with hundreds of households.

Fortunately, the villagers had received warnings from Pan Jinshan long ago, and they fled into the mountains in time before the Japanese troops heading north arrived here, so that the villagers in this village did not suffer much loss.

However, since the Japanese troops heading north passed through here first, and then returned with the remnants of the Russian army in the valley, most of the houses in the village have been ruined.

The most obvious thing is that, except for the doors and windows of the houses in the village, almost all the wood products that could be ignited were used by the Japanese and Russian coalition forces to make fires for heating in order to resist the cold.

Teng Yuzhao's headquarters was located in a slightly larger courtyard in the village.

The so-called slightly larger scale is simply because this family's house occupies a slightly larger area, and it is a rare brick and tile building. Obviously, this family's financial situation is much better.

Although it was already midnight, the headquarters was still brightly lit, and figures were moving around in several rooms in the courtyard.

When Li Jinyu came in, Teng Yuzao was discussing military intelligence with Li Xianze, Liu Shijiu, Liu Changfa, and Chief of Staff Zuo Mingyang.

Without waiting for Teng Yuzhao to inquire about the reorganization of the Third Brigade of the Eighth Town and the Fifth Town, Li Jinyu asked anxiously.

"Marshal, what's the situation now?" Teng Yuzhao was very excited by Li Jinyu's arrival.

"Mingguang, you've arrived at the right time. Listen to the situation on the battlefield first, and then we'll talk."

At Teng Yuzhao's request, Chief of Staff Zuo Mingyang began to brief Li Jinyu on the situation.

When they chased into the valley, the remnants of the Russian army had already joined the Japanese troops heading north in the valley, with a force of nearly 170,000. However, such a large group still did not have the courage to fight the vanguard army. At least in the Qingzhang River Valley where the troops could not be deployed, they did not dare to fight.

The Japanese army had originally marched northwards for fear of being attacked by the vanguard army, and now seeing the remnants of the Russian army, they became even more uneasy, especially since the morale of the Russian army had become very low.

Therefore, after the two armies joined forces, they did not stop but immediately headed south.

However, due to the continuous pursuit of Pan Jinshan's Sixth Regiment day and night, the army's southward movement was not fast, so that Teng Yuzhao caught up with the Japanese-Russian coalition forces not long after he led his troops into the valley.

However, the vanguard army was also unable to deploy its troops in the valley, and for a time was helpless against the slowly retreating Japanese-Russian coalition forces.

Looking at Li Jinyu who was a little shocked, Liu Shijiu took over Zuo Mingyang's words viciously.

"Don't worry, kid. No matter whether they are Russians or Japanese soldiers, none of them can escape. The front is the Kuangkou."

"Zi Yu has sent the news that he has not only taken Kuangkou and Beiyadi first, but also helped Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment to defeat the Japanese division left behind in Hezhang. Now Hu Dianjia has not only taken Hezhang, but also led his troops into the river valley. They will be able to deploy on the Kuangkou and Nanpogen line tonight."

"If the foreign devils want to escape, they will definitely die. This time, I'm going to kill them all and have a good time."

Looking at Liu Jiujiu's expression, Li Jinyu couldn't help but shudder. There were more than 100,000 people! If they were all killed by Liu Jiujiu.
Teng Yuzhao waved his hand to stop the ferocious Liu Shijiu and said.

"I was just worrying about our lack of manpower when you arrived with your troops. Tell me, can your Eighth Town participate in the battle?"

Li Jinyu did not rush to express his opinion, but reported the reorganization of the Eighth Regiment to Teng Yuzao in detail.

Li Jinyu's report made Teng Yuzao very satisfied. Although Teng Yuzao did not think that such hastily reorganized troops would be of great use immediately, he still gave Li Jinyu first recognition for completing the reorganization in such a short time.

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "There is no other way. Because of the weapons, even though we have more than 100,000 new soldiers who have been trained for several months, we are still unable to form an army. Now we can only train while fighting."

"All right."

Teng Yuzao stopped talking and said, "In two hours, at five in the morning, we will launch a general attack on the foreign devils."

When he heard that a general offensive was going to be launched against the Japanese-Russian coalition forces, Li Jinyu was delighted at first, but then he spoke hurriedly.

"Marshal, although our troops are not much less than the Russians and the Japanese, and we have already trapped them in the valley, the terrain in the valley is flat. If we fight the foreign devils head-on, even if we win, the casualties will not be small. Why not, we simply trap the foreign devils in there? At most, they will surrender in ten days."

Li Xianze interrupted, "We have discussed the method you mentioned in the past two days."

"In theory, this method is the best, but right now, not only is the First Town and the Independent Column in a bit of a tight spot, but the fighting in Kuangkou is also very intense."

"The Russians and Japanese have discovered that their retreat route has been cut off. Since last night, the foreign devils have been attacking Kuangkou regardless of casualties. The foreign devils' artillery fire is very fierce. After a long time, I am afraid that Ziyu will not be able to hold on."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "If pushed to the limit, the foreign devils may even abandon their cannons and directly cross the Qingzhang River, bypassing Kuangkou and heading for Hezhang."

"The terrain in Hezhang is open, so it's not impossible for the foreign devils to break through and break out a path."

Teng Yuzao looked at Li Jinyu and said, "And don't worry too much. Although our numbers are not much less than those of the Russians and the Japanese, we will not fight them head-on."

"We can't deploy too many troops in the river valley, both for the foreigners and us. So since last night, the two regiments of the Second Regiment have crossed the mountains and passed the foreigners who were rushing back to Hezhang. They are already more than ten miles ahead of us, along the river valley and on the mountains."

"Now, including Ziyu's Fifth Town and Hu Dianjia's Third Town, we have already put the foreign devils in our pockets."

Teng Yuzao sighed slightly and said, "The only shortcoming is that these troops are all on the mountain, and the mountains in the valley are very steep. It is not easy for them to rush down, so the main battle will depend on us."

Teng Yuzao continued, "Mingguang, do you still remember the tactics of infantry-artillery coordination and barrage of bullets that I talked about?"

Seeing Li Jinyu open his mouth in surprise, Teng Yuzao said with a smile.

"Although we have only conducted small-scale drills, and even bombed our own people due to poor coordination between the artillery and the infantry, we have no other good options now. We must get rid of these foreign devils in the Qingzhang River Valley as soon as possible, and then we will go and settle accounts with the more than 200,000 foreign devils in the south."

Liu Changfa also smiled and said, "Don't forget, there are people from the Second Town on the mountains on both sides of the valley. They all have mortars. Their mortars can completely cover the entire valley in this section."

Teng Yuzao waved his hand and said, "Mingguang, I have made up my mind. Even though we are not familiar with this kind of infantry-artillery coordination, and it may even hurt our own people, I can't care too much. You don't need to say anything more. Go back immediately to arrange for the troops to rest, and hand over all the heavy machine guns you brought to the Fourth Town. They will be used tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's attack sequence is that the remaining troops of the Fourth Regiment and the Second Regiment will lead the charge, and you will follow behind. There will be no reserve troops in this battle, and everyone must follow the artillery fire and press forward against the foreign devils in front."

Teng Yuzao turned to look at Liu Changfa again, "How is your artillery preparation going?"

Liu Changfa said confidently, "Marshal, all the mountain artillery positions have been repaired to a place two or three miles away from the foreign devils, and the manpower needed to move the artillery positions has also been prepared."

"However, it will take a lot of time to move the mountain artillery. The main thing is our mortars. Including the mortars on the mountain, we have nearly a thousand mortars. Once the battle starts, we will definitely blow the foreign devils to pieces and make them pay for it."

(End of this chapter)