The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 473 The bombardment begins

In the Taihang Mountains, although it is early spring, not only is the weather still cold, but the dawn still comes very late. At five o'clock in the morning, the sky is not only not bright, but even as dark as ink. It is the darkest time of the night.

In order to better command the battle, before five o'clock, Teng Yuzhao, Liu Changfa, Li Xianze and the guards climbed up a mountain on the east side of the valley in the dark, where there was an observation post of an artillery town.

However, now this place is not only an artillery observation post, but also Teng Yuzhao’s headquarters.

When Teng Yuzhao and the other two climbed up to the spacious observation post on a slightly protruding mountain in the Xiang River valley, Zuo Mingyang was already waiting there with a group of staff officers.

The location of this observation post is very good. From here, you can see the battlefield in the river valley that is more than 20 miles long until the view is blocked by the mountains.

The only drawback is that the wind is quite strong up there. The howling north wind made Teng Yuzao shiver again.

Fortunately, Li Xiance, Liu Changfa and Zuo Mingyang were all wearing leather coats, Teng Yuzhao was also wearing a gray woolen coat, and even the staff officers had cotton coats to keep warm.

Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but secretly admire the vision of these artillery observers!
At this time, in the dark river valley, in addition to the wide Qingzhang River flickering faintly under the dim starlight, there was also a faint flickering fire at the foot of the mountain on the west side of the valley.

These flames were bonfires lit by the Japanese and Russian Allied Forces in the ravines or valleys for warmth. The locations of these bonfires were blind spots for artillery fire.

Since this section of the Qingzhang River flows along the foot of the mountain on the east side, the mountains on the east side are not only steep and towering, but also difficult to stand on. It is barely possible for a few people to climb up, but it is not possible if they carry weapons, especially heavy weapons such as mortars.

The vanguard troops that harassed and attacked them were all on the mountains on the west side, so the coalition forces' camps were all set up at the foot of the cliffs on the west side of the mountain, or in the small cols or ravines under the steep peaks, where they could effectively avoid artillery attacks in the valley or on the mountains.

At this time, the harassing vanguard troops still stopped their attacks, only a few sporadic gunshots were heard occasionally, which made the wide river valley seem unusually quiet.

However, Teng Yuzhao knew clearly that the officers and soldiers of the Second Town and the Sixth Town on the western mountain were already on full alert.

This was true for the officers and soldiers of the second, fourth, and eighth towns in the valley, especially those of the artillery town. They were just waiting for the order and a great battle would begin in full swing.

"Marshal, all the troops are ready. Liu Zhentong just called and all the troops have arrived at the attack position."

Teng Yuzhao nodded and looked at the watch on his wrist. There were still a few minutes left. He cast a worried look towards the depths of the valley. Although there were mountains blocking his view there, Teng Yuzhao could still vaguely see the light flashing in the sky.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that these flickering lights were not starlight, but the blocking positions of Wu Peifu's Fifth Town near Kuangkou dozens of miles away, which were under intensive artillery bombardment from the Japanese and Russian coalition forces.

In the past two days, the Japanese-Russian coalition forces who were blocked in the river valley were obviously very aware of how dangerous their current situation was. Therefore, they not only concentrated heavy troops to continuously attack Wu Peifu's blocking position in Kuangkou, but also transferred all the coalition artillery to the vicinity of Kuangkou. Braving the harassing fire from the mountains on the west side, they bombarded the vanguard troops on the mountains while bombarding the blocking positions day and night to cover the attacking troops' charge.

Each Japanese division had an artillery regiment.

The artillery regiment had a 105mm heavy artillery battalion and two 87mm mountain and field artillery battalions, with a total of 36 artillery pieces, plus a rapid-fire artillery battalion with ten 37 or 47mm caliber rapid-fire guns.

Just adding up these artillery pieces, the number of artillery pieces of the four Japanese divisions totaled 184. In addition, the Japanese invading army was also allocated a heavy artillery regiment, with 36 120mm large-caliber heavy artillery pieces.

The Japanese army alone had 220 artillery pieces of varying sizes. It was unclear how many artillery pieces the remnants of the Russian army still had, but there should be no problem with 60 to 70.

In other words, the Japanese-Russian coalition forces trapped in the valley should have close to 300 artillery pieces.

Teng Yuzao was naturally well aware of how fierce the fire from three hundred artillery pieces would be.

Even with the reverse slope tactics and some fortifications, Teng Yuzhao estimated that after this battle, Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment would probably be seriously damaged.

Although Teng Yuzhao wanted to launch a general offensive as soon as possible to relieve some of the pressure on Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment, he finally resisted the strong impulse in his heart and did not answer Zuo Mingyang's words.

Li Xiance and Liu Changfa did not say anything either, but just waited silently in the darkness.

Li Xiance's Second Town had sent two brigades to deploy along the mountains on both sides of the valley, leaving only one brigades in the valley. For the sake of ease of command and because more troops could not be deployed in the valley, Teng Yuzhao, after obtaining Li Xiance's consent, simply handed over Li Xiance's brigades to Liu Shijiu for unified command.

After waiting for another five minutes, Liu Changfa, who was secretly looking at his watch from time to time, reminded Teng Yuzhao in a low voice.

"Marshal, the time is almost up."

This time, Teng Yuzao nodded in the darkness and said, "You give the order."

After getting Teng Yuzhao's consent, Liu Changfa immediately took the receiver of the magnetic telephone from a staff officer.

"Order, all artillery in the valley, fire according to the scheduled bombardment plan, at 5 o'clock sharp."

As Liu Changfa gave the order, the sound of artillery shells whistling was soon heard in the valley, but it was not the artillery group firing. Instead, five or six flares were lit above the defense line held by the Allied forces in the valley.

The vanguard's flares were much brighter than those fired in the past by small-caliber rapid-fire guns.

This is because, ever since Teng Yuzao invented the mortar, flares have been fired from 60mm mortars. The flares fired from the mortar have a slightly larger caliber, and the lighting effect is naturally much better.

As flares were raised on the battlefield in front of the valley, flares were also continuously raised on the battlefield dozens of miles deep in the valley, illuminating the battlefield for dozens of miles in a flickering manner.

The flares deep in the valley were fired by the mortars of the Second and Sixth Towns on the mountains on both sides. When Liu Shijiu led the Fourth Town to launch an attack, the troops on the mountains also had to start shelling the Japanese-Russian coalition forces in the valley at the same time.

Li Xianze's two brigades each had ninety-eight mortars ranging from 60 to 87 mm, plus the fifty-four mortars of the Sixth Regiment, a total of exactly two hundred and fifty mortars. Their mission was to bombard the Japanese-Russian coalition forces in the deep area behind the front line.

In the illumination of the flares, Teng Yuzhao could already see the small figures running in panic in the valley through the telescope. He knew that the one confronting them head-on was the reinforced 9th Division of the Japanese Army.

Within seconds of the flares being launched, the terrifying whistling sound of shells pierced the silent night sky. Ten seconds later, a blinding flash suddenly appeared on the front line of the Japanese 9th Division, followed by a thunderous explosion.
(End of this chapter)