The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 482 The foreigners ran away

After questioning Pan Jinshan, Teng Yuzao let go of Pan Jinshan's hand, who was already in tears, and asked Li Jinyu and Zuo Mingyang to report the situation on the battlefield immediately.

According to Li Jinyu and Zuo Mingyang, Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment is now concentrating prisoners and clearing out the remaining enemies and cleaning up the battlefield in the valley. He estimates that in the general offensive, about 60,000 coalition forces were killed or captured.

Through interrogation of the captured Allied officers, it was learned that the remaining foreign devils had started to escape two hours ago.

The fleeing coalition forces escaped by wading across the river. They first crossed the Qingzhang River near the Jizi Bend. Then, in order to avoid the sight of the vanguard troops on the opposite bank, the coalition forces did not continue to wade across the Qingzhang River after it turned a bend and came back.

The cunning coalition forces marched west along the river in the middle of the Ji-zi bend to the foot of the mountain, and then went down two or three miles before they began to wade across the river again and reached the east bank of the Qingzhang River.

However, the Allied Forces' escape was eventually discovered by Wu Peifu. When the subsequent fleeing troops of the Allied Forces tried to cross the river, they were stubbornly blocked by the Fifth Regiment. More than 20,000 Allied Forces were blocked in a narrow strip of land at the foot of the mountain and could not continue to cross the river.

After Liu Shijiu and Li Xianze led their troops to the scene, they chased after the fleeing Allied Forces. The dense gunfire that was still being heard downstream was the Second Town destroying the more than 20,000 Allied Forces that were blocked. Judging from the gunfire, they should be clearing out the remaining enemies now.

However, Liu Shijiu did not get entangled with the more than 20,000 coalition forces that were blocked. After Li Xianzhe led his troops to arrive, he took the Fourth Regiment away from the battlefield, crossed the Qingzhang River, and joined forces with part of Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment to pursue the fleeing coalition forces.

Hearing that Liu Shijiu and Li Xianze led their troops to cross the river to pursue the fleeing enemy, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel worried. The temperature was still below zero, and there would probably be a lot of casualties from frostbite in this battle, which would affect the subsequent battles.

Seeing Teng Yuzao's worry, Zuo Mingyang said, "Don't worry, Marshal. Liu Zhentong said that as long as we run, there won't be any big problems."

Although Teng Yuzhao was still somewhat worried, he had no choice. The military situation was urgent and he really couldn't care less.

According to Zuo Mingyang's estimation, there should be as many as 50,000 to 70,000 coalition forces fleeing southward in the river valley, or even more than 80,000.

It is somewhat regrettable that according to the interrogation, the only troops left in the last unit of the Allied Forces were the Japanese 9th Division and part of the 8th Division. Moreover, after the vanguard army launched the general offensive, the commander of the 9th Division and all the regiment commanders and above had crossed the Qingzhang River and escaped. The highest rank of Japanese officers captured in the river valley was only lieutenant colonel and battalion commander.

The situation of the Russian army was similar to that of the Japanese army. The Russian army only left five regiments, which were handed over to the unified command of the Japanese 9th Division. The highest-ranking Russian officers captured were only a few lieutenant colonel regimental commanders.

In other words, even if a part of the Allied Forces was blocked by Wu Peifu, there were still at least 60,000 to 70,000 Allied Forces who escaped the encirclement, or possibly even more. If these people escaped, Teng Yuzhao's plan to destroy the Japanese-Russian Allied Forces in one battle would have failed.

Fortunately, Liu Shijiu was very decisive and had already crossed the river to pursue them. Otherwise, whether it was Dongda, Xida, or Hezhang, it might not have been possible to stop the remnants of the coalition forces who were trying desperately to escape.

Teng Yuzao was very worried about the war ahead, so he did not dare to delay any longer and said to Zuo Mingyang, "You stay and help the Sixth Town treat the wounded, clean up and take in prisoners, and clean up the battlefield, and then escort the prisoners and the spoils to Hezhang."

He then said to Li Jinyu, "Immediately hand over the prisoners and related matters to the Sixth Regiment, then lead your troops to catch up, and follow me and the artillery regiment to the south as quickly as possible to pursue the fleeing enemy."

Although Teng Yuzhao was extremely anxious and even thought about leading his troops to cross the river to pursue the enemy, even if he could make up his mind, the artillery town would not be able to keep up. If the artillery town wanted to cross the river, it had to build a pontoon bridge, otherwise the mountain artillery of the seven battalions would have to be dismantled before they could cross the river.

In the end, Teng Yuzhao gave up the idea of ​​taking a shortcut, led the artillery town, lit torches, and headed south through Kuangkou.

When passing Kuangkou, Teng Yuzhao saw Wu Zijia, who had run down the mountain after learning that Teng Yuzhao was leading his troops to come.

Wu Zijia was also a student rescued by Teng Yuzao from Beiyang Military Academy, so Teng Yuzao couldn't help but ask about his well-being. After learning that although the Fifth Regiment suffered heavy casualties in Kuangkou, they also killed more than 5,000 Japanese and Russian troops in Kuangkou, he praised Wu Zijia for being responsible for defending the Kuangkou position.

Teng Yuzhao knew that Wu Zijia was not only a member of the "Fenjin Society", but also one of the earliest people in Li Zixiong's group who were loyal to him, so he was naturally more friendly to him.

Li Jinyu had served as chief of staff in the predecessor of the Fifth Town, the Guard Association, and since he and Wu Zijia were both in the "Endeavor Society", he naturally came over to encourage Wu Zijia.

While chasing the fourth and fifth towns, battle reports kept coming in.

After the fleeing Japanese-Russian coalition forces discovered in the east and west that the mountain pass had been occupied in advance by the troops of the Fifth Regiment, they did not attempt to break through the pass and go into the mountains, but continued to flee southward without hesitation.

When Wu Peifu and Liu Shijiu led their troops to these two places, Wu Peifu, who felt that he was short of troops, took this assistant with him and continued to pursue the fleeing enemy.

Although Liu Shijiu and Wu Peifu chased them all the way, they were still half an hour behind the remnants of the Allied Forces.

The remnants of the allied forces knew that if they could not break through the defense line of the Hezhang defenders, they would be destroyed. Of course, they had to fight desperately. As soon as they arrived in Hezhang, they only rested for a while and then launched a full-scale attack on the Hezhang defense line held by Hu Dianjia and Liu Bingyi.

Because the defensive area of ​​the Hezhang Defense Line was too large, the junction of the Third Regiment and the Guards Association was eventually broken through by the remnants of the Allied Forces.

Fortunately, Liu Shijiu and Wu Peifu led their troops to arrive in time, and cooperated with Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment and Liu Bingyi's Guards Association to surround more than 40,000 allied troops who had no time to rush out, and finally captured more than 10,000 Japanese-Russian allied troops.

When Teng Yuzhao led his troops to the scene, the battle had already ended.

Seeing the guilty Hu Dianjia and Liu Bingyi, Teng Yuzao still did not blame them, but comforted them instead.

Although Wu Peifu assisted in the attack from the rear, it was still difficult to capture the Japanese Fifth Division, which was stationed in Hezhang Town and had built a large number of defensive fortifications inside and outside the town.

In particular, it was necessary to capture Hezhang as soon as possible and eliminate the Japanese Fifth Division, so as to close the Qingzhang River Valley. Hu Dianjia had to launch a strong attack on the Japanese Fifth Division. For this, the Third Regiment and the Imperial Guards suffered more than 7,000 casualties.

However, Teng Yuzao only saw Liu Jiujiu in Hezhang, but did not see Wu Peifu who had chased with him. He felt strange. It was not until Liu Jiujiu angrily reported Wu Peifu to Teng Yuzao that Teng Yuzao knew the whole story.

It turned out that when Liu Shijiu was commanding his troops to encircle and kill the blocked Japanese-Russian coalition forces, Wu Peifu had already gathered the two regiments of the Fifth Regiment and was then chasing after the remnants of the coalition forces that had escaped.

He just sent someone to deliver a letter to Liu Shijiu. In the letter, Wu Peifu told Liu Shijiu that he had led his troops to chase the fleeing enemy, and asked Liu Shijiu to wait for Teng Yuzao in Hezhang, saying that Teng Yuzao must have important combat plans to arrange, otherwise it would delay Teng Yuzao's important matters.

After receiving Wu Peifu's letter, Liu Shijiu couldn't help but curse Wu Peifu. If he hadn't been enjoying killing so much, this job would never have been given to him, Wu Peifu.

Since Wu Peifu had gotten there first, Liu Shijiunan had no way of venting his anger unless he found Teng Yuzhao and filed a complaint.

(End of this chapter)