The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 521 Turtle in the Urn
"We just received a report from the Fourth Town that the foreign devils' rearguard troops have entered Lucheng Town."

"The foreign devils must have known that we were blocking them in front of them. The rear guard troops of the foreign devils, who were originally fighting and retreating, have now begun to urgently build field fortifications in Lucheng Town."

"The vanguard of the First Town, who had been following the foreign devils all the way, has also arrived at the outskirts of Lucheng Town. The foreign devils are now trapped."

Wei Jinghai, with a smile on his face, had just finished speaking when a dull thunder came from the north. However, the thunder was a bit strange. It was exploding continuously and so densely that it was impossible to tell how many thunders there were.

"Commander."

Liu Changfa, who had just returned from checking the various artillery positions, hurried into the shelter and said with a happy face.

"Marshal, I can tell the sound of artillery coming from the north. It's the explosion of mortars and mountain cannons. Judging from the sound, the First Town should have moved out all their mortars."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "I guess this should be the first town. They want to take advantage of the fact that the foreign devils' rear guard troops have not yet gained a foothold in Lucheng Town and concentrate all their artillery fire to try to capture Lucheng Town in one fell swoop."

Wei Jinghai turned around and wanted to make a phone call to find out the situation, but before he could take a step, a staff officer shouted while holding the telephone receiver.

"Chief of Staff, Commander Liu called and reported that the first town chasing the foreign devils fleeing from the capital has begun to concentrate its artillery fire on Lucheng Town."

"Now, Lucheng Town has been completely covered by the artillery fire from the First Town. Their artillery fire is too intensive. It is estimated that the foreign devils inside and outside the town who are trying to hold on will find it difficult to hold on after this round of intensive artillery fire."

"The First Town will launch a fierce attack next. It will be no problem to take over Lucheng Town. Liu Zhentong asked if he should start crossing the river now?"

Before Teng Yuzao could answer, there were two loud "boom" sounds of artillery shells exploding, which were much louder than the artillery fire from the north. Teng Yuzao, Liu Changfa and Wei Jinghai hurriedly looked out from the observation port.

Two shells were seen exploding at the edge of Dashawu village and outside Henan Wucun village on the south bank of the Xinhe River behind it.

Liu Changfa said worriedly, "This is the foreign devils' artillery testing. They will soon launch artillery attacks on two places."

Wei Jinghai looked at Teng Yuzao and said, "Marshal, I think the foreign devils are scared. They are worried that we will be surrounded by the large army that arrived in time."

“So, we are eager to launch an attack on the Fifth Town that is blocking their way. Should we launch the attack now?”

Teng Yuzao nodded and said to Liu Changfa, "We followed them all the way to the first town. When we start attacking the foreign devils' rear guard troops in Lucheng Town, the foreign devils will probably guess that we are going to besiege them here."

"So, now we don't need to hide it anymore. You can raise your hydrogen balloons and start bombarding the foreign devils immediately after you are ready."

"Yes!"

Liu Changfa responded excitedly and hurried to the left side of the shelter to make a phone call.

In order to unify command and better enable the artillery town's artillery fire to provide timely and effective artillery support to the four towns on the wide battlefield, Liu Changfa merged his command post with the General Staff Office.

Now the left side of the shelter is completely occupied by Liu Chang's artillery staff, and the right side is occupied by people from the General Staff Office.

In addition to the observation balloon, there were four artillery sights set up on a hill 200 meters away from the shelter. They were connected to the shelter by telephone and could cooperate with the observers on the observation balloon to provide Liu Changfa with targets for directing the artillery fire of more than a dozen artillery positions. Teng Yuzao already felt that it was a bit inconvenient for the artillery town to have its own command system.

He had already talked with Wei Jinghai and Liu Changfa. After the peace talks were over, he would report to the Grand Council and officially appoint Wei Jinghai as Chief of Staff of the Vanguard Army and Liu Changfa as Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Artillery.

"Qingyun, you have to move quickly. There is a battalion of troops in Dashawu Village. The foreign devils are eager to break the interception of the blocking troops. Their artillery fire will definitely be very fierce. If you start fighting earlier, the battalion will suffer less losses."

"Yes!"

Liu Changfa responded again, ran over to arrange the dozen or so artillery staff officers, and began to convey orders to various places.

Teng Yuzao then said to Wei Jinghai, "You personally call the second, fourth, and fifth towns and inform them to be ready. As soon as the artillery town's bombardment begins, they can launch an assault on the foreign devils."

"I have to remind them again that the attack does not need to be resolute, but needs to be fierce. As long as these 100,000 or so foreign devils are separated, they will definitely be defeated in such a flat and open area."

"Boom boom boom", the deafening sound of artillery fire rang out again, but this time the fire was much more intensive.

This was the main artillery group of the Allied Forces. It concentrated its fire on Dashawu Village on the north bank of the Xinhe River, Henanwu Village on the south bank, and the trench fortifications outside Dashawu Village. The smoke and dust from the exploding shells had completely enveloped the two villages.

When fighting in plains, because there are no strategic locations to rely on, villages and towns become the key points of defense, and even the support points of the defense line are these villages and towns.

To be precise, Xianghe is not a plain area in the true sense, it should be considered a hilly area.

However, in the north of Xianghe County, this narrow area sandwiched between the canal and the Chaobai River has long become very flat due to years of farming by the people. It is not inferior to the Hebei Plain.

The only drawback is that this so-called plain is too small.

The coalition forces in the encirclement had obviously realized that their current situation was somewhat dangerous, so they were determined to capture Dashawu Village and Henan Wu Village in one fell swoop.

Therefore, almost all the artillery should have been concentrated, and the number of large and small artillery pieces added together is estimated to be two to three hundred.

This was the case when the coalition forces that fled back to the capital from Taihang Mountains and along the way lost all the artillery they carried. Otherwise, the number of artillery of these more than 100,000 coalition forces would have at least doubled.

The coalition forces' shelling finally stopped, but before Teng Yuzao had time to observe the situation in Dashawu Village, he was attracted by the unusual movements of more than 3,000 coalition forces who were preparing to attack Dashawu Village and were already more than 800 meters away from the village.

In the field of view of the artillery telescope, Teng Yuzao discovered that the coalition forces near the canal side were in obvious panic. Many coalition forces were already running in panic from the side near the canal towards the Chaobai River. And these were not just a few individuals, but hundreds and thousands of coalition forces.

Could it be that the impatient Liu Shijiu disregarded orders and started building a pontoon bridge on the canal ahead of time, and was discovered by the Allied Forces?

Teng Yuzhao hurriedly turned the artillery telescope towards the canal, but what surprised him was that the canal was very quiet, there was no pontoon bridge, and no officers or soldiers from the Fourth Town were to be seen.

"What did the foreign devils find?"

(End of this chapter)