The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 617: The Largest Night Raid in History
Although it is still unclear whether the Japanese assault troops will also adopt the extreme tactic of advancing with artillery fire and then launching a sudden charge, this tactic has been practiced by all units of the Zhili Army, and the sudden charge is very effective, especially after a fierce artillery bombardment.

Therefore, Wu Peifu had to be on guard.

While several staff officers were still shaking the telephone handles, half of the twenty or so soldiers in the fortress, under the command of a second lieutenant, rushed to the firing holes and quickly checked the four Maxim heavy machine guns mounted in the firing holes.

This main fort is located at a high altitude and is extremely solid. The heavy machine guns have a very wide firing range here. The hexagonal shape not only widens the firing range of the heavy machine guns, greatly increasing the controlled area, but also can form side fire to a certain extent.

This hexagonal main fort had two wide firing holes in front and on its left and right sides. Through these firing holes, Teng Yuzhao could even see the hillsides in front of the positions on both sides, which were full of potholes and burning branches and broken trees caused by intensive artillery fire.

Teng Yuzhao was looking forward to this offensive and defensive battle. He needed to test the combat effectiveness of his Zhi army through the crazy attack of the Japanese army.

The artillery fire soon stopped, and finally a sharp whistle was sounded on the battlefield. This was the officers at all levels calling on the officers and soldiers hiding in the anti-artillery holes, as well as the soldiers in the back mountain who were preparing to climb up to the position on the top of the mountain along the communication trench.

Although the reinforcements who came up from the back mountain quickly came out and entered the position, ready to meet the Japanese attack.

Although the Japanese army did not launch a charge accompanied by artillery bombardment this time, the Japanese assault troops moved their troops to a position about 300 meters away from the front line during the artillery bombardment.

In the field of view of Teng Yuzhao's Zeiss telescope, large groups of black figures were half-kneeling quietly on the hillside. In front of each team of Japanese troops, there was a Japanese officer squatting with a sword flashing with cold light in his hand.

Liu Shijiu, who was following behind Teng Yuzhao and ready to protect him at any time, looked at the Japanese troops quietly waiting to launch an attack on the hillside, and said with some surprise.

"Marshal, the Japanese are able to defeat the Russians repeatedly, they are really good at it!"

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "It can be seen that the training and morale of the Japanese are very good, but our people have not fought for three years, and half of them are new recruits. I wonder if they still have the momentum they had when they fought the Eight-Nation Alliance."

"The Japs are starting to charge!"

Before the shelling had completely stopped, the Japanese army, under the command of their officers, had already begun to move up the mountain, and those low-ranking officers, without hesitation, brandished their shining swords and rushed in front of the Japanese attack team.

When the smoke had not yet completely dissipated, the Japanese attacking force had even begun to speed up its charge. Teng Yuzhao looked at the location where the Japanese army was speeding up, and it was actually about 200 meters away from the front-line position.

After patrolling in front of several shooting holes, Teng Yuzhao already had an idea of ​​the Japanese attack this time.

In Teng Yuzhao's opinion, the Japanese army did not launch a tentative attack, or they mistook the tentative attack for a fierce attack. In the first attack, the Japanese army dispatched about 3,000 people, divided into several groups, and launched a multi-point comprehensive attack on the wide Gongchangling position.

Although Teng Yuzhao could not see the battle situation at Gaofeng Temple and Langzi Mountain due to the obstruction of the mountain, he still learned about the situation there from the conversation between Wu Peifu and the commander of the Second Division, Li Guochang.

Gaofeng Temple and Langzishan positions were also attacked by the Japanese army at the same time. The Japanese army also launched a battalion-level attack at the beginning of its first attack.

Gaofeng Temple and Langzi Mountain are facing the Japanese Army's Imperial Guard Division, whose current division commander is Hasegawa Yoshimichi.

The Gongchangling position was facing the Japanese Second Division headed by Nishi Hirojiro.

Not only are these two divisions old divisions of the Japanese Army, they are also the absolute main force of the Japanese Army.

"Da da da", the first to fire were not the Zhili troops in the position, but the Japanese troops attacking on the hillside. They had set up their Hotchkiss heavy machine guns on several protrusions on the hillside and were trying to suppress the Zhili troops in the position with heavy machine gun fire.

Almost immediately after the Japanese heavy machine guns opened fire, sporadic rifle fire suddenly rang out from the position, and then the Japanese heavy machine gunners who were desperately firing at the positions on the mountain and the Japanese officers who were leading the charge fell one after another.
The sporadic sounds of rifle fire were undoubtedly the sound of sniper fire.

Teng Yuzhao's order that each unit must be equipped with snipers has been resolutely implemented in each unit. Now there are three to five snipers in each post of the Zhi army.

Although the shooting skills of the snipers selected from various units vary greatly, the overall level is barely acceptable. According to Teng Yuzhao's estimation, the hit rate within 200 meters is over 70%.

As the Japanese heavy machine guns on the hillside kept misfiring, and even the Japanese officers leading the charge were shot and fell on the hillside, the Zhi troops on the position finally opened fire.

"Da da da da da da", the first sounds came from the heavy machine guns in all the bunkers, big and small, including the main bunker where Teng Yuzhao was.

Although it could be heard from the sound that the number of heavy machine guns firing was not large.

The current configuration is that each battalion has only three Maxim heavy machine guns. Now on the battlefield are one battalion from each of the two brigades of the First Division. The total number of Maxim heavy machine guns in the two battalions is only eighteen.

Fortunately, at the positions under the charge of each brigade, a standard heavy machine gun on standby on the hillside behind was temporarily reinforced to the troops on the positions and deployed in large and small bunkers. However, since each battalion had only three Maxim heavy machine guns, there were only thirty-six heavy machine guns on the positions.

Fortunately, every squad of the Zhi army is now equipped with a light machine gun developed by Teng Yuzhao based on the Lewis light machine gun and the Madsen light machine gun. They are called rotary light machine guns and drum-type light machine guns by officers and soldiers. This makes the firepower on the mountain not weak.

Although the revolver-type light machine gun assigned to the squad can only hold 47 rounds of ammunition, and the drum-type light machine gun assigned to the platoon can only hold 100 rounds of ammunition, it is very convenient for them to replace the revolver and drum, and the short interruption of fire is still completely acceptable.

For a moment, the dense fire from light and heavy machine guns swept the charging Japanese troops down on the hillside one after another.

Some Japanese soldiers on steep slopes even rolled down the hillside after being hit by the dense rain of bullets.

However, because the formation of the Japanese assault troops was somewhat scattered and the hillside was uneven, many Japanese soldiers avoided the sudden and intensive strafing. Amid the screams of the remaining officers, the Japanese soldiers took advantage of the terrain, firing back while continuously advancing towards the Zhi army's positions.

Liu Shijiu said in astonishment, "After two years of not seeing you, these little devils have not only become much more tenacious, but their tactics are no longer so rigid."

Teng Yuzao did not speak, but stared at the Japanese army who were howling and approaching with a little nervousness. At this moment, pieces of black things suddenly flew out from the position on the top of the mountain and landed far into the Japanese army's charging team. Then a flash of light broke out among the Japanese army, and then amid the continuous explosions, a thick smoke rose in front of the position, and the flying hot shrapnel made the Japanese army's flesh and blood fly everywhere.

The Zhi army had two types of grenades, both of which were "copied" from the German army by Teng Yuzhao. One was the famous M24 long-handled grenade, and the other was the M1918 egg-shaped grenade.

Long-handled grenades were widely equipped by the troops, while hand grenades were only equipped on a small scale in the Zhi army.

However, now both types of grenades are authentic Zhijun-made, and have even been introduced into the German Army by the German Army and become weapons.

Their models in the Zhi army are Z1903 and Z1904, and their models in the current German army are M11 and M12.

This long-handled grenade not only has a large amount of explosives and great power, but is also particularly suitable for throwing from a high position, which will make it fly farther.

Now, large numbers of grenades were falling on their heads like hail, and then exploded violently, shooting out deadly sharp shrapnel, which immediately made the Japanese soldiers, whose morale was high, unable to withstand it. They began to rush out of the smoke, shouting in panic, covered in blood, and desperately fled down the mountain.

This is the case on the battlefield. Once the phenomenon of running away begins, it will spread rapidly like a plague. If it is not dealt with in time, collapse is inevitable.

Although the battlefield was in great chaos and it was no longer easy for the snipers in the positions to kill Japanese officers, there were not many Japanese officers left, and it was completely impossible for these officers to control the entire battlefield.

With the first one to escape, the Japanese attacking force soon began to fall into chaos, although some officers still tried to control the battlefield by enforcing battlefield discipline.
However, these officers were soon either squeezed to the ground or crushed by the heavy rain of bullets on the top of the mountain, and could only crawl down the hillside when they had the chance.

Fortunately, when the beaten Japanese attacking troops retreated, in addition to the more than 30 Mark light and heavy machine guns set up in the sturdy fortress, they continued to chase the retreating Japanese troops and fired bursts of fire to kill as many attacking Japanese troops as possible.

At this moment, without Wu Peifu's order, the whistle sounded again on the battlefield.

However, this time, he did not order the officers and soldiers on the position to enter the position. Instead, he ordered most of the soldiers in the trenches to immediately move along the communication trench to the reverse slope position on the back mountain. Only a small number of soldiers would be left on the position to hide in the anti-artillery holes to defend against the artillery.

However, after a period of intense busyness, the position soon returned to calm, but the expected artillery retaliation from the Japanese army did not come as expected.

Even the Japanese army abandoned the attack starting position four kilometers away from the foot of the mountain and retreated to the dozen or so villages they occupied six kilometers away.

Looking at the dark hillside littered with Japanese soldiers' corpses, Liu Shijiu said in some surprise.

"This time, we killed about a thousand Japanese soldiers, not counting those who escaped with injuries. Did the Japanese soldiers give up after losing such a small number of troops?"

Wu Peifu shook his head and said, "This is not the character of the Japanese. I guess they are planning something."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "It is almost impossible to make the Japanese admit defeat now. The Japanese will not cry until they see the coffin. I also agree with Ziyu's statement."

"Think about it. Even though our mountain artillery and mortars have not been used yet, we have such terrifying firepower. This must have scared the Japanese division commander, Nishi Hirojiro. I guess he won't continue the attack during the day."

"Marshal." Liu Shijiu said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

"The Marshal is saying that the Japanese will launch a night attack?"

Although Teng Yuzhao knew very well that the largest night attack in history launched by the Japanese army was in the early morning of the 25th, it was impossible for Teng Yuzhao to tell them the exact time of the Japanese night attack.

Although there was no movement from the Second Division throughout the entire day of the 25th, the Japanese Imperial Guards Division, which attacked Gaofeng Temple and Langzi Mountain, launched two to three offensives every day.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that on August 24, the attack by the Japanese First Army on Gongchangling, Gaofengsi and Langzishan, which were under the responsibility of the Russian Eastern Group, was actually a feint, just an attempt to draw the Russian army's attention to the left wing.

This forced the Russian reserve to move left, thereby weakening its right wing, creating conditions for a breakthrough for the Japanese Second and Fourth Armies to attack the Russian right wing.

On the early morning of the 25th, Nishi Hirojiro personally led all the troops of the 2nd Division that could participate in hand-to-hand combat, except for the artillery, cavalry and baggage troops, and reached the main position of Gongchangling in the early morning.

Thus, the largest night battle in human warfare history took place on Gongchangling.

Nishi Hirojiro personally led the entire division of more than 12,000 people to rush to the Russian position, and launched an extremely brutal hand-to-hand combat in the dark with the 17,000 Russian troops defending the position!
By dawn, the trenches were filled with corpses from both sides, and the Japanese Second Division used bayonets to push the Russian army, which outnumbered them, back to Liaoyang, 30 kilometers away.

The Second Division also made a comeback and won a reputation for being "good at fighting". The unit's code name was also changed to "Brave Unit" by the Manchurian Army Headquarters.

Even Teng Yuzao was not prepared to engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese Second Division with his outnumbered troops. Half of his troops were new recruits. Teng Yuzao had no idea whether they could hold out in such a brutal hand-to-hand combat.

We wanted to be on full alert, but the Gongchangling position was full of uneven terrain and ravines, making it impossible to defend it tightly at night.

Although Wu Peifu and Liu Shijiu were skeptical about Teng Yuzao's judgment that the Japanese Second Division would launch a large-scale night attack within the next one or two days, they still made arrangements according to Teng Yuzao's requirements.

At midnight on the 25th, Teng Yuzhao, Liu Shijiu and Wu Peifu, who were anxiously waiting for news, finally received the news that the Japanese Second Division was dispatched.

According to the report of the dispatched investigators, the 4th and 29th Regiments of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army rushed to Gongchangling in the dark.

The 16th and 30th Regiments of the 15th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army were also heading towards the same target.

(End of this chapter)