The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 620 Counterattack
Teng Yuzhao guessed that this was probably because the Japanese saw that hand grenades were being used again in the hands of the vanguard army, which they did not want to see, so naturally they did not have a strong sense of urgency.

Even if the facts are right in front of them, the Japanese, who clamor to leave Asia and join Europe, will not admit that at least this time, the Qing people are ahead of them in terms of hand grenades.

It is precisely because of the above thoughts that the Japanese, who have always closely followed the world's most advanced military technology, did not follow very closely this time. The official name of their grenade is the 26th Type, which was finalized and produced only last year. It is also a replica of the British Mills grenade.

Teng Yuzhao remembered that the first type of grenade produced by the Japanese appeared much later than now, and it was not until after the end of World War I that it appeared. It was the so-called Taisho 10th-type grenade.

Although the Russians also began to produce the 1903/30 wooden-handled grenade at this time, the output was very small and the troops in the Far East were only equipped with a small number.

In fact, Teng Yuzhao had not even seen the equipment of the Russian troops outside the Great Wall. This showed that in terms of military technology, the Russian army was still as slow to react as ever, and probably did not attach much importance to this kind of grenade.

Although the Japanese army continued to drop a large number of grenades from their high ground, few of these grenades could penetrate the reverse slope fortifications.

This is because the Zhi army's reverse slope fortifications were built with great care, and it was not easy to make a grenade explode accurately inside the fortifications.

The Zhi army's reverse slope position was not only built on the hillside, but never on a flat ground. It also had only a breastwork facing the top of the mountain, and no trenches.

In fact, the slope behind their fortifications was quite steep, and in some places they even dug a trench more than one meter deep.

It is precisely because of this arrangement that the grenades thrown by the Japanese troops on the hillside are difficult to explode in the Zhi army fortifications.

They thought that if the grenades thrown by the Japanese army from a high position were thrown in front of the fortifications, they would be blocked by the breastwork and would not explode.

If the force is greater, these grenades will fall to the ground behind the reverse slope fortifications and continue to roll along the hillside, exploding farther down the hillside.

Some even rolled into the trench and exploded inside.

Unless the enemy has fully studied the reverse slope fortifications of the Zhi army and accurately controls the delay of the grenade so that the grenade explodes just before or at the moment of landing, it will be almost impossible to hurt the Zhi army behind the reverse slope fortifications.

Although the Japanese army occasionally encountered the enemy's reverse slope fortifications in the Taihang Mountains several times during the Gengzi Year, the Allied Forces had not yet used grenades at that time and were not aware of this feature.

"Boom boom boom", the flashes produced by the explosions of secret grenades in front and behind the reverse slope fortifications were very conspicuous in the dark night, even though bright flares kept rising in the sky.

Although the Japanese grenades were copied from the British Mills grenades, they still used some tricks in the charging, just like they secretly used Shimase gunpowder in the charging of naval shells.

The Japanese Type 26 grenade was not loaded with ammonium nitrate like the British, but was instead loaded with TNT, and the amount of charge was still 50 grams.

The explosive power of 50 grams of TNT cannot be underestimated. Its killing radius is ten meters.

In response to the grenades constantly thrown by the Japanese army, the Zhi troops behind the reverse slope fortifications could only use dense light and heavy machine gun fire to retaliate.

However, as more and more Japanese soldiers who continued to rush down were killed or wounded, the number of Japanese corpses on the hillside continued to increase. This allowed more Japanese soldiers to use the corpses of their companions as cover to shoot at the direct troops in the reverse slope fortifications or throw grenades.

The Zhi army's wooden-handled grenades also began to show their power at this time.

Although it was at the bottom, due to the long wooden handle, it could be thrown much farther than a grenade under the same circumstances, about ten meters away, which barely stopped the Japanese troops rushing up and down the hillside.

However, in the battle of throwing grenades at each other, the Zhi army, which was at the lower position, suffered a general loss.

Because some Japanese troops seemed to have found a way to make their grenades explode in the reverse slope positions.

The fierce confrontation on the hillside made Liu Shijiu a little angry. It would be very disadvantageous for the Zhi army to rush up and fight with the Japanese army with bayonets on the hillside at this time. The Japanese army must be pushed back to the top of the mountain.

"Where is our little cannon?"

The small cannon Liu Shijiu mentioned was an ultra-lightweight 60mm caliber mortar developed jointly by the Ordnance Department and the Germans at the request of Teng Yuzhao.

Originally, this ultra-light mortar became popular during World War II more than 20 years later, to make up for the 50-500-meter area firepower left by grenades and mortars. All countries developed it, but the Japanese developed it into a grenade launcher, while other powers used light mortars.

The most famous of these are the 50mm light assault rifles of the Germans and French.

This light mortar used by the German army during World War II weighed only 14 kilograms. A crew of two people could carry the mortar and follow the troops to attack quickly, and could provide fire support to the squad and platoon levels at any time during battle.

Although the Germans equipped their troops with a large number of light fortresses, with each infantry platoon having one, they were not actually very successful.

The main reason was that the German light mortar was a bit too complicated, with a telescopic barrel.

In Teng Yuzao's opinion, the most successful one should be the French M37, which weighs only kilograms.

Of course, this light attack was not very powerful, and the French surrendered before any troops were deployed.

Teng Yuzao chose a combination of French and German light cavalry, which is why he jointly developed it with the Germans.

To reduce the weight of this lightweight machine, the Germans still need to contribute steel.

The Zhi army is now equipped with a 04mm mortar named LeGrW 60, which weighs only ten kilograms. The Germans are still working hard to reduce the weight, and their goal is a full weight of seven kilograms.

However, Teng Yuzao couldn't wait any longer. For this ultra-light mortar that could fill the gap between the grenade throwing range and the ordinary mortar range, Teng Yuzao would not wait any longer.

Teng Yuzao has now started to equip Type 04 light mortars in advance. Of course, if a lighter light mortar with better other technical parameters is successfully developed in the future, Teng Yuzao will replace it.

"Bang bang bang", dozens of intensive artillery shells were fired from behind the rocks and in the depression more than a hundred meters below the reverse slope position on the hillside. Then, dark red flashes broke out from the simple position of the Japanese army, which was pushing the bodies of its companions and gradually approaching the reverse slope position below.

Although the explosions were not loud, they seemed to have a particularly good killing effect, especially the mortar shells exploding on the hillside, which left the Japanese troops at the detonation point with no escape and were immediately blown to pieces.

"Da da da, bang bang bang", just when the fighting was in full swing on the front side of the back mountain, the sound of dense gunfire and grenade explosions were heard from both sides of Gongchangling in the distance.

Moreover, the locations of the gunshots and explosions on both sides were moving very quickly, moving rapidly towards the mountain ahead.

The sudden gunfire and grenade explosions on both sides caused serious chaos among the Japanese troops rushing down the mountain.

Anyone with a little military knowledge would understand that this was their opponent, the so-called Restoration Army composed of Qing people, who had begun to counterattack from both sides. If the Japanese army that rushed down from Gongchangling continued to confront the Restoration Army on the reverse slope here, then what awaited them was being surrounded by the enemy on the bare top of Gongchangling Mountain. Destruction was the only foreseeable outcome.

Just as the Japanese troops in confrontation began to panic, a large number of mortar shells of various calibers that had already adjusted their firing parameters, guided by flares, began to fall into the crowd of Japanese troops rushing down from the top of the mountain.

The fierce and dense artillery shells that fell on their heads like hail continued to explode among the Japanese troops. Every violent explosion produced a strong shock wave that would bring up pieces and waves of flying flesh and blood and the broken limbs of the Japanese soldiers, causing a bloody storm.

Such a tragic situation finally caused the Japanese army to rush down from the top of the mountain. The Japanese army, which was now in a dilemma, collapsed. As the enemy troops were already encircling them on both sides, the remaining Japanese troops on the back slope of the mountain could only flee to the ridge of the mountain top dozens of meters behind them.

By climbing over the ridge and rushing down the hillside, you can break out of the encirclement that the enemy is about to form.

Of course, the prerequisite is to run fast.

As two flares, one red and one yellow, rose into the air, a deafening roar of killing suddenly erupted from the reverse slope position.

With the help of the light of flares, one can vaguely see that not only are there thousands of Zhili officers and soldiers in Russian uniforms rushing out from the reverse slope positions, but also teams of officers and soldiers rushing out from trenches or hiding places on the hillside behind them.

All the officers and soldiers of the Zhili Army who rushed up the hillside were either holding long Mosin-Nagant rifles with bayonets or extremely light revolving light machine guns. While rushing towards the top of the mountain, they fired at the backs of the Japanese troops who were fleeing to the top of the mountain.

The officers and soldiers of the 1st Division were responsible for breaking out from the reverse slope positions and the concealed positions on the back mountain, including the flanking troops from both sides of the mountainside.

The two independent brigades should have already started attacking from the two wings at the foot of Gongchangling Mountain. Their goal was to outflank the rear of the Japanese Second Division.
(End of this chapter)