The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 179: Annihilation and Rout

"Boom boom", along with balls of strong flashes in the dark streets of the city and the bonfires that were hit by bullets and sparks flying, the city gates flickered in the light and shadow, and continuous violent explosions sounded. These were the powerful grenades thrown by the vanguard army.

Especially at the city gate, the flashes produced by the explosions were almost continuous. These were the grenades thrown continuously by the grenadiers ambushing on the city wall, which exploded in front of the city gate.

A violent explosion went off among the large group of Japanese soldiers who had just rushed into the city and were swarming towards the city gate when they saw the bad situation. The dense crowd of Japanese soldiers who were preparing to escape from the city were instantly blown to pieces. In the flashes produced by each explosion, one could almost see the flying limbs and arms.

The huge shock wave generated by a one-pound charge can even blow people up and tear the already thin limbs of the Japanese soldiers, let alone a single blow.

Under the fierce explosion, a large open space was quickly cleared near the city gate. Although the ground in this open area was full of pits and holes caused by the powerful grenades, there were almost no intact Japanese corpses, and even broken limbs were rare. All objects within the explosion range would be blown away by the violent shock wave.

The Japanese troops, stunned by the sudden and fierce rain of bullets, rushed around in all directions without any shelter in the open streets. However, no matter which direction they rushed, they would be hit by the hot rain of bullets from the surrounding courtyards and roofs. Every Japanese soldier who rushed in was a living target for the vanguard army.

Under the fierce and intensive rain of bullets from dozens of Maxim heavy machine guns and thousands of rifles on all sides, and amid the deafening sound of explosions, nearly two thousand Japanese troops who rushed into the city were killed or wounded in just a few minutes. On the streets radiating outward from the city gate, all the places that the fire could reach were filled with the bodies of the fallen Japanese soldiers.

What made the Japanese army feel even more terrified was that there were almost no wounded here. It was difficult to find a single one, whether seriously or slightly injured, because every dead Japanese soldier was not hit by just one bullet, but several. There were even many bodies shot into several pieces by the Maxim heavy machine guns. The ground in this area was not only covered with the blood of the Japanese soldiers, but also with their broken limbs. It was almost a living Shura hell.

The hundreds of Japanese remnants who were not dead or seriously injured, seeing that their retreat through the city gate was blocked, began howling and rushed into the surrounding darkness, trying to find a place to hide temporarily.

However, all efforts of the remaining Japanese troops were in vain. Large groups of vanguard soldiers wearing field-gray uniforms and holding gleaming bayonets or wielding sharp swords had already poured out from the surrounding courtyards, houses and dark streets. The joyous ambush boosted the morale of the soldiers. They quickly cut the remaining Japanese troops into small groups and surrounded them, starting another type of massacre.

Almost every short Japanese soldier who was divided and surrounded had to face several bayonets stabbing at them at the same time, and many were even stabbed away by two or three bayonets at the same time. What made the Japanese soldiers even more frightened was the cold and shining broadswords flying in the crowd with a terrifying "whoosh" sound. Wherever the broadswords passed, there was a risk of heads falling off, and it was also common to be cut in half by a single sword.

Not only were the vanguard soldiers not at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat against the short Japanese soldiers, but their numbers far outnumbered the remaining Japanese soldiers, giving them a huge advantage in assassinations. This hand-to-hand combat quickly turned into a massacre.

"Ding da da", a loud military bugle call first sounded in the street, and then more than a dozen bugles on the city wall also sounded at the same time. Amid the sound of the bugle calls, the shooting of the Maxim heavy machine guns on the roofs, streets and city walls that were fiercely spraying bullets stopped immediately, and what came here was the deafening cry of killing.

On the main street of the city, a large group of officers and soldiers holding shining swords and assault teams with sharp bayonets poured out and rushed towards the city gate shouting.

The officers and soldiers of the assault brigade did not engage in a fight with the remaining Japanese troops they met along the way, but rushed past with a roar. They had only one goal, which was to rush out of the city.

Teng Yuzhao on the top of the city wall no longer cared about the obvious battle situation in the city. Instead, he stood in front of the battlement facing outside the city, holding a telescope to observe the movements of the coalition forces outside the city.

The left and right reinforcements outside the city stopped attacking the city when the Japanese army began to charge into the city. They quickly retreated to 400 meters away and began to swarm towards the city gate that was blown open by the Japanese army.

However, the sudden and intensive gunfire in the city made them stop in their tracks. Not only was the gunfire sudden and intensive, but the gunfire was also mixed with the sound of a large number of Maxim heavy machine guns, which greatly surprised the British, American and French coalition forces still outside the city!

Because at that time, in the Western powers, basically each regiment had only two heavy machine guns, and as far as they knew, the most elite troops of the Qing Dynasty were roughly the same as theirs. However, the sudden sound of gunfire included so many Maxim heavy machine guns, which undoubtedly showed that a large number of elite troops of the Qing Dynasty gathered in the city. If so, even if their 5,000 people rushed into the city, they would be hit head-on by the enemy. Not only might they not be able to defeat the enemy, but they might also be severely injured by the enemy.

Just as they were hesitating, when they were attacking and there was no heavy machine gun to block their attack, suddenly more than a dozen scarlet tongues of fire shot by Maxim Pen appeared on the top of the city wall. Under the fierce shooting, the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms could no longer maintain their formation and fell to the ground to avoid the dense rain of bullets from the city wall.

In an attempt to rescue the troops pinned to the ground by heavy machine gun fire, the coalition forces' heavy machine guns 500 meters away began to turn and fiercely strafed the heavy machine gun positions of the vanguard army on the top of the city. However, under the intensive fire from the heavy machine guns and hundreds of rifles on the city, they soon fell silent.

When the loud military bugle calls sounded almost simultaneously in the city and on the city walls, followed by the deafening shouts of killing, not only did the three or four hundred frightened Japanese soldiers and their commander at the city gate know that they had fallen into a trap set by the defenders in the city, but the commander of the Three-Nation Allied Forces also understood this clearly.

Especially when they saw the Japanese troops at the city gate turning around and running away madly as if they had seen a ghost, the Three-Nation Allied Forces could no longer hold on. They got up from the ground and ran away, braving the dense rain of bullets from the top of the city.

However, it was too late to escape at this time. Not only did the sturdy soldiers rushing out of the city wielding swords quickly catch up with the remnants of the Japanese troops fleeing from the city gate, but the flashing sword lights overwhelmed hundreds of dispirited Japanese soldiers in an extremely short time.

The rest of the pursuing troops did not stop, but rushed towards them with their rifles equipped with bayonets.

What made the more than 2,000 Allied troops, who had already been frightened by the tragic situation of the Japanese army and were running wildly, even more frightened was that at this moment, in the darkness on both sides in front of them, there were also deafening shouts of killing. Even with the help of the flares that were still rising in the air, they could already vaguely see that in the distance, there were large groups of soldiers rushing out of the dark streets on both sides of them. The purpose of these troops rushing over from both sides was very clear, that is, to block their escape route.

Although this place is outside the city, it is outside the inner city of Tianjin. Tianjin also has an outer city that includes this large area. However, the outer city of Tianjin has long been dilapidated and has no defensive function and can no longer be used.

Although these areas between the inner and outer cities have large open spaces, they also have dense residential and commercial areas. It is easy for troops coming from both sides to move quietly to their flanks and rear.

Such a scene made the Allied forces run faster. In order to rush out of this carefully planned trap before the two troops on the left and right blocked their retreat, many people threw away their rifles, spread their long legs, and ran towards the concession like athletes competing in the stadium.

The troops rushing out from the left and right sides were a battalion of the Second Regiment and the newly formed Pan Jinshan Independent Detachment. For this battle, Teng Yuzhao mobilized almost all the troops he could mobilize.

However, hundreds of the frantically fleeing coalition forces eventually escaped the encirclement.

After receiving the news, Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and said to Wu Peifu, "Zi Yu, you must remember, never underestimate the enemy's desire to survive."

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(End of this chapter)