The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 190 It’s so cool to kill the Japanese

"Boom boom boom."

The residential buildings near the city wall in the south city had already been reduced to ruins by the coalition artillery shells during the bombardment over the past decade. Some of the doors, windows, beams, tables, chairs, beds and other wooden products in the ruins were still emitting wisps of smoke, and some even had flames flickering on them.

This place should have been hit again by the coalition artillery bombardment today.

A series of dazzling white flashes suddenly appeared in the ruins without any warning, followed by a burst of intensive grenade explosions.

The Teng grenade is loaded with 500 grams of explosives, and its explosive power is no less than that of a small-caliber artillery shell. The strong shock wave produced by the dense explosion of Teng grenades can not only tear the human body apart, but also disperse the smoke and dust.

After the grenade explosions, with the help of the flash of the explosion, one can clearly see many Japanese soldiers who were thrown high up and their broken limbs and arms, as well as guns that were blown away.

In the flash of the explosion, Teng Yuzhao finally saw clearly that in the ruins, a large and dense group of Japanese soldiers had appeared. Regardless of casualties, these Japanese soldiers were rushing into the ruins desperately, using the broken walls in the ruins for cover, and launched wave after wave of desperate attacks on the circular defense line formed by the officers and soldiers of the three regiments dozens of meters away.

The seemingly thin defense line of the Third Regiment Street District, composed of houses, streets, and courtyards, was actually very resilient. Although hand-to-hand combat had occurred in some areas, the dense cross-fire from the numerous firepower support points in the Third Regiment's defense line quickly cut off the retreat of the Japanese army's approaching troops, preventing their reinforcements from advancing.

The few Japanese troops who broke into the defense line would undoubtedly soon become victims of the soldiers of the Third Regiment.

It seems that it was the Japanese army that blew up the city wall, and then rushed in at all costs. It is very likely that this group of poor Japanese dwarfs, who had gotten the sweet benefits, rushed into the city at all costs in order to covet the huge sum of money in the Salt Administration.

Teng Yuzhao sneered in his heart and pointed the telescope lens towards the southeast corner of the south city wall.

At this time, the smoke and dust in the southeast corner of the city wall had become thinner, and the situation there could be seen clearly.

However, the scene there surprised Teng Yuzao, who was mentally prepared.

Through the telescope, Teng Yuzhao's sight could already pass over the city wall and see outside the city without any hindrance, because that section of the city wall that was more than 40 meters long had collapsed into ruins. Although the city walls on both sides that were more than 50 meters long had not collapsed yet, they were crooked and would collapse if hit by a few more shells.

The scene before him made Teng Yuzhao secretly glad that he had made a timely decision!
Otherwise, the large number of soldiers from the Third Regiment who were still on the city walls and under the city walls taking shelter from the artillery fire would inevitably be killed or injured by the explosion, or they might be crushed to death or injured by flying bricks and stones, or even be shaken to death by the violent explosion.

The position of the retreating machine gun position was also very suitable for the explosion point. Whether on the city walls on both sides or in the sandbag fortifications about one person high at the foot of the city wall, the flames spewed out by the Maxim heavy machine gun were more than one foot long, and other small and weak gun flames could be seen everywhere. Obviously, the effect of his deployment was still very obvious.

It is precisely because these troops were not seriously affected and impacted by the violent explosion that, of course, there might be some who were injured by shock or hit by the blown-up bricks and stones, or even hit in vital parts and died, but after all, they were not directly hit by the explosion. This is the greatest victory and the greatest luck for these officers and soldiers.

A large number of Japanese soldiers' bodies had fallen at the gap, and the piled-up bodies almost filled the gap. The dark red blood mixed with the dust produced by the collapse of the city wall, making the area near the pile of corpses a bloody mess.

In just twenty minutes, so many Allied forces suffered casualties, which made Teng Yuzao secretly smack his lips in amazement. In order to break the city as soon as possible and rush to the capital to rescue the diplomats of the foreign powers who were still besieged in the embassy district, these foreign devils were so ruthless!

But even such a tragic scene could not stop the coalition forces from attacking and their excitement at breaking the city.

A large group of Japanese soldiers wearing black uniforms and white pants, and a large group of Indian soldiers wearing the British army's bright red uniforms, white pants, turbans on their heads and big beards, were also mixed in. They were swarming in through the gap and rushing into the city frantically. There were even officers waving their pistols and command sabers, commanding the soldiers to climb up the city along the broken edges of the walls on both sides that were about to collapse.

However, not only the Japanese troops climbing the city wall at the gap, but also the Indian soldiers were hit hard.

As soon as the Allied soldiers who had just climbed up the city wall, they were met with a intensive burst of fire from the Maxim heavy machine gun. The 11mm Maxim heavy machine gun bullets hit their heads like a stone hitting a ripe watermelon. One bullet was enough to blow up and smash the heads of the Japanese and Indian soldiers. Then these unrecognizable corpses would tumble into the crowd of Allied forces at the gap. The blood and white brain matter flying from the air would splash all over the faces of the Allied soldiers below, making them look even more hideous and terrifying.

The situation of the Allied forces who rushed into the city frantically through the gap in the city wall was even more miserable. While they were still at the gap, they were fiercely strafed by several Maxim heavy machine guns 500 meters away. The hot and dense rain of bullets swept through the crowd, and rows of soldiers were constantly hit.

If he was hit by a Maxim heavy machine gun bullet with powerful kinetic energy, if he was not killed on the spot, he would be trampled to death by the large group of coalition forces that were still rushing in from behind.

The coalition forces that jumped from the ruins of the city wall to the ground inside the city would instantly be hit by heavy machine gun fire from the left, right and front. The coalition forces that rushed into the city would immediately be knocked down by the torrential rain of bullets. Some unlucky ones would even be torn to pieces in an instant by the heavy machine guns firing from three sides, turning into flying pieces of bloody flesh and becoming a broken corpse with incomplete limbs.

The tragic situation at the gap could even be described as a massacre. The coalition forces were just charging into the fire net formed by the three regiments with six or seven Maxim heavy machine guns and hundreds of Mannlicher rifles. Teng Yuzao finally understood what it felt like when the German heavy machine guns massacred the British troops in the Battle of the Somme during World War I.

A gap more than 40 meters wide was blocked by so many heavy machine guns firing in a crossfire manner, so the firepower was extremely dense.

Although it was a three-sided sweep, the firepower density was definitely not lower than that of the German Army in the Battle of the Somme. It's just that the Maxim heavy machine gunners in the vanguard army had just been hastily trained, and they were far from proficient in using the Maxim heavy machine guns. They could only fire their bullets at the enemy. The accuracy and continuity of their output firepower were far inferior to those of the German veterans. Otherwise, how could so many Allied forces rush through the gap?

Since Hu Dianjia and Pan Jinshan brought more than 3,000 Wuwei Vanguard troops, each soldier had two rifles, a Mannlicher and a Mauser. They used the Mannlicher in combat, and the Mauser was only a training gun. Teng Yuzhao naturally would not allow this situation.

Therefore, in order to unify the weapons standards and to make better use of the captured weapons and ammunition, Teng Yuzao decided that all three regiments would switch to Manley.

Then, based on the captured weapons, the 8.5 caliber early Mannlicher rifles were gradually phased out and replaced with other standard rifles.

Teng Yuzhao had no choice but to do so. He also wanted to unify the weapons of the vanguard army, but he absolutely could not do it now. Although there were a large number of Mauser rifles among the weapons that Li Yulin brought to Xianghe, even if he used those rifles to re-equip the Third Regiment, he would still have to use rifles of other standards when recruiting new soldiers later.

The heavy losses suffered by the coalition forces finally paid off.

After more than a thousand Allied forces suffered casualties at the gap, finally three or four hundred men managed to rush into the ruins. The Japanese troops in the ruins, who received support, finally stabilized their position and began to use the ruins to cover and build their cramped defensive fortifications.

The coalition forces outside the city seemed to realize that the defenders inside the city were well prepared and even set a terrible trap for them. They finally stopped their death charge and even stopped the artillery bombardment on the city.

The dense gunfire that had lasted for half an hour gradually became sparse, with only sporadic rifle shots still ringing.

The Japanese and British Allied Forces that rushed into the ruins in the city, or more precisely, the Japanese, British and Indian Allied Forces and the three regiments that half-surrounded the ruins in an arc, both sides needed to stop and catch their breath, and both needed to rescue and transfer the wounded as soon as possible and lick their wounds.

"Teacher, I've heard that the Japanese devils are very fierce in battle, but why are these Indian soldiers so fierce? They are different from the Indian soldiers we encountered several times before!"

Wu Peifu, who had just put down the telescope, was still a little pale and asked Teng Yuzao with lingering fear.

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "You are right. These bearded Indian soldiers are different from ordinary Indian soldiers. These bearded ones are Sikhs among the Indians. They are very brave in fighting."

"Sir, the call is connected." The voice of guard platoon leader Xu Ting came from behind.

The telephone soldier from Teng Yuzhao's communications squad finally pulled the telephone line to the roof.

Since all the commanding heights in the city had been equipped with simple defensive fortifications in advance, this place was no exception, and the roofs were also piled with sandbags.

Just as Teng Yuzhao was about to pick up the telephone placed on the sandbag fortification, the phone rang.

Teng Yuzao picked up the phone receiver and heard Wei Jinghai's relieved voice, "Sir, thanks to your quick reaction, otherwise we would have suffered a great loss!"

"Ningbo, don't underestimate yourself. You are very thoughtful. This is not only a quality that a qualified chief of staff should have, but also a commander. This time, the credit should go to you!"

Teng Yuzao's praise for Wei Jinghai was completely sincere, without any hypocrisy. It was rare that Wei Jinghai could doubt the coalition forces' artillery bombardment.

Wei Jinghai was naturally happy to receive Teng Yuzhao's praise, but he also knew that he still needed to learn a lot from his young presidential official.

"Sir, the foreign devils outside the city have stopped attacking. Captain Hu just called and wanted to ask for your instructions. He plans to transfer another battalion over to completely wipe out the approximately 1,000 coalition troops occupying the ruins in the city."

(End of this chapter)