The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 210 Shocking Explosion

Teng Yuzhao quickly moved his eyes away from the artillery's telescope, stood up and looked towards the west city wall.

It turned out that the thirty or so soldiers of the independent detachment defending the West Gate Arrow Tower had already withdrawn from the Arrow Tower with difficulty carrying a Maxim heavy machine gun and were running towards the north city on the city wall.

Although most of these people had bandages on their heads and bodies, they were still able to move around with the support of each other. Only one big soldier was running in front of the crowd, carrying a soldier on his back.

Judging from the posture of the big soldier carrying the soldier on his back, this was the only casualty, which made Teng Yuzhao feel relieved.

Logically speaking, the Russian troops in the southwest corner could not see the retreat of this platoon of soldiers from the independent detachment because of the half-collapsed arrow tower.

Teng Yuzhao was somewhat puzzled, but when he looked at the east gate city wall again, he suddenly realized.

The East City was also badly damaged by the intensive artillery fire from the Allied Forces. One could not necessarily see the situation on the city wall clearly from below, especially the section near the arrow tower, but on the opposite wall, since there was no perspective problem, one could see the city very clearly.

Because at this time, soldiers were also withdrawing from the East City Arrow Tower.

This must be because the Russian troops on the southwest corner of the city wall discovered that the defenders of the East City Arrow Tower opposite had begun to retreat, so they were anxious to check the situation on the West City side.

Soon, the Russian troops on the southeast and southwest corners of the city walls began to communicate with each other by signaling with flags.

The flag signals of countries around the world, except for the naval flag signals which have a certain commonality, are not exactly the same in the army and are not internationally used, but the basic meaning is still the same. Teng Yuzao could roughly tell that the Russian troops on both sides were informing each other of their locations in the arrow towers on the city walls. The remnants of the Qing army, which had been resisting stubbornly, could no longer withstand their powerful artillery fire and fierce attacks and had begun to evacuate the arrow towers on the city walls.

Soon, more than a hundred Russian soldiers on each side of the city wall were driven by officers and rushed towards the arrow tower along the city wall.

At this moment, Teng Yuzhao suddenly thought of a very important issue, which made a thin layer of sweat break out on his head instantly.

"Damn it! Ignored it!"

Teng Yuzhao didn't have time to call Wu Peifu who was standing beside him. He turned around, grabbed the telephone on the ammunition box, and quickly shook the handle.

Teng Yuzao's sudden action startled Wu Peifu. Usually, Teng Yuzao would ask him to call Wei Jinghai, especially when the battle was tense, but now.
This was a direct line between Teng Yuzhao and Wei Jinghai. No one dared to delay. The call was quickly connected and Wei Jinghai's voice was immediately heard from the other end.

"Is that right, sir? The order has been passed down. I just received a report that the guards near the east and west gates have all evacuated. What is the situation at the east and west walls now? Is there any change?"

Before Wei Jinghai could finish, Teng Yuzao interrupted him rudely and said in an urgent tone, "Notify all troops immediately. Remember, all troops in the city, including those near the city wall at the north gate, and have them prepare to blow up the arrow tower at the city gate immediately. The previous explosion with the conscienceless cannon was a lesson. This time the explosion is likely to be more violent than the conscienceless cannon."

After explaining everything to Wei Jinghai, Teng Yuzhao hung up the phone with lingering fear.

"Teacher, I"

Wu Peifu opened his mouth in embarrassment and could not speak.

Teng Yuzhao understood Wu Peifu's thoughts, and said to Wu Peifu while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Zi Yu, it doesn't matter if you are negligent 10,000 times in normal times, but in wartime, even one negligence is not allowed. This applies to both ordinary generals and the commander-in-chief of an army. You must remember this."

"Even if our troops were caught off guard this time, there wouldn't be many casualties, but there would always be minor injuries. If many officers and soldiers were injured because of our own explosion, it would always affect the morale of the troops."

Wu Peifu nodded solemnly and said, "Teacher, I remember it." Although the dense gunfire and the explosions of Teng's grenades were still ringing in the north city, Teng Yuzhao's mind was now completely focused on the east and west arrow towers. He had reached the point of turning a deaf ear to the gunfire and grenade explosions in the city.

After watching the soldiers on both sides of the city walls withdraw from the arrow towers and being picked up by the people sent from the north city, Teng Yuzhao sat back on the ammunition box and put his eyes on the artillery mirror again.

In the field of view of the artillery telescope, the team of Russian troops on the west city wall seemed cautious at first, as if they were afraid that the vanguard troops defending the arrow tower were deliberately luring them into a trap.

But as the Russian army got closer and closer to the arrow tower, the Russian soldiers began to realize that even if the other side had an ambush at this distance, they would not be able to escape at all. Only then did these Russian soldiers finally let go of the burden in their hearts. At the urging of the officers, they shouted "Ura" and then rushed forward, launching a fierce charge towards the arrow tower a hundred meters away.

A distance of one hundred meters can be reached in ten seconds, even for fully armed soldiers with weapons.

Soon, the Russian army rushed to the front of the arrow tower, and then shouted, and rushed into the arrow tower through the gap that was blown open.

However, just when the Russian troops behind had not yet rushed into the arrow tower, chaos suddenly broke out at the gap.

In the field of view of the artillery team, the Russian soldiers who had rushed into the arrow tower first were turning around and rushing out frantically, and they were colliding head-on with the Russian soldiers who were still rushing into the arrow tower. Many Russian soldiers even climbed up the ruins of the arrow tower and jumped onto the city wall after seeing the serious congestion at the gap, and then ran back with empty hands.

Until this time, the Russian troops that rushed over seemed to have finally figured out the situation in the arrow tower. They all threw away the rifles in their hands that were in the way, turned around and ran back. However, it was too late to go back now.

In the field of view of the artillery telescope, the broken arrow tower on the west gate of the city suddenly and violently expanded, and then a huge cloud of dust rose into the sky in the blink of an eye.

"Boom, boom" two deafening explosions that were almost consecutive and like the collapse of the sky and the crack of the earth suddenly sounded. The violent explosion even made Teng Yuzhao's ears buzz even though he was prepared and had his mouth slightly open.

With a heart-shaking roar, the city wall under their feet suddenly jumped due to the violent explosion, and then fell down heavily. The violent jumping of the city wall not only made all the people standing on the city wall fall down, but Teng Yuzhao, whose eyes were glued to the artillery mirror, felt that his eye socket was hit hard. It hurt so much that he could hardly open his eyes, and his body fell backwards uncontrollably on the city wall.

At the moment of falling backwards, Teng Yuzhao was even worried that the city wall beneath his feet would collapse due to the violent shaking.

"teacher!"

"grown ups!"

I heard the concerned cries of Wu Peifu and Xu Ting!
However, Teng Yuzhao, who was in such a miserable state, didn't care about the two of them. Instead, he climbed up and stood directly on the city wall. He opened his eyes as wide as he could and looked in the direction of the arrow tower.

Although his eyes were sore and he was even shedding tears uncontrollably, Teng Yuzhao still kept his eyes wide open. He was eager to know the final effect of the explosion.

However, Teng Yuzao found that all his efforts were in vain.

Because in front of him, there was a towering cloud of dust rising straight into the sky, and that cloud of dust was expanding rapidly.

Suddenly, Teng Yuzhao, who was looking up at the towering smoke, saw something strange in his vision. Then Teng Yuzhao quickly leaned over and grabbed an empty ammunition box, kicked the telephone under the arrow stack, and shouted hoarsely.

"Everyone, hide under the arrow stack immediately, quickly."

Hearing his shouts, Xu Ting and Wu Peifu had already understood what was happening. While they were shouting frantically for everyone to hide under the arrow stack, they each picked up an empty ammunition box and rushed to Teng Yuzhao, pulling Teng Yuzhao to squat close to the arrow stack, while they held the empty ammunition boxes in their hands above their heads.

Just as they had managed to hide beneath the trees, there was a burst of loud noises, as dense as a torrential rain, and a sky full of rubble and bricks fell from the sky.
(End of this chapter)