The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 211 Accidental Injury
Beiguan, meeting room of the Trade Bureau.

Except for Teng Yuzao, all the senior generals of the vanguard army who remained in Tianjin City gathered here, sitting or standing around the conference table.

During the period from the end of July to the beginning of August, although it is not the hottest season, the temperature will still be between 24 and 32 degrees, and this season is particularly hot and humid. Every household has to open doors and windows to keep ventilation so that the weak cool breeze can take away the heat in the room as much as possible.

At this time of year, wealthy families would even have ice basins in their homes, and drink iced sour plum soup or other drinks to relieve the heat every day.

However, the situation in the conference room today was a little special. A dozen men gathered in a room with closed doors and windows, which had no air conditioning, electric fans, ice basins for cold drinks, and even no ventilation fans. However, no one complained about the unbearable heat in the room. Almost everyone even had a lit cigarette in their hands, but the room did not present a smoky "fairyland" scene.

On the contrary, there was a gentle breeze in the conference room and the temperature was extremely pleasant.

The reason was simple: the violent explosions that had just occurred in the arrow towers of the east and west city gates were so strong that even the Trade Office at the North Gate was not spared. The open glass windows were shattered by the strong vibrations caused by the violent explosion, and some of the glass was even smashed by flying brick and stone fragments.

At this moment, there were voices of reproach and ridicule in the conference room towards Liu Changfa, the "culprit" of the group's failure. Liu Changfa stood in front of his seat, a look of guilt on his face, and bowed to everyone repeatedly to apologize.

Pan Jinshan, who was standing aside, looked embarrassed, and seemed a little at a loss as to what to do, neither standing nor sitting.

"Ouch!"

As soon as Liu Shijiu pushed open the door of the conference room, his loud voice randomly echoed in the conference room.

"Captain Liu, you are addicted to bombing and destroying our own people. Last time, you blew up my assault brigade, causing 100 to 200 casualties. This time, you are fair. You didn't just bomb the assault brigade, but actually bombed our entire army into a mess."

Although Liu Shijiu said this, he couldn't hide the smile on his face.

Li Xiance also laughed evilly and said, "Qingyun, your artillery regiment is very impressive now. Our entire army should be praising your artillery regiment now."

Liu Changfa smiled bitterly and said, "Kangnian, please stop mocking me. How could they praise our artillery regiment? I'm sure they must be scolding our artillery regiment. Maybe they are scolding me, Liu Changfa."

Hu Dianjia took a puff of cigarette and said, "Don't blame Captain Liu anymore. He not only successfully blew up the two arrow towers, but also scared the foreign devils into stopping their attack on us this morning. That's why our troops have more than an hour of rest time."

"Correct."

Wei Jinghai, who had been unable to get a word in, tried to smooth things over by saying, "You can't just blame the bricks and rocks that were blown up and hit our people. They also killed and injured many foreigners, which scared them into stopping their attack on us! From this point of view, we should all thank Captain Liu!"

When he mentioned that a lot of foreigners were smashed to death, Liu Shijiu immediately looked regretful and slapped his thigh.

"How come I didn't catch up with something like this today!"

Li Xianze joked, "Don't worry. Let Qingyun bomb you again in a few days. It will be more violent than today's explosion."

Li Xianze's words immediately caused laughter in the conference room.

Seeing Liu Changfa becoming more and more embarrassed, Li Xianze said with a smile.

"However, this explosion really made the foreigner suffer a huge loss today."

"At that time, in front of the First Battalion's position not far from my regiment headquarters, more than 1,300 Japanese devils were launching repeated charges on the streets and alleys defended by the First Battalion. Some of the First Battalion's positions were already unable to hold out. If the Deputy Chief of Staff hadn't called to remind me, I would have led the reserve troops to attack the devils from behind. However, because of the experience of the assault brigade being bombed last time, I gritted my teeth and didn't dare to take the initiative to attack."

"Seeing these little Japanese soldiers from Dongyang about to charge into our position, I was thinking that as long as they charged into the first battalion's position, I would not care about anything else and would lead my team to kill them immediately. Even if we were bombed like the assault battalion did, at least we would have had enough fun killing the little Japanese soldiers."

"Who would have thought that just when the Japanese soldiers were still 20 to 30 meters away from the first battalion's position, two earth-shaking explosions occurred. Such a loud noise frightened the Japanese soldiers who were charging at the time. Before they could react, a foot-long brick fell on their heads, instantly knocking the unprepared Japanese soldiers unconscious. Hundreds of them were knocked down on the spot. The rest of the Japanese soldiers had bloody heads, some were limping, and there were Japanese soldiers screaming and disoriented everywhere. In short, more than a thousand Japanese soldiers were either dead or injured, and almost no one was intact!"

"How could I miss such a good opportunity? I led the reserve troops and charged straight up. Most of the Japanese soldiers were stabbed to death with bayonets. The remaining Japanese soldiers who were not hit in the vital parts dared not fight anymore and turned around and ran away." "I wanted to chase them for a while and then withdraw to the position, but I didn't expect that this chase would surprise and delight me. Along the way, I saw many Japanese soldiers running backwards with blood on their heads. How could I miss such a good opportunity? I took advantage of the situation and chased them all the way for more than a mile before withdrawing. Not only did I kill more than a thousand Japanese soldiers, but I also seized two Maxim guns."

"Haha," Hu Dianjia said with a smile, "It was the same everywhere for me. The Russians were also knocked dizzy, with blood all over their heads and faces, and they were howling non-stop. Our three regiments and several battalions took advantage of the situation and rushed out. The Russians couldn't even organize resistance, and they couldn't outrun us. We chased them for hundreds of meters. Not only did we bring back three heavy machine guns, but we also seized thousands of water-fired rifles and a large amount of ammunition."

Wei Ningbo laughed and said, "In my opinion, Captain Liu did a good job this time! Not only did he complete the mission, but he also brought unexpected huge damage to the foreign devils, killing and injuring a large number of them. It also allowed us to take advantage of the situation to chase and kill the foreign devils and drive them back to South City. Until now, the foreign devils have been hiding in South City and dare not move!"

"Hey!"

Hearing the exciting scenes described by several people, Liu Shijiu felt jealous and regretted that his assault brigade was not at the front line. He could not help but let out a long sigh, then sat down on a chair, took out a captured cigar from his pocket, lit it, and began to smoke.

Only then did Liu Changfa have the chance to apologize to Liu Yuzhi, who had been silent the whole time, and asked, "Yuxuan, are you okay there?"

Liu Yuzhi exhaled a puff of smoke, pointed at Cao Futian beside him and said with a smile.

"Qingyun, I'm fine. Brother Cao and I were on the parade ground checking on the new recruits' training when we received a call from Deputy Chief of Staff Wei. We immediately ordered everyone to run back to the barracks. Fortunately, the explosion happened just as the troops entered the barracks. The parade ground was covered with rocks of all sizes, but no one was injured."

Liu Changfa said with lingering fear, "It's all my fault. I underestimated the power of the explosion of those shells, which caused hundreds of injuries to our troops. Two people from the independent detachment on the city were seriously injured. I apologized to the adults on the spot!"

Pan Jinshan said hurriedly, "It's not Commander Liu's fault. I told Commander Liu that it would be best to blow down the wall near the arrow tower. Otherwise, it would affect the independent detachment's firing range in the north city. The Russians would crawl along the wall from the south city, occupy the ruins of the arrow tower, and then shoot and fire at us. It would be difficult for us to stop them then."

"So, we dug a ten-foot-deep pit on the wall inside the arrow tower and placed the shells inside. Although it affected our own people, the effect was really very good. Not only did the arrow tower explode, but the dozens of feet long walls on both sides of the east and west gates were also blown down."

"As soon as the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, while the Russians were still in shock, Captain Liu opened fire with the two small cannons he had pulled up to the city wall. With just a few shots, he destroyed the two small cannons and four Maxim heavy machine guns on the south city wall."

"Qingyun, how many cannonballs did you fire in the arrow tower this time?" Li Xianze couldn't help but ask.

Liu Changfa sighed heavily and said in annoyance, "This is the first time I've done such a large explosion in all these years. I've never seen or even heard of such a thing before, so I'm worried that I won't be able to blow down that part of the city wall in one go. In addition, my two guns are also on the city wall. If the firing range is not cleared, my two guns won't be able to fire directly at the Russian artillery positions on the south city wall, so I fired a lot of shells."

Liu Yuzhi smiled and said, "Qingyun, why are you talking so much today? I asked you how many shells you fired? Just tell me directly."

Liu Changfa said with a bitter face, "There are 100 83mm shells and 600 37mm and 47mm small shells placed in the pits in each of the two arrow towers."

Liu Changfa's voice became smaller and smaller, "In addition, ten homemade shells of the conscienceless cannon were added."

After Liu Changfa finished speaking, the conference room fell silent. Even Cao Futian and Wang Decheng, who felt they had no say in this situation, were so surprised that they opened their mouths and were speechless.

After a long while, Liu Shijiu touched his inch-long hair and said with emotion, "My goodness, there are 1,200 shells of all sizes on both sides, and 20 unscrupulous shells. You are going to blow Tianjin City to the sky!"

Hu Dianjia smiled bitterly and said, "There's no need to blow it up to the sky. After this explosion, the city walls of Tianjin will definitely be destroyed. Although there are still large sections of the city walls that are intact, the explosion must have shaken the foundations of the city walls. As long as it rains heavily, these walls will collapse."

Brothers, sisters, younger brothers and younger sisters, today is the last day of this month. Brothers and sisters who still have idle monthly tickets, please use your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets to hit Zuima hard!

Zui Ma bows to everyone and expresses his gratitude!

感谢：遛弯的老猫、张哥之足球梦想、20180424145609966、踏石有印、150809023612904、麒麟9、炸天帮夏流、raomin521、20201209172031045、BLueYe、richrdlg、平凡之路、1469999447480168448、宅担当、2021030110339920、我爱工业兔、david5555、20170629222018563、20200412205514770、雾都孤儿tb、其实我想留、不是不恨、屁股熊、20230424164548997311688、160505231834790、熬夜成仙阎王招手、20180622114550323、121224234703276、三峡风！！！

I can’t write any more, so I will continue to express my gratitude to the book friends not mentioned in the next chapter!



(End of this chapter)