The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 369 This is a Major General

Amid the sound of "boom boom" artillery, Li Jinyu looked through the gap in the green gauze tent, looked at the American troops who had already spread out into a skirmish line formation and were rapidly approaching the vanguard's position with quick steps, and cursed.

"Damn it, these Americans have finally gotten their way. They are no longer charging in an orderly formation."

The blocking position arranged by Li Jinyu was located at the edge of the green tent. It was just a simple fortification built with sandbags.

The attacking American troops were divided into two waves, each with one thousand people, less than 500 meters apart.

It was obvious that the Americans wanted to use continuous and fierce charges to break through the obstruction of the Guards in one fell swoop and rescue the besieged coalition forces.

At this time, the first wave of US attack forces was almost approaching within 200 meters of the blocking position.

Among the great powers, the British and French armies had the strictest requirements on charge formations, followed by the Germans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russians and other European powers. The Americans were slightly worse.

The ones who seemed to be most disdainful of this rigid formation were the newly emerged Japanese army, which was almost completely Westernized in terms of military.

Although the Japanese army was completely westernized in terms of military, they first learned from the French. When they saw the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, they began to learn from the German army.

In short, the Japanese only learned from the strongest armies of the Western powers.

Despite this, the Japanese still stubbornly retained some of their own characteristics, which are very similar to what Zhang Zhidong and other Chinese people emphasized, "Chinese learning as the basis, Western learning for practical use."

For example, the Japanese military organization did not completely copy the Western one; even the names were different.

In addition, this is even more true for the Japanese in terms of their offensive formation requirements. The Japanese have always launched attacks in a formation that is almost a skirmish line.

Now, although the US military's formation looks like a loose attack formation like a skirmish line, the shape of the array can still be roughly seen, and it is still somewhat dense.

However, this attack formation gave the attacking soldiers greater autonomy. When they were strafed by Maxim heavy machine guns or the enemy's intensive volley fire, they could lie down or use the terrain for cover, without having to wait and get hurt by the enemy.

"Chief of Staff Li."

The commander of the mortar battalion on the side said with a look of contempt and a sneer.

"The foreign devils' formation is just to avoid your Maxim heavy machine gun fire, but in front of my mortars, this formation is still a bit dense. Once my mortars open fire, they will still be blown to pieces."

Li Zixiong, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Guards Brigade, who had witnessed the power of mortars, nodded in conviction.

"That's for sure. Your small cannon may not look big, but it's really powerful!"

The commander of the mortar battalion became excited when the power of the mortar was mentioned.

"Of course, the caliber of our mortars is not smaller than those mountain cannons, especially for bombing the foreign devils' infantry. We guarantee that we can blow up a large area with one blow."

Just as the artillery battalion commander was about to continue speaking, Li Jinyu suddenly raised his hand to stop him.

"Listen, why are the gunshots behind us getting closer and closer? It seems to be moving towards us."

The ambush area was only five miles away from them. Although the gunfire there had become much less frequent, it had not stopped yet.

Li Jinyu's words made Li Zixiong slightly stunned. Just as he was about to call for someone to check, he saw a sentry leader under his reserve team running over in a hurry.

"Chief of Staff, Captain, a group of Japanese soldiers rushed out from the ambush area behind us. We estimate that there are six or seven hundred of them. They are running towards us. Our people are chasing them. I have ordered my sentry to stop them."

"Stop them, stop them firmly, and don't take a step back. Otherwise, if they charge, we will be attacked from both sides by these foreign devils, and our position will collapse immediately."

Li Zixiong became anxious when he heard this. He rolled up his sleeves, pulled out the Mauser pistol from his waist, and said to Li Jinyu.

"Chief of Staff, you guys stay here and fight the foreign devils. I'll go to the back and watch."

After Li Zixiong finished speaking, he turned around and was about to run to the back, but was grabbed by Li Jinyu.

Li Jinyu ignored the impatient Li Zixiong and spoke to the sentry.

"Make way for the Japanese, don't block them head-on. When they pass your sentry post, attack them from the side, then chase them closely and make them run faster."

Li Jinyu's words stunned Li Zixiong, the sentry leader, and even the mortar battalion commander.

Without time to explain, Li Jinyu hurriedly said to the sentry leader, "This is an order, execute it immediately."

"Yes."

The sentry leader followed Pan Jinshan and Hu Dianjia to join the vanguard army. He was a student of the Wuwei vanguard army school. Although he was still a little confused, it was obvious that Li Jinyu was already a little anxious. He did not dare to neglect it and immediately turned around and ran back to execute the order. Li Jinyu was right. Li Zixiong said, "Remember the time when we broke into the concession? This time, let's learn the Marshal's strategy."

"You must immediately order the troops to clear the road and ignore the escaping Japanese soldiers. Let them pass. Then our entire army will charge forward and chase them down. We will follow these Japanese soldiers and kill them directly into the group of attacking foreign soldiers to avoid the artillery fire from the foreign soldiers behind us."

"If we can defeat the first wave of foreign devils, we should do the same to the second wave and try to defeat them in one fell swoop."

"it is good!"

Li Zixiong has understood, "Good idea!"

"Once we charge, these devils will run faster. We will rush forward and kill all the foreign devils in front of us."

Li Zixiong turned around and ran away excitedly to convey Li Jinyu's order.

Li Jinyu pointed to the front of the position where the American troops were approaching the blocking position, and spoke to the mortar battalion commander who seemed to have realized something.

"As soon as these escaping devils rush past our blocking position, order your mortars to simultaneously bombard the two waves of attacking devils. Fire as many rounds as possible, preferably five rounds in rapid succession, to confuse them, making it easier for us to cover and kill them."

"Then, you can arrange a mortar to follow the charging troops and suppress the foreigners' Maxim heavy machine guns at any time to cover the charging troops. Maybe we can break into Langfang today."

Li Jinyu's words made the mortar battalion commander excited, but then he spoke with some embarrassment.

"Chief of Staff Li, we don't have many shells left. When I came here, Commander Liu told me to use them sparingly, saying that we might need to use our mortars again when we retreat to Yanjiachang."

Li Jinyu knew that carrying so much captured materials would greatly affect the marching speed.

The coalition forces, which have already received reinforcements, will surely be eager to hunt down and intercept them when they learn that their large amount of arms have been robbed.

There will be a fierce battle today, which is inevitable, and the mortar, a powerful weapon, will be needed even more at that time.

"Alright."

Li Jinyu thought for a moment and said, "Then we should just fire a volley at each of the two waves of foreign devils in front and behind."

"it is good."

The commander of the mortar battalion responded and hurried to the mortar position at the rear.

Li Jinyu said to a staff officer behind him, "Report our plan to Commander Wu immediately."

"Bang bang bang bang", a burst of intensive rifle shooting sounded behind him. A few minutes later, accompanied by a burst of quick and chaotic footsteps, more than 400 Japanese soldiers rushed along the road and fled in a panic.

When they were more than a hundred meters away from the sandbag bunker, the Japanese soldiers in front saw the empty blocking position and seemed a little hesitant, and couldn't help but slow down.

They didn't know whether the defenders here fled because they discovered that they suddenly appeared from behind, or whether this position was originally set up to prevent them from escaping.

If it was the latter, the vanguard troops should be lying in ambush on the other side of the bunker, just waiting for them to get close, and then suddenly emerge from behind the bunker to give them a heavy blow.

Due to time constraints, the sandbag bunkers of the Guards were not piled high, only half a person's height, just enough to reach the chest, which was perfect for standing shooting.

Shelters of this height are the standard for mainstream bunkers in the West.

In the West, unless they were in areas with complex terrain, the armies of the great powers were accustomed to shooting while standing behind cover. Prone shooting was not yet widely accepted by Westerners at that time.

Although the bunker was not high, the fleeing Japanese soldiers were mostly short, and their vision was blocked by the bunker, so they could not see the rapidly approaching American troops on the opposite side.

Just as these Japanese soldiers were hesitating, another burst of gunfire rang out behind them, and at the same time, screams of pain were heard from the fleeing Japanese troops. Obviously, some of them were killed or injured in this burst of gunfire.

"Tocugei!", a tall, furious officer, waving his saber, shouted loudly in the chaotic crowd of Japanese soldiers.

To say that he was tall was only relative to the Japanese soldiers who were only about 1.5 meters tall. This officer was rare in that he was over 1.6 meters tall.

It might be because he was a little taller, so he could see over the sandbag bunkers and see the thousands of American soldiers approaching the blocking position.

The officer was overjoyed to see that he could get support from the US military once he got past the bunker.

"Chief of Staff, this is a major general. He should be the brigade commander of the Japanese!"

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(End of this chapter)