The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 428 Shocking
At some point, Teng Yuzao and Wei Jinghai had been tightly protected by the bodies of several guards and staff officers on duty at the entrance of the command department. Only when there was no more falling debris did the guards and staff officers climb up from Teng Yuzao and Wei Jinghai who were squeezed against the sandbag breastwork.

Teng Yuzhao and Wei Jinghai, who were in a very embarrassed state, were finally able to stand up at this time.

The simple command center was already in a mess. Not only was the ground and the empty ammunition boxes that served as tables and chairs covered with dirt and gravel, but a staff officer even had his forehead broken by the gravel. Teng Yuzhao had just shouted when a military doctor covered in dust and mud, carrying a medicine box, ran in with several assistants.

As soon as these people entered the command center, they went straight to Teng Yuzhao, who hurriedly waved his hand.

"I'm not injured, bandage the injured quickly."

Then, Teng Yuzhao hurriedly asked about Duan Qirui's situation.

Seeing that Teng Yuzhao was safe and sound, Duan Qirui felt relieved. While answering that he was fine, he stood up impatiently, stuck his head out from the sandbag breastwork to observe the effects of the violent explosion.

The explosion area in front of the blocking position was still covered in smoke and dust, but the smoke had become much lighter under the mountain breeze.

Looking past the blocking position, one could vaguely see the horrific scene in the explosion area.

More than 300 meters in front of the blocking position, there were more than 30 circular open spaces lined up in a row, but they were empty. There was nothing to be seen, not a single Russian soldier or their corpses, or even a broken gun.

There was nothing in these circular areas except fresh soil blown up by the explosion and large shallow craters.

Around these circular craters, a large number of Russian soldiers lay lying down.

In sharp contrast to the hellish silence in the areas centered on the circular craters, on the hillsides far away from the circular areas, a large number of Russian troops were slowly climbing up from the hillsides, while those around the circular craters remained motionless.

Although there was no bloody scene with flesh and blood flying everywhere, it was obvious that these people had been blown to death or shaken to death.

Just as some Russian soldiers who had just climbed up from the hillside seemed still a little dazed by the violent explosion, the heavy machine guns on the sniper position suddenly opened fire.

The crazy strafing sounds of more than 30 heavy machine guns filled the air, knocking these confused Russian soldiers like cotton wool in the wind. Their bodies trembled constantly and were blown to pieces by the fierce rain of bullets from the heavy machine guns. They were swept down the hillside one by one amid flying blood and flesh.

The Russian troops behind seemed to be stimulated by the bloody atmosphere on the battlefield, and were also aroused. Amid the loud shouts of the officers, they actually held their Mosin-Nagant rifles, shouted "Ura", stepped on the corpses of their comrades, and rushed up the hillside.

However, although the Russian army is fierce and has a large number of troops, no matter how fierce and numerous they are, their flesh and blood cannot be stronger than the dense rain of metal bullets.

The sounds of "da da da" and "bang bang bang" from heavy machine guns and rifle fire resounded throughout the battlefield. Almost every second, thousands of hot bullets were fired at high speed on the battlefield. The dense rain of bullets formed a tight fire net, which blocked the charging Russian troops at a distance of thirty or forty meters from the top of the hill, constantly piercing their flesh and blood bodies and even tearing them apart.

Suddenly, hundreds of black objects flew out from above the battlefield. These objects were much smaller than those small millstone-like weapons, but after flying into the Russian army's charging team, they also caused violent explosions.

Although the explosive power of these much smaller explosives is far less than those small millstone-like killing weapons, due to their large number, there are hundreds of them, which makes their killing effect on Russian soldiers not much less than that of those small millstone-like killing weapons.

The explosions were continuous, leaving the Russian soldiers screaming in agony. The explosions, combined with the dense rain of bullets from more than 30 heavy machine guns and thousands of rifles, quickly made the Russian soldiers lose their fighting spirit. They left behind more than a thousand bodies and retreated down the hillside in a panic.

Looking at the hillside that was covered with weeds the moment before, in just a short while it had become a pool of blood, covered with Russian corpses and their broken limbs, a scene as tragic as hell on earth. Duan Qirui couldn't help but feel his stomach churning violently, and his face had already turned as pale as paper.

Seeing Duan Qirui's discomfort, Teng Yuzhao, who was nervously observing the progress of the battle, hurriedly called his personal guards and poured half a glass of strong liquor for Duan Qirui to drink. Only then did Duan Qirui's stomach finally settle down.

At this time, Duan Qirui suddenly thought of the battlefields on both wings. In his memory, the intensive artillery fire there should have just stopped, and he really wanted to see what the battle situation there was like.

Just this one look made Duan Qirui terrified.

The Russian encirclement troops on both wings had just been so aggressive and powerful, but in less than ten minutes they were blown to pieces and in a miserable state by the intensive artillery fire.

That stretch of the battlefield was in a mess, with dense craters and the mutilated bodies of the Russian soldiers everywhere. The remaining Russian troops had already fled, abandoning their weapons and armor.

This section of the mountain road is shaped like a trumpet. The area near the blocking position is very open, but it becomes gradually narrower as you go back.

Soon, the Russian troops attacking the frontal positions and trying to outflanking from both wings slowly gathered together on their retreat. According to Duan Qirui's visual estimation, there were only about six or seven thousand people. In other words, in this round of charge alone, the Russian army lost five or six thousand people, nearly half of the entire attacking force.

It was not until this time that Duan Qirui, who was extremely shocked, finally realized the terrifying combat power of the vanguard army, which completely overturned his cognition.

Under the command of Teng Yuzhao, his former younger brother, this vanguard army not only has diverse tactics, but its firepower is not inferior to that of the foreign coalition forces, and it even surpasses the foreign coalition forces on local battlefields. Such an army is definitely the strongest in the country.

In fact, it is the only one.

In Duan Qirui's previous cognition, he not only believed that the Wuwei Right Army was the most powerful army in the country, he also believed that the coalition forces that concentrated all the powerful countries in the world could not be defeated by any country in the world, not to mention those domestic armies that were only strong in appearance but weak in reality.

But now he found that he was wrong, and very wrong.

Not only was the Wuwei Right Army not the strongest army in the country, the coalition forces of the great powers were also not invincible.

Duan Qirui even thought that the idiom "strong on the outside but weak on the inside" seemed more appropriate to describe the foreign coalition forces.

Out of professional considerations, Duan Qirui thought again of the incredible artillery and explosives he had seen today. Just as he was about to ask, the whistling sound of artillery fire rang out again.

The artillery pieces that puzzled Duan Qirui, which had a low initial velocity but a high trajectory, frightened the coalition forces that had just retreated after a test firing.

The coalition attacking forces that had just gathered were frightened and ran around in chaos.

(End of this chapter)