In the morning mist, Japanese soldiers wearing black military uniforms, wearing white cloth leggings, carrying cowhide cross-shoulder straps, and carrying Murata 18-type rifles lined up in the most standard intensive attack formation, just like during a rat plague.
Like a swarm of rats, they were surging forward all over the mountains and fields.
But at least they had learned a painful lesson before. Although they were still in a dense formation, they had somewhat distanced themselves. After all, no one could bear the tragedy of a bullet skewering two people.
The six thousand Japanese troops thus began their death charge.
The first thing to greet them was naturally artillery shells. Today's Qing artillery is technically very mature, and its attack levels are clear. The Krupp 75th Battalion Cannon and the Bofors 82nd Mortar, which have the longest range, are the first to attack.
Artillery shells filled with nitrocellulose and antimony kept roaring at hundreds of rounds per minute, and then exploded among the Japanese troops. Countless fragmented corpses flew all over the sky in the light of the fire.
As the distance between the Japanese troops drew closer, other small-caliber artillery and the Hanyang Gun Factory's 82 mortars began to join the bombardment. Although these artillery had a short range, they had terrifying numbers. Zhang Gaoyuan had hundreds of them here, which was enough.
The supply of artillery shells allowed the artillery to shoot at almost the rate of rifles, especially those Hotchkiss revolving cannons. The five barrels were tied together and sprayed out dense flames of death at a rate of sixty rounds per minute.
The shells often cut Japanese soldiers in two without even exploding.
Lieutenant General Nozu Michizuki still looked at the soldiers who were drowned by the fire of the shell explosion with a stoic expression, but the saber in his hand was shaking somewhat.
The loyal warriors of His Majesty the Emperor, with the grief and indignation of humiliation, and the longing for wealth, women, or having enough to eat, ignored the shells falling around them and the flesh and blood of their companions splashed on their faces, and without hesitation, amidst the slogans of Itazhai,
Charge forward, while carefully aiming and shooting with their rifles, trying not to waste precious bullets, but their shots are basically useless. Zhang Gaoyuan was so angry that he almost vomited blood because of the proportion of 4,000 bullets that killed an enemy. There was no order before the battle.
Anyone who dared to shoot was executed on the spot, so at this time the Qing soldiers were hiding in the trenches without showing their heads.
While the Japanese infantry was charging, the bronze field artillery and mountain artillery in the artillery positions behind them were also firing at the Qing army positions in front at the maximum speed they could achieve, especially the spies in front who were occupying Tianjin.
Talking about the iron wire and wooden stakes that are new weapons, to be honest, Nozu Michinuki ignored these things. It was not like he had never seen barbed wire before. It would be a complete joke to say that this thing could be used in war. Looking at it from the telescope, it was bombed.
There was a messy barbed wire fence, and a smile appeared on his face.
Of course, his smile quickly froze, because he saw the charging black torrent suddenly stop like a rock on the coast. The soldiers behind him didn't even have time to react before they bumped into the soldiers in front. Six thousand
The Japanese troops were crowded in front of the barbed wire fence, and the shells that kept exploding among them immediately amplified the killing effect to the limit.
"Asshole, run away! That's a barbed wire fence, not a wall!" Michizuki Nozu waved his saber in the distance and roared angrily, as if he was going crazy.
He was right, that was a barbed wire fence, not a wall. If it were a wall, it would be easier to deal with. But if it was a barbed wire array that was tangled and intertwined by artillery shells and was more than fifty meters deep, unless the tanks came, it would be absolutely impossible.
With no hope of passage, the densely packed Japanese soldiers were struggling in those vicious iron thorns, as if they were stuck in a quagmire, unable to move even an inch.
And at this moment, the real hell began. With the sharp sound of Western trumpets, countless bullets suddenly sprayed out from the Qing army position opposite. The Japanese troops crowded in front of the barbed wire were like the ground suddenly collapsed. Likewise, a large area in front of the black attacking group suddenly collapsed.
The killing continued. At this time, the Japanese army was just a bunch of lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Thousands of soldiers fell one after another at a terrifying speed. The blood even began to gather into streams on the ground, and corpses piled up one after another. With a pair of dull eyes, this small area turned into a real meat grinder. The surviving Japanese soldiers struggled helplessly in the blood and fire, and then waited for their destined destination. The dead bodies accumulated more and more. , and in the end, some places even blocked the machine gun's firing range.
At this time, let alone the Japanese army, even the Qing machine gunners in the fortress were frightened by the killings they had caused. The gunfire in several fortresses even began to weaken. Fortunately, there were a sufficient number of shooters inside, and all of them were The officer supervising the battle immediately dragged the one who had suffered a mental breakdown to one side, and then replaced him with one who was not frightened, and then sprayed death outwards.
At the same time, those infantrymen lying in the trenches are also causing death at a speed that is not inferior to that of machine guns. The current Japanese army is completely a group of living targets. Let alone aiming, they even close their eyes. They can only level the muzzle and pull the trigger. The trigger is the result of the battle. Watching the enemies fall one by one under the muzzle of their guns, these Qing soldiers are gradually maturing. The situation of aimlessly wasting bullets like before will never happen again. Now they have You can know where to aim and hit more easily.
In the distance, Nozu Michizuki was already sitting on the ground in despair. His attack failed again. The courage of the Japanese army that was finally inspired has now collapsed again. Although it has not yet been defeated, it is necessary to attack again. It was impossible. The remaining soldiers were trembling behind the bodies of their comrades, and some were shooting at the Qing army.
While the Qing army was growing, these Japanese troops were also growing. They knew that running away under such circumstances would definitely not be safe in place. Of course, this safety was only relative. This distance was exactly behind the Qing army's defense line, and those Hanyang guns and cannons were The best attack range of the factory's self-produced mortars. These 82 mortars with a maximum range of only two kilometers are all hidden in hidden bunkers. Even the muzzles are not exposed. The place in front of the barbed wire fence is all After repeated debugging, the artillerymen only need to hide in the bunker to load artillery shells.
In addition to mortars, other direct-aiming artillery located throughout the positions were also constantly dumping shells on the Japanese army. As for the long-range Krupp guns and Bofors mortars, they began to turn their targets towards the Japanese army. In terms of artillery, the range of the Krupp cannon is slightly higher than that of the Japanese bronze cannon. The Bofors mortar is almost the same, but it is better in concealment. The advantage of the Japanese army is that the artillery fires more accurately, and the artillery battle between the two sides can be fought. There was no difference between them, but the problem was that the two sides were not at the same level in terms of quantity or rate of fire. As a result, all the twenty-odd mountain cannons and field cannons in Nozu Michinuki's hands were completely silent.
At this time, Nozu Michizuki could no longer hold on. Although he claimed that he would use the corpses of soldiers to fill up the Qing army's defense line, it was just talk. Besides, his soldiers could not reach the Qing army's defense line at all. If he continued to fight, it would be too late. It made no sense, so the remaining Japanese troops, less than 3,000, finally heard the call to retreat.
While Nozu Michinuki was unlucky, the Japanese troops in the other two locations also suffered heavy losses. More than a thousand of Oshima Yoshimasa's men were hung on the barbed wire in front of Nie Shicheng's position, and half of the Japanese army's diversionary attack in another location also killed five hundred
Many people hung on it, but in this battle, their results were brilliant.
Because Xu Bangdao, who was stunned by the killing, actually personally directed his men to chase and kill the Japanese army when they retreated. As a result, the Japanese army who was forced to the dead end turned around and fired accurately, killing the Qing army who was blocked by his own barbed wire fence.
After fighting back, Xu Bangdao lost more than two hundred people in this short period of time, which was more casualties than Zhang Gaoyuan on the main battlefield.
This also poured cold water on the other three generals. All of them who were eager to launch a counterattack immediately shut up. Obviously, with the combat effectiveness of their soldiers, without the protection of trenches and barbed wire, they would probably end up worse off than the Japanese troops attacking them when they went out to fight in the field.
Not much better.
Besides, this kind of fighting method is very good now. You can just wait comfortably for the Japanese soldiers to die. They can't get around this place anyway.
The unexpected gains on the southern front also reassured Nozu Michinuki, who was already preparing to run away. You must know that his current total strength is only 6,000. With this few people, let alone attack, even defense is very dangerous. But since
Since the Qing army's attack power was so weak, there was no need to run away. The two sides continued to stand in a stalemate until the first division arrived.
At this time, the First Division was already sailing north along the Nakdong River, and on the same day, Song Qing and Liu Shengxiu from the northern line also arrived in Anju.
After receiving the good news from Yashan, Li Erjie was happy but also had a headache. It was impossible to defend without attacking, but if they attacked, the Qing army's current combat effectiveness would probably not be four or five times the strength.
It is definitely not enough for the Japanese army to deal with. You must know that the Xu Bang Dao Department is already considered the elite of the Huai Army. But where will four or five times the strength come from? It is already stretched thin. You can't send those green battalions with zero combat effectiveness. Now the only
The only way is to continue recruiting troops.
"We have to recruit troops again, and we have to recruit at least forty battalions. Is it so difficult for a small country to deal with it? This Li Hongzhang has become less courageous as he gets older, and he has to recruit Liu Mingchuan again. I really don't know what good is that bandit?" Cixi
I don’t know why, but I haven’t been in a good mood during this period. There were more than a dozen palace maids and eunuchs who were killed with a bare stick. He looked at Li Hongzhang’s memorial requesting that Liu Mingchuan be reinstated and said.
"Lord Buddha, what about this memorial?" Shi Duo said quickly.
"Forget it, while we are fighting now, let him alone. In addition, when passing the decree to Yiketang'a, don't let others laugh at us that we have no heroes in Manchuria." Cixi said with a sneer.