Chapter 44: Nightmare

History always has some coincidences inadvertently. In the real history, after the Russo-Japanese War fell in the battlefield in Northeast China, the Russian General Staff once suggested peace, and the Baltic Fleet stopped going south to the Far East. Nicholas II, who was desperate at the time, rejected this suggestion, which eventually led to the end of almost annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet.

After the main Russian army on the Liaodong Peninsula in the Sino-Russian War failed to go north and was trapped, the Russian General Staff felt it was necessary to rejudge the strength of the Chinese army and suggested gathering at least 500,000 troops on the northeastern border. Considering the rapid failure of the Pacific Fleet and being surrounded, it was recommended not to use the Baltic Fleet.

Both suggestions were rejected by Nicholas II. After learning about the dilemma of the Russian army on the Liaodong battlefield, Nicholas II, who despised Chinese strength from the bottom of his bones, gave an indignant order. Alexeyev immediately launched an attack on Suihua, and at the same time asked Kuropatkin to break through to Lushun at all costs and cooperate with the defenders to hold on. In the end, Nicholas II asked the Second and Third Fleet to complete the assembly as soon as possible within one month.

On April 2, 1894, on the outer positions that stretched for several kilometers outside Suihua City.

Today is undoubtedly a good weather. Yang Zhi, who has switched from the General Secretary to the Sixth Army, was appointed as a battalion commander of the 11th Division. After retreating, he received some soldiers to supplement his troops, the 11th Division recovered considerable combat effectiveness. However, compared with the previous ones, the Mudanjiang blocking battle was indeed more difficult, and the 11th Division was injured. Since the three Beiyang heroes had only a little force, the retreating 11th Division had to continue to fight and be responsible for the outer positions in the east of the city.

Yang Zhi got up early and patrolled the position back and forth to see where there was still some reinforcement. The soldiers sat in the trench and ate the new battalion commander with a affectionate smile. Yang Zhi held a steamed bun in his mouth and chewed it while walking. After the steamed bun was dry, Yang Zhi reached out to ask the guard for a kettle. When the sip of water just reached his throat, a "whimper" sound made in the sky.

"Puff!" Yang Zhigang sprayed out a sip of water and steamed buns. Dongdongdong! The dense shells had already fallen. Yang Zhi leaned on the ground without thinking. A shell fell five meters in front of the trench. Huge mud balls splashed everywhere, and Yang Zhi's head was covered with a shallow layer of floating soil.

"Bah!" He raised his head and spit out the mud, seeing that he was not injured, and the shells on the position were still falling like rain. Yang Zhi threw his feet and ran back to the command post.

The phone ringing rang endlessly at this time. Yang Zhi started to call. Zhi heard the commander Sun Hao yelling inside: "Yang Zhi, it seems that the Russians are going to be serious. Listen to me, don't lose the face of the 11th Division."

Yang Zhi heard too much about the 11th Division's blocking battle some time ago. Yang Zhi felt a sincere pride when he was able to join such a unit. Although he was still a little scared under such fierce artillery fire for the first time, Yang Zhi subconsciously thrust his chest and shouted loudly: "Please rest assured, the regiment commander, the person is in the position."

The Russian army in front of the Sixth Army has reached 300,000, and the power of 600 cannons fired together is amazing. Although the outer positions of Suihua City have been preparing for more than a month, under such fierce artillery fire, they still feel crumbling.

After Duan Qirui heard the sound of cannons, he rushed to the observation post of the heavy artillery brigade on the city tower.

"Grandma, it's a little farther away. Sooner or later, I'll want you to look good." Duan Qirui muttered, holding up the telescope, and the door was pushed open with a bang, and Chief of Staff Feng Guozhang came in like a gust of wind.

"Zhiquan, how about it? I heard about this news that the old men have many artillery."

"Yes, I don't know if the bastards on the position can hold on."

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Alexeyev held up a telescope to observe the changes on the position. In the explosions, he could occasionally see Chinese soldiers running around in panic. Alexeyev couldn't help but laughed with satisfaction.

To be honest, the tenacity of the Chinese army far exceeded Alexeyev's expectations. After the Chinese army in Mudanjiang and Jiamusi retreated, the Russian army was not very happy to pursue. With the lengthening of the logistics supply line and the Chinese army's tactic of firming the walls and clearing the fields and harassing the local troops, the Russian army's reserves of food and ammunition were not sufficient.

Alekseev felt that he was incompetent about Kuropatkin's failure. More than 100,000 troops were actually surrounded by the Chinese army. What kind of battle is this? When will the Chinese army have the courage to take the initiative to attack in front of the powerful Russian army? If you don't believe it, look here. The Chinese army is trembling on the positions covered by fierce artillery fire.

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Yang Zhi, who put down the phone, looked up and saw that the three new recruits were frightened to death in the artillery fire. He dropped his gun and climbed out of the trenches and ran back. Yang Zhi immediately became anxious and rushed out and shouted, "Let's go down quickly! Don't run."

Yang Zhi's shouting was useless. The three recruits were still running back with no chance. A shell fell down, and one of them flew into the sky. The other two quickly lay down and then started running back. At this time, in the trenches in front, more than a dozen recruits jumped out of the trenches and were about to run.

"Coward!" Yang Zhi, who was burning in his chest, took out his pistol and poked his head out of the trenches, knocked down one with one shot, and warned loudly: "Go back, otherwise you will kill me."

The shot was very timely, and more than a dozen fearful recruits ran back in shame. As soon as they started, such a thing happened in the camp. Yang Zhi felt very embarrassed and was furious. He ran forward along the trench and came to the position of the first company.

"Company Commander, what's going on? Your soldiers are running away. Which platoon is from? Where is the platoon leader? What are you doing for? I'm going to shoot him."

The first company commander hurried over at this time. When he saw Yang Zhi, he lowered his head sadly and said, "It was a row of soldiers, and the first row commander died in the shelling."

Yang Zhi was stunned for a moment. At this time, the Russian artillery fire began to extend backwards. Yang Zhi had no intention of blaming the company commander and repeatedly said, "The Russians are coming up soon, organize the troops to prepare for the battle."

"Beep!" A small horn sounded, and the soldiers ran to the position from the hidden trench. The hidden object covered by Maxim quickly lifted up, revealing a dark muzzle.

"My mother!" The dense Russian troops came up in an orderly formation. Yang Zhi shot his eyes and took a breath.

After a rapid run, Yang Zhi rushed to the mortar position, and three 60mm mortars were hidden in the trench.

"Blow me hard!"

Dongdongdongdongdong!'s mortar spoke. The shells fell into the formation of the Russian army, breaking a gap after another, but there were too many Russian troops. There were a lot of them, and there were immediately others who added in.

Within a distance of one thousand meters to five hundred meters, the bombardment of three mortars felt like they were sinking into the sea. On the surface, the mortars did not play much role, but in fact, within the distance of five hundred meters, the Russian army paid at least 200 casualties. The mortars continued to suppress the shooting, and the Russian army had begun to accelerate the impact.

After entering a range of 200 meters, the Russian army was blocked by five barbed wire mesh obstacles. In an instant, countless Russian soldiers were blocked and crowded together. At this time, the long and short guns on the position fired together, and Maxim didn't need to aim at it at all. She just swept it randomly, basically without any bullets.

"Puchi! Puchi!" The sound of the bullet drilling into the human body instantly became dense. A blood splashed in front of the barbed wire, and the scene was particularly spectacular. The Russian army did not expect that this inconspicuous thing had such great power. Some soldiers crawled over the railway network hard, but they were thrust and screamed. They were killed by dense bullets and hung on the barbed wire.

Dongdongdongdongdongdong! The vicious explosions of the mortar come one after another, and each explosion is accompanied by screams and limbs splashing in the air.

Many of the new recruits who were adding in saw this scene vomiting violently. Seeing the veterans around them taking advantage of the shooting, they also continued to shoot while spitting. Such an easy-to-shoot target, they didn't even need to aim, and just mechanically pulled the trigger forward.

The first wave of attacks of the Russian army retreated like a tide. Two hundred meters ahead of the position, the Russian army killed in front of the barbed wire was piled up one or two meters high. The barbed wire was covered with corpses, and some limbs were smashed into pieces by machine guns. The wailing sound of the injured and undead Russian army was heard, and some wounded soldiers who still had spare energy struggled to climb back from the bodies of their lost compatriots.

This is simply a hell on earth!

Although Yang Zhi knew that the barbed wire mesh was effective, he never expected that he had achieved such great results when he debuted. Looking at the Russian corpses piled up in front of the first battalion, there were at least one thousand. A disgusting smell of blood came with the wind. Yang Zhi, who came back from the nervousness, felt a violent nausea and twisted his head and vomited uncontrollably.

"Hahaha!" Some veterans laughed unceremoniously. Yang Zhi, who had vomited for a minute, finally recovered a little, sat on the ground, took out a cigarette, and lit it with both hands, and took a hard breath.

"What are you laughing at? This is my first time on the battlefield."

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Alexeyev thought he had misunderstood, so he threw an infantry division into it, and only half of it came back. He had been with thousands of people in the past half an hour. How did this battle be fought?

"Shit, what are those nets made of? Instruct the artillery to concentrate firepower on those nets."

The pride of the past is now completely invisible, and Alexeyev is even a little crazy. If he knew that there were at least 150 Maxis and 300 mortars on the position in front of him, he would not have made a fuss about such a casualty number.

The Russian artillery fire started again, and dense artillery fire fell into the middle of the barbed wire, causing pieces of broken hands, feet and rotten flesh.

………………………………………

Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang put down their telescope and looked at each other. They all knew that the barbed wire was useful, but they did not expect that the Russian army's intensive charges would be so effective. The Russian army, which was blocked by the barbed wire, was simply a living target of mortars and Maxim heavy machine guns.

After a long breath, Duan Qirui took a sip of water, put down the cup and whispered: "Grandma, I knew this thing was so useful, so I could stop it for more than a dozen or twenty times."

"Zhiquan, don't be happy too early. The Russian army is a whole army with 300,000 people. The battle has only begun."

Duan Qirui smiled and said, "No wonder Lord Shen said he wanted to fight a people's war. Look at the outer position. The five-meter-wide trench dug three times around the city, plus the barbed wire. I see that the Russian army will not leave behind 30,000 or 50,000 people, so don't think about getting close to breaking through our outer position."

Duan Qirui's words were still a bit conservative. When it was dark, the Russian commander Alexeyev broke his head and did not expect that the Russian army had paid the price of 30,000 people and could not even cross the first trench. The firepower network built by the mortar and Maxim heavy machine guns has become a nightmare for everyone in the Russian army in the past day.

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After Shen Congyun's special train arrived at Yingkou, it was already eight o'clock the next morning. As soon as he got off the train, he received the news that the Russian army launched an attack on the Sixth Army in Suihua. Shen Congyun ordered to always focus on the movements in Suihua direction and asked to go to Gaiping immediately.

"Sir, the railway ahead has been destroyed by the Russian army and has not been completely repaired."

"Don't wait, let's go." Shen Congyun said without thinking. Li Yaoguo frowned and whispered: "Sir, the people on the way are too complicated and unsafe."

"What's insecure? Look at the road is full of your own team. What's the safer place than in the army? Let's go!"

Shen Congyun said, instructing the horse to take the road immediately.

On the road, a busy scene appeared in front of you. The team carrying guns and cannons quickly moved south, carrying loads, pushing carts and stretchers, forming a torrent rolling south.

The road after the snow melted, was muddy, and Shen Congyun and his party headed south all the way. After a while, the road ahead suddenly became blocked.

"What's going on?" Shen Congyun muttered in his heart, looked up and saw that several cannon cars in front of him were trapped in mud pits, and a group of soldiers were whipping the animals and pushing them out vigorously.

Shen Congyun turned over and got off the horse, turned his head to look at the haystacks in the field, rushed over immediately, and a group of guards quickly followed.

"Each person takes two handfuls of grass." After giving an explanation, Shen Congyun was the first to pull out two handfuls of grass and rushed back to the road quickly.

"Come on, come on, take this pad." After throwing more than a dozen grass handles, Shen Congyun pushed hard. The cannon truck was quickly pushed up, and a lot of mud was splashed on Shen Congyun's clothes and face. The other cannon trucks followed suit, and a group of soldiers rushed into the fields and took back many grass handles.

"What's going on? Which bastard took the lead in taking the people's things? Is there any organizational discipline?" An officer riding a horse saw this scene, turned over and jumped off the horse and scolded loudly.

"The Brigade Commander, it seems that the man took the lead." A soldier pointed at Chen Congyun, and the officer rushed to Chen Congyun and said, "Which unit is from you? Are you very brave?"

It's true that Chen Congyun was wearing a military uniform and had any military ranks on her body. The one behind Li Yaoguo's shoulders was just the rank of a major. The other guards were wearing the same clothes as Shen Congyun, just ordinary soldier clothes, but the material was better. After helping her, her body was dirty and she couldn't see the good material.

Chen Congyun was stunned by the training, and a smile appeared on his face and explained, "Isn't this a hurry to watch? Looking back, I'll ask someone to visit and see whose haystack is, and pay for the money. Look at the road is muddy, so you should ask the soldiers to prepare before departure. Look at the cannons blocking the road, which seriously affects the speed of the march. You can see that the cannons are waiting for the Russians to bombard the Russians. I think these are all howitzers that have just been imported from Germany."

The brigade commander didn't expect that Chen Congyun would talk one by one, and couldn't help but show a vigilant expression and said, "Which unit do you belong to? Report the number quickly, otherwise I will treat you as a spy."

Seeing Chen Congyun being scolded, Li Yaoguo could no longer be calm. He strode up, stared at the brigade commander, and pointed and said, "Which unit are you from? Why do you say this?" After Li Yaoguo made such a fuss, more than a dozen guards around Chen Congyun leaned forward. It happened that Liu Ting came up from behind at this time and asked in a daze: "What's wrong?"

For the convenience of the road, Liu Ting is also wearing a military uniform and has the rank of a captain. When the brigade commander saw that Li Yaoguo was just a major, and the rank of a major general was on his shoulder.

"There are female soldiers? I don't care what unit you belong to. Do you have this person to speak to your superiors? I don't salute you when you see him? I ask you to report the number of the troops immediately! Explain the origin." The brigade commander said this and turned around and winked his subordinates. The soldiers also felt that Chen Congyun's group was a little strange, and some of them had already raised their guns.

Chen Congyun quickly turned around and glared at Li Yaoguo and said, "There is no rule at all. Do you usually talk to your superiors like this? You dare to point at others."

Li Yaoguo took a step forward angrily, stood attentively and replied loudly: "Beijing Garrison Military Region, Major Li Yaoguo, the director of the Presidential Office, will report to you."

At this time, Liu Ting saw Chen Congyun's face full of muddy ideas, smiled and took out a handkerchief to wipe Chen Congyun and said, "You're not careful, you'll become a mud monkey."

All the generals and officials in the new army have basically been to military academies. Chen Congyun basically has to go to major military academies every year when school starts every year. Among them, Chen Congyun is also an honorary principal. The brigade commander in front of him is very lucky. He happened to graduate from the Artillery Department of the Shanghai Martial Arts Academy and returned from studying in Germany for two years. Chen Congyun was just now with muddle-like ideas, but he didn't recognize him. Now after Liu Ting helped clean it, he looked familiar.

After looking at it a few more times, the brigade commander's face changed instantly. When he thought of Li Yaoguo's words just now, his face turned pale.

"Wang Yang, the commander of the Heavy Artillery Brigade of the Third Army, has seen the principal. Salute!" Wang Yang said as he saluted, his face looked in fear and fear, and his calves were shaking a little, and he wanted to give himself a mouth. He thought to himself, why did my eyes look so bad?

Chen Congyun didn't take his heart at all, and smiled faintly and saluted, saying, "Why is the heavy artillery brigade of the Third Army behind? Isn't the Third Army already flattened?"

"Report to the principal, the student was ordered to lead a team to Tianjin to take over the new howitzer, so he landed behind." Wang Yang replied loudly, and Chen Congyun nodded repeatedly with a smile: "Haha, howitzers are a good thing. The large-scale use of howitzers is a future trend. From a military perspective, in the future war mode, trench warfare will dominate a period. The cannon's ballistics are straight, and the lethality of the enemy hidden in the trench is limited."

"Thank you for your teachings, students will remember them." Wang Yang responded loudly, and Chen Congyun couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Don't be nervous. Today I violated the military discipline first, and you did it right. Our army is to love the people as a son and not take the people's stitches. But one thing I want to criticize you is that the large-caliber howitzers are too heavy. You should send the vanguard to the front station in advance, find out the road situation, and be prepared before going on the road. Now you look at these cannons, and you will be trapped all the way. Things are urgent. Let the soldiers take a straw handful, and cushion each encounters mud pits, leaving your quarantine officer and let him negotiate compensation with the people."

"Yes! Principal!"
Chapter completed!