Chapter 339: The Siege of Jiangning (Thirteen)
The Chinese army generally believed that muskets were better than cold weapons . If they were not afraid of the Qing army in a field battle with limited vision, how could they lose to the Qing army when they were in a commanding position? Commander Xu Min firmly believed this.
However, the fact is that the Qing army did attack two sections of the city wall in the Huaxia Army's defense. Because of the close combat, the Huaxia Army is suffering unprecedented heavy casualties.
For a moment, Xu Min felt his heart was about to jump out of his throat. Could it be that the wall he was guarding could be breached?
"Communications officer, go check the situation on the city wall again!" Xu Min shouted.
Before the messenger was sent out, one had already run back breathlessly, "Division Commander, the first battalion has repelled the enemy. We have recaptured the city wall."
"Ah?" Xu Min was a little surprised.
"Yes. The first battalion... the first battalion killed several hundred Qing soldiers with bayonet fighting. Many Qing soldiers were so scared that they dared not fight us anymore and surrendered. We drove the Qing soldiers off the city wall."
Xu Min wanted to ask more questions, but seeing that the city wall was not far away, he simply let the deputy division commander take charge and he led the guards to the top of the city wall.
The soldiers on the tunnel cheered and their morale was boosted. However, the air was filled with a strong smell of blood, a strong smell of blood that Xu Min had never smelled before. Before he even reached the battle site, he already felt how cruel the battle was.
As expected, when we got closer, we saw corpses lying all over the ground, and groans, cries for help, and screams could be heard everywhere.
The medical soldiers quickly rescued the Chinese soldiers. Perhaps because they had been going back and forth several times, their white medical uniforms were already stained with blood. Some of the medical soldiers' clothes were already stained with blood.
Just when I was about to ask where the battalion commander was, I saw a soldier carrying a stretcher and shouting, "Make way, it's our battalion commander."
Xu Min leaned forward to take a look and saw that it was indeed a battalion commander lying on a stretcher. He had several wounds on his chest and body. One of them was just below his left rib. Not only was his uniform torn, but a huge bloody wound could be seen through the torn wound.
The battalion commander was still conscious at this time. When Xu Min came to him, he struggled to sit up. Seeing his subordinate injured like this, Xu Min almost burst into tears. He quickly pressed the battalion commander's shoulders and let him lie down, shouting: "Hurry up and send him to the hospital!"
The medical soldiers hurriedly carried the wounded, including the battalion commander, to the military hospital. The division commander Xu Min continued to move forward. He felt his feet slipping. Too much blood was spilled on the top of the city. The Chinese army was not allowed to abuse prisoners. If the enemy surrendered, they would also be treated. At this time, the seriously injured were carried down, and the lightly injured were helped to the other side for temporary treatment. The thick smell of blood was mixed with the smell of a lot of medical alcohol.
Even so, the bodies were scattered all over the ground. The entire wall was filled with bodies that had not been moved in time. It was impossible to count how many there were.
In the crowd, Division Commander Xu Min saw Yu Qian. Yu Qian was directing the medical staff to help the wounded. Seeing Yu Qian's unscathed back, Division Commander Xu Min was furious.
Hand-to-hand combat was indeed effective, that cannot be denied. However, the casualties were also great. The Chinese army had never suffered such losses even in the most brutal field battles. The first battalion commander and the deputy battalion commander were both seriously injured, but Yu Qian, who decided to adopt such a tactic, was unscathed.
Striding over, Xu Min was so angry that he wanted to grab Yu Qian and ask him where he was during the fight.
When the soldiers saw the division commander Xu Min, they all stood at attention and saluted. Yu Qian also noticed the movement and turned around. Xu Min was shocked by Yu Qian in front of him. He saw that Yu Qian's body was covered with blood and his face was also splattered with a lot of blood.
Although Xu Min himself didn't have much experience in hand-to-hand combat, he knew that this was all the blood that was splashed when he was fighting on the front line. Yu Qian was definitely not hiding behind and commanding others to fight. To be in this state, Yu Qian must have fought on the front line for a long time.
However, Xu Min still didn't dare to believe his own judgment. He walked up to Yu Qian and pulled out the sword from Yu Qian's waist.
At least one-third of Yu Qian's front part was sprayed with blood, and the sword looked like it had been soaked in blood. The blade had a lot of damage, which was left when the weapons collided with the enemy.
Xu Min didn't say anything, he put his sword back into the scabbard. He turned and left. When he reached the city, he called the second battalion commander, "Fix the bayonets, prepare for hand-to-hand combat!"
Lei Hu was shocked when he heard that the Qing army had attacked two parts of the city wall. After the Qing army retreated, Lei Hu immediately sent people to understand the situation.
At night, the Huaxia Army strengthened its defenses. The division commanders also returned to the headquarters. Speaking of the daytime battle, the division commanders regretted it very much. Everyone thought that it would be safe to defend a city like Jiangning from a high position. Unexpectedly, they were beaten like this by the Qing army right after they came up.
Lei Hu already had an idea in mind, and seeing that the commanders still wanted them to figure out the solution on their own, he did not push them too much, and asked everyone to go back quickly, but let Xu Min stay.
"Old Xu, I heard that you don't think highly of Yu Qian?"
"Who said that!" Xu Min was furious. Just because of this fight, someone actually started to complain?
Lei Hu waved his hands, "Old Xu, Yu Qian didn't say that. He didn't ask anyone to say it. I don't care about other things, but you can't have any ideas about Yu Qian. Besides, you are an adult, and you are a teacher. If you keep holding on to a child, I will look down on you."
"I won't!" Xu Min said angrily. But Xu Min himself felt guilty. His family knew his own business. Even though he knew that Yu Qian had shown amazing fighting power in the hand-to-hand combat against the Qing army, he killed from beginning to end. He killed more than a dozen enemies. However, Xu Min still didn't like Yu Qian, and didn't agree with Yu Qian's reckless tactics.
Lei Hu suppressed his emotions and asked calmly, "Don't you want to win in hand-to-hand combat?"
Xu Min answered decisively: "I will be careful tomorrow. If I see the Qing army making any movement, I will bombard them. I will definitely not let the Qing army succeed."
Lei Hu couldn't help but sigh, "The teacher said that the troops must have the courage to fight to the death in order to be invincible."
"It's not time to fight to the death yet. We still have a way." Xu Min did not agree with Lei Hu.
Seeing this, Lei Hu didn't say much. He asked Xu Min to go back and prepare for defense. He picked up the transfer order from the table, signed it quickly, and handed it to the secretary.
That night, Yu Qian was called to the headquarters. Lei Hu asked straight to the point: "Yu Qian, many people do not approve of such a reckless approach."
"Yeah." Yu Qian replied.
"Do you think it's necessary to fight in hand-to-hand combat?"
Yu Qian scratched his head. "How should I put it? I think at this time we have to use hand-to-hand combat. As long as we defeat the frontline of the Qing army, the Qing army will collapse."
After saying this, Yu Qian felt a little embarrassed, so he found an excuse for himself, "The teacher said that hand-to-hand combat is a very advanced tactic. Maybe we are not well trained."
Lei Hu could understand that Yu Qian was embarrassed, so he was talking nonsense. But because it was nonsense, Yu Qian gave people a sense of arrogance. If others heard it, Yu Qian was saying that others could not use advanced tactics.
However, Yu Qian's nature did not mean this at all. Yu Qian meant that others could not use it well, and Yu Qian, who carried out hand-to-hand combat this time, found that he could not use it well either.
