Chapter 379: New Outlook of the Ministry of Rites (XV)
The bugle sounded. The 15th Division assault regiment, which had already entered the attack position, quickly advanced into the Qing army's position along the passage opened up by the vanguard.
As soon as they arrived at the second trench, they saw the Qing army coming along the trench. The commander, with a rage for revenge boiling in his chest, immediately commanded two companies to attack the Qing army on the left and right sides.
Although the Chinese army was now in the middle of the Qing army, they were no longer attacked from both sides. The sound of rifle fire, the collision of bayonets and muskets, and even the bayonets of the Qing army, the roars and shouts boiled up, making the entire position echo with the cruel notes of the battlefield symphony.
The main force of the assault force continued to move forward, rushing in the direction of the attack by Division Commander Wu. After going in for more than a hundred meters, they saw Division Commander Wu leading the assault team to attack the third camp of the Qing army.
This camp was not a trench, but a low earth wall. The Qing army's volleys were so fierce that the Qing army itself was trapped in the smoke and could not be seen clearly.
Seeing the follow-up troops catching up, Division Commander Wu yelled, "Grenade! Grenade!"
Without thinking, the grenadiers with grenades began to throw them into the third Qing army camp. There was a burst of explosions, and the Qing army's rifle platoon was immediately in chaos. Commander Wu raised his rifle high and shouted loudly: "Follow me!" He took the lead and rushed towards the camp.
The Chinese Army commandos took their first steps. The strength of these young men in their early twenties was far beyond that of Commander Wu. In addition, the young soldiers had not experienced the bloody battles in the early stages, so they quickly surpassed Commander Wu, ran to the fortress, pressed it with their hands, and leaped over.
Division Commander Wu was so excited that he almost lost his mind. When he saw someone blocking his way, he wanted to push the person in front of him away and rush over. The guard and the regiment commander protected him on both sides. The regiment commander shouted, "Don't worry, don't worry, Division Commander..."
Just as he was talking, the regiment commander's face was suddenly splattered with blood. The two looked over and saw that it was the division commander's guard who was shot in the neck. Blood spurted out and the guard fell forward in a daze.
Commander Wu hurriedly supported the guard, but this was a fatal wound. Blood gushed out of the guard's wound and it was obvious that there was no hope of saving him.
Commander Wu let go of the guard's body and roared, "Don't be impatient, don't be impatient!" He climbed over the camp with his rifle and joined the battle behind the camp.
The regiment commander was a little dumbfounded. He had also risen from an ordinary soldier step by step. He had participated in so many battles and had seen soldiers around him being shot and killed. However, the regiment commander felt an unprecedented fear at this moment. It was a completely different fear from before. Passively accepting death and charging towards death were two completely different things. On the battlefield, any movement or pause could lead to death. Death was so unpredictable and ruthlessly shrouded every corner of the battlefield.
Army Commander Ding Shuaimin stood in the headquarters with his hands behind his back, his face gloomy. Every report made him look even gloomier. It was not until he heard that Division Commander Wu had broken through the three barriers of the Qing army that he could not help but sigh slightly.
The staff officers could not help but exclaimed: "There are actually three lines of defense. This Qing army... is very cunning!"
Ding Shuaimin disagreed with this evaluation. The previous victories of the Huaxia Army were based on fighting the Qing Army in the field as much as possible. If they failed on the battlefield, they would die, and the Qing Army certainly didn't want to die. Being able to set up three lines of defense showed that the Qing Army's command really put in a lot of effort.
However, Ding Shuaimin was more concerned about Li Hong, the head of the 17th Division. Although there was also a breakthrough, the news from Li Hong was not delivered in a timely manner. Just think about the fact that Li Hong was far away from the headquarters, which might be the reason for the slow transmission of the news.
Just as Ding Shuaimin guessed, Li Hong had already broken through the third camp of the Qing army. But what surprised Li Hong was that the Qing army actually set up a fourth camp. This fourth camp was not large in scale, but it was extremely solid. There were three layers of shooting bunkers: high, medium and low.
Seeing such a camp, Li Hong was sure that the Qing army's order should be inside. Without thinking too much, Li Hong immediately ordered to start the attack. At the same time, he saw red flags waving on the other side of the camp. It turned out that the commando of the 15th Division had also arrived outside the camp.
Urban was not in the camp, and only one deputy general remained. The Chinese army's attack was so sharp that Urban was surprised. However, Urban did not panic. In the plan before this battle, Urban predicted the possibility that the Chinese army would break through the periphery and approach the core camp.
Seeing that this was indeed happening, Urban ordered, "Brothers, it's time to fight to the death. There are not many rebels, let's kill them all!"
Seeing that Urban had foresight, the generals were greatly relieved of their anxiety about the Chinese army's breakthrough. At this time, they immediately took action after hearing Urban's order. The Qing army set up a hiding cave in the strong part of the first line of defense. The entire force arrangement was heavy in the front and light in the back. It was to resist the fierce attack of the Chinese army.
It was a good time to turn the troops around and call out the soldiers in the hiding cave, leaving half of them to guard the periphery, and the others to go towards the central army.
The Huaxia Army left behind a part of its troops to defend the second trench, but their forces were too few and they were unable to resist the powerful attack of the Qing Army. Those who were not killed in the battle could only retreat towards the center of the Qing Army.
At this time, the Huaxia Army's follow-up troops also began to attack, and the Qing army relied on the trenches to start a fierce battle with the Huaxia Army.
Captain Li Hong and Commander Wu also noticed the changes. Captain Li Hong did not expect that he would be surrounded by the Qing army, and he felt really regretful. It would be better if he could call on the whole army to attack after breaking through the third line of defense .
But this regret medicine was useless. Moreover, according to the plan, Li Hong's goal was to defeat the Qing army's center with a swift attack, but he never expected that the Qing army's center was protected by the fourth barrier, and the troops on the periphery remained calm in the face of danger and could be effectively mobilized.
At this time, Commander Wu said, "Captain Li, why don't you withdraw first and I will stay inside."
Captain Li got angry instinctively, not caring whether the person opposite him was the division commander or not, and shouted loudly: "What are you talking about! Are you letting me escape?"
Commander Wu had not considered escaping alive, but his mind became clearer. He said, "There are so many Qing troops, we are trapped from front and back..."
Captain Li was indeed a little guilty, but seeing that Commander Wu was so fearless, he became angry and said, "Commander Wu, can you lead the volley guns to fight against the Qing army? Give me some time, I will break through this camp!"
"Is it possible?" Commander Wu was a little surprised.
Captain Li nodded but said nothing. In that difficult exercise that Captain Li could never forget, the troops in the exercise relied on trench digging and advancing to defeat the enemy and seize the position before the enemy's follow-up troops caught up. Unexpectedly, that inexplicable exercise unexpectedly became a reality.
Without saying much, Captain Li Hong immediately ordered his troops to bombard the Qing army camp with portable mortars and begin civil engineering work at the same time.
When the mortar shells landed in the Qing army camp, the Qing army screamed in panic. However, the Qing army did not collapse or panic. The mortars did not have much ammunition, and the gunners were not very skilled. Five shells were fired before one landed. The other mortar shells only slightly affected the sight of the camp.
The engineers of the Huaxia Army were already digging with shovels. Behind them, Division Commander Wu had already arranged his men to fire their guns, and faced an enemy several times their number, firmly guarding Li Hong's regiment behind them.
At this time, when the volleys of guns were deployed again, Division Commander Wu felt an inexplicable sense of relief and uneasiness. Even three days ago, Division Commander Wu did not expect that the war would unfold and proceed in this way. He was also one of the old brothers, but he was a little younger and joined the Ministry of Rites earlier. In addition, Huo Chong could not withdraw all the old brothers, so he let him stay.
Therefore, Wu is particularly familiar with volley gun warfare. Since he followed Huo Chong in the uprising, Wu has been using this tactic. It is really invincible and unstoppable.
Unexpectedly, within three days, the war had reached the current situation. Various new tactics were constantly integrated during the discussion and use, forming an unfamiliar form. However, as a soldier who had fought in many battles and had been in the army since Huo Chong's uprising, Commander Wu also knew that this was probably the form of war that Huo Chong expected.
Commanding the skilled volley gun formation again, Division Commander Wu looked at his subordinates' formation and felt that he had noticed many details that he had not noticed before. These details were also explained by Huo Chong, but explanations did not mean that they were really understood. For example, the arrangement of the formation, such as the key points of the interval between the musket teams.
The new tactics made Wu very painful, but the new tactics put higher demands on the army. After having to use his brain to make his own decision, Wu felt that this familiar battlefield was no longer the same.
The Qing army that surged up from the opposite side was also different. Compared with the Qing army that was once annihilated by the Huaxia army, they were very different in terms of weapons, tactics of using weapons, and even battle arrangements. Commander Wu was even somewhat fortunate. If Huo Chong had encountered such an army when he first started his army, who knows whether the Huaxia army would have won so easily.
Such an opponent should not be underestimated.
There has always been a saying in the Huaxia Army. The reason why Emperor Huo Chong tried his best to delay the uprising was that he was waiting for Yongzheng to kill Nian Gengyao. It was only because Yongzheng started the uprising too early that Emperor Huo Chong had to start the uprising immediately.
At that time, many brothers drank and talked about this matter, and there was some regret. Aren't they all Qing army generals? So many governors and generals were like garbage in front of the Chinese army. Was Nian Gengyao particularly fierce?
At this moment, Wu Shizhang only felt that he understood Huo Chong's caution. The same army was very different in the hands of different people.
" Commander, please go back to the team first." The regiment commander advised, "Let me go in front."
Division Commander Wu shook his head. "No. Let's all return to the team. It doesn't matter if we die at this time. If our morale is damaged, we will be sorry to our brothers!"
The regiment commander was very happy, as long as the division commander was okay. Of course, it would be even better if he was okay too!
The Qing army did not rush to attack. They first reorganized their ranks before continuing to approach.
Wu Shizhang secretly praised that the Qing army did not fire at a long distance. This was indeed something that a well-trained army could do. However, the Qing army did not fire at a long distance, but Wu Shizhang knew how to fire. He gave the order, "Fire!" The Chinese army had already taken the lead in firing with the advantage of fast reloading and more accurate bullets.
After a while, the Qing army also had to open fire, and the two armies were again obscured by gunpowder smoke.
The Qing army had been defending in the trenches before, but now they were attacking in formation. In addition to the three-stage attack, they did not shoot immediately after reloading the bullets, but walked forward three steps before shooting. After shooting, they continued to reload, and after reloading, they continued to walk forward three steps before shooting at the Chinese army.
Although there were only three steps each time, they could accumulate over time. Seeing that people in the Qing army were constantly being shot and falling to the ground, the Qing soldiers behind them quickly filled their positions and always maintained the integrity of the front line.
The Qing army was so fierce that the Chinese army began to suffer more casualties. Soldiers kept falling down, and the deputy squad leader and the medical soldiers had to pull the wounded out and carry them to the back for the time being. While bandaging the wounded, they had to ask the wounded not to cry out in pain.
In such a consumption, the Qing army still reached a very dangerous distance. That was a distance where they could withstand a round of volleys of gunfire and then rush into the Chinese army's formation.
"Grenade!" Commander Wu once again ordered the use of grenades.
The grenadiers were all good at throwing grenades, and they could throw grenades very far. One of the grenades even flew into the Qing army formation, and the explosion loosened the Qing army formation, which finally disrupted the Qing army a little. But Commander Wu knew that there were not many grenades left, and they would be used up in a few more rounds.
But Commander Wu did not even turn his head, and handed over the task of breaking through the Qing army's central camp to Commander Li Hong.
Li Hong certainly knew the pressure that Division Commander Wu was under. When he saw that the excavation was almost complete, he immediately sent out the demolition team. The soil in the loess area was soft. The camp could be easily blown up with explosive packs. This was also the method used by the suicide squad to break through the enemy's defense line during the exercise.
Sure enough, after the demolition team was sent out, the Qing army officers noticed the unusual movement and ordered the Qing army to start shooting. The demolition team was killed less than 15 meters away. There was no time to feel sorry for him. Li Hong ordered the engineers to continue to open up other passages and ordered the next group of demolition teams to go up and blast. Use explosive packs to blow up the outer wall of the Qing army camp. At the same time, he ordered the troops to provide fire cover.
The two sides kept firing at each other, and several groups of demolition experts advanced but were unable to get close to the Qing army camp. Some were injured or killed because the communication line was not deep enough and they failed to succeed.
But in this situation, there was no time to dig a deep trench. Just as he was thinking about whether to send troops to press on and shoot, he saw a Chinese army demolitionist who seemed to have been killed actually move.
If Li Hong hadn't been watching the Demoman, he wouldn't have noticed it in time. But he saw the Demoman crawling slowly. Li Hong was disappointed. It seemed that he had exhausted his strength.
Sure enough, the demolitionist crawled a few meters, pushed the explosive pack into a recess in front of him, and then stopped moving. Behind him, blood left a trail several meters long. He was less than ten meters away from the enemy camp.
Seeing that the blasting team had suffered heavy casualties, Li Hong made up his mind and shouted loudly: "Members of the Ministry of Rites, step out!" Although the troops were surprised, six members of the Ministry of Rites had already come out.
Li Hong pointed at the explosive pack closest to the Qing army, because it was in a depression and the Qing army's bullets could not reach there at all.
"Whoever used the explosive pack will be credited with great merit!"
After hearing what Li Hong said, the members of the Ministry of Rites were stunned. The location of the explosive pack was indeed very good, but the thought of reaching the location of the explosive pack was a huge risk. It was simply a life-or-death struggle!
Seeing the resistance in everyone's face, Li Hong was not angry. He also knew the danger of this action, no wonder everyone was resistant. Since he was not excited, Li Hong's voice was particularly steady: "If we can't blow up the Qing army's fortress, we will die together. If we can complete it, we will die! If you fail to complete it and die on the road, it will be my turn!"
Seeing that no one moved, Li Hong shouted, "This is an order! I am not giving you orders as the head of the group, but as the deputy branch chief of the Ministry of Rites. Now it is our turn to take action! If you don't take action, you are no longer a member of the Ministry of Rites!"
Before Li Hong could say anything else, the members of the Ministry of Rites shouted, "Let's divide into groups!"
"Demolition personnel in groups of two!" Li Hong shouted, "Order the troops to speed up the shooting! Attract enemy firepower!"
The sound of gunfire here was like popping beans. As role models in the army, the members of the Ministry of Rites had to learn all kinds of skills. Although blasting was not the specialization of these six people, they had practiced it.
The troops here were firing fiercely. The first group had already advanced. The purpose of the two men was not to go around it, but to rush into the pit, so they only advanced ten meters along the communication trench, then suddenly split into two sides, jumped out of the bunker, and rushed towards the pit.
As soon as he appeared, the member of the Ministry of Rites on the right was immediately shot by a volley of gunfire and fell to the ground. Li Hong was sure that there was a very smart officer in the Qing army opposite. Even under such firepower, this Qing army officer still left a team of musketeers to guard against surprise attacks.
The blaster on the right fell to the ground, and the one on the left rushed to the hollow. In the hail of bullets, he was only one step away from reaching the position, but he fell to the ground as if struck by lightning. Although his hand reached the edge of the hollow, he still couldn't get in.
Holding back the pain in his heart, Li Hong shouted, "Next group! Be careful, there are Qing troops targeting that side!"
Although they looked uneasy, the second group of members of the Ministry of Rites still entered the starting point of the attack. At this moment, someone shouted, "Captain, I want to go too."
Li Hong turned his head and saw a face that he was not familiar with but had some impression of. It should be a deputy squad leader. Li Hong had some impression of this long face when he charged into the Qing army's position. It was not that this deputy squad leader had any peculiar appearance, but that his tactical execution was very swift and accurate, and it was obvious that he was very serious in training.
"you……"
"Captain, if I die, can you let me join the Ministry of Rites? I heard that the emperor is also a member of the Ministry of Rites, and I also want to join the Ministry of Rites."
"What...is your name!" Li Hong asked, holding back his emotions.
"My name is Yang Daoqiu. I'm from Liangshan."
"Okay. Comrade Yang Daoqiu, you are already a probationary member of the Ministry of Rites! When you come back alive and take the oath, you can join the Ministry of Rites!" At this time, Li Hong's nose was a little sour, but he couldn't help but feel indescribable pride in being a member of the Ministry of Rites.
"Okay. Captain, let me go alone. It won't be helpful if there are more than one person." Yang Daoqiu said.
Li Hong couldn't bear it, but he had to agree.
Yang Daoqiu dived into the ditch with a nimble figure and crawled forward quickly. When he reached a suitable position, he suddenly jumped out and rushed a few meters, but his body was shaken, and he staggered forward and fell to the ground. He was shot and died again.
Such a big living person was killed in front of everyone in the blink of an eye. Even the members of the Ministry of Rites were a little stunned. Just when Li Hong thought that the members of the Ministry of Rites would be timid, he saw the members of the Ministry of Rites' blasting team who were supposed to set off but were stopped by Yang Daoqiu gritted their teeth and said, "Let's fight. So many people have died. Why do we need two more!"
It turned out that Yang Daoqiu's brave action not only did not scare the members of the Ministry of Rites, but instead aroused everyone's bloodiness.
The muskets fired fiercely again and began to suppress the enemy. Two members of the Ministry of Rites entered the tunnel. But at this moment, they saw Yang Daoqiu, who had fallen to the ground, rolling on the ground and rolling into the pit. It turned out that he was not dead just now. Judging from his powerful movements, he was probably not injured.
Could he have been knocked unconscious? Captain Li Hong was shocked. After a second thought, he actually laughed out loud, but after a laugh, tears rolled down his cheeks. Yang Daoqiu, who entered the Ministry of Rites on the front line, was really bold. He knew that there were people in the Qing army who were specifically responsible for fighting blasters, so he pretended to be dead.
Although this is indeed deceptive, and the Qing army's muskets are not that accurate. However, on this battlefield where bullets are flying, it really takes great courage to do this. This courage alone makes Li Hong believe that Yang Daoqiu is qualified to become a member of the Ministry of Rites.
However, Yang Daoqiu did not hide in the depression for long. Just when a row of bullets from the Qing army made dust fly around the edge of the depression, Yang Daoqiu had already climbed out of the depression with the explosive bag in his arms. He bent over and walked quickly to the Qing army camp, where he propped the explosive bag on the outer wall of the camp with a fixed frame.
Then Yang Daoqiu rolled all the way and rolled back to the starting point amidst the hail of bullets.
A moment later, with a loud bang that shook the earth, the thick smoke from the explosion in the Qing army camp rose more than ten meters high.
Without caring about anything else, Li Hong shouted, "Charge in!"
