Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 257 The Battle of Hailanpao (4)
Primakov did not answer Hawthorne's words, but gave an order to the combat staff officer: "The troops will march quickly from now on, and rush there."

Since the middle of this month, the Russians have further gathered their forces around Hailanpao, and a large number of troops abandoned the defensive positions around Chickler to join Hailanpao's defense system.Within a radius of more than ten kilometers, two main divisions, Swickley and Antekan, have assembled a considerable number of heavy artillery and machine guns. Both divisions serve as the reserve team of the Far East Army and are ready to attack Hailan at any time. Provide strong support to the bubble area.

On the battlefield of the Hailan Paodong position, Zhang Zongchang's soldiers fought repeatedly with the Russian army.The artillery fire from both sides was overwhelming, and the sound of machine guns "cracking" never stopped. Countless Russian soldiers fell on the way to counterattack, and countless Chinese soldiers were buried by shells in the trenches.The ranks of wounded on both sides were transported backward like a tide.The battle is brutal, and both sides are exchanging the lives of soldiers for time.Babkov's Far East Army needed to survive until the moment their reinforcements arrived, and Zhang Zuolin had to prevent that from happening.

Judging from the current situation, Zhang Zuolin's night battle combined with small-scale troop raid tactics has achieved satisfactory results. Zhang Zongchang's troops have almost occupied the Russian army's eastern position. As long as this position is kept, it can be used smoothly. The starting position destroyed Hailanpao's defense system and suppressed the Russian army's western position and other scattered small positions. After the loss of the eastern position, the Russians must distribute more troops if they want to keep the current front line from collapsing. This is a difficult problem for Babkov, who has no soldiers to send, and the Chinese army is occupying a favorable position, and can choose to focus on launching a breakthrough at any time.

"Teacher, what are you waiting for? Why don't you put all your troops into it now and take down the western position in one go." Tang Yulin said impatiently, holding two guns.

But Zhang Zuoxiang, who has always been prudent, disagrees with this point of view: "Although the Russian defense line is crumbling, they still maintain a considerable number of troops in the western position and Hailanpao. The reinforcements from those three divisions will arrive soon. As soon as they arrive, the strength of the Far Eastern Army will increase to nearly 7, which is nearly [-] more than ours. Make a careful offensive and defensive plan."

Zhang Zuolin nodded and smoked the dry smoke sizzling loudly.After the arrival of these three divisions of the Russian army, the situation of the battle may change significantly at any time. Now he has to ask for intelligence from the west and the north every day, and then ask people to mark the positions of these three divisions on the map. From now on It can be seen that the speed of these three divisions is very fast, especially the No. 20 Division, the main ace that acts as a forward, suddenly and strangely accelerated a few days ago, almost marching in a hurry.According to the estimation of the progress of the war, there is still a day or two before the No.20 Division arrives, and Hailanpao should be able to take it. Defensively, the pressure to deploy the entire zone will be enormous.

Zhang Zuolin thought about it for a while, then tapped the pipe pot on the sole of his shoe, and said: "Hai Lan Pao's Russian army is well-defended, and it will be difficult to take it down in a short time. , Our defense is under too much pressure. Let’s leave Jiang Dengxuan and Yang Yuting’s two divisions to storm Hailanpao, and the 27th and 28th divisions will divide into west and north to annihilate the troops who come to the aid of Big Nose.”

Zhang Zuolin's temper is best understood by his subordinates. No one can change the decision he made. Zhang Zuoxiang felt that it was too risky to do so. He was most afraid of the dispersion of forces in war. What if the separated army was defeated? The Northeast Army would face a double attack. embarrassing situation.Tang Yulin is Zhang Zuolin's life-and-death brother. He has always dared to think and speak. He said: "Hai Lan Pao may be captured in two days. How can we spread our troops at this time? In my opinion, we should do it all at once." Take the Western Front, and with the two strongholds of the Eastern and Western Fronts, we can keep the British in the north of Hailanpao.”

Zhang Zuolin glanced at Tang Yulin's face: "What if the reinforcements from Big Nose really arrived before we captured the western position? In that case, wouldn't our army be attacked by the enemy? What I said is an order. Don't talk nonsense like that." many!"

Tang Yulin shook his head and walked away muttering.

The next day, under the leadership of Feng Linge, the 27th and 28th divisions marched towards Belogorsk and Chegdormen. According to the reports from the front, it would be the place where the three Russian divisions came to aid.After clearing the outer obstacles and occupying the eastern position, the remaining 31st and 34th divisions launched a strong attack on the Hailan Paoxi position.The battle continued from daytime to late at night without stopping at all, and the artillery became more and more dense. During the day, the elite assault team blasted the firepower points that had been tested clearly, and at night, the field company used the positional tactics to take advantage of the night to go west The position is attacked.One day before going to the west position, it was almost flattened under the torrential Chinese artillery shells, and sections of trenches were all turned into gentle slopes.

Any tough battle is filled with human lives. In the few days of fighting, the soldiers under Zhang Zongchang suffered heavy casualties. They gritted their teeth and held on to the eastern position, while the 48th Brigade, which was in charge of flank defense, had slightly fewer casualties.Most of these losses were caused by Russian artillery fire.Since the positions captured by the Northeast Army were originally owned by the Russian army, they had already been marked in the marking, so the artillery of the Russian army fired quickly and accurately. However, after the Northeast Army captured the position at night, it had to hold on for a day to resist the attack. The Russian army counterattacked, and they had to endure the roar of artillery fire overhead throughout the day while repelling rows of Russian infantry.In one day, the Russian army built several defensive fortifications around the eastern position. It seemed that they were determined to take back the eastern position.

However, the loss of the Northeast Army was exchanged for the same heavy casualties of the British Army. The number of the Russian Army, which originally had nearly 6000 people, dropped sharply in the few days of fighting, and the remaining less than 2 people desperately exchanged casualties for rescue time. .

"Dear Anna, I am writing to you now from Blagoveshchensk (Hailanpao). These days the Chinese have launched a continuous attack on us. They have assembled tens of thousands of people and have A new type of artillery, their artillery fires very fast, almost silent when firing, and the Chinese can even carry this artillery to the front to fire. We have suffered from this artillery countless times. Damn Chinese With hundreds of cannons, they will suddenly bombard the enemy at night before they attack. Whenever the cannons sound, Gustav and I dare not look out of the trenches. The arc of the artillery shells of this kind of artillery is scary, We can only pray that they won't look at our position. We can't defend against their ghostly attacks at night. Before coming here, our coach Babkov once said that the weapons of the Far East Army are the best in the Far East. But why? The Chinese will have such weapons that even European countries do not have?
In addition, the Chinese night attack tactics made us at a loss. Every time the Chinese rushed up, our seemingly incomparably strong fortifications were punctured like paper, and the soldiers fled. In the daytime, we had to spend several times strength to take them back.But even with the help of heavy artillery, we recaptured very little, and we paid dearly in the process.Our regiment originally had more than 2000 people, but now there are less than 600 people left. I don’t know when we will go to die.

Those Chinese were totally different from what we had heard before.They are not cowardly at all, but like a group of lunatics. There were less than a hundred Chinese in a small defensive position we once attacked, because that position has been fought for several times, and all the fortifications on it have been blown up. Under the bombardment of our fort's heavy artillery, they lost a lot, and there were less than 30.00 people left, and they still held on for a whole day like this.It was captured by us, and later we found out that they had run out of bullets.All those Chinese died on the battlefield in the end, they were killed in a bayonet fight.The European law of being defeated with more than [-]% casualties does not seem to work here.If things go on like this, we won't be able to last long. I'm scared every day and never get a good night's sleep. Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy!The Chinese launched an attack again, and the sound of artillery was directed at us.I don’t know if there is a chance to go back to Yorkshire, I really miss the fruit wine at home in this damn war,” a Russian soldier who guarded High Lanpao wrote to his wife.

In one day, the Northeast Army occupied almost all the various fortifications around the western position and surrounded the western position.

The remaining troops in the Western Front were led by Markikov. He was struggling to fulfill his last military responsibilities. He had received Babkov's order and committed suicide in the trench at the moment when the heavy artillery shells ran out.

In the headquarters of the Northeast Army on the opposite side, Zhang Zuolin's brows were deeply frowned, and he failed to win the western position for a whole day. The victory or defeat can be decided in an hour on the battlefield. Russian reinforcements may arrive at any time, and the Russian cavalry regiment The source of information to the west has been blocked first. In the morning, the Northeast Army completely lost the information from the west.The two groups of Russian reinforcements on the map had already been circled by Zhang Zuolin with a black pencil, and they could not drag on any longer. Looking at the two large clouds on the map, Zhang Zuolin cursed and finally made up his mind.

"Come here!" Zhang Zuolin called out in a deep voice towards the outside of the tent.

The "teacher commander" Zhang Kai, the chief of the combat department, came in after hearing the sound: "What do you want?"

"You..." Zhang Zuolin was about to speak, but suddenly coughed heavily, and quickly covered his mouth with a handkerchief, and Zhang Kai also hurried forward to comfort Zhang Zuolin.

This Zhang Zuolin spread out the Supa in his hand, only a little scarlet dotted it.Seeing this, Zhang Kai said sadly: "Master, you have to take care of yourself."

Zhang Zuolin waved his hand and said, "Mom, it's okay, you go and pass on my order to let all the battalions pack up and prepare to withdraw."

Zhang Kai was taken aback when he heard the words. Hai Lanpao was about to win. He couldn't help but confirm: "Withdraw troops now? Commander Feng is sending people to launch a general attack on the western position, and it's already past three o'clock in the morning."

Only then did Zhang Zuolin realize that he was too preoccupied. It was already late at night, and when he heard the rumble of cannons, it seemed that the war was going on very fiercely. "Now call the generals above the battalion commander to discuss matters in my tent."

Zhang Kai agreed and withdrew.

(End of this chapter)