Almost twelve hours after the outbreak of the war, the 4th and 7th Divisions of the East Siberian Infantry, after repeated defeats in the battles around Uglovoye, retreated to Vladivostok, defended the city with fortresses, and at 22 o'clock the next day, the Northeast Army reached the area only a dozen kilometers away from Vladivostok. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Those citizens who had not even adapted to the outbreak of war really felt the breath of war - the long-range heavy artillery for the first time fired shells at the fleet in the harbor, and because of the great deviation, the shells were either hit on the frozen sea or fell inside the city. It was since then that the besieged city of Vladivostok has been in a state of panic.

February 10 was Sunday, and from early in the morning, the citizens of the city, as well as the officers and soldiers on leave, gathered in the square near the church.

At the beginning of the prayers, Stessel and his wife went to the church, where twenty naval and army priests, dressed in holy garments, gathered from various schools in Vladivostok, prayed to God to bless them to win the war and defeat the cruel enemy.

In the seven days since the outbreak of the war, too many rumors have come from the front line, and in the face of the Northeast Army, which is fighting all the way from the border to the outside of Vladivostok with a ferocious and fierce offensive, no one has said that the Chinese soldiers are vulnerable, let alone that one Russian soldier can defeat three Chinese soldiers. Instead, a new rumor spread on the battlefields and in the cities that Chinese soldiers had sold their souls to the devil, and that they could rush from the sky to the ground at night as if they were immortal. The bullet hit them had no effect at all.

Of course, this is just a rumor. Even in the mouth of the general. It's an act of the soldiers to disguise their timidity, but sometimes people prefer to believe rumors in the face of unthinkable facts. Just like their prayers now, in a way, God will bless them from defeating the devil.

Plumes of dark blue smoke slowly rose from the incense burners held by the priests, and the holy sound group prayed and prayed, slowly moving along the street. Prayers were prayed for the Russian soldiers from afar, and then the prayer procession walked towards Pushkin Street and towards Nikolai Square.

Suddenly, there was a faint sound of artillery in the distance, it was the Chinese siege artillery, a closer and closer shell dragged a sharp sound of breaking the air, followed by a deafening explosion, the huge cloud of smoke almost swallowed the entire square, that was the effect of the explosion of a siege shell close to a thousand pounds.

As the cloud of smoke from the explosion engulfed the streets, knocking down a nearby building. The marching people screamed in terror and fled in all directions. The ground was littered with hats, some of them made of precious furs, and even expensive fur coats, which were discarded by the people, and the frightened people even stepped directly on the people who fell to the ground, and many were trampled to death by their own compatriots instead of being blown up.

Stexel and his wife and the entourages around him were also scattered by the fleeing people, the general's military hat was squeezed off, and his waist was also smashed, not only was the general's wife squeezed to the ground, but even the fur coat was taken off when she fled in terror, Stexel did not see his wife, but thought that she had run to the front, so he ran under the house with the crowd and hid, until he got into the basement, he was sober,

The square was a mess, littered with discarded coats, hats, scarves, and corpses, and dozens of people were trampled to death by frightened people in the midst of the chaos. It wasn't until it was all over that some soldiers came to take in the wounded and collect the scattered items.

And by this time, the artillery fire outside the city had moved to the port, and they shelled the city and the inner harbor, sometimes violently, sometimes moderately, in short, for a whole day, although this shelling did not cause real serious damage, but in the minds of all people formed the impression of panic and uneasiness, at this time, the city was in danger of shelling at every moment, which undoubtedly increased the panic of the citizens and even the soldiers, especially those stray bullets that did not have the right head, and no one knew where it would fall, When and when to take someone's life.

The Navy was even more frightened, although the main fleet was in the port of Constantine for the winter, there were still a few light cruisers here, but without exception, they were all frozen in the harbor, and because of this, the warships became fixed targets, and a mine-striking ship was even directly hit by heavy shells, and was instantly blown into the frozen harbor.

In the evening of the same day, an emergency meeting of the generals of the Navy and Army was held in Stexel's headquarters to discuss the future defense of the fortress, and at the beginning of the meeting, Stexel asked the Navy to use their artillery to shell the Chinese troops outside the city in retaliation for their bombardment of the city.

"However, we can't see where the Chinese' heavy artillery units are at all!"

Colonel Burler immediately retorted that as a naval officer, he and his warships could only stay here now, at least until the sea thawed, and could only stay here and let the Chinese bomb them.

"Shoot where the artillery fire is given, shoot in the direction where the artillery is fired, in short, no matter how you shoot, but what must be done is that tomorrow the artillery positions of the Chinese will be blown up, otherwise the fortress will be razed to the ground by them!"

Stessel commanded loudly.

"I'll do whatever it takes......"

"No, you must kill them all, because today, their shells killed more than two hundred of our citizens, and more than twenty citizens were trampled to death by frightened people, including 112 women and children, not to mention those who were wounded, and even my wife and I were injured in this shelling......"

Just as Stessel's words fell, the sound of explosions outside turned from sparse to urgent, and it was obvious that this was another intensive bombardment.

That night, the shelling and counter-shelling sounded all night, and when the eastern sky was shining and the sun began to jump out of the horizon, the sound of the artillery that had been thought of all night became fierce again, and the shells squeaked through the morning sky towards Vladivostok. The frightened citizens were once again awakened by the sound of cannons. They hid in the basement and prayed. While nervously heading towards the roof of the basement.

At the same time, the fortress north of Vladivostok was also busy at this time, the men were busy on the fort, turning the artillery to a certain direction, the troops on duty in the fort were preparing to repel the enemy's attack, and the walls of the fort were added with sentinels. The reserves approached the front line, and the city was ready to meet the enemy.

Unlike in previous days, the shelling seemed to be more intense today than ever, with shells constantly falling on the forts and fort breastwork, exploding clouds of smoke on the forts.

Almost as soon as the bombardment began, Dondruff sensed that today was different from the past, and he immediately rode to the front line, and halfway through he determined that the place where the enemy was most heavily attacked was the middle ground between Batteries 5 and 6.

"Lovich, where are you going?"

After meeting Kondrave, Belle, who had spent the whole night observing the artillery positions of the Chinese at Cobra Fort. and immediately caught up with him.

"Go to Battery 6!"

"Then we're on the same road, and I'm going to set up an observation post there!"

The two generals dismounted in a deep ravine behind battery No. 6. Then they climbed the mountain on foot, and for the defenders, the mountain was always the best help, and on the way, they encountered several wounded water descendants.

"Private, where are you from?"

"It's Battery 6!"

The sailors pointed to the battery at the top of the hill,

"How's it going there?"

"Chinese the shelling was so great that all night, not even enough to make us breathe, our commander Ensign William was killed, and the cannon brought from the warship was blown up a ......"

"The most powerful are the Chinese infantry, we didn't even notice them, when they attacked today, it was almost an attack against the trenches, if it wasn't for the barbed wire to block them, maybe they would have hit the battery ...... by now"

The sound of the sailors' words to Kondrav's ears made their brows furrow even tighter, and the two of them climbed up the path leading to the battery, and when they reached the battery, in front of them was the battered position, the fifth battery on the right, which would be completely shrouded in artillery fire, and the defensive position between the fifth and sixth batteries was like the surface of the moon, with craters exploding everywhere. The telescope could see the half-blown breastwork and the soldiers hiding in the trenches, and the No. 7 battery on the left, near the sea, could be seen very clearly, although it was not under much shelling.

"Look, the Chinese fired ten shots, and our batteries could only return one shot,"

Kondrav's brow furrowed, and he pointed to the distant position.

"Yesterday, our position was five versts from the battery, and now, it is only two versts, our troops simply cannot raise their heads, the Chinese artillery fire is too dense, when their infantry attack, the shells that fall on the positions are like raindrops, I dare to say, the Chinese artillery must be the latest rapid-fire guns, otherwise, they will never shoot such dense shells!"

Kondrav said again, pointing to the turret.

"In contrast, on our batteries, the cannons are almost all old-fashioned erection guns, and our cannons use black powder, but the Chinese cannons use smokeless powder, so we can't find their positions at all, and we can only find them at night with the help of artillery flames, so we can only passively let them shell ......"

The generals continued to walk forward, and their arrival made the head of the battery, Kryemlev, widen his eyes in surprise.

"Your Excellency, General, why are you here, now Chinese attacking here......"

"That's why we're here, how is the Chinese's offensive today?"

"Just like yesterday, they keep firing artillery, and when you get impatient, their infantry will attack like crazy at all costs, and they are completely crazy!"

Kryemlev replied truthfully.

"But even madmen can be killed, that is, they have so many cannons that we can't lift our heads at all, sometimes. Even in the fortress, they can't raise their heads, they have too many cannons! ”

There are too many cannons!

Again, Büller heard these words, as if to confirm this, and at that moment there was a dense explosion in the distance, and the explosion was continuous, like a Chinese firecracker, and he looked in the direction from which the sound of the explosion came, and saw that an isolated fortress in the forward position was completely covered in a cloud of black smoke, and from the telescope, the appearance of the small fortress was not visible at all—the fort had been completely swallowed up by artillery fire.

"My God......"

Seeing the artillery fort crumbling under fire, Beller's face turned pale in an instant, and he finally knew why the Army always repeated the phrase "they have too many guns".

"See?"

Kondrav smiled wryly.

"This is how Chinese attack, their artillery will raze everything, you look there, you should see the Chinese army attacking, but our troops are so pressed by artillery fire that they can't lift their heads, so they will seize this opportunity to attack......"

Büller was silent, he just looked at the black smoke for a moment before speaking.

"It seems that only the fortress can stop them!"

The fortress has a strong breastwork, a snake belly fort, a shooting hole, then everything can block the shelling of the Chinese.

"It's not enough to have a fortress, you see......"

Dondruff pointed between Forts Five and Six.

"Chinese seem to want to get a breakthrough from here, and if they break through from here, then our artillery fortress will be isolated, and when the time comes, they will be able to easily lay down the isolated artillery barrier, just like that artillery fortress......"

After a slight pause, Kondrav pointed to Fort Cobra in the distance behind him.

"If they break through the fortifications here, then they will easily reach the line of the fortress, and then continue to break through their middle positions and go straight into the city, because all the fortifications in the middle of the fortress are extremely weak, they were built improvised after the outbreak of war, and can only be controlled by those field pillboxes, and their firepower is very weak......"

The two rode along the mountain road to the middle between the fort and the rear fortress, the snow-covered hillside was full of barbed wire and improvised pillboxes made of civil engineering, which was the intermediate position between the fortress and the fortress, and the weakest link in the entire defense system.

"I have an idea!"

Looking at the improvised bunker on the hillside, Büller suddenly spoke.

"Since Chinese is trying to attack when we can't hold our heads up, then we might be able to do so......" (To be continued.) )