1903, 10 October 10, 8th year of Guangxing.

The siege of the fortress of Boli (Khabarovsk) by the 2nd Field Army of the Chinese Army has entered its second week.

The 1st Russian Far Eastern Army, which was stationed in the Khabarovsk Prefecture, had only 53,000 men before the war, and in the first three weeks of fighting, 7,500 were killed and captured, 14,000 were wounded, and the remaining troops were driven into the fortress, and the commander of the 1st Far Eastern Army, Lieutenant General Ivalov, ordered the troops to hold the fortress and wait for assistance.

The fortification of Boli began 40 years ago, and the current main facilities are basically built in the last ten years, and a total of three lines of defense have been built, with a total length of 24 kilometers, of which the western defense line along the Heilongjiang River is 6 kilometers long.

By the time the war broke out, the fortress had eleven permanent batteries, equipped with large-caliber fort guns and medium-caliber howitzers, some of which were considered to be used against the Chinese Heilongjiang fleet that might appear on the river.

The city was defended by an 18-kilometer-long land defensive line, and before the siege began, six bastions and three permanent fortifications were built throughout the fortress. Infantry bunkers were built in the gaps between the fort's permanent fortifications, with barbed wire, electric mines, and traps in front of the bunkers. The forward positions used several high ground on the outskirts of the city as barriers to cover the main line of defense, dug trenches, and built multi-sided forts. The main line of defense was centered on the Khabarovka barracks and covered by several fortresses. Behind the main line of defense was a long line of ramparts, juxtaposed with more than a dozen fortified artillery batteries and a number of single guns with a range of 360 degrees. Searchlights were provided on the forts, fortifications and some of the batteries.

By the time of the siege on 3 October, the fortress was armed with 267 artillery pieces and 62 machine guns. A total of 241 artillery pieces of various calibers (including 148 fortress guns and 113 field guns) and 54 machine guns were deployed on permanent fortifications and field positions. The reserve artillery had 6 artillery pieces and 8 machine guns.

Lieutenant General Ivalov, commander of the fortress and commander of the 1st Army in the Far East, received a letter from Lieutenant General Xiao Liezhi, commander of the 2nd Field Army of the Chinese Army, at noon that day.

The letter was sent by a Chinese army messenger who approached the fortress with a white flag, and he was Xiao Lieri's intelligence staff officer, Major Wang Nianhua. Before entering the Russian position, Wang Nianhua was blindfolded by the Russian sentry who jumped out of the trench and taken to Ivalov's official residence.

Ivalov opened the letter sent by Wang Nianhua, only to see that it was written in both Chinese and Russian:

Under the command of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the fortress of Boli:

Your army fought bravely and tenaciously, which is admired by our army. However, you and other parties on land and water are surrounded by the absolute superiority of our army, and even if there are talented and outstanding generals like your officers, and loyal and brave soldiers of your army, the fortress will inevitably be taken by our army after all. Our army is now ready for a general attack, and once the land, water and air advance together, the fortress will be breached in the near future. For humanitarian reasons, as well as for the sake of your commander, and to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, I hereby propose to Jun Zuo that the surrender negotiations begin. If the noble officer wisely adopts it, please show it to me before 11 a.m. tomorrow (October 11, Guangxing 8).

Lieutenant General Xiao Lieri, commander-in-chief of the siege Chinese army and commander of the Second Field Army, hereby inspires

Guangxing 8 years 10 10 After reading it, Ivalov raised his eyes and looked at Wang Nianhua, but saw that Wang Nianhua wanted to speak and stopped, and looked around left and right, as if there was a secret word to explain in private, the shrewd Ivalov immediately understood, waved his hand and signaled everyone around him to retreat.

Wang Nianhua took out another letter from his arms, handed it over with both hands respectfully, and leaned closer to Ivalov and whispered: "This is a letter written by General Xiao himself to your wife, please be sure to forward it." ”

Ivalovton wondered how his wife could have been involved with an enemy general.

Open the envelope of the brown paper, a yellow and clear cheque, which is the most reputable Huaying HSBC in the Shanghai concession, in the amount of the cheque column, the Arabic numeral "1" behind the drag 4 "0", and then look at the currency: pounds! A huge sum of 10,000 pounds!

Looking at the letter again, I saw that it was written:

The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army's Wife:

Your lady is good at giving charity in the name of kindness, well-known all over the world, and occasionally meets the military envoy, I would like to express my admiration to express my greetings. I would like to take the liberty of presenting an HSBC cheque of £10,000 for charitable purposes.

It turned out to be a bribe letter.

For the first time, Ivalov really saw the cheque for 10,000 pounds, which was very likely to belong to him, and his heart fluttered, but his sense of responsibility as a soldier soon sobered up, and he coldly accepted the letter, and said to Wang Nianhua: "I have read the letter of the commander of your army, and my subordinates and I need to study it carefully, and I will arrange for you to rest, and tomorrow I will trouble you to send our reply back." ”

Wang Nianhua thanked him, followed a Russian officer out of the official residence, and was immediately blindfolded and taken to a nearby hotel.

Wang Nianhua was placed in a room on the ground floor of the hotel, where the Russian officer unblindfolded him and ordered someone to fetch bread, bacon and vodka.

"What's your name?"

The bored Russian lieutenant asked, the lieutenant had a big beard and exposed nose hair, and even coarse hairs on his neck, which had the flavor of prehistoric humans.

"Wang Nianhua, you can call me Wang, of course I prefer others to call me Nianhua."

In order to meet the needs of the war against Russia, all the intelligence staff officers of all units participating in the war of the Chinese army have received intensive training in Russian, and Wang Nianhua began to study Russian earlier because he was originally subordinate to the troops of the Northeast Military Region, and now his Russian level is basically able to cope with various roles from Russian generals and nobles to peddlers and pawns.

"Hello Nianhua, I'm Lieutenant Zeramvich, you can also call me Lesha, are you here to deliver a letter?"

"Yes."

"What does the letter say?"

"I hope your commander will negotiate surrender with us."

Lesha squeezed contemptuously at the ceiling: "We will not surrender, you haven't won yet, don't get complacent too soon." ”

Wang Nianhua smiled lightly, took out a pack of big front door cigarettes from his chest pocket and handed it over: "Liesha, do you want to taste our cigarettes?" There is a sponge filter, although it is not the most high-end, but it is also a high-end cigarette that only officers can afford to smoke. ”

Liesha took a stick from the carton, pondered it carefully, focused on the filter of the cigarette, and then put it on his mouth, Wang Nianhua hurriedly drew a match and lit it for him.

"How?"

"Well, that's great, couldn't be better!"

Lesha nodded incessantly and gave a thumbs up.

"That's enjoyment, real enjoyment, and in comparison, all the bad tobacco in my pipe is poison!"

Wang Nianhua smiled and gave the whole package to Liesha at the front door, and by the way, he also attached the whole box of matches of the Rongsheng brand to the cigarette case.

"For you, friend, when the war is over, maybe you will be able to smoke even better cigarettes than this one on a regular basis—good cigarettes made in China."

Lesa grinned, accepted it without hesitation, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.

Food and spirits were served, and Liesha greeted Wang Nianhua: "You, friend, let's drink, vodka is the most wonderful drink in the world, he can make you roam in heaven, and sometimes you can see God directly, Ha Luha, come on." ”

After two glasses of vodka, the conversation box opened, and Liesha asked Wang Nianhua: "How many people did you use to surround us?" I heard that you also surrounded Vladivostok (Vladivostok) and Blagoveshchensk (Hailan Bubble)? ”

Wang Nianhua spit out his tongue spicy from the spirits, and said angrily: "This is a military secret, I can't tell you." ”

Liesha stiffened his face, raised his head and poured a large sip of wine, wiped his mouth and said: "You are really a stubborn person, in fact, you don't need to say it, we can guess that the total number of people you use to surround this fortress is only 100,000 people." And we have 40,000 brave and tenacious warriors, we have strong fortresses, we have food to last until next summer, and we have plenty of ammunition. You're going to have to shed a lot of blood to attack this fortress, and seriously, I don't want to see a lot of people shedding blood, but if you insist on fighting us, you're going to have to shed a lot of blood, and keep and on, until you dry the blood. ”

Wang Nianhua fanned the front of his mouth with his palm, shook his head and said, "Yes, everyone has to bleed, but before our blood runs dry, all of your people will have disappeared a long time ago." If you think about it, there are 40,000,000 people in our Chinese Empire, and less than 10,000,000 in your Russian Empire. In order to avoid senseless bloodshed, you should surrender, our Chinese Empire has been a country of etiquette and civilization since ancient times, and will take care of the captives with the most humane treatment. ”

Liesha retorted angrily: "No, it can't be counted like this, the war is not a simple one-for-one, take our fortress as an example, our 40,000 people under the cover of fortresses and fortifications are enough to withstand the siege of four to five times the enemy, that is to say, even if you send 200,000 people, you are doomed to be defeated by us, yes, you are exposed to the open ground to charge, and we will hide behind the fortress and knock you over one by one like rabbits!" ”

"Until then, we'll be smashing your fortress to the ground with the most powerful artillery on the ground!"

"Ha, it's useless, our fortress is all made of solid reinforced concrete, unless you can bury tens of thousands of kilograms of zha medicine underneath, otherwise, even 10,000 cannons don't want to hurt our fortress, ha, our strong fortress is more impregnable than the mountain rocks of the Caucasus!."

"That's a strange story, as far as I know, it's not like that at all, your fortress is nothing more than a breastwork made of red bricks and cobblestones, and that breastwork is not at all vulnerable!"

"Stupid, that's a disguise, it's actually all thick reinforced concrete, when you think the fortress has been breached, in fact, we're still fine, nothing at all, nothing to do!"

"Bragging...... I won't believe your, do you know what reinforced concrete is? You don't know anything, you've been lied to by your bosses, and they want to reassure you, that's why they've made up these lies, poor man...... Belch! ”

Wang Nianhua deliberately drank more and more urgently, pretending to be overwhelmed, and gradually, he fell on the table.

Liesha patted Wang Nianhua's head and said with a smile: "Chinese? No way. ”

Lie killed a person and continued to pour wine, his mouth was still nagging, where did he know that Wang Nianhua was not drunk at all, and Wang Nianhua's alcohol consumption was probably second only to Lieutenant General Xiao Lieri, the commander of the army, in the Second Field Army. Late that night, when the outside of Ivalov's official residence was heavily guarded and the inside was brightly lit, senior officers of the Russian army and senior officials of the Khabarovsk Prefecture gathered for a meeting to discuss how to reply to the Chinese army's letter of surrender.

Major General Varostov, commander of the 2nd Division in the Far East, first said: "When the fortress was just besieged a few days ago, I explained my views to you, I think that the enemy army is strong, equipped with terrible air weapons and a large number of heavy artillery, and our army has been cut off from the outside world, and has lost a source of supply, for the sake of the lives of nearly 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the fortress, perhaps we can first negotiate a truce with the Chinese army......

"I'm against it!" Colonel Lebemenkovich, chief of staff of the 1st Army in the Far East, immediately stood up and asked: "Armistice negotiations with the Chinese army are simply tantamount to surrender. How could the soldiers under His Majesty the Tsar bow their knees to the barbarians of the East! Besides, we still have a strong fortress, plenty of food, grass and ammunition, and the morale of the officers and men is also rising, how can we abandon the fortress without a fight! Having heard that the army led by General Kuropatkin defeated the Chinese army at Chita, I think that reinforcements will soon come from the west, and as long as we are determined to hold the fortress, we will be able to finally defeat the Chinese! ”

Varostov hurriedly explained: "What I mean is not to surrender to the enemy, but to use the opportunity of negotiations to delay time, give the civilians in the city a chance to evacuate, and at the same time strengthen the fortress, and wait for the main forces of our army on the Chita and Hailan Pao sides to arrive, and then we can attack from the fortress, we can flank the Chinese army, which is not bad." ”

Major General Kalem, commander of the 1st Division in the Far East, interjected: "However, after all, the negotiations will damage the dignity and prestige of our Russian Empire, and will tarnish the honor of the generals...... if we do not refuse it now."

Varostov shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands: "In this case, I have nothing to say, so I have to ask General Ivalov to give the order to resist the general offensive that the Chinese army is about to launch." However, I would like to remind you that the fortress of Ussuriysk, which is as strong as this fortress, was attacked by the East Asian coalition forces on the 4th of this month, and after only one day of fighting, our troops were forced to withdraw from the fortress, and the 50,000 troops suffered 17,000 casualties and more than 3,000 missing."

Bemenkovich said disdainfully: "General, your comparison is unfair, the 50,000 defenders of the Ussuriysk fortress were attacked by more than 200,000 enemies, which is why they failed so quickly, and our army has gathered no less than 50,000 regular troops and militia in the Ussuriysk fortress, but the enemy surrounding us is only 100,000 people, not to mention that the morale of our 1st Army in the Far East is definitely far better than that of those cowards in the Primorsky District." ”

Karem also continued: "The enemy will not defeat us so easily, this is a fortress built by General Ivalov himself, and the general will also think that this fortress is impregnable." ”

Ivalov hurriedly replied: "That's true, I have a lot of confidence in the fortress itself, and of course, I have more confidence in the officers and soldiers of the First Army. ”

Seeing that the atmosphere in the meeting hall was becoming more and more unfavorable to his ideas, the governor of the Khabarovsk Prefecture, Litelge, looked at Ivalov for help, but Ivalov did not notice his anxious gaze, but only listened attentively to the speeches of his subordinates, and waved his hand at the end, and said: "In fact, it is absolutely unacceptable for the Chinese army to send such an arrogant and boring letter of persuasion to surrender, as a soldier under His Majesty the Tsar, I firmly believe that we will achieve the final victory!" From now on, you should immediately go to the forts and batteries to carefully inspect the defenses and prepare to resist the attack of the Chinese! ”

After the meeting ended, Litelg approached Ivalov in frustration: "General, why do you not agree to negotiate?" In the negotiations now, some conditions can be proposed, such as the protection of everyone's private property......"

Ivalov said angrily: "You know that I miss your dirty money, my duty is to fight the enemy, as for private property or something, I can't care so much!" ”

Litelg said unhappily: "General, how can you say that, money is money, no matter what the source, as long as it can be used, money will always be clean and beautiful." General, don't you understand that a large part of my property actually belongs to you......"

"Do you think your money can buy me the honor of being a general?"

"What's the use of honoring you if you die in battle? Your honor cannot be used well by future generations, only money is the most realistic...... If you can keep my property, I'm willing to give 100,000, no, 200,000 rubles, whatever you want, and of course, if you need a property that can be passed on for a long time, you can also wrap it up with me, you see......"

Ivalov's heart was a violent exercise again, before he had successively received Liturg no less than 50,000 rubles of "filial piety", plus 200,000 rubles, he could get a large piece of real estate in a good place like Ryazan, not to mention the 10,000 pounds check sent by the Chinese army, he only had to nod, say a word, and sign it, he could save 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city from bloodshed, and at the same time earn 300,000 rubles, which is a great thing from a humanitarian and economic point of view.

"General, you might as well think about it, if you don't believe in my sincerity, I can take out a check for fifty thousand rubles tonight first......"

Litelg was still chattering, and Ivalov looked at his kitsch face and suddenly felt a wave of nausea.

Brilliant self-esteem as a general of the Russian Empire triumphed over the stench of vile copper, and Ivalov threw off Liturg and strode to his bedroom.

Litelg shouted from behind: "General, wait a minute, I'll go get the checkbook!" It won't take long, I'll hurry. ”

"No need, I've already decided, I'm going to fight the enemy to the end, and you can hide your money."

Ivalov snapped and walked away without looking back.

Litelge froze, then turned away, revealing a hideous face: "Damn fool, you only want to be a hero until now, you take my money but refuse to do things for me, there is no lunch that can be eaten for nothing in this world, wait, I will make you pay!" ”

Early the next morning, Ivalov summoned Wang Nianhua and handed him the letter of refusal and the cheque for ten thousand pounds: "I beg you to present the letter and the cheque to General Shaw, and tell him that there is no need to discuss this proposal, which is incompatible with the honor and dignity of the Russian Imperial Army, and which is grossly incompatible with the present state of the fortress!" I'll send you to the front, but before that, you'll have to be wronged. ”

Wang Nianhua smiled and nodded: "Zhilu said, the lower officials feel very sorry for this." ”

Lieutenant Lysha, who had been drinking vodka with Wang Nianhua yesterday, covered Wang Nianhua's eyes with a black cloth this time and took him out of Ivalov's residence.

"As I said, our commander will definitely refuse, which is a wasted effort, but for me, it is also a good experience to be able to recognize the amount of alcohol consumed by Chinese soldiers."

Liesha kept nagging in Wang Nianhua's ear, sending him all the way to the front line of the fortress, and then he untied his blindfold.

"See you again, Nianhua, I hope you won't be killed by me next."

Wang Nianhua smiled slightly: "If I knew that I was killed by you in the Heavenly Kingdom, I would not have any complaints." ”

Liesha returned the white flag that Wang Nianhua had brought when he came: "You are an interesting Chinese, if Chinese are like you, I don't think so many people in our two countries will have to die like now." ”

"Lesha, the Chinese are not interesting, we Chinese have been bullied for forty or fifty years, and finally it is time to turn over, in fact, we are holding grudges, we cannot forget many things, especially the disasters and humiliations brought to us by others, and we cannot tolerate others pouring salt on our wounds. If you understand this, you should understand why we are fighting this war here now. ”

Wang Nianhua took the white flag, shook hands with Liesha, and walked slowly towards his own position.

An hour later, Wang Nianhua appeared at the headquarters of Lieutenant General Xiao Lieri, commander of the Second Field Army of the Chinese Army.

Xiao Lieri read Ivalov's letter of persuasion, pinched the eight-character nonsense on his mouth and laughed: "Ha, it's bloody, I'm finally in the mood to write a letter of persuasion, but he didn't give any face, so he had to do it with real guns and knives, let them know the power of my Chinese empire, and I'm afraid that when the time comes, he will beg us to surrender." ”

Chief of Staff Hu was frightened but did not hesitate to expose him: "The letter of persuasion was written by me at all, and you just signed it later, and you had no idea of persuading him to surrender in the first place." ”

Xiao Lieri said with a smile: "Oh, the commander and the chief of staff are two in one, what you write is equivalent to what I wrote, and what I write is equivalent to what you write, so clearly what to do." What's more, the enemy has no intention of surrendering in the first place, and it is written in vain, what I mean is that no matter what you do, you can beat him hard first, and if he is convinced, he will naturally soften, and then negotiate surrender when the time comes, which can be regarded as a little face on their faces. ”

Hu tilted his head in horror and turned to Wang Nianhua: "Staff Officer Wang, did you find any news when you went deep into the enemy camp this time?" ”

Wang Nianhua sighed: "The enemy is too tightly guarded, and I can't find out much, I only heard something that is difficult to verify from a Russian officer who took care of me, according to him, the Russian army can now fight no less than 40,000 regular troops, and more than 10,000 militiamen, sufficient food, flour is enough for the whole city to eat for nine months, and when it comes to the fortress, the breastwall that looks like a patchwork of pebbles and stones is actually thick reinforced concrete, which is difficult to destroy with artillery fire......"

Hu nodded while listening, and after Wang Nianhua finished his report, he turned to Xiao Lieri again: "It's not much different from what we originally expected, the fortress is very strong, and the reserves should be sufficient. ”

The so-called positive offensive method is a conventional tactic for attacking forts, which requires the attackers to carry out close combat while advancing to gradually approach the enemy's fortress, and then dig trenches, build bunkers, and construct a network of communication trenches parallel to the enemy's fortress line as the starting position for the attack, and also clear various obstacles in front of the enemy's main position, including barbed wire, power grids, outer trenches, etc. In the important breakthrough area, tunnels should also be dug under the enemy's fortress and a large amount of ZHA ammunition should be filled for blasting. The implementation of this tactic requires a lot of manpower and a long time, but it can reduce sacrifices, make the enemy feel the pressure of imminent pressure at all times, and increase the mental burden of the enemy army.

Xiao Lieri hesitated: "The base camp wants us to take the fortress before winter, if we adopt the main attack method, it will inevitably delay time and will not be able to complete the task on time." ”

Hu said in horror: "The original meaning of the base camp was to let us take the fortress before the winter, so as to free up our troops to go in other directions, but if we use up our troops in the attack on the fortress, then it can be regarded as going against the will of the above." ”

Xiao Lieri was embarrassed: "In this case, how should it be good, not to lose too much, but to limit the time, which aspect should be taken care of first?" ”

"I thought that human life mattered, and the current situation is not so tense, the main force of the enemy's reinforcements is blocked more than a thousand kilometers away, with the support of the First Army of Chita and the Praetorian Field Army of Hailan Pao, and the reserve strength of the front army is also very sufficient, it has not yet reached the point where we have to be on top of this army, and our strength advantage is not very large, if we attack quickly, we will soon be unbearable, and if we do not get further reinforcements, the time to seize the fortress will be even more delayed."

"Well, if the troops are consumed, you can ask for it again, if you can't complete the task on time, Wu Weigong will be held accountable......"

Hu shook his head in horror and sighed: "You have to take into account the words of Wu Weigong in everything, how can you lead the army to fight?" Front-line commanders always need to take some initiative. ”

"That's what is written in the textbook, but in practice, we must always conform to the general trend, although we are deeply cared for by Wuwei Gong, but the people who can be cared for by Wuwei Gong are not only me, who in the army does not want to rise to the top, there are many people who can replace us, if we do not do it according to Wuwei Gong's wishes, our future may be dangerous. Wu Weigong said that we would take the fortress before winter, we must not delay, no matter whether we are attacking or attacking, as long as we can complete the task, we will use the same means. ”

"But ......"

"The base camp is Wuwei Gong, and Wuwei Gong is the base camp, isn't it very clear? People like you and me, do you need more questions? ”

Hu was frightened and had nothing to say, so he had no choice but to follow the principle of time priority to draw up an operational plan, and the time for the general attack was tentatively set for 12 October.

The shadow of Liu Yun, the Duke of Wuwei, is always shrouded over the heads of his old and new officers, regardless of the weather, the sunshine, the wind, the rain, the thunder and lightning, because he is the sky, he is the cloud, the sunshine and the sun, he is the wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

Even a person with a violent personality like Xiao Lieri has to always follow the principle of "putting the will of Wu Weigong first", as long as he still has great hope for the future, he must continue to follow this principle until a certain day comes.

Although the day of the general assault was set for October 12, in the previous two days, the large and small battles around the fortress of Boli had not stopped, and the sound of guns and artillery was intermittent, dense and sparse, day and night, day and night, which made people uneasy.

The Chinese army tried to move the starting position as close as possible before the general attack, and under the cover of artillery fire, several mixed units of the Chinese army advanced forward at night, digging trenches in the dead corners of the Russian fortress, and connecting the front and rear trenches with communication trenches. During this period, of course, the Russian army would not sit idly by, under Ivalov's strict orders, the defenders launched a counterattack against the Chinese army with several battalions, and both sides fought fiercely on the front line for several days, both suffering heavy casualties, but the Russian army failed to expel the Chinese army from the newly constructed starting position.

On October 12, it was cloudy and overcast, but the wind was not strong, and early in the morning, several Chinese planes and an airship flew over the Boli Fortress and began to circle.

At about 8 o'clock, 10 "Qiangyun" heavy attack airships and 11 "Ziyun" medium-sized attack airships slowly drove over the B fortress of the fortress and dropped more than 200 500-kilogram bombs one after another, blowing down a large section of the fortress's breastwork and destroying many pillboxes attached to the fortress.

The huge airship painted with a golden dragon on the hull caused great panic to the defenders, this was the first time that the large attack airships of the Chinese army visited the fortress, because the Boli side was on the secondary side of the Northeast Front's operations, the Chinese army had not spent too much air resources here since the beginning of the war. But after all, today is the day of the general attack of the Second Field Army on the Boli Fortress, and the Front Army Command still has to make some representations anyway.

Before the airship could get away, Major General Hu Jingwei, chief of staff of the Second Field Army, known as the "King of Artillery," waved his hand at the forward command post and artillery command post less than three kilometers away from the enemy's forward position and ordered: "Artillery fire is ready to begin!" The first combat plan, six hours! ”

Because of his mastery of artillery operations, there was nothing wrong with Hu Jingwei concurrently serving as chief of staff as commander-in-chief of artillery.

Nine 305-mm heavy siege guns first spewed out 350 kilograms of huge projectiles with a roar that shook the earth, and the *zha medicine filled in the bullets was enough to destroy the breastwall of the mixed earth and stone fortress several meters thick, and for the stronger reinforced concrete fortifications, even if they could not collapse the fortifications, as long as they hit directly above the fortifications, it was still enough to make the vital force inside lose their combat effectiveness due to terrible shaking and loud noises.

36 150 mm heavy howitzers, 108 105 mm cannons as the main heavy artillery fire, pouring 40 and 20 kg projectiles towards the fortress, a large number of heavy artillery under the delicate control of Hu frightened, with extremely high efficiency and first-class accuracy to bombard the enemy position, under the guidance of the aviation unit's calibration fire, the enemy's counterattack fire was gradually suppressed, three hours after the start of the artillery battle, the Russian army gave up the artillery fire of the Chinese artillery position, Instead, it concentrated on bombarding the starting positions of the Chinese army, which had reached within 500 yards of their own front.

At about 12 o'clock, the Chinese infantry began to enter the starting position along the communication trench, and the heavy artillery shells of the Russian army exploded like a rain of clods of earth outside the trench, and from time to time smashed someone's head.

According to the predetermined plan, the attack was divided into three waves, the first wave consisted of 5 infantry regiments with a total of 20 infantry battalions, reinforced with light artillery, and the combat objective was to occupy the infantry trenches connecting the enemy's fortresses and permanent fortifications; The second wave consisted of 16 infantry battalions, reinforced with engineers, and the combat objective was to isolate and capture enemy fortresses and permanent fortifications; The third wave consisted of 16 infantry battalions, reinforced with engineers and light artillery, and the combat objective was to capture the line of the fort walls behind the enemy's fortress line.

In the fourth hour of the whole army's firepower preparation, the light artillery deployed in the forward position began to bombard fiercely, and more than 300 light howitzers, field guns and mortars poured bullets on the enemy's forward positions together, and the defenders of the first line of the Russian army were seriously killed and wounded, and had to retreat to the second line to temporarily avoid artillery fire.

At 14 o'clock, the barrage of the Chinese army began to extend to the enemy, and Xiao Lieri, commander of the Second Field Army, who was three kilometers away from the enemy's front line, saw through the telescope that his infantry poured out of the trenches like a tide and pounced on the enemy position.

"Damn, if only I could go up."

Xiao Lieri muttered quietly, Hu was frightened and heard clearly, and joked: "Then go, no one will stop you." ”

Xiao Lieri, whose brain was burning, immediately put down the binoculars and walked towards the guard carrying his heavy long knife, Hu was frightened and hurriedly shouted: "Everyone hurry up and grab the commander, his brain is on fire!" ”

The guards who knew Xiao Lieri's character well stopped him with all hands and feet, and Hu Jingwei even poured a cup of cold boiled water on his head and directly extinguished the fire for him.

As a result, there was no report in the war report of the imperial media that day, such as the commander of a certain army carrying the Qinglong Yanyue Sword in person and going into battle, but was beaten to the point that his soul was born, his body was incomplete, and his seven orifices bloomed.

This small episode did not affect the overall situation of the battlefield, tens of thousands of Chinese infantry began to advance to the fortress, the fierce artillery fire has destroyed part of the barbed wire in front of the enemy's position, and the sappers continue to open up the road in the minefield and barbed wire array with blasting canisters, due to the blazing artillery bombardment of the Chinese army, there are few defenders left in the Russian army's first-line trenches, and the first attack wave of the Chinese army has experienced several small-scale white-knives battles, controlled the first-line trenches, and then launched an attack on the Russian fortress line.

The battle immediately became difficult, the Russian fortress was unusually strong, although it withstood six hours of shelling, the outer wall collapsed in many places, but the reinforced concrete inner wall was exposed, the defenders fired fiercely from the solid shooting holes, and on the trench line between the forts, a large number of Russian infantry was also relying on the protection of the trenches to hit the advancing Chinese infantry with accurate rifle machine gun fire.

The first attack wave was quickly suppressed, and only the 60th Infantry Regiment, which was attacking the vicinity of the enemy's C fortress, captured a small section of the trench on the left side of the fort, but was immediately driven out by the counterattacking Russians.

At about 16 o'clock, the second attack wave entered the battle, but it was still unable to break through the Russian fortress line, and the Russian army successively entered the front line with small reserves, firmly controlling the position.

"Third Wave Strike!"

Xiao Lieri roared angrily, if the roar could solve any problems, the empire should make more full use of the throats of the officers and soldiers from now on.

The third attack wave directly charged the enemy fortress, with an assault ladder erected on the wide trench in front of the fortress, and rushed straight to the chest wall of the fortress, trying to rush into the fortress from the collapsed part of the chest wall, but the Russian army had already arranged, the front of the fortress was covered with electric mines, and the inner wall of the trench was arranged with a dark fort. When the Chinese soldiers rushed close to the breastwork of the fortress, the mine was triggered, and the blood and flesh were splashed for a while, and the Russian soldiers entered the bunker at the same time, opened the hidden shooting hole, and opened fire on the Chinese soldiers who were crossing the trench from the ladder, and many Chinese officers and soldiers were inexplicably shot in the back and fell into the bottom of the trench.

The 3rd Battalion of the 88th Regiment, which attacked the enemy's A fortress that day, was all wiped out, and no one survived.

At night, Xiao Lieri had to order to stop the attack, switch from attack to defense, and first control the enemy's first-line position captured that day.

The cost of 8,200 casualties forced him to reconsider the battle plan.

"It's better to take your time, and you have to think about long-term shelling and tunnel operations."

Xiao Lieri sighed to Hu Jingzhen, Hu Jingzhen had expected this, but he shook his neck helplessly and slightly easily.

After surviving the first day of the Chinese army's general offensive, Lieutenant General Ivalov, the commander of the Boli Fortress, did not feel relaxed, the position on the front line of the fortress was held, and the defenders under his command also paid a great price, 1,900 men were killed, and three times as many officers and soldiers were wounded. The Chinese army controlled the forward line less than five hundred yards from the fortress line, ready to launch another large-scale attack at any time.

"Replenish the fort, repair the damaged parts of the fort, rearrange the minefields and barbed wire ......"

Ivalov issued a series of orders instructing his men to strengthen the defense of the fortress line, and he had made up his mind that he would live and die with the fortress, even if it was only for the sake of his own honor.

However, the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Lithorg, did not think so, and he also made up his mind that in any case, he should find a way to protect the large wealth he had scavenged by all means, and for this he should do whatever it takes.

It was nearly midnight, and the 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the fortress, whether it was the general or the district chief, were gradually falling asleep, when suddenly a fierce explosion and gunfire were heard, waking up many people, including Ivalov.

"What's going on?"

Ivalov, dressed in his military uniform, came to the hall of the residence and questioned the officer on duty.

"General, I received a cable telegram from the side of Fort C, the enemy has launched a night attack on the fort, asking for reinforcements."

Ivalov was about to issue an order, when the staff officer on duty, who was sitting next to the telegraph operator, interjected: "I have ordered the 2nd battalion of the reserve to rush to the fortress to support in accordance with the general's prior arrangement. ”

Ivalov nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, then I'll leave it to you, and call me in case of an emergency that I didn't expect beforehand." ”

"Yes, General, please rest in peace."

Burleigh Fortress C Fortress.

Columns of searchlight swept across the open space in front of the fort, clearly reflecting craters of varying shades and mutilated corpses.

A night attack by the Chinese army had just been thwarted, and a reinforced battalion led by Major Su Dingfang took advantage of the night to raid Fortress C, but was exposed to the bright light of the enemy's searchlights and flares, and was devastating by the enemy's machine gun fire.

A man crawled slowly among the corpses, his face covered in gray soot, his military uniform stained with blood, his military hat long gone, and his hair covered in mud.

"Ah, damn it, is it just dead? What an unwillingness! ”

The man muttered to himself in a mosquito-like voice, looked around, and saw the beam of the searchlight sweeping towards him, and quickly bowed his head.

The beam swept over the man, creating a circular spot of light, and the man's body was right in the middle of it.

An explosion sounded not far away, and the light flak disappeared leisurely.

The Nightshade reigns back over the land.

"Su Dingfang, God still won't let you die."

The man muttered softly as he crawled away from the fortress.

Su Dingfang is the name of this man, the former commander of the first battalion of the 59th Regiment of the 20th Brigade of the Seventh Division, and the reason why he wanted to add the word "original" before this position was because the battalion he led had almost completely been wiped out a few minutes ago.

Su Dingfang's calf was wrapped in a small bandage, and a dazzling blood flower bloomed on the thin bandage.

The pain of the wound made Su Dingfang can't help but recall the scene about half an hour ago.

Facing the dazzling searchlight, he rushed to the front of the group, behind him was a majestic shout, and then he saw countless bright tongues of fire erupting from the broken wall in front of him, he was shot in the leg, fell to the ground, countless feet shook in front of his eyes, the sound of guns became more and more intense, the shouts became weaker and weaker, and gradually, there were no more shaking feet in front of him, and there was no longer the sound of battle in his ears, although his heart was unwilling, he involuntarily became unusually calm.

He remembered that when he was just injured, a health soldier from the battalion headquarters came to his side and pulled out a bandage to bandage him, but when he was halfway through the bandage, a shell exploded next to him, and the young health soldier suddenly opened his eyes wide, snorted softly, and fell on Su Dingfang's leg, and an irregular bullet hole in the back of his head slowly flowed out of his brain.

"Tofu flowers still have to be drunk with brown sugar water to be comfortable."

This strange thought suddenly popped up in Su Dingfang's mind, but it made him shudder.

He crawled numbly past one corpse after another, not in the mood to look at the faces of the dead men, and he knew that many of them were his men, and perhaps some officers of his rank, and that before he set out, he had heard that two battalion commanders of the 60th Regiment had disappeared during the attack on Fort C during the daytime battle.

More than 700 people in a battalion turned into a pile of rotten bones within half an hour, and Su Dingfang, the commander of the bare battalion, crawled among the corpses of his subordinates, but only numbness was left in his heart.

"This is the war, hum, the war that the newspapers sing about is so majestic, so magnificent, what is it to die of us people, as long as those who do not have to go to the front in person can continue to be hot-headed and continue to be self-absorbed, even if a hundred battalions are sacrificed, a thousand battalions do not matter!"

"What are these seven hundred? Hmph, hum, isn't it just to sacrifice your life for the empire? What is Empire? What is an emperor? Long live the empire, and long live the emperor of the Aixin Jueluo family? What do we die for? Yes, this was originally the land of the Qing Dynasty, but how come few people in my father's generation know what Dao Boli is and what Vladivostok is, I called all the way, why didn't I see traces of Chinese cultural relics here? There are no Manchus here, no Han people are seen, all whites and barbarians who don't know each other, no one can write Chinese characters, no one knows the Tao of the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucius and Mencius, is this really our place? Do we have to shed blood for such a place? Yes, we are dead, not even as ants, the empire has people, there are people everywhere, what is it to die of us? We—we're just consumables like grain and wood, what honor, what greatness, what's the matter? ”

"But why did I think of this? Isn't this all contrary to the principles of military education? Halu haha, forget it, what is the principle of military education, my seven hundred subordinates were all killed in half an hour, just because I wanted to be in the limelight, wanted to ask for merit and rewards, and offered to attack this fortress at night, hahaha, I killed them, it was me, I brought them to die! ”

Su Dingfang laughed with tears, grabbed a rifle as a support, and shook to stand up.

"Danger!"

A voice came from behind Su Dingfang, and then, a pair of hands pressed on his shoulders, crushing him to the ground.

While struggling to stand up again, Su Dingfang shouted hysterically: "Leave me alone! I am a murderer, and I will let me pay with my life, and they are all dead, so why am I still alive? Why do you still keep me alive! What face do I have to go back? What will Commander Xiao think of me! What will everyone think of me! I'm out of the way! You let go of me! ”

The big hands still pressed Su Dingfang's shoulders strongly: "Battalion commander, please calm down, things are not so bad!" ”

Su Dingfang stopped struggling, suddenly flipped over, pointed to the other party's face, and shouted in surprise: "Huang Lian Chang, it's you, you haven't ...... yet"

The person who came was Huang Yongchun, the commander of the second company of the first battalion, and at the same time a strong soldier with strong muscles, he was ordered to lead a task force to cross the Heluo River in the battle of Holuo to reconnoiter the positions of the Russian army, and in the battle with the Russian army, the commander of the enemy and Luo defenders, Colonel Radovinosky, dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Russian army, and thus won the ninth class of the Green Dragon Medal with a dragon's eye and ruby. (See Chapter 71)

Su Dingfang noticed that Huang Yongchun still had the new medal awarded two days ago on his chest, and couldn't help asking: "Company Commander Huang, do you also have to wear the medal when you charge?" ”

"Hanging this, you can boost morale - in fact, the main thing is to boost my own morale, don't look at my usual fierce look, in fact, I really went to the battlefield, I still feel a little panicked, hang this medal, I feel different, thinking that I am different from others, I must do better than others. But it can't be helped, the bullet doesn't recognize people, no, I also got a shot in the thigh. ”

Huang Yongchun said, pointing to the wound on the right thigh to show Su Dingfang, Su Dingfang sighed and said, "There are only two of us left, and the first battalion is over...... Have you ever met anyone alive along the way? ”

"When I met two, I just had a breath in my nose and couldn't speak anymore, and I was injured myself, so I couldn't carry them, so I gave up."

Su Dingfang groaned for a moment, and suddenly grabbed Huang Yongchun's shoulder: "You take me, I'll carry them back with you." ”

Huang Yongchun was surprised: "What? In that case, we may not be able to go back......"

"We weren't supposed to go back in the first place, and now we've just found a reason to go back. If it is true that things are not as bad as you say, and we must bring back as many people as possible who are still alive. ”

Huang Yongchun stared at Su Dingfang's eyes, as if he saw a dead man suddenly come back to life.

Before the sun rose, Su Dingfang and Huang Yongchun each dragged a seriously wounded man into the trench of their own troops, and everyone put them on stretchers, first to the brigade field bandaging station for emergency treatment of wounds, and then immediately to the division field hospital, where two seriously wounded were confirmed dead.

After Su Dingfang and Huang Yongchun underwent bullet removal surgery, they were placed in the same nursing tent.

With the sound of dense cannons from afar, Huang Yongchun said to Su Dingfang: "I heard that the two people we brought back are dead. ”

"Dead......"

Su Dingfang replied casually, his eyes kept wandering at the door of the tent, he had recovered his original self, he was no longer desperate, he was waiting, waiting for new opportunities, new hopes.

Hundreds of thousands of people are fighting outside, countless people are going to die, there is no hope for the dead, there are still people who are about to die, but how big is the difference between the two?