Chapter 242: Breakthrough

To be honest, Dong Fuxiang, who used to be a bandit and then worked with Zuo Zongtang, still has some war talent. Although K Update has not systematically received modern military education, combined with his many years of experience in the army and several modern military books he has read in private, Dong Fuxiang clearly feels that he must break through, and the whole army may be wiped out if he is one step late!

Seeing that the troops of Ronglu and Iktanga had failed in several attacks, a massive group charge was sent to death under the blow of the trench system and machine-gun mortars and heavy artillery. Although Rong Lu had already put 12 105mm heavy guns into the battlefield, and the rumbling cannon could be heard even in Dong Fuxiang in Hushan, Dong Fuxiang knew that even with heavy artillery support, it would be quite difficult to break through the position. After all, if it could, a new wave of assaults would have been launched long ago.

Now the only thing I can rely on is myself. Dong Fuxiang carefully analyzed the situation on the battlefield, and the meaning of the Japanese army's encirclement and reinforcement was quite clear, so in the direction of Hushan, the Japanese army's troops were mostly alert troops, and there were not many heavy weapons. The real combat power is laid out in the blocking positions on the periphery. But that doesn't mean it's easy to break through. The Japanese army increased its depth by setting up multiple lines of defense, and then bought time for defense, so if they blindly adopted the method of breaking through one line of defense to occupy one line of defense and then attacking the next line of defense, I am afraid that they would still be blocked by Japanese reinforcements at the end.

"How's that okay?" Dong Fuxiang muttered to himself. As the saying goes, three stinkers beat Zhuge Liang. Dong Fuxiang didn't know much about the staff system, but he still understood it after brainstorming. Just because you can't think of a way doesn't mean you can't think of a way. After discussion, everyone had a general understanding of the battle situation, first of all, it was absolutely impossible to rush out of the city with all the equipment. There weren't enough horses, and the 24 guns didn't work. Secondly, it is necessary to form a continuous assault and not give the Japanese army time to mobilize troops, otherwise if you are slow, according to the current firepower of the Japanese army, the Japanese army relies on the trench system with only 2,500 people to lock the retreat of the whole army.

In view of these two understandings, Dong Fuxiang and his subordinates made the following tactical arrangements for the breakthrough: First, the task of the artillery team was to use up all the artillery shells to cover the breakthrough of the troops during the retreat. Then blow up the artillery. In order to ensure the accuracy of the artillery and the suddenness of the strike, Dong Fuxiang specially sent several scout teams to the direction of several alternative breakthrough directions to conduct a trial. And the artillery also had to advance covertly, firing at as close as possible.

Second, the breakthrough operation must be swift. After breaking through a blockade line, it is necessary to attack a defensive line under the city after a little rectification, but at the same time, it is necessary to be prepared to deal with the counterattack that the opponent may devote himself to, so Dong Fuxiang specially transferred part of his troops to form an independent flank covering force. In order to ensure the firepower of the cutting troops, Dong Fuxiang strengthened most of the light machine guns and grenadiers obtained from Beiyang to the cutting troops.

When everything is ready. Dong Fuxiang's breakthrough battle officially kicked off. Although the Japanese army was already aware of Dong Fuxiang's actions, the tactical literacy of this army was obviously much stronger than that of the siege relief troops outside! Moreover, the threat posed by the artillery shelling, both in terms of accuracy and suddenness, is much higher than that of the 105mm heavy guns that bombard the position from a distance!

And in the direction of the breakthrough chosen, Dong Fuxiang still made some plans. He didn't choose the direction of Rong Lu's artillery bombardment to break through, although it seemed that it might be easier to have fire cover, but in fact, where the defense was also the strongest. Dong Fuxiang chose the joint of the Japanese army to break through. Under the onslaught of artillery. Dong Fuxiang's assault team occupied the first line of defense relatively smoothly, but the real test had just begun. …,

In fact, the first line of defense is only a cordon, the real line of defense is the second, when Dong Fuxiang launched another attack, the Japanese blocking troops have already entered the position. At this time, the Beiyang-made light and heavy machine guns and Gatling guns will be fired at each other, and mortars and grenadiers and mortars will be fired at each other; in addition to the quantitative factor, the quality of the officers and men and the terrain will play a large role.

From the point of view of tactics and individual skills, the Japanese army clearly had an advantage, while the advantage of the Qing army was that the light weapons were relatively sophisticated and lightweight, and the number was larger, and the bullets on both sides swept towards the other side like tongues of fire, while mortars and mortars were looking for the opponent's machine gun fire points to suppress. For a while, the two sides fought half a catty, no one had much advantage, the two sides were constantly exchanging, the Qing army had just knocked out one of the other party's Maxine machine gun positions with mortars, and before they had time to transfer, the mortar was destroyed by the mortar.

The stalemate on the battlefield is not what Dong Fuxiang wants to see. As time passed, the Japanese army would become stronger and stronger, and the chances of their own survival would become more and more slim with the passage of time. At this critical juncture, the previous battlefield experience finally helped Dong Fuxiang again, since the infantry couldn't rush head-on, why not take a detour to the side? Although the Japanese troops on the opposite side had fierce firepower, their numbers were not particularly large, and the defensive area was relatively narrow. Therefore, Dong Fuxiang divided part of the infantry to attack from both sides, and used all the artillery pieces that were in front of the front and within reach to suppress the defensive line on both sides of the Japanese army.

I have to say that Dong Fuxiang's intuition is still very keen. The tactic of detouring from the flanks quickly worked, and the Japanese had to divide their forces to protect the two flanks when the flanks were threatened, and the tide of battle quickly became unbalanced. What was originally a battle with only one engagement was turned into three faces, and the opposing side had more troops to maintain the density of firepower. But the Japanese defenders did not have this condition. And this ultimately led to the collapse of the defensive line.

In the face of this last line of defense, Dong Fuxiang has seen the dawn of victory. As long as you work harder, you will finally get rid of the fate of being surrounded and annihilated. But with victory in sight, the biggest crisis happened! The Japanese reinforcements rushing from the flank blocked the Qing army's rearguard who had not had time to evacuate! Originally, Dong Fuxiang left the flank to cover the troops, but after all, this was the first battle, when the main force moved, the flank covering troops did not quickly occupy the key points to arrange the defense line, but retreated with the main force, which made it difficult for the Japanese army to break through.

In this way, the flank line was broken through under the cover of the Japanese pig-turgy machine gun mortars. And almost all the rearguard and artillery corps were re-blocked in the encirclement. "Rush back and rescue your colleagues?"

This thought just flashed in Dong Fuxiang's mind. "It's simply impossible." Dong Fuxiang's reason told himself. Now the support of the artillery team has been lost, and the heavy artillery of the Japanese army has been targeted, and the number of troops to close the gap is even larger. In this case, more than 2,000 people, who only had mortars and machine guns, had no chance of rushing back. Therefore, Dong Fuxiang rationally chose to attack the most rearly defensive line, and then quickly withdrew after breaking through to join Rong Lu's main force.

The general offensive of the entire Yalu River campaign lasted more than a day. After Dong Fuxiang led the remnants to join Ronglu, the gap in the defense line of the Yalu River could not be sealed completely. Rong Lu's northwest training army and Iktanga's northeastern army were completely divided into two groups, Iketanga's troops retreated to Jiulian City, while Ronglu's army retreated towards Andong. Although there is still an advantage in troops, but in the case of one of these two troops being severely damaged and the other being frightened. It was obviously impossible to flank Kitaro's 3rd Division.

However, the Japanese army did not immediately launch a further attack after gaining the bridgehead of Hushan, although the number of casualties was very small, but a considerable part of the troops and baggage had not yet been transported across the Yalu River. Moreover, the ammunition consumption of each unit in the battle was also quite large, but when the Qing army withdrew, the Japanese army launched several small-scale short assaults, and the harvest was quite rich, and a batch of ammunition, food and weapons were captured by the Japanese army. This somewhat alleviated the ammunition crisis of the Japanese army. And it strengthened Kitaro's military thinking of "fighting to feed war". From this moment on, the Japanese army turned into an outright "army of locusts". They even formed troops to loot supplies. Their actions and operational objectives are no different from those of bandits! …,

And for the combat power of the Qing army, Katsura Taro has a deeper understanding. Not to mention anything else, the Beiyang Land Division is absolutely first-class in terms of defense alone. Without more than 2 times the superiority of troops and enough artillery, it is not very possible to capture the fortifications of the Beiyang New Army that have been operating for a long time. In addition, Ronglu's northwest training combat power is quite poor compared to Beiyang, although Ronglu's troops are fairly equipped, but from low-level officers to senior officers, they lack the necessary modern military knowledge, so they can't play a role in the air.

According to Katsura Taro's comments, "Eiroku fought a war 30 years ago with modern weapons. As for the Eight Flags Green Camp or something, Katsura Taro directly chose to ignore it.

At the same time, the beaten and dust-faced Rong Lu finally recognized the reality, and finally calmed down after being splashed with cold water by the defeat before coming. Nearly 40,000 troops in the northwest have lost thousands of losses in just two days, and if they continue to fight like this, their own family resources will be completely destroyed in a few days. Recalling the days when Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Army was fighting in front a few months ago, he said cool things in the back, and he wanted to go to the battlefield to make meritorious contributions. Now it seems that the battle merits are not so easy to get, but I don't know when the little life will be lost.

It's not that Rong Lu didn't think about evacuating Anton. But his nearly 40,000 troops retreated after only two days of fighting, isn't this a loss of face for the imperial court? Both the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor hoped that their Manchurian-controlled army could make a contribution in this battle. As a result, the situation of relying on the Han people militarily was changed. For this reason, the imperial court can be said to have spared no effort, first of all, the soldiers were good, and Zuo Zongtang's subordinates were recovered, coupled with a large amount of appropriations and new equipment from the imperial court. The imperial court gave everything it could, but what was the result? After a big battle, the true form is revealed! How embarrassing are you to make the court.

In the next chapter, there will be the first scene of naval support for land in the Sino-Japanese War, so let's support it more——!