Dominate the Country

[Thanks to book friend ‘An Old Old Bookworm’ for the 500-coin reward]

In the south of Xuzhou City, the Fuhan Army's artillery shells accurately landed on the Qing Army's position.

The Xuzhou city wall, which was more than three feet high, was lying on the ground like a rolling dragon. The entire city wall was twisted and collapsed. In these days, although the Fuhan Army had a lot of spare power, it still carried out blasting on the Xuzhou city wall, especially the southern city wall and its urn city. Every time the sound of landslides and ground cracks was like a section of the city wall. collapse.

Of the nearly five miles long south city wall, only a few hundred or two hundred feet of the city wall are still standing firmly, and they are divided into five or six long and short sections.

The moat has long been filled in.

Comparing Jining at the same time, if Jining is still a cake with the cream scraped off and cut several times, Xuzhou City is a cake that has been squeezed hard for ten minutes!

Twenty or thirty cannons were arranged on the artillery position directly south of Xuzhou, and the momentum was much greater than that of the Battle of Jining that was going on at the same time. Some of these cannons had only been transported via the Yellow River in recent days. After Li Shiyao's deliberate destruction, the water level of the Yellow River dropped a lot. Although no major disaster was caused, it is true that navigation was difficult.

Artillery plus mortars, solid bullets and splitting bullets, and a few rockets from time to time.

The Fuhan Army's artillery bombardment was still very powerful. Moreover, the cannonballs were more accurate, because there was also a balloon team that was transported to Xuzhou, with hot air balloons floating in the sky as 'eyes'. Strips of blue-black smoke columns rising from the ruins of the south of Xuzhou City, from time to time. Broken limbs were blown apart and flying in all directions.

Li Xingyuan has already reached the front line, holding a telescope in his hand and watching the battle with a gloomy face. Chen Ni is really powerful. There are twenty or thirty cannons lined up outside the south of Guangcheng. If you add the mortars, wouldn't it be as high as fifty? !

And how many cannons are left in the entire Xuzhou city?

And they still have a group of heavy artillery behind them that haven't fired yet, or they haven't had time yet.

And now this kind of firepower already occupies an absolute advantage on the battlefield. A bombardment by our own army's artillery will expose the artillery position, and it will immediately attract a covering bombardment from the Fuhan army's artillery - there are those damn balloons floating in the sky, and you can't hide them even if you want to. This thing is really ‘cheating’, it’s a headache!

Even in the dark night, you can see a bright will-o'-the-wisp floating in the sky. Once the 'prey' is captured, there will be at least a dozen or more dozens of artillery pieces on the opposite side, and the burst of fire will be as dazzling as if the position has been turned into a thunder pool.

The thirty minutes of artillery preparations ended in the blink of an eye, and the position was shrouded in smoke, but everyone knew that after the artillery fire, the infantry charge would begin! Li Xingyuan quickly sent an order and ordered all troops to enter combat positions! The Fuhan Army is about to come up.

A battalion of Fuhan troops was thrown into the battlefield. They have received the order, no need to play around anymore, fight! What a fight! Beat him hard!

The battalion officers shouted slogans. This was a battalion-wide attack. The battalion officers, adjutants, staff officers, instructors, etc. all walked in the formation with their heads held high.

"Take Xuzhou!"

Hearing the roar of their battalion officer, more officers squeezed out the same shout from their chests. The more than 400 soldiers in the entire battalion stood up straight, holding their rifles with bayonets tightly, and strode forward with the officers waving sabers.

The soldiers surged like a tidal wave. While advancing, he stretched out his formation and set up a standard skirmish line!

Such a large-scale skirmish attack was rarely seen on the European battlefields of this era, perhaps unique. However, as for China, the generals of the Fuhan Army other than Chen Ming did not have a deep understanding of volleyball killing, and Chen Ming himself had no good impression of volleyball killing. So don't talk about a skirmishing attack on the scale of an entire battalion. Don't be surprised if one day there is a skirmishing attack on the scale of an entire regiment in China.

This time the team attacked from the south of Xuzhou City, using the second gap from the west as the breakthrough point. This was not a casual attack order given by the commander, but was decided by Chen Ming himself. He didn't know the reason. Anyway, the morale of the Qing army defenders at the gap was very low, and looking at the scale of 'morale', the number of people there was also quite small.

The smoke and dust provided a layer of cover for the attacking Fuhan Army, and the Qing army was unable to conduct a detailed observation of the Fuhan Army's attacking troops. Standing on the front line of the Qing army, Li Xingyuan and several equally experienced officers watched all this with ice-cold faces!

Ice is cold, heavy, solid, and calming.

Scattered gunfire rang out. The Qing troops in Xuzhou City are moving slowly. Even when they are moving, they must carefully avoid the 'eye' in the sky, because in the past few days, they have been captured twice while their troops were gathering. The sudden artillery attack caused them to fall apart, and the entire team fell into a sea of ​​fire. That's what the damn hot air balloon did!

Although the destructive power of the cannon's explosive shells is far less powerful than that of the howitzer [mortar], you can't withstand their density and speed. Howling shrapnel can instantly turn the assembly area into a morgue that devours human lives.

After suffering two losses, the Qing army did not learn to be obedient.

In this way, until the distance is close to 200 meters. Only then did the Qing soldiers start shooting. The Fuhan Army launched another three rounds of rapid artillery attacks, and the offensive troops began their final charge amidst the loud orders of the battalion officer.

"Rush!!"

There was no passionate and high-pitched shouting, just a simple cry to kill, and then the most shocking 'Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! ’

The Qing army stood up from the ruins and waved their swords and guns to greet them, and the sound of fighting between the two sides resounded throughout Xuzhou. Then, as Chen Ming expected, the two sides had just fought each other, and the Qing army guarding the gap was retreating steadily. The Fuhan soldiers, still stained with blood, were like a group of fierce ghosts rushing out of hell, slaughtering He went to the Qing army and quickly occupied the Qing army's positions! Then Chen Ming saw a reddened 'morale' quickly rushing to the fighting place for reinforcements.

Chen Ming ordered the artillery to bombard immediately, but the effect was not great. He also did not continue to give instructions, which would have been too 'unreasonable'.

"Hit!" Li Xingyuan rushed over with his troops. He held a gun in his hand and aimed a shot at a Fuhan Army officer wielding a saber! But missed!

Then a wave of grenades were thrown over. The Fuhan Army's offensive force was hit head-on, and the soldiers screamed and fell down one after another, although there were more Qing soldiers accompanying them.

Li Xingyuan's extremely cruel fighting style made the Fuhan Army hateful. Thirty or forty soldiers fell to the ground. So far in the battle, the casualties of the attacking troops were still less than this number. But this did not scare them, but instead aroused the fighting spirit and burning anger of the soldiers. Tell the Qing army the answer with one bayonet after another! Behind them, the second batch of troops, still a battalion, was advancing rapidly!

The group of Qing troops behind Li Xingyuan were very brave. Whether they were flag soldiers wearing cotton armor or Qing soldiers wearing uniforms, they all waved their swords and guns and fiercely pounced on the Fuhan army.

The bullet grazed Li Xingyuan's cheek, leaving a trail of blood. Li Xingyuan felt no pain at all during the battle.

The second batch of Fuhan troops rushed from behind, and Li Shiyao also sent out another of his gold medal thugs, Fengshan.

"Hit me, hit me hard!"

Chen Ming was standing at the artillery position at this time, and heard the high-pitched shouts of the artillery commander in his ears.

The light and medium artillery in the front array and the heavy artillery in the rear array fired at full speed. The sound of cannon fire was accompanied by gunpowder smoke, and it was as if the entire Xuzhou could be annihilated.

"One strand, two strands, three strands..."

There were three reinforcements before and after the selected breakthrough, two small and one large. The small 'morale' is solid and glowing with red, while the large 'morale' is not only loose, but also pure white.

Chen Ming has fought so many times and has a deep understanding of the 'morale' bug that doesn't seem to be very effective.

Red or white is a sign of morale. For example, the morale of the Fuhan Army is almost invisible in white, and the worst garrison is also light red. The current Qing army is mainly white. And if the morale of the troops on any side suddenly appears black, it means that someone wants to rebel and rebel.

Of the three forces reinforced by the Qing army, two were obviously elite soldiers, and one was a large force. Morale is as loose as cotton wool!

In the end, the Fuhan Army's offensive troops withdrew from Xuzhou City. Too many people came from the Qing army.

But after the Fuhan Army retreated, the entire breach area was already filled with dead bodies. There were layers of corpses on both sides. Although the retreating Fuhan army did not want to discard the remains of their comrades, they had to withdraw from the city.

Even if some soldiers were trapped in the Qing army's formation and unable to escape, they had no idea of ​​surrender in their minds.

The country's military pay and land are not so easy to obtain. If he is captured due to cowardice or surrenders voluntarily, even if he is still alive after the Qing army in Xuzhou is destroyed, he is destined to go to a military court and be punished depending on the severity of the situation. As for all the preferential treatment and military merit they received because of joining the army, they will also be deprived of all.

Not only do their parents and family have to go back to the hard life of the past, but their relatives and friends will also be labeled as 'traitor family members'. Everyone will look at them differently, and the family may not even survive the hard days of the past.

Therefore, the soldiers of the Fuhan Army were fighting with all their lives, in a completely crazy manner. After dropping their swords and guns, they would swing at everything they could grab. The only thing in their minds was to kill the people in front of them. , no matter what method is used!

The entire Battle of Xuzhou has been going on for such a long time, and the Qing army has hardly captured any Fuhan soldiers alive. Everyone learns war in war. For the soldiers of the Fuhan Army, at the most critical moment, even if they kill themselves, it is better than being captured. Although everyone is greedy for life, there are too many "things" more important than life in a person's life.

The sound of grenades exploding could be heard from time to time in the ruins. This is the warrior's choice!

Perhaps at this time, they did this largely out of "protection" of military merit fields, but the Fuhan Army had only been established for a few years? When Chen Han is firmly established, and when the Fuhan Army has been established for five years or ten years, this will become the tradition of an army and the backbone of a strong army!

Many of the explosions of grenades were caused by Fuhan Army soldiers who had been seriously injured or had reached the last moment and fired their own grenades.

This was the end of a hard-fought contest.

Two battalions of Fuhan Army soldiers attacked under the cover of shelling, and then retreated under the cover of shelling. Chen Ming didn't know how many enemies the two battalions had killed in total, but he knew that the two battalions lost a total of 112 soldiers in this battle. Those soldiers who failed to follow the team and withdraw from the battle can all be sacrificed to represent them.

On a high ground outside Xuzhou City, Perrier held up a telescope and looked at the extremely dilapidated Xuzhou City. Next to him stood Alvaro Martin, the Spanish commercial representative in Nanjing with a very ugly face.

The two men just saw a heroic scene. Two Fu Han soldiers who had no time to retreat pulled the grenade at the last moment. The flames of the explosion tore the bodies of the two men and took the lives of the Qing soldiers around them, which shocked Perrier and Alvaro Martin for a long time.

"This is a brave army. The Chinese regard surrender as the greatest shame for soldiers!" Although Perrier did not understand this point, why this ancient country, this ancient civilization, was so disgusted with "surrender", he had to express his admiration for such soldiers.

Alvaro Martin remained silent.

At this time in Europe, soldiers chose to surrender helplessly and return to their own countries through ransom or prisoner exchange. Although it was not a very honorable thing for the commander, it was also very normal. China...

When the time turned to the evening, a troop appeared in the south of Xuzhou City, still the second gap from the west.

Shi Meng looked at the soldiers in front of him with a trace of nostalgia in his eyes. This battalion, which still retains the tank battalion, is also a subsequent unit formed based on the original tank battalion. Many of the previous soldiers have been dispersed to the army as backbones or middle and low-level officers. At present, there are only about 200 veterans in this battalion, but it is still the fist force of the Guards Brigade.

Shi Meng could still wear heavy armor and lead the tank battalion to charge and fight, but now as a senior officer, he can only wait behind and watch the soldiers rush to the battlefield.

This battalion has more than 500 soldiers, and their height is generally over 1.8 meters. In China at this time, it can be called a giant battalion!

Chen Ming still made a breakthrough in the old place. This time it was not because there were few defenders there and their morale was still weak.

On the contrary, at this time, the Qing army guarding the second gap in the west of the south city was the place with the highest morale of the Qing army positions in the gaps on the three sides of the city wall of Xuzhou, and the troops were relatively strong.

If the attack during the day was to avoid the real and attack the fake, then now that Chen Ming has sent out the tank battalion, he must start from the strongest point of the Qing army and crush it more forcefully!

"Attack--"

Under the cover of artillery fire, the battalion officer of the tank battalion waved the broadsword in his hand and shouted loudly.

Five hundred soldiers in iron armor, like an ancient legion resurrected from the long river of history, walked towards Xuzhou City.

Perrier swallowed a mouthful of saliva, he was surprised by the appearance of the five hundred soldiers in iron armor. It was like a medieval European knight resurrected in front of him. These soldiers threw away their muskets, took off their breastplates, put on another set of armor, and held such barbaric cold weapons as broadswords and iron bars in their hands, so an extremely barbaric army appeared.

This army is very primitive, pure cold weapons, and even grenades are only equipped by a few people. But you can never deny their super melee ability. Especially at night when firepower is not easy to use, if this army fights hand-to-hand with the Qing army...

Perier thought of the Qing soldiers' attire in his cognition, and then he shuddered deeply. Massacre, it was a complete massacre!

Gunshots rang out infrequently. Amidst the artillery fire, the tank battalion soldiers rushed into the gap one by one. The Qing soldiers holding muskets had already prepared their bayonets early, and the muskets were useless in the dark night, while more Qing soldiers skillfully used swords and guns. But it was useless!

Li Xingyuan's mouth was torn, and his waist knife fell to the ground. The next moment, he was thrown to the side by his personal soldiers, and then he was quickly carried back by his personal soldiers. Li Xingyuan's eyes were always staring at the front, watching the giant man in iron armor waving a big knife to kill all the five or six personal soldiers who were protecting him. He was a military scholar, and he didn't put down his bows, horses, fists and feet on weekdays, but today he was defeated and had nothing to say.

After the giant wielded his sword and killed two more Qing soldiers, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet ejected from the fire not far away hit the iron armor on his chest. With a "bang", he fell back three or four steps as if he had been hit hard, and fell on a section of the breastwork made of sandbags. But just when Li Xingyuan thought the giant was dead, he stood up again, touched the iron armor that had been pierced by the bullet with his hand, but he seemed to have done nothing, and reached out to grab the sword again.

In addition to the outer breastplate and iron sheet, the armor of the tank battalion also has a layer of cotton armor inside, which is made of cotton leather and silk interlayer, and has strong bulletproof ability.

Li Xingyuan was desperate.

Cruel hand-to-hand combat! The elite Qing army under Li Xingyuan's command was rapidly decreasing in number. The sound of pistol and musket shooting had long faded from the battlefield. The Qing army defending the ruins in small groups was crushed by the tank battalion soldiers with absolute combat power.

He Wenxiu, the instructor in the battalion, was stabbed in the thigh and back. He was only 22 years old and the father of three children. He lay forever on this land. Although the big men in the tank battalion were generally very painful for the "instructor", when they saw He Wenxiu's body, I don't know how many people felt as if they were stabbed in the heart.

The battalion officer looked up and looked around. He was wounded all over his body, but he seemed to feel no pain at all. He was looking for the Qing army seriously.

Fengshan brought troops to support, and then Fengshan was also in trouble.

Li Shiyao had no choice but to gather his troops to rush to plug the hole. If he could do it, he would not gather troops in the dark, which would simply give the Fu Han Army's artillery heads. If the team did not gather in a big way, and only let the officers lead people to reinforce the hole separately, it would be good if half of the ten people could reach the hole. And the arrival time is different, it is likely to become a fuel battle!