Chapter Fifty-Five: Artillery

  While Yuan Shikai and Zhu Zhitang were secretly negotiating in the carriage, thousands of miles away in Hubei, there was another scene.

  "Missed shot! Adjust azimuth ×××, elevation angle ×××! ...Ready, fire!"

  "Boom!"

  A loud explosion, a shell from the field gun flew more than ten miles away, accurately hitting the target, a column of black smoke rose into the air, covering up that pitch-black building.

  That building is the Zhonglie Temple outside the city of Hankou, where thousands of plaques are enshrined, all of which are the spirit tablets of the Qing dynasty's loyal and martyred generals and soldiers. When the Taiping Army attacked Hankou, a fire burned down the original temple, leaving nothing behind. This current temple was rebuilt during the Tongzhi era, and most of the plaques inside are those of the Xiang Army who died in battle. As for the earliest spirit tablets of the Eight Banners generals, they were long gone with the flames that destroyed the temple.

  Now, the building is a stronghold of the Qing army outside the city of Hankou. With the Zhonglie Temple as its base, the Qing army built two lines of defense outside the west gate of Hankou City, with trenches, barbed wire, earthworks, and artillery shelters, all kinds of modern military defensive facilities can be found on those two lines. Since the Republican Army's Western Expedition, the Wuhan Qing army has been preparing for battle for many days, and even the deployment of Hankou city's defense was guided by British officers.

  Hanyang is not comparable to Wuchang. There are both an arsenal and an iron foundry here, so for the Qing army, it would be better to lose Wuchang than to lose Hanyang. Therefore, from the very beginning, this place has been the focus of the Qing army's defense, and compared with the defensive fortifications of Hanyang, Wuchang can be said to be an undefended city.

  According to intelligence, the command post of the Qing army outside the city is likely to be set up in the Zhonglie Temple. Destroying it will leave the Qing army outside the city without a leader. Moreover, the previous firepower reconnaissance also made clear the range of the Qing army's artillery.

  Zhao Bei crouched in an unfinished foxhole at the front line, observing the impact points of the shells. He put down his binoculars and turned to a staff officer beside him: "Pass the order, all field guns in this unit are to be moved to the front line, concentrate firepower, and heavily bombard Zhonglie Ci, striving to completely destroy it! But remember, do not waste ammunition, every shell must be carefully calculated. Without the order of a battalion commander or above, no shells, even solid shots, are allowed to be fired!"

  The adjutant jotted down the order in his notebook and hastily ran to deliver it, but as soon as he straightened up, before he had even run out of the trench, he stumbled forward and fell flat on his face. At the same time, a burst of machine gun fire came from afar: "Rat-a-tat... rat-a-tat..."

  "Pull him back!" Zhao Bei shouted, quickly turning around, holding up the binoculars to search for the enemy's position, and soon found a newly appeared machine gun position.

  That machine gun was set up on the right flank of the Qing army's trenches. Judging from the sound of the shots, the machine gunner was a veteran. At such a distance, he could knock people down with certainty, and must have been using heavy bullets.

  Bang! Bang!

  The Republican army's position rang out with scattered rifle shots, attempting to suppress the Qing army's machine gun fire, but it was too far away and the aim was too poor. Moreover, the machine gun had been fitted with steel plates, making it difficult for ordinary bullets to penetrate - a lesson learned from the Russo-Japanese War, apparently now mastered by the Beiyang Army.

  The Republican position soon fell silent again, with insufficient ammunition to engage the Qing forces for a long time, and precious bullets could only be used in counter-attacks.

  "Shot in the back, already fallen." Guard Captain Tian Jinfu said as he approached Zhao Bei's side.

  Zhao Bei turned his head to glance at the staff officer, feeling a pang of regret in his heart. This was already the second combat staff officer he had lost within a day. If they had sufficient field communication equipment, such losses could have been avoided. Suppressing the anger in his chest, he raised his hand and pointed towards the Qing army's position, shouting: "After the artillery arrives, concentrate your firepower and give me a rapid barrage! Destroy that section of trenches!"

  "I'll go and pass on the order." Another aide was just about to stand up when he was pulled back by Tian Jinfu.

  "I'm going." Tian Jin said, and immediately left the scattered trenches, in the machine gun's firing sound, he crawled high and low, rolling and crawling towards the rear artillery position.

  The fog has cleared, the battlefield is in good view, the attacking side lost its cover and stopped advancing. The two sides are stuck like this. If it weren't for those abandoned trenches left by the Qing army, the Republican army wouldn't have been able to advance this far. However, these trenches are not easy to maneuver, some of the Republican army's front-line positions are completely exposed to the Qing army's firepower. The soldiers there can't even retreat and can only stay in the trenches, waiting for nightfall. If it weren't for the support of the artillery, I'm afraid some positions would have been lost already.

  Due to the intervention of the powerful fleet, the Republican Army's gunboat was unable to sail into the Han River. The Northern Navy had already crossed the river from upstream and rushed to reinforce the city of Hanyang. Now the Republican Army faced not only the patrol camp but also the Northern Navy, making this battle particularly difficult.

  "The Beiyang Army has finally arrived, I suppose." Zhao Bei sighed in his heart. "Yuan Shikai, you're really patient... That guy, could he have been killed by the Qing court?"

  Soon after, the Republican artillery positions were relocated and pushed forward to the rear of the first line position, out of range of the Qing army's artillery. With a single command from the commander, the cannons roared to life, raining down shells that fell near the machine gun position. The earth flew everywhere, thick smoke billowed, and the machine guns fell silent for a moment, but soon resumed their deafening roar, continuing to pour down a hail of bullets on the Republican forward positions.

  "Dada... dada..."

  The Qing army raised the muzzle of their machine gun and used it to rake the Republican artillery position with enfilading fire, but they were too far away. The artillerymen also placed steel plates in front of their guns, so no casualties were inflicted.

  According to military conventions, artillery positions cannot be too close to the front-line infantry positions. However, in order to eliminate the Qing army's command center at Zhonglie Temple, Zhao Bei had no choice but to take a risk and push his artillery forward to the first line of defense, using cannons to engage in "close combat" with the Qing army's infantry. If the cannons' range was far enough, they wouldn't have had to take such risks. Long-range artillery is not only a type of troop that the Republican Army lacks, but even the Beiyang Army doesn't have many long-range howitzers; otherwise, this battle would be even more arduous.

  The artillery continued to bombard the Qing army's position with firepower, eventually silencing that machine gun completely, but whether it had been destroyed or not, no one knew. After all, they were well-trained Beiyang troops, and not comparable to the musketeers of the patrol battalion.

  "Boom! Boom!"

  The Republican artillery turned their guns and opened fierce fire on the Qing army defending the Zhonglie Temple.

  "Boom! Boom!"

  The Qing army's shells also flew over, stirring up mud and black smoke on the Republican army's front line positions, but these shells were fired by the Hanyang City Defense Battalion, with most of the warheads filled with low-explosive black gunpowder, which had limited power and posed little threat unless they hit at close range. Moreover, most of the cannons used were mountain guns, whose range was far inferior to that of field artillery, and could not reach the Republican army's artillery positions.

  What posed a real threat to the Republican artillery was the Beiyang Army's artillery position on Tortoise Mountain, which used the latest large-caliber cannons loaded with explosive shells and had many field guns with ranges comparable to those of the Republican cannons.

  "Fortunately we are far from Guishan, otherwise the Beiyang Army would also be able to bombard us," said the staff officer.

  "But the Kuiyuan artillery can cover the Qing army on the Qin table, which is a great threat to our attacking troops. Moreover, if the Beiyang Army also moves its artillery positions forward, our artillery may not be able to suppress them." Zhao crawled to the other side of the scattered trenches and raised his binoculars to gaze northward, where the direction of the Qin table was also filled with rolling black smoke, and the sound of gunfire was even more intense than here.

  Zhao Bei had just arrived at the front line from Wuchang City to command the battle. Wuchang, as the capital of Hubei Province, had been recovered four hours ago, and the artillery was the first to achieve this feat. The flag soldiers guarding the city wall lost their will to fight after more than half of them were killed or wounded, and after General En Cunzhong was killed by a cannonball, the remaining flag soldiers raised a white flag and surrendered to the revolutionary army. Wuchang City thus fell into the hands of the Republican Army. After a brief rest in the city, the revolutionary soldiers immediately launched a fierce attack on Hanyang. Two hours ago, the main force had crossed the Yangtze River using hundreds of large wooden boats, and tens of thousands of troops gathered at Parrot Island. The engineering battalion used the wood and boats from the bamboo market to set up a pontoon bridge between Parrot Island and the north bank of the Yangtze River. Then, they landed in a mighty manner, advancing towards Hanyang City from upstream. The "Chu Guan" gunboat, after destroying two Qing warships, guarded the crossing with the "Republican" gunboat, using its big guns to cover the main force as it crossed the river and firing at the Qing troops who came to block them, also bombarding the city walls of Hanyang. Now, the city gate facing the Yangtze River in Hanyang City has been destroyed by the naval gunfire, and the Qing troops defending the city are wavering. With just a bit more effort, the enemy outside Hanyang City can be eliminated, and Hanyang will become a prize of war for the Republican Army.