Volume 1 Turbulent Times Chapter 42 Blood Battle

  Fang Zidao, dressed in military uniform, arrived at the designated location. According to the division's orders, the three defense lines on the front line were almost completed. All junior officers of the 8th Division were graduates of military academies, and their basic military level was much higher than Fang Zidao, a half-baked deputy division commander who rose from the ranks. As he walked around the position, seeing all the work being done in an orderly manner, he couldn't help but admire the strong military quality of the 8th Division.

  The first line of defense was guarded by Li Shimao's temporary 33rd Regiment and Zhang Huafu's 1st Battalion of the 30th Regiment. The predecessor of Li Shimao's temporary 33rd Regiment was Lin Hu's Independent Regiment, which had been disbanded and reorganized by Fang Zidao, but its overall framework remained intact. After personnel adjustments and replenishment, its combat effectiveness did not decrease much. This time they were fighting against Zhang Xun's Queue Army, so the temporary 33rd Regiment voluntarily asked to go into battle. Fang Zidao considered it and agreed to Li Shimao's request, assigning him as the frontline commander and putting the 1st Battalion of the 30th Regiment under his unified command.

  Li Jun's 29th Division, Zhang Huafu's 30th Division were on the second line of defense. He Sui's 32nd Division and Cavalry Regiment 8 served as the general reserve, defending the last line of defense, which was Nanjing City.

  This arrangement can be said to be steady and steady, after listening to the opinions of the staff and discussing with each person, Fang Zida finally chose this most stable defensive posture. This is his first battle since taking office as the deputy commander of the Eighth Division, and it is also a battle of great significance. Fang Zida, who deeply knows his own military level, will not blindly overestimate himself to do anything adventurous, such as inserting troops or making surprise attacks, using the smallest cost to achieve the greatest victory.

  The great war is imminent, according to reconnaissance reports, Zhang Xun's vanguard has arrived in Yizheng, and it is estimated that the two armies will make contact tomorrow morning. At this critical moment, Fang Zidao cannot be careful enough, and he personally went to the first line accompanied by Brigade Commander Huang Kaiyuan.

  "Vice-Commander Fang, Commander Huang!"

  Upon learning of Fang Zidao's arrival, frontline commander Li Shimin hastily came to meet him.

  "Commander Li, you've worked hard." He returned a somewhat unstandard military salute. Fang Zidao smiled and pointed at the bustling camp, saying: "Commander Li is indeed the tiger general of my 8th Division, able to prepare everything in just one day. I was right to entrust the temporary 33rd Regiment to you back then."

  "Haha, that's it!" Li Shimao was very proud and laughed: "Don't forget that I, Old Li, studied in the Japanese army first, and then entered the artillery department of the Japanese Military Academy. If we talk about this level, not to brag, but the entire 8th Division is one of the top three."

  "Hey, Qian Sun, you're getting a bit chubby, aren't you? If this battle doesn't go well, Deputy Commander Fang won't be polite to you!" Huang Kaiyuan joked from the side. Lately, Huang Kaiyuan and Fang Zida had been getting along very well. Although Huang Kaiyuan's military skills were not as good as Fang Zida's, he was a smooth talker who knew how to read people's expressions. In the 8th Division, although he held a high position, he didn't have much actual power in his hands. Fang Zida found him very useful. After several interactions, Huang Kaiyuan understood Fang Zida's attitude and positioned himself as Fang Zida's sidekick. The two had formed an unspoken understanding.

  "Don't worry, Deputy Commander Fang. With the 33rd Temporary Regiment here, I'll make sure Zhang Xun doesn't come back! Li Shimao stood up straight and said loudly: "To be honest with you, Deputy Commander Fang and Colonel Huang, I wouldn't dare boast about fighting other troops, but when it comes to fighting Zhang Xun, every single one of my men is itching for a fight!"

  Understanding Li Shimao's words, Fang Zida patted his shoulder and encouraged him a few times. He then continued to inspect the formation under his accompaniment. After walking around for a while, Fang Zida suddenly felt that something was off about the formation. He stopped in his tracks and took another careful look, furrowing his brow involuntarily.

  "Deputy Commander Fang?" Huang Kaiyuan keenly sensed Fang Zidao's change and asked in puzzlement.

  Looking at the excavated trenches, Fang Zida asked: "Commander Li, what's going on with these trenches?"

  "What's wrong? Deputy Commander Fang, what's the problem?" Li Shimao looked in the direction of his pointing hand and asked back strangely.

  Pointing at the straight trench, Fang Zida asked: "Such a shape? Isn't there a problem?"

  "What's wrong with the shape? The shape is fine!" Li Shimao was asked to be at a loss, and even Huang Kaiyuan looked at it for half a day without finding any problem. The two of them looked at Fang Zida in confusion.

  "Isn't that right?" Fang Zida asked a few more questions, and only after reconfirming did he know that Li Shimao's trench was indeed dug according to the textbook, without any errors. Moreover, when he studied military affairs in Japan, his instructor also taught him this way. So when Fang Zida pointed out that the straight trench had problems, he even suspected that Fang Zida was intentionally picking faults?

  "Damn those little Japanese devils!" The question had barely flashed through Fang Zida's mind when he quickly understood why this was happening. With a bitter smile, he asked Li Shimao what would happen if the enemy launched an attack and shells fell into their trenches. As the commander of the artillery regiment, Li Shimao thought for a moment before his face changed color, and he immediately grasped the situation.

  "How could this be? Did we learn wrong in Japan?" With a worried expression, Li Shimao hastily ordered someone to call off the work and asked Fang Zida for advice. Fang Zida also told him frankly about the zigzag-shaped trenches and required all defensive positions to dig trenches in this way. After receiving the order, Li Shimao quickly arranged it.

  "Deputy Commander Fang, I didn't expect you to be so skilled in battle! Admiration! Admiration!" As they left the battlefield, Huang Kaiyuan gave a thumbs up and praised him. Fang Zida just humbly shook his head and didn't explain much. However, he was secretly thinking that it was fortunate he came this time, if he hadn't discovered this problem, there would have been more casualties when the battle started.

  It's okay, the trench was discovered early and the troops rested overnight. The position was finally completed before dawn on the second day. At around 10 am on the second day, a report came from the front line that Zhang Xun's troops had arrived.

  The mighty General Zhang Xun led his troops to approach Nanjing, and when they encountered the first line of defense of the Eighth Division, he was not caught off guard. On the contrary, Zhang Xun was extremely excited, stopped the vanguard to monitor the Eighth Division, and after noon, when the follow-up troops arrived, he launched a fierce attack.

  Zhang Xun led more than 6,000 soldiers and horses southward, and after occupying Xuzhou, he also transferred more than 1,000 people from his old nest, with a total strength of 7,000. The momentum was like breaking bamboo, plundering a lot of property, the morale of the official army was high, and Zhang Xun's department looked down on the Eighth Division in front of him. After deploying the formation, the big guns fired randomly first, and before the smoke dispersed, hundreds of queue soldiers rushed up with a loud shout.

  For a time, the sound of gunfire was intense on the front line, with fierce fighting back and forth. Although Zhang Xun's troops were extremely brave, the soldiers of the Eighth Division were also skilled warriors, not to mention that they had the support of their defensive positions. Several consecutive attacks were repelled. The attack was blocked, but Zhang Xun remained undaunted, continuing to increase the intensity of the attack, suddenly throwing in a battalion of troops, determined to use firepower and human waves to blast open a gap and capture the position.

  "Damn it! These queue soldiers are all madmen!" Captain Cao Wenlian stared at another wave of queue troops rushing over, his rifle raised and firing continuously.

  "Pull back! This won't do! Where are our cannons? Why aren't we firing?" Soldier Zhang Xiaochuan had already been wounded, his shoulder grazed by shrapnel during the previous artillery strike, a piece of flesh bitten off. Only an hour into the battle, the enemy had launched two attacks, and there were already many casualties at the front line.

  "The big guns are behind, what's the hurry! When it's time to fire, they'll naturally fire! Follow me and fiercely attack, kill these queue soldiers!" Cao Wenguang scolded with wide eyes, hiding in the trenches filled with bullets, continuing to lift his body to shoot.

  When Zhang Xun attacked, the Eighth Division's artillery did not counterattack. It was not that Fang Zhiyi had made no arrangements. The Eighth Division's artillery regiment was nominally a regiment, but in fact only one battalion could be put into battle. Moreover, the terrain of Nanjing is different from other places, with vast plains and long-range cannons, great power, and intense bombardment, which would have crippled the Eighth Division's artillery in just a few rounds. Good steel should be used on the blade, Zhang Xun's queue army is now full of momentum, head-on confrontation is not feasible, for the time being, rely on positional warfare to wear down the enemy as much as possible, and wait for the opportunity to strike the final blow.

  This era's battles, cannons, single-shot rifles, bayonets, trenches... these are the themes. The attacking side completely relies on bravery and throwing lives in, the defending side is also the same. The collision between flesh and blood, best reflects the cruelty and bloodiness of war, under the continuous attacks of the Wolf-like Tsarist army, Li Shimao's temporary 33rd regiment was almost unable to withstand it.

  "Hurry! Hurry and drive them back!" Upon hearing that a section of the defense line had been breached by the enemy, Li Shimao hastily grabbed his gun and led his men in a charge, rushing forward for over 100 meters. He saw that on a defense line to the north, hundreds of soldiers were engaged in fierce combat, while outside the perimeter, the Boxer rebels were surging forward, shouting loudly as they attacked.

  "Comrades! Let's go up together!" With a bayonet-tipped rifle, Li Shimao charged forward and stabbed a Qing soldier who was fighting with his own soldiers. He pulled out the gun, and a stream of dirty blood splattered all over his face. Avoiding the Qing soldier who was rushing towards him from the left, he dodged to the side and made another thrust. Li Shimao shouted loudly: "Kill! Kill for me! Kill those damned Qing soldiers!"

  "Kill! Kill!"

  People came and went, this piece of land changed hands several times, until the sun set in the west, the attacking queue army slowly retreated. Li Shimao, who was almost out of strength, sat on the ground panting loudly, his rifle covered with blood lying beside him.

  "Captain, have a drink of water first."

  Li Shimao returned to the regiment headquarters, letting the medic bandage his wounded arm while hastily inquiring about the battle situation.

  "Captain, good news, the queue troops have been completely repelled by us......"

  "Who asked these questions? I want casualties! What are the casualties of my unit?"

  "Preliminary statistics, my troops have 384 deaths, 75 serious injuries and 205 minor injuries..." The staff officer reported gloomily, but he then lifted his spirits and said: "The enemy also didn't get off lightly, with over 200 corpses left on our positions, estimated casualties are no less than 800."

  "What! So many casualties?" It seems that he didn't hear the rest of the words, when he learned that the temporary 33rd Regiment had nearly 700 casualties on the first day, Li Shimao's heart tightened. He had underestimated the fighting power of Zhang Xun's army, and he never thought that relying on positions and trenches, he would still suffer such heavy casualties. On the surface, both sides fought to a draw today, but in reality, he suffered a great loss.

  Highly recommended: