Chapter 145: Use of Artillery Clusters

Time was urgent, and there was also the Nogi Maresuke mixed brigade coming from Gaiping to deal with. Before the battlefield was cleaned up, Wei Jichen had already summoned the commanders of all the armies to hold a combat meeting.

A piece of flat ground was cleared at the entrance to the valley, and a large stone was moved to the middle as a table, and several small stone pillars were used as chairs. This is how the temporary combat room was built.

The first to arrive was Nie Guilin, who was ruddy, took light steps, led more than a dozen personal soldiers, and strode forward. When he saw Wei Jichen staring at a marching map, he hurried forward to greet him.

Wei Jichen waved his hand slightly, motioning him to sit down, and then looked at the map again.

This was seized from Katsura Taro. Fortunately, Katsura Taro was stagnant for a while and did not burn it, which gave Wei Jichen an unexpected surprise.

Because the marching routes of the 3rd Division and Nogi Maresuke's mixed brigade were marked on this map, Wei Jichen only needed to compare it with the information sent by the spies to know Nogi Maresuke's whereabouts.

Then Jiang Xiyi and Xu Daobang also hurried over, both of them brought four or five personal soldiers. Although Jiang Xiyi was not as happy as Nie Guilin, his eyes could not hide his excitement.

Xu Daobang has always been in poor health. After this fierce battle, he coughed from time to time while walking, and his face was also morbidly flushed.

The last to arrive was Ma Jinxu. Ma Jinxu's troops were used as bait and suffered heavy casualties. In addition to a trace of relief, his face was more sad.

Seeing that everyone was there, Wei Jichen retracted his eyes on the map and greeted everyone with a smile.

Seeing the sadness on Ma Jinxu's face, Wei Jichen couldn't help but say earnestly: "Brother Ma, if it weren't for your Renzi Army's lure, we wouldn't have won such a great victory this time. Zijie thanks you here. When he reports his achievements to the court, Brother Ma should be the first to be credited."

Nie Guilin looked at Ma Jinxu with envy, but he felt relieved when he thought that his Renzi Army only had less than a thousand people.

Ma Jinxu forced a smile and said: "Marshal Wei is too polite. Marshal Wei was able to achieve such a great victory with his strategic planning. How dare I take credit for this great achievement."

Xu Daobang and others nodded in agreement.

Wei Jichen said no more, but his face was serious, and he said seriously: "We have achieved an unprecedented victory in the encirclement and annihilation of the 3rd Division, but we have also suffered heavy losses. Moreover, the battle is not over yet, and there is still Nogi Maresuke's mixed brigade waiting for us to deal with. Therefore, I hope you can calm down as soon as possible, make persistent efforts, and win another victory."

"That's right!" Xu Bangdao coughed heavily and echoed.

Seeing that everyone was serious, Wei Jichen continued: "I believe you have also seen that we are very fragile fighting alone. With unity, we will be invincible. In the next battle, I hope you will learn from Brother Ma and sacrifice yourself for the overall situation. Of course, this commander is also like this, and will never maintain his own strength. Old Xu, you have fought with Nogi Maresuke, tell me what you know about him first."

Xu Bangdao not only led troops to ambush Nogi Maresuke's troops, but also confronted him head-on.

"Nogi Maresuke is a man who is brave but not smart. However, the quality of Japanese soldiers is much higher than that of ours. Therefore, our army has been defeated in battle after battle. However, in this battle with the Japanese, for some reason our soldiers are not afraid of death. It seems that it is due to the charm of General Wei." Xu Bangdao said puzzledly after a lot of words.

In Wei Jichen's view, in a war, people are the first and weapons are the second. Of course, if the weapons and equipment of the two armies are too different, it is another matter. You can't expect African natives with swords and spears to defeat Westerners. Even if they are brave, they will end up defeated.

However, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the weapons and equipment of China and Japan were not much different. Wei Jichen just picked up the Japanese Murata rifle and looked at it. Compared with the rapid-fire rifles used by some troops in the Huai Army, it was much behind.

In terms of field artillery, the Qing army did not have much advantage. This was mainly because Li Hongzhang spent all his money on fortress artillery. Unfortunately, the artillery forts such as Dalian and Lushun were hardly used and were occupied by the Japanese without bloodshed.

What is hateful is that when the Qing army was defeated, they always did not even blow up the guns and shells. In the end, these fell into the hands of the Japanese, and the Japanese vanguard could continue to attack without even relying on the rear for replenishment.

People are the biggest reason. The Qing army often started to consider running away after a hundred casualties. On the one hand, the soldiers did not know why they were fighting, and on the other hand, they had been planning for a long time and were determined to defeat the Qing army. The result is self-evident.

Not to mention the corruption of the generals and their fear of death.

In addition, the command system was chaotic, the top leaders relied only on imagination, the intelligence was obviously behind the Japanese army, and the Japanese obviously had the upper hand in strategy. These were all the reasons for the defeat of the Qing army, and these reasons were all related to people.

The reason why Wei Jichen was able to win the local war was largely due to his military strategist skills in boosting morale. Without this military strategist skill, even if he, Wei Jichen, had three heads and six arms, he would eventually be like other Qing army generals and could only escape.

The others were relieved when they heard Xu Daobang say this, thinking in their hearts: No matter how brave he is, is he as brave as Wei Jichen?

This is exactly what Wei Jichen wanted. He knew what kind of person Nogi Maresuke was, but if he said it from his mouth, most of the generals would think he was exaggerating.

"Since Nogi Nogi is a fierce general, we don't need to think too much. Wei Shuai, you can just lead us to kill him." After this battle, Jiang Xiyi had completely surrendered to Wei Jichen.

He is not afraid of Nogi Hitori being fierce, but he is afraid that Nogi Hitori is not strong enough.

Wei Jichen did not answer directly, but pointed to the Japanese marching route on the map and said with a smile: "Everyone, where do you think we should fight Nogi Nogi?"

Nie Guilin looked at Wei Jichen with affectionate eyes and replied: "Everything depends on Commander Wei."

^.^，

Wei Jichen simply ignored him. Ma Jinxu thought for a while, looked at the map carefully, and said hesitantly: "Can we repeat our old trick and find a dangerous place to ambush?"

Xu Daobang stroked his beard and said noncommittally: "There are still some soldiers in the 3rd Division who escaped. Nogi Nogi has received the news. Even if he is careless, he will probably have people carefully explore the road ahead. This strategy can only be used once and for all. Again."

Wei Jichen showed a faint smile and said, "This time, we are going to show off our upright troops and have a showdown with Nogi Nogi."

Ma Jinxu frowned but said nothing.

Xu Bangdao persuaded: "Commander Wei, although our army won the ambush of the 3rd Division, we also suffered a lot of losses. If we fight head-on, I'm afraid our army will lose more."

Wei Jichen waved, and a soldier next to him quickly lit a cigar for him.

After blowing out a smoke ring, Wei Jichen said with a smile: "It can be said to be a head-on confrontation, or it can be said that it is not. Everyone, please look here. When Nogi Nogi's troops attack Haicheng, they have to pass through this small river called Ququgou. Our troops are arrayed at On the other side of the river, wait until Nogi Hidenori's troops are halfway across the river and attack them."

Xu Bangdao said worriedly: "Shuai Wei, I didn't pour cold water on you. Now that the river is frozen, it can be accessed everywhere. How can we attack halfway across the river?"

Today, Liaodong has not yet thawed, and Ququgou is no different. The river has been frozen for three feet. Not to mention people, even horse-drawn cannons can pass through it without any pressure.

What's more, it's still snowing now, and the ice will be thicker by tomorrow.

Therefore, Xu Bangdao hurriedly put an end to Wei Jichen's idea.

Wei Jichen flicked the ashes from his cigarette and said calmly: "Everyone, have you noticed that our Wei Zijun engineering team has disappeared?"

The engineering team is no longer a rare thing. At the end of last year, the Supervisory Military Affairs Office appointed Hu Jiefen, the inspector general of Guangxi, to organize and train the new army, which included the engineering team. This new army finally fell into the hands of Yuan Shikai, who was later known as The famous Beiyang New Army.

As for Wei Jichen being able to come up with this system first, few people were not very curious. After all, Wei Jichen was someone they looked up to.

Nie Guilin looked confused and obviously didn't notice. Xu Bangdao and Ma Jinxu were slightly confused, but they weren't very clear either.

Wei Jichen stopped pretending and talked eloquently: "My engineering team has a special blasting team. They have gone to Ququgou to cut the ice, and then buried the explosives in the ice everywhere on the river. Buried together with these explosives, There were also small wooden barrels filled with tung oil and other flammable materials. When the Japanese reached the middle of the river, they detonated explosives. Our army fired thousands of guns. Even if the primers of the explosives were wet and failed, they would cause explosives to explode all over the river. No matter how thick the ice is, there is always a chance that it will collapse. Even if the Japanese are not killed by the explosion, they will freeze to death if they fall into the water."

Xu Bangdao and others' eyes lit up and they gasped.

In fact, Wei Jichen forgot to tell them that if it didn't snow today, he would have used military skills to cover up the traces of explosives buried by the engineering team in the snow and ice.

"What do you think of this plan?" Wei Jichen asked aloud.

"You can give it a try." Xu Bangdao agreed.

Nie Guilin gave a thumbs up and praised: "I have long heard that Wei Shuai has a clever mind. When I saw him today, it turned out to be true."

"Since you all think it is feasible, then give me the artillery teams in each army for centralized use. This time, I, Wei Jichen, want to fire a real 10,000 artillery salvos." Seeing no one objected, Wei Jichen couldn't help but make his final request.

Xu Bangdao and Ma Jinxu agreed without hesitation, but Nie Guilin and Jiang Xiyi were more entangled. They were afraid that Roubaozi would beat the dog and leave without returning. However, the other two people agreed, and they couldn't refuse anymore as long as they were unwilling to do so. Nodding reluctantly.

In the end, Nie Guilin's Fengjun army had an artillery battalion, which consisted of twenty old-fashioned front-loading cannons under 24 pounds, also called blooming cannons.

Ma Jinxu's Renzi Army did not have a dedicated artillery battalion, only four squadrons, and four 80-pound imitation British Armstrong-style steel artillery, which were produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

Jiang Xiyi's Xizi army did not have a dedicated artillery battalion, but the number of cannons was slightly more than that of Ma Jinxu. They used ten German Gruson-type 37mm caliber two-pound bombs imitated by the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau and loaded with rifled frames.

Xu Bangdao smiled awkwardly and said: "I came in a hurry and only brought two teams of mountain-splitting cannons."

In this way, Wei Jichen found that he had the most cannons in his hands, and they were all good guys and imported.

There are twelve new Krupp fast guns and thirteen Gruson fast guns. After the war began, the Minister to Germany Xu Jingcheng and the Minister to the UK Gong Zhaoai purchased these guns from Germany and Britain, and then hurriedly transported them to the front line. of.

Wei Jichen compromised his public life and enriched his private life by stealing from others and handing over the old cannons from the original Sheng army to other armies, so that all the new cannons were in his pocket.

Since then, there have been a total of 52 cannons of various sizes.

Although it seemed a little too little to Wei Jichen, the other people all had burning eyes and shouted that it was enough to give the Japanese a hard time.