Chapter 231 Shocking Explosion

Chapter 231 Shocking Explosion

Chapter 231 Shocking Explosion

Amid the confusion of the generals and soldiers, the artillery's hot air balloon rose up.

In the dim light of morning, strings of data were shouted down by the observer holding a telescope on the balloon basket.

This time, they brought only eighteen eighteen-pound mountain cannons, two of which were operated personally by Emery and artillery brigade commander Zhou Shengchuan.

The gunners of the remaining sixteen guns were all the first batch of gunners trained by Emery himself, and now they are basically middle and low-level officers in the artillery brigade.

The luxurious all-officer gunners had serious expressions and carefully checked with slide rules in their hands. After everyone gave Emery an OK gesture, Emery personally gave the order, "Fire!"

"boom!"

The Huai Army's most elite artillerymen were gathered together, and eighteen guns made only one sound.

All eighteen shrapnel bombs hit the same location in the city, with the impact points no more than two meters apart.

The soldiers looked at each other, what's the use of this?
After a long time, Shao Quanzhong began to feel guilty, and all the soldiers suddenly saw a bright fire flashing in the city.

The battle-hardened soldiers subconsciously covered their ears.

They did the right thing.

Then a loud earth-shaking noise was heard in the city, and the ground was shaking continuously.

A huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky, reaching a height of 100 meters, followed by a series of violent explosions.

The ground was shaking constantly, and when the explosions stopped, the soldiers found that they didn't need ladders anymore, as many parts of the city wall had collapsed, and a gentle slope had formed at the gap. The city gate was the strongest, and luckily it didn't collapse.

Among the commanders, only Dong Fuxiang and Karis beside him knew the situation in advance.

Dong Fuxiang waved his sword and said, "Brothers, follow me!"

The soldiers who did not cover their ears in time were deafened and their heads were buzzing.

Most of them covered their ears and immediately followed Dong Fuxiang. The deaf soldiers saw their companions' actions and followed without hesitation.

Song Laosan never led the charge. With a wave of his hand, several of his regiment commanders led their men forward with bayonets in hand. Song Laosan himself led a battalion of guards to protect Shao Quanzhong.

The first batch of soldiers who rushed to the top of the city wall encountered no resistance.

They were all dizzy and dazed outside the city, and the defenders in the city were already in a mess.

The first thing the soldiers did was to push open the city gate from the inside, and the cavalrymen rushed into Tashkurgan with sabers raised.

The battle process - there is no process.

One third of the defenders were killed or buried under the collapsed buildings. The rest were also staggering, and quite a few of them had blood coming out of their ears.

The scale of this explosion is almost as big as the Wanggongchang explosion.

After the soldiers entered the city, their main tasks were to tie people up with ropes and to put out fires.

The soldiers found the granary in the city, wow, enough to feed more than 10,000 people for several months.

The cooks started to make a fire and cook. Hmm, the naan and beef jerky are too hard and not tasty? Everyone is hungry. They have not eaten for a whole night of forced march. Everything looks delicious, so let's just make do with it.

In this battle, more than 8,000 enemy soldiers were captured, but the rest were nowhere to be found.

Either turned into parts or buried underground.

Shao Quanzhong announced on the spot, "The first merit in this battle goes to Karis, who provided the location of the enemy's ammunition depot. She will be rewarded with three thousand taels of silver."

The Kokand people and the bandits made an unforgivable mistake: they concentrated all their ammunition in one place, and the location was discovered by Karis's spies.

Tashkand was the strongest of a series of fortresses between Tashkand, Toksun and Turpan. The Kokand people planned to hold out here for at least two months, so they stockpiled a large amount of food and ammunition for fear that they would not be enough.

Practice has proved that illegal operations without complying with hazardous materials storage regulations can kill people, and Shao Quanzhong's logistics staff would never make such a low-level mistake.

It is obvious that the training given to Yakub Beg's men by the British instructors was too short and insufficient.

Intelligence is time-limited. If someone in Kokand suddenly came up with a wise man and separated the ammunition and stored it safely, the valuable intelligence would be lost. So Shao Quanzhong personally led his troops to attack Dabancheng at all costs. Originally, Shao Quanzhong did not intend to attack Dabancheng so urgently. He planned to pacify the rear first, and then attack Dabancheng openly and slowly with heavy artillery.

But the situation is beyond our control. If we know the enemy's weakness and do not exploit it, we will be punished by God.

Bai Yanhu specially sent 3,000 troops to Manas, which was not a strategic location, in order to let them contain the Huai Army, delay the time for the Huai Army to attack Daxingancheng as much as possible, and consume the Huai Army's food and grass.

Bai Yanhu succeeded, and Shao Quanzhong had to leave Nie Shicheng with a mixed division to pacify the rear.

It would be very difficult to capture the fortified city of Dabashancheng with just one division and one brigade now.

But - there are always unexpected things, and Carlisle is that unexpected thing.

Bai Yanhu was not found among the prisoners. Could he have been killed in the explosion or buried?
However, they did capture Yakub Beg's chief steward.

After Aydelhuli regained his hearing, he was interrogated by an interpreter who understood Kokand and got an answer that made Shao Quanzhong laugh and cry. Bai Yanhu escaped by luck again.

It turned out that Yakub Beg was very dissatisfied with Bai Yanhu for losing Dihua so quickly. He thought that as a general who was often defeated, he was not suitable to face Shao Quanzhong's main force.

He was transferred to Turpan in the east, and together with his old subordinate Ishaq who had evacuated from Hami, he defended the Huai Army in the direction of Barkol and Hami. Fortunately, he avoided being killed or captured.

The capture of Dabancheng was an unexpected gain. At present, it is really not suitable to attack further. The troops are divided into four groups, the battle line is getting longer and longer, and the logistics can no longer support it.

Shao Quanzhong initially decided to temporarily give up attacking the remaining difficult fortresses.

After Nie Shicheng pacified the rear, the autumn harvest in Ili, Dihua, Manas and Tacheng was completed, and there were more and more steam tractors in the rear. All conditions were met and there was plenty of food and grass. Then they joined Nie Shicheng's Third Mixed Division to attack the fortress and fight a decisive battle with Yakub Beg.

Now, we have to find a way to shake the enemy's morale.

The current Dabancheng is not a city where ordinary people live, that is not far from here. The new Dabancheng is a small and solid fortress built by Yakub Beg at the pass of Tianshan Mountain, suitable for defense, and it is full of soldiers.

This is also the reason why Shao Quanzhong detonated the explosives depot without any psychological burden. As for whether he would do the same thing if there were ordinary people in the city - it is said that history does not have assumptions, so don't make it difficult for Mr. Shao.

Professional engineers began to repair the collapsed city walls to prevent Yakub Beg from counterattacking.

The remaining soldiers cleared a piece of flat land in the city as a training ground.

The captives were pushed into the training ground. At Shao Quanzhong's command, more than 2,000 Kokand people were collectively executed, leaving only the chief steward Aydelhuli.

The Huai Army killed the prisoners! The bandits began to pray, preparing to die heroically, but they were untied and driven out of the east gate.

"Unlike the Kokand foreigners, you were once the subjects of the Qing Dynasty. As long as you return to southern Xinjiang and continue herding sheep honestly, we will forgive you for your past. We will kill every Kokand person we see. If you still stay here, you will be beheaded next time."

These bandits were all vassal soldiers conscripted by the Kokand people. They were unwilling to go in the first place, but they were unexpectedly let go. Nearly 6,000 prisoners dispersed happily.

As we walked, we realized something was wrong. We were not given any food.

Do you dare to go back and join the Huai Army? Or go to the fortress ahead to find food.

Soon, the news that the Huai Army only killed the Kokand foreigners and that the bandits from southern Xinjiang would be forgiven when they returned home spread in various fortresses.

The bandits who were conscripted into the fortress inevitably became restless and began to desert.

This is a long-term strategy. After all, the bandits who escaped were a minority, and most of them were watched by the Kokand Taijun. However, their fighting spirit would be reduced, and it should be easier to attack the fortress in the future.

Shao Quanzhong was planning to stay in Tashkurgan for a while, but just eight days later, scouts reported that a large number of bandits had fled from the nearby fortress.

Hey, why is the effect so good? Why are the bandits here so unsteady?
The next day, the scouts who had gone further ahead came back.

"Report! Yakub Beg has urgently withdrawn his troops from Toksun. He left in a hurry. The bandits he caught said that there seemed to be a problem in the rear and Korla was lost."

Shao Quanzhong and the other generals looked at each other in bewilderment. Another chance for a quick victory had emerged, but there were not enough soldiers.

If Nie Shicheng's troops were urgently transferred, it would be very troublesome if the rear was not stable. Moreover, with so many people, the looted food and grass would not last long.

What should we do? Should we pursue Yakub Beg?

(End of this chapter)