Chapter 36: The flood is overwhelming (2)

"Commander, I found that the Chinese army was evacuating at my front position." John was litting the oil lamp to watch the documents and maps, thinking about how to break the defense of the Iron Blood Army, but after 8:23, the front line personnel suddenly found that the Iron Blood Army's front line battlefield was in progress and could move.

"A regiment, conduct a tentative attack." He had already learned the cunning of the Iron Blood Army. He had clearly seen that there was nothing abnormal in the trenches before, but when his soldiers attacked, the Iron Blood Army suddenly launched an attack, causing heavy losses. So now he was very cautious about the Iron Blood Army. Britain had already suffered too much loss in this original local small war. After receiving the war report, the British members of Parliament also felt that this war was really worthless. Because of Dengson's toughness, in order to maintain the absolute hegemony of the British Empire in the Far East, they suppressed it. However, they did not expect that Dengson was so difficult. They couldn't help but regret it now. If they had known that Dengson was so strong, it would be better to treat Dengson friendly and develop him into one of the Far East agents of the British Empire.[]

It started drizzling at night, because the flood peak of the Huai River had arrived and a large amount of moisture entered the middle stream.

The sound of dripping rain completely covered up the footsteps of the British army. They carefully recommended forward. The Iron Blood Army position under the searchlight in front was quiet like a ghost town, but they dared not take it lightly. If the Iron Blood Army suddenly fought, they could not bear it. In a few days, there were thousands of British soldiers killed.

In the Iron Blood Army's position, soldiers in the wet trenches were wide open and ready to get up and shoot at any time. There are only two regiments of the Second Division and a regiment of military special forces. One regiment has about 10,000 troops.

"The enemy is approaching, and you are ready to shoot at any time after my order." The commanders of the regiments in the trench looked ahead vigilantly. Both regiments of the Baokuai Second Division were well-equipped elite A-type regiments, with strong combat power. This time, they were the army behind the palace.

"Fight..." The British were getting closer and closer, and the regiments opened fire instantly, and the searchlights behind began to light up and scan back and forth. The British army soldiers instantly lay on the cold and wet soil, and both sides launched fire, but the iron-blooded army in the trenches had an advantage, and they had an absolute advantage in their forces and immediately retreated.

"I knew that the Chinese were cunning, and then shelled and carried out a tentative attack." A regiment of British troops was suppressed by fire just forty meters in front of the position. And seeing that their firepower was enough for one division, John naturally felt that the Chinese were playing tricks again, but at the same time he did not relax his vigilance. He would send troops to attack again after an hour or two of the shelling.

"The entire army retreated, and all the wounded were sent to the rear." Seeing the enemy retreat, a few minutes later, the British artillery fire again, and the regiments in the trenches retreated in seclusion, taking all the wounded away.

Retreat in the dark night, fortunately with the enemy's artillery fire cover, the sound was slight and it was not easy to be discovered by the British army. One hour later, the three regiments had already arrived at the edge of the pontoon bridge. When the three regiments arrived, they conducted an investigation into the entire war zone. It was now 9:54.

After the British shelling ended, a regiment of tentative forces moved forward again. When they took twenty minutes to slowly touch the trench twenty or thirty meters ahead, they found that there was no one in the trench opposite.

"The commander, the Chinese army has retreated! There is no living person in the other side's trenches except the corpses." The British colonel who entered the trenches sent someone to report the matter here at the first time, and John was also unsure of his mind.

"Continue attack! See where the opponent retreats, and the rear army follows forward." John didn't understand why the Chinese army, which had fought to the death before, suddenly withdrew. Could it be that the Beiyang army had fought? He didn't think that there was any other army in China that could quickly get hundreds of iron-blooded troops. This army had a deep impression on him. It did not have an advantage in height and weapons. The iron-blooded army, which was at a disadvantage in firepower and artillery fire, blocked the attack of their Far East Legion, which had already made them look at him with admiration.

"Commander, our troops have already attacked Bengbu City, but no enemy traces were found, but a lot of military supplies were found. From this, it can be concluded that the Iron Blood Army fled in a hurry, and a large floating bridge built by the Iron Blood Army was found in the direction of the northern city gate of Bengbu." The British army made rapid progress this time and quickly attacked Bengbu. There were even many weapons and equipment of the Iron Blood Army, including food and grass, and other military supplies left in Bengbu City, making the British army more convinced that the Iron Blood Army fled when it encountered special circumstances.

"Just cross the pontoon bridge and quickly build artillery positions in Bengbu City." This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Iron Blood Army fled. As long as you bite its tail, you can defeat the defense of all Iron Blood Army troops in one fell swoop. The British army can drive straight into this combat mission.

"Yes!" In just twenty minutes, a brigade of British troops began to charge against the opposite side of the pontoon bridge, but the Iron Blood Army, which was more than ten meters wide, had a solid semi-underground fortress, and dozens of heavy machine guns were suppressed with infinite firepower. The British army, which had not been placed in the artillery regiment, had no way to attack.

"Commander, we can't rush over. There are too many heavy machine guns in the Chinese army! The fuck is God, only God knows how they have so many heavy machine guns!" The 314th Brigade of the 1st Far East Division of the British Army suffered heavy casualties during the attack. The cross-firing and rotational firepower of dozens of heavy machine guns could not be broken through. The bullet did not stop at all, and there was no place to hide on the bare pontoon bridge. He had lost more than 3,000 troops on the pontoon bridge, and there was no way to do so.

"It seems that the Iron Blood Army is carrying out a strategic retreat, blocking our way with this big river. Now the river is dangerous, I am afraid that only the floating bridge can pass through. We really have no way to guard the floating bridge!" After checking the floating bridge in person and the flow of the Huai River, John knew that except for this floating bridge, there was no way to pass through this huge river with a length of 300 meters.

In the end, John had to order the soldiers to go to the city to rest, leaving only two battalions to monitor the operations of the Iron Blood Army on the other side. The British army, who had been soaked in the rain for a day, had long been tired of the gloomy weather here, and finally had a dry place to have a good sleep. They praised their great God Jesus, but they didn't know that it was a huge tomb.

Bengbu is a thousand-year-old ancient city located on the south bank of the Huai River, only two miles away from the Huai River. It has always been an important town in Anhui, a major transportation route between the north and the south, and a place that military strategists must compete for. In the past, the Huai River was very gentle because it was not as long as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and it did not have as many tributaries. Therefore, even the peaks of the rainy season will not cause a large-scale dam breaking event, but the water volume of the Huai River is not large. The fertile land on both sides has always been a granary for China. It must be a vast plain that can be cultivated on a large scale. Since ancient times, there has been a proverb that "the two Huai Rivers are mature and the world is full of".

Toward the northeast of Bengbu City, several small boats swayed and drifted in the small flood peaks, looking shaking. On the west river embankment one mile away from the boat, ten soldiers in black clothes were trembling in the dark night. There was a huge pit next to them, and nearly half of the river embankment was dug up, full of dry wooden brackets. There were more than 200 bags of explosives neatly placed on the brackets, and there were even several boxes of ** marking the skeleton. A lead more than 300 meters away was held in the hand by a soldier.

"It's 11:35 now, and there are still twenty-five minutes left before the scheduled time. Check the gunpowder leads and set up the line." In this era, the northern Anhui government has not yet released the water leads, so the lead channel is a passage excavated on the embankment, which is waterproof and has layers of hay on it to prevent moisture.

"Yes!" The soldiers checked the gunpowder on the racks, and at the same time, they ventured to approach the 100 meters east of the pontoon bridge to check the cracks dug before the dike. These cracks deliberately created by artificially will have the power of the explosion after the explosion. In addition, the erosion of the rainfall peak will definitely break the dam. At that time, it will be a gap of more than 200 meters wide. Such a large gap is absolutely fierce and extremely fierce. Of course, it will be difficult to make up after the war. In other words, the Huai River will be changed to this point. It is conceivable how much burden it will have to bear in order to resist the British Dunson. He believes that changing the river channel will definitely cause a huge disaster before the river flows into the next river channel, and the autumn harvest of refugees will be greatly affected.

In Bengbu City, British soldiers slept very peacefully, and they heard snoring from time to time. They were also very tired. Before they came here, they did not expect that China, which was behind the ignorant, would have such strong combat power after the Qing Dynasty. What would it look like if they knew that the Iron Blood Army would be in less than a year?

John was still checking the document. A translated Romance of the Three Kingdoms was on his table. He was very curious about China. This magical country was once so brilliant civilization. The military theories of military strategists thousands of years ago could be used in modern warfare, which shocked him. However, he did not think that China could resist in the face of the absolute strength of the great powers.

Suddenly John felt his eyes twitching, as if something bad was going to happen, but when he brought the guard squad to the north gate wall to watch, he saw the dark earth, except for the lights of the Iron Blood Army on the other side and the occasionally flashing river water, everything seemed so quiet.

"boom……"

Just as Lieutenant General John pressed his heart and was about to return, a loud noise that shocked the world suddenly appeared, an explosion louder than thunder.

"God..." John turned his head and looked in the direction of the explosion. He saw a small mushroom cloud slowly rising, and there were explosion fires flashing from time to time. The Huai River embankment suddenly collapsed. But what made him incredible was that the collapsed place exploded from time to time, but only a hundred meters away from the north gate. Then he saw that at the moment when the explosion ended, the embankment about two or three hundred meters wide suddenly collapsed, and the bright white surging river water came instantly. The river water comparable to the height of the city wall was fast. The two battalions of British soldiers who were still working outside the north gate of the city were staring at the surging water with a daze on their faces. A company in front of the city gate was swallowed by the water before it could react. Standing on the city wall, John saw the major with his own eyes wrapped in the water and rushed to the edge of the city wall. He suddenly broke into pieces and disappeared into meat mud.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" The British troops in the city were also awakened by the loud explosion and ran out of the original military and civilian houses. At this moment, the north city gate suddenly collapsed, and the water sprayed in directly like a fountain.

"God... Oh, I'm Mai Ka..." All the British soldiers looked at him incredibly. They didn't understand why there was such a large amount of water here. Is it the end of the world? Unfortunately, they didn't have Noah's Ark.

The water pouring in from the North Gate alone could not achieve too strong results. The city wall more than 50 meters westward of the North Gate suddenly collapsed, and the water swept over again. The entire Bengbu city was boiling, with the sound of fierce water as fierce as thunder, and the desperate howling of British soldiers and revolutionary soldiers, but it became extremely quiet in an instant, because everyone was flooded by the river.

John stood on the wall of the East City Gate and watched the surging river flow by. He saw soldiers hitting the house by the water carriers and dying on the wall. He saw the cannons in the artillery camp being pushed to the waters and flooded by the river.

"God! Forgive us sinners!" Like a dozen people around him, John held his hands tightly at the sky and began to pray, flooding the seven armies. Why didn't he think of this at the beginning? However, he had to admit that the Iron Blood Army was used ruthlessly, and he just hoped that the British soldiers could survive more.
Chapter completed!