Chapter 18 Live-Fire Exercise

Peace is not something one can simply pray for; Yang Xiaolin knew this truth well. Yet, he believed that under the current circumstances, as long as he refrained from causing trouble for the Russians, they ought to be quite pleased with him. He had no inkling whatsoever of just how deeply the Russians hated him! To put it plainly, the previous Russian commander had practically been driven from his post by Yang Xiaolin, and the dignity of the Russian military had been largely trampled upon by this bandit. The Russians were now determined to annihilate him at all costs!

No sooner had the two Russians departed than Yang Xiaolin distributed the artillery pieces, having his brothers conduct some preliminary firepower coordination exercises. The bandits had made progress; through continuous warfare, they had come to grasp certain tactical terms, such as "firepower coordination." Had this been back in Liu Yikun’s day, the men below would not have had the faintest idea what it meant.

War always fostered growth, and Yang Xiaolin’s troops were gradually maturing.

He instructed Sui Bing to apply himself with extra diligence. When Sui Bing felt confident enough in operating the equipment, he was to report back; Yang Xiaolin intended to stage a live-fire exercise to evaluate the actual effectiveness of their firepower coverage, and the commanders of the other regiments would attend as observers.

This was a great honor for Sui Bing. Having taken first place in the recent martial arts competition, he now received this assignment from Yang Xiaolin. Sui Bing knew that as long as he performed well and firmly outshined Biaozi, he would not bring shame upon the commander.

While Yang Xiaolin was busy coordinating his firepower, a trainload of Russian troops came to a halt in Kaiyuan. The local townspeople had grown accustomed to such sights. The Russian railway could only transport troops as far as Kaiyuan; beyond that point, the soldiers had to march a section on foot because the tracks further ahead wound through towering mountains, making military transport somewhat hazardous.

With troop trains arriving almost daily during this period, the arrival of this force did not attract any particular notice.

Lieutenant General Kondratiev stepped out of the railway carriage and took a deep breath. Although the station air was far from fresh, it was still much more comfortable than the stuffy interior of the train, and a smile appeared on his face.

This contingent consisted of fifty thousand elite troops freshly drafted by the Russians from Siberia. The troops arriving today were merely the vanguard; more than a dozen additional military trains would arrive successively, and by tomorrow evening, the force would be fully assembled.

Many of these men had originally been bandits in Russia. The harshness of the Siberian environment was notorious worldwide, making these soldiers resilient and exceptionally well-adapted to the climate of Northeast China. Although it was the dead of winter, it had very little impact on these Russians who had traveled from afar.

Lieutenant General Kondratiev watched the Russian soldiers jumping down from the trains one by one, and his smile grew even wider. Major General Stessel jumped down behind him and approached the general, seeing at once that the general was in high spirits.

"General, we will be resting here for the night, won't we?"

Kondratiev nodded. "Yes. Keep the lads alert, maintain combat readiness, and let no one lower their guard."

Stessel shrugged. "General, we are still far from Port Arthur and the Japanese. I should think we might let the lads relax a bit. As you know, they were quite curious about the bound feet of the Qing dynasty women when they arrived—might we allow them to go and take a closer look? Rest assured, I am certain they will not breach discipline."

A smile hung on Stessel's face as he spoke. In truth, he was the one who was most eager to examine Chinese women, and not just their bound feet; he could only voice such private thoughts when the general was in a good mood.

Kondratiev glanced at his trusted confidant and favorite subordinate, then suddenly lowered his voice. "My dear Major General, we shall be staying here for quite some time, and there are plenty of bound-footed women here for you to study at your leisure. But not now. We have a battle to fight immediately."

Stessel was greatly surprised. His assigned mission was to garrison Port Arthur and prepare for combat against the Japanese; he had heard nothing about any battles to be fought in a place like Kaiyuan!

He immediately inquired, "Is there an ambushed force of Japanese here?"

Kondratiev placed a finger to his lips to signal silence, then whispered, "It is merely a simple hunt. A certain beast has violated the dignity of Russian soldiers, and we must eliminate him, understand? For honor. Eliminating this beast is simple enough, but the primary rule of hunting is not to startle the prey. So, keep it to yourself."

Stessel nodded, understanding completely. That beast must be the one they called "Ghost-Killer Yang."

For the honor of the Russian army—that was precisely how General Kuropatkin had phrased it in his letter to Lieutenant General Kondratiev.

Yang Xiaolin remained entirely unaware that the Russian guns were already trained upon him. While the Russians made their preparations, he was still fine-tuning his firepower. After a few days, initial success had been achieved; word came from Sui Bing that the brothers had grasped the operation of the artillery pieces, and Yang Xiaolin decided to conduct what he considered a very lavish live-fire exercise.

The unit carrying out the exercise was Sui Bing’s First Regiment, observed by Yang Xiaolin, the special operations team trained by Nyerere, and the commanders of the other four regiments.

Jin Dadao had originally wanted to come and watch as well, but someone always had to stay behind to look after the stronghold. Consequently, he and Liang Qichao remained behind. Liang Qichao was currently rushing to finish an article sharing his views on the impending Russo-Japanese War. Naturally, many of his suggestions were intended for the imperial court to adopt, having little to do with Yang Xiaolin.

Gulong Mountain was too remote, and news traveled slowly. Liang Qichao had been here for quite some time without making a move, and he was beginning to grow restless. When the Japanese had visited not long ago, he had arranged with Zhisheng Matsubara to write a few articles and have Zhisheng Matsubara publish them on his behalf in a Fengtian-based Japanese newspaper.

With the exception of Liang Qichao and Jin Dadao, everyone else turned out to watch Yang Xiaolin’s live-fire exercise. The exercise plan called for the expenditure of forty artillery shells, twenty explosive satchels, one hundred hand grenades, and an estimated thousand rounds of machine gun and rifle ammunition.

Sui Bing had long since set up the straw dummies needed for the exercise, lining them up starting from a distance of three kilometers all the way to the front of the hilltop position they garrisoned during the drill. Over three days, they had erected an estimated more than thirty thousand dummies. The entire exercise was designed to last fifteen minutes—roughly the duration of a charge by both sides in actual combat. Once the drill commenced, Sui Bing would employ the method Yang Xiaolin had outlined, sequentially deploying various types of firepower from longest to shortest range to test their ultimate lethality.

Yang Xiaolin and the other observers were all in position. Sui Bing was still making final preparations, having his soldiers inspect the shells and repeat the operating procedures. After all, this was their first time concentrating artillery fire on such a scale, and Sui Bing knew he could not afford to bungle the performance.

Finding everything in order, Sui Bing ran over to Yang Xiaolin, his face flushed with excitement. "Commander, everything's set up! Shall we put on a demonstration for you right now?"

Yang Xiaolin rose from his chair, walked over to the fortifications arranged by the First Regiment's men, and gazed at the sea of straw dummies stretching for several kilometers ahead. Within his field of vision, some of the dummies had cloth strips tied around them. Sui Bing explained that these dummies marked with cloth strips represented enemy commanders. Now, every squad had a designated sharpshooter whose task was to eliminate these marked enemy commanders just before throwing hand grenades—simulating the moment the enemy charged right up to the trenches.

Yang Xiaolin listened with great satisfaction. "Good, very good! Remember during the exercise, the progression of the artillery fire must match the speed of a Russian charge—neither too fast nor too slow."

With that, he glanced back and noticed the eager anticipation in the eyes of his other brothers. Without further ado, he said, "Begin."

At Yang Xiaolin's command, Sui Bing waved his signal flag, and the newly acquired 76-millimeter artillery pieces opened fire first. The awkward movements of the bandits operating the big guns showed that they were still unfamiliar with artillery warfare, and some men under tension made a series of minor errors. Within the allotted time, they fired a total of only twenty-seven shells, completely lacking centralized fire control; each gun fought its own battle. Some pieces fired only once, while the better ones managed two or three shells, causing Yang Xiaolin to furrow his brow.

Next came the "heartless mortars" he had independently developed. When the first explosive satchel was hurled two hundred meters forward, it suddenly produced a deafening roar—a sound far louder than the explosion of the regular artillery shells. Yang Du, standing beside Nyerere, involuntarily flinched. Looking up again, he saw that every single straw dummy within the vicinity of the blast had been knocked flat! Within a radius of thirty meters, the ground was essentially scorched earth.

And this was merely an exercise; in actual combat, not only that thirty-meter zone, but anyone extending slightly beyond it would not have escaped unscathed. The reason this weapon was dubbed the "heartless mortar" was precisely because it was so inhumane. During the Huaihai Campaign, many Kuomintang soldiers struck by these mortars bore no external wounds yet died bleeding from their seven orifices—having been violently shaken to death by the immense pressure wave generated by the explosion!

There was no helping it; such a large caliber was bound to be terrifying.

However, the mortar's rate of fire was slow, and its range was only around two hundred meters, leaving very little time for shooting in actual combat. Coupled with the bandits' lack of proficiency in operating them, even with ten mortars firing together, they failed to launch all twenty explosive satchels within the allotted time.

The final phase was simple: over a hundred hand grenades were thrown simultaneously, followed by volleys from the First Regiment’s riflemen, bringing the entire exercise to a close.

As the gunfire ceased, Yang Xiaolin took a quick look. Roughly half of the straw dummies along the path had been knocked down, while the area within the range of the heartless mortars was virtually cleared of standing figures. The straw dummies directly in front of the First Regiment’s positions were mangled beyond recognition, proving that the bandits had become quite proficient in handling rifles and hand grenades.

Yet this was only a drill; in real combat, the enemy would not stand still waiting to be blown up, so the actual results would certainly not be quite this favorable.

Overall, he would give it a seventy—he was relatively satisfied, particularly with the weapons.

The surrounding brothers crowded around Sui Bing, chattering excitedly and sharing their impressions. Artillery warfare was still in its infancy for all the regiments, and since their proficiency levels were similar, whatever Sui Bing could accomplish, they could too. Imagining the scene of enemy charges being decimated by a barrage of artillery fire filled them with excitement.

Liu Xianhe chimed in, "Commander, if we add that rifle you manufactured to this artillery firepower, no one will ever be able to approach us."

This remark struck a chord with everyone present. Yang Xiaolin cast a glare at Liu Xianhe but said nothing. He had no intention of using that rifle, let alone putting it into production. This had nothing to do with his promise to the Russians; rather, he had no wish for such rifles to leak out into the hands of the Japanese.

Furthermore, semi-automatic rifles fired at a rate many times faster than current rifles, and Yang Xiaolin’s present hand-workshop-style ammunition factory simply could not keep up with the supply. With each bandit currently carrying only ten rounds of ammunition, what difference would it make whether they used manual rifles or semi-automatic ones?

(Seeking recommendation votes! Brothers, give us some momentum!)