Chapter 22

The Qing army built four fortresses outside the Peony Terrace. During the Battle of Pyongyang, the first fortress was destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, and after the Qing army retreated, a part of the 9th Mixed Brigade of the Japanese army garrisoned here. The Qing army constructed a fortress at Peony Terrace, which was five zhang (about 16.7 meters) high, with complete gun emplacements and strong fortifications. During the Battle of Pyongyang, the parapet of the fortress was destroyed. After the Japanese captured Pyongyang, to guard against a Qing counterattack, they repaired it. The fortress was equipped with 18 heavy guns of 75 mm caliber, and the Japanese also stockpiled a large amount of ammunition.

The 9th Mixed Brigade belonged to the 5th Division. On September 20th, during an air strike, the division commander and over a dozen senior officers were killed, including the brigade commander of the 9th Mixed Brigade, Major General Oshima Yoshinari. At this point, a new brigade commander should have been appointed by a higher authority, but the division commander was also killed. In the Japanese army, divisions were directly commanded by the Emperor, and the appointment of a division commander had to be approved by the Emperor. However, communication had been cut off, so the highest-ranking officer among the Japanese garrison in Pyongyang was the commander of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Colonel Shibano Yoshikazu.

One of the main functions of the military rank system is to facilitate command when the organizational structure is disrupted during wartime. Everyone follows the orders of the highest-ranking officer. Although Colonel Shibano Yoshikazu was an artillery officer, he was not lacking in infantry tactics. It must be admitted that, in the First Sino-Japanese War, the military competence of Japanese commanders generally exceeded that of the Qing army. Therefore, Colonel Shibano Yoshikazu left a company of Japanese soldiers, about 300 men, to guard the main fortress at Peony Terrace.

A Z-25 helicopter from the Beijing warship carried 35 marines and flew to Peony Terrace under the cover of night. In the forest outside the main fortress, it dropped off Chen Fei and the other marines. Chen Fei and his team stealthily approached the outer perimeter of Peony Terrace. The gate of the fortress was not closed because the Qing army had already retreated, and those left were their own men.

There were only two guards at the gate. The main granary of the Japanese in Pyongyang had been destroyed by aircraft from the Beijing warship, so the Japanese guarding the fortress received only a small amount of food each day. The company commander ordered that anyone who could move should go into the mountains to find food, and those who could bring back ten pounds of meat would be credited with a military achievement. As a result, the number of guards in the fortress was reduced to less than a platoon.

Chen Fei and his team were well aware of these circumstances. The intelligence department on the Beijing warship was not to be underestimated, and these agents were just as skilled at gathering intelligence as they were at keeping secrets. Chen Fei and his team were all equipped with silencers, with the aim of infiltrating secretly.

The position where Chen Fei and his team were hiding was about 400 meters from the gate of the fortress. The searchlights on the fortress walls swept back and forth, and any movement would be detected by the sentries. It must be said that the quality of Japanese soldiers was far superior to that of the Qing army. Despite being hungry, the Japanese sentries remained vigilant.

Chen Fei held a Type 03 sniper rifle with a silencer. As part of the 5.8 mm caliber gun family, the Type 03 rifle had an advantage over the Type 95 rifle in that it could be equipped with more accessories on its tactical rail. Chen Fei checked the wind, and the weather was favorable, with zero wind speed.

For a sniper, the wind is the greatest enemy. Zero wind speed means no wind to affect the shot. In this situation, at a distance of 400 meters, with a marksman like Chen Fei, the two sentries fell in a pool of blood without making a sound.

Chen Fei and his team quickly infiltrated the fortress. They stealthily approached the gun positions and soon cleared out the guards. When the attackers entered the camp, they were surprised to find that the people inside were too weak from hunger to fight. Our army has a tradition of not killing those who surrender, so they only confiscated their weapons. One young soldier, seeing a Japanese soldier who looked pitifully hungry, even gave him a compressed biscuit.

Chen Fei and his team were the vanguard. After occupying the fortress, they immediately sent a signal. Helicopters waiting in the nearby airspace quickly flew over, carrying mainly Qing army prisoners of war, most of whom were artillerymen. Chen Fei looked at his watch and thought: in fifteen minutes, the main force would arrive.

Just then, a sudden change occurred!

A force of over a hundred men climbed up the slope. The Peony Terrace was surrounded by cliffs on three sides, with only the side facing Pyongyang being a slope. As a result, these men were immediately spotted by the sentries.

These hundred or so men were the first company that had gone hunting. Normally, they would not return at this time, but today they had hunted seven or eight wild boars. The company commander, feeling lucky, decided to return with his men. However, they never expected to run into the marines. It was unclear whether this was good luck or bad luck.

Chen Fei signaled his men not to fire, waiting for his command. At 400 meters, the outlines of the men were visible; at 300 meters, their figures could be clearly seen; at 200 meters, their laughter could be heard.

The company commander's uniform was the most conspicuous. Chen Fei aimed his rifle at him. The average height of Japanese men was 160 cm, and using the reticle in his scope, he calculated that the distance between them was 185 meters. He then looked at the flag on the Japanese bayonet, which was at a 45-degree angle to the bayonet due to the wind. He mentally applied a formula, dividing 45 by 4 and multiplying by 1.6 to calculate the wind speed, and then determined the necessary windage correction. All these calculations were completed in an instant.

He then pulled the trigger. The sound of the bullet being fired was mostly absorbed by the silencer, producing only a "puff."

The company commander screamed and clutched his right leg, falling to the ground. In battle, hitting a leg is more difficult than hitting the head or torso because the legs are always moving. Chen Fei liked to shoot at legs because such injuries rendered the victim immobile, and the uninjured had to expend effort to care for them.

In modern warfare, if the others encountered such a scene, they would quickly take cover, knowing they had encountered a sniper. However, in this era, no one had heard of snipers, so the Japanese thought someone's gun had accidentally discharged.

Chen Fei gave the order: "Fire!"

Dozens of assault rifles opened fire, and bullets flew like they had eyes, instantly felling about twenty Japanese soldiers. The remaining Japanese soldiers realized the fortress had been captured by the Qing army and quickly took cover with their guns.

The Japanese did not counterattack but retreated to the other fortresses. Chen Fei knew the Japanese plan: to use the artillery from the other fortresses to attack the one they were in.

Chen Fei called for air support, and soon several J-24s took off. The other three fortresses were immediately engulfed in flames. The Japanese garrison in Pyongyang, seeing Peony Terrace captured, quickly gathered forces to attack it. Soon, over a thousand men were assembled around Peony Terrace. Since these men were relatively scattered, air strikes were not cost-effective, so the Krupp guns on Peony Terrace were more effective.

Several helicopters landed in the fortress, and Qing army soldiers disembarked and climbed the walls. They were experts in operating these Krupp guns.

The Qing army soldiers on the walls, seeing the Japanese preparing to attack, nervously asked Chen Fei, "Sir, are we surrounded? Can we still fight this battle?"