Twenty shells per minute can be released. But this is to the extreme. If many consecutive shoot, the gun perekalitsya. We, brother, in the whole calculation and arithmetic. The figure means beats. You do not understand in numbers – and in the artillery is impossible.
Rain stopped. The northwest wind blows. Smell the sea. The sound of the surf was heard. Officers gathered at the station. Soon after inspecting the fortifications of Kinzhou, General Fock and Colonel Tretyakov were to arrive. Brilliant epaulets of junior commanding officers gleamed in the reflections of the burning dawn.
– Tell me, please, gentlemen, what are the differences between the division commander and Colonel Tretyakov? – asked the staff captain Dwight, who arrived at the station a few hours ago from Bitszyo, where the Japanese troops landed successfully.
“Our general doesn’t quite agree with the Qinzhou defense plan developed by the commission in the twentieth of January, and the colonel protects him, since he himself is a member of this commission, – said Captain Stempkovsky. “The general demands the descent of a line of trenches to the base of the fortification and the construction of new trenches protecting the approaches to Battery No. 15 and preventing the bypass of our left flank along the shore of Qinzhou Bay. Admittedly, we have paid very little attention to the line of the sea surf.
The captain fell silent and lit a cigarette.
“You worked there, tell me more,” the commander of the border guards Boutiques entered into the conversation.
The dispute was big. The commission noted that the left flank was completely inconvenient for an attack. And most importantly, experts said, in the presence of batteries of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth and fifteenth, even thoughts about the possibility of movement of enemy chains and columns along the coast should not be allowed. The main danger is from the side of the railway and the spurs of Mount Samson.
– The irrefutable truth. The Japanese will not turn up along the shore of Kinzhou Bay, we will destroy them in any quantity! – the ensign Tsvetkov exclaimed, blushing. – Do not forget our land mines.
“All this is so until serf guns are shot down,” Stempkovsky chuckled.
“You, like General Fock, do you not believe in the inaccessibility of Kinzhou?” – interviewed staff captain Dwight.
– It’s not just the fortifications, but also the people. I don’t think that the Japanese launched an attack right away without preparing their artillery. And we must fear that they will achieve much.
– But why? – polled the ensign.
“The heights that, with the tight laying of Kinzhou, will be in their hands, dominate the fifty-three Nanshan Mountain.” This is the first. We must assume that they will bring here hundreds of two guns of the new model with devices for bombing an invisible target. Next – their artillery park is unthinkable without mortars.
– You still tweak support fleet? – put the staff captain of the High.
– Consider, consider everything, – the captain calmly answered. – Our fleet is wounded, and, most importantly, in the head.
“Yes, after the death of Makarov, the Japanese became impudent at sea,” said midshipman Shimanovsky. “Most of the guns here are old, piston, and Cana’s cannons, brought recently, are still not installed.
– The misfortune of fortresses is that their guns are somewhat outdated technically against the guns of the attackers.
– What to do? – exclaimed infantry officers.
– To create more favorable conditions for the infantry, on which the head of our division insists.
“There are contradictory rumors about him,” the artillery officer told the infantry in a whisper. – Many consider him flighty.
– Soldiers love him. He is a little crazy. And we will learn about his fighting qualities. He cares about soldiers and officers and does not want them to perish in vain.
– They say he is a supporter of the rare placement of soldiers in the trenches.
– Although this is against the charter, it is not without meaning.
“Statutory provisions are aging,” hurried to insert the infantry lieutenant.
The command “quietly” was distributed. The officers looked at themselves and pulled themselves up. Generals Kondratenko and Fock approached the station, followed by Colonel Tretyakov. Having greeted the officers, Fock stopped at the edge of the apron and, turning his face to the north, looked along the way. When Colonel Tretyakov approached him, he continued the interrupted conversation and said:
– I also because against the trenches at the top of the mountain, against your swallow nests, that there is a great concentration of enemy fire.
– At the foot of the mountain a large radius, the length of the trenches is increasing. To fill them will require new groups of shooters – objected Tretyakov.
“You, Colonel, of course, are happy to plant your regiment under the very sky.” But what is the use of it? What good is I asking? The top will be shrouded in dust and projectiles. And suddenly, right in front of you, the enemy.
– A breathless enemy, Your Excellency.
– Wrong conclusion. The height of Nanshan is fifty-three fathoms. Although the western and eastern slopes are steep enough, they can still be skipped fully armed all the way to the top.The northern slope of the fortified mountain comes to naught and you can ride in a wheelchair at a trot right up to the cannons, as if on a highway. And then Samson, with its spurs, as ticks, covers our fortifications. Additional trenches are needed, so even with visors from shrapnel bullets.
– Every extra hundred sazhen trenches will require new shooters, and they are needed to repulse the flank movements.
– I will not give extra soldiers, because I consider it harmful.
– Our arrows are not fired, most of them are recruits and spare… We will scatter them twenty steps apart, and they will feel lonely, and in difficult times will be beyond the moral influence of the boss.
“This is an outdated opinion, Colonel,” General Fock objected with fervor. – Do you think the soldiers slaughter?
– No, you, Your Excellency! But still, with closer contact, each in the hope of comradely support.
– You can not fill the trenches of people! – screamed Fok.
General Kondratenko turned and looked at the group of officers, in the middle of which Fock was waving his hands.
“He always argues,” Kondratenko sighed wearily. – Is it up to disputes now, when things are in the throat, when there should be cohesion, when, the enemy
