Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1280 Death and Revenge ([-])

The Great Bright King of Persia, the Buddha of India and the ancestor of alchemy in Tiangong, together, it seems that they don't know how to fight.

After reciting a spell for peace of mind, the lead bullets of the British did not hit him, because there were not many British troops in the camp.

The humid air by the sea in the early morning makes the flint's ignition rate drop significantly.A small number of British soldiers who were still stationed in the camp began to fight back.

The bombardment of the full-scale offensive in the past few days has basically destroyed the cannons deployed by the British army in the direction of the isthmus. The British army was originally a counterattack to the death, and did not reserve many people in the camp.

It's just that they didn't expect at all that Dashun had been doing a defensive counterattack from the very beginning, luring the British army to this point step by step.

The staff department is not sure that the British army will be fooled, but the staff department will definitely prepare different plans for various situations. This is a feature of the Dashun military reform.

Although it seems that with the end of this round of expansion, the General Staff Department is likely to become a nursing home, and the emperor may choose to let the Military Government and the General Staff Department fight in order to rebalance, but at least not yet.

The counterattack that Zhao Lisheng participated in launching at this time was one of the plans of the staff department.

That is, in the direction of the coast, concentrate our forces and break through the British camp.Block the isthmus, and after surrounding and annihilating the attacking British army, cooperate with floating forts to capture the coastal artillery forts of the British army.

This can be regarded as the standard landing tactics of this era: avoid the fort, the marines go around and attack the fort, and the expensive navy acts as a cheerleader.

Even the first Opium War in history had to rely on the Marine Corps to solve the fort, and it was impossible to choose land and sea to shoot.

However, in view of the fact that the French marines in the direction of the bay can't launch an attack until at least nine o'clock, Dashun is not in a hurry to capture the coastal fort immediately.

Instead, choose to cut off the isthmus.

According to the understanding of war in later generations, the engineers who are now advancing towards the isthmus are similar to paratroopers or light infantry with large detours.You have to rely on your own legs to maneuver, cut off the isthmus, and cut off the connection between the attacking British army and the camp.

It's just narrowed down on the narrow isthmus battlefield, but the general idea is the same.

The engineers in the formation maintained their formation, and when they approached about fifty steps, the company in the front row launched a charge.

The officer took the lead, and Zhao Lisheng also yelled and followed the company as they approached the ditch in front of the camp, but instead of jumping into the ditch, he chose to stop in front of the ditch.

Or shoot at the British troops in the camp, or start throwing grenades.This is stipulated in the tactical code of conduct. In the offensive and defensive battle of the camp, unless you are directly climbing and attacking, do not enter the trench, but choose to shoot or drop bombs in front of the trench.

Zhao Lisheng, who was slightly drunk and anesthetized, took off the grenade from his waist very skillfully, unscrewed the back cover, wiped it with a leather bullet, and threw it towards the British camp.

The dense gunfire and the explosion of grenades instantly suppressed the British army in the camp.

The moment the explosions sounded one after another, the companies in the column behind them quickly launched an impact, crossed the trench, climbed up the not-so-high camp, and stabbed the British troops inside to death.Or drag the British soldiers injured by grenades from the camp to the ditch and throw them down.

In the eyes of these sappers, this was hardly a serious battle.

They did not continue to attack the forts on the coast, but followed the officer's order and continued along the British barracks along the isthmus, pulling out the British forts one by one.

After having a place to stay, the follow-up attack is much easier.

With the cover of the British barracks and parapets, it is clear that the British army's understanding of the defense of the field barracks is still at a flat level.

The engineers did not choose to attack some slightly higher artillery forts in the direction of the isthmus, but approached along the parapet of the cover.

Some soldiers with jute sacks unfolded the sacks they were carrying, while engineers with shovels quickly dug up the soil and put it into the sacks.

Company officers shouted and gave orders.

Zhao Lisheng's company was going to attack a relatively high part of the British camp on the isthmus.

After these days of bombardment, the thick-soiled camp was only a little loose and damaged, but not completely collapsed.The cannons above were destroyed, but there was still a group of British troops on it.

The hidden trench line that the company was looking for was about 90 steps away from the British army's earth barrier, within the range of the muskets.

"You guys, push forward, how to dig a hole, you know? Dig a horizontal hole, don't dig a vertical hole..."

The company captain named Zhao Lisheng and others, and assigned them tasks.

Zhao Lisheng and his companions agreed, picked up the sack filled with soil, and ran forward for about thirty or forty steps in the gap filled with muskets on the opposite side.

In the direction facing the earth barrier, the sacks were quickly piled up into a simple parapet to block the lead bullets fired from the opposite side.

According to Vauban's tactics, this thing is best served in a wicker basket.But as the saying goes, according to local conditions, Dashun can find a lot of wicker baskets in Nanyang, but jute sacks are common objects.

Relying on the obstruction of the simple parapet built by these sacks, Zhao Lisheng stooped, untied his shovel from behind, spit on the palm of his hand twice, and began to dig the soil under his feet frantically.

After digging out a hole that could accommodate him, he jumped up from the hole and handed the shovel to Ergou.

Relaying each other, soon, a simple short ditch was dug out, which was almost parallel to the British army's earth barrier.

The other team next to it also used a similar method to dig.

Although these soldiers don't understand geometry, they don't need a ruler at all when they practice digging pits in Ceylon all day long. Just relying on their eyes and feel, they can make a perfect line that can ensure that the candied haws will not be pierced by shells, and the The folding line trench where you can hide from the camp muskets with your waist down.

The sacks at the back were continuously sent over to fill the soil, which raised the parapet in front of the breakline ditch.

The gun crew of the tiger squatting gun following them installed a portable 40-jin curved-fire gun behind the parapet.

This distance is quite embarrassing for the British army on the camp.

It's not that they don't have grenades, but unless they have divine power, grenades in this era cannot be thrown so far.

This is also the reason why Europe began to try to revive the Huss hand cannon at this time, while Dashun followed the revival path of "leather cannon" and "tiger crouching cannon".

All to lengthen the "grenadier's arm".

After the expensive brass-cast curved gun was mounted, the ignited grenade was stuffed in, and the ignited grenade was thrown out by the deflagration of the black powder.

The lead bullets thumped against the sack, but could not penetrate at all.

The grenade thrown out with its tail dragged over the parapet and barracks, and fell on the side of the British defenders.

There were several explosions, and black smoke rose everywhere.

Zhao Lisheng listened to the officer's order again, and quickly rushed to the bottom of the earth barrier while the smoke and dust were flying.

The partner who covered him threw a grenade towards it, and he used the skills he had practiced in the Ceylon gem mine to quickly dig a hole under the earth barrier.

The demolition engineer behind, holding a pillow-sized explosive package, stuffed it into the hole.

After igniting, the group of people ran backwards as if flying, ran to the back of the sack, half squatted, opened their mouths, and covered their ears.

…………

John Mordaunt, atop the Rock of Gibraltar, had an overview of the battlefield, and had fallen into deep despair.

His attack this time has been a complete failure.

The British army fell into the trap that Dashun had set in advance. They were not good at fighting in front of trenches and forts.

On the other hand, Dashun adopted the tactics of outflanking with two wings.

The main counterattack force, behind the engineers who were going to attack the coastal fort, began to squeeze inward from both sides of the defense line. About 2500 British troops had been surrounded near the center of Dashun's first line of defense.

What really brought him despair was the engineers from Dashun who lined up to counterattack from the coast.

They are well-trained, fully aware of what they are going to do in the chaos, and their purpose is quite clear.

And their offensive tactics are very professional.

Prior to this, the incident of Dashun's voyage to Southeast Asia had caused some disturbances in Europe.

But this turmoil, to be honest, is not big.

Because it is normal for Nanyang to be occupied by China; it is not normal for it to be occupied by the Dutch and Portuguese for 300 years.

On the European side, the more popular ones are those "scheming schemes" that were packaged by Liu Yu's advocacy.

What is the Ceylon Trojan horse trick, what is the snow mountain gathering, and so on.

As for the tactical experience to be learned in that war, not many people in Europe paid attention to it.

For example, Liu Yu said in Dashun's officer training class very early on that the era of bastions has passed due to the explosive bombs and engineer tactics, as well as the more ridiculous conscription and training systems.

For example, during the siege of Dutch castles in Nanyang, Dashun demonstrated a powerful ability to siege castles, especially Dutch system bastions.

These are rarely noticed in Europe.

The intelligence collected by the British East India Company can also be described as indescribable.

They have always translated Dashun's elite combat engineers as "Grenadier", but in fact they are clearly "Engineer".

Another example is in their intelligence, it is said that Dashun's navy learned from France.

But in fact, they didn't even figure out what the fighting style of the Dashun Navy was, or even completely didn't figure out the value of the Dashun Navy in the decisive battle strategy in the ocean. Guards, but France can land in London, Spain can land in Porto, we do not seek total victory, we only seek to bite the enemy.”

It is completely different from the strategic thinking of France that "as long as our fleet exists, it has the greatest strategic significance, so we can run as long as we can".

Waiting for the poor information on these intelligences, so that when the Dashun engineers really launched an attack, what they brought to John Mordaunt was only deep despair.

He felt that Dashun's way of besieging and digging pits looked very familiar and seemed to be French.

But after the real fight, the details seen through the telescope are full of weirdness.

In the binoculars, he could see the grenades fired by Dashun.

I also witnessed Dashun's demolition engineers using powerful and strange explosives to directly blast away the earth barrier and open the attack channel.

The violent explosion, far exceeding that of black powder, plunged him into deep fear.

John Mordaunt didn't know that this new type of explosive was just a by-product of the industrial and commercial development after Dashun's reforms over the years.

The fact that Dashun’s natural alkali-producing areas are in the remote inland steppe Gobi makes Dashun’s glass manufacturing industry, soap industry, and luxury glycerin cosmetics industry that sells well in Europe rely on the alkali-producing industry for development. The soda making industry has to be based on acid making.

This high-efficiency explosive is nothing but a derivative of the acid-base industry, glass industry, and soap industry.

Industrial standardized production of nitroglycerin is impossible, and manual rubbing with higher mortality rate has the same effect.

Just like those match factories in Dashun at this time, the health of the employees is so worrying that "every day I feel the taste of garlic in my mouth", rubbing white phosphorus or phosphorus sulfide can be rubbed until the workers can feel the taste of garlic in their mouths every day. The subtext behind it is dark and bloody, which means that these workers will basically live less than five years, and will be very painful before death, including but not limited to liver enlargement, tooth loss, jawbone completely rotten, and so on.

He didn't know the cruelty behind it, but after witnessing the demolition of the earth barrier, he sighed that "the times have changed" from the perspective of a soldier.

"General, what should we do now?"

The lieutenant waited anxiously for Mordaunt's order, but Mordaunt shook his head.

"Gentlemen, there is nothing that can be done now. I now discharge my final duties as a British general."

After talking nonsensically like this, the adjutant thought that Mordant's spirit had collapsed, but he really couldn't think of anything to do, so he could only stand there numbly, looking at Mordant who sat down slumped.

Mordaunt, who sat down slumped, picked up the quill and dipped it in ink, as if writing a suicide note.

"...Gentlemen, the Chinese attack on Gibraltar should teach us some lessons. Some purely military lessons, apart from parliamentary squabbles and partisanship - as an officer, I must say: the age of the Bastion ended……"

"...that kind of powerful explosive is only missing a safer detonation technology and a gun barrel that can withstand higher pressure since the Chinese completely ended the era of bastion. I think that day will come soon. arrival……"

"...Since the Duke of Marlborough pioneered the British infantry salvo system, we have always refused to admit that artillery is the protagonist of the battlefield. Even the reform of the Duke of Cumberland is based on 'stricter formation, stricter array , a neater row of guns, and stricter discipline' is the direction. Austria has begun to expand their artillery system, the French have also begun to update their artillery system, and the Chinese have also begun the era of the standard 6-pound 12-pound gun system. We still refuse to update our artillery..."

"...Given Britain's strategy and intervention in Europe, at least the Chinese idea of ​​building an army is worth learning from. As a loyal supporter of the Whig Party, I once opposed the standing army system, but now, I think, we must start from Learn something from the Chinese tactical system-some professional expeditionary groups that are standing, strictly trained, and can attack fortresses, and the number does not need to be too large..."

He is not in the navy, nor has he witnessed the naval battle between Dashun and the British army, but he still wrote down some thoughts that deeply shocked him on the previous battlefield from the perspective of an army general.

Now, the tide is over.

He didn't think he had any other way to slow down Dashun's attack. The sun was about to rise, and the tide was about to rise. The French army's attack from the direction of the bay was coming soon.

everything is over.

Before it was all over, he put his thoughts on the war on paper.

After writing his thoughts on the experience of the war, Mordaunt folded the letter without stopping.

Instead, on another piece of paper, he wrote down his real...last words.

He didn't think he could survive, even if Dashun could release him, John Bing's example was there, and he would be shot when he went back.

And if he chooses to "preserve the honor of the officer", then his death will have value.

At least...with a political turmoil like the events in Menorca.Even if you are going to die, you have to use your last words of grief and indignation to pull William Peet down!
(End of this chapter)