New Shun 1730

After returning home, Pitt and George II were furious and asked what they were doing? Why didn't you attack Rochefort? Can't you avoid the merchant ships of Dashun and then take down Rochefort?

Soon, the Parliament set up a "Committee of Inquiry into Malfeasance".

At that time, the public opinion in Britain had been incited by Pitt and was extremely fanatical - otherwise, John Bean would not have been shot; Edward Hawke was almost investigated and dismissed for letting the French warship escape - in short, the British public opinion at that time had been completely incited by William Pitt and other "little patriots, patriots".

Then someone has to take the blame.

Then, the Commission of Inquiry into Malfeasance looked around and decided that you, John Mordaunt, should take the blame!

Of course, in essence, it was actually a party struggle.

John Mordaunt was a supporter of former Prime Minister Robert Walpole, or a member of the Walpole Party.

It was Lord Cornwallis who recommended him to be the commander of the army attacking Rochefort.

Lord Cornwallis' wife was the niece of former Prime Minister Walpole, the daughter of Pow's sister.

John Mordaunt was just short of having the title "I am Walpole's partisan" engraved on his face. Obviously, this was the young generation of army officers that Walpole's faction was preparing to promote.

In fact, the courts of the world played similar games, forming factions, fighting between the old and new parties, fostering factions, cultivating young people to occupy positions, and so on.

This malfeasance investigation committee, seeing that Pitt had to find someone to be held responsible, it was too clear who was to be held responsible:

Before William Pitt came to power, he started by blasting the cabinet and organizing anti-government activities. It can be said that he blasted Walpole at least ten times a day, and words such as waste, coward, idiot, and villain appeared endlessly.

The naval commander was Hawke, whose father was a middle-class son-in-law, a pure naval technical backbone, without any party. The navy still had to keep a few people who could fight, not all of them were waste.

This person could not take the blame.

At a glance, it was obvious that John Mordaunt was fat and big, so he had to take the blame and deal with Walpole's people.

George II stepped in to balance it out, stripped John Mordaunt of his official position, but kept his military rank and sent him to Gibraltar.

It's not that Mordaunt didn't know that this was a party dispute.

But at that time, it was indeed the "neutral" ships of the Dashun that warned Britain, which led to John Mordaunt suggesting at the military meeting that they should not fight and withdraw.

And in the end, it was because of his extra words that he was caught and sent to Gibraltar, where he made meritorious contributions.

At that time, he hated the Dashun so much that when the Dashun fleet appeared near Gibraltar and defeated Bosken's fleet, the degree of this hatred deepened: the neutrality of the Dashun was fake. If he had known this, he should have blown up the Dashun merchant ships in Rochefort Port and taken away all the ginseng and sable furs on them!

Then, the original Governor of Gibraltar "returned home for recuperation due to illness", and he, who only had the rank of general left, was "commissioned in times of crisis" and became the supreme commander of Gibraltar.

As a result, the army of Dashun landed and began to besiege Gibraltar, and adopted a very disgusting scurvy tactic of waiting for scurvy, burning all the shops and houses in Gibraltar in one wave.

Mordaunt, who wanted to wash away the shame in Gibraltar, almost hated Dashun:

When he was rising, it was the merchant ships of Dashun that interfered, causing him to bear the blame.

It was not easy to start again and become the Governor of Gibraltar, but he was besieged by the army of Dashun again, and it was very likely that he would bear the blame for the loss of Gibraltar again - unable to defend? The house was burned? As the acting Governor of Gibraltar, what do you do? Why don't you do a good job of fire prevention in advance? Why don't you prepare firewood for the winter in advance? Why didn't they requisition food from residents' shops in advance to implement rationing and let the supplies be burned by the Chinese?

So there is no hatred without reason.

Defoe hated China and insulted China because the pottery factory he and his friends opened was hit hard by oriental porcelain, and he would never forget the description of "pottery jars". By the way, he witnessed the large-scale unemployment caused by the influx of oriental cotton cloth into Britain, and the oriental aesthetics began to "distort" the traditional aesthetics of Britain.

George Anson was insulted by Liu Yu in Lingdingyang, and had to endure it because he needed supplies and repair ships to attack Manila. After returning, he was criticized for the "scurvy pills" he and Dr. Ward promoted in the navy because Dashun published an article introducing the scurvy problem. It was regarded as a model of collusion between officials and businessmen in the Navy Department. After taking this scurvy pill, only 130 crew members of a battleship with 570 crew members died. Dr. Ward made a profit of 500,000 pounds by promoting it throughout the navy. As for whether he gave Anson, who promoted the magic pill, no one knows. Naturally, he was anti-Dashun to the point of madness.

The same is true for Mordaunt.

In this era of "Oriental fever" and "China fever", except for the political "enlightenment" purpose of Montesquieu who wanted to "use Eastern to satirize Western" and satirize the church with Eastern religions, the anti-Dashun was basically because they had endured some pain that should not be borne by life, and they believed that the responsibility was all on Dashun.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Dashun's tactical trap can be said to be a combination of the right time, the right place, and the right people.

From a rational tactical perspective: Carrying out tactical counterattacks when the enemy is hoarding supplies, has not fully deployed its troops, and before the attack is about to be launched, is the theoretically best and most effective way to delay the enemy's attack time and disrupt the enemy's offensive steps.

As for personal feelings and emotions, Mordaunt's thoughts were a bit...human.

After holding on to death due to scurvy, Dashun occupied Gibraltar, and Dashun was rewarded for his meritorious service.

If we attack by force, given the terrain of Gibraltar and the four thousand defenders, the attackers will have to prepare for at least six to seven thousand casualties, so the general on the Dashun side will not be punished.

Only, if before the attack is launched, one's own side launches a counterattack, burns Dashun's grain, cannons, and disrupts Dashun's offensive deployment, then someone from Dashun's side will have to take the blame, take responsibility, or even be shot!

Mordaunt's mentality at this time was simply:

I want someone to support me before I die!

The bigger the level, the better!

However, when facing the officers, he could not make such emotional expressions.

After analyzing the situation at this time, the food stocks, the arrival of winter, and Dashun's obvious all-out attack, the counterattack plan he proposed was quite reasonable.

"Gentlemen, although we don't know whether those people in Parliament will choose to rescue us or throw us away like used toilet paper."

"But we have to do something. If we do nothing, even if the Chinese don't launch a full-scale attack, we won't survive until next spring. Besides, what's the use of surviving until next spring? It's all rocks here. It’s not even possible to grow a turnip.”

"The current situation is very dangerous. We must make our voices heard and let the Chinese know that even if we face such a dilemma, we will still choose to fight and hope."

"I noticed that the Chinese had hoarded a large amount of grain and sugar cane wine in De La Concepcion. They also had their heavy artillery, gunpowder magazines, and Spanish stores."

"Before they were complacent and about to launch an attack, we chose to fight back, raid their positions, seize food, burn warehouses and artillery. If we succeeded and we obtained supplies, they would find that they could not starve us to death."

"I think that tonight, the soldiers in the direction of the bay fort should be gathered together - we must act at night, because during the day, their hot air balloons will always keep an eye on our movements. Only by relying on the protection of the goddess of the night, can we Concentrate your forces to defend the bay."

No one among the officers below objected to this military order, and they all really had hope.

In this era, this kind of long siege war is destructive.

despair.

Food is scarce.

scurvy.

No vegetables.

The lack of strong liquor was more difficult for the soldiers to endure.

cold.

No firewood for heating…

All of this has reduced morale to the extreme.

What's even more abominable is the continuous shelling every day. The heavy artillery keeps randomly dropping iron pellets on the defensive positions, making the defenders nervous every day even if the opposite side does not launch an attack.

In this case, not only officers, but even many soldiers would rather fight.

If you succeed, you can grab enough wine, food, citrus or lemons, and lumber from Spanish towns...

The officers gave 100% support to Mordaunt's plan.

Soon, a counterattack plan in the direction of the isthmus was formulated.

In their opinion, Dashun's defense did not seem to be tight. It seemed that launching an assault to occupy the trench would not be a big problem.

In fact, they were right.

At least, judging from the tactical system and tactical theory at this time, Dashun's defense system was a bit strange.

Dashun's defense system in the direction of the isthmus is multi-layered.

The first layer of trenches and parapets closest to Gibraltar are basically straight, and there are actually not many troops to defend them.

They are mainly rifled flintlock skirmishers that can kill at long range, as well as some small-caliber shotguns deployed at key locations.

According to the tactical system of the "explosion bomb" era, the defender's important firepower cannot be dug in a circular fortification, because then an explosive bomb will wipe out the firepower.

In the era of solid bullets, these shotguns must of course be deployed within ring fortifications to facilitate shooting in all directions.

Moreover, the width of the first trench was actually very large, but the angle was used to avoid the threat of artillery fire from the Gibraltar defenders.

This width is not only for defensive counterattacks, but also for gathering troops in the first trench before the attack is launched, and then relying on mole-like engineers to dig in and approach the defenders.

Behind the first trench is Dashun's second trench. The trench completes a very standard "W" shaped fold line and is connected to the first line of defense through a limited number of zigzag trenches.

Heavy artillery is basically deployed near the second trench.

At the top of the V, regimental artillery will be deployed.

Every once in a while, a specialized parabolic explosive bomb Tiger Crouching Cannon of the Dashun Combat Engineers will be deployed, with a range that can cover the first trench.

A large number of Dashun's troops are also deployed on the second line of defense. There are special military pits there, but the camp is not on the second line of defense, but further back.

The assault companies of combat engineers are also deployed within the second line of defense.

If you need to attack, go through the zigzag trench, avoid the shelling, move to the first trench, and then dig the hole.

If you want to defend, the defenders of the first line of defense will resist and then retreat to the second line of defense in an orderly manner, and then the main force of the second line of defense will counterattack under the cover of their own artillery fire.

This does not need to be specially practiced after coming to Gibraltar, but this is the tactical regulation of the Dashun combat engineers.

Because the task of combat engineers is to siege, and the zigzag trench siege method, the most taboo is the counterattack in the city.

Defense itself is the basic tactical system of siege in this era.

The difference between Dashun and the European tactical system is that Europe chooses to reform the military service system to recruit more troops to besiege the bastion, and the large troops continue to advance, which is the most cost-effective; while Dashun carefully studies the siege method of 5,000 people, strengthens trench warfare and civil engineering technology, which is the most cost-effective.

Europe develops grenadiers into elite line infantry and white-knife assault specialists; while Dashun develops grenadiers into elite engineers, civil engineering and trench specialists.

The front-line staff only made slight modifications based on the tactical guidance of luring the enemy into a counterattack, but overall it was still within the scope of the tactical thinking that was set twenty years ago, "based on the limit of 5,000 people deployed across the ocean."