The route of the march of the Genoese, far from the main lines of communication.

Basically along country roads, which made the march difficult, especially since they carried artillery, and some of the infantry had to build roads and bridges with sappers.

The enemy forces they faced were not strong, but they had to be cleared, otherwise these enemy hedgehogs would pose a threat to the flank of General Schmidt's main flank.

At the same time, the Genoese were also acting to protect the supply lines of General Schmidt's main force, so that they had no worries.

The main reason why this military task was given to the Genoese was that the army was of good strength and appeared to be well-trained compared to its size, and that by entrusting the task of protecting the left flank to the Genoese, Schmidt would be free to deal with the main rebel force with all his might.

The rebels had so many places to defend that they had to make trade-offs, placing their main forces on the west bank of the Moore River. Otherwise, the many villages and towns and transportation nodes outside Daguerre will divide too much of their strength, and the result of spreading the pie is that there are weaknesses everywhere.

The official attack of the government forces was at 7 a.m., the Genoese were two hours late, and by 4 p.m., Sean had easily recaptured five villages, killing more than 500 enemies and prisoners, with little fierce resistance and minimal losses.

At 5 o'clock in the evening, Sean received an order signed by General Schmidt, ordering him to rush to the town of Tolosa by 8 o'clock the next morning and join him in attacking the town of Tolosa.

The town of Tolosa itself is small, but the rebels have built it into a fortress that is close to the Moorish River, where a tributary of the Moorish River called the Bidazo River meets it, and is surrounded on three sides by water. This special geography makes it a roadblock.

When one of the battleregiments of the 1st Division arrived there first, it was already at the end of its strength, and this elite regiment with a strong will to fight had been fighting and marching for more than seven hours, and the soldiers were physically exhausted.

The rebels destroyed the bridge, cut off the traffic, and when the sappers caught up, the rebels suddenly fired up with artillery, and a company of sappers was reimbursed in two minutes.

Follow-up artillery units tried to return fire, but the gains outweighed the losses, because the government forces were on a flat side and the opponent's artillery was hiding in strong fortifications, and in the confrontation between the two sides, the government troops lost seven artillery pieces and reimbursed most of the soldiers of the artillery company.

In addition, it was already dark, and the attack of the 1st Division of Unity was blocked.

Having received orders from General Schmidt, Sean ordered his troops to march overnight to reach the upper reaches of the Bidaso River, where he could hear intermittent gunfire from the direction of the downstream.

Sean's plan was simple, he was going to cross the river from upstream and make a detour back to the west side of the town of Tolosa.

Encamped, this kind of thing no longer needs Sean to pay attention to himself, and his subordinates perform their duties, tense and orderly.

The marching tent could only be pitched in the snow.

As far as the current battle situation is concerned, the biggest challenge is the severe cold weather, Sean is used to living in the northern Xinjiang, but his subordinates are very uncomfortable, Sean has to often warn the quartermaster to ensure the supply of broth with ginger, if the conditions allow, let the soldiers soak their feet in hot water before resting at night.

This "simple" request is not so easy to do.

In the headquarters, Sean convened a meeting of officers above the company level. A military map is spread out in front of Sean.

"There should be a suspension bridge in front of us, and the bad news is that it's been broken. The good news is that there are not many enemy forces on the opposite side. Perosa pointed to the map with his horsewhip, "This map is still based on an 1820 map, and it is difficult to guarantee its accuracy." We tried to check with the locals, but we couldn't, and they were all captured by the rebels. ”

Wells said: "The width of the river is about 50 meters at its widest point and 35 meters at its narrowest point, and the water is gentle, and although it is cold now, it is not enough to freeze the river. If the weather warms up and the snow melts, it will not work for us. Of course, the order given to us was that we must arrive at the town of Tolosa at 8 o'clock tomorrow, so I prepared to send cavalry to reconnoiter the river at dawn, hoping to find a suitable crossing. ”

"Well, let the cavalry try, it's best to find a ready-made bridge. But I'm afraid it's too late, we can't wait, we have to make a plan for forced crossing, so that the sappers can be ready overnight. ”

"Yes!"

At daybreak, the cavalry set off upstream.

Sean did not wait for the cavalry to return, he expected that the rebels would not be unexpected, and had already destroyed all the bridges. The rebel figures on the other side of the river swayed, and soon a detachment of men appeared.

This time, the Genoese resorted to skirmishers, allowing skilled archers to shoot accurately at the cover of the accompanying transport vehicles.

At the same time, artillery was in position and launched an artillery bombardment of the place where the enemy troops gathered. The rebels on the opposite side, mainly infantry, could only try to get close to the flat embankment in order to prevent the Genoese from laying the bridge, and their rifles were at a loss in range.

Taking advantage of their own firepower, the sappers strung the waterproof ammunition barrels with iron chains, and then fixed the two ends with iron drills on the river beaches on both sides, and the middle positions were also fixed with iron drills to prevent violent swings.

The section of the river chosen by the sappers has a gentle flow and a relatively solid riverbed, but the disadvantage is that the width is larger. Jumping into the biting cold river, the sappers desperately fixed the iron drill on the riverbed with sledgehammers, and at each station, three people cooperated, changing a group of people every ten minutes, otherwise they couldn't stand the biting river water at all.

"Commander, the enemy has brought the artillery!" someone reported loudly.

Sean also saw through the binoculars that the rebels had brought in several cannons on horses, and the caliber was actually 12-pounder.

Engineers were working intensively on the river, and some soldiers were laying thick planks on wooden barrels floating on the water, and the work was more than half completed.

If the enemy's 12-pounder cannon is allowed to fire calmly, the consequences are incalculable.

"Order the artillery to aim at the saturation attack of the enemy's artillery positions. Sean immediately ordered, "Model Company, go down to the river to help the sappers build the bridge." ”

Sean jumped into the river, barely reaching his chest, and the biting water made him shiver.

Watching Sean lead the soldiers of Model Company down the river to help the sappers pave the bridge, Roland Hill also jumped off the Bidaso River, followed by his company.

The rebel artillery on the other side came in a hurry, and in order to achieve the effect of the attack, they had to get close to the deployment, but this took time, they had to risk the threat of the CDF artillery, push the gun carriage to the appropriate position, and then unload the harness, take the horse, determine the target, adjust the gauge, load the ammunition and aim.

During this preparation time, the artillery of the Civil Defense Corps poured out their fire as best they could, and the main force was six 12-pounder cannons, firing at a rate of 3 rounds per minute, and the most skilled gun group even reached a rate of 4 rounds per minute.

In the midst of the rumbling of artillery, the rebel position turned on its back, and one of the cannons directly hit the opponent's ammunition truck, causing an even bigger explosion. In the brilliant firelight, the soldiers of the Civil Defense Army cheered, it was obvious that the artillery training of the rebels was seriously insufficient, and the ammunition vehicles were too far ahead, which directly violated the artillery operation norms.

Taking advantage of this rare time difference, the sappers finally erected the pontoon bridge with Sean's personal participation.

The impatient infantrymen, under the command of Deputy Chief Wells and Chief of Staff Perosa, quickly crossed the pontoon bridge, quickly lined up on the embankment, and then pressed forward.

Sean also climbed the embankment and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Daniel, you immediately ride to report to General Schmidt that our army has crossed the river, and that his 1st Division of Unity can divide part of its forces and cross the river from here. ”

"Yes!"

It was still five kilometers away from the fortress of Tolosa, and the rebels on the opposite side had been routed and fled back to the fortress.

The Civil Defense took a break while Sean and a group of soldiers were cooking. Wells and the others were nervously arranging their defensive positions, because the enemy would definitely send men to retake the crossing, otherwise the fortress would face a siege.

After drinking two bowls of ginger soup in a row, Sean felt better.

An hour and a half later, General Schmidt personally arrived at this makeshift crossing.

By this time, the Civil Defense Force had left, and the 2nd Combat Regiment belonging to the 1st Division of Unity had been fighting for half an hour with the rebels who had arrived with reinforcements. He had previously suffered a setback at the communication node in front of the fortress of Tolosa, and the terrain and enemy deployment made it difficult for his troops to exploit their superiority in firepower and strength, and the tactics of adding fuel only increased unnecessary casualties.

"The Genoese were fast. General Schmidt was very unhappy, but he had to admit that the Genoese division had done a good job, rushing to build a ferry and opening up the situation for the main force.

"General, what's your next step?" the adjutant asked.

"Let the artillerymen bring all the artillery and blast me!" Schmidt scolded, "and before I do, I need the BattleCorps to drive the rebels back to their lair." ”

Of course, Sean had to go, his troops had endured a full hour of heavy attack from the rebels before the 2nd Regiment arrived, and he didn't want to let his men suffer too many casualties if he could.

The rebels also realized that they had lost their location and that the fortress would become a prison. Conquering the prison was the task of the main force, and Sean's forces returned to their original mission plan and continued to uproot the rebel forces on the flanks of the main force.

Just two hours after Sean led his troops away, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Jean Sauron came to the fortress of Tolosa.

General Schmidt was interested in the thirty cannons and large quantities of supplies brought by the crown prince, with the exception of the crown prince.

This is not to say that General Schmidt was disrespectful to the crown prince, who, as commander-in-chief, did not like any immediate boss who was qualified to dictate to him on the battlefield.

But for the sake of the thirty cannons brought by the crown prince, General Schmidt said that he would demonstrate to the crown prince how to conquer a strong fortress.

The crown prince "happily" accepted the offer.

Schmidt proudly pushed out all 200 cannons, and the 12-pound solid bullets formed a black barrage in the air.

Boom, the shells bombarded the fortress group built by the enemy army 1,200 meters away. The artillery of the rebel counterattack was drowned out by the rumbling of artillery.

With each crash, the soldiers let out earth-shattering cheers. The crown prince quickly calculated in his heart how much money the empire had lost in the past thirty minutes.

The seven bastions, along with the walls that connected them together, were in ruins, and the soldiers had to cross them into the town of Tolosa.

Against the rebels hiding in the building, Schmidt used a large number of mortars, which caused a large fire that reduced half of the town to ashes.

However, the rebels still resisted, they planted mines in the gap, and when the soldiers of the 1st Division of Unity crowded the gap, the rebels lit the fuse and instantly reimbursed 300 soldiers.

But this still could not stop the offensive of government troops.

Schmidt gave a startling order to aim the artillery at the parapet fortifications in the town and let the shells fly over the heads of his own infantry.

To the Crown Prince's stunned, the artillery faithfully carried out the order, and the infantry only hesitated a little and resumed the attack.

At this time, the parapet was full of rebels, and it was impossible for them to retreat. The shelling lasted twenty minutes, and at 3:35 p.m., Schmidt finally captured the fortress of Tolosa.

It was later reported that there were long rows of headless corpses lying behind the parapet.

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