But the British were not comparable to the colonial barbarians. The British in this era were still quite full of martial virtues, even in the British Army. Although over the years, they have been beaten into a big two in the Irish law and order war, and their morale is much lower than normal, but it is not that there will be any problems if they are frightened and frightened by such a few shells. It's just that the rich people ran away first, which is really sad. But sad to heart, there were no obvious problems with the British defense.

So, the rest of the thing, of course, is only left to gnaw slowly. At least, until the orders of the Turks and Russians are fulfilled.

The leaders of the French advisory group and the Independence Army held a military meeting together. The military intelligence they had learned over the past few days had been summed up, and together they had studied the operational plan for the offensive operation.

According to the plan, the Irish Independence Army would first operate through tunnels to approach the main British positions, and use the night to destroy the barbed wire and minefields of the British army.

As for the offensive operation, it will be mainly a short assault, and the French artillery will provide them with a short and fierce artillery preparation, and the French heavy artillery will be responsible for counter-battery operations under the command of hot air balloons.

"The British defence is quite strong, after all, the British have been operating this line for many years. Therefore, we must overcome our impatience and not have the illusion that we can break through the defenses quickly. We can only go deeper and deeper layer by layer, like peeling an onion. No matter how impatient we behave, we will only inflict huge losses on ourselves, and they will not be invited at all......" General Sirte, the commander-in-chief of France, spoke first, because the last war ended too quickly, and the peace after that was too long, so Sirte is still a general, and has not yet been able to become a field marshal.

But Napoleon was very impressed with his talents, and he told others more than once that if Sirte had followed him while he was in Italy, he would have been a marshal by now.

"He's one of the best tacticians in Europe, better than a lot of guys who have already attained the rank of marshal. I think that if there is another war in which the army can be used, he will definitely become a marshal. ”

Prior to this battle, General Soirte had been the principal of the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, and many of the generals in the Irish Independence Army were his students. So Sirte's words are quite useful.

So, under Soult's command, the Irish began to approach the British positions by tunneling. The tunnels were difficult to attack with ordinary weapons, but the British had quite a few grenadiers, as well as more amplified grenadiers - mortars.

The grenadier canister that the French made at the beginning was, in a sense, an artifact of guerrilla warfare. Naturally, this stuff was also provided to the Irish Independence Army. And then in battle, it was naturally impossible for such a widely equipped weapon not to be captured by the British. The British seized it and used it, and then they found: "Well, it's really easy to use, it's very powerful, and the French stuff is just good!" We want it too! ”

Then the British began to equip their armies with copycat grenadiers, and even these shameless Brits sold them at low prices to other countries. As a result, the French had to take the initiative to reduce prices in order to maintain their market share, but the benefits of this weapon were significantly lower than expected. So, don't teach the British a lesson, okay?

The British, in addition to copying grenadiers, amplified on the basis of it, and then there were mortars.

Mortars and grenadiers have very curved ballistics that can be driven directly into the trenches to kill and injure the enemy in the trenches. Therefore, when the Irish tunnels began to approach the British defensive positions, the British mortars and grenadiers rained down, and immediately caused a lot of losses to the Irish who were excavating.

Of course, the Irish were not without grenadiers and mortars, and in the French army, which was a little behind them, there was even more of it. At this time, it naturally crackled back. After a burst of gunfire, everyone was injured. In general, the Irish lost more in terms of the number of people they lost; Even in terms of weapons, especially the number of broken grenadiers and mortars, the British lost more. The reason for this is also simple, the British are the first to do it, and they control the commanding heights, so they can provide better target designation, so their shooting efficiency is naturally higher, so the dead are naturally more Irish.

As for why the loss of grenadiers and mortars was more than the British, that is also normal, because the propellants used are not the same, and the French have begun to widely use nitrocellulose-based propellants, although such propellants are not good enough in energy and performance by the standards of later generations. But compared with the brown powder that was still widely used by the British army, I don't know how strong it was.

Because of their superiority in propellant technology, the French grenadiers and mortars were now significantly farther away than the British knockoffs, and when the French began to counterattack according to the position of the British grenadiers and the black smoke emitted from the mortars, the British found that their mortars and grenadiers could not reach the target. So, naturally, the British have more to lose in this regard.

Under the cover of the French, the Irish continued to dig despite casualties, all the way to the vicinity of the minefield.

At night, the Irish crawled out of the tunnel and tried to clear the mines. And what about the British, they put their searchlights on a rickshaw railcar. From time to time, they open up, sweep the minefield with a pillar of light, then immediately turn off the lights and move to avoid possible bullets and shells. And if their pillar of light illuminates the mine-sweeping Irish, the British bullets will snap through.

In this confrontation, it took three nights for the Franco-Irish forces to basically clear the first minefield, which was the first barbed wire fence of the British.

And by this time, news of France's declaration of war on Great Britain and the results of the naval battle in the North Atlantic had also reached North America. The news came at the right time, because the United States had just suffered another loss in the Northern Theater, and General Arthur Wellesley's army had once again defeated the American Army near New York State, and the troops were advancing under New York City.

And within the United States, before that, there were already some people who said that peace should be restored as soon as possible. Of course, the ideas of these people were immediately refuted by the angry American people, especially the southerners, who were burned one by one along the coastline by the British, and even after they were released to deal with the American traitors "in the manner of patriots and warriors" so as to "keep their disgusting mouths shut forever", these people shut up for the time being. But after a series of failures, the voice began to emerge again. Even the president has wavered to a certain extent. But as soon as this news was confirmed, the whole situation immediately changed.