The original 100 inhabitants of Chalua and 50 inhabitants of France in the Château d'Rau, after arduous land reclamation, fighting, and plague attacks, now there are 123 left. It was these one hundred and twenty-three people who alone supported the first stronghold of the East Coast Republic of China in Africa.

The task force stayed at Fort Riverwater for three full days, replenishing plenty of fresh vegetables, meat, and fresh water, and leaving some of the sick crew members there to recuperate and pick them up on the return trip (if any). In addition, due to the lack of sufficient manpower on the Fort River, some of the captured Khoisan prisoners of war were handed over to the task force. As for how the task force is to deal with it, they don't bother to care. For them, who only have more than 100 people, these hundreds of Khoisan captives are a time bomb, which was originally intended to be executed, and now they are handed over to Lu Ming and them, which can be regarded as giving full play to the residual heat of these red people (Khoisans: clearly different from ordinary blacks, with reddish skin and Mongolian faces).

On 8 June, the rested Guinean Task Force slowly opened the fort in the river and sailed into the vast South Atlantic, heading north for the Gulf of Guinea.

In late July, after a long journey of more than a month, the task force finally reached the ocean near the mouth of the Gambia River. Along the way, they secretly sneaked around, and on the way they encountered two ships from different countries (a Portuguese ship and a British ship), all of which were chased by the fast cruisers "Yangwu" and "Yangwei" and sunk to prevent information from leaking. All the officers on both ships were executed, the sailors were tied up and thrown into the bilge, and all cargo was confiscated.

The position of the fleet at this time was still some distance from the mouth of the river, outside the range of the British battery artillery. Task Force Commander Lu Ming after carefully observing the terrain and traffic conditions at the mouth of the Gambia River. It was found that only the vicinity of the estuary was suitable for landing. The rest of the place is a large area of dense virgin jungle.

No way. It can only be attacked under the noses of the British.

The "Penglai" and "Yingzhou" transport ships put down a large number of small boats, and the army soldiers dressed in dark blue khaki uniforms, black brimmed hats, and cowhide military boots descended the rope ladder to the dinghy one after another under the command of the officer; On the deck behind them, sailors were struggling to use pulley booms to lift the baggage they needed for battle, including cannons, powder kegs, cannonballs, buckshot, hand-thrown bombs, armor, bandages, and even horses.

After the first dinghy carrying soldiers arrived at the beach, the soldiers lined up to guard the landing ground under the command of the platoon commander and other officers, waiting for the follow-up troops to follow.

The British shore forts were mainly used to block the Gambian estuary, so the heavy, powerful long-barreled cannons were aimed at the north or east. For the task force that landed on the western flank, all they needed to deal with was the land and land defense batteries that the British used to secure the batteries. However, at this time, they were still six or seven hundred meters away from the British battery, and the British army short-barreled guns could not hit so far.

Two Yangwu-class fast cruisers cruised the Gambia estuary in the southwesterly wind, carefully keeping a distance from the British shore defense batteries, keeping a close eye on any ships that might come out of the upper Gambia at any moment. A Dutch-flagged merchant ship near the mouth of the river had tried to break out, but was shelled by two cruisers and turned back. Since then, it has been quiet near the mouth of the Gambian River.

The chaotic landing operation lasted more than two hours, and only then did two companies of army soldiers line up on the landing ground, and then they formed platoons at a certain distance. Drove some of the Khoisan prisoners of war forward.

The Khoisan were shirtless and without any protective gear. Each of them held a pointed wooden stick in his hand and moved slowly forward under the threat of the muskets of the army soldiers behind him.

"Boom!" An 8-pounder cannon fired, and the solid iron bullets that flew out of the way bounced twice off the ground, knocking down two Khoisans before running out of kinetic energy and landing on the ground. The ground near the landing site is relatively soft, which is able to absorb the kinetic energy of solid shells well, which greatly reduces their power.

"Bang! Bang! "A platoon of Army soldiers opened fire, and they targeted the Khoisans who were cowering in front of the British artillery. Some of the Khoisans fell to the ground screaming, and the rest ran forward like frightened rabbits. Their actions drew more shelling from the British, and British Army artillery bunkers hidden behind bushes and mounds of earth opened fire one after another.

Behind Zhu Liang, the head of the army task force, a group of intern staff officers from the Dingyuan Military Academy took out their pens and quickly recorded the enemy's firepower points, and when the main force launched a charge, they could make targeted arrangements.

Dozens of Khoisans suffered heavy casualties under the blows of British artillery, and a dozen or so fell one after another, and the rest were also fired by the muskets of the British Army guarding these firing points. After another dozen or so people fell, the Khoisan finally dispersed in a hurry. They did not dare to rush forward or retreat, so they ran in both directions, and soon disappeared into the jungle or river on both sides of the landing field.

"The density of musket fire is not high, and it is estimated that there should be 30-40 musketeers. There are 5 artillery pieces, namely two 8-pounder guns and three 6-pounder guns, and the specific locations are shown in the figure ...... "The trainee staff officer presented the latest information collected to Zhu Liang, the supreme commander of the army.

"Why aren't the artillery ready?" Zhu Liang frowned after reading it.

The intern staff officer turned to look behind him, and saw a horse pulling a 12-pounder steel cannon struggling on the soft sandy ground, and a dozen or so Khoisan men with shackles pushing the gun wagon under the supervision of the soldiers. The other three guns of the artillery platoon (one 12-pounder gun and two 8-pounder guns) also struggled to move forward with the Marats carrying them.

The artillery officer, who was accustomed to the good road traffic conditions of the East Bank Republic, frowned and looked at the artillery moving forward like a turtle speed, and couldn't help but sigh heavily, next time he must let the arsenal develop a lighter artillery.

The four guns were finally in place after a long day of work. They fired at the nearest British artillery bunker from within effective range of the British artillery, and the first shot was an explosive shell. Four explosive shells flew out of the muzzles and flew towards the semi-enclosed bunkers of the British, but embarrassingly, two shells exploded in the middle of the flight; One of the two exploded after hitting the ground, and the other flew straight into the jungle.

"Keep firing!" Zhu Liang held up the telescope and said expressionlessly. This was the case with explosive bombs in this era, the length of the fuse could only control the time of the explosion, but the problem was that this thing was too unreliable. Because the speed at which the fuse burns, or even the wind on the battlefield, can affect the time it takes for the bomb to explode, it is not very efficient to use.

However, there was plenty of time today, and the artillerymen had time to slowly find the target. Finally, after seven or eight rounds of test firing, the fairly well-trained East Coast artillery finally delivered the shells to the enemy's head accurately for the first time, and it was a perfect volley explosion. Only the British semi-enclosed artillery bunkers in the front wall could not defend themselves against the fragments of shells flying overhead, and their gunners suffered casualties.

"Forward!" Zhu Liang waved his hand, and five platoons of army soldiers with muskets hurriedly trotted towards the destroyed enemy artillery bunker. Approaching the bunker, the grenadiers threw a dozen or so hand-thrown bombs en masse, and then the remaining riflemen rushed into the enemy's bunker with the black smoke from the explosion.

In the bunker lay the corpses of five British gunners, and the mutilated bodies of a dozen black men, most of whom were dead by this time, and occasionally a few who were still groaning were stabbed to the ground by the riflemen with their sabers.

"Boom!" A British Army gun fired in this direction, but unfortunately it could not shoot at this position due to the angle of view. After destroying one of the enemy's batteries, the Army did not take any trouble, and continued to clumsily move the artillery to attack the next British Army artillery bunker.

The battle went on in a boring way, and after two artillery bunkers were captured again, the British Army finally abandoned the last two land defense batteries and withdrew to the city built on the banks of the river upstream. In the whole process, the brethren of the East Coast Army Task Force lost only three killed and eight wounded, while they cost the British three guns, as well as a dozen gunners and several times the number of black servant soldiers.

After the British land defense batteries were settled, their remaining coastal defense batteries were exposed to the east coast like shelled eggs. Unable to turn around against the enemy from behind, the British gunners put up a modest resistance to the buildings of the fort and then hastily withdrew into the city.

Their resolute withdrawal caused confusion among the dozens of black servant soldiers at the front, and these barbarians with spears could not withstand the dense volleys of guns of the East Coast Army soldiers, as well as the shell bombardment fired from time to time, and soon collapsed. Some surrendered on the spot, while others jumped into the Gambian Hanoi behind the coastal forts, hoping to escape.

"It's a completely 'infantry drill' style of boring combat." Zhu Liang stood on the captured British coastal defense battery, shook his head and said: "But I still like this kind of battle, at least we don't have any casualties." Alright, staff officer, send a signal and let the naval fleet come over. ”

There were no British ships on the Gambia River during the entire battle just now, maybe they didn't have a powerful warship here, Zhu Liang thought.

Soon, the Army soldiers lowered the St. George flag of the British on the coastal defense batteries and raised the flag of the Republic of the East Bank. (To be continued......)