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The rest and recuperation in the hinterland of France and the continuous arrival of follow-up troops made the team led by Xiao Xuan seem to have initially gotten rid of the dilemma of being alone. After the reinforcement and reorganization of the reinforcement troops, the strength of the entire Volunteer Left Army was strengthened by a lot of artillery and demolition engineers, and the number of people approached about 30,000. However, it was precisely because of this break that the combat energy of the entire team to rely on the rapid march and achieve a strategic surprise attack before the enemy had time to react was finally exhausted.

At this time, King Philip IV of Spain, who had long been rumored, mobilized and concentrated the main force of 200,000 army forces, with a huge naval fleet, and formed a very tight defense in all directions of the Pyrenees mountain range, and the army deployed in the Dutch zone also returned home one after another during this time, and there were nearly ten legions of about 50,000 or 60,000 combat forces deployed in the territory of the Thumpot Pass alone. In the past wars with France, the natural division of the Pyrenees mountains on the border between Spain and France did not allow the two sides to fight in a real sense of the word, but this time it seems to be completely different.

At the same time, because of the previous rest, from Russia to Poland to the hinterland of Central and Western Europe, all kinds of shocking news came one after another, so that the Spaniards, who had encountered many financial problems in this era, but still appeared strong, had to deal with the most cautious attitude to deal with the unprecedented strong enemy.

Although Spain at this time was not the center of European manufacturing, it took a month for Philip IV to collect a lot of metal steel shields and even full-body armor that had been used in European battlefields decades or even hundreds of years ago, and of course, he also improvised a lot of "Hussite chariots" that seemed to have appeared in previous wars and reinforced them with metal shields. Of course, perhaps due to the limited time, the targeted elite supply after this temporary modification is only about 40,000 or 50,000 people.

In addition, many naval ships and even armed merchant ships equipped with small and medium-sized artillery began to be dismantled from ships at this time and pulled by mules and horses, which greatly strengthened the artillery strength of the main force of the Western army.

Of course, even so, the main force of the Spanish army stationed in the mountains and even in the capital behind it was quite cautious, and when the 30,000 vanguard forces led by Xiao Xuan with the Volunteer Left Army as the core approached the area around the Songpo Pass, the various legions were still ready to defend against a strong enemy.

According to the operational principles agreed between Philip IV and his generals at the military conference, only when he truly understood the combat strength of those strong enemies in the east in defensive operations could he really confront the enemy in a real sense.

After the distance of the Volunteer Right Army led by Zhou Dayong was not too far, Xiao Xuan finally launched a real tentative attack after scouting the hot air balloon to determine the enemy's troop deployment in the area of the mountain pass.

The previous offensive pattern was still followed, with heavy artillery bombardment accompanied by explosive attacks, but in a short period of time night infantry attacks were launched against the intended targets. Black powder grenades, close-range muskets, and three-plate axes.

Because a lot of gunpowder was captured in the previous battle, he was not stingy when fighting against the Songpo Pass, and used four or five hundred thousand catties of excellent black powder and even millions of catties of ammunition during the blasting attack. The ammunition is no longer the same as the previous type of projectile, but has increased to a weight of about 400 grams.

Although I had heard of some of the miraculous combat methods of those powerful enemies in the east, I shuddered a little when the enemy army approached, and the legendary thunderous fire approached like a tidal wave near the mountain pass.

Of course, unlike those opponents I have met before, because there is plenty of preparation. At this time, the Spanish army began to return fire in a similar way. However, the violent explosion was mainly made by stones. Hundreds of thousands of catties of black powder collapsed at thousands of explosion points, and hundreds of thousands of heavy stones also brought a lot of deterrence and pressure to the team led by Xiao Xuan. Fortunately, maybe it's because I don't have some tricks and I don't have much experience. There were many problems with the choice of ammunition and the way to use medicine and dig pits, and in the end, at nightfall, the vanguard troops, mainly the Volunteer Left Army, suffered casualties of only about four or five hundred people.

Because of the heavy protection that the enemy might have, and the fact that higher terrain might weaken the energy to a large extent, the power of each lead bullet dropped in this blast attack was several thousand joules. However, in this way, because the dispersal was still too wide, and the Spaniards in the defense had prepared a lot of shield carts and tunnels, it did not seem to have enough effect in the blasting attack, and a decisive attack only killed less than 2,000 opponents in the defense. Almost on average, hundreds of falling projectiles can kill or injure a person.

Of course, this kind of blasting attack and deterrence is not without any benefits. During the night attack, the Spaniards' formation was also looser, and after all, they did not form a relatively tight phalanx, allowing the team to easily fall into melee or melee at a relatively low cost.

However, in the night battle, Xiao Xuan's team finally discovered that those prepared Spaniards were fundamentally different from other opponents who were prepared in Europe. In addition to the fact that firearms can be used to kill enemies with full body armor at night at close range, it has become very difficult to effectively kill enemies equipped with full body armor at night with bows and arrows. After all, compared with the original Jianzhou elite, although the average archery and fighting power of the archers in the Volunteer Left Army are higher, because there are not too many elites in the real sense who have been practicing archery since childhood, there is a lack of real elites who can shoot a standard tiger power bow with four or five forces or more, and the combat efficiency in the face of opponents with excellent protection is significantly reduced.

Not only that, but many of the Spaniards were also well-versed in hand-to-hand combat. Originally, it was able to form a clear overwhelming advantage over any opponent in melee combat. The team that had won all battles in the civil war and even in the melee assault since the expedition finally met a tough opponent this time.

However, through more effective multi-person coordination and even greater casualty losses in the attack, the opponent was finally overwhelmed by the advantages of courage, will, and even sacrifice spirit with more than 5,000 offensive casualties, so as to have some obvious advantages in the final loss ratio.

The impregnable defense line of the mountain pass was breached in front of the Volunteer Left Army, which dared to suffer more than 6,000 casualties in the attack in less than a day and night.