When he led his troops from Limerick a dozen days ago, Duke Hill, who was the British Lieutenant Governor in Ireland and Commander of Task Force 2 with the rank of British Admiral, probably did not expect that he would return to his family in such a short time. Pen %Fun %Cabinet www.biquge.info his return to Limerick was neither a triumphant return from defeating the enemy, nor a transfer from his post for other purposes. In the space of two weeks, the number of troops under his command had increased from more than 3,000 to 9,000, and the number of artillery and machine guns had increased several times.

Adjacent to the Duke's apartment at the garrison headquarters, the Duke of Hill was dressed and armed with a gun, but he was unbuttoned and nestled in the sofa with a sad face, holding a glass with a thick bottom and a wide mouth, the mellow aroma of whiskey filled the air, and on the coffee table was a delicate glass bottle with a full shape, which contained the same amber liquid as the wine glass.

Outside the window, the duke's lieutenant was helping the maids load the packed luggage into the car.

Unlike the drunks in the tavern, Duke Hill only had a slightly hollow look in his eyes and was still in a normal state of consciousness, so when Charlotte Hill, dressed in a crisp white dress, walked down the stairs with a small beige suitcase, he quickly turned his head to look, sat up straight, and placed his wine glass on the coffee table.

"I'm sorry, Charlotte, but we can't protect the sea route between Britain and Ireland right now, so we can only let you go to Dublin first. If the time comes, you will go to Sweden with Mr. Carlson, and I will take you back when the situation is settled. ”

Carlson, Sweden's Consul General to Britain and Ireland, and an old friend of Duke Hill, was able to find out the news about Robert Hill through Mr. Carlson.

The bumpy mental journey, the heavy family baggage, all of which made Charlotte Hill gradually fade away from the youthfulness and ignorance of a girl, and became stronger and more mature, but the thinner face could not help but make people full of pity. She put down her suitcase and quietly walked over to Duke Hill, looking at her grandfather with her bright and immaculate eyes: "No matter what happens, we will try to protect ourselves, so...... Don't be distracted by us, we're sure you'll be able to lead the LinkedIn army to victory. ”

Duke Hill looked up at Charlotte, although her exotic affair had an unimaginable impact on the family, damaging his personal reputation and that of the entire family, and despite her self-willed runaway from home, making everyone worry about her, she was after all his most beloved granddaughter, a treasure that he was willing to give everything to protect.

"Don't worry, Xia Luo, there are no eternal winners on the battlefield, and there are no eternal losers. A large part of our army is made up of young men who have just graduated from boot camp, and what they lack most is experience, and a few defeats will make them grow up quickly, and we will be able to stabilize the situation very quickly, the only thing that disturbs me is that Limerick is now too close to the front line, and many towns in Ireland are harassed by Irish independents, but Dublin is relatively safe. Mr. Carlson is a trustworthy friend and he will take care of you......"

Charlotte bent down and gently held Duke Hill's wrinkled and withered right hand: "I always see the handkerchief of peace flying in my dreams, and I see you and my father return safely, and I hope that all this will come true soon." ”

Duke Hill struggled to squeeze out a smile: "The war will eventually end, may God bless us all, and bless the holy and great Britain!" ”

The farewell of the grandfather and grandson was so touching that the duke's aide-de-camp, a white and innocent young man from England, could not bear to interrupt them. It wasn't until Duke Hill's gaze met that he coughed lightly: "Sir, everything is packed up and ready to go at any time." ”

Duke Hill nodded heavily, "Go, Charlotte, help me take care of your grandmother and your mother." ”

Outside the door, the Duchess of Hill and Charlotte's mother had quietly wiped away tears, and even the maids could not hold back their tears.

The faint sound of cannon was mercilessly urging them to leave as soon as possible.

The sound of gunfire came from about 20 kilometres west of Limerick, in the open waters of the lower Shannon River, where two gunboats in lead grey paint were firing on the shore. In late autumn, the cold wind was miserable, but on the gun emplacements with the open turret hatches, the British sailors wore only close-fitting striped sleeves, and tirelessly repeated the work of loading and unshelling, and judging by the empty shells piled up on the deck, this one-sided shelling had been going on for a long time. However, even from the highest point of the gunboat, one could not directly observe the target of the shelling, and the impact point could only be corrected according to the flag signal from the lookout post on the other side of the bank.

With the support of two gunboats, the British soldiers holding their positions southwest of Limerick were able to repel a new enemy attack. Judging from the fighting, they were still facing a combined force of the Irish Independence Armed Forces and the German Marines, with the Irish armed men in the majority, and the German troops often used as spearheads in key positions.

As the Duke of Hill said, most of the British soldiers transferred from the British Isle were recruits with no combat experience, and in the past two weeks, many of them had been killed, seriously wounded or captured, and some of the units had to be temporarily merged into other battalions and companies, while the surviving soldiers continued to accumulate the most valuable experience and skills through the battle, and they became more and more accustomed to the battlefield environment, and the combat effectiveness of the troops increased, but the situation faced by the British army in the southwest of Ireland did not improve. Instead, they fell into an increasingly passive situation. The reason for this is that the Irish armed forces have also grown and strengthened in the fighting, and learned many practical tactical skills from the Germans who fought side by side with them, and the successive victories have also made more and more Irish people see the hope of success in armed independence, and every day thousands of men of school age join the ranks of the Irish Volunteers or other Irish independence forces, and the Germans provided weapons and captured firearms from the British enough to equip forty or fifty thousand men, but by mid to late November, The Irish Volunteers alone declared 70,000 troops, and the number of Irish towns that broke away from British control increased to 61, and the impact of the British capture of Cork Harbour was greatly downplayed by the turmoil of Irish independence......

In a bush on the south bank of the Shannon River, two pairs of keen eyes were watching the two British gunboats that were firing indiscriminately. The German government's secret assistance to the Irish Independence Forces had been carried out before the war, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood had set up a number of secret camps and warehouses, which meant that the Irish Independence Forces did not have to fight the British garrison with cold weapons, but they were clearly at a disadvantage when it came to heavy weapons. Even without taking into account transport and storage, it takes only a few weeks to train a qualified rifleman, but it takes years and a considerable amount of live-fire practice to train a qualified gunner. At the time of the incident, the Irish Volunteers had 15 light mountain guns and 12 field guns, but few gunners were able to handle them skillfully, and most of the artillery captured from the British was not functional. In the Battle of Cork Harbour, the Irish lost 10 guns and more than 40 gunners, and 2 German officers who taught the Irish artillery skills were also killed in the battle. It was not until the arrival of German marines that the situation improved slightly, but with the exception of a few battles, the Irish and German forces were still able to use flexible tactics against British artillery superiority, and victory often came at an additional cost.

The two scouts in the bushes were both in short-brimmed military hats and gray uniforms, with scruffy faces and stubble expressions, but their eyes were very calm. One of them held a telescope, the other held a pencil and a small notebook, and cooperated with each other to record their reconnaissance results: "Two old third-class cruisers, one of 2,000 tons and one of 1,500 tons, the large ones are equipped with four 150-mm single-mounted main guns and six 50-mm rapid-fire guns, and the small ones are equipped with two 150-mm single-mounted main guns and four 50-mm rapid-fire guns, and their maximum speed should be less than 15 knots...... The water depth of this section of the channel is estimated to be about 10 meters, and the hydrological conditions are relatively complicated, so it is not suitable to send submarines to come, and high-speed torpedo boats can carry out night attacks. ”

The wide river in front of you is the Shannon River, the longest river on the island of Ireland. It originates in Shannon Pond at the western foot of the Quelka Mountains, flows south through the central lowlands filled with marshland, through a series of lakes formed by glaciation, and then turns downstream to form a wide triangular section that flows into the Atlantic Ocean through the port city of Limerick. In the 19th century, the Shannon River was Ireland's most important waterway, connecting Dublin via a military canal. By the late 19th century, with the rise of the railroad, shipping gradually withdrew from the stage of history, and the steamboats on the Shannon River were only used for sightseeing.

In the field behind the two German scouts, several men in civilian attire armed with rifles watched their surroundings vigilantly. They didn't know what the German scouts were muttering, but the Irish Independence Forces alone would certainly not be able to drive out or kill the two British gunboats, and the attack on Limerick would be difficult to carry out. According to the unanimous plan of the two sides of the joint operation, after taking Limerick, a military town in the southwest of Ireland, the coalition forces will divide their forces into two routes, one way up the river to attack north, and all the way along the railway line to the east, control the entire central lowlands of Ireland, cut off the land connection between the north and south British forces, and then launch a second attack on Dublin, the capital of Ireland.

(End of chapter)