It was the largest battle since the Napoleonic era. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Maybe that's an exaggeration. But for the people involved in this campaign. What they saw was that tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the land of North China.

Horizontal formations lined up in the fields of early spring, blue and black, at this time, it seemed that there was no difference.

To the beat of drums, the neatly marching horizontal formations were divided by the terrain, and the troops divided into pieces passed through the woods, cemeteries, and soldiers with rifles as they had done in the past when they had been training. Again from the whole queue, and again again by the terrain split.

Most of these are soldiers who have been baptized by the fire of war. It's just like in training, full attention to the line, under the command of the commanders.

The distance between the two sides was now six or seven hundred meters, and between the villages, on the fields, one after the other, one square after another walked, but they did not stand alone, not only dug trenches, but many reinforced their bunkers in front of them with bricks, planks, and everything else that could hold back bullets.

In the wilderness, through the sparse trees, white smoke from the muzzles of soldiers' rifles could be seen dissipating, and sometimes the smoke rose in small clusters. Then densely packed and squeezed into a pile.

The messy shooting turned into a long and neat row of guns, and the piercing "ding" sound of the bronze cannon when it opened fire kept ringing.

The battle has been raging since early in the morning.

The whole battle seemed to be decent, and there seemed to be nothing new about it, and the two sides began to shoot with rifles and constantly bombarded each other with artillery hundreds of meters away, and it seemed that there was really nothing wrong with it.

In fact, almost from the beginning of the battle, Lin Yuqing, as the commander-in-chief of the battle, has been observing the entire battlefield attentively, and he is waiting for an opportunity.

"Commander, I want to be able to attack the enemy immediately!"

Lin Xueqin, who was eager to send out a request for war, was the only colonel from Guizhou in the Han army's officer corps, who had accompanied Hu Linyi to reinforce Hubei from Guizhou, and then was captured by the Han army, and later became a member of the Han army. Two months ago, he had just been promoted to brigade commander and commanded a brigade of nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers, and now this battle has begun, and everything is just as planned, the enemy is in front of his eyes!

Naturally, he did not want to be as he was now - to exercise restraint.

"It's not time yet!"

Lin Yuqing bluntly rejected his subordinates' request, but continued to order.

"All troops exercise restraint!"

His restraint looked a little funny - he ordered the riflemen to fire at a rate of four rounds per minute, strictly following the orders of their commanders, and the same was true for the gunners, and they were not even allowed to fire high-explosive shells, and the mortars were not allowed to fire at all.

This order, apparently, was not understood by anyone, and in their opinion, it simply sacrificed the greatest advantage of the Han army.

"But sir, if we shoot like this now, our casualties will be very large!"

"Yes, sir, the time is almost now, basically the Qing army has entered the pocket, we just need to tie the pocket!"

Under the persuasion of his subordinates and staff officers, Lin Yuqing just shook his head and said.

"The time is not yet ripe, there are still reserves in Dobia that have not been put into the battlefield! What we need now is a war to end this! ”

The reason why he was so stubborn was because of the secret telegram he received a few days ago - the commander of the Qing army, Dobia, has always been under the control of the Intelligence Bureau, and is the secret line of the Intelligence Bureau!

This secret telegram was completely beyond his imagination, and even made Lin Yuqing feel dizzy for a while, he never thought that the commander of the Qing army in Yutang was actually the secret line of the intelligence bureau, and it could even be said that together with this battle, it was actually carried out according to the idea of the General Staff, and Dobia was the army mobilized according to the orders of the General Staff.

In the end, there was only one goal for all - to completely annihilate the last field strength of the Qing army, thus laying the foundation for the complete victory of the Northern Expedition.

Put an end to the large-scale conflict in the country with a large-scale campaign!

That's exactly what started this campaign.

Dobia......

Reading this name in his heart, Lin Yuqing took the telescope and tried to search for this person on the battlefield, but what disappointed him was that because of the telescope magnification, he couldn't find Duobia at all, but what he didn't know was that Duobia, who was paying close attention to the battlefield from a distance at this time, was caught in a fierce inner battle at this time.

What to do?

What to do?

Seeing that the situation on the battlefield seemed to be developing in his favor, Dobia said to himself in his heart.

For the Great Qing Kingdom, he is the last hope of the Great Qing Kingdom.

But in reality?

He was just a spy, as early as when he was in Guangzhou, he had already surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and even in exchange for a better life, he did not hesitate to sell the robe in the banner, as for the Beijing Division, it was also to infiltrate into the imperial court and obtain information for the Han army, but everything did not develop as he imagined - in the battle with Changmao, with several military exploits, he actually became a famous general among the banner people, and won the trust and cultivation of the emperor.

But what about himself?

A strong uneasiness has always enveloped him, because he knows that for the south, he is just a pawn, and one day, his pawn will definitely come in handy, just like now!

When receiving the order of the liaison, Dobia thought of refusing, but he did not dare, because he knew that he had the handle in the other party's hand, and if he refused, then the impeachment of him would soon be in front of the emperor's case, in which there would be ironclad evidence that could punish him for capital crimes - he had killed Pao Ze, and he had leaked military planes to the Han army again and again.

Eventually, he chose to obey.

Perhaps, this handsome man looks like a beautiful man, but behind the scenery, his life is in danger at any time, perhaps, after the end of this battle, everything will be over, when the time comes, he can live a life with his family in a small county town, no one will know that he is a flag man, and even he has chosen a good surname for himself.

The surname is Zhang, according to the ancestors, their family is surnamed Zhang, is a Liaodong person surnamed Zhang, is a Han exiled to Kaipingwei, and later became a slave of the banner people, and then became a banner person, although it is said that he has intermarried with the flag man for so many years, but when it comes to the root, there is also the blood of the Han people in this bone......

The reason why Dobia comforted himself in this way was because he wanted to persuade himself in this way that he was not betraying his kindred, but returning to his own kind.

I'm Han, I'm Han!

It's only right to do that......

Yes, it was a matter of course, yes, yes......

In the midst of the fierce psychological struggle in Dobia's heart, all the officers and soldiers of the First Legion a kilometer away were already in place. In the bright sunlight, the officers and men of the 1st Division, who were in reserve, behind the trenches, each checking their rifles and ammunition, took refuge under the breastwork, which had been improvised and dug up to two feet above the ground, and two feet thick to protect them from bullets.

At the same time, the gunners were also making the final preparations before the battle, they took the shells out of the ammunition boxes one by one, and then neatly placed them next to the gun emplacements, among all the officers and soldiers, only the cavalry was the most relaxed, these cavalrymen, all with their horses, were also waiting, but they were used as reserves.

The officers were not idle, they shuttled back and forth between the forward positions, constantly checking the readiness of the soldiers.

At the forefront, nearly 10,000 officers and men of the Fourth Brigade were firing at the enemy's frequency, but in front of them there was a large amount of ammunition -- with a single shot of minus they could fire at a rate of ten rounds per minute or even faster, as they had done in training.

Of course, it's not time yet!

Everyone is waiting, waiting for the last moment to come.

The mood of the fighters was somewhat mixed, both happy and helpless. The joy is that the battle will soon be over, if all goes well, and the helpless thing is that now, they can't shoot as hard as they can.

Compared to their European counterparts, the two armies were a little too far apart - a full 400 yards apart!

Seeing the two armies firing guns at such a distance, Grant knew that they were both testing each other's firepower.

Both sides were extremely cautious, this caution was justified, the last time he fought with Shi Dakai, it was because of this that the commander was accustomed to the advantage of the rebel army, and he launched an attack with extreme confidence, but who would have thought that Shi Dakai's army was also a highly firearms army, and the attack turned into a one-sided massacre.

If it weren't for Dobia's decision to attack his flanks with cavalry, and at the same time as the infantry of the Three Towns under his command to attack, history would have changed long ago.

Now, both sides are testing each other!

"The rebels' artillery is very accurate!"

Seeing through the binoculars that the rebels were constantly attacking the Qing army's breastwork with solid bullets, Grant made a secret note of this in his heart.

"Yes, you see......"

Syltis said, pointing into the distance.

"Almost every time, the rebels can accurately hit the breastwork, and their artillery is excellent!"

"That's because they used rifled guns!"

Geert has an answer.

"However, although rifled guns are highly accurate, they cannot form ricochets, and solid shells are not as powerful as smoothbore guns."

Because the Qing army also had a rifled artillery relationship, so Grant naturally knew the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of artillery, at this time he, Siltis, and dozens of other foreigners, became conscientious observers, observing the battle of the two armies from all sides, although he did not want to admit it, but Syldis had to admit one thing - the foreign gun team was not as unbearable as he said.

"Compared to European armies, they are better at using breastprints, and they have trenches to protect themselves, you see......"

As you can see through the binoculars, even during the battle, some soldiers were still reinforcing the breastwork to protect themselves, especially when the accurate shells of the Han army kept hitting the breastwork.

"Indeed, but there is no way to end the battle with such a fight, they must have one side to attack! Otherwise, the battle will continue indefinitely! ”

"You see, the rebels seem to be on the move?"

But the so-called operation was soon stopped, and it turned out that the rebels had only strengthened their flanks.

"They are the cavalry of many people to guard against, don't forget that the last time he attacked the side wing of the rebel army with cavalry, thus defeating Shi Dakai!"

Having learned from the past, it seems understandable that the rebels have strengthened their flanks.

"Major, who do you think will attack first?"

These American officers, who were outside the war, were obviously curious about what was going to come, and who would attack first?

"It depends on whether our marshal can wait for the time he expects!"

Because of his participation in the formulation of the battle plan, Grant knew very well that the battle had only just begun, and that the main battlefield was not even here, but in the other direction - on the flank of the Han army, an army of nearly 40,000 men, was rushing towards them, which was the army led by He Chun from Shandong.

"As long as General Hechun arrives at the battlefield as planned, then victory is very likely to belong to Duobi!"

Grant's tone is less certain, because it is only a possibility, and there are too many uncertainties in it, and Napoleon failed in this indeterminacy.

There is too much fog on the battlefield, only those who can see through the fog can win the war, Grant turned his eyes to Dobia, looking at Dobia on horseback, he seemed to be contemplating and thinking, perhaps, he is also waiting for Hechun's reinforcements!

If Hechun can arrive on time, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for the Han army. But what happens if they can't get there accurately, or if they're stopped halfway through?

Grant thought like this in his heart, he was also considering various possibilities, although he was not the commander of the battle, but now he put himself in the position of Dobia, suddenly, he found a problem, that is, all the battle plans are based on two factors, one is that Hechun arrived accurately, they attacked according to the plan, and then completely annihilated the Han army, and the other factor was that it could not arrive on time or was sent by it, the two sides and the soldiers together, and then attacked from the front, and severely damaged the Han army in front of them.

But what if, as Kaharu's army approached the battlefield, it was strongly intercepted?

What will happen then?

After realizing this, Grant's legs clamped the horse's body, rode towards Dobia, walked to his side, looked at Dobia with a solemn expression and said.

"General, as your advisor, I am obliged to remind you of ......"

Before Grant could finish his sentence, the herald on horseback came running.

"Handsome, with the adult, with the adult, with the ...... the adult"

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