At dawn, an army suddenly appeared on the west bank of the Suzhou Creek.

I saw that this army was more than 10,000 people, each of whom wore a big cap, a dark green military uniform, and big cowhide military boots, which was the standard configuration of the Shanghai army.

The only difference is that the weapons in the hands of this Shanghai army are P1842 or P1851 and other front-loading shot-shot rifles, which are the standard equipment of the Shanghai army three years ago, and now the weapons of the Shanghai soldiers have already been replaced with patriotic rifles, which is a rotary pull-back rear-loading rifled rifle, which is a whole era more advanced than P1842 or P185.

So who is this army?

It turns out that they are also the Shanghai Army, but their numbers are different, the eight towns of the Shanghai Army known to the outside world, that is the A Legion, known as the main force and elite, equipped with advanced patriotic rifles. And the Shanghai army in front of him is the B Army, as the name suggests, it is a second-line army.

The A and B corps of the Shanghai Army are elite, responsible for foreign operations and are front-line troops, while the B Corps is inferior to the A Corps in terms of equipment, training, and allowances, and food, and is only responsible for urban defense in peacetime, and is responsible for replenishing troops to the first-line A Corps in wartime, which is a reserve role.

However, even if it is a reserve role in the Shanghai army, its combat effectiveness is very strong, and it is not comparable to the Qing army and the Taiping army.

At this moment, the number of this unit on the banks of the Suzhou River is the second town of the B Army Corps of the Shanghai Army, the commander is Major General Song Yunhan, the division commander, and the chief of staff is Colonel Wu Qin.

"Report - All combat units of our department have entered the predetermined attack position, please indicate whether to launch an attack or not, please make it clear to the commander!"

Standing on a small plateau near the Suzhou Creek, Song Yunhan was using a telescope to look at the Suzhou Creek Bridge and the situation in the British concession on the other side of the river, when he heard the report and turned around.

"Have the people from Fourth Town arrived?"

"Report - the people of the Fourth Town have arrived! But only a dozen people! The Chief of Staff has already gone over to greet him! ”

"What? Just a dozen people? Song Yunhan put down the binoculars. Amazed.

According to the agreement between Song Yunhan and Chen Liang, the commander of the fourth town, the two sides worked together to take the British Concession and the French Concession together, and now Song Yunhan has pulled all his men and horses over with more than 10,000 people, but Chen Liang only sent a dozen people.

What does this mean, playing big or trying to slap in the face?

Song Yunhan's face sank suddenly.

Not for a while. Chief of Staff Wu Qin came over with a sergeant and thirteen soldiers.

"Report - Lin Kecheng, platoon commander of the 325th Platoon of the 109th Company of the 37th Battalion of the 13th Regiment of the 7th Brigade of the 4th Town of the Shanghai Army, has been ordered to report to you! There are all classes of them, salute the sir! ”

Lin Kecheng, the platoon commander standing beside Wu Qin, immediately ordered to salute Song Yunhan with the fourteen soldiers behind him.

Song Yunhan returned the military salute, but asked angrily, "How many people did you bring?" ”

Lin Kecheng immediately replied: "Report to the chief, I brought all the fourteen soldiers of our 325th platoon and the second squad!" ”

Song Yunhan almost fainted.

What do you mean?

Fighting in concert, if not sending a brigade, at least a regiment is like that, this is the importance and courtesy of friendly forces.

Now it's okay, Chen Liang will send a small platoon commander. What's even more infuriating is that this small platoon commander did not bring all the soldiers of all three squads of his platoon, but only brought one squad and 14 people.

This is the contempt of Chiguoguo!

Song Yunhan was angry and shouted: "Chen Liang sent more than a dozen people, what does he mean?" ”

Lin Kecheng was taken aback, he didn't expect Song Yunhan to lose his temper so much, and hurriedly said, "Our Senior Commander Chen said that you were just feints to attack the concession. Just lure out all the foreign soldiers in the concession, and let us help you capture the Suzhou Bridge. And then we withdrew! ”

Song Yunhan asked with a dark face: "What do you mean, just a dozen of you can seize the Suzhou Bridge?" More than 10,000 people in our second town can't even beat the Suzhou Bridge, right? ”

Lin Kecheng explained: "We didn't mean that? ”

"So what do you mean? Fighting together, you A legions look down on us B legions, don't you? Let me tell you, where did you come from and where you are going, no matter how bad my Song Yunhan is, it is still very clear that more than 10,000 people will take a broken bridge. I won't be able to fight you! Go back and tell Chen Liang that Lao Tzu is very unhappy, and Lao Tzu wants to break off his friendship with him! ”

Seeing that Song Yunhan was about to go crazy, Wu Qin, the chief of staff on the side, hurriedly persuaded: "Senior Commander Song will dissipate his anger first, I think Senior Commander Chen should have no other meaning." He must have had his considerations in mind! ”

Song Yunhan glared at Wu Qin, and said angrily: "Staff Officer Wu, don't talk to me and the mud, Chen Liang has a fart to consider, so he became the commander of the A Legion to deliberately show his faction, and he wants to be angry!" ”

"That's right!" Lin Kecheng hurriedly explained: "Our division commander Chen believes that the Suzhou Bridge is too narrow, and it is not suitable for large-scale battles, and the foreigners can rely on the fortifications on the opposite bank to form a fan-shaped attack surface, and your musket team cannot spread out the formation on the bridge, and the fire suppression is too bad, and there will be great casualties, which is unnecessary." ”

Song Yunhan sneered: "What's the matter, we can't suppress the other party with firepower, so can you suppress the other party with just a dozen people?" ”

Staff Officer Wu asked, "Platoon Commander Lin, tell me what you think?" ”

Lin Kecheng said: "That's the case, the Suzhou Bridge is more than 100 meters long, and the effective combat distance of ordinary muskets is only twenty or thirty meters, so that your musket team must at least go to the bridge for more than half a distance to kill and injure the foreigners on the other side, which gives the foreigners sufficient time to prepare for firepower, which is very disadvantageous to you." ”

Song Yunhan was silent, he was also a person who knew the soldiers, and he felt a little reasonable when he heard Lin Kecheng's analysis.

Staff Officer Wu glanced at Song Yunhan, turned his head and asked, "So you have a way?" ”

Lin Kecheng nodded, patted the patriotic rifle in his hand, and said with a smile: "That's right!" We used a new type of rifle instead of a musket, which could shoot accurately from a distance of 100 meters, and the dozen or so fighters I brought with us were all good gunners, and when the time came, we would be in the vanguard and suddenly attack the foreign soldiers on the opposite shore, so that we could quickly and disrupt the enemy's deployment. Rushing across the Suzhou Bridge, Commander Song could order a battalion of cavalry to take the opportunity to quickly cross the bridge and occupy the bridgehead, thus opening a gap in the foreigners' concession defense circle. ”

Staff Officer Wu nodded, looked at Song Yunhan and said, "I have also seen the fighting methods of the first-line troops using patriotic rifles, which is indeed different from the combat methods of our second-line troops. There is merit, I think we can let Platoon Commander Lin and them take the lead and try it, after all, this is a combat mission issued by the commander-in-chief, no matter whether Division Commander Chen looks down on our second-line troops or not, we have to cooperate with the action. ”

Song Yunhan snorted coldly and said, "Staff Officer Wu, you can arrange the operation with Platoon Commander Lin, I will be here to suppress the formation for you!" ”

After speaking, Song Yunhan turned around and didn't look at Lin Kecheng and the others.

Staff Officer Wu and Lin Kecheng glanced at each other. They all shook their heads and smiled bitterly, and quickly began to assign tasks.

At this time, in the concession area on the other side of the Suzhou Bridge, a group of foreign soldiers were on guard with guns, and there were about forty or fifty people.

Since these foreign soldiers received the war order from the Allied Forces Headquarters, they began to blockade the Suzhou Creek and built fortifications on the concession side of the Suzhou Bridge, forming a fan-shaped firepower advantage over the narrow Suzhou Bridge. As long as the Shanghai army on the opposite bank launches an attack, they will soon organize a strong firepower. Block the bridge.

If the Shanghai army still uses muskets to attack, it will naturally be difficult to cross the Suzhou Bridge, which is more than 100 meters long, and even if it rushes over, it will pay a heavy price.

However, at this moment, in Lin Kecheng's eyes, it is not a difficult matter. Although he had only brought a squad of troops, it was very easy for him to cross the bridge, because they had advanced weapons. With the accuracy and rate of fire of a patriotic rifle, it is quite possible to fight a raid battle.

"All of them!"

"Check your gear!"

"Target Suzhou Bridge, form a battle formation!"

Lin Kecheng's order was issued, and the 14 soldiers of the Shanghai Army quickly completed the equipment inspection and formed a battle formation. Bullets are loaded.

"Staff Officer Wu, request that the artillery fire be suppressed, and the artillery fire will be extended in three minutes!"

Wu Qin nodded, and immediately ordered the artillery regiment to prepare for firepower!

"Target Area 1!"

"Reload!"

Although it is only an artillery regiment of the second-line troops, the training method is the same as that of the first-line artillery regiment of the Shanghai Army, because Li Weiguo's weapons research and development department, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, has not yet successfully developed a breech-loading artillery, so whether it is a first-line unit or a second-line army, the artillery is a front-loading rifled gun.

However, Li Weiguo compiled the advanced artillery tactics manual of later generations, which is called the artillery drill manual, the most important of which is the strike of the division within the coordinates. As the name implies, it is to divide the theater of operations into a horizontal and vertical coordinate system in advance, and each area is the same, so that the artillery can directly according to the area number, only need to be loaded with the same amount of propellant, so that the shells can quickly fall into the target area, the error is very small, and the artillery fire can be accurately hit.

At this moment, the British Concession and the French Concession have already been drawn into an accurate coordinate map by the Shanghai Army scouts, and the other side of the Suzhou Bridge is the first stop of the attack, marked with a striking red "1" on the coordinate system.

"Ready-go!"

With a wave of the flag, the order was given, and 36 guns opened fire in turn.

Knock knock knock!

The pre-dawn silence was broken by the thunderous sound of cannonballs, and shells roared towards the enemy positions on the other side of the Suzhou Creek.

Bang bang!

Shells exploded one after another on the enemy positions, instantly forming a sea of fire.

"Attack!"

Lin Kecheng gave an order, picked up the patriotic rifle in his hand, and quickly rushed towards the Suzhou Bridge with fourteen Shanghai soldiers.

"Platoon Commander Lin, the artillery fire hasn't stopped-"

Wu Qin was startled and wanted to call Lin Kecheng and the others, but it was too late.

Song Yunhan, who was watching the battle with a black face on the high ground in the distance, was also taken aback, for the first time he saw someone who dared to charge forward in the face of artillery fire, if his own artillery was not careful, the shells would fall on the heads of his own people.

"It's kind of interesting!"

Song Yunhan can be the division commander of the Shanghai Army, he has the ability, of course he understands that although Lin Kecheng's actions are risky, they imply the essence of the art of war, and he can definitely catch the enemy on the opposite side by surprise.

"Pass my orders, the cavalry battalion is ready to charge!"

The fighter plane was fleeting, and Song Yunhan knew very well that if the cavalry battalion couldn't keep up with the rhythm, then Lin Kecheng and them would be in danger.

Although Song Yunhan was unhappy, it was not good to abolish the public for personal reasons.

At the same time, the foreign soldiers on the other side of the Suzhou Creek were in a mess, they did not expect that the Shanghai army would dare to launch a sudden attack, and they were suddenly blown up by the fierce artillery fire, and the people turned on their backs.

The shells of the Shanghai army seemed to swell their eyes. The artillery shells smashed directly into the enemy's position, which caught the foreign soldiers on the position by surprise, and before they could escape, they were blown to pieces of flesh and blood, killing and wounding dozens of people.

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

In a panic, a part of the foreign soldiers quickly organized under the command of several officers. They all looked for cover and entered the preset position to defend.

These are the regular army soldiers of the United Kingdom, they are well-trained, generally between forty and fifty years old, they have at least ten or twenty years of military training, they are elite, but also veterans, strong combat effectiveness, extremely survivable.

"Look. The Shanghai army is on the bridge! ”

"Prepare for battle!"

"They must not be allowed to rush over!"

……

Under the command of the officer, a group of about 50 British soldiers bent into the position, and they were ready to rely on sandbag fortifications to block the Shanghai army from crossing the bridge.

However, these British soldiers soon discovered an astonishing scene, only to see that there were only 15 Shanghai soldiers on the bridge, and the other party quickly hit more than ten meters and immediately fell to the ground, and then shot one after another.

Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!

I saw the muzzle of the gun flickering with fire. A nine-millimeter bullet was fired from the chamber of the Patriotic rifle, marking a stable trajectory. Shoot at the British army seventy or eighty meters away.

Burst!

Bullets into the flesh!

A British soldier was shot in the chest, the bullet shredded internal organs and penetrated through the back, blood splattered, the whole person was hit by a huge inertia, and the body fell backwards.

Burst!

Immediately afterward, another British soldier had his head blown out. The headless corpse fell to the ground.

Puff puff!

A group of British soldiers in the front row were shot one after another, and all of them were killed on the spot.

“shit！ What the hell? ”

A British officer saw a group of soldiers next to him dying one after another, his eyes suddenly widened, at this time, the Shanghai army on the opposite side was still seventy or eighty meters away, how could he fight so accurately.

"It must have been shit luck!"

The British officer thought. He quickly shouted and brought in another group of soldiers.

But the next moment, he had a ghostly expression, his mouth was wide open, his eyes were as wide as cowbells, and the fifteen Shanghai soldiers on the opposite side were dead.

I saw Lin Kecheng and the others lying on the bridge, constantly pulling the bolt and shooting, and in just a dozen seconds, they shot four or five times in a row.

"What kind of weapon is this?"

Not only the British officers found out, but also the battle-hardened British soldiers noticed that they all saw that the weapons in the hands of the Shanghai soldiers did not need to be loaded with propellants and projectiles at all, and they could be aimed and shot directly with a pull and push.

At this time, Lin Kecheng shouted loudly, and quickly got up with fourteen Shanghai soldiers, taking advantage of the moment when the British army's firepower was weak, he quickly charged forward, and at the same time kept shooting during the march, suppressing the British army's firepower, and alternately covering the advance.

Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!

Shot after shot, bullets hit head-on, a squad of only fifteen people, but the firepower output per unit time was more powerful than a hundred-man squad of the British army.

What is the situation, the British army was immediately stunned.

Bang!

Shots rang out, and a British officer was killed again.

Seeing more than a dozen Shanghai soldiers getting closer and closer, the remaining British soldiers were frightened by the strange weapons of the Shanghai army, and hurriedly fired a salvo of muskets without waiting for an order, but the trajectory of their front-loading rifled guns was too unstable, and the projectile flew out of ten meters of trajectory and deviated, and almost all of them flew out of chaos thirty meters away, while the fifteen Shanghai soldiers on the opposite side were in a straggler formation, only one of them was wounded in the leg, and the others did not even scratch their skin.

"Reload!"

The British soldiers hurriedly reloaded after shooting, but they didn't know why, their eyes couldn't help but look at the Shanghai soldiers on the opposite side, seeing that the other party was getting closer and closer, but they kept shooting, and the British comrades around them were hit and killed one after another, fear surged up and stole them, the loaded hands trembled, the propellant was sprinkled outside, and some even loaded two projectiles without knowing it, and hurriedly pulled the trigger, and suddenly blew themselves to death.

"Call for help!"

The last British officer roared, but a shell fell, and the thud blew him to pieces.

At this time, the artillery fire of the Shanghai army began to extend, and the British troops who rushed to reinforce nearby after hearing the news were suddenly separated by artillery fire and could not get close to the position.

"Rush!"

Lin Kecheng shouted loudly, fired three shots in succession, killed three British soldiers, raised his bayonet after running out of bullets, and led his men to charge the last five meters.

Thundered! Thundered!

The sound of horses' hooves sounded in the rear, the war horses neighed, and Lin Kecheng looked back, but it was Song Yunhan's cavalry battalion coming up.

Lin Kecheng was first surprised, and then smiled.

"Retreat!"

"Retreat!"

The remnants of the British troops on the battlefield gave up their resistance and fled as if they had seen a ghost, but they could not run as fast as bullets and sabers.

In the blink of an eye, the remaining thirty or so British soldiers were either killed by bullets, cut off their heads by sabers, or kicked by war horses

In just ten minutes, the Suzhou Bridge changed hands, and the door of the Shanghai Concession was knocked open by the Shanghai army. (To be continued......)