In the headquarters of the beach in the southeast of Dinghai County, Ergin, Glo, and other senior officers of the British and French allied forces, who rushed to hear the news, gathered together to listen to General Scott's report.

After a general understanding of the situation, Ergin's face turned pale, and he glared fiercely at Scott, who stood by like a child who had done something wrong, bowing his head and saying nothing.

"Is it April Fool's Day? It is simply the biggest joke of the nineteenth century that an elite mountain artillery regiment of the British Empire was completely wiped out by the artillery regiment of the Shanghai Army in less than ten minutes! ”

Glo was so happy in his heart that he deliberately used his words to squeeze Ergin and other British officers. Although Britain and France are allies, since Napoleon III staged a coup d'état to overthrow the Second French Republic and rebuild the French Empire a few years ago, the French ambitions have also swelled, and they do not want to follow Britain as a junior brother again, trying to re-compete with Britain for hegemony, so Gro does not give up any opportunity to demoralize the British army.

Sure enough, hearing Glo's sarcasm, Ergin and other British officers were filled with righteous indignation.

Scott glared at Glo and said, "What do you know? The reason why my mountain artillery regiment was destroyed by enemy artillery in less than ten minutes was due to the fact that the enemy concentrated the forces of at least one artillery division. It's not that our British artillery can't do it, it's that the enemy's artillery is too many. ”

Gro was speechless, and Lieutenant General Braunsi, the commander of the French Marine Corps beside him, sneered: "An artillery division? Why don't you say that the enemy army has prepared an artillery corps in the city? Then maybe we'd be more willing to believe your reasons for failure! ”

Scott said angrily, "What do you mean? Am I lying? ”

Browns snorted coldly and said, "I don't know if you lie or not, I only know that the Shanghai army has only deployed a brigade of troops in this Dinghai County." According to the strength of the Shanghai Army, an infantry brigade is equipped with an artillery regiment with a total of 108 artillery pieces under its jurisdiction. I don't think Li Weiguo will deploy more artillery forces in Dinghai County, because Dinghai County is isolated overseas. Once it is blockaded and surrounded by our coalition fleet, it will be a dead land, and the more troops and equipment are invested, the greater the losses. ”

Glo suddenly had something to say and asked: "That is to say, Li Weiguo will never be stupid to invest in the artillery strength of a division, so the artillery of the Shanghai Army attacking the Scott Hill Artillery Regiment is at most only one artillery regiment." Is that the case? ”

"That's right!" Bronce nodded in convincing.

"General Scott, do you have anything else to argue?"

Glo was unforgiving, and continued to hit Scott: "Defeat is defeat, don't make excuses to excuse yourself!" ”

"Your Excellency Commander Ergin, please believe me!" Angry, Scott almost turned his back on his back and turned to Elgin for help.

Ergin was angry that he was slapped in the face by Gro, a Frenchman, and there really couldn't be worse than that. This is more hateful than Scott's loss of an artillery regiment and two infantry battalions.

"Enough! Get out, I don't want to see you! ”

Scott was helpless, and he went out in a gray way.

Everyone can see that if Scott stays here, all the British people will not be able to raise their heads.

Glo succeeded in disgusting Ergin and his British men, and became complacent.

Ergin's eyes rolled, and he suddenly sneered: "Since we are allies in Britain and France, we should advance and retreat together." At present, our army has set an example. Having lost one mountain artillery regiment and two infantry battalions, then ask your army to teach the enemy a hard lesson. Avenge us and save face for the coalition. ”

Seeing that Ergin was weak, Glo immediately raised his eyebrows and said: "Don't worry, our French army has significantly improved its combat effectiveness since His Majesty the great Napoleon III ascended the throne, and we will definitely avenge you!" ”

Hear Glo's words. The French officers led by Bronce rolled their eyes and scolded Glo for being a fool and falling for the old fox of Elgin.

Bronce was about to try to stop him, but Elgin wouldn't give him a chance.

"Then I'll wait for your good news!"

"Just wait and see how our French army teaches the enemy a lesson. Let's learn along! ”

Gro's words were like map cannons, indiscriminately attacking all the British officers, almost causing them to go berserk, and even the French officers such as Bronce were speechless, and they heard a stupid X going crazy.

The first round of British attacks on Dinghai County failed, and then the French army led by the volunteer Gro launched a second wave of attacks.

Of course, Glo is not a soldier, he is a half-way politician in the army, and he has to rely on Bronce and others to command the war.

Bronce was a shrewd French soldier, and this time the French government only dispatched 35,000 French marines, and he had to be careful to calculate, but he couldn't all die in battle.

Bronce quickly drew up a detailed battle plan, reported it to Glo and Elgin, respectively, and was quickly approved for execution.

Compared with the British army, the French army was not as large as the British army in numbers, and there were no Indian Sikhs as cannon fodder, and the 35,000 French troops were all elite, and there was no water among them.

In the early morning of the second day, the French troops wearing black shirts, white trousers, and toilet hats began to line up, divided into three echelons, the first echelon was also about 3,000 men, and the tactics of the British army were the same as tentative attacks. The second echelon of 20,000 people is the general attack echelon, and the rest is organized into the third echelon, which is called the reserve in the tactics of the Shanghai army.

When the French army was assembled, Bronce ordered the first echelon to start a tentative attack on the county town of Dinghai.

In yesterday's battle, the front-loading smoothbore guns on the head of the Shanghai army were destroyed, and Zheng Guohong had to directly use the 59 infantry guns of the artillery regiment to defend the city wall.

When the two sides are about three miles apart, they immediately open fire on each other.

On the battlefield in an instant, the sound of artillery roared and the smoke of gunpowder filled the air.

As a result of the lessons learned from yesterday's defeat of the British artillery regiment, the French artillery regiment was very cautious and cautious, and built perfect fortifications on the artillery positions to resist the grenade attacks fired by the 59th infantry guns of the Shanghai army.

At the same time, the French army used the Mitra heavy front-loading rifled cannon, firing 12-pounder shells, which was very powerful and had a range of more than 1,800 meters, which was much more advanced than the Armstrong P1850 front-loading rifled cannon used by the British army, and also posed a huge threat to the Shanghai army defending the city.

The French soldiers who launched an attack on the ground also advanced cautiously to avoid the shelling of the Shanghai army.

Wheel combat effectiveness, the French army as an army power. Naturally, it was stronger than the British army. Do not think that the French army became weak after losing the Franco-Prussian War, on the contrary, the French army in the sixties was far stronger than the Prussian army, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the strongest army in Europe and the United States.

However, they encountered Li Weiguo's Shanghai army today, which is destined to be a life-and-death contest between the strong, which will determine who is the strongest army in the world.

On the drum tower, Zheng Guohong observed the artillery battle between the enemy and us through a telescope.

Compared to yesterday. Today's French artillery is noticeably much more savvy, and the two sides are engaged in a fierce artillery battle almost one-on-one.

"The French infantry is close to eight hundred meters!" Signal Corps report.

"What is the range of the artillery lately?" Zheng Guohong asked.

"Because of the blockage of the city wall, the nearest firing range is 500 meters, but we can pull the infantry cannon down on the city wall, so that the closest firing range can reach 300 meters!" The adjutant replied.

Zheng Guohong did not intend to pull the artillery down on the city, which would be equivalent to using the French artillery as a live target, which was not cost-effective.

"Order the garrison infantry to quickly ascend the city and prepare for battle! Order the artillery to suppress the French artillery fire with all your might! ”

At this time, Zheng Guohong made a decisive decision.

"Let's see. Is it the foreigner infantry that is powerful, or is our Shanghai infantry stronger! ”

Half an hour later, the French army broke through the limit of the 500-meter minimum strike distance of the Shanghai artillery, and the Shanghai artillery did not bother, adjusted the muzzle, and shelled the French artillery positions with all their might, even if they could not provide artillery support to the Shanghai troops defending the city, they had to suppress the French artillery fire. Let the French infantry have no artillery support.

In this way, the Shanghai army and the French army could only rely on the rifles in their respective hands to fight the victory.

But. The Shanghai army was condescending, relying on strong city walls to defend and occupy a geographical advantage, while the French army had to attack the city.

Erect ladders to siege cities, whether it is the era of cold weapons or the age of hot weapons. They are the main means of siege.

“sur！ (Fire)"

The French were the first to open fire, firing heavily at the head of the city, covering the advance of the French troops carrying the ladders.

When the French infantry advanced to a distance of about seventy or eighty meters below the city, the Shanghai soldiers on the city head quickly opened fire.

One side is a traditional front-loading musket, and the other is a rear-loading rifle. The weapon is a whole generation behind, and the rate of fire per unit of time is even worse by more than ten times.

I saw that bullets rained down on the city in an instant, and the French soldiers fell one by one, suffering huge casualties.

In the distance, on the small high ground, Bronce observed the Shanghai soldiers on the city wall from the telescope, and he soon found that the guns in the hands of the Shanghai soldiers were very special, and after the shooting, there was no need to stop and reload the propellant and warhead, but just pull and push, and he could shoot again.

"No more than five seconds between the front and back, and you can shoot again!"

"What kind of gun is this? It's completely different from our muskets! ”

Bronce instantly realized a serious problem, if the soldiers of both sides fired at each other in the same one-on-one, the best soldiers of the French army could shoot three times in a minute, but the Shanghai soldiers could shoot more than 20 times (not taking into account the magazine change time).

The difference in firing speed between the two sides was so great that it would take at least ten times the number of troops to make up for it, and the Shanghai army was on the defensive, and as the besieging side, the French army needed at least fifteen to twenty times the number of troops.

In the blink of an eye, the French army had already paid the price of more than a thousand casualties, but they failed to rush to the city.

"Retreat! Retreat! ”

Bronth was shrewd, and when he realized that he had to pay a high price to capture Dinghai City, he decisively ordered a retreat.

The French withdrew, and Bronce did not attack again, but ordered all the assembled French forces to retreat to the safety of the beach, while he went to see Gro and Elgin with a heavy face.

"Why did you retire so quickly? Isn't your French army very strong? Isn't it good for us to learn from you? ”

Scott, who rushed to hear the news, immediately attacked Glo with a mocking face.

Glo's face was ugly, and he said angrily to Brons, "How did you command? Why not attack? ”

Bronce said with a heavy face: "I don't know if you have noticed that the firepower of the Shanghai army on the city is very strong?" ”

"That's not a reason for you to give up attacking!" Ergin said with a mocking expression.

Bronce didn't care if he was losing face, he only cared about his own soldiers, and he couldn't make fearless sacrifices, so he explained: "The Shanghai army used a new weapon, and their muskets were rear-loading guns, which fired almost twenty times faster than our front-loading muskets. ”

Scott scoffed, "What? The other side shoots faster than you, so you don't dare to attack? ”

Ergin was very calm, he noticed the look of the Brons, and also noticed a key word - the launch speed can exceed his own by twenty times.

"I also watched the battle, and noticed that the Shanghai army on the city was very strong, could it be because of the new muskets they used? What kind of musket can be fired so fast? ”

Glo looked at Bronce and said in surprise, "Is there really such a musket?" How can it be? They can't reload twenty times faster than they can reload! ”

Bronce thought for a moment and replied, "I have observed that their muskets are rear-loaded, and I have also seen some gunsmiths in Europe try to modify their breech-loading guns, and the advantage of rear-loading guns is that they are easy to reload, and if their muskets use integrated ammunition, it is entirely possible to fire twenty times as fast as traditional muskets." ”

Scott was surprised: "How is that possible?" Although rear-loading guns are common in Europe, experts have not solved the problem of air tightness, although the concept of one-piece ammunition has also been proposed in Europe, but as far as I know, there is currently no one-piece ammunition suitable for rear-loading except for Minne bullets. ”

Bronce sneered: "Just because we don't have it doesn't mean that the Shanghai army doesn't?" Haven't we seen radium and mines before? ”

Scott was not reconciled and countered: "If your analysis is correct, and the Shanghai army has advanced muskets, is that a reason for you not to attack?" ”

Bronce said-for-tat: "It's not that I'm not not attacking, I'm thinking about the cost of attacking!" ”

Ergin immediately said, "Tell me what you think." ”

Bronce then explained: "Because our muskets are front-loading, in order to increase the rate of firing per unit of time, we have a three-row rotation of battle formations. In order to increase the firepower per unit area, our formation is a dense array. Now the new muskets of the Shanghai army have solved these two key problems at once, so in the same unit time and unit area, to eliminate one soldier of the Shanghai army, we have to invest fifteen to twenty soldiers, and we may have to pay the price of five soldiers, or even more. ”

After a pause, Bronce continued: "If we take into account the fact that the Shanghai army has a city wall to rely on, but we have to brave the rain of bullets to attack the city, we will have to invest at least twenty times more troops and pay a greater price for casualties. ”

Erjin nodded and said: "You are very right, if this is the case, I am afraid that we will need to pay a considerable price to capture Dinghai County." ”

Bronce shook his head and said, "The problem is that we probably won't be able to capture this county, because we can't attack all twenty times the number of troops, and we can't attack less than this force." ”

Everyone was shocked, does this mean that they are going to return in vain in Dinghai? The British and French officers, who had always been arrogant, may find it difficult to accept. (To be continued......)