Yang Zhisi and the French fought no less than a dozen battles, he naturally knew a lot about the tactics of the French, except for the other party's artillery outside Shanxi City, it was very powerful, the rate of fire was good, and it could also move with the army, it was obvious that he was bound to wait to eat the shells

When the ferry sailed a hundred meters, the artillery position on the opposite side also began to exert its might, and with the flash of fire and black smoke on the French artillery position, a row of shells fell from the sky and landed on the position on this side of the pier.

The artillery of the French army was a 68mm (7-pounder gun) field gun, and the maximum firing range was more than 2 kilometers away, and at this time, the dock position was only 1.5 kilometers away from the opponent's artillery base composed of 8 field guns, and the loading speed of the 68mm field gun was very fast within the best firing distance, and a round of firing was ushered in in less than 20 seconds.

Yang Sisi in the distance saw that the shells on his position kept falling, and his heart was pinched, these soldiers and horses were not trained by him personally, these 500 people, he is the one who everyone can call by name and the right number, and some of them are veterans who have followed for almost seven or eight years, I didn't expect the French to be so fierce this time

The French firepower is fierce, and it really surpasses his surprise, the reason is very simple, the French have attacked northern Vietnam in the past, the most time, that is, the last time Li Weiye took more than 1,000 men, the firepower of the French was mainly composed of steam gunboats, and the last battle to annihilate Li Weiye was achieved in the case of a night raid, and the other side's gunboats were also surrounded and suppressed by horsetail steam gunboats, so naturally they did not exert any power.

This time, the enemy on the opposite side was composed of the French regular army and recruited mercenaries, and there were also a large number of Algerian black cannon fodder troops and South Vietnamese indigenous battalions, and the colonial army was only slightly inferior to the French regular army in combat ability, and the morale inspired by the plunder made these outlaws even more crazy......

Major General Pogen, commander-in-chief of the 7th Brigade of the French Colonial Army, was standing on a small dirt slope on the other side of the Lujiang River with the officer corps at this time to observe the progress of the battle, these shells were all carried by mules and horses, and a mule and horse could only carry less than 40 7-pound shells, and nearly 15 rounds of 120 shells had been fired in the continuous firing just now.

This was already more than the base of the day for the 68mm field gun configuration, and the small village behind the dock on the opposite side was almost razed to the ground, leaving only the ruins and raging fires, and the opponent's position was also in shambles, and he was very satisfied with the fact that the tunnel area dug by the opponent was clearly full of craters.

However, there is one thing that still makes him very unhappy, the adjutant reported that yesterday an outpost reconnaissance force has crossed the river, so far there is no news, now there is an enemy stationed at the dock, it is very likely that that the force has been eliminated, you know, it is to take the fortified Xuanhua city in the northwest, the entire brigade only killed a servant army, unexpectedly, this time nearly 50 French soldiers were missing.

The position on the opposite side is still silent, it seems that the artillery attack is very successful, the other side either fled, or all were killed, these shells are not easy to transport with mules and horses, there are a total of 30 mules and horses in the brigade, this round of shooting has consumed one percent of the shells, if it is used up, you can only go to a hundred miles away, thinking of this, Major General Purgen is very satisfied with the wave of his hand to stop shooting.

Fifteen ferries slowly approached the pier, the French were still very cautious, the first to jump ashore were the black troops of the French colonial army, these Algerian black servants have always had a style of not afraid of death, when charging forward, it is much more effective than the local Vietnamese indigenous battalion.

Second Lieutenant Sailer stood hunched over the side of the cabin, brandishing his rifle in his hand and shouting at the black infantry, but his eyes were fixed on the obviously newly dug trench three or four hundred meters away, at this distance, it was completely within the range of the rifle, but there was still no movement in the trench, could it be that the enemy had fled?

In any case, as long as this trench was occupied, he could confidently control the dock, and he loudly ordered his black infantry, "The second company immediately formed a formation and prepared to occupy the front trench"

Soon a long formation of a platoon of 50 people and a horizontal formation of four rows was formed, and under the slogan of the officers, they quickly launched an assault on the opposite trench with their guns, and the horizontal platoon of 50 people was enough to cover most of the area on the front, while the soldiers on the flanks could attack the two flanks and advance in a rapid way, and the distance of three or four hundred meters was seven or eight minutes. ,

400 m ......

350 m ......

300 m ......

At this time, there was finally movement in the trenches opposite, and hundreds of rifles immediately stretched out from the two trenches twenty meters apart from the front and rear, and the muzzles of the guns were visibly not retreating from the muzzles, and Second Lieutenant Thaler shouted loudly, "Prepare for the forward platoon...... Shooting ......"

Bang Bang Bang ...... White smoke rose from the forward positions, bullets flew sideways between the two armies, and the neat "popping" of gunfire came from the French rifle phalanx, which was trained to shoot very quickly, and the soldiers of the five platoons formed a basically uninterrupted frontal fire

However, this time, the intensity of the fire from the front was much more dense than they had imagined, and they obviously did not expect to encounter an all-firearms force here, and they were immediately knocked down twenty or thirty, and although Ensign Thaler, who commanded the company, realized that the opponent's firepower was strong, he still believed that the attack on the trench could be completed in a queue.

Two hundred rifles fired from the trenches without stopping, and the five columns of French infantry paid a great price for each step, and at last the second company of the Algerian battalion finally stopped the desperate column charge after Second Lieutenant Thaler was killed by a single shot, and the squadron had advanced less than 100 meters, and of the more than 200 men, only forty or fifty of them could withdraw to the pier trestle.

However, the price paid by the French was not unrewarded, and during the exchange of fire between the Algerian company and the Protectors, a large number of soldiers jumped onto the river bank from the slowly approaching ferry, and immediately brought out several small carts from the cabin, and brought down several Haqikes rotary guns from the boat, and quickly advanced to try to establish a firing point on the shore.

Yang Zhisi also saw what the French transported from the ship at this time, which made him also surprised, this Haqikes machine gun is definitely a big killer weapon in the hands of the French, in the past battles have not seen less than this weapon played, the rate of fire is extremely fast, two pounds of lead shots occur, can achieve a rate of fire of more than 30 rounds per minute......

Obviously, let the other party calmly set up this machine gun, then the difficulty of defending this position will increase a lot, and the projectile of this Haqikaisi machine gun is not a flowering projectile, but it is better because of the speed, and no one dares to come forward

At this time, the armies of both sides were at a stalemate at a distance of four hundred meters, and the French Major Lowe, who was in charge of command, saw that the Elle company attacking in front had suffered heavy losses, and the other side was obviously an all-firearms unit, and the firepower was not outdated compared to the French army, so he expected to quickly build a position of small-caliber Habecis speed guns, so that he could fully suppress the opponent.

However, the situation at this time was not in favor of the French, the only obstacles that could be used as cover in this ferry were dismantled by the other side, and it was completely open space, and the army that launched the attack this time exceeded 1,000 people, crowded on this pier, and at this time they could only rely on the hull of the wooden boat for cover, otherwise they would be exposed to the other side's field of vision.

The soldiers of the Haggaeus Speed Gun Detachment struggled to drag the heavy machine guns onto land, and Major Lowe immediately ordered two Vietnamese Native companies and a French Marine Company to launch an attack on the enemy in loose formation, pinning down the enemy's firepower so that the bulky rapid-fire guns could quickly build up positions, and the battle began again......

The French who were pinned down at the pier by this kind of mutual fire on the way dù obviously suffered a great loss, there was no preset position, there was no terrain to use as cover, and the only way to protect them in the exchange of fire was to lie on the ground, but this only reduced casualties......

Wang Dali leaned his back in the trench, opened the magazine of the Lin Mington rifle in his hand, and immediately took out a copper-shelled bullet from the bullet bag with his right hand and loaded it, moved a few steps to the side, and immediately poked out half of his head, raised the gun, aimed, and shot, several actions in one go, and then immediately squatted down, changed the position next to him, and immediately completed the loading of the bullet.

Then he glanced at the results of the battle...... Suddenly, an ominous feeling of the ghost made him shrink his head violently, and he saw a cloud of dust beside the trench in front of him, and the two soldiers who were shooting were hit by each other's weapons, and the projectile entered from the chest, causing a splash of blood, and the two soldiers fell to the ground and died without saying a word.

The projectile that came out of the body was the size of an egg, and he also recognized that it was a French wheel cannon, and the firepower was very fierce, not to mention a person, even if a cow ate such a thing, it would be dead again. ,

He Ergou saw seven or eight soldiers falling on the ground, he had already shot more than ten shots in a row, and he was also a little weak at this time, and suddenly saw that the two soldiers on the side were shot, and blood sprayed all over the ground, and he was also a little frightened, and his face turned white all of a sudden......

"Ergouzi, what's wrong, I'm afraid?" Wang Dali, who was on the side, showed his head and fired another shot, hurriedly retracted his head, and laughed to stimulate him.

"Let's take a rest, I'll be afraid of the French," He Ergou was excited, this terrifying mood was much lighter, loaded the bullets, and thought of what the outpost chief said before the war, whether he has the courage to do it depends on his wartime appearance, and he also learned from Wang Dali's appearance and kept changing the shooting position......

The casualties on both sides were increasing, and the French artillery on the opposite bank stopped firing because the two sides of the battle were too close, and the French two Habec's 37mm machine guns had been arranged and began to fire at the frontal trenches.

The Protector soldiers on the flanks immediately accelerated their firing speed, trying to suppress the French troops who were about to break through from the middle, but in the face of the opponent's machine guns, they were unable to organize an effective defense in the first trench for a while, and they relied on the desperate counterattack of the soldiers in the back trench to barely resist.

However, the soldiers of the Vietnamese indigenous battalion who participated in this round of raids did Yang Sisi a small favor from another angle, the French troops who charged in the previous round suffered heavy losses, and they were not obliged to brave the rain of bullets to advance desperately, so they were obviously much worse in terms of advance speed and combat effectiveness, and many people were lying in the shell craters and firing at each other at long distances

The French Major in command, Lowe, immediately waved his hand and sent another company of troops again to try to complete the breakthrough of the frontal trench, while the machine guns of Haqikes, who occupied the terrain, made every effort to suppress the Protector in the frontal trench

This situation must be changed, Yang Sisi saw from afar that the French had put out the machine guns of Habegkais, and he also understood that in terms of firepower, his side was determined to suffer, and he beckoned, and the only two Maxim machine guns were put into battle.

On the second layer of defense, the Maxim machine gun, which had been placed in the firing bunker, let out a roar, and the projectiles that were spewed out swept over the enemy troops in the center of the French who were advancing rapidly, and the crossfire formed by the two bullet streams immediately took the lives of dozens of soldiers.

The ultimate goal of the Makqin machine gun is to occupy the Haqikes machine gun position on the slope, the roaring bullet chain swept over, and there was a sudden chaos on the slope, the French Haqikes machine gun had a detachable gun cover, but they didn't expect that the other party actually had a machine gun, and they were in a hurry, and after adding the cannon cover, at least a dozen corpses had been left at this time.

Now the Haggaeus machine gun can be regarded as having found an opponent, turning the muzzle of the gun towards the machine gun position of the Protectors, trying to destroy these machine guns that pose a great threat to the French army, and the dense 2-pounder shells immediately penetrated the bunkers of the Protectors' not very thick Maxim machine guns.

However, to their disappointment, the Maxim machine gun team had already pulled the machine guns to move positions, and at this time had already completed the arrangement at the new firing point, and dealt a huge blow to the French troops in front with a short and powerful strafing fire, and with the cooperation of the two machine gun fire points forming a cross fire, a fierce exchange of fire immediately broke out again on the front battlefield.

Seeing that the French could not follow the suppression, Major Lowe immediately ordered a change to a strong attack, and the French army of nearly 1,000 men spread out on the front of the dock, which was not open, and launched an attack on the front trench in a loose formation, and in an instant, the pressure on the frontal battlefield increased greatly, and the number of soldiers in the squadron and the fifth squadron was reduced by more than 30% in the continuous attrition.

The battle between the French Habekais machine gun and the Maxim machine gun of the Protector Army continued, relying on the advantage of flexibility, the Maxim firing point was constantly changing, preventing the French machine gun from attacking the front-line position, seeing the big movement of the French, Yang Sisi immediately transferred Li Daring and Hu Dan's two teams of men and horses to support, and the two sides launched an incentive struggle at the front of the position.

It was clear that under the crossfire of the Maxim machine guns, the chances of trying to conquer the trench were greatly reduced, and the French commandos rushed to the front of the trench several times, but they were blown up by the grenades thrown out of the trenches, leaving many corpses and retreating to the shore. ,

However, Yang Sisi's men also suffered a lot of casualties, after all, the other party was suppressed by a four-gun 37-pounder cannon, and the entire battlefield became a war of attrition between the two sides......

The battle lasted from morning to near noon, Yang Zhisi's side had already invested all its strength in the defense of the first line, the three brigade reserves had all been put into the frontal confrontation, and even the wounded were only transferred to the second line of defense, and the two sides fought back and forth on this long strip of land less than 1 kilometer from north to south.

Major Luo Wei had already sent several ferries back to ask for reinforcements in the face of Yan Zhan's attrition, but the frontal assault never stopped......

Wang Dali took advantage of the French retreat, took out a cake from his arms and gnawed it twice, there were a lot of corpses lying next to him, there were Protectors, more French, the bayonet of his Linmington rifle had been bent a little, that was in the hand-to-hand combat just now, he stabbed a tall French soldier, and the other party fell down

"His uncle, these French guys are endless" He cursed a few words, leaned against the wall of the trench, loaded the bullets, and saw that He Ergou next to him was injured at this time, and was shot in the left arm by the French in front, and the injury was not serious, he was still able to fight, and at this time he also learned to look like he was gnawing on cakes, he laughed, "Ergouzi, you can do it today, long-faced Luo"

"Go, go" Ergouzi didn't buy his account at all, lowered his head and nibbled the cake

"The French are coming, ready to fight," the hoarse voice of the sentry officer on the side sounded again

"Dog's Frenchman, today Lao Tzu is here, you just think about the past" Wang Dali chewed the cake in his mouth and muttered indistinctly, raised the rifle in his hand, lay on the side of the trench and showed half of his head to look at the French army in the distance, four or five more boats on the river docked, and many soldiers got off the boats.

"Brother Wang, you see how many soldiers and horses the French have, why can't they finish fighting" The second dog next to him saw a steady stream of French people getting off the boat, and he was a little worried, 250 bullets, I had been fighting for a morning, and I counted the bullets in the bag just now, and there were only 30 or so left......