Chapter 257: The moon is dark and the wind is high

The outpost of the Cen family army on the western front arrived in Heyang, and the defenders in the city only had 5o French troops, and they were not afraid of the hundreds of outposts of the Dian army that appeared outside the city, and they actually relied on the city wall to counterattack, and they were very happy to fight with dozens against hundreds, and when the Qing army arrived with artillery in the afternoon, the French panicked and scattered.

Cen Yuying accepted the lesson of the last battle in northern Vietnam, entered northern Vietnam from the direction of Maguan instead, opened the entrance to Ha Duong, requisitioned a large number of inland river wooden boats, and several troops and horses marched all the way to the southeast along the two-day river of the Jin River and the Ming River.

Except for the fierce resistance of the unknown French in Heyang County, the other county towns were all achieved overnight, and the progress was very smooth, but these small contact battles were not in the scope of Cen Yuying's consideration at all, and his eyes were directly aimed at the lost territory of the day - Xuanhua City.

With the current offensive, within a few days, it will be able to reach the city of Xuanhua, and the French army closest to this area should be the 11th Brigade stationed in Hanoi, and it will take at least ten days to arrive.

Of course, the good thing that Cen Yuying didn't expect was that the French 11th Brigade was actually not in Hanoi at all, but followed the lonely army to the north to deal with it.

On the evening of the 3rd, on the front line of Xiaodong Cao in northern Vietnam, in a small forest on the left flank of the front of the French front, on the two large trees on the inside, a few leaves were suddenly gently removed, and then a telescope was stretched out.

The telescope in his hand is a 5 times military telescope specially purchased from Germany, only the officers of the reconnaissance department can be configured, at this moment the situation of the French pouting their butts in the distance, lying in the shallow ditch and carefully digging the tunnel made him very funny, a little thought, this result naturally made him smile slightly, most of these French people are worried about being sniped by the shè hand of the guard!

"The barracks are 32o meters to the left and 41o meters to the front of the reference point, and the length of the barracks is about 75o meters ......", through the reference sign set in advance in the distance, Ma Tao quickly calculated the location of the opponent's military camp roughly, and made a detailed record of all the targets that could be observed.

After some reconnaissance, Ma Tao himself had quite an opinion on the cunning of the French, and it was obvious that although the other party did not build a complete fence in the barracks, they dug a trench in the front and back of the four layers, and it was estimated that until dark, this trench should be able to be put into defense, and in the camp, trenches were also dug outside the tents set up in various places, and several earthen walls were piled up with excavated earth to form a simple fortification in the camp.

In the long French battalion, it is basically impossible to judge the position of the French commander, and it is impossible to distinguish the officers walking around in the telescope, which makes Ma Tao feel that the fly in the ointment, if the position of the French commander can be determined, then it will be handsome, and when the time comes, it will be a great merit to find artillery to carry out a targeted killing......

When this guy was in the middle of the girl, the soldier next to him reminded him softly, "Sentry officer, it's dark......

In the camp of the French Expeditionary Force, Major General Bo Slip sat in the tent, and always seemed to feel a little unsteady, the strength of the two brigades and regiments relied on two small mounds to set up the barracks, and the improvised trenches of the outpost had been constructed, but there was always a vague worry, which made him very uneasy.

He has served as the commander of the mission of attacking North Vietnam many times, and in the early years of the attack on North Vietnam, in addition to the Han army in the Shanxi area, the biggest barrier in the Vietnamese cities is not the army they are stationing, but the terrain, and the French army's offensive in North Vietnam is also mainly concentrated in the Red River Plain, those hidden in the mountainous counties, the value of occupation is not high.

The offensive against northern Vietnam, which had been continued since 6 the year before last, had suffered many setbacks, but those were all carried out by small forces in the name of exploration, and this kind of action into the jungle was originally very dangerous, but last year, Li Weiye's attack on coastal defense finally ended in failure, and at that time, it also attracted his attention.

However, he doesn't think much of this colonel of the 6th Army, who has published poetry collections and written stage plays, and is an officer that Governor Lu Mei likes. In his opinion, judging from his tactical literacy and combat experience, this Li Weiye is not a qualified officer of the 6th Army at all, but more of a lame poet. ,

However, this time he led the 4th Brigade to fight in northern Vietnam, but he also encountered the same trap as Li Weiye, and the early attack on Shanxi, Hanoi, and even Bac Ninh was very smooth, and even a little too smooth, and then, he encountered a strong and excessive resistance, located on the east bank of the Songdong River, in a small village that was not conspicuous on the map.

At that time, Huizhan was born in this place, even Lieutenant General Guba did not take it into account at all, the other party's arrangement was obviously quite meaningful, the position of the village was stuck between the Red River and the Songdong River, and it was the only way to Haiphong, Chi Ling and other important towns in northern Vietnam, and it was only dozens of miles away from Hanoi.

What surprised him even more was that the Qing army also had river warships that could mount or even suppress the French small gunboats, so much so that Vice Admiral Gu Ba had to urgently mobilize almost all the river gunboats in Jiāo Toe to support him, which leveled the situation, and what surprised him even more was the battle in Liuerzhuang......

He was stunned that a small village and two defensive positions, the 3rd and 4th Brigades had attacked with all their might, but the results were insignificant, and the superiority in individual weapons that the expeditionary force had always been proud of was gone.

The standard weapon damaged by the other party seized in 6 Erzhuang can be loaded with 5 bullets at a time, and the shè process and power are amazing, what he understands, now except for the Winchester 1873 lever rifle in the United States, which is a magazine for ammunition, there is no other weapon of this type that has been put into actual combat, and although the Winchester lever rifle can be fired continuously, the shè range is short, only 2oo meters, and the bullet power is small, these are important reasons for the failure to popularize.

And the Qing team is equipped, this is the first high-power, equipped with a rifle with magazines, and I don't know if it was sold to the Chinese by the damned British or Germans. The collected scrap items have been sent to Saigon for transshipment to the country as soon as possible, and they have been asked to be analyzed and improved to ensure that the French team can use rifles of the same grade.

And yesterday's battle, in the face of that unbelievable shè hit rate, he actually understood in the first round of attacks, with the attack of infantry, it is impossible to defeat the enemy on the opposite side, obviously, this army has many similarities with the Qing army in 6 Erzhuang, he can almost 100% conclude that they should be an army under a system, and this system is very different from the other Qing troops in the previous Jiāo battle.

After thinking of these questions, Bo Hua opened his notebook and carefully recorded his caprice today, and also noted down his sleepiness, such a powerful army, but never took the initiative to appear on the front line of the defense of northern Vietnam, but after the other Qing troops were defeated, he belatedly showed his force? This is indeed a strange question......

"Report!" Outside the tent, an officer suddenly shouted loudly.

"Tommy, come in, what's going on?" Bo slipped his military notes, and Róu thought about it for too long, and his head hurt a little.

"Report to the general, the reconnaissance unit reports that the enemy forces on the opposite position seem to have some movement, but they can't spy on specific information!" It was his lieutenant Tommy, who apparently thought it was important information.

Bo slid to look at the sky, it was now the head of the moon, there was no moon at all, the army on the opposite side was obviously the same as its own brigade, all equipped with firearms, in this case, it was impossible to fight at night, in this era, the so-called night attack, not nothing, but in the face of the defenders with static brakes, the night attack was almost ineffective.

At night, there are more artillery battles, but in the daytime battle, the other side did not have a single mén artillery to participate in the battle, and the reason for this, Bo Slip naturally guessed, they were also lightly armed, and it was naturally impossible to carry heavy field artillery.

"Send this news to Major General Thaler, Tommy, you ask the Vietnamese to send another 5 companies to strengthen the first and second lines," Bo Slip had a headache, these damn Qing troops, they were all restless at night, and suddenly he thought of a problem, those elusive gunmen during the day...... He added, "Let the dark sentry pay attention to the other party's shè hitters, there is no need to ban the lighting of the camp from lighting!" ”

"Yes!" Adjutant Tommy immediately turned around and went out after receiving the order.

Bo slid out of the tent and looked at the dark sky, a few flickering stars were really difficult to provide enough light, the whole camp was now in addition to the soldiers who were walking back and forth patrolling, the other French soldiers who had been stabbed after a day of fighting had eaten dry food and rested early, facing a strong enemy, the pressure of the day made them all exhausted. ,

He came to the entrance of the camp, stood in the dark and looked at the darkness in the distance, and a little uneasiness welled up in his heart, he paced back and forth, walked several times and didn't quite understand what he was worried about, and after thinking about it, he realized that it was because the enemy on the opposite side was too mysterious and too powerful......

He beckoned and called the adjutant, "Summons, raise the alert level by one level, and let the officer keep patrolling every two hours!" After taking some countermeasures, he felt a little relieved!!

In the darkness of the night, when an army was on its way, in order to prevent the soldiers from falling behind, the whole team formed a dense formation, and in this wilderness, the silence was very remarkable, except for the sound of small footsteps, this huge crowd did not make a sound.

The small river ditch of Xiaodongcao had already left behind them for miles at this time, but this army still maintained this posture of continuing to go straight south, and there were no roads at all where they walked, and there were patches of wasteland, mounds, and all kinds of ditches, but this did not slow down the march of these soldiers in the slightest.

The darkness and the ditch were insignificant difficulties for these excellent soldiers, who had huge dreams in their hearts, and the dawn after tonight was about to show the final results of two years of hard training and desperate fighting.

At the turn of a mountain road ahead, Zhang Kui stood in the darkness of the night, surrounded by this group of personal soldiers on the left and right, a large number of soldiers jogged in front of them, the soldiers saluted the usually harsh general very sincerely, and then hurried to follow the group, and those officers who followed the end of the group carefully watched the team, so as to prevent soldiers from falling behind in the dark night for strange reasons such as dozing off.

Several officers next to him were briefly reporting the situation to Zhang Kui, "General, there are currently 7 people in the first battalion who are behind, 11 people in the second battalion, and 8 people in the third battalion who are all sprained in the field!" ”

Zhang Kui nodded, turned to look at the officer behind him, and pointed to one of the burly men, "Han Qing, you take two people to be responsible for collecting them, march slowly, keep up with the team, if you can arrive tomorrow when the battle comes, you will participate in the battle in time, if you can't, you can do it yourself, there is one thing you remember, you can't lose any soldiers!" ”

The named big man looked reluctant, this opportunity to participate in the general battle flew like this, but the military order is like a mountain, this is a belief engraved in the heart of every nurse soldier, not to mention that he is still an officer, and immediately took the order to take two of his subordinates to collect the stragglers.

Zhang Kui waved his hand, and continued to hurry with his own team, according to the plan made in the evening, seizing the opportunity of the disconnection between the front and back of the French team, Zhou Ruidong decided to immediately start the originally planned Armageddon, the enemy in front was at the weakest moment, and under the premise of misestimating the strength of the guard, the French hurried to pursue, making their heavy firepower unable to keep up.

And Xiao Dongcao's pretending protector was already prepared, and he was originally going to have a decisive battle with Lieutenant General Guba, but he was advanced to tonight! He took out the small clock and looked at the time, it had been four hours of marching, and the soldiers were already very tired. If you follow the requirements of the usual training and march for 1o hours, you should not fall behind......

However, this night march was all wild and mountain roads, and the horses were not capable of doing it at all, so all the weapons and ammunition needed to be carried by the soldiers, and the heavy weapons were naturally impossible to carry, and even the Maxim machine gun could not be carried, so everyone desperately carried bullet bags and grenades on their bodies, and even the food was compressed to the minimum demand, and they only carried food for two days.

In this case, the weight on each soldier is more than 4o kilograms, and the officers have even carried 5o kilograms of weapons and ammunition in order for their squad to have more combat power in wartime, which is already the limit of daily training. But this kind of extreme weight, in exchange for a huge consumption of the body, fortunately, the training of the second association is notoriously desperate, and there are not many cases where the team falls behind at the moment.

"Order, the whole army rests for 5 minutes, drinks water and eats dry food," he looked at the small clock in his backpack, "It's 1 o'clock in the morning, rush to the destination before 3 o'clock, control the three preset heights, and complete the construction of the fortifications before dawn!" Zhang Kui also understands the truth of this combination of relaxation and relaxation, and at this time it is necessary to give the troops a little rest, otherwise it is very easy to cause non-combat attrition due to overly high-intensity rapid marching.

Zhang Kui's army at hand now is the largest force in the protection of several associations, of course, it is necessary to eliminate the number of Vietnamese servant troops, but this time the task is undoubtedly the most arduous, and it is very likely that he will fall into the situation of being attacked by the enemy at that time, so he wants every soldier to be brought to the battlefield. ,

After receiving the order, the soldiers sat down on the spot and began to replenish water and dry food, while the officers nervously counted the number of people and took care of the soldiers to pay attention to their feet when marching, and although the soldiers marched quickly and detoured nearly 2o miles of mountain roads, the jīng gods were very full, and they chatted in a low voice while eating.

Today's combat mission, they all know that it is very important, otherwise they would not be burdened with such a large number of bullets, but it is conceivable that this is a rare opportunity for a big battle, and they are all excited, and some of the recruits are even more frozen, and they ask the veterans in a low voice.

The veterans are all troops who participated in the last Ryukyu War, so they naturally have to rely on the old and sell the old, and begin to whisper to these little ghosts to pay attention to the precautions, which is nothing more than aiming quickly, saving bullets, and paying attention to combat elements such as transposition...... Soon, the five-minute break had passed, and the army immediately regained its previous order and headed southwest.

To the south of Xiaodongcao, there was silence in the area of the French hot camp, even in the outer trenches, except for the soldiers on duty, they had already slept in their clothes, and next to a trench on the west side of the outermost outermost, the thirty-five-year-old sergeant George from Brest was lying on his observation post, and although he did not participate in the daytime battle, the tragic atmosphere on the battlefield still made him nervous for a day.

He was not an active soldier, but he had been conscripted into the army during the war with Prussia twelve years earlier, and had participated in the Battle of Sèdan under the command of the French Emperor Napoleon III, but it was a terrible battle, with 120,000 French troops wiped out and the Emperor captured.

But after some trying, he felt that he was not good at anything, at this time the old boss found him, recruited him into the French colonial army, became a mercenary for the French colony, and then came to Jiāo Zhizhi very smoothly, all the time, he thought that Jiāo Zhizhi was much luckier than going to Central Africa to fight with the savage tribe Jiāo, and this luck had always accompanied him before, but now, it seems that everything has changed...... Roa。