Chapter 245: The War of Tuweizi

In the north of Vietnam, Lu Er Zhuang, a small village lying next to the main road to Chi Linh, Haiphong and Taiping, has now become one of the focal points of the entire northern Vietnamese battlefield, which is largely due to the fact that the French abandoned the most commonly used method of landing from Haiphong in this attack, because the lessons of the last war made the long sea transportation line too easy to be attacked by the Qing naval divisions. The book is updated in real time DU(5) 8.сΟm

The French opted for a breakthrough from the central route to Shanxi, which seemed to have been extremely successful, with the three important cities of Shanxi, Hanoi, and Bac Ninh all falling in response, and more importantly, the battle against the Qing garrison, which boosted the morale of the expeditionary force, and what could be more exciting than the defeat of twice as many enemies, and the plundering of a large amount of property.

However, all the qiē seems to have come to an end in front of this small village......

After successfully crossing the Songdong River, in the face of this huge earthen wall, Guba cautiously chose to build fortifications on the opposite side and then attack, Luerzhuang's position has a mound on each wing, and the guard naturally did not give up this natural terrain, digging trenches and earthen walls on the mound, and on the inside, a large number of infantry bunkers were penetrated.

The two high ground stubbornly held the road leading to Guò Luerzhuang, and at the same time provided peripheral fire support for the huge fortifications on the side of Luerzhuang, and if the French wanted to besiege them from all sides, they had to consider the bullets flying from all directions.

There are two armies responsible for the overall defense of Luerzhuang, one is more than 2,700 people from Liu Yongfu's department of the Fifth Association who retired from Yong'an, the second is more than 972 troops from the second association and the first battalion of Zhang Kui, and there are also 2,000 Vietnamese indigenous battalions from the Ma Long Department of the fourth association dug a position behind Luerzhuang to garrison.

The number of the 3rd Brigade directly under Lieutenant General Gu Ba of the French Expeditionary Force and the 4th Brigade under Major General Bō Slip had already exceeded 11,000 people.

After Huang Chongying and Liu Yongfu were wiped out after losing the battle for victory, the remnants of Huang Si voted for the French under the leadership of several remaining parties, and the French let them recruit local aborigines and Chinese to have the current Yellow Flag Army.

As a result, the Yellow Flag Army, which participated in the attack on the first day, crashed into the blade of the sworn enemy Black Flag Army, and the French, according to the usual practice, carried out 10 rounds of shelling by the artillery company of the 7th Battalion of the 3rd Brigade of the Expeditionary Force, and after 10 rounds of artillery shelling, the Yellow Flag Army of three companies launched an assault on the corner of Luerzhuang's flank.

The Yellow Flag Army is equipped with the French Schachep Type 1876 rear-loading rifled gun, which is slightly inferior to the Schashp Type 1879 breech-loading rifle equipped by the French Army itself in terms of shè speed, with a high failure rate, and the shè process is also worse, but compared with the Lin Mingden needle gun equipped by the Qing Army, there are some advantages, after all, that thing is still the mainstream product after the American Civil War 18 years ago.

Responsible for defending this plot is the two sentinels of Huang Shouzhong of the former battalion of the Wuxie, and the sentry officer Huang Songna is the cousin of Huang Shouzhong, the commander of the battalion

The reason why only the earthen wall was built, the biggest reason is that the large number of stones that can be found are used to build small fortresses scattered everywhere, and the trenches and bunkers that connect everywhere, as well as the reserved traps set for the attacking enemy, are the key to destroying the enemy. ⑤???? Read the latest chapters of the book

Therefore, the earthen wall outside the fortification is more used to resist artillery attacks, and the real fortification is the infantry bunker and shè strike point behind the earthen wall, while the vertical and horizontal link trenches connect the entire defense system.

The first round of attacks of the Yellow Flag Army can be described as very tragic, and even the collapsed earthen wall could not reach, and the more than 300 people were knocked down by the AK02 rifles that exploded on the opposite side, and when the Yellow Flag Army was still stuck in whether to line up in Qishè, this formation had already collapsed.

In the assault just now, the French also found that the fire of the Qing army on the opposite side was very fierce, and the speed of the AK02's shè attack was naturally much faster than that of the rear-loading single-shot gun, which also increased the miscalculation of the French army.

This was naturally followed by another round of field artillery bombardment, and as soon as the artillery fell, the second round of attacks began, this time by the 34th and 37th companies, two black Algerian units and three companies of the Yellow Flag Army. ,

However, with the advantage of cover, coupled with a large number of shè attack points laid in advance, Huang Song's counterattack can be described as very easy, he has more than 120 troops in his hands, and only more than 40 people are placed in the front-line position, which are rotated in three rounds, and the shè attack of more than 40 people has pressed the Algerian black battalion to death in a ditch at a distance of 100 meters.

The battle lasted for more than half an hour, and the French troops of the five companies were still suppressed 100 meters away, and the French ** officer of the 34th company, Captain Mo Lie Bō, tried to lead the soldiers to launch a round of assault, and this heroic plot demanded his life, and the 40 soldiers who followed him lost half of them after rushing out of 30 meters, including the captain who was not afraid of death but became a dead man at this time.

The two sides hit each other across this open area of more than 100 meters, and the casualties were far less than those of the other party for the defenders who counterattacked from the bunkers, and the cement and masonry of the early construction undoubtedly played an excellent defensive effect, although the French artillery kept bombarding the thick earthen walls around them, but the damage to the guards who hid in the bunker for shè attacks was very small.

An hour after the battle, another three companies of French support troops led by Major Robert participated in the attack on this side, and the French organized two artillery companies with 8mén 68mm field guns to bombard a thick earth wall again, and launched a two-sided flank attack on this corner position defended by Huang Song.

At this time, the frontal attack of the French ** team had exceeded 8 companies of the army and 2 artillery companies, and the number of troops exceeded that of Huang Song more than 8 times, and when it briefly charged into the 100-meter position, it was ready to launch a two-wing assault after attacking two collapsed mud walls. The book is updated in real time DU(5) 8.сΟm

At this moment, there was a sudden and dull sound of shelling in the camp of the other side, and then the large area of French troops lying behind the ditch was suppressed by a round of 20 mortars.

When Major Robert saw this, he naturally understood that lying in this hollow could no longer ensure the safety of the team, and it was only a hundred meters away from the gap in the earthen wall that broke into the opponent's position, and many people would definitely die on the charge line of more than 100 meters, but it was better than lying down here and being bombed.

With a wave of his hand, he personally led and commanded four companies to launch an attack on the gap, and the charge time of 100 meters was only a dozen seconds, but when the French began to charge, several hidden bunkers that had been quiet immediately moved, and the four tǐng Makqin machine guns launched a stream of dead steel towards the French ** team that was flanking on both wings.

100 m ...... In 20 seconds, in fact, none of the four joint French ** teams on both flanks could rush to a distance of less than 50 meters, and in the middle of the stormy Jiāo fork fire, the life would not be stored for more than 10 seconds, and at such a distance, even the two artillery batteries deployed 1.5 kilometers away could not give any fire support.

At this distance, there is no guarantee that the shells will hit the enemy or their own people, and the battle within 200 meters depends only on the weapons in the hands of the infantry.

Inside the bunker, Wang Xiaosi of the Makqin machine gun group held a telescope to observe the artillery positions of the French in the distance, as a qualified heavy firepower squad leader, he naturally had to understand when he could launch an attack and when he needed to transfer, as long as he opened fire, within a few minutes, he would become a thorn in the opponent's side

However, as a good machine gun shè fire officer, it is necessary to choose the right shè strike point and build a strong bunker before the battle, and it is not a simple matter to become a Maxim machine gunner, especially a shè commander of a Makqin machine gun crew, just to study in Mawei, it takes two months of training, where most of the time is spent on learning the disassembly and maintenance of various parts of the firearm.

You know, this Maxim machine gun is definitely a heavy achievement of all industrial technology on behalf of the first industry, with an extremely complex structure and the principle of the gun, its working principle is a small internal combustion engine powered by the firing of the bullet, although the use of a very simple short-barreled recoil principle, but to make this machine work, it is necessary to keep the complex bullet supply and shè machine parts lubricated and clean.

There are 14 mechanical steps to complete from the firing of each bullet to the re-feeding of the cartridge case, all of which are completed by the mechanical and recoiling force of the cartridge, and all of these actions are in the large Maxim machine gun magazine at the tail of the machine gun. ,

Therefore, even if you judge a shè failure, you need to deduce it from the position of the handle of the machine, which is definitely a technical job worth showing off, so walking around the barracks on weekdays, the machine gun and even the logo of the special mark on their military uniform can attract an envious eye, but who would have thought that the god on the battlefield in this era is not a machine gun, but an artillery.

"Ready to transfer" Seeing that the enemy in front of him had completely collapsed, Wang Xiaosi immediately gave an order, and his group of 8 subordinates immediately carried the ammunition box and removed the protective plate, while the other two soldiers quickly untied one of the belts on their bodies, hung the gun mount of the Makqin machine gun, and quickly pulled the machine gun with rollers and moved to the next shè shooting point.

Really...... More than ten seconds later, the opponent's artillery positions began to counterattack, and the shells kept falling near the position of the shè attack just now, shaking the bunker in a precarious position......

Trenches and machine guns, the terminator of the group charge However, it is clear that as the first line of defense in this battle, Zhou Ruidong did not intend to let the French attack stop here, what he needed was to constantly resist to consume and eat away at a large number of French ** teams in northern Vietnam, and create a chance for the final decisive battle.

The French were bloodied on the first day of the attack, but as the main force of the counterattack, the Maxim machine gun team did not have many opportunities to play, relying on the dense firepower formed by mortars, AK02 rifles and Type 80 submachine guns, it was enough for the French to drink a pot, and the siege for a whole day made no progress, and not even a single fortress was overcome.

In front of the case of Lieutenant General Guba, there was a report on the death, wounded, and missing of more than 500 people, and the consumption of more than 400 rounds of artillery shells, which made Lieutenant General Guba, as the commander of the expeditionary force, very depressed.

And now this army is like a sharp knife, the waist ribs of Hanoi, if this Qing army cannot be defeated, the 7th Brigade, which is currently steadily advancing towards the Sino-Vietnamese border, if it encounters the resistance of the Qing ** team, its own side will not be able to chōu send reinforcements to support.

And the other more important reason is that if the expeditionary force does not quickly and firmly occupy enough land in North Vietnam, then the parliament's budget for more military spending may be shelved, unless it can be proved to bring greater benefits to the consortiums that provide the funds, and those féi moths who have no sense of the state will only corrode the foundations of the republic......

We must do our best to conquer this place and destroy ...... At least to defeat the Qing army here, Lieutenant General Gu Ba immediately issued a new order, must conquer this "fortress" within a week, if it were not for the fierce resistance of the Qing army here, this fortification, which seems to be composed of earth enclosures, has nothing to do with a powerful fortress at all, but after trying to attack on the first day, Gu Ba had to call this piece of earth enclosure a "fortress".

The attack launched from the open front could not overcome a fortified village, and these Qing troops who held their positions were really tenacious, but from the evaluation of the attack effect from the artillery, at least 20 or more machine gun fire points were destroyed in the artillery bombardment that day, but the opponent's artillery maneuver was very strong, and it was impossible to suppress the artillery, which was the reason for the heavy casualties that day.

Depressed, Guba and Bō discussed it, and the next day they each personally supervised the army, considering attacking the nearby high ground from both flanks, and then using the high ground to continue shelling the opponent's village, but this day's attack was hit even more sharply, and the Qing army defending the hillside was even more powerful than the soldiers in the village yesterday, and the tactics were fierce, and they even launched a counter-charge several times.

What's more, the village in the middle often sent assault teams to help, and the French troops attacking the hillside were attacked from time to time by heavy fire from the flanks, and in this position, even the artillery positions behind could not provide effective fire support, and as a result, the two brigades made no progress in the whole day's attack, leaving more than 300 corpses in front of the positions and hastily withdrawing.

And trying to bypass the strategy of Luerzhuang is even more unrealizable, Guba sent a small detachment of 300 people, taking advantage of the night, through the wasteland to try to bypass this well-fortified position, this night three watch, I heard the gunfire behind Luerzhuang, and there was the sound of machine guns clattering, and so on the early morning of the second day, only a French ensign with a dozen people jumped into the Songdong River and escaped from the water. ,

After all kinds of attempts, the only choice can only be to completely smash the Tuweizi fortress in front of him, but in a few days of Jiāo fire, Lone Pull down also listened to the strength of the enemy on the opposite side clearly, there are only 3,000 people in the Tuweizi, and there are less than 1,000 people on the two heights, and there is a large battalion behind, with 2,000 Vietnamese indigenous soldiers.

The only way to deal with positional warfare is naturally to have enough artillery fire, fortunately it is not far from the river, and after thinking for a long time, he immediately built a fortification opposite Luerzhuang, since he can't eat the other party quickly, then look at the other party first, and on the Songdong River, the French gunboats and cargo ships began to be crazy busy-

In Paris, at the office of the Champs-Elysées Coalition, Congressman Crémé was confusing with several important figures in the party, and their faces were beaming, and it is no wonder that they have always been in the opposition, and they are at a disadvantage in the political arena in the struggle with the scheming Jouferi cabinet.

The struggle against such a powerful party took great courage, and now they saw the long-awaited dawn of victory, and the information provided to them by the archives of unknown origin was highly credible after being checked by familiar high-level officials within the French Admiralty, many of the details of which even the military did not know.

For example, the corpses densely packed in front of the trenches after the war, the tragic situation after the attack on the Saigon wharf, and the photos of the execution of local natives captured from the hands of the French ** team...... This is definitely a great shame for the cabinet government.

After the newspaper of the Jī Jin faction published a part of the content, the cabinet of the Governor of the Jouferi faction immediately made a positive response, and the so-called positive response was to list a large number of lands occupied by the French colonial army in Africa and Southeast Asia in the past two years, among which the Red River Delta plain in northern Vietnam was naturally introduced as a focus, and the deeds of the French ** team in defeating tens of thousands of Qing troops were also a big book.

In this regard, Congressman Créméng Sso had already made arrangements, and he had expected a similar response from the cabinet, and he immediately made a comprehensive counterattack