It's just that. The huge movement of the 11mm cannon fire and the heavy seat grabbing became an important factor in their death, and the two tǐng machine guns fired for less than a minute, which caused the targeted removal of the opposite artillery, and in an instant, at least the mortar shells that flew over at least Lin's rapid fire covered the firing point tightly.

When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the machine-gun position was the scattered Habekis cannon and the corpses of the blasted shooters, which made the soldiers shudder.

Without the resistance of the machine guns, the Qing troops in front of them got up from the ground again, and quickly interspersed their advances, and Xi Méng and their teammates fought back desperately, although they defeated many Qing people, but the opponent quickly advanced to within 150 meters1

At this time, Xi Méng realized that he had thought that the opponent's firepower was insufficient, and he was completely fooled, and at the current distance, the opponent provided fire support in the form of a team of 10 people, and the strange-style rifle in the opponent's hand was able to shoot continuously, and the firepower stored on the bulky machine cannon was actually provided by the opponent's individual squad.

Despite the advantage of the trenches, in the fierce close quarters, the most seven or eight soldiers on the right flank of the West Méng who launched a counterattack were all hit to the ground by the stormy bullets, and the West Méng was considered lucky, and even he felt a bullet pass by his ears

At this time, the firepower points from the two trenches behind launched fire support for the battle on the first line, and several hidden Haqikes machine gun firing points did not hesitate to shoot, trying to force the closer and closer guards to retreat or eliminate them in front of the position, however, this fire point within the range of the artillery was undoubtedly a suicidal attack.

In the next few minutes, although the 3rd and 4th battalions of the first-line assault were blocked by machine guns, and suffered heavy casualties for a while, the momentum of the attack did not weaken at all, and after breaking into the range of the Tian-style submachine guns, the fire point composed of three or four shooters was able to completely suppress the French in front."

They endured the casualties caused by the machine-gun fire, and waited for the right moment as they fought back.

The commander of the mortar detachment occupying a small mound immediately observed the firing points on the opponent's position, and the firing command squad immediately calculated the basic firing elements, and several mortars launched a fixed-point shelling only one and a half minutes later, and after dropping two rounds of calibration at an interval of 10 seconds, four mortars fired three rounds at a time, successfully suppressing several French machine gun fire points.

At this moment, the remnants of the 4th and 11th Brigades of the French Army, which had just been destroyed by Tang Fang's rapid shooting, had quickly withdrawn to a distant distance, and Major General Bō had just set up the headquarters, and the officers at the observation post came to report that the defense of the first trench was already in jeopardy!

This news apparently immediately drove the two French generals Bō and Sailer crazy, "This battle has not been fought, the first defensive line has been broken, you must know that the back line of defense is only 50 meters apart, almost like a void!" This situation is absolutely unacceptable!

Immediately, one black Algerian battalion and two French battalions were ordered to reinforce the front-line positions, and the reinforcements of nearly a thousand French troops also achieved the effect "The battalion and two brigades that had just broken through the trenches were obviously struggling to face five times the enemy and the battle in the trenches that had not yet been cleared.

The two sides fired at each other in the trenches at a distance of only 50 meters, a battalion of troops won the weapon fire rate fast, but the French won in the number of people, because the two sides were too close to the combat distance, the mortar detachment could not even give fire support, for a time the battle quickly evolved into hand-to-hand combat, but the French obviously underestimated the power of the Type 80 submachine gun in the trenches, originally in history, this German-made submachine gun was born for trench warfare, with the oval grenade of the protection **, the two sides fought repeatedly in the space of dozens of meters in front of the trench, There were even a few times when the Algerian battalion launched a charge that broke into the trenches, but in the face of the strafing of the Type 80 submachine guns, the French MI876 single-shot rifle was obviously too thin!

However, in such a close fight, when the support troops sent by He Xiaojun broke through the first-line trenches, "the casualties of the soldiers of the third and fourth brigades were close to forty percent, and the consumption of ammunition was close to eighty percent, but the heavy casualties were exchanged for the heavy setback of the French offensive, and the reinforced Algerian black battalion was almost wiped out" and the two French battalions also suffered heavy losses!

No less than 400 corpses were laid down in a place of only 50 meters between the trenches of the two sides, "The soldiers fired at each other through the corpses, but a little breakthrough by the middle troops brought about the complete collapse of the first line of trenches, and the reserve force of the first battalion that broke through the middle quickly penetrated the guò trenches to the two flanks. ,

In the temporary headquarters of the French army, Major General Bō looked at the defensive position in the distance with a blank face, the soldiers in the first trench were being driven out by the other side and fled to the second trench, but the desire of these French soldiers to escape was recorded by the machine gun fire point that the other side had already followed and advanced, and with the monotonous ".da-da-da," shooting, the soldiers who escaped from the trench were swept to the ground in pieces, and their lives were so fragile in the face of the steel storm

The opponent's machine gun points also have at least 8 points in a single attack direction, and he also observed that the opponent's machine gun firing position has changed a lot, and it is obvious that it has a high maneuverability, which makes it a little difficult to get off the platform with a large iron frame Habekaisi machine gun.

The loss of the first line of trenches was obvious, and Bō immediately consulted with Thaler, and each increased 8 companies to the third line of defense, which was nearly 1 meter away, and with enough troops, it was still possible to defend for a while!

At this moment, the battle for the second line of defense has entered a white-hot state of hand-to-hand combat, and the strength of the three battalions of the First Association has reached nearly 1,500 in the frontal tunnel, and the French army is also piled up in the tunnel 50 meters away, and the Jī battle at this distance can almost be included in the category of street fighting.

The firepower accumulated by the French with crowd tactics has temporarily entered a state of stalemate with the protection ** association! The balance of firepower between the two sides was broken again after a dull battle that lasted for half an hour, and with the forward movement of the heavy firepower in the rear of the guard, more than 30 tǐng Makqin machine guns of the First Association were pushed down on both wings, and the cold bullet chain immediately completely suppressed the French firepower in front of them.

The only regret is that the mortar detachment is completely useless at such a distance, these 50

At a distance of many meters, I was really afraid that the shells would hit my own people with a single misfire, so the target of the artillery formation directly jumped over the second trench of the French army and began to calibrate the third line of defense of the French.

The battle of the trench is completely unaesthetic struggle in close hand-to-hand combat, causing amazing battle damage, and the final decision is undoubtedly firepower, this rule is even in the most tragic era of the trench war, for the French army with weak infantry firepower, after the firepower was completely suppressed by the Maxim machine gun, the oval grenade of the guard ** became the last straw that crushed the French army.

Under the cover of machine guns, the assault teams of the three battalions made a bright assault, and the grenades rolled into the French trenches, and with the sound of explosions one after another, and the retreat was completely controlled by the Maxim machine guns, the French on the second line of defense chose to abandon the resistance position, and quickly changed hands.

The last line of defense, at this moment also has symbolic significance, the five battalions of Xue Chao's Sanxie who went around to the flank finally launched a flank attack at this time, the number of French troops in the flank trenches could not confront the swarming Sanxie, although two companies were transferred from the center to strengthen the flank defense, but at this time the siege of the last line of defense had begun.

Zhou Ruidong seemed to see the signs of the collapse of the French army, he immediately ordered the 4,000 Bu Cong troops of the four battalions of the reserve team to be put into battle, and Ma Long's four associations also received an order to launch a siege from the enemy's left flank.

After the three battalions of the First Association broke through the French defense line, they immediately threw themselves into the pursuit of the remaining French troops, and He Xiaojun had already caught up from behind at this moment, and led the soldiers of his headquarters to chase after the remnants of the French army.

The progress of the battle was obviously much beyond the expectations of Zhou Ruidong, Xue Chao and the officers in the command center, who originally thought that it would be a difficult battle, from the early morning to noon, the remaining French troops had been defeated, and many enemies even ran in the wrong direction in a panic, obediently became prisoners, and fought! It's already in the final stages

At this time, a small hill called Baiqiling, 6 kilometers south of Xiaodongcao, became the focus of another battle.

After several hours of night marching with full loads, the 4,500 men of Zhang Kui's command made a detour from the barren mountains and fields between the French 4th and 11th Brigades and the lone 3rd Brigade, and arrived at the predetermined blocking position at 3 a.m. at Baiqiling.

Baiqi Ridge is a bare loess mountain that deviates from Hanoi to the west side of Bac Ninh Avenue 200 meters, and the officers and soldiers of the Second Association who arrived at the predetermined location were already extremely tired, but everyone immediately devoted themselves to the construction of fortifications after eating and replenishing energy, and everyone knew that the three battalions of the factory received the same order to build fortifications in situ and build backup fortifications in the rear, because it was not sure whether the attack was only from the front, so the entire sniper plan had already been planned, The main position on the front is set on the Baiqi Ridge, the height of this hill is only a few tens of meters, and the width is not more than a hundred meters, this is the main position, which is defended by Ma Desheng's three battalions, making full use of the advantages of the sharpshooters in their battalion to occupy a high position. ,

On the right flank of Baiqiling, the second battalion of the Qi side was responsible for defending to ensure that the French army could not flank Baiqiling from the left, and on the right flank, Zhang Kui personally led a battalion to build a position on another slope 300 meters away, which could also use firepower to control the enemy's attack on the right side of Baiqiling, and at the same time could take into account the French 4th and 11th brigades that might be killed from the rear.

Zhang Kui was not idle all night, digging a foxhole at the back of the slope with a shovel, which was enlarged by his own soldiers, and after covering it with wood and floating soil, he temporarily served as the headquarters, and then went to the slope to dig trenches and individual pits with the soldiers, and today he had to face the French artillery, so the tunnel was the only technology that could protect the lives of the soldiers.

Before dawn, the faint and dense sound of artillery came from the north, and an exciting news was immediately conveyed by the officer to every soldier, "Let's protect the general attack on the Frenchmen has begun!" ，”

The sound of artillery fire continued, and the recruits were excited, but they saw that the veterans were still digging trenches, so they naturally couldn't help but ask more curiously, but naturally the veterans replied disdainfully and bounced back, little rabbit cub, hurry up and dig the trenches, you want to see the artillery, and when you see the cannon barrels of our fleet, Hua will know what is called big! ，”

“”

The excavation of the fortifications of this night assault, the sapper shovel stamped by the Mawei Arsenal played a very outstanding role, and the entire fortification excavation was basically completed before dawn! When Zhang Kui came to inspect the fortifications, Ma Desheng on the main position actually cut down all the sparse woods that could be seen around and strengthened them to the position

For the hundred-foot ridge that was dug like a honeycomb, Zhang Kui had to admire these guys under his command, except for the shallow trenches that were horizontal and vertical, almost every soldier tailored a single pit for himself, and when the shells were not long, one was to hide behind the mountain during the shelling, and the other was to rely on this life-saving tunnel!

The commander of the French Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant General Gu Ba, escorted a large number of heavy weapons all the way and requisitioned a batch of animal power from Hanoi and Phuoc An, which solved the problem of transportation, but things did not seem to be going well, and on the first day of the march, a carriage transporting artillery shells overturned into the river while crossing the bridge, and after emergency salvage, some of the losses were finally recovered.

However, the loss of more than a dozen boxes of artillery shells in this vehicle made the artillery officers under Guba's command protest again against the inability of logistical support, as the artillery supply of the three brigades and regiments on the front, the supply of artillery shells on the front line in northern Vietnam has been reduced to half of the normal supply, and a large number of munitions are concentrated in the city of Hanoi.

Moreover, in the past month, the Saigon side has only received two supplies from British merchant ships, and there is only food and ammunition, and the supply of artillery shells is completely dependent on Saigon's stocks, and you must know that the Saigon arsenal has to supply the colonial troops in the entire North Vietnam, Laos, Siam and other places, and it is impossible for all of them to be transported to the North Vietnam front.

The most frustrating thing was the two pieces of news, both of which were sent from Saigon overnight, one was that the results of the battle in which the Far Eastern Fleet was completely wiped out were hyped up in the newspapers of the Jījin faction in Paris, and the 30 million francs special war bill submitted to Parliament by the Jouferi cabinet was undoubtedly rejected by a high vote, and of course, the bigger political move behind this matter came from the no-confidence proposal of the Jouferi cabinet.

But the problem directly related to the North Vietnamese front is military spending! In the French Expeditionary Force, thirty percent of the French soldiers are mercenaries, in addition, a large number of Algerian black battalions, Vietnamese indigenous battalions need to be paid in cash, and a large number of battlefield consumption also need to be paid.

However, another piece of news was good news: the French consul in Tianjin, Mr. Frouneau, had obtained the approval of the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Minister in charge of foreign affairs, Li Zhongtang, to resume the peace talks between the two sides.

In the face of these two contradictory news, the herald sent by Gu Ba ordered the forwards Bō Slip and Major General Sailer to speed up the pace and eliminate the small Qing army forces that appeared in the direction of Bac Ninh. Naturally, the messenger did not make it to Xiaodongcao, and was killed by a bored sniper when he passed near the Hundred Feet Ridge. ,

The vanguard of the lonely army appeared on the avenue in front of Baiqi Ridge at about 8 o'clock in the morning, although Zhang Kui's second association did not put up any flags, this piece of land that was dug into a gopher hole, or immediately made the French scouts notice that something was wrong, and after several scouts observed from a distance, they immediately found that some overworked guards were still digging and tidying up the pits

This news made Gu Ba unbelievable, the squadron dared to openly intercept the French Expeditionary Force on the avenue, but he immediately realized that this would not be the Qing army encountered in Hanoi and Shanxi, it must be the army encountered in Luerzhuang!

And the other party set up a position here, thinking of the other party's possible purpose, Gu Ba shook his head in disbelief, could it be that this group of Chinese has lost their hearts and gone crazy, and actually tried to attack the Pang **** team of as many as fourteen or five thousand servant troops all the time? This is definitely not a move that a sane person can do

But now the most important thing is to annihilate this group of brain-showing squadrons, the scout's report is very clear, the opponent's trenches and fortifications digging time is not more than an hour, most of the dirt on the side of the trenches has not dried up, just take advantage of the opponent's exhaustion, use their own heavy weapons to teach them a good lesson.

There are nearly 5,000 French ** troops in the headquarters of the Third Brigade led by Gu Ba, and there are no less than 3,000 Vietnamese servants, and more importantly, all 15 artillery batteries of the three brigades, 75 68mm field guns, and 6 100mm heavy guns transferred later are hidden in the ranks. @。