Senior Colonel Sergorov has no reason to think that he will fail this time, the Russian army has made too many preparations for this offensive, and the selected attack point is also the key point of the Satsuma, and the enemy has successfully planted a large number of explosives under the position, and there is no way to escape the fate of annihilation.

But Seregorov would not have imagined that what happened next would be completely unexpected by him.

Dawn finally came, and Seregorov looked at his pocket watch, the hands were pointing exactly at six o'clock, he took a deep breath of the cool morning breeze and gave the order to attack.

The signal rocket took off into the air, giving the Russian artillery a signal to attack.

Soon, the Russian artillery began to roar, and Sergorov saw that the dark blue sky in the distance instantly turned red, and a large cloud of white smoke rose into the air, and his heart jumped wildly with the sound of the artillery.

In order to carry out this attack, the Russian army has concentrated 220 artillery pieces here for the first time, including a large number of 87mm cannon howitzers and 107mm cannon howitzers, as well as 20 152mm cannons and 4 powerful 279mm mortars.

The reason why the artillery was asked to carry out a half-hour or 40-minute shelling was that Serygorov wanted to kill as many enemy troops as possible on the surface of the position before carrying out the underground critique.

After a while, the artillery of the Satsuma army also began to fire back, but the momentum was not violent, and the east and west artillery seemed to show the panic of the Satsuma army.

"Die! You yellow-skinned infidels! Let's all go to hell! Serygorov scolded viciously in his heart.

Kondrachenko and the scouts lay among the thorns in the valley, staring intently at the low huts with gardens, at the piles of bricks and rubble on the right. and the woods looming in the thick smoke. On the left is the line of infantry skirmishers. In the shrubs from which it is barely visible. Michersky and another scout, Rumyantsev, stood side by side with Kondrachenko.

The scouts all looked sleepy-eyed. It's as if they're insensitive, lethargic, and incapable of moving quickly. Kondrachenko glanced at them, frowning in exasperation. He himself was in high spirits and eager to take the enemy's position quickly.

The Russian artillery roared at six o'clock. The houses in the village and town were burning, columns of smoke and rubble were cracking and flying in the middle of the houses, but Kondrachenko did not see a single enemy figure. In fact, this area is not the enemy's position, but a large number of shells still fell here, indicating that the mapping work of the Russian artillery still has many deficiencies.

Soon, the observers of the Russian artillery should have also discovered the mistake like Kondrachenko. The firing was readjusted, and this time the shells landed accurately on the Satsuma army's position, and columns of smoke rose one after another.

Kondrachenko noticed that only a few Satsuma army artillery positions were counterattacking, but they were quickly suppressed by the powerful artillery fire of the Russian army, and the Russian army's 279mm mortar once again showed a very terrifying power, and the huge shells fell like meteorites, lifting the mud and gravel into the air.

Kondrachenko joined the Scouts because he wanted to see first-hand the damage his masterpiece inflicted on the enemy. Test the results of the first underground critique operation of the Russian army and sum up the experience. But as the shelling continued, the unease in his heart grew heavier.

He seemed to sense that something was wrong.

After about ten minutes of shelling, Kondrachenko noticed that the shelling of the Satsuma army had completely stopped, and there was not a single figure on the entire position, even if the 279-mm mortar shells fell, turning the enemy's surface position upside down, but not even a single broken corpse could be seen!

"Has the enemy withdrawn ahead of schedule?" Michelsky also noticed the anomaly and said to himself.

"I think our enemies may already know about our plans." Rumyantsev also said, "They may have abandoned their positions and retreated into the city before we shelled them." ”

Kondrachenko judged the same way in his heart, but he was a little unwilling, so he did not speak, but observed more carefully.

After another five minutes of shelling, Kondrachenko still did not see any figures on the Satsuma army's position, and he was a little stunned when he was sure that the enemy had withdrawn.

However, it is also a glorious victory to be able to take this position, which is known as the "key to the Osaka Castle Gate", without bloodshed.

After capturing this position, the artillery positions of the Russian army can move forward, and the walls of Osaka Castle and the western district will directly face the artillery ports of the Russian army, even if the Satsuma army resists stubbornly, it will not be able to compete with the powerful artillery fire of the Russian army, so to speak, the road to Osaka Castle has been opened.

"Do you have to cancel the demolition operation of your engineer unit?" Just as Kondrachenko was basking in the illusion of an impending victory, a phrase from Mischelsky pulled his mind back.

He suddenly realized that he had not yet ordered the detonation to be canceled, so he immediately nodded and ordered one of the heralds beside him to immediately go to the detonation site to convey his order to stop the detonation.

The heralds set off immediately, and in order to ensure the safety of the heralds, Mischelsky also sent two scouts to accompany them, and he was worried that the heralds would encounter accidents on the road, and now, if planned for half an hour, there were less than fifteen minutes left before the end of the shelling to detonate underground.

Kondrachenko was still uneasy after the departure of the heralds, and he decided to go to the detonation site himself and give the order himself, so Mishelvsky sent Rumyantsev and a scout to escort him back.

"Our men are all withdrawn, and the Lucians are not aware and are still wasting their shells." Minamino Eisuke looked at the position that had been completely shrouded in smoke, and turned to Lin Yiqing and said.

"There's no one anyway, so let them blow it up." Lin Yiqing put down the sniper rifle in his hand, took his eyes off the scope, exhaled deeply, and smiled heartily. said, "Let's go." ”

The odd soldiers got up with Lin Yiqing. They wore only a light battle suit. A belt was tied around their waists, and several hand-thrown bombs hung on the belt were constantly swinging, and as soon as they moved, they immediately showed a tiger-like majestic posture, which was unique to the members of the Odd Soldiers.

Almost instantly, the Odd Soldiers disappeared into the bushes, and before long, they reappeared in another place.

Lin Yiqing climbed the hillside and continued to watch the battle. Look far away. The nearby villages and towns were occupied by Russian soldiers. A few more skirmish lines came up from behind, and apparently, about a battalion of Russian troops arrived here and were about to prepare for battle.

It may be that the Russian soldiers found their hiding place, and soon a bullet came over, Lin Yiqing didn't want to alarm the Russian army, so he took everyone to move again, of course, several Russian soldiers tried to pursue them, but without exception, they were all shot in the head. By the time the Russians gathered a large group of men and horses, Lin Yiqing and the odd soldiers had already disappeared.

"Teacher. It was already very close to the large camp of the enemy army. Seeing that Lin Yiqing had no intention of going back, Eisuke Minamino reminded him, "If the enemy attacks at this time, we will all be easily exposed, and once surrounded, it will not be easy to break through." ”

"I know," Lin Yiqing nodded, "After determining where the enemy's artillery position is, we will go back." ”

While the two were talking, there was a sudden neighing of horses not far away, and Lin Yiqing and the strange soldiers immediately hid down.

Lin Yiqing saw three horses galloping along the dirt road.

He raised his sniper rifle and watched the man on the horse with his scope. Based on his many years of battlefield experience, he could immediately tell from his attire that one of them was a Russian herald, and the other two were scouts, probably the herald's bodyguard.

"It's a herald, probably from the enemy's base camp! Kill them! Without waiting for Lin Yiqing to speak, Minamino Eisuke directly gave the order.

The members of the Odd Soldier team immediately opened fire, and Lin Yiqing saw that the head and body of the herald and a scout instantly burst out of the blood mist, and they fell off their horses suddenly.

The other Russian scout had a better luck, a bullet hit his mount, the horse blocked a few more bullets for him when he fell, he was only shot in the arm, he had a chance to roll directly to the ditch by the roadside, and then fled into the woods, but for some reason, the Russian soldier had a mental attack, and had to stand up, raise his gun and shoot back into the woods, the result was of course very tragic, he was beaten into a blood-spurting leaky pot in an instant, and met God with his companions.

A member of the strange soldier team ran down to inspect the next three corpses, searched them, found nothing valuable, and immediately ran back, Lin Yiqing knew that the herald might be a verbal order, so he didn't pay attention to it, but led everyone to move on.

The odd soldiers came to a ruined Western-style building on the top of the hill, which might have been a Japanese nobleman's summer villa, but now it had been destroyed by artillery fire, and after making sure that there were no Russians here, they entered the building, because it was obviously best to observe from the top window of the building.

Everyone ran to the door, Lin Yiqing took a breath and pushed the door open. It turned out to be a spacious room with several shelves and a spacious bedroom. By the window, shattered by bullets, sat a Russian soldier. He was already dead, but he didn't fall down because he was lying on the windowsill. He had a rifle beside him.

They ran up the stairs and into a room on the fourth floor. Lin Yiqing looked at the window and couldn't help but shout happily: the entire defense line of the Russians was presented in front of him, and he knew it well.

The shelling of the Russian army has stopped, and the infantry has begun to charge forward. The screech of bullets like rats screaming became denser. Lin Yiqing looked at the pocket watch. At 6:33 a.m., everyone is familiar with the Russian "Ula! "The shouts rang out, and it often evoked in the hearts of the Russian soldiers a sense of courage and invincibility.

That was the signal for the Russians to launch a full-scale offensive.

"There are almost 4,000 people, a little less than I thought," Lin Yiqing carefully observed the battlefield through the scope of the sniper rifle, and said to himself, "Maybe there will be more enemy troops in a while." ”

"Yes, it is estimated that the Cossack cavalry will also be dispatched." Eisuke Minamino said as he observed, "Still. I reckon that the enemy may have discovered that our positions were empty. That's why the number of attackers will be smaller, right? ”

"Possibly." Lin Yiqing nodded. He continued to hold the sniper rifle and observe, and his eyes did not take off the scope for a moment.

"That way, the enemy's explosives will be spared." Eisuke Minamino said, "They shouldn't explode." ”

"Yes." Lin Yiqing said calmly, "But that's okay, when their follow-up troops pass, we will detonate it, in short, we can't let their hard work go to waste." ”

"The teacher is really save! Don't even let go of the enemy's explosives! I listened to the teacher's slightly humorous words. One of the Odd Soldiers laughed.

Hearing his words, the other members of the Odd Soldier team also laughed.

At that moment, an earth-shattering explosion was heard, drowning out everyone's laughter.

Lin Yiqing's whole body shook violently, and he felt that the floor seemed to hit him, and he was about to throw himself and the others into the already broken ceiling, which suffocated his breath, and his ears also made a small buzzing sound.

"What's the situation......" As soon as Eisuke Minamino's voice fell, another explosion came, even more violent than the previous one. As if to split the heavens and the earth, Eisuke Minamino and the members of the Odd Soldiers couldn't help but hold their heads and dodge. Although the place where he was was still a long way from the center of the explosion.

"It's supposed Lucia's ghost animals who blew up their own people." Someone replied.

The members of the Odd Soldier raised their heads one after another, looking in the direction from which the explosion had come, and at this time the place was completely enveloped by a huge mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke that rushed into the sky, and it was impossible to see the situation there.

Lin Yiqing looked at the mushroom cloud that rushed to the sky, and couldn't help but be a little dazed.

A gust of cold wind blew, and the rising smoke clouds gradually dissipated, and Lin Yiqing saw clearly what was going on there.

The original position of the Satsuma army has completely changed its appearance, and all the features of the original position have disappeared, replaced by stumps and broken limbs, broken guns, and large patches of rubble and mud all over the ground.

The Russians' underground critique operation was successful, but they killed their own people.

The follow-up Russian troops were completely frightened at this time, they stood there, looking at the enemy positions in front that had suddenly become hell on earth, one by one, the battlefield suddenly became quiet, only the miserable wails of the Russian soldiers who were not killed.

Some of the layers of earth that had been blown up from the ground suddenly stretched out a pair of hands, as if the undead of hell had suddenly appeared, and the Russian soldiers who were close to saw these trembling hands covered with dirt, first their eyes widened, and then they opened their mouths and let out a terrible howl, turned and ran back.

Seeing this scene, Lin Yiqing's strange soldiers also opened their mouths in surprise one by one, they thought that the underground zombies had blown up, and stretched out their hands from the soil, wanting to climb to the ground, but Lin Yiqing knew that those hands were not zombies, they should still be living people.

He was the first to regain his composure, and he had already guessed what was going on: these people should have been the Russian infantry who had just rushed to the edge of the position, because they were far away from the center of the explosion, and they were lucky not to be killed, but the sudden explosion kicked up a large cloud of dirt and buried them in an instant, but fortunately, the soil was not thick and soft, so they were able to reach out from it and should be able to climb out.

Just as Lin Yiqing judged, after a while, one figure after another stood up from the dirt with difficulty, their clothes were broken, their heads and faces were covered with dust and mud, and it was difficult to distinguish even their eyebrows.

But Lin Yiqing was able to make such a judgment, but the Russian soldiers who were very close to these people who escaped death could not make such a judgment, they thought that the end of the world had really come, and some people looked at the "zombies" blankly for a while, and then screamed in horror, turned around and ran backwards, and soon, more people joined them.

Like a plague, the horror immediately spread among the Russian infantrymen who were frightened by the explosion and the "zombies", they dropped their weapons, some raised their hands high, some crossed on their chests, chanted the names of God and the Virgin, turned and fled, and the troops behind immediately rushed into chaos for the people who were running wildly in desperation.

^^^&()())__)^&*&((

Gatlin is the kind of person who doesn't hide his light. Always an optimist, he wrote a letter to Major R. Morden of the French Royal Artillery as early as October 29, 1863. In the letter he advertised the possibility of his machine gun being devastating in warfare, along with a comprehensive and accurate description of its machine gun. He suggested that the major should seriously think about it, and that now might be the right time to show Napoleon III the drawings and describe them.

It didn't take long for Gatlin to wait for a reply. A request was sent in the name of the French Government, eagerly asking him in detail about the test report, the type of ammunition, the best use in what field situation, proof of reliability, and the possibility of obtaining a machine gun and attached ammunition to carry out confirmatory tests. (To be continued......)