At the time of the explosion, Richard. Major Dannatt was patrolling the positions guarded by his troops, the first and last line of defense for Leddy Smith. www.biquge.info The first shell exploded less than thirty yards away from him, but the major did not seem to care, neither frightened nor nervous, and got up from the ground and gave the order to the officers beside him in a rather casual tone: "Shell! Take cover! ”

Several officers immediately screamed. "Watch for secrecy!"

"Spread out! Go behind cover, move fast! "The sergeant shoved any soldier who came close to him, even kicking them in the ass with his boots, driving them to the nearest shelter - although the shells that exploded afterwards showed that their cover was not strong enough.

Under the gaze of almost everyone, a warehouse that was too close to the line of defense was reduced to a large pile of tattered wooden planks with a loud bang. Despite knowing that the Boers had brought in at least six-inch guns, the British Army officers screamed at the power of the guns at the sight of the guns.

"Oh my God!"

"We need something stronger—" one officer shouted, but before he could finish his sentence, he was hit by shrapnel from another shell and fell headlong on the hard ground.

"Captain Hamilton shot!"

Dannatt frowned. The loss of an officer at the very beginning of the battle does not bode well. But all he could do was turn his head to the other officer. "Lieutenant Herbert, now it's up to you to take over from Captain Hamilton."

"Understood, sir—"

As if to highlight the unfavorable situation of the battle even more, the lieutenant, who was still saluting Dannat, was also sent to his captain.

Enraged and helpless, the Major had no choice but to continue to hand over the command of Captain Hamilton's company. "Lieutenant Grant, you're a company commander; Second Lieutenant Lawrence, you take over from Lieutenant Herbert. Get your soldiers ready, the Boers will soon be on the charge. I'm going to give them a little bit of color. ”

The two officers immediately began to carry out the order, and in a panic they even forgot to salute Dannat - but the major did not care at all. He calmly passed through at least three groups of soldiers scurrying around like frightened rabbits to avoid artillery fire, and six groups of violent explosions in a row, to a low wall, where he dragged his herald out from behind cover.

"Sir...... What's up? The herald shuddered, barely speechless.

"Calm down, soldier." Dannatt looked at the soldier with fierce eyes until his body stopped trembling, and then told him: "Go to the lieutenant general's headquarters at once, tell him about the situation here and convey my request: I need reinforcements, even if only one company ......"

The major stopped, because it was no longer necessary to send a soldier to the command to report to Lieutenant General White and request reinforcements.

The lieutenant general had entered the position—he, a stranger who did not look like a soldier, and two guards from the command rushed over and hid behind the low wall where the herald was hiding, just in time to avoid a storm of artillery fire that swept over.

"General!" Dannatt threw away the herald and saluted White while making a direct request, "I need reinforcements, General." ”

"Get yourself cover, Major, you're like a live target." White gasped—the command was a little further away from the forward positions, running such a long distance, and dodging Boer shells, and the lieutenant general did not think that this level of movement was suitable for him—and continued: "As for your request, it is a pity, Major, that without reinforcements, you can only rely on your soldiers. ”

"I have only five hundred soldiers, General."

"I know, but you know what trouble we have, Major." White shouted. Not far away, several soldiers seemed to want to leave behind the low wall where they were hiding, but before anyone could stand up, a sudden cannonball left them all in that position.

The lieutenant general's body shuddered slightly. Despite seeing many deaths, British soldiers like White were more accustomed to commanding armies to slaughter weak opponents than to be slaughtered by powerful enemies. The sudden change left the lieutenant general at a loss, and the fear of death returned.

"Damn the Boers and Germans, sooner or later I'll get this account back." Curses and vows to alleviate fear are a common practice, and sometimes they have the desired effect. White felt that he could speak normally, and then shouted, "I only have three battalions guarding this city. Major, if you send soldiers to reinforce you, there will be no way to defend in other directions. ”

And your unit is already the most complete of all the troops, and the best equipment. But White didn't say that last sentence - because Dannatt knew.

After two crushing defeats, Leddy Smith had less than 1,300 British soldiers, 500 of whom were in his battalion, and he had the only machine gun and half a gun, the best of White's three battalions. If he asks for reinforcements, what should the other two battalions do?

Of course, from Dannat's point of view, 500 soldiers, one machine gun and two guns would certainly not be able to withstand the Boer army, which received military assistance from Germany, and it was reasonable to ask the command to send reinforcements, but the reality doomed his reasonable demand to be unsatisfied.

"I'm sorry, Major." That's all White can affirm.

"It looks like I can only do my best." After a moment of silence, Dannatt asked another question: "What do you want me to do, General?" ”

In fact, with the little power he possessed, he could do almost nothing—White knew, Dannatt knew, everybody knew—except for one thing.

"Stall, Major, as long as you can." This is the only thing Dannatt can do, although the chances of completing it are getting fainter and weaker.

By the time he was talking to White, the heavy Boer artillery fire had added dozens of new casualties to his troops, especially the large-caliber shells—the soldiers determined the distance between the cover and the dispersion by the power of the shells of the common field artillery, but the six-inch high-explosive grenades were apparently much more powerful than the ordinary shells—at least a dozen times greater—none of the shelters could hold them back, and the soldiers were not dispersed far enough.

Every large-caliber shell can inflict a few casualties; With every large-caliber shell exploding, Dannat could see his soldiers engulfed in smoke. Even though he still seems to be as calm and calm as he was at the beginning, in fact, he is already angry.

"I'll get the job done, General." Dannatt assured White that "the Boers don't want to enter Leddy Smith until all my soldiers are dead." ”

White nodded. "I believe in you, Major......"

"What if the Boers decide to smash your line and soldiers to pieces with large-caliber artillery?" An untimely voice rang out, but even more inopportune was the question itself, and the subsequent reminder, "With all due respect, as things stand, they are likely to end the battle this way." ”

Dannatt turned his head to the questioner, the stranger who had arrived at the front with the lieutenant general. "Who are you?"

"Winston. Leonard. Spencer. Churchill," the reporter gave a brief introduction to himself, "the war correspondent for the Morning Post. ”

"You couldn't have come at the right time, Mr. Churchill." "I'm sure you didn't expect the situation to get so bad," Dannatt said in a tone that wasn't just sarcastic. ”

"I really didn't expect that, Major. But I am confident that the British soldiers will be able to show their bravery and fearlessness in the face of such adversity, just as they did at Waterloo. Then, turning his words back to the question he had asked earlier, "How are you going to deal with the endless and constant bombardment of the Boers, Major?" ”

"They will always stop shelling, otherwise they will run out of shells before they can completely destroy us." Dannatt replied.

"Perhaps the Germans provided them with a very sufficient supply of shells, enough for them to fight all the way to Durban at the current rate of attrition." Churchill replied defiantly.

"And what do you suggest, Mr. Churchill?"

Churchill did have a vision, and it was in line with his style. "I suggest shrinking the line and withdrawing your troops into the city, which should allow the Boers to stop shelling, unless they plan to carry out a massacre at Ladysmith and end up in ruins."

"That doesn't seem like a good idea, Mr. Churchill." Dannatt did not comment, but White spoke, "Although the Boers are also civilized people, I fear that they will carry out indiscriminate shelling of the city in order to reduce casualties. ”

"That means massacres, hundreds of innocent civilians who have died under fire, and it's a tragedy." tragedy, but Churchill's expression and tone betrayed a sentiment that was diametrically opposed, for that was what he hoped for: that the tragedy of Ladysmith would provoke strong indignation among the British and colonial peoples, prompting them to actively support the war, while silencing the stupid countries of Europe that supported the Boers.

Sacrifice was necessary for the sake of a noble and great goal - although it was not the famous hard-line parliamentarian who would come to be, there was no doubt that he was thinking according to the way of thinking of the Duke of Marlborough.

Of course, the plan was crucial in that Britain and the world had to know about the tragedy of Ladysmith and not let the truth be covered up, that is, there had to be someone who brought the news back to Cape Town and then transmitted it to the newspaper office in London, and that messenger had to have enough public influence to convince people that the tragedy was a fact, not an unfounded falsification.

At Ladysmith, there is only one person who has this condition.

He is......

"The infantry of the Boers, they are advancing here!" Someone shouted.

White, Dannatt and Churchill at the same time poked their heads out from behind the bunkers where they were hiding and looked at the positions of the Boers. The six phalanxes, which appeared to be infantry companies, had broken away from the main force and were advancing gradually towards the forward positions in a neat, slow, rhythmic pace.

The three of them blinked together: in the midday sun, the shiny bayonets on the Boer rifles were somewhat glaring.

Then they retracted behind bunkers.

"Not Boers." "The Boers are all militias, and their formations are not going to be so neat. ”

"It's the Germans' volunteers." White affirmed—and Dannet guessed, indeed, but he hesitated, and White didn't have to think about it so much—and Lieutenant General angrily called out, "There's no doubt that they are the ones we met in Nicholson Canyon, not the Boer militia." ”

So the two successive defeats of his troops were not a problem with the command of some officer or the quality of the British soldiers, but only because the Germans took part in the battle.

Both Dannatt and Churchill knew what White meant, but they both agreed with his conclusion: on the one hand, this was true, and on the other hand, admitting that the defeat of British soldiers by the Boer militia would obviously seriously hurt the face of the British Empire, and shifting the blame to the Germans could immediately change the situation.

"It's German," Churchill said, "and I'll make that specifically clear in my report." ”

And, of course, Krupp's cannons. He remembered what he had originally planned to mention in the report. Now it can get even more sensational.

Churchill allowed himself to be happy for a moment, and then became nervous again: since the approaching infantry was the German Volunteers, not the Boer militia, it was clearly less likely that Dannat's soldiers would hold them back from their existing positions...... The troops had to withdraw into the city.

He looked up quickly. "Major—"

However, by this time, Dannet had returned to his soldiers, giving them orders. "Get ready to fight! Aim at your targets and defeat them! ”

Despite the fact that the Boer artillery was still firing, the British soldiers quickly returned to their original positions, raised their rifles and waited for the next order. An officer then took Dannat's place. "Attention everyone, five hundred rulers, aim, ready-"

"Fire!" (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )