When winter came in the Northern Hemisphere, Florida in the subtropics did not feel any cold, but both the Continental Army and the British Army in New England stopped military operations and entered a state of winter. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info Although the Continental Army has received assistance from the Republic of Datang before, it mainly uses arms and other materials, and there are no cotton clothes for the winter, after all, cotton is in demand in Datang. The padded clothes on the British side are even more limited. Of course, even if both armies had adequate clothing to protect them from the cold, they would not choose to fight in the bitter cold weather, because it would be too sinful.

The commander-in-chief of the army could not force the troops to attack when the soldiers complained about the cold, even if there was a good chance of fighting, because the soldiers would mutiniate and overthrow their commanders themselves. In fact, the commanders themselves don't have much thinking about fighting in winter, and everyone likes to gather around the stove and be a beautiful man quietly.

Since there was no war in New England, the Tang Expeditionary Force was not in a hurry to go there to join the Continental Army, and after a small cargo ship arrived in Philadelphia, the news that the Tang Army had successfully conquered Pensacola and St. Augustine was conveyed to the Continental Congress, and the Tang Army had come to the East Coast and could go north to support the Continental Army at any time if necessary, which undoubtedly gave Washington a shot in the arm.

The two frigates also departed for East Florida and later joined the expeditionary force in the battle for the Bahamas. The Bahamas is like a string of pearls sprinkled on the periphery of Florida, guarding the vital shipping routes in and out of the Gulf of Mexico, and its strategic importance is self-evident. There was no reason for the Tang to occupy Florida, but to keep the Bahamas under their noses to be occupied by the British.

In particular, modern people from later generations have seen how the US imperialists used the island chain to blockade the motherland, and the Bahamas was a threat to navigation and life in the hands of the hostile. And if it's in your own hands. It is an iron gate to defend the territory of the mainland. and an important bridgehead for the front.

The expeditionary force was quite skilled in the occupation of land, and the Bahamas were similar to Florida, with relatively few natives, and no interest in the civilian Tang Army, and they would not even bother them much, although these immigrants were either white people from Europe or black slaves who had been trafficked.

In the Bahamas, the Datang Expeditionary Force experienced its first serious land battle. A fortress built by the British on the island. Fort Montag was heavily defended, and the naval ships bombarded the fort with heavy artillery for a while, but the British stubbornly did not surrender.

As a last resort, Liu Fangwu ordered a battalion of the Cavalry Regiment to land on the other side of New Providence Island. The cavalry regiment is a cavalry unit, but in fact, in order to alleviate the trouble of logistics and the loss of military horses on the long journey, the cavalry did not carry many mounts, and only more than 100 horses were transported over in total, mainly in Pensacola at this time. But the absence of a mount does not mean that the Xiao Cavalry Regiment cannot fight, and the Long Xiang Regiment has made many achievements under the leadership of Xu Daorun. The capture of two cities in a row gave the expeditionary force two regiments of hunters and horsemen a competitive spirit. So this time, the battalion commander of the first battalion of the Xiaocai Regiment took the initiative to ask Ying and asked Liu Fangwu to order them to fight.

The cavalry became infantry, and the Xiaocai regiment was still a well-equipped and well-trained Tang Army, but the luck of the Xiaocai did not know whether it was good or bad, although there were no waves in their landing, but in order to prevent them from attacking the already dilapidated Montag Fort, the British army specially sent a team of British troops, about 200 people, to block the attack of the Xiaocai.

What's even more laughable is that a battalion of the cavalry regiment called the cavalry fought without horses and became infantry, while the British army was a cavalry with dozens of people, fighting together with the squad.

"Damn, our men are all equipped with carbines, although they are enough to deal with the British army, but they can't insert bayonets and form a formation to prevent cavalry charges." The Mongolian officer who had been promoted to battalion commander and transferred to the cavalry regiment was full of unhappiness, he was obviously a cavalryman, but now he was standing on the ground with two legs, but he was about to be beaten by the British cavalry, this kind of grievance is indescribable.

The terrain of New Providenche is extremely flat, there is no bullying, and there is no terrain that can be used by Torakhachi. If they also had war horses, they could maneuver on their horses to attack the enemy, and of course if they were mechanized infantry of infantry regiments, then they didn't know how these British cavalrymen died. But now there are very few cards that Torahachi can play.

"It's too late to set up machine gun positions and dig trenches, everyone pay attention to protect themselves, and the machine gunners cover our people." It is obviously the attacking side, but he is worried that the cavalry will bring relatively large losses to his side, and even if he wins at that time, the loss of human lives is too great, and he will be held responsible. This is something that can't be helped, whoever makes the Datang Republic lack nothing is a shortage of people.

So, according to the drill code, the heavy machine gunners set up the machine guns and formed a corner, while the infantry behind simply used the marching bag as a simple cover, lying on the ground, pointing their guns in the direction of the enemy.

British Lieutenant Erwin led his troops to discover the Don army first, and the British troops guarding New Providencia Island saw the division of the Don ships and knew that the Tang might have to choose the other side of the island where it was easier to land to seize the beach. Erwin was urgently sent, and it was normal to encounter the Tang Army. When he discovered the Tang Army, the Tang Army had actually begun to conduct defensive operations with a little nervousness and panic, and the Tang Army discovered the enemy's traces first, naturally because the Tang Army, which had a complete combat system, had scouts landing on the shore to carry out activities before the troops were deployed. And they have walkie-talkies, and combat units will be the first to detect the opponent's tracks.

Erwin didn't say that he could attack if he attacked, in fact, he saw that the number of the Tang army was more than his troops, so he was also a little swaying for a while, not knowing whether to attack or defend. However, seeing that all the people in the Tang army were "infantry", he was also slightly relieved, he had more than fifty cavalry, and now he was only three or five kilometers away from the Tang army, and he rushed to the Tang army to see if he could get any benefits. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he could also unfold his musket array and fight face-to-face with the Don army.

That's right. As an orthodox British Army officer. Lining up to shoot is a project that they are persistent and passionate about.

"Hussars. Charge! Erwin ordered his cavalry captain to lead the charge while he himself lined up the privates in the rear.

On the other end, Tara Hachi was also obviously a little nervous: "There are more than fifty riders in total, which is not too much, but it is not too little." Listen to all of them, don't think about saving ammunition, they will hit when they enter the maximum range, hit hard, and you can't let them get close! ”

The soldiers of the first battalion were cavalrymen themselves. They knew what could happen when the cavalry approached the infantry, and some of them were veterans who had come from hunters, some of whom had fought in the Tunwa and Jokuz wars, and who had reaped the lives of the Indians on horseback, and who did not want to see the same scene repeat itself in them.

Therefore, when the light cavalry of the British army rushed up, all the knights tightened a string, and at this time, Taraha Chi was afraid that someone would shoot in advance, and if he could not withstand the pressure, firing in advance would cause a waste of firepower. The effort to reload after that is more likely to result in a gap in firepower and a greater danger.

But fortunately, his soldiers were accustomed to the discipline of the troops. Before the officers shouted to open fire, even if some people were shivering, they did not shoot.

Erwin looked at the Tang soldiers over there, and suddenly felt very confident, he said, "I really don't know how those guys in the navy lost to such an army." Behold, a group of cowards, they actually lay on the ground, and in the face of our valiant warriors, they did not have the courage to stand up straight, puff up their chests, and face us with dignity. Shame on the guys! Pathetic guys! Victory will be ours Britannica! ”

After his encouragement, the morale of the British army was greatly boosted, and Erwin was even more convinced that he could win. The cavalry's charge also seemed to be more ferocious, in their eyes, the group of Tang people could only lie on the ground because they were afraid, so even if the saber could not be killed, the rifle could not be killed, they would be trampled to death by the horse's hooves. And because the Tang army was all lying on their stomachs, the cavalrymen didn't shoot at all with their short cavalry guns, they drew their sabers and rushed over with shouts.

It was not until the British light cavalry entered within a kilometer that the Tang officers almost neatly ordered the machine gunners and soldiers to open fire. The dense sound of machine guns and the brief sound of carbines were intertwined, and some soldiers opened fire with small heavy fire such as grenadiers, and almost instantly the British were concentrated in the front sight by this fire, and the gunfire and cannon sound were mixed together, and they were immediately stunned.

One after another, the cavalry was shot and fell from the horse, and the grenade from the grenadier exploded, which directly lifted a horse into the air, and the cavalry on it fell heavily to the ground.

This terrible attack directly caused the British cavalry who thought they were going to win to hesitate, and some of them even reined in their horses, which made the charge completely chaotic. At this time, the cavalry was actually only four or five hundred meters away from the position of the Tang army, which could not be called a position, and if they rushed over, they might be able to kill a few Tang soldiers.

At this time, two rockets came out of the position of the Tang Army, the rocket launcher is the standard equipment of the Tang Army, but the amount of equipment is relatively small, because the cost is higher, and the Tang Army also has a good artillery to provide direct firepower, and the bazooka is not used much.

After the two rockets blew up several cavalrymen, the cavalry was completely confused, they no longer charged, but scattered and fled, from the charge to the present, there have been more than 30 British cavalry casualties, such a thing was unimaginable before them.

Erwin in the back was completely stunned, he originally thought that this battle would be a glorious, European-style contest, after his cavalry scattered the opponent, the privates lined up in a neat formation, playing military music, playing small drums, and marching neatly, came to the other side, and then opened fire. However, the firepower of the Tang army was so strong that he could not understand it.

"This ...... Can Tang Jun operate four or five guns by himself? Standing at such a distance, Erwin couldn't see what was going on over there, and he didn't know that most of the dense gunfire was contributed by machine guns, in his opinion, the musket still reloads one shot, and then spends more than ten seconds to reload and shoot something, after pulling the trigger, dozens of bullets come out, what the hell is this kind of thing.

Seeing the collapse of the British cavalry, he finally laughed, "It also made Lao Tzu worried, you people who have no ability, you should have washed your necks and cut them with a saber for Lao Tzu." ”

"First Company, Second Company, follow me, charge!" Even though he is already a battalion commander, he still has some habits of a junior officer, such as taking the lead in fighting. This has something to do with the fact that he first came from an army in the era of cold weapons, and it is also related to his national characteristics. In the Tang Army, it is not very exclusive that the chief officer of the cavalry will lead the charge, because the cavalry is a branch of the army, with more emphasis on courage and impact, and the officers will drive morale by taking the lead in combat.

There were no horses, and the soldiers of the cavalry regiment still had two legs, which proved to be faster than the average infantryman, perhaps because of the cavalry. In fact, after running, he regretted it, because he thought at this time that if he ordered a company to split up and trap the enemy from both flanks, and then use the range and firepower advantage to shoot directly, maybe the effect would be better and the loss would be smaller.

Now that the troops have rushed up, it is impossible for him to divide his troops and encircle the two wings.

However, perhaps the cavalry had been beaten too badly just now, and at this time, seeing the Tang army rushing up, the British soldiers were also shaken, and their originally stable musket line was flawed, but Erwin still struggled to maintain it, and he shouted: "Shoot a row of guns, and then we will charge back, no one can compare with our British heroic infantry!" ”

The battle of the ordinary musket line, firing within a hundred yards, with an average of two or three rounds of shooting, is over, and the formation is chaotic when the infantry fights hand-to-hand with rifles with bayonets, rather than lining up to shoot each other as ordinary people imagine, until one side is all shot. But when Erwin waited for the Don Army to come within a hundred yards of the gun, the Don Army was two hundred yards away and suddenly opened fire. The bullets of submachine guns and carbines swept over, directly knocking the British troops who were not far away to their knees, and then the British army was in complete chaos, and the first platoon could not complete the platoon of guns at all.

Not only that, but Erwin finally couldn't restrain his troops, and the British began to flee. As soon as he saw it, there was no need to stop the charge, and he directly entered the pursuit mode, and in the end, the British army led by Erwin suffered more than 90 casualties, nearly half, and most of the rest were captured by the Tang army, and Elwin himself was captured after being shot and wounded. (To be continued.) )