The French did not expect to be bombarded by the heavy artillery of the Qian, and although the walls of Hanoi were reinforced, they were still unable to withstand the continuous bombardment of 120-mm cannons, and soon after, a gap was opened in the wall, but the Qianjun did not immediately attack from this gap, but continued to bombard the city.

In the face of the artillery bombardment of the cadres, the French artillery also launched a fierce counterattack after a short period of panic, but it was not able to suppress the artillery fire of the cadres, but was destroyed in many artillery positions, and the firepower was greatly reduced for a while.

After a period of shelling, the artillery fire of the cadres also became weakened, not because the artillery positions were destroyed by the French artillery fire, but because the ammunition of the three 65-mm cannons captured by the French army was completely exhausted.

Due to the bargain picked up from the dead ghost Li Weiye's men, the ammunition for these guns is not very large, and there has been a lot of consumption in previous battles, and in this crucial battle, they are finally all used up.

Seeing that the city wall was broken by the cannon of the cadre army, Lin Yuansheng immediately ordered the cadre army to launch an attack on the city, but when the cadre army tried to break through the gap in the city wall opened by the cannon, the French army's camp artillery, machine guns and rifle fire once again weaved a dense fire net, causing huge casualties to the cadres who were charging in a dense formation, but the cadre army still rushed into the city with the support of their own artillery fire, and launched a fierce white-knuckle battle with the French army. In the face of the fierce Zuaf soldiers, the cadres were again defeated and expelled by the counter-charge launched by the French army.

This time the offensive cadres suffered heavy losses of more than 1,100 casualties, while the French also suffered 467 casualties. Arguably the highest number of casualties in direct combat since the French came to Vietnam.

Despite the failure of the first offensive. And suffered heavy casualties. But Lin Yuansheng was not discouraged, but saw the dawn of victory, he convened the generals to discuss, and the generals of the cadre army who were inspired by the breakthrough of the city wall did not say that anyone wanted to retreat back to Shanxi this time, and even Liu Renyi thought that the attack should be continued, and suggested a night attack.

Sleepless nights, sleepless nights, the French soldiers huddled in the fortifications doing the same thing. Wipe the gun.

Reporter Ansel and an armed Vietnamese parishioner named Dinh Chung Minh were responsible for loading a Gatling machine gun, and after 12 o'clock, Ansel and the Vietnamese took turns pressing the cartridges, and pressed 12 in one go.

The commander-in-chief of the French army, Colonel Beran, paid more attention to the survival of the soldiers under heavy artillery fire, and built a trench hole every other section of the fortifications in Hanoi City, a total of hundreds, and once the Qianguo people launched an artillery bombardment, the French soldiers could immediately hide in these trenches to avoid artillery fire. After the shelling is over, the soldiers can quickly rush out of the trenches. Enter the fortifications to defend against the infantry attacks of the Qianguo.

They smoked five in one go, wrapped in raincoats.

"Sir, it's not fun yet, my head is always not dizzy, let's have another one." Ding Zhongming said to Ansel.

Since Ansel was rescued by General Slip from Ho Lo Tsung, he joined the Eastern Expeditionary Force, and this Vietnamese named Dinh Chung Minh was the servant assigned to him by General Slipper.

"You greedy fellow! Save a little! That's all there is to it, tomorrow is just a few days? Ansel scolded him and gave him another cigarette.

"But who knows if we'll see the sun tomorrow." Ding Zhongming sighed.

"But I won't give you any more cigarettes, it's not good to smoke too much." Ansel looked at the sky outside, the cannons of the Qianguo people had stopped firing, probably their shells were running out, and the French artillery had also stopped roaring, probably for the same reason.

Thanks to Major Domini, the French army in Hanoi City had plenty of ammunition, but because the French were too small in number, the ammunition was still quite valuable, so no one wanted to waste it.

"Homesick? Is it? Ansel noticed the sadness in the eyes of the Vietnamese and asked.

"Yes. Sir, I really want to! The Vietnamese lamented. He has a wife and two daughters, whom Ansel has never met, but has heard from the Vietnamese. He said that the bellies of the two daughters were the same as their mothers, with watermelon-like patterns, which made Ansel feel very strange, and he couldn't imagine what a woman with a watermelon-patterned belly looked like.

The air in the raincoat was muddy, the smell of smoke squeezed the air, and the human brain began to feel dizzy like a vacuum, and Ansel finally couldn't help but burrow out of the trench, and the Vietnamese were still kneeling in the hole in the raincoat. Ansel tried to push him, but he could clearly see the raincoat trembling, and a few muffled sobs from time to time.

Ansel ignored him, and the guard post near him was in thick darkness, unable to distinguish things at all, but he could clearly feel the beating of two strong hearts. The night of the battlefield was so quiet, unsettling, and heartbreaking, he wanted to see the people who were holding the heights together, but he could only trace everyone's faces over and over again through his memories, and the sacrifices made him even unable to remember their eyebrows at any time and place, which made him feel a sense of regret.

A gust of mountain wind blew, he shivered involuntarily, his eyelids were extremely heavy, and the sound of Ding Zhongming's rapid and undulating breathing came from the hole behind him, and this guy cried and cried and fell asleep. He tried to warn himself not to sleep, but reluctantly closed his eyes when the next mountain wind blew.

"Tom!" Another cannonball smashed all his dreams, and the dust raised blinded his eyes. "Shelling!" There was a frightened shout from the guard post, he broke his body and got into the trench, Ding Zhongming had already woken up, and was huddled at the bottom of the cave with a raincoat, the small hole could only barely fit into two people, his upper body was drilled into the hole, and the lower half of his body was still hanging outside.

"You idiot! Retract your dog's leg and let me in!! "When people face death, they will always instinctively be afraid, and they will always instinctively react to survival. Before he could drag into the thighs that were left outside, the shelling became more and more intense.

The heavy artillery of the Qianguo people began to shoot again.

Not only the heavy artillery, but also the old artillery of the Qianguo people, under the cover of night. Also began to shoot at the positions of the French troops. These things, which were once disdained by the French, suddenly became terrible at night.

Although the old artillery of the Qianguo people was not very powerful. But that large-caliber gun was a great threat to the French army. The whole cave was shaking, the soil layer on the cave wall was constantly falling down, the huge shock wave caused by the large-caliber cannonball made people's five organs rush to the throat, and the gravel and mud were still falling.

"We're going to be buried alive!" Ding Zhongming shouted in a diacritical trill.

"Stupid, it's better to be buried alive than to be blown up!" Ansel shouted out of the cave with red eyes and fierce eyes, not knowing whether to call him or himself. At the beginning of the shelling, the batches could still be heard, and later it was impossible to distinguish the batches at all, but the bombing points seemed to be fixed at a distance of 300 to 500 meters from the front of the position. Few shells frequented their positions.

At 3:30 a.m., the artillery fire of the cadres gradually subsided, and Colonel Beran asked all positions to report the enemy situation in front of him, at this time, the dense smoke of gunpowder completely covered the forward positions through the night, and the line of sight was extremely poor, and the visibility was only a few meters away, so it was impossible to effectively observe the enemy situation. Colonel Beran replied: Heighten the alert, and the rest of the personnel rest. At this time, the time had reached 3:52.

Ansel dragged the Gatling gun into the firing bunker. Ding Zhongming also brought three boxes of bulk ammunition, and he was assigned as the secondary shooter of the machine gun. He was covered in bullet belts, and the hat on his head was missing.

Ansel was still lying on the shooting table, the smoke finally dissipated, and by the light of the pale sky, the front of the position appeared before his eyes, a tree that was still standing yesterday was gone, and some of the terrain had changed. He tried to distinguish everything in front of him, trying to find traces of the existence of the cadres, but unfortunately he didn't even see a ghost.

At about 5:10 a.m., the cadres finally appeared, first a large number of figures emerged from the front of the position, and then a large number of cadres also emerged in the distance, and they crossed the front line of their own position and began to form a battle formation and forced towards the French position.

"Spot the enemy!" The soldiers' loud alarms were heard from the various posts one after another, and the battle was about to begin, Ansel's blood was boiling again, and his face was flushed with a red tide like wine, and in the morning light, the figures in front of the cadres were faint, closer, closer, and he could clearly distinguish their big straw hats and the rifles still glowing blue in their hands.

"Boom!" Before he could come back to his senses, an explosion sounded in front of the position, it was a rocket! He didn't think about it, the trigger had already been pulled to the bottom by him, and suddenly the whole high ground rang out like a storm of gunfire. The battle was fierce from the beginning, he didn't know how many bullets he had fired, the Gatling gun never stopped, this was a real offensive and defensive battle, like a rain of bullets brought up a wave of death, from time to time bullets hit the wall of the trench near his left and the shooting table, and even a few Hale rockets accurately smashed on the thick bunker and exploded, stirring up the sky full of gravel and mud, he couldn't tell the enemy's face, the flame of the muzzle seriously affected his vision, He could only sweep the bullets in pieces in the direction of the attack of the cadres, and he could only judge the distance of the enemy from the roars of the soldiers around him; After fifteen minutes of fierce fighting, the first strong attack of the cadres finally retreated, dozens of enemy corpses lay on the front line, and some wounded cadres howled wolf and struggled to crawl in the direction of their positions; The high ground was beaten in a mess, his shooting table was full of bullet casings, Ding Zhongming's arm was injured by the Hale rocket launched by the cadres, fortunately it was just rubbing the flesh, Ansel bandaged the wound for him, then he heard the sound of bellows-like breathing from the trench on the right, and a voice shouted on the side: "Someone is going to die!" ”

Ansel's heart was still not too shocked, and the war made people insensitive, as if death was no longer a deterrent. He still went over to take a look, a white French soldier was shot in the lungs with a rifle by a cadre soldier, blood gushing like a spring, and his comrade-in-arms guarding him next to him was still an incomplete comrade-in-arms, and a soldier's finger was cut off by the fragments of the rocket; A few soldiers who rushed over were busily tearing the first aid kit to bandage them, he couldn't help much, in fact, he couldn't help anymore, a minute later, the soldier who had been shot in the lungs died of pain after spurting the last few mouthfuls of blood, his companions still did not give up the bandage, as if he could come back to life as long as he was bandaged. The soldier with the severed finger cried out hoarse and let out a creepy whine, he was looking for something all over the world, and Ansel knew he was looking for the amputated finger. Look for the fingers that can no longer be attached. He leaned limply against the wall of the trench. He didn't have the courage to think about it anymore, war, this is war, black death became a part of life, maybe the next one would be his turn, what was all this for? For this humble little plateau in Hanoi City? For the French Empire? For the emperor and empress? For the sake of the tricolor? For the people?

The cadres paused for a long time after being caught off guard by the strong attack, and they were also accumulating strength and anger. There's so much blood they've shed here.

At 6:20 a.m., the artillery fire of the cadres began to pound their positions again violently. The trees were beaten, the grass was beaten, the mountains were beaten! There is no longer bright sunshine in this world, only gray; No more flowers, only shrapnel. Ansel squeezed the whole person into the shooting bunker, his hands trembled uncontrollably, his heart throbbed uncontrollably, dry army! The ant-colony of cadres rushed over the ridgeline to the French position, without running or bending. Some people didn't even wear their shirts, and the weapons in their hands were shooting "pounce, pounce". Through the smoke of gunpowder, he also saw a flag clearly, it was a red flag, and there was a hideous yellow dragon on it, which was the military flag of the cadre army! The flag fluttered and rolled in the wind, and under it was a handful of infantry with rifles with bayonets.

"Death squads! The death squad of the Qianguo people! I don't know who was shouting, another Gatling machine gun on the high ground suddenly went off, and the rain of bullets knocked down the standard-bearer of the cadre army in an instant, the military flag did not fall, and the cadre army, like them, had the determination to be in the flag. His gun also rang out, and this round of barrage again covered the position of the banner of the cadre army, the enemy, the standard-bearer, blood, death; He shot wildly with a vengeance, and he thought of the unknown war dead, and the enemy who shot them must have been in the same mood as he was at the moment. He had no other purpose, he couldn't let the flag go forward again, he couldn't let the flag fly again! At this time, the suppression of the French artillery fire began, a large number of shells crashed straight into the dense battle formation of the cadres, the indistinguishable explosions formed a movable wall of fire, dragging left and right for a moment, the casualties of the cadres were extremely heavy, and there were countless stumps and broken arms flying in the sky, broken hats and broken guns, he adjusted the firing angle of the Gatling machine gun, and fired like a hurricane of bullets at the cadres who attacked the high ground from the flank, and he added the pain and anger of this life and even the previous life and the next life to the bullets. The heights were filled with gunfire and cannons, the sky was filled with flying shrapnel, and the French artillery began to build an impassable wall of fire fifty meters from the front of his position.

At 6:50 a.m., the sky was already dawning, and the cadres did not stop their almost suicidal attack, and as the artillery preparations of the cadres extended again, the enemy's third charge began!

They have long been numb, like their opponents, who have long been numb, have no regard for bullets and artillery fire, and people create death and despise death. The cadres attacked the high ground at multiple levels and in multiple waves, retreating one wave, and the second wave came up, and the retreating wave did not retreat at all, and only retreated a few meters back to the spot and then re-entered the fierce attack. Ansel's Gatling guns began to disobey, and the incessant firing burned the barrel into the shape of a soldering iron, making a sizzling sound with each shot. Another shell exploded in front of him, this time the already battered protective soil layer finally collapsed in a violent explosion, Ansel and his machine gun and his life were buried in the darkness in an instant, his life was coming to an end, the last thoughts were desperate, but it seemed that God always liked to joke with him, and death was dragged away by his comrades, and at the same time dragged him back to a more cruel reality. He didn't distinguish between the brethren who rescued him, the tense battle gave no time to appreciate and thank, he half-crawled and groped his way to the nearby trench, the enemy attack showed no sign of stopping, lost the Gatling gun, he still had a rifle, and a pistol! He mechanically pulled the trigger in front of the enemy's attacking formation, reloaded, and pulled again. There are people around me who are constantly falling, and people are constantly making up, who are these people? He didn't know, but the addition of these people made him feel warm and safe; Another life slammed to the ground in front of him, his hand even hit his chest, he was taken down, this time he saw the soldier in front of him clearly, it was Ding Zhongming! Is he dead? His front was full of bullet holes, and there was blood everywhere, and he pounced on him, and he tried to hold down the wound, but he couldn't, and he held it here and there, and Ansel cried and screamed, he wanted to save him, but the blood, the blood that gushed like a spring, flowed uncontrollably and quickly seeped into the earth beneath him, and he died so quietly in Ansel's arms, in Ansel's cries, without leaving a word.

Closer, closer, the enemy leaped into the first remaining line of communication trenches, hand-to-hand combat! The most primitive fighting, one against several, no one could tell the difference, and more cadres rushed into the trenches. Although everyone is fighting heroically, this time they can't resist it! (To be continued.) )

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