After that, the artillery battle continued for another two days.

The Ottoman army strengthened the protection of its artillery positions, and they built several fortifications on them to defend against shells from the fortress of Ismailia.

However, although the fortified fortress of Ismailia was repeatedly attacked by the Ottoman army's heavy artillery fire, scarred, and even in danger many times, it was always repaired by the defenders of the Chinese Empire and saved the day.

On 7 May, the commander of the Ottoman Army, General Murat, decided to change tactics. He ordered two armies of about 10,000 men each to pass through Guò from the canals on both flanks of the Ismailia fortress, intending to contain the fortress's fire from the flanks and cover the front for the main attack.

After Li Yan received information from the Royal Air Force, he immediately understood the strategic intentions of the Ottoman Imperial Army. However, at this time, the main force coming from the direction of Sede had not yet resisted, and Li Yan's entire encirclement plan could not be completed, so he could not let the Ottoman army cross the canal.

At this time, in addition to a garrison brigade of the fortress, the fortress of Ismailia was also garrisoned by an integrated infantry division, the 58th Division of the Royal Army.

Li Yan immediately ordered the 58th Division to be driven out of the city and lined up along the west bank of the canal to prevent the Ottoman army from crossing the river.

The 58th Division was divided into four infantry regiments, and two regiments were deployed along the canal on the east and west flanks of the Ismailia fortress, with the division's direct troops as reserves.

On the morning of the 8th, the Ottoman army on the right flank of the Ismailia fortress took the lead in launching a river crossing operation. More than 10,000 Ottoman troops were divided into five echelons, each with 2,000 men, and carried out forced crossings on rafts prepared in advance.

After the river crossing began, the Ottoman army used 50 artillery pieces to carry out heavy artillery bombardment on the positions of the Chinese imperial army on the other side of the canal.

Suddenly, the sound of artillery was thunderous and deafening, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled with sand and dust.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Ottoman army quickly descended the river and carried out a forced crossing.

Here, two regiments of the 58th Division of the Chinese Imperial Army were deployed in a desert position about 300 meters away from the west bank of the canal. The positions were dug in the shape of a "king", the first line positions were arranged on the shore, the second line positions were 100 meters from the first line positions, and the third line positions were 200 meters from the second line positions.

When the Ottoman army shelled, the soldiers of the Chinese Empire withdrew from the first line of positions and remained hidden in the third line of positions. When the artillery bombardment subsided and the Ottoman army crossed the river in full, the Chinese Imperial Army quickly entered the first line of positions along the passage to prepare for battle.

Shells whizzed by, stirring up dust in the sky.

The Ottoman army quickly crossed the river under the cover of artillery fire, and when the vanguard reached the middle of the canal, the Chinese imperial artillery units on the west bank quickly opened fire.

The artillery positions of the Chinese Imperial Army were arranged at the end, and there were two artillery battalions with a total of forty Shenwu cannons for the right flank blocking mission.

After the order to attack was given, forty cannons opened fire, and suddenly the cannon roared, and the ground shook.

Shells were fired into the canal, emitting a long whistling sound. Suddenly, the shell suddenly fell, hitting the enemy raft and smashing it to pieces, killing the Turkish soldiers on the raft or being blown into the river.

After two rounds of shelling, the Imperial Chinese Army quickly replaced solid shells with grenade shells.

As soon as the grenade bomb was released, the Ottoman army crossing the river was dumbfounded, and the grenade bombs fired from the sky caused a large number of casualties to the Ottoman army.

As a last resort, the Ottoman Imperial Army hurriedly adjusted its artillery targets and switched to attacking the artillery positions of the Chinese Imperial Army.

Both sides immediately adjusted their objectives, attacking and suppressing each other's artillery positions. Suddenly, artillery fire flew, sand and dust rolled, and gunpowder smoke filled the air.

When the battle on the right flank was raging, the Ottoman army immediately launched an offensive on the left flank. Different from the attack on the right flank, Murat has been paying attention to the battle situation on the right flank, and seeing that the Chinese Imperial Army is very strong in blocking the right flank, he increased the strength of the left flank, from 10,000 to 30,000.

At the same time, Murat increased the number of artillery pieces, to one hundred and twenty pieces. The Chinese Imperial Army on the left flank had only two regiments of strength and forty artillery pieces, and was suppressed by the fierce artillery fire of the Ottoman Imperial Army for a time, and was somewhat passive.

More than 30,000 Ottoman Imperial troops stretched a front more than ten miles long, and the Chinese Imperial Army had less than 4,000 men on the left flank, and the strength was suddenly tight.

As a last resort, Li Yan had no choice but to put the reserves into the left flank to fight, and concentrated the use of artillery to hit the central part of the Ottoman army.

The river boiled, and columns of water rose into the sky.

The fighting was fierce, and the Ottoman army had already sworn to force the canal at any cost.

By noon, the Ottoman army had finally broken through the Chinese Imperial defenses six miles north of the fortress of Ismailia.

Li Yan knew that he could no longer stop the Ottoman army from crossing the canal, so he had to order the 58th Division to hurriedly withdraw to the fortress and wait for reinforcements, hoping that the main force of the imperial army would complete the encirclement of the main force of the Ottoman army.

The first day of fighting lasted more than seven hours, and after a fierce battle between the Imperial Chinese Army and the Ottoman Army, both suffered heavy losses.

On the drum tower of the Ismailia Fortress, Li Yan held the female wall in his hand and looked into the distance.

The remnant sun is like blood, and the black smoke is like a pillar.

After the fierce battle, the river was full of raft wreckage and floating corpses. In the desert, there are dozens of miles in radius, and the corpses are piled up like mountains. The gale was wrapped in sand and dust, burying the blood stains of corpses, and the air was full of pungent smells such as sulfur and nitrate, but it still couldn't hide the stench under the blood.

"Is the battle damage report out?"

Li Yan is most concerned about the battle damage report, the difference between the strength of the enemy and us in this battle is huge, Li Yan did not think that he could win, but he knew that he was deliberately showing weakness to the enemy, and he still did not feel good in his heart.

"Report, battle damage report out"

"Reading"

As the staff officer read out the battle damage report, Li Yan's brows suddenly twisted into iron bumps.

In today's battle for the canal, the Ottoman army is obviously desperate. The 58th Division of the Imperial Chinese Army suffered more than 2,000 casualties, accounting for one-fifth. Although it has not yet reached the point of breaking the muscles and bones, it has also greatly damaged the vitality of the 58th Division.

"How's the enemy doing?"

The staff officer replied: "Judging by the reconnaissance, the enemy's casualties are at least four times more than those of our troops"

Li Yan nodded, this result is quite acceptable.

At this time, the adjutant ran over quickly and whispered something in Li Yan's ear.

"Very good"

Li Yan suddenly became happy, it turned out that in the direction of Said, the main force of the Chinese Imperial Army had already defeated the 20,000 Ottoman troops attacking Said, and was encircling the Ismailia fortress. Once the encirclement is completed, then the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops will be caught in the urn and let the mermaids eat.

The next day, Murat himself took the reins, mobilized a large army to surround the fortress of Ismailia, and set up artillery to attack the city.

Since the Ottoman army had won the Battle of the Canal yesterday and their morale was high, they gathered before dawn and lined up to attack the city.

On the drum tower, the deployment of the enemy army was fully seen by Li Yan.

Murat's tactics are still very formal, the traditional tofu block formation, many small phalanxes stacked into a large phalanx, between the phalanx are artillery units, as well as ladders and other siege equipment.

Murat personally supervised the formation, and 100,000 troops surrounded the fortress, which was huge in scale and earth-shattering.

At seven o'clock, Murat gave an order, and hundreds of cannons were aimed at the fortress. Suddenly the cannon roared, and the smoke filled the sky.

Countless shells were fired at the fortress, causing earth and rocks to splash and dust all over the sky.

The Chinese Imperial Army hid in the corridors, tunnels and military stations of the fortress, and although they could not see the battle situation outside, they could also feel the constant tremor and shaking of the fortress, and the roar between their ears was endless.

After the artillery battle began, the fortress artillery quickly organized a counterattack, and one by one the Shenwu cannons opened fire angrily, the tongues of fire spewed out, and the smoke of gunpowder became clouds.

Shells rained down on the enemy phalanx below the city, retaliating with a tooth for a tooth, inflicting heavy casualties on the Ottoman army.

Hot shells shot down, ploughing out deep pits and ravines, splashing earth and rocks, and stirring sand and dust. The entire area of the battle was filled with gunpowder smoke and sand in an instant, obscuring the sky and the sun, and it was difficult to distinguish between them.

After the siege and defense began, the Ottoman army took advantage of the smoke generated during the artillery battle to obscure the view and ordered the soldiers to carry ladders and quickly attack the city.

The Ottoman army rushed overwhelmingly, shouting and killing the sky, for fear that others would not know that they had begun to attack the city.

"Entering the Position"

At the sound of the order, the soldiers of the Chinese Empire hiding in the military station immediately rushed out and entered the battle position.

Bang bang bang

In the various shooting holes on the fortress, white eyes spewed out, firelight erupted, and rows of projectiles poured down, inflicting heavy casualties on the Ottoman army.

However, Murat didn't care about these casualties at all, and he had no interest in recovering Egypt at all, but as long as he took the fortress of Ismailia, the control of the Suez Canal would also be a great achievement.

The Ottoman army attacked the city at any cost, putting great pressure on the Chinese imperial army defending the city.

The battle was fierce from the beginning, the Ottoman army had a huge advantage in numbers, and the number of artillery was also superior, and now the onslaught at any cost caused the Ismailian garrison brigade to suffer heavy casualties, and Li Yan had to throw the 58th Division into the fortress defense.

The battle continued, and both sides understood that the first day of fighting was especially important, so they launched onslaughts and desperately defended at all costs.

At noon, part of the fortifications in the northeast of the Ismailia fortress was destroyed by the artillery of the Ottoman army.

However, this also taught Li Yan a deep lesson, that is, the army of the Ottoman Turkish Empire was not just a paper tiger, and the huge Ottoman Empire was not in vain.

In order to wait for the arrival of reinforcements and complete the final encirclement, Li Yan had to strengthen his defense and hold on to the last night. As long as tonight, hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops will become turtles in the urn.

At the head of the city, Li Yan looked at the dense enemy troops outside the city, and he knew that he would definitely have no sleep tonight. V