Chapter 412: Battle of Ismailia (Part II)

[Two chapters and one chapter, 7,000 words]

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At night, after a short rest, the Ottomans launched another onslaught. ()

Hundreds of cannons opened fire in unison, and in an instant, the sound was like thunder, the ground shook, and the sky within a hundred miles of the entire Ismailia fortress was red.

Tens of thousands of Ottomans** charged the fortress of Ismailia from all directions at the same time, with a huge momentum and shouts of killing.

On the fortress, the Chinese Emperor ** methodically organized a counterattack. The Fortress Cannon has stopped firing solid shells and has switched to grenade shots to kill and wound enemy troops.

The Ottoman Emperor ** carried the ladder, charged frantically under the cover of artillery fire, and braved the rain of bullets fired from the fortress, and the Ottoman Emperor ** fell down in rows. In the face of the grenade bomb attack of the Chinese Emperor, the Ottoman Emperor suffered heavy casualties, floating corpses all over the field, and blood flowed like a river.

In the face of heavy casualties, General Murat, the commander of the Ottoman Empire, did not frown, but instead gave a death order, at any cost, to capture the fortress of Ismailia before sunrise.

The main reason for this is that Murat has learned the news of the defeat of the 20,000 troops in the direction of Said, and he also knows that more than 50,000 Chinese emperors in the north are rushing to the aid of the Ismailian fortress.

Murat understood that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, with a fortified fortress in front of him and a main enemy force behind, and he was in the midst of an enemy encirclement plan. Once the Chinese Empire completes the siege, Murat and his army of more than 100,000 will be attacked on all sides and annihilated.

Therefore, Murat's only way to survive now was to capture the fortress of Ismailia, so he gave the order to die, at any cost.

The cannon roared, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and the shouts of killing rushed straight into the sky.

After paying a great price, the Ottoman Emperor ** broke through several blockade lines, rushed straight to the fortress city, set up a ladder, and the more tragic offensive and defensive battle at the head of the city began.

The price paid by the Ottoman Emperor was very great, and the corpses under the city were strewn all over the field, and the blood flowed like rivers. Similarly, the casualties of the Imperial Chinese garrison brigade in the fortress were also not small. After Li Yan threw the 58th Division into battle, he once reversed the situation, but with the more and more frantic attacks of the Ottoman Emperor, the Chinese Emperor suffered heavy casualties, and in the middle of the night, Li Yan had to use reserves.

"Commander" Adjutant Li ran in from outside, disgraced, not wolf.

"How's it going out there?"

Li Yan stood with his hands in his hands, his face calm, but the staff officers around him all knew in their hearts that their commander's face was calm, but his heart was very nervous.

"The enemy's offensive is very fierce, and it has reached the point where you will not be able to kill yourself at any cost."

Li Yan frowned and said: "It seems that the enemy is so crazy, it should be that he already knows the news of the direction of Said, the more crazy they are, the more they are afraid, the more I will insist"

Adjutant Li took a deep breath and continued: "It's just that our soldiers suffered heavy casualties and a lot of artillery damage. Especially since our fortress artillery has been firing continuously for a long time, and if we use it again with high intensity, I can't think of an hour before we have no artillery to fight again."

Li Yan nodded, he understood that no matter how good the quality of the empire's artillery was, it would not be able to withstand the use of artillery so frequently. At the same time, any artillery has a service life, and although the Shenwu cannon of the Chinese Empire has a fast rate of fire, it also exacerbates the consumption of artillery life.

"There should be some spare fortress guns in the arsenal."

Adjutant Li smiled bitterly and said, "Commander, there is indeed a batch of spare fortress guns in the arsenal, but they have all been taken out and used."

Li Yan smacked his lips, his brows twisted into iron bumps.

"The 58th Division should have four artillery battalions, plus an artillery battalion directly under the division, and five artillery battalions with 100 artillery pieces, all of which were pulled to the fortress for defense and replace the existing fortress artillery"

Adjutant Li asked worriedly: "It's just that the infantry division uses field artillery, which is not as powerful as the fortress artillery, and I am afraid that it will not be able to withstand the crazy offensive of the enemy."

Li Yan nodded and said: "I naturally understand that I don't keep going up, I will continue to fight for an hour, let the other fortress guns cool down and then fight, take advantage of this time, notify the armory, and send additional mechanics to maintain the existing fortress guns."

Adjutant Li understood what Li Yan meant, and there was no other way at the moment, so he had to take one step at a time.

In the night, the pitch-black figure of the fortress of Ismailia was covered with countless bright spots, all of which were tongues of fire when the fortress cannon roared.

Up and down the fortress, artillery fire flew, and the enemy troops in the sky and wilderness swarmed the siege on the ladder. At the head of the city, the soldiers of the Chinese Empire braved the rain of bullets and bullets to shoot at the enemy from the battlements. Rows of projectiles hit the city, and the enemy soldiers were constantly shot and fell under the city.

The corpses under the city are piled up like a mountain, and the blood is flowing like a river, and I don't know how many people can pile up a corpse wall that is six meters high and several miles long. There are people from the Ottoman Emperor ** and there are also people from the Chinese Emperor**, and they can't tell the enemy from the other.

The Ottomans** had already paid a great price to attack the city, and now they filled the city with the corpses of their soldiers, making it more convenient for them to attack the city.

Seeing that the corpses under the fortress were about to pile up at the head of the city, many places had already revealed a crisis situation, and the Ottoman Emperor ** even had a time to climb the city, but it was only a few minutes, and he was soon driven down by the reserves of the Chinese Emperor**.

However, the crisis was not over, and the corpses under the city were piled up, and the Ottomans** did not even need to use the ladder anymore, and they could approach the city by stepping on the corpse wall.

After Li Yan learned of the situation, even his guard regiment was sent to the head of the city to replenish the strength of the fortress reserves.

"Commander" Adjutant Li said: "If it goes on like this, I'm afraid I won't hold out until dawn."

"Bastard" Li Yan was angry, angrily scolded Adjutant Li, and said: "Even if we fight to the last soldier, we can't say half of it."

Adjutant Li knew Li Yan's mood and stepped forward and said, "It's just that the strength of the fortress is less than 8,000, and the commander's guard regiment is only 10,000. With a large number of wounded soldiers, the huge fortress is already a little overwhelmed by defense."

"What are you worried about" Li Yanqiang said calmly: "We have suffered heavy casualties, the Ottoman Empire is the attacker, their casualties are at least ten times more than ours, even if they are consumed, they can be consumed."

Adjutant Li nodded, Li Yan was right, attacking a strong fortress, the losses of the attackers definitely exceeded those of the defenders, plus the firepower of the Ismailian fortress was strong, and the Ottoman Emperor ** attacked the city at any cost, and its losses were definitely more than ten times.

By the end of the night, the defenders of the Chinese Empire had lost more than 5,000 men and more than 4,000 wounded, and it was inferred that the losses of the Ottoman Emperor should have been more than 60,000, or even more.

Li Yan said: "The corpses of the enemy have been piled up under the city walls, and now there are still a few hours before dawn, and the enemy army still has more than tens of thousands of living forces, and we must take extraordinary action."

Adjutant Li stepped forward and asked, "What does the commander mean—"

"Oil"

Li Yan's trick has been used so far, and the only thing left is arson.

The fortress of Ismailia was stockpiled with a large amount of oil, which was transported from Persia and other places. Since the construction of the fortress of Ismailia, the Chinese Empire has tried every means to arrange defensive forces. Among the defensive weapons, the fire oil tank of the Chinese Empire has always been a weapon of mass destruction. It's just that the previous fire oil tanks of the Chinese Empire used vegetable oil, fish oil, etc., which had limited combustion energy and were too expensive to use for fortress defense on a large scale.

As a result, the Chinese Empire was very interested in black oil produced in Persia, and used oil to replace fuel in fire tanks, which was lower cost than vegetable oil and fish oil, and large-scale equipment was possible.

In addition, the fortress of Ismailia is located in Egypt, close to the Persian Gulf, and it is very convenient to transport oil, so the fortress of Ismailia has a large reserve of oil for the final defense of the fortress.

"Oil"

After the order was given, the soldiers of the Chinese Imperial Garrison pushed out the fire oil tanks from the various military stations.

This fire oil tank is based on the ancient fire extinguishing water wheel and water cannon transformation, similar to the piston principle of the needle tube, the oil is poured into the water tank, and then the oil in the water tank is pressurized by the wheel rod. The water tank is made of steel, and there is a long steel pipe that acts as a flamethrower, which can continuously breathe fire-oil, and belongs to the earliest model of flamethrower.

Filling oil, pressurizing, **, a series of actions in an orderly manner, and in an instant, flames erupted from the secret mouth of the fortress, pouring down from the fortress, dozens of meters long, like a giant dragon breathing fire, illuminating half of the sky in an instant.

The fire was blazing, scorching the sky, and the smoke was billowing like a torch. The entire fortress was surrounded by a sea of fire, black smoke obscured the only starlight in the sky, and even the fire on the ground was isolated by black smoke.

For the first time, the Ottoman Emperor encountered the weapons of the Chinese Empire's oil tank, and was caught off guard, and many siege soldiers were entangled in flames, and the screams were heartbreaking. The power of the fire oil was extremely powerful, spraying down from the top of the high fortress, and it was impossible to prevent it, and the Ottoman Emperor ** was immediately deterred.

There was a large amount of poisonous gas in the thick smoke, and the defenders of the Chinese Empire on the fortress had already prepared and covered their mouths and noses. But the Ottomans under the city were unprepared, they only thought it was ordinary gunsmoke, and they didn't find out that something was wrong until they fell into a coma in the black smoke, but it was already too late, and countless people were killed on the spot.

With the appearance of the fire oil tank, the defensive posture of the fortress was suddenly reversed. The entire outer city of the fortress was in flames, which suddenly blocked the offensive pace of the Ottoman Emperor. Since ancient times, fire has been a weapon of great destruction, and anything that is strong and strong will be burned. The Ottomans** were no longer afraid of death, and they were all deterred in front of it, because the fear of being burned alive was unacceptable to them.

The flames were scorching, the black smoke blocked the view, and the shouts of killing on the battlefield suddenly weakened, leaving only sporadic cannon sounds.

Soon, the sporadic sound of artillery also disappeared, because of the burning of a large amount of oil, the black smoke produced could not be seen clearly. The attackers could not find the target, the defenders could not see the enemy clearly, and the two sides invariably ceasefired.

General Murat looked at the Ismailia fortress in flames from afar, and was very annoyed in his heart, he never thought that the Chinese Emperor ** would have such a powerful weapon. To his annoyance, the fire protected the fortress of Ismailia, but Murat did not have time to wait, because according to intelligence, the main army of the Chinese Empire would arrive after dawn.

However, the flames lit with oil cannot be extinguished, at least not by Murat.

"General, look at such a big fire, we can't attack it, but the Chinese emperor ** in the fortress won't have a good time"

Murat realized that the fire outside the fortress of Ismailia had gotten out of control, and although it blocked the attack of the Ottoman Emperor, it also made it impossible for the soldiers of the Chinese Empire to stay on the fortress for defense, and they were forced to withdraw from the city.

Murat laughed and laughed at the Chinese Emperor** This move is a failed strategy to kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred.

Here, the fortress was filled with soot, and the defenders of the Chinese Empire had already withdrawn from the city. It turned out that when they released the oil tank, several shells from the Ottoman Emperor ** hit the oil tank, and as a result, the oil tank exploded, causing the nearby oil tank to explode, and the fire was out of control.

The accident caused hundreds of soldiers of the Chinese Emperor to die on the spot, and led the fire to get out of control and burn the city.

At the fortress headquarters, Li Yan and his staff officers' heads were wrapped like mummies, leaving only two eyes to fall outside, because the entire fortress was full of thick smoke and ash, and they had to be so wolf.

Li Yan paced back and forth, obviously angry. The staff officers next to him stared at each other with big eyes and small eyes, all of them looking at a loss.

"How did this happen? Is there a way to put out the fire quickly? ”

Li Yan jumped like thunder, and if he continued to burn like this, even if the fortress of Ismailia was strong, it would burn down.

Everyone didn't dare to speak, so Adjutant Li had to step forward and say, "Commander, we have cut off all the fire paths, and when the fire oil is burned out, it will naturally be extinguished."

"Fart"

Li Yan couldn't wait to smash Adjutant Li with a hammer, and said angrily: "The fire is extinguished, the city has collapsed, and they are all fucking roast pigs."

Adjutant Li's face was full of grievances, and he replied: "But this fire oil can't be extinguished, and it is even more vigorous when you pour water, which is really evil."

"I don't care, you guys hurry up and find a way, otherwise they will all be shot"

“……”

Li Yan began to be unreasonable, and everyone was helpless, but they didn't dare to contradict it, so they had to find a way.

There is a way that the three stinkers beat Zhuge Liang, and everyone worked together, and soon good news came from the direction of Dongcheng. When Battalion Commander Zhang of the Dongcheng Garrison Battalion led his soldiers to put out the fire, he unexpectedly found that it was most effective to use soaked sand to put out the isolation of the fire source by using soaked sand as sandbags.

This discovery immediately brought a turning point to the fortress of Ismailia, and after Li Yan heard the report, he immediately ordered the whole army to dig up mud and sand and load sandbags to save the fortress with all his might.

After the order was issued, all the officers and men of the army, as long as they could move, mobilized one after another, carrying sandbags on the fortress to extinguish the fire.

The sandbags extinguished the fire, not only extinguishing the fire on the head of the fortress, but also reinforcing the fortress by one layer and adding a bargaining chip to defend against enemy shells.

Although the fire on the head of the city was extinguished, the head of the city burned by the fire oil was unusually hot, and the fortress cannon did not dare to use it, for fear that the ammunition would explode. Although the troops can be deployed on the city, the fire outside the city is still burning, and the corpses that were originally piled up have become the fuel of the fire.

The fire was blazing and the smoke was billowing as if the world was apocalypse. The strong smell of burning made it difficult for even battle-hardened Imperial soldiers to resist vomiting.

The outer city of the fortress had been burned to the ground, and the solid granite, reinforced concrete and concrete forts and bunkers had almost lost shape because the steel inside had been melted by the heat of the fire.

Li Yan climbed to the top of the city, looking at the fortress that had been burned and twisted, and his heart was not good.

Originally, his plan was seamless, but he underestimated the Ottoman Emperor's fighting ability and will to attack. The dog is in a hurry and has to jump off the wall, let alone the army

Now that the fortress of Ismailia had been nearly destroyed and its losses had exceeded his estimates, he would rather have his main forces here for a head-on battle with the enemy if his plans were to be rearranged.

However, there is no medicine for regret in the world. At this point, Li Yan only hoped that it would be dawn and reinforcements would arrive as soon as possible to eliminate the enemy army in front of him.

The fire was scorching and the smoke was billowing out.

At five o'clock in the morning, it was supposed to be dawn, but the Fortress of Ismailia was shrouded in smoke for hundreds of miles, and it was no longer dawn.

The fire outside the fortress had subsided, and although the smoke was still thick, Murat could not wait any longer, and hurriedly gathered his army to launch another siege battle.

Because of the thick smoke, it was difficult for both sides to see each other clearly. The artillery units of both sides only relied on their intuition to strike at each other, and after the fire was fired, only the sound was heard, but they did not know what they hit and how many enemies they had killed, and luck became the dominant force on both sides.

Visibility was low, and the Ottomans** were not spotted until they were under the city. Emperor Zhonghua no longer dared to use the fire oil tank, for fear that the fortress would be burned down in the next moment.

"Fire"

Bang bang bang

Inside the firing port of the fortress, the defenders of the Chinese Empire stretched out their muskets and fired at the enemy who was climbing the ladder.

Countless projectiles poured down, and the Ottoman soldiers were shot one after another, and fell to the city with a scream.

In the same way, the Ottoman Emperor ** was quite brave, and Murat had no way out, so he was already at any cost. It seems that religious beliefs can make people crazy, and the Ottoman Emperor ** suddenly became not afraid of death, and frantically attacked the city, causing the entire fortress defense to be in danger many times.

The fortress of Ismailia shrouded in gunsmoke, it is impossible to distinguish between day and night. But the dawn has already dawned outside the battlefield.

The four infantry divisions of the Chinese Emperor, which had come from Saidhe, formed two huge attack formations and advanced towards Ismailia, encircling the Ottoman Emperor ** under the fortress of Ismailia.

"How? How did the fortress become this virtuous? Isn't Mo already falling? ”

Cao Jianqin, chief of staff of the Egyptian Zhutun Army, led the main army from Said, thinking that it was very easy, but when he arrived near the fortress of Ismailia, he saw the fortress in the thick smoke from a distance, and his heart suddenly felt a thrill.

The adjutant said: "Probably not, Chief of Staff, you heard the gunfire in the direction of the fortress very loudly, it should not have fallen"

Cao Jian nodded, frowned again, and said: "I really underestimated the Turks, I didn't expect that the fortress we regarded as impregnable would be beaten into this virtue, and it looks like we will have to re-examine this opponent in the future."

The adjutant replied: "The commander is still trapped in the fortress, should we launch a general attack immediately?"

Cao Jian looked at his watch and replied, "Launch a general attack in twenty minutes, and repair them fiercely for me."

"Yes"

The adjutant received the order and hurried down to deliver the order.

After the main force of the Chinese Emperor appeared, Murat's heart suddenly sank to the bottom. On the one hand, he strictly ordered the front-line troops to continue to storm the fortress, and on the other hand, he organized the army to turn around and meet the main force of the Chinese emperor.

However, after a day and a night of fierce fighting, the Ottoman Empire** was exhausted, and there were only more than 60,000 people left in the 120,000-strong army at this time, and more than half of the soldiers were wounded, and the inn soldiers were less than 30,000. After removing the 20,000 troops who attacked the fortress of Ismailia head-on, Murat had less than 10,000 troops in his hands to carry out the task of blocking it.

However, Murat was quite capable, he gathered all the wounded soldiers, and even organized three large phalanxes in a short time. There are more than 10,000 people in each of the three large squares, and the finished word arrays are arranged, and they are horns for each other. The artillery position was in the center, but most of the artillery was transferred to the front to attack the fortress, so there were less than 70 artillery pieces in the large phalanx, which was more than 300 pieces less than the main force of the Chinese Emperor.

Being able to organize three large phalanxes in a short period of time, and being able to use all the wounded soldiers, Murat's command ability was affirmed by Cao Jian, chief of staff of the Chinese Emperor.

However, praise for praise, the last resistance of the Ottoman Emperor ** was only in vain in Cao Jian's view.

Twenty minutes later, all the artillery positions of the Chinese Emperor ** were arranged, and the general attack was immediately launched.

Hundreds of cannons fired fiercely at the three large phalanxes of the Ottoman Emperor**, and in an instant, the enemy shook in the direction of the mountains, the sand and dust rolled, and the smoke filled the sky. Most of the enemy's three large phalanxes were wounded soldiers, and it was reluctant to organize infantry combat, but in the face of long-distance artillery attacks from the Chinese Empire, they were very powerless. Because of the excessive number of wounded soldiers and the inconvenience of moving, the large phalanx of the Ottoman Emperor ** was shelled, and it suddenly fell into chaos, with heavy casualties.

Murat tried his best to control the battle situation, and tried his best to use the first large phalanx to consume and attract the artillery fire of the Chinese Emperor. At the same time, try to avoid the disappearance of seventy cannons in the middle in the first round of shelling.

Sure enough, under the careful command of Murat, the Ottoman Emperor preserved his combat power and miraculously saved thirty guns after the first strike of the Chinese Imperial artillery.

Murat was delighted and was about to give the order to return fire, but the second round of shelling by the Chinese Emperor ** arrived.

"Damn how fast it is"

Murat was very depressed, the Ottoman Emperor's artillery was too slow to fire, and before it was ready, it was completely destroyed by the opponent's second round of rapid fire.

In the next ten minutes, the Chinese Emperor ** successively implemented fierce fire coverage, and instantly defeated the first large phalanx set up by Murat.

The Pinzi array was broken, and the momentum of the horns was out of balance, Cao Jianjiao ordered the artillery fire to extend the strike, and at the same time ordered the cavalry to charge.

With the extension of artillery fire, the loud horn sounded, and the main force of the Chinese Emperor launched a cavalry charge on all fronts.

"Rush"

When the order was given, the cavalry soldiers loosened the reins sharply, and the horses leaped out. As the horses continued to accelerate, tens of thousands of troops charged, and the entire desert trembled.

The war horses galloped wildly, rolling up the dust in the sky. The earthquake trembled, and the shouts of killing rushed to the sky.

Miles away, even if it is a desert, the cavalry charge is only a blink of an eye.

Once upon a time, the battle mode of the Imperial Chinese Army was a three-stage pattern, that is, artillery fire - cavalry charge - infantry clearance. However, as the pattern of warfare changed rapidly, the Royal Army began to blur in the two phases of cavalry charge and infantry clearance. This is mainly because the means of transportation of the Imperial Chinese Army are all cavalry war horses, even infantry can be used as cavalry, so the division between cavalry and infantry, and the combat functions of cavalry and infantry are somewhat blurred.

"Taking advantage of the opportunity of the extension of artillery fire, the Royal Army of the Chinese Empire really deserved its name"

In the telescope, Murat looked at the combat mode of the Imperial Chinese Army, and his heart was full of emotion.

Once upon a time, he was a fanatical reformer of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. At the beginning, the impact of European firearms on the Turkish Empire made him sober, and he was determined to carry out military reforms, imitating the European army model to establish the Ottoman Empire's firearms army model.

However, today he again felt a new military ** shock. The tactics of the era of the Spanish phalanx are a thing of the past, and the tactical thinking of the Imperial Chinese Army will be the master of the future, but Murat smiled bitterly that although he realized it, he knew that there was no order to do a second military reform.

In the blink of an eye, the Imperial Army of the Chinese Empire had rushed to kill. The fierce war horses and high-spirited soldiers suddenly killed the Ottoman Empire's wolf bèi and fled in all directions.

On the battlefield, deserters die quickly, deserters chased by war horses die quickly, and wounded deserters die even harder.

The three large phalanxes that Murat hastily organized, and the army of more than 30,000 men were crushed in less than half an hour.

The Ottoman Emperor's army was shaken, which accelerated the attack speed and results of the Chinese Emperor's army. Soon, the Chinese Emperor's ** team narrowed the encirclement and marched step by step, in order to wipe out the main force of the Ottoman Emperor.

Here, at the head of the fortress, just as Li Yan was commanding the defenders in the most difficult battle, they heard the familiar sound of a horn in the distance.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Chinese Empire who were struggling to fight were already crying excitedly when they heard the sound of the horn, and their fighting spirit instantly swelled to the extreme, and the more they fought, the more courageous they became.

On the other hand, the Ottoman Emperor who was besieging the city was still fierce at first, and his face was full of life. After hearing the trumpet of the Chinese Empire, it was like a deflated ball, and the fighting spirit was lost. More than 20,000 attacking troops were beaten all over the ground by thousands of defenders.

An hour later, the main force of the Chinese Emperor further contracted the encirclement and surrounded tens of thousands of remnants of the Ottoman Emperor on the banks of the canal.

Murat saw that his soldiers had lost their armor, and the wolf was like a beggar, and his fighting spirit was completely lost, and even many of his weapons were lost. He knew that it was over, and he had no power to return to the sky, so he pulled up the white flag and surrendered to the Chinese Emperor.

Tens of thousands of Ottomans** surrendered, announcing the end of the Battle of Suez in Middle-earth.

At the head of the city, Li Yan almost cried with joy. When the chief of staff Cao Jian made peace with him, Li Yan gave Cao Jian a bear hug and almost strangled the other party with excitement. U