From the time the British and French forces sent 3,000 troops to attack the position of the Sixth Division, it was only half an hour, but the situation on the battlefield had changed continuously.

At first, the Anglo-French alliance did not do what the senior generals of the Chinese army expected: the 3,000 soldiers who attacked the 6th Division were just luring troops, but really launched an attack.

Later, when Bing Qusong and others thought that the British and French forces were going to launch a large-scale attack on the positions defended by the Sixth Division, they found that the main force of the British and French forces in the rear was heading straight in the direction of the Second Army.

This series of changes can be said to be unexpected by Bing Qusong and others!

However, no matter how the situation changes, in fact, it will have little impact on the Chinese army that is stubbornly defending the defensive position, because even if the British and French forces change the direction of the main attack, then the Chinese army can adjust the defensive line at any time and will not be greatly affected by this.

This was mainly due to the relatively small frontage of the positions that the Chinese Army needed to defend, and the Second Army, together with the Seventh Army, built a defensive line of about six kilometers on the front.

The combined strength of the two armies has reached more than 30,000 people, and more than 30,000 people defend a six-kilometer defensive line.

The only difference is that the farther away from the Wusong Fort and the riverside, the less fire support the two sides will get.

For example, now the main force of the Anglo-French forces did not go to the position of the Sixth Division of the Seventh Army, but went to the side of the Second Army, and although they would not be subjected to intensive artillery bombardment from the Wusong Battery, they themselves could not get the support of naval artillery.

Therefore, when the two sides fought in the direction of more than four kilometers from the river, the battle between the two sides was completely detached from the influence of naval guns and batteries. It turned into a pure army showdown!

With the change of direction of the Anglo-French forces, more than 10,000 soldiers on both sides quickly ran. On the Anglo-French side, the positions of the Second Army were headed, while the Seventh Division of the Chinese Army quickly rushed to the side of the Second Army for strategic support.

And when the two sides are engaged in a wide range of tactical maneuvers. On the position of the Second Army, Xu Yanqing was walking in a mud-covered trench in his usual general's uniform and woolen coat, and he was leading the senior officers of the Second Army on a final battlefield tour to encourage the morale of the soldiers.

Although the Anglo-French forces were already approaching the positions of the Second Army, considering that they were advancing on foot, and that they could not run at full strength from several kilometers away, it would take them at least twenty minutes to cross the distance of about three kilometers in the state of the fast foot army.

Taking advantage of this time, Xu Yanqing quickly inspected his own position!

Treading on a ditch full of mud. Xu Yanqing couldn't help but complain in his heart about the construction workers, who came to the construction at the beginning to save man-hours, the drainage system of the trench was very simple.

In addition, it is spring, and there was a light rain last night, which is nothing to the whole land, and most of the trenches are still dry, but some of the low-lying trenches are poorly drained, resulting in water accumulation.

Although these little bits of water and mud don't interfere too much with the fight, they are always in a bad mood when stepping on them.

Before he finished his inspection, the field artillery units of the Second Army were already intensively shelling the main forces of the British and French forces, which were close to about 1,500 meters!

The artillery of the Second Army was not much, though. Its main force consisted of only five twelve-pounder artillery batteries, about thirty twelve-pounder front-loading smoothbore guns, but the effect of the artillery bombardment was much greater than that of the Sixth Division.

The position of the 6th Division, because of its proximity to the Wusong Battery. Some artillery support from the batteries was available, and the artillery of the Seventh Army was deployed relatively closely, not only with the artillery of the Sixth Division itself. At the same time, it will be partially supported by the artillery of the 7th Division, and more than 50 12-pounder guns can be drawn if necessary.

However, the 3,000 British and French soldiers who attacked the 6th Division adopted an extremely bold skirmish formation. At the same time, the artillery units supporting the 6th Division will also be threatened by the naval fire of the British and French forces, and will suffer some casualties while shelling. You can't shell with all your might.

However, the Second Army was different, although their artillery was small, but they could shell as much as they wanted, and at the same time, the British and French forces did not use any skirmish formation when attacking the Second Army, and used the traditional line or column formation.

In fact, they couldn't do any kind of straggler formation if they wanted to, and these tens of thousands of people were gathered in a place less than two kilometers wide, and they couldn't disperse there.

In this case, the second army's artillery bombardment effect was restored to a normal level, and it would not fire hundreds or thousands of shells like the sixth division, and only a few results were achieved.

Now the artillery bombardment of the Second Army, if one shell hits, it can often cause several or even more than ten casualties of the British and French forces!

However, although the effect of the shelling is not small, it is limited by the small number of artillery, and for the coalition forces of tens of thousands of people, these small casualties due to the shelling are completely acceptable.

So they didn't stop, they kept going!

And the closer they got, the faster they were, at first the British and French troops still used the normal pace of walking, then the fast walking, and when they reached more than 1,000 meters, it became a trot, and when they reached nearly 500 meters, they began to run at full speed.

And it is very noteworthy that they did not say that they stopped at a distance of several hundred meters and lined up and then shot or something, but rushed directly with a rifle with a bayonet on it, as in the battle of Canton.

It's not that the British and French forces don't want to engage in an upright line of fire with the Chinese army, but that the Chinese army can't hold out and hide in the trenches and don't give them this opportunity at all.

In the face of the enemy hiding behind the breastwork or in the trench, the British and French forces will not be stupid to shoot at the enemy in the same place, and the modern army has a very mature response system for this, that is, to directly launch a bayonet charge!

Don't think that the modern army is a line and column shooting every day, in fact, there are not many opportunities to shoot in line and column in a dignified manner, most of them occur in the field encounters, but in a war, there are still not many encounters in the field, most of them are still this kind of offensive and defensive battles.

In the face of the enemy's fortifications, whether it is a war in modern times or in the next few decades, the most effective and at the same time the only way is to rush up and fight hand-to-hand, standing in place and shooting at the enemy troops hiding in the breastwork and trenches, this kind of stupid thing few generals can do.

This is also the reason why modern armies attach great importance to bayonet hand-to-hand combat, because it is often necessary to use it!

In the two battles of Guangzhou, the British and French forces did not fight any line of fire with the Chinese army at all, and the most artillery bombardment between each other, the only large-scale infantry battle was bayonet hand-to-hand combat.

Generally speaking, including the two battles of Guangzhou and the current battle of Wusong, they are all a kind of 'trench defense' combat mode, and this is also the inevitable development of the war mode after the large-scale popularization of the Mini rifle.

In fact, in the American Civil War in history, most of the main battles between the two sides were also 'trench defense'.

The traditional large-scale line shooting, although it has not completely disappeared, is about to enter the end of its life.

At this moment, if you look down from the sky, you will find that the British and French forces of about 10,000 people have formed about three formations, and the frontal attack is about a thousand meters wide, and many officers on horseback surround the infantry attacking in formation, and shells are constantly falling and exploding around them.

A British major rode a thoroughbred horse and commanded his troops to advance steadily, but as a grenade exploded above his head, he fell from his horse without saying a word.

The soldiers of a British infantry company trotted forward to the beat of drums, and when a grenade fell into the crowd and exploded, it was as if four or five soldiers were overturned and fell to the ground, but the other soldiers did not even look at it, and continued to move forward.

The British army on the entire battlefield was like this, although from time to time people fell, but it could not stop their advance!

Xu Yanqing, who had already returned to the rear observation platform, looked at the British soldiers who were rushing towards his position, and watched them continue to attack after suffering continuous artillery casualties.

Turning his head to look to the east, the Seventh Division was still running, but it would take a while to get there.

This meant that the Second Army itself would need to fight the British offensive alone.

As the British soldiers got closer and closer, the officers of the 2nd Infantry Division had already drawn their command knives one by one, and the soldiers had already equipped their ammunition and were waiting for the officers' orders to shoot!

However, before they could shoot, the four-pounder infantry guns of each infantry battalion were the first to fire, and these four-pounder infantry guns were not front-loaded, but were all placed in various sections of the trenches, and they also had cover, and these infantry guns fired directly shotguns, sweeping the British soldiers who were getting closer and closer.

Soon after the four-pounder infantry gun was fired, the officers of the 2nd Infantry Division also gave the order to open fire!

The crisp and dense sound of gunfire continued, and soon a clear white smoke was lifted from the positions of the 2nd Infantry Division, and there was no doubt that many of the British soldiers on the charging path, especially the soldiers in the front row, had fallen.

But they kept going!

Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred and fifty meters!

"Fire" the 2nd Infantry Division fired a second volley.

There was no doubt that this round of salvo was more effective than the first one, causing at least six or seven hundred casualties on the opposite side, but it was clear that this did not stop the charge of the British and French forces.

They still carried their bayonet rifles and rushed forward with the corpses of their comrades! (To be continued......)