Chapter 898

It takes courage to be determined to defend to the death, especially in the face of Ming artillery fire. The Spanish army and the British army built a three-kilometer-long frontal defense line around Lintaver, and many one-man high trenches were dug, and many obstacles such as deer barricades were placed at the front of the position. When the Ming army began to prepare for artillery fire, the soldiers hiding in the trenches felt the benefits, even though the water under their feet was over their ankles, which was much better than being killed by artillery.

Henry's luck was good, the British army he commanded was a professional army, and during the Ming artillery bombardment, the soldiers at most crouched down and held their heads to endure the hellish fire. The Spanish army did not perform as well as it should, and many of the recruits could not stand the torment of the artillery fire and jumped out of the trenches and ran back, and these men were either killed or killed by the overseers.

Fortunately, trench warfare in this era has not yet reached the point of being as perverted as World War I, and the Europeans have only learned a scratch of the surface, simply digging trenches and hiding in them to guard against artillery fire, and have not yet reached the level of reaching in all directions.

The Ming artillery fire mainly hit targets on the ground, such as fortresses, such as concealed artillery positions. To do this, you must be guided by a hot air balloon. The Ming army undoubtedly did not lack this thing, and the hot air balloon swaggered over to guide the precision strikes of the artillery. The coalition forces, which were already small and backward in artillery, soon did not have a few artillery pieces left on the position.

"The Ming army began to attack, they lined up in a linear loose formation, and approached unhurriedly. These soldiers seem to be very submissive, and should use companies and platoons as combat units, keeping a certain distance from each other. It is difficult to understand what theory they base their tactics on. After Henry solemnly recorded these words in his diary, a gunshot rang out in front of him. Hurriedly put down the notebook, picked up the monoculars, and came out of the church window. Watching the movements of those Ming soldiers. The good luck of this church is that the artillery fire of the Ming army did not patronize here, or rather, Henry's luck is good, there is no expeditionary force with large-caliber artillery, and it is not intended to waste 75 shells on it.

Platoon guns rang out, and the Ming army suffered some casualties. But more soldiers calmly lay on the ground or hide behind some cover, and returned fire with rifles in their hands. Henry's shocked scene appeared, the attacking troops, who were obviously small in number, actually suppressed the British platoon of guns in the fire. The important thing is that they lay on the ground, but they did not affect the reload in the slightest, and the rate of fire was much higher than that of the British. It was a new type of rifle, too far away for Henry to see. I decided to see the frontier for myself.

This news is so important that the previous Spaniards did not reveal it at all, didn't they find that the appearance of this new rifle is enough to change the pattern of war in the whole world? Out of the church, Henry trotted to a fort in the forward position, which had been preserved by the shelling. Inside the fortress at the moment. The remnants of the British army, two smoothbore guns made by the Ming Dynasty, are firing.

For the performance of such smoothbore guns. Henry has always admired it very much, the rate of fire is fast, easy to carry, and the power is not small. But now he didn't think so, and on the way to the fortress, he saw too many soldiers lying in pools of blood. The wounded were constantly being lifted downward, and from this situation, at least 10 percent of the soldiers were lost in the shelling.

"General, you shouldn't come here." Henry was spotted by a captain. Immediately came over to report, Henry looked firmly at the Ming army in front of him: "No, I have to come." If we don't learn more about the Ming army and report back to China what I know, the future of the British Empire and the whole of Europe could be a disaster. ”

"Okay. Our soldiers fought very tenaciously, but the effect was not noticeable, and their rifles had a fast rate of fire,......。 The captain's words were interrupted by a loud bang, and he subconsciously squatted down with his head in his hands. Henry pounced on the firing port, and clearly saw seven or eight Ming soldiers fiddling with a strange cannon, which looked like a light mortar. It was the shell from this cannon that landed on the side of the firing port, and the two soldiers fell in a pool of blood, and Henry didn't even have time to look at the soldiers.

Rumble! Another shell landed on the side, and Henry's luck was that the flying shrapnel knocked down two soldiers, but he did not hurt a single bit. The power of this new type of artillery is really terrifying. Raising his hand to sweep the smoke and dust in front of him, Henry was pulled aside when he wanted to see more clearly. It was the captain who saved him in time, and in an instant, at least three bullets flew in from the firing port and sparked on the wall behind him.

The two sides were firing at each other, and although the 5,000 British troops were too weak, the momentum of the Ming army's forward movement was also slowed down.

"Leave me alone, hurry up and fire the shotgun." Henry shouted, several soldiers came up, carried away the wounded companions, and with a bang of the cannon rang out, at least three Ming soldiers fell, and the forward momentum was interrupted again.

"Sir, I suggest abandoning the outer positions and retreating to the residential areas behind us, otherwise we will not be able to stand this fortress and the surrounding positions at all, and the casualties will be too great." An officer who hurriedly came in reported loudly, and when Henry saw that it was one of his brigadier generals, White, immediately asked, "How big are the casualties?" ”

"Up to now, more than half of the 2,000 people on the position have been killed or wounded, and if they don't retreat, I'm worried that the soldiers will collapse."

Retreat? Henry hesitated, the pattern of this battle was beyond his comprehension. Just as he was struggling, the Ming army began to retreat, directly retreating to the attack position five hundred meters away.

"Dog, what kind of fight did you kid fight? Thirty-five brothers were wounded. Yao Dali, the commander of the assault battalion, raised his foot and kicked a company commander to the ground, angrily scolding his mother. After landing in Europe for so long, there has never been a battle with such huge casualties and such great attrition.

"Hey! Sir, give me one more chance, and this time I'll take that fortress. The Japanese company commander Mitsui Tatsui bowed his head and said that he had made a mistake. As a veteran Afrika Korps unit, the commanders of the 14th Division have changed by two, the equipment has also been replaced, and the soldiers have been replaced by half, but they have never suffered such heavy casualties outside of street fighting.

"Okay, don't be angry, he's done his best. The problem now is that the rock-built fortresses have no effect from long distances. I called the regimental commander and asked him to push up the two mountain guns in the regiment. Mitsui, you go back, let the soldiers build positions with sandbags, and remember to cover the artillery action when you go back. "It was the life instructor who spoke, and the battalion commander had to give face to his words.

"Hey, please rest assured, sir, if you can't take the position again, you will decide on your own."

"Fart, every officer and soldier of the European expeditionary is precious, you better break this thought." Yao Dali relieved himself and scolded, even if he let Mitsui go. The soldiers of the 14th Division are all of Japanese descent, and the characteristic of these soldiers is that they dare to fight with their lives. The only drawback is that you have to play suicide at every turn, something wrong!

Henry did not accept White's advice, not because he did not listen to it, but because he judged it to be wrong. The reason is very simple, the town behind him is the last line of defense of the British army, if you withdraw to the town, there will be a gap in the entire defense line, not to mention, the small 4,000 people are piled up in a small town, with the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, the consequences can only be more serious. The facts have already told the coalition army that it is better to expect the Ming army to take care of the civilian casualties in the town, and it is better to expect God and his old man to take action and directly exterminate this group of infidels.

Henry's suggestion turned out to be correct, but it didn't help. The only way is to put the reserves on the position in advance, otherwise with the existing forces, the platoon of guns will simply not be enough to block the opponent's attack.

Mitsui was ruthless this time, personally leading a platoon to rush to the front, and two 75 mountain guns followed the team forward, and only stopped when they reached 200 meters, and directly aimed at the fortress behind the sandbag fortifications built by the soldiers. A shell came from inside the fort and hit the sandbags so hard that there were no casualties. Two mountain guns fired at the same time, one shot hit the fortress directly, and with a bang, the fortified fortress shook a few times, but did not collapse. At this time, the rate of fire of the mountain artillery was reflected, and while the British were still loading, three consecutive shots followed, and the fortified fortress collapsed with a bang after three direct hits at this distance.

"Follow me!" Mitsui, who was lying on the ground, was the first to stand up, bent down and trotted forward, and the soldiers behind him followed closely, and when they rushed to less than eighty meters, the collective brushing fell down, which was the new tactic summed up. Sure enough, the platoon of guns on the opposite side rained down, but unfortunately it had no effect, and there were no casualties.

The soldiers lying on the ground crawled forward, Mitsui was still in the first place, and when he climbed forty meters away, he suddenly stood up en masse, and grenades flew out like raindrops, and immediately they all lay down again. Without the artillery support in the fortress, the British troops in the interior of this position were suppressed by mortars, and their own casualties were not small, and after another grenade, after continuous explosions, the British army finally couldn't support it, and they turned around and ran back, but the Japanese Ming army behind them did not let them go at all, and the guns chased and beat their butts.

After a morning's fighting, the outlying positions of the British army were lost, and Henry did not even have time to send reserves before the positions were taken. Just as he was feeling sorry for the performance of his soldiers, he received even more frustrating news that the Spanish positions had been lost before the British, and that they had retreated to the last line of defense. In the face of the Ming army's full-front attack, the performance of the Spaniards was not particularly outstanding.

The last position was in the town, the pursuit of the Ming army soon stopped, there were six cannons hidden in the town, and they opened fire in time to save some of the retreating British troops, and Henry's statistics showed that there were 3,000 troops, and less than 800 returned to the town. That is, more than two-thirds of the casualties.

"This is an unprecedented mode of battle, I feel that the British army and the Ming army are not in the same world, can it be said that God has given up on his people?" Henry pulled out his notebook from his breast pocket and recorded the passage. (To be continued......)