Just when the British soldier Harvey was stunned, in the defense line of the Ninth Division, which was only 100 meters away from him, a captain about 30 years old was full of excitement, and his mouth was still shouting: "Keep shooting, pay attention to changing the rubber pad!" ”

At this time, the young ensign on the side said: "They have already rushed to within 100 meters, are they going to prepare a bayonet to countercharge!" ”

But the captain shook his head: "No, keep fighting, just fight like this, they can't rush!" ”

The captain's words were not wrong, outside the defense line of the Sixth Army of the Chinese Army, when more than 10,000 coalition soldiers launched an attack, although at first it seemed to be very powerful within a distance of three or four hundred meters, but after entering within three hundred meters, the rifle bullet hit rate of the Chinese Army increased significantly, and more importantly, the charges of these British and French soldiers were crowded and dense, and the soldiers of the Chinese Army did not need to aim at all, and they could get hits by shooting at the crowd.

The high rate of hit, and the rate of fire of the rear-loading rifles used is quite fast, so that the British and French soldiers on the way to the charge are almost down in pieces, although these effects can not be said to be as terrifying as the machine gun strafing of later generations, but the key is that the charging British and French troops are too dense.

These tens of thousands of rifles fired at these human targets, and the effect caused by them was definitely not much weaker than that of machine guns.

The distance of 100 meters was like a moat, no matter how the British and French soldiers on the opposite side rushed, they couldn't rush away, and then they were knocked down one after another.

Shi Qingxuan, who was watching the battle from the rear, saw this scene, although he had imagined many times in advance that his unit equipped with rear-loading rifles would crush the enemy with dense rifle fire, but he never imagined that the enemy's charge of more than 15,000 people would not be able to surpass his infantry firepower. The two sides don't even have the opportunity to fight hand-to-hand right now.

And the British and French infantry on the opposite side could not rush forward, which meant that they could not inflict too much damage on the Chinese soldiers lying on the trenches and shooting. Even if there are sporadic Chinese soldiers who are unlucky enough to be hit, it is not worth mentioning for the entire front.

Is this a win?

Shi Qingxuan was only a visual inspection. They all knew that in the past few minutes, the British and French soldiers who rushed over on the opposite side had at least three or four thousand dead and wounded, and many of the troops who rushed in the front row had been completely annihilated, and the troops in the rear were somewhat crowded and wanted to continue the attack, while more troops stayed in place, they did not dare to continue to rush up, they did not dare to retreat, so they stayed in place in a daze.

How so?

It shouldn't be!

The commander of the coalition forces in the rear, Count Ergin, was already full of sluggishness, as if he was having a nightmare. Seeing his soldiers fall in pieces, and more importantly, he couldn't rush forward.

"Earl, you can't rush down any longer, let them retreat quickly, or ......" A British major general beside him was also full of horror, and he did not finish his words, because he knew that the next words were not suitable for speaking.

Because if this continues, this attacking force will be completely annihilated!

This could not be rushed, and there was not enough cover in the face of the enemy's dense rifle fire. Your team's dense offensive formation is completely a huge target, and people can hit it without aiming.

When his subordinates said this, Count Ergin reacted, and hurriedly said, "Quick." Retreat, retreat! ”

Following the order of Count Ergin, the soldiers in front who did not know what to do turned around and ran away one by one. That short ten minutes just now was definitely the most terrifying period of their lives.

From the beginning of the offensive, it was first subjected to intensive shelling. Then, at a distance of 100 to 400 meters from the enemy, it was intercepted by unimaginably dense rifle fire from the enemy.

During this attack, countless comrades-in-arms fell one after another. Many infantry companies have been completely wiped out, for example, Harvey's infantry company, more than 110 people before leaving the station, now there are only a dozen people left, including him.

At this moment, the coalition forces fled in all directions like sheep that had lost their leader, and one by one they rushed backwards stepping on the corpses of their comrades.

And when they turned to run away, the bullets from behind were still harvesting their lives!

At this time, the cavalry units of the Chinese army were also gathered on the left side, and were ready to rush into the battlefield to pursue these scattered infantry, if they succeeded in catching up, their more than 1,000 cavalry alone would be enough to kill and wound more of the scattered coalition soldiers.

However, although the infantry of the coalition army has completely collapsed, their cavalry units remain intact, and have been keeping a close eye on the cavalry units of the Chinese army, when the cavalry units of the Chinese army tried to launch a flank attack, they also directly intervened, and then launched a charge against the cavalry units of the Chinese army.

The tens of thousands of infantry in front of them had completely collapsed, and if the cavalry of this Chinese army were allowed to rush forward, the result would be disastrous, so they had to stop the cavalry of this Chinese army no matter what.

With the 1st Dragoon Regiment of the Guards Army as the core, this coalition cavalry formed a dense formation and rushed towards the cavalry units of the Chinese Army.

And the cavalry of the Chinese army also rushed forward without fear, brandishing their sabers.

Since the battle of Wusong, after the defeat of the cavalry, the cavalry of the Chinese army and the coalition army once again carried out the most fierce hedge!

Led by the 1st Dragoon Regiment of the Guards, the rest of the coalition cavalry followed, with the Indian cavalry, like the cavalry of the 1st Guards Dragoon Regiment, dropping their spears and charging with their best spears, while the French North African cavalry accompanied the attack on the left flank with their scimitars.

Compared with the cavalry of the opposing coalition army attacking with spears, the cavalry of the Chinese army was all cavalry swords.

Riding swords against spears, coupled with the difference in the quality of the horses between the two sides, there is no doubt that this will make the cavalry of the Chinese army suffer some losses in the initial stage of the hedge, but the cavalry of the Chinese army still rushed forward bravely and fearlessly, because they did not expect to be able to defeat the enemy with a direct through charge, and their advantage was that the two sides fell into a melee after the first wave of hedging. Gain a tactical advantage in melee with cavalry swords and cavalry pistols.

The battle between the cavalry was more fierce and rapid than that of the infantry, and the contact between the infantry of the two sides lasted for more than ten minutes or even half an hour. But the cavalry on both sides had less than two minutes of running before they collided together.

The two sides collided with each other like the fiercest waves!

In the first moments of contact between the two sides. In the face of the opponent's spear charge, the cavalry of the first row of the Chinese army was suddenly swept to the ground like the fallen leaves of the autumn wind.

But the cavalry of the two sides hedged at the same time, which was destined to make the opposite side unable to completely break the dense cavalry formation, and then the cavalry of the Chinese army relied on their flexible cavalry to cut down the coalition cavalry that used spears one after another, and at the same time, the cavalry rifles they had already prepared were also frequently fired, and in the sound of gunfire, a cloud of white smoke was also set off in the cavalry melee area of both sides, and one after another coalition cavalry was knocked down in the gunfire.

The cavalry engagement on both sides was relative to the infantry engagement between the two sides just now. It seems more tragic, but at the same time more direct.

In the infantry battle just now, the infantry of the Chinese army basically hid in the trenches and fired, and then unilaterally killed and injured the enemy infantry, but now the cavalry of the two sides are mixed together, often killing and wounding a coalition cavalry, and their own side will also pay the price of a cavalry killed or wounded.

The charge and engagement between the cavalry was not only a test of training and the level of weapons, but also a test of the courage of both sides, and a test of who could hold out longer.

The cavalry engagement between the two sides began with a fierce collision and slowly turned into a scuffle. In the end, the three or four thousand cavalry of both sides were entangled with each other on one side of the battlefield, and the battle was fought to such an extent that they could not break away unless the winner was completely divided. I can only continue to fight.

When the cavalry was fighting, the infantry next to them was not idle, and the moment the coalition soldiers fled. Many officers of the Chinese Army had already blown the bronze whistle in their hands and waved the sabers in their hands. Then the soldiers climbed out of the trenches one after another.

They lined up in loose formation, reloading and firing as they advanced.

Shi Qingxuan will not sit idly by and let all the enemy troops flee back. Now that this war has been fought, and it has occupied such a great early advantage, there is no reason why he should not continue to expand the results of the battle, the infantry on the opposite side has completely collapsed, and it is completely impossible to organize effective resistance, as long as the posture of pursuit is maintained, then they can be forced to be unable to organize effective resistance until they are completely annihilated or surrendered.

Although launching a counter-charge will inevitably be killed by enemy artillery fire, Shi Qingxuan has been prepared for this, that is, the straggler formation.

In the last battle of Wusong, the coalition army used the straggler formation to test and lure the Chinese army to attack, and then used artillery fire to kill and injure the Chinese army, and the coalition army that maintained the straggler formation faced the shelling of the Chinese army, the casualties were relatively low, but the coalition army equipped with Mini rifles used the skirmish formation, it was difficult to form dense infantry firepower.

However, this problem is nothing for the Sixth Army of the Chinese Army, because the Sixth Army is equipped with rear-loading rifles, and the rate of fire is quite high, which means that a more relaxed formation can be used, and at the same time, it can maintain sufficient fire density.

As a matter of fact, in the formation training of the Sixth Army, it can be regarded as completely abandoning the crowded and dense formation of the era of the front-loading line column, and has adopted a relatively loose straggler formation, with soldiers generally spaced more than three meters apart, and no longer stubbornly demanding the use of two or three horizontal columns, but the formation of a more layered formation.

So if you look at it from the sky, when the coalition forces attacked just now, they basically maintained a wide straight line, but when the Chinese army launched a counteroffensive, it was evenly scattered throughout the battlefield, and soldiers could be seen almost everywhere on the battlefield, rather than a fixed horizontal formation.

The purpose of this formation is very clear, that is, to reduce the damage of the enemy's artillery!

At the beginning, the allied forces were able to attack under the fierce artillery bombardment of the Chinese army with this kind of skirmish formation, but after the Chinese army used the straggler formation this time, although the allied artillery on the opposite side tried their best to intercept it, it still failed to stop the counterattack of the Chinese army!

The soldiers of the Sixth Army were seen marching at trotting speed, reloading and firing as they went, and the 1858 Linde rifle with a one-piece paper case made the loading process extremely easy, and after the reloading, it was a shot.

Looking at the counteroffensive troops of the Chinese army almost all over the mountains, and then looking at the cavalry engagements that had completely fallen into a war of attrition, Count Ergin felt despair for the first time in his life!

Is this a failure? (To be continued......)