Kalunda wanted to mobilize the artillery, and there was a fierce bombardment of the positions of the marines and minefields, and they pulled a lot of artillery.

The marines of the Dashang Corps were all selected from the battlefield with Tsarist Russia, and each soldier had been on duty on the battlefield of Tsarist Russia for more than two years, not to mention rich experience, at least it was not comparable to ordinary soldiers who had never been on the battlefield. The sound of artillery explosions has long been accustomed to them, hiding in individual bunkers, and someone is still whistling.

"These French people are really, don't we just want some money! That's it. "The one who spoke was a platoon commander, with the rank of lieutenant, his name was Qin Yafeng, he was originally from the First Infantry Division, and later he was transferred to the Marine Corps, and everyone in the platoon called him, Da Qin.

"That's it!" A bunch of minions under him followed. One of them, who looked like a big horse monkey, said with a smile: "These French people can't think of it, and if you have money, you have to spend your life to make it." ”

"Lao Hou is right, these French are just weak and underdrawn, and they really regard us as the peasant army of the Qing Dynasty." The one who spoke was a big man, nicknamed the Iron Tower.

These two were sergeants, two squad leaders under Qin Yafeng. The shells of the French fell, booming, and a lot of dust fell in the pits.

"Grandma, why haven't our cannons fired back?" The third-class leader who had not spoken scolded Porcelain Chicken.

Not long after, the French artillery stopped, and Da Qin shouted at this time: "Enter the position!" ”

After plowing the positions of the Great Merchants with artillery, Karonda gave the order to attack. The French had only fought naval battles with the Northeast, and this was the first time that the two sides had met in the true sense of the word on land. Still, Kalunda was confident in his troops.

At this time, an airship flew through the sky, and after circling for a while, it did not attack. The French are inexplicable.

When the French attack force entered the firing range, Qin Yafeng gave the order to attack, and he had more than 30 people under his command and three squads. The snipers knocked over a couple of French officers first, and then the Bo-1 general-purpose machine gun rang out, hissing sound, and the French sounded strange. But the power made them shudder, especially when they saw their comrades being beaten into a pile of scattered parts. But the French still did not flinch, and the offensive was fierce. And the North African cavalry that followed it was very fast and managed to break through the first two barbed wire. Seeing this, Fu Dong, the captain of the Marine Corps stationed in Toulon, immediately ordered the mortars to suppress it, and after some rapid fire, finally repelled the first attack of the French.

"Report, the reconnaissance airship found the artillery positions of the French."

"Order the artillery to attack!" Fu Dong didn't hesitate.

After the first wave of the French attack was repulsed, their shelling began again, but this time the merchants began to counterattack, and the 105mm guns spewed out tongues of fire, along with the 75mm field guns, but the latter was targeting a place that had been spotted by the reconnaissance airship as what might be the headquarters of the French.

Kelenda did not expect to be the target of the opposing artillery, he was crushed to the ground by one of the guards, and he was not injured except for a body of dust. However, two of his staff officers were unlucky, and they had been blown up to the ground.

"These bastards!" Kalunda scolded angrily.

"Report, artillery positions are under attack!"

"What?" Kalunda was very puzzled, and later it dawned on him that it must be the airship of the Great Merchant who discovered their positional deployment. "This battle can't be fought, retreat, return to peace!"

The other French officers, although they felt that Kalunda's decision was somewhat sudden, obeyed the order.

Regarding the inexplicable withdrawal of the French troops, Fu Dong didn't know what kind of medicine they were selling in their gourds, but only ordered to treat the wounded, re-strengthen the position, and lay minefields.

Pinghe is located in the south of Toulon, near Sanqi, but compared to Sanqi, it is far from the coastline and can prevent the sea raids of the great merchants. When the peace was settled, Kelenda immediately convened a military council, and the first issue was how to deal with the airship detection and attack of the big merchants.

Everyone, you say a word, to be honest, there are not many ways. It would be a joke to hit an airship with a rifle, and the Hatch Chase machine gun can pose a threat to the airship, but the elevation angle of the shot is too small, so it is basically impossible to attack the air.

The French, who were forced to do so, came up with a solution, which was to build a number of sloping mounds and mount the Hatch Chase machine guns on them, so that they could attack the air. It's just that the attack area is limited, but this is also a way to do it.

Five days later, the French made a comeback. Not to mention, their local tricks really damaged an airship, but the expected explosion did not happen, which was somewhat unexpected by the French.

"How is that possible? Shouldn't the airbags of airships be filled with hydrogen? "Kalunda knows a little bit about airships.

The other French officers were also in doubt.

"I'm afraid the airbag should be filled with helium...... said a French officer who knows a thing or two about chemistry." But is there a way to produce helium on a large scale? He wasn't sure about that.

"We can't handle this matter, let's send it back to Paris to ask."

In Sanya, Hainan, Yan Fu has already obtained the recent combat situation report, and the French attack is even more fierce than expected.

"The French have set up anti-aircraft Hatch Chase machine gun positions in Saigon, and it is impossible for our airships to bomb at will as they used to." Ma Mengde, the captain of the airship brigade, introduced the situation.

Yan Fu nodded and said, "This is also an expected situation, contradictions are competing, we can't just rely on one weapon to fight from beginning to end." ”

Chief of Staff Lai Xiande said with a smile: "Actually, it doesn't matter, the French are still passive defense, and we still take the initiative." ”

Sa Zhenbing looked at the map and said, "It seems that Saigon must be taken!" As long as they stay there, the French will always have their thoughts on the Far East! ”

"The same is what the headquarters meant, let's do our best to capture Saigon and completely destroy the French in Vietnam." Lai Xiande nodded in agreement, and then continued: "The current situation is that the remaining Far East Fleet of the French is currently stationed near the mouth of the Mekong River, and will not enter the port unless it is renovated. ”

"It seems that they are also afraid of being blocked in the harbor by us."

"By the way, the remnants of Poriya in the north have now moved westward into the borders of Laos, and it seems that they do not want to return to Saigon from Vietnam."

"Then let them run."

On June 18, 1885, the entire merchant fleet was dispatched to launch an attack on Saigon. Not to be outdone, the French Far Eastern Fleet, under the command of Colonel Fowler, counterattacked.

Fowler saw the Great Merchant Fleet for the first time, and his heart was shocked, his flagship was the Baya ironclad ship, which was one size smaller than the Taiping and Anxiang of the Great Merchants.

The Baya ironclad is the lead ship of the French Baya-class ironclad ship, with two ships of the same class, the other being the Tuzheni, which is currently also sent to the Far East to strengthen the defense. Construction of the Baya began in Brest in October 1876, was launched in May 1880, and commissioned in 1882. The ship has a displacement of 5915 tons, and the Tuzheni is 6260 tons. The ship is 81 meters long, 17.45 meters wide, and has a draft of 7.62-7.67 meters. The ship is equipped with 8 boilers, twin-shaft propulsion, output horsepower of 4400 horsepower, speed of 14~14.5 knots, coal carrying capacity of 400-450 tons. The ship is armed with 4 M1870 239mm guns, 2 193mm guns, 6 140mm guns, 4 3-pounder guns, 12 1-pounder guns, and 2 356mm torpedo tubes. The ship's side armor is 152-254mm, deck armor is 203mm. The establishment is 451 people.

The Tuzheni was now beside the Bayar, along with the Atarante, the cruiser Destán, the cruiser La Perouse, and the cruiser Nielle, with the latter three cruisers of the same class. In addition to this, the cruiser Amirin.

The Atarante was a French Alma-class ironclad ship, which began construction in Cherbourg, France, in June 1865, was launched on April 9, 1868, and commissioned in 1869. The displacement of this class is 3513-3828 tons, the length of the ship is 68.88 meters, the width is 13.94~14.20 meters, and the draft is 6.26~6.66 meters. It is equipped with 4 boilers, single-shaft propulsion, output horsepower of 1580~1890 horsepower, speed of 11~11.9 knots, and coal carrying capacity of 250 tons. The ships of this class are equipped with 6 M1864 or M1866 193mm guns; 4 140mm or 119mm guns; 1 pounder gun 8 guns. The ships of this class have 152mm of side armor, 119mm of turret armor and 102mm of deck armor. The establishment staff is 316.

The cruiser Desdan, the cruiser La Perlouse, the cruiser Nielli, all three belonged to the La Perlouse-class cruisers. This class of ships is the first and second class cruisers in the French fleet maintenance plan in 1872, and the construction of this class began in 1875, with a total of 4 ships of the same class. The class has a displacement of 2,363 tons, a length of 81.92 meters, a width of 11.38 meters, and a draft of 5.66-5.87 meters. The ship is equipped with 6 boilers, single-shaft propulsion, output horsepower of 2,750 horsepower, speed of 15 knots, and coal carrying capacity of 300 tons. The ships of this class are equipped with 15 M1870 140mm guns and 8-10 37mm rotary machine guns. The establishment has 264 people.

AMIRIN WAS OF THE SAME CLASS AS THE WOLDA, THE FLAGSHIP OF THE PREVIOUS FRENCH COMMANDER, AND BELONGED TO THE LIMIER-CLASS CRUISERS. This class of ships is a small cruiser of 1200~1300 tons, which was built in 1864, with a total of 5 ships of the same class. In 1874 the class was classified as a cruiser of the third class. The displacement of this class is 1323 tons, the length is 63.40 meters, the width is 10.36 meters, and the draft is 4.47~4.85 meters. The ship is equipped with 2 boilers, single-shaft propulsion, output horsepower of 1000~1100 horsepower, speed of 12-12.5 knots, coal carrying capacity of 200~235 tons. The ships of this class are equipped with 1 M1864 or M1866 163mm gun and 4 M1864 or M1867 140mm guns. The establishment staff is 154.

If there was no great merchant fleet, the remaining fleet of the French would still be enough to sweep all the East Asian navies except the British, but unfortunately it was born at the wrong time......

"Attack!" Yan Fu gave the order to attack.

Mamond sat on his own aerial mammoth-class flagship, the Roc, with him a total of two pit viper airships and two mammoth airships, the pit viper airship had joined the battle, using machine guns to strafe the French warships, but did not use air-dropped bombs, because the hit rate was too low, it was better to stay for the next land target. And the three mammoth airships, led by Mamonde, are now taking on the task of air command. Because the equipment is more advanced than that of small airships, and there are more manpower to handle it, the calculation speed and accuracy are far from being comparable to those small airships on the airship aircraft carrier.

The French battleships had nothing to do with airships, but fortunately their attack capabilities were not very high. It should be said that Fowler's luck is not bad, and the two ironclad ships of Dashang have suffered at least two close misses in the past six salvos. Although it caused some damage, it was not strict. The Baya and Tuzheni are now closing the distance to the Great Shang fleet, their main guns caliber 239mm, while the main guns of both of the Great Shang's ironclad ships are 254mm. Although the fleet of the Great Shang has entered the range of the Baya, because it is the maximum range, even if it is attacked, it will have no effect.

"It's going to get closer!" Fowler calculated in his mind that only the bow gun was now firing back.

Yan Fu knew the other party's calculations, but he didn't care, he knew that the French would always run out of luck. Fowler also knew that his heart was also tense when he looked at the reappearance of the proximity bomb. The Serenity fired another salvo at this point, and his target was the Tuzheni.

The Tuzheni was apparently not as lucky as the Baya, and the Tranquility's ninth salvo finally hit the target with two shells, as well as two close-detonation shells. The first shell hit the bow of the Tuzheni, the bow gun was blown up, and a large hole was made in the foredeck. Another shell hit the bridge conning tower, which was now devoid of people.

The Tuzheni's shot startled Fowler and shocked him.

"1,2 gun emplacements, angles 328 degrees 11 minutes, 3rd gun position angles negative 329 degrees 40 minutes! The elevation angle is 25 degrees and 18 minutes, the number of medicine packs is 4, the estimated target distance is 2900m, and the countdown is 5 seconds! "The observer of the Taiping loudly gave down the shooting parameters! A few seconds later, the hull of the Taiping shook violently, and the officers in the cockpit felt that the entire bridge shook violently!

Captain Zhou Qiming liked this feeling very much, he held a telescope and looked at the French battleship in the distance, although the smoke of the artillery fire made his vision a little blocked, he still liked to see the prey tremble under his attack.

Fowler was terrified again, and the proximity bomb reappeared.

A pit viper flew past the battleship, and a string of cannons came down, and several French soldiers who were loading the bow guns were beaten into a pile of rotten meat.

"Can't go on! The ships were much faster than ours, and the artillery was sharper than ours......" Fowler ordered. "Order, the whole fleet, retreat!"

Several French staff officers were taken aback, but at the same time they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Report the battle damage of the Tuzheni!" Fowler commanded.

"The bow of the ship was destroyed, the command platform was destroyed, half of the power was lost, and the captain Hendra was killed......" The adjutant paused at this time and said: "All the officers and men of the battleship Tuzheni request to stay behind, delay the attack of the Great Merchant Fleet, and cover the withdrawal of the fleet!" ”

Fowler suddenly felt a pain in his heart, but nodded immediately.

"Report to the Commander, the French fleet is turned, except for the Tuzheni, and the Tuzheni ......"

Yan Fu had already seen that the hull of the Tureni had turned sideways, and the damage caused by the two heavy guns on it was shocking.

"Order the airship force to intercept it, and the whole fleet will pursue it!"