'Hurry up, hurry up boys!' ‘

In front of the city of Yonglong in Nanqi, several French artillery officers were constantly checking the preparations in front of the position, shouting loudly to cheer up the soldiers. Laborers requisitioned from Ha Tien transferred boxes of shells from the rear to the positions.

The arrogant French artillery did not prepare bunkers at all, and only bulldozed the gun emplacements. But it's not that they're lazy, it's that in the current situation, the French artillery doesn't have to worry about the few guns of its kind in Wing Lung at all.

Little by little, the muzzle of the cannon began to rise, refracting a touch of cold light.

The sun rose from the left rear of the French position, the morning air made it easy to breathe, and the golden sunlight cast the dark shadows of the slanting sun and the cannons on the ground in the distant woods, like a carved emerald, and the black tops of the trees could be seen on the horizon.

The Vietnamese highway passes through the woods over there, and there is a small village there.

Now the village is deserted, and the avenues are full of French troops. Golden rice paddies and groves sparkle in the distance. Rear, left, right, everywhere there were troops.

The French soldiers' Gallic rooster-like costumes and their heads held high made the army look so majestic and magnificent.

Behind Vinh Long City is the Mekong River. It was supposed to be a large river that allowed gunboats to cruise freely, but the Vietnamese blocked the entrance to the sea with a wreck. So now, it is still in the hands of the Nguyen Dynasty.

The morning mist of the Mekong River melts, dissipates, and becomes transparent under the bright sunlight, and the scenery that can be seen in the fog slowly shows clear outlines.

The smoke and fog of the guns mixed together, in the smoke. Everywhere there was the light of the morning - sometimes on the water, sometimes on the shore. Sometimes in Henan, on the bayonets of the French army. Sometimes in Hebei, on the Vietnamese ships that responded.

Through the smoke you can see the black walls of Wing Long, with soldiers, rifles and cannons on them. All this qiē seems to be floating, floating in the fog. The entire space in this area is filled with smoke and fog. On the left side of the battle line, in particular, at the top of the woods, fields, depressions, and high grounds, there were clumps of smoke from cannons, sometimes in groups, sometimes in groups; Sometimes sparse. Dense at times.

Most of the artillery of the French army was concealed there.

Strange to say, these gunsmoke and shooting sounds actually constitute the main beauty of the scenery in front of you.

Burst! - Sudden smoke of gunfire; Bang! - After a second, a loud bang came from the smoke.

'Go, dear friend, go, and may the Lord be with you. A French officer said to the lieutenant standing beside him, his eyes not taking off the battlefield.

The artillery group in the distance had stopped firing. French soldiers with bayonets marched forward.

Of all the French artillery fire, the only one that has not stopped is the artillery position in front of Wing Long City, which can be aimed at with the naked eye.

'Load the shells!' ‘

Sharp brass whistle. Twenty cannons spewed flames in an effort. Reloading, shooting; Reload, shoot...... They were repeating the same action over and over again.

The smoke of gunpowder swelled and opened, and explosions rang out throughout Wing Lung City. Artillery fire sometimes caused large fires. But fires are often extinguished by the prepared Vietnamese before they spread.

The strength of a company of the 35th Infantry Regiment of the French army launched a tentative attack on the city of Vinh Long. Two heavy machine-gun forts, which had never been discovered by the French, firmly stopped the French soldiers from attacking.

A mere company of French soldiers. The chain of fire fired by the two heavy machine guns crossed each other, and the French lost half a platoon of troops in one back and forth.

The bright uniforms and the military posture with their heads held high did not bring the French half of their luck. It will only make the shooters of the new Vietnamese army fight more accurately and hard.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Twenty artillery pieces from the artillery positions in front of the city continued to bombard. The artillery group in the distance also regained their enthusiasm.

In a sturdy stone building in Vinh Long City, the Governor of the Vietnamese New Army. Wu Zhongping was pointing at a map with his two generals. However, it does not seem that this is a military map, but only a layout map of Wing Long City......

Night soon fell, and the sound of killing was already on the battlefield. The city, which had been majestic by day, was now in ruins, and groups of blue ribbons and a small number of French soldiers launched wave after wave of charges under the cover of artillery, and red points of light carried by bullets shuttled back and forth between the two sides.

Wu Xuanjia pressed his head, and ran out of the city with one foot deep and one foot shallow, stepping on the steps like a pile of rubble, followed by a team of fresh troops. Stumps and broken arms can be seen everywhere along the way, Wu Xuanjia, and even Wu Zhongping didn't expect that the French would be so ruthless from the beginning!

In less than a day, nearly 1,000 people were killed or wounded by the garrison, and most of them were killed and wounded by the shells.

When he came to a machine-gun fort made of thick sandbags and stones, there was a sudden loud shouting from inside. "It's stuck! Quick—"

Wu Xuanjia sighed in his heart, the heavy machine gun is very precious, and it is extremely useful. There were also quite a few blue ribbon soldiers and French soldiers who fell outside the city today, and the six heavy machine guns arranged outside the city were of outstanding merit. And until now, two of the six heavy machine guns have collapsed the fortress by artillery fire, one has failed, and now there is a second one? Wu Xuanjia looked over, and saw that the heavy machine gunner inside jumped and jumped, it turned out that because of lack of experience, continuous high-speed shooting, a canvas cartridge belt was torn and blocked the entrance of the gun magazine, these people in the machine gun squad in a hurry hurriedly pulled the heavy machine gun away from the shooting hole, and the two soldiers re-fired the shooting hole after the deadline, and continued to shoot outside.

Ignoring the hot receiver, several New Army soldiers from the machine gun squad began to scramble to clean up the remaining canvas cartridge belts.

It's a nasty job. Heavy machine guns are high-tech things, and without long-term practice, it is very difficult to quickly 'solve problems'. And this thing was precisely configured by the new army of Vietnam after the Chinese New Year, before the Nguyen Dynasty disliked that heavy machine guns were too expensive and too bullet-swallowing, and would rather add more money to build an artillery piece than a heavy machine gun. So now there are simply no experienced heavy machine gunners in the new Vietnamese army.

In just two months, the Vietnamese New Army simply mastered the maintenance and cleaning of heavy machine guns, as well as tactical actions such as point fire and strafing. There was no time to delve into it, and at this critical time, the machine gun fort was simply a pot of porridge.

Seeing that one of the few heavy machine guns had stopped, Wu Xuanjia immediately secretly said that it was not good.

This heavy machine gun can withstand the firepower of 100 people, and it has played a mainstay role in today's combat effectiveness, and it is also a sharp weapon for blocking the French infantry assault. Now that there is a malfunction, there will be a big gap in the line of fire on the battlefield immediately. You have to make it up right away!

"Follow me, quick, quick!"

The experienced French commander immediately saw the flaw, and under the alert of the sharp copper whistle, hundreds of blue ribbon soldiers and French soldiers bent over and rushed towards the loophole.

The new Vietnamese army should rejoice, glad that Vu Xuan Jia happened to take a team of people to the battlefield. Otherwise, it is really possible to be rushed into position by the French army. How could two repeating guns make up for the firepower of a ten-barreled Gatling heavy machine gun? By then, even if the new Vietnamese army could still drive their opponents out, their own casualties would inevitably be enormous.

Just look at what happened after the French retreated. As the last French soldier disappeared into the darkness, the dense cannonballs fell again. The French really don't leave the slightest chance to breathe.

The first day of fierce fighting lasted until half-past twelve in the evening, and when the soldiers of the Vietnamese New Army rubbed their sore shoulders and got up, they found that Vinh Long City was barely visible, and blood and corpses were lying all over their eyes.

On the north bank of the Mekong River, hundreds of wounded soldiers who had been evacuated from Vinh Long City gathered here. The newly formed medics bandaged them and prepared to return to Saigon. The requisitioned Vietnamese youths rowed a small boat to move the bodies of the fallen New Army soldiers here. The young faces with their eyes closed forever, and the corpses with their limbs shattered and scorched black, made everyone from them grit their teeth.

On the stretcher, a soldier whose thigh was torn open by shrapnel wailed inexhaustibly, the sound made everyone more nervous, and the medical soldier next to him was probably frightened by the unstoppable blood, and his movements were slow and clumsy, and finally alarmed a military doctor who came to support the Qin army, quickly scraped off the adhesive near the wound, cleaned the wound with salt water and alcohol, and then sprinkled hemostatic powder, and personally sutured the wound.

In the early morning of another day, Wu Zhongping appeared on the front line, and in front of him was a hellish picture, the huge southern city no longer saw the intact city walls, everywhere was the rubble that had been blasted by the shells, and the ground was full of uncleaned stumps and dried bloodstains.

And when he saw his nephew Wu Xuanjia, who had been on the front line all day yesterday and had not withdrawn to rest after leading troops into the frontline position at night, Wu Zhongping almost didn't dare to recognize him. His face was covered with gunsmoke, his clothes were wrinkled and dirty, and there was a sour smell all over his body.

Wu Xuanjia was both frightened and happy when he saw Wu Zhongping: "Dudu, why are you here?" ”

"You are all my soldiers, you fought so hard yesterday, as the commander of the first army, why shouldn't I come to see my brothers."

Wu Zhong's bland words made all the officers and soldiers warm their hearts. Yesterday's battle was exactly the same as when the bloody battle in Hue was at a fever pitch, and now I feel very scared when I think about it.

The meals of the front-line recruits in the morning were super good.

There is fish, there is chicken, there is duck, there is beef, there is mutton, there is pork chops......

In order to reward the soldiers on the front line, Wu Zhongping asked the government in the rear to transfer them overnight. Everyone eats with their bellies open, without restraint. In addition to the lack of alcohol, it can already withstand the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner of the New Army, the best-treated unit in the whole of Vietnam.

"If it had been four years ago, Wing Lung City would have been lost yesterday. The French had already crossed the Mekong and continued north. But now they are still obediently staying on the south bank, and this Yonglong City is still firmly in our hands.

What does this mean?

This shows that we are getting stronger. A little bit stronger. One day, we will be able to wipe out the French cleanly, and we will be able to completely recover Nanqi and Ha Xian! (To be continued......) R1292