Because it was a premeditated action, Peng Yulin's choice of the time for the attack was four o'clock in the morning, which was when the sky had just begun to lighten.

Normally, this time in the early hours of the morning happens to be the most sleepy and tired time for people, although the Pemberton Legion is divided into four units to attack in rotation, theoretically 24 hours a day, but in practice there is a difference.

To put it simply, in the early hours of the morning, when they were most tired, most of the Pemberton regiments of the Union Army were grinders, mainly shelling artillery, while the infantry besieging the city mainly shouted after approaching, and fired a continuous volley of guns to finish it.

That is to say, the siege force in the early hours of the morning is the weakest, and only at ten o'clock in the morning, or around five o'clock in the afternoon, the siege force of the Pemberton regiment is the strongest.

In order to ensure the victory of this battle, Peng Yulin had already let his soldiers go to bed in advance, get up at two o'clock in the middle of the night, and then eat and drink enough, recuperate, check weapons and equipment, and each of them brought three days of dry food, just waiting for the time of attack.

At the same time, not only Peng Yulin's infantry regiment was all ready to go, but also Joseph of Memphis. Johnston also deliberately organized an elite force of 20,000 men in advance, and also recuperated in advance, and when he was ready to counterattack, he would cooperate with Peng Yulin's troops to kill together.

Looking at this posture, Peng Yulin and Joseph's alliance this time is obviously a big battle, and there is a great intention to wipe out the other party in one go, which is not in line with Peng Yulin's plan at the beginning.

In fact, Peng Yulin did have the idea of catching them all this time and doing it once and for all, but the reason why he did it was also the result of his repeated consideration.

At the beginning, Peng Yulin really wanted to follow the previous plan and just use a surprise attack to repel the other party. Then keep driving the other party away like a duck, and then let the other party go at the last moment, so that you can probably complete Li Yongji's order to give the other party a color and not form a personal vendetta with the other party.

However, the idea is good and can be waited for during this time. Peng Yulin suddenly found a problem, that is, the previous ideas were a little too taken for granted, but once everyone went to war, it was equivalent to tearing their faces, and it was basically impossible not to make enemies, and if they did so, it would give people an image of treachery.

So Peng Yulin thought about it carefully and found that he seemed to have fallen into a misunderstanding. Why do you have to do everything by yourself, and focus on yourself, you can completely pull others to do it together, and then blame others for it, turn yourself into a victim, and find a righteous and bright reason for your own armed intervention.

As soon as this idea came out, Peng Yulin quickly thought of an idea, that is, to fight. Tactics such as sneak attacks don't stop using, but be sure to pull an ally along. Then beat the other party all at once, and it is best to wipe them all out.

After that, as long as he is the victor, Peng Yulin can push the main victor of this war to others, all to Joseph. Johnston, and his own side became an auxiliary participant.

Of course. Even if it is to assist in the war, there must be a reason, and you might as well learn from the reason why His Majesty the Emperor declared war on the United States in the first place, turn yourself into a victim, and then have to launch a counterattack.

Other words. Peng Yulin planned to join this counterattack on the grounds that he was attacked by the other party for no reason and then had to launch a counterattack, and the leader of the counterattack was given to Joseph. Johnston's troops.

Just insist that the leader of this battle is Joseph. Johnston, Peng Yulin's troops were just injured by mistake, and then automatically counterattacked, so as long as the word of the crowd is itself the victorious side, it should be able to fool the past.

In this way, Peng Yulin can not only give it a go, fight hard, and let the other party thoroughly realize the strength of the Chinese army, but also do not have to worry about tearing up his face with the other party. Johnston's army launched a counterattack, their expeditionary force was only forced to participate in the attack, the blame is still on the head of the Union army, who let you fire indiscriminately and accidentally hit the cannonball on our barracks?

That's right, Peng Yulin's reason for this is that the Pemberton Regiment of the Alliance Army opened fire indiscriminately, accidentally hit his own military camp, and injured a lot of his own personnel, and then many soldiers below went out of the camp to take revenge out of righteous indignation, and took the initiative to attack the Alliance Army without an order.

Well, in this way, the other side is obviously the attacker, but it has become a victim, and the victim wants to seek justice, and it seems that there is nothing to say. However, at the same time, it happened to encounter a counterattack by the Memphis defenders, and the Union army was annihilated by mistake.

There are no eyes on the battlefield, Peng Yulin's reason is still very possible, as for others to believe it or not, then Peng Yulin doesn't care, anyway, this reason is given in order to give everyone a step down, so that not only can the alliance army really realize the horror of the expeditionary force, but also because of this step, it will not really tear its face, and even beat it upside down, as an innocent victim of the attack, and ask the alliance military government for compensation and benefits.

After thinking of this, Peng Yulin called Li Yongji again and told him in detail about his plan, and after Li Yongji approved it, he carefully re-perfected the plan with each other, and took the initiative to talk to Joseph. Johnston communicated, and finally made this counterattack plan completely formed.

Now that everything is ready, the enemy is already a little tired, and this joint counteroffensive is about to begin.

Soon, it was four o'clock in the morning, and the sky was just dawning, and the attack of the Union Pemberton Regiment was still tepid, while constantly attacking the city of Memphis with artillery, and at the same time letting an infantry unit shoot and shout outside the city, in order to achieve the purpose of exhausting the defenders.

At this time, Peng Yulin's military camp was suddenly brightly lit, and at the same time, the Kunshan frigate anchored in the port was the first to start.

That's right, the first wave of the counteroffensive was carried out by the naval guns of the frigate Kunshan, with the aim of carrying out a burst of dense fire coverage, knocking out the artillery positions of the Pemberton Corps of the Allied Army, and clearing the way for their own attack.

In order to facilitate the attack, the Pemberton regiment concentrated all the artillery for use, which greatly reduced the logistical pressure, and made the artillery more dense and more controllable.

But this way. But the artillery positions of the Pemberton Corps were too concentrated, which was equivalent to a living target.

It's just that because the heavy firepower of the Pemberton Army has always been superior and has always been on the attacking side, the defenders in Memphis City lack heavy firepower. At least in terms of the number of artillery pieces and the range of fire, they can't compare with those guns of the Pemberton Corps, so even if the artillery positions are too concentrated, as long as the opponent can't hit them, it's no problem at all.

In fact, at the beginning, the defenders of Memphis City fought an artillery battle with the Pemberton Legion, but because the number of artillery was far less than that of the attackers, and it was in the city, some of them could not be used. So in the end, the artillery battle ended with the complete defeat of the defenders of Memphis City, and in the end, in order to preserve their strength, the defenders of Memphis City never fired again, and let the opponent's artillery bombard indiscriminately.

It is precisely because of this that the artillery of the Pemberton Corps is somewhat empty-sighted, and finally it is simply more and more concentrated, which can make the deployment of materials more convenient.

In fact, it is not a mistake to concentrate on the use of artillery, because in the normal army tactics of this era. Artillery should be used intensively, and it is the best at using it. Undoubtedly, it was the original Emperor Napoleon I.

It can be said that it was after the Napoleonic Wars that the tactics of the armies of various countries underwent a drastic change, and artillery ceased to be a vassal of the infantry, as an auxiliary presence for the infantry offensive, but became a separate powerful branch.

Since then. In terms of the use of artillery by the armies of the European powers, it was generally used centrally, and the artillery was formed into a separate army, even in the later Crimean War, the tactics of artillery concentration were still used.

The Union forces in this area of artillery tactics. It is also quite good, and even better at concentrated shelling, almost to the point of being terrified, and it seems that it is impossible to achieve effective shelling without concentration.

Obviously, concentrated artillery fire can indeed achieve more effective artillery killing, and damage to the enemy is greater, but in the same way, because one's own artillery power is too concentrated, it is also easy to be attacked by the opponent.

However, because most of the army artillery in this period did not differ much in terms of range, the disadvantage of concentrated use did not exist when the opponent's artillery could not overwhelm itself in terms of number and range.

However, that was in the absence of the Chinese army, and if the Chinese army had entered the war and used those artillery that looked like bugs, the result would have been completely different.

This time it was the same, Peng Yulin had already figured out the artillery positions of the coalition army, and even the coordinates were clearly marked, all of which were within the effective firing range of the 100 mm naval guns.

Kunshan is a frigate modified from the Jianghu Type IV frigate, although the Jianghu Type IV frigate has long been an obsolete product in modern society, but in this generation, it is still a big killer.

When it was first refitted, the main gun firepower of the Kunshan was specially strengthened, from the original one H/PJ-87 single-barreled 100 mm automatic naval gun to two single-barreled 100 mm naval guns, and the power of the main gun was more than doubled.

The H/PJ-87 single-barreled 100 mm automatic naval gun is a self-produced naval gun of the Chinese Navy in another time and space, which is an improved version of the domestic 210 naval gun, and the real prototype is the French T100C compact 100 mm single-barreled automatic naval gun.

This 100 mm single-barreled gun does not have much advantage in range, with a maximum range of 17.5 kilometers and an actual effective range of 12 kilometers, but the level of reliability and automation is very high, all of which are automatic bullets, with a rate of fire of 90 rounds per minute, and because of the modified ammunition, the ammunition power has also been enhanced.

The shells of this 100-mm single-barreled naval gun are integrated and not separable, and the types are mainly anti-personnel grenades, supplemented by armor-piercing shells.

Among them, although the total weight of a 100 mm anti-personnel grenade is only 18 kilograms, because of the optimization of the charge and the optimization of prefabricated fragments, the effective killing range of more than 410 square meters can be said to be a veritable heavy artillery in this era.

Originally, a 100-mm naval gun had 114 rounds of ammunition in reserve, but after modification, the Kunshan increased the ammunition depot after removing a lot of equipment, resulting in a ship being able to equip 720 rounds of shells.

In other words, if the two 100-mm main guns on the Kunshan were open at the highest rate of fire, then according to the calculation of the maximum 90 shells per minute fired by each gun, all 720 shells could be tilted out in 4 minutes with full firepower.

This continuous firepower density may not be very strong in modern society, but in this era, it is definitely a terrifying firepower cover. If it is not prevented in advance, just the fire coverage of this 100-mm artillery shell may immediately collapse a large army.

In fact, this 100 mm naval gun is designed to be used mainly for shore and sea attacks, in the 21st century. It is already an obsolete product, and many armies have long replaced this 76-mm naval gun with a 100-mm gun.

The reason is very simple, the 100 mm caliber artillery belongs to the medium caliber, just on the edge of the large caliber, the power is not up or down, not to mention very embarrassing, but the rate of fire is relatively slow, and it is not up to the heavy task of intercepting missile shells.

So, in the 21st century, when missiles are flying all over the sky. The 100 mm caliber naval guns, which were mainly used against the shore and the sea, gradually withdrew from the advanced artillery sequence, and were basically replaced by more advanced 76 mm naval guns.

However, although this kind of naval artillery is somewhat outdated in the 21st century, in this era, this terrifying rate of fire plus the same terrifying lethality, if it is used to bombard ground targets, to kill and injure ground living forces, that is, ordinary infantry. Definitely a cheat!

Sure enough, after the start of the war. Because the artillery position of the Pemberton Corps of the Alliance Army was only 10 kilometers away from the direction of the port, which was exactly within the effective range of the naval guns, and in order to achieve the suddenness of the shelling, this time the Kunshan was prepared with sufficient ammunition in advance, and it was really full firepower, not accurate. Just the rate of fire!

In this way, although due to various reasons, it was impossible to maintain an ultra-high rate of fire of 90 rounds per minute, but it took less than 5 minutes and 22 seconds for the Kunshan to tilt all 720 shells out!

And it turned out. With the artillery positions of the Pemberton Corps as the core, all within a radius of 100 meters became a sea of fire, not only the artillery positions were all destroyed, but the nearby infantry units also suffered great casualties.

Compared with the actual human losses, the mental impact is heavier, after all, the kind of explosion that is overwhelming in a short period of time is not something that ordinary people can bear.

It can be said that just this sudden and intensive bombardment of naval artillery left the forward troops of the Pemberton Corps in a state of confusion, and the reason why they did not collapse was only because they were blinded and did not react.

However, just as the Pemberton Legion was busy reorganizing, a killing sound was heard at the same time from the direction of Memphis City and the expeditionary force camp in the Port of Memphis.

Originally, this was enough to make people's hearts flutter, but before everyone could react, another burst of artillery fire that was not as terrifying as the previous naval artillery bombardment, but it was also very powerful, and it turned out that the mortars of Peng Yulin's regiment began to exert power.

Although the power of this artillery bombardment was much smaller, it completely destroyed the morale of the forward troops of the Pemberton Army, and seeing that the opposing infantry had been pressed, they turned their heads collectively and fled without the slightest resistance.

Finding that the forward troops began to break and flee, whether it was the troops in Memphis City or Peng Yulin's troops, they were all in high spirits, and their pace continued to speed up, rushing over at a faster speed.

During this period, the Kunshan was unable to be reused in a short period of time because all the shells on the ship had run out, and it would take a lot of time to reload. However, the mortars of Peng Yulin's regimental headquarters did not scruple and kept hitting the shells at the fastest speed.

Like naval artillery bombardment, the mortar bombardment at this time is not accurate, but the speed, only need to use the fastest speed to shoot the shells out, causing a local range of fire coverage, it is enough.

Therefore, Pemberton's regiment was under artillery fire all the time, and there was no time to regroup, and the chaos could not be contained.

When the opposing infantry began to press in front of them, the entire front-line troops of Pemberton's regiment finally couldn't stand up, and no matter what method was used, they couldn't stop the appearance of deserters, and finally came to a complete collapse.

In this way, the four thousand infantry of Peng Yulin's regiment, plus Joseph. Johnston's 20,000 infantry, a total of 24,000 troops, chased after these routs like two arrows, chasing and fighting, and fighting, and really chasing and fighting like ducks.

The pursuit lasted 16 hours before it was completely stopped, and less than 10,000 people actually escaped, most of the others were captured, and the number of casualties and missing exceeded 15,000.

At this point, the Pemberton Army was completely destroyed, and the fall of this army also meant that the Western Theater of the Union Army had lost the last controlled living force.

As a result, at least in the short term, before the Confederates re-projected their forces, the entire lower Mississippi region would be under the command of the Expeditionary Force and Joseph. Johnston's Mississippi River Regiment was under control. (To be continued......)