Half an hour after Lieutenant Colonel Compton left with the LinkedIn Army, Colonel Vassone began to regret it, the night march, the unknown enemy situation, and the rash move, these were all factors that exuded a strong atmosphere of defeat, and he felt that he should be more resolute and let Lieutenant Colonel Compton stay. The troops of Major General Michel and General Colino, who arrived from Tongzhou after dawn, will rush to this side for reinforcements, and if the town of Hexi is lost, the coalition army will lose the best attack fulcrum on the canal, and finally have to fight with the Taiping army in the field.

Are the coalition forces afraid of a field battle with the Taipings? After a moment's thought, Colonel Vasogne began to laugh at his cowardice and caution, but at least he didn't think he should have let Compton take the risk.

While he was still thinking about it, the dense gunfire of the canal wharf not far from the town of Hexiwu suddenly came, and Vasone's heart was startled, only to hear the lookout soldiers on the wooden tower in the town shouting downward: "Enemy attack! The enemy is sneaking up on the docks! ”

Vassone hurriedly asked loudly, "How many are there?" "It's too dark, too far to see, but there's a lot of fire from the guns!" The enemy's target seems to be a gunboat docked at the dock! ”

Vasonene couldn't help but be very anxious when he heard this, like Tianjin City, the coalition army did not leave a special artillery unit here, only more than 20 Qing artillery guns transported from Tianjin, and the trouble encountered by General Sutton in Tianjin, the French soldiers were very reluctant to use this kind of artillery with a high risk factor, so the most powerful artillery support in Hexi Wuzhen could only be the gunboats on the canal.

The Coalition had a total of 12 steam shallow water gunboats on the canal, including 10 British and 2 French. In normal times, these gunboats were mainly used to escort coalition transport ships to and from the canal, although the coalition forces controlled most of the important strongholds from Tanggu to the Tongzhou Canal. But there were too many sorghum fields and woods along the way to provide cover for the enemy, and the coalition feared an attack on the convoy. So the necessary escorts were still needed, and these gunboats could also provide firepower for the battles that took place along the canal.

At this moment, the British Navy's Mosquito and Fly submersible steam gunboats docked at Hexiwu Town are sister ships, both of the same model, only 320 tons of tonnage, equipped with three six-pounder guns, and a total of 47 crew members on board, which is only slightly larger than the 295-ton Sjeventh, the smallest in the coalition fleet. Originally, the two gunboats were going to return to Tianjin City this evening, but because of the declaration of war. Vasonee told them to stay and protect the town of Hexi, so the two gunboats remained. Six of the other ten gunboats remained in Tongzhou, and the other four were still cruising on the Baihe River in the Tanggu area.

"Lieutenant Bernard! You immediately lead your company to reinforce the docks! Rescue the British! Vassogene did not want to hear the accusations of the British after the war, and the two British gunboats had to go to the rescue.

Lieutenant Bernard set out with a company of French Marine Battalion soldiers, who moved very quickly and appeared to be experienced. Speaking of the French Marine Battalion, it can be called the originator of all the Marines in the modern army, and even the British Navy, which dominates the world with its navy, learned from the experience of the French Marine Company when it established its own Marine Corps.

Back in 1622. Cardinal Richelieu of France ordered the formation of the French Naval Company. During the Napoleonic period, a battalion of marines was established in the Royal Guard. During an expedition to Great Britain in December 1804, Napoleon personally awarded a flag to the Marine Battalion. On the front of the flag reads: "The Emperor of France personally awarded the Marine Battalion of the Guards", and on the back is the battalion emblem. On both sides of the battalion emblem is the motto of the Marine Battalion: "Brave, disciplined". It was this force that made the last resistance when the anti-Napoleonic coalition entered Paris in 1815.

Unlike other French units. The French Marine Battalion is an experienced unit that is active in France's overseas colonies all year round. Several times a year, the army had to participate in the wars of the French colonies abroad, and the long wars allowed the army to be tempered.

Lieutenant Bernard led his company to the vicinity of the pier. Several French non-commissioned officers led the soldiers to occupy several commanding heights nearby, such as the top of the wharf hold, the small hill at the exit of the wharf, etc., while Bernard personally led more than 50 soldiers to continue to advance quietly.

In the sorghum fields on the other side of the dock, hundreds of muskets flashed from time to time, and the enemy was supposed to be firing at the British gunboats. Judging from the enemy's firepower and the elite Cheng of muskets, it should be the strongest yellow army in the Far East, the Taiping Army!

None of the soldiers rushed to fire after the French had crept into what they thought was the best firing spot, and when Lieutenant Bernard had entered the dock and the soldiers were ready, Lieutenant Bernard fired the first shot, and then the French Marine Battalion soldiers opened fire, each pulling the trigger on their target.

There was a scream from the other side of the sorghum field, and the sudden fire salvo of the French army had a miraculous effect, and almost half of the bright spots of the fire disappeared, but it was not clear how many enemies had been killed in the darkness. Without waiting for the non-commissioned officer's order, the French soldiers continued to fire on each other to suppress the enemy's fire on the opposite bank.

The suppression of the fire of more than 100 French troops really made the enemy on the opposite bank very confused, and I saw that there was a faint continuous lurking of sorghum in the sorghum field, and it was obvious that the enemy was shifting his position to get out of the attack of the rain of bullets.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lieutenant Bernard quickly ran to the wooden bridge of the pier with a few soldiers, and after approaching the gunboat, he shouted at the gunboat: "British boys, hurry up and counterattack, are there any wounded?" Let them go first! Damn, why don't you return fire with artillery fire? ”

When he arrived at the docks, Lieutenant Bernard found that the gunboats were weak in return fire, could it be that the British sailors on both gunboats were almost dead and wounded? This was obviously unreasonable, but in the confusion, Lieutenant Bernard did not think much of it.

But now, when Bernard approached the gunboat and shouted, more than a dozen black shadows suddenly appeared on the side of the gunboat, and they fired a volley of muskets at Bernard. Lieutenant Bernard was lucky, only his left arm was bruised, and he quickly rolled behind a pile of cargo by the dock, while the six soldiers who followed him were not so lucky, three were shot and fell to the ground without moving, and three were wounded and fell to the ground screaming.

Bernard barely pulled one of the wounded French soldiers closest to him to dodge the bullets, and then saw the six-pounder guns on the gunboat begin to fire at the French soldiers on the docks!

"God, why are the Brits firing at us? Yes! My leg! The wounded French soldier screamed, and Bernard used first-aid gauze to tie the wound on his leg and said with a wry smile: "We have been fooled, the enemy has already occupied the gunboat of the British, and opened fire to attract us to the rescue, this is a trap!" ”

"Cunning native! Damn the yellow pig! The soldier kept cursing, and Bernard looked out a little, only to see that the two gunboats were blazing, and dozens of muskets and the guns on the ships kept firing at the hiding place of the French army, and he gritted his teeth and tied gauze to the wound on his arm, and said in a deep voice: "They are not natives, they are very formidable enemies." I guess they came from under the water and touched the British gunboats. Most likely, they, like us, are marines who are proficient in landing operations! The British on board were either killed by them or taken prisoner. ”

"Lieutenant, does the Taiping Army also have marines?" Facing the soldier's questioning, Bernard said with a somewhat bitter expression: "Yes, a few years ago I set out with the naval fleet and watched their landing operations on Temple Street and Sakhalin Island in the far northeast, and they were very brave and defeated the Russians. ”

"Lieutenant, what should we do? You see, Basil is no more! Not far away, two wounded French soldiers were dying of excessive bleeding, and Bernard gritted his teeth and said, "You stay here, don't open fire, I'll go and get them back." ”

Seeing the opportunity for the shooters on the gunboat to change ammunition, Bernard rushed out and dragged a French soldier back, finally pulling the soldier back who had been shot in the abdomen, but soon the gunboat also spotted him, and a burst of gunfire came, and the pile of cargo was shattered. The debris fell on Bernard's head and face, and it turned out that the pile of goods was a dozen bales of corn, which were military rations collected by the coalition forces.

After bandaging the soldier, Bernard knew that he would not last long without first aid, and the last wounded soldier was completely immobile. The Taipings also seemed to notice that there was an enemy behind the pile, and they kept firing at this side, leaving Bernard and two wounded soldiers in danger.

The French soldiers near the pier could do nothing about it, they were suppressed by gunboat fire, and more fire points appeared on the opposite shore to suppress them, and at the same time, there were also enemies on the shore on the left and right sides of the pier, and they charged while firing at the French.

When the French army at the dock was in a bitter battle, they hoped that Colonel Vaniesu in Hexiwu Town would send someone to support them, but they found that there was also a very dense gunfire in Hexiwu Town, and it seemed that Hexiwu Town was now under surprise attack.

Colonel Vaniesuo was now in a state of distress, under surprise attacks from the enemy on three sides, judging from the enemy's firepower, at least one regiment of the Taiping army was attacking them, and he only had three companies of soldiers left, and the Bernard company that reinforced the dock did not seem to be able to return, and the gunfire there was very dense.

"Lieutenant, Franço is dead!" The French soldier, wounded in the leg, hugged the soldier who had been shot in the abdomen and said, Bernard also noticed that Franço's hand was hanging limply, and he could not do anything.

In the sound of gunfire, the enemy's footsteps sounded on the dock bridge, and more than a dozen Taiping soldiers got down from the gunboat, and slowly approached this side with their waists bent, "Lieutenant, you run away quickly, I can't go, you run that way!" The wounded French soldier pointed to a cargo accumulation area on the left side of the dock and said that he might be able to go back if he ran that way.

Bernard shook his head and refused, "We're done, the enemy has taken the dock!" Sure enough, the French troops near the dock began to retreat under the enemy's charge, and the dock was almost occupied by the enemy.

When several bayonets appeared behind the corn bales, Bernard handed over his weapon and said in a half-baked Chinese: "My soldier is bleeding from a bullet in the leg, please save him......" (To be continued......