The French soldiers, apparently no longer had the pride and arrogance they had begun to have, began to be cautious, and gradually approached the first trench in front of Fengwo Village, but the defensive position was carefully camouflaged, and it looked as if it were just patches of irregular weeds.

Huang Lijun was very nervous, holding a Colt M1873 revolver imported from the United States, his fingers clenched the handle, and he felt that he was about to come out of the water.

Gradually, the French army got closer and closer, 300 meters, 200 meters, 150 meters,

Huang Lijun could even faintly hear the voice of the French herald in front of him. The enemy was already only a hundred meters away, and the soldiers on the left and right had already begun to make some commotion, Huang Lijun gritted his teeth, thinking that he would wait until he walked 50 meters before firing.

But at this moment, I didn't know that someone was too nervous, and the gun was shot with a "bang".

Huang Lijun was extremely angry and scolded: "Which shit? He flicked his pistol and shouted "Hit!" ”

In front of the trench, there was a burst of gunfire, and the French troops immediately fell, and Captain Yagomière, who was also shot in the right arm, was bleeding profusely.

The two sides launched a confrontation of fire, and the grass and trees were scattered, and a cloud of smoke and dust filled the air.

Soon Lieutenant Colonel Martin arrived here with 250 Marines. The French troops, who had received reinforcements, were greatly demoralized and, under the cover of the machine guns of Haqikais, launched a charge on the positions of the Chinese troops. Under the cover of machine-gun fire, the French quickly approached the first line of trenches, and Captain Yagmière was wounded in the right arm, so he had to carry a gun in his left hand and still rushed to the front of the line.

However, Huang Lijun commanded the troops to put up a slight resistance, then ordered a retreat, and quickly withdrew to the second trench.

A few minutes later, the French successfully captured the first trench, and Lieutenant Colonel Martin was overjoyed, and the attack went so smoothly that he even felt that the Chinese had been completely routed and scattered.

But Captain Yagmière was a little worried, when he was wounded just now, he felt that the enemy was numerous, and the firepower was quite fierce, how could the other party break up with a charge? , He couldn't help but say suspiciously: "Such an attack seems to be a little too easy, is it any trick for these Chinese?" ”

Lieutenant Colonel Martin waved his hand: "You are too worried, I have dealt with these Chinese, in fact, twenty years ago, as an ordinary naval soldier, I once participated in the war between the British and French forces against China, in my memory, Chinese is such a rabble, we have been rushing into the city of Beijing, burning China's royal gardens, it is not much ......more difficult than now." ”

Martin was triumphantly reviewing his glorious history, and before he could finish speaking, he heard a violent explosion, and artillery fire fell from the sky, lined up to match the trench, and the French troops who were resting in the trench were blown up, and the soil, sand, and weeds mixed with the stumps of the human body flew in all directions.

Captain Yagmière broke one of his legs and fell to the ground shouting: "Sir, give the order to retreat." ”

Lieutenant Colonel Martin's face was hideous: "It turned out to be a fire trap, these Chinese thought that I would retreat, I wanted to continue the attack and make a surprise attack." ”

After saying that, Martin commanded the remnants of the army to assemble and continue to advance, but only a hundred meters, they were met by the second trench head-on, this time the fire was extremely fierce, Martin immediately realized that he had made a serious mistake, and had to retreat until he retreated into the grove.

Guba, who had just landed, received a report from the front: the attack was frustrated, more than 40 people died, and with the wounded, nearly 100 people were reduced.

He suddenly seemed to be poured a basin of cold water, and judging from this result, the Chinese had long been heavily guarded by the fort. At the same time, he received another unfortunate news: the gunboat Yishibi was hit by a heavy cannon from the top of the mountain, and a large hole was pierced, and the water continued to enter the water, and the situation was very dangerous.

At this time, it was almost dusk, the sky was beginning to darken, and Guba felt that the whole fleet was in danger, and he must capture the batteries on both sides of the strait as soon as possible, otherwise it would be too late to wait for reinforcements.

He ordered all the marines of the fleet to be gathered in the grove here.

The three warships outside the gold medal mouth will also use sampans to send all the personnel who can be mobilized here through the plugging to strengthen the troops.

At the same time, the fleet intensified the suppression of the batteries

Guba is determined to make a desperate bet to break through the defense line and take the fort at the top of the hill.

After more than an hour, the assembly was basically completed, and the strength of the army was nearly 1,200 men, which was all the strength of the Marine Corps of the fleet, and the commander was changed to Lieutenant Colonel Berdoleveland. After a little rectification, they launched an attack in the direction of Fengwo Village.

The movements of the French army were quickly discovered by an observation post on the top of the hill, and Sun Wanlin was reported.

Sun Wanlin felt that the enemy was attacking with all his might, so he hurriedly reported to the headquarters and asked for reinforcements.

After receiving the report, Song Qing thought that the enemy was desperately trying to make up for it, and Sun Wanlin might not be able to stop it. He immediately ordered the garrison troops on the other side of the Golden Medal Mountain to transfer a regiment, led by the regiment commander Su Desheng, to assemble at Menbian Village on the west side of the Golden Medal Gate Waterway, and notified the fleet in the harbor to send ships to meet them and ferry the regiment to the Duting Tomb on the opposite bank. Taking advantage of the fierce battle of the French fleet at the Golden Gate, there was no time to care, so he secretly transported reinforcements across the waterway to reinforce Sun Wanlin.

But this will take time, and Song Qing asked Sun Wanlin to stay on guard until at least midnight.

On the other side, the French had already launched a ferocious offensive at this time, and soon rushed through the first trench under the command of Berdoleveland, where a fierce battle took place with the Chinese troops. The battle lasted nearly half an hour, and Huang Lijun's troops suffered heavy casualties and had to abandon the second trench and retreat into Fengwo Village, relying on fences, thatched huts, and bunker ditches to resist.

The French army continued to attack Fengwo Village, and even attacked Fengwo Village for a time, but the artillery position behind Fengwo Village played a role, and the fierce artillery fire made the follow-up troops of the French army have to stop, and the French troops who attacked the village were outnumbered and had to retreat again.

The French were constantly under precise artillery fire because the observation post on the top of the hill indicated the direction, and the French side was not a regular army, with only a few light guns, which made the commander Berdolevilan angry and helpless.

After a simple preparation of fire with machine guns and small artillery, Bertoreweilan personally led the troops and once again stormed Fengwo Village, where the Chinese army resisted desperately with its fortifications, and Huang Lijun sent someone to report to Sun Wanlin that he was about to be unable to withstand it.

Sun Wanlin felt that the time had come and ordered Hu Yanqing to lead the reserve team to attack.

A moment later, the French army, which was advancing step by step, was fiercely attacked from the flank. After a hard battle, seeing that the soldiers were exhausted, Berdolevylan had to abandon his dead companions and withdraw from Fengwo Village again.

Sun Wanlin saw that the troops suffered heavy casualties, especially Huang Lijun's regiment, which killed more than 291 people and wounded more than 400 people, and only about a dozen people were left in one company, and Hu Yanqing's regiment also suffered nearly 200 casualties.

In addition, the fortifications of Fengwo Village have been almost destroyed, and the artillery company has reported that the heavy artillery shells have run out.

Sun Wanlin felt that in this case, he was afraid that he would not be able to stop the next wave of onslaught of the French army, so he decisively ordered to abandon Fengwo Village, and the whole army withdrew to Jinpai Mountain, preparing to defend Zuihou with the fortifications halfway up the mountain.

The Grusen light artillery was all pulled up the mountain, and the howitzers and mountain guns were too heavy to carry, so explosives were put in the chamber of the guns to blow them up to avoid leaving them for the enemy.

The French army on the other side was even more depressed, with nearly half of the 1,200 marines killed or wounded, and the rest were generally demoralized.

The only good news was that the battle between the fleet and the battery was successful, and a Krupp heavy gun on the opposite Nagato battery was finally destroyed after several shells in a row. This reduced the pressure on the fleet, but at the same time there was bad news, not only had the gunboat Yishibi, which had been hit, completely sunk, but also the cruiser Destein accidentally ran aground on the shoal in order to avoid artillery fire, and could not move.

By this time, it was completely dark, and Guba was like a mad dog that had been cornered, and he was extremely angry.

He pulled all the people who could fight in the fleet, and gathered more than 400 people, which was already the limit of what the fleet could mobilize, and even the cooks and cleaners on the ship also joined the combat team.

Due to the serious shortage of ammunition, the French had to pick up the guns and bullets of the dead Chinese infantry, but Lone Baba knew that the lack of artillery had greatly reduced the power of the French attack, so Lone Baba sent someone to remove two 140mm guns from the stranded Desdan and transport them to Fengwo Village.

At this time, it was already late at night, and if it were not for the extremely tenacious spirit, in a short period of time, relying on manpower alone to unload the artillery and then pull it down the mountain, it was unimaginable, the French army had already used every bit of Zuihou's strength to eat, and their hopes were pinned on Zuihou's blow.

After a brief dinner, Guba reprimanded his subordinates: "Warriors of France, it is now time to zuihou, if we cannot stand on the top of the hill when the sun rises tomorrow, then our republic will suffer an unprecedented humiliation, that is, the noble French nation has suffered a tragic defeat in this wild country in the far east. We must not be the protagonists of this tragedy, we must fight for dignity, for honor, long live France! ”

The soldiers also shouted: "Long live France!" Long live the Republic! ”

The French began the artillery bombardment, two 140mm guns, as well as the Habecis machine guns, aimed at the halfway up the mountain, firing non-stop. Until all the shells of the 140mm guns were exhausted, then the French troops, under the personal command of Guba, rushed up, without retaining any reserves, and everyone took up arms, howled like wild beasts, and launched a frantic charge towards the mountain.

The general attack of Zuihou began.