(Double update today)

On January 21, 1881, after a day's rest, the French army officially launched an attack, and the Battle of Shanxi broke out.

The French 2nd Brigade was the first to attack, and the French artillery group began a heavy bombardment, including a dozen heavy guns. Half an hour later, heavy artillery fire plowed almost all over the defensive position, and the deer village in front of the trench suffered serious damage.

As the deer village was blasted open, the French artillery began to adjust the firing range and carry out extended bombardment. Soon, smoke and dust billowed from the defensive trenches, and the bodies of many soldiers who had been killed flew into the sky along with the dirt. There were those who had one hand and one foot blown off, and those who were bleeding and groaning in pain.

But most of them were still deeply entrenched in the trenches, and the French artillery fire was fierce, as everyone had repeatedly emphasized, and some casualties had to be borne in order to hold off the enemy's attack.

The first wave of the French offensive began, and Colonel Belan commanded nearly a thousand men to charge, with the Vietnamese indigenous battalion in front of the line, as usual.

The Vietnamese soldiers were forced to rush to the forefront, and the vast majority of them, with the exception of a small number of Catholics, were hired peasants or ruffians just to make some money. They didn't expect to act as a substitute for the dead and open the way for the French army, which made them both resentful and helpless, because the French gendarmes who were followed by supervising the war would be executed if they escaped.

Previously, the Chinese army continued to release some captured Vietnamese soldiers, and these people went around propagating that Emperor Duc ordered all the Vietnamese to fight against the French, and all those hired by the French were traitors who would implicate their families in the future, which also demoralized the Vietnamese indigenous troops.

These poor cannon fodder, trembling silently walked to the front of the position, and then fired a dense row of bullets from hundreds of meters in front, accompanied by a scream, there was also a whistling in the sky, this is the shells of the Chinese army, and the team immediately exploded in the flying sand and rocks.

The Vietnamese soldiers lost their fighting spirit, shouted, everyone fled backwards, the French gendarmes who supervised the war immediately resolutely resisted, and did not allow them to escape from the battle, and the Vietnamese soldiers were extremely resentful, they couldn't bear it, and raised their guns one after another, so a strange scene appeared, and the French attacking troops actually killed each other on the battlefield.

In such confusion, it was clear that the offensive could not continue, and Colonel Beran had to give the order to withdraw. The first wave of the French attack ended with laughter and tears. Moreover, the confusion of the Vietnamese soldiers also greatly affected the trust and use of the French army in the future of the indigenous soldiers.

After another baptism of artillery fire, the second wave of the attack began, this time all French, screaming and swooping down like beasts.

However, it would be a big mistake to think that these officers and soldiers were just brave men.

The French charge was very distinctive, not rushing straight forward in a row, but in groups of several people, charging forward in a small curve, as if a small "S" shape, which was also a tactical maneuver.

Because of the straight charge, to the defender, it is as if they are aiming at a fixed target, but with this tactical action, the defender is facing a moving target, and the shooting accuracy will be affected.

However, Wang Xiaoqi, the commander of the Chinese garrison, was not an idle person, he was born in Anhui, served in the army for many years, and always paid attention to strategy, and had the reputation of "wise general" before the military training and restructuring.

Based on the combat experience of the Black Flag Army, he carefully studied the tactics of the French army before the war, and believed that the most Haode defense method was for each soldier to move the muzzle of his gun vertically forward, so that the fired fire would be launched in a uniform plane, forming a firepower network without air leakage, rather than reluctantly aiming at a fixed target.

In fact, at a distance of a few hundred meters, with the shooting skills of the Chinese soldiers and the relatively backward performance of the Schneider rifle, even if they aim at the target, except for a few limited marksmen, what is the chance of hitting a moving enemy soldier?

But everyone just shoots straight ahead, and even if you don't aim, the French soldiers themselves will crash into them while they are moving, and the effect may be better.

Wang Xiaoqi gave an order, and the soldiers shot together, thousands of rifles were arranged in parallel, like a jungle, and the rain of bullets fired with a "bang" quickly knocked down all the French soldiers who charged in the front row, and almost all of them were spared.

Major General Nigri, who was holding a telescope in the distance, couldn't help but turn around and say to the officer next to him: "This kind of defensive firepower is really more fierce than the Franco-Prussian War that I have personally experienced, and it is too good to shoot." ”

In the trench defense line, the strength of the Chinese and Vietnamese armies reached 7,000 people, coupled with the artillery observation post on the tower in the city, constantly guiding the heavy artillery battalion to carry out precise strikes, and the French army's successive attacks were fruitless, and Zuihou had to stop.

That night, the French army held a military conference, and Nigri proposed that the casualties of the frontal attack were too great and that new countermeasures must be considered. After some thought, coach Miller believes that the Chinese army has built a complete defense system, and the current number of artillery pieces alone is not enough to carry out a complete fire suppression. The key is that the river fleet cannot pass through the river embankment and provide fire support to the army.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to change the target and concentrate forces to attack the embankment of the Red River, and as long as Fusha Village is occupied, the obstacles on the river can be cleared, so that the river fleet can get close to the city of Shanxi and directly bombard the city with naval guns.

On 22 January, the French offensive on Fusha began, and Nigri mobilized two regiments to storm Fusha from two directions at the same time.

The French army continued to bombard the low earthen walls around the village with small-caliber artillery, and once approached the entrance of the village, but Liu Yongfu commanded the troops to fight back desperately, and Huang Zuoyan's troops stationed together also put up a heroic resistance.

Huang Zuoyan did not perform well in the Battle of Huaide, and it was precisely because of his loss of Danfeng that Liu Yongfu's flank was surrounded. He was also deeply ashamed of this. However, the Chinese army knew that Huang Zuoyan was also one of the few powerful people in the Vietnamese court who could lead troops, and the French army was strong, and he could not be blamed for his ineffective command for defeating the battle.

Huang Zuoyan was also determined to perform well in this regard, and this time the core of his 2,000 subordinates was the originally established "Kokang Battalion", whose training level was higher than that of the ordinary Vietnamese army.

Under the bitter fighting of the Sino-Vietnamese coalition forces, they successfully drove back the French troops who were approaching Fusha Village, and hundreds of people were killed and wounded on both sides, and their subordinates Hu Kunshan and Ye Chenglin were killed one after another.

While Liu Yongfu was holding on, he sent people to Shanxi City for help.

But Negri knew the crux of the battle, and without making any adjustments, he mobilized all the forces of the 2nd Brigade and launched another onslaught, and the fierce fighting between the two sides lasted from morning to afternoon.

At dusk, the French army finally broke through the earthen wall, and a large number of soldiers slaughtered into Fusha Village. The French army's "Grasse rifle" showed extremely strong lethality in close firing, and its cavity effect was vividly and vividly played, and no matter where the Chinese soldiers were shot, they would be punched out of a big hole and immediately lose their combat effectiveness.

After a hard battle, Liu Yongfu's army had to withdraw from Fusha Village, and the French army finally occupied the entire embankment. Liu Yongfu retreated to the north of the village and counted the troops, and all the shells had been exhausted, and the bullets were insufficient. More than 600 troops were killed in the battle, plus those who were seriously wounded, more than half of the personnel were reduced, and Huang Zuoyan's department was only more than 1,000 people left.

Liu Yongfu knew that this Fusha Village was very important, and he still wanted to recapture it, but this required reinforcements from the city.

At nightfall, a regiment of reinforcements was transferred from Shanxi, Liu Yongfu organized nearly 2,000 people, and Huang Zuoyan also selected 300 people, and took advantage of the night to kill back to Fusha Village.

However, the French army had already been prepared for it, and all the officers and men of the 2nd Brigade worked overnight along the embankment to clear the obstacles on the river, including the removal of large trees erected on the river and the bamboo rafts that blocked the channel, and the task of defending the battle was transferred to the 1st Brigade.

Liu Yongfu, who was attacking in a sneak attack, unexpectedly ran into the first brigade of the French army, which had long been on guard, and the brigade commander was Porier, who suffered from "counterattack phobia", and the fortifications he commanded to dig temporarily came in handy, and after a battle, Liu Yongfu, who was inferior in troops, had to withdraw from Fusha Village again.