On June 20, Feng Zicai held a military meeting in Zhennan Guanli, and he said impassionedly: "Everyone, it has now reached the most dangerous time, and Guangxi is behind it. If this pass cannot be held, the French army will be able to drive straight into China and wantonly ravage China's southern Xinjiang. At that time, the old man and everyone here will be sinners through the ages, the history is like iron, the infamy is hard to eliminate, what face to see the fathers and villagers of Liangguang, and what face to exist in heaven and earth! ＂

Speaking of this, Feng Zicai's eyes were wide with anger, and his beard was open. Everyone in the audience also felt the same way, and stood up one after another and shouted: "We are willing to follow the old general and fight to the death with the foreigners!" ＂

"Yes, blood to the end! ＂

"It's a dog's day! ＂

"Fight! ＂

Seeing the excitement of the crowd, Feng Zicai nodded and said: "The rise and fall of the country depends on me waiting for this battle, and the old man vows to live and die with this pass." Those who bravely move forward, it goes without saying that they will be promoted to the rank of knight. If someone is greedy for life and afraid of death, and loses the face of our army, the old man can't care about the friendship of his comrades, and wants to sacrifice his head to the flag. ＂

The generals agreed.

Subsequently, Feng Zicai once again emphasized their respective responsibilities. The Ding Huai Brigade was stationed in the thick-walled position in front of Zhennan Pass, and Wang Debang's brigade was divided into two, commanded by Wang Debang and Su Yuanchun, and stationed in Xiling and Dongling respectively. Feng Zicai led the first division and the independent regiment to stationed in Zhennanguanli, ready to reinforce various positions at any time. This was Yuan Shikai's suggestion, he believed that the French artillery fire was fierce, and if too many troops were arranged in the position, it would be easy to cause unnecessary casualties, so it was better to adopt the tactics of adding fuel and gradually reinforce the front. Even the back of the thick wall was dug a tunnel, and the main force of Ding Huai's brigade was mostly ambushed in the tunnel, leaving only two battalions on the wall, because there was a mine array to cover, it was difficult for the French army to carry out a large-scale sneak attack. In order to broaden his horizons and protect the minefield, Yuan Shikai also sent people to burn the woods and grass in front of the minefield.

Everything is ready, just wait for the French themselves to hit the wall.

On June 22, the Negri troops arrived in front of Zhennanguan and sent a small force to reconnoiter the situation around Zhennanguan, but as soon as they got closer, they were hit by several shells from the Daqingshan Battery, killing two people.

After many explorations, Nigri felt that Zhennan Pass was simply a dangerous pass made by God, and it was really a terrible task to attack such a pass. He asked Frey for advice to reconsider his strategy.

But Frey's head was full of fever at this time, and he had already patted his chest and promised China that he would march into Guangxi, China before the National Day of the French Republic. He boasted to the reporters accompanying the army that Haikou would hold a cocktail party for the National Day in Nanning, Guangxi. The hide has been circulated back to China by journalists, publicized in the newspapers, and many have written to the French government asking how they can come by boat to Guangxi, China, to pay respects to the warriors of the Republic, including many beautiful ladies.

Just last year, in 1880, France had just established July 14 as France's national day, which meant that Frey only had three weeks left, and if the French army was still in front of Zhennan Pass three weeks later, it would undoubtedly be harmful to his image as a national hero who "walked his word".

However, Frey is confident that there is more than enough time, and the impregnable Lang Son can not be won in a few days? The key is that the troops must have the belief that they will win, and not be infected with Miller's "Chinese conspiracy theory paranoia syndrome", which is a medical term he just invented when he joked with a reporter he was familiar with.

Therefore, Frey refused Nigri's request, and he demanded that Nigri immediately launch a strong offensive to find holes in the Chinese defense line.

Nigri had no choice but to do what he was told. After analysis, he believed that the fort on the Daqing Mountain in Dongling was in the most prominent position on the front line of Zhennan Pass, and if he spared the foot of Daqing Mountain and attacked Zhennan Pass, the back road might be cut off. In view of this, Nigri decided to capture the Daqingshan Fort first.

On June 24, the French army began to attack Daqing Mountain, and Negri gathered all the artillery teams to bombard the top of Daqing Mountain, and the two sides launched a fierce artillery battle.

But soon, the French army discovered that the Chinese forts were cleverly built and full of the mysterious wisdom of the Orientals. The fort was built in a natural crevice in the cliff, and only a few minor repairs were needed to make the solid granite mountain a natural shield for the fort, and it was difficult to cause effective damage unless the French artillery fire could accurately hit the barrel or gun mount, and one of the batteries even showed only a black hole from the cliff.

The two sides exchanged fire for a while, and only one of the 170mm guns of the Chinese defenders was hit by a bullet and exploded, and it was temporarily unusable, and the rest of the cannons still roared again and again, while the French side, although there were many artillery, three cannons had been destroyed, and more than a dozen people were killed and wounded.

This result made Nigri very frustrated, obviously it was impossible to destroy the fort in a short time, and he could only rely on the infantry to attack from the ground to seize the fort, but in the face of the battery's firepower close to Daqingshan, there would inevitably be a large number of casualties. This is a method proposed by the staff officer Willier, that is, the use of smoke grenades, although it cannot accurately destroy the enemy's battery, but can be used to interfere with the view of the battery, so as to cover the attack of the infantry.

Negri adopted this method, and a moment later, a volley of smoke bombs flew towards the top of the mountain, and under the sound of "boom", a large white smoke immediately rose from the top of the mountain, and the entire battery was shrouded in white fog, and both sides had to temporarily stop firing.

Seeing that the plan was working, Negri immediately ordered the infantry to attack. Major Laguer commanded an infantry regiment and quickly rushed to the foot of the Daqing Mountain, and soon the troops advanced to a distance of three hundred meters in front of the foot of the mountain.

At this time, there was a loud "boom" in front, and a French soldier screamed and fell to the side, like a torn toy doll, one foot soaring into the dust. Then there were several loud bangs in succession, and there were screams of misery, and Laguel reacted, and he shouted: "Stand back, back away!" It's a mine! ＂

The French army is no stranger to landmines, but the manufacture of mines at this time is not mature, and even in the armies of European powers, it has not really been widely used, only sporadically. In the history of previous lives, the real standard mine was not invented by the Russians until 1903. It was a big surprise that the French would never have imagined that they would encounter a minefield in this backward Asia.

Laguel did not dare to move on, although the casualties of the soldiers were not many, but the unknown deterrent force ahead was very great, so he had to retreat.

Negri had a big headache, and now he was in big trouble, and as a general, he had also touched landmines. During the Crimean War, he participated in the war against Russia as a soldier, and at that time the Russians had begun to use some simple and crude mines, although there were more unexploded than exploded, but he was still impressed.

But now judging from the reports of his subordinates, the Chinese's mines are very well-made, the most obvious is to step on one and blow one by one, while the mines next to them will not be affected and will not cause a chain reaction, indicating that China's mine structure performance is very reliable, and it is very likely that it has been standardized, which is not good news.

Due to the previous battles, the Chinese have not used mines, and the French troops have not prepared many corresponding mine-clearing equipment. It will take several months for these instruments and tools to be shipped from China, which is obviously unrealistic, and we can only find a way on the spot.

However, France is a European power after all, and there are no shortcomings in military knowledge, so Negri found the sappers in the army to study the methods of mine clearance, and Zuihou formulated an offensive plan overnight.

On 25 June, the French army began a new offensive. The first was to continue to use smoke grenades to interfere with the battery, and then to use platoon artillery to bombard the advancing road, which detonated some mines, and in front of the foot of Daqingshan Mountain, explosions continued to sound.

But this will inevitably have a large number of mines missed, and the infantry will have to rely on themselves to clear the mines. Immediately, some of the selected experienced sappers formed a mine-detection team and began to carefully survey the minefield.

Because of their humble simplicity, these people cut down some hard long branches, made them into sticks, sharpened one end, as a temporary lightning rod, bent over, at an oblique angle of 30 to 45 degrees, gently poked under the ground, to detect the hard objects under the ground, touched suspicious objects, drew a circle with chalk, and moved forward little by little.

This action is not so easy to do, Liliang is so small that the stick cannot penetrate the dirt and gravel. If Liliang is used too much, it will trigger the mine again, and it will directly blow up the sappers. Less than an hour after the start of the morning's mine-sweeping work, three soldiers were blown up, two killed and one maimed.

Nigri was holding a telescope behind him, his face was iron-blue.