The unexpected appearance of the pikes gave the French a huge "surprise". Based on past experience, whether it is liliang or assassination skills, French soldiers have a great advantage in white-knuckle combat. This also gave the French army an illusion of pride, feeling that in any case, as long as it was a melee and a white-knuckle battle, fighting bayonets, the Chinese could only retreat.

But in this dark night, the sudden killing of this spear "forest" dealt a great blow to the morale of the French army, and no matter how haode stabbed the skill, he could not use it in front of the "forest", and after a few rounds, the front finally could not support it and collapsed.

The soldiers fled backwards in confusion, and Pourier saw that the general situation was gone, and a series of terrifying images quickly flashed in his mind, and immediately turned and fled down the mountain.

He didn't want to be like Li Weiye, who was divided into several pieces by the Chinese and hung on the city wall to bask in the sun. Thinking of this terrible consequence, the fleeing Poriyah seemed to add infinite liliang, quickly left everyone behind, and fled to safety at the bottom of the mountain early.

The panting guards arrived at Pourier's side for a long time, and they all expressed their admiration for the general's physical strength and speed.

Although Wang Debang was bent on annihilating the opponent's command organs, in the dark of night, the enemy fled everywhere, and his troops were insufficient, so he chased after him for a while, so he had to bring his troops back together, count the results, kill and capture nearly 200 French troops, and lose more than 100 of his own, and completely defeated the Yellow Banner Army, and also rescued more than 200 prisoners.

This result is of great significance, in the past with the French army, regardless of victory or defeat, the loss is always greater than the other party, only this time the situation is reversed, which can greatly dampen the morale of the French army, and a small soldier named Wang Hui also captured alive an officer major of the French army, Corona.

Wang Debang ordered the army to return and prepare to cooperate with Ma Shengzhi's troops to flank the French army in front.

A moment later, the troops arrived at their destination. However, the French army was really well-trained, seeing that the enemy soldiers were flanking the front and rear, they did not run away, and launched a defense on the spot, with fierce firepower and orderly cooperation, so that Wang Debang had nothing to do, and looked at the day when it was almost dawn, the troops fought hard during the day and fought fiercely at night, and they were extremely tired, and they were worried that the other side's reinforcements would come up. In desperation, he had to order the whole army to withdraw from the battle and retreat to the city of Bac Ninh, and the commander of the French army, Lieutenant Colonel Lei Weilong, did not dare to pursue.

At dawn, Porrier rushed up the mountain with a large group of men and horses, and found that the top of the mountain had long been empty, everything in the headquarters had been removed, and even his own marching bed was gone, and Porrier angrily kicked a stone away: "These hateful Chinese guys! ”

Wang Debang's counterattack on Lanshan, although it failed to completely recapture Lanshan due to insufficient troops, gave the French army a great shock. This small counteroffensive, the casualties on both sides were not large, and it did not change the fact that the French army occupied Mount Lan, but it had a great impact on the war.

First of all, the proportion of casualties was small, which greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese army. Secondly, the commander of the 1st Brigade of the French Army, Bourier, suffered from "counterattack phobia".

But most importantly, this sneak attack forced the commander-in-chief of the rear, Lieutenant General Miller, to re-examine the fighting methods and combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

A few days later, Miller handed over his troops to the command of Colonel Pétain, and came to Mount Lapis himself, and after understanding the situation, he began to consider readjusting his tactics.

In the past, the French army had always believed in their ability to fight with white knives, but through this battle, Miller realized that the Chinese had a long historical tradition in hand-to-hand combat, and could eventually find a way to deal with the French army. In view of this, Miller believed that the French army must give full play to its superiority in firepower.

At the same time, the French army has high-altitude reconnaissance balloons, which can effectively monitor the movements of the Chinese during the day, but at night, this advantage will be greatly weakened.

Therefore, Miller has developed the following tactical principles:

It does not emphasize white-knuckle warfare, insists on suppressing firepower, and maximizes the advantages of French artillery.

Attack during the day and make full use of the reconnaissance of the hot air balloon to assist the command. Wait until it gets dark, no matter how favorable the situation is, immediately stop the attack, hold on to the place, and be ready for a counterattack by the Chinese at any time.

Given that the Chinese defenders of Lae Son had withdrawn to Bac Ninh City, making the defense of Bac Ninh City even stronger, a direct attack on Bac Ninh was not an option. However, the Rabe Dam (Yongqiu) in the northwest of Bac Ninh City is an ideal target, the terrain here is very high, as long as the Rabe Dam is taken, heavy artillery can be erected on it, bombardment of Bac Ninh City, the Chinese will collapse immediately.

Miller soon announced his decision to attack Rabe Dam with the Second Brigade, commanded by Major General Nigri. At the same time, the 1st Brigade of Pourier served as a vigilance force to block reinforcements from Bac Ninh.

Due to the destruction of the Chinese, the French river fleet could not effectively approach the combat area, providing support to the army, and also affecting the firepower of the French army. Miller also ordered that some of the guns on the gunboats be dismantled as soon as possible, and two new artillery teams should be formed to be quickly transported to the Bac Ninh area.

At the same time, the use of hot air balloons is maximized. At this time, there are as many as 20 hot air balloons observing back and forth over the Bac Ninh area.

Miller also improved the signaling system on the hot air balloon. On a hot air balloon, many flags of different colors can be hoisted. The French observer of the balloon will use a telescope to observe the enemy troops below, and according to different situations, hang flags in different orders, representing different French letters, and the observation posts on the ground will use the telescope to record these letters and combine them into corresponding information, so as to judge the enemy's intelligence.

After nearly half a month of preparation, Miller decided that the time was ripe, and the French army immediately launched an attack on the high ground of the springball.

On December 21, at the front of the Yongqiu Heights, the French army's heavy artillery fire roared in, constantly ravaging the defensive positions. The head of the regiment, Su Yuanchun, was lying in the ditch, his head was covered with dust, looking at the hot air balloon in the sky, and scolded his mother angrily.

This is already the third time, and yesterday his men repelled two large-scale French attacks. Thanks to the guidance of the hot air balloons, the French artillery fire always pinpointed the defenders. Even the strong bunker collapsed one after another under the continuous bombardment of the French heavy artillery, and Su Yuanchun felt that he might not be able to survive today.

He looked at the hot air balloon and exhaled a breath from his mouth: "What a few battles this donkey day, what a fucking bag!" ”

The range of the Schneider rifle is only 800 yards, which is equivalent to more than 700 meters, and the effective range is actually insufficient. The French hot air balloon can easily hover back and forth above the heads of the Chinese, and at more than 1,000 meters in the air, carefully observe everything with a telescope, even who goes to the hut, you can see it clearly.

This is completely one-way and completely transparent, which completely subverts Su Yuanchun's thinking. He was originally a brigade commander, but because he stubbornly adhered to the old-fashioned thinking during military exercises, he was ordered to be demoted to regiment commander, and Su Yuanchun was very unconvinced.

But as soon as he fought this battle, he finally understood his mistake. In this era, firepower is supreme, novelty plays are emerging in an endless stream, and the original set of tactics has become almost child's play. The enemy, like now, uses hot air balloons as eyes and directs artillery attacks, and he can't even talk about desperately.

In fact, if it weren't for the support of the heavy artillery battalion on the Yongqiu Heights, the position would have been lost yesterday. Su Yuanchun gritted his teeth and ordered the whole army to retreat, retreat to the high ground, and hold on condescendingly.

On 23 December, the French began to attack Yongqiu, and what was particularly bad was that the French artillery fire had broken the telegraph line, and the Yongqiu position lost contact with the city of Bac Ninh.

The division commander Zhang Shusheng was also very anxious, he felt that he had made a serious mistake, although he also knew the importance of the ball, but he did not put an extra regiment there. But I didn't expect the French army to attack Yongqiu so resolutely, so that Yongqiu's defensive strength was obviously insufficient, and several reinforcements in a row failed to break through the French cordon.

Now that the telegram could not be contacted, and he didn't know what the situation was with the ball, Zhang Shusheng felt that the matter was urgent and decided to go out to fight.

However, staff officer Xu Shichang strongly objected: "General, our army should not go out of the city, the Yongqiu Heights are condescending, and the fortifications are strong, so it may not be impossible to hold it." And as soon as our army left Bac Ninh City, it was equivalent to giving up the perfect defense system and going outside to fight the French army, which was right in the hands of the other party, and it was absolutely unacceptable! ”

But Zhang Shusheng was stubborn: "Once the ball is lost, the French army will bombard our city, our army will be defeated without a fight, and then what is the use of improving the defense system?" ”

Xu Shichang persuaded bitterly: "Whether the ball will be lost or not is still uncertain." If our army goes out of the city, Bac Ninh will inevitably be lost. What's more, even if the ball is lost, so what. It's a big deal that the whole army of our army retreats, the main force is intact, if it is a decisive battle out of the city, it will inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and it will be too late to regret it by then! ”

Zhang Shusheng did not listen, and ordered Wei Gang's troops stationed in Kenian to be transferred back to Bac Ninh.

After some preparation. The next day, December 24, Zhang Shusheng led the main force of the Third Division, and the whole army went out of the city to rescue Yongqiu.

There are an infantry regiment led by Wei Gang, a regiment led by Ma Shengzhi, a regiment led by Zhang Gaoyuan, a regiment led by Zhang Shusheng himself and a guard battalion, and 2,000 people from the Vietnamese Zanxiang Military Affairs Department of Nguyen Thanh Shu, 1,500 people from Pan Dinh Feng's department, and the total strength of the whole army reached more than 10,500 people.

Xu Shichang saw that Zhang Shusheng was stubborn and self-serving, and the whole army was going out of the city to fight to the death with the French army, but he felt anxious and angry, and the defensive strategy that he had planned in every possible way came to naught.

Once the war is unfavorable, this iron bucket-like city of Beining will inevitably be abandoned without a fight, as soon as he thought of this, Xu Shichang was upset, couldn't hold it back, and spurted out a mouthful of blood: "The shaft is not enough and the plan is enough!" ”