In the eyes of the French army, those Chinese soldiers, sneaking around, drilling around, fighting here and grabbing, firing a cannon there, running away as soon as they rushed, and coming back after a while, they were as annoying as bugs.

The battle continued until dusk, when the French finally passed through the "zone where even the devil would feel sick."

In front of the majestic Yuemei Mountain cliff, Lacoro ordered to advance to the top of the mountain, climbed for a while, then heard a "crackling" sound, and then from the top of the mountain shot a dense row of bullets, the front row of French soldiers were either killed or wounded, with stones and dust, all the way down the steep slope, so that the people behind were also in chaos.

The French immediately launched a firefight, but the Rak-romans knew that this was not a good idea, and it was already rare to be able to stand firm on such a steep and steep cliff, and it was delusional to attack it.

Lakoro had no choice but to withdraw with his troops, and seeing that it was getting a little dark, he ordered to camp in front of Yuemei Mountain, and at the same time sent people to the rear to ask for reinforcements.

The night was very uncomfortable for the French army, the weather was very bad, the rain kept falling, and what was even more annoying was the harassment of the Chinese. A few sentries were accidentally dragged away by a long bamboo pole with a hook sticking out of the grass, and then disappeared into the darkness without a sound, and the angry and frightened French fired a random shot at the distance, but did not dare to pursue. Everyone was in a state of turmoil, and there was no way to rest.

The next day until the afternoon, there was no news from the rear, and Lakoro felt that it was very likely that even the soldiers who delivered the message were arrested by the Chinese on the way, and thinking that it was not a way to stay here, he ordered all of them to withdraw to Keelung.

When passing through the hilly terrain, he was harassed by the Chinese, and Captain Luvette of the 23rd Artillery Squadron stepped on a trap, and his ankle was almost completely broken, and the poor guy could only be on crutches for the rest of his life.

This group of tired men and horses returned to Keelung without finding anything, which made Lisby even more annoyed, because before that, the people sent to the Badou coal mine had just returned, and the entire mine outlet had been blown up by the Chinese and scrapped for a period of time.

It was only by this time that Lisby calmed down from his initial passion, and it seemed that the conquest of Taiwan would not be so easy.

After some discussion, Lisby believed that the terrain of Mount Yuemei was steep, and it was not easy to break through Mount Yuemei, and it was necessary to concentrate all the liliang.

Two days later, on January 5, nearly 3,000 French troops, under the command of Colonel Johnny Nelli, began to advance towards Yuemei Mountain, while Lisby led hundreds of men to stay in Keelung.

On the other hand, after receiving the report for help, Liu Mingchuan deeply felt that the French army would go all out to attack Yuemei Mountain, and the Keelung Ridge was guarded by Yang Hongbiao's regiment, and he was not afraid of the French army sneaking up on Huwei. Therefore, he left Lin Chaodong with a battalion, and he himself led the main force of the Guards Regiment, two infantry battalions and an artillery company, and rushed to Yuemei Mountain on January 4 for reinforcements.

Liu Mingchuan inspected the terrain here, and he felt that the terrain of Yuemei Mountain was dangerous, and it was difficult for the French army to break through, and the Yuanjialing cliff on the right side of Yuemei Mountain was narrow and not suitable for a frontal attack by a large army. But in order to prevent a sneak attack by the French army, Liu Shengzao still commanded a guard battalion to garrison Yuanzhuang Ridge.

At the same time, Zhou, Deng and others were ordered to lead their respective troops to hold on to Yuemei Mountain;

In order to enhance the defense capability of Yuemei Mountain, he gathered all the artillery units, commanded by Tang Diankui, and deployed them on Yuemei Mountain, including 8 Krupp 78mm light field guns, 8 57mm Grusen fast guns, as well as some mountain guns and old iron guns, a total of more than 20 guns, which greatly strengthened the defensive firepower of Yuemei Mountain.

And Liu Mingchuan himself took a guard battalion to be stationed behind Yuemei Mountain as a reserve.

As soon as the deployment was ready, the next day a large force of the French army came.

At noon, the French army had already entered the Yuemei Mountain area, this time the French army was numerous, and quickly cleared all the hilly areas in front of Yuemei Mountain, advanced to the foot of Yuemei Mountain, and soon launched an attack on the top of the mountain.

Zhou Shengbo was half-leaning and half-leaning on the fortifications at this time, looking at the bottom of the mountain with a telescope. Without stopping for a moment, the French attacked to his surprise.

Originally, he was ordered to wait for the signal to open fire, but Zhou Shengbo wanted to wait for the French army to advance within 200 meters before giving the French a platoon of guns. But the soldiers were so nervous that when they were still four or five hundred meters away from the mountainside, there were sparse gunshots, and then there was a burst of gunfire, and many people followed suit. Zhou Shengbo scolded helplessly: "Stupid not Longdong, stupid!" I had to order all of them to open fire.

Although the distance was not ideal, the rain of bullets from above still caused a lot of casualties to the French army, but the French almost ignored these casualties, and continued to rush upward, because Johnny Neli knew that a short stop on this steep hillside would only increase the casualties.

At the forefront was the incomparably brave Algerian light infantry. Originally, there was a battalion of Vietnamese indigenous infantry in the Fourth Brigade, but because of the cross-sea landing operation, these Vietnamese soldiers were obviously useless, so they were replaced by Algerian light infantry.

These little red riding hood-wearing, clown-like African Berbers, who are neither black nor Arab, are arguably one of the oldest races in the human race. They were completely born warriors, believing in the motto "the army is my motherland", and regarded honor more than life, and soon rushed to the forefront of the Chinese army's positions.

Zhou Shengbo was originally in the Hunan army and was known for his bravery, and he was very shocked to see this scene. He turned around and waved a small flag, and suddenly, from behind the defense line on the top of the mountain, "boom, boom", a continuous burst of artillery sounded, and nearly thirty cannons opened fire at the same time.

Almost instantly, the center of the French army that was rushing forward was immediately turned into a sea of fire, and the troops that were charging immediately formed a fault, and the follow-up soldiers were unable to move forward, and the soldiers who were already close to the position in front lacked support and could not insist on attacking. Some Algerian infantry, having already jumped into the Chinese trenches, were soon outnumbered, chopped into minced flesh by random knives, and human heads were cut off and rolled down the hillside like balls.

Two successive charges were bombarded by heavy Chinese artillery fire.

But soon the French learned their lesson and also began artillery suppression, but due to bad roads and weather, the French could not transport a large number of heavy artillery to Yuemei Mountain, except for 1.65-inch mountain guns and machine guns, only a few 80-mm cannons, unable to completely suppress the Chinese artillery on the top of the mountain, and the battle had to fall into a stalemate.

Liu Mingchuan was in his temporary command post, nervously paying attention to the intelligence ahead. I was once worried that Zhou Shengbo would not be able to withstand it, and hesitated to send reinforcements, until Zuihou formed a stalemate, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

At dusk, Huang Zhizhong of Taipei Prefecture also led two patrol battalions to reinforce, and at this time, the French artillery fire gradually quieted down. Liu Mingchuan was not surprised by this, the French army has always followed the "regular" method of warfare, fighting during the day and resting at night, and as night falls, the French offensive will gradually stop.

In the middle of the night, Liu Mingchuan looked down on the entire mountain area from the top of the mountain, and the night dyed the entire mountain forest with a thick ink-like black, like a freehand landscape painting. The French army had retreated to camp in the distance, and he silently thought: If he could repel this all-out attack of the French army, half of Taiwan would be saved.

Just thinking about it, in front of the Round Window Ridge in the distance, suddenly a flock of birds fluttered and fluttered, as if they were frightened by a nest swallow, flying into the sky. Liu Mingchuan looked at this scene, but couldn't help but jump in his eyelids: It's not good, the French army sneaked up on Yuanzhuang Ridge!

It was too late to give the order, so he immediately ordered the cannon to fire like a round window ridge, and he didn't care whether it would hit his own people or not, he only hoped to warn the other side.

"Boom", a few cannon shots, shattered the quiet night. A moment later, sure enough, a dense burst of gunfire was heard on the Round Window Ridge. Liu Mingchuan was still worried that he would not be able to withstand it, so he immediately personally took the guards battalion to reinforce it.

Liu Mingchuan's cautious decisiveness saved the defense line. At nightfall, the French commander John Ninelli adopted an unusual tactic, changing the stereotypical pattern of the French army, with a battalion of 600 men commanded by Raquero, camouflaged with branches and leaves, and in the middle of the night, sneaked up to the Round Window Ridge, and successfully killed several sentries and approached the top of the mountain.

However, Liu Mingchuan's artillery fire woke up the defenders of Yuanzhuang Ridge, and they acted in time and had a fierce battle with the French troops who rushed up.

The defenders were the guards battalion commanded by Liu Shengzao, all young people, with a tenacious will to fight, and they fought with the enemy with perseverance. Liu Shengzao took the lead, he didn't even button his clothes, and brandished a bayonet to knock one down. An Algerian infantry on the opposite side smashed over with a gun, Liu Shengzao blocked it with a gun, and both guns were thrown aside, Liu Shengzao jumped, pinched the opponent's neck with both hands and pressed him to the ground, but this brave Zuaf soldier bit off Liu Shengzao's two fingers with a single bite of his head!

Liu Shengzao was in great pain, gave the other party a heavy punch, and took advantage of the other party's confusion for a while, quickly lifted a big stone next to him, and smashed it down on the opponent's head, one shot! Twice! Three clicks! , I don't know how many times I smashed it, but I just knocked this enemy's head all the way to the neck, and I didn't realize that the blood on the severed finger on my hand was soaring!

The two sides engaged in a life-and-death hand-to-hand fight in the dark, with the sound of metal clashes, flesh entanglement and rolling, screams, and screams in different languages, and in this dark and rainy night, the two sides fought to the death like beasts, relying on instinct. The Guards Battalion showed a tenacious will, although it was shocked but not confused, and it was in a stalemate with the other side.

However, as the fierce battle continued, the follow-up French troops continued to come up, and the number of guards battalions was at a disadvantage, and they gradually felt that they could not support it.