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"Artillery battalion, counterattack! Ask the artillery brigade, give us support! Major General Cao Chengen, commander of the 32nd Division, ordered. The artillery battalion of the 32nd Division had four companies, three artillery batteries armed with 105-mm light howitzers and one artillery battery armed with 155-mm heavy howitzers. The Chinese Army attaches great importance to the construction of artillery, and the artillery units are all large formations!

Two minutes later, the artillery battalion of the 32nd Division began a counterattack. Thirty-six 105-mm light howitzers and 12 155-mm heavy howitzers, guided by observation balloons in the sky, launched a counterattack on the artillery positions of the British and French forces. Dense shells fell on the artillery positions of the British and French forces, and the British artillery bombers turned their backs.

Immediately afterwards, the artillery brigade, to which the Seventh Army belonged, also began to attack. The artillery brigade under the group army has five artillery battalions, including three 105-mm light howitzer artillery battalions, one 155-mm heavy howitzer artillery battalion and one 155-mm heavy cannon artillery battalion, and the brigade has 144 105-mm howitzers, 48 155-mm heavy howitzers and 48 155-mm heavy cannons.

After the artillery brigade of the Seventh Army opened fire, the artillery positions of the 11th Army of the British and French forces were suddenly plunged into a sea of fire. Ten artillery positions, one after another, were hit. In particular, the blow of 155-mm heavy artillery caused heavy losses to these artillery positions.

"Boom!" A small mushroom cloud rose, and the ammunition piled up on one of the artillery positions of the British army was hit. The detonation of hundreds of shells destroyed most of this artillery position. The thick barrels were blown into twists, and the British artillery on the position suffered heavy losses.

Lieutenant General Hamilton, who was watching the battle from behind, saw this. is even more pale.

"Damn, those yellow-skinned monkeys, how could they have more than three hundred heavy cannons? Even if all the 200,000 British and French troops were combined, I am afraid that there would only be so many heavy artillery! "Lieutenant General Hamilton had served in India and had some knowledge of the situation in China. In his impression, China is a very backward place. Even in recent years, China has made tremendous progress. But Lieutenant General Hamilton, who has not had contact with China, is strong for China. More are skeptical. However, in this fight, he finally knew that China was strong, and it was much stronger than he imagined.

"General. Brigadier General Robert, commander of the artillery, requested the transfer of artillery. Major Matthew, Lieutenant General Hamilton's aide-de-camp, reported.

"Are our losses great?" Lieutenant General Hamilton frowned. Originally, he also wanted to use artillery to break through the squadron's defenses. Now it seems that the artillery will have a hard time accomplishing this task.

"Brigadier General Robert reported that the artillery had lost forty percent of its artillery. If the battle continues, I am afraid that in less than an hour, his artillery will be completely lost! Major Matthew said.

"Hell! Let the naked brigadier transfer the artillery at once! Ordered the 1st Division, to attack. Strive to break through the defense line of the Chinese! Lieutenant General Hamilton cursed. In the Boer War, Lieutenant General Hamilton achieved great success. However, now facing the Chinese, it seems that he is not so easy to win.

After receiving an order from Lieutenant General Hamilton. Major General Antonio, commander of the 1st Division of the 11th Army of the British and French forces, immediately gave the order to attack. In this offensive, Major General Antonio directly committed two regiments of nearly 4,000 troops. This is also the current position. The largest force that can be deployed!

Nearly 4,000 British soldiers jumped out of their positions. An attack was launched on the positions of the 321st Regiment of the Chinese Army. They lined up in a skirmish, bent on their waists, and rushed forward quickly. Behind them there were quite a few artillerymen, pushing mountain guns or field guns and Maxim heavy machine guns, intending to provide fire support for these attacking infantry!

"Quick, get into position and prepare to fend off the British attack! The regimental artillery company, aim at the artillery and heavy machine guns behind the enemy, and knock them out for me! The commander of the 321st regiment ordered. The regimental artillery brigade of the 321st Regiment was armed with six Type 82 infantry guns and six 120-mm heavy mortars! The firing range has reached 3,000 meters, which is more than enough to launch an attack on the artillery and heavy machine guns behind the British army!

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! "The artillery companies of the 321st Regiment and the artillery platoons of the battalions below opened fire one after another. The dense cannonballs fell into the ranks of the attacking British troops, and the power of the shell explosion directly threw the attacking British soldiers into the air.

"Quick! Hurry up and set up the cannon and fight back! "The British army that was attacking, hurriedly set up mountain artillery and field artillery, and fired at the squadron's artillery, and the battle between the two sides was very fierce!

The fierce artillery battle did not have much effect on the attacking British soldiers. Thousands of British soldiers, bent over their waists, quickly launched a surprise attack on the squadron's position. Soon, they rushed to a position less than eight hundred meters from the position of the squadron.

"Heavy machine guns and mortars open fire, let these Brits know how good we are!"

"Da Da Da! Rumble! Rumble! Rumble! "Heavy machine guns, light and medium mortars on the positions opened fire. Dense heavy machine gun fire swept past, and the British soldiers in the process of assault fell to the ground in rows as if they were cutting wheat. 60-mm light howitzers and 80-mm medium howitzers on the forward positions also began to fire at British soldiers at maximum rate of fire. One shell after another exploded in the ranks of the British attackers, turning the British soldiers on their backs. Shrapnel fired in all directions, wantonly harvesting their lives.

When the British broke through to less than five hundred meters from the squadron's position, all the light machine guns and rifles began to fire. Powerful firepower, blocking the direction of the advance of the British troops. One by one, the British soldiers were shot and fell to the ground, and they could not break through to within two hundred meters of the squadron's position!

"Damn, how do those yellow-skinned monkeys have so many machine guns?" Seeing that there were at least hundreds of machine guns strafing the squadron's position, such a dense firepower made Major General Antonio's face pale. A large number of British soldiers fell on the road of the attack. The British soldiers, who were lucky enough to escape death, did not dare to rush any further, and lay on the ground one after another, and started firing with the squadron. It's just that with the Lee-Enfield rifles in their hands alone, how is the opponent of the squadron. All the British soldiers were suppressed to the death, and almost every second, someone was shot and died.

"Heavy machine guns are set up!" A Maxim heavy machine gun was mounted and fired wildly at the squadron's position. The squadron also discovered this point of fire and returned fire. Dense bullets, hitting the shields of heavy machine guns, made a ping-pong sound.

"Boom!" At this time, a mortar shell fell from the sky and landed on this heavy machine gun. The shell exploded, directly blowing up the heavy machine gun, and several heavy machine gunners were all killed.

There is no doubt that the first attack launched by the British army was heavily damaged. In the face of the dense fire of the squadron, the two regiments of British troops who were thrown into the attack in the first wave were of no use at all. In less than half an hour, more than half of it was lost, and it had to be withdrawn.

"General, the Chinese are too powerful in firepower, and it will be difficult for us to break through. If we don't count the casualties, we're afraid we'll have to pay a huge number of casualties! Major General Antonio stood in front of Lieutenant General Hamilton with a grim face.

"Order the artillery to open fire and destroy the fire and defense lines of the Chinese!" There was no way, Lieutenant General Hamilton had to pin his hopes on artillery.

However, as soon as the British artillery opened fire, they immediately found a fierce return fire from the Chinese artillery. This made the British artillery not only unable to complete the task, but also increased the losses.

The strength of the Chinese artillery was too strong, which made Lieutenant General Hamilton very embarrassed, and had to ask the commander of the coalition forces, Frederick Roberts, for support.

In the afternoon of the same day, the artillery of the 12th and 13th Corps was reinforced to Lieutenant General Hamilton. At this moment, Lieutenant General Hamilton already has more than 500 artillery pieces in his hands, including more than 300 guns with a caliber of more than 105 millimeters.

A large-scale artillery battle ensued, and although the British had a numerical advantage, the advantage was not obvious. And the Chinese artillery has more 155-mm heavy guns, and the two sides can be regarded as evenly matched. However, this caused the front-line positions to be hit hard by British artillery fire. Many trenches were blown down, barbed wire was damaged by heavy artillery fire, and some of the exposed permanent fire points were destroyed!

In the afternoon offensive, the British again launched a fierce attack. However, in the face of the squadron's powerful firepower, the British still suffered heavy losses, and in front of the squadron's position, a large number of corpses were dropped.

For the next three days, the 11th Army led by Lieutenant General Hamilton launched a fierce attack on the defense line of the 32nd Division of the Chinese Army. The three infantry regiments under the 32nd Division, which took turns to fight, resisted the British attack and inflicted heavy casualties on the British army. According to statistics, during these three days of fighting, the British 11th Army lost at least more than 20,000 people. And the losses of the 32nd Division of the Chinese Army were not large, and the three infantry regiments combined, with serious wounded and killed, did not exceed six hundred!

The British 11th Army attacked unfavorably and suffered heavy losses, and Field Marshal Frederick Roberts was very dissatisfied. On January 6, 1903, the 11th Army was withdrawn, and the 12th Army, consisting of the French Army, took over the attack from the 11th Army. It's just that although the appearance of these French is good, in the face of the squadron's solid defense line and dense firepower, there is still no way, except for leaving corpses in one place, they have not achieved decent results!