Chapter 232: A Twist and Turn in the Attack (I)
The French soldiers charged frantically, like a blue wave, trying to sweep through the small fortress of Gibraltar on high ground.
The high ground where the small Gibraltar fort is located may not be very high, but it also has more than 100 meters of uphill climbing. The French army in a state of charging was obviously stagnant because of this uphill speed. Obviously, after hundreds of meters of wild running, the physical strength of the French army has been exhausted, not to mention the gentle slope of hundreds of meters in front of them, even if it is a small mountain bag of more than ten meters, they will feel powerless, right?
The momentum and madness of the entire French army were consumed in this instant! What's worse is that they have already lost their formation and become a mess, and the most important thing in the army is discipline and queues, otherwise why would the first practice in military training be to walk in queues?
On this 100-meter hillside, the French army walked for more than a minute, almost like a group outing, and the soldiers walked slowly and whispered. And where is General Dopp? There was nothing he could do about it, because of the previous wild run, his (pì) pain in the saddle, and he couldn't wear tight pants! Many men in this era were plagued by hemorrhoids, and this was not only Napoleon's problem! Therefore, he could only come slowly, and let the war horse wander leisurely (dàng) as if it were a walk.
In fact, he himself was the one who caused the whole charge to go into a state of sluggishness, and if he had not been the first to stop the charge for the sake of his (pì) unit, and played a bad role in setting an example, perhaps the French army would not have come to a standstill here.
After all, people are lazy (xìng), and many generals are a nasty character, but is he really a general? With him as an example, the soldiers who were still riveting their strength and wanted to rush forward were also deflated, thinking: "The generals are starting to leave, why should I not get along with my feet?" "Then one pass ten, ten pass hundred, and finally the whole army switched to walking mode.
When the French had all slowly swept over the hillside, they were about to begin to charge through the gap, but when they picked up their muskets and swarmed towards the gap, they were greeted by a barrage of bullets and shè.
The gap was only a dozen meters wide, and at most twenty or thirty people were guaranteed to line up, so the French army was tragic! They had already slackened because of more than a minute of walking, and now they were slaughtered in a hurry, coupled with the chaos of the establishment in the previous charge, they were not able to organize a fire counterattack in time, only a few gunshots.
In fact, this is not surprising, they shouted loudly when they charged, and the British are not deaf! How could it be that they weren't found? What's more, they spent a full minute on the hillside, which bought the British precious time, and the British took the opportunity to complete the whole team!
The dense bullets were not the only "welcome gift" prepared by the British army for the French army, just when the French army was bustling to be shot at that gap, more than a dozen light guns of the British army also sent their "blessings", and one after another (rè) shells flew into the chaotic French army.
For a while, the screams were endless, and the cannonballs with the sound of breaking the air "killed" a bloody road in the dense French army, as if it was the reincarnation of Changshan Zhao Zilong, the gods blocked and killed the gods, and the Buddha blocked and killed the Buddha, and a blood mist rose from the place where they passed, and the fragments of the stumps flew everywhere.
Originally, the French troops in the rear (shēn) did not know much about the situation in front of them (qíng), so they just stupidly squeezed towards the gap, but after witnessing several comrades being unfortunately hit by shells, they were holding stumps and broken arms and wailing again and again. They immediately froze, and after glancing at each other, they began to slowly retreat in tacit understanding.
Especially one of the unlucky among the wounded, a bearded man in his forties, who was an iron-clad man in Ping (rì), was silent, and everyone who knew him gave a thumbs up, "What a man!" ”
But now, his entire right leg had been amputated from the base of his thigh, and at the location of the severed limb, a fragment of bone was cocked at a strange angle, and the mere mere look at it made people feel numb. He rolled desperately on the grass, his whole face distorted, and he cried out with tears in his eyes, "Kill me! Kill me! Please, kill me! It hurts so much! Blood gushed out from the wound and spilled onto the trouser legs of the other soldiers, and almost every French soldier he saw had a look of displeasure on his face.
The only solution was for the French to swarm into the gap, which was already a disadvantage (shēn), and in such a situation (qíng) any sensible commander would have them charge in with casualties, then line up in a column and start firing back with scale fire. Although rushing forward in the face of a hail of bullets will cause huge casualties in a short period of time, if you don't do this, you will only increase the casualties if you are stuck in a narrow gap all the time. This is a necessary trade-off in the military!
However, the French army had already become a mess of porridge, and the charge relied on a breath, simply put, head hair (rè), but that minute-long walk was enough to make the French soldiers "feverish"! People are selfish, even if they know that rushing forward is a wise tactic, but who wants to be the "first bird" and be a "martyr"? The French army still stagnated, and the troops in front of (shēn) began to try to retreat. The entire French army was on the verge of collapse.
"What are they doing!" Napoleon was in the artillery position in the distance, watching the stagnant French army, pounding (xiōng) in a hurry.
"I knew it! I know, Dopp idiot! Actually led the troops to charge hundreds of meters away? He thought he was leading a medieval cavalry? It's over, it's all over! The whole army is in disarray, where is this army? It's a litter of frightened gerbils! Napoleon observed the situation ahead with a telecular and said angrily.
"What should we do?" Han Xing also felt a sinking in his heart, "It is said, 'If you are not afraid of god-like opponents, you are afraid of pig-like teammates!'" That's right! A good situation, a good hand, was actually played to a pulp by this Dopp general! This Dopp is a pig's brain! ”
"Nothing! Prepare for the rout! Alas~" Napoleon stared hatefully at General Dopp's (shēn) shadow and pouted angrily. As an artilleryman, he could not intervene at all, and if he fired, he was likely to accidentally injure friendly troops. If the artillerymen were to carry their guns to participate in the battle, wouldn't that be a tyrannical thing?
"Don't run! Don't run! I am your general! I command you, return to the battlefield for me! Give me all back! Go and break through that gap for me and take Fort Mulgrave! "At this time, our General Dopp was leading his personal guards cavalry to "supervise the battle".
"I order you to return to the battlefield for me! Do you know what I'm going to do with deserters? I'll take you all, whip you a hundred lashes, and tie you up on the cross and expose you to the sun!" The mighty General Dopp caught up with a few retreating soldiers and shouted.
In fact, these soldiers may not be really deserters, they may just want to retreat temporarily, which is completely different from fleeing! After all, a group of people are crowded there like two hundred and five, bustling with people to play "bowling", no matter how you look at it, it's all mentally retarded behavior, isn't it? Anyone with a bit of a brain will choose to take a moment back and make a plan.
"Your Excellency General, we are not deserters!" A soldier hurriedly straightened his hat and gave a military salute. Judging by the attire, he was still a non-commissioned officer.
"Not a deserter? Did I give the order to retreat? You should be on the battlefield above, not here! You are disobedient! General Dopp immediately scolded angrily.
"Your Excellency, it's not that we don't want to go, it's that we can't squeeze in at all! There were so many of us, crowded there, almost like a live target, and the British artillery fire was rushing towards us (shēn)! Your Excellency, give the order to retreat! This offensive has failed! Let the artillery under Major Bonaparte continue the shelling! The mustachioed non-commissioned officer was obviously a decent soldier, and he said bitterly.
How do you know that his words can be regarded as poking at the death of General Dopp (xué), and General Dopp immediately exploded, "Who made you make your own decisions?" Are you a general or am I a general? Are you questioning my authority or my strategic vision? I command you to go back to the battlefield! Of course, one of the main reasons for his frieze was to hear the word "Bonaparte".
At this moment, a British cannonball flew over and hit General Dopp's horse, his horse screamed, and collapsed to the ground weakly, General Dopp was immediately thrown to the ground with a dog eating, his embarrassed face fell to the ground, his gorgeous white gold-rimmed hat was crooked, and the blood of the war horse splattered on his (shēn) and face.
This is the reason why he is wearing too much (sāo) bag, and the British army can see him from afar, coupled with his "horizontal sword" commanding appearance, he looks like a big man at first glance. In line with the idea of capturing the thief and capturing the king first, the British artillery naturally focused on "taking care" of him, but unfortunately this shell was still a little worse and did not "take away" this scourge.
At this moment, another cannonball flew over, and an adjutant who was next to General Dopp (shēn), who had planned to dismount to check on General Dopp's (qíng), was hit by the shell, and the whole person flew upside down, and the cannonball pierced his mouth (xiōng), leaving a hole the size of a volleyball, and the blood soaked the placket of his clothes, forming a trickling stream in the grass.
General Dopp immediately pounced on him, trying to cover the wound in the mouth of the adjutant (xiōng), but to no avail, the adjutant opened his mouth to say something, but blood gushed out of his mouth, and he could no longer utter half a word. After a few futile struggles, the adjutant's pupils finally lost their luster.
"Retreat, retreat! Come on! Looking at the dark red blood stained on his white lace hands (tào) and feeling the slimy texture coming from his fingertips, our General Dopp immediately got up (shēn) and shouted in a trembling voice.
Looking at General Dopp, who was judging the two of them before and after, the non-commissioned officer pursed his lips disdainfully, and snorted coldly in his heart: "I thought you were some kind of brave hero!" It turned out to be just a little hairy man who had never seen blood! A little bit of blood can scare you like this! ”
Snatching a war horse from a cavalry guard, General Dopp was astonishingly fast, flying (shēn) on his horse in one go, and flying his horse and whipping like a gust of wind (shēn) fled from the battlefield, the whole action did not take more than a minute, it was really breathtaking!
"General Dopp has run away! Retreat! "As General Dopp took the lead in fleeing the battlefield, the soldiers scrambled to escape the breach.
How ironic! Tens of thousands of French troops, but only 4,000 British troops, and paid the price of hundreds of French troops being left on that land forever.
The fortress of Gibraltar is as tenacious as a reef in the sea, and no matter how the waves of the French army beat, it cannot be hurt in the slightest!