The two sides fought fiercely until dusk, and the landing force of the Royal Army of the East Indies launched a total of 4 attacks, all of which were repulsed, and after paying the price of seven artillery pieces being destroyed and suffering more than 270 casualties, finally destroyed an Australian Miss artillery of the defending force, killing and wounding more than 30 officers and soldiers of the defending force.

In the next day's attack, the Dutch landing force changed its tactics and took advantage of its strong strength to adopt a frontal feint attack and launch a fierce attack on both sides at the same time, focusing on both sides of the defenders of Sandaoliang Village.

The artillery positions were set up in the forests on both sides, and the enemy positions were bombarded by means of long-range hanging fire, and the village of Sandaoliang was blown up in a sea of fire.

Not to be outdone, the 3rd Regiment and 8th Battalion responded with more intense artillery fire, fighting vigorously in the artillery battle between you and me, and covering the attacking troops of the Dutch with artillery fire at the critical moment, causing heavy casualties to the opponent.

The fierce battle raged for a whole day, and both sides paid a heavy price, and by the evening they had to die because of the dark clouds in the sky and the heavy rain was coming.

on the battlefield

The originally green fields have been scorched black, corpses are everywhere, shell craters are shell craters after shell craters, and the corpse collection team waving the white flag is collecting the corpses.

The Sandaoliang Village position was also scorched black, several stilted houses were burning, billowing black smoke was rising into the sky, and there were broken walls and ruins everywhere.

After a day of brutal fighting, more than 500 dead and wounded of the Dutch landing force and more than 300 dead and wounded on the defenders, and the two companies of Fritz's regimental commander in the village of Sandaoliang were basically disabled, and the crack militia had been replenished several times.

The Eighth Battalion had only one complete company left on the north bank of the stream, and the regimental artillery company destroyed four enemy guns in today's fierce artillery battle, and at the same time lost one Miss Australia gun again, leaving only two Miss Australia guns in its hands, and its strength was greatly reduced.

Captain Frieze, whose face was blackened by the smoke of artillery fire, stood behind the defensive breastwall on the north bank of the stream, looking at all this with a solemn face, and he knew that he could not continue.

The casualties of the troops were too large, and these soldiers, who had only trained for more than five months, were facing the limit of collapse, and their combat effectiveness had dropped to a very dangerous level, and they had to be withdrawn as soon as possible to recuperate.

The 7th Battalion and 300 militia elites from Erdaoliang Village are entering the camp on the north bank of the stream, and the current 8th Battalion will retreat, and after the replenishment of troops has completed their rest, they will establish a new defensive position on the mountain beam to resist the invaders step by step.

It will be a tough battle, and the Dutch landing force will lose nearly a quarter of its troops in just a few days, and it will also have to be recuperated and re-armed.

Today, the Dutch have established a smooth logistics supply line between Lucky Bay and Sandaoliang Village, which can continuously transport soldiers and ammunition to fight a protracted war with huge consumption.

In front of the three regiments will be a difficult defensive battle, more than 50 cantonment villages under Moresby have been fully mobilized, and thousands of militiamen are building defensive barracks on the rear mountain beams, ready to fight with the enemy for attrition, manpower, and time.

At this time, the soldiers who had withdrawn from the front-line positions crossed the wooden bridge at the entrance of the village, and Fritz took the initiative to meet them, watching these scarred soldiers raise their hands and salute; "Soldiers, you have done a great job, and I am so proud of you."

"Thank you, sir."

"What's your name, Mr. Ensign?"

"Report to the commander, I am Li Xuanzhu, the commander of the first platoon of the second company of the seventh battalion, our platoon lost 29 people in the battle, and less than 10 people are alive to continue fighting.

"Hmm...... Li Xuanzhu, I remember that you were a unit that held the front-line barracks, always held your position under the fierce attack of the enemy, and performed very well. ”

"Report to the sir, it is the duty of a soldier to be loyal to his duties."

"Very good, the deputy company commander of the second company has died, as the regiment commander, and now the firing line has promoted Li Xuanzhu to be the deputy company commander of the second company, and continue to serve as a platoon commander, I hope you will lead the troops to continue to fight bravely and do your duty to protect the family and defend the country."

"Obey orders, humiliate your duties, keep in mind the teachings of Lord Tuanza, and do your duty to protect your family and defend the country."

Li Xuanzhu, whose face was full of gunsmoke, gave a solemn military salute, and the original immaturity on his face had long since disappeared, replaced by a resolute look after the baptism of war, and transformed into a qualified soldier.

The regimental commander Fritz returned the salute with a serious look and motioned with his eyes to the troops to continue to move forward and not to obstruct the path of the retreating troops.

That's when it happened

Thunder exploded in the rolling sky, lightning lit up half of the sky, and a downpour fell, turning the sky and the earth into a white world of rain.

……

Red Fort

“…… The black guards are very incompetent as eyes and ears, the enemy didn't find it when they hit the door, their eyes are not clear, their ears are not deaf, your performance is so disappointing to me, the military has a strong reaction, do you have any explanation for this? ”

Li Fushou angrily smashed a volume of reports at Dai Yingcai, who was so frightened that he fell to his knees with a "plop" and replied with a trembling voice;

"Guilty of despicability, please punish the lord heavily, the black guards focus on monitoring the southern states, so they ignore the intelligence collection on the island of Java, and the Dutch Governor's Office has adopted strict confidentiality measures, resulting in delays in intelligence, and the director of the intelligence station in Batavia has sent someone to enforce the family law on him because of serious dereliction of duty, please know the master."

"Hmph, what's the point of killing someone?" Li Fushou's anger eased slightly, sat back on the chair, and said coldly; "The Moresby telegraph office is paralyzed, the situation on the front line cannot be communicated, we sit in the rear with black eyes, what is wrong with this?"

"Back to my lord, we have found out the relevant situation and are about to report to you."

"Hmph, get up and talk." Li Fushou said with a cold face.

"Thank you, master, for not killing."

Dai Yingcai got up from the ground tremblingly, he had never seen the master so thunderous and angry, and knew that this time the leak was too big, and there must be a reasonable explanation.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and replied cautiously; After the Moresby telegraph office was paralyzed, he was keenly aware that it was sabotaged by enemy agents, and immediately dispatched his capable commander Qingsong to Batavia, and after several days of investigation, it had been concluded that the Dutch East Indies Governor's Office had sent a large landing convoy to Port Moresby.

The evidence is twofold;

First, the number of three-masted galleons transported in the ports of Batavia, Surabaya, and Semaroon has been greatly reduced, and this situation has lasted for more than half a month.

Second, in order to confirm his judgment, Qing Song decisively sent someone to kidnap a Dutch official in the Governor's Mansion late at night, and got the exact news from his mouth.

The cruiser Seven Provinces has been escorting a group of more than 2,000 landing ships away for 17 days with 11 warships, and the target is supposed to be Shangri-La Island. ”

17 days?

Li Fushou was suddenly startled after hearing this, so the situation was right, the Dutch attacked Moresby at the distance from near and far, and the time spent on the road plus the convergence of the early landing force, and the time when the final attack was launched, was about the time when the Moresby Telegraph Office was destroyed, about 6:20 in the morning.

Time is so exquisitely mastered that it is impossible to say without guilt.

Come to think of it

A nameless fire arose in Li Fushou's heart, and Dai Yingcai keenly felt the anger of the master, and hurriedly explained;

"Please rest the road of thunder, Qing Song also discovered an important news when he tortured Dutch officials, that is, the Governor's Palace has been approved by His Majesty William III to give a Chinese merchant the title of baron, enjoy fiefdom and fiefdom, which is a wonder that has not been seen in the East Indies for hundreds of years."

"Oh, what's the situation?"

Dai Yingcai replied; Qing Song felt that this situation was extremely important, so he investigated it and finally discovered this black hand spy hiding in the shadows.

This person's name is Sheng Yeyun, a local silk tea merchant in Batavia, who has lived on Java Island for three generations, and his family is prosperous, and his family has grown to more than 100 people, and he is very influential among the local Chinese in Batavia.

Due to the urgency of time, Qing Song could only carry out another secret arrest and pry out important news from his brother's mouth.

It turned out that since the end of September last year, Sheng Yeyun has been recruited by the Governor's Office, and has gone to the mainland and Australia to search for relevant information, as for whether he has ever been to Shangri-La Island, this person is not clear.

Combined with the Governor's Palace, which obtained the approval of His Majesty William III of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and divided Sheng Yeyun as a baron, the black guard thought that the situation was already very clear.

In order to confirm our judgment, we urgently checked the list of tourists who went to Shangri-La Island before coming, and found a suspicious tea merchant named Li Futian, and a group of three people had gone to Shangri-La Island, stayed on the island for 13 days, and only two people returned.

In other words, they left behind a hidden stake, most likely the one who attacked the Moresby telegraph office.

The Black Guard is urgently sorting out all those who have traveled to Shangri-La to identify the hostile elements, and this work is currently underway, and it will soon be seen.

The green pine is judged by the combination of various signs;

He believes that Sheng Yeyun has already investigated the context of our Red River Valley forces from the mainland to Australia, and that they are spies sent by the enemy to Shangri-La Island, and may further plan actions that are unfavorable to us, so he should pay close attention to Shangfeng. ”

"Green pine? Was it the person who planned a series of kidnapping bombings in the port of Cochin last time? Li Fushou asked.

"Yes, sir, Qing Song's original name is Danzhen, he is one of the Jiangnan students who stayed in the European Huitong Bank, he showed a high talent in language and espionage work, he was recruited by us as a special intelligence officer, he once cracked the corruption case of the Paris branch of Huitong Bank, and was stationed in India two years ago as the intelligence station chief, and established a fairly efficient intelligence network in Calcutta, and his performance has been very good, and now he has been reappointed as the director of the Batavia intelligence station, and he has been extremely efficient in a short period of time, and he is a capable officer who I am very optimistic about." Dai Yingcai replied respectfully.

"Well, yes, this green pine is really good."

Li Fushou's face finally softened, beating and beating is necessary, but he can't abandon his martial arts, although the performance of the black-clothed guard is occasionally flawed, he is still effective on the whole, so he asked again; "You've always focused on the South, what's the point?"

"Back to my lord, we found that there have been a series of abnormal movements in the south recently, and the performance is very unusual.

First, we found out that the southern state of Victoria recently purchased two consignments of Schneider-Enfield rifles, both of which were Schneider-Enfield rifles produced at the Royal Light Weapons Factory in Enfield, a northern suburb of London, with a total of 22,000 rifles and a huge amount of ammunition.

This is a later improved single-shot rifle, the British began to modify the Enfield M1853 rifle refill kit into a breech loading kit in 1866, this batch of guns is called Schneider-Enfield rifles, widely equipped with British Army units and colonial forces, and exported to the United States in large quantities.

In 1868, when the British were in peace in Ethiopia, the Schneider Enfield rifle went on a rampage for the first time, beating the black corn to the ground.

It was the favorite rifle of the Red Neck of the South and the Brachoa of the North during the Civil War, and hundreds of thousands of people died at its gunpoint, including slaves from African uprisings, soldiers from the Civil War, as well as Indians and Russian woolly bears.

In the hands of well-trained soldiers, the Schneider-Enfield rifle can reach ten rounds per minute, far exceeding the three rounds per minute of the front-loading gun, and the firepower is not inferior to the German-made Mauser 1871 magazine cavalry rifle we are equipped with, and the range is longer and more accurate.

This is only what we have detected, and I don't know how many large arms deals have not been detected?

The warships of the British Task Force in the South Pacific were secretly transporting munitions, and we had no way to find out about them, and we did not dare to kidnap them, so we had to try to gather information in the tavern.

Second, with the frequent exchanges between high-level politicians in New South Wales and Victoria, and the former Premier Morgan McLaurie, who has been active in Victoria for more than a month, secretly meeting with many white diehards in high society, what kind of message is worth exploring?

Thirdly, the NSW government has borrowed millions of pounds from several old British banks and imported large quantities of cotton cloth, cotton yarn, steel wheels, kerosene, pig bristles, table salt, various steel products, etc., on a scale far exceeding demand.

Fourth, under the pretext of guarding against banditry, New South Wales and Victoria have begun to concentrate military training on militias, a phenomenon that began at the end of last month.

Signs of division in the south are gradually surfacing, and this kind of secret war preparations are becoming more and more apparent, as late as half a year, as early as three or five months, Australia is afraid of great changes, and I beg the lord to pay attention to it.

Shangri-La Island is a disease of scabies, and the frequent changes in southern Australia will sooner or later evolve into a major problem for the heart, and once it breaks out, it may be life-threatening! ”