Xueshan Town is a railway town with a population of less than 5,000 people, which was originally used as an important forward base for the construction of railways and a storage place for materials, and was usually used to ensure the clothing, food, housing and transportation of Chinese road builders, so most of the residents were railway workers and Chinese immigrants engaged in the service industry.

The peak number of residents in the town has reached more than 6,200, and the service industries such as clothing, food, housing and transportation are blooming everywhere, and many railway workers are willing to go to the town to have a few drinks and buy some daily necessities when they are on vacation, and then find a white girl to go to the fire.

After the tension between the north and the south, for security reasons, some Chinese immigrants engaged in the service industry left Xueshan Town, and the population dropped sharply to more than 3,000 people, most of whom were young and middle-aged workers and soldiers of the road protection cavalry, and then supplemented with some trained backbone militia, with a total strength of about 4,000 people, almost all of whom were soldiers.

For a small town, such a defense is a bit exaggerated.

But if you look at the geographical location of Snow Mountain Town, you can understand the intention of the Army Staff Headquarters of the Ocean Kingdom, which is an iron nail that pierces deep into Sydney's back, and together with Rock Town, Illawarra Town, and Canberra, it forms a sharp sword that pierces the soft belly of New South Wales, and now the railway is paralyzed by enemy sabotage and has not been able to play a real role.

So the sharp sword that was inserted into the soft belly of the south had not yet opened, revealing its hidden true face.

If the northern army comes over and rushes to open the coastal railway line, it will be like a sharp sword unsheathed, and it will definitely cut off the road connection between New South Wales and Victoria, forming two separate theaters that do not interfere with each other.

Strategically, this is the advantage of being the first to take the initiative.

Among the four towns of Snow Mountain Town, Panshi Town, Illawarra Town, and Canberra Town, the geographical location of Panshi Town is particularly important, playing the role of a bridge between the upper and lower levels, and the geographical conditions of defense are better than that of Snow Mountain Town, which is vigorously built as a core fortress that must be protected.

The main force of the Railroad Cavalry Division was also in Rock Town, where more than 11,000 fighters were gathered to hold out, and more than half of the Wisconsin Militia Division was used in Rock Town.

Once Snow Mountain Town is lost, the way to retreat is to enter the deep mountains and retreat to Rock Town.

Duan Qirui didn't want to go, he was a lieutenant colonel in a fortress of tens of thousands of people, and there was not only a colonel but also a brigadier commander above his head, where could he get his little lieutenant colonel to give orders?

I'll just stay here and go anywhere, so I can't go up the mountain to fight guerrillas.

With the decision in his heart, Duan Qirui breathed a long sigh of relief, with the 4,000 troops in his hands and full preparation, he was confident that he could resist 16,000 enemy troops, which was almost the limit.

If there are 20,000 more enemy troops......

No matter how arrogant Duan Qirui is, he knows that he can't bear it, it's a whole legion.

He cautiously walked along the position demarcated by the lime line, and it didn't take much effort to turn half the town, Duan Qirui was very satisfied with the defensive position he saw, the soldiers had just won a big battle, and their fighting spirit was high, which made the big stone in his heart let go.

A moment later

Duan Qirui came to a dark castle at the bottom of the street corner and squatted down to take a closer look.

Even if he stood in front of this stone wall, he couldn't see anything unusual, and the heavy machine gunner hiding inside saw the commander coming through the peephole, and hurriedly pulled out the blocked stone, revealing a small rectangular hole, and said with a shy face; "Chief Duan, do you have to come to us for a walk?"

"me, I'm checking the defense deployment, the battle broke out last night, you must be on guard here, and you must not take it lightly." Duan Qirui replied angrily and funny.

"Don't worry, sir, so many heavy machine guns were captured last night, and all the heavy machine guns in the Bunker are fully equipped, those ghosts dare to come, and they don't have good fruit to eat."

"It's good to have such confidence, continue to be vigilant, remember that you don't see the enemy, you can't expose the location of the dark fortress, only a sudden critical attack can give the enemy the greatest damage."

"Understood, sir."

After a few words, Duan Qirui stood up and saw that his adjutant was walking hurriedly, so he stood down and waited for him to come.

"Report to the division, the Southern Army has begun to send sappers to erect two bridges, and the highland artillery asks for instructions on whether to shell them?"

"Don't worry, wait until they build it, is there anything else?"

"Division, one of the captured white officers has a major who strongly asks to see you, saying that there is important information to advise, and he refuses to say anything when asked, and he must see the division seat before he can speak clearly, and his subordinates dare not be proficient, so I have come to tell you."

"Oh, let's go check it out."

Duan Qirui suddenly became interested, and hurriedly left the central street of the town with the adjutant, heading into the distance.

Because the snow-capped town is a frontier position deep into the south, a lot of reinforced concrete structures were used when it was built, generally two-storey, and the houses were built extremely strong, which was difficult to destroy.

The whole town presents a semi-circular radioactive structure, shaped like a compass.

The three main roads lead to the town centre, which is a four-storey reinforced concrete building built to be extra thick and sturdy, with small windows that resemble an impregnable fortress.

This is the commanding height of the town, and by occupying it, you can control several major roads, and thus control the whole town.

Duan Qirui's headquarters was located here, and all the prisoners of the Southern Army were also held here, and there was a heavy machine gun sandbag bunker on the left and right at the entrance of the building, and the heavily armed soldiers were on duty here, heavily guarded.

in the office

The adjutant brought in a thin white major officer, about thirty-four or five years of age, with his uniform neatly tied, and looking like a well-educated gentleman.

"Okay, you go out and do something." Duan Qirui sent the adjutant away, looked at the white major officer with interest, and saw that the officer had his feet folded into a military salute, and said loudly;

"Report to the sir, Major Robert Janrik, deputy commander of the 1st Regiment of the 6th Division of the Confederate Army, report to you."

"I know your identity, Mr. Major, I didn't take time out of my busy schedule to see you to listen to this, I hope you don't waste the little kindness you have left, and tell me something I am willing to hear."

"No, you don't know who I am, my real identity is a Southern Sleeper in the Political Intelligence Division, codenamed "Raven", and forgive me for being blunt, the white army is not as weak as you think. In last night's battle, if I hadn't taken the initiative to get the soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender, your losses would have been much greater. ”

Wow!

Duan Qirui was immediately full of black lines after hearing this, he really didn't expect the hand of the Political Intelligence Department to stretch out so long?

Ninety percent of what Major Robert Janrick, the white-skinned and yellow-hearted egg man in front of him, should be true, because Snow Mountain Town has a way to verify his identity, and there is no way to impersonate him.

But now that people have been arrested, how can they be put back?

"Hmm...... May you ask, how many years have you been with the Political Intelligence Service? ”

"Originally, it was confidential information that could not be disclosed, but now it is an extraordinary situation, I can answer your question, I joined the political intelligence department in 1879, and at that time I was still called the Black Guard, and I was ordered to go into hiding, and it has been 11 years since I pinched my fingers."

Okay, I can't ask.

Duan Qirui is a smart man, he knows the truth that curiosity kills cats, and he doesn't want to know anything about this mysterious and dangerous department, which is His Majesty's secret agency, walking in the shadows of darkness.

"I will arrange for your identification as soon as possible, Mr. Major, and pay tribute to you for your perseverance for more than 10 years, the question now is that many people know that you have been captured, so how do you go back?"

"Sir, are you still going to keep these captives?" Major Robert Janrick asked abruptly.

This sentence startled Duan Qirui, and said in his heart; I'm going to it, this wall is also a ruthless character, more than 900 military compatriots want to kill them all?

"Please forgive the sir, it's not that I'm ruthless, from your point of view, there are only more than 4,000 defenders in Snow Mountain Town, and they are separated from the town and the high ground on the mountaintop, it is impossible to treat more than 900 prisoners while fighting tens of thousands of enemy troops, you don't have so many manpower to squander, at a critical time, one more squad of soldiers may affect the final direction of the battle situation and the fate of all the defenders."

Well, Duan Qirui admits that he has a point, anyway, this Major Robert Jenrick will definitely not be able to leave his sight until he is clearly screened, so he might as well talk about it openly and honestly; "I do have a plan, after a simple mobilization of these white soldiers, I will send them guns to the front line to be cannon fodder."

"I'm sorry sir, may I ask if that's appropriate?"

"No problem, these captured white soldiers will be formed into a team of two or three hundred people, and they will be sent to hold positions along the railway line one after another, and there are several heavy machine guns aimed at them in the rear......" Speaking of this, Duan Qirui had a kind smile on his face; Unfortunately, we are short on manpower, so every manpower has to be used to the extreme, and the captives are no exception. ”

Major Robert Janrik breathed a sigh of relief and shrugged his shoulders and said; "That's no problem, I hope I can get out of here as soon as possible after screening, after all, after so many years of lurking, I don't want to fall short."

"Oh...... Is it really okay? ”

"Don't worry, sir, the Southern Army is not as tightly managed as you think, I can shoot it in the leg, so that I can explain why I didn't return to the barracks twelve kilometers away, and at the same time get the opportunity to return to the rear to recuperate."

Well, you're ruthless!

Duan Qirui had nothing to say at this point, opened the drawer, took out two iron boxes and asked; "Coffee or tea?"

"Coffee, thank you."

"You're welcome."

Duan Qirui walked to the table next to him with an iron box in his hand, ground some coffee beans everywhere, and then put them in a pot and put them on the stove to heat, and asked casually; "Major Robert, are there many like you?"

"Forgive me for not having anything to say, but I'm not the first, and I will never be the last."

"It makes sense, do you need milk and sugar for coffee?"

"Two spoonfuls of milk, one spoonful of sugar, thank you."

Duan Qirui walked over with a kettle, poured hot coffee into the cups of the two, then added milk and sugar, took out a silver spoon and pushed it in the coffee cup.

"Thank you, sir, I have great admiration for your commanding skills."

"Hehe......"

Duan Qirui laughed dryly twice and did not answer, he noticed that Major Robert Janrik used a silver spoon to rotate clockwise to stir coffee and milk, the spoon did not touch the wall of the cup, and when he took it up to drink, his index finger hooked the handle of the cup, and his posture looked elegant and calm.

This is British aristocratic etiquette, and it is not seen in the rude Aussie cowboy at all.

Political Intelligence Division...... This pool of water is so deep!

Three days later, at about 2 p.m

Amid the rumbling of artillery and fierce gunfire, the attacking Confederate soldiers were once again routed, leaving behind large corpses and charred craters, showing that the battle was fierce and bloody.

In the rear front headquarters, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, Colonel Aaron Keynes, no longer had the grace and calmness of his past, his uniform collar was open, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was marked with gunsmoke one after another.

It's been two days

In addition to the day spent building a bridge over the Limer River, the Confederate Army launched a large-scale onslaught after crossing the river, successively overcoming the railway line positions and rear trenches, and advancing the battle line to the foot of Snow Mountain Town and Sanling Heights.

Particularly infuriating are the ...... It was the captured white soldiers who stubbornly resisted on the railway line positions, causing thousands of casualties to the attacking troops.

In order to knock out the two machine-gun fortresses that are scurrying back and forth along the railway line, uh...... It was the railway manpower maintenance vehicles, and in the mutual shelling, the artillery regiment lost four 105-mm field guns, seven Hatch Chase M1875 1.65-inch mountain guns, and one artillery battalion was knocked out.

The southern military used all the old-fashioned rack-mounted guns, which not only had a slow rate of fire, but also had to recalculate the ballistics of each shot, and the density of firepower was far from sufficient.

On the other hand, the 95mm Miss Australia artillery erected on the top of the hill by the Oriental people not only has an open firing range but also has extremely fierce firepower, which can fire 15~16 shells per minute, and two guns can be equivalent to the ammunition of an artillery battalion, and the shooting accuracy is far better than the former.

So in the shelling, the Southern Army suffered a big loss.

The remaining two battalions of artillery Lieutenant General Julian Smith were reluctant to use it, and the artillery was finished before the attack on Snow Mountain Town began, how could the next battle be fought?

It could only be filled with infantry, so this battle was bloody and humiliating, and it was counterattacked again and again with heavy losses.

"The three regiments and seven battalions will organize again, and they will attack again in fifteen minutes, and I still don't believe it, can't gnaw this mountain?" Colonel Alan Keynes gave the order loudly.

"Yes, sir, can you ask for artillery bombardment of enemy positions?"

"The division did its best to increase the firepower of the attacking troops, send a few more heavy machine guns to suppress the enemy, and the rest can only pray to God, good luck."

"That'...... All right. ”

The battalion commander of the major, who led the attack, walked out with his head down, his face full of despair.

Attacking the hilltop on the top of the hill was a death-threatening task, and on the slightly gentler side of the terrain was covered with trenches, bunkers and barbed wire, and every step forward cost blood, and the dozen or so charges over the past two days had been carried out again and again, and no progress had been made at all except for the loss of large corpses.

The Orientals had absolute artillery superiority, not only the 95mm Miss Australia artillery was extremely powerful, but the 60mm field guns were even more ferocious, causing great damage to the attacking troops.

Often, when they were about to break through the enemy's defensive line, a burst of artillery fire smashed down on their heads and faces, causing heavy casualties on their backs, and they had to retreat with hatred.

This aggrieved battle is really maddening!

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