Twilight sinks in the west

The already cold sky is getting darker and darker, and the snowy mountain town and the adjacent mountain highlands are in full swing of bloody battles, with gunfire one after another, and the two sides are fighting in full swing.

The Confederate Army, supported by a large number of reinforcements, launched round after round of onslaught.

Most of the snow-capped mountain town has fallen into the hands of the enemy, although soldiers continue to fall into the pits and pierce their hearts, bury themselves by bombed houses, be injured by dirty hidden weapons, or trample on suspended floor slabs, but both sides are red-eyed and do not care about these casualties.

The Confederate army had already occupied two streets into the town, and the defenders were pressed on the last street, less than 100 meters away from the town center building, and the two sides engaged in fierce fire, and the explosions were incessant.

This is the Southern army dragged the light 1.65-inch mountain cannon of the French Haqi Keith into the town, violently blasting the buildings and walls at close range, trying to force a passage to avoid attacking the street where the bullets are riddling.

It has to be said that the move is very creative.

But then came the boom and boom...... Three powerful explosions rang out, and sharp rubble flew in the light of a large fire, sweeping down a large number of white soldiers, completely destroying two mountain guns, and killing and wounding dozens of attacking troops.

This was the support of the 60-mm field guns placed on the top of the hill, and the two artillery groups were accurately eliminated at the third point, and the collapse and debris flying caused by the strong explosion caused serious secondary damage, and the scene was bloody, and there were fragmented corpses and stumps and broken arms everywhere.

With its condescending geographical advantage, the hilltop position can clearly overlook Snow Mountain Town, and any danger that shakes Snow Mountain Town's hold will be stifled.

Although Duan Qirui regarded the cannonball as precious, he was never soft when it should be used.

"Great, those Orientals have been beaten and can't take care of the end, just like a layer of paper that can be broken with a light stab, now give me the order, immediately launch a resolute attack, take the mountainside position for me and hold it firmly, and rush to the top tomorrow to achieve the final victory." Lieutenant General Julian Smith swept away his previous gloomy look and issued the order to attack with arrogance.

He had reason to rejoice;

Although it has come at a great cost, the dawn of victory has been seen.

Lieutenant General Julian Smith is worthy of being a battle-hardened veteran, although the night attack on the first day was slapped in the face, but the frontal attack organized on the two days was orderly, especially the two-fist attack strategy in the evening was even more spicy, and there were indeed two brushes.

The casualties of the officers and soldiers were indeed larger, but as long as the snow mountain town was taken, it would be a victory.

In recent years, the white upper-level generals from Europe have a rigid personality, and their ability to withstand casualties is very strong, and they do not blink in the face of tens of thousands of casualties.

Take the recent Franco-Prussian War, the Civil War, and the Ninth and Tenth Russo-Turkish Wars as examples, all of which are very representative and brutal wars that have occurred in the past two or three decades.

"Your Excellency General, in my opinion, if we attack the top of the mountain at dawn while the sky is twilight, we can stand on the top of the mountain tomorrow and watch the sunrise."

Speaking was the commander of the 7th Division, Colonel Melson, who was of authentic English descent, leading the reinforcements, leading two infantry regiments and a battalion of 105-mm heavy artillery with a total of more than 5,000 officers and men, and the arrogant expression characteristic of the English was evident in his speech.

"I hope so, dear Colonel Melson, the past few days have been terrible, and you have brought us good luck."

"I am very honored personally, Your Excellency General, these Orientals seem to have been squeezed to the limit, and our arrival has only caused the rope to break in advance, and everything depends on your wise leadership, please allow me to express my deep respect for this."

"This damn battle is finally coming to an end, the bones of the Orientals are much harder than I thought, and looking forward to the future battle of Rock Town, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult!"

"In this regard, my advice is to apply for large-caliber heavy artillery, although it will take a lot of time on transportation, but all the efforts are worth it."

"Nice proposal, I'll consider it seriously." Lieutenant General Julian Smith replied with a reserved expression.

He didn't know the power of large-caliber heavy artillery, and at the highest level of the military, Lieutenant General Julian Smith knew better, and knew that the Sydney side simply couldn't afford to draw more large-caliber heavy artillery.

First, the number of large-caliber heavy artillery is quite small, the total number does not exceed 220, in addition to the coastal defense and urban defense of Sydney and Melbourne, the remaining more than 140 heavy artillery pieces are all used in the main attack direction, that is, the upcoming Beilun Campaign.

A large-caliber heavy artillery can easily exceed more than ten tons, and under the existing transportation conditions, it can only move through the railway line, and the land short-distance can also be considered, and the long-distance movement leaving the railway line should not be thought of at all.

Most of today's heavy artillery is piled up on the Sydney defensive line, and the nearest one is nearly 30 kilometers away, after occupying the town of Snow Mountain, if you want to transport these heavy artillery over, you must first build roads, transport these heavy big guys in ox carts, and place them on the railway line trains.

Then repair the railroad tracks that were blown up along the way, and you can kill all the way to Rock Town.

The manpower and material resources spent in this process are huge, and there is no need to think about it for more than a month or so.

"Oh my God, it's going to be attacked......"

The casual conversation was interrupted by the shouts of surprise from the officers, and Lieutenant General Julian Smith immediately took up his binoculars to take a closer look, and the corners of his mouth could not help but pout a smug smile.

Halfway up the mountainside

In the dim light, the black-pressed attacking soldiers had rushed to within 50 meters of the mountainside trench with their snowy bayonets, and at such a close distance, it only took more than ten seconds to enter the trench, and there was almost no suspense of victory.

The Chinese officers and soldiers who were guarding the trenches shot desperately, knocking down the attacking enemy one after another, and they themselves continued to fall under the enemy's counterattack, dedicating their lives to the trenches they held and to this blood-soaked land.

At this moment, a shocking change protruded.

Just behind the trenches, about 100 meters away, on the rocky heights, two inconspicuous bunkers suddenly pierced the firing ports of the black holes, and the heavy machine guns fired wildly at the incoming enemy, "Da Da Da Da...... Da Da Da ...... Dada......"

The two heavy machine guns formed a ferocious crossfire, like the blood-colored fire whip of the Grim Reaper, and in the blink of an eye, swept down the white soldiers who were at the front, and then the fire began to extend outward, eliminating more white soldiers without mercy.

A large cloud of blood erupted in the attacking ranks of the soldiers of the Confederate Army, and the soldiers who were hit by the blazing guns broke their bones and tendons, and their corpses were strewn all over the field, and even under the heavy machine gun bullets, some unlucky soldiers were broken waist-high, and blood splashed out like a spring of blood.

Miserable, bloody, brutal, nothing short of a massacre.

The Chinese officers and men who were fighting hard suddenly boosted their morale, shot the bullets in their guns desperately without money, and chased the retreating enemy to vent their anger, knocking them to the ground one after another.

"Oh sell ga, oh sell ga......"

Lieutenant General Julian Smith, who was on the battlefield, was stunned, and he didn't know what to say when he saw that the duck in his hand was gone.

The attacking white Union soldiers on the battlefield retreated like a tide after encountering a head-on blow, leaving behind layers of lying corpses along the way, and the blood gathered and stained the small half of the mountain, and the corpses everywhere seemed to be piled up like a mountain of corpses, which was simply a post-apocalyptic scene.

The reinforcements of the brigade on the top of the mountain took advantage of the hazy twilight to rush to the aid and quickly rushed to the mountainside position.

In the face of the fiasco, the commander of the Confederate Army did not seem to have reacted from the shock and did not react at the first time, organizing heavy machine gun and artillery fire to intercept.

By the time the white commander came to his senses, the reinforcements on the top of the hill had already rushed half the distance, and it was still less than 400 meters away from the mountainside position, and it only took a few minutes to reach the mountainside trench.

This is absolutely not going to work, how can the fruits of the victory achieved by a large number of white soldiers at the cost of their lives be easily lost?

Colonel Antonio, the 6th Division who remained in the trenches at the foot of the mountain, was furious when he saw this scene, and was about to order heavy machine guns and mountain artillery to fire at a concentrated fire, so that the Chinese soldiers who were rapidly reinforcing would pay a heavy price for the baptism of bullets and bullets.

That's when it happened

Antonio felt a rumbling vibration under his feet and looked back in surprise......

He saw countless tons of earth and rocks mixed with a large area of firelight rising up, and a violent explosion surrounded him, and then he didn't know anything when it was dark in front of him.

In the rear command

Lieutenant General Julian Smith clearly saw that the entire trench at the foot of the mountain exploded like a ground dragon, a large amount of earth wrapped in countless human bodies tumbling and exploding, a thick and huge sound like an earthquake, and the dense explosion sounded like a piece, like rolling thunder.

It's over, it's all over......

The strong shock wave from the explosion swept like a strong wind, and Lieutenant General Julian Smith involuntarily took two steps back and sat on the ground, his face turning pale.

Colonel Melson, who was standing beside him, also sat down on the ground with his legs limp, and muttered; "Oh my God, how can this be?"

The cunning Orientals actually planted a large amount of explosives under the position at the foot of the first line of mountains, once detonated, the entire trench rolled and shook like a fire dragon, at this time the remnants of the defeated soldiers who had just managed to retreat and the infantry hiding in the trenches to prepare reinforcements were densely packed together, the total number was close to 17800 people, most of the dead and wounded in the explosion, and the rest were afraid that even the soul was scared away.

More than 10 heavy machine guns and seven or eight mountain guns were also destroyed in the explosion, and the heavy fire on the front line was completely lost.

"Rush, kill!"

At this time, the reinforcements that had reached the trenches on the mountainside were like tigers descending from the mountain, and without the slightest pause, they continued to rush downward.

In the blink of an eye, more than 800 fresh troops rushed across a distance of several hundred meters, and began a fierce counterattack against the white soldiers who were bombed, stabbing them with guns and stabs, killing the white soldiers one by one, and adding bayonets to the wounded soldiers.

The change came so quickly that the white commanders who had been subjected to the sudden change had not yet reacted, and more than 800 fierce new forces had regained their positions at the foot of the mountain, and the fruits of victory at great cost were lost for a moment.

By this time it was completely dark

Except for the sporadic sound of gunfire, the land was silent.

On the other side, the battle in Snow Mountain Town was also over, and the enemy and us were divided into sides, and it seemed that they were evenly divided.

Not really

After dawn, the hilltop position on the high place was freed up, and the condescending suppression attack was carried out on the soldiers of the Southern Army who penetrated deep into the snow mountain town, and the white soldiers who broke into the town could not resist at all, so they could only obediently admit defeat and exit.

Think about it......

One is the ubiquitous precision strike from the overhead, and the other is the counterattack of the defenders in the town, and no one can hold it under the combination of the two.

Both whites and Chinese are mortals, who can withstand the baptism of steel bullets?

Who would have expected such an earth-shattering reversal, the attacking Confederate Army kicked the iron plate, almost breaking the ankle bone, and the fiasco seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

After dark

The bloody battle, which lasted for a whole day, finally ended, and the Confederate army quietly retreated, both sides silently licking their wounds.

Post-war statistics:

On this day alone, the soldiers of the Southern Union Army who attacked with all their strength suffered more than 3,720 casualties, of which more than eighty percent were killed, and the rest were seriously wounded with missing arms and legs, completely losing the ability to continue fighting.

In the four days before and after, the Southern Army suffered a total of more than 7,500 casualties, which was already a break for the Smith Corps and had to enter a period of recuperation.

Snow Mountain Town defenders

Not to mention the more than 900 white captives captured in the early stage, the Chinese soldiers suffered more than 1,000 casualties in the brutal fighting for several days, and the battle loss ratio between the two sides was roughly 4:1.

Especially in today's bloody battle, the defenders in the defensive position on the mountainside suffered heavy losses, with a total of 372 casualties, and the defenders stationed in Snow Mountain Town suffered heavy losses, with a total of more than 460 casualties, of which more than 6 and a half were killed, and the rest were seriously wounded.

Duan Qirui counted the available troops at hand, and there were less than 2,800 people.

Now that he had no white captive cannon fodder on his hands, all the pressure had to be borne by the Chinese soldiers, and it was expected that the battle would continue and the casualties would increase dramatically.

Eight 95 mm Miss Australia guns lost one in battle, only more than 260 shells remained (more than 10 rounds were fired when returning to attack the position at the foot of the mountain), eight 60 mm field guns were damaged in battle, more than half of the ammunition was consumed, and 7 heavy machine guns were damaged in the battle (plus the number of captures, the number of heavy machine guns in the army did not decrease but increased, reaching as many as 26), and the heavy machine gun ammunition was seriously damaged, and the situation facing it was quite grim.

After several days of fierce fighting, a total of 15 German Krupp 105-mm (4 and 11 guns) heavy guns of the Federal Army of the Southern Federation Army and 31 1.65-inch mountain guns of the French Haqikies were destroyed, and almost the entire artillery regiment of the enemy was destroyed by himself, and brilliant results were achieved.

The reason for such an excellent performance has to be mentioned that two new hydraulic reciprocating field guns produced by Azure Weapons Company, a 95 mm field run and a 60 mm field gun, completely beat their opponents in the main indicators such as shooting accuracy and the amount of ammunition per unit of time.

Taking the "Miss Australia" 95mm field gun as an example, the ultimate rate of fire is 18 rounds per minute, and in battle, the gun crew can easily fire more than 10 rounds per minute to cover the dense artillery fire.

In this day and age

There is no accurate optical sight, there is no artillery radar, and too much emphasis on shooting accuracy is a hooligan, and that thing is unreliable.

If you think about it, you can see that with the help of an artillery ruler at most, the accuracy of the hit depends on experience, and God blesses you.

For artillery, artillery coverage is king, so the amount of ammunition projected per unit time of each gun is the most critical indicator, and the most important measure of artillery performance.

Taking the German-made 105 mm retreat artillery of the main force of the Confederate Army as an example, the theoretical maximum rate of fire is three rounds per minute, but in fact, it is full of strength, and it can fire two rounds per minute to be considered an elite artillery crew, and most of them are at the passing level of one round per minute.

As for accuracy, it can't be required, artillery is a new thing for the Southern Army, and after less than a few months of training, it's good to be able to get shells out of the breech, and you still expect accuracy?

Hehe...... Why don't you go to heaven?

Leaving aside the difference in artillery performance, the condescending superior geographical position of the hilltop position has brought a decisive bonus, which can clearly overlook the surrounding situation for more than ten kilometers, and the enemy's heavy fire points have nothing to hide.

After seizing the position at the foot of the mountain, the Confederate army completely died down, and the army returned to the barracks to lick its wounds.

After a short break

Duan Qirui ordered the laying of barbed wire to start again, and to start digging trenches again more than 50 meters behind the original trenches.

The original trench had exploded violently, and the earth was mixed with a large number of corpse fragments and blood, and it became loose and terrible, and it could no longer be used.

Although they were very tired, the soldiers still worked hard with their spirits.

They know it very well;

In the face of the enemy's incomparable numerical superiority, defending against danger is the biggest barrier to life, what is it to be tired, it is much better than losing your life, right?

I worked hard all night until the early hours of the next morning

The Chinese soldiers, who rolled like mud monkeys, withdrew their hands to collect the booty, collected guns, ammunition and usable supplies, and piled up all the corpses of the enemy beside the barbed wire, building several mountains of corpses.

When the hot food was delivered, many soldiers fell asleep while leaning on the trenches to eat, they were really tired.

After dawn

The Confederate commander saw a new position, a dense barbed wire fence, a freshly dug trench with defenders on guard, and after a few days of hard fighting, everything was back to square one.

See it all

The only remaining bit of confidence was completely wiped out, and I originally thought that Snow Mountain Town was a soft persimmon, but who knew that it was a steel jumping bean, and I broke my teeth with a bite.

The situation was reported layer by layer, and Lieutenant General Julian Smith personally came to the forward position to observe, and was silent for a long time.

"Your Excellency General, look ......"

"The soldiers' boredom is very strong, let's rest for three days, evacuate the wounded for treatment, we have to find the right way to break the stalemate." Julian Smith finally sighed lightly, looked at the not very tall mountain in front of him, and said a little dazed in his heart for no reason; "Let's keep it in mind, it's a sad mountain."

"The soldiers will thank the general for his mercy, may God bless!"

"God bless, Amen!"

More than 7,500 casualties in the battle in a few days, the Southern Union Army is really unable to fight now, the Smith Corps plus reinforcements totaled more than 21,000 people, and the casualties were thirty and a half percent at once, and one leg was almost lame.

Moreover, the heavy firepower and equipment have suffered serious losses, how can they continue to fight?