Melbourne

Melbourne is located on the coastal plain in southern Australia, and there is a surging Yarra River, which is the main river flowing through Melbourne, with a total length of 242 kilometers, an annual flow of 718 million cubic meters, and a total basin area of 4,000 square kilometers.

Originally built along the banks of the Yarra River, Melbourne had 123,000 inhabitants in 1854 and over 400,000 permanent residents over the course of 10 years.

Today, during the war, white displaced people from all over the country have been collected, and the total population has skyrocketed to more than 600,000. There are as many as seven bridges across the Yarra River, and the whole city spreads along the banks of the Yarra River, and the area is very large.

In addition to the central city, the more than 8,000 square kilometres of land around Melbourne are dotted with manors, market towns and private castle-like buildings, and the residents are generally wealthy.

As the capital of the Free Commonwealth of South Australia, Melbourne has built two well-defended semi-circular defensive lines, on which 60,000 troops have been hoarded, and the city also has more than 76,000 armed militias, with a total strength of 140,000.

If necessary, more soldiers can be armed.

Two weeks later, December 9, 1890

The sound of gunfire at dawn did not cause panic in Melbourne, and the people got up to wash up and have breakfast, and talked about the fears of a major invasion from the North, the ferocity of the Easterners, the tyranny of the king of the North, the confusion of the future, and the pessimism about this year's harvest, but without the urgency of the imminent war.

Since more than 20 days ago

The cavalry units of the north had penetrated deep into the southern coastline, frequently harassed the Melbourne Defence, and had tentatively organized several attacks, all of which were repulsed.

Under the deliberate propaganda of the government, the white residents of Melbourne were fascinated by the confidence that the B Corps going south was nothing more than that, and that there was nothing to fear.

The B Corps, which advanced southward, was not very fast, marching south at a speed of more than 20 kilometers a day, and the bulk of the army is still more than 100 kilometers away.

Along the way, the B Corps sent a large number of troops to sweep the whole of Victoria like an iron comb, and there were hundreds of small battles, annihilating a large number of armed bandits, which was the main reason for the overcrowding of white homeless people who fled to Melbourne.

The exact number of white bandits killed is not available for the time being, and it is possible that there will never be an accurate number, anyway......

As a direct result, the pastoral and mining areas of northern Victoria were overpopulated, and panicked local whites fled to the periphery of two major cities, one in Sydney and the other in the important gold mining region of Ballarat, causing the population of these two cities to skyrocket.

The march was fought at the same time, which caused the B Corps to not move south very quickly.

The advantage of steady progress is to eliminate the infestation of bandits along the way, put an end to the hidden danger of restlessness in the rear, and provide a reliable safety guarantee for the construction of the southern extension of the coastal railway line project day and night, which can be described as a lot of benefits.

Expected under normal circumstances

After the B Corps arrived in the Melbourne area, it still needed to make some necessary preparations for the attack, and the official attack would be a week to 10 days later, so there was no need to worry about it at all.

The influx of white displaced people, mostly young and middle-aged men, has put tremendous population pressure on the two cities, and on the other hand, provided a steady reserve of soldiers, allowing the Federation of South Australia to quickly arm more divisions.

It has to be said that Victoria is still quite rich, a large number of people poured into the city did not bring food shortage, accompanied by the flight of white displaced people to the south, and countless cattle, sheep and livestock were driven into the city, making the city's health a mess and solving the food problem of many people.

I dare not talk about it, at least a few months to eat and drink is not worried, and it is mainly the best beef and mutton, supplemented by grain.

It was past eight o'clock in the morning

The streets of Melbourne were filled with pedestrians, who were walking among the piles of sheep, enduring the foul smell of the air and the dung of cows and sheep everywhere, and complaining loudly as they walked forward.

Along the way, many white people can be seen standing by the Yarra River, looking in the direction of West Melbourne, with puzzled expressions on their faces, talking in their ears;

"Hey, man, the guns have been going off for a long time, what the hell is going on?"

"It's possible that this is an attack by the northerners, and it is estimated that there will be some minor trouble, but I believe that they will definitely not be able to break through the perimeter defense line of heavy defense."

"Thank you, but I'm still a little worried."

"Your worries are understandable, those hateful yellow-skinned monkeys will never get in, the city of Sydney has been holding out for two weeks, causing heavy casualties to the savage attacking northerners, the southern government still controls Sydney, Melbourne has a bigger city, more population, and stronger defenses, and the northerners will only run into heads and blood when they come."

"That's great, as long as we can hold out for another three months, we can welcome the selfless help of the British army, and all nightmares will pass."

"Oh...... Do you have any latest news, sir? ”

"Well, I work in the Federal Government Communications Service, and the news from London is very encouraging, that Britain has decided to take decisive military action against Australia, and will draw a large army from India to help, and then the Yankees will have to go back obediently."

"Why three months? We should be fine, but Sydney may not be able to hold on! ”

"Yes, the Indian mainland is not far away, and it will take more than half a month to arrive by boat."

"Now that the fighting is so fierce and we are dying a lot every day, why wait for three months? It's so unfair. ”

"It's a pity, because of the Christmas holiday, the lords of the London Parliament have to take a vacation, and without the special appropriation of the Parliament, the warships cannot be moved, and naturally there are no reinforcements."

"Oh...... My God! ”

The people on the banks of the river were talking about it, and it was like holding a seminar on war countermeasures, attracting more and more people to participate in the lively discussion.

It didn't take a while

Suddenly someone exclaimed; "Oh...... God, look at the Cathedral of Our Lady on Flinders Street......"

Everyone's eyes turned to it, and they became dull in an instant.

Several small-caliber shells hit the spire of the Church of the Virgin Mary, sending smoke and dust everywhere, and rubble tiles fell one after another, revealing several large broken holes.

Flinders Street is not a peripheral town, but a major street not far from the Yarra River, and as a Christian city, Melbourne is home to many churches of all sizes, including the Church of the Virgin Mary being one of the larger Anglican churches.

As a devout Christian, who would dare to make a few big holes in the church with cannon fire?

"Oh sell ga, the Oriental people are here, run wow!" A certain woman screamed, and a huge fear grabbed people's hearts, and everyone who was still pointing at the country just now instantly exploded and fled in all directions.

Flinders Street

Several hideous-looking wolf light tanks drove on the rubble-strewn streets, followed by the soldiers of the brigade and more than 10 ironclad vehicles, the huge roar made the streets tremble, and the tanks that violently spewed flames strafed everywhere, which caused great fear to the defenders in the city, and the casualties were heavy and they were defeated and retreated.

This is the ironclad torrent of the 1st Red Division, all the way to this area has lost more than half of the light tanks, and more than 50 ironclad combat vehicles, but these losses are worth it, the tank battalion has penetrated deep into Melbourne's west city, and the follow-up troops are rapidly deploying to both sides, taking advantage of the enemy's surprise to occupy more blocks.

The B Corps' move of "repairing the plank road in the open and Chen Cang in the dark" bypassed the heavily defended northern and eastern defense lines of the Melbourne defenders, and chose a weak point in the west for a surprise attack in most of the circle, achieving great success.

In order to perfectly implement the assault plan, the B Corps made a lot of strategic feints to confuse the enemy, and quietly cleared the white towns and pastures along the right flank detour, hoping to achieve maximum suddenness.

Apparently, the assault plan was a great success.

It must be mentioned here that the secret efforts of the Political Intelligence Department for more than ten years have not only selected a suitable breakthrough for the breakthrough of the Corps, but also that the Italian colonel stationed here is an informant of the Political Intelligence Department, and has placed a large number of pro-northern white officers in the troops, and has cooperated with the transfer of other defensive units to achieve the greatest suddenness of the attack.

The B Corps dispatched elite soldiers and strong generals to form an assault corps, composed of about 33,000 elites of the 1st Red Division, the Dragoon Division, the Wolf Cavalry Division, and the Railway Cavalry Division (partial), which rode more than 100 kilometers in ironclad chariots and war horses to rush through the gap in the enemy's western defensive line, quickly occupy and expand the gap in the defensive line, and rapidly advance along the gap.

The gunfire heard by Melbourne residents was the battle that broke out after the assault corps began to enter the city, and swept through the small half of the city.

All the cavalry that entered the city to fight gave up their horses and attacked on foot.

More than 30,000 horses were driven back by the soldiers of a cavalry regiment to meet the large army that was marching all night, and if nothing happened, a second group of more than 30,000 infantry would arrive on horseback before 12:00 p.m. tonight and plunge into the fierce siege battle.

By tomorrow evening at the latest, the large units of Corps B will all arrive at the Melbourne front, with a total strength of more than 162,000 troops (including some of the mobilized troops in the third phase).

Within a week, no less than 35,000 troops were reinforced to the southern battlefield.

Within three weeks, the number of reinforcements will reach 85,000, and more powerful support will be provided according to the needs of the front.

In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, the Red Fort fully supported the long-range raid tactics adopted by the B Corps, and gave great support to the human and material resources.

At worst, it was just another siege of Sydney.

In this north-south decisive battle that decided the fate of Australia, Li Fushou was already mentally prepared to fill in 100,000 people in Melbourne, no matter how big the sacrifice, even if he gnawed with his teeth, he would gnaw down the city.