What is the concept of the Yarra River, a large river that crosses Melbourne, with a total length of 242 kilometers and an annual runoff of 718 billion cubic meters?

It is 11 times that of the Huai River, 14 times that of the Yellow River, and three-quarters of the water volume of the Yangtze River.

The length of the Yala River is only 242 kilometers, which makes it difficult to swim across the river without boats, and can only be connected by bridges.

The stone bridge over the Yarra River is built so strong that the 170-metre-long deck can pass three carriages side by side, and the railings on both sides of the bridge are decorated with quaint lines.

On the east side of the stone bridge, a large number of Confederate soldiers were gathered, and the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, Admiral Gavin Williamson, came to the front line with murderous eyes, and his gloomy gaze swept over the dozen officers who had fled from the West Melbourne area.

All of them were controlled by the five flowers, the lowest rank was also captain, and the highest was three colonels, all of whom were commanders responsible for defending the territory, but they were frightened by the surprise attack of the enemy and fled back.

With a long exhale, Admiral Gavin Williamson said without emotion in his tone; "From Fo Xiao to now in less than three hours, you have lost the West Melbourne area for me, lost more than 20,000 militiamen and more than a dozen blocks in your hands, your commander Major General Jensen is still in the docks to lead the rest of the troops to persist in fighting, and you people who are greedy for life and afraid of death, but you people who are greedy for life and fear of death, but you scum are not worthy of being called soldiers, I now sentence you to death with the sacred right granted to me by the Free Commonwealth of South Australia, and execute you immediately."

The wolf-like gendarmes immediately stepped forward and held down the officers, and the two dragged them outside.

The place of execution was by the river, and the officers were speechless, and after a burst of indiscriminate gunfire, they were all killed on the bank of the river, and blood gushed out, staining a large area of the nearby grass red.

After the defeat at the Battle of Consby Plateau, the Northern Army quickly launched a fierce siege of Sydney, and the two sides fought in the dark, flesh and blood, and this once beautiful seaside city was reduced to a huge flesh mill.

In this case

The leaders of the military and political circles of the Free Commonwealth of South Australia knew that the lonely city could not be defended, and of course they did not want to die with the enemy, so they quickly packed their bags and followed the British merchant ships to withdraw from the dead place of Sydney and return to Melbourne, the stronghold of white conservatives.

The commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, Admiral Gavin Williamson, was naturally among them, and after he returned to Melbourne, he was ready to make a big effort to keep the northern forces out of Melbourne.

Therefore, two strong defensive lines were painstakingly arranged, and numerous barbed wire, bunkers and trenches were arranged, forming a reasonable layout of mutual support and mutual coverage of firepower, with the intention of breaking the head of the Northern B Corps.

Who would have thought ...... The slap in the face came so quickly.

"Maj. Gen. Alan Keynes, can I trust you?" After the killing, Admiral Gavin Williamson's words were filled with irrepressible murderous aura.

Major General Alan Keynes stroked his chest with one hand and performed a knightly salute; "Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, but there is an order, and there is nothing to disobey."

"Very well, I will give you 6 hours to recapture the West Bank bridgehead, plunge into the enemy like a sharp sword, and quickly seize Warehouse Street and Flinders Street while the enemy is still unstable, so as to lay a solid foundation for the next full-scale counterattack."

"Yes, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief."

Major General Aaron Keynes replied very simply, the occupation of the opposite bank was at best two regiments, more than 3,000 people were killed, and he had at his disposal two National Guard divisions and an artillery regiment, a total of 22,000 men.

The two sides are not equal in strength at all, and victory is only a matter of time.

Major General Aaron Keynes was originally the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Confederate Army, with the rank of colonel, and one of the main infantry divisions of the Smith Corps, but now most of the officers and soldiers have died in the sea of corpses and blood in Sydney, and the establishment of the 3rd Infantry Division has also been exhausted, leaving only two or three big cats and kittens to withdraw to Melbourne.

In view of the extreme shortage of officers with combat experience at the front, Colonel Aaron Keynes was promoted by the second rank on the spot, beyond the rank of brigadier general, and directly wore the rank of major general.

At this moment, he didn't know that the west bank of Shiqiao was his old enemy, Colonel Duan Qirui.

There was nothing to say about the battle, it was just a burst of artillery bombardment of the earth and rocks, the ground shook, and then in the sound of the scottish bagpipes, the attacking soldiers lined up in a neat line and stepped on the stone bridge, and they also embarked on the road to death.

These southern soldiers passed the stone bridge smoothly all the way, and as soon as they set foot on the land of Xi'an, they were greeted by fierce platoon gun fire and heavy machine gun fire, and the hot bullets rained down, hitting the flesh and blood mist.

The poor soldiers could not hide on the narrow bridge deck, and the corpses quickly piled up, and seeing that there was only one way to die on the bridge deck, many people jumped directly into the raging Yarra River from both sides, and the scene was spectacular.

If you stay where you are, you will die, and if you jump into the river, you may be able to pick up your life and come back.

In just one attack, hundreds of people in an infantry battalion were disabled, and in addition to the soldiers who were killed and wounded by the other side, more than half of the casualties were caused by jumping into the river, and only a hundred people were able to retreat.

This situation made Major General Alan Keynes twitch his eyelids a few times, and then indifferently continued to give orders; "Order the artillery regiment to cover the shelling for three minutes, replace it with the 6th battalion to continue the attack, and the second battalion to stand by."

"Yes, sir."

"Order the overseers to set up heavy machine guns on the banks of the river, and anyone who retreats without obeying the order will be killed." Major General Aaron Keynes was also a ruthless character, copying the way the Northerners dealt with the white captives, forcing the soldiers to die.

"Yes, sir."

The officers under his command had no choice, and none of them dared to touch the commander's bad head at this time, and went separately to carry out the order.

As soon as the order was delivered, there was a commotion in the otherwise neatly arranged ranks, and many clever soldiers began to rush into the rooms on the side of the street, scavenging everything that could float on the water, and then desperately stuffing them into their uniforms.

The main thing is that the wood chips that increase buoyancy, tables, doors, cabinets, benches, all smashed and stuffed into military uniforms, they are ready to jump into the river.

There is no way, you have to give yourself some chance of survival.

The officers also followed suit, not to mention stopping their soldiers, everyone went to the battlefield with a fateful fate of advancing and retreating, grasshoppers tied to a rope.

Six hours passed

The Confederate Army was still blocked on the east bank of the river, and the Independent Regiment was still holding on to the west bank of the river, but the buildings on the west bank of the river were destroyed into rubble by artillery fire, and the east bank of the river was not easy.

The sixteen-inch large-caliber mortar guns that the independent regiment longed for were brought up, and a few ruthless shots came across the riverbank, and at least one platoon of soldiers was reimbursed for each shot.

Major General Aaron Keynes did not dare to brazenly assemble heavy troops on the east bank of the river, and if the mortar artillery hit, not a single company of soldiers would be reimbursed.

The overseer in his hand was wiped out by a large-caliber heavy artillery shell, not only lost two heavy machine gun crews, but also killed all his lieutenant colonel adjutants, and could not find even a single arm, all of which were reduced to powder in the violent explosion.

More than 3,000 officers and men were killed in the six-hour attack, half of whom were losses caused by jumping into the river, whether or not any of them survived.

With such a big loss, Major General Aaron Keynes could no longer be calm; "Colonel Robert, is there any way you can break the current stalemate?"

"Your Excellency, General, I think we should first find out who the opponent is?"

"Do you have any unique insights...... Mr. Colonel? ”

"We can't capture enemy soldiers, we can only guess." Colonel Robert Janrick spread his hands and said with a wry smile; "Throughout the several hours of fighting, the Oriental gun tactics did not cause much damage to us, the key is that the elusive heavy machine guns are a headache, and each attack will be interrupted by the fierce fire network intertwined by three or four heavy machine guns, and the stone bridge has become a completely dead place, forcing the officers and soldiers to jump into the river to survive.

After each artillery cover, it should be possible to knock out some of these heavy machine-gun positions.

Roughly do the math

Our artillery destroyed no less than a dozen enemy heavy machine guns, but the enemy was still able to take out a steady stream of heavy machine guns, this strange situation reminded me of "Sad Ridge", so I suspect ......"

"Suspect that what we encountered was the one who defended the "Sad Ridge"? Maj. Gen. Aaron Keynes almost blurted out, then fell back into deep thought.

The wounds left by the other party on him were too deep to be forgotten.

In the first battle of Sad Heart Ridge, the Sixth Division was disabled, and the Third Division was also disabled, and the Smith Corps once completed the occupation of Snow Mountain Town, but it was never able to conquer the "Sad Heart Ridge".

If you think about it, the enemy's style of play on the other side of the bridge really has the style of Lieutenant Colonel Duan;

That is~ the use of force is accurate to an outrageous degree, inflicting the greatest damage on the other side at the minimum cost, and war has evolved into a command art in his hands, which is admirable.

"Damn, we're not going to be that unlucky, are we?" Maj. Gen. Aaron Keynes believed it in his heart, but he still had a glimmer of illusion.

"I am sorry, Your Excellency, I very much hope that my intuition is false, but reason tells me...... That's just the way it is. ”

"Oh, this is a ...... The worst news! Major General Aaron Keynes was really beaten out of the psychological shadow, and sat down helplessly at the moment, as if he had lost his soul.

At this moment, Colonel Robert Janrick saw that his words had an effect, completely discouraged His Excellency the General's fighting spirit, and smiled proudly in his heart, but his face did not show any of it.

Those who have a heart will know;

This Colonel Robert Janrick, who was the deputy commander of the 1st Regiment of the 6th Division of the Confederate Army, was captured in the night attack on Snow Mountain Town, and was secretly a son of the Political Intelligence Department, codenamed "Raven", and later returned to Sydney to recuperate through self-injury, narrowly escaped the terrible Battle of Consby Plateau, and finally returned to Melbourne with the retreating military and political leaders.

Also because of the shortage of experienced officers, he now serves as a colonel and division commander, and has nearly 10,000 militia divisions in his hands.

Although today the battle lost a regiment, but this is nothing.

There are too many homeless people in Melbourne who have nothing to do, and they can make up the number by forcibly conscripting some, and now people are panicking in this chaotic year, who cares about this?

"Your Excellency General, I have some good news here that can't be considered good, I don't know if you mind hearing it."

"Say, Robert, what I need most now is good news."

"I have arranged for someone to arrest some homeless people to enlist in the army in the afternoon, and the news they brought is that there are five bridges on the Yala River, and only the southernmost bridge has been taken down by us, but then the foothold is not stable, and it was counterattacked by the Red First Division, and the commander of the 14th Division, Enriquez, also died in this battle, and now everyone is looking at each other, there is a way to blame the public......

"Oh...... This is really good news that is not good news, poor Enriquez died too unworthy, I am still the godfather of his children, I must comfort Linda when I have the opportunity, the loss of a loved one is the most vulnerable time, and I need the company of my friends. Maj. Gen. Alan Keynes looked sad, but the corners of his eyes were noticeably lighter.

Colonel Robert Janrik did not care whether His Excellency the General would insult the widow of a fallen colleague, but he considered the war at hand, and reminded; "Your Excellency, is the battle going on?"

"Oh...... Dear Robert, I have a splitting headache right now, and I can't make any decisions at all, can you please take command for me? ”

"Of course it's no problem, your body must recover well, I see that the corpses on the stone bridge have been piled up in several layers now, can you temporarily stop attacking and clean up the battlefield and carry the corpses of the warriors back?"

"You decide, Robert."

"Then I see."

As a result, there was a strange scene on the tragic battlefield before, it was more than three o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was shining, and the attacking Southern Union Army raised a white flag and demanded to clean up the battlefield.

The Independent Regiment, which was under heavy pressure on the other side, was of course happy to see this, so it also hurriedly sent its soldiers to collect guns and ammunition from the bodies of the dead enemy in preparation for a more intense battle.

The two sides tacitly maintained the situation of grinding foreign workers, cleaning up the mess, repairing defensive positions, dealing with the wounded and dead soldiers, and slowly starting to grind foreign workers.

The situation here in Shiqiao soon went away, and there was no shortage of smart people in this world, and soon several other positions began to grind foreign workers in the same way.

It was all hidden from the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Gavin Williamson, who, having since made a circle along the banks of the Yarra in the morning, had deployed a resolute course of action for a counterattack, and then went to the rear base camp, knowing nothing of what was happening at the front.

After all, he is the commander-in-chief, so he can't go to the front line to fight, right?