On July 29, 1781, outside Petersburg, a Continental Army of up to 7,000 men, led by George Washington, appeared west of Petersburg.

Ouyang Yu, who was holding a telescope to check the situation, was dismissive of Washington's tricks, as early as five days ago, she had been warned by General Montgomery, and had already made all the preparations for battle, and built fortifications outside Petersburg according to the standards of World War I, although there was no barbed wire and machine guns, but she was confident that unless Washington had ten times her strength, she could repel any attack with fortifications, Minnie guns and grenades.

Holding a telescope to observe the enemy is not only Ouyang Yu but also Washington, the son of a plantation owner born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, has an extraordinary experience, in his early years he also participated in the British army and the French battle, in a battle he was hit four times, but the reality is more exaggerated than the novel or the movie, the four bullets that hit him only penetrated his coat, Washington was as unscathed as a god possessed, and actively organized the troops to successfully retreat under the cover of artillery fire, becoming a well-known hero, and finally retired from the British army in 1758 with the rank of colonel。

Washington, who has rich combat experience, is very familiar with the British army, but after he observed Ouyang Yu's 131 regiment position, he found that the British army in front of him completely subverted his previous understanding, as the sun never sets on the earth, Britain has the invincible Royal Navy and proud army, in the past battles, the British army is not afraid of casualties and combat bravery, and the gentlemanly demeanor revealed from time to time has a profound impact on Washington, but today's British army is full of "obscene" atmosphere.

Washington can swear to God that he has never seen an army digging a pit to hide himself underground, in his binoculars the soldiers of the 131st Regiment are all hiding in the trenches, only half of their heads are exposed, even the artillery is half-buried behind the trenches, if his army attacks head-on, they will face the dilemma that I can't hit you, but you can hit me.

"Report to the General, the Scouts are back!"

"Call them over. ”

Several scouts sent out by Washington walked over.

"Tell me how the enemy is doing?"

"General, the enemy in front of us has dug trenches on the periphery of the whole city, and the enemy soldiers are hiding in the trenches, and there are three ditches every fifty meters in front of the trenches, and we have no way of knowing how deep the ditches are, but they are definitely more than half a meter deep. ”

In the eighteenth century, the area of Petersburg was not large, after getting the warning of General Montgomery, Ouyang Yu did not mind doing what the invaders should do, she forcibly drove tens of thousands of residents in the city to help her dig trenches, without barbed wire, she dug three ditches two meters wide and one meter five deep, and the water from the nearby rivers formed three small moats, which could also play a role in blocking the attack of the Continental Army, and the Continental Army in Washington must first cross the three moats if they want to attack, but the rifles of this era are not waterproof, if there is no suitable tool for the soldiers to slip through, then the rifles in the hands of the soldiers have become something that is not even as good as burning sticks, and in the face of Ouyang Yu's incomprehensible turtle shell tactics, Washington was very troubled.

Without any certainty, Washington had to order the troops to be collected and returned to the camp, and on the first day of the battle, the Continental Army's massive offensive ended without firing even a single shot.

Early the next morning, a junior officer of the Continental Army came to the position with a white flag, and he brought a handwritten letter from Washington to Ouyang Yu.

The officer was taken to Ouyang Yu's headquarters, Ouyang Yu opened Washington's handwritten letter in front of all his subordinates, and Washington asked Ouyang Yu to surrender in the handwritten letter, if she was unwilling to surrender, she could also give up Petersburg, she and her troops could leave safely, Washington promised that he would not pursue and other gentlemanly promises, in short, he hoped that Ouyang Yu could be scared away by intimidation.

After reading the letter, Ouyang Yu laughed and said to the officer: "You go back and tell General Washington that I will not surrender or evacuate Petersburg, and if he wants Petersburg, he is ready to pay the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers." ”

On the third day, under the cover of thousands of infantry, an artillery unit of the Continental Army slowly approached the position of Ouyang Yu's army, intending to carry out a tentative attack, Washington also had no way, his troops were newly defeated, not only low morale and insufficient weapons and ammunition, but also failed in the strategy of intimidation, in order to improve morale and restore strength as soon as possible, he had to launch an attack head-on, even if this attack was unsuccessful, just put a few artillery to boost morale a little.

"Boom, boom, boom......!"

Dozens of artillery pieces of the Continental Army bombarded the positions of the 131st Regiment, and one solid shell after another fell on the fortifications and splashed a large amount of dirt, which had no effect on the soldiers of the 131st Regiment who had already taken refuge in the anti-artillery holes, except for a few soldiers who were scared to pee their pants.

The artillery of the Continental Army had just been fired, and the British artillery half-buried or hidden under the sturdy log fortifications launched a counterattack against the artillery of the Continental Army, although the artillery of the 131st Regiment was less and was assigned to various positions, and there were not many artillery to fight against the Continental Army, but the British artillery with good protection was methodically loaded, fired, and constantly destroyed the artillery of the Continental Army with more accurate shelling.

On the other hand, on the side of the Continental Army, the soldiers who did not have any protection had to brave the constantly falling shells for shooting operations, and once they were unlucky, they would be hit by the flying shells and end up in pieces. The shooting action was stiff, just to end the shelling quickly, and after the reloading, a little aiming was carried out, and the hit rate was touching, even if the shell was lucky and did not miss, it would be useless because of the good fortifications of the British artillery, so after more than an hour of artillery fighting, the Continental Army lost more than 20 artillery pieces and hundreds of soldiers were killed and wounded, while the 131st Regiment was only destroyed two guns, and more than a dozen soldiers were killed or wounded.

Washington, who watched the artillery battle the whole process, was full of helplessness, he thought that the battle of Petersburg would be easier, but he did not expect that the difficulty completely exceeded his estimate, and he could not withdraw his troops under the difficulty of riding a tiger, so he had to maintain the posture of encircling Petersburg while calling more troops to come for reinforcements. (To be continued.) )