At 17 p.m. on November 18, 1781, the battle for Richmond came to an end temporarily, and with targeted tactics, the British army seized the outlying areas of Richmond and forced the Continental Army to shrink, but the Continental Army relied on the strong barricades established throughout the city to stubbornly resist the British attack, which not only ensured the stability of the battle line, but also killed and wounded a large number of British troops, and also restored the low morale a lot. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Before dinner, Ouyang Yu ignored the persuasion of the officers to go to the front line to check the enemy's situation, and looked through a monocular from the second floor of a dilapidated house, the barricades of the Continental Army were very orderly, and there were firing holes everywhere, forming dense crossfire, and moving the few remaining artillery forwards, and building artillery positions on the forward positions so that the artillery could be bombarded at close range, and in today's battle, at least one-third of the British soldiers fell under the shrapnel fired by the artillery of the Continental Army.

"It's hard to deal with. ”

By observing Ouyang Yu, he found that if he wanted to break through the barricades of the Continental Army, he had to move his artillery forward, but there were only a few roads that could allow the artillery to pass, and the Continental Army had obviously taken this situation into account and arranged the artillery first, as long as her artillery would be subjected to accurate and deadly shelling as soon as the road was on the road.

"It's a pity, it would be nice if there were mortars. ”

Ouyang Yu's guard captain Laura reminded on the side: "Master, although we don't have mortars, we do have mortars. ”

"Yes, the mortar is very suitable for the current situation, thank you for the reminder. ”

Mortar is a kind of smoothbore artillery with short barrel, large firing angle, low muzzle velocity and high arc trajectory, with short range and high projectile power, mainly used to destroy strong fortifications.

Ouyang Yu's 23rd Brigade Artillery Battalion was equipped with six 213 mm caliber mortars, but because Ouyang Yu disliked these mortars were heavy and useless, so they were left in the rear and did not participate in the battle.

While the British sappers and artillerymen were nervously setting up mortar positions, the Continental Army on the opposite side was not idle, they continued to strengthen the barricades during the gap between the battles, used everything they could use and stored a large amount of ammunition, in addition to the busy soldiers could also see the figures of the citizens, in addition to the young men and women, even the old people and children did what they could.

Commander Anderson of the Continental Army looked at the scene of the military and the people with satisfaction and said to his friends around him: "Jiang, have you seen this face? With the support of the broad masses of the people, this battle will eventually belong to us, and the last fate of the decayed nobles and their lackeys in the old continent can only be to leave the new continent in ashes, hahaha......!"

Jiang Xiaotian didn't have Anderson's ambition, his pair of sword eyebrows were tightly wrinkled together, this morning's British army unusually did not launch an attack, which made him feel very uneasy, and there was always a feeling of storm in his heart.

"Hi my friend, what's wrong with you, are you not feeling well?" Anderson asked with concern when he saw his friend frowning.

"No, I'm fine, Anderson ordered the troops to be on guard, and I feel like the greatest test of ours is coming. ”

Jiang Xiaotian's cautious expression infected Anderson, and the smile on his face was replaced by seriousness. "Did you find anything?"

"I didn't find anything, but I just had some kind of ominous premonition, and it's always good to be careful, whether my premonition is right or not. ”

"You're right, it's always good to be careful, and I'm going to give orders to the lads to pay more attention. ”

On the side of the British army, the soldiers who had eaten lunch early had already assembled, and the eyes of the British soldiers were full of murderous intent and hatred, and they couldn't wait to avenge the comrades who died yesterday.

At 12:07 p.m., six mortars were prepared, and for safety reasons, these six mortars were placed about 300 meters behind the front line, and the artillery positions were surrounded by houses, and the direct fire artillery of the Continental Army could not pose a threat to them, but on the contrary, the mortars with high ballistics could wantonly bombard targets within a radius of 1,500 meters.

At 12:10 p.m., two red flares flew into the sky, and six mortars roared.

"Boom...... Boom Boom Boom ...... Boom......!"

The huge explosion flooded the barricades set up by the Continental Army, especially the artillery positions were taken care of, and the artillery placed in them was violently exploded and disintegrated into pieces along with the soldiers who operated it.

"Enemy shelling, hidden! hidden!"

The soldiers of the Continental Army who were having lunch hurriedly threw down the bread and hot soup in their hands and hid around, they did not know where to hide due to lack of training, some of them got into the houses and fortunately escaped, while some returned to the barricades and were killed by shells falling from the sky, and the British artillery took advantage of the chaos of the Continental Army to launch several artillery pieces at various intersections, and used these guns to join the "carnival".

“fire！”

Shells hit the targets that had already been marked, and the barricades that the Continental Army had worked so hard to build quickly turned into useless ruins under deadly fire.

Some soldiers of the Continental Army risked being hit by shells to launch a counterattack, but unfortunately the flintlock muskets in their hands were not only not accurate enough to hit the British artillery hundreds of meters away, even if they hit, it would be useless, this is because in order to ensure the safety of the precious artillery, Ouyang Yu rushed to make a batch of artillery shields made of pig iron on all the artillery, unless they were hit by enemy shells, otherwise the artillerymen could hide behind the artillery shields and shoot as much as they wanted without worrying about the lead bullets that came from them.

The British bombardment lasted for half an hour, and after half an hour, the barricades set up by the Continental Army were basically destroyed, and the British soldiers, who had long been unable to bear it, rushed out after receiving the order to attack, shouting the slogan of God bless the emperor.

Anderson brandished his pistol and grabbed a soldier trying to escape, "Where do you want to go?

"All dead, all dead, let me get out of here, let me get out of here!"

The incoherent soldier broke free of Anderson's hand and continued to run back as if frightened, and the angry Anderson raised his pistol at the fleeing soldier, but instead of pulling the trigger, he sighed and lowered his arm in frustration.

"Chiang, we have failed. ”

"Yes. ”

Jiang Xiaotian, who had been by Anderson's side, witnessed the collapse of the Continental Army's defeat, and the fierce and accurate artillery of the British army not only destroyed the barricades, but also destroyed the will of the soldiers of the Continental Army to fight.

Jiang Xiaotian smiled bitterly unwillingly, if it weren't for the fact that there were too many recruits in the Continental Army, if he was given an elite Chinese Federal Army, he would have full confidence in defeating the attacking British army, and he would not taste defeat.

"Surrender, any further fight will only cost the lives of the soldiers. ”

Jiang Xiaotian patted his friend on the shoulder and said his last suggestion, after surrendering, he would be expelled from the country in his capacity at most, and his life would not be in danger.

Anderson nodded helplessly, and soon after, the British flag was planted in Richmond City Hall, and important cities of the Continental Army fell into the hands of the British. (To be continued.) )