When the flares go up, Hugh. The pocket watch in Lieutenant General Gough's hand went exactly to four o'clock!

At this time, the sky will be bright and the morning breeze will blow. The humidity of the plains around Peshawar had slowly risen overnight, and the ground seemed to be covered with a thin layer of mist, which seemed to be extraordinarily quiet, but it was very much in line with the atmosphere before the war.

And countless bayonets, condensed with morning dew, flashed behind the two breastwork walls that had just been erected on the starting positions of the British and Indian troops on the east and south sides of Peshawar!

The white-skinned officers who led the team were distributing "brave pills" to the Indian mercenaries under their hands one by one - they were sugar pills! If you don't knock some medicine, where do these "third brothers" have the courage to brave the enemy's bullets and bullets to rush up?

In fact, those white-skinned officers themselves have to knock, and only after knocking do they dare to take the lead! Otherwise, how to fight the war in the era of queuing and shooting?

Seeing that after the "third brother" at the bottom got the "brave medicine", he was already a little excited, and the courage of the white-skinned officers also rose, as if they had seen the dawn of victory.

In the previous battles that took place in India, as long as the battle formation was set up, and then the artillery bombarded and the "drug soldiers" rushed, they basically won a complete victory.

And this time it's 18,000 to 35,000...... The gold soldiers on the opposite side are about 3,000, plus the infantry of the former East India Company who defected and surrendered, plus some Pashtun tribal warriors, and 5,000 can reach the sky.

Three fights to more than one!

The advantage is in Great Britain, how can it not win?

So, you Indians just knock a little more...... This way you can be braver and win faster!

Stop. Gough's artillery was also at the front at this time, and twenty-four 12-pounder Armstrong breech-loading guns were divided into two artillery groups, which were placed on the east and south sides of Peshawar. The artillery group placed on the east side of Peshawar City consists of eighteen cannons, and the artillery group placed on the south side of Peshawar consists of six cannons.

From the distribution of artillery, it is known that the direction of the main attack today is to the east of Peshawar.

Seeing the flares rising in the sky, the artillery commanders of the British and Indian troops, who had been waiting impatiently, jumped up from their bunkers one by one, climbed to a high place, waved the flag in their hands heavily, and gave a loud order: "Release!" ”

Twenty-four Armstrong guns showed their muzzles, and the gunners who had just finished the medicine were all extremely powerful, only to see their hands and feet quickly tear off the cover and push the bullet into the chamber. Ropes of fire pulled, and tongues of fire erupted from each muzzle!

The artillery positions of the British and Indian troops were very close to the front line of the Jin soldiers, and the direct firing distance was only two or three thousand meters. The rifles and machine guns of the Golden Soldier were no longer a threat at this distance, while the 12-pounder Armstrong rear-loading gun was quite accurate, and it was also equipped with shrapnel that specialized in killing infantry, which was quite powerful at medium and close range.

A shiny shell fills the chamber of the cannon, and then spits out with a "boom"! On the front of the Jin Bing position opposite, clouds of smoke suddenly rose, and at first glance, it looked like the ground had suddenly bloomed.

These shells landed very concentrated, almost all smashed in the front of the horse rejection gun array, as the shells continued to explode, the layers of several layers of horse rejection guns were blown up and blown away, fragments flew everywhere, and the human body could be vaguely seen to be blown up into the sky! The British artillery was quite accurate, and the shells were concentrated, and after a while, an offensive channel was gradually blown out.

Then the British artillery fire began to extend again, and the shells fell on the line of the trenches of the golden soldiers! After the fight, the smoke and dust filled the battlefield, flowing slowly, choking the people who couldn't breathe.

The shelling lasted a full hour, and twenty-four cannons fired a total of 1,200 shells. Stop. A quarter of the shells had been lost from the shells that Goff's men had worked so hard to bring up, and the artillery positions were covered with copper shells. At 4:30, the shelling came to an abrupt end. The white-skinned officers of the Anglo-Indian Army and the Sikh turbaned officers who led the attack straightened up, raised their hands forward, and the drugged infantry behind them suddenly poured out!

Behind the golden army formation in the east of Peshawar, Wu Fax, the king of Pingxi, wearing a yellow coat, carrying a waist knife, and wearing a steel helmet imported from the Ming Dynasty, led more than a dozen Goshha carrying shell guns, and rushed all the way along the communication trench to the front.

Although this Wu Fax is a prince, he is a master who likes to take the lead and charge in battle. He saw the firepower of the British army on the east side of the city from the tower of Peshawar Castle, and immediately knew that the main direction of the British attack was in the east of the city. At that moment, he handed over the command to his lieutenant general, and he went down to the city tower with his own soldiers, first squinted behind the earthen wall outside the east gate, and when the British artillery bombardment was over, he immediately entered the communication trench and went straight to the main position in the east of the city.

When Wu Fax rushed into the trench of the "Dui" position, the golden soldiers in the trench had already climbed up, but most of the militia in Peshawar were still squatting against the inner wall of the trench with their heads in their hands, and their faces were covered with dirt.

Wu Fax hurriedly roared: "Is there any panting?" Get up for Lao Tzu, set up rifles and machine guns for Lao Tzu, and the British devils are going to come up and die! ”

As he shouted, he ran around the trenches, and when he saw the Peshawar militiamen, who were so frightened by the British bombardment, that they could not get up for a while, they would personally go up and kick them twice, and then shout twice in the newly learned Pashto language: "God is great!" ”

Seeing that he went to the front line as if he was dying, the Jin soldiers and Peshawar militia in the position also had the courage to come, and the bass breech guns and Suvorov rifles were set up, and the muzzles of the black holes were aimed at the front.

At this time, Wu Fax also lay on the wall of the trench, holding up a telescope with his left hand and looking at the opposite side. At first, it was still smoky, and I couldn't see anything clearly. I only heard the sound of chaotic shouts from the other side. Suddenly, a gust of mountain wind blew, blowing away a layer of smoke, and finally they could see the opposite formation, and everyone was surprised and delighted.

The Anglo-Indian-Sikh coalition officers and soldiers pressed over from the opposite side were extremely numerous, and they were simply crowded! Soldiers wrapped in various turbans poured in like a tide, forming waves of dense skirmishers on the open position!

The Anglo-Indian and Sikh officers were at the head of the line, leading the soldiers with their swords, rows of rifles rising and falling, and a steady stream of Anglo-Indian and Sikh officers and soldiers coming over the breastwork in their starting positions. The entire battlefield is almost stuffed with soldiers wrapped in turbans! All kinds of heart-rending shouts are mixed together, and it looks particularly noisy and noisy!

This kind of dense skirmish tactics is actually the mainstream tactic in the Napoleonic Wars on this timeline, when rear-loading guns and rear-loading guns had just appeared, but the main equipment of various countries was still front-loading rifled guns and front-loading guns, water-cooled machine guns did not exist, but the unreliable restrictive revolvering (Gatling) machine guns already existed, and barbed wire did not yet appear.

In that case, relying on the concentrated use of artillery and dense skirmish lines, it was quite possible to break through the enemy's trench defenses.

But now, times have changed!

Wu Fax lay down in the trench and looked at all this in front of him dumbfounded: "He M, if there is no barbed wire and machine guns, Lao Tzu will have to become a loyal martyr today......"

Thinking of this, Wu Fax pulled out his waist knife and strode around the trench line: "Don't fire!" Do not fire...... Wait until the enemy is blocked by barbed wire! ”

He also ran to every machine-gun fort made of sandbags, and the shooters were nervously preparing to shoot. I heard Wu Fax yelling at them: "I heard the machine gun in Lao Tzu's hand go off, you can only fire, do you hear it?" ”

"Yes!"

The machine gunners are all veterans, although they have not seen today's big scene, but they are all veterans who have seen blood in battle, and they may be calm!

And as long as the machine guns on the front line can "hold on", the rifles in the hands of those Peshawar militia are not a big deal even if they shoot indiscriminately.

Zhuge Weidao and they also saw the Anglo-Indian-Sikh coalition army rushing like a tide on the corner tower behind them. Zheng Guoxian and Mu Junen, two army officers from professional classes, gasped.

Colonel Mu Junen put down the binoculars and frowned: "This is a classic French shock...... The French Republican Revolutionary Army relied on this tactic to repel the anti-French coalition forces! ”

Zheng Guoxian over there also put down his binoculars, frowned and said, "There are at least two regiments in the east, and about one regiment in the south...... This is still the first wave, and there will be at least two more after that, that is, nine regiments will attack in turn! This is to use the lives of India's human beings to fight for the firepower of the soldiers...... As long as the density of human lives is large enough and the attack is resolute enough, a breakthrough can be formed! ”

"They can't break through!" Zhuge Weidao said in a firm tone, "The barbed wire will block them, and the machine guns will harvest enough lives!" And they also have four six-foot howitzers......"

As soon as he said this, the four six-inch cannons placed in the square below the castle suddenly trembled, and then they erupted with a violent roar!

......

In the dense ranks of Anglo-Indian-Sikh troops, clouds of smoke suddenly rose up. The Anglo-Indian-Sikh coalition army's turban was like a big blue and green blanket spread across the battlefield, and the smoke was scattered, and there was a gap in the two-colored blanket, and the human body could be faintly seen. But in the blink of an eye, more Anglo-Indian-Sikh soldiers will come in!

These "third brothers" who have been drugged are really much braver than when they didn't have drugs!

At the same time that four six-inch guns began to roar, a dozen 60-mm mortars also began to wield! Mortars, the "natural enemies" of machine guns, are also found in the British Army units with pure white skins, but the British and Indian armies do not have them - mortars are also cannons, and if they are cannons, they must be mastered by white skins to be reassuring. But the mortar is a company-level support artillery, and it seems too extravagant to have a white-skinned artillery squad in a company......

With the blessing of more than a dozen mortars, Jin Bing's firepower was much fiercer. Artillery fire ploughed from the front to the back, shrenching and flying in all directions, and every time it exploded, a group of "third brothers" were brought down. But the Anglo-Indian-Sikh coalition is now on the rise, showing no signs of stagnation. In the blink of an eye, the remaining rejecting horses were approaching, and the soldiers in front moved away one after another, and some of them simply turned over from above, showing signs of moving forward.

By this time, the vanguard of the Anglo-Indian-Sikh coalition had rushed to a distance of only three or four hundred meters from the trench line of the Jin army, and their rifles could easily hit them. Wu Fax had already "occupied" a machine gun fort located in the center of the trench line, and personally controlled a Ming Dynasty-made Taiping Yuan-style water machine gun—more than ten other machine guns arranged on the main position of the "Dui" brand would also fire along with it. The machine guns on both sides of the flanks of the main "Dui" position and the "Kun" position will open fire and strafe together after the "Dui" position has fired!

These machine guns are held in the hands of the world's most elite naval airborne cavalry (they are actually cavalrymen), and of course they can enforce the discipline of firing. But the Peshawar militia with rifles did not have that quality.

The layers of rejecting horses arranged by the Jin soldiers in front of the three positions of "Dui", "Qian" and "Kun" were about 30 meters, but at the main breakthrough point (located in the center of the "Dui" position), the rejecting horses had already cleared a lot of the British artillery, and the thinnest place was even less than 10 meters. The "third brother who took drugs" rushed up in rows, and he was about to break through the horse rejection line. The militiamen, who were already in the trenches, could not hold their breath and began to fire with the bass rear-loading guns in their hands. On the position held by the golden soldiers, the sparse fires came and went!

The marksmanship of these Peshawar militiamen is actually quite good, and the "third brother" who is crowded in the horse rejection line suddenly bursts into blood from time to time, and then trembling and falling. The screams also sounded uncontrollably, and the ranks of the "third brothers" suddenly became chaotic. However, the white-skinned officers and Sikh officers who led the escort looked even more excited when they saw the sparse firepower fired from the opposite side.

The enemy was clearly firing indiscriminately – this was wasting precious ammunition (infantry on both sides of the Indian battlefield usually carried only ten rounds of ammunition), and their sparse firepower showed that the shelling was very effective!

Just one more rush and you'll win!

Victorious...... Not only is there a lot of rupees, but there are enough slices!

At the urging of the officers, the "third brothers" were all excited—their casualties were not large, and they were still within a bearable range, and they all rushed across the horse rejection line with a "roar" and continued to move forward.

Their ranks had become chaotic and denser, and there were no longer waves of skirmishers, but instead of "charging groups" of hedgehogs gathered together, and the speed of their advance had of course increased, and everyone was screaming and rushing forward with their heads covered.

And those "third brothers" who had not been able to cross the rejection line for a while and a half picked up the bass breech guns in their hands and output them towards the Jin Bing position, trying to suppress the opponent's firepower.

At this time, all the rifles on the Jin Bing position began to shoot, and the bullets were shot out in rows, sweeping down the charging "third brother" piece by piece. But the "three brothers" who had already rushed up could not retreat, their formation was too dense, and the comrades behind them almost had to put their bayonets against their backs. And these "third brothers" also know that the white-skinned warring team has already set up their machine guns, as long as they dare to retreat, those white-skinned will not show mercy.

Seeing that more and more "third brothers" had rushed to the thin barbed wire line under the firepower of the golden soldiers, Hugh was holding a telescope. Goff said to himself, "Breakthrough...... It's time to break through! ”

His chief of staff, Charlie. Brown also smiled slightly: "There is one last barbed wire line...... Rush over, India will still be ours, always! ”

The so-called "last line of barbed wire" is actually not one, but a line of defense composed of three wooden stakes pulled by barbed wire. Stop. Gough had already discovered the barbed wire, but he didn't have time to prepare vices for his men, so he had to get a lot of axes from his men and sappers and give them to the charging "third brother" to cut down the stakes...... However, those "third brother" axe soldiers gasped and rushed to the barbed wire, only to find that the thick wooden stakes that were deeply embedded in the ground were also wrapped with layers of iron wire, and it was difficult for the axes to hurt the wood.

However, these "Three Brother Axe Soldiers" still performed their duties very faithfully, and used their axes in vain to cut the stakes protected by wire. Of course, this will not do anything, and even if it can be cut, it will have to be cut for a long time. And just when they were cutting the "wire stakes", the follow-up "third brother" soldiers had already surged up like a tide, and in a blink of an eye, a large number of people had gathered in front of the barbed wire. Some of them tried to climb over the barbed wire, but the barbed wire was full of spikes, and they couldn't get their hands and feet, and they tried to tear down the barbed wire, but the stakes were too deep.

Just when they didn't know what to do, the king of Dajin Pingxi, the secretary of the Admiralty Wu Fax, had already aimed the muzzle of the machine gun at them!

I only heard Wu Fax shouting: "Fire!" ”

And then he himself pulled the trigger of the machine gun, and tongues of fire erupted!

The other shooters in the machine gun fort on the position saw that Wu Fax had already started here, and they also pulled the trigger one after another. More than a dozen tongues of fire erupted from various carefully camouflaged machine gun forts almost simultaneously! The sound of the bullet casings popping out and colliding rang out, and more than a dozen streams of fire, like the summoning of death, flew towards the "third brother" who couldn't be denser anymore.

Blood mist suddenly erupted from the crowd, one by one, flying between the crowd and filling the air. Looking through the telescope held by Zhuge Weidao, I saw that in front of the barbed wire, the "third brothers" wrapped in various headscarves writhed and fell down in rows, blood shot everywhere, dead and dying human bodies were layered on top of each other, a large amount of blood flowed on the muddy ground, and soon dyed a large area of land into black and red!

"Win, win......" Mu Zhongjun's voice suddenly sounded, "It turns out that this is what winning the battle looks like!" ”

Zhuge Weidao looked at the scene of this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, and just said coldly: "It's started!" Started ......"

Zheng Guoxian, who was also shocked by the killing scene in front of him, heard Zhuge Weidao's words, put down the binoculars, looked at this former friend who was "suddenly stupid" and "suddenly became very terrifying", and asked curiously: "Daozi, what do you say to start?" ”

"The beginning of a new era!" Zhuge Weidao said, "In the future history books, the Battle of Peshawar will be a prologue to a new era!" ”