(a little slow, a little faster)

When: Early the next day, October 8th.

After the golden morning sun that first rose over the earth and took away all the darkness; The Yin Law Alliance troops stationed in the Old Summer Palace also arrived at breakfast time.

It's a pity that it doesn't matter if it's steaming oatmeal or the warm sun.

All the above warm things have no way to dispel the haze and coldness in the hearts of Montauban, Grant and other high-ranking members of the Yin and French alliances.

God knows! How did they get through last night?

To be more precise, it is how they survived the second half of the night yesterday.

After 12 o'clock in the night, when the first gunshot rang out, they didn't care at all when they were already sleeping soundly on the luxurious big bed that the Daqing Emperor and the royal family were eligible to enjoy.

Because in the middle of the night, the soldiers of the coalition army are either shooting and hunting, shooting the animals and fish raised in the summer palace for food.

Either between the Yin army and the French army, for a piece of cloth, a decoration, etc., in the scramble, shoot and threaten each other.

So that every now and then, there will be such a gunshot in the ears; Naturally, there is a special military discipline officer to deal with such a matter.

So they turned over and wrapped themselves in a beautiful, comfortable silk quilt, intending to go back to sleep.

Soon, however, more gunfire rang out in succession, and the guards hurriedly reported that this was not the case.

Although they did not know how the men of the Xuange camp did it, they came out of the main building surrounded by the regiments; Or how the people who had been hiding in the summer palace before escaped their search.

But from the second half of the night, these people launched a frenzied attack on the coalition camp.

They used accurate marksmanship to kill the sentries from a distance, or to fire at the soldiers in the tents.

By the time more soldiers reacted and hurried in the direction where the gunshots had come from, the attackers had already run away, and there was no way to see a single figure.

If it weren't for the ground, you would still be able to find the weapon used by the Xuange Battalion, the iconic copper bullet casing, everything as if it were made by a ghost.

And such attacks, starting at twelve o'clock, have basically not stopped.

They came from different positions in all directions, and after firing a few shots, they fled immediately, regardless of the outcome of the battle.

So at the end of the night, there were not many actual casualties, but the entire coalition army did not sleep well, so that one by one looked a little sleepy.

After all, no one can guarantee that after they fall asleep, a fatal bullet will hit them in the night.

Wrong! The above statement that 'one night down, there are not many casualties' is not true.

Because when they sat down at the table covered with snow-white napkins in the morning breeze, facing the sumptuous food in front of them, they were a little unable to swallow.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

Looking in the direction from which the noise came, I found that it was a French soldier, who was still gulping oatmeal a second ago.

The next second later, there was a big mouthful of blood in his mouth.

Such a movement frightened the other soldiers around.

Soon after, the military doctor rushed over.

But this time it was too late, because the unlucky soldier seemed to have vomited all the blood in his body, and he had quickly lost his life.

For this reason, the military doctor can only be busy now, trying to find the cause of the death of this unlucky guy.

However, before the results came out, Montauban and Grant, who had been in the army for many years, actually had a sufficient answer in their hearts:

How else could he die? Before dawn, of course, the cause of that amazingly powerful cannonball.

At that time, due to the range problem, the shell only landed in the open space on the edge of some tents, where it blew up a terrifying crater.

There were only three soldiers, and they were slightly injured by the flying stones; The remaining two dozen soldiers were knocked to the ground and got up without any injuries.

At that time, they were quite happy to see this situation.

But it was only now that they reacted, and the internal organs of these soldiers should have been injured in the great tremor at that time; I can only watch them die suddenly without knowing when the injury will occur.

It's like the unlucky guy who vomited blood and died.

Otherwise? With the medic in the coalition army, the one who either bleeds or saws his legs and arms with a saw, there is nothing he can do about this visceral injury.

Just in a line of coalition high-level leaders, for the elusive opponent in their hearts.

There are also all kinds of crazy attack methods, so that the morale of the soldiers under them has been greatly affected and worried.

The Oriental man 'Gong' appeared with a few young people.

After speaking, even the biggest doubt in the hearts of Montauban and the others was solved: "Honorable Excellency and generals, I already know why the people of Xuange Camp can be so elusive.

After giving me some bounty, the people in the neighborhood told me.

Among the rumors they heard, the people of the Xuange camp dug a lot of tunnels in the Old Summer Palace, so they could sneak out of the building in the middle of the night to attack us.

They even hid some treasures in some tunnels. ”

When General Grant heard this, he directly asked the key question: "Do you know these damn tunnels, where are their entrances?"

Tell them that we can reward them enough just by speaking up. ”

"It's a pity, I'm afraid that no one knows where the entrance is, except for the Xuange camp and those inside." Gong Xiaogong shrugged his shoulders and replied.

But then, another solution was given:

"But it's also simple, as long as people dig a deep enough trench around this Western-style building, they can naturally find out where these tunnels are, and completely cut off the possibility of them coming out."

Just hearing such a solution, Montauban took a look at the environment of the main building.

Still frowning, he raised his doubts:

"For the sake of safety when digging, it is necessary to stay away from the people in the building, out of their range, but then the amount of work is very large.

'Gong', as you can see now, the soldiers are tired and tired without sleeping well, and they still have to fight, and I am afraid that they do not have the energy to dig such a long and deep trench. ”

After hearing such a doubt, Gong Xiaogong, who grew up in Beijing when he was a child, can be regarded as a half-land snake.

easily solved such a problem: "It doesn't matter, just send soldiers to the surrounding area to catch some young people."

Don't worry about their resistance, these people of Jingshi have been under the rule of Daqing for one or two hundred years, and those who have enough courage have been killed a long time ago, and the rest are all smoothed out of all the blood, and the kind of thing that happened in Yangcheng nineteen years ago will not happen. ”

Eventually, after hearing such a reassurance.

General Grant finally showed a satisfied smile, patted Gong Xiaogong's shoulder vigorously, and praised it in his mouth:

"Gong, you are really a good friend of the Great Yin Empire; Wrong! In view of your excellent performance, you are fully qualified to join the Great Yin Empire.

If you destroy the Xuange camp, you can even get the reward of Her Majesty the Empress and become a noble lord of the Great Yin. ”

Under such a statement, Gong Xiaogong learned from the gentlemanly style of Western devils, and nodded very reservedly.

And the practice of this dog traitor made Hu Biao's next situation more and more difficult......

******

When: October 9, just after 9 a.m.

But at this time, the people in the main building have already begun to usher in the third attack of the day.

Facing more than a dozen French troops more than a hundred meters away, the team was gritting their back molars hard, shaking the Gatling swing handle in their hands like a hot wheel.

No way! This thing relies entirely on the power and gravity of the hand-cranked to constantly load and fire the bullets.

The maximum rate of fire of this thing depends entirely on how fast you can shake it.

In other words, when Hu Biao chose the machine gunner, he wanted to pay attention to Team Zheng, Shi Poyu, and Yuanhai, who were not too young, but were single players?

It's not that I value the team and these people, an amazing hand speed that has been practiced by being single for many years.

This kind of hand speed, with this kind of hand-cranked heavy machine gun, is it a perfect match, right?

In this way, when the countdown in his mouth went from 'one' to 'four', the team suddenly stopped shaking the handle in his hand.

At the same time, in his mouth, he shouted at the deputy shooter next to him: "Go, change places~"

With that, he dragged the heavy machine gun in one hand and prepared to leave the place that had become dangerous.

It means that he was in this position, and he fired for four seconds, even with his hand speed, he couldn't even finish the bullets in the magazine.

It's not that he doesn't want to stay here and shoot a little longer.

It's their hand-cranked Gatling heavy machine guns, because of their crazy firepower and lethality, they have now become a thorn in the side of the Yin and French coalition forces.

I don't know how many rifles, even artillery, are staring at them, and they will frantically greet them as soon as they emerge.

If you slow it down a little bit, you will have a gun crash and kill people.

It's like in the battle yesterday afternoon, Fuchikai was just holding on to a little luck, hoping to finish the last few bullets in the magazine before retreating.

In this way, when you withdraw to a safer position, you can change the magazine more calmly.

The result? It took less than a second to delay a second, when an anti-personnel grenade flew in with a whistling sound that broke through the air.

The only thing Yuanhai could do at that time was to press the head of the deputy shooter, and the two of them fell to the ground in time.

In the huge explosion, Fuchikai and the secondary shooter were only slightly wounded, but when the overturned heavy machine gun was set up again.

However, it was found that the key firepower of this defensive operation had been completely scrapped.

For this one thing, Hu Biao scolded the street for half a night, and didn't stop until he went out to shoot black guns in the middle of the night.

And now, Yuanhai can only hold a handful of Hanyang, scolding and constantly firing and fighting.

Therefore, after absorbing the lessons of Yuanhai, Team Zheng and Shi Poyu would rather be more cautious than risk firing a few more shots.

It's a pity that who can say clearly what is happening on the field.

At the moment when the team was getting up to evacuate, a Mine bullet flew over, and although it didn't hit the little yellow fat man, it hit his secondary shooter in the neck.

After being unfortunately shot, that one was only seventeen or eighteen years old, and in the modern plane, he could only be a father-in-law of a high school student.

It was also the team's fifth sub-shooter in just a few days, who fell to the ground holding his neck.

He was frightened, and shouted loudly: "Mother, mother, I'm going to die, I don't want to die~"

It's cruel, but there's no way, in the current situation, a heavy machine gun is far more important than a human life.

So even in the first time, the team saw the situation of the secondary shooter falling to the ground.

After some immature cries for help reached my ears, my heart couldn't stop being heavy.

Still resisting the urge to save people, he continued to drag the heavy hand-cranked Gatling, retreating all the way to a dozen steps until he came to a wall......

Fortunately, the team was dragging heavy machine guns and evacuated five or six paces.

The Righteous Keeper had already rushed forward like lightning, dragging the young co-shooter, braving the dense flying bullets around him, and soon got out of this dangerous place.

Then he moved away from the other party's right hand that was covering his neck, and looked at the wound on the neck of the deputy shooter.

After breathing a sigh of relief, he scolded with a smile: "It's okay, don't scream!" You kid can't die, it's just a big piece of flesh bitten by a bullet.

There is still some distance from the blood vessels and trachea. ”

But he said so, and his hands were also quickly given to the young deputy shooter, and began to stop the bleeding and bandage.

It's just that in such a process, he didn't notice that a tin kettle on his waist had been pierced when he rushed up and dragged people to transfer.

In the beginning, the first thing that came out of the tin kettle was clear boiled water.

But after a few seconds at most, the trail of water coming out of the gun's eye gradually turned red, and finally turned into that blinding bright red.

In the end, Xu was comforted by the righteous people, coupled with timely hemostasis and bandaging.

In the process, the young father-in-law stopped screaming, and the expression on his face gradually relaxed, and even when the bandaging was completed, the person fell asleep.

That's right! It's sleeping, not fainting.

Because on his face, the expression had completely relaxed, and his mouth was still purring loudly.

"This kid, but he can really speak, he almost didn't scare me to death." Seeing this, the mouth of the righteous keeper couldn't help but complain, but he was still quite happy in his tone.

Mainly in the past few days, he has seen too many deaths of these fathers-in-law and palace maids.

Therefore, when encountering this kind of person, it is not the kind of person who is seriously injured and disabled, and no matter what the process is, the people of the righteous path are still quite happy in their hearts.

At such a time, Hu Biao's high-pitched scolding voice suddenly sounded in his ears:

"Righteous, righteous, have you died? Forget it if you're dead, I'll burn it for you later, if you're not dead, get over quickly, this kid is about to die~"

In fact, the righteous person quite understands why Hu Biao's tone is so manic after he speaks now.

I don't know which grandson came up with such a vicious idea.

Beginning at 10 o'clock yesterday morning, thousands of captured Daqing people began to dig a circle of trenches about a mile away from the main building.

This means that even if they dig more than one tunnel these days, some of them are relatively deep and difficult to find.

But as long as these people are allowed to dig down, one day the tunnels will be dug up and cut off, and they will be trapped here.

In addition, the Yin-French coalition forces launched several attacks on the main building every day with artillery support.

Let them in terms of personnel, physical and mental attrition, it is also getting more and more serious.

With successive casualties, they could not even keep the coalition forces out of the small building; I'm afraid that soon, the battle for each room will begin.

In the face of such a bad situation, Hu Biao, as the commander of the team, has a rather short temper, which is completely understandable to the righteous people.

However, the understanding is reasonable, and it still does not affect the righteous people who scolded in their mouths, 'Die on the street, if you die, I won't die'.

Then he was about to get up and ran in the direction of Hu Biao.

It's just that the moment he got up, he suddenly felt a whirlwind in his brain, and there was a sharp pain in his waist like a tear.

Let him, who had been on one knee on the ground, kneel back again.

I touched the sore spot of my waist pole, and when I raised my hand to look at it, my hands were full of bright red.

Where do the righteous people still don't know, they should have been shot when they pulled people just now; Even the spleen was bad, and he was wounded in this shot.

It's just because he was in a hurry to save people, and under the high level of mental tension, he didn't notice such a point at all.

If you notice it now, it seems to be too late.

He felt that his whole body was left, and he somehow lost any strength, so that he didn't even have the strength to stay in a kneeling position.

The next second later, the whole person collapsed to the ground.

When the young father-in-law in his ear, the snoring sound from his mouth continued to reach his ears, and his eyelids became heavier and heavier.

With his expertise, he knew that he would never be able to sleep at this time.

When you fall asleep, when it will really pass.

It's just that he knows this, and he can't do anything; And in the face of the attack of the Yin Law Alliance, no one who was fighting noticed the situation here.

At the same time, twenty or thirty paces away, the team also exhaled the last breath in his chest.

Just a dozen seconds ago, the team was replacing the heavy machine gun with a new magazine, and dragged the thing to another predetermined machine gun position.

Prepare to hit again for three or four seconds, and start transferring.

Then, the right hand grabbed the crank.

A 9-pound grenade landed only one meter in front of him; Before he could do anything, the blast wave of the explosion and the flying shrapnel knocked him to the ground, even with his heavy machine gun.

So before dying, the team's only thought at the time was:

"Special! It's okay if Lao Tzu dies, but that precious heavy machine gun must not be blown up; Then Yuanhai can continue to use it, and avenge me for killing more foreign devils......"

PS: A little later in the next chapter

(End of chapter)