On September 17, 1725, the small town of Enniskilling, County Fermana, Ireland, was in the midst of a difficult battle. The smoke of gunfire filled the city and around the city, and corpses lay lying near the improvised parapets and wooden fences. More than 700 Irish resistance troops have launched no less than five attacks in a single day, but all of them have been repulsed by the Scottish militia in the city with a volley of guns.

The small town of Enniskielin had a population of just over 3,000 people, and the vast majority of them were Irish and immigrants from Scotland, with the exception of the city officials and tax inspectors, who were English. As in the rest of Ireland, most of the Irish were deprived of their land and reduced to tenant farmers of greedy Scottish farmers, toiling every day without a full meal and living a miserable life.

The town was not fortified, but was surrounded by thin rammed earth walls and wooden fences, and there was no artillery in the city, only a makeshift mobilization of more than 200 Scottish militiamen.

However, even with such rudimentary defenses, the Irish Resistance Army, which had an absolute superiority in numbers, was unable to overcome it for a long time, and instead suffered a series of losses under the city, suffering more than 100 casualties. This made the entire resistance army resentful and helpless.

"The artillery of the Qi people is here!"

Just when the morale of the resistance army was low, a small group of reinforcements arrived from the rear and brought exciting news to everyone.

"Oh God, the artillery of the Qi people is finally here!"

"Haha...... with artillery, I think those Scots in Enniskillin will dare to laugh at us again? …… As long as the artillery bombards them, they will be scared to pee their pants! ”

"That's right, those cowards only dare to hide in the city and shoot them! When the artillery blasted through the walls, I would be the first to rush in, and even if they fell to their knees and cried, I would stab them all to the ground and avenge poor Jerry! ”

“……”

Simon Coveney, the northern commander of the Irish Resistance, stood on a high slope with several officers, and watched with a complicated expression as a dozen horses dragged two artillery pieces and a large amount of ammunition slowly drove into the makeshift camp, silent.

"Simon, on our own, will not be able to defeat the English in a short time." Deputy Commander Pachar Donohue patted him on the shoulder and said softly, "Perhaps, even if we establish an independent Irish state in the future, we will still rely on the Qi people for a long time under a strong external threat. ”

"yes, we're too weak." Simon Coveney said lonely: "We can't even conquer such a small city, and in the end we have to rely on the artillery team provided by the Qi people to help us fight. I only hope that in the future we will drive out the English, and the Qi State will not take their place and continue to colonize and oppress our Irish people. ”

"Simon, you're completely overthinking!" Pachar Donohue smiled slightly, watching several Qi gunners over there being surrounded by many Resistance soldiers, enthusiastically hugging each other, taking a deep breath, and said: "Qi is too far away from Europe, and their power will definitely not be able to cover the whole of Ireland. They did not hesitate to give money and goods to support us, but they only wanted to balance England. Even if we had driven out the English and established a nation of our Irish, they would not have done the same brutal colonial oppression to our Ireland as the English did. ”

"They will see us in Ireland as an important pawn, or as a puppet in front of Europe to exert their influence. If they are to be an important pawn, they must provide us with military and economic assistance in Ireland for a long time, and not make us too weak and too weak. Otherwise, if we are eaten by someone else on the chessboard, won't they have a solid enough support point? ”

"Pachar, I don't want to be a pawn for them to manipulate. We Irish have suffered a tragic fate for hundreds of years since the invasion of the English. I hope that in our arduous struggle and struggle, all of us Irish people can live independently and with dignity, and that each of us can control our own destiny. ”

"Simon, as you said just now, we Irish are too weak in power, and in order to free ourselves from the colonial rule of the English, and to defend our own interests, we can only cling to a strong country. In the past, we had pinned our fate on the Spaniards, the Dutch, the French, and even the Stuart royal family, but they all failed us in the end. Now, we have the support of the Qi people. Although, as we also know, they are using us against the English. But we can only choose to believe in them and cling to them, and we have no strength to refuse. ”

"Pachar, I understand what you mean, but my heart is full of unwillingness!" Simon Coveney let out a long sigh.

"I think it's much better to be a pawn of the Qi people than to be a slave of the English." "After all, a chess piece needs to be laid out on the chessboard to be useful, not to be squeezed and tortured like a slave," said Pachar Donohue. ”

While the two were talking about the future of Ireland, the hurried Qi artillery squad did not take a break, shouting that the soldiers of the Irish Resistance had pushed two 55 mm light army guns (equivalent to 4-pounder guns of the same era) to the front of Enniskilling.

An artillery officer of the Qi State observed the small city ahead with a sighting tool, and at the same time quickly gave an order in his mouth, directing several gunners to constantly correct the position of the gun and the elevation angle of the gun. A group of Irish Resistance soldiers gathered excitedly behind with muskets, pointing at the two guns and the Qi national cannon, and whispering.

Since the armed uprising of the seaside town of Sligo, when the Irish Resistance attacked the surrounding towns and villages controlled by the British, whenever they encountered a strong fortress, they relied on a few artillery pieces provided by the Qi State to penetrate the enemy's defenses, and then invaded the city, killed all the English officials and Scottish lackeys, and liberated the suffering Irish compatriots.

Ten days earlier, during the assault on Fort Blackline, the Resistance had encountered more than 320 regular English troops. The other side discharged a neat array of muskets, and under the sound of drums and trumpets, they slowly pressed towards the Irish Resistance with sonorous and powerful steps, causing a violent commotion in the resistance formation, which had just been formed for less than a month.

At this time, the Qi artillery squad resolutely stood at the forefront of the team, constantly firing shells at the advancing British troops. Shell after shell smashed accurately into the English formation, causing the opponent's advance to stall and fall into chaos. It is clear that the English did not expect that their resistance would have army artillery and was taken by surprise.

When the English musket array approached one hundred and twenty meters under the fierce artillery fire, the Qi artillery changed the shotguns, and a few cannon shots rang out, and the dense rain of bullets suddenly enveloped the British army columns, and they fell down in unison like wheat fields blown by strong winds. The military adviser of the State of Qi immediately drew his command knife and ordered the whole army to launch a cluster charge.

That battle was the first time that the Irish Resistance defeated the regular English army in a frontal battle, and it was a hearty battle of annihilation. Except for a few English officers who escaped on horseback, more than 300 British troops were annihilated.

After the battle, the Irish Resistance's fear of the British army was swept away, the morale of the army was greatly boosted, and at the same time, countless Irish people were encouraged to join the resistance, so that the number of troops quickly expanded to 3,000.

As the resistance grew, the Resistance wanted to expand the depth of the base area as much as possible and liberate as many Irish as possible while the English had no time to deal with the Qi expeditionary fleet. As a result, the resistance troops attacked in three directions, east, south and north, and launched a large-scale attack on the areas controlled by the British.

At this time, in addition to a few large and medium-sized cities such as Dublin, Belfast, Limerick, and Galway, as well as the northeast coastal areas, the English had a relatively strong control over other parts of Ireland, especially the barren northwest and southwest regions, and the ruling base was still very weak.

In just half a month, under the guidance of the military advisers of the Qi State and the assistance of professional artillery, the resistance army continued to conquer the city, and captured four counties one after another, shaking the whole of Ireland. Upon hearing the news, dormant resistance groups in various places also responded en masse, attacking the local colonial government, killing English officials, and setting off a violent resistance to British colonial rule.

However, when the situation of the Irish Resistance is very good, it is not without its hidden worries.

Some local Irish nobles and landowners were forced by the threat of force from the Resistance Army, temporarily submissive, and contributed a large amount of money and food, but secretly still feared the centuries-old colonial power of England, and secretly conveyed news to the English.

However, the English did not react to the sudden armed uprising of the Irish Resistance for a while, and some of them behaved in a way that could not be dealt with in time for the time being, so that the implicit tricks of the speculators did not pose a mortal threat.

In addition, there are some trust issues between the Resistance and the military advisers stationed by the Qi State. The Qi people hoped that the Irish Resistance Army would fight steadily, first consolidate the central and western regions, establish a solid base area, and slowly try to do so; The Resistance wanted to take advantage of the fact that England had no time to take care of local affairs in Ireland and quickly sweep the whole island and drive out all the English, so as to establish an independent Irish state.

There was a heated argument between the two sides over this, and the military adviser of the Qi State said that the resistance army had not obtained a small number of weapons in the early stage, and could not equip more troops, and that blind expansion would inevitably lead to too much dispersion of its own forces. If England had mobilized a large number of troops to quell the rebellion, it would have been easily crushed by each of them.

Moreover, England colonized Ireland for hundreds of years, and its power was deep-rooted, encircling and subduing a large number of Irish middle- and upper-class nobles and landowners, both in terms of financial resources and military strength, far stronger than the resistance army, and the complete liberation of the whole of Ireland could not be completed overnight.

However, the Irish Resistance believed that if they could not quickly conquer the whole of Ireland without a timely response from the English government, they would inevitably put the Resistance in a bitter battle when they had drawn a large number of troops from the mainland to the island to quell the rebellion. Moreover, the two million Irish people on the island were overly oppressed by England, and their hearts were full of resentment, and as long as the resistance army pointed out, it would inevitably usher in countless Irish people vying to join them, launch an armed rebellion in the rear, and cooperate with the resistance army to regain lost territory.

The Qi people want our resistance army to "slow down", which is nothing more than to use us to create momentum, so as to attract the military power of the English government, so as to indirectly weaken their investment in naval forces, and more conducive to your expeditionary fleet to continue to attack the English navy.

Despite strategic differences and a lack of necessary trust between them, the Irish Resistance relied on the Qi people for its fight against English colonial rule and for specific tactical guidance. In particular, the artillery they stationed in the troops was definitely the most powerful weapon for them to attack cities and defeat the enemy in front of them.

"Boom! Rumble! ”

With another round of artillery bombardment, another section of the improvised parapet wall of Enniskielin collapsed, revealing a gap of more than 20 meters.

Just as Commander Simon Coveney ordered the entire army to charge, the Qi officer raised his hand to stop them, and instead ordered the two guns to begin reloading with the precious flowering shells, and then fired another round towards the gap in the parapet.

As two loud explosions rang out, a burst of fire suddenly erupted from the gap in the parapet wall, and countless figures were lifted by the explosion, and then fell heavily to the ground, resounding with a painful wail and scream.

"Well, it's almost, it's time to rush in." Lieutenant (Lieutenant) Du Yisheng of the Qi Army turned his head and smiled at Commander Simon Coveney, tilted his head slightly, and motioned for the Resistance to charge.

"Holy shit, without our Qi people, these Irish people are not bullshit!" Looking at the Irish Resistance swarming into the small town, artillery sergeant Jiao Xianbao took off his military hat, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then fanned himself with his military cap.

"Having said that, in the military, don't complain at will, so as not to affect the cooperative relationship between us." Du Yisheng left the gun position a little distance, sat on a stone, took out his pipe and pouch from his pocket, put on the tobacco, lit the pipe, and smoked it comfortably.

"Sir, those Irish don't understand what we're saying, so it's okay to scold them." Jiao Xianbao took out a piece of beef jerky from his satchel and chewed it carefully.

"Sir, will they slaughter all the English and Scots in the city again?" Private Xu Zhongyan, a first-class artilleryman, looked at the front of Enniskielin City, where several puffs of smoke had appeared, and the dense musket sound was faintly mixed with cries and screams, obviously after the resistance army entered the city, they began to kill and take revenge on the English and Scots in the city.

"What are you doing so much?" Jiao Xianbao glanced at him, "Quickly wipe the gun chamber and clean it, and pack the ammunition on the ground." …… A group of Yi people kill each other, what is there to sympathize with? ”

Xu Zhongyan was reprimanded by the squad leader, Nie Nie didn't dare to speak, and immediately turned around to clean the gun chamber, tidy up the gun mount, and carefully loaded the few shells placed on the ground into the ammunition box.

"Sir, you said that England is so close to Ireland, why haven't the English completely conquered and assimilated them after hundreds of years?" Jiao Xianbao asked: "Until now, the English people don't seem to treat the Irish as human beings, and they are squeezed to death!" ”

"They are religiously different." Du Yisheng said lightly: "The English believe in Protestantism, the Irish believe in Catholicism, these two guys can't get together!" Oh, otherwise, we can't let our Qi country use it. ”

"Just because the two families are confident in a god, they are like enemies of life and death?" Jiao Xianbao is still puzzled.

"What do you know?" When Du Yisheng heard this, he smiled, "They all believe in one God!" ”

"Huh? We all believe in one God, so why is it different? ”

"The religious issue of the Yi people is complicated!" Du Yisheng shook his head, "For a while, I can't tell you clearly." ”

"Oh." Jiao Xianbao no longer asked this esoteric question, and instead asked another question, "Sir, how long are we going to stay in Ireland?" ”

"How long?" Du Yisheng was stunned for a moment, and then smiled bitterly: "Who knows? A year? Or two years, right? ”

"Hehe...... after this war is over, I will be sent to Jianye Army School for further study. Two years later, we are also a lieutenant officer! ”

Du Yisheng listened, and just smiled slightly.

All the officers and soldiers of the Qi State who were stationed in Ireland received the promise of the Shangguan, once the war ended, all officers will be automatically promoted to the next level, and have the opportunity to receive the Medal of Merit personally issued by His Majesty the Emperor, and the non-commissioned officers will also be escorted to the military academy, and ordinary soldiers can be directly converted into non-commissioned officers, if they choose to retire, the retirement pension will be tripled, and they will be given priority placement when they return to the local area.

Oh, if you want to get this, you have to get out of Ireland alive!

Du Yisheng shook his head, took out a notebook and charcoal from his satchel, and began to write today's battle log.

(End of chapter)