The British army now used artillery to suppress the enemy's fire in the front, and the skirmishers carried out the assault, which was also a derivation of the original tactics, and did not need any shocking genius.

At this time, the artillery of the two sides began to bombard, and the British stragglers advanced under tremendous pressure, and some of them actually advanced to within 200 meters of the trench formation, which was much stronger than the previous team of the Six Princes.

It's just that the Sanyuanli coalition army is not a vegetarian, and while firing with artillery, there are also infantry relying on trenches to counterattack, relying on geographical advantages to shoot the British.

The artillery of the British army could only be placed in the open field, but the artillery of the allied army in Sanyuanli was stored in strong defensive facilities, and it was not an open-air battery without a roof that was common in this era, but an indoor battery specially designed with a roof, and even if the shells fired by the British army hit the target, it was difficult to cause any casualties to the artillery inside.

Even the ordinary soldiers of the Sanyuanli coalition army also hid in the trenches, shooting or throwing grenades with their heads exposed, and protected themselves well.

On the surface, there are only 2,000 people on the side of the Sanyuanli coalition army, but the actual strength is far more than that, but the proportion of recruits is particularly large, and it cannot give full play to its due combat effectiveness.

However, even so, in this battle, the Sanyuanli coalition army also had the upper hand, and the British army lost more than 30 people before and after, but the loss of the Sanyuanli coalition army was only seven or eight people, and most of them did not know how to protect their recruits, and this battle loss ratio was terrifyingly high.

The British army fought with the Qing soldiers, and it was always a single-digit casualty in exchange for hundreds or thousands of losses of the Qing army, but this battle was reversed.

However, the British army's operation was not completely fruitless, and the British army invested small units to advance from many directions, attracting the firepower of the allied forces in Sanyuanli, probing many of the firepower arrangements on this side, and talking about the shape of the trench position.

It turned out that the Niulangang position was not a lonely horizontal position, but a closed position of three kilometers in length and width that Li Xian had dug out on the ground with trenches, and if these trenches were replaced by city walls, it would be a solid closed city, close to the size of many county towns in China.

In the outermost trenches, there were many trenches of almost the same shape that were retracted into them, not to mention, there were also a large number of small individual trenches outside, and there were several wooden and bamboo sticks buried in the ground.

If he could, Li Xian hoped to arrange several layers of barbed wire outside the position, but unfortunately the barbed wire had to be pulled out with good quality wrought iron, and the cost was too high, so he could only use the soil method, using wooden skewers and bamboo skewers or even thistles instead, anyway, the protective effect was almost the same, and it could make people unable to travel.

After finding out these circumstances, whether it was the sixth prince or the British commander Pu Dingcha, their faces became very unpleasant, according to the facilities of this trench position, combined with the defense of the army inside, it was impossible for the Qing army and the British army to capture this trench city in a short time.

That is, the defenders of this entrenched city are only 2,000 men, which is relatively weak, and the Qing army and the British army may try to attack from multiple places and take advantage of the shortcomings of the opponent's lack of troops to force a breakthrough, but that will not be successful in two or three days.

Moreover, that kind of tactic would inevitably lead to a large number of battle losses, and the Qing army would not want to lose thousands of soldiers of their own country for the sake of the Qing civil war.

Li Xian has been operating in the Niulangang position for a long time, and there is no shortage of manpower and financial resources in his hands, and the position built is enough to make any famous general of this era feel a headache.

"This trench position is really not easy to fight. The British commander Pu Dingcha said thoughtfully: "The commander of the opposing army has a long head, but just digging a few trenches in the ground can increase the defensive strength of the position several times, even better than those famous fortresses and castles, which is really a miracle."

This is a completely new method of warfare, and we may be able to try this method of warfare with very low cost and good effect when we fight in the future. ”

This Mr. Pu Ding Cha, who was originally the British Viceroy of India, was sent to take over the post of commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force after the successive setbacks of the expeditionary force in Canton, especially after the defeat of the original commander of the company, Yilu.

Having stayed in Asia for a long time, he was familiar with the politics and ways of doing things here, and his own military qualities were also excellent, and he was not only the commander of the British invading army, but also the first governor of Hong Kong in Li Xian's original time and space.

"Have you noticed, the infantry of the defenders on the opposite side is not bad, but the artillery strength is ridiculously strong, and every gun is very accurate, almost comparable to the artillery of the British Empire. John Christopher, who was righted as Army Commander, said.

In this regard, Pu Dingcha has long noticed that the artillery of the allied army in Sanyuanli is indeed fighting very well, and it is just a euphemism to say that they can catch up with the British artillery, and in the opinion of experienced military commanders such as Pu Dingcha, the artillery of the Sanyuanli army is very accurate, and the accuracy rate is four or five percent higher than that of the British artillery.

After the start of the Sino-British War, Li Xian had captured a large number of military artillery, so both Pu Dingcha and John could accept that the quality of the artillery used by the defenders of Sanyuanli was not bad compared with the British army.

The artillery shooting technology of this era is much more developed than in the seventeenth century, and the early artillery still needs to be aimed by mathematical masters, but at this time the sights have been quite advanced, even the illiterate operation of artillery, can also play very well, this is an industry that requires familiarity, and the artillery needs to fire enough shells in order to improve the shooting accuracy a little bit.

Li Xian has always paid attention to the construction of artillery, and after obtaining a large number of mixed yuan dao types, senior officers and soldiers with martial arts qualifications can obtain dao types, and snipers and artillery commanders with outstanding shooting ability are the personnel who have the highest priority to obtain dao types.

These snipers and artillery commanders, after obtaining the Dao Seed, also practiced various pupil techniques provided by Li Xian, and their eyesight was many times higher than that of ordinary people, at least reaching the level of second-order martial artists, which made the sniper ability and artillery ability of Li Xian's army greatly improved, and it was naturally much stronger than the British army composed of ordinary people.

Pu Dingcha and John never dreamed that Li Xian still had such black technology here, so they naturally felt puzzled, and they didn't understand why the artillery strength of the newly formed Sanyuanli coalition army was so strong.

It's just that, judging from the current situation, the defenders of Niulangang have strong fortifications to rely on, and the number of artillery and artillery strength are also very strong, so how this battle should be fought is very difficult to think about.

"We should not really get involved in this war between the Chinese. John thought for a moment and said to Pudingcha.

"There are only 2,000 Chinese troops on the left and right, can't so many of us still occupy such a small position?" said Pu Dingcha with some disapproval.

"The Chinese army on the opposite side is very good at fortifications, and it is very difficult to attack such a position, even if there are only 2,000 people on the opposite side. John shook his head and said:

"Secondly, we think that there are only two thousand people on the other side, and on what basis?

The back and forth are just the statements of the Chinese prince, and no one has verified them, and who knows what the actual situation is.

Maybe there are five or six thousand people on the opposite side, or even tens of thousands, and maybe the main force of the army on the opposite side has not left, and there are too many uncertain factors. ”