Chapter 121: A fierce battle on land and water
At the same time, the Restoration Army's musketeers still did not fire.
But the firepower of the artillery on the position became more and more fierce.
Amid the booming sound of artillery fire, buckshot flew across the battlefield, sweeping down a large number of British soldiers who were rushing forward.
The British continued to advance, attempting to launch a bayonet charge.
At this moment, the officer of the Restoration Army shouted again.
"Grenadier!"
"bomb!"
Amid shouts, grenades were thrown out from the trenches of the Restoration Army.
Flying towards the charging British troops.
The grenade fell to the ground, and the tail was still smoking.
Immediately, the grenade exploded with a loud rumbling sound, flames shot up into the sky, engulfing several British soldiers nearby, and broken limbs flew everywhere.
But soon, the British soldiers also threw grenades in retaliation, and one grenade after another flew towards the positions of the Restoration Army.
Although European countries of this era had begun to gradually abolish the establishment of grenadiers, this did not mean that they no longer used grenades.
It was only because hand grenades were not difficult to use and could be distributed to everyone that the special grenadiers were cancelled.
Only a few grenades landed in the trenches of the Restoration Army and exploded, causing certain casualties to the soldiers in the trenches.
Most of the remaining grenades fell in front of and behind the trenches. Although they exploded, they failed to cause any actual killing effect.
The fighting on the battlefield was still going on. After throwing the grenades, the British soldiers still rigidly maintained their line-up for shooting and rushed forward.
Seeing that the British army formation was less than twenty meters away from their trenches, Feng Zicai finally shouted.
"Fire!"
"put!"
The next moment, the crackling sound of musket fire resounded across the battlefield.
The Restoration soldiers in the trenches fired their first volley.
The British troops who had almost rushed to the front were hit by this round of volleys and fell down in large numbers.
After they finished firing their volley, the next moment, the shrill sound of the charge rang out across the battlefield.
Beep! Tick! Beep!
Feng Zicai drew his sword, jumped out of the trench, faced the British troops who were charging with bayonets, and led his men in a counterattack, shouting loudly.
"Brothers, follow me and kill!"
"Kill the British!"
"..."
After he finished speaking, Feng Zicai took the lead and rushed to the front.
Behind him was a soldier of the Restoration Army holding a broadsword and a spear.
Although the Restoration Army seized many Qing army's bird guns in various battles.
However, due to the poor quality of the Qing army's muskets, the Restoration Army needed to screen the captured weapons and select those with better quality before using them to equip the army.
This also meant that the weapons and equipment of the Restoration Army were in a relatively short supply.
It is inevitable to equip the troops with a certain amount of cold weapons to fill the weapons gap in the army.
How to say it, although swords and spears are cold weapons, they are definitely more reliable on the battlefield than the Qing army's muskets that would explode after just a few uses.
The next moment, the two sides collided and then engaged in a melee.
Swords and spears faced off against bayonets and muskets.
Feng Zicai took the lead, and with the knife in his hand he deflected the bayonet of the British soldier that was stabbing at him, and then he wiped the opponent's neck.
With a "puff", blood spurted out.
With his agility, he dodged the spurting blood and swung the knife in his hand heavily at the chest of another British soldier. The steel knife penetrated into the chest and killed the British soldier.
Seeing their own commander showing his prowess and killing several British barbarians in a row, the morale of the Restoration Army was boosted.
They all fought hard with the British!
These Indian soldiers who were sent out to test the strength of the Restoration Army gradually lost their strength in the fighting and began to retreat, leaving their bodies all over the ground.
Although the British Army is famous for its bayonet charge, in fact, the British Army's bayonet charge is not as evil as imagined.
Take the Opium War as an example. On the surface, the Qing army and the British army were able to maintain a stalemate during the volley of gunfire, but as soon as the British army charged with bayonets, the Qing army collapsed.
It seemed that the British bayonet charge was quite fierce.
But in fact this was not the case, because before launching a bayonet charge, the British army had often greeted the Qing army with countless rounds of artillery and rockets.
During this process, the Qing army was in a state of suppression, and as casualties continued to rise, morale continued to plummet.
The British army often launched bayonet charges when the Qing army was about to collapse under the attack of artillery and rockets.
Then, didn’t the Qing army collapse after just one charge?
In this situation, the Qing army could be defeated even if they encountered a group of refugees, let alone the British army.
In other words, the British army's bayonet charge was actually the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Qing army.
You can say that this straw is important, but you can't say that the other heavy objects that weighed on the camel before were not important.
Without other heavy objects to press the camel to the critical point, a straw cannot kill the camel.
By the same token, if the British army could not suppress the Qing army to a critical level with artillery fire and rockets before the bayonet charge.
Then, their bayonet charge would find it difficult to defeat the Qing army.
But the current situation on the battlefield is that it is not the British army's enemies that are suppressed, but the British army itself.
Before launching the charge, the Restoration Army used artillery bombardment, grenades, and volleys of gunfire to suppress the British army to the brink of collapse.
Then if the Restoration Army charges again, won’t the British army be defeated?
……
British commander Ho Bo looked at the situation on the battlefield, his expression froze and his heart was full of disbelief.
"What's up with the rebels? I feel like we're not facing an ancient Eastern army, but a European army."
Suppressive fire, volleys, and then bayonet charges.
The British army is too familiar with this routine!
"Colonel, what should we do?"
Edson came to Uncle He and asked.
Obviously, he was also shocked by the scene on the battlefield.
Uncle He took a deep breath and said without any hesitation.
"Have the rocket company aim at the battlefield and the rebels entangled with our 10th Battalion, and fire a few salvos."
"After the rocket salvo ends, have the 11th and 12th Battalions continue their offensive from the front, and try to take advantage of the moment when the rebels are defeated by our rockets to attack the rebel positions."
Upon hearing this, Edson immediately sent the order.
……
Soon, the situation on the battlefield changed again.
The British army used rockets again, and the sound of rockets breaking through the air was heard.
Rockets one after another cut through the air and were fired at the Restoration Army that was chasing the fleeing British troops.
The rocket landed and there was a rumble of explosion.
Many soldiers of the Restoration Army and the fleeing British soldiers were engulfed in the flames and shock waves generated by the explosion of rockets.
In an instant, the battlefield came to a standstill.
Feng Zicai was also knocked to the ground by the shock wave.
Fortunately, he was far away from the explosion point, so he was just knocked down by the shock wave, and nothing serious happened. He got up from the ground with a confused look on his face. The sky and the earth were shaking in front of him, and he shook his head hard to regain consciousness.
Then he shouted loudly.
"retreat!"
"All troops retreat, retreat to our trenches..."
Feng Zicai really didn't expect that the British commander didn't care about the lives of his own soldiers at all and blew them up together with the defeated British soldiers.
If he had known this earlier, he would never have rashly led people to pursue the enemy.
Well, this is actually normal. If the people being hunted on the battlefield were real white British soldiers, Uncle Hope might have hesitated before giving the order to open fire.
However, the first wave of soldiers sent to the battlefield to test the strength of the Restoration Army were almost all Indian soldiers.
How could the high-handed British care about the lives of Indians?
Amid shouts, the pursuing Restoration Army began to retreat.
During this process, the sound of rockets breaking through the air from the British side almost never stopped.
Explosions continued to sound, and the Restoration Army was blown to pieces, suffering considerable casualties.
At the same time, two more battalions of British troops rushed up under the cover of rockets and artillery fire.
In order to chase the retreating Restoration Army, they rushed directly into the Restoration Army's position.
Feng Zicai's troops had just hastily retreated to their positions when they had to face the enemy again. They were caught off guard and had no choice but to continue retreating.
They were chased all the way by the British army and retreated to the second line of defense in the rear. Only then did they stabilize the front line under the cover of their own comrades. They stopped retreating and continued to fight with the British offensive forces.
……
The fast horses galloped all the way to the city of Guangzhou and went straight into the camp of the Restoration Army.
At this time, a fierce battle was also going on outside Guangzhou city.
Wang An and Zhao Xiang were escorting Qing prisoners of war who had been reorganized after the Battle of Wuzhou, and were fighting fiercely with the Qing troops from Guangzhou who were leaving the city.
While the British Army was fighting the Restoration Army, the Qing Army in Guangzhou City was also busy.
Muttern decisively led his troops out of the city in person to support the British army in the battle.
It’s a pity that the Restoration Army had already prepared a plan for this and arranged personnel to block the attack.
A fierce battle broke out between the two sides outside Guangzhou, with the sound of gunfire and numerous casualties...
"Reporting to the Grand Commander, our army's naval battle in the Pearl River is not going well..."
The communications soldier came to Li Yi, clasped his fists and reported, informing Li Yi of the specific situation of the naval battle.
"Please make a quick decision, Grand Commander!"
After listening to the signalman's narration, Li Yi stroked his chin and pondered, then said.
"Since the British army won't be fooled, we should stop hiding our rockets and just fire them!"
"Send a message to Fang Haiyang's troops, and have them use rockets to take the initiative and repel the British fleet as soon as possible, creating favorable conditions for Li Sheng and his men to completely wipe out the British infantry."
Now on the battlefield, the British fleet and the British Marines on the Pearl River are in close contact with each other. If the British Marines are defeated, they only need to run to the Pearl River and retreat calmly under the cover of the fleet's naval guns.
The Restoration Army has no good way to deal with them!
In other words, if the Restoration Army wants to completely annihilate the British Army's land forces, then repelling the British Army's fleet is a necessary prerequisite.
Li Yi's original plan was to lure the British fleet into a trap, annihilate it, and cut off the retreat of the British Marine Corps.
Then, we would annihilate the British Army's land forces in land battles, defeat the invading British troops one by one, and annihilate them all.
But now that the British fleet is not taking the bait, the Restoration Army can only start by annihilating the British Land Forces.
Thinking of this, Li Yi sighed helplessly.
He knew that if the Restoration Army failed to severely damage or even annihilate the British fleet in this battle.
Then, this next British fleet might bring him a lot of trouble.
……
Soon, Li Yi's military order was delivered to the front line by the communications soldiers of the Restoration Army using fast horses.
Fang Haiyang was quite excited after receiving the order.
He immediately ordered his navy to prepare for attack.
As his military orders were issued, sampans appeared on the surface of the Pearl River.
There is a rocket launcher on each sampan.
They marched towards the lower reaches of the Pearl River in a mighty force.
The British fleet has been arrogant for so long with its rockets. Now it’s time for them to fight back.
……
On the other side, Feng Zicai's troops were leading a fierce battle with the British army.
Suddenly, a sound of gongs was heard from behind.
He knew it was an order to withdraw.
Feng Zicai looked at the battlefield with hatred. Although he was still somewhat unwilling, he did not dare to disobey orders and decisively led his troops to retreat.
Ho Bo noticed the changes on the battlefield and immediately ordered the British army to launch a pursuit.
"Haha, the rebels are defeated."
"Pass the order, all troops go out to attack, do not let these damned rebels escape, let them see how powerful the warriors of our British Empire are."
Seeing this, the deputy general Edson on the side began to advise.
"Commander, the rebels were defeated too suddenly. I suspect they may be scheming."
Edson didn't believe that the rebels, who were fighting fiercely with his side, would suddenly retreat.
This is abnormal behavior!
But when Uncle He heard this, he waved his hand and said confidently.
"Edison, you worry too much. The rebels retreated this time and didn't even bother to take the artillery on the battlefield. They must have been defeated for real."
"Now do as I order, and pursue with all your forces."
When Edson saw this, he knew that Uncle He had gotten so angry that he could not persuade him any more and could only nod in agreement.
The only thing that made Edson feel fortunate now was that the British fleet was still sailing in the Pearl River. With the fleet there, even if the situation on his side was unfavorable, he would have a backup plan...
It won’t be a disastrous defeat!
……
At the same time, the British fleet commander Olson took a look at the densely packed Restoration Navy that appeared again on the Pearl River, and couldn't help but said with sarcasm.
"These yellow monkeys from the East really don't know how to live or die."
"Just now they were repelled by our Great Britain, and now they are rushing up to die."
"In that case, let's send them to hell!"
"What a pathetic bunch!"
Olsen's military order was issued and the British fleet immediately moved.
The British army's rocket sampans were dispatched again and took the initiative to meet the naval fleet of the Restoration Army.
But before the British rocket sampan could launch rockets, a series of whooshing sounds of rockets breaking through the air were heard on the battlefield.
Rockets, trailing long flames, streaked across the sky like falling meteors, and shot towards the British fleet...
……
PS: I got a call in the evening, so I quickly wrote a chapter.
(End of this chapter)