1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 540 Strong Enemy

After all, the unyielding will cannot cover up the gap in the tactical literacy and personal physical fitness of the soldiers on both sides.

Although Shanzi Camp is an old camp of Yue Yong, it is one of the best elites in the Qing army and is not afraid of cautious hand-to-hand combat.

But compared with the French army, which was well-trained and experienced high-intensity combat, it was obviously inferior. The French army gradually gained the upper hand in a desperate fight.

Even the retired veterans of the Western Brigade of the 13th Regiment who had their first close combat with the French Army in the trenches had to admit that with the same number of people, their close combat capabilities were only about 40% better than the French army.

Although the Western Brigade does not lack combat experience and has much better physical fitness than Yueyong, the Western Brigade lacks experience in fighting strong enemies, especially experience in hand-to-hand combat with strong enemies.

The Mexican army on the Mexican plateau and the native soldiers of the Dutch and Indian authorities in the tropical rain forests of Borneo were not considered strong enemies. The British troops in Northern Oregon on the northern border were barely considered strong enemies, but the Western Brigade did not engage in high-intensity battles with these British troops.

Seeing that the French army was gradually gaining the upper hand, the British troops stationed in Hong Kong, with a mentality of picking peaches, finally dispatched three companies to launch a fierce attack on Yue Yong's position.

The British army quickly completed its assembly, organized its troops, and slowly advanced under the British flag under the Grenadier March played by military musicians.

"Damn it, no more! Whistle A! Whistle B! Fill them all in!"

Liang Shaoqiong's heart was bleeding as he looked at the Shanzi Camp veterans who fell one after another in the position.

The French army's close combat capabilities are extremely powerful. Unlike what some scholar-officials who have never been on the battlefield said, foreigners can only achieve temporary power by relying on strong ships and cannons.

The Shanzi Battalion is already an elite team among the Cantonese warriors, with strong melee capabilities. However, in hand-to-hand combat with the French army, it would take about two veterans to defeat one French army.

The Yue Yong were already in decline, but they were holding on with the last breath of their soldiers. Now that the British army had joined the battle again, Sartre did not hold back and pressed forward all the three reserve companies he had brought.

The two sides fought until sunset. With Liang Shaoqiong and Sartre devoting their reserves at all costs, they managed to hold on to their positions and keep the French army out of Xiangshan.

After the British and French forces voluntarily withdrew from the Yueyong position, the battlefield fell into a dead silence.

The wavy trench was like a corridor of death. Corpses were lying on the muddy ground in a twisted shape. The living people pushed away the corpses on their bodies and struggled to climb out of the sea of ​​blood.

Covered in blood and faces covered with mud and blood, the survivors looked like demons who had just crawled back from the land to the human world.

The dead French soldiers and Cantonese warriors were entangled with each other in the arms of death, their flesh and blood were blurred, and it was difficult to distinguish ourselves from the enemy. Some of the dead still had warped and crazy expressions on their faces.

The walls of the trench were covered with bullet holes and knife marks, and the soil was moistened with blood and became slippery and sticky, exuding an eerie fishy smell.

Outside the trenches, the sky was blackened by scorched earth and gunpowder smoke. Even the vegetation could not escape the ravages of the war. The trees were blown into blackened branches, and the ground was pockmarked by shells. Many of the holes still had blood stains.

Liang Shaoqiong stepped into the battlefield through the sticky bloody mud, feeling mixed emotions in her heart.

This was the most difficult and miserable battle he had fought since leading the army, and it was also the battle closest to failure.

"Liang Shuai! There are only 18 brothers left in Bingshao! Bingshao, I have not embarrassed you, I have not sorry for Xiangshan, and I have not sorry for the blind date in Guangfu!"

With only one leg left, Commander Bing of Shanziying Post came to Liang Shaoqiong with the help of two soldiers.

Liang Shaoqiong originally thought that the French army landing at Gongbeikou was a feint attack, so he asked Bingshao to be responsible for blocking the French army on the left flank. Unexpectedly, the French army's two directions were all main attacks, there were no feint attacks, and the position of the third post was close to the coast, within the range of the naval guns of the British and French fleets. Therefore, Sentence C suffered the heaviest casualties, with almost everyone injured.

"You are very good, you are all good! You are like my soldiers, Liang Shaoqiong!"

Liang Shaoqiong controlled his emotions, gently patted the captain's shoulder and asked.

"Where is your sentry?"

The establishment of the Yue Yong is similar to that of the Hunan Army. The sentry officer is the chief officer of a sentry, and the sentry commander is the adjutant.

"The sentry officer was blown up by a naval gun. A full 60 kilograms of iron bombs hit his body. There are not a few good pieces of meat left on his body." The sentry commander said with a cry.

"Ghost! I'll fuck your ancestors!" Liang Shaoqiong rarely lost his composure.

The sentry officers of the Yueyong Battalion were the first batch of veterans to follow Liang Shaoqiong on the expedition to northern Guangdong, so Liang Shaoqiong had the deepest feelings for these veterans.

The officers of the 13th Regiment who participated in the battle also reported the casualties to Sutter. The casualties of the 13th Regiment were better than those of Yue Yong, but they were also heavy casualties.

"Go back and write a battlefield report and hand it in." Sutter told the officers of the 13th Regiment participating in the battle.

At the same time, he also told the military doctors of the 13th Regiment that after treating the sick and wounded of their own regiment, they would also treat the wounded Yue Yong soldiers of Shanzi Camp.

The prisoners of the British and French forces were quite honest. They all honestly threw away their weapons, raised their hands and knelt on the ground, waiting to be dealt with.

The Shanzi Battalion suffered heavy casualties and needed repairs, so Liang Shaoqiong asked a new battalion to come up first.

The new recruits, who had never experienced actual combat, had not yet arrived in the trenches. They just smelled the smell of blood not far away and vomited. They immediately received a lesson from the commander and sentry officer.

These senior sentry officers all came from the old camp, and there were also many veterans from the Shanzi camp.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties in this battle.

Shanzi Camp suffered 377 casualties and 321 serious injuries. Except for Sentries A and B that subsequently participated in the war, the other three sentries were disabled, especially Sent C. There were 185 people in the entire sentry before the war. After the war, Only 18 remnants remained.

The casualties of the 13th Regiment were not as serious as those of the Shanzi Battalion, but they also paid the price of 156 killed and 141 seriously injured.

The casualties of the French army were also heavy, with 361 people killed directly in action and 245 people seriously injured and completely losing their combat effectiveness.

The British army benefited from the commander's ability to observe the battlefield situation and was the last to enter and the earliest to withdraw. Therefore, only 54 British troops were directly killed and only 42 were seriously injured. when

Another 85 French soldiers and 31 British soldiers were captured. No one from the Yueyong Shanzi Battalion and the 13th Regiment of the Umbrella Mercenary Corps was captured.

Most of the casualties of the Shanzi Battalion and the 13th Regiment were caused in close combat.

In addition to the relatively small casualties of the British troops stationed in Hong Kong, which were still within the tolerance range of the British military's top brass, this battle was already crippling for the other three parties.

Especially for the French army, the number of participants in the war was directly reduced from more than 1,800 to 1,100.

As for the Guangdong Yong, although the casualties suffered more than the French army, the Guangdong Yong fought on their own territory after all, and the lost soldiers were easier to replace than the French army.

After the war, the French army's top brass criticized the British army, and Montauban even got into a fight with the British commander.

Little Montauban believed that if the British troops stationed in Hong Kong had entered the battle earlier, they would have been able to win the position, and they would not have paid such a high price and gained nothing in the end.

This is also the thought of many French military officers, and a rift has already appeared between Britain and France.

The heavy casualties of the French army made the French commander-in-chief Monttopan's eyes darken. He could not accept it for a while, and even had the idea of ​​​​withdrawing his troops.

If he were fighting the Russian army on the Crimean battlefield, he would still be able to accept such casualties. Crimea is relatively close to the French mainland and colonies, and the lost soldiers can easily be replaced.

But in the Far East, paying such heavy casualties without achieving any substantial benefits was completely unacceptable to Montauban.