Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 935 Translator’s Notes ([-])
The following is still the content of the notes written by legal translator Maurice Ellison after the war, like a personal memoir:

The sudden gunfire came from the northeast of the Daqing Summer Palace.

With so many treasures in the summer palace, the strong depression was basically gone; and he also thought about the amazing reward that would be obtained if he killed these people in the Xuan Ge camp.

Before the officers issued the order, soldiers from both sides spontaneously rushed in that direction.

Then, almost everyone started running wildly.

Of course, this also includes me; I admit that at that moment, I was like a wild beast that had lost its mind, with only greed for those treasures in my heart.

It wasn't until I started running that I really discovered that the summer palace of the Daqing Emperor was astonishingly large in scope.

Even when I started running, I was already in a palace in the center.

By the time I ran all the way to the northeast corner where the gunfire came from, I was covered in sweat and panting heavily.

What's even more surprising is that in the process of running over this one.

In such a large summer palace, except for some fish and animals that are obviously artificially raised, we can't see any other living creatures.

This situation continued until we arrived at the northeast corner of the Summer Palace.

In front of my eyes, a group of Western-style buildings magically appeared.

I saw that in an area of ​​about seven hectares, several buildings were made of pure white marble, with fine carvings on the stone surfaces, and the roofs were covered with a layer of glazed tiles.

Around the building, there are spectacular fountains, neat shrubs, and well-tended lawns.

Frankly speaking, except for the overall area, I think it is no worse than the Palace of Versailles in other aspects, and it is even more beautiful.

And in one of these buildings, there is a two-story main building with a considerable area.

I could vaguely see some people wearing strange uniforms, those from the Xuan Ge Camp.

In addition, there are a larger number of eunuchs wearing Daqing palace costumes, and even some maids; they are also hiding among them with Daqing's old-fashioned matchlock guns, looking towards this side.

Outside some windows and doors were tied up some soldiers who had been captured in the previous night's battle.

In terms of number, there are about a dozen people in total.
Although they all had an arm or a leg blown off by large-caliber bullets in yesterday's battle, they had obviously received good treatment and seemed to be in pretty good condition at the moment.

In locations ranging from 200 meters to 400 meters away from the main building.

In the small squares with neat stone slabs and fountains, as well as the neat lawns on the edges, dozens of soldiers have fallen.

I looked around and took it all in.

It seemed that those in Xuange Camp were planning to rely on more solid stone buildings to hold on inside.

If paired with their six-barreled musket, which is quite terrifying in terms of range and rate of fire, and their astonishingly powerful wooden-handled grenade.

The beautiful Western-style main building is really like a small fortress, which is difficult to attack.

After seeing the above situation, all the soldiers who rushed over amidst the gunfire, including me, woke up from their fanaticism.

No one would rush forward stupidly, but would surround the main building and wait for the commanders to arrive.

About five minutes later, His Excellency Montauban, General Grant and a group of senior officers from the coalition forces arrived here on horseback.

At this time, I remembered my duty as a translator and quickly approached.

Fortunately, His Excellency Montauban was so distracted by the men of the Xuan Ge camp and half of their small fortifications that he did not notice my dereliction of duty.

After observing for a few minutes, I put down the telescope.

General Grant of the Yin Army issued an order: "Notify the artillery troops to drag all the cannons over, deploy them on the spot and fire immediately.

These naive guys, do they think they will be fine just hiding inside?
It is impossible. We will use artillery to blast open such a turtle shell bit by bit, crushing and blowing them all to death inside, without even a chance to shoot. "

Faced with such an order, General Grant's messenger showed obvious hesitation on his face.

Although he didn't say anything, everyone present, including me, could understand why this messenger, who was said to be from Liverpool, behaved like this.

That is, if General Grant's orders were followed, none of the dozen captured soldiers who were tied outside the wall of the main building would survive the brutal shelling.

It is a pity that the poor messenger has been hesitating and waiting for 20 seconds.

The senior coalition officers present did not seem to care at all about such an order. On the contrary, General Grant had a somewhat unhappy look on his face.

This young man from Liverpool could only turn around and prepare to pass the order.

Just when he was about to get on his horse, a Yin Army colonel finally shouted: "No, you can't do this.

According to intelligence, the young people around the Summer Palace have not seen any convoys coming or going in the past few days.

So it means that those oriental treasures are still in such a summer palace. As for why we have not found them, there is no doubt that they must have been moved to this building.

If shelled, wouldn't everything like those exquisite porcelain, silks, calligraphy and paintings, etc., be destroyed. "

Such a voice just fell, including many people from Lord Montauban. The next second, they all turned to the messenger and shouted:
"Stop, stop quickly, for Brother Su's sake..."

Monsignor Montauban and others had such a strong reaction, and I also understood what was going on.

You know, when he sent a vanguard to this summer palace last night, Monsignor Montauban had already made a happy plan.

The best treasures of this summer palace must of course be taken back to Europe and dedicated to the great Emperor Napoleon III and the noble Empress Eugenie.

In this case, he will be rewarded by His Majesty the Emperor.

It is possible to become a noble earl or even a marquis in the future.

Naturally, he would keep the slightly inferior treasures for himself; when the time comes, he can return to Europe with a large sum of beautiful and precious trophies and become a rich man.

As for the worse treasures, they were naturally taken away by their officers and soldiers.

In short, in Lord Montauban's plan, this is a carnival of the French army, and everyone will gain huge benefits from such a robbery.

Of course, General Grant on the Yin side probably had similar thoughts.

Therefore, under the magical power of many oriental treasures, the lives of those captured soldiers became precious again.

With a solemn expression on his face, Monsignor Montauban shouted in a rare voice, allowing the sound to be heard over a long distance: "

Boys, let us attack immediately and kill these savage young men.

Rescue our poor comrades-in-arms; of course, snatch out all the treasures hidden by the young people and become our trophies. "

Maybe it was because of saving his comrades, so to speak.

Of course, it was more likely that everyone was excited because of the news that the treasure was hidden inside.

Always in the next second, at least more than two thousand French and Yin soldiers, holding rifles in their hands and full of fanatical fighting courage, launched an attack on the main building.

At that time, under the devilish impulse, I almost wanted to rush forward too.

Fortunately, he restrained his impulse in the end so as not to be embarrassed, because this charge was a joke.

When they first charged over, the young men in the main building seemed to be frightened and did not react. However, when some soldiers at the front rushed to a distance of about 200 meters.

Suddenly, intensive firepower poured out from the numerous windows, doorways, roofs, etc. of the main building, which naturally included the three terrifying six-barreled muskets.

But in a very short period of time, many soldiers were brought to the ground.

I have to admit that the magic of such a statement as 'the most precious treasures in the East for thousands of years' is really amazing.

Faced with such intensive firepower, the soldiers would have collapsed on ordinary days.

But now, the soldiers were still shouting, taking advantage of the gap where the matchlock guns in the hands of the Daqing eunuchs were being loaded, and the firepower density was reduced a lot, and they continued to rush forward.

Only when they rushed to 30 meters, hundreds of smoking grenades were thrown out of the main building.Just seeing such a scene, I couldn't help but close my eyes, knowing that this attack was completely over.

This was indeed the case. When I closed my eyes, at most a second passed, the sound of continuous explosions reached my ears.

When I opened my eyes, I found the main building surrounding them.

Dozens of meters away, there were already fallen bodies lying around.

The soldiers who had been shouting and rushing forward not long ago were now running towards the rear at a faster speed, their faces full of fear.

From time to time, someone would be killed by a bullet from behind, causing them to run very fast.

In the end, when all the soldiers who could move escaped from the gun range of the main building, more than 300 people fell in front of the main building.

Such a scene caused a group of senior generals of the coalition forces to fall into a long silence.

Until His Excellency Montauban roared angrily: "Commander, ask the artillery to drag all the cannons over~"

In the roar of Monsignor Montauban, I felt that everything happening around me was so magical.

But as the time in this Daqing Summer Palace passed day by day, I realized that these magical things and experiences that I thought were just beginning...

******
Although it was quite easy to repulse a large-scale attack launched by the Yinfa coalition forces.

But after emptying the last bullet in the gun's chamber and seeing his opponent basically escape the range of the Hanyang-made rifle, Hu Biao's face showed no sign of relief.

He shouted a series of commands as if urging:
"Members of the Righteous Taoist Order, take the palace maids and treat the wounded quickly.

Ah Li, please pay attention to when Hai Dongqing will come back and ask these two big babies to speed up a little bit. If you work hard these days, I will give them credit later.

Shi Polu, Duizheng, you guys from the heavy machine gun team are very happy to fight, right?Damn it!You should save your bullets. When the bullets run out early, you will cry.

Lao Yang, continue to lead people down to dig tunnels. Whether you can survive until the end of the mission depends on this thing.

Warehouse manager, Lao Hei, you two old SPs are fooling around with the God of Wealth. Go to bed quickly, and after you have recovered your spirits, you can go shooting black guns in the evening. I am not willing to just suffer a loss and not take advantage~"

For a moment, amidst the high-pitched yelling and cursing from this guy's mouth, the main building was in a state of turmoil.

Say it!The judgment of the senior officials of the Yinfa Alliance was absolutely correct. Facing such a large Old Summer Palace, Hu Biao would choose to keep them out of the garden unless he had a hole in his head.

There is an area in the Yuanmingyuan called Xiyanglou, which is in the current plane. In the picture, you can see the place where there are ruins such as Huoququ and Dashuifa.

The solid stone buildings here are naturally good bunkers.

But for the Yinfa Alliance, their judgment that they had transferred all the treasures to the Western Building was incorrect, or not entirely correct.

Because a small part has been successfully transferred, some of the remaining majority are concentrated here, and others have been transferred into the tunnel.

Rely on the Western-style building to resist as long as you can.

It's a bit like Daqing's version of 'Sifang Warehouse', such a posture

What is a little different from the situation at the 'Sifang Warehouse' is that if Hu Biao's plan really fails, this place will not be able to withstand it.

You can also evacuate through the tunnel to other parts of the garden to fight guerrillas.

And during this process, they will continue to transfer treasures as much as possible; all of the above are their current plans.

There is no doubt that such a plan got off to a good start.

However, Hu Biao knew better that when the Yin-Fa coalition mobilized their artillery and started attacking with artillery support, their situation would become difficult.

This was also the case. About an hour later, a total of 50 cannons were deployed one by one outside the range of the heavy machine guns on the main building.

As Hu Biao expected, the shelling started immediately on the main building.

But after all these cannons were loaded, the black muzzles were pointed here; this situation of not knowing when the cannons would be fired put great pressure on everyone in the main building.

Then, about two hundred Yin soldiers, holding rifles and holding their waists, used various obstacles and covers to slowly approach here little by little.

After taking a quick look, Yang Dongli, the second in charge of the team, really liked to study various strategies and tactics on weekdays, and he immediately saw the tactics of these people.

With a tremor all over his body, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Everyone, please pay attention, bring these foreign devils closer and then beat them.

The key to combat is to move quickly, reduce exposure time, move immediately after firing a shot, and do not stay in the same place; especially those in the heavy machine gun team, fire and stay at each position for no more than five seconds. . "

Sure enough, Yang Dongli's reminder was very necessary.

After the Yin army of 200 people rushed into a distance of 300 meters, half of them stopped and raised their guns and pointed them here.

The other half continued to drag in slowly.

But even so, these people soon entered within 100 meters; if they did not want these people to rush into the building, Hu Biao and the others had to open fire.

With this thought in mind, Hu Biao quickly leaned out from the side of the door and stretched out the Hanyang-made rifle in his hand.

There was no time to squint and take a good aim.

After quickly locking on a target, he pulled the trigger at his fingertips.

The moment the bullet came out of the chamber, Hu Biao retracted, stepped back five or six steps to one side, squatted down, and then pulled the bolt again and fired a new bullet.

During the whole process, there was no time to even take a look at the results.

Fortunately, at most one-half second later, a cloud of blood burst out from the left face of a Yin Army who was slowly approaching, and he fell backward on the spot.

When Hu Biao fired, everyone in the building also opened fire.

It's a pity that in such a fire that cannot be guaranteed even with careful aiming, except for everyone in the team who can guarantee to hit the target, most of the weapons in the hands of Ren Liang and others are empty.

For a while, the gunshots in the main building were quite lively.

In fact, they only knocked down less than 20 people. Compared with the last battle, the results after firing were really far behind.

However, it turns out that Hu Biao's current cautious and timid fighting method is actually very wise.

The next second everyone in the building opened fire, the rifles in the hands of the Yin soldiers outside also opened fire one after another; dense bullets were directed towards the main building, and the accuracy was quite good.

Hu Biao could clearly see that on the other side of the gate, a father-in-law in his 40s, imitating his example, leaned out a little and was just about to open fire.

When it comes to serving people, these father-in-laws may be quite professional, but they basically have no fighting qualities.

Hold the matchlock and aim a little longer.

Before he could successfully aim at a target and fire, a minie round hit him in the chest.

He held on and pulled the trigger, letting a lead bullet go out, but nothing hit him; with a look of regret on his face, he collapsed to the ground.

Upon seeing this, a palace maid who had received a short-term training from a sharp and upright Taoist and mastered the most basic knowledge of bandaging and care appeared.

He hunched over and hurried over all the way.

He struggled to grab his father-in-law's body and dragged him behind a safe stone wall, then squatted down and prepared to check the wound.

But before she could do this, with a huge roar of artillery fire, the wall where the two were hiding was hit by a 12-pound solid bullet.

Suddenly, the petite figure of the palace maid was put down to the ground amid the splash of stone chips.

Facing such a scene, Hu Biao could do nothing; the only thing he could do was to curse "What the hell" in his mouth.

Then, he took off a wooden-handled grenade from his waist.

After pulling the fuse, he rounded his arms and threw it...

(End of this chapter)