Ten Dragons Take the Inheritance

Chapter 473 Who and the Battle (Part [-])

Although the two groups of British soldiers who landed almost set off at the same time, the landing time was slightly different. Since the Johor Bahru Fort is more prominent than the pier, the British soldiers who landed on the Johor Bahru Fort also landed earlier. When the British soldiers here organized their teams and climbed to the cliff, the British soldiers who landed on the pier had just arrived on the shore.At this time, the small pier was already in ruins under the bombardment of the British warships. Except for the burning broken boards and the large bomb craters all over the ground, there was not even a single person in sight. The British officers who landed did not even bother to organize their formation. , Seventy to eighty British officers and soldiers just wandered around happily and walked towards Xinshan Town on the slope, not to mention sending out pioneers to explore the way, most of the British soldiers didn't even level their guns.

The slope connecting the wharf and Xinshan Town is not too long, that is, a distance of about 15 meters, and of course it is not too wide, that is, only about 35 meters. Due to the bombardment of the British army, it was already full of potholes at this time, and it was not easy to go. This made the British soldiers very dissatisfied with the navy's "making a fuss". ".

This group of British officers and soldiers crawled lazily on the slope for a while, when they suddenly heard the sound of gunfire and explosions from the Johor Bahru fort, the bewildered British officers and soldiers suddenly huddled together, in a panic, suddenly I heard an incomprehensible roar from the cliff above my head, and then a large number of long objects fell from the sky. Before the British officers and soldiers could figure out what these hail-like objects were, a violent explosion sounded in the air. There was a ringing sound under the feet and above the head, and the shrapnel flying in all directions swept all the British officers and soldiers who were caught off guard to the ground like the scythe of death.

survivor?No, not a single one, none of the huddled British officers and soldiers survived the baptism of nearly two hundred grenades. After a life-threatening firework, he even forgot to turn the bow of the boat to escape, until some sailor let out a horrific scream, and the sailors on the seven or eight small boats turned the bow frantically, collided with each other, Crowded and fled to the distant battleship.

"Haha, cool! Get out!" Wu Haoming, the company commander of the second company who gave the order to throw the grenade just now, popped up from the top of the cliff, looked at the messy pile of corpses on the slope below, waved his hands proudly, and ordered The officers and soldiers of the Second Company withdrew from the trenches and retreated to a distance along the traffic trenches, leaving only a few observation posts on the forward positions.

Shock, absolute shock!Although Major General Reagan had a premonition that things would never be that simple, he never expected that the English Army that attacked would be defeated so badly. Of the more than 150 officers and soldiers who attacked, only 18 of them could come back alive. The enemy didn't even see what he looked like, so he was defeated just like that. This kind of humiliation was beyond the tolerance of Major General Leigen.

"Colonel, let your cannon do the talking, boom! Boom!" Rear Admiral Reagan put down the binoculars in his hand, and yelled at Colonel Mike Green, commander of the England Cruiser Fleet.

"Oh, well, as you wish..." Colonel Green stopped suddenly before he could finish his sentence—there was a booming cannon from the Johor Bahru fort, and eight huge shells roared towards the English fleet. Well, Colonel Green is an experienced naval officer. Once he heard the whistling of shells, he knew it was the roar of heavy artillery. At this time, Colonel Green had no time to pay attention to Major General Reagan's complaints, and ordered loudly: "Sail up! Sail full!"

Before the English sailors raised their sails, eight huge shells roared down, splashing huge waves on the left and right of the flagship "Greenwich". The huge hull of the "Greenwich" shook, and Colonel Green felt fortunate that the eight cannons that were obviously aimed at the "Greenwich" were all emptied!As Colonel Green's order was conveyed to the ships, all the English cruisers immediately raised their sails and moved at full speed. The gunners of the ships that were originally idle also immediately put into a tense state of loading and firing.

"Damn it! It's a pity!" Li Mingliang, the platoon leader, cursed regretfully, and waved his hand: "Retreat." He led a platoon of officers and soldiers to the trench in the back mountain—followed by eight artillery pieces. Hundreds of artillery in the English fleet fought bravely, but it was a fool's heroism. It was almost like dying. Anyway, the task of the Marine Battalion is to defend Johor Bahru. As for whether those heavy old artillery can be kept, it has nothing to do with the Marine Battalion. nothing.

Forts are always the most threatening weapons to warships. There is a famous saying in the English navy - only fools would use warships to confront forts. The reason is simple: Coastal defense artillery is generally heavy artillery. If the strength of the two sides is similar In a fight, wooden battleships can hardly withstand the bombardment of heavy coastal defense artillery. Such confrontations often end in the defeat of the battleship, but this sentence is not entirely true. If the number of coastal defense artillery is insufficient, the outcome of the war will naturally be that the battleship wins. At this time, there were only ten guns on the Johor Bahru fort, and two of them were damaged by the shock. The gun mounts could not be adjusted at all, and they were no different from waste. The fleet's desperate efforts could only sacrifice the lives of the few defenders in vain. Chen Yaowu would never do such a loss-making business.

The four British warships that felt threatened immediately entered the cruising state. The four warships covered the Johor Bahru fort with artillery fire like shells without money. They bombarded the fort for four consecutive rounds. Hundreds of shells plowed the entire fort over and over again. Once again, until it was confirmed that the Johor Bahru fort had no backhand power, more than a dozen small boats full of British army soldiers slowly rowed towards the fort, while the English fleet was always on alert. The cannons were pointed directly in the direction of the fort, ready to provide artillery support to the landing British troops at any time.

"Bah." Chen Yaowu spit out a mouthful of muddy saliva, shook his head, and shook the dust off his head, standing under a big tree whose top cover was cut off half by shrapnel, carefully observing Every move of the English army was full of anger—although most of the shells in the shelling just now fell on the fort, some shells also hit the back hill. Although the officers and soldiers of the Qing army were hiding in the trenches, they still There were some casualties. Counting the casualties from the first shelling, eight people from the first company were killed and more than [-] people were injured. The battle had just started, and the first day hadn't even survived half of it yet.

This time the British army did not split up, and all the small boats rushed towards the fort. The English soldiers on board no longer laughed as they did when they landed for the first time, and all looked nervously in the direction of the fort. , more than 150 English soldiers all jumped out of the boat, stepped on the knee-deep sea water, and waded towards the shore warily. From the distance, carefully climb up the cliff along the path on the cliff.

All the actions of the British army fell into Chen Yaowu's eyes. Seeing that the British army was scattered and the guns of the English fleet were still on the top of the cliff, Chen Yaowu cursed in a low voice, then waved his hands and said: "On the first row, pay attention to the firing time, shoot closer, aim and shoot, and don't let the British rush to the top of the cliff!" Li Mingliang, the leader of the first row, replied, leading more than 50 soldiers under him along the traffic trench to the front Charged to the position, all the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty took their positions and waited for the British army to come up and die.

The British army walked very slowly and carefully. After a long time of lingering, they finally arrived at the place where the previous wave of British troops lay ambush. Seeing the blood and broken limbs all over the ground, many British soldiers' legs and feet were injured. He started to feel weak, his hands trembled enough, and he almost couldn't even hold his gun steadily. The British commander was so anxious that he kept cursing, kicking and pushing, and finally drove a dozen soldiers to climb towards the top of the cliff.

"Fire!" Li Mingliang saw that the dozens of British soldiers had already climbed to the top of the cliff, and issued a command in a loud voice. Suddenly, more than 50 rifles rang out at the same time. The dozen or so unlucky English soldiers kept bouncing in the rain of bullets like they were doing a swing dance, and the corpses beaten into blood gourds rolled and fell down the cliff, smashing down to most of the British army behind them, terrified. The following English soldiers no longer cared about the officers' orders, turned around and fled to the foot of the mountain. They were greeted by a rain of grenades. Amidst the violent explosion, the British soldiers who ran slower had to turn into a crowd of people all over the ground. One of the shattered corpses, the rest of the hundred or so British soldiers rushed down the mountain crying and howling.

"Fire, target the enemy's position on the top of the cliff." Rear Admiral Green, the commander of the cruiser fleet, put down the binoculars in his hand, and gave the order to fire with a smirk. In an instant, more than a hundred artillery pieces on the four cruisers roared, killing the Qing army. The position on the top of the cliff turned into a sea of ​​flames. The soldiers of the first platoon, who were cheering because they repelled an enemy attack, were suddenly caught off guard by the surprise attack of artillery fire. Although they were protected by trenches, they still suffered heavy casualties. Of the 53 people left intact after the bombardment, only 20 remained, 18 were killed and 12 were injured.

"Damn it!" Chen Yaowu angrily smashed the big tree beside him, feeling the pain in his heart. He had already known the difficulty of this battle, but he didn't expect that in such a short period of time, the first row More than half of it has been lost, and it is only the third quarter of the last hour. It is still early before dark. The Qing army without artillery support has no way to threaten the cruiser. It is not enough to wipe out all the two hundred people in his hand.

"Tell Li Mingliang that I don't have any reinforcements for him, so let him hold on. No matter what, we can't let the British rush to the top of the cliff!" Chen Yaowu resisted the urge to increase troops, and ordered the communication soldiers beside him with a gloomy expression.

"Yes." The orderly saluted, rushed down the traffic trench, and quickly came to Li Mingliang's side, panting to convey the order.

Li Mingliang was scratched by a piece of shrapnel in the shelling just now. At this time, the wound was bandaged, and the blood on his face had not had time to wipe. He looked extremely hideous. After he heard the order clearly, he replied without hesitation: "Resolutely!" mission accomplished!"

"Platoon leader, the yellow-haired monster is coming up again!" A lookout post called out loudly, and all the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty who were still alive became nervous at that moment. They were also pulled out and placed on the edge of the trench in front of them.

This time the British army came very quickly, the two walked side by side, all the spears in their hands were aimed at the top of the cliff, ready to fire at any time, 50 meters, 40 meters, 30 meters, 20 meters, the British army advanced to 20 meters from the cliff head They stopped and waited for a long time but still did not wait for the Qing army to shoot. They thought that the Qing army must have been annihilated or scared away by the shelling just now. The bowed English soldiers relaxed a lot. Shouting and rushing towards the top of the cliff, just when they thought they were winning, Li Mingliang shouted: "Hit me!" Dozens of revolvers rang out at the same time, and a dense rain of bullets fell on them. The English soldiers who were caught off guard, who had never seen such a dense rain of bullets, suddenly fell down a large number of English soldiers, and the rest, regardless of the danger of the cliff, turned around and ran at the cost of their lives. Many British soldiers lost their lives in the escape Feet, screamed and fell down the cliff, fell into a puddle of meat, the soldiers of the Qing army sent off the British army with grenades again.

This time, the soldiers of the Qing army did not wait to be bombed in the trenches, they repelled the attack from England, and immediately retreated along the traffic trenches to the rear. As expected, the British soldiers had just retreated to the foot of the mountain, and the artillery fire from the British warships immediately roared again. He got up and blew up the positions that had long been deserted.Just like that, the British warship fired and the Qing army withdrew, and returned as soon as the artillery fire stopped. The British army launched several attacks and all were ruthlessly smashed, leaving nothing but more than 160 corpses. It was getting late, and the British who attacked the fort The army had to retreat to Shanmaxi in frustration. The difficult first day was over, and at this time the surprise attack on Malacca also began...

(End of this chapter)