Chapter 1304 Ambush Circle (Second update, please subscribe)
Author: Xiaoyu’s Destiny
Chapter 1304 Ambush Circle (Second update, please subscribe)
With the support of the Ming Empire, all forces are gathering towards Africa and South Africa.
Under the banner of "anti-British", thousands of Irish people came to South Africa, where they trained, fought, and sacrificed their lives.
But their sacrifices are valuable. When the "Irish regiments" are established one by one, an armed force belonging to the Irish is born. It is not clear what kind of craze they will set off in the future, but they will definitely be deeply involved.
to change Ireland's destiny...
Just as a large number of Irish people arrived in South Africa through various channels as a new force, British reinforcements finally arrived - 20,000 British troops led by General Redvers Buller, commander-in-chief of the South African Expeditionary Force, finally arrived at the start of the expedition.
Cape Town.
This force was reinforced from the British mainland, and Admiral Redvers Buller also had a past with the Irish - he once suppressed a local uprising in Ireland.
"Send our fleet to Durban!"
As soon as he arrived in Cape Town and learned that Mafeking, Kimberley and other places had fallen one after another, and that the Boer Army had arrived at the gates of Durban Port, General Buller immediately ordered.
"We are going to disrupt the Boer attack in Durban! No army in the world can survive the bombardment of the navy!"
Just as Admiral Buller said, with the support of the fleet's fierce artillery fire, the Boer attack was frustrated. On March 8, the Boer army attacking Durban Port fired 8-inch, 10-inch and even 12-inch naval guns.
Under the commotion, they suffered unprecedented losses and faced the reality of nearly 3,000 casualties. The Boer army chose to retreat. This also meant that their attempt to open the seaport ended in failure.
Encouraged by the victory at Durban Port, Admiral Redvers Buller ordered the British army to start a counterattack, because the Cape Colony was filled with small groups of Boer guerrillas, operating in the northeastern region of Cape Town, and attacking the East and West Cape.
Rail lines pose a threat.
Facing the Boer attack, the British army had to tightly defend the Orange River Railway Bridge to guard against the Boers' attempts to blow up the bridge. De Aar, the most important railway hub station and military supplies distribution center on the Western Cape Railway, was also attacked by the Boers.
Human harassment. In order to protect the normal passage of the East-West Cape Railway, the British army had to install a 4.7-inch naval gun on the train, slowly advance under its cover, and repair the railway in small sections.
This also caused their marching speed to become extremely slow.
On April 17, the 1st Royal Infantry Division, which was heading north, arrived in Magersfontein, a small town about 20 miles south of Kimberley, in the rain. In front of the British army were continuous hills, covered by heavy rain.
There was a vague air of chilling.
"It's very possible that the Boers have an ambush in the mountains!"
For the sake of caution, Payne Simmons ordered his Scottish Highland Guards to take the lead and advance in column, with the remaining teams following in a dense formation to prevent the soldiers from falling behind.
In the distance, the horizon behind the mountains was obscured by rain, and you could vaguely see faint points of light jumping up and down in the drizzle and thick fog.
It was the light reflected from the bare rocks on the mountain - in order to avoid being ambushed, the British army used searchlights to observe the surroundings. The dazzling light pierced the darkness of the night. With the help of the light, the British army repeatedly searched the wilderness ahead.
, but nothing could be seen except the dark hills.
Although the searchlight light allowed the British to see clearly and dispersed the darkness, it also exposed their location. A dozen light beams completely exposed their position.
As the British army advanced cautiously, neither General Payne Simmons nor the British officers and soldiers under his command were aware that General Cronje's Boer field troops were ambushing behind the hill.
The Boer soldiers braved the heavy rain and let the rain pour on them. They quietly hid behind the large rocks that were burned by the sun and washed by the rain, lying in carefully constructed trenches, waiting for the British army to approach.
The scouts sent by Payne Simmons did not discover these Boers. Under the cover of night fog and heavy rain, a Boer cavalry team quietly approached the enemy.
Heavy rain and night were the best repulsors for the Boer cavalry. The sound of rain and wind blocked the sound of horse hooves. Every Boer was a good rider. They suddenly appeared in front of, on both sides and behind the unprepared British army.
The next moment, the crisp firing sound of the first-year rifle broke the silence of the march.
For a time, there were gunshots everywhere in the dusk. Since the British were marching in dense formation, every bullet fired by the Boers could often penetrate two or three people in the British army. The bullets hit almost without any warning.
It hit a British soldier in the shoulder, passed through his chest, and then penetrated the chest of another soldier.
In the dusk, the continuous gunshots were like the cough of death to the marching British soldiers, dull and rapid. Under the dense rain of bullets, the Scottish Highland Guards who took the lead suffered heavy casualties. In the heavy rain, they were
Red mist of blood continued to rise from the marching ranks.
"Boers, Boers..."
The British troops who suffered a sudden attack screamed in terror in the darkness. When the British soldiers on the train tried to use searchlights to find the enemy, the riflemen in the distance directly smashed the searchlights. In the darkness, the Boers' horse-riding rifles
The soldiers kept shooting. They surrounded the British and kept shooting.
After launching a surprise attack, the British retreated towards their own positions without even waiting for them to react.
"The Boers have escaped, chase them!"
Facing the retreat of the Boers, Jean Payne Simmons immediately gained the upper hand and ordered artillery fire back.
When the 4.7-inch rapid-fire naval gun on the train continued to fire in the direction of the retreating Boer cavalry, the British troops who had already reacted also launched a pursuit.
However, when he ordered the pursuit, Payne Simmons did not know that the mission of this Boer cavalry team was to lure the British troops into an ambush point.
"The British are coming..."
General Cronje, who was on the mountain, looked at the British who were pursuing them in the dusk, with a sneer on his face.
"Just as we planned, they ran into our ambush. King, our plan was successful."
Wang Jingchu, who was standing next to him, could no longer see the behavior of the young master Wang in Linhai. His dress was no different from that of ordinary Boers. After the war broke out, except for the military attachés in the embassy's military attaché office,
In addition, the imperial military also sent dozens of officers as volunteers to assist them in the battle.
Wang Jingchu, who served in the colonial government, was also dispatched here. Rain dripped down his cowhide cowboy hat. He stared at the British troops getting closer and closer and looked at the rising artillery flames in the distance. He said.
"General, the British artillery fire seems to be very fierce, which may not be conducive to our next plan."
Nodding, General Cronje said nothing, he just stared at the battlefield in the night.
This was their carefully constructed ambush circle, just waiting for the British to rush in. Now, they finally broke in, and it was time to give them a head-on blow...
