Chapter 35: The Fall of the French Expeditionary Force
When the news of the war in Vietnam reached France, the whole country was shocked. At the end of the next month (the eighth year of Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty), the French government urgently appointed Guba as the commander of the French Far East Fleet, and General Miller took over as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force. First update on the novel website
By the end of June 1983, some elite troops were dispatched from France, southern Vietnam and Indochina to gather in Vinh City, Vietnam, with the intention of dealing a devastating blow to the North Vietnamese Loyal Army.
At this time, the total number of French troops in Vinh City, Vietnam, surged to more than 12,000, and there were nearly 20 gunboats. This force was a well-deserved super regiment in Southeast Asia at that time.
On July 18, 1983, this day was a Sunday for Westerners at that time. Under normal circumstances, all departments had to take a break for worship. Miller was eager to retaliate against the loyal army and show his ability. He ordered the troops to be divided into three parts to go to North Vietnam.
Advance.
The navy, led by Commander Guba of the French Far East Fleet, advanced to the front line of Hanoi's coastal defense and prepared to bombard Hanoi City and the base of the Coastal Defense Zhongyong Army.
The land route is divided into two parts. One has a vanguard force of more than 8,000 people, which opens the road first. The rear part consists of about 1,000 baggage and artillery troops, moving towards Hanoi. The land and water routes are in a situation of flanking the Zhongyong Army.
When the French Expeditionary Force of about 8,000 men led by Miller rushed to an unknown mountainous area 50 kilometers south of Hanoi by land, they found that the accessible road was sandwiched between two not too big hills.
, he did not send people to the mountains for reconnaissance, but ordered the entire army to pass through relatively wide mountain roads.
, when we were about to pass the mountain road, we found that the exit in front was blocked by countless dense barbed wire fences. There were large gaps between the barbed wire fences, and there were crisscrossing trenches behind some of them.
Mi Le knew that they had encountered an ambush. He was very confident because he found that there were not too many enemy troops in front, and they did not seem to have cannons. Also, these stupid yellow-skinned pigs, even if they were given guns, they would not be able to use them.
Ah! What’s the use of just relying on these nets, ditches, etc.!
The French army rushed over generously. There were no trenches or enemy troops behind the first few barbed wire fences, and the distance between them and the positions behind them was too large. Miles was happy, so he ordered that the barbed wire fences on the road be removed.
, just tear open a road that can allow the troops to pass safely. He did not ask the French soldiers to spend a lot of useless efforts to destroy all the barbed wire fences.
When their entire army arrived at the open area in the middle, an accident happened. They were hit by heavy weapons that suddenly appeared in front of them. At this time, there were also large-scale artillery bombardments on the mountains on both sides of the road. Mi Le immediately
I was confused, how could there be artillery fire? And it was a large-caliber artillery.
The panicked Mi Le hurriedly ordered the soldiers to fight back, and prepared the rear team to become the front team, retreating to organize defense. The few barbed wire fences in the rear that Mi Le had not taken seriously just now turned into a chasm blocking their retreat.
Troops and trenches that had not been discovered by the French before appeared.
Dozens of heavy machine guns were also set up. These were trenches paved with flat slabs. When the French army passed and the battle began in the front, the troops lying in ambush immediately removed the slabs on the trenches, set up light and heavy weapons, and blocked the trenches.
The idea of the French army's retreat was a tactic that often appeared in later StarCraft games, and was borrowed by Zhou Yu.
What ambushed them was a mixed force of the Zhongyong Army's Second Group Army, Wu Fengdian's and Third Group Army, and Huang Shouzhong's troops, totaling 30,000 people.
In the last war against the French army, Yang Zhuoen's troops ended the battle with a beautiful victory, like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. However, during the street fighting, more than 10 people were killed and injured. The military headquarters issued a commendation report. All the officers and soldiers participating in the battle collectively achieved second-class merit, which made Wu Fengdian and Huang Shouzhong envious to death.
In this ambush battle, the two of them insisted on participating in the battle, so Zhou Yu had to make a concession and let each of them bring half of his elite troops to participate in the battle. Yang Zhuen was furious. This time, it was more than ten thousand people. What a great battle for man! I can only watch from the sidelines. Do you think he can stop being angry? It’s useless to be angry. Facts are facts...
When Wu Fengdian saw that the French army had completely fallen into the trap, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he was also full of doubts about Zhou Yu. Mi Le was a French general. How could Zhou Yu know so much about Mi Le's aggressive character? He was very clear about the French army's marching route, weapons, and personnel configuration.
Moreover, such a position surrounding the mountain was arranged in a very targeted manner. Wu Fengdian believed that it was full of loopholes. No one would rush in even if they saw that it was an ambush site, unless they were a fool.
And Mi Le is like a fool, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, he still chooses to go to the tiger mountains. It's like Mi Le and Zhou Yu are acting according to the written script.
If it was said to be the intelligence from Huang Feihong's Intelligence Department, Wu Fengdian didn't believe it at all. How could the personnel of the Intelligence Department have penetrated into the top brass of the French army?
Could it be that the principal has intelligence personnel outside the Zhongyong Army? Only in this way can we explain the occurrence of these incredible phenomena.
At the overlooking point in front of the zero-hour headquarters on the hillside, Huang Shouzhong smiled at Wu Fengdian who was unconscious and said: "Haha, Old Wu! You see, the French guys are really well-behaved. They act exactly according to the principal's instructions, as if they have been rehearsed in advance. Same."
"Yes! I am also very surprised. At that time, the principal arranged it like this, and I was still very worried! If the French army did not enter the ambush circle, but turned around to deal with our artillery position, the consequences would be disastrous. Now that they are in a urn, What else can we be so polite about?" Wu Fengdian said with emotion.
"Okay! Let's start! Brothers, you've been waiting all day. In this hellish place like Vietnam, mosquitoes can bite people alive, so it's better to end it as soon as possible!" Huang Shouzhong put down the telescope and said impatiently.
"Okay! Then blow the bugle! I'm afraid the mice will escape if we wait. But it's a pity that the principal won't let us wipe out all the enemy troops. He only asks our troops to frighten the enemy troops and mainly surrender. What a pity!" Look! It's almost time, Wu Fengdian said in a relaxed and regretful tone.
"Isn't it! It's really a pity to lose such a big piece of fat!" As he said this, Huang Shouzhong gave the order to attack to the adjutant next to him.
The Chinese loyal army, who could not wait for a long time, immediately welcomed the Miller Army in their special way.
Miller's expeditionary force of nearly 10,000 people was caught in the barbed wire fence by the Zhongyong Army. The super large open space specially reserved for them in the middle of the trench position was inaccessible. It really complied with an old Chinese saying: Lao Niu got on. Nose rope - can't run away.
Without fire support from the artillery unit, the French army faced geographical disadvantages and numerical disadvantages. After only half an hour of weak resistance, the entire army was forced to surrender. The French army suffered nearly a thousand casualties, and the rest
All were captured, and the commander of the expeditionary force, Miller, was captured.
This was ordered by Zhou Yu, otherwise the French army would be completely annihilated. Zhou Yu was afraid of pushing France into a panic. He was not the German Empire! He did not have the absolute capital to spend money.
Because Mi Le was eager for revenge and despised the enemy's intelligence, he made a fatal mistake:
He did not send out reconnaissance troops, did not have strong artillery fire cover, and ignored the unexpected, but blindly advanced on the merits. This was because his self-confidence was too inflated and he was too contemptuous of the Zhongyong Army.
Moreover, the subsequent artillery unit did not fire a single shot, and only engaged in a relatively small-scale gun battle, which was controlled by the Zhongyong Army's heavily armed special forces with advanced weapons and Liu Chengliang's guard division. The French Army
The entire army was wiped out along the way. In this battle, the French army was beaten again.
At that time, the rear baggage team of the French army, because there were its own troops in front, never thought about the possibility of being attacked by a sneak attack. They did not even send out a warning, and just marched towards Hanoi without waiting for Zhongyong.
When the army surrounded them...
They thought that Miller's front troops had all been wiped out, otherwise how could the enemy appear behind them? In addition, the French who resisted at that time were used by the opponent with small steel cannons, grenades, light and heavy machine guns, etc., and they were beaten by the enemy.
Being suppressed by advanced weapons that I had never seen before, I lost the courage to resist.
This situation made Liu Chengliang very angry. Even his comrades were able to engage in large-scale wars. Why was he so unlucky when it was his turn? The French army was too careless and surrendered after only two shots. There were good and bad consequences.
There are thousands of people! Although it is a close combat and artillery is useless, at least you can put up some decent resistance! It is really meaningless to win like this.
He also didn't think about how many lives his army would have to sacrifice to achieve its goal without advanced weapons.
At that time, he wanted to order the shooting of the prisoners, but in the end his reason overcame his impulse and he endured it. He did not want to be punished by the teacher just for the sake of temporary pleasure.
Mi Le also paid a heavy price for his rashness and incomplete intelligence.
Zhou Yu used the trench warfare method from the First World War, which impressed the whole Zhongyong Army and admired Zhou Yu's wisdom even more. At this time, the legend was quietly spreading among the Zhongyong Army that Zhou Yu was the Wenqu star from the sky who descended to earth.
As a result, everyone in the Zhou Yu Group regarded the all-powerful Zhou Yu as the savior of the Chinese nation. They became more united and closer, and their morale was unprecedentedly high.
Moving on to the French fleet, the French Far East Fleet advanced from Hue along the coastline towards Hanoi. In the Gulf of Tonkin, which is the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, it was bombarded head-on by two small torpedo ships. Before the French Far East Fleet commander Guba's message,
When the counterattack order is given, the opponent will quickly escape to the northeast.
In order to prevent the fleet from being attacked again, the fleet commander Guba immediately ordered to shrink the formation and pursue the opponent at full speed.
"Report to Commander, the enemy ship was lured into our mine pocket by Captain Li Yong's torpedo speedboat."
Observing the sentry's report, the corners of Ye Fu's mouth, commander of the Zhongyong Army Navy, turned up slightly. Ye Fu's admiration for Zhou Yu at this time was like the water of the Yangtze River, flowing endlessly. This large minefield was arranged by Zhou Yu
of.
Generally, it is difficult to lay mines in deep water areas, so Zhou Yu adopted the technique of laying anchor mines in later generations. Fortunately, this area is close to the coastline and the water is not too deep, making it easy to implement Zhou Yu's mine laying plan.
Because Zhou Yu did not want to engage in a large-scale frontal naval battle before he had a truly powerful navy. He knew that his navy was still very weak and could not withstand damage.
"Order, Tian Ergou's submarine force releases mines and blocks the pockets.";
"Order the entire naval fleet to proceed at full speed to a distance of five thousand meters from the torpedo encirclement to form an encirclement, requiring the complete annihilation of the enemy fleet."
Following Ye Fu's order, the Zhongyong Army naval fleet, which had been lingering outside the Tokyo Bay mine position, immediately advanced towards the mine position at full speed.
At this time, the commander of the French fleet, Guba, was very scratching his head, so he ordered the pursuit. He didn't know where they ran out, and the two small torpedo ships started 20 minutes later.
Our own warships were damaged. The two small iron-clad gunboats that rushed forward were attacked by unknown underwater bombs. They were blown high out of the water by the bombs. The two gunboats were hit by the powerful explosion wave on the spot.
It exploded into two pieces, and in less than two minutes, the two ships sank, killing all the officers and soldiers on the two ships.
At first he thought he was ambushed by a submarine. After the third gunboat was lost, he discovered that he had been lured into a mine ambush.
When he discovered it and was about to use artillery to break out, he was bombarded by more than a dozen large enemy ironclad ships. Two of the enemy's battleships were large and advanced ships with advanced technology that even France did not have.
The enemy launched a violent artillery bombardment on our own side beyond the effective firing range of our own artillery shells...
This time, the famous Battle of Tokyo Bay, also known as the Tokyo Bay Massacre, resulted in the loyal army annihilating the French Far East Fleet, which ended the battle perfectly.
In this battle, the commander of the French Far East Fleet died alone, and more than a thousand French naval officers and soldiers were killed at the same time.
The rest were all captured. The Zhongyong Army still lost one torpedo ship, with a total of 16 killed, and captured 9 repairable ironclads of over 4,000 tons, and the rest that could not be used were sunk with torpedoes.
Although the French Navy lost this battle, it is still worthy of admiration, because under unfavorable circumstances, all the officers and soldiers of the Navy did not behave as badly as the Army did, surrendering immediately when they saw something wrong, but carried out
Tenacious resistance.
Guba, the commander of the French Far East Fleet, still showed the adaptability and pride that a true naval admiral should have, but what he encountered was Zhou Yu, a perverted being who did not follow common sense.
This naval battle gave the Zhongyong Army a qualitative leap in its naval strength, and also made the whole world aware of the existence of the Zhongyong Army.
Countries in Europe and the United States were crying wolf, and the Qing Dynasty was also frightened, fearing that the loyal and brave army would one day seize their country.
Afterwards, the Chung Yung Army launched more than a hundred large mines weighing 450 kilograms around the ambush circle. After repeatedly confirming that there were no mines in the sea, the Chung Yung Army naval fleet returned triumphantly to the Chung Yong Army zero-hour naval base on the coast of Vietnam.
After the Battle of Tonkin Gulf, the whole country was in an uproar. When the news that the French army in East China was defeated and annihilated reached Paris, France, it led to the collapse of the Juffelli cabinet amidst the scolding and beating.