Colonel Philippe, who had missed the deadline set by Governor Dume, immediately led a coalition of nearly 4,000 French soldiers and servants, as well as some French expatriates armed out of righteous indignation, and stormed towards the royal city in a fierce manner because they were arriving by train.
Come, and the railway is in the west of the city, so he attacked Hue from the west gate, and the next target of the attack was naturally Zhang Duc Gate to the west of the royal city.
At this time, Chen Hu in the royal city had already made a defensive arrangement. Although the royal city was small in size, it was extremely complete in terms of defense. In addition to the city walls made of rocks, there was also a wide moat. What made him especially happy was that
, this stone castle also has a sizable fort on each of its four gates. Although it is not equipped with modern cannons, there are still a lot of old-fashioned muzzleloaders. Moreover, the Vietnamese guarding the royal city include some brave clan members.
All the members were mobilized to participate in the defense. Now everyone understood that no one could escape when the French attacked. If they persisted for a day and Chinese reinforcements would arrive, they would naturally risk their lives. Forts, old-fashioned muzzle-loading guns, new water-cooled heavy machine guns, and so on.
Coupled with the indirect targeting of large-caliber mortars in the city, they formed an unbreakable line of defense with the solid stone castle.
The main street in front of Zhangdemen is only a few hundred meters long. Their serious lack of experience in street fighting, coupled with their habitual contempt for the Vietnamese, caused the French army to suffer a big loss in the first encounter. These guys were equipped with cannons and heavy weapons on the outer city walls.
Under the cover of machine guns, they charged forward with rifles in their hands along the wide street, unaware that there were countless muzzles and muzzles pointing at them on the opposite side. Until the French forward had entered the fifty-meter firing range, they quickly moved forward.
When he got close to the moat, the guy suddenly turned the muzzle of his gun and shouted: "Fire!"
In an instant, the entire Xiguan Fort was like a volcano erupting. Light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, and old-fashioned muzzleloaders all spurted out flames. They were lining up in a relatively sparse formation, advancing along the empty streets.
The French army seemed to be in a violent storm of steel. More than 500 people were drowned by bullets and artillery shells at this moment. Those poor French soldiers were beaten to pieces before they could even find a place to take shelter. Colonel Philip behind him was beaten with blood and flesh.
He was so dumbfounded that this veteran who had participated in Paris street fighting even trembled involuntarily.
Fortunately, there are buildings on both sides of the street. After the chaos in the first few dozen seconds, the remaining French troops still found a hiding place. But in these few dozen seconds, half of Colonel Philip's battalion was gone, and the entire street was covered with French
The dead bodies and wounded people. The blood dyed the stone pavement red, and the heart-rending screams made the faces of the French boys who had almost forgotten the Paris barricades turn pale. Under the cover of artillery fire, the French began to try to rescue those
The wounded were thrown on the street. Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that behind some well-hidden shooting holes on the city wall, a dozen sniper rifles equipped with scopes were staring at these wounded. A dozen rashly
As soon as the French soldiers who accidentally rushed out of the hiding place approached, they were immediately shot in the head one after another. After several attempts and more than thirty people died, the remaining French soldiers had to give up this effort and watched helplessly.
The compatriots kept screaming, wearing away their courage little by little.
Faced with this situation, Colonel Philip was at a loss. He was just a third-rate commander who came to the colony to retire. His mind was still stuck in the era of street fighting in Paris. There were no machine guns or submachine guns in that era. In that era, soldiers only needed to charge with rifles. Courage and bayonets made the difference.
Victory or defeat, in a situation like this where firepower determines victory or defeat, he would be blinded. Fortunately, he still had a cannon. He was confident that if he could fire for an hour, even the tenacious enemy would have to retreat.
At this moment, he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound coming from above his head.
The two 150-heavy mortars in Chen Hu's hands did not carry too many shells, so the shells would not be wasted until the French artillery position was accurately locked, but now it is completely fine, shooting six shells in three consecutive rounds
As Colonel Philip watched in astonishment, they hit the outer city wall behind him one after another. The huge cannonballs weighing more than 20 kilograms were incredibly powerful. In the explosion of fire, he could even see his cannons lined up along the city walls falling apart in an instant. Three cannons
The pipe flew directly tens of meters and hit a nearby building.
Then more than a dozen artillery shells flew over, and in less than two minutes, the French artillery was completely wiped out.
The poor colonel looked at this scene with sorrow and indignation, and reluctantly gave the order to continue the attack. This time the French army was much smarter. They pushed the Vietnamese servants to the front to serve as cannon fodder, and then clung to the buildings on both sides while hiding and carefully guarding the enemy.
Grind forward.
Chen Hu was not in a hurry. In order to save bullets, he even banned machine guns and submachine guns from firing. He only ordered the soldiers to use rifles to roll names. In addition, with the addition of muzzleloader shotguns, this stuff was still sufficient. No matter how hard the French tried,
It is impossible for them to bypass the moat. The moat is tens of meters wide and the water is deep enough to cover the top. There is only a small bridge a few meters wide on the river, and there is no other passage. In the south of the city is the Meridian Gate, where is the palace.
The main entrance is more tightly defended. Although the north side is similar to here, it is the back garden of the palace. It is an artificial lake similar to Zhongnanhai in Beijing. Only the east and west sides are easy to attack. Even if they go around to the east, the result is the same. This old-fashioned castle defense
In fact, it is very strict. Without large-caliber heavy artillery to kill people, this regiment is far from enough.
Just when the battle started in Hue City, another plan of Governor Dome also failed. The French Far East Fleet heading north from the distant Cam Ranh Bay also failed to complete their mission. Although the French destroyers also had a high speed of more than 30 knots,
But due to performance issues with the transmission system, it can only last for an hour at most. It's a thousand kilometers from Cam Ranh Bay to here. How is it possible to arrive in Da Nang in front of the Chinese fleet that sets sail from about 200 kilometers away?
However, the reinforcements of the 7th Division did not land in Da Nang. It is a French colony and not Vietnamese territory. Forcibly landing there will be regarded as an invasion of France. As for forcibly landing on Vietnamese territory, it does not matter. We are here.
To protect expatriates in Vietnam, where should we land if we don’t land in Vietnam? Four landing ships loaded with an infantry regiment and a 105mm howitzer battalion grabbed the beach at Lang Co Bay, another resort north of Da Nang, and then moved along the railway.
To Hue, the distance is sixty or seventy kilometers. Since there are no trains and no roads, even if there are crawler artillery vehicles, they will not arrive in Hue earlier than tomorrow morning. Before that, Hue city will have to rely on Chen
Tiger himself.
Fortunately, this job is not difficult for Chen Hu.
The French attack on the Royal City once again suffered a disastrous defeat. Their dilly-dallying tactics did work. After losing more than two hundred people, they finally reached the moat. However, without the equipment to cross the river, they could only rush towards the narrow stone bridge.
, and at this time, the machine guns and submachine guns that had been silent for a long time opened fire. The poor French charged bravely and then fell in piles on the bridge. In just one minute, the dead bodies piled up into a terrifying wall of corpses, which even blocked the bridge.
The road to attack from behind. This tragic scene instantly destroyed the will of the servants. These guys who were originally frightened by being traitors were directly tortured by the sense of shame, the resentment of being used as cannon fodder by the French, and the terror of the defenders on the opposite side.
Choosing to collapse, hundreds of people dispersed and disappeared without a trace in an instant.
"A bunch of rubbish, if you give me a brigade at this level, we can hit Saigon!" Chen Hu on the fort looked at the defeated French army in front of him and muttered to himself with contempt. A Vietnamese clan member next to him saw him taking out a cigarette and said,
He quickly struck the match flatteringly.
"Zhang, this is all your fault. Your cowardice is responsible for this failure!" Colonel Philip looked at this scene and angrily yelled at the minister Zhang Rugang who came to help. He didn't seem to see it when the servants rushed out.
When they dispersed, the French troops under his command were also defeated.
Zhang Rugang lowered his head in embarrassment with a look of resentment on his face.
Hearing the news of successive victories outside, Ruan Fuzhao in the city was very proud at this time. When the French artillery was not destroyed, the shells that kept falling in the palace scared him so much that he hid directly in the basement, but with the explosion,
Stopping, the defenders outside firmly blocked the French, and he rushed forward and climbed out of the basement arrogantly, even happily teasing his son who was just born less than two months ago to show his calmness.
Unfortunately, what he didn't know was that he only had this day to live. In the courtyard of JY Company not far from the east gate of the royal city, more than two hundred copycat French soldiers were waiting for dark. After dark, they would be in the city.
With the help of the defenders, they invaded the palace and then purged the Vietnamese clan. As for the future king of Vietnam, it would naturally be the young prince in the arms of Nguyen Phuc Chao. Emperor Yang had decided to adopt this orphan, of course after he turned him into an orphan.