As the British slowly approached, continuous gunfire rang out from the 1st Division position.
The machine guns used by the 1st Division are the Type 53 light machine guns or Type 53 heavy machine guns purchased by Liu Hai from the current plane.
These two machine guns can be said to be completely obsolete weapons for the modern plane, but for the Qing Dynasty plane, they are completely black technology.
Geely's Gatling gun, after a brief exchange of fire with these two machine guns, was beaten so hard that it couldn't even lift its head.
Then on the battlefield, the sound of the British Gatling gun was soon no longer heard.
And those soldiers who were still rushing forward were in trouble.
First, light and heavy machine guns kept firing at them, and then the Murata 18-year-old single-shot guns used by the servants also started shooting at them.
Not counting this, various types of mortars behind the positions also began to attack the attacking Gili soldiers.
As the shells fell one after another, the soldiers who were still charging forward under the hail of bullets completely collapsed this time.
They no longer cared about military law and discipline, threw away everything in their hands that hindered their escape, and began to rush towards their own position.
But at this time, they showed their backs to the enemy, which was simply asking for death.
The 1st Division would not show any mercy to them. Then, light and heavy machine guns and various single-shot guns fired at the fleeing soldiers indiscriminately.
As a result, of the 3,000 soldiers who launched the attack this time, only 700 to 800 soldiers fled back to their positions.
Nehun Paz didn't even frown when he saw this situation.
It turned out that the lieutenant general had already expected such a result. The purpose of his attack this time was not to occupy the opponent's defensive position. After all, this was very unrealistic.
His purpose this time was to understand the enemy's number and firepower configuration so that he could take the next step.
Sure enough, the enemy killed a large number of our own soldiers this time, and also exposed his specific number of people and firepower equipment.
Nehun Paz is now quite confident about his next attack.
Although it seems that the enemy's firepower is very fierce, judging from the firepower, the number of enemies is not very large, only seven or eight thousand at most.
If there is an attack by the indigenous army, these seven or eight thousand people are enough to withstand 10 times the number of our own.
But the 1st Division faced well-trained soldiers.
Although the Geely people were already at an absolute disadvantage in terms of firepower, their numbers were nearly 8 times that of the 1st Division.
After Nehun Paz understood the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and his own side, he immediately changed his tactics. He did not expect to be able to break through the Japanese defense line from the front.
Now he took advantage of his numerical advantage and began to send two troops of about 10,000 people each to circle back to the rear of the enemy's position on the left and right sides.
On the front, Nehun Paz continued to send small groups of troops and attacked continuously to attract the attention of Yamaji Motoharu and test the loopholes in the enemy's defensive position.
Not to mention this method, you really deceived Shanchi Motoji.
Although Yamachi Motoharu is said to be a lieutenant general, to be honest, he has only fought in a few wars.
Now this lieutenant general's greatest achievement is to defeat the decadent Huai army in the Korean War.
Therefore, this time when he met the elites who had experienced hundreds of battles, he was a little careless and only paid attention to the offensive and defensive battles in front. He did not have much defensive results on his two wings, and was defeated by the enemy's two 10,000 troops.
It breaks with one blow.
In the command post, Yamachi Motoharu became furious after receiving the news that both wings had been defeated by the British.
Yamachi Motoharu also had reason to be angry. Although Yamachi Motoharu did not pay much attention to the defense of the two wings, there were still more than 1,000 people on both wings.
Hello everyone, our official account will find gold and red envelopes every day. You can get it by paying attention. This is the last benefit at the end of the year. Please seize the opportunity. Official account [Book Friends Base Camp]
In addition, the weapons they held were more advanced than the enemy. Unexpectedly, they were defeated by the opponent in just a few hours, leaving their two wings exposed to the enemy's attack.
And this was Nishi Kanjiro, the commander of the 2nd Brigade, who was at the headquarters. Seeing that their division commander was only getting angry in this critical situation, he had already lost his mind, so he hurriedly went up to advise him.
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, the situation is critical now. After the crisis is resolved, those below will be punished without delay. Please give us orders as soon as possible. What should we do next?"
After listening to Nishi Kanjiro's persuasion, Yamachi Motoharu calmed down his anger. He thought about it, both wings had been defeated, and his manpower was relatively short. If he didn't take decisive action, he might be surrounded by the opponent.
evil.
The only solution now is to retreat quickly and re-establish a blocking position behind the position.
After Shanchi Genji figured it out, he immediately asked the communications troops to pass the order, "Let the third regiment serve as the rear guard of the army to buy time for the entire army to retreat. The other troops immediately gathered in, and the British had not tightened the encirclement.
Before that, withdraw from this position."
As Yamachi Genji's order was issued, the 1st Division quickly began to implement it.
The third regiment of the 2nd Brigade, according to the order, deployed another line of defense at the rear of the current position as the starting point for the retreat of the entire unit.
The other troops regrouped here, and with their powerful artillery and ferocious firepower, they quickly broke out of this den of dragons and tigers before the British Army could tighten their pockets.
Although most of the army had withdrawn, the Third Regiment still did not escape the fate of being surrounded.
After withdrawing from the encirclement, Yamachi Motoharu did not go far away immediately. Instead, he set up the main engine position in front of a hill not far away. At the same time, he ordered the artillery regiment that had just withdrawn to the rear to organize the army immediately to prevent the enemy from being still in the encirclement.
The 3rd Regiment in the center provided fire reinforcements.
The third regiment in the encirclement also fought very tenaciously. They relied on their fierce firepower to repel several enemy attacks.
In front of the Third Regiment's position, the expeditionary force abandoned the bodies of nearly a thousand people, but still did not do anything to the Third Regiment.
This is because the artillery of the expeditionary force suffered heavy losses. Otherwise, if the artillery provided fire reinforcements, the third regiment would not be able to withstand the ferocious artillery bombardment even if it had the advantage of light weapons.
During this period, the artillery group led by Yamachi Motoharu finally established artillery positions again.
As soon as the artillery position was established, the commander of the artillery regiment, Mita Murao, immediately ordered the artillery to provide reinforcements to the third regiment in the encirclement.
As these 24 122mm-caliber howitzers roared again, clouds of flames immediately rose near the 3rd Regiment's position.
Several bombardments by the artillery company finally opened a gap in the encirclement.
The Third Regiment was not a fool either. Seeing that the enemy had opened a gap, it immediately retreated from this gap towards the main force.
Although the expeditionary force had been blown into a gap by artillery, they still stubbornly blocked the gap with their rifles and machine guns, hoping to keep all the third regiment in the encirclement.
Therefore, although the Third Regiment fought very tenaciously, its losses were also very heavy. When they retreated to a new position, the number of more than 1,000 troops was reduced to less than 200. It can be said that the entire Third Regiment was crippled.
.
However, as the third regiment returned to its new position, the day's battle was considered over.
Yamachi Genji re-counted the soldiers under his command and found that there were more than 7,000 soldiers under his command, but now there were less than 5,000.
This is because Shanchi Yuanji has the advantage of advanced weapons. Otherwise, none of them would be able to escape the encirclement.
After arriving here, Yamachi Genji realized that he had underestimated the heroes of the world, and now he no longer dared to be domineering with his advanced weapons.
Next, Yamachi Motoharu immediately prepared his position again, adding some mortars and light and heavy machine guns to the two wings.
After Lieutenant General Nehun Paz finished the day's battle, he once again counted the number of people. This count made him grin with pain.
On this day, the British suffered more than 8,000 casualties in total, and the entire army had lost 1/7, which he had never thought of before.
On the second day, Nehun Paz once again gathered his troops and advanced towards Yamachi Motoharu's new position.
Although the newly deployed position by Yamachi Motoharu is more reasonable in terms of defense than before, because it is a hastily established position, it is far less solid than the original carefully constructed position.
Fortunately, Yamachi Motoharu and his team still had the advantage in firepower. With their 24 122mm howitzers, they were able to persist for another day.
In this way, the two sides began a long confrontation 50 kilometers north of Lion City.
Lieutenant General Nehun Paz now believes that defeating the opponent is only a matter of time, so he does not want to pay such heavy casualties as he did a few days ago.
Therefore, in the subsequent attacks, although there were many tricks, they were not as desperate as the previous few days.
As for Shanchi Motoji, as long as he can hold his position and show his presence before Liu Hai comes back, he is already Amitabha, so he has not launched any counterattack.
The two sides faced off like this for several days, but as time went by, the situation changed dramatically.
It turned out that Yamachi Genji discovered that the enemy army began to slowly retreat in the past few days, and began to build a strong fortification outside the Lion City.
Yamachi Motoharu felt puzzled when he saw this. It didn't look like he was taking advantage and preparing to attack. It looked like he wanted to hold on for a long time.
Yamachi Motoharu is also an old fox. When he saw this situation, he knew that the navy might have decided the winner, and the situation was very unfavorable to the enemy.
Then the situation is very obvious. The Nanyang Navy led by his lord Liu Hai must have defeated the expedition fleet and has now returned to the Lion City.