1890 King of Southeast Asia

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"Artillery shells are coming!"

"Dodge! Dodge!"

"Get into combat positions, those bastards are coming, show them some strength!"

"Mom..."

"Ah! My legs, my legs..."

This is the second day of the battle, Chloe never imagined that one day, he would suffer such a disastrous defeat.

In addition to the artillery that defeated him at the beginning, the enemy destroyed 60% of his artillery, 50% of his ammunition, and 70% of his artillery.

There are still artillery and ammunition, and even because of the damage, each artillery can get more artillery shells.

But it's useless, he no longer has enough artillery to operate the artillery.

Among the artillery that survived the bombardment and can continue to fight, only a few can overcome their fear, carry out effective bombardment, and cooperate with the infantry for defense or cover.

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If it was just the loss of artillery, Chloe would be very angry and a little panicked, but he would not feel that he had completely failed.

Because infantry tactics were popular in the world at that time, whether it was Britain, France, Russia or Germany, they all highly respected bayonet charge tactics.

At this time, machine guns had not received enough attention, and the corresponding machine gun tactics did not appear.

Of course, it was not that they had not been discovered, but that they were not taken seriously enough. All countries had research on machine guns, but they had not formed a mainstream.

The mainstream was still the infantry cluster charge with rifles and bayonets, so all European countries had a fear of Tsarist Russia.

Because this tactic was about who had more soldiers and who had more soldiers.

The Slavs grew up in a harsh environment, had a barbaric fighting tradition, were numerous, and had no shortage of courageous soldiers. They were called steam rollers.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the mid-to-late 19th century, the whole of Europe was trembling under the deterrence of the Russian Empire.

But the times are constantly progressing after all, and technology is constantly progressing with the times, from Gatling machine guns to Maxim heavy machine guns, from Napoleon bronze cannons to Krupp steel cannons, and then to Schneider M1897.

The improvement of lethal weapons for clustered infantry has never stopped. During the South-Japan War, Nanhua used a few machine guns and barbed wire to form an encirclement, allowing the Japanese army to rot in the tropical jungles of Borneo.

During the Russo-Japanese War, a small number of heavy machine guns in important strongholds of the Russian Empire caused huge casualties to the Japanese army using pig-rush tactics.

However, the inertia of the times is also huge. The larger the size, the harder it is to change.

At this time, Chloe deeply realized this.

"Sir, our ammunition is running out, please resupply as soon as possible. Also, we need artillery support. There are too many enemies, all over the mountains and plains, and we can't kill them all with rifles."

Just as Chloe was in a trance, a major with a dirty gauze wrapped around his head ran into the command post.

"Tim, calm down, our artillery has been attacked, and the remaining shells are very precious and need to be used at critical moments." Chloe responded skillfully.

Since the Chinese launched the attack early this morning, he didn't know how many times he had received messages requesting artillery support.

He was not stopping the artillery support, but their remaining artillery had not been reorganized yet, and it was impossible to organize a large-scale artillery bombardment at this time.

Sporadic artillery bombardment? That can only scare people, not achieve much results, and will also attract retaliatory shooting from the enemy artillery.

He needs to hold on for seven days, and the remaining artillery will be used at critical moments.

"Sir, I need bullets, a lot of bullets, and my troops have suffered heavy casualties and need time to rest." Tim knew that he could not get artillery support. So many people did not get it before, so it was unreasonable for him to get it.

"Take this order, you can go and get 30,000 bullets, and you must hold on until tomorrow noon!" Chloe didn't waste words this time and took out the note directly.

"Not enough, 30,000 bullets are not enough, I need 60,000 or even more, sir, you don't know, the enemy seems to have no end, I even doubt that our bullets are not as many as theirs." Tim said excitedly.

"30,000 bullets are not enough? Tim, 30,000 bullets are enough for you to fight for a whole day!" Chloe looked at Tim in surprise, wanting to hear his explanation.

Thirty thousand bullets, in World War I, was only the amount of ammunition carried by 200 British soldiers.

(British infantrymen carried 150 rounds of 303 caliber ammunition each in World War I. The British Indian Army would certainly have less, after all, Indians are not human.)

Two hundred soldiers, the number is only a little more than a company, and Tim is a regiment commander with 800 men under him.

(A small regiment, with the strength of a reinforced battalion, had a lot of such formations in Britain before World War I.)

Wrong, now there are only 650 or 600 people.

"Sir, the number of enemies seems to be endless, and they rush towards us in groups."

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"In order to stop the enemy, I can only organize soldiers to rotate shooting, but this will be retaliated by the enemy artillery."

"In this case, I can't force the soldiers to stand on the breastwork and wait for the enemy's artillery like a target, otherwise the soldiers will kill me before they die. I can only fire blindly."

"This can effectively suppress the enemy's attack, but it consumes a lot of bullets."

Tim's face was full of embarrassment, and his voice was full of sadness, which made people sad.

To be honest, Tim is really amazing for being able to make such a vivid expression while being covered in dust and half of his forehead is covered.

"I can give you a maximum of 50,000 bullets. I want you to hold on until 6 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. After that, the Northamptonshire Regiment will take over you."

Chloe's face softened a little and comforted him.

"Sir, I'm not sure..." Tim wanted to try to see if he could get the supplies without adding more tasks.

"Follow the order, Major!" Chloe interrupted Tim.

"Yes! Sir!" Tim kicked his right foot, saluted, and ran away with the supply approval slip.

If he didn't run, he would be in trouble.

"Quartermaster, look, how much supplies do we have left, and every bullet must be counted clearly." Chloe said in a muffled voice after Tim left.

"Yes!"

…………

On the side of the Plateau Border Defense Army, the rear artillery position.

"The British are not even as good as clay Buddhas. They are almost unable to hold on at the beginning of the fight. They are not even as good as the monks' army." Xu Fugui said arrogantly with a telescope in his hand.

"Whether it is firepower or manpower, we suppress the British in all directions. In addition, we have also destroyed their artillery. It would be strange if we don't have an advantage."

Tang Zezu sat aside, leaning against a few empty ammunition boxes, chewing beef jerky leisurely.

"But even so, the front line is still very miserable. Fortunately, it is the Seventh Division that went up. If we took our old brothers up, the casualties would not be just more than 200."

"You are talking about the British volleys. We can only charge in silence. If we go up, I don't know how many brothers will die." Xu Fugui looked at a British outer position.

Dozens of Chinese walked around the British positions, squatting or lying, shooting at the British from cover.

From time to time, one or more people would suddenly get up and rush forward frantically for a distance. Because of the short time, the British could not react.

However, as the distance got closer, the British shot easier and more accurate, and such an attack became more and more difficult.

Xu Fugui thought about his old brothers. If you asked them to say anything about military tactics, they might not be able to say anything except the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

But the problem is that the Thirty-Six Stratagems are grand strategies, not specific tactics. He will not tell you how to charge, whether the next step is to rush to the small stone eight meters in front of the left, or to hide in the big pit twelve meters in front of the right.

"Have you seen enough? If you have seen enough, return the telescope to me. This is mine. If you want to find it yourself." Tang Zezu, who was sitting next to him, saw Xu Fugui not putting down the telescope for a long time, and pretended to be angry and said.

Tang Zezu dared to bet that if he didn't do this, tomorrow, this British-made monocular telescope would change its name.

In fact, he has a telescope, which is also a single-tube and imported.

But that was issued by the upper level. You have it, and others have it too.

And this telescope is a trophy, captured on the battlefield. You have it, but it doesn't mean that others have it too.

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In the army, it is often that you don't obey me, I don't obey you, the weak obey the strong, who is the strong, you can tell by looking at the military merit.

War trophies, in some sense, are the embodiment of military merit.

For officers of the level of Tang Zezu, an imported telescope is not expensive, but a telescope captured by hand is rare.

"Hehe, isn't it clearer with your telescope? Don't worry, I just borrow it, borrow it." Xu Fugui reluctantly put down the telescope.

"Don't be funny... What happened in that direction?" Tang Zezu was about to scold him, and suddenly found that there was something wrong with the position in front of the right.

Hearing this, Xu Fugui immediately raised the telescope and began to observe.

"The infantry rushed up! Follow up! What are the soldiers behind doing? Take this opportunity to rush up! What are you waiting for?!!" Xu Fugui held the telescope and was anxious alone.

Tang Zezu suppressed his trembling fists, took out another telescope of his own, and observed the position.

In the front right, a fierce battle broke out. He could even clearly see that more than a dozen Chinese soldiers were holding bayonets and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the British.

The Chinese soldiers were few in number, but their morale was extremely high. For a while, they actually held out.

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This was a very good opportunity. If the soldiers around seized the opportunity to charge forward, this position would basically be taken.

But it didn't happen. I don't know what happened. The reaction of the Chinese soldiers around was a beat slower. When they stood up, they were bombarded by the British army who reacted.

"Bombardment! Observer! Where is the observer?!" After observing the explosion, Tang Zezu shouted loudly.

"Right front, direction 14, distance 3700, altitude angle 3..." The observer didn't know what he was doing, but Xu Fugui discovered the smoke produced by the bombardment at the first time.

"Follow this direction, counterattack immediately! Quick!" Tang Zezu shouted to the messenger.

"Yes!"

The two artillery groups around them got the news at the first time, and the general direction was similar, so there was no need to make too much movement to adjust.

In less than two minutes, the two artillery groups around conducted their first test firing.

Boom! Boom!

A black shadow flew out of the muzzle with a loud noise.

About twenty seconds later, two columns of smoke rose above the British position.

"Add two to the height, keep the azimuth unchanged, fire five rounds at high speed, move position, and fire!" Xu Fugui's eyes never left the telescope.

In order to guide the artillery more conveniently, Xu Fugui simply took over the command, and the Tang Ze clan acquiesced to this operation.

Boom boom boom...

Within dozens of seconds, ten shells flew towards the British artillery one after another.

Xu Fugui did not find the secondary explosion, which means that there was no direct hit.

But ten shells have covered the place where the smoke came out, and ten shells exploded around it. Even if the cannon was not damaged, there would be few artillerymen left.

In this way, Xu Fugui was very satisfied. After all, if you can't directly observe the enemy, it's good to be able to use covering firepower to attack in a short time. Direct hits and secondary explosions are probabilistic problems.

"Haha! This cannon is finished, commander, you have to ask for credit for me!" Xu Fugui said happily to the Tang Ze clan.

"It's yours and you can't run away." The Tang Ze clan pouted, snatched the telescope in his hand, and gave it to him.

"Captain, since ancient times, meritorious service must be rewarded, and faults must be punished. You can't just punish without rewarding!" Xu Fugui protected the telescope like a dog protecting food.

"Look, I destroyed a British cannon, and I don't ask for much reward. You give me this telescope as a reward. Don't you have another one?" Xu Fugui said with a lick on his face.

"Get out! It's cool on the mountain. I'll go on patrol with the cavalry when I'm free." Tang Zezu snatched the telescope back without hesitation, opened it leisurely, and observed the battlefield.

"..." Tang Zezu fell silent as soon as he opened the telescope.

"What's wrong, commander? What did you see? Hey! Let me see..."

"Report! The headquarters ordered to carry out focused artillery fire on the densely populated areas of the British positions!" The messenger hurried over.

"Is that all? Is there anything else to say?" Tang Zezu took the telegram and looked at it.

"No."

"Go down, I know." Tang Zezu tightened his grip on the telegram.

"Xu Fugui!" Tang Zezu shouted.

"Yes!" Xu Fugui stood at attention with a serious look.

"Your battalion, with artillery groups as units, should continuously suppress the British and not waste too much artillery shells." Tang Zezu said.

This task is somewhat contradictory. The suppression force needs to be guaranteed by quantity, and artillery shells cannot be wasted too much, which is a bit embarrassing.

"Yes!" Xu Fugui stood at attention with a snap.

...

On the British side, the messenger ran to Tim's front-line command post panting.

"Major Tim, the brigadier general wants you to come over." When the messenger saw Tim, he took a breath, saluted, and then said slowly, in a proper British style.

"I understand, I'll deal with it and go now." Tim sighed and nodded.

Just now, a dozen Chinese suddenly rushed up to the position in charge of his regiment and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them. The position was almost broken by the Chinese.

Fortunately, the artillery on his side finally stopped pretending to be dead and carried out a blocking fire on the enemy's follow-up forces.

It was during this short period of time that Tim organized his army to annihilate all the Chinese soldiers who rushed to the position.

A total of 14 enemies were killed, but at the cost of 22 deaths and more than 50 injuries.

You know, they are the defenders, with the advantage of terrain. If they fight like this, what will happen in the field?

"I dare not think about it, the British Empire is invincible." Tim shook his head and threw away the distracting thoughts.

"Sir! Are you looking for me?" Tim walked into Chloe's headquarters with his head held high.

As an experienced officer, he knew that he could hold the position entirely because of the artillery, and he also knew what the explosion behind him was.

"Tim! What did you promise me when you left the headquarters just an hour ago?" Chloe stared at Tim with a stinky face.

Tim was speechless.

"You said you could hold on until six o'clock tomorrow afternoon, but what about the reality? Ten minutes ago, if the artillery had not decisively opened fire, your position would have been lost."

"You are simply smearing the British Empire and a shame to the entire British Indian Army. From now on, you will not get any artillery support."

Chloe roared at Tim angrily.

"Sir, the enemy's attack is very fierce, and the front line we need to defend is too long..." Tim was eager to explain.

"No need to explain, thanks to your regiment's record, not only you, but the entire division will not have reliable artillery support for a period of time." Chloe interrupted him without hesitation.

He finally finished the fight, reorganized three artillery groups, gathered enough personnel, and prepared to use them at the critical moment.

I didn't expect this critical moment to come so soon.

A blocking shot requires at least a dozen shells. If it is a rapid-fire gun equipped with a hydraulic recoil mechanism, it only takes tens of seconds to complete.

But if it is replaced with a recoil gun, this time will be increased to several minutes.

The Chinese artillerymen, who had been keeping an eye on the British artillerymen, seized this opportunity and launched a counterattack against them.

The three artillery groups that had been assembled with great difficulty had no guns, and the remaining people could only operate two cannons with difficulty.

This meant that his firepower had been reduced by another third.

Woo woo woo~~

Boom...boom...

Just then, explosions and the sound of shells breaking through the air came one after another.

"Damn! How many shells did their logistics consume? Did the Chinese lay the rails on the plateau?" Chloe observed briefly and found that the fulcrum areas he had arranged were all bombarded.

The scale of this bombardment was extremely large. Chloe, who had been in the army for many years, had never seen such a large-scale army bombardment - the explosions were continuous and almost unheard of.

"The enemy may have concentrated hundreds of artillery pieces, otherwise there would not be such firepower. In addition, it is impossible to lay railways on the plateau, even the best engineers in the empire cannot do it."

"If it were possible to lay railroad tracks, the empire would have conquered the plateau long ago and followed the plateau into the heart of China."

Tim shook his head aside. At this point, he would not panic.

For a bombardment of this scale, what difference does it make whether there is artillery support or not?

"Then who can explain where they get so many artillery and shells? You know, their supply lines are longer than ours!" Chloe looked at the explosions one after another frantically.

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Under the fierce explosion, many British and Indian soldiers began to run around in panic, especially some soldiers with black bodies.

"These cowards! Sure enough, the Indians didn't let them touch the weapons, and there was a reason." Chloe gritted her teeth.

"Brigadier, the enemy is advancing quickly." The scout ran in with a dusty face.

"The bombardment has not ended yet, and the enemy won't come up so quickly." Chloe's face was gloomy.

"Order the Northamptonshire Regiment to be ready, and replace them after the bombardment is over and take over the defense."

The Northamptonshire Regiment is a slightly larger regiment. As the name suggests, it is a British regiment. Most of the soldiers are British or white people from Australia and Canada, and their combat effectiveness is good.

It is Chloe's trump card and his reserve.

On the first day of the war, the artillery was destroyed. On the second day, the reserve was used. Chloe began to doubt whether he could really hold on for seven days...