Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 237

The two sides fought fiercely until dusk. The Royal East Indies Landing Forces launched a total of 4 offensives and were repelled. After paying the cost of seven artillery destroyed and more than 270 casualties, they finally destroyed a Miss Australia artillery of the defense force. More than 30 officers and soldiers of the defensive force were killed and wounded.

   hit a hard nail head-on. In the next day’s offensive, the Dutch landing forces changed their strategy. They used their own strong strength to adopt a frontal feint attack and attack on both sides at the same time, focusing on slamming both sides of the defenders of Sandaoliang Village.

  The artillery positions were set up in the forests on both sides, and the enemy positions were bombarded by lobes from a distance, exploding a sea of ​​flames in Sandaoliang Village.

The Eighth Battalion of the Third Regiment was unwilling to show weakness, and fired back with more fierce artillery fire. During the artillery battle between you and me, the attacking troops of the Dutch were covered with artillery fire at critical moments, causing heavy casualties on the other side.

  The fierce battle went on for a whole day, and both sides paid a heavy price, and had to die in the evening, because the sky was covered with dark clouds and heavy rain was coming again.

  On the battlefield

  The original emerald green fields have been scorched and blackened. There are corpses everywhere. The cannonball pits are connected to the cannonball pits. The collection team with the white flag is converging the corpses.

  Sandaoliang Village’s position was also scorched by the bombing. Several stilted houses were burning, billowing black smoke rushing into the sky, and there were broken walls everywhere.

After a day of brutal fighting, the Dutch landing force that attacked with all-out force suffered more than 500 casualties, and the defender also suffered more than 300 casualties. The two companies deployed by the commander Fritz in Sandaoliang Village were basically crippled and counted. Replenish capable militias.

The Eighth Battalion only had one complete company left on the north bank of the stream. In today’s fierce artillery battle, the regiment artillery company destroyed 4 enemy artillery and lost another Miss Australia artillery, leaving only two Miss Australia artillery in hand. The strength is drastically reduced.

  The head of Frieze, whose face was blackened by gunfire, stood behind the defensive breast wall on the north bank of the stream. He looked at all this with dignity, knowing that he could not continue.

  The troop casualties are too high. These soldiers who have only trained for more than 5 months are facing the limit of collapse, their combat effectiveness has dropped to a very dangerous level, and they must be withdrawn as soon as possible to rest.

The seventh battalion and 300 elite militiamen from Erdaoliang Village are entering the camp on the north bank of the stream. The current eighth battalion will retreat. After the supplementary troops have completed their rest, they will establish a new defensive position on the mountain beam to fight the invaders step by step. .

  This will be a tough battle. The Dutch landing troops lost nearly a quarter in just a few days, and they will also have to rest and replenish their troops to fight again.

  Now, the Dutch have established a smooth logistics supply line between Lucky Bay and Sandaoliang Village, which can continuously transport soldiers and ammunition to fight a protracted battle that consumes a lot of money. .

It will be an arduous defensive battle before the three regiments. More than fifty villages under Moresby have been fully mobilized. Thousands of militiamen are building defensive camps on the rear mountain beams, preparing to fight the enemy. Fight manpower, fight time.

At this time, the soldiers who had withdrawn from the front line passed the wooden bridge at the entrance of the village. Fritz took the initiative to greet them and watched the scarred soldiers raise their hands in salute; "Soldiers, you have performed very well. You are proud."

   "Thank you sir."

   "What's your name, Mr. Ensign."

  "Report chief, I am Li Shuanzhu, the first platoon leader of the Seventh Battalion, Second Company, and our platoon lost 29 people in the battle. We can continue to fight less than 10 people alive. Now we have replenished the manpower and were ordered to retreat and rest."

   "Well...Li Shuanzhu, I remember that you are a unit that sticks to the front line. You have always held your position under the enemy's fierce attack and performed very well."

   "Report to the chief that it is a soldier's duty to be loyal to his duties."

"Very well, the deputy company commander of the second company died. As regimental commander, the line of fire now promotes Li Shuanzhu to the second company deputy company commander and continues to serve as the platoon commander. I hope that you will lead the troops to continue fighting bravely and defend the country. Dedicated to their duties."

   "Observe orders, keep in mind the teachings of Master Tuanzuo, and do your duty to protect your family and the country."

   Li Shuanzhu, with a face full of gunpowder, solemnly saluted the military salute. The original tenderness on his face has long since disappeared. Instead, he has transformed into a qualified soldier with the perseverance after the baptism of war.

  Fritz, the head of the regiment, responded with a solemn expression, and used his eyes to signal the team to move forward and not to obstruct the path of the retreating troops.

at this time

  The thunder blasted in the dark cloud-rolling sky, and the ground-to-earth lightning illuminated half of the sky. A downpour fell, turning the sky and the earth into a white and rainy world.

  ……

  Red Fort

"...The black guard is very incompetent as ears and eyes. The enemy hit the door and didn't notice it. He didn't know his eyes and his ears didn't understand. Your performance disappointed me too much. The military responded strongly. Do you have any explanation for this? "

  Li Fushou angrily smashed a volume of report at Dai Yingcai, Dai Yingcai knelt on the ground with a "plop" in fright, and replied with a trembling voice;

"You are guilty of a humble job, please master heavy punishment. The black guard focused on monitoring the southern states, thus ignoring the intelligence collection of Java Island. In addition, the Dutch government's government adopted strict confidentiality measures, which caused the delay of intelligence and was stationed in Batavia. The head of the intelligence station was seriously dereliction of duty, and the humble post has sent someone to enforce the family law on him. Please let me know."

"Huh, what's the point of killing someone?" Li Fushou's anger eased a little, and he sat back on the chair again, and said coldly; "The Moresby Telegraph Office was paralyzed, and the frontline war situation could not be conveyed back. We sat in the back. With a black eye, what is going wrong?"

   "Return to master, we have found out the relevant situation and are about to report to you."

   "Huh, get up and talk." Li Fushou said coldly.

   "Thank you, Lord, for not killing."

  Dai Yingcai got up from the ground in two battles. He had never seen the master so angry and angry. He knew that this time the leak was too big, and there must be a reasonable explanation.

He wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and carefully replied; "After the Moresby Telegraph Office was paralyzed, the humble and sensitive realized that it was caused by the destruction by enemy detectives, and immediately dispatched his subordinates to rush Qing Song to Batavia. After several days of investigation, it has been concluded that the Government of the Dutch East Indies has dispatched a large-scale landing fleet to the port of Moresby.

  There are two points of evidence;

First, the three-masted galleons transported in Batavia Port, Surabaya Port and Semarang Port have been greatly reduced. This situation has been going on for more than half a month, but the head of the Batavia intelligence station did not notice it. It's a sin worthy of death.

  Second, in order to confirm the judgment, Qingsong decisively sent someone to kidnap a Dutch official from the Government House late at night, and got the exact news from him.

The   Seven Province cruiser led 11 warships and escorted a landing ship group of more than two thousand people away for 17 days. The target should be Shangri-La Island. "

  17 days?

Li Fushou was shocked after hearing this, and the situation was right. The Dutch stayed close and attacked Moresby. The time spent on the road plus the initial landing force was combined. The time for the final attack was almost Mohr. The time when the Zby Telegraph Office was destroyed was about 6:20 in the morning.

  The mastery of time is so exquisite, it is impossible to justify without inner oughts.

   thought of here

  An unnamed fire sprung up in Li Fushou's heart, Dai Yingcai keenly felt the anger of the master, and hurriedly explained;

"Lord, please take a break from the road of thunder. Qing Song also discovered an important news when torturing Dutch officials. The Governor's Mansion has received the approval of His Majesty William III to grant a Chinese businessman the baronial title and enjoy the fiefdom. This is East India. A wonder in the archipelago that hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."

   "Oh, what's the specific situation?"

  Dai Yingcai replied; “Qingsong felt that this situation was extremely important, so he followed the vines to investigate and finally discovered this black-handed spy who was hiding in the dark.

This person's name is Sheng Yeyun. He is a local silk tea merchant in Batavia. He has lived in Java for three generations. The family has prosperous branches and leaves. The family has grown to more than a hundred people. He is a local Chinese in Batavia. China is very powerful.

  Because of the urgent time, Qingsong could only carry out a secret arrest again, and pried out important news from his brother's mouth.

  It turns out that from the end of September last year, Sheng Yeyun has been recruited by the Governor's Mansion, and he has traveled to the mainland and Australia to search for relevant intelligence. As for whether he has ever been to Shangri-La Island, this person is not clear.

  In conjunction with the Governor’s Mansion, he obtained the approval of His Majesty William III of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and appointed Sheng Yeyun as a baronial title. Heiyiwei believed that the situation was already clear.

In order to confirm our judgment, we urgently checked the list of tourists going to Shangri-La Island before we came, and discovered a suspicious tea merchant alias Li Futian. The three of them had gone to Shangri-La Island and stayed on the island for 13 days. When they returned There are only two people.

  In other words, they left a hidden stake, which is most likely to be the backstop of the attack on the Moresby Telegraph Bureau.

  Black Guards are urgently sorting out all the personnel who have traveled to Shangri-La Island to screen out enemy agents from them. This work is currently in progress and will soon be in sight.

  Green pine combined with various signs to judge;

   believes that Sheng Yeyun has already found out the context of our Red River Valley forces from the mainland to Australia. They are spies sent by the enemy to Shangri-La Island, and they may further plan actions that are not conducive to us. We call Shangfeng to pay great attention. "

   "Green Pine? Was it the person who planned a series of kidnapping bombings in Cochin Port last time?" Li Fushou asked.

"Yes, sir, Qingsong, formerly known as Dan Zhen, is one of the Jiangnan students who stayed at the European Huitong Bank. He showed high talent in language and espionage work. He was recruited as a special intelligence agent by us. He once cracked the Huitong Bank Paris. For the major corruption case in the branch, I was stationed in India two years ago as the head of the intelligence station. A fairly efficient intelligence network was established in Kolkata. The performance has always been excellent. The efficiency has been amazing in a short time, and I am very optimistic about it." Dai Yingcai replied respectfully.

   "Well, yes, this green pine is really good."

Li Fushou's expression finally eased. Percussion is necessary, but he can't neglect his martial arts. Although the performance of the black guard is sometimes flawed, he is generally effective, so he asked again; "You have always focused on What do you get from the South?"

   "Returning to the master, we found a series of unusual changes in the south recently.

  First of all, we discovered that Southern Victoria recently purchased two batches of munitions, all of which are Schneider-Enfield rifles produced by the Royal Light Weapons Factory in Enfield Town in the northern suburbs of London. The total number is as high as 22,000, and they are equipped with huge ammunition.

This is a later improved single-shot one-step gun. The British began to transform the Enfield M1853 rifle installation kit into a breech loading in 1866. These guns are called Schneider-Enfield rifles and are widely equipped with British army and colonial forces. , And exported to the United States in large quantities.

  In 1868, when the British were doing peace in Ethiopia, the Schneider Enfield rifle became prosperous for the first time.

This was the favorite rifle of the Southern Red Neck and Northern Brajoa during the Civil War. There were hundreds of thousands of people who died under its muzzle. There were slaves from the African uprising, soldiers from the Civil War, Indians and Indians. Russian Teddy Bear.

In the hands of well-trained soldiers, the Schneider-Enfield rifle has a rate of fire of ten rounds per minute, far exceeding the three rounds per minute of the pre-loaded rifle. The firepower is not inferior to the German Mauser 1871 magazine equipped with us. A cavalry gun with a longer range and higher accuracy.

  This is only what we have detected, and how many large arms transactions have not been detected?

  The warships of the British task force in the South Pacific were secretly transporting arms. We had no way to detect and kidnap them. We had no choice but to collect information in the tavern.

Secondly, high-level political figures in New South Wales and Victoria have frequent exchanges. The former Governor Morgan McLaury has been active in Victoria for more than a month. He has secretly met with many white diehards in the upper class. What kind of message is worth conveying? Explore?

Third, the New South Wales government borrowed millions of pounds from several established banks in the UK, and imported a large amount of cotton cloth, cotton yarn, steel wheels, kerosene, bristles, salt, various steel products, etc. Far beyond demand.

Fourth, New South Wales and Victoria have begun to concentrate military training on militia under the pretext of preventing banditry. This phenomenon began at the end of last month. Lord, it has reached tens of thousands of people.

  Signs of the split in the South gradually surfaced. This kind of secret war preparations became more and more obvious, as late as half a year, as early as three to five months, Australia is afraid of major changes, and the humble duty, weeping, urge the master to pay more attention.

  Shangri-La Island is a disease of scabies. Sooner or later, frequent abnormalities in southern Australia will turn into serious confession. If it breaks out, there is a fear of life! "

  (End of this chapter)