Chapter 556: Lion and Porcupine

The mighty East India & China fleet slowly deployed its formation near the waters near Taikoo Village, with sails covering the sky and dense warships shining brightly under the warm winter sun.

Fifty battleships, frigates and gunboats of various types were closely arranged in a multi-layer array, standing against the wind. They showed off their black, hard, thick and long naval guns on the side to the defenders on the shore.

The British sailors and gunners on the deck, wearing neat naval uniforms and strict military appearance, looked at the enemy positions in front of them like machines, waiting for their commander's order to launch an artillery attack on the enemy positions on the coast.

On the deck of the British flagship battleship HMS Excellence, the fleet commander Seymour stood tall, and his coat blown by the sea breeze was quite heroic against the white flag fluttering in the wind.

Seymour's eyes were as sharp as those of a hawk, staring at the enemy positions ahead, and he calmly and calmly gave his order: "Fire!"

The artillery began to roar, huge sparks and smoke gushed out of the barrel, and each shell whistled towards the fortifications near Taigu Village

The shells hit the positions, and the explosions made by the shells shook the earth. The fierce artillery fire blew up the few hastily built coastal defense turrets and fortresses on the positions, and the smoke and dust were filled, and the flames were splashing.

The broken stone walls fell apart in the explosion, and the wooden chevaux on the coast were as fragile as paper in front of the naval guns. After several rounds of bombardment, these wooden chevaux were instantly reduced to pieces.

After plowing the positions near Taigu Village with naval guns for more than two hours, Seymour ordered to stop the large-scale bombardment, put in the landing troops, and prepare to seize the Taigu Village positions.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the British sailors skillfully manipulated the boats and quickly rowed the famous boats close to the beach.

To the surprise of the officers and soldiers of the British landing force, their landing was not blocked by any firepower, and everything went very smoothly.

Soon, the British officers and soldiers jumped onto the land, and the Indian soldiers of Madras quickly lined up and deployed their formations under the urging of the British non-commissioned officers.

There is no harm without comparison. The colonial soldiers are a mob after all. While the British army was still lining up, the three companies of the French army of Little Montoban had already lined up and were waiting for this group of friendly forces.

Little Montoban raised his head proudly and looked at Spence with some disdain.

The soldiers of the machine gun regiment nestling in the cat ear cave heard the artillery fire gradually stop, and quickly lifted the Thunder M60 machine gun out of the bunker and set it up, ready to harvest the invading enemy at any time.

Soon, the British military musicians played the Grenadiers March, and the Indian soldiers of Madras, under the command of the British native sergeants, stepped on the drums and approached the extremely scattered positions of the Qing army on the shore step by step.

When they were about 200 yards (183m) away from the Qing army's position, the British and French soldiers in the front row could clearly see that these Qing soldiers were still fiddling with a weapon similar to a small field cannon.

Almost every Qing army position had this strange small field cannon, and the enemy seemed to want to rely on this small field cannon to repel their attack instead of using guns.

The enemy's strange behavior made the experienced British and French sergeants feel incredible and confused.

Fighting with cannons at this distance?

Marching to 150 yards, 100 yards.

The enemy still had no intention of counterattacking, but just supported the small field cannon in front of them.

Spence and Little Meng Toban had both participated in the attack on Guangzhou City. They were well-informed and were not surprised by the strange actions of the Qing army, such as using feces, urine, animal blood, and women's menstrual blood as weapons.

Compared with the Qing army in Guangzhou City, these enemies at least fought with weapons, which was considered a normal army.

"Stop!"

When they were only more than 60 yards away from the enemy's front position, Spence ordered to stop and prepare to charge with volley guns.

The soldiers of the machine gun regiment on the position stared at the enemy who was getting closer and closer to them. The main shooter's trembling hands were placed on the cold hand crank, the ammunition hand held the magazine, and the deputy shooter curled up in the bunker, ready to replace the main shooter at any time.

Only veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time can hold on to the position without collapsing at such a close distance from the enemy.

If it were an ordinary army, they would have been unable to hold their fire long ago.

The troops at the next point might have collapsed and fled in all directions when the British warships bombarded the position.

"Fire!"

Accompanied by the commander's whistle, the machine guns on the position began to roar, and bullets were fired like a storm.

The British and French soldiers who were about to raise their hands to fire volleys were unprepared. Bullets tore through the chests of the front-row soldiers, and their bodies were like punctured blood bags, and blood was pouring out.

At this moment, whether it was the Indian soldiers in Madras, or the non-commissioned officers and French soldiers in the UK, they were all stunned.

What the enemy was playing with was not a small field artillery at all, but a gun!

A gun that they had never seen before, which could fire automatically and continuously!

The other side had less than a regiment of troops, but relying on this strange gun, they had a firepower that a brigade might not be able to fire!

The Thunder M60 machine gun, which made its debut in actual combat, poured firepower and metal bullets at the densely lined British and French coalition forces.

Bullets fell on the heads of the British and French forces like a rain of iron.

The British and French soldiers who were caught off guard fell down in large numbers before they could even fire a single shot, just like wheat harvested by a sickle in autumn.

Screams, wails, and desperate shouts resounded through the sky. The British and French soldiers tried to find cover to avoid the oncoming metal storm.

But the firepower of the Thunder machine gun was as fast as lightning, and no matter how agile they were, they could not be faster than the incoming bullets.

One after another, the bullets of the infinite weapons easily tore their limbs, blew up their heads, and sprayed their bright red internal organs and blood on this cold coast. The battlefield soon turned into a chaotic slaughterhouse, with piles of corpses piled up like mountains.

Under high-intensity shooting, the faces of the shooters who turned the crank gradually became distorted and crazy.

At this moment, they only had eyes for killing the enemy! Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy crazily! This feeling of killing has made them addicted.

They continued to turn the crank, bullets kept spraying from the muzzle, and blood and minced meat were splashing in front of them.

The only thing that could stop their killing was the overheating of the barrel and mechanical failure.

The assistant gunner on the side saw this and hurriedly picked up the bucket that had been prepared long ago and poured cold water on the boiling and smoking barrel.

In just a few minutes, the firepower on the position gradually weakened.

The early machine guns had high mechanical failure rates and the shortcomings of easy overheating of the barrel were undoubtedly exposed.

The machine gun team with mechanical failure could only push out the spare machine gun to continue shooting, and the machine gun team with overheated barrel could only be forced to reduce the firing rate of the machine gun.

The gunfire on the position gradually became sparse.

Fortunately, the attacking British and French coalition forces were almost killed and wounded at this time, leaving only dozens of remnants who had already been frightened and fled in panic.

The machine gunners turned the hand crank slowly and mercilessly, shooting these remnants one by one.

The battle was over, the battlefield was filled with the smell of blood, and countless soldiers' bodies were scattered on the ground.

In less than five minutes, more than 1,400 British and French soldiers who attacked were lying neatly in front of them.

Wars in the industrial age are so efficient and ruthless in harvesting lives.

At this time, the machine gunners who came back to their senses and recovered stared blankly at the purgatory-like scene in front of them, and some couldn't believe it: Is this really their masterpiece?

It was also incredible that the British and French officers and soldiers watching the battle on the Taigu coast.

In less than 5 minutes, a regiment and three companies were gone, and there were few survivors.

This scene can no longer be described as cruel and efficient.

French Army Lieutenant General Mentoban rarely lost his composure and beat the railing and cried.

His son, Little Mentoban, was unable to come back, and three companies of French Army soldiers died so cowardly on this foreign beach.

Since the beginning of the war, including this battle, the French army has suffered nearly half of its casualties, and they have only achieved the result of taking Guangzhou City.

Originally, he only wanted to follow the British to the Far East to fry fish, but he did not expect that the French army and even he himself would pay such a heavy price.

In another time and space, at Baliqiao, Meng Toban won a great victory in the Battle of Baliqiao with the British army at the small cost of 3 French deaths and 18 injuries.

Meng Toban himself was therefore named "Count of Baliqiao" by Napoleon III and became a senator as he wished.

When Napoleon III proposed to give him an annual pension of 50,000 francs as a reward in recognition of his achievements, he was opposed by most parliamentarians.

The parliamentarians believed that the battle at Baliqiao was just a laughable battle, and said, "During the entire trade war with China, only twelve of our people were killed." This kind of battle without gold content is not worthy of such a high reward!

Since then, the French have also ridiculed Meng Toban as "Count of Baliqiao".

In this time and space, Meng Toban will no longer have such troubles.

Seymour and Grant, the two commanders of the British navy and army, were also very distressed.

But they were distressed for the nearly 100 British officers who died on the coast, not the Madras Indian soldiers who had the highest death toll.

What India lacked the least was people. The lives of these Indian soldiers were not valuable in their eyes, or in other words, they were not really people at all.

Although the British army suffered heavy casualties, this loss was still bearable for them, just as if a company of British soldiers had been killed.

"This Hong Kong Island is a porcupine with thorns." Elgin, who witnessed the tragic scene of the Taikoo coast, sighed.

"I wonder if you have ever seen a porcupine on the African savannah?"

"Yes, I have not only seen porcupines in South Africa, but also lions hunting porcupines." Seymour said.

"Did the lion finally hunt the porcupine?" Grant asked.

"Yes, the lion succeeded in killing the porcupine, but the thorns on the porcupine pierced his mouth, causing blood and pain." Seymour said thoughtfully.

"That stupid lion was stabbed all over for a porcupine with little meat. If I were that lion, I would rather hunt fat and delicious African buffalo with the lion group."