1850 American Gold Tycoon

The mighty East India \u0026 China fleet slowly unfolded its formation near the sea near Taikoo Village. The sails covering the sky and the densely packed warships shone under the warm winter sun. {What? You don’t know yet|Read COM, read the chapters without mistakes|Hurry up and Google them}

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

The British sailors and gunners on the deck, dressed in neat navy uniforms and with neat military appearance, looked at the enemy positions in front of them like machines. They only waited for their commander's order to launch artillery bombardment at the enemy positions on the coast.

On the deck of the British flagship HMS Excellence, Fleet Commander Seymour stood tall and tall, wearing a coat blown by the sea breeze. He looked quite heroic against the white flag fluttering in the wind.

Seymour's eyes were as sharp as a hawk, staring at the enemy position in front, and calmly and calmly gave his order: "Fire!"

The artillery began to roar, huge sparks and smoke spurted out from the mouth of the barrel, and each shell roared towards the fortifications near Taikoo Village.

The artillery shells hit the position, and the explosions made by the shells were earth-shaking. The fierce artillery fire blew up the few hastily built coastal defense batteries and fortresses on the position, causing smoke and dust to spread everywhere.

The broken stone walls fell apart in the explosion, and the wooden horses on the coast were as fragile as paper in front of the naval guns. After several rounds of shelling, these wooden horses suddenly turned into dust.

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

Under the cover of artillery fire, the British sailors skillfully maneuvered the ship and quickly rowed the famous dinghy close to the beach.

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

Soon, the British officers and soldiers jumped onto the land, and the Indian soldiers in Madras quickly lined up in formation at the urging of the British non-commissioned officers.

There is no harm without comparison. The native soldiers in the colonies are a bunch of rabble after all. While the British troops were still lining up, the three French companies of Montaigne had already lined up, waiting for this group of friendly troops.

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

When the soldiers of the Machine Gun Regiment nestled in the Maoer Cave heard the sound of artillery gradually stopping, they quickly took out the Thunder M60 machine gun from the bunker and set it up, always ready to harvest the invading enemy.

Not long after, the British military musicians played the Grenadier March, and the Indian soldiers in Madras, under the command of the British local non-commissioned officers, stepped on the drums and approached the extremely dispersed positions of the Qing troops on the shore step by step.

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

Almost every Qing army position had this strange small field gun. The opponent seemed to want to rely on this small field gun to repel their attack instead of using guns.

The enemy's strange behavior made the British and French non-commissioned officers who had experienced many battles feel strange and somewhat confused.

Fighting with artillery at this distance?

Travel to 150 yards, 100 yards.

The opponent still had no intention of counterattack, and was just holding on to the small field gun in front of them.

Both Spence and Little Mentoban had participated in the attack on Guangzhou City. They were well-informed and were accustomed to the various strange behaviors of the Qing army, such as using feces and urine, animal blood, and women's menstrual blood as weapons. .

Compared with the Qing troops in Guangzhou City, these enemies at least fought with weapons-like things, and they were considered normal armies.

"stop!"

When he was only more than 60 yards away from the opponent's forward position, Spence ordered to stop and prepared for a volley charge.

On the position, the soldiers of the machine gun regiment stared closely at the enemy troops who were getting closer and closer to them. The main shooter's somewhat trembling hand rested on the cold hand crank, the ammunition hand held the magazine, and the deputy shooter huddled in the bunker, ready to go at any time. Prepare to take over the position of the main shooter.

Being so close to the enemy and still holding on to the position without collapse is a psychological quality that only veterans who have been on the battlefield can achieve.

If it were an ordinary army, they would have been furious.

The remaining troops may have collapsed and fled in all directions when the British warships bombarded the site.

"Fire!"

Following the commander's whistle, the machine guns on the position began to roar, and bullets shot out like a violent storm.

The British and French soldiers who were raising their hands to fire volleyball were unprepared. Bullets tore the chests of the soldiers in the front row. Their bodies were like punctured blood bags, and blood poured out.

At this moment, whether it was the Indian soldiers in Madras, the British non-commissioned officers and the French army, they were all stunned to the spot.

What the enemy is playing with is not a small field cannon at all, but a gun!

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

The opponent clearly only had less than a regiment of troops, but relying on this weird gun, it was able to unleash a firepower that even a brigade might not be able to unleash!

For the first time, the Thunder M60 machine gun participating in actual combat slanted its firepower and sprayed metal bullets at the densely lined British and French coalition forces.

The bullets fell like an iron rain on the heads of the British and French troops.

The British and French soldiers who were caught off guard had not had time to fire a shot. They fell in pieces like wheat harvested by scythes in autumn.

Screams, wails, and desperate cries echoed through the sky. The soldiers of the British and French coalition tried to find bunkers to avoid the oncoming metal storm that covered their heads and faces.

But the firepower of the Thunderbolt machine gun is as fast as lightning. No matter how agile their movements are, they can't catch the incoming bullets.

One after another, bullets from infinite weapons easily tore apart their limbs, exploded their heads, and sprayed their bright red internal blood on the icy coast. The battlefield soon turned into a chaotic slaughterhouse, with bodies piled up in mountains.

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

At this moment, all they have in mind is killing the enemy! Kill the enemy! Kill enemies like crazy! This feeling of killing has become addictive to them.

They continued to turn the crank, the bullets from the muzzle continued to spray, and their eyes were filled with blood and broken flesh.

The only thing that can stop their killing spree is barrel overheating and mechanical failure.

Seeing this, the deputy shooter on the side quickly picked up the bucket that had been prepared and poured the cold water on the hot and smoking barrel.

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

Early machine guns suffered from high mechanical failures and the shortcomings of the barrel being easily overheated were undoubtedly exposed.

A machine gun team with a mechanical failure can only push out the spare machine gun to continue shooting. A machine gun team with an overheated barrel can only be forced to reduce the rate of fire of the machine gun.

The gunfire on the position gradually became sparse.

Fortunately, the attacking British and French coalition forces at this time had almost all their casualties, leaving only dozens of remnant soldiers who had been frightened out of their wits and fled in embarrassment.

The machine gunners turned the hand crank slowly and without mercy, shooting the remaining soldiers one by one.

At the end of the battle, the battlefield was filled with the smell of blood, and the bodies of countless soldiers were scattered on the ground.

In less than five minutes, more than 1,400 attacking British and French soldiers lay neatly in front of them.

War in the industrial age is so efficient and ruthless in harvesting lives.

At this time, the machine gunners who had regained their composure stared blankly at the purgatory-like scene in front of them, somewhat unbelievable: Is this really their own masterpiece?

Equally incredible were the British and French officers and soldiers watching the battle on the Pacific Coast.

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

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

French Army Lieutenant General Montauban made a rare loss of composure and beat the fence and cried bitterly.

His son, little Montauban, also failed to come back, and three companies of French Army soldiers died cowardly on this foreign beach.

Since the beginning of the war, including this battle, the number of casualties of the French army has been nearly half. They have only achieved the victory of taking the city of Guangzhou.

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

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

Montauban 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 annuity of 50,000 francs as a reward in recognition of his merits, he was opposed by the majority of parliamentarians.

The congressmen believed that the battle at Baliqiao was just a laughable battle, and said that "during the entire trade war with China, only twelve of our people were killed." This kind of worthless battle was not worth it. Give him such a high reward again!

After that, the French also ridiculed Montauban as the "Count of Baliqiao".

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

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

But what they felt distressed was the nearly a hundred British officers who died on the coast, not the Madras Indian soldiers who died the most.

The most indispensable thing in India is people. The lives of these Indian soldiers are not valuable in their eyes, or in other words, they are not really human beings at all.

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

"This Hong Kong Island is just a porcupine with thorns." Elgin, who witnessed the tragic situation on the ancient coast with his own eyes, sighed.

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

"I've seen it. Not only have I seen porcupines in South Africa, but I've also seen lions hunting porcupines," Seymour said.

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

"Yes, the lion successfully killed the porcupine, but his mouth was also pricked with blood by the thorns like thorns on the porcupine, and the pain was unbearable," Seymour said thoughtfully.

"That stupid lion was stabbed all over for a meatless porcupine. If I were that lion, I would rather hunt the fat and delicious African buffalo with the pride of lions."