Colonel Vasone was gloriously killed. As he said in the letter he wrote to his wife before his expedition, I will shed the last drop of blood for the French Empire.≧ He was concentrated on his forehead by a stray bullet and unfortunately fell next to a dilapidated stable in Hexiwu Town. His orderly soldier Cliffor was dutifully guarding him. It was not until dawn that the Taiping Army completely occupied Hexiwu Town and captured Cliffor.

A regiment of Taiping soldiers and more than 1,000 Taiping troops from the Dalian Bay Special Marine Corps participated in the raid on Hexi Wu Town. The careful lurking raid plan and the strict discipline of the Taiping army's elite troops made the raid perfect.

The two British gunboats, together with most of the members above, were captured by the Taiping Army. As Lieutenant Bernard guessed, the Taiping Marines dived underwater and approached the gunboat and sneaked into the two gunboats. The Taiping Marines breathed on the straw and approached underwater, and then killed the posts and guard soldiers on the gunboat, while the rest of the British naval crew were forced to be captured.

Then the three infantry battalions of the Taiping Army raided Hexi Wu Town on three sides according to the plan. Although Colonel Vasone's Second Marine Battalion was elite, the number of enemies was too large. In the end, the brave and warlike marine battalion of the French army was completely wiped out, killing more than 200 people, and injured or captured.

The Taiping Army suffered a lot of losses, with more than 400 casualties and two company commanders who attacked the enemy were killed. Moreover, this was the result of the Taiping Army's sudden raid, which shows the elite of the French Marine Corps.

After the war, the soldiers of the Taiping Army evaluated the French Marine Corps and believed that this elite French force was very difficult to fight. Even if they were alone, they would quickly use the terrain to cover themselves and try their best to fight back. Then they did a perfect job of covering each other, cooperation and support, and tactical actions and cooperation between the teams were also very tacit. They were a difficult force.

The captured Lieutenant Bernard returned to the country after the war and wrote his memoirs: "That night, we encountered a terrible force. A regiment of troops quietly touched our noses and launched a raid, and we knew nothing about it. Their attack line avoided our mine area, and it was obvious that their reconnaissance work was a hundred times better than ours. Their shooting skills were accurate and their morale was high. Lieutenant Sobury led a platoon of soldiers to garrison the dock hill position. Several deaths and grenades were blown up by the several suicide soldiers they sent to blew the gap there. So our troops suffered serious failure there. Heavy casualties and injuries during the retreat..."

The winner in the war will never be an ordinary soldier. The soldier saved by Lieutenant Bernard eventually lost one leg. Fortunately, the Taiping Army's military doctor saved his life. In addition, Lieutenant Bernard saw dozens of French soldiers rescued by the Taiping Army, which made Lieutenant Bernard feel a little better. At least the Taiping Army did not give up the demeanor of God.

After occupying the town of Hexi, Lieutenant Bernard and several officers were left in the town, and the other prisoners were transferred to the villages and towns in the rear to guard or treat them. Lieutenant Bernard noticed that after the Taiping Army occupied the place, it immediately began to work on earth and build various fortifications and trenches. Bernard knew that they were going to block Major General Michele and General Colino from Tongzhou to reinforce. It seemed that the Taiping Army was still somewhat concerned about winning the field with the coalition forces on the plains. They planned to consume the coalition forces first through solid fortifications and positions, and then carry out a decisive battle.

Bernard was not in the mood to talk to them with several captured officers. In fact, the officers were not in the mood to talk to them, and they were praying for their respective destinies. They didn't know how the Taiping Army would treat them.

"Lt. Bernard, do you still remember me?" French with a straight voice. Bernard looked up and saw a team of Taiping cavalry passing by the roadside, and a cavalry left the team and walked towards him.

It was a maroon Angron Norman horse. The cavalry was wearing a fiery red rolling white-edged military uniform, a symbolic helmet, a pair of breastplate on the chest, five revolvers with good ammunition on the horse, a Sespin gun on the back, and a sharp Gurkha cavalry scimitar on the waist and hips. Bernard recognized this person, Song Feng, a cavalry officer of the Taiping Army. They had conquered the Russians together, and Song Feng's French enlightenment was done by Bernard.

"Song, it's you." Bernard stood up and tried to make himself look less embarrassed, but the Taiping soldiers guarding the side sternly used a bayonet to cross the front: "Don't move forward!"

Song Feng jumped off his horse and went forward to the guards and said, "I want to say a few words to him." The soldier's rank was only a first-class private. He saluted Song Feng and said, "I'm sorry, Colonel, he is a prisoner. Without the consent of our commander, he cannot contact anyone."

Song Feng replied with a military salute and said with a smile: "I know, I just said a few words to him. Just say here, look, this is OK."

The soldier looked at the two of them in embarrassment, and finally nodded. Song Feng ordered a Little Knife cigarette for Bernard. Bernard likes this Chinese cigarette very much, which tastes better than a cigar.

"I didn't expect to see you again in this situation." Song Feng said with some regret, and Bernard smiled bitterly: "I am your prisoner, I really couldn't imagine."

Song Feng comforted: "As we said, you can wait for the day when the war is over in the prisoner-of-war camp, and you can go home at that time."

Bernard was silent for a moment and asked, "Song, do you hate us?" Song Feng shook his head and said, "I don't know what others think. I don't hate you. I just hate why your army came to the Far East. You want to steal our interests and block our unification. In fact, these are all fears that we will become stronger, right?"

Bernard was speechless. Yes, the root of everything was just that they were afraid that the Taiping Army would become stronger. Song Feng said firmly: "Berna, we will become stronger. This is something that no one can stop. Instead of being our enemies, you should actually consider how to be friends with us, just like before."

Finally, Song Feng rode a horse and left. Bernard got some food and tobacco, all given by Song Feng. Bernard began to ponder. Yes, can the strength of the Taiping Army be stopped? Unfortunately, France and Britain are too far from the Far East, and the strength of the Chinese Taiping Army is already very strong, no longer France. Britain can conquer it with just a dozen ships and a few thousand troops. Moreover, the Taiping Army is not as weak as the Qing Dynasty. Perhaps being friends with them is really a good choice.

Just as Bernard was pondering, he suddenly heard the Taiping Army in Hexiwu Town, and then cheered one after another. A message came from far and near. Bernard heard the guards shouting loudly: "We have recovered Tianjin City!"

Bernard could understand Chinese. Perhaps it was better for his colleagues at this time. At least they looked at their at a loss. They didn't know what the enemy was cheering. Bernard closed his eyes in pain, "God, Tianjin fell, 80% of the military supplies fell into the opponent, Tianjin and Hexiwu Town fell into the opponent, the canal transportation supply channel was cut off, and the main force of the coalition forces in Tongzhou will face a very terrible situation."

"Lieutenant, what are the yellow monkeys talking about?" A captain officer asked in a low voice. Bernard shook his hand weakly: "Some of them can understand French, be careful of your words. They are celebrating victory, and Tianjin is captured by them."

Hearing this, several officials of the law became turbulent, and the guards shouted loudly. The few were a little more at ease. When the guards turned to cheer again, the captain said in pain: "God, are we going to wipe out the entire army? Damn British people, they are really vulnerable. You must know that there are more than 2,000 British soldiers in Tianjin."

Bernard sighed and said, "The enemy has been planning this attack for a long time. There must be no minority troops attacking Tianjin. Moreover, General Sutton, like us, lacks heavy weapons such as artillery."

The captain raised his head and said bitterly: "We can only hope that the commander can wake up as soon as possible. We hope that Major General Mitchell and General Colino can recover here in time and open up the transportation and supply channels as soon as possible, otherwise..."

Bernard and others muttered to themselves that after a while, they were taken with a ox cart and the soldiers were taken toward Tianjin. It seemed that the officers were taken to Tianjin for custody or handed over to senior officials for interrogation. It seemed that the Taiping Army had set up a command center in Tianjin.

...

In the Tongzhou coalition, Major General Michele and General Colino were ready to set off early in the morning. The French army of the two infantry brigades totaled 5,600 and British troops of 3,000, including the 1st Battalion of the Royal Queen's Corps, the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Rebellion Team, and the 1st King's Dragon Cavalry Regiment of the Guards.

But as soon as the troops set off, British defeated troops from Hexi Wu Town came to report that Hexi Wu Town and Tianjin were attacked, and the situation was very critical and might have been lost.

Grant and Montauban were very surprised when they received the message. This British defeated squad was a company affiliated with Lieutenant Colonel Compton, the First Battalion of the Essex Corps. Last night, they were ambushed on the way to reinforce Tianjin. Lieutenant Colonel Compton disappeared and had no idea of ​​his life or death. This team of more than a dozen people finally escaped from the enemy's ambush circle. Later, they got lost, and finally found the way to return to Tongzhou.

After hearing the description of British soldiers, Grant and Montauban realized that the Taiping Army was a long-planned sneak attack, but Tianjin was too important, and they had to take measures immediately. So Major General Michele and General Colino immediately led the prepared soldiers to set out for reinforcements, and the commander needed to hold a meeting immediately to unify one opinion. Should the entire army turn back to reinforce and shrink the front line to ensure the safety of the entire army? (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, the novel is better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!