Just as Grant and Montauban were discussing and preparing to let the artillery bombard the mound behind the Taiping Army's horizontal formation, Xiao Yungui, under the banner of Xinghuang on the mound, said to the messenger lightly: "Order the artillery regiment to open fire and suppress the enemy artillery." Then he said to Qian Jiang and other followers: "Go to the back of the hill to avoid the artillery, the enemy's artillery fire is coming soon. Order the first and second regiments of soldiers lurking here, no matter how fierce the enemy's artillery fire is, they must hold on first."

Sure enough, when the Xinghuang flag slowly disappeared behind the hills, the artillery fire of the coalition forces began to pour down, and the artillery fire of the two field artillery squadrons was still very fierce, but soon the artillery fire of the Taiping Army began to roar, trying to suppress the artillery of the coalition forces.

There are three types of British Armstrong cannons, 6-pound mountain cannons or small field cannons (64 mm); a 9-pound cannon (76 mm) and 12-pound field cannons. After the rifling is modified, the artillery shells can be shot farther and more accurately. However, the Taiping cannons also modified the rifling, and a large part of the technology comes from the British Armstrong cannons. This artillery battle is more like a civil war between British artillery. When weapons technology and technology are almost exactly the same, the test is only the calculation ability and operation proficiency of the gunners. But one thing the Taiping army has had a slight advantage, and the number of artillery in one regiment is twelve more than the number of artillery in two British artillery squadrons.

"Damn it, the enemy's artillery was hiding behind the hills. They must have calculated the location where we might set up artillery positions!" Grant's face turned pale. This battlefield was chosen by the Taiping Army. After Major Bujie retreated, the Taiping Army had plenty of time to observe the battlefield, while the coalition forces rushed over and entered the battle. This seemed a bit unfair.

Soon the British artillery could not suppress the enemy's artillery, and the enemy's artillery shells were increasing. Their counterattack ability became weaker and weaker. As two 12-pound field artillery were destroyed, the British artillery hurriedly began to transfer positions, and they had already given up bombardment of the hills.

"Next, let's look at the infantry boys." Montauban hopes that the infantry can defeat the enemy in front of him as soon as possible, then charge to seize the hills, and then the cavalry of the coalition forces can charge up to massacre the enemy's defeated soldiers.

At a distance of 400 yards, the coalition soldiers began to fire the first volley at the enemy. More than one hundred soldiers fell to the ground in the Taiping Army's horizontal formation, and most of them aimed at the soldiers who were preparing to shoot fell to the ground. But the Taiping Army soldiers remained as if cast iron.

Although the era of queuing and shooting was passed, it is undeniable that the infantry front still guarantees the number of fires of volleys on the old-fashioned linear array, which brings the greatest results and shocks to the enemy. The rifled muskets have begun to reflect backwardness. Therefore, when the Taiping Army canceled the horizontal formation in the infantry exercises, the second row of soldiers' standing shooting tactics became the first row and the second row kneeling posture. This can at least reduce casualties to a certain extent.

The coalition continued to advance. At a distance of 300 yards, the Taiping Army began its first volley counterattack. The dense coalition soldiers screamed and fell to the ground. At least 300 casualties were killed or killed on the spot. Grant saw this scene and said with a pale face: "The Taiping Army has been studying how to fight with us for a long time. It seems that they asked the soldiers to kneel down and shoot on their tumbling. They rarely used standing postures to shoot. This was not out of timidity, but to save themselves better." Montubang was silent for a while before saying: "We can no longer use tactics against the Qing army to deal with the Taiping army."

The front of the coalition forces was panicked after the Taiping Army's volley. It was originally a common tactic. After the infantry fired the firepower and the enemy was in chaos, it was the best time to launch a charge. However, this time the Taiping infantry did not take advantage of the situation to charge. They turned around and fled quickly to the hills one by one.

What is this situation? The coalition soldiers and officers both found it incredible, but since the enemy began to retreat, they should advance and charge forward more firmly! So several phalanx soldiers of the coalition forces began to pursue, and the cavalry were eager to try behind them.

It has to be said that the elite of the coalition forces can still maintain a generally array in the rapid pursuit. If the Taiping soldiers turn around and prepare for a counterattack, they can also quickly adjust the formation and launch a volley here to give the enemy the strongest blow.

Just as the coalition forces chased the hill, the Taiping soldiers in front suddenly turned around and lay down, and countless Taiping soldiers suddenly appeared between the green grass on the hill. This change made the coalition soldiers stunned.

"The camouflage uniforms of Taiping soldiers are naturally integrated with the surrounding environment, making it difficult for us to find them. The troops in front suddenly retreated and introduced our troops into their firepower encirclement. This tactic is also often used by our British army. Unfortunately, this time we fell into the trap of the enemy..." Grant recalled in his memoir many years later. This was the first war he faced with the Taiping Army, so he was very impressed.

"The enemy's tactics and organization are concise and flexible. The command of middle and lower-level officers is full of artistic atmosphere. They can always grasp the context of the war process in the ever-changing situation. From this point of view, the combat tactics of the Taiping Army, the army of the yellow race, are far ahead of us..." General Montauban focused on summarizing tactical aspects. He wrote in his post-war diary in a very frustrated manner.

As combat weapons experienced a profound technological revolution, the innovation of rifled muskets and artillery gave weapons a great development. The range of weapons increased, accuracy increased, and the rate of fire accelerated. Obviously, corresponding reforms were needed in terms of organization, tactical and logistical support. After Napoleon developed the army and division organization, in terms of organization and tactics, if not a regression, at least it had a long period of stagnation. A famous conflict between 1815 and 1845-

——That is, the old infantry tactics used in the Russian-Turkey War (1828-1829) are obvious examples. The Russians gave up Napoleon's tactical and strategic principles of concentrating troops. Similarly, French and British troops still insisted on the training of the military parade and damaged combat training. Until the Second Opium War, infantry phalanxes and hollow phalanxes maintained their advantages in the Far Eastern battlefield, because the British and French coalitions encountered the Qing army that was completely behind the weapons and tactics.

The changes in organization and tactical adaptation of weapons are slow. Most of the reasons are that new weapons require dispersed battlefield forces, while professional soldiers are afraid that they will lose control if the army is too dispersed. This is understandable. But now they have encountered the Taiping Army, which has innovative weapons and tactics. As early as when the Taiping Army carried out organization reforms and large-scale military training, the Western King was very foreseeable and allowed the troops to adopt organization that was more adaptable to future wars. At the same time, they not only retained the phalanx tactics in tactics, but also studied and developed more advanced scattered tactics.

Skies tactics require the army to have good communication and command literacy of grassroots officers. The specialized messengers and communication soldiers in the Taiping Army can provide good command of the army. At the same time, the training of a large number of grassroots backbone officers is allowed to grow in military academies and wars.

At this point, the British and French coalition forces paid the price for their conservatism, and even in later history. In the American Civil War later than the Second Opium War, the US team still adopted the backward tactics of Britain and France. The result was that a large number of soldiers died in the phalanx of the rifle with both far and accuracy better than the smoothbore gun. It was also after the American Civil War in the United States that the Americans gradually abandoned the old backward tactics in the later stage and began to use new tactics.

The leader of the Taiping Army was a time traveler. He stood on the shoulders of historical giants and looked at the development of things, so his foresight made the coalition army passive at this time.

When the Taiping Army ambushed on the hill opened fire at the coalition soldiers at the foot of the hill, the bloody storm caused heavy losses to the coalition forces. They lined up densely with a very good target. On a front line with a width of one mile and at a close distance of less than 200 yards, the Taiping Army's precise shooting almost collapsed under such a blow.

In desperation, Grant and Montauban issued an order to retreat at the same time. When the retreating trumpet sounded, the horn of the Taiping Army's attack resounded through the blue sky. Behind the left and right wings of the hills, the Taiping Cavalry Regiment took the lead in attacking. Although they did not have the abnormal firepower as the Guards Cavalry Regiment, their sabers and war horses were equally fatal.

The Taiping cavalry, who rushed up like a whirlwind, began to hunt down the chaotic infantry of the coalition. At this time, the coalition infantry could no longer effectively form a hollow square formation that could resist the cavalry. A few brave soldiers formed several small hollow square formations on the spot. Dozens of them formed a small hollow square formation. This square formation was actually not hollow, because the soldiers were close together back to back, and there was not much space in the middle. The commander and flag bearer of this unit stood in the middle.

Several small hollow square formations reflect the elite of the coalition soldiers. In this case, they still have the courage and discipline to arrange their formations. Even if the Taiping Army's sabers were swung in front of them, they could still carry out their movements step by step without any panic.

Unfortunately, they met the Taiping cavalry. The Taiping cavalry was already prepared to study how the cavalry broke through the enemy's hollow phalanx. Although the legion cavalry did not have the strong firepower of the guard cavalry, they were equipped with more grenades. This tactic was learned from the Mongolian cavalry who rushed towards the enemy with explosives bags.

So, the Taiping cavalry turned their horses and did not rush straight to the bayonet formations of hollow square formations, but flew past them and threw grenades at them at close range. Although many Taiping cavalry were shot and dropped by coalition soldiers in the hollow square formation, the Taiping cavalry rushed into the water like jackdaws, and there were always several grenades falling into the dense crowd, and then there was a huge explosion under the bloody storm.

Although the hollow phalanx organized by several brave officers failed to stop the Taiping cavalry, they bought some time for the large army. The cavalry of the rear coalition was dispatched, and they came forward to block the Taiping cavalry. This time, the cavalry dispatched included the few West African cavalry of the French army... (To be continued, please search Piao Tianwen, the novel is better, updated and faster!
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