The southern army has cut down all the tall trees on the hillside, but the smaller trees can't take care of it, and the big rocks can't be moved, so the northern army, especially the Xuan army, can still find some protection when attacking upward.

The Xuan army's pre-war training on this issue clearly played a role. Quite a few soldiers even used kneeling xiangshang to shoot from behind raised stones. Of course, the posture is not "standard", and some soldiers forgot to put the butt of their rifle over their shoulders when they fired, and were hit by the recoil and almost flipped over a heel fight.

Bullets rained down on the mountain.

Jiang De soon felt that something was wrong.

The density of fire of the Southern Army was too great. This density does not only come from the fact that more points of fire have been added on a certain wide surface, but that the rate of fire has also increased significantly, and Jiang De feels that it is at least two or three times the rate of fire of ordinary breech guns.

Jiang De was shocked, could it be that this southern army was also all equipped with breech guns?

In fact, most of the Yugoslav army was still equipped with breech guns, but the tactics of war had changed.

Just as Guan Zhuofan observed, the number of southern troops behind the defense line was too large and the density was too large, and after the soldiers in the foxhole withdrew, they became even more crowded. But the commander of the Yugoslav army did not mechanically shoehorn his forces into a line, but arranged them in three columns, with the soldiers in the first column only responsible for firing and the last two columns only responsible for loading. When the first soldier finished shooting, the second soldier immediately handed over the second loaded gun, while the third soldier handed the third rifle that had been loaded to the second soldier, and quickly reloaded the first empty rifle himself.

And so on and so forth. If the first soldier dies in battle, the second soldier goes to the top and the third soldier goes into the second column. The vacancies in the third column were filled by new soldiers.

So. The rate of fire of the Yugoslav army increased significantly. Compared with breech guns, it was not far behind, and from beginning to end, there were no noticeable gaps in the defensive line. The problem of the number of people in the Southern Army not only did not cause the shortcomings of Guan Zhuofan's judgment, but gave full play to its advantages in another aspect.

Under this kind of firepower, the northern army suffered heavy casualties, barely attacked halfway, and was really unable to withstand it, so it had to retreat.

Several former enemy commanders reviewed the gains and losses. In the second attack, the Xuan army planned to replace the German regiment with the Yang 1st Regiment, but Jiang De was red-eyed and resolutely refused, and the compromise result was to temporarily mix the two Spencer battalions of the Yang 1st Regiment into the German Regiment, or to be commanded by Jiang De and attack again.

The Spencer battalion joined the battle, the firepower of the Northern Army increased greatly, the casualties of the Southern Army surged, and the Northern Army moved up little by little. Finally crossed the line that had fallen from the first defeat and continued to xiangshang.

Agitation began on the front of the Southern Army. It was no longer possible to completely maintain the order of the three columns of firing, and seeing the blue figures rushing up all over the mountains, some soldiers were in a hurry, and before they had time to shoot, they picked up a stone and smashed it down.

Later, the Northern Army was closer, the situation was tighter, and some people even picked up shells and threw them down. Anyway, the Northern Army, which was attacking on the hillside, was completely in the dead end of the artillery, and the shells were of little use.

Cannonball? Wait a minute! A Southern gunner's head flashed with inspiration, damn, let the Northern Yankees taste this!

He brought a flowering shell, lit the delay fuse, looked in the right direction, and threw the shell down.

The smoking flowering shell tumbled all the way down, and the Southern gunners stared nervously, for a second, two seconds...... Finally, there was a loud bang, dust was everywhere, rocks were flying, and several Northern troops were overturned to the ground.

It's really easy to use!

The Southern Army immediately moved a large number of flowering shells into the trenches, lit the delayed fuses, and threw them out one by one.

The artillery of the Confederate army could not all be moved to the main ridge of the missionary heights, but it was no problem to carry shells. At that time, the power of the flowering bomb was not very large, and it was mainly used for some specific targets, such as buildings and ships, and the previous attacks on the positions of the Northern Army were basically not used, and the stock was sufficient.

The flowering shells used in the Napoleonic cannon can produce about twenty fragments, which are detonated using a delayed fuse. Not all shells that were thrown down exploded, and the fuses of the flowering shells protruded from the body of the projectiles, and many of them rolled and broke on the stones, turning into a dud. But there are always a considerable number of successful detonations, and explosions are incessant on the hillside.

The front line and command posts of the Northern Army were confused: where did this shelling come from?

In fact, the explosion effect of the flowering bullet flying out of the barrel and the flowering bullet ignited by "manual" is not the same, because the latter is not as fast as the former, and the power is not as good as the former, but the sudden protrusion, where can I distinguish it clearly for a while?

The attacking troops of the Northern Army finally could not resist - Spencer could not withstand the "artillery fire" even with his guns, and was defeated again.

On the position of the Southern Army, cheers rang out.

At this moment, the war report on the right flank arrived at the command post, led by Ixan, and when it was opened, it was "a piece of good news, a piece of bad news."

The "good news" is: our army has attacked Lookout Peak; The "bad news" is: I'm afraid I can't hold it.

Can't hold it?!

In fact, the battle process of the right wing is most consistent with Guan Zhuofan's prediction in advance.

The terrain of Lookout Peak is steep, and the workload of cutting down trees is huge, and the Southern army did not cut down many trees in a hurry, attacking from the bottom up, and Guan Zhuofan's statement about the protection of soldiers with breech guns proved to be completely correct. The progress was not fast, mainly because of the need to clear the foxholes on the hillside one by one.

But this did not cause much trouble for Xuan Jun. The ballade pits of the Southern Army were very shallow, and the soldiers had to stand when loading their guns, and half of their bodies were exposed outside the pits, which was basically a target. In fact, if the Southern Army uses trees and rocks for protection, the protection effect will be even better. In addition, the foxhole naturally fixed the position of the soldiers, without any flexibility, not only as a target, but also as a fixed target.

Therefore, the Xuan army has always maintained a relatively even rising speed, not too fast, but it has never really stopped, and its own casualties are not large.

In this way, the Xuan army finally attacked the top of the Lookout Peak, and after a short hand-to-hand combat, the southern army retreated to the eastern slope of the Lookout Peak.

The southern army of the main ridge found that the Lookout Peak was lost, and turned part of the cannon to the muzzle and opened artillery bombardment on the Xuan army on the peak.

Xuan Jun's nightmare began.

The elevation of the Lookout Peak is slightly higher than the main ridge of the missionary heights, and there is a valley in the middle, and the Napoleonic cannon slightly raises the firing angle, and the firing angle is very comfortable, which is simply a natural shooting range. The artillery of the Southern Army, which had almost released most of the sky cannons, finally found an outlet, and one by one solid bullets hit it, and the trees on the top of the peak were broken and the rocks were flying, and the smoke and dust were filled.

Because of the difficulty of moving, there are not many cannons that the southern army can participate in the shelling of the Lookout Peak, that is, the dozen or so guns at the southern end of the main mountain, but the space of the Lookout Peak is narrow, and the density of bullets has become very large, and the fortifications of the Southern Army are all facing the west, and there is no protection against the north, and it didn't take long for the casualties of the Xuan army to exceed the casualties of the entire process of attacking the Lookout Peak.

Therefore, not to mention that the strategic intention of attacking the main ridge of the missionaries from the south could not be realized, and even self-preservation was a problem.

This is all unforeseen in advance.

Ixan and others asked for instructions: to withdraw or not to withdraw?

Guan Zhuofan's cold sweat broke out from his back, and Commander-in-Chief Ge couldn't calm down.

After a short discussion, the conclusion was: no withdrawal.

It is said that there are 10,000 ways and 10,000 words, and it is necessary to capture the defense line of the Lingnan Army of the missionary highland as soon as possible, otherwise, if it drags on for a little longer, the overall situation will inevitably change, and even the success will be lost.

Guan Zhuofan ordered Thomas to go to the front line to take command, and ordered the whole army to press, attack in turn, and not stop, regardless of casualties.

Guan Zhuofan smiled and said to Thomas: "You tell the heads in front of you that they can't gnaw off the bone of zuihou, so I'll do it myself!" ”

Commander Thomas understood the subtext of the commander of the Guan Theater: If you can't take the position of the Southern Army, you, General Thomas, will charge with a rifle by yourself.

Thomas replied loudly, "Yes! He turned and walked away.

In fact, before Thomas arrived, the Northern Army launched a third charge, but was still repulsed.

Moreover, although it has been discovered that the so-called "shells" were rolled down from the mountains, no one thought that this was a "modification" of the flowering shells, thinking that the Yugoslav army had invented some new weapons. The soldiers have developed a great fear of this "new weapon" that will explode violently at any time.

The soldiers of the Northern Army, especially the soldiers of the Xuan Army, began to waver in the psychological superiority maintained by the Southern Army in terms of weapons and equipment.

*(To be continued......)