To Lorenz's great surprise, the Guadeloupe hills, which were red by artillery fire, suddenly appeared when the French army charged, but many Mexican soldiers, although they were ragged, but they were unusually tenacious, and they did not flee in fear as he imagined, but fought heroically.

The 2nd Infantry Regiment "Zuaf" and the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Flinth Flintlock Regiment, with a total of nearly 1,900 men, were targeted by Mexican soldiers who were ambushed in the ravines outside the fortress and under the narrow hill. The French army was stunned by the cannons and numerous rifle fires from the two fortresses.

General Zaragoza decisively ordered the thousands of infantry and part of the cavalry deployed in the skirmish line at the front of the fortress to withdraw to defend the narrow strip of land between the two fortresses. Although Zaragoza almost drained the defenders of Puebla, he also contracted the battle line in time, so that the Mexican defenders concentrated all their forces near the fortress of Guadeloupe, and a total of 4,000 troops mobilized 3,000 troops to focus on defense here, which also eliminated the risk of being divided and surrounded by the enemy from the middle of the position.

Suddenly, the already insufficient attacking forces, coupled with the lack of reliable artillery coverage, caught off guard, the first round of the French charge was quickly repulsed. The 1,900-strong assault unit fell nearly 400 in just a few minutes. The remaining 1,500 French troops, especially the brave and unusually brave 2nd "Zuaf" Infantry Regiment, had less than 1,200 left, and they lost more than 300 people at once.

Faced with the defeated army that had retreated, Lorenz could not believe his eyes. No matter how angry he was, he had to start taking the fight seriously.

After the withdrawal of the battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment "Zuaf" and the 3rd Flintlock Regiment of the Marine Corps, Lorenz fiercely organized a second offensive.

This time, he no longer only invested part of his troops, but did enough work and went all out. The tactic was to bombard and cover first, and then to attack with infantry, but he listened to several Mexican conservative guides, all of whom had attacked Puebla in the civil war, and these Mexican conservative leaders suggested that Lorenz attack from the south, because it was not only closer to the French camp, but also could effectively avoid the fortified areas of the Mexican fortresses of Loreto and Guadeloupe, and penetrate directly into the city of Puebla.

In fact, the advice of these people had been put forward a long time ago, but at that time Lorenz could not have listened to it at all, he had always thought that the Mexicans were vulnerable, and with the invincible French army under his command, how could they passively avoid the battle and make a detour into the city? In that case, it would also be too detrimental to the glorious image of the French Empire. But after experiencing a failure, he realized that it was all his own vanity.

So, he didn't dare to be careless.

All the artillery was transferred and bombarded directly for nearly two hours, until half of the shells were consumed, Lorenz was not at ease, and moved all the artillery forward by 200 yards, and continued to bombard for more than half an hour, until less than a third of the shells remained, and before the French took the initiative to attack, the Mexican defenders in the two fortresses were better, but the defenders in Puebla began to show signs of collapse.

It was not because the artillery was so powerful, and although the shells were fierce, the losses of the Mexican defenders in the trenches and fortresses were not very large. Instead, Lorenz took advantage of the fire to order his 2nd "Zuaf" Infantry Regiment and 3 Chasseur Battalions to attack from the south by a detour, while the 2 Marine Battalions still feinted from the fortress of Guadeloupe to attract the attention of the main force of the Mexican defenders. It has to be said that this trick is extremely effective. By the time General Zaragoza, who was guarding the city of Puebla, came to his senses, it was too late.

At the head of Puebla, an unprecedentedly fierce and bloody white-knuckle combat took place. The elite infantry battalion of the Mexican army, "Sapadores", fought to the death with the French army's "Vinsony" chasseur battalion and other troops, and finally with the cooperation of reinforcements such as the "Zuaf" infantry regiment, the French soldiers climbed the city and planted a French tricolor flag on it, breaking through the sparsely populated city of Puebla in one fell swoop.

Seeing that the city of Puebla was occupied, Zaragoza hurriedly led the remaining remnants of the army to flee to the fortress of Guadeloupe in the northeast corner. But at this time, another fortress, Loreto, had also been captured by another French chasseur battalion, but the French army also paid a huge price.

The commander of the French army, General Lorenz, was overjoyed. At great cost, victory is finally in sight. It's a pity that at this time, he made another fatal mistake. Originally, the French army had already occupied the city of Puebla, and the fortress of Guadeloupe on the northeast high ground could be completely ignored, and the Mexican defenders who held there would hold out for a day at most before retreating. But Lorenz, who was overjoyed, was carried away by the victory, and directly ordered the French army to launch a general attack, wanting to occupy the fortress of Guadeloupe in a battle.

It looked like the fortress of Guadeloupe was like a stormy boat, and it was about to fall, but under the command of General Zaragoza, with the advantage of the terrain, he always resisted. The French army had already reached the fortress wall, only one step away, but they were still a little short of being able to break through the fortress. At this time, the fighting was all day, both the offensive and defensive sides were exhausted, and the key thing was that the French army was almost exhausted of ammunition.

Seeing that the French army had lost its spirit, Zaragoza launched more than 100 Pdias cavalry in the fortress and trenches to launch a sudden counterattack against the French army. Zaragoza personally led the Mexican soldiers in the fortress one after another, and the French army suffered more than a thousand losses and retreated. Even the fortress of Loreto, which had been captured, was on the verge of being recaptured by Mexican troops.

However, at this moment, a gray black shadow marched towards it oppressively, and a single footstep made both the French army and the Mexican army stunned.

There were spies who reported to the commanders of both sides, but it was the French allied Chinese Imperial Army that arrived. General Lorenz of the French army was overjoyed, and reinforcements arrived at this moment, just in time to stop their defeat. Immediately afterward, they were approached by the incoming Grey troops, who asked them to step aside.

I saw that the black pressed gray line was scattered in the position of the French army just now, surrounding the entire Guadeloupe fortress. Just when Lorenz thought that these Orientals would have to go to great lengths and suffer heavy casualties; Just when Zaragoza launched the Mexican army guarding the fortress, preparing to attack the enemy again in all directions, a scene occurred that stunned both sides.

In the gray line, a large column of neat Congreve rocket launchers appeared, quickly assembled and erected, about fifty of them, and in a short time, the stabbing rocket launchers flew towards the Loreto fortress. After more than forty or fifty rocket launchers landed, a violent explosion spread, and a fierce flame rose into the air, which continued to disperse, and the deflagrating flames almost swallowed up a small half of the entire Guadeloupe fortress, which was not very large.

I saw that on the walls of the fortress of Loreto, there was a lot of crying, hundreds of Mexican soldiers were on fire, rolling on the walls to extinguish the fire, and more were planted from the walls like madmen, falling to the ground and silent. Inside the fortress, more flames rose one after another, and the whole fortress howled.

How could General Lorenz ever see such a scene? His face changed drastically, and he said to the staff officer beside him with a panicked expression: "Isn't this the Congreve rocket?" How can it be so powerful, this is simply hellfire! ”

The staff officer's face was also pale. He had never seen such a terrifying rocket launcher that would burn so much flame, burning all the gas within a few meters of the shell. He could only say: "General, this is not Congreve rocket artillery, this is an incendiary bomb, this is the most vicious incendiary bomb." ”

General Lorenz couldn't help but shudder, and he couldn't help but think of what would happen if the Chinese army from the east fired those terrifying incendiary projectiles at the French army against himself, and he was afraid that he would also be swallowed up by the fire of hell.

Looking up at the Guadeloupe fortress again, the gates of the fortress have been opened, and dozens of Mexican soldiers rushed out crying and shouting, shouting that they are willing to surrender. This fortress, which had failed several times and even caused heavy losses to the French army, was easily captured in the sense that he thought it would be a time-consuming siege.

And just as General Lorenz was about to clean up the battlefield, a shocking news was brought by the outpost: Mexico City, which had just been occupied not long ago, was also captured by the Chinese Imperial Army from the east last night!