As soon as dawn was dawn, hundreds of warships from the British and French coalition forces formed a battle formation.↑,

For the cannon warships next to the ship, their combat formation is a crazy horse.

The gun doors of each ship opened, and the muzzles of thousands of naval guns were exposed one after another, and the black holes seemed to be about to devour the entire world.

"Fire the gun! Gentlemen!" the captain ordered loudly.

"fire!"

"fire!"

...

Dongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdong...

The rumbling cannon sounded completely and endlessly.

In the blink of an eye, countless artillery shells roared at Dinghai County, exploding up and down the city walls, and fiery red mushroom clouds rose.

This is the largest shelling bombardment launched by the British and French coalition forces on Dinghai County. In just half an hour, tens of thousands of shells poured onto the city wall. Even the solid city wall poured with reinforced concrete began to collapse on a large scale at this moment.

The Shanghai soldiers hiding in the anti-cannon hole covered their ears tightly, but were still shocked to their eyes.

The entire city soon filled the smoke of gunpowder, and the shattered cement ash filled every corner, causing the visibility to drop significantly, less than a few meters.

On the Drum Tower in the center of the city, Zheng Guohong's telescope was gray and black, mixed with fire, but he could no longer see clearly.

"Report, the city wall was completely suppressed by enemy artillery fire, and the artillery regiment's shooting circle was completely invisible to the enemy!"

Zheng Guohong's brow suddenly squeezed into the shape of Sichuan, which was clearly a signal for the enemy to launch a decisive battle. He used all the firepower of the naval gun to bomb Dinghai County, suppressing the firepower of the Shanghai army on the city, and at the same time creating large fires and thick smoke, making the Shanghai artillery regiment unable to see the number and location of the invading enemy troops.

"Article all troops to prepare for combat, and the enemy may have to attack the city on a large scale! Let them be careful to prevent and beware of the enemy's sneak attack!"

Although Zheng Guohong had guessed that the British and French coalition forces were going to siege a large scale today, he did not know the other party's specific tactical actions, so he could only deal with them by chance.

However, it was said that such a large-scale artillery operation by the British and French coalition forces was also the result of the final discussion between Erkin and Gro. At this moment, they not only learned that the Shanghai army had invented defensive weapons such as water radium and earth radium, but also learned that the Shanghai army already had advanced rear-mounted rifles and rear-mounted artillery.

Faced with these new weapons and equipment, Erjin was not only not scared, but instead strengthened his determination to attack Dinghai County.

This is because, as the highest commander of the coalition, Erkin must know how powerful the combat power of the Shanghai army is. So even though he knew that the Shanghai army had powerful weapons and equipment, he had to fight with it and re-evaluate the overall combat power of the Shanghai army. Only in this way can a new strategy be formulated in this war.

From this point of view alone, Erkin is undoubtedly an excellent commander, a true commander-level figure.

Yesterday, the British and French armies were still fighting each other. When the British attacked, the French army was laughing at the back. When the French army attacked, the British army would not help.

But today is different. The British and French coalition forces operated at the same time. The joint fleet on the sea provided powerful artillery support to cover the British and French coalition forces to carry out ground operations.

This time, Scott directed 50,000 British troops to launch an attack from the front of the East City of Dinghai. They quickly rushed to the city under the cover of the fleet artillery fire.

The high ladder was loaded up, and British soldiers quickly climbed up the ladder. A large number of British soldiers were aiming at the city wall with guns to provide fire cover.

A Shanghai sentry was conducting reconnaissance in enemy artillery fire and saw the enemy in the thick smoke.

"The enemy is coming!"

The sentry shouted loudly and was quickly shot and killed by the British troops below, but he had successfully notified other Shanghai troops.

"Climb the city to defend!"

With the order of the Shanghai commander, a large number of Shanghai soldiers rushed out of the anti-aircraft artillery hole. They braved the enemy's artillery fire and climbed to the top of the city as fast as possible.

"Open fire!"

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang...

Fierce gunfire and fire at each other under the city wall.

The Shanghai soldiers had city wall defense, and the casualties were relatively minor, while the British soldiers under the city had no protection around them. They were immediately killed and injured.

However, this time the British army did not take a step back. Instead, under the supervision of their respective commanders, they formed a dense formation and kept firing at the top of the city to protect other British troops to continue to climb the city.

Although the soldiers of the Shanghai army had advanced Wei Guo style rifles in their hands, the city was limited, with one carrot and one pit, and there were less than 500 shooting holes in the female wall of Dongcheng, which means that there were less than 500 Shanghai soldiers shooting at each time. The others either hid behind the female wall to change guns and load bullets for the shooting soldiers. Or they could only stay in the anti-cannon hole to rest and wait for rotation.

But outside the city was open, with British troops lined up in twenty or thirty rows under the city, each row of nearly five or six hundred people, forming a huge shooting array, with tens of thousands of bullets in each round of volleys, and the density quickly caused a large number of casualties to the Shanghai soldiers guarding the city.

"Hurry up and stray bullets!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, the officers of the Shanghai Army defensively began to attack with stray bullets.

This is the first time in human history that a large-scale use of hand-streak bullets for combat, and it is also the first time that the Shanghai Army has used publicly since equipped with hand-streak bullets. From then on, hand-streak bullets will no longer be the secret of the Shanghai Army.

Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang bang bang!

Hundreds of stray bullets were thrown from the city, and in an instant, hundreds of small shells exploded, causing heavy casualties and blood to flow into a river of blood.

"Continue to throw it away! Kill these foreigners who are damn gods!"

Waves of stray bullets were thrown from the city, and exploded in the British array, causing heavy casualties to the British army.

Scott could see clearly in the rear that although the "bombs" thrown by the Shanghai soldiers on the city were not as powerful as conventional shells, their lethality was very huge, because in order to provide dense fire cover for the soldiers on the city, the British army under the city had to line up in a dense formation. After each "bomb" exploded, it could immediately kill seven or eight British soldiers.

"Order the troops to retreat!"

Scott gave the order decisively, and he guessed that this was another new weapon of the Shanghai Army.

"Notify the fleet to shell the city immediately!"

"But our troops who are heading down to the city have not yet been withdrawn!"

"What are you talking about? I'll send an order to shell the shell immediately, otherwise I'll shoot you!"

Scott angrily scolded the messengers around him. He naturally knew that the British troops who climbed the city had not yet retreated, but he also knew that the Shanghai soldiers on the top of the city had not retreated either, which was the best opportunity for artillery attack.

According to Scott's idea, the Shanghai army had fewer soldiers, and one less died. The coalition army had many soldiers, and when weapons and equipment were not cheap, it would be even more cost-effective to exchange a British soldier for another Shanghai soldier.

The commander sighed, facing the cruelty of the commander, he could only obey the orders and silently observed silently for the British comrades who had not had time to retreat.

The coalition fleet, which received the order, fired quickly and indiscriminately bombarded Dinghai County.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang b

More than a thousand shells exploded on the city in an instant. Whether it was the Shanghai soldiers guarding the city or the British soldiers who had no time to retreat, they were instantly covered by artillery fire and drowned in the scorching fire and rolling smoke.

In this wave of battle, more than 300 Shanghai soldiers died on the top of the city, and hundreds of others were injured. The British army paid a huge casualties of more than 2,000 people.

"I'm a mud horse! The dog-good foreigner. It's so ruthless!"

On the Drum Tower, Zheng Guohong was deeply shocked when he saw this scene in front of him.

War is so cruel, and it is useless to do everything.

After several rounds of artillery fire from the British-French joint fleet, Scott once again organized tens of thousands of British troops to rush to the city, set up a ladder again, and launched a battle to climb the city again.

Similarly, the Shanghai soldiers in the anti-cannon hole also quickly climbed the city to defend.

The two sides exchanged fierce fire, with casualties.

If the number of British troops climbed up was small, the Shanghai troops would shoot with rifles. If there were too many, they would greet them with stray bullets, and a stray bullet would kill a large area.

Scott was both shrewd and cunning. At first, the British troops who entered the city were basically from the British or Australia. Later, after Scott adopted the tactic of death, he let the Indian Sikh soldiers be responsible for the battle.

In this way, whenever Scott finds that there is no hope for this wave of soldiers in the city, he will suddenly order the ground to cover the infantry to retreat, and then indiscriminately bombard the fleet artillery fire.

Scott thought it was worth it to exchange Indian Sikh soldiers for the lives of Shanghai soldiers.

However, the Shanghai Army is not a fool. After several bombings, the Shanghai Army began to become more careful. As soon as they saw the British army retreating under the city, they immediately began to evacuate into the anti-aircraft artillery hole. In this way, the British and French coalition forces' artillery fire only bombed the Indian Sikh soldiers who had landed in the city, reducing the number of casualties of the Shanghai soldiers themselves.

After more than a dozen rounds of battles, more than 10,000 Indian Sikh soldiers were killed or injured, and thousands of British soldiers who were covering the city on the ground also died or injured, while only seven or eight hundred soldiers guarding the city were injured or killed or eight hundred.

Scott's tactic is to consume the troops of the Shanghai army. After all, there are only 5,000 people in the Shanghai army, and seven or eight hundred casualties are a considerable price.

However, Scott did not expect that the Indian Sikh soldiers were not fools. Soon they discovered that Scott asked them to be cannon fodder. They were angry and asked Scott for an explanation.

Scott had no choice but to let the British and Indian Sikh soldiers take turns to attack the city.

As a result, casualties of British local soldiers continued to increase, but Erkin did not stop Scott, but continued to attack, concentrating all the British Marine artillery and suppressing the firepower of the Shanghai artillery regiment.

Erjin fought desperately to attack Dinghai County. For this reason, Zheng Guohong had to draw troops from the other three gates of Dinghai County to reinforce Dongcheng.

The battle between the two sides was in a highly intense state from morning to night, and from night to dawn.

The British and French coalition forces had more people and could take turns to attack, but the Shanghai army had fewer troops as they fought, the more wounded the more soldiers, and the more tired the soldiers were.

This battle lasted for seven days and seven nights.

On the morning of the eighth day, the 29th Brigade of the Shanghai Army had been reduced from a full 5,000 to less than 2,000 people, and there were four or five hundred wounded people.

The British and French coalition forces were not easy to live. The British army suffered more than 30,000 casualties, of which the Indian Sikh soldiers accounted for the majority, and the French army suffered more than 9,000 casualties.

"It's time!"

Erkin found Scott and Browns and began to implement Plan B.

Plan b is based on Plan a. Plan a is a powerful attack for seven days and seven nights, consuming the strength of the Shanghai army and attracting the strength of the Shanghai army to the East City. Plan b is to continue to lead the troops to attract the attention of the Shanghai army on the eighth day, and Browns led the elite French troops to detour the west gate of Dinghai to carry out a surprise attack, striving to break the city in one battle.

"We have paid such a great price, we must succeed this time!"

Scott and Browns both vowed to lead the troops to operate.

In Dinghai County, the Shanghai soldiers were extremely tired, but they were still persevering because they had a fire in their hearts that would never go out.

"Brothers, congratulations, you have completed the task assigned by Lord Li to hold Dinghai County for one month. Now you have two choices, one is to give up the retreat of Dinghai County, and the other is to defend Dinghai County to survive and die with Dinghai County!"

On the top of the city, Zheng Guohong gave this question to the officers and soldiers of the 29th Brigade.
To be continued...