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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 580: The Allied Forces Wait

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    On February 2, General Montauban, Commander-in-Chief of the British and French Allied Forces, boarded the French flagship "Forban" and sailed from Shanghai to Zhifu in Zhili Bay.  Zhifu is located in the Yantai area of ????later generations, facing Dalian Bay across the sea. It is an excellent garrison point.

    There were 6,000 French troops (including 5,000 infantry and more than 1,000 artillery) who had gone north in advance.  On the day of the 6th, it was sunny and windy. As soon as Montauban arrived, he was attracted by the appearance of the anchorage, and the layout of the French military camp presented in front of him was quite stable.  Almost all infantry and artillery units were camped on the plains; battalions of light infantry were placed on the hills forming the peninsula (later named Mont Morne); the headquarters was located in a temple on a high point on the coast, with a panoramic view of the entire camp.  Logistics management warehouses and offices were built near the beach to facilitate the loading and unloading of military supplies.

    All facilities are mostly made of stone, and Montauban was very happy with this.  Seeing that the morale of the troops was high, he congratulated the other two generals of the French army, Generals Ranman and Collinot.  He also visited the field hospital, which admitted only about 60 patients, 28 of whom were infected with the disease.

    Montauban also did not miss visiting that tempting place, that is, the market opened by the Qing people near the French army camp. There was a sufficient supply of goods and crowded customers. It was open from 5 am to 5 pm every day and was staffed by French military police day and night.  guardianship.  Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but sigh: "It can be seen that the soldiers still like the enthusiasm of the Qing people. In Shanghai, they are not treated like eating stewed chicken every day, and the things sold by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are extremely expensive."

    February 10th.  Under the arrangement of Colonel Foley, the British liaison officer next to the French commander, the British commander General Grant was accompanied by the chief of staff, in the name of the close alliance between Britain and France.  Come to Zhifu to visit General Montauban.  The British's advance camp was located in Weihaiwei, which was not too far from the French camp.

    The British were curious and wanted to see what the condition of the French officers and soldiers were like after they had made a long circuit around the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the ocean. After all, most of the British troops came directly from India to the Far East by ship.  It was much closer than the French army.  As for the wild horses they heard the French army had brought from Japan, they were also wondering what kind of animals they resembled.

    General Grant was received with the greatest hospitality.  They held a two-hour meeting first.  After the luncheon, the British commander asked to visit the French camp.  The military band played "Ode to the Queen".  The British military guests appreciated it very much.  Grant watched with interest the 80-meter-long Pilargo-style bridge built by the bridge builders.  Grant also wanted to see the artillery and participate in the firing exercise of rifled mountain guns with a range of 2 kilometers.  Seeing how well-trained the Japanese horses were, he was greatly surprised: "What! These are those Japanese horses? It's incredible!"

    Montauban was deeply encouraged and immediately ordered 11 cannons to be fired at the horses driving the shafts.  After receiving the baptism of artillery fire, not a single horse of the French cavalry stumbled!  When Grant left, he was overjoyed with what he saw, and immediately invited his French colleagues to return to Weihaiwei in the south for a return visit the day after tomorrow.  It seemed to Montauban that the day was indeed beautiful.  The next day he was astonished that he had dared to order a cannon to be fired in front of these untrained horses.  He said: "I really don't know if these horses were calm and motionless at that time, because they were naturally calm, or because they were afraid and couldn't move!"

    For the facilities of the French Army Zhifu Camp, Lieutenant Colonel Wu Shili of the British Army who accompanied the visit was full of praise.  In fact, the British army did not do a bad job.  After experiencing the unpleasant logistical experience of the Crimean War and learning strict logistical support from the Taiping Army, the British and French armies achieved perfect logistical support for this expedition.  The French army's war horses were even purchased from Japan.

    The British troops arrived at Weihaiwei one after another as early as January 26. The British troops landed there without any difficulty. The only people stationed there were a Qing garrison company with swords, guns and spears. The British warships only wasted a few shells.  He completely defeated them.

    After occupying Weihaiwei, the British army was stationed in three nearby ports. Most of the British soldiers came from India.  They were transferred after the suppression of the Indian uprising. The British army outnumbered the French army.  Not counting horses, the British army also had more assets, and the mutual trade with the Qing people here was better than that with the French.

    When he arrived at Weihaiwei, General Montauban was also curious to know the strength of the British Allied Forces with whom he was about to fight. He introduced in detail the visit to the British camp. Although sometimes he was a little critical, he did not  It prevented him from leaving a strong impression on the British army's position.

    Accompanied by General Chaney, he boarded the British flagship and was received most hospitably by General Hooper and General Grant.  After Admiral He Bo was injured in the last Battle of Dagukou, he spent half a year recovering from his injuries in Shanghai. This time was also a battle of revenge for him.  At the same time, Montauban also met Sir Elgin, who decided to accompany him on the visit. The group took a small steamer to the other side of the harbor to see the cavalry camp.

    As an outstanding cavalry general, Montauban mounted an Arabian horse without being asked, which reminded him of his 27 years in Algeria.  The British cavalry in front of him was very beautiful, perfectly dressed, well-equipped, and mountedSuperior, appears to be disciplined, heroic and good at fighting.

    As an expert, Montauban praised the Queen's Dragoons for their dignity in red uniforms, even though he later wrote in his memoirs: He felt that the Dragoons seemed a bit rigid, which was why they later lost to the Taiping Cavalry.  But at least now he still believes that the British Queen's Dragoons and French Cuirassiers are the real cavalry. As for the Manchu Tatar Cavalry, they are just outdated things, and the Taiping Army Cavalry seems to have been selectively forgotten by Montauban.

    As General Montauban and Mitresi said, the cavalry led by Fanner and Major Probin re-implemented the practices that had been implemented in Hong Kong and strengthened pile pulling training, but with little effect.  At the same time, they also practiced the strength work that Elgin mentioned, and Pegasus wielded a knife to chop oranges.

    The French commander wanted to see a live-fire demonstration of the new Armstrong cannon, which the British were proud of. The young artillery captain Brabazon (who died two months later) demonstrated it on the spot, but the accuracy of the firing did not convince General Montauban.  .  He believed that the French army's small rifled mountain guns had a range of 2,000 meters, which was far superior to the British army's new cannons.  Finally, he visited the horse-carrying ships and stable ships. The facilities of these ships left a strong impression on him. He wrote this: "I finally understood how the military appearance of the troops transported from such a distant place was so different from that of Hyde."  It was exactly the same during the park inspection.¡±

    He found that the British were very capable of renting such expensive means of transport, and they were not so fussy about it.  In fact, the British Navy felt that transporting troops and war horses was the responsibility of the Army, and it would be detrimental to its reputation to be responsible for them.  The French navy would not be unwilling to take on the hard work of transporting the army Most of the British troops were drawn from the Indian troops, and the rest came from the mainland. Three special ships were enough to transport them.

    The day of visiting the British camp ended on the "Granada". This is a small ship rented by the Queen's Government for the Commander and Staff of the "Expeditionary Force". It has a tonnage of 800 and is like a travel speedboat.  General Grant held a farewell dinner in a friendly atmosphere.  General Montauban returned to Zhifu and was deeply impressed by the Weihaiwei trip; what he brought back was not petty jealousy, but a competitive spirit to compare with others.

    An incident occurred during Montauban¡¯s visit to Weihaiwei. The British army seized more than thirty wooden boats used by the common people to transport firewood, rice, oil, and salt.  Montauban couldn't help but ask: "We actually confiscated a fleet of small sailing ships belonging to unarmed innocent traders, and just because our army needs these ships to transport military supplies. We are certainly no better than others. We claim not to attack the Chinese people, but only to attack the Chinese people."  Their government. They talk nice, but in reality they say otherwise.¡±

    Renee, a French doctor who accompanied the army, also severely condemned the British army's seizure of civilian ships, and pointed out that the French army did the same in Zhifu. The result was a great embarrassment to General Montauban.

    During the mutual courtesy visits between the commanders of the British and French coalition forces, the unresolved issue of the landing site of the French army was not mentioned, and the date of the landing operation was also not mentioned. The reason was that the British army did not wait for the hoped-for intelligence on the Qing war zone!

    The French army accused the British army of being slow in its intelligence investigation work, and was dissatisfied with the British army's restrictive failure to disclose everything they knew about the Qing's internal informants, and suggested that the British army was still waiting for so-called allies within the Qing country.  It's unreliable

    General Grant also noticed this. At the last allied military meeting in Shanghai on January 18, it was decided that if the intelligence was not followed up in time, the British army would conduct new reconnaissance on the Baihe River and the southern part of Zhili Bay in order to finally determine the coalition forces.  landing location.

    General Montauban raised some doubts based on Brigadier General Brod's report. He was keen to determine where to land after conducting his own reconnaissance, rather than relying on intelligence from internal Qing informants. As Colonel Dupin astutely analyzed,  "The British fought with superior forces on the best river bank. Naturally, they hoped that their landing would be successful, and at the same time they wanted to see the joke of our army's failure on the other bank."

    As the director of the French Army¡¯s Topographic Survey Department, Dupin is one of the protagonists of the French Army¡¯s reconnaissance force. In addition to Colonel Dupin, the leaders of the French Army¡¯s reconnaissance force include Colonel Breva and Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz.

    After experiencing delays from the British, Bu and Shi led a small group of soldiers and sailors, first set off on the "Saigon", and then took three small boats and sailed ashore under the starry night.  As a result, they fell into a thick and thickening sludge, and their progress was very slow.  "The bright moon in the sky illuminated their adventurous journey, but they were marching with difficulty in the mud puddles; the large puddles left by the sea at low tide were like illusory ponds sleeping in front of them", the romantic Frenchman Dupin wrote poetically  Describe the road, but this is not the time to be lyrical!

    The reconnaissance team carefully inspected the terrain. As a last resort, if conditions are favorable, soldiers may be able to pass here, but horses carrying luggage and combat supplies may not be able to pass here, and artillery will be even more difficult!

    When the reconnaissance team was preparing to evacuate, it was attacked by more than 40 Qing cavalry. A French corporal was shot in the neck by a bow and arrow.They were killed in battle, and the French reconnaissance team's counterattack caused the Qing army to lose about twenty riders. In the end, the French army chose to retreat with difficulty through the mud.

    So after an unsuccessful reconnaissance operation, the French army fell into a quiet wait. They could only wait for good news to come from the British soon.  (To be continued)
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