In early June of the Western calendar, Belisier still planned to launch a joint attack on Mamillon despite having received an order from His Majesty Emperor Napoleon III prohibiting action.
This perfectly illustrates an old Chinese saying: "You will not be able to accept your fate as a foreigner."
During this war, Liu Qingnan deeply felt the convenience brought by telegraph. Of course, there were also problems that came with it.
Near-real-time communication between the coalition forces and between the front line and the rear can be achieved through telegraphs.
After the telegram reached the front line, the logistics situation of the coalition forces was much better than before.
The rear can quickly transport supplies from the sea according to the needs of the coalition forces.
Tsarist Russia's logistics work seemed much slower, especially after the Kerch Strait was captured.
Communication between the coalition forces has also become smoother, and everyone on the front line is actually connected by phone.
The telephone invented by Xu Shou was patented in Europe in the name of Huaihai Company, and production began in cooperation with Siemens under the leadership of Wang Tao.
Now this kind of telephone has been equipped to the troops on the front line of the coalition forces. This kind of telephone can share the same line with the telegraph, but it is much more convenient than the telegraph.
The income from this company can be used for diplomatic activities in Europe, intelligence work, and to subsidize the living expenses of international students.
This company, Huaihai Siemens, achieved great success as soon as it was established in Europe.
For more than half a year, Xu Shou has made up for his deficiencies in basic knowledge in Europe and made great progress in the research of electric motors.
He collaborated with Siemens to build an electric locomotive that was driven by electricity and could run on the track.
They also collaborated to manufacture a self-excited DC generator with an output power of 400 kilowatts.
In addition, the riveting work of the hull of the 3,000-ton ironclad ship built in cooperation with Prussia has basically been completed.
The four monsters made purely of steel were given great high hopes by Prussia, and the confidentiality work was very complete.
Prince Adalbert has been promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Prussian Navy. Obviously, the construction of these four warships has brought great confidence to Prussia. They almost forgot that two of them were Chinese.
However, as long as Prussia masters the technology, it will be able to produce its own warships in the future.
As long as Prussia's navy is established, they will speed up the unification of Germany. The Bismarck era is expected to come early.
During the war with Denmark, Prussia had had enough of Denmark's naval blockade of Prussia.
Other German states felt the same way.
If Prussia could defeat Denmark at sea, then the German Baltic states such as Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Helstein, Schleswig, etc. would all fall to Prussia.
The Prussians have always had a dream of establishing a German Empire in their hearts, and they have been working hard in this direction.
The biggest shortcoming that limits the realization of this goal is the navy.
Xu Shou only occasionally goes to the shipyard now. Most of the time, he stays in the Siemens laboratory or goes to the steam locomotive factory in Berlin. His main interests now are in electric power and precision machinery manufacturing.
Sometimes he would order some processing machinery from factories in Europe and send them back to China.
He knows that all inventions and creations are supported by machine processing and manufacturing.
The inventor does not have the necessary mechanical parts and cannot make the corresponding thing. For an invention to become a reality, the inventor at least needs to make a physical object.
Now Xu Shou has mastered the manufacturing principles of generators and the principles of power transmission. He can manufacture motors and install them on machines as power drives. Electricity has truly entered the application field.
Xu Shou believes that the electric motor will eventually replace the steam engine because it is less noisy, more stable, smaller in size, and safer...it has advantages that steam engines cannot match.
In the future, textile machines and lathes will definitely use more efficient motors.
As long as power plants are set up in industrial areas to provide power for these factories, the factories can be operated.
The time to return to China is getting closer and closer, and Xu Shou has been going on study tours more frequently recently. He collects books and visits some scientists. Before leaving Europe, he wants to try to bring more knowledge back.
The revolution in information transmission has brought significant changes to battlefield command.
In the past, the commander on the battlefield was the absolute person in control of the battle, but after more efficient news dissemination channels were established.
Those in power on the home front began to have the opportunity to directly intervene in the war.
Especially a proud monarch like Napoleon III.
He thought that like his uncle, he was possessed by the God of War. In fact, he had never been on the battlefield a few times.
It's no wonder that Bellesier would openly disobey his orders. Moreover, this somewhat rebellious behavior was collectively supported by the entire officer class of the French army.
On June 6 of the Western calendar, the coalition forces launched the Battle of Mamillon.
Mamillon is located between the Sevastopol Fortress and the French front. Capturing Mamillon became the top priority of the coalition forces.
Because starting from Mamillon, the British army can attack the Fort and the French army can attack the Malakoff Fortress.
The battle began with an artillery battle. Under the cover of the artillery, 5,000 Renaissance troops and 3,000 French engineers began to dig trenches toward Mamillon from 500 yards away. The trenches they dug were not deep, as long as they could allow the soldiers to bow.
In this case, you can hide yourself completely.
The Tsarist Russians also discovered this situation, but their artillery and muskets could not shoot the opponent's engineers.
The trenches are in a "Z" shape as a whole, which can effectively reduce the possibility of Russian artillery shells falling into the trenches. With so many people, they dug a total of ten trenches and moved forward simultaneously. Horizontal trenches were dug every fifty meters to separate these trenches.
Parallel forward trenches are connected.
It was as if a big net had been woven in front of the Russian army's position, ready to catch all the Tsarist Russian troops in the position.
In the Russian army's position, the officers and soldiers watched helplessly as the coalition forces on the opposite side vigorously waved their engineering shovels, and everything they saw was flying soil.
Berichier had great expectations for this operation, and he couldn't help but take a high look at the very strong Chinese commander.
All the soldiers were divided into three squads and took turns digging soil to ensure that the soldiers always had sufficient physical strength.
Because of this scientific arrangement, the trench was dug very quickly. The soldiers could dig about fifty meters almost every hour.
The front of the trench was already two hundred meters away from the Russian army's position.
Based on Liu Qingnan's suggestion, Berichier sent infantry to cover behind the engineers to prevent a surprise attack by the Russian army.
Sure enough, the Russian army rushed out of the position under artillery fire, preparing to prevent the engineers from continuing to dig trenches, which was exactly what the coalition wanted.
The infantrymen, who had long been hidden in the position, stuck their heads out of the trench, and after the Russian army broke out of the position, they fired intensively at the opponent.
The Russian army suffered heavy casualties and could not get close to the trench. The remaining people had to retreat.
The trenches continued to be dug, but the Russian army had no way to resolve them.
If it were not for relying on its own positions, the Russian army would not be a match for the coalition forces at all.
At this time, the Russian army could only wait for the coalition forces to attack and then fight hand-to-hand with them at close range.
The trench was dug to a distance of thirty meters from the Russian army.
Boxes of grenades were moved to the front line. The grenade used by the coalition forces had no handle and was just a black iron ball.
At a distance of thirty meters, many coalition grenadiers can throw grenades to the Russian position.
With a whistle, grenades were thrown into the Russian positions and trenches one after another.
The explosive soil covered the wooden spikes in the Russian trenches, and blew away the Russian soldiers waiting in the position preparing for hand-to-hand combat.
What cannons can't do, grenades can do.
A total of 30,000 grenades were prepared by the coalition forces for this attack. The grenadiers' throwing arms were numb, and each of them had to throw ten grenades before they were replaced.
The Russian army was caught off guard by the bombing. Their commander had no idea that the coalition forces had gone to great lengths to dig such long trenches just to throw grenades before they could assault the position.
There has never been a war like this in the history of European warfare.
What Liu Qingnan was thinking was that if he had mortars, he wouldn't have to go through so much trouble.
If the Russian army had mortars, they would not have to worry about the enemy relying on trenches to advance.
To put it bluntly, weapons limit what officers can think about in war.
Whether it is the Allied Forces or the Russian Army, their understanding of artillery is still in the Napoleonic era.
Belisier smiled and said to Liu Qingnan: "General Liu, thank you very much for coming up with such a good idea. Your idea saved the lives of thousands of coalition soldiers."
"Thank you, General. With the strength of the coalition forces, the failure of the Russian army is doomed." The new French marshal took good care of the Renaissance Army, which made Liu Qingnan feel a little better about him.
At this time, on the battlefield, the grenadiers had thrown tens of thousands of grenades.
No matter how many Russian troops were killed in the bombing, at least the fortifications in front of the Russian army's formation have been changed beyond recognition, and the original wooden walls have become sparse.
Both sides of the trench collapsed and turned into gentle slopes. The collapsed soil reached the bottom of the trench.
The coalition infantry, which had been prepared long ago, lined up in the horizontal trench.
Liu Qingnan admired these Europeans' persistence in line formation. It seemed that they would not be able to fight without formation.
Liu Qingnan did not want to comment on this, nor would he remind them.
Although their rifles are still muzzle-loading guns, they can already shoot accurately at long distances. In fact, there is no need to rely on line formation to improve the hit rate of shooting.
At an order, the infantrymen of both armies rushed towards the Russian position with guns raised.
There were no living Russian troops in the front-line positions. The coalition forces easily overcame the obstacles this time and defeated the Russian army's first-line positions.
At this time, the Russian reinforcements were coming to support the front-line positions. The Russian infantry lost its terrain advantage and was completely at a disadvantage when facing the coalition's rifled rifles.
At this time, the Russian artillery began to fire, causing some damage to the coalition forces. The artillery that had been moved up by the coalition forces also opened fire immediately.
After an hour of fighting, Mamillon was completely occupied by the coalition forces. The Russian army dropped more than 10,000 corpses on this position. The specific number of casualties was far higher than this.
The coalition forces only suffered more than a thousand casualties.
This is the moment when the coalition forces captured an important position of the Russian army in the shortest time since the battle for the fortress began.
After this battle, the French army occupied Mamillon and the British army advanced to the front of the Fort.
The Russians organized a counterattack but failed. Belisier claimed that he only received the emperor's telegram after the capture of Mamillon.
The emperor ordered Belisier to launch a field campaign against the Russian troops on the periphery. Belisier replied to the emperor that this was impossible. He asked the emperor to allow him to take actions that were consistent with the actual battlefield conditions, otherwise he would resign.
While Belisier awaited the emperor's reply, he planned a new offensive.
This battle gave the coalition forces a great geographical advantage, and the capture of the Sevastopol Fortress seemed to be just around the corner.
On June 17, 1855, the fourth artillery bombardment by the Allied forces began. The British army planned to capture the Fort and the French army aimed at the Malakoff Fortress.
The Russian army knew about the attack in advance, and even knew about the quarrel between Belisier and Bosquet and Belisier's detailed plan to advance the attack to 3 a.m.
The French army suffered heavy casualties after the attack began, and Belisier ordered a retreat at 8:30 in the morning.
The British army fared equally badly. The troops were severely wounded by grapeshot and musket bullets as they crossed a quarter-mile of open ground. The British suffered 1,500 casualties, while the French suffered 1,500 killed and 1,600 wounded.
The failure of this operation was a heavy blow to Lord Raglan mentally, and he was already feeling exhausted. On June 14, 1855, General Escott announced that Lord Raglan was suffering from severe dysentery.
The coalition forces organized all the attending doctors from several field hospitals to consult and treat Lord Raglan.
A total of more than a dozen doctors participated in the consultation. Dr. Liu from the Fuxing Army Field Hospital also attended the consultation.
He was allowed to take the Lord's pulse. A rapid onset of dysentery had severely overdrafted Lord Raglan's body, and he was severely dehydrated.
Almost all European doctors were unable to do anything about this. Their previous practice was to give patients laudanum, which was made by mixing opium and high alcohol. It could relieve the patient's pain and stop diarrhea.
But this is only effective for patients with good physical fitness. These doctors can see that the Lord's physical condition is very bad.
So no one dared to suggest this.
Finally, Dr. Liu stood up and proposed to add salt water to His Majesty first, and then add allicin through infusion to reduce inflammation and sterilization. At the same time, he would use Chinese medicine to stop diarrhea.
The British were originally very repulsive to traditional Chinese medicine, but recently, the Fuxing Army's field hospitals have cured many wounded people.
Moreover, the infection mortality rate of the wounded in Fuxing Army field hospitals is the lowest among several field hospitals.
Finally, the Lord decided to agree with Dr. Liu's suggestion.
He was transferred to the field hospital of the Renaissance Army. This was the first time for the British commander to visit the camp of the Renaissance Army.
He has always looked down upon these Chinese soldiers. After all, the Chinese army was defeated by the British Empire more than ten years ago.
Dr. Liu first delivered saline and glucose to Lord Raglan.
Glucose was first purified from raisins in 1747 by the German chemist Margrave and named in 1838.
Fuxing Army Hospital has discovered that this simple sugar can be directly absorbed by the body through the blood and can provide energy to patients.
Of course, Dong Shuheng’s contribution is part of this.
After two bottles of water were delivered to his body, Lord Raglan felt his body gradually gain strength.
At this time, he fully cooperated with Dr. Liu's treatment. He was even willing to accept unpleasant Chinese medicine.
The bigger a man is, the more he fears death. Between life and pride, he obviously chooses life.
After several days of treatment, Lord Raglan's health gradually improved. When the news came out, it shocked the entire coalition, and even the morale that had been low due to the previous failure was restored.
Moreover, with the promotion of the Fuxing Army and Wang Tao, the news spread throughout Europe in a short period of time.
The article "Miracle Chinese Medicine Saves Lord Raglan's Life" was published on the front page of The Times.
This article first introduces to people the serious condition of dysentery that Lord Raglan was suffering from at that time, which basically sentenced him to death.
Then, it describes how Chinese doctors stepped forward and took the initiative to undertake Lord Raglan's treatment mission in a crisis situation.
The treatment process is also very clearly described, and some new drugs appear in front of everyone for the first time.
The people will only watch the excitement. The Chinese, whom everyone looked down upon before, are so advanced in medical skills. This is what attracts ordinary people.
However, the European medical community was shocked by this, like a magnitude 10 earthquake.
Many people are already planning to go to China to study medicine.
After all, it is the pursuit of every doctor to become increasingly sophisticated in medical skills.
ps: Let Chinese medicine rule the world! Come on＾0＾~I would like to thank the old book friend Qin001 for never giving up.