To be fair, Liu Yongfu and Tang Jingsong's pre-war preparations were not careless at all.

As an important town in northern Vietnam, Shanxi city has high walls and thick walls. The entire defense system is a double-layer city wall defense structure, forming a huge concentric circle. The outer brick wall is five meters high, forming a four-sided city silhouette of three or four hundred meters in height. In order to prevent invaders from climbing the city, Liu Yongfu also ordered the defenders to insert bamboo piles with two meters of outer protruding and cross-connected crosses on the city wall!

There is a circular arrow tower with a diameter of 30 meters in the center of each city wall. The shooting range of the Hakis machine gun or Green gun equipped in the arrow tower can cover the stone bridge deck on the entire moat.

There is a tower up to 18 meters high in the city as a commanding height to overlook the whole city. This is Liu Yongfu's command center.

Outside the city wall, there is a moat about twenty meters wide and three meters deep, with mud and water pouring more than one meter deep inside. Even if the outer contour is broken, there is a earthy female wall four to five meters high in the city, with gun holes on the wall and a water injection moat of five meters wide outside the wall. The ditch is covered with sharp dry bamboo antlers. There is also a slope between the ditch walls of three to four meters wide, with green bamboos of eight to ten meters high growing on the slope.

The city was made strong, and it was not spared outside the city.

All villages and temples outside the city were reinforced as strongholds with shooting holes. Even the river bank five kilometers north of the city was reinforced by the defenders to form a very solid fortress. In the Fusha Village near the Honghe River inside the river bank, six bronze cannons with bunkers were installed in its fortifications, and all firearms could be used to straversely strafing the Honghe River. In addition, a solid artillery fortress was arranged on the bank of the Honghe River, with a built-in 160mm heavy artillery and a Haqikas machine gun.

In the view of Liu Yongfu and Tang Jingsong, if the French army wanted to attack Shanxi from the water route, they would definitely be placed in the fierce crossfire network of the defenders.

After reading the fortifications, Liu Shaoqing asked again: "How strong are the troops in the city?"

Liu Yongfu said: "The Yunnan Army, Guangdong Army, and Guangxi Army have a total of more than 2,300 battalions. There are also 7,000 Vietnamese official troops originally stationed in Shanxi. Huang Zuoyan, the commander of Tokichi, still had two thousand Vietnamese troops left. The others are ours."

Liu Shaoqing nodded: "In addition to Huang Zuoyan's army, who had a strong personal relationship with his father, could still rely on auxiliary tasks such as maintaining the food routes of the rear, the 7,000 Vietnamese official troops in Shanxi were determined to be unreliable. Now the Vietnamese court has surrendered to the French, and the edict to expel the Black Flag Army has been passed on to the towns of Tonki. If these 7,000 Vietnamese troops can remain neutral when the French army attacks, it would be enough not to attack the French army inside and outside."

Liu Yongfu also knew that this was the truth. He just reported these 7,000 people to be brave enough for himself. "So, what do you think, Qing army?"

Liu Shaoqing said: "My father had been with them for a longer time and should have a better understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Qing army. If these Gui, Yunnan and Guangdong army were useful, why should the court support us with a rush?"

"So, only ours are more than 5,000 people?"

Liu Shaoqing nodded, "At least, in the eyes of the child, this is the case."

On December 11, information was heard from the detailed works walking in Hanoi. The French army had more than 6,000 men, seven gunboats, three motorboats, and more than a dozen sailboats and tugboats responsible for transporting soldiers and artillery left Hanoi and rushed to Shanxi in a mighty manner.

Liu Yongfu's last trace of luck was shattered.

I don’t know whether Liu Yongfu should be proud or lamented his bad luck. Courbet obviously regarded him as a more serious threat than the Qing army in Beining. Although the number of Qing troops stationed in Beining at this time had increased to fifty-eight battalions, Courbet still didn’t take it seriously. In the end, the facts proved that Courbet was correct.

When Liu Yongfu learned that the French army had dispatched 6,000 troops this time, he asked Liu Shaoqing privately: "By the city limits, can my more than 5,000 people stop the French army?"

Liu Shaoqing looked around and said quietly: "This is not a question of being unable to stop, but a question of why you should block, whether you should block, and how to block. Father, our advantage is that guerrilla tactics that are mobile and flexible, fight when you can fight, and walk when you cannot fight, is the kingly way we should adhere to. In this way, we can avoid their sharpness, attack their laziness, use our strengths, and attack the enemy's shortcomings. Simple position defense is equivalent to putting ourselves in a passive position to be beaten. For those who are at a disadvantage in all aspects such as weapons, personnel, logistics, etc., giving up movement, giving up attack, and waiting for enemies with far stronger firepower to attack. This kind of idea is very dangerous!"

"And why should we be cannon fodder for the Qing court and sacrifice our life to help them stop the French? It would be fine if we had a cheaper fight. This battle is obvious, so why are we still fighting here?"

Liu Yongfu was a little confused by his son's words, "Didn't this... Isn't it agreed to stick to it?"

Liu Shaoqing said: "Persistence is only temporary. Don't worry, father, the child will choose a suitable opportunity to let us withdraw from the battle. Of course, before this, the French cannot be comfortable."

Liu Yongfu thought for a while, "Okay, I will listen to you for my father."

Afterwards, Liu Yongfu and Tang Jingsong and Tang Jiong briefly discussed it. Facing the overwhelming military, in order to inspire the morale of their team, Liu Yongfu and Tang Jingsong and Tang Jiong jointly issued a reward notice: kill the heads of local white soldiers in France, each reward of five taels of silver, and those with armbands - referring to officers - add twenty taels of silver for each painting; kill the heads of mercenary soldiers in Algeria "Zu Af" and each reward of fifty taels of silver; kill the heads of Cambodia and Vietnamese mercenary soldiers in each painting, and twenty taels of silver for each painting.

This time, Liu Yongfu stopped taking prisoners. Of course, this money was not paid by Liu Yongfu, it was to be calculated separately by the Qing court.

At the same time, Liu Yongfu asked Tang Jingsong and Tang Jiong to send a letter together, asking Xu Yanxu to send troops from Beining to support him, and asked Xu Yanxu to arrange for the Beining defenders to attack and harass the rear and flanks of the French army, thinking that they would restrain him.

Now Liu Yongfu has done his best, but the opponent he faces is not the second-toned wave slip, but the only remaining military talent in France since the French-Prussian War.

Compared to Liu Yongfu, who was short of military strength and weapons, Courbet was obviously more prepared.

In order to successfully attack Shanxi, Courbet first conducted a careful exploration of the Red River channel and finally found a route that can be used for gunboats in December. This means that gunboats with strong firepower can enter and exit the Red River at will within this range, providing heavy fire support to the attacking French army.

Moreover, Courbet learned from the previous several gunboat use and modified the gunboats of the "Tokyo Team" - equipped each gunboat with a number of Hakikas machine guns, strengthening melee firepower. This left Liu Shaoqing's original "mine tactic" no longer available.

On December 13, 1883, two large armies of Courbet and land gathered in Shanxi. At 9 a.m. the next day, the offensive and defensive battle in Shanxi officially started.

This time, Courbet planned to crush the Black Flag Army entirely with his troops and firepower! The French land column, commanded by Colonel Belan, first attacked the Fusha Village Fortress in the east of the river bank fortress under the cover of the fierce naval guns of the Tokyo team and the five-barrel artillery of the Hakikas. The two land battalions of the Water column attacked the river bank fortress under the command of Colonel Seymouron.

‘Boom…boom…’

The French cannons were bombarded for at least ten minutes. After the conventional firepower preparations were carried out in advance, the French two Algerian infantry battalions began to charge towards the Fusha Village Fortress.

On the city tower, Liu Shaoqing was next to Liu Yongfu, holding a telescope and observing the situation on the battlefield.

"I'll go! What are the Guangdong Army doing? Are they fighting a war?"

Even though he had already scored a very low score on the combat capabilities of the Qing army's green camp soldiers in his heart, Liu Shaoqing was still completely defeated when he saw the actual combat status of the Guangdong army.

At this time, the two battalions of the Guangdong Army were stationed in Fusha Village. Faced with the French army's attack, even with strong fortifications, the Guangdong Army, which had no combat effectiveness, could not resist it.

In fact, the Guangdong army did not seem to be fighting at all. They hid their entire bodies in a trench more than one meter deep, and only stretched out one arm to release the gun. The Buddha who bought cakes was a spear, and he hit it with one hand? Do you think your underwear was worn outside? I don’t know where the bullets were hit, so how could it block the French attack?

Putting the Guangdong Army here was also a helpless move by Liu Yongfu, because the Black Flag Army, which had stronger combat power, needed to defend the more important river embankment line. Otherwise, the French army that controlled the river embankment could adjust the gunboats of their "Tokyo Team" to bombard the entire Shanxi city unscrupulously - its terrifying and dense firepower could turn the fortifications that the Shanxi defenders worked hard into scorched earth.

"No! If you attack the Fusha Village Fortress like this, you will be unable to support it immediately!" Liu Yongfu, who was in charge of the 18-meter-high tower, could not bear it anymore. "Transfer my order and let Huang Shouzhong's two battalions come and fight back immediately!"

It has to be said that Liu Yongfu, who had been through many battles, chose a very high counterattack point. About a thousand Black Flag Army directly inserted between the French army on land and the water gunboat to attack sideways. For a moment, the fierce artillery fire from the French Inland Fleet suddenly lost its target and ceased fire one after another - fearing that they would hurt their own people by chance.

"Well? The Black Flag Army fought back?" Courbet's reaction was not slow either. "Send a flag and order the land column to stop attacking and turn to defense on the spot!"

"yes!"

Soon, the French army adjusted its combat situation and quickly turned to on-site defense. At this time, the modification value of the gunboats of the Tokyo detachment was fully reflected.

In the mast plate installed on the warship masts, the gunners of the machine gunners were shaking the handles on the 37mm five-barrel machine guns with great effort, driving the five gun barrels to rotate at high speed. Suddenly, dense firepower splashed at the rushing Black Flag Army.
Chapter completed!