Chapter 39 From Aspen Pass to Figueres City (Part 2)
In the early morning of July 1, 1794, the morning mist on the high mountains was like silver waves, spreading between the mountains and steep mountains. At 6 o'clock in the morning, as the warm sun slowly rose, the thick fog gradually dissipated. When the first ray of light spread to the Pyrenees, the war began.
The Spanish defenders on the Ass Pass opened their eyes in a daze under the urging of the officers on duty. They climbed out of bed, stuffed some food and cold water randomly, and walked lazily towards the fortress wall with rifles on their backs. There, they were about to replace their companions who had been on duty all night.
But before they could go far, they found that something was wrong, because their previous companions lost their cheers and scoldings to those who came later.
"The Messenger of God!"
"Damn lazy!"
"San Diego's coward!"
Topics like … are replaced by silence and silence.
Because all the soldiers gathered on the side where they could look out to the French border and looked down on the city wall, it was not difficult to find all kinds of expressions such as surprise, anxiety, panic and fear on their faces.
Dunia is an old corporal in her 40s. After resting for a night, he staggered and ran to take over. When he saw all the strange actions of the soldiers, Dunia's heart sank. He put down his rifle and ran to the city wall, and tried hard to pull away a few guys in front of him. He looked at him. That was the thing he didn't want to see that was finally going to happen.
Under the hillside, countless military flags fluttered in the wind. Under the army flags made of red, white and blue were lined up with fully armed green soldiers. The soldiers were motionless. Whether it was the cold wind blowing from the mountain pass or the moisture sent ashore from the Mediterranean, they had never wavered in the slightest from the soldiers wearing thin clothes. Only a few people who seemed to be communicating officials ran around in front of the formation. From the analysis of the soldiers' arrangement and area, the sophisticated Dunia concluded that their number was at least not less than 20,000, and they were all elite soldiers with rich combat experience.
It was Sergeant Dunia who first reported it. He rolled and crawled to the fortress commander's residence, knocking violently on the door and shouting loudly:
"General, General Adams! French, French are about to start attacking!"
"Damn Frenchman!" General Adams, 32, cursed inwardly. As a responsible officer, Adams, who had just returned from the night patrol, only slept for 2 hours, but the military mission made the general jump out of the bed immediately. He didn't have time to dress neatly, and beat the door with only a coat. Without saying a word, he ran to the fortress wall with the sergeant.
General Adams and Sergeant Dunia shouted out the Spanish soldiers watching from the fortress and ordered them to take their place and prepare for battle. The two then lay on the low wall and watched the situation of the enemy under the hillside. However, what made General Adams a little confused was that the huge French army (division) regiment in front of him did not deploy any artillery positions.
"It's strange, why didn't heavy artillery positions be built around the French battlefield? Is Andrew Butcher wants his soldiers to rush up with bare hands to die?" Adams said to himself, and no longer thought about it. He ordered Sergeant Dunia beside him: "Sergeant, order the commander of the heavy artillery positions to fire shells at the French positions immediately, trying to disrupt their formation."
"Yes, General!" Sergeant Dunia, who received the order, ran to the side of the fortress. But he quickly ran back and told the commander apologetically: "No launch, General Adams! The major said that the Frenchman's position was too far away from us, more than 2,000 meters away, all outside the effective range of heavy artillery. Damn Frenchman, it seems that they have carefully calculated it."
"What the hell do they want to do, sergeant, come and observe carefully to see if you can find the enemy's artillery position?" Adams handed the monocular to the sergeant and pointed in the direction below the mountain.
"No, I didn't see it, General! I can't hit them on it, and naturally the French artillery can't hit us!" Sergeant Dunia said with confidence.
"No, it must be wrong. What's the movement of the sentries on the two hills opposite? Why did they not have an early warning about the gathering of French troops?"
"No, they were in defense at 8 o'clock in the morning. Ah?! General, you mean the French put the artillery on the opposite high ground. Okay, I'll contact them immediately."
...
Obviously, Sergeant Dunia's work was futile. Just as he was about to run away and wanted to contact the Spanish mountain sentry that would never respond to him, the French artillery on the two high grounds each shot a row of shells and passed over the heads of the Spanish soldiers, falling down on the left and right sides of the fortress.
"Secret, hide quickly, you are fucking dead?" Sergeant Dunia shouted loudly at the soldiers around who wanted to look up.
The pieces of red-burned iron "hissed" and brittle, piercing through the vast and boundless, thick and liquid-like air. The shells were dragged so long that Sergeant Dunia, who was looking at them, suddenly felt a painful feeling of his body being burned and pierced, and his whole body shook. Then the iron blocks disappeared, and the city walls under him trembled violently.
Sergeant Dunia shook and, according to Commander Adams' request, ran to the main explosion site and found that the attack was a heavy artillery position on both sides of the fortress.
One side of the position was covered with shallow pits hit by huge solid bullets. A 16-pound cannon had suffered serious damage, and there was basically no damage to the rest. The gunners on the position were hidden in time, and only a few people were injured by the gravel splashed by the shells.
"Major, Major! General Adams ordered you to fight back immediately, targeting the French artillery positions on the two high grounds opposite the pass. It is rapid shooting." Sergeant Dunia quickly conveyed the orders of the fortress commander before the second round of artillery shells came.
"Yes." The artillery major replied immediately, urging the uninjured artillerymen back and forth to stand up immediately, preparing to proofread the launching direction and carry ammunition. Just as they aimed and were about to fill the first shell, two minutes after the French first round of test-fire, the second batch of shells still screamed from the sky above the forest.
When the dense whistling sounded in his ears, an urgent premonition of death followed in Sergeant Dunia's heart. He understood that the previous round was just a test shot by the French, and from now on, the battle at Ass Pass was truly started. As a veteran, Dunia, judging from the number of shells whistling from the opposite hill, the French arranged at least 200 artillery there, including at least 16 pounds of large caliber heavy artillery.
So he climbed up, and while the earth continued to shake violently, he quickly ran off the artillery position and hid in the trench under the fortress. That was when he understood that the French's second round of artillery fire target was the heavy artillery position, and in the future it would be the fortress itself. No matter how strong and compact the low fortress could not withstand the endless violent bombardment of 200 heavy artillery pieces. It was a matter of time before and after that. Thinking of this, Sergeant Dunia, who was hiding under the cover, touched the white juhua on his chest.
"It's still there!" The sergeant breathed a little relieved. This was the information he learned when he went down the mountain to pick up Major Rock back to the camp the day before yesterday. The major told him that the Andrew Devil opposite him publicly announced that any Spanish soldier would be executed regardless of whether he surrendered or not.
The sergeant continued to think about it, but the sound of shells flying and explosions became more dense and violent. After the five rounds of artillery fire, the heavy artillery on both sides of the fortress was beyond recognition. After more than a thousand heavy iron pieces, no artillery was intact. It was broken down into scrap metal, large and small pieces of scrap metal, and the momentum after the explosion was placed around. After the disintegration, there were still many pieces of clothes hanging on the cannons. The blood on them had already evaporated, but only pieces of burnt meat were still making a sizzling sound, which was the last remains of the gunners who had no time to escape. Before their death, hundreds of loyal gunners did not even make a cry for help from the door.
As Sergeant Dunia expected, the next target of the French artillery was changed to the main body of the fortress. After successfully eliminating the Spanish heavy artillery position, a new round of test firing began on the two high grounds opposite the mountain pass. Shortly after the shells landed, the sound of shells of various caliber and explosions gradually became a magnificent and majestic area, unable to tell each other or the order.
The earth was trembling violently. The seemingly hard rocks on the city wall trembled with the strong collision of huge solid bullets, first trembled with the earth's vibration, and then loosened. After a long time, the rocks that could no longer bear such load broke and exploded. Just 10 minutes later, the main building of the fortress gradually collapsed, and the large rocks split into countless small stones, smashing heavily to the heads of the soldiers' doors that wanted to run to the hidden trench in the trench, and all parts of the body. As the ground shook, the soldiers' bodies also trembled violently and soared violently. The soldiers who stayed on the fortress were most unlucky. Before they could react, the entire city wall collapsed with a "bang", burying everyone on it, including the injured Commander Adams who fell to the ground, all living under the pile of rocks.
The screams of the fallen men before they died, the loud cry of the wounded soldiers and the low prayers of the lucky ones were intertwined, and the whistling sounds of shells were combined, and the explosions were organized into a magnificent symphony of death.
...
Just as the Spanish were struggling to death, the French soldiers in green at the foot of the mountain were also shouting and cheering. In their eyes, the As Pass was like a huge torch, burning high, reflecting half of the Pyrenees red and bright. In the sense of the soldiers, it seemed that the Pass itself was approaching them a lot, and everything became clearer. One round of shells was still falling into the torch and exploded, followed by a lot of soil. The stones and branches rose up with the smoke and dust, and then slowly fell in the brilliant background of the fire. The shells fell one after another, and the rise and fall of smoke, soil, stones and branches also rose and fell one after another. Such a picture was not only spectacular, but also thrilling!
As early as 30 minutes before the official war began, Andrew, accompanied by the guards, climbed up to the left high ground of the Ass Pass and looked through the telescope at the shelling effect hundreds of meters away.
"Report to Commander, General Massena at the foot of the mountain requested your next instructions." A messenger rushed over after receiving the flag words, stood attentively and reported loudly.
"What, what?" Obviously, the loud noise of the artillery fire covered the voice of the commander. It was not until his subordinates strode that Andrew understood the meaning. At this time, the sound of artillery on both sides gradually subsided a lot. It was the gunners who were using preparatory water bags to cold compress the excessively heated gun chamber.
"How many cardinalities have been fired?" Andrew stipulated for the artillery that each cardinality represents 25 shells.
"There are two total bases, commander!"
"Tell General Massena that he is the commander of the front enemy, and all attack orders should be issued by him, not me, Andrew. In addition, I have asked that all the Spanish people at Ass Pass must fall before they can be dispatched. But in front of me, the figure of the Spanish defenders can still be seen." Andrew ordered coldly.
"Yes, general, we must let all the Spaniards fall." The messenger repeated loudly.
Five minutes later, a new round of shelling began again, and this lasted for another 2 hours. At 10 o'clock in the morning, General Massena ordered an infantry battalion to attack.
When the French infantry shouted "Ula" and rushed to the Ass Pass, they did not suffer any resistance, and everything became so calm. But they had once seen scenes of terrible and dilapidated scenes in front of them. There were almost no complete trees, stones and corpses in the entire pass. The burning of broken branches and leaves were the bodies of the Spanish defenders split into countless parts and floating around.
Only 300 wounded soldiers fled back to Figueras in a panic. On the front line, Sergeant Dunia, who was hiding in the trench, was lucky enough to escape the disaster. While raising his hands, Dunia wore the white flowers in his hand in the most obvious position on his chest. The lucky Sergeant Dunia became the only prisoner in the artillery battle at Ass Pass.
Chapter completed!