The Fox of France

Chapter 435: Pressure

"Colonel Edward Stanford," General Wilson said, "You've been in Ireland for several years now. What's the longest consecutive fog you've encountered?"

"Probably three or four days. I don't remember the specifics too clearly," Colonel Edward Stanford replied.

"If it's three or four days, we should be able to hold out," General Wilson said. "By using ammunition liberally, we should manage at least two weeks. In two weeks, we can still call for reinforcements—even if there's a week-long fog, we can hold out until reinforcements arrive."

Colonel Edward Stanford understood General Wilson's reasoning. For General Wilson, abandoning a potential significant military achievement due to weather conditions was out of the question. Moreover, Colonel Edward Stanford also thought General Wilson's plan made sense. His earlier suggestion was more about appearing prudent. In the British Army, there was a slight difference in ethos compared to the Navy. In the Navy, they preferred officers to be passionate and somewhat reckless, but in the Army, especially above the rank of captain, being conservative was seen as more reliable.

But now that the general had expressed determination, everyone naturally showed support. And then everyone went back to arrange the defense.

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After repelling the Irish attack, the British naturally had to consolidate their defenses quickly. They had to repair the barbed wire, and even lay new mines. However, those damn dishonorable French had supplied the equally dishonorable Irish rebels with some vicious things, such as rifles using smokeless powder, equipped with telescopic sights, and dressed in colorful, patchwork clothes, the kind even beggars would disdain to wear, showing no sense of honor at all.

And these guys with such rifles and dressed like that would hide far away, shooting at British soldiers who came out to repair barbed wire or lay mines. And the Irish rebels' marksmanship was quite good; almost every shot hit someone.

Moreover, these Irish rebels were not only good shots but also exceptionally ruthless. Their first shot often wouldn't kill directly; they'd wound a British soldier, making him lie there bleeding and calling for help, then shoot down those trying to rescue the wounded—this was incredibly insidious.

Of course, some said these Irish rebels usually spoke French, and some even said those rifle-toting guys were downright damned Frenchmen. This kind of narrative had a market before the outbreak of hostilities. (At that time, these guys were already active in small-scale conflicts.) Because it was necessary to blame France in this way and maintain a psychological advantage over the Irish rebels—Irish people were so stupid; they couldn't possibly be this skilled.

But after the outbreak of hostilities, such propaganda diminished because the British quickly realized that this propaganda had an unexpected consequence—many soldiers felt dealing with the Irish was one thing, but if they were to encounter the French on the battlefield, they became somewhat apprehensive...

So, nowadays, the British army didn't publicize that those guys were French.

But whether publicized or not, these suspected Frenchmen caused some casualties to the British, disrupted their repair work, and greatly affected their morale. To drive these guys away, the British had to send cavalry, only to be hit by volleys from infantry positioned further away, and then hit by several rounds of "wild boar repellent" before being driven back.

Taking advantage of the absence of the cavalry, the British repaired some of the barbed wire and rescued the wounded soldiers—although rescuing them turned them into burdens without combat effectiveness, but not rescuing them would be devastating to morale.

As for replenishing the mines and hanging bells on the barbed wire, considering those rifle-toting guys were still outside, this wasn't something they could do in broad daylight; if they had to do it, they had to wait until nightfall.

Of course, when night fell, they couldn't do it either because the Irish came to attack again at night. Now, there were no minefields outside the barbed wire, and it was late at night before the moon came out, so as soon as the sun went down, it was pitch black around.

The Irish naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity because the decrease in visibility significantly reduced the effectiveness of the enemy's defenses and firepower. This was advantageous for the Irish, who were at a disadvantage in terms of firepower. In fact, in history, armies with high morale but inferior equipment or even at a disadvantage often liked to engage in night battles, such as certain Eastern countries' armies in later times. This trend persisted until the development of night vision technology, when it was reversed. And in this era, launching night attacks was also a common tactic for the Irish.

However, there was no fog at night, so visibility was actually better than in the morning, plus there were searchlights, so the British defense was somewhat more orderly than during the day. But those searchlights suffered an unexpected blow; it seemed the Irish had a rifle with an extremely long range specifically for shooting at searchlights, and the searchlights often went out at critical moments.

The Irish easily dealt with the barbed wire using mortars, and by this time, the British had begun using artillery to fire shrapnel to suppress the Irish charge. However, soon the British noticed something strange on the Irish side. They seemed to have dragged cannons to the front during the night. Suddenly, a fire burst out in the darkness, followed by booming cannon fire, and then... explosions would occur near the British artillery positions—damned Frenchmen, these were high-explosive shells!

In fact, these high-explosive shells didn't cause particularly large losses to the British, but they dealt a significant blow to British morale. Because the appearance of these things seemed to indicate that the Irish were more capable of assault than they had previously estimated. Originally prepared for one table of guests, they ended up with two tables; how could they handle this!

After a night of fighting, with the support of recoilless guns, the Irish surprisingly captured several positions, and even until dawn, the British couldn't drive them out—just one day, and several breaches appeared in the Aslon defense line.

The next day, the British launched a counterattack against these positions captured by the Irish. But the counterattack was not smooth, with significant casualties on both sides, and the British couldn't drive the Irish out of their positions. So, once again, the question of whether to call for reinforcements immediately arose.