Chapter 207: Like Wolves and Tigers
The first artillery shot is typically for ranging, especially with mortars firing indirect trajectories. Adjusting the muzzle angle based on the impact point of the ranging shell is a necessary step.
However, one shell still landed squarely within the pirates' defensive positions.
Though the explosive power of black powder wasn't immense, it knocked down only the two nearest pirates, but the shrapnel embedded in their chests and abdomens, splattering blood all over the pirates beside them.
Before the pirates could even react, the Guards Corps launched another round of shelling.
The gunners adjusted based on the previous error. This time, over half the shells accurately plummeted into the pirate ranks, instantly blossoming into more bursts of blood.
After several rounds of bombardment, a Major also disembarked onto the beach in a small boat.
He frowned, glancing at the port's artillery battery continuously spewing fire from the flank. Fortunately, the pirates' gunnery skills were poor; they hadn't directly hit the Guards Corps yet, but if this continued, they would eventually get lucky a time or two.
The Major immediately pointed towards the hundreds of pirates defending the beachhead and declared to the messenger officer:
“Launch an immediate assault.”
As the command flags rose and fell in quick succession, the Guards Corps' drummers moved to the very front of the formation, abreast with the company commanders, beating their drums as they marched forward.
The soldiers behind them advanced with synchronized steps, completely disregarding the pirates' sporadic musket fire.
Not a single man was hit until the first seven companies to land on the beachhead reached seventy paces from the pirates.
“Halt!”
The officers, following the command flag's signals, issued successive orders:
“Raise rifles!”
“Aim!”
“Fire!”
A dense volley of gunfire immediately erupted from the Guards Corps' line. On the pirates' side, screams instantly rose, and more than a dozen men toppled onto the sand.
The pirates, already disoriented by the earlier shelling, became even more chaotic. Their once intermittent gunfire dwindled to sparse, ragged shots.
The second rank of Guards Corps soldiers stepped forward three paces and, under their commander's order, fired another volley.
Advancing with such alternating volleys, the distance between them and the pirates quickly dwindled to less than forty paces.
The Guards Corps already outnumbered the pirates, used Percussion Cap Muskets with faster reloading and greater power, and possessed a training level far superior to these buccaneers. Consequently, under continuous crossfire, over a hundred pirates were killed, and the remaining ones began to abandon their positions.
Meanwhile, on the Guards Corps' side, only four or five unlucky soldiers were hit.
Finally, the pirates' psychological defenses were utterly shattered by the Guards Corps' disciplined, lethal, and overwhelmingly oppressive aura.
After another synchronized volley from hundreds of Auguste Pattern Percussion Rifles, four or five hundred pirates, wrapped in white turbans and wearing various colored half-robes, cried out, “It's over! All is lost! Run for your lives!” They threw down their weapons and turned to flee towards the town behind the port.
The Guards Corps quickly dismantled the spiked barricades. Simultaneously, more soldiers landed on the beach aboard fast boats, and then three 4-pounder Cannons were transported to the shore.
After a quick regrouping, two infantry battalions and an artillery company swiftly bypassed the slope behind the port's artillery battery, surrounding it from a distance.
By this time, the pirates around the battery had long since fled completely. Berthier had also landed on the coast, gazing relaxed at the artillery battery situated on the high ground, contemplating how to attack with minimal losses. An artillery battery without infantry cover wasn't actually formidable. It could be easily breached with a skirmisher assault, supplemented by artillery suppression.
Just then, several spirited young police academy officers rushed over, saluting with a touch of excitement:
“Sir, please allow us to seize the artillery battery!”
“We promise not to disappoint you!”
Berthier looked through his Telescope at the pirates on the battery, firing wildly and without discipline, and nodded:
“Very well, go earn your glory, lads!”
“Yes, sir!” The two young officers exchanged excited glances, quickly returned to their companies, and immediately, drums began to beat as the soldiers rapidly formed into more than a dozen assault columns.
At the same time, the three cannons began providing covering fire.
Not far away, Davout learned that the police cadets were about to launch a frontal assault and was instantly spurred by a competitive spirit, also requesting Berthier's permission to participate in taking the battery.
If Joseph had seen this scene, he would undoubtedly have exclaimed, 'What a Reckless Waste of Natural Resources!' 'This was Marshal Davout, one of Emperor Napoleon's three greatest marshals, being used for such a dangerous task as a frontal assault on an artillery battery!'
However, even the most renowned generals have their nascent periods. How could one gain extensive battlefield experience without being tempered in a hail of bullets? Even the young Davout was no exception.
This was also one of Joseph's key reasons for sending them to North Africa.
In fact, compared to Europe, the intensity of the North Africa battlefield was far lower, making it the safest place to accumulate practical combat experience.
After a brief moment of thought, Berthier agreed to the freshly graduated officer's request, assigning him and another company to provide covering fire behind the police cadets. If the cadets failed to penetrate the battery, they would launch the second wave of attack.
Davout rushed back to his company with utmost speed, leading his soldiers to rendezvous with the police cadets tasked with the frontal assault, forming a skirmisher formation to follow them from the flank and rear.
Soon, the column led by two companies of police cadets charged up the slope, heading straight for the pirates' artillery battery at the top.
The pirates also noticed the Guards Corps' movement and hastily mobilized over 150 men, pouring out of the battery to form a panicked line on the slope. This was all the force they had within the battery.
Completely unlike what's portrayed in films and TV shows, if defenders simply hunkered down inside the artillery battery, attackers would quickly enter the cannons' blind spots, eventually chipping away at the battery's strongpoints.
The most rational defense was to tie down the enemy with infantry, leveraging the battery's firepower to inflict casualties, and ultimately repel them.
However, no sooner had the pirates' chaotic formation been haphazardly arranged than two hundred police cadets had already charged within seventy to eighty paces of them. Though the cannons on the battery had fired incessantly, the pirates' terrible aiming meant few shells actually hit them.
The pirates below the battery had fired only two volleys when they heard the police cadets shouting, “In the name of the Crown Prince!” as they charged straight at them, bayonets fixed to their rifles.
Davout, meanwhile, ordered his soldiers to unleash a full, covering volley.
The Tunisian navy might be capable of bullying merchant sailors, but faced with such an overwhelmingly formidable and fearless elite force, they couldn't even muster a shred of resistance.
The defensive line instantly collapsed. The pirates howled as they fled back to the battery, but even more couldn't escape in time, forced to drop their weapons and kneel in surrender.
These coastal defense batteries were usually built on very high ground, but the battery itself wasn't typically very tall, usually only about two stories high.
Davout watched, red-eyed with envy, as the police cadets scrambled up the battery like hungry wolves, occasionally tossing down pirate corpses. 'That was the supreme glory of being the first to breach an enemy stronghold, and it was simply not meant for me...'
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