"The British's first major sweep caused us huge losses, mainly because we were underestimated in the cruelty of the struggle, and were blinded by previous victories. The leadership, including me, had an unshirkable responsibility for this failure.

In fact, we have not seen this British set before. In Toulon training camp, when conducting the battle training on the map, Comrade Joseph used similar means to cause us great losses when he played the British army.

After such an experience, many people, including me, still took this approach lightly, so that during the first major raid of the enemy, the people and the revolutionary team suffered huge losses. This is a crime. "Russell's "Memoirs of the Revolutionary War"

After the Duke of Norfolk's army was launched, the Irish Federation was indeed somewhat inadequate at the beginning. The terrain in central Ireland was mainly plains and there were only a few hills. Due to long-term development, there were no large areas of forests in these places, which made it particularly difficult to transfer the masses.

In Toulon, Joseph proposed some solutions for them, such as digging tunnels. However, the digging tunnels did not be implemented well. This is because Ireland is rainy, the soil layer is not upright, and the groundwater level is high. In many places, not to mention digging tunnels, even digging a trench, groundwater will seep out. There are only those slightly higher hills that can barely be dug a less complicated hiding hole.

But the masses don’t really have nowhere to hide. Also because of the heavy rainfall, there are swamps of all sizes everywhere in the plains of Ireland. These swamps are quite dangerous, with bottomless mud everywhere. People who are not familiar with these places, if they step on the wrong place, they can basically say goodbye to this beautiful world.

However, if you make careful preparations in advance, it is not impossible to enter the swamp to hide. Of course, this requires the preparer to take a lot of risks, and requires very serious preparations from personnel to materials.

Therefore, after the battle training for the operation on Toulon's map, when reviewing the problem, Joseph also proposed to use the swamp to resettle the refugee people. After discussion, everyone thought that this method was quite feasible. However, before this big sweep, almost no one had made serious preparations for this.

So when the noose of the big sweep began to tighten, the Irish began to suffer major losses.

Company Commander Taphoton once again saw the Irish village that made him flee in a panic last time, leaving him with a nightmare memory. But this time, he no longer came here with a team of cavalry. Around him, there were thousands of troops, cavalry, infantry, and artillery.

"The artillery aims at the target and is ready to shoot with arson bullet!" This kind of command came from the ear of the company commander Taphoton. Yes, the arson bullet is fired. After learning the relevant lessons, the British did not intend to enter the village at all. First, use arson bullets to burn the entire village. During the fire, most of the arrangements in the village were invalid.

There are no white phosphorus incendiary bombs, napalm bombs or aluminum thermal incendiary bombs in this era. Of course, there are exceptions for a certain research institute. The so-called arson bomb is actually to burn an iron ball red first, and then fire it at the target with a cannon, thus causing a fire.

Of course, the effect of this arson bomb is far less than that of the crazy things in later generations. If the other party's buildings were not mainly wooden buildings, but brick and stone structures, or even rammed earth structures, this arson bomb would have almost no effect. So this thing has always been used by the navy, (the ship opposite must be wooden structures). Almost no one in the army would use such things to fight. However, the houses of Irish farmers are really wooden structures, so these arson bombs are quite suitable for use here.

With the shelling, smoke began to rise in the villages over there. Soon, orange-red flames emerged. The spacing between houses in this type of village was very small, and the flames could easily burn from one house to another, and the entire village quickly burned.

No one or other animals came out of the burning village, and it seemed that the villagers had already moved.

Near the village, there is a not particularly large forest. This is also the source of firewood that farmers in the village burn every day. If the people in the village go wherever they hide, then this forest should be the most likely place to hide. The last time when Company Commander Tahuidun came here, he had only a team of cavalry around him, and there was nothing he could do about this forest. If he dared to enter the woods that time, he would only die more.

But this time the situation was different. In front of an army of thousands of people, such a forest was really small. What's more, the woods in Ireland were different from some of the woods in the south. They were relatively empty and less likely to hide.

Company Commander Taphoton received the order, and his cavalry was responsible for guarding the woods near the woods, ready to attack the Irish people who escaped from the woods, while other infantrymen spread out in straggling formations and entered the woods.

Soon, there were shouts, gunshots and the explosion of the little melons came from the woods, and there was obviously a firefight in the woods. Soon, Company Commander Taphoton discovered that a group of people ran out of the woods and fled aimlessly to all directions.

"It's the Irish rebels! Chase them and kill them all, no one left!" Company Commander Tahuidun ordered, and at the same time he activated the war horse under his crotch, pulled out the revolver at his waist, and chased after him.

Many of the people who escaped from the forest were women and children, but the British cavalry didn't care about these things. They chased after them, shot with revolvers, hit them with war horses, and slashed them with sabers, and quickly wiped out hundreds of "rebels".

At this time, the battle in the woods had ended. The British army fought fiercely with the "trained Irish rebels" in the woods. They suffered considerable casualties, but they also killed many rebels. Among them, there were nearly twenty "elite rebels" equipped with revolvers and rifles. As for the "trained male rebels" holding dangerous weapons such as feces, there were more than one hundred people.

After the end of this battle, the things that could be burned in the village were basically burned out, and the fire gradually disappeared. With the commander's order, the soldiers cut off all the heads of the rebels, whether male or female, whether young or old, and then inserted sharp branches into the ruins of the village to shock those rebels who dared to resist the rule of the British Empire.

This village actually made retreat and hiding. Because the British army was moving very quickly, when Company Commander Taphoton and his friends arrived at the second village, the villagers there had not even had time to escape from the village.

Taphoton's cavalry company intercepted the villagers who had not had time to escape and stopped their escape. The British troops who arrived then kept the Irish women and children, tied up the men and locked them up and locked them up and into the only larger building in the village, a Catholic church.

These women and children will be used to explore the way when entering the next village. If they did not die in such a thing, they will finally deal with them when they completed the battle goal and withdrew. And the men who were locked up in the church, when the British army left, poured tinder oil on all sides of the church and lit a fire.

This scene was staged in many other Irish villages. According to the post-statistics of the Irish Federation, in this noose operation by the British, a total of 171 villages were burned and more than 10,000 people were killed. The Irish Independence Army also died in the battle to counterattack the British and protect the villagers. The founder and chairman of the Federation Ton also died gloriously because of the betrayal of traitors. It can be said that in this battle, the Irish suffered a very heavy blow. Even if it were not for the beacon of freedom and democracy in Europe and the timely support of the French Big Brother, there would be another heroic tragedy in the history of the Irish people.

Taking advantage of the opportunity that the Irish Federation was severely weakened, the Duke of Norfolk quickly implemented his system with a steel-like wrist. In the city, a new certificate system began to be implemented, and anyone who did not go out with a "good citizen certificate" would be severely punished. The first whip, the second hard labor, and if there was a third time, it would be the gallows being summoned.

The new Baojia system was also implemented. Because the revolution was frustrated, some less determined speculators began to surrender to the enemy. Many people who tended to the Federation, or simply the Federation's spies were sent to the gallows, and the rest were basically cut off. According to the successor Mr. Russell, Mr. Russell, said: "Almost all of our work in the city has been lost."

"How long can the flag of Irish independence be fought?" This question has been heavily pressed on the hearts of every warrior of the union.

At this critical moment, several remaining senior officials of the Federation held an emergency meeting on a brand new French high-speed communication ship called "Independence". It is said that a French friend with a secret identity also attended the meeting. At the meeting, the French friend made some suggestions to the Irish warriors who insisted on fighting and told them that they did not fail and that the French people would support them more than they are now. Not only weapons, but also military advisers.

It was also on this ship that the United Irish Federation re-elected a new leadership body and formulated plans for the next phase.

"In this grand sweep, we suffered huge losses. The comrades of the Federation flowed into blood, and the Irish people were corpses piled up like mountains. However, revolutionaries could not kill them! We buried the comrade's corpses, wiped the blood from our bodies, picked up the knife, raised the gun, and started an unyielding and continuous battle again." Russell's "Memoirs of the Revolutionary War"
Chapter completed!