Читать книгу The Battles of the World or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events онлайн

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The 2nd brigade of 1st Division of British troops, and a French brigade, formed the first landing party. A vigorous resistance had been expected at this place; and had a fair proportion of the means lavished on the defence of the Peiho been expended on the Pehtang river, we should have had great trouble, for by nature that position is certainly the stronger. The forts on either side, and the town which adjoins that on the right bank, are built on two molecules of solid ground, which have turned up, one does not know how, at a distance of five miles inland from the bar, which closes the entrance of the river, to even the smallest gunboats, save at high water. The town is surrounded by a sea of mud, impassable to horse or man, inundated at high tide; it is connected with the comparatively higher country bordering the Peiho by a narrow causeway, which a determined and skilful enemy could hold against any force whatever, until driven successively from positions which might be established on the causeway at every hundred yards. We found, on the night of the 1st August, that the forts were deserted, and that the guns with which they bristled were but wooden “Quakers.” Next day we occupied town and forts.