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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 664: Telegraph Building

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    At No. 8 Youfu West Street, Wulaocun Street, Qinhuai District, Tianjing, there stands a Western-style building. The building is a four-story Western-style brick wall building. It was built in 1856 and completed in 1857.  This is the office building of the Tianjing Telegraph Bureau, the capital of the Taiping Rebellion. In addition to office rooms, there is also a telegraph hall dedicated to providing civilian telegraph services.

    The telegraph office building faces south and has four floors above ground and one underground floor. It has a sloping roof and white walls. The people in Tianjing call it the Qinhuai White Building.  The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's top-secret telegram mailing and receiving room was located on the underground floor. This was done to prevent the telegraph office building from being bombarded when war broke out, so that normal transmission and reception of telegrams could be ensured on the underground floor.

    It was already late at night, and the telegraph office building was already dark, but the confidential telegraph room on the underground floor was brightly lit, with kerosene lamps hanging around, illuminating the entire basement.  Several confidential telegraph operators in the room were nervously receiving telegram messages from Shanghai and other places, and then translated them into Chinese according to the code book.

    Beside the desk, Zuo Zongtang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan, Xu Naizhao, Li Shourong and other important ministers of the Heavenly Kingdom who stayed in Tianjing gathered around here, anxiously waiting for the latest battle situation to be sent back from the front.

    After receiving the news that an anti-smuggling ship encountered a large number of British and French naval warships off the Yangtze River Estuary at around nine o'clock in the morning, Zuo Zongtang and others knew that the war had begun. For the powerful naval power of the British and French coalition, although they had already  Careful deployment and arrangements were made, but everyone in Heaven was still sweating. No one knew how the battle would turn out.

    At the same time, Zuo Zongtang and others are also eagerly waiting for the latest movements of the British and French navies in previous deductions.  After the British and French navies move south, there are four most likely targets to attack.  Tianjing, Zhenjiang, Shanghai, Dinghai.  Seizing the sea is a sure way to give the British and French navies a foothold.  The attack on Zhenjiang was also to gain a firm foothold and then threaten Shanghai or Tianjing. The attack on Shanghai was to save the concession first, and the attack on Tianjing was a desperate risk-taking operation by the British and French navies.

    Although it was unlikely that the British and French navies would attack Tianjing as soon as they arrived, Zuo Zongtang still wanted to be on the safe side and mobilized the Second Army stationed in Tianjing and a large number of rural soldiers to defend Tianjing. At the same time, he asked Queen Xi to go to Hangzhou.  Participating in the opening ceremony is to hope that Xi Wangniang, who is pregnant with Liujia, can avoid the war.

    At about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the latest battle report was sent back from the front. The British and French coalition forces were led by twenty-four warships.  Starting to break into Wusongkou, the remaining warships gathered near the Jigu Reef outside the Yangtze River Estuary. There was no sign of other ships breaking into the Yangtze River inland waterway.

    After receiving the news, Zuo Zongtang breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the British and French navies planned to open up the connection with the concession first. This was very consistent with the judgment of the staff. In this case, on the Huangpu River, the Taiping Army was already ready for the British and French navies.  A great gift.  Just waiting for them to come.  Zuo Zongtang then moved his office to the underground floor of the Telegraph Office, always waiting for news from the front.  The real-time transmission of messages by telegraph has quietly changed the Taiping Rebellion's command model between Shanghai and Tianjing.  In the past, it would take a day or two to send a message at the fastest. Now, as soon as the telegram is sent, the message can be received immediately.  Tianjing's various instructions can be transmitted to the front more quickly.

    Several subsequent telegrams jointly sent by Wang Kaiyun, Pan Qiliang and Tao Enpei all described the progress of the war.  According to the battle plan of the staff, when the British and French navies broke into Wusongkou.  The forts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will not fight back for the time being. They will wait for the British and French naval ships to break into the Huangpu River.  At night, the water ghost troops affiliated with the Coast Guard were dispatched to deploy mines. The mines deployed were mainly anchor mines to seal Wusong Pass. Then the upper reaches of the Huangpu River began to release floating mines among the mines. These mines would follow the water flow.  Drifting downstream, the floating mines can then hit the British and French fleets. If the British and French fleets turn around and retreat, the mines at Wusongkou and the forts on both sides can give the British and French fleets an annihilating blow, so that they can be wiped out to the maximum extent.  The effective strength of the British and French navies.

    But this plan also has obvious flaws, that is, if the Wusongkou fort does not fire a single shot, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of the British and French navies. At the same time, if the forts on both sides of Wusongkou are not occupied by the British and French coalition forces, the British and French navies will not dare to go deep into the inland.  .  Therefore, the staff formulated a bolder supplementary plan, that is, when the British and French navies sent out landing troops, the Taiping Army on both sides of the strait took the initiative to abandon the forts. After the British and French navies broke into the Huangpu River, the Taiping Army's land forces quickly  Launch a counterattack on the fort and retake the fort.

    This plan was very bold, and if you were not careful, you would shoot yourself in the foot, so at first Zuo Zongtang did not let Pan Qiliang in front of him execute it immediately.  When the time reached about three o'clock in the afternoon, a telegram was sent back from the front, saying that the British and French navies had conducted an hour-long bombardment and stayed in the sea outside Wusongkou. They did not dare to go deep into the Huangpu River. At the same time, they sent a landing craft to prepare to carry soldiers to land and seize the artillery.  ???, Pan Qiliang felt that he should take a risk, so he sent a message to ask for orders.

    After much discussion, Zuo Zongtang, Li Kaifang and others decided to take a risk and sent a telegram to Pan Qiliang to ask him to act as planned.  Under the attack of the coalition landing troops, the Taiping soldiers in the forts on both sides of the strait made some resistance and then retreated, leaving the forts on both sides of the strait.

    Leading the landing force was French Major General Napier, who led 2,000 infantrymen who retreated from Dagu Pass to land on the west bank fort. British Brigadier General Reevy led 800 British Marines to land on the east fort.  Originally, the two generals were prepared for a hard fight, but unexpectedly, after a less fierce battle, the Taiping Army retreated. In the hasty retreat, even the artillery and artillery shells on the fort were missed.

    The two generals, who were somewhat unsure whether the Taiping Army was luring the enemy, stopped their pursuit in unison, consolidated the fort's defense, and at the same time passed the news back to the surface ships.  This move of the Taiping Army also confused the British and French naval admirals. They were a little unsure whether they should enter the Huangpu River immediately.  In the end, Massimogli decided to let twelve warships enter the Huangpu River first, and the remaining warships followed one after another. Wu Songkou left a fleet of four ships to assist in the defense of the fort.

    At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the British and French navies finally began to advance towards the inland waterway of the Huangpu River. Twelve ships entered the Huangpu River near the concession without being attacked by the Taiping Army, so subsequent ships followed one after another, leaving Wusongkou.  The next four French sailing gunboats defended.

    After seeing the flags of the British and French navies in the sunset, the British and French soldiers and civilians who had been trapped in the concession for ten days covered their faces and cried. Gordon and other mercenaries from the Foreign Gun Team even fired their guns into the sky in celebration.  The suffering was finally over.

    Subsequently, the British and French navies bombarded the Taiping Army's positions outside the Lend-Lease. However, since the Taiping Army had already avoided the artillery fire after seeing the British and French warships, the bombardment had little effect.  At this time, the British commander Seymour and the French commander Brigadier General Brod, who led the squadron, felt somewhat powerless. Although the naval guns were powerful, infantry was still needed to occupy the position after the bombardment, but they no longer had infantry.  , all the ships could gather one or two hundred sailors to land, but they believed that these few people would not be able to repel the Taiping Army.

    After Gordon of the foreign gun team boarded a British warship and met with Seymour, he announced that he had organized a foreign gun team of more than 500 people on standby. At the same time, he could draw 500 people from the Marine Corps and police forces protecting the concession to add more troops.  The Shanghai Navy's more than a thousand sailors should be able to repel the Taiping Army.

    So Seymour agreed to Gordon's plan. The British major Gordon, who was an engineer, began to organize his commando team. Two hundred sailors landed ashore to cooperate with the operation. The navy continued to bombard the Taiping Army's positions. The bombardment destroyed many residences and warehouses.  buildings, but failed to do much damage to the Taipings, whose positions were dotted with trenches and shell holes.

    After Gordon organized the commando team, he found that it was already dark and the commando team was not good at night fighting, so Gordon decided to launch the attack after dawn.  But the thick darkness gave Seymour and Brod a very bad premonition, but they couldn't say anything.

    Mines are usually defined as defensive weapons, but the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke the rules when developing them. After communicating with Wei Yuan, several young developers were inspired to understand why mines cannot be active attack weapons.  Woolen cloth?  But they later discovered that they could not solve the power problem of the mines, that is, they could not make the mines move on their own to attack the enemy. Only in specific water flow environments could the mines rely on the power of water flow to move toward the enemy. This limitation was very large.

    ¡° Later, someone proposed installing a sail on the mine, or using a long pole to clamp the front end of the boat, and relying on the power of the boat to move towards the enemy ship.  In fact, the researchers at these manufacturing bureaus did not know that the weapon they conceived was another surface weapon-a torpedo.

    Although the technology from sea mines to torpedoes is not yet mature, sea mines made into floating mines or pole mines mounted on small boats have been produced. Their imaginary enemy is the British and French navies, which have always been stronger than the Taiping Navy.

    That night, the ships of the British and French navies entering the Huangpu River were anchored in the waters of the Huangpu River outside the concession. A few miles upstream, Taiping Army boats held pole mines and released hundreds of floating mines. These floating mines were equipped with  Sheepskin airbags were used to increase buoyancy and drifting power, so the dense mines on the water began to drift downstream with the current to the British and French allied warships. Then dozens of pole mine boats began to sail downstream under the control of the suicide squads.

    Late at night, every minute and every second seemed difficult to pass. It was also the hottest season in Jiangnan, and the basement of the telegraph office was unbearably hot.  When the wall clock pointed to three o'clock at midnight, there was a noisy beeping sound. After a while, a telegraph operator stood up happily, raised the recording paper in his hand and said loudly: "There is news from the front, the mine has been destroyed."  The battle was successful, and the British and French naval ships that broke into the Huangpu River were severely attacked.?¡­¡± (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!
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