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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 665: Keg Tactics

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    The night was terrifyingly quiet. Since entering Wusongkou, the coalition navy's advance had been unusually smooth. They had not suffered any attacks, not even rifle bullets.  + Seymour was deeply worried about this. At the same time, there was another disturbing point. Under the silent night sky, Seymour suddenly realized that since he broke into the inland river today, there were very few ships on the formerly busy Huangpu River.  , and after nightfall, none of them disappeared, leaving only the coalition naval warships on the river.

    When Seymour saw that there was no other ship on the river, he immediately came to Gordon to ask. Gordon was also surprised, "In the past few days, ships on the Huangpu River were still coming and going as usual. Why is there no ship today?"  I can¡¯t see that even at night, there should be cargo ships docked at the docks on both sides of the river.¡±

    Seymour believed that his fleet must have fallen into a carefully prepared trap. He wanted to retreat immediately, but he couldn't. The soldiers and civilians in the concession would not agree. The warships were now their spiritual sustenance.

    "Lay down the boats and sampans, and strengthen patrols in the upper waters!" Seymour issued an order that the sailors hated. No one liked having to sail upstream in the middle of the night, but they still cheered up and began to put down the boats.  Boats and sampans, because Seymour added: "You are now in the enemy's country! Anything can happen!"

    While the Odisha was still slowly lowering the boats on both sides of the ship, a dense spherical object on the upper river floated towards the fleet. Several sailors sitting on the boats looked at it through the lights.  A sailor shouted in horror: "Russian mines!"

    In the mid-19th century, the Russian b?c?Yatubi invented an electrolyte-triggered anchor mine.  In the Crimean War of 1854-1856.  Tsarist Russia once used this triggering anchor mine in harbor defense warfare.  The coalition naval officers and soldiers have a deep memory of this black anchor mine with several tentacles.

    The mine body is usually spherical.  Coated with black paint, it is difficult to spot.  Five tentacles on the thunder body.  It is the key to causing mine explosions.  Each tentacle consists of a zinc cup, a carbon rod, and a glass tube filled with electrolyte.  The tentacles are made according to the battery principle. Each tentacle is like a dry battery. The zinc cup is equivalent to the zinc skin on the outer layer of the battery. The carbon rod is similar to the carbon core with a copper tip on the top of the battery. The electrolyte in the glass tube is the electrolyte in the battery.  Sticky body.  When the ship bends the tentacles, the glass tube breaks and the electrolyte flows between the zinc cup and the carbon rod, causing a chemical reaction to form an electric current.  The current generated by the tentacles passes to the electric detonator, which detonates, causing the mine to explode.  This is why the anchor mine is about to explode.

    The Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau under the Taiping Army began the development of this kind of mines two years ago. Their technology and usage are more mature, but this is the first time they have been used in actual combat. Therefore, the troops that released the mines placed more than 300 mines.  , densely spread all over the river.  Many passing ships were intercepted by the Taiping Army or directed to other river bays to dock, ensuring that tonight's attack would be effective.

    Soon the poor Odisha was hit by four mines. According to the weight of the anchor mines, the Taiping Army subdivided the anchor mines into three types: large, medium and small, because the Odisha had the largest hull.  Therefore it also withstood the most mines.

    The violent explosion shook the quiet night sky. The left side of the Odisha was immediately blasted with four large holes in the flames, and the left bow was seriously damaged.  Because it is an offensive anchor mine, its sensitivity is very high.  Once its own weight encounters obstacles during the drifting process, it may cause detonation. People in the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau like to call this kind of mine neurotic.

    The explosion of large anchor mines is very powerful.  The pressure wave it generates can damage enemy ships, and its damage radius is generally 5-6 meters.  A medium-sized ship.  One or two mine explosions can sink it.  Or cause serious damage and lose the ability to fight.  The Odisha obviously had no chance. It didn't even have a chance to rush to the shore and run aground to avoid sinking. After the violent explosion, its hull quickly tilted to the left within a few minutes, and it quickly sank.  It fell to the bottom of the water, and only its more than ten-meter-high mast remained above the water.

    This is the middle and lower reaches of the Huangpu River. The water depth is generally more than ten meters, and the deepest reaches seventeen meters, which can swallow all the warships of the coalition forces.  As the Odisha began to be hit by mines and exploded, several coalition warships anchored on the upstream side began to explode one after another.  The cruiser Telia, the Kayades, the Modeste, the Juno, the Igisha, the Lily, and the gunboat Rendav began to be hit by mines. The successive explosions brought huge fires to the sky.  The entire Huangpu River is illuminated like daylight.

    "God, what happened to the navy ship?" When the coalition officers and soldiers in the concession on the shore heard the explosion, they looked towards the river. Many people did not understand what the coalition warship was attacked by. Although the Russians used  Anchor mines, but after all, that thing is placed in a large sea area and will not move.

      "Is this a small barrel tactic?" A slightly older sailor exclaimed on the shore. This floating mine tactic was not the first of its kind by the Taiping Army. At the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in the last century, North American militiamen anchored in Philadelphia for attacks.  The British warship at the mouth of the Trava River put gunpowder and mechanical fuses in small beer barrels to make mines on January 7, 1778, and floated them down the river.  Although these mines did not hit the warships due to problems with the fuze devices at that time, they suddenly exploded when they were picked up by British sailors, killing and injuring some people. This is known as the "Keg War" in history.  This tactic is still told by some sailors as a battle history, so some people speculate that the Taiping Army used the same thing upstream. Although the guess is not very accurate, the general combat method is the same.

    The explosion alarmed the remaining coalition warships. Due to the parking position, some warships escaped. They were protected by warships docked slightly ahead, and the swarming mines were blocked by those warships.  After rescuing several sailors who fell into the water and learning about the deadly mines floating upstream, the remaining coalition warships pulled anchor and set sail in panic, preparing to head downstream.

    In the process of escaping, the "Gulu" (curlew), "lopwing" (lopwing), and "didge" (didge) were hit by mines one after another and exploded. Their positions were in the center, and the ones in front  After the ships sank, mines continued to come towards them one after another. These ships were hit by mines before they could move.  The Gulu, Lopvin, Pygmy, and Hernet sank one after another. The Miji was seriously injured and sank halfway in a short time.

    Only the three lucky ships, "thistle", "kestrel" and "vigilant", were able to successfully escape due to the skillful control of the sailors on board.  .

    The Taiping Army's follow-up suicide warships carrying pole mines obviously did not expect that those mines could achieve such great results. When the suicide ships came to this area of ??water, they saw masts and fuel tanks of sunken ships everywhere on the water.  With the flaming wreckage, there was no longer a target worth attacking on the entire river.

    After a suicide ship collided with his own mine, exploded and sank, the commander of the suicide fleet decisively ordered to abandon the plan to continue the attack downstream, because there was no telling how many mines on this section of the river were still covered by aquatic plants, shipwrecks or debris.  Something else was stuck, and there was no target in sight, so he decided to give up on the dare.

    The people on the shore of the concession bravely took up small boats and went into the river to rescue the sailors who had fallen into the water. Of course, they also encountered several mines. The experienced sailors used long poles to avoid the tentacles of the things and push the mines away.  Experienced people die from curiosity. They usually come into contact with the tentacles of mines. Those tentacles are easy to break and will explode within seconds after being broken.

    Seymour followed several sailors and swam to the shore. Most of the officers and soldiers followed the warship and sank to the bottom of the water. Because everything happened so suddenly, many sailors were still sleeping in the cabin. When they woke up, they were already flooded.  At the bottom of the river.

    The chaotic rescue operation was so shocking accompanied by the shouts and cries from the shore. Seymour landed on the river bank dozens of meters below the concession. He and several sailors were all soaked. They lost everything in order to float.  Heavy items, including swords and sidearms.  After landing, they walked back to the concession. Fortunately, they did not encounter Taiping troops along the way.

    The Thistle, Gisriel, and Awareness escaped several miles downstream. At a narrow turning point, their ships were intercepted by several cross-river iron cables. Before they could put down their boats,  When they went to cut off these iron ropes, the rocket artillerymen of the Taiping Army on both sides of the Taiwan Strait released dozens of rocket launchers at them.  This weapon similar to Congreve rockets is familiar to British sailors. They have also fired it at enemy warships in previous naval battles, but this time they were targeted by such rockets.  They were surprised to find that the rockets of the Taiping Army seemed to be more accurate and more powerful.

    Soon the three fish that slipped through the net were hit by rockets and caught fire. Most of the Taiping Army used incendiary rockets. The three warships ignited fires. At first, the sailors on the ships came out to put out the fire, but as the fire became more intense,  As the fire got bigger, the sailors gave up putting out the fire and jumped into the water to escape. Soon the sailors who had a chance to escape were captured by the Taiping soldiers and rural soldiers who were waiting on the shore.

    After a night of chaos, the torpedoes flowing down the river were stopped by fishing nets and iron ropes arranged by the Taiping Army. The Taiping Army sent small boats to touch these dangerous torpedoes with long poles and detonated them to eliminate the hidden danger. This was already the easiest and cost-effective solution.  Mine clearing method.

    Just when the coalition warships were attacked by the Taiping Army, the Taiping Army on land also launched an attack on the landing coalition land forces. The forts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were attacked by Taiping Army infantry at night (To be continued, please search  Piaotian Literature, the novels are better and updated faster!
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