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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 684: Raise the Bandits to Respect Yourself

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    After suffering a loss in Xiamen, the Hobo fleet only had 35 battleships left. The three lost were the 1,000-ton cruiser Ellercourt and the two fifth-level cruise battleships Camarberry and Custer.  No. 1, the Custer was sunk in a fierce battle at Gulangyu Fort.  After questioning the rescued sailors, Uncle He learned that a fleet of the Taiping Army had been hiding nearby, and what was discovered by the patrol warships was just the bait they released. When Uncle He mobilized the main fleet to pursue,  The two injured ships did not participate in the pursuit due to lack of power, and were sunk by the main force of the Taiping fleet that suddenly appeared.

    For the Taiping Navy¡¯s despicable tactics of bullying the weak, Uncle He naturally cursed endlessly, completely forgetting that he commanding such a huge fleet to come to fight with other¡¯s weak fleet seemed to be suspected of bullying the weak.

    So Uncle He decided to give the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom the most severe revenge. His target was Ningbo, because there was the Zhejiang Shipyard, the second largest shipyard of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the Shanghai Shipyard.

    Originally, the arrogant and arrogant Uncle He chose the Shanghai Shipyard as his target, but he was persuaded by the experienced and prudent deputy commander of the fleet, Sima.  Sima was born into a naval family, and his father was a famous general during the Napoleonic Wars.  He has also joined the navy since he was a child and has more than 40 years of experience at sea.  He originally served under General Napi in the Baltic Navy. Then the Crimean War was about to end and the Far East was about to be troubled. In order to borrow his talents, the British Admiralty specially promoted him to Rear Admiral to succeed Stalin.  As commander of the "China Fleet", Sima took office in the spring of 1856.  Originally, at the beginning of this year, West Malaysia received an order from the Navy Ministry, with Uncle Ho taking over as commander of the fleet, and West Malaysia as commander of the Pacific Fleet. However, due to the outbreak of the Second Opium War, West Malaysia's Pacific Fleet also joined the British and French fleets.  So West Malaysia stayed in Hong Kong.

    Regarding Uncle Ho's risky move, Sima said calmly: "The Shanghai Shipyard is a shipyard that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has operated for several years. We suffered a defeat there just a month ago. More than ten warships sank in the Huangpu River. We cannot  Take risks. It is better to choose Ningbo Port, which is also one of the targets that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attaches great importance to."

    Uncle He respected his predecessor very much, so he followed his advice and ordered all the warships to go north to Ningbo.  Xiamen is a tough city, and Uncle Ho's fleet lacks soldiers for landing operations. For example, although the Gulangyu fort was mostly destroyed by British warships, Uncle Ho did not have the courage to send the only Marine Corps soldier on board to land and occupy the fort, because this  This Marine Corps has less than 500 people.  Fortunately, Uncle Ho did not send the Marines to land.  Otherwise, the 800 Taiping regular troops and 2,000 rural soldiers stationed on Gulangyu Island will inevitably cause heavy casualties to this British Marine Corps of less than 500 people.

    The current strength of the British army in the Far East is very tight. The two thousand soldiers who were lucky enough to retreat from Dagukou, together with the British troops left behind in Hong Kong, shouldered the task of guarding Hong Kong. The Taiping Army in Guangzhou and other places gathered a large number of troops to threaten Hong Kong.  Although Hong Kong Island is still protected by the navy, after all, Hong Kong Island is too close to the mainland. The British army is worried that if the Taiping Army takes the risk of using pirate-style small boats to smuggle troops to Hong Kong at night to attack, it will be great fun, so Elgin does not  No matter what, most of the navy and army will stay in Hong Kong.

    So Uncle He and Xi Ma commanded the fleet and continued northward. A few days later.  Their fleet raided the Fujian Sanshabao fort. Although the British fleet was able to occupy the place after a fierce battle, a large group of rural soldiers from Taocheng garrison carried out a night attack, causing the British landing force to suffer heavy losses.  .

    The British Marines barely held on until dawn. Although Uncle Ho ordered the fleet to fire artillery support and barely repelled the Taiping soldiers, Uncle Ho did not dare to let the landing soldiers stay on the shore for one more day, so he hurriedly replenished some food and supplies.  After fresh water, the British troops withdrew to the sea.

    Along the way, Uncle He and Xi Ma were very depressed.  Although the naval fleet is very powerful, they cannot drive warships to land. After destroying the opponent's fort, they can only send soldiers to land and occupy it.  But it is different from the Opium War more than 20 years ago.  Now under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a war model has been adopted in which almost all the people are involved in the war. In the words of the coastal people, it is just like our ancestors guarded against Japanese pirates during the Ming Dynasty. There are beacon fires and weapons at all the seaports and forts along the coast. Once one is discovered,  Enemy situation, beacon fire in one fell swoop.  Soldiers from all over the country will swarm in to support.  Although the British soldiers who landed were well-armed, most of the Taiping soldiers used sneak attacks at night. They were familiar with the terrain and were good at using all natural concealments. In the words of the British army, these soldiers appeared like ghosts.  When they were guarding Sansha Fort that night, the British army even discovered that some Taiping soldiers came out of a secret tunnel in Sansha Fort to attack the British army. Fortunately, they were discovered in time and the British army completely blocked the tunnel, but  It is not ruled out that there are other secret passages that can lead here, so the British army retreated quickly as soon as dawn came.

    The British army did not dare to land because they had a powerful fleet, so they could only destroy some forts, docks and buildings with artillery fire.They came to vent their anger, and then sank some civilian merchant ships to show force. However, these did not destroy the fighting spirit of the soldiers and civilians along the coast, but made them hate the British and French allied forces even more.

    Uncle He's unlucky days were not over yet. When approaching the Zhoushan Islands, the three fast sailing ships sent by Uncle He to patrol were attacked by a pirate fleet. When Uncle He got the news, he was very angry, so he led his team to arrive.  Five pirate ships were sunk and three more captured.  It was learned from the captured pirates that they were subordinates of the famous pirate Lin Kan. Because the Taiping Army issued a reward order for attacking any British or French ship, the pirates entrenched in the outer sea began to attack British and French ships crazily.

    "The pirate Ho is no stranger. It can be said that the British fleet in China actually spent more than half of its time fighting pirates. They were entrenched in Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, Hong Kong and other places.  Why are there pirates entrenched in the waters near Hong Kong?  Uncle Ho knew this very well, and the reason was very simple. The British Governor's Office in Hong Kong was troubled by the harassment of pirates on the Far East route all year round, so it issued a reward order, and each pirate captured would receive a bonus.  There was no problem with this policy in the first place, but the problem began to change when it was implemented. The problem of general officers has been plaguing the British army for many years. Many British officers and fleet captains are happy to destroy pirates to obtain more bonuses, but the problem is if  Once the pirates have been wiped out, there will be no such bonuses from now on. Therefore, some British naval generals and the pirates have a tacit understanding. This tacit understanding is what the Chinese call "nurturing pirates with self-respect".

    Elgin, the British plenipotentiary negotiator, once witnessed a British warship chasing a Chinese pirate ship, but he reflected: Perhaps it was the British government's direct payment of bonuses that stimulated the British to adopt rough methods, and even forced girls into prostitution and supported bandits.  Enrich yourself and create more pirates.  Hong Kong's Dechen Daily even unceremoniously accused that the more and more pirates were being suppressed, it was entirely the British who were to blame: on the one hand, the British navy was derelict in its duties and suppressed the bandits to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, leaving the pirates to collect bonuses; on the other hand,  The British Hong Kong authorities, greedy for economic interests, issued ship licenses indiscriminately, and some pirate ships also obtained licenses openly.  They pointed out more pointedly that the British government's shameless incentives for the opium trade were one of the fundamental reasons for the rampant piracy.

    As a result, pirates have never disappeared in the South China Sea, but Shanghai, Ningbo and other places under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have no more pirates. That sea area is a restricted area for pirates. It turns out that the largest pirate seahorse in this area is  The gang and their leader, Monk Tongbao, became the navy of the Taiping Army, so the pirates did not dare to appear in this sea area.

    Uncle Ho was even more angry when he learned about the Taiping Army¡¯s bounty order. When did British ships become the target of a bounty?  And the pirates who were originally rewarded became bounty hunters?  No wonder we have received more and more complaints from commercial ships recently, saying that the risks of traveling in the South China Sea are getting bigger and bigger. It turns out that this is why.

    Uncle Ho unceremoniously ordered the execution of all the captured pirates, and sent five warships to pursue the pirates. As a result, only three of the five warships came back the next day. The leading captain said sadly that they had caught up.  While Lin Kan's pirate fleet was engaged in a fierce battle with this group of pirates, they were ambushed by the superior fleets of the Taiping Army's East China Sea Fleet and South China Sea Fleet. One battleship was sunk and another was captured. The British fleet only  Three ships escaped.

    Uncle He was furious, while Sima fell into deep thought. Finally, Sima said: "It seems that the enemy is cooperating with the pirates and using a brand new maritime guerrilla tactic against us. We cannot use any one ship at any time in the future."  Battleships to prevent being hit by the enemy and being eaten up by the superior fleet strength. Once we lose a little today and a little tomorrow, it will soon add up to a lot and bring about changes in the entire situation. Now we can only act collectively, with a pair of eyes  Just focus on one goal!¡±

    Cima's strategy was very effective. During the next few days of sailing, Taiping navy or pirate speedboats still appeared in the distance from time to time. Once the British navy pursued them, they fled. This time, Uncle He did not fall into the trap again.  He did not order all the ships to pursue, because the ships in their fleet had different speeds. He was worried that if some ships were not fast enough to keep up with the fleet during the pursuit, they would become targets of the enemy.  For Taiping troops or pirate ships that appeared to be harassing, Uncle He only dispatched fast ships to drive them away instead of pursuing them.

    In this way, Uncle He and Xima arrived in depression all the way to the sea outside Zhoushan. If they want to attack Ningbo, they must at least destroy the Zhejiang Shipyard in Ningbo. This will cause the greatest loss and shock to the enemy. But to attack Ningbo, they must first capture Ningbo.  Dinghai and Zhenhai, so the British fleet swaggered towards Dinghai.  Both He Bo and Xima believed that they could occupy Dinghai for the third time. In order to make up for the lack of troops, He Bo mobilized part of the crew to act together as a landing force To be continued
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