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Volume One: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 686: Naval Battle of Zhoushan

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    If it were a long-range shooting, the few weapons in the hands of the Dinghai soldiers might not be a match for the rifled firearms in the hands of the British Marines, but the time when the soldiers arrived happened to be when the British troops were approaching the embankment position, and the two sides were only two or three meters apart.  Ten steps away, after throwing the grenades, the rural soldiers immediately rushed out of their positions and started a fierce hand-to-hand battle with the British troops.

    "Behind us is Dinghai City! Our families and children are all there!" the officers of the rural corps shouted loudly to boost the morale of the soldiers who were going to the countryside.  These rural soldiers have received daily stabbing training, but this is their first time in actual combat. There are two tests for a recruit in the war, one is to endure shelling, and the other is to see the bayonet red.  The training of the rural soldiers may not be as good as that of the regular Taiping Army field troops, but behind them is their homeland. In order to protect their homeland, not to mention that these rural soldiers are all young and vigorous people, even elders over fifty years old,  At such times, unimaginable fighting spirit will burst out.

    It is a tradition to resist the British in Dinghai. They had done it twenty years ago. Now they once again stood in front of the British bayonets, but this time there were no constraints or suppression by the Manchus. They were actually fighting  Protect your home!

    The bloody battle began. Although the fighting spirit of the rural soldiers was very high, the British army's bayonet skills were also very fierce. In addition, the British troops were generally tall and strong. The rural soldiers had previously forced the British troops back with their vigor and fought hard.  After killing for a while, I began to feel exhausted.

    At this moment, 500 Taiping Coast Defense troops who came from Dinghai City quickly joined the battle group.  The Taiping generals guarding Dinghai had determined that the enemy's other two routes were feint attacks, and the focus was still on Zhushan Gate, so they quickly dispatched reinforcements here.  They came just in time.  When the Rural Corps was about to collapse, they arrived to stabilize the front.

    The British officer commanding the landing force saw Taiping Army reinforcements arriving again, and the artillery position behind the embankment began to bombard the support ships on the sea. God knows how many more reinforcements would arrive one after another, and he couldn't help but start muttering in his heart.  In fact, many British officers and soldiers had the same idea as their commanders. Their troops were limited. This was something everyone knew.  It is also unknown how many enemies they will face after landing, but as the number of enemies increases, there are more and more enemies.  The British soldiers began to beat their drums in their hearts.

    With a bang, a naval warship on the sea responsible for supporting the landing operation was hit by a bombardment, perhaps just hitting its ammunition depot. The sky-high fire and huge shock wave immediately tore the warship into two sections.  The people on the ship didn't even have a chance to escape, and the wreckage of the rapidly sinking battleship was swept into the sea water.

    After seeing this scene, the British army found that the fog they had relied on for sneak attacks began to dissipate. The artillery fire on the Zhushan Gate became more and more accurate. The navy began to turn around, and it seemed that they were preparing to withdraw from the battle.

    The soldiers who landed were panic-stricken, and the commander who landed on the beach made a prompt decision and immediately ordered the soldiers to start retreating. The naval motorboats, boats, sampans and other ships that were still waiting for them under gunfire on the shore were waiting under the gunfire.  .  Finally the soldiers who landed on the beach withdrew.  With a hail of bullets behind them, more than 1,500 British Marines successfully escaped back to the ship, leaving more than 500 corpses behind them.

    Small boats and motorboats withdrew from the battle despite gunfire.  Several small boats were lost along the way. They were hit by Taiping artillery behind the embankment, and more than a hundred British soldiers were unfortunately buried in the waters here.

    After the fog dissipated, Uncle He was stunned to see this scene. Simma beside him said in pain: "It seems that the lack of our army troops is a very fatal weakness. We cannot completely occupy any seaport with naval warships alone."  .¡±

    Why doesn¡¯t Uncle He understand?  What if the troops landed were not 2,000 but 4,000.  Maybe they were able to capture the enemy's embankment position just now, and then they could go around and capture the Zhushanmen fort from behind Zhushanmen.  It's a pity that all their precious army troops were lost in the Beijing-Tianjin area. The ability to gather these troops is the limit of the potential of the Anglo-French war in the Far East.

    "The outer guard ship has raised the warning flag, and enemy warships have appeared in the outer sea!" The lookout soldier on the mast shouted loudly. Uncle He was shocked. He immediately raised his telescope and looked, and saw several fast sailing ships on outer guard in the distance.  It has already engaged a fleet of unknown origin, and the artillery battle between the two sides is very fierce!

    "Why didn't the warning ship detect the enemy earlier?!" Simma asked loudly, but a staff officer on the side was very sober: "Your Excellency, maybe they also took advantage of the thick fog this morning"

    Uncle He didn't care about this. He said excitedly: "It must be the main fleet of the Taiping Navy. We are worried that we will not be able to catch them for a decisive battle at sea. Since they dare to come, we will have a decisive battle with them openly!"

    Xima nodded and said: "Then we should prepare to fight immediately. I will go back to my boat now."?!  "Sima is the deputy commander of the fleet. Previously, because the attack was on a land port target, Sima came to watch on Uncle Ho's flagship. Now there is a naval battle. The commander and deputy commander of the fleet must take different ships.  battleship to prevent the entire fleet from losing unified command after the flagship is sunk.

    After Cima left in a small boat, Uncle Ho immediately ordered each warship to light a fire. The wind direction at sea was unfavorable to the British warships. Therefore, the steam-powered warships in the British Navy did not raise their sails, but used steam power to drive the hull to face the British warships.  Following the Taiping fleet, several other sail warships without steam power raised their sails and circled towards a parallel position, intending to make an arc to regain the upper hand.

    The Taiping Navy did take advantage of the thick fog for this raid. After learning the location of the British fleet through the shore troops' intelligence yesterday, the Taiping East China Sea Fleet immediately gathered all its ships and rushed towards this sea area.  The admiral of the East China Sea Fleet is Monk Tongbao, who commands two sister ships, the Jingyuan and the Weiyuan, as well as nine fast sailing ships and more than 70 red single ships, Fu ships, and sand ships.

    After several battles, the British fleet lost a lot of warships. Now there are only less than thirty warships left, but compared to the Taiping Navy.  Still a very hard nut to crack.  Monk Tongbao's original intention was to use his familiarity with this generation of sea areas and the cover of heavy fog to lead the fleet up to give the British fleet an unprepared blow.  But contrary to expectations, the fog gradually disappeared after the sun came up, and the guard ships outside the British fleet spread far apart, so they were discovered.

    Seeing this situation, Monk Tongbao knew that the current situation was no longer a sneak attack, but a direct decisive battle against the British fleet, which was seriously inconsistent with the maritime guerrilla strategy decided at that time.  But now, many of the ships in the fleet he commands do not have steam power.  If you rely on sails to operate, some ships may be overtaken by the enemy fleet. At that moment, the strong men will have to cut off their arms, leaving some ships to block the enemy.  Let the fleet escape from the battle, or the entire fleet will fight to the death and fight the enemy in advance!

    Monk Tongbao did not hesitate for long. He ordered the flagship to raise the red seahorse flag, which represents a fight to the death. This is a unique tradition of the East China Sea Fleet, because a large part of the crew of the East China Sea Fleet was originally from the Seahorse Gang active in this sea area.

    After the battle order was issued, the two sister ships Jingyuan and Weiyuan immediately began to adjust their combat positions. The nine fast sailing ships quickly took the upper hand position, and the remaining more than 70 red single ships, Fu ships, and sand ships were also prepared.  .

    The five guard ships outside the British fleet were the first to be bombarded by the Taiping fleet.  Although these warships are fast, their firepower and tonnage are obviously no match for the Jingyuan and Weiyuan. Coupled with the outflanking of the nine fast sailing ships in the Taiping fleet, these five British ships are very fast.  Defeated.  While they skillfully avoided counterattacks, they quickly moved closer to the British fleet's main formation.

    During the pursuit, the sail masts of the two British warships were destroyed, and the speed of the warships that lost power quickly slowed down. The Taiping warships swarmed in and sank the two ships quickly and unceremoniously, causing everyone on board to lose their power.  The captain had no time to consider raising the white flag and surrendering.

    The other three British warships also escaped back to the formation with injuries.  The escort, Uncle He, saw clearly the strength of the opponent's fleet, except that the Jingyuan and the Weiyuan, two originally French 2,700-ton first-class battleships, were a little troublesome.  The rest of the Taiping warships seem to be worth mentioning. A single red ship can only have a tonnage of several hundred tons at most. It only has a dozen cannons on board, which is not as powerful as a larger British armed merchant ship.  But one thing that Uncle He seems to have forgotten is that when the quantity reaches a certain level, the quality can be changed.

    The Battle of Zhoushan began. The British fleet first concentrated a few main battleships to engage in an artillery battle with the Jingyuan and Weiyuan. The artillery on both sides was equally deadly, but the Jingyuan and Weiyuan had a slightly compensable advantage.  The two warships underwent modifications last year. The Taiping Army covered the two warships with a layer of ten centimeter-thick armor above the waterline at the Shanghai Shipyard. This greatly enhanced their protective capabilities, but the only weakness is still  Once the shells hit the open porthole gun emplacements on both sides of the hull, the incredibly destructive bombs will still open a large hole in the hull.

    Jingyuan and Weiyuan withstood the siege of eight main warships, including He Bo's flagship. They occupied the upper wind position, raised their sails, and were driven by steam power. The two warships were faster and could flexibly avoid enemy bombardment. At the same time,  The armor on the hull ensured their protection capabilities, so they could barely withstand for a while, but the heroes could not withstand the enemy fleet's many guns. The British gunners were very skilled in operating the guns. The time interval between firing their guns was very short, while the Taiping gunners were more skillful than the Taiping gunners.  Not as good as them, so they withstood more artillery fire.

    On the other side, nine fast sailing ships and more than 70 red single ships, Fu ships and large sand ships stood together with more than 20 British ships. There were almost ten Fu ships in one encounter.??Or the large sand ship was sunk, and they only fired one round of shells at the enemy.  Fortunately, there were so many of them that the British ships had to come one by one even if they wanted to swat mosquitoes. Although the survivability of red single ships, lucky ships and sand ships was difficult, the artillery they were equipped with was deadly enough, even if Uncle Ho's flagship was destroyed.  If the bombardment cannon on the red ship hits a shot, the wooden hull will also be damaged.

    As time went by, the British ships gradually gained the advantage. They lost five battleships, but they sent more than 30 Taiping warships to the bottom of the water. Although the Jingyuan and Weiyuan were still struggling to hold on, the sails  After the mast was destroyed, the speed of the ship slowed down even more. Seeing this scene, Monk Tongbao knew that unless a miracle happened, his fleet would be annihilated after sinking at most a few more enemy warships.

    At this moment, a lookout shouted excitedly: "Look, to the south, that is the flag of the South China Sea Fleet" (To be continued)
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