Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Taiping blood

Volume One: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 729: Creating Trouble

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    The war in the north temporarily ceased due to the destruction of the Russian cavalry regiment and the onset of severe cold. When news of the victory in several battles such as Nerchinsk and Chita reached Beijing, the Taiping people celebrated the victory grandly.  But after the celebration, people's attention began to turn to the south. The latest military report from Guangzhou stated that hundreds of British and French warships of various sizes began to gather in Lingdingyang.

    The weather in the north was severely cold, but in Guangzhou in the south it was still warm and mellow. Next to Wailingding Island, amid the roar of cannons, the last group of Taiping officers and soldiers guarding the island boarded the fast sailing ship that came to meet them. Then the fast sailing ship  The sailing ship left Wailingding Island carrying 60 officers and soldiers.

    Sir Napier, the commander of the vanguard squadron of the Second Expeditionary Fleet of the British and French fleets, put down his telescope and said to his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Herbes: "Send four battleships to catch up and sink them!"

    Lieutenant Colonel Herbes suggested in a low voice: "Your Excellency, Admiral Dundas's order to us is to clear all obstacles to Hong Kong Island as soon as possible. The fleet has been sailing from Singapore to here for many days, and we are very familiar with this sea area.  I¡¯m not very familiar with it yet, and the enemy¡¯s sailboat is a clipper, making it difficult to catch up, so I suggest giving up the pursuit.¡±

    Sir Napier was silent for a moment before changing his words: "Send ten landing boats to send soldiers ashore to occupy this island!" After Sir Napier's order was issued, ten landing boats took more than 70 British troops ashore.  The team members were sent to Wailingding Island.

    Watching the sailors rowing the boats towards the island, Sir Napier's face did not look good. As a member of the British aristocracy, he had a heart of honor, but during the Crimean War, the British troops he led  However, the Baltic Fleet was attacked by the Russian fleet in the North Sea. In the end, there was a change of commander in the country, and Admiral Dundas was transferred from the Black Sea Fleet to the North Sea and replaced him. This is a great shame for a naval general with a noble background!  Then the war with Russia ended, and Napier failed to prove himself through war again, and the expedition to the Far East.  The Admiralty also forgot about him; he had had enough of his time in the Navy's training fleet.  Now the opportunity came. The British Empire launched its second expedition. Through the influence of his family, he finally returned to the rank of commander of the expedition fleet.  He held his breath and waited to find his lost glory from these yellow-skinned monkeys in the Far East.

    Napier looked at the lineup of his squadron with great satisfaction, including five main battleships, seven cruisers, and more than 20 auxiliary ships, troopships, and gunboats. This lineup was comparable to the lineup of the so-called Baltic Fleet he led back then.  Much more luxurious.  At that time, he commanded a fleet manned by unskilled sailors to perform this task. In addition, the fleet was undermanned and lacked ammunition.

    Napier was also full of confidence in this expedition. When he went to Crimea, the British fleet only had more than 20 main battleships at its peak. With the remaining auxiliary ships, the British fleet in the Black Sea was also full of confidence.  But the scale is more than 150 ships.  The British fleet in the second expedition was different. They not only deployed ships from the mainland, but also deployed ships from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and Australia to join the expedition.  The entire British fleet has more than 40 main battleships, more than 70 cruisers and frigates, and more than 300 armed merchant ships, gunboats, troop transports, and auxiliary ships.  The entire fleet, plus the Massimogli fleet still in the Far East, will have a staggering number of more than 500 ships, not counting the more than 100 French ships of various types.

    In terms of army strength, the French army is the main force. The French army dispatched four infantry divisions and two regiments of elite marines. The British army dispatched an army of 20,000 people. The entire expeditionary coalition does not include naval personnel and only army troops.  There are more than 60,000 people. Napier believes that with such a powerful navy and army, the British and French forces can sweep all coastal port cities and inland river cities in the far southeast.

    Soon the British flag was raised on Lingding Island, which is the gateway island of Wanshan Islands and the southern gate island of Hong Kong Island.  It means a lot to occupy this place.  Napier finally laughed when he saw this scene, and he said to Lieutenant Colonel Herbes: "This island will become my vacation place in the future."

    As soon as he finished speaking, the lookout shouted loudly: "Three enemy fast sailing ships were discovered in the northeast of the island!" Napier and Hebes were slightly startled, and at the same time they pulled out their telescopes and looked.  I saw the three fast sailing ships flying the golden dragon flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom high, and below it was a seahorse flag. The three fast sailing ships were firing at the British small boat that had landed.

    "These despicable sea lice! Lieutenant Colonel Herbes, order the fleet to catch up and sink them!" Napier was angry. His fleet was in the southwest of the island, and the enemy appeared in the northeast to bombard the landing force.  Although the number of troops who landed was not large, it was a matter of face. Napier could not tolerate the enemy leaving safely after his own fleet suffered casualties.

    As soon as the order was issued, a landing boat was seen in the distance being hit by enemy artillery fire.Debris flew in the firelight, and the bodies of more than a dozen British sailors and infantrymen floated on the water. Napier became even more angry. He desperately signaled and ordered the ships to quickly move forward to cover the landing boats.  At the same time, quickly move forward to engage the enemy.

    When it was discovered that the British fleet began to pull anchors, raise sails, raise fire, and turn, the three fast sailing ships of the Taiping Navy also immediately began to turn. They fired back with tail guns while quickly fleeing toward the northeast.

    Seeing this scene, Napier was furious. These despicable sea fleas would only harass and escape. Seeing that the wind direction was not favorable for the fleeing Taiping Navy, Napier became more determined to catch up.  So, under Napier's urging, all the warships of the British vanguard fleet began to rush forward crazily.

    On the battleship "Royal Giant", the experienced Commodore Wibot was a little worried, because the three sail battleships of the Taiping Navy were far less than the British fleet in terms of tonnage and firepower, and their harassment was more like  A kind of temptation. After chasing for two sea miles, Wibot became more and more uneasy. He immediately ordered the warship to slow down and ordered the crew to immediately measure the water depth. This sea area was based on the water pattern information provided by British merchant ships that came and went here all year round.  , there should be a hidden reef, and Weibot didn't want his warship to hit the rocks.

    The water depth was measured at six fathoms, which did not yet threaten the warships. Weibot opened the navigation chart, and sure enough, it marked a reef area in the northeast and northwest of Wailingding Island, but the map only marked an area and the location of the reef.  It does not appear accurately on the chart.  Wibot became cautious. Just when he was about to put down his small boat to measure the water depth at the front of the battleship and guide the ship through this sea area, he only saw two other British warships passing by them. Wibot immediately ordered  The semaphore alerts friendly ships to pay attention to the reef.

    Although Napier's order was to pursue at full speed, the experienced captains of each ship still became cautious, but their caution seemed to come a little late. At 1:15 noon, a British warship hit the rocks and was knocked out on the right side of the ship.  A huge hole was left in the battleship, and the battleship had to immediately begin to rescue the battleship.

    In the distance, the three Taiping Navy clippers were taking a strange zigzag route in this area. Napier and Lieutenant Colonel Herbes immediately understood that they had been introduced to this reef area, and the enemy had already attacked this area.  The reef waters are well understood.

    In the end, Napier gave up the order to pursue. He felt very useless. He angrily asked the navigator why he didn't notice the reef area on the chart.  The pilot was a little aggrieved. He had already reported this matter before attacking Lingding Island. There were reef areas in the northeast and northwest of the island, but Napier was so angry that he seemed to have forgotten about it.

    Napier soon calmed down, and it would be useless to pursue the responsibility now. Although the reef area is marked on the chart, this area is very large, and the location of the reef is not clearly marked. We sail in this sea area all year round.  No British merchant ships will sail into this sea area, and no British merchant ships will spend great efforts to study the true location of this reef.  So Napier had to order each ship to put down the small boat and carefully measure the water depth at the front of the warship, and then guide the entire fleet to leave the sea area.

    The battleship that had hit the rocks finally began to tilt due to too much damage. Eventually, water entered the front end, causing the front end of the hull to be too heavy. After the entire ship's stern was tilted, the keel could not support the weight of the entire ship and broke.  Finally sank in this sea area.  The crew on the ship did not suffer too many casualties because they evacuated in time. Only a few sailors drowned in the cabin because they failed to evacuate in time to rescue the hull.

    Napier watched the battleship sink with a gloomy expression. The battleship worth 90,000 pounds sank to the bottom of the sea with humiliation. It sank before it even had time to fire at the enemy.

    Although after some efforts, the entire fleet safely left the reef waters, the sinking of a main battleship still cast a shadow over the expedition fleet.  Subsequently, the British fleet established the first stronghold on Wailingding Island. Following the instructions of Admiral Dundas, Napier began to blockade the enemy's waters by establishing island strongholds.

    Napier left two warships on Wailingding Island to cover the troops on the island, and then directed the remaining fleet towards Hong Kong Island. He was a little confused about why the British fleet on Hong Kong's main island would sit back and watch the enemy occupy Wailingding Island?  As he got closer to Hong Kong Island, he began to understand.

    "Unidentified floating objects found on the port side!" the lookout sounded the alarm. He lowered his boat and went forward to check and found that it was a mine placed by the enemy. As it got closer to Hong Kong Island, there were more and more mines. A small boat used a bamboo pole to pick up mines.  When he opened the mine, he accidentally touched several long tentacles of the mine. The mine exploded immediately, and the small boat was overturned by the shock wave of the explosion. The dense mines made Napier take a breath. This number of mines no matterAny method of discharging it would be very risky. Napier realized that the enemy had used mines to block several major waterways in Hong Kong.

    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????OUT??

    After getting closer, I learned that they were Massimogli's fleet, and they were also engaged in clearing mines on the waterway. When Napier asked the other captain who boarded his flagship about the situation, the first thing the captain said was  Complained: "These mines have troubled us for a long time. One night a month ago, the enemy began to use ships to lay a large number of mines. They just wanted to cause us trouble" (To be continued.)
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report