Chapter 548: If I Don’t Dare to Hit Foreigners, I Won’t Dare to Hit You?

The huge shells whizzed in, and the warships of the Guangdong Navy swayed on the smoke-filled ocean, as if they were about to capsize.

The British gunners were extremely skilled in shooting. In the first round of shelling, the Roland was hit by five or six iron lumps. Fortunately, the Roland's hull was large enough to withstand these iron lumps. The ship only shook significantly after being hit by the solid iron lumps, and the hull itself was not seriously damaged.

But a loach ship that was hit continuously by the British 64-pound naval gun was not as lucky as the Roland. The huge impact and explosion directly threw three or five crew members into the sea, and the entire hull vibrated violently. The wooden boards at the hit point shattered, exposing the twisted beams, and the hull quickly took on water and began to sink.

To the surprise of the British army, although the loach boat was severely damaged and almost lost its combat capability, the Guangdong Navy sailors on board did not put down the lifeboat to escape, but fired back while breaking away from the formation at full speed, swinging left and right like a sharp arrow from a string and crashing into the British warship formation.

"Madman! Madman! Don't want to die! All the guns of the Pegasus focus on the gunboat that broke away from the Qing army formation!"

"Stop his suicide attack! Protect the flagship!"

Seeing that the Qing army gunboat rushed straight towards their flagship Zhongzheng, the captain of the British frigate Pegasus, who was responsible for protecting the flagship Zhongzheng, immediately ordered to focus fire to sink the desperate Qing army gunboat.

The warships fired continuously, and the shells fired by both sides drew parabolas and intersected in the air. The scene was spectacular. The sea water was splashed by the impact of the shells, forming a water column several meters high.

The Qing gunboat that rammed the British flagship shuttled through the water columns, and shells hit the high-speed loach boat from time to time, but this still did not slow down the speed of the loach boat.

The rest of the Guangdong Navy warships fired at the British warships with tears in their eyes, bidding farewell to this gunboat that was ready to die, and practicing for the comrades on the boat who sacrificed their lives.

The gunboat was ultimately unable to complete his feat. Unfortunately, the main structure of the hull broke and sank under the successive ravages of the British 64-pound, 32-pound, 24-pound, 18-pound, and 12-pound naval guns.

Although this brave and fearless loach boat failed to directly sink the British ship, it attracted the firepower of the British warships and bought a little precious time for other warships of the navy. The British and French coalition forces who witnessed this scene were moved and stood in awe.

The Guangdong Navy's flagship, the Weiyuan-class battleship, hit a British cruiser named Pearl in succession after two rounds of calibration firing. A shell hit the ammunition room on the Pearl and successfully ignited it.

This cruiser with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons quickly caught fire, and the fire quickly spread to other cabins. The crew on the Pearl had to stop fighting and evacuate the battlefield while trying to put out the fire.

The Guangdong Navy did not let the Pearl go. Hong Mingxiang, who was in charge of the command, ordered the British ship on fire to be sunk. Even if the Guangdong Navy fleet was annihilated here today, he would take a scapegoat before he died and sink a British warship to let the British know the pain!

In the 16 years since the Southeast Campaign, British warships and smuggling ships have been more convenient to enter and exit the Pearl Estuary than to enter and exit the Jingou of Yaojie. He has long been unable to swallow this anger!

Hong Mingxiang set an example by leading the flagship to withstand the bombardment of other British ships and desperately pour ammunition on the Pearl.

Shell after shell hit the side of the Pearl fiercely, and the Pearl's hull was about to tip over.

One after another, violent vibrations shook the crew to the ground, and the British sailors on the Pearl staggered on the deck. Some were shaken to fall, and some were hit by flying fragments, and blood was sprinkled on the deck like raindrops.

The wooden boards on the side of the ship were torn by shells, huge holes appeared on the hull, and seawater rushed in violently, and the Pearl was in chaos.

The crew hurriedly blocked the leaking holes with clothes, canvas and everything within reach, but the water was turbulent and their efforts were in vain.

The captain of the Pearl shouted and gave orders at the bow, but his orders could hardly be conveyed in the chaos. The explosions of shells continued to sound, and the fierce gunfire and the groans of the wounded echoed in his ears, making him dizzy.

Seeing that the fire on the ship was getting bigger and bigger, and the leakage was getting more and more serious, the captain of the Pearl could only order to abandon the ship and escape.

The Pearl became the first second-class battleship lost by the British Royal Navy in the Far East since 1841, and it was also the greatest maritime achievement of the Qing army since the two Fushougao Wars.

Although one British ship was sunk, the situation of the Guangdong Navy was not optimistic. The British gunners were extremely skilled. During the bombardment, three loach ships of the Guangdong Navy sank directly, the Roland was seriously injured, and Hong Mingxiang's bold-class flagship was moderately injured. The remaining warships were more or less injured.

The slowly sinking Pearl greatly boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers of the Guangdong Navy. Hong Mingxiang ordered to fight and retreat, trying to bring the British ships into the range of the Humen Fort.

It is hoped that the coastal defense guns will make up for the gap in maritime strength and kill the British fleet to the maximum extent.

In order to lure the British warships into the trap, Hong Mingxiang even risked lowering two rows of chains set up at the Humen Gate.

Rear Admiral Spence saw through the intentions of the Guangdong Navy, but he did not kill them blindly and did not pursue the Guangdong Navy, which had already suffered heavy losses.

Spence's goal was not to destroy the Guangdong Navy fleet, but to capture Guangzhou City.

The commanders of the British and French armies knew that in order to capture Guangzhou, they had to remove the Humen Fort Group, which was a thorn in their eyes and flesh. The Guangdong Navy Fleet, which had been crippled, was only a secondary target.

Britain had suffered a loss at the Humen Fort Group and had learned the power of the Humen Fort Group. As the saying goes, one learns from one's mistakes.

This time, the British army did not intend to force a sudden attack on the Humen Fort Group from the sea, but chose to land directly on the beach and use the Marines to penetrate from the land to capture the Humen Fort Group, the key to Guangzhou at sea.

The British Marines wore combat uniforms, carried rifles and ammunition, stood on the deck of the warship, and boarded the landing craft in an orderly manner.

The landing craft carrying the British Marines slowly entered the water, crossed the calm sea, and approached the Shajiao Fort on the east bank of the outer end of the Pearl River Estuary and the Dajiao Fort on the west bank.

Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort are the outermost forts of Humen Fort Group. If Humen Fort Group is the key to Guangzhou, then Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort are the keyholes of this key.

There are a total of 328 large and small artillery pieces in Humen Fort Group, most of which are still old cannons cast during the tenure of Guan Tianpei, the former admiral of Guangdong Navy. During his tenure, Hong Mingxiang successively added 118 new Sacramento cannons to Humen Fort to mix with the old cannons of various forts.

Only Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort are equipped with Sacramento cannons, and they have the largest ammunition reserves.

The distance between Shajiao Fort on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary and Dajiao Fort on the west bank is 4 kilometers. The original old cannons have a short range and the firepower cannot completely cover the Pearl River Estuary.

But after the replacement of the Sacramento guns, the two forts were finally able to completely block the mouth of the Pearl River and eliminate the blind spots for shooting. It was these two forts that responded to each other in the Battle of Humen and severely damaged the British fleet that invaded Guangzhou.

It can be seen that Hong Mingxiang's transformation of the two forts was quite successful, and the limited funds were used on the cutting edge.

Although the Shajiao Fort on the east coast was occupied by the British in the last Battle of Humen, and the cannons on the Shajiao Fort were also destroyed by the British, Hong Mingxiang still demolished the east wall and repaired the west wall, and moved the Sacramento guns on other forts to the Shajiao Fort.

At the same time, learning from experience, the damaged masonry structure of the fort was rebuilt with mortar to prevent stones from being splashed and injured by enemy warship guns.

Soon, the British landing craft approached the beach, and the Marines on the boat jumped into the sea, raised their rifles above their heads, rushed to the shallows, waded through the water quickly, and boarded the beach in front of the Shajiao Fort and the Dajiao Fort.

In addition to Hong Mingxiang's Guangdong Navy, the Green Camp soldiers of Humen Town were also responsible for guarding Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort.

The Qing Dynasty court established seven Guangdong border defense towns in Guangdong's riverside and seaside areas, namely Humen, Chaozhou, Nan'ao, Qiongzhou, Gaolian, Yingde, and Huizhou Jieshi, and the seven town generals were responsible for defense.

Above the seven town generals, there was a commander-in-chief of the military affairs of Guangdong Province, who was in charge of the military affairs of the seven towns in Guangdong, commonly known as the Guangdong Admiral.

However, the original intention of the Qing authorities to establish the Guangdong Admiral was to divide the military power of the Guangdong governor and governor-general. In order to avoid the Guangdong Admiral and the Guangdong Governor-General moving too frequently, the Guangdong Admiral's station was moved from Guangzhou Prefecture to Jieshi Town, Huizhou Prefecture in the 18th year of Shunzhi.

Yes, the Guangdong Admiral's station was not in the provincial capital Guangzhou, nor in Humen, the throat of Guangzhou and Dongguan, but in Huizhou, deliberately reducing the efficiency of the Guangdong Admiral's command of the Guangdong Green Camp.

What's more, the Qing court later added the post of Guangzhou General, which could only be held by the bannermen and royal family, and was responsible for commanding the Eight Banners soldiers of Guangdong. At the same time, the Qing court granted the Guangzhou General the power to control the Green Camp soldiers throughout the province. The Guangzhou General had such great power and high status that even the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi had to give way to him, not to mention the Guangdong Admiral.

The Guangdong Admiral's station was located in Huizhou. The Guangzhou General also commanded the Eight Banners and controlled the Green Camp. The power overlapped with that of the Guangdong Admiral and the Governor-General, causing chaos in the Guangdong military command system. Although the Guangdong Seven Towns nominally had more than 50,000 Green Camp soldiers, it was difficult to dispatch them. In fact, there were very few Green Camp soldiers in the Guangdong Seven Towns who could be deployed to the front line.

During the First Fushougao War, the Qing army claimed to have 800,000 troops, but in fact there were also 800,000 (about 200,000 Eight Banner soldiers and about 600,000 Green Camp soldiers), but the Qing army's low level of professionalism was outrageous.

The total number of troops deployed by the British army before and after the war did not exceed 20,000.

The forces of both sides seemed to be very different, but the Qing army was dispersed. In order to prevent the Han soldiers from rebelling, the battalions in the Green Camp were not concentrated as a battalion, but were distributed at dozens of checkpoints, with a few people in a group, scattered at the flood gates of the towns at that time.

The function of the Green Camp was more like that of a public security police, focusing on governing the people internally rather than defending against foreign aggression. To put it more bluntly, the Green Camp was used to deal with you Han people, not to deal with foreigners.

The only ones who had the opportunity to be stationed as a battalion were the governors' standard battalions. And how many governors and governors, and how many standard battalions could there be in a province?

What's more, most governors and governors preferred to use the standard battalions of the nature of servants as a supervision team, rather than directly put them into the battlefield to fight against foreigners.

Therefore, in each battle, the British army did not have a big disadvantage in terms of manpower.

When the Green Camp soldiers of Humen Town saw that the British troops had already landed, facing the few five or six hundred British troops who had just landed, the first thing that came to their mind from the General Liu Yongchang to the followers and the remaining soldiers was not to attack the British landing troops halfway before they had finished lining up, but to run north without looking back, directly exposing the Guangdong Navy artillery on Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort to the guns of the British landing troops.

As soon as the green battalion soldiers in Humen Town ran away, the naval artillery at Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort instantly split open, and people's hearts were filled with excitement.

Hong Mingxiang, who had just commanded the naval battle and came ashore, was about to go to Humen to inspect the Humen Fort. He was personally stationed at the Humen Fort when he learned that the green battalion in Humen Town had been disbanded.

Not caring about the old bones and physical and mental fatigue, Hong Mingxiang hurriedly led the Biao battalion to the Shajiao Fort without stopping, and ordered his adjutant Kang Enze to lead another battalion to assist the Taijiao Fort.

On the way, Hong Mingxiang, a green camp soldier who was defeated, could not stop or kill them all. He killed more than thirty deserters in a row but did not stop the green camp soldiers of Humen Town from escaping.

"Liu Yongchang! As the chief military officer of Humen Town, how can you escape from battle?!"

Hong Mingxiang recognized Liu Yongchang, the commander-in-chief of Humen Town, who was fleeing northward in a hurry surrounded by pacesetters, and he blocked Liu Yongchang's way.

"Hong Junmen, I respect that your official rank is higher than mine, so I call you Junmen. I am under the command of the Admiral of Guangdong, not your navy. I have been guarding here for half a month with my troops, so I can be considered worthy of the imperial court. , I feel sorry for you.

I hope Hong Junmen will show his noble hand and let our Humen Town brothers live! I, Liu Yongchang, am very grateful! "

Normally, Liu Yongchang would not dare to speak rudely to Hong Mingxiang. After all, the official rank is overwhelming. Although Humen Town Green Camp is not under Hong Mingxiang's control, Hong Mingxiang is the admiral after all.

But now, the foreigners are about to attack, and in order to survive, Liu Yongchang speaks without hesitation and does not care about many things.

"Be bold!"

Hong Mingxiang saw that the situation was urgent and Liu Yongchang's rude words made her angry. She pulled out a Colt six-gun revolver and shot Liu Yongchang dead. Then she shouted sternly at Liu Yongchang's servants.

"If something goes wrong in the Humen Fort! Guangzhou City will definitely be difficult to defend. If Guangzhou City cannot be defended, neither I, Hong Mingxiang, nor your heads can be saved!"

If you want to survive, follow me and fight back to Shajiao Fort! Today’s incident will be forgotten by this military sect! "

Hong Mingxiang did not intimidate Liu Yongchang's servants. When Liu Yongchang died, his servants were immediately in an uproar.

"He killed Liu Junmen!"

"We only listen to Liu Junmen! Liu Junmen asked us to move into Guangzhou City and recharge our batteries before fighting the foreigners again!"

"Yes! Enter Guangzhou City! We entered Guangzhou City on Liu Junmen's orders!"

"If the law doesn't punish everyone, I don't believe that the imperial court can kill all the green soldiers in Guangdong!"

"Guarding the Humen Fort is your Navy's business, not our Land Division's."

"Yes! Why should our army division be allowed to guard the fort!"

"You damn sailor, don't blame me for turning against you if you stop blocking my way!"

"If you take a step back, don't blame Hong for being ruthless!"

Hong Mingxiang and his navy soldiers aimed their guns at the defeated troops of the Green Camp in Humen Town.

Just as the green soldiers who were blocked were hesitant, a servant of Liu Yongchang stood up and raised his arms and shouted: "Brothers, don't listen to him, if you go back to Shajiao Fort now, you will die!"

Damn it, I'm afraid of foreigners and don't dare to fight the ghost soldiers, so why don't I dare to fight the water monkeys like you in the navy? "

Liu Yongchang's servants responded one after another, showed their weapons and started fighting with Hong Mingxiang's soldiers.

Hong Mingxiang felt extremely disappointed. In order not to delay the rescue of Shajiao Fort, he had no choice but to let go of the fleeing Green Camp soldiers in Humen Town.

"Junmen! Junmen! Oh no! The ghost soldiers have already attacked Shajiao Fort!"

The soldiers who came down from the observation tower reported to Hong Mingxiang with a look of horror.

"People are dead and birds are flying in the sky, follow me to the Shajiao Fort and drive the ghost soldiers into the sea!"

The seventy-year-old Hong Ming Shanti Dao rushed towards the Shajiao Fort not far away.

None of the more than 500 pacesetters of Hong Mingxiang's Biao Battalion flinched, following in the footsteps of the veteran, and rushed to the Shajiao Fort without hesitation.

Although the Admiral of the Guangdong Navy controls five towns: Yangjiang, Jieshi, Qiongzhou, Beihai, and Nan'ao Navy, he directly oversees the five battalions of the center, left, right, front, and rear.

Indirectly under the jurisdiction of the thirty-sixth battalion of the province's navy, there are 2 generals, 3 guerrillas, 9 generals, 4 deputy generals, 13 Chinese garrison personnel, 33 generals, 59 generals, and 94 foreign commissions. people, and an additional 65 foreign commissions. With all these, the total number of troops can reach tens of thousands.

But these are only paper and theoretical data, and the Manchu and Qing court would not allow any Han general to have the power to dispatch tens of thousands of green soldiers.

Hong Mingxiang was able to directly dispatch only the 2,000-strong 5th Battalion during the war. Among these 5 battalions, the most capable was only his standard battalion.

In addition, the Guangdong Navy suffered heavy losses in the last battle of Humen and had to recruit some new soldiers. Now the combat effectiveness of the Guangdong Navy is still reduced.

Hong Mingxiang took the lead and led the pacesetters of the Biao Battalion to the Shajiao Fort. He fired all the bullets in the revolver in one breath and killed three British soldiers who were caught off guard in a hand-to-hand battle with the naval artillery.

The British army expected that there were still Qing troops who dared to fight back, so they were caught off guard and did not react.

Just as Hong Mingxiang was about to continue loading, some British soldiers who responded quickly had come to their senses. More than thirty British soldiers lined up in line raised their guns and fired volleys in Hong Mingxiang's direction.

The servant next to Hong Mingxiang blocked the British bullets for Hong Mingxiang.

After firing a volley, the British troops rushed forward with their bayonets shining brightly.

Dozens of surviving pacesetters around Hong Mingxiang responded with a volley of fire from the British army.

The distance between the two sides was only eight or nine feet. After a round of volleys, more than thirty British soldiers fell down in an instant. The remaining British soldiers did not retreat, but roared and rushed up under the command of the sergeant.

The two sides then fought together. After all, Hong Mingxiang was over seventy years old and half of his body was about to be buried in the ground. His physical strength was really limited. After a while of fighting, his physical strength gradually became exhausted. He leaned on the gun platform with a knife and gasped.