At dawn on March 12, the 50th year of Yongchang, the sun had not yet risen, the eastern sky had just been exposed, and the fog on the surface of the Luohe River outside the calm Sanyang Town had not completely dispersed.

On the two small wharves in Sanyang Town, whether it is an oil carrier waiting to load kerosene on the side of the kerosene wharf, or many sails or steam ships moored in the wharf in the port area of Sanyang Town hundreds of meters away, they are all quietly moored on the wharf at this time.

The port area is quiet, the workers at the wharf have not yet gone to work, and even the town is quiet, except for a few vendors who get up early to open their doors and a few who get up early to go out.

Even some of the soldiers of the Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Sixth Division stationed in the coastal forts were still asleep, and only a few sentries were in good spirits, occasionally glancing at the still gray river.

However, at this time, the sergeant on duty on a watchtower in the shore defense battery habitually glanced at the river, and then lowered his head and prepared to doze off.

But only a few seconds later, the sergeant seemed to remember something, and then glanced at the river again.

Immediately afterwards, he directly picked up the monocular and glanced at the gray river.

At this time, several huge figures faintly appeared on the gray river surface in the telescope.

What's more, although these huge figures are very vague, through the high-powered navy special telescope, he still sees that these gray figures are different from ordinary merchant ships.

It's not the same!

Even, he saw the front of the figure, with an obviously huge barrel!

As one of the few sergeants in the Sixth Division who had served in the Navy, he dared to swear to God, this is a ironclad ship!

What's more, these at least three or more ironclad ships are heading straight towards the small port of Sanyang Town, and they don't look like they're passing by at all.

At this moment, he hurriedly shouted: "Enemy attack!" ”

His shout instantly woke up his companions who were still dozing off and on duty together.

After the dazed soldier was woken up, before he could react, he heard the sergeant on the side shouting: "Blow the trumpet, the enemy is attacking!" ”

Although he hadn't fully reacted, the soldier instinctively picked up the brass trumpet and blew it!

In an instant, the sharp sound of brass horns sounded in the entire coastal defense battery!

After the trumpet was blown continuously, the soldiers at the other sentry posts also sounded the trumpets and sounded the alarm.

The soldier who played the trumpet looked towards the river, which was still gray at this time, but he could still faintly see several huge black figures heading straight towards the port of Sanyang Town from the downstream.

This is a completely abnormal route.

The Luo River is a busy waterway, and even though the situation in Luo'an has been tense for most of the past six months, the five major feudal towns have not continued to fight, and since there is no war, everyone is still eating and doing business.

Therefore, on the channel of the Luo River outside Sanyang Town, there are many ships passing by every day, and most of them are naturally all kinds of civilian ships.

Occasionally, ironclad ships from other feudal towns pass by, but when ironclad ships from other feudal towns pass by, they usually choose to pass by during the day to avoid misunderstandings.

At the same time, they will only take the main channel, and the artillery jackets will also be covered, and they will show their identities with flags, and some will send people to Sanyang Town in advance to inform them that there will be ironclad ships passing through the Luo River outside Sanyang Town on such and such a day.

However, no other feudal town's ironclad ships passed by at dawn, and they did not take the main channel, not straight north, but with a certain angle.

Their route is straight to the port!

This is not normal!

The guard on duty at the sentry immediately sounded the horn, and almost instantly the coastal defense battery became lively.

The soldiers were woken up in their sleep, and then scrambled straight to the gun emplacement.

The artillerymen on duty who were originally near the gun emplacements had already arrived directly at the guns, the ammunition men began to carry the ammunition, and the gun commanders directly took out their binoculars to observe the river.

At the same time, a sergeant artillery officer on duty was shouting to the artillerymen under his command: "Quick, get the ammunition ready!" ”

"The artillery commander immediately calculates the yuan!"

At this time, a cannon commander on the side said: "Company commander, are you ready to open fire?" They are still about three kilometers away from us now, although the distance is farther, but they can also fight! ”

The sergeant company commander said directly: "Wait for the order!" ”

He didn't know if he wanted to shoot or not!

Because he simply can't determine the specific identity of the other party, let alone their target.

Now that Luo An's situation is so tense, if he rashly orders the cannon, the devil knows what kind of changes will be caused.

Behind this decision was something that a small artillery company commander could not bear.

At the same time, Zhou Hefu, the commander of the first battalion of the heavy artillery regiment directly under him, also hurriedly walked out, buttoning his jacket, and at the same time said: "Have you confirmed the identity of the other party?" ”

An officer on duty on the side, who still had dark circles under his eyes, said: "We can't determine the identity of the other party for the time being, we have already waved the flag to the other party, but the other party has not responded!" ”

"The distance is still relatively far, and there is fog again, the other party should not be able to see our flag clearly, and the inferior has ordered a direct light signal, but there is no response for the time being!"

Zhou Hefu said: "Did you send someone to inform the headquarters?" ”

The officer on duty said: "The department has sent someone to the Pegasus Express Headquarters to report the relevant situation as soon as possible. ”

Zhou Hefu then continued to walk out, and soon he went up to the top of the fort and leaned directly over a medium-sized monocular.

As the emergency report said, three ironclad ships came downstream, and the visual inspection was not small, the lead one was estimated to be more than 500 tons, and the other two were also 3 or 400 tons.

Seeing this, he muttered, "Whose ironclad ship is this, what do they want to do?" ”

There are not many such large-tonnage ironclad ships in the Luo River basin in Luoan County.

As far as he knew, in the Luo River Basin, the strongest ironclad fleet was naturally the Luohai County Navy, and there were even several ironclad ships of several thousand tons, and even a lot of hundreds of tons.

Then there is Li Dingjun in the south, he has been stationed in the south for a long time, leading the troops to resist the Luo Navy, once commanded most of the ironclad ships of the Luo and Guang armies, and now there are naturally not so many, but there are also more than ten ironclad ships of varying tonnage on hand, and the largest ironclad ship is also thousands of tons.

Then there is Jian Minggang, he took over the fleet strength directly under the county guard, and at the same time accepted a lot of ironclad ships under Li Dingjun and Feng Haozhong during the civil strife, and there were more than ten ironclad ships on hand, but the tonnage was generally small.

There is also Li Kun, when he went south, he also brought a fleet of ironclad ships down, but the number is not much, and there are only eight ships when they are full.

As for Lin Ziran's side, there are actually ironclad ships, but strictly speaking, they are not real ironclad ships, but ordinary steam ships refitted!

Because Lin Ziran had no channels to get these ironclad ships before, that is, since the second half of last year, three civilian cargo ships have been refitted one after another, and the tonnage is relatively small, only one or two hundred tons, and the modification is also very simple, directly paved with iron plates and loaded with artillery, and the combat effectiveness is not good, it can only be said that it is better than nothing.

Well, in fact, most of the so-called ironclad ships in other feudal towns are actually modified goods, and there are not many pure ironclad ships.

But with the three ships in front of him, Zhou Hefu can be very sure that this must be a professional ironclad ship, not a modified cargo.

After a brief glance, Zhou Hefu said: "Continue to give them glowing signals and flags, warn them, let them stop advancing, and at the same time indicate their identity and intentions, otherwise we will open fire!" ”

After Zhou Hefu finished speaking, there were soldiers on the side who continued to send out light signals with kerosene lamps, and some soldiers continued to sound flags!

However, I don't know if the other party really can't see it, or if he doesn't care if he sees it, in short, the other party doesn't have any response, and continues to drive towards the dock in Sanyang Town.

Seeing that time is gradually passing, it won't be long before the other party will enter a distance of two thousand meters.

At this time, Zhou Hefu took a deep breath: "Urgently inform the headquarters, the unknown ironclad ship is coming and refuses to show its identity and intentions, and the headquarters is about to conduct warning shooting on the unknown fleet!" ”

After that, he said to the officer on duty next to him: "Order Gun No. 1 to enter the unknown fleet for warning fire!" ”

As he spoke, he added: "Pay attention, don't really hit!" ”

The identity of the other party is unknown, the intention is unknown, and he directly and rashly does it, which sometimes causes trouble, so he still plans to warn the other party first.

No matter who the other party is or what the goal is, let the other party know that Sanyo Town does not come when he wants to.

Without the permission of their 6th Division, no ship was allowed to approach.

With Zhou Hefu's order, soon, a 150-millimeter cannon (18-pound cannon) on the No. 1 gun position was fired.

When this heavy cannon fired, the momentum was very large, and the huge solid cannonball drew a curve in the air, flew over nearly two thousand meters, and landed in front of this small fleet, and stirred up a high column of water!

This time the shelling was more effective than any flag and light signal, only to see that the other side began to turn and drive towards the center of the river, and at the same time it also gave a signal.

At the same time, the loud sound of this shelling was more effective than any wake-up call.

The rumbling of artillery rang out over almost the entire town of Sanyo and beyoth in the barracks area.

Even Lin Ziran himself was woken up by the sound of a huge cannon!

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