The moon is dark and the wind is high on the night of murder, which is when the giant cannon roars.

The three near-shore shelling platforms under the command of Young Master Huang had already arrived at the predetermined assembly area as early as dusk. This is a small island in the south of the river outside the mudflats in the south of Fuluzhou, there was originally a small naturally formed port, and many passing business travelers would choose to anchor here for one night if they were not allowed to dock. Since the Fuluzhou bandits on the river began to make waves, no merchant traveler dared to anchor their ships here.

However, this small island is simply an excellent obstacle to cover their whereabouts for the Yangguan Town Sailors of the traversers.

Early in the afternoon, three artillery rafts, propelled by three flat-bottomed steam barges, were already loaded with artillery, ammunition and Huangjia Shui Yong, and arrived at the side of the island that was facing Fuluzhou and lurked. When the sky was getting dark, Young Master Huang, as the supreme commander of this "commando team", after repeatedly confirming that the sunset in the west would not reveal their whereabouts, ordered the entire fleet to pull anchor and set sail, quietly sailing clockwise along the coast of the island, and rounding the side of the island near Fuluzhou.

Prior to this, the commandos who sailed during the day had flown the banner of another water trading house, disguised as ordinary merchants; The chimney of the steam barge was covered with a conical cap so that the faint smoke produced by the steam engine at low speed would escape and not be caught by sharp-eyed people in the distance; In order to make the camouflage of the entire fleet more realistic, the three artillery rafts were heavily covered with a heavy cloth and dressed as ordinary rafts for hauling heavy cargo, and even the steam-powered tugboats were pretended to carry oars and oars.

In the next step, Dark Night will take over from Jiangxin Island and become the most reliable cover for the bandit team.

Usually, the night is the best time for the bandits to commit their crimes; But today, the night is the time when the bandits die.

Young Master Huang's assault fleet had uniformly adjusted the bow of the ship to the direction of the mudflats. Next, it was a few hours of waiting: the assault team had to wait roughly until the early hours of the morning, that is, in the second half of the night, when most of the bandits were sleepy and the most lax guards, and then according to the navigation lights lit on time on the shore, they would sail to the mudflats and arrive as close as possible to the hard ground in the center of Fuluzhou, and use the cannon fire like heavenly punishment to make every XX in the European bandits in Fuluzhou regret coming to this world.

Huang Huan rubbed his hands very nervously, almost staring intently at the spiral-shaped incense tray that was slowly burning in the circular hand warmer in his hand--- since the traversers did not have a reliable clock as a timekeeping tool, and it was impossible for the commandos to directly communicate with the shore navigation lights and the bandit army ambushed on the north shore in any way (the use of light signals may reveal their whereabouts), everyone agreed to use the same size of incense trays as a timekeeping tool. Before departure, several teams light incense trays at the same time, and when the incense trays are burned out, navigation lights are lit on the shore and the assault team sets off. A large force with gunboats will also set off after it, slowly sailing towards Fuluzhou, and surround Fuluzhou after the fire is ignited, and fire at the place where the fire is ignited.

Overall, the Traversers' plan to suppress bandits was mainly focused on killing and injuring their opponents with overwhelming firepower, and sending infantry directly to shore for land combat was not a priority in the plan. After all, in Young Master Lan's own words, what kind of quality is the militia he trained himself, he still has a bit of a B number in his heart!

Time passed in the repeated attempts of Young Master Huang to forcibly suppress his sleepiness. At a certain moment, Huang Huan was suddenly woken up by a certain Shui Yong beside him:

"Young proprietor! Young proprietors! Look, there's a light on the shore! That's the signal! “

"How many times have you said that you are not allowed to call me the proprietor!" The first reaction of a young master Huang who turned over and got up was not to give an order to attack, but to scold his subordinates in a deep voice, "This is the sailor, it's in the army!" If you don't act according to the rules of the army, you will be engaged in military law! “

"Uh...... Yes, Commander! “

Huang Huan squinted his eyes to check the light signals on the north bank of the river, and thought in his heart: Although this sailor has begun to take shape, the aura of the family's private army and security team is still very strong, and it is still quite far from the real professional army and even the real navy.

However, the food must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be taken step by step, and the construction and cultivation of no army can be accomplished overnight.

So, let's try the knife with the gang of water thieves in front of you first!

After confirming that the navigation lights on the shore flashed three times according to the prior agreement of the bandit suppression troops, and then lit up steadily, Master Huang gave the order to march:

"Order the ships, push the batteries by barges, and march in the direction of the lights! The barge moves at a low speed, control the noise, and pay attention to the light control! “

"Yes!"

Orders quickly reached every corner of this small but lean commando team. The ship's steam engine, which had been kept at the temperature of the boiler, began to start slowly, and the rear paddle wheel began to steadily pump the water, pushing the barge forward and gradually pushing the battery to the firing position in the mudflats of Fu Lu Chau.

After a while, under the dual force of the steam engine and the flowing river water, the floating battery began to enter the Fulu Island in earnest, and carefully advanced in the extremely shallow water of the mudflats. As early as when the traversers were formulating the battle plan, Shen Hanlin had already calculated the impact of wind and water on the course of the floating battery, and formulated corresponding countermeasures to ensure that the ships of the assault team would not deviate due to the influence of the river in the dark. It just so happened that the sky was beautiful today, not only did the moon disappear, the wind was also very small, and the river did not fluctuate too much, everything was in the plan of the traversers.

As the fort drove farther and farther away in Fuluzhou, Young Master Huang became more and more cautious. The barges he ordered were slowed down again, idled directly, and three floating batteries were declared to be in first-class combat readiness.

As soon as the order was given, everyone acted nervously and in an orderly manner. The gunners moved the pre-prepared incendiary bombs to the side of the gun emplacement--- these incendiary bombs are the very famous "Martin Molten Iron Bullets" in the original plane, and have the nickname "Wine Chocolate" in the British Royal Navy. At the beginning of the manufacture of this incendiary bomb, it was just a spherical empty shell with a small round hole, and only before the battle started, the shell would be injected with high-temperature molten iron through the small hole, and then the molten iron near the small hole would be cooled first, and the shell would be sealed. As a result, the shell is a hard iron shell on the outside, but a hot liquid metal like magma on the inside. After the cannon bolt hits the target, the fragile iron shell will burst open, splashing the fiery red molten iron everywhere, causing a fire. As you can imagine, the fires caused by such incendiary bombs are extremely difficult to extinguish, and have a devastating effect on wooden sailing ships or wooden buildings.

Martin Molten Iron Bullets can be dangerous to the user, especially if the floating turrets used as strike platforms are also made of wood. However, in order to ensure that the first round of shelling could have a high enough ignition rate, Wenjia Workshop also let go, and insisted on making a batch of such 32-pound shells for the commandos to use. And this has a side benefit: because the Martin molten iron shells are very hot and will take on a shiny dark red color in the dark, the commando gunners don't have to worry about moving the wrong shells in the dark.

After a while, Young Master Huang estimated that the fleet had already traveled hundreds of meters in the mudflats, and the distance from the bandits' den in the center of Fuluzhou should also be within two hundred meters.

He gave the order: "All barges are left with full rudders!" All turned sideways, and the artillery pushed to the starboard side of the battery against the enemy! “

"Gun emplacements obey orders! Incendiary grenades are reloaded in one shot! Shoot at a zero-degree angle and aim for the bright light in the bandits' den in the distance! “

With the faint light of molten iron bullets, the gunners skillfully filled the chamber with the cartridge, padded a wet mud cake, and carefully pushed the incendiary bomb into the chamber and compacted it lightly. The gunner punctured the cartridge through the ignition hole with an iron drill, inserted the fire pipe, and straightened the fire rope.

Originally, if there was no lighting in the bandits' lair, the commandos would have to rely on prior estimation and intuition for the first round of shooting. However, the bandits in this time and space have obviously not been attacked by the night, and naturally there is no concept of light control, and torches are lit around several main buildings in the bandits' den. Although these fires were not enough to provide target designation for the naval gunboats on the outskirts of Fuluzhou, they were sufficient to serve as firing coordinates for the floating batteries of the commandos at very close range.

After confirming that the artillery crew was in position, Young Master Huang came to the No. 1 gun position of the battery where he was and gave the order to fire.

"Ready!"

"Fire!"