Section 166: The Battle of Upper Rung Island

Splashes of water pounced on the ship from time to time, and the daihatsu was crowded with sailors and mariners. One by one, they sat silently on the deck at the bottom of the ship, carrying rifles in their arms—according to the regulations, they were all covered in protective bags made of oiled paper. The steam engine made a loud vibrating sound. Shi Zhiqi stood at the stern of a large hair boat. Looking at the island of Upper Stall, which was getting closer and closer, he licked his lips nervously - thinking that this would be a chew on chewing gum or something.

Several small hair boats, which served as fire support, walked at the front of the queue with black smoke. These small hair boats were equipped with shielded typewriters and wrapped in iron sheets, which were specially designed to strafe and cover troops close to the coast. The shooters on the ship wore steel helmets and wore them

Wearing protective clothing with steel guards at the front and back, they nervously held on to the balance bar of the typewriter and waited for the order to fire.

As the boat approached the shoreline, the loud roar of the typewriter immediately filled the air, which was no longer necessary. The unfinished positions of the West Battery were long deserted. The lead bullets fired by the typewriter were nothing more than breaking many branches of grass and trees.

Shi Zhiqi took the lead, the first to jump off the big boat, the sea was very shallow, he waved his command knife forward, shouting: "Attack"

A trumpeter blew the trumpet in the sea. Boatloads of sailors and armed sailors quickly jumped into knee-high water, waded ashore, and soon Shi Zhiqi sent two companies and two 12-pounder mountain howitzers to the west shore of Upper Rung Island. Wiped out all the remnants of the Ming army. About 50 people were captured. Shi Zhiqi ordered his troops to immediately advance to Tǐng to the east of the island.

According to the intelligence, there were 800 officers and men on Upper Hengtai Island, and 12 new Hongyi cannons were added to the east fort on Upper Hengtai Island. The fort was also built in the Wanli Dynasty and was relatively strong. There were 500 soldiers guarding Taiwan. If you attack from the front, you will not only have to withstand the artillery fire of the East Battery, but also be bombarded by the flank fire from the Yaniang Shoe Battery.

Since all the muzzles of this battery were pointed to the east, the back of the battery was completely defenseless. So when Shi Zhiqi commanded two marine companies to appear from the flank, and the shells fired by the two mountain howitzers fell into the battery, the morale of the entire battery collapsed. The heavy Hongyi cannons could not easily move their positions, and the enemy came from behind the flanks. Relying on broadswords and spears, the soldiers with three-eyed bird guns were of course powerless and unwilling to resist. Only the defenders of the general army engaged in a brave hand-to-hand combat, resulting in the loss of one dead sailor and three wounded, which was also the only naval casualty in the entire battle of Upper Hengjie Island.

The sailors quickly routed twice as many of their defenders, and the barrage of guns and mountain grenades turned the battle into a one-sided slaughter. A small number of people fled in small boats to the other side of the island, and the rest of the officers and soldiers were scattered, and soon a large number of them surrendered and became prisoners.

Surrounded by guards, orderlies, and signal soldiers, Shi Zhiqi entered the gunsmoke-filled artillery battery, which was full of corpses. Ascended to the top. The fort itself was undamaged, and it looked to be built quite strongly, with 12 Hongyi cannons placed on the emplacements without firing a single shot, aiming at the sea where the enemy ships were supposed to arrive.

Shi Zhiqi observed and found that the design of this fort was very strange, the so-called fort was just a circular pier made of earth and stone. The exterior is clad in bricks and stones, and 12 Hongyi cannons are placed on the platform, all facing the sea. Behind the abutment, there was only a simple brick wall around it, and there was no defense, not even a trench. It seems that the defenders did not consider the possibility of an enemy landing attack from the flanks and rear.

Even if the attack is carried out in the front, because there is no auxiliary fortification around the pier, as long as the attacker attacks the close distance of the pier, he will enter the dead end of the fire of the pier, and can calmly climb up the pier to fight. Shi Zhiqi estimated that a naval company would be able to capture this fort in less than half an hour when attacking from the front—of course, there would be some casualties.

"Power generation" Shi Zhiqizhi proudly stepped on the battlement of the fort, looked at Wushan on the opposite side of the East Waterway, and slashed the command knife, "The key to the tiger gate is in the hands of our marines"

At the same time as the battle to seize Daheng Gang Island, another unit landed at the Luwan Fort position on the river bank west of Upper Heng Kuan Island, and the 100 soldiers guarding the fort fled without engaging the battle. Half-built turrets and many building materials were left behind. At this point, the second and main line of defense of Humen has been broken through, even if it does not attack Yaniang Shoe Mountain and destroy the forts above. The Pearl River has also opened its door.

However, Chen Haiyang wanted to completely capture Humen, so he immediately ordered the artillery boats to be towed by the Dafa boat into the Humen East Waterway and prepare to bombard the Yaniangshoe Fort. The shallow draft Daihatsu and the bombardment boats sailed along the coast of Upper Rung Island, and because they were out of range, the batteries on the opposite island could only look at the boats and sigh.

The large battalion on Wushan was already in a panic, and no one expected that the defense system they had bothered to build would be so vulnerable. Fan Wencai trembled and said: "Fort, why did the fort lose ...... all of a sudden?"

"It's really despicable that a thief landed from the other side and attacked from behind" Li Xijue, who rushed from Zhaoqing to Humen to inspect the defense of Humen, was "lucky" to bow down, and his face was bleak at this time, although he said that he was despicable, he finally understood in his heart what kind of mood Lu Yizhong wrote that letter.

"It doesn't matter, there aren't many thieves on the island, but there are only two or three hundred." Xu Tingfa forced his composure. In fact, when the red flag and blue and white flags of the Australians were fluttering on the Upper Rung Island, Xu Tingfa's heart had sunk to the bottom. As soon as the upper rungs were lost, the entire Humen Pass had lost its blocking effect. In order to rebuild the defenses, it is necessary to retake the island of Upper Rung.

He called a partial general: "Immediately raise 300 dead soldiers, each of whom will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and after the completion of the counterattack on Hengduan Island, each person will be rewarded with ten taels of wounded, and those who are injured will be rewarded with fifty taels and twenty taels of silver."

"Mark it and understand" the general went immediately. Here he ordered people to prepare sampan boats to prepare for a counterattack across the eastern waterway.

Just as he was mobilizing his men and preparing to fight back. 10 artillery boats, which had anchored at anchor at the east battery on the upper rung, began to bombard.

With the thunderous bombardment of the 280mm mortar cannon, black iron balls rose from the thick smoke. With a burning tail falling on the fort, Xu Tingfa, Fan Wencai and others worked hard, spent thousands of people's efforts, and tens of thousands of silver to expand and renovate the Yaniang shoe fort trembled and collapsed under the fire of the 280mm mortar gun. Broken bricks and rocks were thrown into the sky, muffled explosions rang out one after another, and the entire fort seemed to be completely enveloped in smoke.

The counteroffensive planned by Xu Tingfa was completely disrupted, and under such a fierce artillery, no fool would run to the beach to "counterattack" for five taels of silver.

Li Xijue saw that the fort was hit by the thieves' artillery and smoked everywhere, flames were burning everywhere, and the wall collapsed, but there was no sign of a single cannon, and he said anxiously: "Why don't our army's Hongyi cannons fire?" ”

"I can't hit it" Xu Tingfa said impatiently, "It's so far away, I can only fall into the water"

"What? The Hongyi cannon is also ......" Li Xijue's face turned pale -- he had always regarded the Hongyi cannon as an unprecedented militaristic weapon, and now there was a cannon that could hit farther and more powerful than it. In addition, since watching the battle, the officers and men have only been beaten, and not a single effective counterattack has been made, and the more they watch, the more they hold their breath, and at this time they only feel that it is dark in front of them, and they actually faint.

Xu Tingfa couldn't take care of this Governor Yamen's Master Li anymore. Not only was it difficult for him to launch a counterattack, but the bandits' fleet had already entered the East Waterway.

If the Upper Gangtai Island had not been lost, it would have been able to ruthlessly "wash and suppress" the Australian ships, Xu Tingfa thought with regret. He also held on to the hope that the batteries of the Asian Shoes, which had been suppressed by the artillery fire, would open fire when they saw the enemy ships coming into range.

Shi XIV's 5th Squadron was ordered to use the suppressive and smoke effects of the grenades fired from the artillery boats, and the 5th Squadron approached 380 meters from the front of the battery and dropped anchor to secure the ship's position, and then joined the shelling with broadside guns.

At a distance of 380 meters, the Hongyi cannons on the fort were capable of inflicting heavy damage on these spy boats, but thirty minutes after being bombarded by the mortars, all the soldiers on the fort were dead and fled, and there were no more soldiers on the open gun emplacements. I saw that the fortifications of the fort collapsed in pieces in the artillery fire, like a castle of sand. From time to time, the powder magazine on the fort was detonated, setting off a black flame that soared into the sky.

After an hour and 25 minutes of shelling, all the batteries on the island lost their combat effectiveness, and 300 marines and marines landed on sampans and entered the batteries through the rubble wall. In the afternoon 1707, all batteries fell. In addition to the 200 corpses left behind, about 400 people were taken prisoner.

Xu Tingfa and the others are already like dirt, seeing the fall of the fort, let alone a counterattack, I am afraid that they will not even be able to protect themselves if they continue to stay in Wushan now. At present, the only way to do so is to immediately retreat to Humen Village to defend it. Xu Tingfa was about to dispatch troops to arrange the retreat, but he heard someone shouting in his ear: "Oh no, the thieves have attacked the mountain."

Suddenly, the entire Chinese army camp on the top of Wushan Mountain immediately exploded, and the officers and soldiers who had watched the battle all afternoon had no fighting spirit, and immediately scattered and fled like birds and beasts.

"My lord, let's go quickly" Several relatives couldn't help but hug Xu Tingfa and the others on their horses, and fled down the mountain in clusters.