For Zhao Xingde's plan, the course of the Battle of Guangzhou was clear and simple.

The first step is to lure the pirates to Guangzhou, the second step is to completely block the mouth of the Pearl River, the South China Sea Navy Division and the defenders of the Sea City cooperate to form a situation of catching turtles in the urn, and the third step is to destroy the pirate's ships, and then the naval gunboats can move freely on the Pearl River. Each step is carried out in a simple and ordinary way, but when added up step by step, it is a deadly trap for pirates.

The South China Sea Sailors have achieved the greatest results at the lowest cost, and now is the time to harvest.

The sun rises in the east, and the slanted light pierces through the swirling smoke. Zhao Xingde raised the clairvoyant mirror, and he effortlessly saw the situation on the upstream river. Many warships were still billowing with smoke, a few unmanned boats were drifting, and countless wrecks and corpses were floating down the river, silently recounting the results of last night's battle. The clairvoyant's vision swept across the vast river, and he saw the faces of some of the survivors, frightened, frenzied, and pale, some of whom were still desperately trying to move food out of the sinking ship.

Ding Ban, the commander of the warship, personally came to ask for battle, and asked to select the elite to attack the thieves in a small boat.

"No, I don't." Zhao Xingde shook his head and said in a low voice. He had a grim look on his face, "Casualties that shouldn't be paid, even one person is superfluous." We can clean them up with cannons, so we don't have to use swords. Ding Ban's face was full of regret, and he sighed and left. He returned to his ship and complained loudly about the regret of the unsuccessful battle. His officers and sailors were secretly glad that it was a rare luck for the soldiers to follow a commander who valued the lives of his subordinates. At this time, Du Fujiao was ordered to come to the ship's building.

"Blow the horn and bring the three battalions of firecrackers ashore," Zhao Xingde said in a deep voice, "to help defend the sea city." ”

"Yes!" Du Blowhorn agreed without pressure. "It's going to be too easy." He thought to himself.

Although there is a saying in the war book that "the ship is broken", it is similar to the situation of pirates losing their ships, but in fact it is far from it. However, the former is active and the latter is passively endured, and the impact on morale is very different. Judging from the fact that the pirates were attacked by arson ships last night and did not organize a decent counterattack or siege, the pirates' offensive against the city will be very limited in the next few days.

The sailor sent the elite of the fire gun battalion to assist the Guangzhou regiment in training to defend the city, but he just put the last nail on this coffin board.

At dawn, Du Fujiao led 1,500 firecrackers to land in a small boat and made a detour by land to Hanhai City. The arrival of the elite of the sailors was welcomed by the Guangzhou government, and it immediately arranged for the fire battalion to parade along the head of the city of Hanhai. Du Blowhorn waved the banner of the South China Sea Naval Division, announcing that the elite of the Naval Division had come to assist in defending the city. The morale of the regimental training along the way was greatly boosted, and the pirates outside the city were even more panicked.

At the same time, the main force of the South China Sea Naval Division began to slowly clean up the wrecks in the channel.

Clearing the channel is a meticulous job, and in general, it is divided into two methods: wringing and borrowing. Winch towing is the construction of pulley hinges on the shore to remove the wreck from the channel or even tow it ashore. Borrowing is similar to the method of fishing for the Yellow River iron cattle, the fully loaded salvage ship or pontoon tank is connected with the wreck as a whole, and after the load is unloaded, the wreck is floated with the help of hydraulic power, and then it is towed away from the channel. If the pirate's warship was intact, it would have been impossible for the South China Sea Sailors to clear the tunnels, but at this time, the pirates had no strength to stop it. Coupled with the fact that the wreck was not yet completely mired in the mud, the sailors deliberately left a few weak nodes at the time of the wreck, so the cleanup proceeded very quickly.

After three days of fire on the enemy ships, a narrow channel had been cleared. The gunboats of the South China Sea Naval Division sailed into the waters of Guangzhou.

The defenders defending the head of the sea city were the first to wave and cheer at the sailors: "Behold, the gunboats of the sailors! "What a big guy!"

The fire destroyed most of the pirates' ships, however, because the ships were parked in the harbor, most of the pirates still fled ashore, and for three days, under the organization of Qiu Darui, Famaitu and others, the pirates have been attacking the city of Hanhai, trying to make a bloody way before the food runs out. Although most of the artillery sank with the ship, it was almost impossible to succeed in capturing the defending city of hundreds of thousands of strong men by relying on flesh and blood, but the trapped beasts still brought great pressure to the defenders of the city. Every day, there are countless dead and wounded on and off the walls. Looking out from the building of the sailor's ship, there are shacks erected everywhere at the Western Australia Wharf, and Guangzhou Zicheng shoots at the Western Australia Wharf from time to time, making the crowd on the wharf embarrassed, and the appearance of tall gunboats suddenly set off a chaos.

"Damn it." Famaitu looked at the Song gunboat with gloomy eyes and cursed, "Insidious infidels! ”

The tall side of the ship was like a cloud covering the sky. Above and below the ship's side, rows of gun windows were opened, their muzzles shining in the sunlight with the reflection of metal. The distance between the gunboats was so close, if there were a few oars or arsonists in his hands, Famaitu would definitely fight to the death with the Song navy, but he no longer had a boat in his hands that could pose even the slightest threat to the gunboats. Even if there were, there were shipwrecks floating on the river near the shore, and countless garbage smelled of foul odor, and ships could not sail from the wharf of Western Australia to the main channel, while the Song warships cruised on the main channel, and the artillery range was enough to extend from the river to Hanhai City. Next, the pirates will face another massacre, and they will be helpless.

Zhao Xingde was also looking at the wharf in Western Australia, surrounded by officers such as Ma Yuan and Feng Mi.

Ma Yuan conveyed Guangzhou's thanks to Zhao Xingde, and Chen Gongju hoped that the sailors would assist the Guangzhou regiment to complete the final blow. In the narrow area surrounded by the walls of the sea and the banks of the Pearl River, there were about 60,000 pirates, a small number of whom died in the fire, and most of them were still surviving. The faces of the young officers were noticeably more relaxed than those of the Governor, and the young officers were happily discussing how to make a forced landing and dispose of the prisoners.

Zhao Xingde did not participate in their conversation, but with a deep groan between his eyebrows, in the final stage, it was time to think about how to end the story.

The first half of the battle went more smoothly than expected, and the more it ended, the more careful he was to not let victory slip through his fingers.

The warship anchored and anchored in the main channel of the Pearl River, and looking north from the shipbuilding, under the bright sunlight, the morning river fog dissipated, the air became transparent, and the firing range of the artillery was very clear. The pirates on the docks of Western Australia were densely packed, their clothes ragged and withered, their knives and guns shaking and shining. Some pirates piled up boxes, planks, and other miscellaneous items in an attempt to resist the bombardment of the artillery, while others sat or lay idly down, watching the sailor warship sail into the waters of Guangzhou, with panic or despair on their faces, and watched as the sailor warship opened its cannon window and rows of cannon muzzles stretched out.

"Lord Zhao," Liu Zhijian reported, "all ships are ready!" ”

"Let's shoot." Zhao Xingde briefly ordered, "Three rounds of salvos!" ”

"All in place—" The gunners commanded in a long voice as they rallied around the guns.

The pirates had no power to fight back, and Zhao Xingde was able to watch the whole fleet fire this time with a calm mentality.

Strange to say, from top to bottom, the South China Sea Fleet is in a more relaxed mood than when it was training at sea, there are wind and waves at sea, while anchoring on the river, the fleet is almost stationary, and the artillery bombardment is not a moving enemy ship, but a fixed target on land. Some gunners even had the illusion that the targets on the shore seemed to float out of nowhere, because they had trained too much at sea and were not adapted to anchoring and bombarding fixed targets on the river.

"Fire!" "Fire-" "Fire!" ”

"Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-"

Thick clouds of smoke rose from the river, round shells flew through the smoke, one by two, three or four, one after another towards the shore, the pirates had already seen the power of the shells, and before the shells landed, they screamed and hugged their heads to dodge, and there was chaos on the dock. The cannonballs fell to the ground "and fell to the ground", piling up debris, and in the crowd, every time it showed its indestructible power. The gunners of the naval division did not care much about the casualties caused by the shelling, they just loaded the ammunition step by step, fired the guns, scrubbed the breeches, aimed, and fired again. "Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" The cannon sound continued to sound, and wave after wave of shells landed firmly and accurately on the WA dock.

From time to time, cheers rang out at the head of Hanhai City. Zuo Nianyuan and other officers also watched the shelling with different feelings.

Some people's eyes were full of shock, some people's eyes burst with enthusiasm, and some people's eyes were full of fear. The artillery fire of the sailor division was fierce, more than the harassment of the city of Guangzhou, Zuo Nianyuan's face radiated strong enthusiasm, the devastating power of artillery was the only one he had seen in his life. The bombardment was so heavy that the pirates were like fish slaughtered on a chopping board. Each shell brought fear and loss to the pirates, and as the shelling continued, the smoke of gunpowder rising from the river became thicker and thicker, like a dark cloud hanging over the sky, and the shells fell more and more densely on the docks, roaring, whistling, and smashing everything.

The pirates were emboldened, and many of them let out terrible screams that were not like human voices, and they only cared about running around with their heads in their hands, which was a world of difference from the fierce and fierce appearance of the siege of the city a few days ago. The Song officers and soldiers defending the head of the sea could clearly see everything on the docks of Western Australia, and the hordes of pirates were driven around like rats by the shelling, some of them were paralyzed on the ground, and some were injured crawling on the ground. Because of jealousy and fear, the faces of many pirates were deformed with fright, Zuo Nianyuan recognized a fierce thief who took the lead in the siege of the city yesterday, he was bent over and lying in a pool of blood, his whole body was constantly convulsing, many pirates ran past him, but no one stopped to treat him. The scorching sun shone in the sky, and after a while, the man was silent.