Just when Lin Qirong and the remaining more than 1,000 Hexi troops were still shuttling and fleeing for their lives in the jungles of Minnesota, the port city at the mouth of the Mississippi River thousands of miles to the south, outside the port of New Orleans in Isiana, ushered in a huge crisis.

The sea outside the mouth of the Mississippi River lined up with 18 warships, 2 battleships, 5 cruisers, and the remaining 11 were small frigates and steam shallow gunboats, which was an almost invincible threat to the southern Confederate States of America, which was just beginning to form a naval force. What's more, behind this warship, there are hundreds of troop carriers densely arranged, and God knows how many land forces are transported.

Garrisoned in New Orleans was Confederate General Pierre Beauret, a native of New Orleans who had returned to his native New Orleans to serve as theater commander in Isiana since the North-South armistice. He had long received reports that a large naval fleet had departed from the southern Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the New Orleans River and found that it was a large naval fleet from the northern part of New Mexico Province, which belonged to the Chinese Empire, near the Gulf of Mexico.

Beauregard was taken aback, and while organizing a resistance, he hurriedly sent a letter of distress to the President of the Confederate States and the Minister of War, suggesting that Mr. President protest to the Chinese Empire and stop the aggression of the other side.

On the banks of the Mississippi River, 30 kilometers downstream in New Orleans, the Confederate states fortified Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson. In these two forts, a total of 85 guns were armed, and a total of 4 small steam gunboats and arsonboats were deployed in Boregaard to fight in tandem with the forts. In addition, the USS Louisiana, a newly launched and unfinished ironclad ship without an engine in the harbor of New Orleans, was also urgently transferred to the middle of the two forts, parked in the middle of the river, and served as a floating battery. After this arrangement, Beauregard calmed down a little.

Although the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire was huge, it could only approach New Orleans if it suppressed or even destroyed these two forts. The fortification of these two forts, as well as the power of the Louisiana ironclad, gave Beauregard some confidence that he could hold the harbor of New Orleans.

Soon, the outposts reported that the enemy's intentions of the Chinese Empire had been ascertained, and their main forces were divided into two routes and began to attack New Orleans: the first enemy army was a fleet ready to storm the two forts, consisting of two merchant ships from the Gulf of Mexico as pathfinders, probably to prevent mines from laying mines at the mouth of the river, while the other two battleships, consisting of four cruisers and five steam gunboats, entered the river downstream of the fort and began to shell Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson on the banks of the river; On the other hand, the enemy was composed of huge troop carriers, escorted by 1 light cruiser, 4 frigates, and 2 gunboats, preparing to carry out a surprise assault through the fort blockade area, land and capture the city of New Orleans.

However, the Chinese Imperial troop carriers did not rush directly into the upper reaches of the estuary at the beginning, but first began to bombard the forts of Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson with the 11 main warships.

Beauregarde became a little nervous, and he knew that the most important thing was to see if the firepower of the two fortresses could block the enemy fleet from the mouth of the river and withstand the enemy's attack.

However, as soon as the cannon of the enemy fleet sounded, Boredgard, who was on the bank of the river not far from the fortress, began to change his face!

The cannon rumbled, and because it was far apart, Beauregard only heard the sound of heavy shelling from the two forts. Through the telescope, he could see that the two fortresses, especially Fort St. Philip, began to burst into flames, and almost every minute dozens of powerful shells hit the forts, and Fort St. Philip was like a boat in the sea, undulating with the waves in the storm of artillery.

The shelling lasted until dark, and then all night, until noon the next day, almost more than 10,000 shells were fired at the two forts, causing them serious damage. Fort St. Philip was particularly miserable, the whole fort began to collapse, all the fortifications, warehouses, houses, etc. were seriously damaged, Fort Jackson was slightly better, but the warehouses and caves collapsed, and only some of the remaining fortifications were still standing firmly on the platform on the bank of the river.

However, to Beauregarde's relief, even though the fortifications of Fort St. Philip were completely destroyed, the defenders of the Confederate States fought back stubbornly. The artillery in the fort also continued to fire, but after a day and night of return fire, Beauregaard was horrified to find that only the two merchant ships in the front and one of the battleships and two cruisers had suffered some damage, and the rest of the warships were so far away from the fortress that the forts in the fort could not reach them at all.

Only then did Boregaard react that the range of the warship guns of the Chinese Empire was farther than the range of the shore defense guns in his own fortress.

And what made him most angry was that the unfinished "Louisiana" ironclad ship almost did not play any role, and was damaged by the enemy's warship, because it had no power, and floated in the middle of the river and became a living target. In desperation, Beauregard sent an arsonist to pull the Louisiana up the Mississippi River. At the same time, three other small steam gunboats were ordered to rush to the battle zone to relieve some of the pressure on the fortress while covering the escape of the largest and most valuable ironclad "Louisiana".

But what I didn't expect was that at this moment, most of the artillery of the two fortresses had been blown up by the opposing fleet, and the number of shore artillery guns was reduced from 85 to only 28 that could still be fired, and the firepower was greatly reduced.

The warships of the rear road of the Chinese Empire, seven warships consisting of one light cruiser, four frigates and two gunboats, piled up some sandbags, coal ladles and firewood directly in the vulnerable areas to strengthen protection, and forced their way through the Mississippi River directly from the artillery nets of the two forts.

And, while charging and firing, the three small steam gunboats only had time to fire a few cannons, and one was directly sunk, one was heavily damaged, and one directly raised a white flag and surrendered.

Seeing that the arsonist dragging the ironclad could not escape, it rushed straight over, trying to die with the light cruiser that rushed to the front, but before it could rush to the side of the enemy ship, it was sunk by several shells.

The ironclad ship "Louisiana", which lost power, was subjected to heavy artillery bombardment, and it seemed that it was either sunk or captured, and the captain of the "Louisiana" was also very stubborn, and even ordered to sink it on its own and not let the enemy prisoners get an ironclad ship in vain.

More than 100 soldiers on the seven warships that broke through the fortress began to land, and at the same time, the troop carriers behind also quickly rushed into the estuary, although Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson wanted to block the river, but the artillery was still bombarded and destroyed several guns, less than 20 guns, it was difficult to block the entire wide river.

Hundreds of troop carriers, converted from various civilian cargo ships and passenger ships, quickly passed through the estuary, followed seven warships to the upper reaches of the river of the fort, and began to land.