Behind the Sampan Island, a full 5 kilometers away from the Shajiao Battery, on the deck of the flagship of the British Expeditionary Fleet, the Duke of Wellington, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Seymour, had a somewhat ugly face, and sighed to the army commander Ross and the deputy commander of the navy He Bo next to him: "I didn't expect that the artillery of the Chinese Empire is really excellent, and the Ottoman fleet is only about 4 kilometers away from the battery, so they will fire directly, and they can hit, especially the artillery is quite powerful, and the frigate seems to be unable to be saved." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, on the Sand Horn Battery, several shells were fired at the four Ottoman warships on the river, and three of them directly hit the hull of the frigate, and suddenly, the frigate tilted violently to one side, and then began to enter the water, and it was about to sink to the bottom of the river, and dozens of Turkish soldiers and sailors on the frigate swarmed in panic and climbed to the other side of the lean, calling for help from the flagship and another gunboat next to it.

He Bo's face became a little solemn: "General Seymour, I'm afraid that the artillery made by the Chinese Empire is even better than we imagined." I'm afraid that my British Empire's expeditionary fleet will hit a hard bone this time! By the way, General Seymour, send a few warships to cover the Ottoman fleet and let them withdraw. Otherwise, the Turks are afraid that they will hate us to death! ”

Seymour shook his head: "Don't pay attention to the Turks, since they have come to the war, they must have the consciousness of loss!" Let the battleship 'Willisley' and the three cruisers 'Duru One', 'Browny' and 'Conway', and then lead about 10 gunboats and frigates forward, while the enemy is firing at the Turks, to attack the batteries with all their might. That battery should have more than a dozen guns, four of which are heavy guns, and the maximum firing range may reach four kilometers, but the rate of fire is not high.

This is the first fort to enter the city of Guangzhou, and there are many such forts behind it, and we can't tie our hands and tails! I don't believe it, 18 years ago, a few warships could be easily conquered, 6 years ago, the waste of Rear Admiral Chadwei was able to lead the fleet to capture, and now we have the elite troops of the British Royal Navy gathered here, and we can't capture a small battery? ”

Seeing that Seymour ordered a direct assault, Army Commander Ross originally wanted to propose troop carriers to put the British Expeditionary Force's army down from the ship, and the army would land and outflank this battery from behind, and attack it from both sides. It's not that he wants to see Seymour's jokes, but in his opinion, Seymour's order is no problem, this battery is just a fort, and it is directly attacked by more than a dozen warships, and it will be captured quickly.

Just as the four main warships led 12 frigates and gunboats out of the line, they headed for the northeast direction of the Shajiao Battery. The lookouts of the British Expeditionary Force fleet suddenly spotted several small-tonnage shallow water steam gunboats with the flag of the Chinese Empire with yellow stars on a red background sailing out of the Taiping Waterway behind the Shajiao Battery; In the distance, behind the upper and lower rungs in the upper reaches of the Pearl River, a small but extremely fast fleet also circled out and headed in the direction of the Weiyuan Battery Group.

"It's the damned Eastern Fleet! Not daring to engage us in the East Indies, they fled here, wanting to confront the navy of our British Empire with their batteries. Seymour was not surprised, but was a little happy: "Send another 20 warships to intercept and destroy that battery and these eastern warships!" ”

The herald on the flagship "Duke Wellington" quickly issued Seymour's order through the flag, and the British expeditionary fleet quickly rushed out of 20 warships, of which 6 were capital warships with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, and even two were with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons and more than 50 guns, one was the battleship "Captain Hundred" with a displacement of 4,850 tons, and the other was the cruiser "Yuriales" with a displacement of 3,175 tons.

Like two mountains, these two main warships sailed out of the British Expeditionary Force fleet, led another 18 warships to stop on the east side of another small island in the northwest of Sampan Chau, aimed at the direction of the Shajiao Fort, and lined up diagonally across the river in a circular arc. The 16 warships in front, led by the battleship "Willisley", also aimed at the Shajiao battery in a semi-arc and rushed into the range of fire of the battery.

The four Ottoman warships, which had already turned around and were about to retreat, were blocked by a row of British warships in a row that was somewhat dense, and had to reduce their speed and carefully and slowly try to get through the gap between the British warships.

As a result, the speed was much slower, and he almost stayed on the surface of the river without moving, becoming a target and being exposed to the artillery of the Sand Point Battery.

How could the more than 10 cannons on the Shajiao Fort let go of such a good opportunity, and the frigate, which had already begun to sink, was fired several shells in succession, and suddenly sank completely. The other three warships, especially the flagship where Awuzheoğlu was located, because of their large size and large target, were taken care of by the Shajiao Battery, and seven shells were fired in two rounds of shelling, but fortunately these shells did not hit the vital point, so that the flagship of the Ottoman expeditionary fleet did not suffer fatal damage, but the 13 Turkish officers and men on board were killed by shells on the spot, and more than 20 people were injured.

Fortunately, at this time, the first batch of 16 British warships had already rushed into the battlefield and took over the artillery fire of the battery. The Shajiao battery did not have time to adjust its angle, and fired directly at the rushing British warship.

The battleship "Willisley" in the middle of the horse became the biggest target, and more than ten guns on the Sand Point battery kept an eye on it and fired continuously, and the bow was hit by 3 shells, and the deck was hit by several cannons, fortunately, the extremely thick oak of the battleship "Willisley" was strong enough, but it was also broken through a large hole, and the deck was even more damaged, almost half of the deck was torn off, dozens of British soldiers and sailors on the "Willisley" were killed and wounded, and even the gunners below the deck were killed and wounded. Another cruiser "Browny", because it was next to the battleship "Willisley", I don't know whether it also became a key target, or the gunners on the Sand Point battery missed, and was also hit by 3 shells, which penetrated the hull, revealing two large holes, fortunately above the waterline, there was no leakage, but if it was hit again in the same position, it was likely to penetrate the bilge of the warship, therefore, the captain of the cruiser "Browny" panicked and ordered to turn around, slightly side the hull, and avoid the damaged hole in the direction of the battery, But in this way, the forward speed naturally slows down.

However, because of the attractive fire of several main warships such as the "Willisley" and the "Browny", only one of the other 12 small warships was unfortunately hit in the ammunition compartment where the shells were stored, and the violent explosion caused a fire, several soldiers were burned to death, more than a dozen people were burned, and the gunboats were also seriously damaged, and began to retreat and prepare to withdraw from the battlefield. The other 11 warships rushed to the Shajiao battery almost unscathed, and began to enter a range of more than 3 kilometers from the battery.

After all, the Shajiao Fort is only a battery, with only more than ten guns, and because of the fast speed of the British warships, the gunners on the batteries must constantly adjust the elevation angle of the guns and predict the position of the intersection of the sailing warships and shells in advance.

Although the artillery of the Chinese Empire developed rapidly and the artillerymen were diligent in training, the accumulation of experience could not be completed overnight. Although the gunners on the Shajiao battery were not novices, they did not shoot very accurately under the high-speed movement of the warship, and the rate of fire slowed down because of the adjustment of the angle of the gun.

When the first batch of 15 warships of the British ships rushed within 3 kilometers, the six shallow-water steam gunboats with yellow stars on a red background that sailed out of the Taiping Channel also turned out of the Taiping Channel behind the Shajiao Battery, stopped moving, and began to fire at the British ships.

Seymour, who was in the rear, saw this scene and shouted angrily. These six shallow water steam gunboats of the Chinese Empire obviously have a tonnage of only one or two hundred tons, and each warship has only one or two guns on it, but the shells fired are huge, and with Seymour's many years of experience in naval warfare, if the shells are solid, they weigh at least more than 100 kilograms. And he naturally knew that even if the oak of the battleship "Wellisley" was strong enough, it could only withstand the bombardment of 50 kg of solid shells.

If the enemy's six small steam gunboats were fired head-on, Seymour was confident that his 16 warships would be able to hit two or three rounds of artillery fire, and he would have sunk all six small gunboats. But the six gunboats in front of them were hiding at the confluence of the Taiping Waterway and the Pearl River behind the Shajiao Fort, and they were 4.3 kilometers away from the "Wellisley" at the front.

Seymour knew that even the two latest Armstrong 180mm guns on the battleship "Willisley" were the longest-range front-loading rifled guns, with an effective range of only 3.2 kilometers. Other smoothbore guns, even if they have a maximum range of 5 kilometers, have an effective range of only 1.8 kilometers to 2.7 kilometers, and even in order to ensure the hit rate, some of them have an optimal range of less than one kilometer.

Sure enough, the 8 shells fired by these 6 steam gunboats, although only 2 hits the "Browny" that adjusted the angle to turn the side of the ship towards the gunboat, but the side board of the "Browny" was pierced through two large holes at once, and the shells were still exhausted, and continued to smash into the cabin, one of which hit the ammunition depot in the cabin, and exploded violently, tearing off the entire deck, causing a fire, making the entire "Browny" completely out of control, and more than 300 British soldiers and sailors on the ship were killed and wounded more than 100 people. Most of the rest were also burned by the fire, and they rolled around to extinguish the fire with ghosts and wolves, and they didn't even have time to call for help and jumped into the Pearl River to escape.

Seeing this scene, Seymour opened his mouth wide, as if he couldn't believe the scene in front of him. Only then did he realize that the rifled cannon called Krupp made by the Chinese Empire had become a nightmare for the expeditionary fleet led by him.

It is clear that there are capable men in the enemy army, who are well versed in command, and make full use of their artillery range advantage to consume their own strength at the minimum cost. We must not allow the other side to open fire at such a long range, leaving our own side in a situation where they will only be beaten and will not return fire!

Now Seymour had only two options, one was to order the two fleets in front of one and the other to press on and storm 6 steam gunboats; The second is to ignore the gunboats and capture that battery first.