However, things were unexpected by Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun and others.

As soon as the fleet entered the harbor and docked, it was immediately blocked by three British warships, not to mention that an officer on the dock led a group of soldiers who shouted and demanded to board the ship for inspection, saying that it was suspected that there were materials on board to finance the rioting workers and the Irish rebels.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun were dumbfounded, at this time, they regretted it a little, and did not follow Edward's advice and forcibly broke away from the encirclement and left. But at this time, it had already approached the dock, and the three warships next to it blocked the back road, and when he was helpless, after some negotiations by Edward, he could only accept the so-called inspection.

The British soldier who jumped on the sampan of the ship soon found a large amount of tea, raw silk and fine porcelain, etc., the British officer began to have a bright eye, and when the soldier turned out the holy oil, the officer finally found an excuse and directly announced that the Xu Hu Kee fleet was loaded with dangerous materials, suspected of financing the Irish rebels and rioters in Great Britain with the intention of seizing the four merchant ships and all the goods of the Xu Hu Kee fleet, and all the personnel on the fleet were also seized and handed over to the British local police and judicial departments for review.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun were completely stunned! They protested to the British soldiers, demanding to see British officials and Imperial Chinese envoys in Britain, but the British soldiers simply ignored them.

However, Edward extracted some information from the conversation of the British officer, and hurriedly pulled Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun aside, telling them the situation: "The two proprietors have already inquired, saying that the British Parliament has recently come up with a policy toward China, specifically because the Chinese Empire interfered in the internal affairs of Britain, organized and financed workers' riots in Britain, especially the Irish rebels, and caused great damage to Britain. and expelled all diplomatic and consular personnel from the territory, confiscated the property of illegal trading companies and merchants, and confiscated them into the state treasury. Even merchant ships from other countries, as long as they carried goods from the Chinese Empire, were subject to an additional 10% port tariff and a 10% port escort fee.

We were so unlucky that we happened to happen to something like this. Moreover, depending on the situation, they all regarded our Xu Hu Kee fleet as illegal trade goods, and they were seized and confiscated according to the most serious kind. The two proprietors should hurry up and think about how to deal with it. ”

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun's hearts sank to the bottom. They never expected that they would suddenly encounter such a situation, this is a dispute between the two countries, and these British soldiers are obviously going to take the opportunity to loot a profit, and if they want to get out, they are afraid of difficulties.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun glanced at each other, and immediately decided to let Edward leave first, and hurry up to Paris, France to find the special envoy of the Chinese Empire in Europe, Guo Songtao, and report the situation to him and ask for help.

Maybe it was because Edward was British, or maybe it was because he suddenly got a large amount of goods and made a fortune, which made these British soldiers relax their interrogation, and those British soldiers did not blame Edward too much and let him go.

And the other few stewards in the Xu Hu Kee firm were not so easy to speak, even if there were two people who knew some English, but after all, they were not so fluent, and before they could open their mouths to negotiate with the British army, they were arrested by the vicious soldiers, gagged with rotten cloth and put down.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun felt even more uncomfortable, and after a little discussion, the two were ruthless and gave an order to the entire fleet to forcibly rush out of the port and break through the blockade and interception of the British warships.

Suddenly, the four merchant ships began to adjust their sails and direction, but fortunately they did not lower their sails or cut off the steam engine. But the British were not stupid, and seemed to be aware of the intentions of the fleet, not only did all three warships come over and block all the retreats, but the searching soldiers also began to rush to the cabin with their guns raised.

The men on Xu Hu Ji's fleet began to pick up their weapons and prepare to resist, but where did these swords and short guns fight too early to prepare fully armed soldiers? Bang bang a few shots, several guys fell in a pool of blood, but there were many sailors and guys on the ship, and the sailors guys after the panic also began to calm down and began to fight back, after all, the British soldiers were small, and when they found that the fleet also had muskets, they began to retreat. At the same time, there was a whistle on the dock, and several groups of British troops were running, but by this time, the fleet had begun to slowly leave the dock.

At the same time, the British on the three warships also realized that the situation was not right, and the major officer shouted loudly, warned him, and began to give the order to open fire.

Because of the close distance, several shells suddenly landed on the largest flying shear merchant ship, and suddenly, the hull was pierced, and several men and sailors of the merchant house in the cabin were injured and screamed, while the hull of another armed steam merchant ship was slightly stronger, but it was also hit by two shells, and it was simply higher from the waterline, so as not to cause much impact.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun never thought of fighting back from the beginning, this is a British warship, not the kind of pirates who are put together by a few or dozens of small fishing boats, once they return fire and get caught in a battle formation, it will be difficult to get out. After all, warships are more capable of withstanding shells than merchant ships, and the gunners on their own merchant ships have not been trained for a long time to fight with warships, and they are just stupidly sent to death. As a result, all four merchant ships rushed away from the dock as fast as they could.

The three warships of the British army had already set up their combat alert positions and battle positions, but at this moment, they all reacted and opened fire one after another.

Suddenly, an armed steam merchant ship that rushed to the front was hit several times in succession, and the powder magazine in the cabin was also hit, and it exploded in one fell swoop, killing dozens of sailors and merchants in the ship and throwing them into the sea.

Hu Xueyan and Xu Rongcun had been worried and scared on another armed steam merchant ship, but at this moment, when they saw the armed steam merchant ship at the front blown apart, they suddenly knew that many men and sailors who had followed them to the West had died tragically, and their eyes were furious and grief-stricken.

However, due to the attractive firepower of the armed steam merchant ship, and the cover of the loud explosion, the other two merchant ships managed to break through the blockade of the three warships.

But there was still a merchant ship far behind, the large three-masted clipper with a displacement of 2,100 tons full of holy oil, which was too heavy to move with difficulty.

At this moment, this three-masted flying shear merchant ship has been completely blocked by the three warships, and it is almost impossible to break through their artillery blockade. The sailors and men on the merchant ship were probably aware of this, and saw the flag of the Chinese Empire fluttering in the wind with a yellow star on a red background on the top deck, and the three-masted flying clipper ship not only did not flee from the side, but headed straight for the nearest British steam gunship.

Seeing this, the British steam gunboat flashed to the side, and then deftly dodged. At the same time, two other British warships simultaneously opened fire on the three-masted flying scissors merchant ship. The three-masted flying shear merchant ship could not avoid it, so it simply stopped dodging, but only slightly adjusted its position and rushed to the middle of the two British warships, as if trying to escape from the two warships.

Seeing this, the two British warships relieved themselves and began to adjust their positions, aiming at the approaching three-masted flying scissors merchant ship in the broadside position, and opened fire fiercely.

Suddenly, the three-masted flying shear merchant ship was hit by several bullets, the cabin was pierced through several holes, and the holy oil began to flow out of the oil barrel. Suddenly, a slight wave of water on the sea, centered on the three-masted flying shear merchant ship, began to quickly sparkle with oil, and as the merchant ship moved forward, like an arrow, sailing towards the two British warships.

At this time, the British troops on the two British warships also woke up, and the British officers desperately gave the order to wave the flag, not knowing whether to give the order to dodge or to order not to fire, but it was too late. The merchant ship had approached the British frigate and the gunboat, less than ten meters away.

The sound of the cannons all stopped, and the sound of the sea breeze blowing the flag of the Chinese Empire, which was already a little tilted, and fluttering, set off the unusually quiet on the sea. I saw a flash of fire ignite violently in the cabin of the merchant ship, and then, a large ball of fierce fire suddenly rose into the air, wrapping the entire hull, followed by an earth-shattering explosion, and the entire merchant ship turned into countless pieces of debris, with countless balls of fire, wrapped in oil flowers and shooting around.

The entire surface of the sea, centered on merchant ships, with a radius of tens of meters, was wrapped in firelight. The British frigates and gunboats were also engulfed in the flames, and the screams and cries of pain were completely muffled by the sound of explosions, and no one knew about them, but through the firelight, the British soldiers on the dock saw a terrible scene: countless humanoid fireballs on two British warships, struggling to jump from the deck into the sea.

The two British warships were shattered by the violent blast of the explosion, and in the raging flames, there were countless charred corpses and shattered blown up planks on the slowly sinking hull, which were still burning.

Hu Xueyan's eyes were red, and he looked behind him with tears, and next to him, Xu Rongcun also clenched his teeth, and his clenched fists did not know that his nails had pierced into the flesh without realizing the slightest pain.

"If you don't take revenge, you swear not to be a man!"