However, before most of the ships of the expeditionary fleet could turn their bows, Seymour and Hober noticed, and the smell of oil and gas on the river was so strong that the British soldiers on the ships ran out of the cabins, but could not see anything in the dark night, and could only riot in fear. Fortunately, the British army has always been strictly disciplined, otherwise, they really don't know how to command.

At this time, another reconnaissance ship rushed from downstream. The captain of the reconnaissance ship reported that at the Pazhou Fort three kilometers downstream, the 200 British soldiers who had occupied and guarded the fort were attacked by a group of black-clothed men who suddenly appeared at night, suffering heavy casualties and almost all the troops were wiped out, and the Pazhou Fort had been lost. The key is that they detected dozens of minutes ago that the downstream river surface was also filled with a black layer of oil slurry, floating on the surface of the water, and they could find that it was because the fish and shrimp in the river were covered by the black oil slurry and could not breathe, so they jumped out of the water one after another, attracting their attention, and then they found something abnormal.

He Bo immediately understood that this was the enemy's simultaneous dropping of black oil from the upper and lower reaches of the blockaded river. This is a determination to wipe out the entire expeditionary fleet. However, there is still a trace of luck in He Bo's heart, that is, such a wide river, and the blocked area is several kilometers long, but it is not a little black oil that can cover the entire river surface. Even if it is barely covered, it is not very thick and it is difficult to burn. The warships of the British Expeditionary Fleet, because of the long distance, are made of sturdy oak wood, and the outside is painted with anti-corrosion shellac varnish, which has a slightly fireproof effect, and may not be so easy to burn.

He once again ordered that all the lanterns on all warships in the entire fleet should be extinguished, and that all warships should not make fires, and that they should quickly evacuate downstream.

Seymour was also very anxious when he heard the captain's summons, and several British soldiers in his flagship cabin began to vomit because they couldn't stand the unpleasant smell of oil and gas on the river, which made him even more upset.

At this moment, a fire suddenly rose upstream, and then quickly grew larger.

He Bo next to him screamed: "Oh no, the enemy has already ignited!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the upstream was originally just a small fire, but it had turned into a sky-high flame, black smoke billowed out, coupled with the breeze of early summer, the fire was rising, and the entire upstream was already a red piece of fire, illuminating the entire upstream brightly.

Moreover, there was a line of fire on the upstream river, which was taking advantage of the wind to quickly rush towards the fleet where he was. In just a few moments, the line of fire had already crossed a distance of several hundred meters, and behind the line of fire, flames were more than ten meters high, engulfing the more than ten warships that had fallen behind the expeditionary fleet, which were originally the vanguard of the expeditionary fleet. Screams and explosions rang out upstream.

"It's over! These Eastern devils are too ruthless, the expeditionary fleet of the British Empire is coming to an end! He Bo only felt that the whole person was sluggish, his heart was empty and overwhelmed, and the fire in front of him stimulated him extremely shocked.

And Seymour on the side was no better. Even though he has been in the military for nearly 30 years and has led the British Armada across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, he has never seen such an earth-shattering scene. He was dumbfounded, his mind went blank, and he just muttered, "Oh God, God! Our British Expeditionary Force is doomed. Uncle Ho, quick, you know this black oil, quickly think of a way to get out of danger. ”

He Bo woke up from the panic and shock, looked at Seymour, and said slowly: "Commander, the expeditionary fleet is finished. Now the only way is to order a quick landing and abandon the landing of warships. Maybe there's a silver lining......"

.......

Almost at the same time as the fire was flourishing, on the Liede Fort, Feng Yunshan and others with binoculars appeared in the lookout fortress of the fort. Behind him, Zuo Zongtang, chief of the General Staff of the General Staff, Wu Chongyao, governor of Guangdong, Mao Qi, deputy chief of the General Staff, Fan Ruzeng, director of the Special Service Department, Peng Yulin, commander of the Pacific Fleet, Tan Tiyuan, commander of the Nanyang Fleet, Pan Qiliang, commander of the 47th Infantry Division, Liu Yongfu, commander of the 52nd Infantry Division, and Liu Shengbang, chief of the personal guard, followed closely behind.

Seeing the fire rising into the sky in the river in the west, Zuo Zongtang said with a little nervousness: "Your Majesty, you have launched a fire attack!" After nearly two months of planning, it is basically done. Not surprisingly, after tonight, Yingyi's expeditionary fleet will disappear completely, and after that, Yingyi may not dare to invade our Chinese Empire again! ”

Feng Yunshan took off the telescope, and at this moment, the surface of the Pearl River not far away was already in flames, the sound of burning sparks was audible, and the pungent oil and gas level and scorching smell that spread were very strong even in the fort fortress three miles away from the firelight.

"Well, Zuo Aiqing and all Aiqing have worked hard, as well as the soldiers of the empire, as well as the people along the Pearl River, have made great efforts and sacrifices for this battle, and history will not forget you! This war will definitely leave a heavy mark in history, and you will go down in history with me! Feng Yunshan's mood was very agitated.

As early as the spies in Europe heard that Britain was preparing to send troops to the war, Feng Yunshan began to think about countermeasures. After the British army sent troops, knowing that the British army united with several other countries and dispatched a huge expeditionary fleet composed of nearly 100 warships, and tens of thousands of soldiers were coming, Feng Yunshan decided to finish his work and fight a battle, and give the most powerful empire in the world a ruthless blow, so that it would not dare to use troops easily. It is better to annihilate its expeditionary fleet. But to achieve such a result, with the navy that the Chinese Empire had just formed, even if all the four fleets were combined, it could not be done. After all, this is the number one power in the world, in addition to the advantages of artillery and geographical defense, whether it is the size of the fleet, or the command of the generals, the military quality of the soldiers, etc., they are not opponents.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan decided to do something else. He came up with a fire attack method that mimicked the burning of red cliffs. Of course, having worked in an oil refinery for many years, he naturally thought of arson with crude oil.

I have to say, it was a very risky decision. To do this, he made careful calculations.

In the era when there were no large-scale ships that collected waste oil, the most cost-effective way was to fence the crude oil with a boom and burn it off to avoid polluting the ocean.

Feng Yunshan's expertise told him that in order to put a fuel film on the surface of the water, this oil film should be at least 3 millimeters thick, and if there are wind and waves, it may need to be thicker. Of course, Feng Yunshan's purpose was not only to barely ignite, but to ensure that the entire British expeditionary fleet could be engulfed in raging fire, so he estimated that the thickness of the oil layer on the water surface should be at least 1 centimeter thick, and in order to be safe, he directly set the oil layer laid at 3 centimeters thick.

In addition, the section of the river where the fire attack was launched was carefully screened, taking into account the width and narrowness of the river surface, the scope of influence, and the effective use of the islands in the river for arrangement, and the river surface should be long enough to cover the entire British expeditionary fleet, and finally determined the 6-kilometer-long river surface from the tail of Ersha Island in the northwest to the middle of Huangpu Island and Xinzhou Island in the southeast.

For this reason, Feng Yunshan actually suffered huge losses. I don't care about the character layout, and I don't care about the crude oil consumed. At this time, this section of the river is not as narrow as in later generations, but as wide as 500 meters and more than 6 kilometers long, which reaches at least 3 square kilometers wide water, 3 centimeters thick crude oil, which requires nearly 100,000 cubic meters of crude oil, a total of 90 tons of crude oil.

Of course, these crude oils were very huge for the Chinese Empire, which used to only have the Xiangzhou Oilfield in Guangxi, but now the Chinese Empire has developed the Changqingqiao Oilfield in Ningzhou, Gansu, the Ren'anqiang Oilfield in Myanmar, the Balikpapan Oilfield in Borneo, and the Purnei Sairia Oilfield, which have all begun to be put into production, especially the Balikpapan Oilfield in Borneo and the Brunei Celea Oilfield, which have a huge output, and the Petroleum and Fertilizer Department has secretly organized oil workers to just exploit them, which is the scale of two or three hundred thousand tons. For less than a hundred tons of crude oil put into the market this time, it is a piece of cake.

In order to block this section of the river, wooden piles and shipwrecks upstream, and iron chains and debris downstream, all cost a lot. The arson of oil will wipe out more than 6 kilometers of fish and shrimp in the Pearl River, causing major environmental pollution.

However, none of this is worth mentioning in terms of being able to completely wipe out the entire British Expeditionary Fleet.

"Congratulations to the Chinese Empire on this great victory! Your Majesty's ingenuity! Bow down! Everyone praised.

Feng Yunshan waved his hand, his expression was correct, and he said solemnly: "Don't relax until the last moment!" Are the soldiers on both sides of the strait properly arranged? ”

Zuo Zongtang hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty said yes!" Weichen is waiting for Meng Lang! According to the prediction, Yingyi is likely to abandon the ship and land, the 47th Infantry Division, the 48th Division, and the 52nd Infantry Division are already in position on both sides of the strait, and the three main infantry regiments of the 16th Infantry Division have also rushed from Humen to the vicinity of the North Tower. This time, even if the British invaders landed, it would be difficult to fly. Moreover, the Huangpu Island in the middle and the Xinzhou in the downstream should also start to ignite. Flanking from several sides, those heroes didn't have time to dock and burned directly on the warships, but it's a pity that those Western warships, I don't know how many can be rescued later. ”

As he spoke, the burning line of fire on the river continued to move southward, and it had already crossed the river aimed at the Liede Fort, and continued to move towards the south at a rapid pace.

I only heard a loud bang, at the end of the line of fire, a British warship was caught in a fire dozens of feet high of burning crude oil, probably igniting the explosives compartment in the cabin to cause an explosion, the entire warship was blown into several pieces, abandoned high, and fell heavily into the river, the splash of oil made the fire more violent, the night sky of more than ten miles on the Pearl River was flashed, and the whole was illuminated.