Ding Si year, the second day of the ninth month, 1857 in the Western calendar, October 19. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At noon, the scorching sun was in the sky, and the autumn tiger was raging on the earth, and the earth was scorched by the autumn sun, and the heat wave rising from the ground distorted the threads of people.

At this time when the heat wave scorched the earth, the officers and men of the first infantry tour, with bayonet rifles in their hands, under the cover of the ruined walls, stared at the distant city wall with their eyes, and even raised their heads to the sky from time to time, they were waiting for the naval bombardment, their expressions were different, the recruits looked a little nervous, as for the veterans, they closed their eyes and recuperated leisurely, and the officers looked at the pocket watches from time to time, although the minute hands of the pocket watches were different, but this did not prevent them from waiting for the order to attack.

At this moment, the world is quiet, there is no smell of gunpowder in the air, but everyone can feel the tension of the atmosphere at this time, between the ruins and ruins closest to Yifeng Gate, the officers looked at the pocket watch from time to time, sweat dripped down the brim of the hat, but did not raise their hands to wipe the sweat, some nervous soldiers picked up the kettle, regardless of the reprimanding eyes of the squad leader and sergeant, drank water, they even stretched their hands to their waists from time to time, holding the grip of the revolver, and the palms were soaked with sweat.

Not to mention these officers and soldiers, but also a small number of reporters accompanying the army, who are also waiting and looking forward to it, they have set up their cameras and recorded this moment with pieces of glass negatives, they know what they will record, what they are going to record is a fundamental change in the fate of a country.

The atmosphere on land is tense, and on the Yangtze River, the bow of the "Fenghai" is pointing directly at Yifengmen, and at this time it even lowers the anchor, at the bow of the ship, the dark and bright gun body is pointing straight ahead, pointing directly at Yifengmen, and several officers on the bridge are there, holding pencils and notebooks in their hands, and there are also several officers measuring the distance there.

In the gun room in the bow of the "Fenghai", the artillery officer inspected the battery and the gun for the last time, and several new "armor-piercing shells" had been hoisted to the gun room through the steam crane, and the shells weighing hundreds of kilograms stood at the stern of the gun, and the telemeter room and command post were already ready.

Originally, two guns were supposed to be fired to ensure that the shells could hit the weakest link of the city wall, but Xu Shanduo, the gunner of the "Fenghai Ship" from a Guangdong fisherman, patted his chest to the admiral and said that he would ensure that the first hit would be hit.

As the gunner of the "Fenghai Ship", he can be said to be the best officer in the navy in the artillery skills, in the sea exercise, he once hit the target ship 5,000 meters away with three guns, that is in the undulating sea, but this is a calm inland river, although the warship is across the river, but under the efforts of the helmsman the ship is still firmly anchored in the river.

On the river near the "Fenghai Ship," the 254-millimeter naval guns on the four warships headed by the "Zhenbei" also pointed directly at the city wall, and the dark and shiny guns pointed obliquely at the target a kilometer away.

On the Fenghai ship, Shen Ming held a British-made telescope from time to time, observing the city wall in the distance, and occasionally he would ask the staff officers around him.

"Has the Forward Point of Contact been established?"

When he received an affirmative answer, he continued to stand silently on the bridge, waiting for the time to pass minute by minute.

If anyone notices, you can see that there is a floating anchor floating near these warships, and the floating anchor is tied to the wire, and the wire is connected to the warship, and the other end of the wire is connected to the land, which is the telephone line, and the contact point of the front line is to communicate with the warship through these telephone lines.

"11:15!"

Take out the pocket watch from your waist and close it with a "click".

"Prepare for battle!"

Finally, after hearing the captain's order through the microphone, Xu Shanduo immediately repeated the order loudly.

"Eighteen hundred meters away!"

The telemeter in the telemeter room reported the distance, and this distance almost did not require aiming, and a direct shot was sufficient.

"Reload!"

The gunner's orders were repeated.

Almost from the moment the warship was anchored, the gunners had been waiting for the guns to be fired, and the long wait was even a little impatient, but it was just an order, and they immediately cheered and began to make final preparations for the battle. Because the caliber of the 254 mm naval gun is too large, it does not use metal shell gas closure, but uses the latest type of screw bolt, this kind of gun bolt does not need metal shells, only needs to pass through the rubber gas closure environment to achieve gun chamber gas closure, in the eyes of the navy this kind of gun bolt is more suitable for large-caliber artillery.

"Beat these grandchildren to death......"

Excitedly, the sailors used a crane to lift the heavy cannonball high, then stuffed it into the bore, then stuffed a powder bag into the bore, pressed the gunpowder and pulled the hydrant, and finally closed the bolt and rotated half a circle to achieve the closure.

"Aim, our cannon is the face of the navy!!"

The guns were filled with the excited shouts of the gunners.

"It's just, you can't let those mud legs look down on us......"

Although the navy is still very weak, the battle between the branches of the army and navy will inevitably appear in the army and navy, after all, the army has their honor, and the navy also has its own honor!

"Sir, can you hit with one shot?"

Gu Yuncheng asked the gunnery chief with some concern.

"If you can't hit a shot, aren't there still four town-class ships? No one can do it with one hundred shots, but a few guns with hundreds of shots and dozens of hits can always do it! As long as there are more guns......"

Xu Shanduo directly gave a somewhat alternative answer, as a gunner, although he has always used "100 shots and 100 hits" to ask his subordinates in training, but in actual combat, he knows very well that the number of cannons determines the final victory.

Five 254 mm naval guns, as long as one shell hits, can severely damage the city wall, and then, and then it is a slow bombardment, which can always blow up that section of the city wall.

"Don't worry, at this distance, a naval gunner can hit it casually!"

Xu Shuduo comforted Gu Yuncheng, this is only a twenty-one or twelve-year-old second lieutenant, indeed, this distance is really not far, if it is so close and it still can't hit, then they really don't admire being a navy.

"After this shot, you will be responsible for the next shot!"

"Yes!"

The cannon body pointed so directly at the Nanjing city wall in the distance, and Xu Shanduo glanced at the pocket watch, there was still a minute!

"Da Da ......"

The hour hand walked slowly, every time it turned so slowly, in the gun room, Xu Sanduo's ears were stained with a microphone, and the microphone went straight to the bridge, he was waiting for the commander's order, and at this time, no sound could be heard in the gun room.

Everyone held their breath and waited for the shelling, if it weren't for the sweat that slipped from the foreheads of the sailors from time to time, I am afraid that people would think that they were in one statue after another, the river wind blew into the gun room, the streamers behind the sailors' hats fluttered with the wind, everyone was waiting, waiting for orders.

On the bridge, the herald also looked at the admiral like everyone else, and Shen Ming, who was the admiral of the navy, looked at the pocket watch in his hand, he closed the cover of the watch heavily, and when he nodded, two words burst out of his mouth.

"Fire!"

The herald's shout was heard from the microphone to the gun room, two simple words. After those two words came out, Xu Shanduo immediately repeated these two words.

"Fire!"

There are no other superfluous words, just two simple words. When this order was issued, Gu Yuncheng, as the artillery commander, personally pulled the fire rope.

"Boom ......"

With a loud bang, a huge pillar of fire emerged from the barrel at the gun room, and a black shadow seemed to fly out of the pillar of fire, and in an instant, after a burst of flame disappeared, there was a cloud of white smoke enveloping the entire warship, and the shock wave of the muzzle even stirred up some ripples on the water surface, and the air was full of the pungent smell of gunsmoke, and the gun carriage retreated with the rear seat, retreated to the tail of the rack and rushed to the blocking column, and began to follow the gentle slope of the gun carriage, under the action of gravity, slowly reset, and the sailors immediately roared and pushed the gun body, to allow the artillery to be reset more quickly.

As for the Taiping army near Nanjing's Yifeng Gate, they first heard a sharp and dull whistling sound in the air, and then the next moment, they could even feel as if a giant hammer was hammering against the city wall.

What's going on?

The Taiping troops on the city wall were taken aback, because the armor-piercing shells used a delayed relationship, the shells did not explode immediately, and the high-speed flying armor-piercing shells easily penetrated the city bricks several feet thick, and then hit the rammed earth, hitting in the rammed earth, squeezing the ......, so that the Taiping troops on the city wall could almost hear the sound of the cannonballs penetrating the city bricks and rammed earth.

"It's over!"

For some reason, such a thought suddenly popped up in Lu Shunde's heart. In front of Yuejiang Tower, when he looked at the huge naval cannon on the warship from the telescope before, a sense of foreboding rose in his heart, the huge cannon made him clearly feel its power, not to mention that in the previous few hours, under its muzzle, one after another batteries were destroyed, and now, its muzzle pointed directly at the city wall.

At this time, the sense of foreboding was finally confirmed.

Almost at the moment when the cannonball like a giant hammer hit the city wall, when the city bricks burst into the air, his heart seemed to be shattered at this moment, just like the city wall.

The shells weighing hundreds of kilograms "drilled" into the city wall almost four meters deep before stopping, and when the sound disappeared, the Taiping troops on the city wall seemed to be a little overwhelmed, and just when they breathed a sigh of relief, they seemed to see the city bricks under their feet swell, and the next moment, accompanied by a somewhat dull explosion. Cannonballs that pierced through several feet of bricks and rammed earth exploded inside the city wall, and the seemingly unusually strong city wall twisted and deformed, and tons of bricks and rammed earth were thrown into the sky by the violent explosion inside, and the seemingly solid city wall collapsed in an instant, and tons of bricks and soil slipped into the moat......

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