On the surface of the Yangtze River estuary, there was a roar from more than twenty warships, and the sixteen-inch cannon was absolutely invincible in this period, of course, only a few British and French capital warships had this kind of cannon, and the cannons of other warships were about ten inches.

Some black spots appeared on the western river, and at first the British and French naval commanders did not care, but soon the sailors came with the news that the sailors had appeared.

This result excited the British and French navies. Because the appearance of the Taiping Navy was not expected in the early stage, the navy of the multinational coalition did not form a unified formation, and more than 20 warships acted separately, using the huge guns on board to provide fire support according to the orders received before. But now the Taiping Navy has appeared, and most of them are on backward wooden boats, and they are no match at all in the face of their iron-clad warships.

"Rush up and sink them!" The first British ship turned, and then the other navies followed. The navies of the Western powers during this period were extremely arrogant, not to mention that the Taiping Navy was weak, even if it was a naval warship of the same level, they dared to fight.

Boom Boom!

There was a roar from above the warships of the Taiping Army, and then some shells fell in an arc towards the warships of the great powers.

Whoa!

Most of the shells fell into the water, and only some fell on the warships of the great powers, but the iron sheets on the warships of the great powers were very thick, and there were not many shells that could penetrate this layer of iron, so the damage to the armies of the great powers was minimal.

The shipbuilding capacity of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was extremely weak, but the craftsmanship of the fishing boats along the Yangtze River was really good. Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to build large wooden ships with a displacement of hundreds of tons, but it could not build a thousand-ton warship covered with iron sheets, let alone a shipboard cannon of good quality. The root cause of all this is steel, there is no formal steel industry in the kingdom of heaven, and the steel required is made by the people themselves, and the quality is uneven, and it is impossible to cast large artillery. The Taiping army moved the bronze cannons captured by the Manchu Qing Dynasty to the wooden ships and used them as shipborne guns, although they had a certain effect, they could not be compared with Western warships in terms of range and lethality.

Boom, boom!

The ship-borne guns of the Western powers opened fire, some Taiping warships were overturned, and a few unlucky ships were torn apart by direct shells and sank quickly.

The navies of the great powers cheered loudly, the steam engines roared violently, and the speed of the ships was raised to the extreme.

Seeing this scene, the Taiping army understood the disparity in strength, and they quickly turned around and fled upstream in embarrassment.

It's a pity that the navies of the great powers did not let them go, and they went against the current, and the steam-powered warships of the great powers had a greater advantage.

The boats of the Taiping army were constantly sunk, and many people fell directly into the river and disappeared. Most of the Taiping troops are from the south of the Yangtze River, and the water nature is naturally excellent, even if they fall into the river, as long as they are not injured, there is no problem in escaping.

Although the Taiping army did not achieve any success, it achieved its strategic purpose of invading the enemy navy and preventing it from using ship-borne heavy artillery to support the city of Shanghai.

On the outskirts of Shanghai, Li Rongfa led the 2,000 Young Army as the first attack echelon of the Taiping Army. They relied on planks to hide, and quickly advanced thirty meters to the front line of the Huai army.

The fierce gunfire of the Huai army stopped their advance. On the front line is the first battalion of the Huai Army, and the battalion officer Zhang Shusheng is the first general under Li Hongzhang. The heavy responsibility of facing the front line of the Taiping Army naturally fell on him. Eight-year-old Zhang Shusheng, who is now Chinese New Year's Eve with a beard on his face and a resolute expression, did not change in the slightest even in the face of the tidal wave of attacks from the Taiping army.

The Huai Army now has 20 battalions, most of which are newly organized and trained, and there are only five battalions that have really fought with the Taiping Army many times, and the strongest is naturally the Shuzi Battalion led by Zhang Shusheng.

Under the command of Zhang Shusheng, the Huai army fired in an orderly manner. The heavy mountain splitting cannon roared incessantly, and the flying scattered bullets were simply not something that a two-finger-thick plank could resist. Hundreds of guns were intertwined into a net of firepower, tearing apart the Taiping troops who rushed up.

Li Rongfa's young army launched a frantic onslaught, but under the dense firepower, the flesh and blood were really extremely fragile.

Li Rongfa felt a sudden chill in his lower abdomen, and then a sharp pain hit, and he stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

"The marshal, the marshal is wounded, the marshal is wounded!" The guards beside him saw Li Rongfa, whose lower abdomen was full of blood, and shouted with a great change in expression.

"Shut up, Ben will be fine, charge me, I can't take the position, you guys come and see you!" Li Rongfa yelled, tore off a large piece of clothing and wrapped it around his waist, and then rushed forward with the big knife in his hand.

The morale of the young army was greatly boosted, and Li Rongfa's ferocity gave them full courage.

Among the Huai army, Zhang Shusheng, who was supervising the battle, looked solemn.

"Do you know who this person is? It's so fierce! Zhang Shusheng said in a deep voice. Originally, the enemy would be wounded, and the Taiping army would collapse, but he didn't expect that the Taiping army, a young and somewhat excessive general, would wrap around the wound and continue to rush forward without pause.

Now there are Taiping troops rushing to the forefront of the position and engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Huai soldiers.

"Order the artillery team not to stop, give Lao Tzu all the strength to bombard the fuck!" Zhang Shusheng yelled. At the same time, he ordered the two sentinels on standby in his hand to fill in.

This was the first day of the battle, and the Huai army could not lose in any case, and the hard-prepared defense line could not be broken.

At this moment, there was a commotion in the rear, and Li Hongzhang, who was dressed in a Manchurian official uniform, strode over.

"My lord, why are you here? Bullets don't have long eyes, so please leave immediately! Zhang Shusheng knelt down and saluted, and then said loudly.

"It doesn't matter, you can stay here, and so can the official. Shusheng, I brought you reinforcements from two outposts, are you sure to block the attack of the bandits? ”

"Don't worry, my lord, although Longhair is fierce, it is not easy to break through our defense, as long as the artillery and ammunition are sufficient, they can definitely be repelled." Zhang Shusheng said confidently. After fighting the Taiping Army for a long time, I naturally know something about it. As long as they can resist the first few waves of attacks, they will inevitably greatly dampen the spirit of the Taiping army, and when the time comes, they will not have to do anything, and the Taiping army will naturally change its combat objectives.

"In this case, I will leave it to you here, long hair is not terrible, what is terrible is the hearts of the people in Shanghai City, although the Western barbarians are ferocious, but after all, the number is too small, if we lose, it will inevitably affect the overall situation, Shusheng, your responsibility is very heavy." Li Hongzhang said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, my lord, if there is a hairy figure in Shanghai City, it must be stepping over my corpse." Zhang Shusheng said firmly.

Li Hongzhang nodded with satisfaction, then left the two sentinels and quickly headed towards the other fronts.