When the combined fleet appeared in the East China Sea, Zuo Zongtang quickly got the news. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, Zuo Zongtang was not so worried, he had deployed three complete artillery battalions in Fuzhou Bay, with sufficient ammunition, and the 10,000 Chu troops were also elite with loaded guns, even if they were not the opponents of the combined fleet, they would not be too bad, not to mention that they still had a steady stream of reinforcements behind them.

This time it was the British fleet that attacked, Dundas personally led the army to attack, and the British Imperial fleet rushed quickly in the direction of Fuzhou.

Zuo Zongtang's face was solemn, such a huge battleship, there is no doubt that such a battleship is on top of China's ten largest warships, China's largest warship is in the Hunan Army Naval Division, that is, a displacement of hundreds of tons, in front of the British warship, it is simply the gap between sharks and lobsters!

Not only in terms of volume, the battleship Ulster is equipped with thirty new rear-loading rifled guns, and the power is even more amazing, the large-caliber guns ensure that the guns can hit farther and more powerful, on the battleship, two rows of guns, the muzzles of the black hole have been aimed at the position of the Chu army, as if a tiger can be selected and devoured at any time!

Zuo Zongtang was secretly frightened in his heart, no wonder Guo Ye called and told him a thousand times, he must deal with it carefully and save his strength, such a fleet is really not something that his own Chu army can deal with, the five main warships, together, there are no less than a hundred cannons, plus the artillery on those gunboats, I am afraid that there will be no less than two hundred cannons! Moreover, the caliber of the artillery on the main battleship is far better than the infantry artillery of the Chu army, this battle is not easy to fight!

"Order, don't rush the three artillery positions to attack, get the opponent's battleship closer, and aim for me! Be sure to wait until they're within our range! ”

The artillery of the three artillery battalions of the Chu army is much stronger than the artillery in Guangzhou, after all, the Chu army has just come down from the battlefield in Zhejiang, Zuo Zongtang has purchased a lot of new equipment from the Colt Arms Company, the most common is the 12-pound or 9-pound Napoleonic field artillery, these artillery are considered to be the more mainstream artillery in this era, and Zuo Zongtang purchased one hundred and fifty guns at a price of 1,500 taels of silver per artillery, and the three artillery battalions here have a total of 100 guns. Compared with the combat power of the green battalion soldiers in Guangzhou, I don't know how much.

Dundas was really careless, he thought that in the whole of China, only Guo Ye's Lu army was the fierce enemy of the European army, except for the Lu army, the others were insignificant, anyway, his own ships were strong and artillery, more than a dozen warships surrounded the position of the Qing army, and with a wild and indiscriminate bombardment, the Qing army could be beaten and fled again.

Dundas advanced the battleship all the way to a position of three or four kilometers before giving the order and ordering the battleship to let go of the attack!

More than 100 guns of the British fleet fired at the same time, launching a sharp attack on Zuo Zongtang's Chu army position, one after another shells hit the position, and successively fell on the Chu army's position, and the fire soared into the sky in an instant!

However, Zuo Zongtang was not afraid, and ordered the three artillery battalions to fight with all their strength and fight with the British fleet in one place.

The British Navy and the Chu army launched a fierce artillery battle on the coast of the East China Sea, more than 100 artillery pieces of the Chu army, launched together, and the power was definitely not weak, although the 12-pounder Napoleonic cannon was a little powerless to deal with the British flagship or battleship, but there was no problem in dealing with those gunboats!

The unfortunate British Imperial Navy, carelessly, pushed the battle line too far, and the artillery shells of the Qing army were overwhelming, even if they were not as good as the navy, they were not far behind.

In just a quarter of an hour, the Chu army thought about the hundreds of shells fired on the sea, although the Chu army's artillery skills were not good, but such a dense cannonball, the British battleships wanted to completely avoid, it was also very difficult, one by one the shells fell on the gunboats of the British Empire, and the sailors of the British Empire were blown up in a mess, scurrying around, and the most important thing was that the gunboats were small in size, no armor, one or two shells, but they could not bear it, but the bombardment of more than a dozen shells was absolutely unacceptable to the gunboats!

The first unlucky thing is the gunboat Portsmouth, under the intensive attack of the Chu army's artillery fire, the gunboat Portsmouth could not dodge, was hit by three shells one after another, at first it was nothing, even if the size is small, the gunboat has a displacement of hundreds of tons, not so easy to seriously damage or sink.

Unfortunately, a cannonball hit the gunboat's steam turbine right on, and a huge explosion was directly detonated by the steam turbine, which was much more powerful than the cannonball, and the gunboat was directly blown into two pieces by the explosion, and the two ends were warped, and slowly sank towards the bottom of the sea.

The British sailors on the battleship were frightened when they boarded, and of course there were those who were not frightened, and they had been blown to pieces by the violent explosion.

"Puff, puff......"

One by one, the officers and men did not dare to stay and jumped straight into the sea in an attempt to escape.

Dundas almost died of anger, his own fleet had not yet taken the position of the Qing army, and he was actually destroyed by someone to destroy a gunboat! No matter how worthless this gunboat is, it will cost more than 100,000 pounds, so it will be reimbursed! What's more, there are more than 200 naval officers and soldiers on it!

"Ah......h

Dundas was furious, "Quick, save people, save people immediately!" Ordered the fleet to immediately retreat two kilometers and then launch an attack on the Qing army! Lao Tzu must wipe out this Qing army in one fell swoop! ”

Dundas was not confused, and in the face of the fierce attack of the opponent's three artillery battalions, he did not dare to be careless, and ordered the fleet to retreat and attack, and the fleet sailed towards the distance together.

The corner of Zuo Zongtang's mouth on the position brought a smile, and the big stone in his heart finally fell, okay, good! The British army was repulsed, and the foreigners were not invincible!

It's just that Zuo Zongtang is still too happy too early, just destroying a battleship of the British Empire, for the British Imperial Navy, it is not a bone-break, and there is no need to be afraid, but the two armies are fighting, and the strategy must be exquisite, people can hit you from a distance, why do you have to get closer?

Sure enough, after the fleet retreated two kilometers, seventeen battleships, large and small, launched a fierce attack on the position of the Chu army again! This time, the artillery fire was even more fierce and swift than just now!

One shell after another fell on the artillery position of the Chu army, and the shells were like having eyes, blowing up the artillery position on their backs and making them embarrassed, but at this time, Zuo Zongtang was dumbfounded, ten miles away! Ten miles away! Damn, how can their cannons hit so far!

All the shells fired by the Chu army fell into the water, and they couldn't hit the side of the British fleet at all, and they couldn't reach it, they just couldn't reach it! it!

(To be continued.) )