"How elite they are depends on their performance on the battlefield." Macartney pursed his lips secretly, and said so disapprenantly in his heart that Macartney, an excellent diplomat who often traveled between European countries, did not have much affection for the army of the British Empire.

This is simply a ragtag army composed of hooligans, vagrants, and criminals, of course, this is compared to the armies of other European countries, the British army has always been the object of ridicule by the military powers on the European continent, which makes Macartney very uncomfortable, but helpless.

Because there is a real gap between the soldiers of the British Army and the armies of those countries on the European continent. It refers not only to their combat effectiveness, but also to the treatment between them, and very few officers and men enjoy adequate medical security and allowances. The soldier's allowance was eight d's per day (a deprecated British currency unit, each d'd was equivalent to three pence, and one hundredpence was equal to one pound), six of which were for food and lodging, and the rest of the money was to buy his own uniform and other necessary equipment in addition to supporting his family. In the 18th century, the food of British soldiers consisted mainly of boiled beef and bread, and only two meals per army were served.

A cavalry colonel (regimental commander) is paid twenty-three shillings (the British dollar unit has been deprecated, between pounds and pennies), a lieutenant is fourteen shillings, and a private is one shilling and three ds. The colonel of the infantry (regimental commander) was paid thirteen shillings and eleven ds, the lieutenant was nine shillings, and the private was one shilling.

And at that time, prices in Britain were not cheap. A soldier's bill from 1808 reads: a cheap bottle of wine for one and a half d, a pair of leather shoes six shillings, and a night stay for a young lady five pounds and five shillings. The English writer of the same period, Seymuel. Johnson wrote: "I think that the life of a British soldier is much more miserable than that of a person of the same class of society, such as labor." ”

In this case, most of the soldiers who are willing to join the army are unemployed and poor people who cannot get along, and in most cases, the conscripts have conditional requirements for new recruits. However, the conditions were sometimes ineffective, and the British army was not satisfied in peacetime, and it was even more difficult in wartime. In desperation, the recruiters had no choice but to relax the conditions, and some of the old, weak, sick and disabled also put on military uniforms.

And in order to have enough troops, the British even came up with a brilliant idea. That is, the political axe also allows criminals to join the army. Convicts can atone for their sins by joining the army, and thus gain "freedom".

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Nearly one-third of the British Empire's army in the East were criminals, another third were old, weak, sick and disabled, and the remaining one-third were unemployed vagrants who were too poor to eat.

If it weren't for the strict military discipline, the fact that this place is now in the east, surrounded by strong enemies, and able to reap a lot of benefits from those who were colonized, Macartney believed that these British soldiers, who had served in India for nearly three years and had not been able to get enough troops from the country to replenish their rotation, might have slipped on the soles of their feet.

Now, the elite of the British Imperial Army, who had been recognized by Europe as deflated, had boarded the Fisherman's Wharf and had begun to form a formation, and the Indians were still in disarray, and the officers were reminding the damned fellows with whips and shouts to distinguish where they should stand and to remain silent.

Rear Admiral Ford also had a lot of scorn for the Army, but now was the time to rely on them, after all, victory in the war could not be achieved only by relying on the Navy's warships.

But Major General Ford also believed that the well-trained, brave, and well-armed British Imperial Army could easily win even in the face of an enemy several times larger than the country's peasants and beggars.

Think about it, the "fire guns" used by those Qing [***] people are still the kind of goods that were despised by European countries for I don't know how many years ago, and they use cold weapons more to fight with their physical superiority and the number of people. That is a tactic that has been outdated by the West for at least a hundred years in the way of warfare, and has been eliminated by the West. Now is the time for those stubborn Qing people to know what modern warfare is.

Time was ticking by, and the opposing Bighorn Hill battery had stopped firing, and it seemed that there was little interest in destroying the two British three-masted battleships, which had completely lost power and ran aground.

In the other direction, the heavy artillery of the Sand Point Fort still maintained a brisk rhythm and continued to shell the British warships that were still resisting in vain, but only three of the original five ships still had the ability to resist, and the luckiest Leeds chose to stay and fight against the other party's shelling with the friendly ships, as a result, it became the most unfortunate among them, the first to be ignited by the opponent's shells The ammunition depot was blown open, and the Leeds only barely struggled twice, It went deep into the river, and only a few towering masts remained on the water, and the British flag tied to it gave a few holes to confirm its existence.

On the starboard side of the other battleship, there were several huge gaps above the waterline, and almost all the gunners inside had been turned into corpses. Lieutenant Terry was now reclining on a naval gun that had been overturned by the explosion just now, his face was as pale as the white canvas, his right leg was broken at the thigh, it was swept away by an eighteen-pound chain ball, and he tore the part of his body alive, and then he didn't know where it went.

The blood seemed to have dried up, from the splash at the beginning to the trickle now, and Lieutenant Terry felt that his body was chilling, it was a bone-piercing cold, and even though the deck next to him was still slowly burning, he couldn't feel any warmth.

"God, please forgive me for my past sins...... Lieutenant Terry's lips were no longer the slogans that inspired the soldiers, only the lamentation of death. The scream came again, and Lieutenant Terry struggled to turn his gaze ahead, and he saw again the clouds of black light, like a demon hovering in the sky at midnight, roaring strangely, rushing towards him, Lieutenant Terry closed his eyes in despair, and this time, the twenty-four pound chain ball struck his weak body with such precision that he was scattered into a mass of flesh and bone stubble scattered throughout the gun deck...... Lieutenant Colonel Lampard closed his eyes, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes, despair written on his cold face, and in a quarter of an hour, the mighty British Empire battleship had been reduced to a jumble of planks and debris in front of these damned, horrible shore guns.

His first mate's head landed at his feet, his lifeless eyes still wide open, and there was still a remnant of his dying fear. It was an exploding cannonball that struck the first mate, who was cheering up on deck, his body was already mutilated, and the head was thrown high into the air before falling directly to Lampard's feet, as if to foreshadow something.

Lampard's abdomen was also cut by shrapnel with a deep wound, and the gauze had been soaked in blood to a strange dark red.

In the distance, the main force of the fleet sent armed merchant ships and transports for landing battles, all of which were caught in Lampard's eyes, and a smile of relief appeared on his lips.

He would not reproach Rear Admiral Ford for not sending battleships to reinforce him, for he knew very well that in front of such an outrageously strong and powerful battery, no amount of battleships would be a futile attempt to confront him.

"Soldiers, keep fighting hard, we will fight until the last moment of our lives, please don't forget that you are the excellent Royal Navy of the British Empire, for His Majesty, fire at the enemy!" Frank Lampard opened his mouth again, and his hoarse voice continued to inspire the courage of the soldiers, only then did he feel that his fear would not prevail in his senses.

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"How long?" Rear Admiral Ford, who was dressed in a beautiful military uniform and looked tall and heroic, tapped his fingers lightly on the side of the ship, and the somewhat chaotic rhythm revealed his inner anxiety and uneasiness.

The feeling of watching the good sailors and the British Empire warships die and not be able to do anything under the fire of the other side was a knife in the heart of Rear Admiral Ford, but he had to do it, because he couldn't let more good soldiers die.

He could only wait patiently for the army soldiers to attack, to occupy the other side's batteries, and then use Qing artillery to bombard the Qing people's batteries, and only then would he be able to get his fleet safely through this damn narrow waterway, and only then would he be able to complete and achieve the goal of this battle: to attack and occupy Canton.

It's just that in the face of such fierce resistance, Major General Ford's heart began to sink, this is the garrison of General Liang, then, what he is facing is his soldiers, although Major General Ford has been mentally prepared to deal with this difficult role, he never thought that he would pay such a big price.

"It's been a full twenty minutes, Your Excellency." The soldier next to him immediately reported the time.

"Hopefully they'll be quicker, I don't want to end up seeing just five Royal Navy ships sunk in the waterways." Major General Ford's expression was so gloomy, and there was irrepressible anxiety in his tone.

At this time, Rear Admiral Ford subconsciously set his eyes on the front of the battleship, and he saw Liang Sanhuai, the Qing Guo interpreter who had a good personal relationship with him and had a good impression of him.

Recalling Ambassador Macartney's retelling of Liang Sanhuai's judgment, Major General Ford couldn't help but subconsciously have a thought in his heart: "If, if the progress of the army is not going well, perhaps it is a wise choice to withdraw from the Pearl River waterway......

(To be continued)