At the same time that the Shanghai army captured the British and French concessions, more than 40 warships suddenly appeared outside the mouth of the Yangtze River, with the naval flags of Britain, France, and the United States on them.

This was a combined fleet of British, French, and American navies, which set out from Guangzhou and prepared to go to Tianjin, to force the Qing government to agree to the conditions of the three countries.

However, because of the words of the American minister, the British, French and American coalition forces started the idea of Shanghai and prepared to rob along the way.

Originally, the commanders of Britain, France, and the United States had all discussed, and yesterday the combined fleet arrived in Zhoushan, preparing to launch an attack from the sea tomorrow, and let William lead the concession Self-Defense Force to launch a surprise attack from land to cooperate with the operation.

However, they never expected that the Shanghai army would suddenly attack the concession and lure William's more than 10,000 troops out to encircle and annihilate it, and then capture the concession.

After receiving the news, the commander of the British, French, and American forces and the governor of Canada, Gerking, was furious, and quickly assembled the fleet and set off from Zhoushan.

However, the Shanghai army had already been prepared, and Li Weiguo had already ordered the East China Sea Fleet to stand by and hold the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The mouth of the Yangtze River is very important to Shanghai, the base camp of the Shanghai army, and Li Weiguo has long been armed.

Snake Mountain, also known as Sheshan, is a small island at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Known as "Shanghai's first outpost" and "Shanghai's sea screen", it is a rocky island formed tens of thousands of years ago due to the extrusion and extension of the continental shelf, with an area of about 8.88 hectares, and has a very important military, political and economic status.

As early as the First Opium War, the island was occupied by the British, who built lighthouses, barracks and forts on the island as a bridgehead for the attack on Shanghai.

After Li Weiguo entered Shanghai, he rebuilt a fort and a floating stack in Snake Mountain, stationed 500 soldiers, and a supply depot for the Navy's East China Sea Fleet.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Gelkin's fleet appeared, and it was mighty.

This is a brand new fleet. Each battleship is fully powered by a hybrid propulsion consisting of sails and a steam engine, which can be used to propel the ship in windless conditions and reversed in combat conditions.

The second advantage, in particular, is the ability to abruptly reverse in battle, which is not possible with traditional sail ships.

Soon, a patrolling warship of the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army discovered the situation.

Because of the steam power, dozens of puffs of black smoke came out of the huge chimney and soared into the sky, which could be seen from more than ten miles away.

The Shanghai patrol ship quickly raised the flag and signaled to the neighboring sister ships.

"Report, the discovery of the enemy fleet. To the southeast, about eighty miles from our fleet! ”

The battleship Dingyuan, the flagship of the East China Sea Fleet, looked upstairs, and after receiving the news, fleet commander Lin Jiyun immediately discussed countermeasures with Li Weijun, chief of staff.

"Chief of Staff, what do you think we adults think?"

Li Weijun thought for a while and said: "It's very simple, my lord, he has high hopes for the East China Sea Fleet, but after all, the East China Sea Fleet has been established for a short time, although it has already become an army. has a certain combat effectiveness, and it is okay to deal with the sailors who deal with the Taiping Army, but if it is a battle with the foreign fleet, we adults are probably still very worried. I'm afraid that we are not the opponent of the foreigner fleet, this navy is too expensive, and it is all money that will be smashed up, and this battle will start as soon as it starts. A shot is dozens of yuan, and sinking a ship is millions of yuan, not to mention that the adult is distressed. I'm afraid you and I don't have the bottom in our hearts at the moment. ”

Lin Jiyun nodded and said, "Yes, I used to watch the foreigners' warships show off their might, sinking our warships one after another, and I can't wait to take revenge one day." Now that we also have advanced warships of foreigners, it's really unwilling to do a good job! ”

Li Weijun said with a smile: "I know that you have this mind, I won't stop you, my lord also has this meaning, fight with foreigners, and see how the training strength of our East China Sea Fleet is, you will never be able to grow up without the baptism of war, and your adult means don't just fight your family foundation." ”

"You said it earlier, it scared me!" Lin Jiyun suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, he was afraid of being restrained, and he couldn't let go of his hands and feet to fight with foreigners.

Li Weijun said: "Okay, I won't talk much about the things of command, you are an expert in this area, and then it's up to you!" ”

Lin Jiyun said confidently: "Don't worry, I have been waiting for this day for a long time, and now although the combined fleet of Britain, France and the United States is formed, it is a pity that their number is not large, only more than forty ships, and the joint command of the three countries will inevitably not be smooth, which is our advantage." ”

Li Weijun nodded and said: "That's right, this is indeed our advantage, we have more than a hundred warships, and there are more than forty battleships, two to fight one, I don't believe that we can't do foreigners!" ”

Lin Jiyun suddenly excited: "Hearing the words of the chief of staff, I am more confident!" ”

Then, Lin Jiyun ordered the whole fleet to prepare for battle.

"Ready for battle!"

"Raise the battle flag!"

As the flagship raised the battle flag, more than 40 capital ships of the East China Sea Fleet raised their sails one after another and hoisted the battle flag.

At the same time, a convoy of about forty frigates of the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army slowly sailed out.

This is the decoy fleet, forty frigates are attacking the combined British, French, and American fleets, testing the enemy's firepower, and then feigning defeat to lead the enemy fleet to the ambush circle of the main fleet of the Shanghai army to gather and annihilate it.

An hour later, aboard the British Royal Navy's steam battleship Birmingham, the flagship of the British-French-American Combined Fleet, the Combined Fleet Commander and Governor General of Canada, Gurkin, received a report that the Shanghai fleet had been discovered.

Gurgin quickly went to the deck of the observation tower and asked Lieutenant General George, the commander of operations, who was observing the enemy situation with a telescope.

"General George, I heard that the enemy's fleet is coming!"

George put down his binoculars, turned to Gurkin and gave a military salute.

In fact, Gurkin was only the nominal commander of the Combined Fleet, and the actual command of the British, French, and American Combined Fleets was not in Gurkin's hands, and Gurkin was okay as the governor of Canada, and he knew nothing about naval operations.

Hearing Gelkin's inquiry, George replied, "Yes, Your Excellency the Governor, you have found that the naval fleet of the Qing Empire is heading towards us!" ”

"How? Can you deal with them? Gerkin asked nervously, he didn't have any confidence, if he was a real general, he would definitely not ask that, it hurt morale.

However, George didn't blame Gerkin, this kind of pampered aristocrat was naturally timid, knowing that the Qing Empire's navy was weak and was not an opponent of the British Empire's navy at all, and he could be scared like this.

"Your Excellency the Governor, don't worry, it's only a few dozen frigates, and we also have more than forty warships, including three battleships, there is no problem in destroying them!"

One asked if they could deal with them, and the other said that there was no problem at all in eliminating them.

This is the gap, the mentality gap between the civil and military, regardless of national borders, everywhere the same.

"That's good! That's good! Gerkin was relieved, but he was still very nervous, he was too timid, after all, the shells did not have long eyes in battle.

Seeing Gelkin's frightened bear-like appearance, George sneered and despised in his heart, so he said: "Leave the battle to me, please wait in the cabin of the Governor, and in less than an hour, I will destroy these oriental yellow-skinned monkeys!" ”

Naturally happy, Gelkin hurried off the deck and returned to the cabin.

George sent Gelkin away, and his face sank.

As a fleet commander, he immediately ordered: "Gentlemen, get ready for battle!" (To be continued......)

PS: Brew a little