After hanging and stopping, Peng Chuhan took the official hat on the hat tray and put it on, and walked straight out of the Admiral's Office. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Peng Chuhan and his personal guards came to the dock, at this time Liu Liangkai and others were already ready to stop, and when they saw that their boat had stopped at the dock, Peng Chuhan stepped on the pedal and got on the boat and came to the command platform. A personal soldier stepped forward and moved a wooden chair, and Peng Chuhan sat down on the chair.

Seeing the commander in place, the ship's pipe belt waved, the sailors struggled to pull the rope, and a pennant with the word "handsome" slowly rose on the mast.

Seeing the flag raised by the commander's ship, the other warships also raised the triangular dragon flag.

Peng Chuhan saw that the boats were holding foreign guns and carrying guns, and the water warriors were neatly draped one by one, full of spirit and high morale, and his heart was very satisfied, and he couldn't help but bow his head slightly.

To be able to rectify the old water division that was originally in disuse, Peng Chuhan can be said to have spent a lot of effort.

In the current Qing Dynasty, the old naval division was not an independent army, but a professional branch attached to the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion. It was first officially customized in the eighth year of Shunzhi (1651), and was divided into inland water division and outer sea division. The Eight Banners Naval Division is included in the Eight Banners of the garrison, with the battalion as the basic establishment unit, and each battalion has more than 100 to more than 1,000 officers and men. In the Qing Dynasty, 10 Eight Banners Naval Divisions were set up in Heilongjiang, Qiqihar, Murgen, Jilin, Lushunkou, Tianjin, Jingkou, Zhapu, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places, with less than 10,000 people. The Green Camp Naval Division was the main force of the old-style naval division of the Qing Dynasty and undertook the main task of coastal defense. All provinces with water divisions have naval commanders or water and land commanders to govern the whole province's naval divisions. The basic structure is a battalion, which is divided into two types: the standard battalion (directly under the central government) and the sub-defense battalion (stationed in various localities). Each battalion is composed of generals, guerrillas, capital divisions, and garrisons as commanders, and the sailor battalion is divided into two levels: sentinels and divisions, with the sentinels led by the president of the thousands, and the presidents of the divisions, and the number of people varies. The offshore naval divisions are located in Zhili, Shandong, Fujian and other provinces, the inland water divisions are located in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangxi and other provinces, while the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong have both offshore and inland river divisions, and the total number of green water divisions in the country is estimated to be between 150,000 and 200,000.

The old sailors of the Qing Dynasty were backwardly equipped, and there were many names of warships, all of which were wooden, easy to decay, and the power mainly relied on manpower to paddle and rock, supplemented by mast sails, and there was no defensive equipment on the deck, so the protection performance was extremely poor. The weapons of the naval division are divided into two categories: firearms and cold weapons, and the ship cannons are mostly made of clay mold iron, with breech loading, and the barrel is not rifled, so the power is not great. The musket is an arquebus, which has a short range and low lethality, while a cold weapon is a traditional weapon such as a knife, spear, bow and arrow. Due to the scattered garrisons, backward military system, outdated equipment, and lack of training, it is difficult to return from the accumulated heavy loads, and the Green Battalion Naval Division is becoming increasingly corrupt and abandoned. Therefore, when the Taiping army arose, the Green Camp Sailors were simply powerless to compete with it. After the end of the Taiping War, most of the provincial sailors were no longer usable. Among the water divisions in various places, the situation is better, that is, the Yangtze River water division and the Fujian water division.

Even so, before Peng Chuhan arrived, the situation of the Fujian Navy Division was quite shocking.

According to the military system of the Green Battalion, among the standards of the governor, the governor, the commander, and the town, the commander directly under the command of the commander is the unit with the strongest troops, the most concentrated garrison, and the most mobile. The Fujian Naval Division was one of the most powerful maritime forces of the Qing Army before the emergence of the Ship Administration Naval Division. It is stationed in Xiamen, divided into five battalions, center, left, right, front, and rear, with more than 4,300 officers and men. But half of them are coastal defense forces, and the other half are ship forces. There are more than 600 coastal defense troops on Xiamen Island and Gulangyu Island. The warship force has a total of 70 warships, large and small, of which 50 are warships and another 20 are oars of coastal patrol posts, and among the warships, 13 have fixed sea flood land, and only 35 can maneuver to go to sea.

Most of the ships of the Fujian Navy Division warships are traditional large transoceanic ships and Tong'an shuttle ships, each ship is equipped with dozens to several cannons, all of which are small iron cannons made of earth, which are not only small in power and poor in shooting accuracy, but also impure in iron quality, and are very easy to explode. Peng Chuhan, who had served in the Hunan Army Naval Division for many years, participated in many water battles against the Taiping Army, and had a deep understanding of the power of foreign guns and cannons. Peng Chuhan successively purchased new artillery from the shipmaster to equip the warships of the naval division, thus greatly improving the combat effectiveness of the Fujian naval division.

Now on his ship, the old small guns have been completely abandoned, and a 75-mm Krupp breech-loading gun is installed on the bow deck.

These new breech guns were ordered from Germany by him through Lin Yizhe, and now the Fujian Navy Division has been equipped with 20 guns.

And Peng Chuhan dared to lead the naval division to meet the Japanese steam warships, and it was these new artillery pieces that gave him confidence.

He had seen the power of these guns, and the old ships that had been cut down from the sailors had been used by him as target ships for the sailors' gunners to practice, and they were often smashed in a single shot.

Although his ships were old, with these new guns, he was confident that he would be able to defeat the invading Japanese warships.

Soon, one by one, the naval warships raised their sails and anchored and sailed out to the open sea.

"General, it seems that the Chinese warship has been dispatched."

On the flybridge of the ironclad ship "Ryuchi", Keinori Fukushima looked at the dense crowd of about 30 Chinese sailing ships flying the three-cornered dragon flag on the sea, and said to Shiki Kayama.

"Not bad, it's a Chinese warship." Shiki Kayama sneered and put down the binoculars, "There is no need to waste our shells, rush up and sink them!" ”

Keinori Fukushima had the same idea, but unlike Shikinori Kayama, he thought it was too wasteful to let the Ryusho take on such a task, so he ordered the ships "Tsukuba," "Mt. Fuji," and "Yoharu" to be sent a flag to "sink the enemy ship."

Soon, the three ships "Tsukuba," "Mt. Fuji," and "Yangchun," which had received the signal from the flagship, swaggered toward the Fujian naval convoy that appeared on the sea.

But the Japanese did not expect that they would immediately pay the price for their rash actions.

At the moment when the Japanese ships approached, from these wooden ships, which the Japanese thought were completely vulnerable, suddenly shot out white smoke, followed by the rumbling sound of cannons!

Almost 20 shells roared straight towards the Japanese ships, landed in the sea and exploded, and countless columns of water suddenly rose on the sea, surrounding the Japanese ships that rushed forward.

Looking at the columns of water stirred up by the explosion of shells, the captain of the "Tsukuba", Ito Junkichi, couldn't believe his eyes.

Where is the old artillery equipped by the Qing army mentioned in the intelligence they obtained, which is clearly a new type of Western artillery!

Of course, the Japanese did not know that after Peng Chuhan served as the admiral of the Fujian Navy Division, he worked hard to update the equipment of the Fujian Navy Division, and although it was difficult to complete all the equipment updates due to lack of funds, with his efforts, the coastal defense units of the Fujian Navy Division not only replaced many of the batteries with the Wisworth breech guns purchased from the Harbour Master and the Navy Division, but also replaced the ship units with the new Krupp breech guns purchased from Germany with the help of the Harbour Master.

Of the 35 sail ships of the Fujian Navy that appeared before them, 20 were armed with a 75-mm Krupp breech gun, and the rest were armed with small-caliber Vesworth hexagonal breech guns, as well as improved guns.

In the face of the sudden rain of bullets, the three Japanese warships were caught off guard and turned to dodge, and just as the Japanese ships were in chaos, the Chinese warfleet began a new round of salvos.

Dozens of Chinese sail warships spewed out white smoke at the same time, followed by the whistling of countless cannonballs, the explosion of cannonballs into the water, and the rising columns of water, this spectacular sight made Shiki Kayama feel like he had stepped back in time, as if he had returned to the era of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In the rapid shelling of the Chinese warship, the larger "Tsukuba" was the first to be shot, and three 75-mm shells hit the side deck one after another, killing and wounding many sailors. Then the "Mt. Fuji" also received 2 shells, and the stern of the ship caught fire for a time. The smaller "Yangchun" was not hit, but because of its slow speed, it staggered through the rain of bullets, which was also full of dangers.

Without waiting for the flagship to issue another order, and ignoring the pre-war instructions of Kayama Shinori to "save shells", the "Yangchun" was the first to start shelling the Chinese warships, and then the "Mt. Fuji" also began to attack the Chinese warships with artillery, and the "Tsukuba" also opened fire after a brief hesitation.

At this time, disaster began to befall the officers and soldiers of the Fujian Naval Division.

Despite the new artillery and the success of the initial artillery battle, the outcome of the battle was foregone from the outset when the wooden sail ships faced the steam warships.

Dealing with these wooden ships, which looked like handicrafts, the Japanese were as easy as shooting targets, and they could sink one ship with almost one shot, "the ships of each division drove forward with the wind power, and they were at an angle to the Japanese ships, but the speed was slow, the artillery power was thin, and it was difficult to compete with the Japanese ironclad ships, and every time the enemy ships fired a cannon, our ships sank one." On the division ship, which symbolizes the crystallization of China's thousand-year-old naval culture, the officers and men used new breech guns and ancient breech guns, as well as guns and guns, to carry out unyielding and hopeless counterattacks against the invading enemy ships. ”

After the three Japanese ships opened fire one after another, the ironclad ship "Longxiang" could not bear the loneliness and joined the ranks of shelling Chinese sailing ships. However, no one could have predicted that the range of the antique cannon would sometimes be extraordinary, and just as the "Longxiang" also drove over to fire at the Chinese sailing ship, a long solid cannonball fired from the Westworth hexagonal breech gun roared and hit the flybridge of the "Longxiang", killing two Japanese officers and one sailor on the spot, while Shikinori Kayama and Kekinori Fukushima were extremely lucky to be unscathed.

Four Japanese gunboats continued to approach the direction of the Fujian Navy Division's fleet, and continued to carry out artillery bombardment, one after another Chinese sailing ships were sunk, and the morale of the officers and men of the Fujian Navy Division began to collapse, and some warships tried to retreat to the coastal fort area for safety, "Some sailing ships were able to break away from the battle and sail back to the shore because of their slight displacement, just in time for the tailwind, but some of them were seriously injured on the side, and when they fled quickly, many ships ran aground on the coast, and later they were also destroyed by the Japanese with artillery." ”

The civilian ships anchored on the shore of Xiamen Island fell under the guns of the Japanese ships because they were not armed at all, and there was no suspense, and a large number of sailors on these civilian ships had already fled and landed in advance, so that heavy casualties were avoided. "As for the transport ships and merchant ships moored on the embankment, the crews escaped. Most of them were destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, and only a small number of ships survived. ”

Although the Fujian Navy Division suffered a devastating blow, many brave officers and men persisted in fighting, and according to some accounts of people on foreign merchant ships who watched the battle at the time, the scene of the officers and men of the Fujian Navy Division finally persisting in the battle was extremely tragic.

"A wooden sailing ship of the Chinese Navy flying the flag of 'Shuai' was hit by a Japanese shell and began to sink, but the Chinese general who commanded it was still trying to hold on to the battle, firing at the enemy, seeing some timid sailors preparing to jump into the water to escape, the general angrily drew his sword and slashed, and finally the ship sank, and the fierce general also fell into the sea,...... After a burst of cannonfire, all that remained on the surface of the water were wooden planks and a sea full of blood-red ......"

"The battle is over, the sea is full of floating corpses and people who have fallen into the water to be rescued, the warships and ships of neutral countries that pass by, immediately put down their sampans, whether it is Chinese soldiers or civilians, they all try their best to rescue, but the red-eyed Japanese warships, at this time there is no gentleman's performance, the sound of rifle fire constantly comes from the ships, they are brutally slaughtering the Chinese officers and soldiers in the sea,...... The sea was full of wooden blocks, broken masts and fragments of sailboats, and climbing on these drifting ruins were poor **** soldiers who wanted to live, their heads rising out of the water like little black dots. The sailors on the Japanese warships, who had shown their savagery and ferocity since the beginning of the war, were now so excited by the battle that it was very difficult to prevent them from shooting at these black spots drifting on the water. ”

After completely annihilating the warship unit of the Fujian Naval Division, Huashan Shiki immediately ordered the artillery of the coastal troops of the Fujian Naval Division to attack Xiamen Island. After detonating the mines, the Japanese ships immediately began to attack the nearby Chinese batteries.

After the battle on the sea began, the artillery on the batteries of the coastal troops of the Fujian Navy Division was in full array. When they saw the Japanese ships attacking, they immediately opened fire in response, and the infantry stood by in the trenches dug in advance. When the Japanese ships began to shell, the infantry was still hidden, and only the artillery was relentlessly returning fire, but because of the weak firepower, after a long period of fierce fighting, both main batteries were destroyed, and an ammunition depot in the battery was also hit, and a violent explosion occurred. However, as soon as the artillery fire of the Japanese warships stopped for a while, the guns of the Krupp camp of the Fujian Navy Division Infantry Battalion also began to focus on the "Longxiang" and launched a fierce artillery bombardment, and many Japanese naval officers and men, including Katsuo No, the adjutant of Shikiri Kayama, were killed and wounded. After nearly an hour of firefighting, this heroic battery was finally suppressed by Japanese artillery fire, and the artillery was destroyed. The sound of artillery on the sea and the shore finally fell silent.

"Their batteries were all destroyed. Checkmate. ”

Keinori Fukushima looked at the sea and shore full of smoke and said to Shikinori Kayama.

"Good! Now start shelling the city! Shiki Kayama put down the binoculars and said loudly.

"What did you say?" Listening to Shikinori Kayama's order, Keinori Fukushima couldn't help but be surprised.

"I said it, shelling the city!" Shiki Kayama turned his head, his face was full of hideousness, and a pair of eyes radiated a fierce light, at this time, he no longer looked like a human being.

Keinori Fukushima hesitated, but obeyed Shikinori Kayama's order and ordered the signal flag of "shelling the city" to be raised.

Soon, four Japanese warships began shelling residential areas of the city on the shore.

"What are the Japanese doing? Are they crazy? ”

On board the British gunboat "Cayards", the captain of the ship, Captain Charles, could not help but be very angry when he saw that the Japanese fleet had begun to bombard the port of Xiamen, a treaty port.

"Captain, I think we should take action to stop their barbarism." "According to what we know, China and Japan are not at war. Attacking and killing civilians even in war is an unforgivable crime, let alone such barbarism that occurs in peacetime! ”

"Ask the French, do you want to act with us?" Charles nodded, looked at the French gunboat "Mercer" not far away, and said.

Soon, the British sailors signaled: "Our ship is determined to stop the shelling of the Japanese ships, is your ship willing to act together?" ”

The French replied extremely simply: "Yes." "Apparently the French were also quite dissatisfied with the behavior of the Japanese.

Captain Charles immediately gave the order, and in a short time the "Cayardes" sailed straight for the Japanese fleet, and the "Mercer" soon followed.

At this time, the Japanese fleet had already carried out several rounds of salvo fire, and seeing the huge column of smoke rising from the distant city, Shiki Kayama's heart felt extremely comfortable.

Today is a brilliant day for him.

Annihilated a Chinese fleet and shelled Xiamen, an important treaty port in China.

The little emperor of China, who was far away in Beijing, should have fallen from the dragon chair in fright when he heard the news of the shelling of Xiamen, right?

Shiki Kayama suddenly sneezed. He shrugged his nose a little strangely, not realizing that it was because it was in Xiamen City, and his compatriots were scolding him.