The mouth of the Yangtze River, the first line of the sea entrance hall.

Li Hongzhang personally rushed here and commanded 200,000 Yan troops on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and hundreds of artillery pieces to bombard Chongming Island in the center of the river.

This was a deliberate military provocation, and Li Hongzhang's excuse was very bad, accusing Li Weiguo of plotting rebellion and colluding with foreigners to betray national interests.

Who hooked up with foreigners to betray national interests, didn't you Li Hongzhang think about rebellion?

Obviously, politicians will always be thieves shouting to catch thieves, that is, when the paper and the archway.

If you want to fight, you will fight, and Li Weiguo is not afraid of threats.

Chongming Island is the place where Li Weiguo rises, and in the past ten years, Li Weiguo has invested a lot in Chongming County, which can be described as painstakingly managed.

Without him, the strategic location of Chongming Island is too important, guarding the Yangtze River estuary waterway, and the second branch of Jiangnan Shipyard is also on Chongming Island.

Chongming County has built a total of seven fortress forts, seven of which are divided into five forts on Chongming Island, namely the north of the river fork fort, the Yangjiahe town fort near the Haimen Hall of the Jiangbei River in the middle, the Xinzhen fort near the Haimen Hall in the northeast, the Beibao Town fort near the main channel of the Yangtze River in the southeast, and the south gate fort of Gongwei Chongming County.

In addition, there is a fort on Changxing Island and Changsha Island, which are the main forts guarding the Yangtze River waterway, and the Wusongkou fortress fort opposite each other is a horn to block the main channel of the Yangtze River and the main channel of the Huangpu River.

Li Hongzhang had a naval division, but it was only a naval division of the Yellow River, and he could not compete with Li Weiguo's river defense fleet on the Yangtze River, let alone against Li Weiguo's East China Sea Fleet.

This is also the fundamental reason why Li Hongzhang attaches extra importance to Wu Zhiqiang and wants to sneak across the Yangtze River. And Li Weiguo also took advantage of Li Hongzhang's weakness and deliberately threw out a bait to lure Li Hongzhang into being fooled.

on the Yangtze River. The river defense fleet was on standby, mainly for reconnaissance missions. The East China Sea Fleet dispatched twelve battleships, all of which were wooden sail battleships, and did not dispatch shallow water heavy artillery ironclad ships.

To deal with Li Hongzhang, the Nanyang Army, which had the advantage in water warfare, did not need to dispatch ironclad ships at all, and twelve sail battleships were enough to sweep.

Knock knock......

I saw the battleship gun door open. The flames shone brightly, puffs of gunpowder smoke erupted, and cannonballs whistled and shot towards the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The shells exploded violently, and huge and fiery mushroom clouds instantly rose from the Yan army's position on the shore.

Although Li Hongzhang's army had several hundred artillery pieces, they were all infantry mountain guns, and there were no large-caliber coastal defense artillery, so they had no advantage against battleships on the river.

Of course, even infantry artillery is a certain threat to wooden sail battleships. But this can't control the situation of the war, and Li Hongzhang can't stupidly beat the navy with the infantry.

After paying a certain amount of casualties, Li Hongzhang saw that there was no advantage to be taken advantage of, so he ordered a retreat to avoid the range of the battleships of the East China Sea Fleet.

This is the purpose of containment, Li Hongzhang doesn't care, and waits happily.

"Is there any news from Ding Richang?"

The chief guard immediately replied: "Back to the prince, General Ding has successfully led the army across the Yangtze River. It is said that the Dantu has been taken last night, and it will not be tomorrow. An army of 200,000 can reach the city of Shanghai. ”

If Li Weiguo was here, he would definitely be able to recognize this guard, officially Jiang Tao, the leader of the Jiang Zhu Gang back then. This person later joined the Heaven and Earth Society and became a commander of the Taiping Army, but unfortunately he was surrounded by Li Hongzhang's Huai army with Ding Richang by accident and finally surrendered. Because of the recommendation of Ding Richang, he was meritorious. Jiang Tao was reused by Li Hongzhang and stayed by his side as the leader's guard.

Li Hongzhang's eyebrows suddenly danced, and he said smugly: "Li Weiguo, aren't you very awesome, look at how you died this time?" ”

Jiang Tao gritted his teeth as soon as he thought of Li Weiguo. I couldn't wait to pull out his skin, and immediately echoed: "Li Weiguo is just a hairy boy, born as a cheap businessman, how can he compare with the noble status of the prince." But a hairy boy will eventually lose at the hands of the prince. ”

After a pause, he said: "It is rumored that there are countless girls in Jiangnan, and there are four beauties among them, but Li Weiguo can enjoy three of them alone, which is really not long-sighted." ”

Li Hongzhang had also heard of it, but unfortunately he hadn't seen it, but he was curious.

Men, there is no one who is not curious about beautiful women!

"Have you seen it?"

Jiang Tao nodded suddenly, and explained: "Don't hide it from the prince, the slave was born in Jinling, since ancient times, Jinling has produced beautiful women, and Qin Huai's eight uniques are even more famous in the world, so naturally I have to inquire more." Li Weiguo's second wife, Shen Ziyan, is known as Sai Xishi, even if she was blind back then, she was also stunning in Jinling and won the title of the first beauty in Jinling. As for the eldest wife Fu Shanxiang and the third wife Su Sanniang, one of these two daughters was the daughter of a criminal minister, and the other was the master of the Heaven and Earth Society, so they didn't dare to show their faces easily, and they were not known at first, until the Taiping Army got into trouble, and the two daughters once joined the Taiping Army, which attracted Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and other kings to compete for the wind and jealousy, known as the peerless double pride. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, he knew a little about these things, and suddenly asked: "You and this king have seen Ci'an and Cixi in the palace, how do you compare with Li Weiguo's three women?" ”

Jiang Tao replied without hesitation: "Win three points!" ”

Li Hongzhang was surprised, he had never seen Li Weiguo's three beautiful ladies, but he had seen Cixi and Ci'an, who were the emperor's women, the best beauties in a million, even he drooled when he saw it, and he couldn't wait to tear down and ravage. But such a beauty is still three points behind, is this Nima a god horse situation, a fairy who descends to earth?

Lao Li's mouth was a little dry.

"Really?"

"On the day of the destruction of Shanghai, the slave is willing to personally lead the troops to capture these three girls and give them to the prince to warm the bed, you can see it at a glance!" Jiang Tao often lies, but this time it is rare to be sure.

Li Hongzhang did not suspect that Jiang Tao was lying, after all, Shanghai was in front of him, and he could see the real person soon, and Jiang Tao did not have the courage to deceive him.

"This king is looking forward to it!"

Lao Li smiled, as if he had grown clairvoyance, wanting to penetrate the Yangtze River and the city walls of Shanghai, and find the three beauties who were haunted by his dreams.

Unfortunately, everything is always happy and sad.

Lao Li was thinking about silver, but Qian Dingming broke in in a hurry to report.

"Lord Wang, something is wrong!"

"What's so alarming? What kind of system? ”

"Lord Wang, something is wrong. Wu Zhiqiang is a fraud! ”

"What?" Lao Li suddenly jumped up. "What about Ding Richang? What happened to the king's army of 220,000? ”

"Jinling and Dantu fell back into the hands of the Nanyang Army, Ding Richang was attacked by Wu Zhiqiang in Dantu, 20,000 elite troops were annihilated, and Ding Richang committed suicide. The 200,000 troops from Jinling did not rush to the Dantu reinforcements for some reason, but they were ambushed by hundreds of thousands of Nanyang troops in Jurong and suffered heavy casualties. Further information is yet to be heard on the final outcome of the battle. ”

Poof......

Lao Li spurted out a mouthful of blood and fainted instantly.

Outside the mouth of the Yangtze River, the combined Anglo-French fleet arrived.

On the bridge of the first-class ironclad ship of the flagship Warrior, the British commander Claus and the French commander Gu Ba are looking at the mouth of the Yangtze River with binoculars, constantly communicating.

On the side, adjutants from the British and French armies constantly reported all kinds of information, mainly about the defense around Shanghai, including the tonnage, number, and armament of the ships of the East China Sea Fleet, the artillery scale of the Chongming Island fortress group, the Wusongkou fortress group, and the Jinshanwei fortress group around Shanghai, as well as the coastal defense fortifications and troop deployment along the Shanghai coast.

"Do you want to enter the Yangtze River?" Guba asked.

"Do you have a way to get the other enemy's bleaching radium?" Klaus asked rhetorically.

Lone shrugged. Spread your hands, indicating that you can't do anything.

Klaus said: "If we can't solve the problem of drifting radium, our fleet will not be able to get close to the Wusongkou fortress, and if we can't provide naval artillery fire support to the infantry, we will not be able to attack the Wusongkou fortress at all." ”

Gu Ba then said: "In addition to Wusongkou, there are only Chongming Island Fort Group and Jinshanwei Fortress left. ”

Klaus analyzed: "The Chongming Island Fort Group is isolated in the Yangtze River, and it seems that it is the easiest to capture, but it is a pity that Li Hongzhang is on the opposite side. I don't like to expose my back to the enemy. ”

Gu Ba suddenly said: "Then you are going to fight the Jinshanwei Fortress?" ”

Klaus said: "Jinshanwei is the back of Shanghai, if you can occupy Jinshanwei." It is equivalent to opening the south gate of Shanghai, but the intelligence shows that Li Weiguo has sent heavy troops to defend, this hard bone, I don't want to be willing for the time being. ”

Puzzled, he asked, "Then what are you going to do?" Do you still want to land in Chuansha? Last time we were defeated in that place! ”

Klaus said hatefully: "Where you fall, you have to get up, this time we will choose Chuansha to land." There is a flat river, suitable for a decisive battle of the large army! ”

Gu Ba objected: "I don't agree, landing from Chuansha, even if you win the first battle, but then you want to capture Shanghai." We still have to face the Huangpu River, we can't take the Wusongkou Fortress and the Jinshanwei Fortress, our warships can't get in, do you want to swim over the Huangpu River? ”

Klaus laughed, "Who said I was going to swim over?" Do you think I'm stupid? ”

Lonely and teasing, I really want to say that you are stupid.

Klaus then said: "When we hit the east bank of the Huangpu River, we can raid Jinshanwei from the back, and when the time comes, we can cooperate with the naval fleet to attack back and forth, and we can break through Jinshanwei, and then the navy will go directly into the Huangpu River through Jinshanwei through the Xinyun Salt River, block the Huangpu River and lead the army to cross the river and take Shanghai." ”

Gu Ba immediately looked at the map, only to find that the Wusongkou fortress was on the west bank of the Huangpu River, while the Jinshanwei fortress was on the east bank of the Huangpu River.

Gu Ba asked rhetorically: "Since you want to attack Jinshanwei back and forth, why don't you choose Fengxian, who is closer, but choose Chuansha?" ”

Klaus then said: "If we land in Fengxian first, Li Weiguo will definitely immediately guess that our goal is to flank Jinshanwei in front and rear, and then it will lose its strategic value." In addition, I chose to land in Chuansha, and I also want to wash away our shame, don't you want to? ”

Naturally, Guba thought about it too, and finally agreed to Klaus's proposal.

At the same time, in the shallow waters of the Yangtze River estuary, a fleet of eleven British and French navies was blocked by the East China Sea Fleet.

The purpose of this British and French fleet was originally to show off its might at the mouth of the Yangtze River and tell Li Hongzhang that Britain and France had fulfilled their promises; on the surface, they wanted to cooperate with Li Hongzhang to contain Li Weiguo's army, but in fact they were only to reconnoiter the nearby Chuansha sea area and prepare for a future landing.

However, the British and French fleets never expected that the East China Sea Fleet would dare to take the initiative to attack.

Five years ago, although the East China Sea Fleet was already equipped with dozens of British-made sail battleships, in the face of the British and French combined fleet, the East China Sea Fleet did not dare to take the initiative to fight, but did not come out in the Yangtze River.

At that time, Li Weiguo's tactic was to keep the East China Sea Fleet in strategic deterrence, and it did play a role, don't look at the British and French fleets as invincible in the world. However, as long as they did not destroy the East China Sea Fleet for a day, they would not dare to run rampant in the coastal areas, dare not be left alone, and their movements would be restricted.

Now the British and French fleets invaded again, but unexpectedly, the East China Sea Fleet dared to sail out of the Yangtze River and take the initiative to launch provocations and attacks on the British and French fleets in the coastal waters.

Flagship Edgar on deck. The interim commander, Rear Admiral Marin, saw the lineup of the East Sea Fleet from the telescope and was taken aback by the fact that he found that the East Sea Fleet had only a dozen sail battleships.

"How dare you come out and shout? See if I don't beat you into burning sticks! ”

"Command! The four ships of Endymion, Gibraltar, Grafton, and Hawke outflanked the enemy fleet from the left flank, the four ships St. George, Theseus, and Arthur detoured from the right flank, and the Crescent, the French ship Targo, and the French ship Dwalker attacked head-on with the ship! ”

Twelve British and French warships formed an attack formation and went directly to the East China Sea Fleet.

On the Songjiang third-class sail battleship, Lin Jiyun and Li Jun also stared at the British and French fleets coming from the opposite side, although the twelve British and French battleships were hung with sails, they were all steam warships. Covered with heavy iron armor.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of the powerful Anglo-French combined fleet, but it brings a strong sense of murder and oppression to Lin Jiyun and Li Jun.

The British and French navies are world-class navies that have been trained in blood and fire on expeditions to various seas around the world, and they are by no means paper tigers. However, the East China Sea Fleet has not experienced a real naval battle, and there is a huge gap in this regard.

Lin Jiyun looked behind him, behind a dozen sail battleships, there were ten shallow-water heavy artillery ironclad ships, and at this moment, these ten iron bumps only showed rows of turrets and chimneys. Like a lurking hippopotamus, I don't know if it has combat effectiveness.

Even Lin Jiyun himself didn't know. After all, I haven't fought.

"Dead horses should be live horse doctors!"

Lin Jiyun sighed lightly, and his eyes immediately became serious.

"Order, each ship looks for its own target, five rounds of rapid fire, and then retreats to the second line of defense!"

This is the first time in the navy.

Although the East China Sea Fleet still retains a large number of sail battleships (those that are bought with money are reluctant to throw away). But we also know that the era of ironclads has come, and wooden battleships are outdated. However, many new concepts and new weapons and equipment of the Navy still need to be tried. Rapid-fire guns are examples of this.

Since the Shanghai army was equipped with the 59-type rear-loading rifle, the era of rapid-fire guns has actually come. At least compared to the front-loading smoothbore gun, the rear-loading rifled gun had a significant advantage in rate of fire.

Although the warships of the navies of various countries are excessively iron-hulled wooden and all-ironclad ships, there is a huge controversy in terms of naval guns, and the design of the ship's waist gun firepower is still the mainstream, especially the British and French navies, under the huge number of naval warships, a slight change requires a huge amount of funds, so the design of the ship's waist gun firepower is ready-made, and it does not need to spend money and effort to change, a typical conservative idea, and also represents the standard model of the construction of British and French naval warships in the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century.

Although Britain and France had already obtained the design of the castrated version of the Type 59 infantry gun from Li Weiguo, after a large number of expert research, they quickly restored the complete version of the Type 59 infantry gun and mastered the technology of the rear-loading gun. However, the problem also arose, the shells had to use integrated shells, which was the same as the problem of integrated rifle shells encountered by Britain and France, which plagued Britain and France for nearly two years, and the production of integrated shells of various calibers was like a death for Britain and France, because this was a major replacement of front-loading guns and rear-loading guns, except for the barrel production equipment that did not need to be replaced, all other equipment had to be replaced.

This required time, money, and manpower, and although both Britain and France eventually solved these problems, it was impossible to equip the army on a large scale in a short period of time.

The Type 59 infantry guns obtained from 1861 were not mass-produced until 1865, and priority was given to the British and French forces that went to China, not to mention the navy, because the scale was too large, far exceeding the army, and the replacement of tens of thousands of naval guns would take at least several years.

Therefore, the British and French naval warships at this time, although they were already equipped with steam engines and armor, still used front-loading smoothbore guns in naval guns.

But this problem was not a problem for the East China Sea Fleet, and the success of the Type 59 infantry guns soon spread, and in 1863, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau replaced the naval warships with large-caliber breech-loading rifled guns.

Due to the superiority of the rate of fire of the rear gun over the front gun, it was named rapid-fire artillery, which is not the same concept as the burst rapid-fire gun that appeared later, but the basic meaning is the same.

"Fire!"

The order was given, and more than a dozen battleships of the East China Sea Fleet opened fire one after another.

Rows of boat-waist guns opened fire fiercely, and in an instant, hundreds of shells fired in a salvo, columns of water rose into the sky, and the sea water boiled in an instant.

Five rounds of rapid fire, the fire was very fierce, a large number of shells hit the British and French battleships, but the British and French were wrapped in ironclad, and there was no imaginary explosion and fire, but it also caused serious casualties and equipment damage to the British and French battleships.

What the hell is this Nima? It's too fast! He only fired one shot, but the opponent was able to fire several shots in a row!

Major General Marin and his group of friends were instantly stunned. (To be continued.) )