At the Shanghai Army Headquarters, the personnel of various departments were very busy, and the telegraph was ticking non-stop.

"Report! Ningbo government telegram! ”

A telegram stamped with urgent military information was delivered, and it was one of the telegrams that Li Weiguo had specified.

"The Anglo-French fleet has arrived in the Mopanyang sea area outside Ningbo Prefecture, and its advance reconnaissance fleet tried to break into the waters near Dinghai, but was sniped by our army's preset water radium, four frigates were sunk, and the enemy fleet then suspended its operations."

"Excellent! Well done! Li Weiguo was very happy when he heard that Water Radium had sunk four enemy frigates.

Wu Yong, Chen Jingnan, Lin Jiyun and others came to the front one after another and read this information one by one.

"Congratulations, my lord, the water radium you designed has played a huge role, and now it has not only blown up and sunk four enemy frigates, but also blocked the possibility of the enemy fleet directly attacking land from the sea!"

"Yes, I originally thought that if we didn't send out the navy, we would lose the sea supremacy and affect the defense of the homeland, but now it seems that even if the enemy has the supremacy of the sea, their warships will not be able to come close to attack us."

Hearing everyone's praise, Li Weiguo also felt that his face was bright, he put forward the principle and policy that weak countries should rely on water radium to defend against maritime powers, and now he has achieved a victory, and he is also happy in his heart.

It's just that Lin Jiyun, commander of the East China Sea Fleet of the Navy, has a complicated expression, and he said with a strong smile: "It has to be an adult who strategizes and decides to win thousands of miles away, and his humble position can be regarded as a dead heart, and he will honestly stay on the Yangtze River to deal with the Taiping Army sailors in the future." ”

Li Weiguo asked Lin Jiyun: "Do you know the naval battle between Russia, Turkey and Britain during the Crimean War?" ”

Lin Jiyun replied: "The Russian Navy has eliminated the Turkish Navy, and the British Navy has eliminated the Russian Navy!" ”

Li Weiguo smiled slightly and said: "The Turkish Navy and the Russian Navy both use wooden sail warships, the difference is that the Russian Navy uses high-power flowering shells on the warships, and the damage to the wooden hull is dozens of times that of traditional solid bullets, so the Turkish Navy was completely annihilated. And the British Navy put into use new warships wrapped in iron and iron. So they blocked the attack of the Russians, and in turn the wooden battleships of the Russians were killed by the British flowering bombs, and finally the whole army was destroyed. What does this mean? ”

Lin Jiyun thought for a while and replied: "The traditional wooden sail battleship has no ability to resist in the face of flowering bombs, but the battleship wrapped in iron can prevent flowering bombs. ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "You can also see it, in front of the iron-hulled battleship of the British." Traditional wooden sail warships are vulnerable. Why, then, do we strike a stone with an egg? ”

Lin Jiyun understood what Li Weiguo meant, and said: "I was a little unfigured out about my humble position before, but now I suddenly understand a lot after listening to the words of adults." It's just not known when our Navy will be able to defeat the British Navy on a frontal battlefield. ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "Don't worry, this day will not be too far away, when our large steam engine is successfully tested, we will also build ironclad ships, and then we will not only have advanced warships, but also have people who are skilled in operating warships." That's the real reason why I didn't let you go to sea to meet the enemy. I don't care about losing a few ships, what I really care about is naval talent like you. ”

These words are sincere, and Lin Jiyun is very grateful in his heart.

Seeing that Lin Jiyun's heart knot was untied, Li Weiguo turned to Wu Yong and said: "Although there is water radium to defend the coastal sea, it is not absolute, and it is said that foreigners can't find a way to crack it." Pay close attention to the news in Dinghai, I want to know the strength of a brigade of our Shanghai army. How many enemies can you block. ”

Wu Yong said: "I think the firepower of one brigade of our Shanghai army is enough to withstand the firepower of one army of foreigners, but I don't know how many casualties the foreigners intend to pay to seize Dinghai County." ”

"At least 50,000 people!" Chen Jingnan, who was on the side, suddenly took this answer.

"The battle losses are ten to one. If this is the case, our army only needs to pay the price of two towns and four brigades to consume 200,000 British and French troops! Wu Yong said with a smile.

Chen Jingnan shook his head and said, "There is no need for so much!" Dinghai County is isolated overseas, and we cannot provide support and supplies for the large corps, so the 29th Brigade guarding Dinghai can consume at most 50,000 British and French troops in the case of the total annihilation. If the battlefield is on the mainland, we have enough troops and supplies. At most, the strength of one brigade can be consumed to destroy 200,000 British and French troops, and the battle loss ratio is 40 to 1, which is in line with the current combat effectiveness level of our army. ”

Li Weiguo smiled: "I love to hear this!" ”

Just because the Shanghai army has advanced weapons and equipment such as rifles, artillery, hand radiums, and ground radiums, which are leading the world, and are completely ahead of the level of foreigners, the battle loss ratio is not an exaggeration to say that the ratio of battle losses is 1 to 40.

To know during the Franco-Prussian War. The German army, which was equipped with a rear-loading firing pistol, had a battle loss ratio of 1 to 45 against the French army with traditional muskets, not to mention that the rifles of the Shanghai army were much more advanced than those of the German army.

In any case, Li Weiguo placed the strength of a brigade in Dinghai County, and did not rule out the intention of testing the firepower and combat effectiveness of the British and French forces, so as to estimate the actual combat strength of the enemy and us and calculate the cost of the war.

With the telegraph, it is convenient, and the situation in Dinghai County can be quickly conveyed to Shanghai through the Ningbo Government Telegraph Office. In the past, even if you used carrier pigeons, it would take you more than half a day, and the power of technology showed great power at this moment.

At this moment, in the Mopanyang area, the British and French forces successively sent more than a dozen frigates to conduct a comprehensive reconnaissance of the waters around Dinghai, and found that any channel was laid with water radium.

Three days ago, the British and French coalition forces sent engineers to try to disassemble the radium, but the radium laid by the Shanghai army was more complicated, full of tentacles, and if you accidentally touched it, it would explode, causing casualties. In addition, whenever the British and French engineers tried to dismantle the water radium, there would be Shanghai scouts on the nearby islands or sandbanks who secretly fired cold shots to prevent the British and French engineers from dismantling the water radium. After going back and forth, the British and French engineers suffered a large number of casualties, and the British and French expeditionary forces did not bring too many professional engineers in the first place, so they quickly abandoned this method.

Then the British and French forces came up with a new trick, they quickly got a large number of fishing nets, sent small boats to drag back and forth near the channel, and the fishing nets around the water radium would trigger an explosion, and in this way, they quickly opened a safe shipping lane. Approaching Dinghai County.

At the commanding heights of Xiaoluoshan, Zheng Guohong, commander of the 29th Brigade, who was inspecting the secret artillery position in Xiaoluoshan, received the news, and his expression suddenly became solemn.

Without the barrier of water radium, the warships of the British and French forces would arrive close to Dinghai County to launch an artillery attack on land, and then cover the ground offensive of the British and French forces.

This was not good news, when the Opium @ Chip War broke out. The British did the same, and their powerful naval guns destroyed all resistance of the Qing army.

At that time, Zheng Guohong had a passion for killing the enemy, but unfortunately the weapons and equipment in his hands were too poor, and he was vulnerable in front of the British army.

Now it's different, after becoming a brigade commander in the Shanghai Army, Zheng Guohong has enough confidence, with 5,000 well-equipped tiger and wolf soldiers in his hands, and an artillery regiment equipped with 36 of the latest 59 infantry guns. Because of the importance of Dinghai County. The headquarters was additionally equipped with 12 Type 59 infantry guns, so that Zheng Guohong had 48 Type 59 infantry guns in his hands.

In the past, Zheng Guohong couldn't imagine that he would one day have such a powerful artillery force.

"The water radium defense line has been broken, and the next land battle will be, I want you to lurk well, and you must not expose the artillery position until you have to."

"Understand, Brigadier Commander, don't worry!"

Xiaoluo Mountain is an inconspicuous island surrounded by Dinghai. But the location was on the anticline of Dongcheng in Dinghai County, and Zheng Guohong secretly deployed an artillery company of four infantry guns on the top of the mountain. Prepare to deal a fatal blow to the Anglo-French forces at a critical moment.

Zheng Guohong is a person who fought the first Opium War, and he fought several bloody battles with the British army in Dinghai that year, and he knew that the British army would choose Dongcheng as the main attack direction every time, and their logistics materials were basically hoarded near the seaside not far from Dongcheng, just under Xiaoluoshan, with the range of the 59-type infantry gun. Condescending enough to cover completely.

"What will you do if foreigners search the mountains?"

"Report to the brigade commander, we will first hide the cannon in the dug cellar, and the foreign devils will not be able to find it. By the time they left, we were building artillery positions. ”

Zheng Guohong nodded. This is the safest way to do it.

After then instructing some contact signals and detailed rules for action, Zheng Guohong quickly descended the mountain and returned to Dinghai County.

Zheng Guohong had just returned to Dinghai County when he heard the rumbling sound of cannons.

"Report, the foreigner's battleship has come in and is carrying out artillery fire on Dongcheng!"

Zheng Guohong was not surprised by what was expected, and immediately took the guard platoon to the drum tower and climbed to look at it.

I saw dozens of warships on the sea with the flags of Britain and France firing their guns in turn, and the guns on the side of the ships were shining brightly, and with each salvo, hundreds of shells were roaring towards the east city of Dinghai County.

At that moment, Zheng Guohong seemed to have returned to the first battle of Dinghai, when the earthen city wall of Dinghai County was collapsed after three volleys of fire from British naval guns, and the powerful British artillery fire caused Zheng Guohong's subordinates to suffer heavy casualties and blood flowed like a river.

But this time it was different, Dinghai County was highly valued by Li Weiguo, and the original collapsed earthen city wall was re-poured with reinforced concrete, heightened and thickened, and became very strong.

Shells hit the city wall and exploded, but they only blew up small craters, leaving a charred black that could not shatter the city wall.

"This time, I'll see how you capture my Dinghai County!" Zheng Guohong smiled, and his confidence doubled.

The officers and soldiers of Shanghai in the Tibetan Cave in the East City also smiled one by one when they saw that the British and French naval guns could not shatter the city wall, because this city wall was their bottom line of defense.

In the distance, on the deck of the coalition flagship, Erjin quickly saw through the heavy black smoke that the cannonballs did not seem to have any effect on the city walls of Dinghai County, and he immediately frowned.

"Damn, Dinghai County is so strong!"

"Blossom bullets have no effect on the city wall, let them try to change to solid bullets!"

Subsequently, the ships of the British and French forces began to bombard the city wall of Dinghai County with solid shells, but the effect was still not obvious. The round solid cannonball of this era was a large iron ball, which was completely ineffective against reinforced concrete buildings more than three meters thick.

The British and French fleet shelled for a whole morning, pouring more than 20,000 shells, but except for a few dozen shells that were successfully embedded in the city wall of Dinghai County, no obvious results were achieved.

In the end, Ergin sighed bitterly and had to give the order to stop the shelling.

"It seems that we can only attack the city in the traditional way!"

Gro came to Elgin, both of them with bitter gourd faces.

Soon, Ergin and Gro respectively ordered the fleet to cover the British and French marines to carry out the beach-rushing landing.

Zheng Guohong did not deploy the anti-landing infantry position, because he knew that under the saturation strike of the powerful naval guns of the British and French forces, any anti-landing infantry position would be in vain, so Zheng Guohong did not touch the mold.

However, Zheng Guohong would not let the enemy land safely and steadily, and he sent a small detachment, all of which were sharpshooters of each company and platoon, and basically could shoot the enemy within 100 to 150 meters.

When the Anglo-French troops came ashore, their naval guns stopped shelling, and the Shanghai detachment began to hunt and harass them.

"Bang! Bang bang! ”

Three gunshots rang out in succession, and three British soldiers were shot and killed, and their bodies fell to the ground.

"On the left, the first row fires!"

A volley of muskets from a platoon of British soldiers followed, but the three Shanghai soldiers who fired the shots had already moved to their places, and the British muskets did not hit them at all.

"Bang! Bang! Bang bang! ”

On the other side, more than a dozen Shanghai soldiers took the opportunity to sneak attack another group of British soldiers, killing more than 30 people in a row.

This is a typical tactic of striking the east and attacking the west.

After suffering several losses, the British learned wisely and were no longer fooled, they gathered together and steadily advanced to consolidate the beachhead fortifications.

Seeing that this group of Shanghai soldiers had no idea where to start, and more and more British and French soldiers came ashore, they chose to retreat in order to avoid being surrounded.

Although the Shanghai army did not fight the cold guns of the British and French forces, the British and French troops did not get a moment of peace, and soon they encountered another secret weapon of the Shanghai army-ground radium.

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, the first radium planted by the Shanghai army was stepped on by a bitter French soldier. The violent explosion instantly blew the French soldier's flesh and blood all over the place, and the fragments of the incomplete body fell at the feet of several of his companions, and the bloody scene immediately frightened them into vomiting.

Immediately afterwards, there was a series of loud noises, and British or French soldiers stepped on the ground, killing and wounding hundreds of people in an instant.

The sudden change frightened the British and French soldiers, who did not know what it was, and out of fear of the unknown, they withdrew to the beach, and some even cried to return to the warship.

"What's going on again?"

On the flagship, Ergin, who was happy to have successfully landed on the beach, frowned again after receiving the report.

"I don't know what it is!"

"It seemed to be a bomb buried in the dirt, similar in function to the water radium we had encountered earlier, and it would explode whenever our soldiers stepped on it, and in just a few minutes, we had hundreds of casualties."

"Damn, how could this be!" Ergin was about to collapse, and since he arrived in the Far East, nothing had gone well, and it could be described as unlucky.

Glo was not determined, and he exclaimed, "It's terrible! Not only have they developed water radium against our warships, but now they also have ground radium against our soldiers, which is really terrifying! I doubt we can win this war! ”

Ergin glared at Glo fiercely, but he couldn't get angry, so he could only order: "Order all ships to stop landing, and send a few small troops to investigate first, I want to know what is killing our British Empire soldiers." (To be continued......)