Chapter 127: A narrow road encounter

American businessmen in the Philippines brought a large number of American-made weapons, mainly American-made 331855 breezed rifled rifled rifles and 1847 Colt revolvers, but the main news is that these weapons are low-priced, and they are all leftover weapons from a large number of disarmament after the end of the American Civil War.

The first batch of 5oo American-made firearms was soon transported to the front line in Shanxi, and the supplies were given to the Black Flag Army, Liu Yongfu was naturally very grateful for Qin Kai's support, and the original idea of retaining strength was completely dispelled, and he ordered to mobilize defensive troops from Laochao Baosheng (Lao Cai) to enter the rear positions in Shanxi, and more and more officers and soldiers' families chose to leave Vietnam after hearing the generous treatment of Mawei, and the Black Flag Army was put into the defense of Shanxi City.

Zhou Ruidong specially went to meet Liu Yongfu and proposed two necessary points to defend Shanxi with all his might, one is that the plain of Shanxi and Hanoi is the only grain-producing area in northern Vietnam, and if Shanxi is lost, then the way for the Black Flag Army's nest to protect the grain and salary of the victory will be cut off.

Second, once Shanxi is conquered, the important checkpoints in the upper reaches of the Red River channel will no longer exist, and more importantly, the gate of Hanoi City, which is only a hundred miles below, will be opened, and the geographical location of Hanoi City will be close to the Red River, making it extremely vulnerable to the attack of French gunboats on the Red River.

However, the key factor that can stop the French gunboats from acting recklessly on the Red River is not actually the resistance of the Black Flag Army and the Vietnamese army, but the complex water flow of the Red River.

In the early years, the French attacked along the Red River, relying on small steamships to transport the 6th Army and the 6th Army artillery brought with the ships to fight, rather than the support of the gunboats Tongguò, but the most recent exchange of fire with the French, although not the Black Flag Army, but the Vietnamese army trying to build a fortress at Ha Tinh Pass, but the appearance of French gunboats seemed to be a bad omen.

After Zhou Ruidong and Liu Yongfu discussed, they moved to Fu'an City downstream, and supported each other with the Black Flag Army, and the defense of Fu'an was defended by a battalion and two outposts Chen Dongbu, and he himself rushed back to the Zhiling Fortress with the remaining soldiers and horses.

The coastline in the distance gradually blurred in the night, Qin Kai stood on the bridge of the 5o1 ship and looked at the dark sea outside, this trip in a broad sense, he also made a decision after full consideration, his identity is clearly the Great Qing Dynasty, so the danger of this trip can be said to be very low......

But Wu Jing, the general soldier in the broad sense, is an authentic Yue officer, and if he wants to persuade this person with his own face, he is not sure, but the benefits of controlling Hue are now revealed, and the university scholar Ruan Chengwen took the initiative to propose that he has some relationship with Wu Jing and is willing to come with the ship to talk to Wu Zongbing.

This is naturally a good thing that Qin Kai can't ask for, Nguyen Chengwen has now completely fallen to Prime Minister Song Xing, and is a popular figure in the current high-level Vietnam, he is willing to come forward naturally because it helps to stabilize his position, after all, the current wind in the court has changed, and the Chinese Song Xing is in charge, and the situation in Hue, everyone can see clearly, and it is only by relying on the force of the Kingdom of God that he can be spared from the French.

By the wee hours of the morning, the fleet had approached the dock in the broad sense of the word, and was quietly berthed, but the boiler was still maintaining air pressure to ensure that it could be pulled out at any time. And in the morning light, the distant fort was slowly revealed, and through the telescope, Qin Kai clearly saw the movement on the fort, and for the fleet that suddenly appeared in front of him, the fort suddenly began to operate nervously.

However, the Vietnamese army on the opposite side soon determined that the fleet outside was not the enemy, because several small boats were being lowered by 6 Sho, more than a dozen sailors were carrying things to the small boats, and many Vietnamese soldiers escorted a few people to board the boat and row towards the pier.

The defense of the dock is Wu Jing's brother Wu Fang, and soon received the bachelor Ruan Chengwen who went ashore, the two are not acquaintances, but they do recognize each other, and they are busy welcoming people in, only then do they know that the battleship berthed outside is from Shangguo Qincha, this head was somewhat frightened Wu Fang, and hurriedly asked if he should invite his eldest brother to greet him, but was told that Lord Qincha was just waiting for news outside. ,

When he arrived at the Guangyi military camp, Wu Jing was also very surprised that Ruan Chengwen would come, the relationship between them was really complicated, Wu Jing guarded Guangyi back then, although he held the military power in his hands, but he was a general, how could he understand the operation of this officialdom, he did fight a few battles with the French here, but they were all coastline battles defended by danger, after all, the French 6th Army had to climb over the mountains in the middle, and the difficulty of this cross-country was not ordinarily high! As a result, he was arrested for scattering official food, and this defense in a broad sense was not only useless, but it was necessary to find a way to punish him!

This time he naturally didn't do it, so he looked around for a relationship to make silver, and it happened that his wife's relationship was matched with Ruan University, so he prepared silver and asked Ruan University to operate, and took the door of Zhendonghou at that time, which turned the danger into a disaster and sat in the position of the general soldier.

After meeting, Wu Jing was naturally curious about Ruan Chengwen's intention, "Scholar, why did you come all the way to come in person?" ”

Ruan Chengwen laughed, "Mr. Wu, I'm naturally here to send wealth!" Just don't know how you think about it? ”

Wu Jing smiled, "Scholar, if you have something to say, just say it, isn't my position what you operated back then!" But I've had a lot of trouble with Prime Minister Song Cheng lately! ”

Ruan Chengwen naturally understood what Wu Jing said about the trouble, which was obviously self-respect, and he smiled slightly, "Prime Minister Song is actually okay over there, the important thing is the meaning of Shangguo Qincha!" I have two official documents here, one is from the emperor and the other is from the emperor, which one do you choose? ”

"Scholar, what do you say?" Wu Jing is not a fool, this general soldier has been doing it for seven or eight years, and he will definitely not understand when he should pretend to be stupid.

"The French attacked Hue with more than 20 warships, and a partial division of Lord Qin was guarding in Hue, so they drove away the French, and now that army is staying in Hue...... Nguyen Chengwen naturally reminded without disguise.

Wu Jing naturally understands that this is a show of force, but isn't this era just about reasoning with fists? He, a general soldier like him, has no foundation in the court, and he can do it now, not because no one wants to come in this broad sense! He immediately understood that the reason why this Shangqin had taken a fancy to himself was that he had no foundation!

"Scholar, you have an idea! I only have less than 5,000 soldiers and horses here, if I can be transferred to guard a place in the future, I can be crowned with a wife and a son! That's what it means.

Ruan Chengwen smiled, "Mr. Wu, you are underestimating yourself too much, Lord Qin only put forward one condition, as for what kind of fame you can get, it all depends on you to fight for it!" ”

"On what terms?" Wu Jing is not stupid, the meaning of Ruan Chengwen's words could not be more straightforward, obviously the return of Lord Qin can be far from what he thinks!

Ruan Chengwen's eyes narrowed, "One condition, Mr. Wu, can't you guess?" ”

Wu Jing was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood, obviously this Shangguo Qincha has no worries about himself, and if he can have concerns, there is only one point - "loyalty"!

Wu Jing thought about it again and again, the wealth of his life in the second half of his life and the yin gong of his children and grandchildren were between his own choice, "I understand, scholar, what about the official document of my country's Qincha!" ”

After noon, Ruan Chengwen took Wu Jing and hurried to the heavily guarded dock in Guangyi, after the signal, the "Chengqing" warship in the distance slowly approached, and Guan took 6 Zhiyuan down to talk with Ruan Chengwen for a while, waved his hand, and immediately a large number of rifles and boxes of bullets were unloaded from the ship.

Wu Jing originally followed Ruan Chengwen to go to Lord Qincha to report his name, but he didn't expect that Shangguo Qincha was really wealthy, this meeting was so many new foreign guns, but there was no place to buy this thing, he also pondered, and he bought single-digit weapons from the French who came to trade in Hue, and it was an old-fashioned rifle.

6 Zhiyuan walked over and arched his hand towards Wu Jinggong, "Lord Wu, since we have negotiated with Lord Ruan, we will be a family in the future, this is the first batch of foreign guns to support you, 3oo breech needle guns, 50,000 bullets, you count them!" ”

"It's a little bit of a need!" Wu Jing's mouth was grinning, he accepted the things with a smile, turned around and asked his brother Wu Fang to hurry back to the barracks and carefully store it, and then followed him on the Chengqing battleship, the ships of the Vietnamese sailors were still a hundred years ago, Wu Jing saw the Chengqing front and back gun outlines and Green guns, and naturally trusted the strength of this Lord Qin. ,

He is also a dignified chief soldier, naturally he can't show his cowardice, pretend to look around, 6 Zhiyuan is also up to him, self-managed and self-commanding the soldier's ship back, suddenly the chimney on the 5O1 ship moored in the distance is thick smoke, obviously urgently pressurized, which makes him also feel that the situation is abnormal, and immediately ordered: "Let the lookout post check the flagship's orders, and quickly move closer to the flagship!" ”

The "Chengqing" immediately increased the pressure of the boiler, and sailed towards the open sea, Wu Jing was also stunned, and hurriedly inquired about the Ruan University on the side, and finally heard the accurate order from an officer next to him, and the flagship was assembled to meet the attack, and the French warship appeared in the south!

Wu Jing broke out in a cold sweat at this time, and he could swim himself, but the level of fluttering twice in the river to the vast sea was almost a suicide, and he regretted it at that time, when it was not good to choose, he had to choose this time to get on the boat! But now, there is no room for maneuver, and the few soldiers behind him are even more panicked, and their faces are a few white......

6 Zhiyuan naturally saw the situation on their side, and didn't bother to come over to explain to them, showing strength is the best way to explain, he gave an order in an orderly manner, "Let the gunner at the gun position prepare ammunition, and store up to two bullets in the gun shaft, beware of being detonated!" ”

"The gunner's idea is to test the firing distance, and then shoot within three kilometers!"

"The boiler is ready to pressurize, all forward!"

Ruan Chengwen was naturally panicked for a while, but seeing 6 Zhiyuan's unhurried command, he could be regarded as having some confidence, so he asked the officer in the bridge for a telescope, and he also became addicted to commanding.

At 1:10 p.m., the "Wu" ship's lookout appeared in the distance, and then the ironclad ship Atarante, the flagship of the French First Fleet in the Far East, appeared!

The French battleships were cruising at a distance of 1o knots, and the lookout post of the ironclad of the Atarante also observed the battleship flying the flag of the Admiral of the Qing Kingdom in the distance, and the news was immediately passed to the commander, Colonel Brown.

The ironclad ship Atarante was commissioned for 9 years. The displacement of this class is 3,828 tons, the length of the ship is meters, the width is 13.94 meters, and the draft is meters. It is equipped with 4 boilers, single-shaft propulsion, output horsepower of 159o horsepower, 9 knots, and coal carrying capacity of 25o tons. 6 equipped 193mm guns, 4 119mm guns, side armor 152mm, turret armor 119mm, deck armor 1o2mm. The establishment staff is 316.

Commanding Colonel Brown has been in the French Navy for 20 years, and has been commanding this class of ironclad for 12 years. However, considering that there are many artillery pieces and the armor is also good, one is still used today.

I heard that there are Qing warships in front, Colonel Brown is also very strange, this is the border line of the war between Vietnam and France, and the Qing warships came here, it seems a little unreasonable, after all, after the two sides signed an armistice agreement, so far there has been no announcement that the agreement has broken down, according to the order of Vice Admiral Guba yesterday, it will be two days later, that is, before his fleet captures Haiphong City, a telegram will be sent to the Qing Guozheng fǔ, informing them of the news that their previous contract has been rejected.

However, since war is inevitable, he doesn't mind eating one or two outdated Qing warships along the way, but now the entire French Far East Navy in Cochinchina has a psychological shadow on the elusive Qing black ironclad ship, which comes from the first South China Sea naval battle and the subsequent Hue raid, after all, it can sink 5 French warships in one fell swoop, damage many ships, and retreat, this is not an ordinary record!

"Order! The Dujuturuin and the Reconnaissance quickly followed, cutting off the battleship in front from both wings, and the fastest reconnaissance ship rushed forward to reconnoitre! "Brown Xun gave the order, the Atarant was the thickest of the three ships, but the slowest degree, the cruiser Reconnaissance was a fast battleship of 17oo tons, sailing 15 knots, and the cruiser 2nd class Dujutuin was a heavy cruiser of 35oo tons, and the degree was also over 14 knots.

The three battleships flanked forward in an inverted zigzag......