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On the night of May 20, 1856, more than an hour before the launch of the general offensive mentioned by Tan Shaoguang, the cool sea breeze blowing by Xi gradually disappeared. Contrary to the storm of the previous night, it was a rare good day.

In the sky, the stars are dotted, like the big eyes of a playful child, blinking constantly.

On the empty sea, there was not a trace of wind, and the milky white moonlight was like a huge, boundless silver soft satin, gently covering the once unruly and hidden so deep sea.

Unfortunately, what is extremely discordant with this mood is a stain that swims ghostly in this white.

The two-masted gunboat "Sima Corsair" of the Tsarist Third Fleet, which was on patrol duty, saw the safe and sound light signal from the outpost on the hill from a distance, turned the bow of the ship, and first squirmed with difficulty like an old woman who was hobbling in search of her home. I didn't see the nearby Jiming Island, so I simply dropped the anchor and didn't move.

God, get some wind! It stands to reason that this should be the immediate desire of the more than 200 Russian officers and men on this battleship. Sail warships, the wind is their wings, the wind can shake their majesty, without the wind, they can only be like a target, a pile of meat on the board for others to slaughter.

However, they hardly have any complaints about the tranquility in front of them from top to bottom, but have a sudden sense of relaxation. While the officers picked up the high-end "big front door" produced by the Angel firm in Beijing and deeply experienced the incomparable pleasure brought to them by Chinese cigarettes, the sailors were also stretching their sore arms, and the gunners were getting out of the stuffy cabin, stretching their waists, lighting the inferior paper cigarettes of the "Joy brand" specially produced for people like them, and spitting out the clouds and mist, all of them were still sighing with emotion in the face of such a docile sea. Although there were no cheers, everyone's hearts must have thanked God for giving them such a rare opportunity to rest.

Yes, for them, leaving Weihai Weijun Port is not only like leaving a noisy "metropolis", but more precisely, it is still far away from the threat of death and removing a lot of troubles.

In this world, if we talk about the spiritual qualities of soldiers, there should be many kinds, but I am afraid that the typical ones are nothing more than these two kinds of people.

When a soldier is facing the life and death of the nation and the country, and when he is faced with the need to make a choice between his personal life and death, he will rush forward without hesitation, even if it is death in front of him, even if he knows that he cannot do it, he will do it. It's called struggle.

There is also a kind of soldiers, who are like ruffians and scoundrels on the streets. To the weak, they are definitely heroes, but to the strong, they are out-and-out bears. They never know the responsibilities and obligations they should bear, and they are only haunted by honor, status and money.

At least on the "Sima Pirate" in front of you, there are many people of the latter type. To use flowery rhetoric, they are war-weary. Why war weariness? It's not that they want to put down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot, but they are afraid that they will be like the innocent people who have been ** by them, and they will also suffer the ruthlessness of others**.

"Well, how nice it would be if the world was like it is forever," said the captain, shaking his head with emotion as he stepped off the bridge, shaking his head at the officer who was following his ass, "and then we would be away from war forever." ”

"yes, yes, it's better to be here than to stay in a military port and be scared." The lieutenant in the back hunched his bear-like waist and smiled flatteringly, "Their artillery fire is so powerful, when I think of Captain Bonev's battleship that was stopped and broken in two in the blink of an eye on the south bank, my scalp is still numb now." ”

"Hehe, Bonev's luck is really bad," the captain held the side of the ship and looked at it in the direction of Weihaiwei Harbor for a while. Then, he sighed softly, "Remember, since the time in Lushun, how many times this unlucky guy has bet with me, he has not won once." ”

"Haha, of course I do." The lieutenant smiled happily, how could he not remember. In order to provide more entertainment for the sailors' boring training and stimulate the sailors' strong sense of competition, the captain ingeniously invented a game of shelling the villages of the Qing Dynasty on land, or shelling the villagers on the ground, and organized all the officers and men of the ship to compete against the battleship commanded by Captain Bonev. The rules of this kind of competition are that only three shells are allowed to be used at a time, and the winner is determined by the number of houses destroyed or the number of people blown up. In previous competitions, it always ended with the hard-training "Sima Corsair" winning. In Bonev's words, his monthly salary is *** fed to the captain of the "Sima Corsair", a bear who will never have enough to eat. But at the end of the day, the game has always been a huge attraction for Bonev. From Lushunkou to Weihaiwei, every ten days and a half months, I always think about doing it once. As for the salary, it was issued by the Qing Dynasty anyway, and if the money is gone, you can't ask for it again, and then you can't grab it, it's always indispensable.

"It's a pity, I heard that Captain Bonev has accumulated a lot of Chinese antiques, I don't know who is going to spend it now?" The lieutenant swallowed hard and spatted at the mouth.

"yes!" The captain looked at the cigarette butt in his hand and shook his head helplessly. When he talks about others, he is also lamenting for himself. It's so good here in China, it's a good thing to grab at your fingertips, but it's easy to grab it, but it's hard to get home. Those bastards in the headquarters, claiming to be strict in military discipline, desperately inspected the property of all officers and soldiers sent back to China, and as soon as they found "prohibited items", they immediately confiscated them without saying a word. What *** strict military discipline, but they are just thinking about fattening themselves.

"I don't know when I'll be able to go home!" The lieutenant seemed to see through the captain's mind.

"This damn war." The captain threw the cigarette butts into the sea with all his might, cursing viciously.

"Captain, an unknown object has been found in the northeast direction and is approaching our ship."

Hearing the shouts of the lookouts, the captain was inexplicably stunned.

"Wouldn't it be the two French and American warships that couldn't stand the loneliness in Rongcheng Bay?" The lieutenant handed the binoculars to the captain, and his words were full of envy for the kind of steam warships that only used sails as auxiliary power.

"I *** hate those French people who pretend to be nobles and gentlemen." The captain spat hard at the deck and slowly made his way to starboard.

"The British are not good birds, and they pretend to be gentlemen when they pick up an umbrella, and crawl lice outwards in their collars." The lieutenant wasted no time in meeting his captain.

"Haha...... Well said, no matter how gentlemanly the British are, they still get syphilis and bayberry sores. The captain grinned heartily as he raised his binoculars and subconsciously touched the back collar of his coat. Hearing others talk about lice, he also has an itchy feeling in his back.

There are really two battleships getting closer, and the speed is not very fast, probably because there is no sail to help. The captain looked at the warship that appeared in the binoculars, a little gloating. However, when he looked at it more closely, he suddenly had a stirring spirit and was stunned.

"My lord, what's wrong?" Casually looking at the two black dots that were slowly approaching more than a thousand yards ahead, the lieutenant looked at the captain and asked with concern, and at the same time subconsciously stretched out his hand. The weather is not cold, the wind is not up, what is the captain's shivering?

White sailor suit! The captain's head buzzed, what was going on? Is this impossible? How could the battleships of the Taiping Red Army come from this direction? His body leaned forward quickly, and with a little more force, he could almost fall headlong into the sea, and the telescope in his hand immediately moved up a little. He wanted to take a closer look at the military flag hoisted by the other party.

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