The two battleships of the British fleet had a shallow draft, and even if it was not a wet season, they were able to approach Canton through the river and shoot. However, it was necessary to destroy the batteries on both sides of the strait before. According to intelligence, there are quite a few shore defense artillery on both sides of the Pearl River, but no large-caliber artillery has been found. The vicinity of the shore fortifications was heavily defended, and the British intelligence officers could only observe from a distance, but through the telescope, they only saw some artillery pieces of less than 100 mm caliber (too cumbersome to convert to the British system), and they were still in the open air, which should not be a threat to the fleet.

At 1:35 p.m., the British fleet entered the field of view of the Humen Fort, and between the mountains facing the river, the camouflaged iron gate was opened, and a swarthy gun emerged from the inside. Sealed reinforced concrete batteries provide the best protection for artillery and artillery. The artillerymen were nervously busy, and through the observation instrument, they accurately calculated the shooting elements, and the large-caliber armor-piercing and blasting shells were pushed into the breech respectively. Thirty-five guns of more than 200 mm in the Humen Fort were ready for shelling, and more than three years of coastal defense construction made it an impregnable wall of the country.

A hill-like battleship sailed into the shelling range, and such a battleship made people feel small, but alas, it was the British flag that was hoisted on it.

"Is there no one on their battery? Why haven't you fired a cannon yet, have you been scared away by us? Martin, the captain of the flagship battleship Captain Centurion, said with a smile to Felimantle. The fleet commander responded solemnly: "This kind of thing can still happen, but those small-caliber shore defense guns will also cause some damage to our small warships." Start shelling Humen now! ”

Not only were the leaking artillery unmanned, but all the artillery was made of wood and painted with black paint for camouflage. The five open-air batteries of the Humen coastal fortifications were all carefully camouflaged in order to attract the fire of the enemy ships and then take them by surprise.

The British fleet floated on the river more than 2,000 meters from the shore, firing at this distance to ensure that it would not be injured by ground artillery fire. With a firing range of two thousand meters, it was difficult for even the 254-mm guns on the battleship to accurately hit ground targets. The distance constraints and floating battleships made the first round of shelling miss, but the sight of the main guns firing was spectacular, which made the Zhenguo artillerymen hiding in the sealed fortifications feel a slight shake and watched a wonderful battleship shooting scene.

The rate of fire of the main guns was slow, and the shelling of ten 120-mm guns and ten 152-mm guns on the battleship was not inferior, coupled with the shelling of the rest of the battleships, the ground along the Humen coast shook, the camouflage batteries were finally hit, and most of the batteries were destroyed.

"Your Excellency, the inefficiency of the artillery bombardment at this distance is a serious waste of our artillery reserves, I propose to continue to get close to the shore and shoot at close range, as it seems that the enemy has not counterattacked, I suspect that they have lost the courage to return fire, and what we need to do is to get close and completely destroy it." Martin, captain of the Centennial, said.

Felimantle: "That's true, your suggestion is very good, and it should be noted that we have to complete the plan to bombard the city of Guangzhou this afternoon, according to the intelligence, there are still two batteries before arriving in Guangzhou after passing Humen, and the fleet must speed up." Ordered, the Centurion and the Balle to shoot at close range, send three destroyers to protect it, and the rest stayed here to cover the shelling! ”

In a bunker on the shore, gunner Liu Changfu half-squatted on the ground, put his hands on the shells, and prepared for battle. The observer lies on the observation port and reports on the situation of the enemy forces.

"Two battleships and three destroyers of the enemy maneuvered in the direction of the shore at a distance of 1700 meters!"

"The enemy ship is 1300 meters away!"

"The enemy ship is 1000 meters away and is spreading horizontally!"

1000 meters, Liu Changfu was so anxious that he couldn't do it, this was his favorite shooting distance in the training of this artillery company, and it was also the favorite shooting distance of the 250 mm cannon in front of him. At such a close distance, it cannot be said that 100 shots are missed, but the hit rate in actual training is more than 80 percent.

Liu Changfu finally waited for the commander's order to fire, and he and another gunner worked together to stuff the shell into the barrel of the cannon, and pushed it into the ******, and after a series of processes, the cannon was ready for shelling, which took less than a minute.

"Boom!" A dazzling flash of fire burst out from a low hill not far behind the shore, and almost at the same time, more than thirty lines of fire sprang out, aiming directly at the two British battleships.

"Not good!" Martin, who was observing the shelling, put down his binoculars and shouted loudly, and before Felimantle could ask what was happening, he heard a series of explosions, followed by a slight shaking of the Captain of the Centurion.

The first round of shore artillery shelling did not hit the target, but a large amount of water splashed around the battleship, and the shells were already very close, and it was believed that the results would be achieved soon.

"The other side has a large number of large-caliber artillery hidden, this is a trap, Your Excellency Commander, I suggest retreating immediately!" As soon as Martin finished speaking, a second round of shells followed, and this time the shelling paid off, two armor-piercing shells hit the battleship Balre, one of the shells passed through the side armor belt, and the 305 mm thick armor failed to withstand the penetration of the armor-piercing shells, and this shell exploded inside. The other hit the main gun turret, sending it flying.

"Report, the Balle was hit and two main guns were destroyed!"

"Fight back now!" Felimantle tried to return fire, but the third round of shelling completely discouraged him from the idea of confronting shore artillery. One of the shells hit the flagship Centurion in this round of shelling, but fortunately the boilers were not damaged and the speed of the warship was still there.

In just a few minutes, the two battleships were hit by three shells, and if this continued, the consequences were unimaginable, and several warships immediately turned around and left. But the movement of the 10,000-ton warship was not a simple matter, after the battleship drew an arc and turned around, the Captain of the Centurion was hit again, and the two battleships finally left the shelling range of the shore guns in smoke and fled in the direction of the open sea.

The quality of the British navy was fully demonstrated here, and it took less than fifteen minutes from the time they were subjected to shelling, analyzing the situation, making decisions, and maneuvering the warships to retreat, so that the losses were minimized.

It was right to leave, the British, and indeed the warships of every naval power in the world, would not fight hard with shore artillery. At first, it was because of intelligence mistakes and camouflage jamming that the British made the decision to shoot at close range, and once they were shelled, they immediately turned around and left.

When the news reached China, the British government immediately launched an investigation into the operation and reassessed the military capabilities of the revolutionary government. In addition, Stephen came to the Chancellery again, and he demanded that the revolutionary government severely punish the murderers of the British warships.

"Your Excellency, your actions have made the British Empire government very angry, you are already on the brink of war, you must do the necessary action to appease the anger of the British Empire and save yourselves, or you will be dealt the most severe blow by us!"

"Lord Stephen, I wonder what makes you so angry? I am very puzzled, but please tell me more carefully, what did the revolutionary government do to provoke the great British Empire? Getting cheap and selling is Lu Liang's favorite thing to do, and Stephen's attitude shows that the British are very weak, and the cannons of Humen hurt them a lot.

Soon after the results of the Humen bombardment reached here, Lu Liang received news from Hong Kong that the British fleet had returned to Victoria Harbor to temporarily rest and carry out simple repairs to the two damaged battleships. Lu Liang believed that the fleet would not stay in Hong Kong for long, and that those few shells did not cause much damage to their power systems.

"Your Excellency, such a cover-up can only lead to the complete disappointment of the British Empire towards you, the British fleet was suddenly attacked by your shore artillery off the coast of Humen, and two British Imperial battleships were seriously damaged, such losses cannot be borne by all of you. Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I still suggest that you think carefully about how to compensate, instead of covering up here! ”

"Sir Stephen, this is the funniest joke I've ever heard. The British fleet intruded into our territorial waters and took the lead in shelling our territory, and the Humen Fort was forced to return fire, resisting in the face of heavy losses, and hitting British warships in many places, winning the victory of defending the coast. I have a lot of photos of the scene here, as well as live footage taken with a camera, and you want to see who is right. ”

Lu Liang's words made Stephen stunned, how could this be? How did they know that the warship was going to shell Humen? Those cameras and camcorders were obviously prepared in advance, and no one would have prepared those things in the fort, and if there was no conspiracy, Stephen would not believe it in killing Lu Liang.