The French were careless.

Their understanding of the Fujian naval division mainly depended on the French technical advisory team of the Fuzhou Shipyard, and the technical team headed by Bai Laoyi lacked understanding of two things, one was the number and standard of land-based batteries, and the other was the manufacturing level of the Luoyuanwan shipyard.

In order to play a role in secrecy, when Hu Chuyuan purchased land-based battery artillery, he scattered the military purchase contracts among a number of artillery manufacturers, and not only chose Armstrong artillery and Krupp artillery, but also ordered a large number of Armstrong imitation artillery from the United States.

The French were able to see six forts, that is, the old six at the mouth of the Minjiang River, and they only knew that the Fuzhou Shipyard Yamen had spent a lot of money to strengthen and update the old six forts, but they did not know that there were another sixteen new forts hidden in Fushanling at the mouth of the Minjiang River.

Around the Maweikou of Luoxing Tower, Fuzhou Shipbuilding successively built 16 new forts in Ending Mountain, Yantai Mountain, Majiao Mountain, Tianma Mountain, Jun Mountain, Niuwan Mountain, Yan Mountain and Jianfeng Mountain.

In order to facilitate cover-up, the 16 forts were not large in scale, each equipped with four to five new 11-inch guns, the outer layer of the fort was covered by a green screen, and the surrounding area was transplanted with giant trees that defied common sense, and even made of cement to imitate rockeries.

According to the original design, as long as the French ships can concentrate on Maweikou, the new 16th battery can exert firepower, and the Mawei battery and Qingliangshan battery in the old sixth station can also play firepower.

If the French ships want to evacuate, the Tieshan Fort, Gaolongshan Fort, Mazhukeng Fort, and Tianluowan Fort, which are arranged in the old six stations between Yangyu Bay and Tianluo Bay, will all play a blocking role.

The scale of the old six is very large, each with eight 12-inch caliber and four 13-inch caliber heavy guns, and it is very tightly armed, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In order to avoid the firepower of the old sixth, the French would inevitably penetrate deep into the horsetail, and the new sixteenth fort was designed for this purpose.

As for the existence and scale of the Luoyuanwan Shipyard, it has always been the biggest secret of Fuzhou Shipbuilding.

Luoyuan Bay itself is a world-class natural harbor, with only one exit, and a huge inner bay surrounded by mountains......

"Aoli" is located in the bay at the southern end of Luoyuan Bay, commonly known as Xiaoao, there are more than a dozen islands at the mouth of Aowan, "Aoli" bay itself is the bay of Xiaoao, "Aoli" is also surrounded by Hutou Mountain, Yangwei Mountain, Xiwei Mountain, Baiheling...... There are more than a dozen small hills, and it is a half-moon-shaped valley, and the terrain is very hidden, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Hu Chuyuan took a fancy to this place at a glance, and in the early 1880s, he spent a lot of money to import dock equipment from Germany and the United States, and had a three-thousand-ton and two thousand-ton docks, as well as supporting steel mills and lumber mills, which were specially used to build gunboats and defense ships.

Hu Chuyuan dared to take the initiative to provoke the French and lure the French to attack Mawei Port, in fact, he relied on these two points.

The war was imminent, the sky was overcast, and the autumn wind swept across the harbor, blowing the waves on the river.

Hu Chuyuan walked out of the yamen and arrived at the colonel's field, where hundreds of jars of Fuzhou old rice and aged liquor were opened by the soldiers, bowls and bowls were poured, and thousands of officers and soldiers of the naval division lined up in front, each holding the wine.

On the ships in the distant harbor, the soldiers also picked up their wines and looked at the school yard from afar.

Admiral Ye Zuqi personally held the wine plate, holding three bowls of old rice roast, walked up to Hu Chuyuan step by step, and said "My lord" in a heavy voice.

Hidden in these two words is the momentum of swearing to the death, and the sound of the horn of the imminent war.

Hu Chuyuan looked solemn, took one of the bowls, raised his hands, and silently walked up to the platform, looking at the dozens of warships in front of him from a distance.

His heart, at this moment, seemed to have congealed into a blood clot, and almost stopped beating.

Time seems to stand still.

Only the solemn autumn wind is blowing coldly, and the thousands of flags on the school field are waving.

This is a ritual for the Chinese.

He silently raised the wine, looked up at the sky, and suddenly, he seemed to be able to communicate with the sky, heard the call of the sky, and heard the cry of the earth. At this moment, he used all his strength to spill the liquor in the bowl into the sky and float it down to the earth with the wind.

"Sacrifice to heaven and earth!"

"Roar!"

There was a loud roar in the school yard, and the salute exploded continuously, and thousands of soldiers roared in response.

Ye Zuqi served the second bowl of wine, Hu Chuyuan continued to take it, looking down at the earth, listening to more sounds, feeling the world, and finally, he once again spilled the wine vigorously on the school field.

"Worship your ancestors!"

The salute rang out again, and the soldiers roared again.

The last bowl of wine, Hu Chuyuan held it with both hands, looked down at all the soldiers on the school field, and after a long time, he raised the ...... again!

"Greetings!"

In an impassioned shout, Hu Chuyuan picked up the wine and drank it all suddenly, and countless soldiers also drank their respective soju with him.

The spicy soju choked Hu Chuyuan's throat, irritating his chest and abdomen, as if a fire had been lit in his body, and his eyes were also rolling with hot tears, he didn't know if the wine was too spicy, or the thoughts in his heart were too sad and heavy.

Ye Zuqi suddenly slammed the wine bowl in his hand, smashed it, and roared: "All the soldiers, follow us to serve the court and defend the country!" ”

"Serve the court and defend the countryside!"

There was a loud cry on the school ground, and all the soldiers also smashed the wine bowl together, crackling, as if it was the French ship that was broken, and the concern in the hearts of the soldiers cut off everything and killed the enemy in blood, just to win a victory.

The blood was rolling in Hu Chuyuan's heart, along the way, the things he had experienced, and the soldiers in front of him who were sworn to die made him understand a special truth.

He suddenly snatched the rifle of the guard beside him, raised it high, and shouted: "Soldiers, I should live and die with you, and defend the land together......!" ”

"Your Excellency, ......!"

There was a burst of excitement in the audience, everyone was excited, and they couldn't bear the murderous and passionate in their hearts, and everyone had red eyes and shouted.

Jiang Chaoying suddenly shouted in the school field, "Soldiers, follow me to kill the enemy!" ”

At the sound of his shout, hundreds of dead torpedo boats poured out and rushed to the dozen torpedo boats parked in the harbor, Jiang Chaoying was like a famous general of the Wu army in the Three Kingdoms era, holding a steel knife, standing on the bow of the ship, and with a wave of all his strength, the diesel engines of the torpedo boats started one after another, spreading billowing black smoke all around.

In the distance, the French fleet was already in front, blocked at the mouth of Maweikou, lined up in an oblique column, and three Saint-Zenard-class first-class central ironclad ironclads lined up at the forefront, and began to rush towards the harbor.

There was still half an hour left before the final declaration of war, but the French could no longer control so much, and took the initiative to rush in, wanting to seize the upper hand and attack outward from the southwest of the port, which was conducive to the spread of artillery smoke.

Led by the Weikang, a number of cruisers also quickly started and rushed towards the southwestern front.

The mouth of the Min River is not as wide as the sea, but there are also two kilometers of water long, which is enough for the ships to maneuver around, and now it is the high tide season, and even the French Saint Zenard-class warships can shuttle freely.

If it dragged on until about one o'clock in the afternoon, the Saint Zenard-class battleship could run aground if it was not careful.

This meant that the French could not delay until the afternoon.

Hu Chuyuan ventured up and boarded the Mawei Fort with Ye Zuqi, where he watched the whole situation, and hundreds of guards also rushed over to act as coolies carrying artillery.

Although the French were seizing favorable terrain, they did not open fire.

The Mawei Fort was already ready, and Ye Zuqi was personally responsible for aiming, and wanted to open fire, but he couldn't help but glance at Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan knew what he was thinking.

The court said, "I can't provoke first, if you don't respect the will, you should lose if you win"!

you, this is going to be a declaration of war.

Hu Chuyuan immediately made a decision, and said to Ye Zuqi: "Order all armies to open fire, and all the responsibilities will be borne by me!" ”

"Your Excellency, ......!"

Ye Zuqi still wanted to sigh a few words.

Hu Chuyuan shouted: "Open the cannon!" ”

"Good!"

Ye Zuqi was really overjoyed, and immediately connected the telephones of all departments and ordered all the batteries to shell the area of the seven vertical and twelve horizontals.

Because the forts were arranged in relatively hidden areas, it was indeed invisible to the French, but the forts themselves also lacked a good view of the sight. For this reason, Ye Zuqi thought of a rule similar to chess, dividing the defense area of the Minjiang River estuary according to the horizontal and vertical lines of the chessboard, and each fort could adjust the track height and direction of the artillery according to the orders of the Mawei fort after its own training.

The Mawei battery first fired its first cannon at the denser area of the French ships, but after this booming gun, the batteries hidden in the mountains around the mouth of the Min River opened fire one after another, and the gunboats and defense ships on the northern front also opened fire.

More than 100 artillery sounds erupted in just a dozen seconds, and the sky and earth were discolored, and countless water waves exploded on the river.

Ye Zuqi is calculated, because each battery has been equipped with the first round of shells, and it will take about three minutes from the beginning of preparation to launch, and at that time, the area of the horizontal seven vertical and twelve is the most dense place for the French fleet.

In the first round of artillery fire, the French second-class ironclad ship Truon was hit by three flowering shells at the same time, and a Peruz-class cruiser was hit by a 13-inch flowering shell, and a huge hole was blown in the waist of the ship, probably because the boiler was blown up, burning out billowing shocking smoke, and the speed of the ship also plummeted to the point of almost stopping.

As soon as the speed drops, it will be waiting for death.

Hu Chuyuan was overjoyed, he was able to knock out one with the first round of artillery, which was really good luck.

Don't look at the more than 100 shells in a round of artillery, but the hit rate of this kind of large artillery is very low, and it is very good to have a 5% hit rate.

The high hit rate is the small cannon, but the destructive power of the small cannon is also low.

The French expeditionary fleet also seemed to be stunned by the sudden burst of artillery power of the Fujian naval division, and only then began to readjust, releasing the torpedo boats and rushing to the ports of the northern front.

This decision was a bit helpless, because the southern line detachment of the Fujian Navy Division had a large space for maneuver and scattered ships, and had a good attack range against torpedo boats, while the small ships on the northern line were relatively dense.

Herein lies the problem, there were six frigates on the northern front, armed with a large number of Hammenqi revolver machine guns, which had a good interception effect on these torpedo boats.

The French should be clear about this, because these frigates are born from the French Laroche-class offshore ironclads.

In order to give full play to the attack power of the batteries on both sides of the strait, the two sub-fleets of the Fujian Navy Division on the southern and northern lines did not approach the French ships excessively.

The two sides entered a state of stalemate, and the French expeditionary fleet was particularly ferocious in firepower, sinking a number of small gunboats and two wooden-hulled cruisers of the Yangwu class, but under the attack of the battery, as well as the fire of the Fujian naval division, it also lost a number of cruisers and gunboats.

After losing three Peruz-class cruisers in a row, the French fleet began to adjust its tactics, divided into two columns, and decided to flank the southern fleet with artillery fire to get rid of the situation of being attacked on both sides in front of it.

They rushed forward, while the southern fleet retreated to the mouth of the Wulong River, and the northern fleet rushed forward and continued to pin down the French fleet.

After retreating into the Wulong River, the Saint-Zenard-class ironclads had to run aground, and the French could not continue the attack, but they soon found that at the mouth of the Wulong River, they faced a noticeably reduced number of battery attacks.

At this time, the Mawei Fort and the Qingliangshan Fort in the old six batteries were still continuing to exert their strength, and six of the new 16 batteries were out of range, and the activity space of the southern fleet was greatly compressed, leaving only the mouth of the Wulong River, while the space of the northern line was greatly increased.

The problem is that the ironclad defense of the southern fleet is very weak, and the speed of the northern fleet is slow, which is equivalent to turtle speed.

The losses of the French were not large, especially the main ironclad ships were still well preserved, only the second-class ironclad ship Truan was hit many times, the cabin caught fire, and temporarily lost the ability to attack.

The French finally found an opportunity to storm the mouth of the Wulong River with gunboats and all torpedo boats, and launched torpedo attacks on the Weikang, Guangwu, Yangwu and other ships.

Soon, the Yangwu, which was slower and less firepower, was hit by a torpedo and barely drove to the bay at the mouth of the Wulong River to be used as a battery, and there were less than seven battleships left in the Southern Front Fleet.

At this time, Ye Zuqi finally couldn't help it, and stepped forward to ask Hu Chuyuan: "My lord, let's fight, if we don't fight, we won't have a chance, now they have drilled into the mouth of the Wulong River by themselves, miss this good opportunity, and when Lu Han and others lead the Luoyuan Bay gunboat fleet to arrive, they will definitely retreat." ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but hesitate, and the tactic he approved himself was to wait for the arrival of the Luoyuan Bay Fleet, unite the Northern Front Fleet to attack the French formation, disrupt the opponent's position, and then use Deng Shichang and Jiang Chaoying to lead more than 30 torpedo boats to attack from the north and south.

(To be continued)