But it was clear that Count Ergin did not give him this opportunity, and the place where he stopped and was stationed was three kilometers away, far within the effective range of the Chinese artillery, although theoretically the artillery erected by the Chinese army on the gun emplacements at the head of the city could hit so far, but the hit rate was basically not to be counted on.

In those days, if a front-loading smoothbore run of less than 12 pounds had to attack a target three kilometers away, its nature would be the same as that of hitting a target three or four hundred meters away with a smoothbore rifle, and it would have no effect except wasting ammunition.

The location is far away, and their camping can be said to be a textbook standard process, and even Qu Panyun asked himself that it is difficult for his own troops to achieve such a standard as those British and French coalition forces.

Since there was no chance to attack at night, and those British and French troops did not come to attack the city for a while, Qu Panyun, who wanted to rely on the city to defend it strictly, was too lazy to continue watching.

Anyway, he didn't dare to do anything, he made up his mind to hold the city of Guangzhou and not go out, you British and French forces love to fight or not, if you want to take the initiative to attack, he will wait for work, if you don't attack the tiger who only stays outside the city, then everyone will consume it, see who can consume whom.

However, it was clear that the Earl of Ergin did not intend to go down with Qu Panyun, and in the evening of the same day, the British and French troops outside sent a foreign diplomat and a Chinese translator into the city, and handed over a document to Qu Panyun, saying that in view of the chaotic situation in Guangzhou, in order to ensure the safety of the British and French expatriates, they would enter the city of Guangzhou to protect the expatriates, and asked the Chinese army not to stop them.

Qu Panyun looked at the book and smiled, okay, this excuse is too bad. This clearly shows that they are going to fight each other, and you still use the excuse of protecting the diaspora, can't you laugh off other people's big teeth?

Immediately, Qu Panyun replied with a letter. Calling Canton and even the whole of Canton the sacrosanct and inviolable territory of the Chinese Empire, your British and French forces have now invaded our land. The Chinese army is naturally responsible for the personal safety of the foreign nationals in Guangzhou, and there is no need for you to dictate to them.

In fact, there are not many foreigners in the city of Guangzhou, only a few foreigners on the thirteen lines, although the first Opium War has passed for many years, and the original Nanjing Treaty also positioned Guangzhou as one of the five treaty ports, but in fact, Guangzhou has never fulfilled the relevant provisions of the Nanjing Treaty.

It has been more than ten years since the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, and every time a foreigner wants to enter the city of Guangzhou, he will always be greatly hindered. The British Minister to China, Bao Lingdu, had been in China for several years, and several times he wanted to visit the Governor of Liangguang, who was also in charge of the trade affairs of the five ports, but he did not see him.

The U.S. minister to China was even more unlucky, having not met with the Governor of Liangguang and the Minister of International Trade for more than ten years.

Even these envoys could not enter the city, and they could not meet the Cantonese officials of the Qing court, and those ordinary foreigners could not enter, and every time the foreigners wanted to enter the city and let the Guangzhou side fulfill the Nanjing Treaty for trade, the local officials in Guangzhou would always obstruct it by means such as coercing public opinion. Successfully blocked the power of foreigners.

So far, the number of foreigners in Guangzhou is quite limited, far less than that of several other treaty ports, especially Shanghai.

The Shanghai Business Zone has been developing for so many years. There are a lot of foreigners in it, and many foreigners who come to the Far East to make a fortune will choose to come to Shanghai, and the streets of Shanghai are full of foreigners from all over the world. Some of them are foreign businessmen with a lot of money, and they are here to do business. Some are some technical talents, most of whom are unsatisfactory in their hometowns. I heard that there was an urgent shortage of technical talents in the Far East and that the salary was high, so I took the risk.

Basically, the foreigners, technicians of the enterprises in the business zone, and the instructors or teachers of those schools are this kind of people.

But more often than not, it is the immigrants who cannot survive in Europe and try to find a living in the Far East, or the remnants of the bottom of society, who run to Shanghai in the Far East with an adventurous heart to seek a chance to make a fortune.

These people, including their family members, constitute the group of foreigners in Shanghai, and they are not only foreigners, but in fact, all treaty ports or other places in the Far East are mainly foreigners.

This kind of population composition has a very strong Age of Discovery, and it is the main composition of immigrants from various countries in overseas colonies or semi-colonies.

However, the surrounding area of Guangzhou is more special, because of the non-cooperation of the local government, the current number of foreigners in Guangzhou is very small, and since the outbreak of the war a few days ago, these foreigners did not stay in Guangzhou, but ran out of the city one by one, and then left directly by boat, at least the very few people who stayed behind, and they were also hiding in the merchant hall and did not dare to come out.

For these foreigners, the Chinese army did not say that they should be pulled out and hanged, but let them go freely, get out of the city if they want to, and stay honestly if they don't want to leave.

Now that Count Ergin wants to say that he is going into the city to protect the expatriates, what kind of joke is he making, if he Qu Panyun allows Ergin to do this, he will be the commander of the Third Army.

Qu Panyun simply rejected Ergin's request, this situation was also expected by Ergin, it was originally an excuse, and he didn't expect the Chinese army in the city to let him enter the city without firing a shot.

The reason why they both knew that this was just an excuse, but the two sides still exchanged several official documents, and finally Ergin took an ultimatum seriously, saying that before seven o'clock in the morning, the defenders in the city must let the British and French troops enter the city, otherwise they will take the initiative to attack Yunyun.

Qu Panyun did not show weakness, and also replied to Erjin an ultimatum, saying that Ergin must evacuate Guangzhou before six o'clock tomorrow, and then leave the territory of the Chinese Empire, otherwise he would start a war.

After exchanging several official documents and issuing ultimatums to each other, the two parties, who had already obtained excuses for each other, invariably stopped the meaningless thing of fighting with each other, and then went to sleep one by one.

There is still a war tomorrow, what if I don't go to bed early today and wake up the next day with dark circles?

Don't you want to go to war!

On this night, there was no wind and no clouds in the city of Guangzhou, and the crescent moon and the rare stars hung listlessly in the night sky, as if they were bored and about to fall asleep waiting for the battle between the two sides below.

This night in Guangzhou is quiet, not as lively as last night, although the city is still bright with torches, there are still thousands of people are building fortifications or carrying various defensive materials, but on the whole it is calm, even the soldiers of the 27th Auxiliary Defense Division on duty at the head of the city are mostly asleep in the anti-artillery holes or hidden soldiers in the city heads, as long as a small number of soldiers are still closely observing the British and French troops outside the city.

There was nothing to say all night, and until early the next morning, the city and the city were cooking at the same time, and the breakfast time of the Chinese army and the British and French troops was carried out at the same time.

After breakfast, ordinary people may want to take a walk, but for the Anglo-French army, their activity is not a walk, but a siege.

As if pinching a watch, it was exactly eight o'clock in the morning when the Anglo-French troops outside the city began to move, and it was not the infantry that was at the forefront, but the artillery.

Those heavy artillery pieces were pulled by horses and artillery, and slowly moved towards the position of the city wall, and the British and French troops outside the city moved, and Qu Panyun and other senior generals had also ascended to the position of the city.

"It looks like they're about to start, get the artillery regiment ready, and when they enter the predetermined firing range, they will fire directly without waiting for my order, well, give priority to attacking their artillery units!" Qu Panyun said while looking at the Anglo-French troops slowly approaching outside the city.

But as soon as his words fell, he suddenly heard a captain running up in a hurry, and then went directly to Qu Panyun and the others and said: "Report, there are a large number of enemy fleets in the lower reaches of the Pearl River!" ”

"Oh!" Qu Panyun did not show surprise when he heard this, since the city of Guangzhou was on the edge of the Pearl River, it was natural for the enemy's fleet to enter the Pearl River to participate in the battle.

Qu Panyun was also prepared for this, first of all, he basically gave up the defense near the Pearl River, and even in his defensive strategy, most of the outer cities near the banks of the Pearl River belonged to the abandonable zone, once the enemy army did not attack from the land in the east, but landed directly from the ships on the river side of the outer city or the area of the Thirteen Lines, then he would decisively shrink his forces to the inner city, then he could effectively avoid the direct artillery bombardment of the enemy fleet.

However, the previous Anglo-French forces did not know whether they were confident or how, but they did not take the direct landing on the riverside of the outer city of Guangzhou or to the Thirteen Lines, but landed in the east, and then launched a direct attack from the land.

In this case, then the offensive and defensive areas of the two armies are scheduled to be far away from the riverside, although it is impossible to say that it is impossible to be too far away and completely avoid the shelling of the enemy fleet, but it is better than standing on the shore and letting people aim and bomb, and the artillery hit rate in these years is very average, even if it is more than 1,000 meters, it can only rely on covering fire to get hits, as for the distance, and there are defense and other buildings in the outer city of the river, it is actually very difficult for the enemy fleet on the Pearl River to directly attack the Chinese army in the inner city.

Because the naval guns in these years were all cannons aimed at directly, and the trajectory was very straight, if it was blocked by the walls of the outer city and those houses, it would be difficult for the enemy fleet on the Pearl River to aim at the defenders of the inner city.

As long as they retreat into the inner city, then if the British and French forces want to attack the inner city, they will have to fight a fair offensive and defensive battle with the Chinese army without the support of naval artillery firepower.

If it were not for these psychological preparations and a lot of preparations, his troops would be directly exposed to the guns of the enemy fleet, and Qu Panyun would not have chosen to defend Guangzhou.

In fact, taking a step back, even if Qu Panyun could not hold Guangzhou due to various circumstances, in fact it did not pose much threat to the strategy of the entire Chinese Army and the strategic tasks of the Third Army. (To be continued......)