After Shi Qingxuan, who had just arrived with the army, received Bing Qusong's letter, he did not play any temper of his predecessors, but replied to Bing Qusong very happily, saying that he would lead the Sixth Army to the east of Jiading according to the predetermined plan.

When the Sixth Army set off, in the direction of the mouth of the Yangtze River, a traditional Chinese-style hard-sailed fishing boat was sailing slowly, and several men in shorts and shorts were busy shouting and shouting, some with Zhang Fan at the helm, and some with fishing nets.

This one looks decent, but if you look closely, you will see that the boss of the ship at the helm has his eyes fixed on the huge fleet of ships several nautical miles away, and next to him is a half-grown boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old who is writing and drawing in a small notebook with a pen.

Most of the other people on the boat also seemed to be busy, and the fisherman who pulled up the net did not care how many fish were in the net.

There were a total of six people in the dress, although they ranged in age from sixteen or seventeen to forty or fifty years old, but all of them had a common characteristic, that is, the body was strong, and the bare arms outside the short shirt had obvious muscles.

At the same time, one by one, they could not see the numbness and helplessness unique to the typical poor people of this era, but they were full of energy, and several people even looked at the huge fleet in the distance from time to time, showing a look of hatred or envy.

Although they were dressed like fishermen, they had a very different appearance from the poor fishermen of the lower classes of the era.

I saw them spread their nets and sail at the same time, slowly approaching the huge fleet in the distance.

When about two nautical miles were close to the outer perimeter of the fleet, the half-sized man beside the captain continued to write, and muttered to his lips: There must be at least eighty ships in this fleet. And Sergeant Lee, did you see the cruiser they led. At least fifty guns were on board.

The boat boss next to him smiled innocently, and then said, "I see." Their ship is so big, if only we had such a big ship! ”

"Don't worry, we won't have to wait long, we will definitely have such a huge battleship, and don't look at their battleship is not small, but it is an old ship with sails, and the guns on it are also smoothbore old guns, if they really fight, the Shaoxing of the Imperial Navy will definitely be able to beat them down!" The half-grown boy showed a look of confidence.

The captain of the ship said, "Second Lieutenant Li." I haven't seen the Shaoxing before, but is it really as powerful as you said? ”

"That's for sure, it's hard that a second lieutenant in my navy can still lie to you!" When Second Lieutenant Li said this, he showed a strong self-confidence from the heart.

Don't look at the appearance of this person who is only sixteen or seventeen years old, but he is the real captain of this ship, he applied for admission to the naval officer school the year before last, and after a year of study, he began to enter the navy last year for an internship on the Zhenshao, and was awarded the rank of second lieutenant after completing the internship this year. and was appointed captain of the naval sailing vessel Fisherman-8.

Although he was only commanding a fishing boat, it was absolutely impossible to participate in the war on weekdays, and most of the time he was doing the work of fishermen, and the catch made a modest contribution to the side business of the navy.

The reason why these young ensigns were made captains of fishing boats. In fact, it is also a kind of stage of cultivation after all, so that they can adapt to the command of ships in advance.

In normal times, this second lieutenant Li is estimated to have been the captain of this fishing boat for at least a year. Only then could he be transferred to serve on a real warship, and at the same time, it would not be possible to directly take on the position of chief officer of the ship. Usually transferred to various departments as chief officers, when they have turned around the various departments on the battleship. They will be transferred to a small warship, such as a gunboat, to serve as epaulettes.

However, at a time when the situation was tense, in order to obtain as much information as possible about the coalition forces, the navy began to use various civilian ships to approach and reconnoiter from the waters of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, and there were ships of the Imperial Navy or simply local governments.

Of course, none of these vessels were warships equipped with artillery, but fishing boats, cargo ships, passenger ships, etc.

The risk of approaching this adventure to get close to the reconnaissance coalition fleet is very high, if the warship is discovered by others, it is estimated that it will not be able to escape the fate of being sunk, and if this civilian ship is discovered, although they will also drive it away, but it will not sink it directly.

Ensign Li's fishing boat was ordered to go to sea to reconnoiter the allied fleet that had arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, although it was only a reconnaissance operation, and it was unlikely that a battle would break out, but it was still a rare war experience for the young Ensign Li.

As a naval officer, some of his age or seniority, but he has a dream of a magnificent naval battle in his heart, and now this dream may be too far for Ensign Li, but the current reconnaissance operation has brought him one step closer to his dream, even if it is only a small step.

When Ensign Li commanded this small fishing boat to gradually approach the coalition fleet, a small gunboat on the periphery of the coalition fleet also discovered this small fishing boat that was getting closer and closer, regardless of whether they doubted whether this small fishing boat was a reconnaissance or armed ship of the Imperial Chinese Navy, but it was their mission to drive away any ships that dared to approach, so after discovering this small fishing boat of Second Lieutenant Li, they did not hesitate, and they would not talk about radio communication or anything like the warships of later generations.

I saw that the gunboat made a beautiful left turn, that is, it broke away from the perimeter of the fleet, and then sailed straight to the small fishing boat of Second Lieutenant Li.

When Ensign Li saw a small gunboat in the distance break away from the formation and head directly in their direction, his heart shook slightly, and his young heart couldn't help but stir, and many pictures couldn't help but appear in his mind.

In his fantasy picture, the enemy army will come up to intimidate them to leave, or even directly board the ship to search, and then may find their own problems, and then I am afraid that there will be a firefight, and as an officer of the Imperial Navy, he must not insult the honor of the Imperial Navy soldiers, and he is bound to fight the enemy to the end.

Thinking wildly, he couldn't help but hold down the revolver on his waist!

But the coalition gunboat did not come up as he imagined, but fired a shot directly at a short distance of hundreds of meters.

As a cloud of white smoke came out of the muzzle of the gun on the bow of the small steam gunboat, a crisp cannon sound rang out. In the next moment, a drop of water was stirred up dozens of meters in front of Ensign Li's fishing boat.

Originally, I fantasized that the enemy army would board the ship for inspection. Imagine that if his identity was revealed, Ensign Li, who was fighting to the death with the enemy, heard this cannon sound and looked at the landing point of the shell.

It's obvious. They deliberately missed in order to warn themselves to drive away.

Second Lieutenant Li is hesitant now, because when he was in the Naval Academy, he received the education of fighting when he encountered the enemy, and there was no way for anyone to let the navies of all countries in these years learn from the British's navy, and the Chinese Navy is not exempt from vulgarity, and it is also a division of the British Navy, basically copying the various concepts of the British Navy.

But some old, senior, and experienced officers may be too lazy to bother with the things learned in military school. As long as you can win, if you can't win, you can escape with your life is also a victory, as for starting a war when you see the enemy, completely ignoring the strength and weakness of the enemy and us, these things can only be done by those stunned youths.

Ensign Li is now struggling between a mature captain and a stunned young man, whether to abandon honor and faith and turn around and flee, or to show the fearless courage that an Imperial Navy soldier should have and rush forward?

At this time, the middle-aged non-commissioned officer at the helm next to him spoke: "Second Lieutenant, now that we have obtained enough information, we need to send this information back!" ”

At this time, Ensign Li remembered his mission. His mission was not to fight the enemy fleet, his mission was only to gather intelligence, and now he had collected most of it, including how many ships the ship had this time. How many battleships were escorted, what was the approximate displacement of those cargo ships, and what model was carefully there. Whether it is a cargo ship that is commonly used to transport goods, or a merchant ship that is suitable for carrying people.

With this intelligence. The top brass in the rear were able to roughly guess how much cargo-type supplies, including food, were carried by the coalition fleet that had been reinforced. ammunition, etc., and at the same time, it is possible to approximate the number of reinforcements.

Don't look at it, it's just an approximate figure, but even if you know these approximate numbers a few days in advance, it can bring great convenience to the Chinese army, and it is enough to make relative strategic arrangements in advance.

For example, if the coalition fleet carries a very large number of troops this time, the number of supplies carried will be reduced accordingly, because there are so many ships, whether it is transporting people or goods, the total amount is the same, and the more reinforcements, the fewer supplies, and the fewer troops, the more supplies.

When it became known how many troops and supplies the enemy had reinforced, the military was able to make corresponding arrangements.

For example, if it is judged that the enemy army has more reinforcements and less supplies, then it can be basically judged that the coalition forces will not continue to stalemate, and it is very likely that they will launch a large-scale attack in a short time after the reinforcements arrive, and even when there are sufficient troops, they may leave a part of their forces in the direction of Wusong, and then the main force will continue to move west into Jiangyin.

All of this can be confirmed by some intelligence from the enemy's reinforcement fleet.

And now, this information is in the hands of Second Lieutenant Li.

After hearing the words of the non-commissioned officer next to him, Second Lieutenant Li showed that after thinking about it for a few seconds, he finally took a deep breath and said, "Turn the rudder, let's go back!" ”

After Ensign Li gave the order, the crew changed the sails, the helm was at the helm, and soon the small fishing boat began to turn slowly.

The coalition gunboat on the opposite side did not continue to fire after seeing the small fishing boat in front of it change course, but kept a certain amount of surveillance before returning to the outer alert formation of the coalition fleet.

It was not the first time that fishing boats, merchant ships, and other vessels approaching the fleet had been driven away, and in fact, the coalition fleet had been sailing along the coastal routes, and it was impossible to avoid encounters with merchant ships and fishing boats.

Especially after approaching Shanghai, they will encounter many civilian ships very frequently, and a considerable part of them are merchant ships of merchants from various countries, and as long as they do not get close, the coalition fleet generally ignores them.

Occasionally, if there are ships that are too close, the outer guard ships will go to drive them away, and as long as these ships obediently change their course, people will not bother to take care of them.

After all, there are so many merchant ships encountered every day, it is impossible to examine and interrogate them one by one, and if they are all searched and interrogated, there is no hope to leave along the way, and the progress of reinforcements to Shanghai may be delayed for several months.

Along the way, the coalition fleet drove away many ships that approached intentionally or unintentionally, slowly entered from the mouth of the sea, and then went straight to the direction of Baoshan County, where the Wusong Fort was located.

There, about six kilometers upstream of the Wusong Fort in Baoshan County, was the landing site of the first coalition forces.

Of course, after all this time, this landing site has been turned into a temporary civil fort, where more than 10,000 British and French troops have retreated to the Wusong Fort after a failed attack.

In the past few months, the British and French forces have hired many people from the local area to participate in the construction of the fortifications of the landing camp and the construction of temporary ports.

During the Eight-Nation Alliance, the people enthusiastically helped the Coalition Army build trenches, forts, and even put their heads on wooden bridges, so that the soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance Army stepped on the situation of crossing the ditch decades ahead of schedule, and appeared in China in this era.

On the one hand, local officials in neighboring prefectures and counties such as Jiading and Baoshan in the early days of the People's Republic of China were strictly forbidden to accept employment from foreigners.

On the other hand, many checkpoints were also set up, and people were strictly forbidden to work at the landing site of the coalition forces in front.

However, after discovering that these people who had just been released turned around and ran to work for the foreigners, Bing Qusong issued a death order, demanding that the whole army set up a comprehensive checkpoint around the landing site of the allied forces, and severely punish all those who tried to cross the checkpoint to enter, and the Chinese Empire also specially formulated the so-called 'crime of following the enemy'.

If any person who assists the invaders in any kind of work or provides any service, whether paid or unpaid, is captured by the military, the arrested person loses his national status and is automatically converted to the status of a prisoner of the enemy, and his judicial rights are transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Military Affairs of the military, where he is tried by the gendarmerie, prosecuted by the Military Inspection Bureau, tried by a military court, and punished on the spot.

And the punishment for this crime is not severe, there is only one result, that is, shooting!

Even in order to improve the deterrent effect, the gendarmerie, the inspection bureau and the military court are all on-site offices, and if they catch one, they go through the motions, and then they sign a trial of execution, and the soldiers will execute them on the spot.

It says a lot of words, which are simply four words: shoot on the spot!

Shooting doesn't count, and then the body hangs on both sides of the road, warning anyone who tries to break through the blockade and go to serve the Guardians.

It was only after the adoption of a complete blockade and the adoption of blanket measures such as shooting on the spot and hanging bodies on the side of the road that the trend of the people enthusiastically serving the coalition forces was basically curbed.

It's just that at this time, the landing camp of the coalition forces has basically been repaired, and even the temporary wharf and port have been almost repaired.

Along the river, there are long temporary pontoon bridges, wooden plank walks, etc., which are large enough to dock large tonnage merchant ships, and those warships can also anchor to the river, and then receive some basic supplies.

When the allied reinforcement fleet crossed the Wusong Battery, a report on the Allied reinforcement fleet was also sent to the hands of various senior generals in Shanghai.

Seeing the report in his hand, Bing Qusong's eyebrows were deeply wrinkled! (To be continued......)

PS: In the field, I can't write, today I will change the four thousand, and I will forgive me for the lack of two thousand words, and I will make up for it after ten years and eight rainy days (∩_∩)!