The Anglo-French army conquered Guangzhou, and although this incident caused a certain shock in the officialdom of the Chinese Empire, it was expected for the military of the Chinese Empire.

As early as a few months ago, the high command had instructed Qu Panyun that Guangzhou could be defended if it could be defended, and if it could not be defended, it would be given up directly, and the most important thing was to contain enough troops of the British and French forces.

Now because the main force of Qu Panyun's Third Army is still there, and it can pose a threat to Guangzhou and Hong Kong at any time, this has forced Count Ergin to leave a certain number of defensive forces in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, 4,000 in Guangzhou and 1,000 in Hong Kong, which adds up to 5,000 troops.

In this way, there is not much difference from the 5,000 troops hoarded under the city before the British and French forces failed to conquer Guangzhou, and as for the gains and losses of Guangzhou City, it is nothing from the overall strategic point of view.

After Count Ergin led the army north, the Chinese Empire also acted quickly!

In the name of tension, Bing Qusong, located in Shanghai, began to exercise military control over the surrounding areas such as the trade zone and the county seat of Shanghai, and directly blocked the Huangpu River, prohibiting the entry and exit of armed ships of foreigners, especially warships.

At the same time, the consulates of Britain, France and other countries in the trade zone were blocked, and officials of these foreign countries were not allowed to enter and leave freely.

However, although the Chinese army was fighting with the British and French forces, this war could only be regarded as an armed conflict, but there was no formal declaration of war procedure, and at the same time, in order not to let the trade area be too affected by the war, the Chinese Empire did not prohibit the commercial transactions in the trade area.

If this were to completely ban import and export trade, the foreigners would certainly suffer heavy losses, but the losses on the part of the Chinese Empire would be even more severe. It will make many banks, money banks and many raw silk trading houses in the trade zone have large losses, this kind of loss is not tens of millions of yuan, but the loss of tens of millions of yuan, after the business is affected, the commercial taxes and tariffs of the Chinese Empire will naturally be greatly affected.

So although the war had already broken out in Guangzhou as early as January, it was actually in the Shanghai Trade Zone and several other treaty ports such as Ningbo and Fuzhou. There is no ban on import and export trade.

The only difference is that the Imperial Customs Department has issued a strict order to completely prohibit the smuggling of opium, disguised as foreign medicine or other customs declarations, and at the same time completely ban smoking in the control area.

It was announced that anyone involved in the transportation and sale of opium would be punished with the strictest legal sanctions, and that anyone who smoked opium would not be allowed to hold public office in the state, to apply for any public school, or to participate in the imperial examinations.

The total ban on smoking was the most powerful response of the Chinese Empire in the face of the military offensive of the British and French forces!

In the face of the total ban on smoking in the face of the Chinese Empire. This time, it was rare that the British diplomats such as Bao Ling did not shout anything against them, because they were waiting, waiting for the Anglo-French army of the Earl of Elgin to arrive in Shanghai.

At this point, the two sides have no choice but to settle their dispute by means of war.

The international exchanges in this era are so simple and pure, the slightest discord is to directly start a war, and negotiations are usually based on the division of the victory or defeat of the war, and the war is not fought in order to obtain major benefits through negotiations. It's a fool's dream.

As the days passed, the fleet of Count Ergin moved north at a rapid pace. They didn't stop too much elsewhere when they went north, but went straight to Shanghai.

On June 9th, a huge fleet of more than 200 ships sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River!

In this huge fleet, there were nearly 200 ships of the British Navy alone, including more than 70 warships and armed merchant ships that could participate in the battle, and more than 100 transport ships. The French navy has more than 50 ships in total, and the combined fleet of the two countries has more than 200 ships, and the fleet carries 10,000 British Army soldiers and 6,000 French Army soldiers in addition to the personnel of the two navies.

If the two armies are added together, the total strength is actually more than 15,000 men. Rather, it exceeded the scale of 20,000 people, and reached the scale of nearly 23,000 people.

In the landing operations of this era, there is a tradition of the navy sending sailors or marines to cooperate with the army to fight, because if the British and French forces launch a landing operation against Shanghai or other places, their ground combat troops will exceed 15,000 people, plus the British and French forces can dismantle some small and medium-caliber shipborne guns and move them to the ground to fight, so the artillery force they have is not only 15,000 army artillery, but far more than the army's standard artillery.

After learning that the fleet of the British and French forces had arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Bing Qusong, commander-in-chief of Shanghai's defense, Xu Yanqing, commander of the Second Army, and other senior generals personally boarded the Wusong Fort and used large telescopes for the navy to observe the huge fleet moored six or seven kilometers away.

"Those are their battleships, right? Sure enough, it is huge and mighty, and just one battleship may be equipped with more than eighty guns! Even if he has been in the military for many years, he has seen many naval warships, but today is the first time he has seen Xu Yanqing, who is the dominant battleship at sea in the Sail Era, can't help but exclaim.

What he saw was the Calcutta, the flagship of the British and French forces, which was a standard sail battleship, not equipped with steam power, it only had pure sail power, and it was natural that it was not maneuverable, but the firepower was very large, with a total of more than 80 naval guns.

Although the ship looked old and backward among a group of other warships equipped with steam ships and breech-loading rifled guns, the dense side gun windows on it still made people's scalps tingle.

"The other ones are not simple, you see, the two in front of them are also big ships with more than forty guns!" Someone next to him said the same thing.

At this time, Shen Mengxiang, the commander of the navy's cruiser fleet, said: "This time these foreigners are probably pouring out, according to our intelligence, they only have a few large warships on the ground in Hong Kong, and now they are all pulled out, in addition to their Calcutta, there are also the Sedition, the Avenger, and the Kokang!" Just a few capital ships in front of it. There are more than 300 naval guns! ”

"In addition, you see, on the other steam cruisers, the number of their guns is generally small, but if you look at the appearance, it should be equipped with the same breech-loading rifled guns as our Shaoxing-class cruisers, and the caliber seems to be larger than ours. Some are one hundred and fifty pound caliber! ”

Shen Mengxiang was different from other army generals, as a naval general, especially the commander of the first and only ocean-going fleet in the Imperial Chinese Navy, that is, the 'cruiser fleet', he naturally spent a lot of thought and time to understand the strength of foreign counterparts, especially the British and French navies in the Far East.

Previously, the navy had also collected a lot of information related to the British and French fleets in Hong Kong, and although it was impossible to find out all the ships of the British and French fleets, there was still limited information about some of their capital ships.

"What are you afraid of. After more than half a year of construction, our Wusong Fort has become as stable as a mountain, equipped with nearly 50 large and small artillery, half of which are breez-loading rifled guns, if they want to risk attacking our fort, they must make them look good! ”

It was Zhong Yilan, the commander of the 7th Infantry Division, who was obviously very confident in the Wusong Fort!

But the others are confident that they won't get up, and this battle is a tough battle. The artillery of the battery is inferior to others, and the breech-loading rifled artillery that was originally pinned on high hopes is not unique to its own. The largest caliber of the rear-loading rifled guns on the Chinese side's side is 180 millimeters, which is about 110 pounds according to the British Navy's pound standard.

But the breech-loading rifled guns attached to the bow of the British cruisers could tell from a distance that they were at least one hundred and fifty pounds or more.

Moreover, there was no advantage in troops, and the Seventh Army stationed in Shanghai had two infantry divisions. The strength of the army was about 16,000 men, and then the garrison of the Wusong Fort of the navy had about 3,000 men, and the total strength of the navy and army that could be used for land warfare was about 19,000 men.

As for the Anglo-French coalition army, its land force alone exceeds 15,000 people, if it is reinforced by marines and sailors. Even 18,000 or even 20,000 people are possible.

Fortunately, just northwest of the Wusong Fort, Xu Yanqing's Second Army was already waiting for it, once the British and French troops landed in the Wusong Fort area, then the Second Army would quickly move south to reinforce, and when the Second Army and the Seventh Army converged, they would be able to regain the superiority in strength.

If the Anglo-French forces did not land directly at the Wusong Fort, but continued to advance westward, then the Second Army would also follow suit.

Generally speaking, Xu Yanqing's Second Army was a mobile force, and when the Anglo-French troops landed there, they went there to reinforce them.

When a group of senior generals of the Chinese army were holding binoculars to observe this huge Anglo-French fleet, the high-ranking members of the Anglo-French allied army opposite were also observing the Wusong Fort in the distance. These people included James B. Elgin, who became the new British Minister Plenipotentiary to China after the outbreak of war, B. Gros, the new French Minister Plenipotentiary to China, Michael Seymour, the commander of the 'Chinese Fleet' in the British Navy, and Ohn Bowling, a British diplomat who had been in charge of negotiations with the Chinese Empire.

Of course, the current Bao Ling is no longer the British minister to China, and he was not transferred back to China or other places to serve, but continued to stay in the Far East to assist Count Ergin in handling Chinese affairs, and was still responsible for diplomatic negotiations with the Chinese Empire.

"General, how long will it take for our fleet to be able to powder that battery and land it?" After putting down the binoculars, Count Ergin turned his head and asked Xiangxima.

West Malaysia, who was born into a British naval family and now holds the rank of rear admiral, has been the commander of the Chinese fleet since 1856 after the tension in the Far East, and participated in the bombardment of Guangzhou in 1857.

In other words, this man was the commander of the fleet in the Anglo-French army, and hundreds of ships under his command were under his command.

After hearing Count Ergin's words, Sima put down his binoculars, but he didn't speak for the first time, but frowned slightly, and was silent for a few breaths before saying: "It will be very difficult to directly shell the battery and cover the landing of the army, from a tactical point of view, I suggest directly bypassing this battery and landing from their hinterland!" (To be continued......)