"Hahahaha~~" After Wang Feng handed the letter to Su Sanniang, he laughed and said: "Jiang Zhongji, in addition to treating old scholars, I usually call him by his name, don't blame me for not knowing the etiquette, you came well this time, but it has solved our worries, with you to vote, the Sichuan army has no need to scruple, by the way, where are your people now?" ”

Jiang Zhongji hurriedly said: "It is being placed near Yunyang (now Shiyan, Hubei), Jiang can immediately bring people to Nanyang, and can be reorganized according to the requirements of your army." ”

Wang Feng was very satisfied with Jiang Zhongji's knowledge, and any army that joined the Democratic Alliance Army must be reorganized, and it is impossible to retain the original structure, even if Zuo Zongtang defects in the future.

Wang Feng needs not to be an unruly warlord, but an army that is loyal to the country, loyal to the people, and controlled by the parliament in the future, and nodded at the moment: "I officially appoint you as the commander of the 16th Army of the Democratic Alliance Army, so let's do it, I will hold a banquet for you tonight, and you will return to Yunyang early tomorrow morning and bring the troops here." ”

Wang Feng had authorized Lin Fengxiang to form the 15th Army of the Democratic Alliance Army with the local green battalion regiment training after the capture of Yunnan and Guizhou, so Jiang Zhongji was appointed as the commander of the 16th Army.

Although he knew that his appointment as army commander was inseparable from Zuo Zongtang's letter of recommendation, Jiang Zhongji still admired Wang Feng's courage and was deeply grateful for this trust, after all, he didn't know Wang Feng, what if it was really a fraudulent surrender?

At this time, Jiang Zhongji could only describe his mood with convincing, and he was really a man with no fame, and he was deeply glad that he had no way to go to the dark, so he saluted the military salute of the Democratic Alliance: "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief Wang." ”

"Come on. Let's go out to talk" Wang Feng smiled and waved his hand, and warmly greeted Jiang Zhongji and walked out.

Wang Feng mainly led Jiang Zhongji to visit the barracks. In the evening of the same day, a grand reception was held at the city hall. The high-level officials of the Democratic League in Nanyang were all present, and early the next morning, Jiang Zhongji galloped to Yunyang.

Yunyang may be unknown in this place, but when it comes to Wudang Mountain, it is famous.

Yunyang is located in the Hanshui Valley of Qinba Mountain, the middle and upper reaches of the Han River, the junction of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi provinces, known as the south ship and north horse, the throat of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the thoroughfare of the four provinces, is located in Nanyang about 300 kilometers south-west, Jiang Zhongji can hide troops here. Apparently it took a lot of thought.

Taking into account the time of his return and forth, plus the march of 15,000 people, it will take eight or nine days at the earliest to return to Nanyang.

Jiang Zhongji returned to Yunyang on January 5 and led the army eastward the next day, and near the evening of that day, a fleet appeared on the Jiujiang River, which was the Anglo-Dutch alliance.

Looking at the narrow waterway and the Shizhong Mountain, which was nearly fifteen kilometers away from the river, Rear Admiral Cowles, the captain of the battleship Gladun, who was the commander of the expedition, put down his binoculars. frowned and said: "On the stone in front of him is a battery of the Democratic Alliance Army, which is condescending and can block the river, and we want to enter the waters of Wuchang." This battery must be destroyed and occupied.

However, the river in this area is only 1.2 miles wide, and the hydrology is unfamiliar to us. I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult, Lord Vanderbergh. Do you have a good idea? ”

Van der Bergh was a rear admiral from the Netherlands, much to Cowles's surprise. This man slapped his head and screamed: "Oh, my God, it's a fort again, this damn fort, Mr. Raglan shouldn't have agreed to the request of the Qing Kingdom, here, our advantages are completely unplayable!" ”

About 8 days ago, Raglan received a joint letter from Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan, saying that although he knew that it was dangerous to sail warships into the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the war situation forced the coalition forces to cooperate with the Qing army to carry out a strategic blockade against the Democratic Alliance forces, and even attack the three towns of Wuhan, otherwise once the Qing army was defeated, the fleet of the coalition forces wandering in the Yangtze River would become meaningless, and the Democratic Alliance forces would no longer be able to suppress it, seriously threatening the interests of the foreign powers in the Far East.

Therefore, after the discussion of the radical column, Raglan made the decision, and the coalition sent a fleet composed of Britain and Dutch to carry out the blockade of the Wuchang River.

It's just that the dense artillery fire on the top of Hong Kong's Victoria Peak has left a shadow on everyone in the coalition fleet, and the natural conditions of the Jiujiang River are far inferior to those of Hong Kong, and the narrow river will seriously limit the flexibility of the fleet.

Cowles was speechless for a while, glanced at Van der Bergh with disdain, and said, "When we don't complain now, we, as soldiers, can only act according to military orders."

The stone mountain in front is called Shi Zhong Mountain, and its area is far smaller than Hong Kong's Taiping Mountain, and if you look carefully, his mountain is very steep, which means that the artillery positions deployed by the Democratic Alliance Army on the top of the mountain are extremely limited, and it should not exceed 50 guns.

In terms of height, Taiping Mountain is as high as 2,000 feet, which can give full play to the advantage of being condescending, while the vertical height of Shizhong Mountain is not even 150 feet, and the increase in the range of artillery is almost none.

We have more than 20 warships and more than 400 artillery pieces in our hands, and a strong attack may not be able to destroy the gun position on the top of the hill. ”

"What do you mean," Vanderbergh asked, a little stunned, but still holding on.

Colls said lightly: "Generally speaking, the river channel is deep in the middle and shallow on both sides, and the Yangtze River cannot be an exception, his width is more than a mile, and the seaworthy water surface should be more than half a mile, I mean, with the minesweeper taking the lead, the battleships of you and I are side by side, and the cruiser is trailing, surrounded by frigates to form a huge phalanx, bombarding the top of the mountain with intensive firepower, and perhaps destroying the top of the mountain in a short time." ”

Cowles's plan was very risky, because the NLD had already proved with ironclad facts that his artillery had the advantages of fast rate of fire and long range, and concentrating the fleet would increase the probability of being hit.

But on the other hand, the Jiujiang River is only a little more than a mile wide, and even if the ships are scattered, to what extent can they be dispersed? It is nothing more than a slender and long one, and the evil consequence of this is that the warships behind cannot hit the hilltop battery, and the mountaintop battery can concentrate firepower to bombard a limited number of warships and annihilate them one by one.

Moreover, there is also an advantage to the concentration of warships together, which can end the battle in the shortest possible time, and then go to destroy the possible minelaying ships in front, so as not to release more and more mines and bring big trouble.

And the premise of all this was based on Cowles's speculation that the hilltop battery had only fifty guns, and if the number of guns exceeded his expectations, then the Anglo-Dutch fleet would pay a terrible price.

But Vanderberg had no better choice but to believe in Kaurth.

"Good! Just follow your plan, come here, and transfer the Royal Netherlands Navy up! Vanderberg beckoned back.

The British and Dutch flag-bearers waved their flags one after another, and the fleet slowed down and gradually adjusted its formation, and finally at a distance of 10 kilometers from the Shizhong Battery, 15 minesweepers were formed in front, with two battleships and two cruisers as the center, a total of 26 surface combat ships formed a close formation, and at the end were 20 transport ships, carrying some weapons and equipment, food, and marines, whose task was to capture the Shizhongshan Fort and hold on until the combined fleet completed its combat objectives.

The battleship Gladun's main guns were two 304 mm breech-loading rifled guns, one at the stern and one in the bow, and the range could reach more than nine kilometers.

"Bang~~" A black dot rose into the air and swept towards the mountain in the distance.

Why are the shells fired by the NLD army a point of light, but the British army is a black spot? Because the all-copper conical shells used by the Democratic Alliance Army naturally sparkled in the sky, the British army still used cast iron spherical shells.

Everyone's eyes followed the black dot, and it took more than twenty seconds for the mountain in front of them to burst into flames.

According to the British conversion, the 304 mm caliber fired shells weighed about 100 pounds, that is, the warhead weighed at least 45 kilograms, and after deducting the iron sheet on the outside, the charge inside must be more than 30 kilograms, which was incomparably powerful.

I saw that the mountain wall was like a collapse, and the stones were pouring into the river, and there were a few huge stones the size of a grinding disc, giving people the illusion that as long as the unlimited bombardment continued, Shizhong Mountain could be bombarded into a pile of debris.

Of course, this is obviously impossible, because at a glance, Shizhong Mountain is a pure stone mountain, the appearance of this kind of mountain will be more fragile by water flow and weathering erosion, but the deeper you go, the more dense the structure, it is difficult to destroy with shells alone, but even so, the first hit also greatly boosted morale, and the fleet burst into loud cheers.

Van der Bergh's eyes were full of envy, in fact, the technology of the 304 mm gun was not a problem for the Netherlands, but it was a pity that he had a small territory and was not capable of competing with European powers such as Britain and France.

'Alas~~ It's really hard for a small country! Van der Berg sighed secretly, but there was no way to do it, the Netherlands was not as good as Britain and France and other traditional European countries, he was congenitally deficient, and it was united by the seven provinces under Spanish rule.

But soon, Vanderberg's mind was balanced, because the power of the 304mm gun was great, but there were also many conveniences, and after the first shot was released, more than a dozen soldiers rushed forward, laboriously reset the gun, and then cleaned the chamber and stuffed the next shell according to the process.

Although the British soldiers were very skillful in their operation, in any case, the rate of fire of this huge cannon could only reach one shot a minute at most!

'No matter how powerful it is, what's the use of fighting slowly?' Van der Bergh snorted very sourly, and said, "Order, the Royal Navy is ready to open fire as soon as it comes into range." ”

It's good that the Netherlands is small and weak, but the British can't be allowed to dominate alone, Van der Berg wants to play accurately, and play quickly to show the prestige of the Netherlands! (To be continued......)