After suffering a loss in Xiamen, the Hober fleet had only 35 warships left, and the three lost were the 1,000-ton cruiser Eilecott, and two fifth-class cruiser ships, the Camaberry and the Caster, which was sunk in the fierce battle of the Gulangyu Battery. After questioning the rescued sailors, He Bo learned that a fleet of the Taiping Army had been hiding nearby, and what was discovered by the patrol warships was only the bait they released, and when He Bo mobilized the main fleet to pursue, the two injured ships did not participate in the pursuit due to lack of power, and were sunk by the main force of the Taiping fleet that suddenly appeared.

For the despicable tactics of bullying the weak and small in the Taiping Army and Navy, He Bo naturally cursed, completely forgetting that he commanded such a huge fleet and came to find a decisive battle with the weak fleet, and it seemed that he was also suspected of bullying the weak.

He decided to take the most severe revenge on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his target was Ningbo, which was the second largest shipyard of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the Shanghai Shipyard, the Zhejiang Shipyard.

The arrogant He Bo chose the Shanghai Shipyard as the target, but was persuaded by the old and serious deputy commander of the fleet, Xi Ma. Born into a family of navigators, his father was a famous general during the Napoleonic Wars. He has been in the Navy since he was a child and has more than 40 years of experience at sea. He had served under Admiral Napi of the Baltic Navy, but as the Crimean War was approaching and the Far East was about to be eventful, the British Admiralty had promoted him to rear admiral to succeed Stellin as commander of the "Chinese fleet", and Sima arrived in the spring of 1856. At the beginning of this year, West Malaysia received an order from the Admiralty that Hober would take over as commander of the fleet. West Malaysia became commander of the Pacific Fleet, but due to the outbreak of the Second Opium War. West Malaysia's Pacific Fleet also joined the sequence of the Anglo-French fleet, so West Malaysia remained in Hong Kong.

For Hober's adventurous moves. Sima said calmly: "The Shanghai Shipyard is a shipyard operated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for several years, and we only suffered a defeat there a month ago, and more than ten warships sank in the Huangpu River, so we can't take any chances. It is better to choose the port of Ningbo, which is also one of the targets that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attaches great importance to. ”

He Bo had great respect for his predecessor, so he obeyed his Jianyi and ordered all the warships to go north to Ningbo, Xiamen was a hard bone, and He Bo's fleet lacked soldiers for landing operations. Just like the Gulangyu Fort, although most of it was destroyed by the British warships, He Bo did not have the courage to send the only Marine on the ship to land and occupy the fort, because this Marine Corps was only less than 500 people. Fortunately, He Bo did not send the marines to land, otherwise the 800 regular troops of the Taiping Army and the 2,000 villagers stationed on Gulangyu would have suffered heavy casualties to the British marines of less than 500 people.

At present, the strength of the British army is very tight in the Far East, and the 2,000 soldiers who were lucky enough to retreat from the Dagu Pass together with the British troops who stayed in Hong Kong shouldered the task of guarding Hong Kong, and the Taiping army in Guangzhou and other places gathered a large number of troops to threaten Hong Kong, although Hong Kong Island is still protected by the navy, but after all, Hong Kong Island is too close to the mainland, and the British army is worried that the Taiping Army will take the risk of using pirate-style small night boat smuggling troops to attack Hong Kong. That would be a lot of fun, so Ergin didn't dare to make a big deal, and most of the navy and army stayed in Hong Kong.

So He Bo and the fleet of the commander of West Malaysia continued north, and a few days later. Their fleet raided the Sanshabao Fort in Fujian, although after a fierce battle, the British fleet had to occupy it. However, the village soldiers who then drove from the Taocheng garrison took the form of a night attack, causing heavy losses to the British landing force.

The British Marines barely held out until dawn, although Hober ordered the fleet to open artillery support. He barely repelled the Taiping army's village soldiers, but He Bo did not dare to let the landed soldiers stay on the shore for another day. After hastily replenishing some food and fresh water, the British army withdrew to the sea.

Along the way, both Hobo and Sima were very depressed, although the naval fleet was very strong, it was impossible for them to drive the warships to land, and after destroying the opponent's batteries, they could only send soldiers to land and occupy them. However, unlike the Opium War more than 20 years ago, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has now adopted a mode of war in which almost all the people are soldiers, in the words of the coastal people, just like our ancestors in the Ming Dynasty to guard against the Japanese invaders, all the seaports and forts along the coast have beacon fires and armaments, once the enemy situation is discovered, the beacon fire is in one move, and the village soldiers from all over the country will flock to support. Although the British soldiers who landed were well-armed, the Taiping soldiers mostly used night sneak attacks, they were familiar with the terrain, and they were good at using a qiē natural concealment, which in the words of the British army haunted like ghosts. When holding on to Sansha Castle that night, the British army even found that there were Taiping soldiers coming out of a secret tunnel in Sansha Castle to sneak attack the British army, but fortunately, the British army completely blocked this tunnel in time, but it is not ruled out that there are other secret passages that can lead here, so the British army retreated quickly as soon as it was dawn.

The British army did not dare to land with a strong fleet, so they could only vent their anger by destroying some forts, docks and houses with artillery fire, and then sinking some civilian merchant ships to show their strength, but these did not break the fighting spirit of the soldiers and civilians along the coast, but made them hate the British and French troops even more.

Uncle Ho's unfortunate days were not yet over, when approaching the Zhoushan Islands, the three fast sailing ships sent out by He Bo to patrol were attacked by a pirate fleet, and He Bo was very angry when he got the news, so he led the team to arrive, sank five pirate ships, and captured the other three. According to the captured pirates, they were the subordinates of the famous pirate Lin Kan, and because the Taiping army issued a reward order for attacking any British and French ships, the pirates entrenched in the open sea began to attack the British and French ships frantically.

It can be said that the British fleet in China spent most of its time fighting pirates, and they were entrenched in Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, Hong Kong and other places. Why are there pirates in the waters around Hong Kong? He Bo knew this, and the reason was very simple, because the British Governor's Office of Hong Kong was annoyed by pirates for many years on the Far East route, so it issued a reward order, and each pirate received a reward. There was no problem with this policy, but the problem began to change when it was implemented, and the problem of corruption among generals for many years has been plaguing the British army, and many British officers and fleet captains are happy to exterminate pirates to get more bonuses, but the problem is that if the pirates are wiped out, then there will be no such bonuses in the future, so some British admirals and pirates have a tacit understanding, which is what the Chinese call raising their own respect.

British plenipotentiary negotiator Ergin, after witnessing the British warship pursuing the Chinese pirate ship, once reflected on himself: Perhaps it was the British government's direct practice of giving bonuses that stimulated the British to adopt brutal methods, and even forced the good to become prostitutes and support themselves to enrich themselves, creating more pirates. Hong Kong's "Dechen Bao" even unceremoniously accused the British of taking the blame for the increasing number of pirates: On the one hand, the British Navy neglected its duties, suppressed bandits and cured the symptoms but not the root cause, and kept the pirates to pay bonuses; On the other hand, the British authorities in Hong Kong were greedy for economic gain, and issued ship licenses indiscriminately, and some pirate ships also received licenses in a grand manner. More pointedly, they point out that the British government's shameless incentives for the opium trade were one of the root causes of the rampant piracy.

As a result, the pirates have never disappeared in the South China Sea, but Shanghai, Ningbo and other places under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are no longer infested with pirates, that sea area is a forbidden area for pirates, the original largest pirate Haima gang entrenched in this area, together with their leader Tongbao Monk became the navy of the Taiping Army, so the pirates did not dare to appear in this sea area.

He Bo was even more annoyed when he learned of the Taiping Army's bounty order, when did the British ships become the target of the bounty? And the pirates who were offered bounties became bounty hunters instead? It's no wonder that there have been an increasing number of complaints from merchant ships lately about the growing risks of traveling to and from the South China Seas.

He Bo unceremoniously ordered the execution of all the captured pirates, and sent five warships to pursue the pirates, but the next day only three of the five warships returned, and the captain of the team said with frustration that they caught up with the fleet of the pirates of the Lin Kanbu, and when the pirates were fighting fiercely, they were ambushed by the superior fleet of the Taiping East China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet, one battleship was sunk, the other was captured, and the British fleet only escaped back three.

He was furious, and Sima fell into deep thought, and finally Sima said: "It seems that the enemy is cooperating with the pirates to use a new naval guerrilla tactic against us, and we must not disperse any warship at any time in the future, in case the enemy hits the superior fleet and eats it up." Once we lose a little today and a little tomorrow, it will quickly add up and bring about a change in the whole situation. Now we can only act collectively, with only one target in one eye! ”

West Malaysia's strategy was very effective, in the next few days of sailing, there were still Taiping navy or pirate fast sailing ships appeared in the distance from time to time, once the British navy pursued, they fled, this time He Bo did not be fooled again to divide the troops to pursue, nor did he order all the ships to go in pursuit, because the speed of the ships in their fleet was different, He Bo was worried that during the pursuit, if the speed of the ships was not fast and could not keep up with the team, they would become the target of the enemy. For the harassing Taiping army or pirate ships, He Bo only sent fast ships to expel them, and did not pursue them.

In this way, He Bo and Sima came to the sea off Zhoushan all the way depressed, they wanted to attack Ningbo, at least to destroy the Zhejiang shipyard in Ningbo, so that the loss and deterrence to the enemy was the greatest, but to attack Ningbo, we must first capture Dinghai and Zhenhai, so the British fleet swaggered towards Dinghai. Both He Bo and Sima believed that they would be able to occupy Dinghai for the third time, and in order to make up for the lack of troops, He Bo transferred a part of the crew to act together as a landing combat force...... (To be continued......)