Off the coast of Macao, Admiral Dundas, commander-in-chief of the British Naval Expeditionary Force, looked into disappointment and said to Sir Elgin: "What are the Portuguese thinking? Don't they understand that only by uniting with us can Macao maintain its current position? Why didn't you accede to the request that our army and fleet be stationed in Macao? ”

Ergin shook his head with a wry smile and said: "The Portuguese in Macau have been frightened by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Macau is closer to the mainland than Hong Kong, as long as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom people want, their flag can be planted on Macao early tomorrow morning." In 1845, the Queen of Portugal declared Macao a free port of Portugal, and ships of any country were exempt from customs duties when importing goods into Macao. But alas, this status has only existed for less than a decade. After the Taiping army conquered Guangzhou, they forced the Portuguese to sign a new treaty, and Macau was only a treaty port, and the Portuguese living on it still had to abide by all the laws of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Macau did not obtain the status of Hong Kong. ”

Dundas said strangely, "Isn't that right?" Don't the Portuguese understand that the military strength of our coalition forces can bring Macau its legitimacy? ”

Ergin said: "The Portuguese governor of Macau accepted the official position of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom two months ago, and he is very happy to accept this official position, it is said that the Portuguese in Macao are negotiating nationality with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Portuguese want the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to recognize dual nationality, which means that the Portuguese do not resist becoming nationals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom only recognizes a single nationality, and the two sides are still negotiating." But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom demanded that Portugal remain completely neutral in our war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in the event that the soldiers of our expeditionary force appeared in Macao. Then the troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will not hesitate to enter Macao to maintain their so-called territorial integrity. As a result, the Portuguese had to refuse us to land in Macao. Not even using their port. ”

Dundas suddenly realized: "I see, it seems that the Portuguese still lack confidence in our troops." Sir Elgin said with some gloom: "Actually, it was a month ago. I met with the Portuguese governor of Macao, who held the post of county magistrate of Macao, and told me that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not the government of the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, and that if he wanted to keep Macao, he had to maintain his independence. He described to me the situation in Canton and other places, saying that the people there were very enthusiastic about resisting our invasion, and that there were many Taiping troops and local troops, and even more migrant workers who helped them build fortifications. He suggested that it would be better for us to end the war in the form of peace talks. ”

Dundas scoffed: "Cowardly Portuguese, no wonder they have lived in Macau for three centuries, but they have not been able to make Macau Hong Kong, you must know that it only took us three years to obtain Hong Kong. Erjin was slightly stunned and added: "Your Excellency General, it was obtained in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Dundas waved his hand and turned back to Vice Admiral He and other admirals, "After a week of reconnaissance, do you have anything to say?" ”

"We can take Canton, but we have to pay a considerable price, perhaps even more than the capture of the fortress of Sestopol," Hober said. ”

Dundas looked at Hober and said, "Lieutenant General." It's sad that your courage seems to have been lost in constant setbacks and failures. He Bo blushed and couldn't speak.

Dundas waved his hand and said, "Regardless of the Portuguese, let's start attacking according to the original plan!" ”

In the early morning of the eighth day after the Allied Expeditionary Force arrived in Hong Kong, the British and French forces launched their third campaign to attack Canton. Unlike the previous two times, this time their opponent was the Taiping Army.

There are several gateways in Guangzhou, the first of which is the outermost Shajiao and Dajiao forts at the mouth of the Pearl River. The two forts were built on Shajiao Mountain and Dajiao Mountain, respectively, after the Taiping army occupied them from the Qing army. The forts have been reinforced and built, and now the two forts are built like fortresses. Strong bluestone walls, forts set up in the belly of the mountain, mudflats covered with mines, infantry pit positions behind the flanks, the tidal flats were cleared of firing boundaries, and all trees were cut down.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the British and French warships first opened fire on the two battery fortresses, and the shelling lasted a whole hour, and both batteries were shrouded in thick smoke, but strangely none of the batteries fired back.

At eleven o'clock, the landing troops of the British and French forces began to rush to the tidal flats of the two batteries under the cover of the warships, and halfway through the march, the two troop carriers were first attacked by the artillery on the shore, and the artillery of the Taiping Army, which had endured until now, finally began to roar, and then the battleships covering the landing also began to be attacked by artillery.

Judging from the firepower of the two batteries, at least dozens of guns were arranged, and the battleships began to flexibly evade the shells and fire back at the same time, but there were still battleships that began to be shot. A shell hit the deck of a new battleship covered with ironclad wraps, but it didn't hurt much other than the shell explosion killing several sailors. Dundas nodded with satisfaction and said to He Bo and other generals, "See? This is the Empire's new armored battleship, and now we and France are already working on the latest ironclad ship, which will be built entirely of steel. Look at this Courage, it's just wrapped in a layer of armor, and it's already able to resist such heavy fire. ”

Massimogli hesitated for a moment before saying, "Your Excellency, we fought with the Taiping Army's East China Sea Fleet, and they also covered several important warships with armor, and we suffered in the last naval battle. ”

Dundas's eyes widened, feeling a little incredible, the voice fell, and a few more shells from the Taiping artillery on the shore hit the Spirit, the Spirit dodged most of the shells, but the starboard side still hit one, just when everyone was still thinking that the Spirit would be as safe and sound as the last time, something strange happened, the shell did not explode on the side of the side, but made a hole in the side side, and then the shell drilled into the hull and caused a violent explosion.

The blaze and explosion wiped out the side of the Spirit in an instant, and the raging sea water immediately poured in, and after a few minutes it quickly began to sink. Dundas was stunned and put down his binoculars and asked, "What's going on?" What's going on? He Bo and the others were also very surprised, what kind of shell was the Spirit hit?

On the eleventh gun position of the Shajiao Battery, several gunners of the Taiping Army jumped up for joy, and an artillery sergeant shouted happily: "Hit, see it, Lao Tzu said that he wanted to change the armor-piercing bullet, the last burst bullet hit it, that guy just fought a cold war and didn't do anything at all, which means that this guy is an armored battleship like the flagship of our East China Sea Fleet!" It's best to deal with it with armor-piercing shells! ”

An artilleryman cracked his mouth and smiled: "That's right, chief, let's kill a big guy......" The words were here, several sharp whistling sounds, and the sergeant's face changed greatly, and he shouted: "The enemy's artillery fire ......" The voice fell, and a shell accurately hit the gun launch port of the 11th gun position, and the burst of shrapnel and the shock wave heat wave wiped out everything in the gun hole.

The Taiping Army carried out armor-piercing on naval warships, of course, if there is a shield, there must be a spear, and the military industry department has already started the research of armor-piercing shells at the same time as the battleship is being covered with armor. Historically, armor-piercing shells also appeared in the sixties of the nineteenth century, but they have not yet been used in real combat for the first time. Several Taiping artillerymen at the No. 11 gun position of Shajiao Fort used the allotted armor-piercing shells for the first time in actual combat, and achieved the record of sinking a British armored battleship Courage, but then they were hit by intensive artillery fire, and none of the five artillerymen survived, but their names were finally remembered by military history fans, and it was the first time that the five of them used armor-piercing shells in actual combat.

Although the Taiping army on the two batteries resisted desperately, but there were many British and French ships on the sea, and the batteries hidden in the belly of the mountain were constantly hit by superior fire after they opened fire, and although most of the shells were blocked by the mountains and the overturned fortifications, the artillery launches still caused casualties on the Taiping army's coastal defense batteries under the dense shell attack.

After two hours of artillery fighting, the first British troops landed on the beach of the Sha Kok Fort, and the first three hundred British troops quickly began to attack on the beach. Commanding the force was Captain Mills, who shouted orders to the soldiers to run quickly, intending to rush as fast as they could across the large open area of the beach.

The landing force had only marched two hundred meters, and a violent explosion sounded next to Captain Mills, two soldiers who had broken their legs and fell to the ground screaming loudly, Captain Mills shouted: "Attention, there are mines on the beach!" It was hard to imagine that there would be mines left on the beach that had been bombarded by the Navy's heavy artillery fire, and Captain Mills did not know how many mines the enemy had planted on this beach, and he did not know how likely that would be, and he was now full of thoughts about rushing over it as quickly as possible.

The British hesitated, fearing that they would be killed or injured by the remaining mines, and they were like gambling with death, and they could only resign themselves to fate to see whose luck was better.

Soon behind a palm grove at the end of the beach, a dense rain of bullets was sprayed at them, and a dozen British soldiers were shot at the same time, and at a distance of three or four hundred meters, the enemy's muskets had already begun to kill them.

Captain Mills shouted, "Lie down, hide!" "Then several rockets struck the beach with a graceful tail flame, and those rockets were fired from the army positions behind the enemy's palm groves, and the explosion did not produce much shrapnel, but caused a sea of fire.

"It's the enemy's incendiary rockets! God, they're going to burn us! The British soldiers panicked, and at this time the artillery fire of several naval warships began to hit the palm grove, and the huge palm trees fell with the fire, and when the smoke cleared, the British soldiers found that they were still under enemy fire.

Only three hours after the bloody battle began, nearly 3,000 soldiers fell on both sides, and after seeing the bloody slaughter of the British troops who landed on the two beaches, and the battleships that were hit and caught fire from time to time on the sea, Dundas's mouth opened wide and he said after a long time: "God, what a bloody day......" (to be continued......