On the evening of November 17, 1883, in the Mekong River near Vientiane City, a river fleet suddenly appeared, starting with a gunboat of more than 2,000 tons, and at the bow was a 260mm caliber Krupp heavy gun, and the huge muzzle of the gun protruded from the open battery. In the middle of the warship, there are two 150mm caliber Krupp secondary guns, which can be rotated at a large angle in front and rear, and can even shoot at the rear, in addition to eight Haqi Kaisi machine guns, the whole warship is completely an inland mobile battery.

In terms of defense, the whole ship is fully armored from head to tail, the exposed battery is protected by 203.2mm thick armor, the command center command tower on the ship is also covered with 127mm thick armor, and even the deck is an armored deck up to 50.8mm thick. What's even more exaggerated is that there is even an iron ramming angle in the bow of the ship, which, with its full armor, can completely rampage on the inland river and be domineering.

With such heavy artillery and thick armor, in the Mekong River reflected in the setting sun, it was like a majestic steel monster emerging from hell.

This is nothing else, it is none other than the flagship of the Chinese river fleet, the armored gunboat "Longwei", which can be said without exaggeration to say that its fierce combat effectiveness can be equal to that of all other gunboats in the fleet combined. In fact, the guns of other gunboats had a hard time penetrating the armor of the "Longwei".

Behind it, the other dozen or so gunboats of the river fleet lined up, all aiming their bow cannons in the direction of Vientiane, while the fleet commander Ye Zuqi was observing the front with a telescope.

A few hundred meters away from the river fleet, next to Vientiane City, Siam's navy was moored. Although it is called a navy, it does not have the ability to fight in the ocean, but consists of a dozen gunboats that can only fight in the near sea. Most of them are old wooden boats, only three 2,000-ton gunboats have a little strength, namely the retired old sail gunboats "Chakri" and "Nalaison" purchased from the British, and there is also a newly imported iron wooden gunboat "Thonburi", which is served by a Japanese instructor as the first and second officer, and has 190mm and 160mm Armstrong guns in the bow and stern respectively, which is known as the pride of the Siam Navy.

The Siamese had no idea that such a large fleet would suddenly appear as if it had fallen from the sky, which caught them off guard, and the commander of the fleet, Chulalongkorn's eldest son, Vakirus, was spending a lot of time in Vientiane with a group of officers, and the officers on duty had not even figured out which fleet was opposite.

When all the battleships were in place, Ye Zuqi ordered the flag to be hoisted, demanding that the Siamese navy on the opposite side immediately fly the white flag and surrender, otherwise they would all be sunk.

At this time, the Siamese people understood that a catastrophe was coming, and they suddenly became a mess, some were looking for equipment, some were looking for subordinates, some were looking for white flags, some were looking for lifebuoys, those who wanted to resist even forgot to remove their artillery jackets, and those who wanted to escape forgot to put away their iron anchors.

Ye Zuqi didn't want to give the other party any more time, and ordered the whole army to attack, as the red flag waved, the "Longwei" fired first, and had already prepared the main and secondary guns, and almost at the same time let out a roar, and the huge recoil force even made the entire warship vibrate backwards, and then the other warships were also full of firepower, and the raindrops of shells quickly poured down on the opposite side.

At such a close distance, there was no need to aim at all, the Chinese fleet was almost without a miss, and after a few rounds of artillery platoons, the Siamese Navy was already powerless, and the ships were in flames. A crying father called his mother. Four ships, including the Chakri, were the first to be sunk, and the rest were littered, and even ships collided with each other. Among them, the "Nalaisonne" directly ripped off the cable and fled in a panic, but it hit the reef and sank soon.

In the midst of this chaos, only the "Thonburi" showed the appearance of a navy and began to fire back sporadically, although it did not hit any ships, but immediately attracted the attention of the Chinese fleet. The three gunboats Fubo, Ji'an, and Feiyun surrounded and attacked the "Thonburi".

The officers and men on this iron-clad gunboat were all trained by Japan, and some of them had spent time in the Japanese navy, and their quality was much higher than that of other officers and men. Although it was three enemies, the "Thonburi" calmed down, and while firing faster and faster, it kept turning its direction and trying to seize the road and escape. The Fubo and other ships only had one 160mm gun, and the firepower was insufficient to inflict fatal damage on them, while the Feiyun, which was converted from a transport ship, was hit by the opponent's cannon, and the ship lost control and spun in the middle of the river.

Seeing that he was about to be run away by the other party, at this time, the "Longwei" had just sunk a small Siamese gunboat, and Ye Zuqi immediately commanded the warship to turn and joined the team besieging the "Thonburi", just blocking the opponent's escape route.

As soon as this armored gunboat came, there was no suspense in the matter, and the "Longwei" relied on its heavy armor and rushed directly over while firing its guns. The "Thonburi" was quickly cornered, received two heavy artillery hits, and was hit hard, and Zuihou finally sank on the shore, and I don't know whether it was blown up and sunk.

In less than an hour, the Siamese navy was completely annihilated, while only two gunboats of the Chinese fleet were lightly damaged.

At this time, Lushan Jihua had succeeded for the most part, the broad road of war had been opened, the connection between the Siamese army and the mainland had been cut off by the Chinese fleet in the Mekong River, and the main Siamese force stationed in the southern suburbs of Luang Prabang had become a source of water and a tree without roots, and the rest would be an unprecedented disaster for the entire country.

Ye Zuqi ordered to report to Beijing: the sky is clear, climb a new peak. Meaning ジェオ is smooth and continues advancing.

On the other hand, he sent someone to inform Ma Jinxu that the army could land.

Under the cover of the fleet artillery, the three transport ships of Yongbao, Chenhang and Daya sailed to the west side of Vientiane City, Ma Jinxu led the Guards Infantry Regiment and the cavalry battalion to land here overnight, and by the time dawn, more than 2,000 infantry and cavalry, plus hundreds of war horses, all landed on the north bank of the Mekong River, and they did not even breathe, and directly launched an attack on Vientiane.

In Siam's thinking, Vientiane was already in the rear, only more than a thousand weak soldiers were released, and they were completely vulnerable in front of the guards, almost crushing at the touch of a button, and in the blink of an eye, the red dragon flag was planted at the head of Vientiane City.

The news of the loss of Vientiane City quickly spread throughout Siam in the space of two days. It was like a thunderclap, which made the government and the opposition panic, not knowing what to do, and Chulalongkorn, who controlled the government remotely in India, only felt that there was a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and the whole shijie seemed to be collapsing.

On November 19, the main army of Siam received the news that the rear was cut off, and the troops were immediately in chaos, and various rumors circulated among the officers and soldiers, some said that China had 100,000 troops occupying Vientiane and was now outflanking here; Some say that the Chinese army has already begun to march towards Bangkok, and that the country has already been full of gunsmoke and blood, and so on.

On the 20th, the Siamese army launched a new offensive towards Luang Prabang, but the whole army had no intention of fighting. Surriwang and the others are already absent-minded. One can imagine how powerful such an attack can be, and it was easily repelled by Zuo Guigui.

Everything is messed up, completely messed up.

After a few days of painful thinking, Chulalongkorn finally understood that he had fallen into the trap of China, and that the whole Jihua had clearly been planning for a long time, and that with such a powerful inland river fleet in the Mekong, it was impossible for Siam to defeat China. There is no other option now. He had to make some tough decisions.

He was worthy of being the greatest monarch in the history of Siam, clearly judged the situation and began to seek a multi-pronged approach to retreat.

The first was to order the main Siamese army to abandon the offensive and retreat from Shangliao on all fronts, and to recapture Vientiane, annihilate the Guards, and gain bargaining chips for negotiations. He believed that China's main force was dragged to Korea, and as long as the enemy in Vientiane was annihilated, it would be difficult for China to have extra troops to deal with itself.

The second was to order all the remnants of the troops to be gathered in Bangkok to prevent a Chinese attack.

The third is to order Danlong and Deva Wangsa to contact the British and French ministers respectively, and use the sacrifice of some territory as a bait to ask the two countries to come out to mediate and put pressure on China.

And he himself is ready to pack his bags and return home to clean up the mess.

Not long ago, I was still immersed in the dream of a great victory, but now I have to rack my brains for peace.