When the news of the victories in several battles such as Nebuchu and Chita reached Beijing, the soldiers and civilians of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom celebrated the victory, but after the celebration, people's eyes began to turn to the south, and the latest military reports from Guangzhou said that hundreds of warships of various sizes and sizes of the British and French forces began to gather in Lingdingyang.

The weather in the north was bitterly cold, but Guangzhou in the south was still a warm and warm weather, next to Wailingding Island, amid the rumbling cannons, the last group of Taiping officers and soldiers guarding the island boarded the fast sailing boat that came to meet them, and then the fast sailing boat left Wailingding Island with 60 officers and men.

Sir Napier, commander of the avant-garde detachment of the Second Expeditionary Fleet of the British and French fleets, put down the binoculars in his hand and said to the adjutant, Lieutenant Commander Hubes: "Send four warships to chase them and sink them!" ”

Lieutenant Colonel Hebis whispered: "Your Excellency, Admiral Dundas's order to us is to remove all obstacles to Hong Kong Island as soon as possible, the fleet has been sailing from Singapore for many days, and we are not very familiar with this sea area, and the enemy's sailing ships are flying clippers, so it is difficult to catch up, so I suggest that we give up the pursuit." ”

Ser Napier was silent for a moment before he changed his words: "Send ten landing boats to send the soldiers ashore to occupy this island!" "After Sir Napier's order was given, ten landing boats carried more than seventy British marines to Wailingding Island.

Watching the sailors paddle their dinghy towards the island, Sir Peel's face did not look good, and as a member of the British aristocracy, he had a heart of honor. But in the Crimean War, the British Baltic Fleet led by him was attacked by the Russian fleet in the North Sea. In the end, there was a change of commander at home, and Admiral Dundas was transferred from the Black Sea Fleet to the North Sea to replace him. This is a great shame for an admiral of noble origin! Then the war with Russia ended, Napier failed to prove himself again through the war, and the Admiralty forgot about the expedition to the Far East, he had already spent enough time in the naval training fleet. Now that the opportunity had come, the British Empire had launched a second expedition, and through his family's influence, he had finally returned to the ranks of the commander of the expeditionary fleet, and he waited with bated breath to regain his lost glory from the yellow-skinned monkeys of the Far East.

Napier looked at the lineup of his sub-fleet with satisfaction, the five main battleships. Seven cruisers, more than 20 auxiliary ships, troop carriers, gunboats, etc., this lineup was much more luxurious than the so-called Baltic Fleet he led in those days, when he commanded a fleet operated by unskilled sailors to carry out this task, and in addition, this fleet was understaffed and lacked ammunition.

Napier was also full of confidence in this expedition, and when he set out for the Crimea, the British fleet at its peak had only about 20 main warships, and with the rest of the auxiliary ships, the British fleet in the Black Sea was only about 150 ships. The British fleet of the Second Expedition was different. They drew ships not only from their homeland, but also from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and Australia to join the expedition. The entire British fleet had more than 40 main warships, more than 70 cruisers and frigates, and more than 300 armed merchant ships, gunboats, troop carriers, and auxiliary ships. The entire fleet, together with the Massimogli fleet still remaining in the Far East, would have a staggering number of more than five hundred, not counting the more than a hundred French ships of all kinds.

In terms of army strength, the French army is the main force. The French army dispatched four infantry divisions and two regiments of elite marines, and the British army deployed an army of 20,000 men. The entire expeditionary coalition numbered more than 60,000 people, not counting the navy and army alone, and Napier believed that with such a powerful navy and army. The Anglo-French forces were able to sweep through all the coastal port cities and river cities in the Far Southeast.

Soon the British flag was raised on Lingding Island, the gateway island of the Wanshan Islands and the southern gate island of Hong Kong Island, and the occupation of this place was of great significance. Napier laughed at this, and said to Lieutenant Colonel Hebess, "This island will be my vacation place in the future." ”

As soon as the words fell, the lookout shouted loudly: "Three enemy fast sailing ships have been found in the northeast of the island!" Napier and Hebis were slightly startled, and at the same time pulled out their binoculars to look, only to see that the three fast sailing ships were flying the golden dragon flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and below was a seahorse flag, and the three fast sailing ships were firing at the British dinghy that had landed.

"These despicable sea lice! Lieutenant Commander Hebess, order the fleet to chase and sink them! Napier was furious, his fleet was in the southwest of the island, and the enemy appeared in the northeast to shell the landing force, although the number of troops landed was small, but it was a matter of face, Napier could not tolerate the casualties of his fleet, but the enemy left unharmed.

As soon as the order was given, a landing boat was seen in the distance being hit by enemy artillery fire, broken sawdust flew in the firelight, and more than a dozen corpses of British sailors and infantry floated on the water.

When the British fleet began to pull anchors, raise sails, raise fire, and turn, the three fast sailing ships of the Taiping Navy also began to turn immediately, and they quickly fled in a northeast direction while returning fire with their tail guns.

Seeing this scene, Napier was furious, these despicable sea fleas would only harass and escape, and seeing that the wind direction was unfavorable to the fleeing Taiping Navy, Napier was even more determined to catch up. So, at the urging of Napier, all the warships of the British avant-garde fleet began to pounce frantically.

On the battleship "Royal Giant", the experienced Commodore Wibot was a little worried, because the three sail warships of the Taiping Navy were far inferior to the British fleet in terms of tonnage and firepower, and their harassment was more like a lure, after chasing out of two nautical miles, Wibot became more and more uneasy, he immediately ordered the battleship to slow down, and ordered the crew to immediately measure the depth of the water, this sea area should have a reef according to the water ripple information provided by the British merchant ships that have been in and out here all the year round, Wibot didn't want his ship to run aground.

The bathymetry is six fathoms. Not yet a threat to the battleship, Wibot opened the chart. Sure enough, it is marked that there is a reef in the northeast and northwest of Wailingding Island, but only one area is marked on the map. The location of the reef does not appear accurately on the charts. Wibot became cautious, and just as he was about to lower the dinghy to measure the depth of the water at the bow of the battleship and guide the ship through this area, he saw two other British warships passing by them, and Wibot immediately ordered the flag-bearers to warn the friendly ships to pay attention to the reef.

Although Napier's order was to pursue at full speed, the experienced captains of the ships were cautious, but their caution seemed to have come a little late, and at 1:15 p.m., a British battleship ran aground. A huge hole was made on the right side of the ship's side, and the battleship had to start salvaging the battleship immediately.

In the distance, the three Taiping Navy fast sailing ships were following a strange zigzag route in the sea, and Lieutenant Commander Napier and Lieutenant Commander Hebis immediately understood that they had been led into the reef area, which the enemy already knew well.

Eventually, Napier gave up the order to pursue, feeling embarrassed, and he furiously questioned the navigator why he hadn't noticed the reef area on the chart. The navigator was a little aggrieved, he had already informed him of the incident before the attack on Lingding Island, which had reef areas in the northeast and northwest of the island. But Napier was carried away by anger and seemed to forget about it.

Soon Napier calmed down, and now it was useless to hold him responsible, although the chart marked the reef area. However, this area is very large, and the location of the reef is not clearly marked, and British merchant ships that sail in this area all year round will not sail into this area. No British merchant ship would have gone to great lengths to study the true location of the reef. Napier had to order the boats to lower their boats, carefully measure the depth of the water at the bow of the warship, and then guide the whole fleet out of the sea.

And the battleship that had already hit the reef was finally damaged because of too much damage. Rollers began to appear, and eventually water ingress of the front end of the hull caused the front end of the hull to weigh too much. After the stern of the entire ship was cocked, the keel could not support the weight of the whole ship and broke, and finally sank in this area. The crew of the ship did not suffer many casualties because of the timely evacuation, and only a few sailors were drowned in the cabin because the rescue hull was not evacuated in time.

Napier watched with a gloomy face as the battleship sank, and the ninety thousand pounds worth of pounds sank to the bottom of the sea in humiliation, and it sank before it could even fire its guns at the enemy.

Although the entire fleet left the reef safely after some efforts, the sinking of one of the main warships still cast a shadow over the expeditionary fleet. The British fleet then established its first stronghold on the island of Wailingding, and Napier, following Admiral Dundas's orders, began to blockade the enemy's waters by establishing an island stronghold.

Napier left two warships on Wailingding Island to cover the troops on the island, and then commanded the rest of the fleet to head towards Hong Kong Island, he wondered why the British fleet on Hong Kong Island would sit idly by and watch the enemy occupy Wailingding Island. As he approached Hong Kong Island, he began to understand.

"Unknown floating object found on the port side!" The lookout sounded the alarm, put down the dinghy and went forward to check and found that it was a mine placed by the enemy, as the closer to Hong Kong Island, there were more and more mines, a small boat was using a bamboo pole to pick up the mine is accidentally touched a few long tentacles of the mine, the mine immediately exploded, the boat was overturned by the shock wave of the explosion, the dense mine made Napier gasp, this number of mines will be very risky no matter what method is used to discharge, Napier understood, It was with mines that the enemy had blocked off several major shipping lanes on the island of Hong Kong.

After an afternoon of advancing five nautical miles, clearing dozens of mines, and finally finding a safer route, they spotted several warships flying the British flag in front of them.

When Napier asked the captain of the other ship who boarded his flagship, the first thing the captain complained was: "These mines have been bothering us for a long time, and the enemy began to lay mines with their ships one night a month ago, and they are trying to make trouble for us" (to be continued............