On this day, the French army was temporarily stationed in Zhifu Bay, and the main fleet of the British and French navy was ushered in in the port. Go north to the mountain customs to meet the landing coalition forces of Rigo. The main detachment of De Genuiri did not wait for the main army forces of Grant and Montauban, and three days later they met the American battleship Minnesota, and then they met with Sir Ergin and Sir Gro and other members of the envoys, and then learned the sad news of the destruction of the main army force. Then Rigo. Derenuiri led the main force of the fleet southward to join Admiral Massimogli in Zhili Bay.

The British and French navies did not have much supplies in Zhifu, and they lost almost all of their army equipment and supplies in Jintang, including artillery, horses, tents, etc., and food began to run short. Unlike when they came, the Qing people around Zhifu began to dare not come to trade food, but fortunately they didn't come, and the Quartermaster Department of the Allied Forces piled up the money of the entire army in Tianjin, and they didn't have time to transport it to the ship, so the British and French navies are now so poor that they will definitely be robbed if the Qing people still come to trade food and vegetables. There may still be a small number of Eagle Ocean soldiers who are willing to pay for shopping, but most of them say that they are no longer willing to pay for it, preferring to rob.

The soldiers' feelings Ergin and the others understood very well, originally thought that this expedition was an adventure, and after the adventure was successful, each soldier would return with a full load, but now they can't even get the salary they should have every month, and if they want to continue fighting, the only way is to allow the soldiers to rob. And in history, after they invaded the capital, they did return with a full load of looting, didn't they run so far to the other side of the world for this?

The British and French navy did not stay long in Zhifu, and they took a qiē supply with them. Carefully distribute the supplies, and then the whole army goes south. By the way, a battle was fought in Jiaozhou Bay, and the British and French navies captured Jiaoao (now Qingdao) under the Qing army. The Qing army was still on the verge of collapse as always. Moreover, the Qing army garrisoned here was pitifully small, only a few hundred old and weak soldiers, and General Napier led a thousand soldiers to land and complete the task like a tour.

Here in Jiaoao, the coalition forces received material supplies, fresh vegetables, fruits and meat, because this is the only sea canal on the Shandong Peninsula, the southern estuary of the Jiaolai Canal, so the hoarding of materials is relatively rich.

Later, after an interpreter's inquiry, it was learned that most of the Qing troops in the entire Shandong Peninsula were sent north. They went to King Qin in the capital. General Napier scoffed at this, what is the use of a rabble going north? Maybe they have been beaten by the Taiping army at this time.

Erjin urged the navy to go south as much as possible, and Shanghai was the place where they needed to control it. Three days later, the British and French officers and sailors, who had been robbed at Jiaoao and vented their defeat, returned with a full load, and the fleet was well supplied and sailed south.

The fleet had 100 ships when it went north, but now only 74 ships remain, and in the Battle of Dagu, the coalition lost 12 shallow-water gunboats. Then twelve gunboats were lost in the battle with the Taiping army on the inland river, as well as the battleship Isel was struck and sunk on the way north to Shanhaiguan, and the battleship Kuaifan Queen was docked at Zhifu. The unlucky Clipper Queen blew itself up and sank due to a drunken misfire by artillerymen, which then ignited the ammunition depot. Only half of the 450 crew and soldiers escaped. The loss of the transport ship was not large, but it still maintained its original size. Even some of the fishermen's boats in Zhili Bay seized by the British and French forces were tethered to the back of large transport ships and towed for use. It's just that now it's time to return south, because the army is almost completely annihilated. So the transport ships were empty.

The officers and men of the navy stuffed the transport ship with everything they had looted from Jiaoao, cloth, porcelain, wooden furniture, and even live poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs, and dogs, and even if they returned to Shanghai and could not go ashore for the time being, they would have fresh meat to eat.

However, the Anglo-French fleet seemed to have lost some bad luck, and as it headed south into the Yellow Sea, the allied fleet encountered a strong storm after which the coalition lost several transport ships and several lost contact. The Navy then sent a detachment to search for the missing transport ships, but encountered a group of pirates in the Yellow Sea.

The pirates were originally based in the Zhoushan Islands, and the pirate leader was a notorious British sailor who was nicknamed "Fokie Tom" by the Chinese. Because of the purge of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy, Fu Ji Tang could not stay in Zhoushan, so he had to look for opportunities in the north, so his pirate fleet became a large pirate active in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and Zhili Bay.

When the coalition brigade went south, Fu Ji Tang did not dare to start, so he had to follow behind to see if there were any ships that had fallen behind to rob, but fortunately, after a storm, several coalition transport ships were left behind, and Fu Ji Tang of course refused to let go of his mouth, and this British sailor led the pirates to rob the poor transport ships.

After a not-so-fierce naval battle, the great pirate and his beautiful Malayan lady were captured, 26 of his sailing ships were captured, and another 6 were blown up and sunk. The coalition lost a gunboat and several transport ships, as well as a number of crew members.

The coalition detachment was about to catch up with the group after completing the operation to eliminate pirates, but it did not expect that a Taiping fleet would catch up behind, and a small fleet composed of three clippers stepped forward and viciously bit the coalition fleet with its fast speed.

With twelve ships under the command of Rear Admiral Chanet of the French Navy and the destroyer Empress Eugenie, this coalition search fleet is not afraid of three clippers.

However, the three flying shear ships of the Taiping Army took advantage of the confusion of the Allied Navy after the fierce battle with the pirates, shelled the Allied Aid gunboat, wounded it, and then quickly fled north. Rear Admiral Chanet did not pursue, he ordered the aid to be towed, and then the whole battleship continued to sail south.

Although this raid by the Taiping Navy did not cause much damage, it reminded the coalition forces that they were not lonely in the Far East. The attack by the Taiping navy caught the attention of General Massimogri, who guessed that the Taiping navy had been following them all along.

But the coalition forces had no idea of looking back to search for and annihilate the Taiping Navy, and what they wanted now was to return to Shanghai as much as possible. There were large concessions and British and French civilians who needed their protection. And Hong Kong, the jewel in the Queen's crown. Protection is also needed.

After a six-day voyage, the Allied Navy finally returned to the mouth of the Yangtze River. Chongming Island was still in sight, and the ships encountered one after another were all anti-smuggling ships of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and when they saw the coalition navy, they issued a warning "in a panic", and then retreated all the way to the Yangtze River.

When they arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the coalition forces were faced with a multiple-choice question: should they break directly into the estuary, and then break through from Wusong Pass into the inland waterway of Shanghai? Or should we find a place to stay and rest and gather information?

Along the way, several British and French admirals quarreled and discussed this issue many times, and Massimogli thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should be taken by surprise. Immediately burst into the river so that you can gain the upper hand. The French, on the other hand, believed that they should first find a foothold and let most of the transports that were not capable of fighting dock, and then the warships should be dispatched in batches, so as to give full play to their combat effectiveness. At the mouth of the Yangtze River, the best place to settle is undoubtedly Chongming Island, but Chongming Island is an island that has accumulated sediment in the Yangtze River for thousands of years, and there is no deep-water port available, and there is a foothold a little farther away. It is the Zhoushan Islands.

In the end, the British persuaded the French that if they failed to break through the river, it would not be too late to move to find a foothold, but if they hesitated to prepare the enemies in Shanghai. Then the war is not easy to fight.

So on the same day, the first detachment of the Allied Fleet began to break through from Wusongkou, and the fleet consisted of twenty-four warships, including sixteen British warships. Eight French battleships. The British fleet was commanded by British Rear Admiral Seymour and commanded the Audicious. With a displacement of 3774 tons, it was a wooden steam-sail hybrid battleship. It was followed by "Thalea" (Thalea) 1459 tons, which was a cruiser. The others are the genus of gunboats and sailboats, namely Charyadies, Madeste, Juno, Egesia, Lily, Ringdove, Curlew, Lopwing, Dwarf, Helknight Hernet), Midge, Thistle, Kestrel, Vigilant.

The French fleet consisted of eight warships, but they were much worse in size and momentum, mostly gunboats and sailboats, and they were on the left flank of the British fleet.

More than 20 years ago, the British fleet had already broken into Wusongkou, coupled with more than 20 years of commercial and trade exchanges, the British had accurately grasped the water pattern conditions here in Wusongkou, and the warships entered in turn, and the channels they traveled were all according to the previously determined channels, and there was no chaos.

However, the two sides of Wusongkou were quiet, and the ships of various countries traveling on the waterway retreated to avoid the allied fleet, and not a single ship flying the flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom appeared, and there was no trace of the enemy on the shore. Seymour, the commander of the British fleet, smelled a hint of conspiracy, and he looked through his telescope at the quiet batteries on both sides of Wusongkou, and felt very uneasy, so he decided to suspend his advance, and the ships anchored and positioned themselves according to their current positions, and then began to bombard the fortifications on both sides of the strait first.

Wusongkou is located at the outlet of the Huangpu River and the Wusong River into the Yangtze River, and is the primary position to defend Shanghai and the gateway of the Yangtze River. From Wusong Town to Baoshan County six or seven miles long river bank, more than 20 years ago Chen Huacheng Qing army resisted the invasion of the British army here, and later the Taiping army has been reinforcing the coastal forts here, the original west bank to build 26 Tutang forts, can not only resist the enemy, but also can hide, like a Great Wall. Later, the Taiping army made a fort reinforcement with granite in a long strip of bluestone, and the outside was still covered with thick loess, which looked like it was still an earthen structure of the fort, and a total of 154 cannons were installed inside, collectively referred to as the West Fort. On the east bank of Wusongkou, there is a slightly circular fort, which is also a granite stone structure, and 57 cannons are installed, which is called the east fort.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, the British battleship Otisha preemptively began a salvo of artillery, firing the first shot of the Allied forces returning to Shanghai. But before the start of the battle, the coalition forces knew nothing about the situation in Shanghai, let alone how many Taiping troops were waiting for them here...... (To be continued......)