Wusongkou is located in Baoshan County, Jiangsu, at the outlet of the Huangpu River and the Wusong River flowing into the Yangtze River, and is the primary position to defend Shanghai and the gateway of the Yangtze River. Ming Yongle ten years of county border to build the soil mountain, 30 zhang high, put the beacon fire to prepare for the lookout, for the ship navigation, so called Baoshan. In the tenth year of Wanli, Tushan and Baoshan City were destroyed by the sea tide, leaving only ruins. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Baoshan New City was built in the northwest of the old site. In the third year of Yongzheng, Jiading was placed in Baoshan County in the east, and the county governed Wusong.

After the outbreak of the Opium War in the 20th year of Daoguang, Chen Huacheng, the governor of Jiangnan, was stationed there, and with the support of his former Liangjiang governor Yu Qian, he actively prepared for war and vigorously strengthened the defense of Wusong. From Wusong Town to Baoshan County six or seven miles long on the riverbank, build a total of 26 earthen ponds, which can not only resist the enemy, but also can hide, just like a Great Wall, a total of 154 cannons, collectively referred to as the West Fort. More than ten years after the defeat of the Manchu Dynasty in the Opium War, the West Fort had long been deserted, and the earthen pond and fort were overgrown with barren grass, and they had lost their former glory.

But recently, there was a disturbance in Shanghai, and the people of Baoshan County were panicked, but they thought that Longhair was going to Shanghai City, so they didn't plan to escape. The cannon rang out all night in Shanghai, and after waking up in the morning, the people of Baoshan County found that Baoshan County had changed its owner overnight. The streets are full of long hairs wrapped in red turbans, and these Xianggui men who have cut off their braids are also extremely kind, except for the corrupt officials and bullies in the city who were arrested and read out the charges and killed one by one, but they did not commit any crimes against the people.

Then the long-haired soldiers lived in Baoshan, after a few days, the long-haired people came out of the list, and spent money to hire the people to rebuild the west fort, many people in Baoshan City were grateful for Chen Huacheng's merits, and also wanted to rebuild the fort, and many strong men were recruited to work on the old site of the fort.

After a day's work, the Baoshan Zhuangding received their first salary, and Changmao did speak his word, and the wages were never in arrears. is not like those corrupt officials in the government, who often deduct money and food from people's husbands.

The next day, more and more people participated in the construction of the fort, and there were more than 10,000 people helping more than 2,000 long-haired soldiers to work on the entire six- or seven-mile-long riverbank construction site. The people of Baoshan found that many people even came from Shanghai, and when they asked about the situation in Shanghai, they learned that these were all people who had fled from Shanghai. These poor people in Shanghai have suffered a lot in recent days, at first they were people from the government and foreigners who searched and suppressed the Little Knife Society, but most of the people who had been related to the Little Knife Society were arrested and killed, and later they even killed innocent people indiscriminately. The people of Shanghai were so frightened that they didn't even dare to go out of the door. Later, when Changmao came, the government and the foreigners were in chaos, and the people of Shanghai also fled, they didn't want to be killed by shelling in the city. It is a pity that these poor people fled to the foreigners but were stopped, and it turned out that the concession still had to be entered by rich people.

After a few days of sleeping in the wilderness outside the foreigner's lease. On this day, the foreigners sent troops to drive them away, and the people of Shanghai brought out almost enough rations. Zuihou They were "captured" by the long hair who was besieged outside the city of Shanghai.

Fortunately, these long-haired people are treated very well. Not only did he not burn and loot, but gave food to the people, and Zuihou also recruited the people to be people's husbands and work for relief. In this way, thousands of people from Shanghai City also came to Baoshan to repair the fort, and many more people were recruited from Baoshan to the north of Shanghai. Along the way, there were Taiping army barracks and trenches being built.

A few days later, the West Fort was repaired to a similar appearance, not only reinforcing the mound and wooden fence of the fort, but also digging three trenches under the fort. The long-haired soldiers placed bamboo sticks, pointed wooden sticks and other objects in the trenches, and also placed iron chains and iron sticks in the Huangpu River and Wusong River to block them, and Zuihou carried the cannons one by one on the fort.

After doing these jobs, the people received their wages and were placed in the county town of Baoshan, and the people knew that a fierce war was coming. Although these people have had enough of the war caused by the long-haired rebellion, they still faintly feel in their hearts that they still hope that long-haired can win, at least long-haired will not kill people and rob things indiscriminately.

Lin Qirong, a fierce general of the Taiping army guarding the periphery of Shanghai, seized the time to build forts, barracks, and trenches, and after the construction of the west fort was completed, he asked the Taiping soldiers to disguise the fort, and Lin Qirong himself led 1,300 people to defend it. And by Zhou Lichun on the east bank of Wusongkou to build a slightly circular fort, 27 guns, called the east fort. Chen Zhiming led more than 1,000 troops to defend. After the east and west forts, Li Tianxi led 700 troops to defend Shabei in the northwest of Baoshan County, in order to prevent the Qing army from outflanking after landing on another path. Zhou Lichun led more than 1,000 troops to defend Baoshan County, as a backup.

As the day of the Great War approached, there were more and more sentry ships of the Qing army in Jiangbei, and even a team of Qing troops went ashore to explore the way one night, which was unceremoniously eaten by Lin Qirong, so that the Qing army no longer dared to send a lone army ashore.

In the early morning of this day, the sky was just overcast, and on the river where the Yangtze River, Wusong River, and Huangpu River converged, dozens of Qing army fleets gradually appeared, and the Taiping army, which was responsible for monitoring the north bank, immediately discovered the enemy's situation, and the scarlet battle flag was immediately waved back.

After Lin Qirong, who was sitting in the camp tent, received the report, he slowly opened his eyes, glanced around at the generals, and shouted coldly: "The enemy has come to the door, everyone is waiting for the guys!" Watch me do what I do! ”

Wu Quanmei, the general of the Guangdong Navy Division of the Qing Army, personally led 30 red single boats of the Guangdong Navy Division as the lead, launched an attack on Wusongkou, and marched from the anchorage of Chongming Island to Wusongkou. Nearly 100 fast crab boats, sand boats, and small boats are supplemented by the ship array, and the Qing army fleet on the whole river is overwhelming, the flags on the ships are like forests, hunting and hunting in the river breeze, the cannons of the ships are coaxing, and the Qing troops on the ship are shouting in unison, and the sound is shaking for hundreds of miles, so it is not majestic.

After arriving at the Wusongkou River, Wu Quanmei ordered his Hongshan boats to quickly rush across the Hengjiang Iron Chain, intending to rush into the Huangpu River, seize a favorable position, and carry out artillery strikes on the positions of suspected batteries on the shore.

The progress of the matter was very strange, when the red single boat of the Guangdong Navy Division rushed across the iron chain of the Hengjiang River and began to fire indiscriminately, the suspected fort on the embankment near the Wusong port was still quiet, as if it was asleep, there was no artillery fire back, no flags, gongs and drums, and no sound.

Wu Quanmei felt a kind of murderous intent hidden under the silence, and quickly ordered the twelve red single boats to stop shelling and disperse the queue to guard, seize the advantageous position, and then the red single boats quickly followed, put down the water ghosts and began to clear the iron chains on the waterway.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the first obstacle was cleared, and Wu Quanmei led the sailor fleet of fifteen red single boats to rush towards the second obstacle chain, where the water was shallower, and the fifteen gunboats marched in a long snake formation, and the remaining fifteen were cruising at the mouth of the river.

At this moment, Wu Quanmei stood on the side of the ship where he was sitting, and uneasily observed the Tutang Fort on the shore like a giant beast with a monocular. Wu Quanmei saw a large area of straw mats unique to China, densely covered with tree branches, and a thought flashed through his mind: "Hold your mother, that's the fort of the long-haired traitor!" ”

At this moment, a low horn sounded, as if by magic, the camouflage of the shore battery all disappeared, the sharp cannonball whistled sounded, dozens of artillery guns of the Qing army battery on the shore sand bank fired together, the five red single boats in the middle were the first to be shot and caught fire, Wu Quanmei's boat was also hit by the first round of artillery fire, he was seriously injured and was desperately rescued by his subordinates, and when he got on the boat again, Wu Quanmei took a difficult look at the chaotic sea battlefield, fifteen red single boats could move less than half, the Taiping army's artillery was so fierce, It's not like the pirates I've ever met before! "The long-haired thief has been prepared for a long time, and Lao Tzu has been fooled." After this thought flashed, Wu Quanmei passed out.

Fortunately, Wu Quanmei was cautious and did not let all the ships sail into the Huangpu River, and the fifteen red single boats cruising on the periphery fired back one after another, and the follow-up fleet sailors made guerrilla efforts to adjust the deployment, and it turned out that even the fifteen red single boats that followed up were within the range of the Taiping army's artillery, in fact, when the first obstacle chain was broken in the morning, the Taiping army could open artillery to attack the fleet, and the generals of the Taiping army were able to endure until the afternoon, which shows their tenacity. The earth-shattering sound of artillery on both sides resounded across the Wusongkou River, and the sea water was filled with burning broken wood, canvas and the corpses of Qing sailors.

The Qing army's Jiangnan Admiral and Chun Leng watched the fifteen red single boats in front of the second obstacle being sunk one by one, their faces gloomy and painful, but the artillery fire of the red single boats outside the river mouth could not destroy and suppress the Taiping artillery array behind the earthen pond. The artillery of the Taiping army was dense and had a long range, it was definitely not the kind of copper cannon used by the Taiping army that had fought with them in the past, they must have traded with foreigners to buy Western cannons! He Chun didn't dare to imagine that if he couldn't even climb the south bank here, he would be defeated, what would be waiting for him, Emperor Xianfeng had recently issued very harsh words, and even threatened the generals, if anyone is not effective in suppressing thieves, he will not want to live, don't think that I dare not kill!

After a stick of incense, Wu Quanmei was rescued on Hechun's boat, after a simple rescue, he woke up leisurely, on the stretcher he watched the battle situation, and said weakly to Hechun: "Junmen, the long-haired rebel is fierce, and the fort must be occupied, otherwise the fleet in front of the first iron chain will also be attacked." ”

He Chun hummed heavily and said: "There is no long-haired rebel thief to defend the beach on the west bank of the Jiangkou, I will send a land battalion to land there and wave the army to copy the back road of the long-haired thief." ”

Wu Quanmei said with relief: "Everything has a labor army." (To be continued......)