As early as a few years ago, in the Crimean War, Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought a naval battle in Sinop Bay, in which the Russians used advanced bombardment guns, which could fire explosive shells at a longer range, which was undoubtedly a disaster for the wooden sail warships of the time, so in the Battle of Sinop, the Ottoman navy was completely destroyed.

Since the beginning of its establishment, the Taiping Navy has been actively developing its shipbuilding capabilities, since ancient times the Chinese have not lacked their own imagination to build larger ships, and the huge treasure ships that the Three Treasure Eunuchs took when they went to the West during the Ming Dynasty were undoubtedly the representatives of China's shipbuilding capabilities at that time. It is a pity that the middle and late Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty completely closed off the country, which made China's shipbuilding technology regress in great strides. However, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to power, the full opening of maritime and maritime trade greatly promoted shipbuilding technology.

When Xiwang was still in southern Jiangsu, he had already issued tenders to the world for a series of shipbuilding industry projects such as the shipyard in Sufu Province of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so it attracted shipbuilders and advanced technology from all over the world. Later, in 1857, Hu Xueyan was sent to the United States to buy equipment from some shipyards in the United States and transport it back to China, and hired a large number of workers and technicians who lost their jobs due to the economic crisis. Against this backdrop, by the beginning of 1860, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had established shipyards in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places with modern industry as the main body, which could manufacture large ships and carry out ship repairs.

Before the outbreak of war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France, the Shanghai Shipyard and the Zhejiang Shipyard in Ningbo succeeded in trial-producing 500-ton ships respectively, and began to try to build four 1,000-ton warships, and the shipbuilding capacity began to gradually improve. The Anglo-French forces were like destroying these two shipyards in the early morning. The destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's war industrial capacity was also a threat and retaliation, but the Shanghai shipyards were heavily defended. In addition, the British and French navies suffered defeats in Shanghai before, so He Bo and the West Malaysia fleet went north this time in addition to seeking opportunities to annihilate the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy. The destruction of two important shipyards of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also one of the tasks.

The Zhejiang shipyards in Ningbo were also well protected, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seemed to have been preparing for a possible war early on, and the location of their military industry construction was very hidden, even if it was a shipyard, the location was very good, and it was protected by extremely careful coastal fortifications. In order to destroy the Zhejiang shipyard, you need to reach Ningbo first, and to reach Ningbo, you must first solve the two military fortresses of Zhenhai and Dinghai that defend Ningbo.

Standing on the flagship Coromandel. He Bo vaguely saw the figure of the Dinghai Zhushanmen Fort from the telescope. Dinghai, surrounded by mountains on three sides, there is Xiaofeng Ridge in the north, overlooking the county seat, the ridge is steep, and there is a road near the sea; The east is Zhushan Gate, the coast, and the port is narrow and deep; The west is Jiu'anmen, the mountains are stacked, and the sea is far away; The south is the head of the road, open and unsheltered, and the main road of sea and land travel. Zhushan Gate is the gateway to the sea in the east of Dinghai, and it is also the most important target of the British army to conquer Dinghai.

When Ho Bo had the flagship hoist the red flag representing the battle, the British warships began to move separately, and they formed out in formation according to the battle plan planned in the morning, with fast cruisers and cruisers cruising around the perimeter of the entire fleet, responsible for guarding and protecting the flanks and rear flanks of the fleet. The battleship of the main attack quickly arrived at the designated attack position of the Zhushanmen Battery, the sailors lowered their sails, activated the steam-powered battleship, and the gunners skillfully opened their gun jackets. Ready to attack the shells, the sailor shouted again and again about the water ripples in the nearby waters. At this moment, the British army's skilled and elite naval combat ability was undoubtedly revealed, and they were confident that they would once again conquer Dinghai, a small city on Zhoushan Island, in the first Opium War that year. The British army made two attempts here, killing three Qing soldiers, and they seemed very relaxed.

However, due to the narrow sea area of the port in front of Zhushan Gate. The British were only able to send four ships to attack, but the more than 200 guns on the four British battleships still showed its powerful firepower.

11 a.m. The British warships took the lead in firing at the Dinghai Zhushanmen Fort, and the coastal defense units of the Taiping Army also fired back. For a while, the sea and the shore were filled with gunsmoke, and the sound of cannons in the area of Zhushan Gate shook the sky.

Since the Taiping army occupied Dinghai, the Zhushanmen Fort has been repaired with manpower and material resources, and huge granite stones and cement have been transported here to build the fort at any cost. The fortifications of the entire fort have been greatly reinforced, and the architects and construction workers of the Taiping Army also innovatively excavated the hidden covered fort on the halfway of the Zhushan Gate, they dug a hollow space in the belly of the mountain, reinforced with bricks and stones, and the top of the mountain was covered by a thick mountain, only in the mountains facing the sea opened a fort mouth, and then the artillery and the officers and soldiers guarding the fort were hidden in it, extremely hidden and safe.

The four warships of the British army that broke into the narrow port of Zhushanmen were at a disadvantage after the artillery battle began, and Zhushanmen is no longer a simple open-air fort when the Qing army was stationed, and the entire Zhushanmen is a perfect three-dimensional fort defensive fortress, with firepower points bursting out at them with deadly shells at the top, middle and bottom.

It is worth mentioning that the first to attack Zhushanmen was the British Gaohuali, but now the Gaohuali has been in service in the Taiping Navy, and now the British fleet that broke into the Zhushanmen port has no good luck back then.

At the same time, in order to make up for the blind spot of firepower and prevent the enemy's small boats from carrying out surprise attacks, there are also mobile coastal defense artillery units stationed near the foot of Zhushanmen Mountain, and their artillery positions are temporary, and after the appearance of the enemy's situation, they will drag the artillery out of the tunnel and quickly enter the position to fire on the targets below the elevation angle of the upper battery.

At 11:45 a.m., the captain of the British battleship Clash of Battleships, who was rushing to the forefront, saw that he could not completely destroy the enemy's battery, and that the enemy's shells had accurately landed on his own battleship, and that the destructive power of the deadly bombardment projectiles on the wooden battleship was quite amazing, so he mustered up his courage and ordered the battleship to move in quickly before it lost power, and he wanted to reach the dead corner under the Zhushanmen battery to avoid the enemy's shelling.

At this moment, the sail mast on the upper deck of the battleship Conflict had been almost completely destroyed, and it could only rely on the modified steam power to move forward with difficulty, and when it was a kilometer from the shore, the British sailors on board were relieved, because this was already a dead end of the battery above, and the shells should not fall here.

But before the British soldiers on the Conflict could be happy, behind the embankment covered by a bamboo forest on the shore, the thunderous cannon sound rang out again, and before the British sailors on the ship could react, the cannonballs rained down on their heads. Or an explosive bomb, it raged on the scarred body of the Conflict, the huge blast impact tore its wooden hull, the flying shrapnel swept the lives of the sailors on board, soon the Conflict began to capsize in the billowing smoke, the British captain on the ship reluctantly gave the order to abandon the ship, and soon the British sailors who were still alive jumped into the water, at about 11:50, the first British battleship Conflict, sank.

After witnessing this scene in the telescope, Hober immediately ordered the flags to be raised and the three remaining battleships to return. Unfortunately, due to the narrowness of the harbor, the difficulty of the ships to turn around, and the fierce fire of the enemy, only one of the three warships finally escaped.

After losing the first battle, He Bo and Sima ordered the fleet to withdraw to Hengshuiyang, thirty miles away, and the two gathered together to gather a group of naval captains and generals to discuss how to break through Dinghai's damn fortress-style defenses.

"Obviously, the Taiping army has strengthened the Zhushanmen Fort, and they have even hollowed out the mountain, gentlemen, you should have noticed that most of the shells that destroyed our three battleships were fired from the bunker batteries halfway up the mountainside, and the enemy's artillery range and power are not weak with us, and the narrow harbor area here at Zhushanmen is not conducive to our warships maneuvering to evade and deploy troops, and the situation is very unfavorable to us......," Colonel Levy, a naval staff officer, briefly explained the situation in a deep voice.

Admiral He Bo stood up and said: "It seems that the goal we are currently thinking of completely using naval artillery to bring the enemy to its knees cannot be accomplished, and we can only use the tactics of landing and raiding to capture the enemy's batteries and give them a heavy blow from behind!" He then told him what he had decided after consulting with West Malaysia, and early tomorrow morning, He Bo planned to attack Dinghai in three ways to distract the attention of the Zhushanmen Fort, and then send the only Marine Corps ashore, hoping to capture the enemy fort by this method.

Early the next morning, the heavens seemed to be on the side of the British, and the sea was covered with fog and visibility was very low, which provided good help to the landing of the British army. The British fleet poured out of the nest and attacked Dinghai in three directions, and laid down all the small boats, survey ships, troop transports, and steamboats to attack.

At first, the fort of Zhushanmen seemed to be affected by the fog, although they seemed to hear a loud noise from the sea, but under the fog, the officers and men of the fort could only fire their cannons blindly, and the lookouts on the shore or above could only look at the ocean and sigh.

The landing of the British landing force was smooth at first, but after landing, they were met with stubborn resistance from the Taiping Army shore defense forces behind the Zhushanmen embankment. More than 2,000 British landing troops launched an attack on the defensive positions on the Zhushanmen embankment, and the Taiping troops guarding it were less than 400 troops, and most of them were artillery, so they were in danger for a while.

Fortunately, when the signal for help was issued, a township corps of 500 people arrived here, although the weapons of the township corps were not as advanced as the regular troops of the Taiping army, but the Taiping army had previously equipped them with some weapons such as front-loading smoothbore guns and grenades. So when the village corps arrived, they threw out their grenades, and then took up their bayonet smoothbore guns and bravely launched a counter-charge against the enemy, who was several times their size...... (To be continued......)