Hugh Goff's sudden order to retreat was indeed a surprise to the Nanming side, because such a dominant and proud opponent usually had to break his head before he thought of taking a step back.

In fact, in order to keep the British army in "Xinjing", Zhu Qiongying also sent people to spread rumors, saying that there were tens of millions of taels of silver hidden in the palace.

But I didn't expect the other party to be completely unmoved, in fact, Hugh Gough's military thinking is backward, but his intuition and judgment are very good.

At the same time, it was also Nanming's acting that was too fake, and the two sides looked like they were going to die before they got in touch, which made Hugh Gough feel a great sense of disobedience.

And after coming to Kalimantan, he felt that the Lion City side was seriously lacking in information about the so-called "Nanming".

The barbarian tribes that the officials and lords talked about were actually equipped with firearms at an astonishing rate, and in addition, this strange fortress and the spirit of the defenders of the city surprised him.

Hugh Goff had never looked down on any army in the East, not even in India nor in the Qing Dynasty, but this time he admitted that he had planted it.

He thought that the battle could be over in a week at most, but it took five days to hurry, and three days to besiege, but there was no substantial progress, although he did not lose anything, but the hole cards were almost bright.

Hugh Gough didn't want to dig into the city, and he thought it would be more cost-effective to use the sea advantage to continue to plague the enemy's ports.

Zhiyun, the prime minister of the Southern Ming Dynasty, who stayed behind, immediately ordered someone to dig a dam to flood the Seventh Army, but the reality was that the river was directly diverted, and the flood bypassed the British troops.

But it was not all useless, at least it created a floodplain and delayed the return of British troops.

Hugh Gough looked at the sediment-laden flood in front of him and could only lament his bad luck. But he wouldn't wait, and immediately ordered those cannon fodder third brothers to build a pontoon bridge.

On the other side, Zhiyun couldn't believe what she had observed in the telescope, those Englishmen actually dared to jump into the flood to build a pontoon bridge, but she didn't have time to admire the other party's courage, because the thunderclouds in the north had arrived. The advent of the rainy season will greatly weaken the combat effectiveness of the British army, and at the same time create an opportunity for "closing the door and fighting the dog".

Zhiyun still admires the strange foreign prince in Zhu Qiongying's mouth, and every "gift" he gives to Nanming is very important to the country.

For example, although the tactics at this time are only eight words, they are also their only chance to completely defeat the British.

The 5,000 people in her hands did not have the equipment of the "three major battalions" and the Xinjing Imperial Forest Army, and most of them only had bows and arrows, spears, shovels, and hoes, so if they wanted to block the British army head-on, they would simply hit the stone with an egg.

And in fact, the power and range of the bow and arrow will be greatly reduced after being stained with water, let alone fighting in the rain, which is simply a fantasy.

But she still has a way to delay the speed of the opponent's march. Zhiyun ordered her subordinates to immediately destroy all the bridges from Xinjing to Mala Port, then destroy the roads, and then use the little gunpowder in their hands to make a few "mines", and the rest can only depend on the will of heaven.

In the port of Mara, the fighting never stops.

The heavy rain greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the British army, but the gap in training between the two sides was still irreparable. Due to the use of tunnel surprise attacks in the city, the Southern Ming army had an advantage, but the battle at the dock was not optimistic.

Although the size of the British troops on the dock was no more than four or five hundred, the Southern Ming army could not rush up at all.

It was for this reason that Lieutenant General Humphrey Sonhouse and his lieutenant did not follow in the footsteps of Colonel Hardk Chris, and they escaped to the docks without incident.

Looking at the Nanming soldiers who were rushing to the dock like a tide of black pressure, Vice Admiral Senhaus decisively ordered all the men to board the battleship and open fire.

The power of the battleship's salvo is so great that it is naturally not something that flesh and blood can resist.

General Liu Dadao was not entangled, he swung his knife to cut off the head of a British soldier who was begging for mercy, and then raised it high.

"Brothers, kill a foreign devil and reward ten acres of land! Catch them all! ”

Then the soldiers of the Southern Ming began to search for the remnants of the enemy throughout the city, and the British who had taken refuge in the ship encountered new problems before they could catch their breath.

Since the number of sailors remaining was limited, and Vice Admiral Humphrey Senhaus did not want the British ships to fall into the hands of the other side, there were only twenty or thirty men on each ship, except for his flagship.

Vice Admiral Senhaus also fantasized that more survivors would arrive at the docks and drive all the ships away.

But a scream woke him up, and a large number of Nanming soldiers were climbing up his warship with swords, and some had even jumped on the ship and began to chase and slash the British sailors frantically.

And these people not only had knives, but also revolvers, and Vice Admiral Humphrey Senhaus leaned against the side of the ship, and the screams around him were heard one after another.

He looked back at the flickering thunder and saw that the other battleship was already crawling with Nanming soldiers who were either dressed in black or shirtless, and there were many more people emerging from the black water.

Lieutenant General Senhaus collapsed to the ground, feeling like he was in Hell at the moment, and his enemies were a group of demons from Hell.

In fact, the first thing Zhu Qiongying did in Nanyang was to recruit local Chinese pirates, but these people were usually sent out to intercept those merchant ships transporting piglets, and to do some shady things.

And hijacking ships is their old business, these people are known for their ruthlessness, and they can't really do such a thing as sneaking up on a battleship in a small boat on a stormy night.

In fact, these pirates had more experience in dealing with foreigners than the Nanming army, and they often had to deal with these foreigners before they defected to Zhu Qiongying, and if they ran slowly, they would be killed or captured to receive a reward.

And once caught up by the other party, the only way to survive is to jump into the state war, so at this moment, these people are extremely desperate.

The captain of the British ship "Hai Ah Xin" had just shot and killed a Nanming soldier with a long beard, when two more young soldiers jumped onto the deck. The "Worai" next door has been completely conquered, and the captain, who was still resisting just now, was cut off at this time, and his body was thrown into the sea.

On Humphrey Sonhouse's flagship, the Bengal, a British soldier stabbed a Nanming soldier into the body, but the latter clutched his rifle and refused to let go before he died, creating an opportunity for his companions to break the former into pieces.

What was even worse for Humphrey Sonhaus was that after the riot on the ship, the retreating Nanming army was killed.

The bloody slaughter continued, and the long night was like a scythe of death that kept harvesting life.

The next day, Sonhaus leaned dejectedly against the mast, and his entire fleet was left with his flagship and less than a hundred officers and men on it, all wounded, including himself.

If it hadn't been for a few brave lads who had detonated the ammunition compartment of several other battleships last night, I would have been a sinner of the British Empire.

Of course, Humphrey Sen House also owes his lieutenant, the brave Welsh lad, for if he had not cut the cable of the flagship, I am afraid that not a single Englishman would have left the port of Mara alive.

Early in the morning the sea was foggy, but the lookout spotted a fleet slowly approaching. Seeing the rice flag hanging high, he shouted.

"Captain! It's our ship! ”

"Great! Ask them for help, and they will say that a pirate has attacked us, and let them help us retake the port of Mara! ”

However, Humphrey Sen Haus did not rejoice for long, because when the fleet approached, he found that although the two battleships he led were also flying the British flag, they were all Orientals, and the gun doors had been opened in advance.

Zhu Qiongying, who was standing at the bow of the ship and wearing a Western-style military uniform, said, "Open fire!" ”

The two battleships fired a salvo together as they approached the "Bengal", and for a moment the iron ball shattered the wooden hull and sawdust flew all over the sky, and the people on board were either directly broken in two by the iron ball or were killed by scattered fragments.

This is Zhu Qiongying's last killer weapon, the Nanming Naval Division, two battleships, three cruisers, and seven frigates, and it was precisely because of these guys that she was able to subdue the pirates of the Nanyang in the first place, and it is also where her confidence lies.

Two of the battleships were eliminated by Austria and left by Franz to Zhu Qiongying. Three cruisers were captured from the British, while the other seven frigates were bought from the Dutch and Spaniards, and the middlemen, naturally, were Austria.

In the port of Mara, the heads of British soldiers have been piled up as high as a hill.

Most of these soldiers were peasants or coolies, pirates, bandits, or gang members.

Even if there are one or two who have read a book occasionally, they only know that "those who offend me will be punished even if they are far away".

When Zhu Qiongying's battleship arrived at Mala Port, she stepped off the warship first, carrying something in her hand, and threw it into Liu Dadao's hands.

It was a human head, and Liu Dadao didn't see anything after carefully observing it for a long time, because in his eyes, Westerners were the same.

"It was Humphrey Sen House's head, who told him to surrender or die."

"God bless Daming, long live!"

"Hooray!"

The soldiers of the Southern Ming shouted long live, and they were all extremely excited, because they had done what the Manchus had not been able to do, and it was a joy to be able to cut off the heads of the enemy chieftains.

All the generals felt that they had won eighty percent of the war, and all that remained was to destroy the remnants of the enemy.

However, they did not know that the British, in addition to this expeditionary force in the South Seas, had hundreds of battleships and hundreds of thousands of troops.

Hugh Gough, on the other hand, was already, and he didn't know what a man of immorality had destroyed the road so badly.

People and horses can make do with it, but those baggage can't travel on this kind of road, especially the heavy artillery, Hugh Gough is reluctant to discard, he can only ask people to fill in the pit and ask for help from Mala Harbor, hoping that the other party can gather some aborigines to help him.

But the British didn't do anything along the way, and now they want the aborigines to help them, how can it be?

When the locals saw the British coming, they all fled into the mountains and refused to go out, and the latter had no good way to do it, so they tried to set fire to the mountain, but it was too difficult to burn the mountain in the rainy season, and finally had to give up.

Hugh Gough's heralds were arrested as soon as they arrived at the port of Mara, and he could not believe what he saw before him, as thousands of British corpses were being burned en masse in the center of the port.

"Please don't mind, sir. The weather here is hot and humid, and if the corpses are not disposed of in time, there will be a plague. But we can transfer your ashes to your country. ”

Luo Xiangnan, who was in charge of foreign affairs, said in fluent English that he was the son of a wealthy businessman in Guangzhou, had studied in Europe for many years, and wanted to return to China to show his strength.

But God did not fulfill people's wishes, Luo Xiangnan thought that he couldn't eat the officialdom in the Qing Dynasty at all, but because he offended a nobleman, he was castrated and thrown on the street.

In order to keep the family business, his father chose to expel Luo Xiangnan from the house, but Nian still gave him some silver to go to Nanyang in the father and son.

Luo Xiangnan is the head of the Shenji Battalion, and he is also the Honglu Siqing (equivalent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs), and the only eunuch in Nanming.

"You guys?" The British soldier felt that the guy was a little inaccurate.

"Yes, you guys."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're useless, and we don't have the habit of preparing rooms for invaders here, so please die!"

Luo Xiangnan pushed the Englishman into the burning fire pit, ignoring the struggling and screaming man below, and just said to the people around him.

"Tell Your Majesty that Hugh Gough's army still has 2,700 men and more than 200 wounded soldiers, including 1,200 Indians, whom in his opinion are destabilizing factors.

However, I told Your Majesty that Indians are not good birds, and that we have no spies who can penetrate each other's interiors, and tell Prime Minister Zhiyun that the discord scheme is not very useful for Westerners. ”

However, Zhiyun still got a Spaniard to go to Hugh Gough's barracks to read the holy decree.

It was to the effect that "Hugh Gough was urged to surrender, and that the port of Mara had fallen and that they had no way to retreat."

At the same time, a bounty of 10,000 taels was offered for Hugh Gough's head, and a bounty of 10,000 taels for each British soldier's head, and 20 to 100 for the other officers. ”

There were a number of assassinations in the barracks that night, with several soldiers having their heads cut off, including some officers.

At the same time, the number of deserters in the Indian military camp is also increasing, some people are taking the heads of the British to receive rewards, and some are unable to stand the abuse of the British, but most of them are just deserters because of military discipline and daily desertion.

But this was too much of a blow to the morale of Hugh Gough's army, and he knew full well that before he could reach the port of Mara, the soldiers would run out.

It was impossible to get the arrogant British general to surrender, believing that the Lion City (Singapore) should have received the news and would send someone to rescue him in the near future.

Now all he had to do was bring his troops to Mara Harbor to wait for rescue, and some of the things had to be abandoned.

First of all, there were the seriously wounded, who were too burdensome to carry in such a place where there was a lack of medical care and the terrain was difficult to navigate, so they were handed over to the chaplains.

But those priests were not stupid, and they just threw the seriously injured on the road and fled for their lives.

Nanming's army naturally won't care about these people, but those natives who were bullied by the British are different, seize this opportunity to have revenge and revenge.

Then the heavy weapons were also targeted, as the big guys often got stuck in the mud and slowed down the march, so they had to be discarded.

But Hugh Gough would not leave it to the enemy, so he plugged his muzzle with mud and blew it up. After losing two-thirds of their baggage and almost all of their artillery, the British finally arrived at the port of Mara.

(End of chapter)