Qi Shan and others in Guangzhou sent people to contact the British, report the situation, and explain that all this was made by the people of Sanyuanli on their own initiative.

However, the British were a little skeptical when they received the news from the officials in Guangzhou.

No matter who it was, after signing a peace agreement with the officials in Guangzhou, he sent more than 2,000 soldiers ashore to take the ransom money paid, but as a result, almost all of these soldiers were wiped out, and they could not get any of the ransom money they should have received.

No one will believe the nonsense that the Canton officials are losing control over their own people.

Under these circumstances, it is understandable that the British army sent people to Canton to strongly condemn the officials, and demanded that the other side severely punish the Chinese troops and civilians who started the war without authorization, return the prisoners, and send the ransom money back to the British barracks.

However, Yiliang and Song Mingda and others in Guangzhou understood that they could not meet any of these three requirements, and could only follow the original plan, explaining that Sanyuanguan had always been at odds with the imperial court and was not controlled, and even said that if the British marched into Sanyuanli and got back six million taels of silver to punish the Sanyuanguan team, the Guangzhou government would express understanding and even support.

However, in the case of tens of thousands of troops stationed in Sanyuanli a mile north of Guangzhou, this kind of rhetoric seems very pale and weak, and even makes people wonder if there is a conspiracy inside.

There were many smart people in the British army who expressed serious doubts about the integrity of the Canton government, believing that the previous battle was a farce directed by the Canton government and the people of Sanyuanli, and even believed that the real main force of the peasant army in Sanyuanli was pretended to be the Qing officers and soldiers, otherwise they would not have such a high combat effectiveness and could easily wipe out thousands of British troops.

Under these circumstances, the British army sent an envoy to Guangzhou, asking the Guangzhou officials to send troops to attack the defenders of Sanyuanli stationed at the Sifang Fort to show their innocence, which made Yiliang and Qishan and others refuse with a wry smile.

No matter how high the position of the two of them is, they have some scruples in acting, and there is no reason to attack the common people who helped Guangzhou repel the British who came to attack the British, this thing they can't afford, and more importantly, Guangzhou doesn't have the strength to do this now.

When Lin Zexu was there, he was able to unite the hearts of the people, and even ordered Guan Tianpei to recruit sailors to build an army, although he could not defeat the British, but if the British dared to land lightly, they would suffer huge casualties, so the British army did not dare to act rashly.

When Lin Zexu left and Qi Shan came to power, he disbanded Guan Tianpei's sailors, destroyed the defenses, and did not let other teams support the army when it was fighting, so as to negotiate peace with the British.

When the British army attacked Guangzhou in the previous time, the defenders of Guangdong suffered huge losses, the local troops suffered serious losses, and the morale fell to the bottom.

At this time, the forces that provoked the collusion between Sanyuanguan and Leizhou Mixed Yuanzong not only could not pose any substantial threat to them, but also gave the other party an excuse to attack and occupy the city of Guangzhou, which the officials of Guangzhou were also very aware of.

Yiliang and the others were still in the joy of successfully framing the Sanyuanguan, and at this time they just woke up from a dream, it turned out that the situation in Guangzhou was so critical, both the British and the Sanyuanguan could easily occupy Guangzhou, and the two sides did not do this, not because they were not strong enough, but because they were afraid of each other.

From Daoguang to Qishan, they are trying their best to reduce Guangzhou's combat ability, and now it is time for these people to taste the bitter fruits.

At this time, the officials in Guangzhou had no choice, and sent people to the British army many times to promise, groveling, and promising various benefits, so that they could reluctantly lift the British vigilance and agree to give priority to solving the problem of the Sanyuanguan forces.

All this came and went, and it took more than ten days, and this time was enough for Li Xian to conduct basic training for the recruits and complete various arrangements.

Fifteen days after the Sifang Fort was occupied by the Sanyuanguan coalition forces, the British finally attacked with great vigour, marched by land and water, reached the outside of Guangzhou, and confronted the troops led by Li Xian.

Li Xian observed the British troops and found that the army alone had 8,500 men, 50 or 60 artillery pieces, and more than a dozen warships patrolling the water, which could provide some artillery support to the troops on the shore.

On the other hand, Li Xian's side adopted the tactics of heavy back and light front, digging a large number of trenches around the forts in the four directions, building and renovating the forts, and establishing the first heavy position, which was guarded by Li Xian himself with the strength of a regiment, and the others, whether soldiers or peasants, all guarded the rear.

Li Xian also made great improvements to the Sifang Fort.

A large number of sacks and straw bags filled with soil were placed outside the fort and fixed to the wall with nets to reduce the damage to the fort from shelling.

The Sifang Fort was originally an open-air fort without a roof, Li Xian used Sanhe soil and stone pillars to temporarily add a roof to the fort to improve its resistance to artillery, and also used sacks and straw bags to build it to a height of three or four meters, almost reaching the roof, so that even if the roof or outer wall was broken by cannonballs, the damage to the people inside would be very limited.

In addition, a lot of very deep trenches were built at the bottom of the fort for the defenders of the fort to temporarily avoid the shelling of the British army, and they could reach other places through the trenches in peacetime, so they would not be directly exposed to the shelling, and the safety was greatly improved.

Around the Sifang Fort, Li Xian also built a number of similar small forts, relying on trench formations to block the route of the British army to the north.

This era was also the latter part of the fortress period, and forts built mainly of stone were relied on for defense, and battles based on trenches were rare.

When the British arrived, they felt that the original fort had been transformed into a rudimentary fortress by the Chinese defenders, and their defensive capabilities had been greatly improved, but they did not particularly care about it, and immediately began to attack.

The British artillery was very powerful, and the artillery was also elite, and after constructing the artillery position, they shelled the position on Li Xian's side, and Li Xian ordered the artillery battalion to return fire with six artillery pieces and eighteen rocket artillery.

The artillery of this era has a very nasty characteristic, that is, the life is particularly short, the iron cannon fires about 300 shells, and the copper cannon fires about 600 shells, and the barrel can basically no longer be used, otherwise it will seriously affect the accuracy.

It is precisely because of this that Li Xian has a lot of artillery in his hands, but he was seriously damaged in the battle of Sanyuan Blessed Land, and there are not many usable guns, and the industrial strength of Li Xian's side is still very weak, and the military artillery with a range of more than one thousand meters has not yet been imitated, so it needs to be saved.

Relatively speaking, rocket artillery only needs a very simple launcher, and the shell structure is simple, and it is easy to imitate, Li Xian can already produce it himself, so it is much more convenient to use.

The disadvantages of rocket artillery are that they are susceptible to the wind and have a poor ability to destroy defenses such as buildings, but in a field battle like the present, these shortcomings are not so obvious.

Golden Zhiyu: Thank you for the recommendation votes of book friends such as ""Rolling without Money", "And", "Chasing the Sea of the Wind", "Want to Make Money", "Pang Wang", "SSE0zzh", "Death Magic" and other book friends. Other book friends who voted for the recommendation but did not show it in the """Fan Dynamics of this Book"" can post a book review in the book review area, and I will thank you at the same time, thank you.