If these two ships encounter ordinary Chinese sailing ships, such a trick may also work, but unfortunately they encounter the naval fleet of the Huaxia Army, although the ships of this navy are very problematic, but it is also a fleet built and trained according to the regular navy, not that just two merchant ships can fight.

Speaking of which, these two merchant ships are ocean-going merchant ships of more than 1,000 tons, and each ship has more than six guns, which is much more powerful than ordinary Chinese ships.

In 1832, an ordinary armed merchant ship called the "Amsterd", whose armament level was similar to that of these two ships, ended up docking in the waters of Fuzhou, and the then governor of Fujian mobilized almost all the naval forces in Fujian, and even with the assistance of shore defense artillery, it failed to prevent the merchant ship with the nature of spy from forcibly breaking through the fire blockade into Fuzhou, and then traded, obtained supplies and probed for information.

It was in the early days of the Opium War a few years ago that the British consul at that time relied on a dozen armed merchant ships to blockade the entire Pearl River, and later defeated the Guangdong Navy Division led by Guan Tianpei to almost annihilation.

It's just that these two ships were unlucky this time, and when they met the Huaxia Navy led by Li Xian, they were kicked to the iron plate.

The British Navy's combat method was to get close to the enemy ships and shoot at close range, then force them to within tens of meters, withstand the solid shells fired by the enemy ships with a strong hull above the sturdy hull, and finally use the guns on their own ships to force people to the bottom of the sea.

By contrast, the Chinese navy fights in a very different and obscene way than its British counterparts.

The Huaxia army and navy surrounded the British ship and did not get very close, but circled the front of the British ship with two paddle steamers, and fired solid artillery shells and rocket artillery more than 1,000 meters away, not seeking to sink the British merchant ship, but only to interfere with the navigation of the other side and delay its movement.

The number of guns mounted on the steamships was small, but they were all imitations of authentic military artillery, with an effective firing range of more than 1,200 meters.

In contrast, the British merchant ships were only equipped with commercial guns sold by the Royal Arsenal, and other performances, but the range was somewhat inferior to that of steam ships.

Harassed by two steamships, the British merchant ships were unable to sail with pleasure and inevitably slowed down.

Then, two cruisers attacked, constantly harassing each other from the flank.

The crews of the British merchant ships were also knowledgeable, and they immediately saw that the other party was an authentic light cruiser in terms of ship type, and in terms of sailing speed and artillery equipment, it was also an authentic cruiser, or the kind loaded with twelve military guns.

The British crew sweated down at that time, who said that the tonnage of merchant ships was larger than that of cruisers, but the merchant ships against the warships, there was still no chance of victory, if they really worked hard, just relying on these two warships to shoot at close range at any cost, they could also damage or even sink all the two merchant ships.

Fortunately, although the two cruisers were capable of defeating the merchant ships, they did not bother to shoot closely, but began to bombard them with artillery at a distance, attracting the full attention of the merchant ships and making it almost impossible for the British merchant ships to run on the sea.

Taking advantage of this time, several Fufune battleships came around from behind, attacking neither the front nor the flank of the British merchant ship, but stubbornly attacking its stern.

You must know that whether it is a Western ship or a Chinese ship, it is the strongest in the bow, followed by the side, and then the protection at the stern is the weakest.

It is important to know that stern rudders are generally installed at the stern, so from a structural point of view, no matter how much reinforcement is worse than the bow and sides, and it is more troublesome to install guns in the stern; even in modern times, the stern is still the weakest part of the whole ship to install power units and propellers.

The Fuchuan battleships of the Huaxia Army went around the rear to attack the tail, and the sailors on the British merchant ships immediately reacted, wanting to protect the tail, and also wanted to pull the idle artillery to the tail and wanted to hit the ships in the rear.

However, the Huaxia Army had fought several battles with the British Navy in the South Seas, and it had always relied on its speed to run away as soon as it saw that the enemy ships had many ships and many guns; when they found that the enemy warships were lone behind, they swarmed up in a swarm, adopted the tactics of wolf packs, pinned down the bow with good ships, and then attacked the tail with a large number of ships, so that they would ignore the tail and defeat the enemy with absolute numerical superiority and cooperation.

According to this tactic, more than a dozen ships can be damaged or captured without damage when they encounter two warships, not to mention ordinary merchant ships that are countless times worse than warships.

Several Fufu warships took turns to fight, and little by little they broke the rudder of the British merchant ship, making it impossible for the two ships to sail again.

In the sea, there is no need to make a big hole in the ship, as long as the rudder is damaged and cannot maneuver, the ship will lose any chance to fight back, and can only be a lamb to the slaughter.

After more than a dozen ships of the navy took turns, the rudder of the two British merchant ships was broken, and they could only fly the white flag, lower the sails, and let the soldiers of the Chinese army pass on the captured sailors.

After the Chinese army occupied Guangdong, it was strictly forbidden to buy and sell opium, but the Qing court had almost no countermeasures against the opium trade, making Fuzhou in the north of Guangdong and Shanghai in Zhejiang become important places for the opium trade.

After seizing a large amount of opium from two British merchant ships, Li Xian was in a good mood and announced that the two British merchant ships had violated the smoking ban and that all opium, cargo, and ships would be confiscated.

"Didn't you say that China does not ban the opium trade, why do you still arrest us?" A sailor on the British ship, who had just come from the South Seas, did not know the situation in China, and couldn't help but complain in a daze, but let the more experienced veterans around him immediately cover his mouth.

"Shut up, John, do you want to kill everyone? This is clearly not the Qing army, but the rebel army of Canton.

The army in Guangdong hates the opium trade the most, and if it is discovered, it will be dealt with harshly, so you don't talk nonsense. An old sailor warned the rookie fiercely, but he was puzzled in his heart, although the Huaxia Army did not allow the opium trade, but he had never heard of the other party sending troops to patrol the sea, and this was Fujian and not Guangdong, how could he be so unlucky to be caught.

However, the Huaxia Army naturally did not pay attention to the thoughts of the sailors on the British ship, but sent two ships forward, pulled the British ship with a thick rope, and then dragged it to Dayuan Island.

For a period of time after that, the Huaxia Navy made frequent sorties, patrolling the vicinity of Fuzhou, and the so-called anti-smoking work was done in full swing.

The Huaxia Navy is not strong, but there are many ships, and there are actually nearly 50 warships on Dayuan Island, which is naturally insufficient with the regular British Navy, but it is used to suppress the Fuzhou Naval Division, which is much worse than itself, and to bully the British merchant ships with poor equipment, which is more accurate than the other.

In a short period of one month, more than 100 Fuzhou merchant ships were punished for trafficking opium, and more than a dozen British ships were enforced in the law.

Among them, those who have a small amount of opium and do not violently resist the law only pay a small fine and let them go after some education; those who have too much opium or try to fight back with the weapons on board will be severely fined, and in some serious cases, they will even be dragged to Dayuan Island by the navy with people and goods on board.

For a time, from Fuzhou to Zhejiang to Shanghai, all the rumors were in the air, and both Chinese merchant ships and foreign ships were in a panic.