How to block the British and French fleets in the Bohai Bay, Yi Zhizhi is not only repeatedly calculated, but also Chen Hongming sent warships to investigate on the spot, several round-trips, he naturally knows very well that there is a gap of one or two days in between, however, he is not worried, because the Baihe River has been banned from navigation, and the vicinity of the mouth of the sea has also been under martial law, it is impossible to pass on the news, and it is difficult for the coalition forces to get the news of Tianjin.

Seeing Zhao Wenlie, he looked like he wanted to say something, and he smiled, "Huifu thinks there are still omissions?" ”

Zhao Wenlie was a little hesitant, but when he asked, he said softly: "All these years in the north. The smuggling situation is relatively serious, and Tianjin ...... ”

Crow. Piece smuggling is serious? Yi Zhishu reacted to what the other party was worried about as soon as he thought about it, Beiyang Sailor! At that time, there were many cases of connivance and even secret smuggling of opium by the officers and soldiers of the Guangdong Navy Division, and he didn't know if there was such a situation in the Beiyang Navy Division, but this kind of thing had to be prevented!

"Huifu reminded me in time." Yi Zhizu nodded slightly, the White River is closed to navigation, and the martial law tasks near the mouth of the sea are all carried out by the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Naval Division, and it is impossible to change the guard, but at least additional troops must be sent to supervise, and gunboats must be sent to patrol the sea. He immediately instructed the outside world: "Come here, let Feng Renxuan come, and in addition, call Zaizhao ......." ”

On the morning of the next day, the three gunboats of the Beiyang Naval Division, which were patrolling the sea near Tianjin, discovered that a large area of dense black spots appeared on the sea in the distance, and immediately fired an alarm and immediately hurriedly withdrew into the Baihe River.

Dagukou Fort, Beitang Fort sounded a series of rapid military horns when it landed.

Looking at a large black spot slowly turning into a large white sail shadow, the defenders of Dagukou Fort and Beitang Fort were nervous and sweaty, and all the officers and men saw such a large Western fleet for the first time.

This was not the first time that the British and French naval fleets had come to Tianjin, and they were well aware of the sea situation near Tianjin.

Dagukou South Fort, Zaizhao put down the binoculars, his expression was a little gloomy, he didn't expect the Four-Nation Alliance to actually stop at all, and launched an attack directly, and seeing that this posture was clearly an all-out attack, obviously to capture the Dagukou Fort and Beitang Fort as soon as possible, he really didn't have confidence that he could hold on until dark.

Dagukou Fort is as famous as Humen Fort, known as 'Humen in the south and Dagu in the north.' But in fact, the Dagukou Fort and the Humen Fort are not comparable at all, the Dagukou Fort was built in Jiaqing 11 years, after 40 years of expansion, especially after the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division in the late Daoguang period, the Dagukou Fort has been greatly valued, and has carried out large-scale expansion several times, and has formed six major fort groups, with more than 100 large and small artillery.

But both the number and specifications of the artillery are difficult to compare with the Humen Fort, to put it bluntly, the imperial court has no silver! The artillery of the Humen Fort is often six or seven thousand taels of silver per piece, and there are nearly 100 pieces of artillery of tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the annual expenditure on live-fire training alone is more than one million.

There are only 18 guns of 6,700 taels of silver in Dagukou Fort, and there is not one artillery gun of 10,000 taels of silver, the number is less than 30% of that of Humen Fort, and the rated number of soldiers is only 3,000.

"Military Gate." Long Ruyuan, the deputy general of the Dagu Association, pointed ahead and said, "Yingyi has begun to land." ”

Zai Zhao hurriedly raised the binoculars, and sure enough, the troop carriers following behind the battleship had docked one after another, and the soldiers of the brigade were beginning to land, it was obvious that the enemy was preparing to attack on land and water, and when he saw a large number of mules and horses being driven ashore with a cannon from the gangplank on the ship, he couldn't help but sink in his heart and realized that there was a big trouble.

"Someone, generate electricity." Zai Zhao said in a deep voice: "The enemy soldiers are divided into two routes, attacking Dagu and Beitang respectively, attacking by land and water, and the soldiers are strong, if they hold on until dark, I am afraid of heavy casualties." ”

Tianjin, Haiphong Office.

After reading the telegram, Yi Zhizu casually transferred it to Monk Lingqin, and he knew very well what Zaizhao meant, not because of cowardice, but because he was worried that the casualties of the Beiyang Navy Division would be too large, and the imperial court had other ideas.

The officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Naval Division are basically banner people, and there are many princes and sons of the clan among the officers, if there are heavy casualties, it will inevitably cause criticism, and Seng Greenqin has no doubt about this, once the imperial court misunderstands that it is easy to know that it is to weaken the strength of the Beiyang Naval Division by the hands of Britain and France, and he is afraid that it will be extremely unfavorable to the subsequent war, not only will it not be supported, but it may also be hindered everywhere, and it is even possible to join forces with Britain and France.

After a slight groan, he tentatively asked, "Can you increase the troops?" ”

"It's too late to increase troops now." Yi Zhisuff pondered and said: "Besides, two additional regiments of troops have been transferred to Dagukou and Beitang yesterday..... ”

Gui Liang said with a calm face: "Why do you have to hold on until dark?" ”

Yi Zhizhi lit a cigarette and ignored him, he faintly felt that this guy seemed to have great hostility towards him and the new army of Yuanqi, seeing this situation, Seng Lingqin hurriedly said: "Dagukou is only a hundred miles from Tianjin, and now the troops arriving in Tianjin are less than 10,000, if the enemy's offensive is not delayed, tomorrow, the enemy will come to Tianjin." ”

Gui Liang said in a deep voice: "The troops stationed in Dagukou and Beitang will be withdrawn to Tianjin, plus the troops that will continue to arrive tomorrow, there will be 30,000 troops, and it will be more than enough to defend the city." ”

Yi Zhisuff grabbed Bai Dao: "When the enemy lands, the first target is Tianjin City, cutting off the Beijing-Hangzhou railway line, it is only noon, if you don't hold out until dark, tomorrow morning may even be early in the morning, the enemy will rush to Tianjin." ”

"That can't let the Beiyang Naval Division stand up to the front." Gui Liang muttered softly.

Yi Zhizu pretended not to hear, slowly walked to the sand table and stared at the sand table to ponder, after the increase in troops, the garrison strength of the Beiyang Naval Division in Dagukou and Beitang has been as high as 10,000, and the Yuanqi New Army has reinforced two more regiments, with a total strength of up to 13,000, plus Dagukou and Beitang have perfect fortifications, as long as they do not encounter the enemy's all-out attack and hold on until dark, it is absolutely no problem.

Now it seems that the other side is obviously anxious to capture Tianjin, cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou railway, and as soon as it comes up, it will attack by land and water, attack with all its might, and strive to capture Dagukou and Beitang as soon as possible and advance to Tianjin.

After a long silence, he spoke: "Call back, try your best to delay, nothing can be done, retreat to the military grain city and Gegu, and the reinforcements will arrive before dark." ”

As soon as the battle began, the two sides fought extremely fiercely, and the four-nation coalition forces adopted the usual method of dispatching - advancing by land and water, with warships shelling from the Baihe River, and landing from the side to outflank them.

Zaizhao's headquarters is not far from the main battery, which is also the consistent style of the Beiyang Naval Division - nearby command, rumbling cannons, dense gunfire He heard clearly in the command headquarters, he really didn't expect that the battle would be so fierce, the other party didn't even try to attack, so he launched a full-scale attack!

"Report ——。" A communications officer hurriedly came in and reported: "The enemy is shelling from both sides of the land and water, and the artillery fire is too fierce, and the outer positions of Dagu are asking for artillery support!" ”

"Nope! Tell Tang Huijun to nail me to the position. Zai Zhao said in a deep voice, it was only a quarter of an hour after the start of the war, and he asked for artillery support, where did he draw artillery support? Relying on the fierce artillery of the battleships and attacking the batteries in the north and south at the same time, the enemy has more than 100 guns to deal with the enemy ships on the river, so how can he still have the spare strength to draw out artillery fire to support the peripheral positions?

"Report ——。 The Mongol capital of Xincheng reported that the enemy was about to form a siege of Xincheng, and begged for reinforcements,"

Xincheng is the front line of the Dagukou Fort, responsible for garrisoning the 1,000 Mongolian horse team led by Cheng Bao, he knows very well that in the face of the artillery and mini guns of the Four-Nation Alliance, the cavalry is simply a live target, he said in a deep voice: "Order, Cheng Bao retreats to Gegu." ”

After speaking, he looked at Beitang on the sand table, the enemy's offensive was so fierce, Dagukou was in danger, how long could Beitang hold out? The Beitang Fort can't be compared with the Dagukou Fort at all.

He was worried, so he listened to the report, "Beitang called, the enemy is attacking too fiercely, and the casualties are very large. ”

"Call back, hold on!" Zaizhao said in a deep voice, no matter how fierce the offensive is, the Beitang Fort cannot collapse at the touch of a button, the last war against the British, the loss of Dinghai in nine minutes has become a joke, he doesn't want the Beitang Fort to become a second joke.

On the surface of the White River, on the deck of the flagship of the coalition "Plover", Rear Admiral Chanet of the French Navy looked at the battle situation on the river with a solemn expression, and in less than half an hour, five warships were sunk, and eight were heavily damaged and withdrew from the battle, which he did not dare to imagine before, the artillery of the Qing army was not only dense but also the hit rate was not low, and it was well-trained at a glance.

He secretly rejoiced in his heart that it was a very wise decision to attack Tianjin, if he attacked Guangzhou, a Humen Fort would not know how many casualties it would cause them, and a Dagukou Fort that could not be compared with the Humen Fort at all would cause such a large number of casualties, let alone the Humen Fort, which was known as the first fortress in the Far East?

"General, you must first destroy the barrage chain on the river." Captain Laseang pointed to the river and said, "Otherwise, the warships behind will not be able to go up, and it will be difficult to give full play to the advantages of our warships." ”

Reasonable! Shanai nodded slightly, and said, "Order, the 'Shelter', 'Goddess', 'Tea Falcon', and 'Dilla' stepped forward to break the chain. ”

The British and French fleets were very experienced in dealing with the barrage chain, after all, the Humen Fort did not use this trick less back then, which may have been a headache before, but after having a steam gunboat, it was much easier to destroy this barrage chain.

On the 'Hai' fort, the deputy general Long Ruyuan looked at the telescope with an expressionless face, his heart was sad, he knew very well that this battle could not be supported until dark, and in less than two quarters of an hour, the 'Wei' fort had been beaten into a mess, and there was no standing figure on the main fort, and the heavy artillery on the 'town' fort was also dumb, and it was estimated that it would not take an hour for the 'Hai' and 'door' forts to be destroyed one after another.

He saw very clearly that both the officers and men of his Dagu Association and the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division fought extremely tenaciously, and the gunners were also well-trained, but the enemy's artillery was not only dense, but also very accurate, and at least one or two shells could land on the protruding main battery in a salvo.

"Deputy Rong, look at those steam gunboats."

Raised the binoculars and looked at it, and saw several steam gunboats emitting black smoke rushing straight towards the barrage chain, Long Ruyuan's heart sank, the other party is trying to pull out the barrage chain? Sure enough, when he saw the iron anchor lowered from the ship, he could no longer understand, and the officers and men on the Hai' and 'Men' batteries obviously also saw it, and without waiting for his order, they turned their guns one after another and opened fire on the steam gunboats, and one gunboat was hit one after another, and began to tilt slowly.

"Good fight!" Long Ruyuan couldn't help but snort.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the 'Wei' battery, which had been bombarded by key shelling, was destroyed by intensive artillery fire, and the guns of the battleships on the Baihe River immediately turned their muzzles to bombard his position, and the mountain howitzers on the artillery positions in the south and west kept shelling in turn, and the position was almost covered by artillery fire, with solid shells rolling indiscriminately, and the explosions of flowering shells were incessantly heard, and the officers and men in the trenches did not dare to raise their heads at all.

Tang Huijun finally understood what it meant to be a loser this time, and they all said that the Yuanqi New Army was a loser's way of fighting, damn, compared with these Yangyi, I'm afraid that the Yuanqi New Army is also inferior, damn it, this cannonball is just like falling rain, this is purely using silver to smash people!

"Report ——, enemy is coming."

Tang Huijun grabbed the binoculars and took a look, sure enough, the enemy in front of him was marching forward steadily with muskets in a horizontal line, he narrowed his eyes slightly, and began to charge so quickly? This is exactly what he wants, what he is most afraid of is being bombarded by the endless bombardment of artillery, this situation that he can't be beaten is too depressing, he immediately said excitedly: "Order all departments, bayonet!" ”

Before the words fell, a communications officer quickly ran to him and said loudly: "There is an order from the military gate, immediately withdraw to Gegu!" ”

The officers and soldiers below are not afraid of death, Zaizhao is afraid, he is afraid that the casualties will be too large, causing criticism, he knows very well that the Beijing division is full of Mongolian relatives and nobles and some Han people have great fear of Yuanqi's new army, this time the imperial court cooperated with Yuanqi and placed the decisive battle battlefield with the four-nation alliance army in the area of Tianjin and Beijing, which is a good opportunity - a good opportunity for the imperial court to ease relations with Yuanqi.

Although so far, there are not many princes and ministers who know this truth, but sooner or later this matter will not be able to cover up, once the casualties of the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy Division are too large this time, it will inevitably cast a shadow on the situation between the imperial court and Yuan Qi.

Even if this battle was evacuated too quickly, damaging his reputation and damaging the reputation of the Beiyang Naval Division, he did not hesitate to do it, compared with the détente between the imperial court and Yuan Qi, this was nothing at all.