From the sea, it seems that the Qing army is withdrawing on a large scale overnight, but in fact it is Tang Zaosheng who urgently mobilizes troops overnight to deploy, but the troops advancing in the direction of Maputo do so do not light torches, but are illuminated by the evacuated torches.

Tang Zaosheng originally thought that he would be able to hold on for at least ten days with the help of the coastal defense position, but he never thought that the British naval guns were so powerful that with the fourteen 305-mm heavy guns of four ironclad ships, they would ravage what he thought was a rather solid position in an hour, which completely disrupted his plan and deployment.

Although Yi Zhizhi had already retreated to the second line, he couldn't swallow this sulk, and even if he wanted to retreat, he couldn't let the British army easily capture Maputo, and the British army had to pay a heavy price.

In fact, the first line of defense could not be held, which was expected for a long time, and how to snipe the British landing had been planned in detail for a long time, but now it was just in advance.

Jiang Baxiang's thoughts, he knew very well, it was nothing more than that he was worried that the British army would carry out a crazy attack after heavy losses, and he was afraid that there would be big casualties, but he didn't care about it, as long as he could hit the British army hard, the second line of defense could not be defended, and it was a big deal to retreat in great strides. If he really dares to chase, he should burn high incense.

Maputo's movements, the British troops on the sea just wanted not to pay attention, the battle was too much, and the long line of torches like fire dragons was too conspicuous in the night.

Tang Zaosheng's trick deceived almost all the British generals, combined with the Qing army's initiative to withdraw from their positions during the day, and then to the endless stream of torches out of the city, no one would have expected that the Qing army was urgently deployed overnight.

As the commander of the expeditionary fleet, He Bu did not doubt it, although he knew that the Qing army was cunning, but in the face of absolute strength, it was useless to use any tricks, and since the naval artillery had an absolute overwhelming advantage, there was no need to scruple.

At six o'clock, four ironclad ships equipped with 305 mm guns, including the British "Sovereign," swaggered and quickly approached the opposite side.

Seeing this situation, in the No. 3 battery, the battalion commander Song Deheng, who had been paying attention to the sea situation, scolded and said: "The dog day is here so early, and it is necessary to evacuate before the enemy shells." ”

Company commander Lin Hongsheng touched the black barrel with a painful face, "It's a pity to blow it up like this...... ”

"Don't blow up and leave it to the enemy, and then turn the muzzle to hit us?" Song Deheng snatched him up, and said angrily: "Hurry up, don't rub it off, there were more than 400 casualties yesterday." ”

On the sea, when the four warships were lined up, preparing for a new round of shelling, a series of explosions sounded from the Qing army's position opposite, seeing this situation, Arthur Hood hurriedly held the telescope to observe, and when the explosion stopped, he put down the telescope and said: "Send a signal, the Qing army is suspected of destroying the artillery ammunition on the position, do you continue to shell?" ”

Soon, the communications officer stepped forward and reported: "Order, continue the shelling!" ”

The communications officer who was waiting for him retreated, and Lieutenant Colonel Landis, who had been following him left and right, couldn't help but sneer: "Our commander was frightened by the Qing people, the Qing army evacuated last night, and took the initiative to destroy the artillery ammunition ...... on the position early this morning, why should we waste ammunition?" ”

Seeing him talking about Hebu in vain, Arthur Hood looked at him dissatisfiedly and said, "It is better to be cautious on the battlefield than to be reckless. As he spoke, he raised his hand and said, "Prepare for shelling." ”

If yesterday's shelling was just a demonstration, this early morning round of shelling was to clear out the potential threat, and Hebu had already decided at the early morning pre-battle meeting that he had decided to land head-on from the Qing army's position.

This round of artillery shelling lasted intermittently for half an hour before it stopped, the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, the position was generally silent, and the dense and powerful shells almost plowed the position from beginning to end, coupled with the previous self-explosion, all the batteries and trenches on the position were basically completely damaged, and everywhere you looked, there were dense and terrifying huge craters.

At the city headquarters, Tang Zaosheng, who hadn't closed his eyes all night, was still in good spirits, and said loudly: "It's good, he won't plow again, I don't have the bottom in my heart, but now I can rest assured." ”

Jiang Baxiang, who was holding a bowl of white rice porridge, glanced at it and said, "Don't be too happy, this can only show that the British army is cautious." ”

"It's better to be cautious, the more cautious the better! I'm afraid they're not careful! Tang Zaosheng said with a smile: "The more cautious you are, the more likely it is to land from the front of the position." ”

Last night they were busy all night, aimed at the British landing from their position, the more cautious the British army, the greater the possibility of landing from the position, this is the actual situation, after all, the position has been shelled twice, it can be said that it has been plowed twice, plus the terrain is also open, it is much safer than landing from the port, the channel in and out of the port is narrow, there are more warships can not be opened, and the British army is not clear about the situation in the city, as long as Hebu is not nervous, will choose to land directly from the position.

After bowing his head and drinking two mouthfuls of porridge, Jiang Baxiang said: "Don't play too hard, if the British army suffers heavy casualties, it will inevitably retaliate violently, our first line of defense will collapse in one day, and the second line of defense will last a few more days." ”

"Why hang yourself from a tree?" Tang Zaosheng said disapprerovingly: "As long as we can inflict heavy losses on the British army, even if both lines of defense are lost, then what's the matter?" Inflicting heavy losses on the British army can also inspire the people. ”

Jiang Baxiang didn't argue with him either, and said, "Do you want to ask the principal?" ”

"No, you don't." Tang Zaosheng said: "If something happens, I'll bear it alone." ”

"Less." Jiang Baxiang said angrily, saying that he was drinking porridge by himself, Tang Zaosheng understood his temperament, immediately smiled, and grabbed a steamed bun casually.

At seven o'clock, the British fleet pressed over, out of caution, He Buxian sent five small and medium-sized ironclad ships with strong mobility to patrol and reconnoitre, and saw that the Qing army position did not react, he was completely relieved, and the five warships to be waited for successively sent a signal of safety, and he ordered, "Land!" ”

Landing from the frontal of the Qing army's position, he was carefully considered, the sea here is open, it is convenient to give full play to the fleet's firepower advantage, the Qing army's position has undergone two shellings, there can be no more ambushes, even if there is, it can be quickly suppressed by the battleship gun, in his heart, the Qing army's new Makqin heavy machine gun is still very jealous, Pretoria battle, there are too many officers and soldiers who died from heavy machine guns.

The landing was unusually smooth, a regiment that landed first quickly searched the entire position, and there was no one to be seen, the Qing army had indeed all withdrawn, and received a report, and the heart that Hebu had been hanging on was finally let go, and the British army immediately carried out a large-scale landing, and the dense troop transports shuttled back and forth to transport a boatload of officers and soldiers ashore, in order to completely control Maputo and cut off the Transvaal's access to the sea, the 20,000 troops stranded in Cape Town came with the fleet.

The British troops who landed quickly gathered the whole team, and then according to the pre-war deployment, quickly advanced to occupy the favorable terrain, seeing that everything was going well, Hebu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, landed smoothly, and the plan to capture Maputo was more than half completed, he was about to send a small fleet up the river to cooperate with the army to capture Maputo, but suddenly heard a humane: "Hot air balloon!" ”

He looked up, and sure enough, a huge colorful hot air balloon was slowly rising from the north of Maputo, he couldn't help but be surprised, the Qing army in Pretoria used a hot air balloon to reconnoiter the entire battlefield, what is the purpose of the Qing army raising a hot air balloon at this time?

The first thing he thought of was the large-caliber marine artillery of the Qing army, and the battle of Pretoria was the large-caliber marine artillery of the Qing army, and once the British troops landed were out of the range of the naval guns, they would inevitably be shelled by the Qing army.

However, he still felt uneasy in his heart, and he had a feeling of being ambushed, but he didn't know what was wrong, and just as he was searching his stomach and thinking, the Qing army's land artillery began to shell, at first only sporadic explosions, but then the explosions intensified.

He Bu was soon surprised to find that the artillery of the Qing army was actually shelling from three directions, east, west and north, and the artillery fire was very dense, how many heavy artillery did the Qing army have? He secretly wondered in his heart, and what surprised him even more was that the artillery of the Qing army seemed to be within the range of 305 mm naval guns, which was too bold!

He immediately said in a deep voice: "Order the 'Sovereign' and other 4 ships to separate the artillery suppression. ”

The rumbling cannon instantly resounded across the sea, although the 305 mm naval guns had a long range, they lacked accuracy, and the hit rate was extremely low, and Tang Zaosheng consciously scattered the land guns, looking at the dense artillery fire, it was just an illusion caused by the continuous shelling of the artillery.

Although the naval artillery was suppressed by firing one after another, it had no effect, and the artillery of the Qing army was still fierce and dense, and seeing this situation, the landing troops retreated one after another.

Seeing that the naval artillery suppressed the Qing army's artillery uselessly, Hebu was also quite helpless, the hit rate of the naval guns was already low, and for long-distance targets, the hit rate was even lower, it seems that it is not easy to capture Maputo, if you want to occupy it for a long time, I am afraid it will be even more difficult, unless you can completely annihilate these Qing troops.

As the landed British troops gradually retreated, the artillery of the Qing army also began to extend the shelling, and it felt like a cannonball chasing behind their buttocks, forcing them to retreat quickly.

The troops in the front quickly retreated, while the troops in the rear were still moving forward, and as soon as they converged, they became a pot of porridge, and a large number of officers and men remained in an open area behind the position, waiting for orders.

Seeing this scene from the binoculars, He Bu's sense of crisis became stronger and stronger, he thought that the Qing army pretended to retreat on a large scale last night, and early in the morning, it took the initiative to destroy the artillery and ammunition on the position, but now it used land artillery to force the landing troops to retreat step by step.

Although he didn't figure out what the problem was, the sense of uneasiness in his heart was getting stronger and stronger, and he was deeply aware of the cunning and ruthlessness of the Qing army........ ”

As soon as he turned around, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a large fire rising from the position, followed by a loud thunderclap, and even the battleship under his feet was shaking, holding on to the side of the ship, he turned his head to look, and saw a huge cloud of gunpowder smoke rising into the air on the position.

In the headquarters in Maputo City, although he had been prepared, Tang Zaosheng was still startled by the violent explosion, if he hadn't held on to the table in time, he almost fell to the ground, the entire headquarters was shaking, and the ground under his feet was shaking.

Jiang Baxiang was even more unbearable, he was sitting on the chair and even fell to the ground with the chair, got up, he glared angrily, "Why is there such a big movement?" You blew up all the ammunition? ”

Tang Zaosheng's ears were still buzzing, he didn't hear what he said at all, he looked at him blankly, Jiang Baxiang also found that he couldn't hear his voice at all, and stared at him fiercely with the eyes of a loser, the place where the explosion was the ammunition depot of the entire position, and they had always regarded the first line of defense as the main battlefield, and most of the ammunition was stored in that underground ammunition depot.

When the tinnitus subsided, Jiang Baxiang glared at him and said, "The ammunition has exploded." Is this day over? ”

"Say what?" Tang Zaosheng said loudly: "It's the explosives for mining, and I filled in all the explosives for gold mining." As he spoke, he also had a palpitating look, "I didn't expect the power to be so ........" ”

All the explosives used to mine the gold ore were filled in? Jiang Baxiang was speechless for a moment, it was dozens of tons of explosives, and after a while, he said, "You report to the principal yourself." ”

Not only did the unprecedented explosion wipe out the British troops gathered above the ammunition depot, but the British troops for miles around were suffering heavy casualties from the shock wave generated by the massive explosion.

Looking at the huge gunpowder smoke rising from the position, the Qing army and the British army were dumbfounded, and He Bu's face turned extremely pale in an instant, although the navy did not suffer any losses, but the army on the shore suffered at least half of the casualties, at least a few thousand people gathered in that place at that time, damn the Qing army, deliberately forced them to that place with artillery!

On the deck of the 'Sovereign', Arthur Hood looked at the sky dumbfounded, Hebu kept saying that the Qing army was cunning and ruthless, originally he still didn't believe it, but now he didn't dare to believe it, since yesterday, the Qing army actually prepared this trap, and then induced them step by step to step into it completely, how many casualties did they have to suffer this time? He couldn't imagine it.

What should we do next? The army suffered heavy casualties, I am afraid that they no longer have the courage to face the Qing army, and the Qing army's land artillery, they are also powerless to suppress, so they can't just withdraw to Cape Town?