Bursts of gunfire like muffled thunder sounded on the sea near Qushan, and the Daotou Port close at hand and the Dinghai County two or three miles away were all heard very clearly, and the British Army Commander Boole, who was stationed in Dinghai County, immediately realized that this was an enemy attack, and ordered his men and horses to enter the predetermined defensive position, and also sent people to Daotou Port to inquire about the situation.

The commander of the British Navy in Daotou Harbor looked like a mourner, he knew more about the situation, and knew that the American fleet was led by several warships of the Guangdong Fleet that were originally stationed in Guangzhou, and what did it mean for this fleet to attack the British ships in Dinghai? If the Guangdong Fleet had not been completely annihilated, it would have come to report the news.

The second lieutenant hurriedly rushed to the door to report: "Report, the American fleet that came suddenly opened fire on the battleship we came to investigate. ”

Bommer interrupted him. Eagerly asked, "How many warships does the other side have?" ”

After a slight hesitation, the second lieutenant said, "There are more than twenty ships involved in the attack. ”

More than twenty ships? What's the situation? Does America not declare war on them? That's impossible! The United States did not have the courage to challenge Britain's maritime supremacy! After a little hesitation, Bomai said without hesitation: "Order, all warships are withdrawn to the port." He knew very well in his heart that since the other party had the ability to annihilate the entire Guangdong Fleet, it would not be difficult to destroy the Dinghai Fleet.

However, Bomai's order could not be carried out at all, and the naval battle on the sea surface of Qushan was in a state of stalemate from the beginning, because several warships in front of the fleet were flying the British flag, and they were familiar ships, which made the eight warships of the Dinghai Fleet who went to check lose their due vigilance.

After the flag language contacted, seeing that the other party's fleet had slowed down, they approached the fleet with a big grin, and soon, they found that the warships of the Guangdong Fleet were already in trouble, and just when they felt bad, the other party launched a surprise attack first.

In the first round of shelling, three of the eight unsuspecting battleships suffered heavy damage, and the other five were also damaged to varying degrees, because the distance was too close, they did not even have a chance to open the distance, and after the second round of the third round of artillery fighting, the eight battleships completely lost their resistance and had to raise the white flag to surrender for help.

Although Yi Zhixiang was reluctant to have the guns on the ship, how could he spare his energy to save them at the moment, but said in a deep voice: "Order, take advantage of the victory to pursue, and enter the port." ”

"Loser." Guan Tianpei scolded angrily, this is more than a hundred artillery, just watching it sink to the bottom of the sea? This place is very deep, don't think you can salvage it after sinking, he hurriedly said: "Leave a few sailor warships, don't you need artillery to defend Dinghai?" ”

Yi Zhizhi shook his head and said, "Yes, the military gate will stay and organize the rescue." ”

Daotou Port, hearing that all eight warships had raised the white flag and surrendered, Bomai sighed secretly, for the navy and army of the British Empire, surrender is not a shameful thing, and it is shameful to escape, but since the British Empire dominated the sea, the surrender of the navy is extremely rare, not in a desperate situation, it is impossible to surrender at all.

He knew that now was not the time to be sad, so he groaned a little, and then said in a deep voice: "Send someone to Dinghai City and tell the army commander Bourley, that the Dinghai Fleet has been defeated, except for the four warships, all the others have surrendered, and we will go out of the port to bring reinforcements and strive to come to the rescue as soon as possible." As he spoke, he paused and said in a deep voice: "The remaining warships are withdrawn from the port from the north. ”

In Dinghai County, Army Commander Bourli gasped after receiving the battle report, and was stunned for a long time without saying a word, and knocked out eight battleships of the Dinghai Fleet in a few rounds of shelling! How many warships did the other side come? Strive to bring reinforcements to ask for help as soon as possible, where are the reinforcements? In Tianjin! This time and again, it will take at least half a month, and these sick numbers in the city can hold on for half a month?

After a long time, he scolded like thunder: "Coward! There were no brigadier generals who fled in the British Empire! He is not worthy to be a soldier of the British Empire! Scolding and scolding, he also knew in his heart that staying in the port with four warships would also be the end of surrender.

As soon as the morale-boosting Yuanqi fleet entered the port, several warships took turns bombarding the Dongyueshan Fort to suppress the firepower, and the merchant ships that acted as troop carriers released small boats one after another and landed from several directions, with the goal of seizing the Dongyueshan Fort and the nearby commanding heights, which was exactly the same as when the British captured Dinghai.

The British army was too confident, and they didn't expect the Qing Dynasty to have the courage to counterattack Dinghai, and they did not expand and rebuild the Dongyueshan Fort, but in fact they lacked labor, Dinghai was an empty city, and they couldn't catch coolies, and the British army itself was suffering from malaria and fever, so they didn't have the energy, so they just replaced the Qing artillery on the original fort with British iron guns.

In the face of the suppression of the artillery fire on several battleships, the few poor guns on the battery did not have a chance to fire a few cannons, and I saw a large number of soldiers in simple Western-style military uniforms landing one after another to advance towards the battery, and the royal artillery company stationed in the battery did not flee like the Qing army, Lieutenant Barrett carefully observed the soldiers on the march with a telescope, and found that they were all Oriental faces, and couldn't help exclaiming: "Oh my God, it's an Oriental." ”

What puzzled him was that these Orientals did not have braids, they did not wear the uniforms of Qing officers and soldiers, and they had all the muskets in their hands, and they marched very fast, but the queue - it should be said that there was no queue at all, sparsely and quickly pressed towards the fort, which made him give up the idea of shelling with artillery, in the face of this loose formation, whether it was solid or flowering, the lethality was extremely limited, he thought, when they approached the assembly, let them taste the taste of flowering shells.

But what made him depressed was that those soldiers rushed to the foot of the mountain and showed no sign of gathering, and when they approached the foot of the mountain to a distance of four or five hundred yards, they each looked for cover to shoot at them. Even with a rifled gun, it is not easy to hit at a distance of four or five hundred yards.

However, after seeing several soldiers on the battery being shot and falling, Barrett's face turned pale all of a sudden, what kind of rifled gun was the other party using? Can you have such a high hit rate at such a distance? How can this battle be fought? This is simply a situation where you can only take a beating and cannot fight back, because the artillery on the battery cannot attack the foot of the hill at all.

People on the battery continued to be shot and fell, which soon caused panic, only to be beaten and could not be helped, and the casualties continued to increase, no matter how elite the army would collapse, all the soldiers were terrified to find a place to hide, for fear of becoming a live target in the eyes of others, the original intermittent sound of artillery on the battery finally fell completely quiet.

Looking at the frightened expressions of the soldiers, Barrett didn't know what to say, he looked back at Dinghai City, which was still motionless, and knew that it was impossible to count on the support of the defenders in the city, in fact, he knew very well in his heart that even if the defenders in the city dared to come out to support, they would be intercepted back by the opponent's artillery and muskets with ultra-long range and high shooting accuracy.

The problem is that if the fort is lost, can Dinghai City still hold it? How did they capture Dinghai in the first place, and now people paint scoops according to the gourd, in the face of the same tactics, they are also powerless, laughing at the Qing soldiers at the beginning, it has only been a long time, and it is the turn of people to laugh at them.

Just as he hesitated, a soldier reminded in horror: "The enemy is rushing up." ”

Barrett didn't even have the courage to fight bayonets at this time, he knew that his soldiers no longer had the courage to fight bayonets, besides, they were now in a Jedi, and if they continued to resist, they would let everyone die in this fort, and it was meaningless to resist, he slowly glanced at the soldiers, and he said in a deep voice: "Raise the white flag and surrender." ”

Seeing the Dongyue Mountain Fort hanging out a white flag, holding a cigar, Yi Zhicontent, who was standing on the deck watching the battle, took out his pocket watch and looked at it, and said with a smile: "The British army is much stronger than our Qing officers and soldiers, from the beginning of the war to the present, it will take an hour and thirty minutes, I don't know, tomorrow the British army in Dinghai County will surrender." ”

Yan Yangtian was a little puzzled and said: "The British army is known as the hegemon of Europe and the hegemon of the sea, and the principal also said that the British army is the strongest army in the world, why do they surrender at every turn?" ”

This question is really hard to say, Yi Zhixiang glanced at him, and said in a deep voice: "Specifically, it should be a different cultural background, we are Confucian culture, life and death are small, and the loss of discipline is big, and the emphasis is on sacrificing life for righteousness, and the emphasis is on rather standing and dying, than kneeling to live, but Western culture is different, they do not sacrifice their lives for righteousness, and it is not like we regard the famous solar terms as bigger than the sky, and more importantly, after the enlightenment of European culture, pay attention to human rights, treat prisoners preferentially, treat prisoners well, and the warring parties often exchange prisoners and redeem prisoners of war.

Therefore, once the war is unfavorable and in a desperate situation, examples of the surrender of all Western armies can be said to abound, because in their philosophy, surrender is not a shameful thing, in our words, it is called leaving the green mountains without worrying about running out of firewood. ”

No wonder these British troops surrendered at every turn! Yan Yangtian muttered, and then said, "For these British prisoners, the principal is also ready to treat them preferentially?" ”

Yi Zhishu really didn't seriously consider this problem, he couldn't be the master of the 1,000 British prisoners of war in Guangzhou, so he didn't think about it, but the battle of Dinghai was completely his decision, and there would definitely be no fewer prisoners in this battle, how should these prisoners of war be treated? From the perspective of humanitarianism, it is natural to treat prisoners of war preferentially, but in these days, the Westerners have not told them anything about humanitarianism, and the self-proclaimed civilized England is still waging war for the opium trade, so it is necessary to talk about bullshit humanitarianism to them!

But thinking about it in turn, killing prisoners is really not a good thing, especially because Britain is far more powerful, and the large-scale massacre of British prisoners ******of war is very likely to trigger strong British revenge, this evil result is not what he wants to see, and he does not want to see the war further expand because of the killing of prisoners.

Furthermore, he didn't want the regimental warriors trained by Yuanqi to fight to the death blindly and meaninglessly, after all, it was not the soldier's fault that he became a prisoner of war, and the soldier should not be asked to give his life for the mistake of his superiors, which is inhumane!

After pondering for a long time, he said slowly: "When you come out to mix, you always have to pay it back, have you ever heard of this sentence?" ”

Hearing him come up with such a headless and brainless sentence, Yan Yangtian was a little surprised, shook his head blankly, and said, "The student is stupid." ”

Yi Zhixiang smiled and said: "As the saying goes, you do the first year of junior high school, I do the fifteenth, there is no victory in a war, today we kill the British prisoners of war, the British army will kill our prisoners of war in the future, we will give preferential treatment to the British prisoners of war, and the British army will also treat our prisoners of war, I don't want you to die meaninglessly, convey my words to the officers and soldiers below as they are." ”

Seeing that he was thinking about them all the time, Yan Yangtian's heart was hot, and he hurriedly stood up and said loudly: "The students obey orders." ”

On the east side of the county seat, on the east side of the foothills of Qingleitou Mountain, Hu Shuisheng, commander of the third battalion of the first regiment, led his next company to land and then interspersed all the way and rushed straight to Qingleitou Mountain.

Hu Shuisheng is a native of Ningbo who can speak Dinghai dialect, but he is not familiar with the terrain of Dinghai, passing through a village all the way, seeing that every house is closed, estimating that the local people are fighting together, afraid of being affected and fled, or it is possible that the British army has fled when they occupied Dinghai.

He led a few regiments into a house, he carefully observed, found that the stove was still hot, and couldn't help but be happy, and hurriedly withdrew to assemble the team, and said loudly: "This is the first time that the Yuanqi regiment has practiced fighting across the sea and out of the province, I will reiterate the military regulations of the Yuanqi regimental training, those who enter people's houses in vain and take the people's belongings without permission, regardless of size, are engaged in military law at the lightest, and beheaded on the spot at the heavy; women; Chop! those who injure innocent people; Chop! But remember it clearly, don't violate military rules and say that military law is ruthless. ”

As he spoke, he paused and said, "Scatter around, look for big families, and report back immediately if you find it." ”

Hu Shuisheng was originally from a peasant family, so he naturally knew that in the countryside, large families were generally noble families or gentry families, and they had high prestige in the local area, so he wanted to find someone to lead the way.

Soon, he was led by the soldiers to a large family outside the door, and saw that this was a very big family with a bit of identity, the blue brick wall was not only high but also very long, covering a large area, he personally stepped forward to pat the door knocker, and shouted in Dinghai dialect: "We are the volunteers of the Guangdong sailors, come to recover Dinghai, is there anyone?" Fatigue leads us up the mountain. ”

After saying it three times, Xu is not standard Dinghai dialect worked, and a middle-aged man in his early thirties with a goatee who looked like a housekeeper opened the door and came out, looked at them a few times, and then said suspiciously: "Your soldiers are from the Guangdong Navy?" ”

The Yuanqi regiment practiced a Western-style military uniform, wearing a hat and carrying a musket, which was very different from the Eight Banners Green Battalion, no wonder people didn't believe it, Hu Shuisheng smiled, took off his military hat, turned around, and flicked a small piece of wet braid on the back of his head, and said: "Training needs, let's all keep small braids." ”

Seeing the braids, the housekeeper no longer doubted it, and hurriedly said enthusiastically: "Are you going to go to Qingleitou Mountain?" ”

"Yes." Hu Shuisheng hurriedly said: "We are going to set up artillery on Qingleitou Mountain to bombard the Western devils in the county, but we are not familiar with the situation on the mountain. ”

The housekeeper didn't say a word, and said simply: "I will immediately arrange for someone to guide you and call everyone back to help transport the artillery." (To be continued.) )