After capturing the Pazhou Fort, the Seymour fleet and the Ho Bo fleet tacitly marched in parallel, going upriver along the unhurried and unhurried north channel of the Pearl River.

Anyone knows that the city of Guangzhou is close at hand, and it is easy to occupy.

As long as you occupy the two large forts of Liede Fort and Ershawei Fort, you can go outside the city of Guangzhou. And these two large forts are not large battery groups like the Changzhou Fort Group and the Humen Weiyuan Fort Group, but there are more gun positions, but they have already heard that even if it is a large battery, there are less than ten cannons, not to mention that the Liede Fort and the Ershawei Fort seemed to have been captured by the British fleet with only a few thousand people in the war eighteen years ago, and the British Expeditionary Force today is more than several times stronger than eighteen years ago, and it is not difficult to capture these two large forts.

As for the other small batteries along the way, there were only two or three guns, and in the face of a powerful expeditionary fleet, it was a matter of one round of artillery, and perhaps those defenders did not even dare to open fire and fled first. Therefore, Seymour and He Bo both knew in their hearts that it was already a matter of day and night before the soldiers came to the city of Guangzhou.

Thinking that he would soon be able to lead the fleet to break into the Thirteen Lines Wharf outside the city of Guangzhou, Seymour had already begun to think about whether to let go of the military discipline and let his subordinates rob it, this is an astonishing wealth, as long as he gave an order that half of all the spoils of war should be handed over to Her Majesty, he could justifiably turn half of the astonishing wealth of the entire city of Guangzhou into his own disposal, and he would definitely become one of the richest people in Europe, and his family would officially step into the ranks of the wealthy families of Great Britain.

The entire expeditionary fleet went smoothly.

Although the wind was not very favorable, the fleet faced the southwest wind and went upstream, but the wind was not strong, the current of the Pearl River channel was relatively gentle, and the water surface was not very narrow, and the river was very deep, even the flagship "Melville" such a nearly 4,750-ton battleship did not have any difficulty in sailing.

Half an hour later, the vanguard of the expeditionary fleet had passed most of Huangpu Island and came to the end of the Huangpu waterway, where there were the Modiesha Fort and the Liede Fort in the middle of the river.

At this time, it was already more than three o'clock in the afternoon, and although the sun was still beginning to sink in the west, the sky was bright, and a few miles away, the expeditionary fleet found that there were figures flickering on Modiesha Island.

Seymour had just given the order to attack. The Modiesha battery on a small island in the middle of the river opened fire on the front of the fleet. The expeditionary fleet ignored it, braved the artillery fire and stepped forward, although it suffered more than ten rounds of shells from three rounds of artillery bombardment, but it was not a big problem, and at this time it also came to the river only 2 kilometers away from the battery, more than ten warships in the front opened fire at the same time, dozens of shells fell on the Modiesha Fort, and suddenly the entire Modiesha Island in the middle of the river shook violently.

Ten minutes later, several guns of the Whampoa Chong Fort were all silent, but Seymour fought briskly and did not give the order to stop the attack, he ordered to continue the bombardment, and more than 20 warships shelled more than ten rounds, until the entire small island of Modiesha became a mess, there was not a single intact tree, and not a single figure could be seen, then the shelling was stopped, and a team of marines went to the island to search for the booty.

The warships behind the expeditionary fleet continued to advance, and the river, which was not narrow, suddenly became crowded. Seymour knew that it was the captains in the back who saw the forward warships attacking the battery, and they were all warm. Eager to fight, in fact, Seymour is not like this, he has always wanted to vent his evil anger. In the distance of the river in the northwest direction, the faintly visible city of Guangzhou was his target.

But at this moment, as the commander of the entire fleet, he did not relax his vigilance, and directly asked the herald to issue a flag, ordering the entire expeditionary fleet to maintain a formation, appropriately distance itself, and not to crowd together. After all, although the river is not narrow, it is very cramped for the entire huge expeditionary fleet.

What's more, he had also heard of many art of war in this ancient country, and one of them was fireattack. He carefully studied the war 18 years ago, although the British army won a great victory, but also encountered a few local Qing defenders driving fireboats to sneak attack, ready to burn the British warships with fire, but the British army was heavily guarded, and a few cannons sank the attacking fireships.

In addition, it is necessary to beware of mines laid in the river. Although this is a backward East, the Qing people did not successfully use mines more than ten years ago, but Seymour knows that North America has been using mines since the war of the British Empire's rebellion, and the electrolyte-triggered mines invented by the Russians were used in large numbers in naval battles in the Crimean War, pushing mines to the European battlefield on a large scale. The Chinese Empire bought so many weapons from Europe, even such advanced weapons as the Krupp breech-loading rifled gun, who knows if they bought or even mastered this mine technology?

Therefore, although Seymour was hot in his heart and wanted to rush to the city of Guangzhou immediately and fire a salvo of thousands of cannons to level the city, he still calmed down, and the closer he got to the city, the more cautious he became. In addition to ordering the entire expeditionary fleet to maintain a formation and keep an appropriate distance, he also dispatched all two reconnaissance ships in the expeditionary fleet to reconnoiter the enemy's situation upstream and several troop transports to act as mine detection ships. Of course, at this time, there is no mine detection technology, and it can only be observed with the naked eye, and in addition, the only way to detonate the mines is to target troop carriers with a small number of people and low prices. Fortunately, at this time, the laying of mines was also very simple, and for all unknown objects floating on the water, Seymour ordered to be directly smashed with artillery.

Fortunately, along the way, only dozens of floating objects were destroyed by reconnaissance ships and forward warships, and there were no signs of mines. Seymour was also a little relieved, and it seemed that these Orientals should not have mastered the kind of mines of the Russians.

Along the way, there were several small batteries, all of which were configured with three or four guns, and they fired two or three rounds of fire, but before they could damage the warship, they were captured by the powerful fire of the expeditionary fleet. However, to Seymour's surprise, it was clear that these small batteries along the coast were independent of each other, and could not be the opponent of the expeditionary fleet, and even two or three main warships could be captured, so it stands to reason that the defenders of the Chinese Empire should not be so stupid and confront the expeditionary fleet one by one. But in fact, it happened!

It wasn't until later that Seymour reacted. This was the defenders of the Chinese Empire deliberately delaying the advance of the expeditionary force, knowing that these batteries were invincible, and deliberately sending them to the door one by one to provoke. However, the more this was true of the enemy, the more Seymour was unimpressed. This is because the Oriental people are afraid that the city of Guangzhou will be breached, so they use this trick. It is believed that if the enemy can not bear it any further, the two enemy fleets that have taken refuge will also come out, and will definitely defend with the two large batteries, but, in Seymour's opinion, it is just a death struggle. At most, your own expeditionary fleet will lose a few warships.

Thinking of this, Seymour couldn't help but feel happy. He immediately ordered to speed up the march and try to reach the outside of Canton before dark, and perhaps he would be able to conquer Canton tonight and rest in the luxurious official offices in the city.

Of course, Seymour also knew that this was just his good wish. As a matter of fact, at this moment, the flagship "Melville" on which he was riding had just crossed Huangpu Island, and the more than ten warships in the vanguard of the fleet had only just arrived at the river near the Liede Fort, which was at least four or five kilometers away from the southeast corner of Guangzhou City. And by this time, the sky had slowly darkened unconsciously. Seymour looked up at the sky overhead, there was no moon, only some stars shone faintly, the vision was not good at night, Seymour did not dare to be careless, victory was in sight, there was no need to risk attacking the city overnight, or wait until dawn tomorrow morning to attack the city of Guangzhou.

As soon as Seymour wanted to give the order to be on the spot, when he was berthing and resting, news came from the reconnaissance ship in front that the Hunter battery in front was quiet and did not move at all, and it seemed that the entire Hunter battery had completely abandoned its defense and was empty.

Seymour was shocked when he heard this! He had already asked the guide that this Liede Fort was an important gateway to the Hebei Road waterway in the entire province. It stands to reason that the small earthen forts on the riverbank of the enemy's front line must be defended knowing that they are invincible, so how could this Liede fort, which has excellent firepower and defense, not send troops to defend it? There must be a reason for this. Unless it's a flight before a fight. But judging from the performance of the previous enemy army, these Chinese Imperial armies are not like those Qing troops eighteen years ago, and it is unlikely that they will flee before a fight. Then there is only one thing left, which is some kind of trap deliberately set by the enemy.

But in any case, the enemy's abandonment of the strategically important Liede Fort was a good thing for the British Expeditionary Force, and it was necessary to send people to occupy it. As a result, Seymour immediately ordered the marines in the expeditionary fleet to prepare to land on the shore and occupy the Hunter Battery. At the same time, Seymour remembered that there was also an important Ershawei Fort, which stood in the middle of the river, echoing the Hunter Fort. He hurriedly sent someone to find out how the two Shawei forts were, and at the same time asked the merchant surnamed Tan and other guides to summon him, ready to ask in detail.

It didn't take long for another reconnaissance ship to report that it was guarding another important checkpoint leading to Guangzhou City, and the Ershawei Fort was also silent, and the reconnaissance ship was less than 2 kilometers away from the fort, and no one fired at it, and the two small islands on the southeast side of Guangzhou City seemed to have no people, and they looked like they were completely abandoned.

Seymour wondered even more: What the hell is this enemy army doing? Two of the most important batteries were abandoned? So, they suddenly knew that they were invincible and fled? Seymour couldn't believe it was true. He prefers to believe that this is a conspiracy of the enemy army!