Guangzhou.

"Quick, bring the ladder over!"

Foshan boatman Chen Kai waved his hand behind and shouted.

Behind him, on the bank of the Pearl River, dozens of poor people in ragged clothes ran excitedly towards this side with a long ladder, and on both sides of these people, countless dilapidated boats docked on the bank of the Pearl River, countless poor people in ragged clothes armed with all kinds of messy weapons, carrying long ladders and rushing to the ancient city wall in front of them, as for the moat, these poor people who grew up by the river can be ignored at all.

But there were no Ming soldiers.

In fact, the Ming army, which pursued and killed one and a half brigades of the Qing army, had not yet arrived, but the people who couldn't wait to start attacking the city first.

"Top of your head!"

Suddenly, a person shouted at Chen Kai.

Chen Kai hurriedly raised his head.

On the wall overhead, several bannermen, old and weak, were desperately trying to lower a cannon and prepare to fire at them.

In fact, the number of defenders on the city wall is very small, because the vast majority of the Qing army, including some of the garrison Eight Banners, were taken to the front line by Yang Fang, and they were completely herded in the pursuit of the Ming army and the siege of the people everywhere, and no one has fled back until now, and they can't escape back, so there is no defense in the real sense of the city. And after the news of Yang Fang's fiasco arrived, the poor people in the city had already started, at this time, the smoke in the city of Guangzhou was billowing out, the shouts of killing shook the sky, the regimental training of the garrison of the Eight Banners and those gentry plus a small number of green battalions, just to deal with the rebellious people in the city were too busy to defend the city wall. In particular, the regimental training and some of the green battalions have also begun to defect, after all, this kind of chaos is a good opportunity to make a fortune, and those green battalions that have been completely reduced to the ground pi and the regimental training that are themselves local pi, know very well that such an opportunity cannot be missed. Fortunately, because the garrison of the Eight Banners has been forced to a dead end, it can be said that all the people are soldiers, even women and children have taken up arms, and now there are mainly these people on the city wall, but their number is too small to take care of the long city wall for dozens of miles, and even these people are not only defending the outside, some rebellious dock coolies have already fought with them on the city wall.

Chen Kai looked at the city wall and held the spear in his hand without hesitation......

Nor is it actually a spear.

It was a hoe that smashed the hoe blade, and the front end of the iron pipe embedded in the wooden handle was sharpened, which could basically be used as a spear, and he roared and threw it upwards suddenly, and in the middle of an old Eight Banner soldier who was about to set fire, he passed through the chest in the latter's scream, and the ignition rod immediately fell on the city wall.

That's when the ladder arrived.

But just as the ladder was being erected, another Eight Banners soldier picked up a starting fire pole and prepared to light the cannon with a hideous expression.

Almost at the same time, not far from Chen Kai, a man in a martial arts costume raised a slingshot, and the mud ball hit the eye of the Eight Banners soldier accurately, who screamed and hurriedly covered his eyes, while another man in a costume threw a hook upward, grabbed the rope and went to the city in a blink of an eye almost in one go, carrying a sword and rushing towards those Eight Banners soldiers. At this time, those Eight Banners soldiers didn't care about the cannon anymore, and stepped forward to meet the battle with their waist knives, but at this time, the ladder also reached the head of the city, Chen Kai was the first to rush up, and as soon as he appeared, a Eight Banners soldier opposite him pulled the trigger of the shotgun, and the bullet slammed into his shoulder with a splash of flesh and blood. Chen Kai roared fiercely, rushed to the city wall regardless of the bleeding wound, looking at his hideous face, the Eight Banners soldiers on the opposite side panicked and wanted to reload, and then Chen Kai came to him, this guy screamed in fright and turned around and ran, Chen Kai raised his foot and put it on his ass.

The Eight Banners athlete screamed and fell off the city wall.

Chen Kai pulled out his hoe spear, turned around and threw it again to the right, pinning it accurately to the back of a Eight Banners soldier who was fighting with the man in costume.

"Good means!"

The man also stabbed another Eight Banners soldier to death with a sword, and then said.

"Fish practicing."

Chen Kai said with a grin.

"Red Boat Disciple Li Wenmao."

The man in the costume said.

"Chen Kai, the boat."

Chen Kai arched his hand and said.

"Let's go, let's kill the Tartars together and welcome the God Emperor!"

Li Wenmao said.

The two immediately looked at each other and smiled, and then rushed towards the nearest Eight Banners Army with a roar at the same time, the two leaders of the Guangdong Tiandihui rebellion during the Xianfeng period in history, and thus began their side-by-side battles more than ten years in advance.

At this moment, more and more ladders were erected on the city wall, as if to flood the city wall, and countless poor people rushed to the city head with shouts, and the few cannons at the head of the city were more like a welcome salute, and the few defenders were overwhelmed by dozens or even hundreds of times the poor people in a blink of an eye. At this moment, in a sense, the city of Guangzhou has actually been breached, and there is no need for the Ming army to do it, and there is no need for the volunteers from other places to arrive, just in the city of Guangzhou, plus the surrounding Nanhai, Panyu, Huaxian and other places, at least 200,000 poor people inside and outside the city to work together, easily overthrowing the Qing Dynasty's two-hundred-year rule in the city.

"This is the power of the people!"

On the river, which is still several miles away from Guangzhou, Yang Feng looked at this scene and said with emotion.

Obviously, this scene surprised him, although he knew the erosion of the Qing Dynasty rule at this time, but he didn't expect it to be so erosive, no wonder in the original history of a crow let less than 10,000 British Navy and Army, more than a dozen warships fought on their knees and begged for mercy, saying that the vast majority of those dozen warships are cruisers, the real meaning of the main force of naval warfare is only three third-class ships with 74 guns, and there are a large number of colonial troops in the British Army, that is, the indigenous soldiers of India, and the military power of the Qing Dynasty is completely papery.

In fact, what he didn't know was that at this moment, there were less than two thousand old, weak, sick and disabled people of the Eight Banners who were really resisting on the city wall, and the others were ......

In other words, the wisest choice at this time is whether it is good to run away.

Just as the two thousand loyal and brave Eight Banner soldiers were shedding their last drop of blood for our Daqing on the city wall, all the officials and gentry in the city, including Qi Shan, and those sober-minded banner men, were all fleeing the city. At this time, the discipline of the Qing officials had already been fed to the dogs, and it was too naïve to expect them to be loyal to the Aixin Jueluo family, if there was any hope, they might consider holding on, but it would be a fool not to run in the current situation. These poor people still have a chance to run when they attack the city, and if the Ming army drives so much that they won't even have a chance to run, just like when the Eight-Nation Coalition Army entered Beijing, before the Ming army arrived, the Guangdong officials led by Qi Shan, the minister of the Qin Mission, abandoned the city and fled.

"Your Majesty, the Dingyuan reports that two British warships have arrived at Humen."

Chen Liu, who was beside him, said.

Next to him was a little female soldier guarding a telegraph.

"It seems that Yilu really wants to fight!"

Yang Feng sneered with his hands behind his back.

"Then meet his requirements, send a report to Yang Zhao that you don't need to hit the Humen Fort, just beat the British, just let him practice his hands, and it doesn't make sense to bully the Tartar sailors, tell the British before fighting, they entered the territorial waters of the Ming Empire without the permission of the Ming Empire, and it is an invasion, don't say that we are unreasonable."

Then he said.

"And how big is our territorial waters?"

Chen Liu asked.

"It's all about Ambuna Island."

Yang Feng said.

"It's just so arrogant, why didn't he say that the whole Western Pacific was all over?"

On the British Royal Navy's fifth-class battleship Druid, Commodore Burmeer said indignantly.

"Uh, so how do we reply?"

His secretary asked.

They were stuck in the channel of Humen at this time, claiming to be preparing to protect overseas Chinese in Guangzhou in front, but because the Hengjiang rope of Humen could not be crossed, and next to them were the forts of the Humen fortress, Guan Tianpei, who was guarding the forts, had been notified by Ma Dichen and knew that they were here to help, and behind them, the Qing army and naval division led by Chen Huacheng were also ready to fight. As for their enemies, there were actually only two, the Dingyuan plus the Zhenyuan who came in a hurry to reinforce them, but these two Ming warships did not fire at the fort, and in fact it seemed that they did not have the intention of attacking the Humen fortress, after all, Guangzhou was fighting, and it was no longer interesting for the Humen to be attacked, but warned Bomai and asked them to leave within half an hour.

"Reply? They are provocative, don't pay attention to them, tell them that we were invited by the Great Qing Kingdom, and we don't know what the Ming is! ”

Bomai sneered.

"Prepare for battle!"

Then he said to the captain beside him.

"Since they want to fight, let them see the majesty of the Royal Navy, we are not those wastes in the back!"

He then said.

He is indeed very confident, although his subordinates actually have two warships, they are here to see the excitement and not to fight, the Royal Navy is not idle enough to let a fleet of more than a dozen warships run to Guangzhou to see the excitement, in addition to the Druid, there is also a twenty-eight-gun cruiser Gallop, the two add up to seventy-four guns, nearly half of which are thirty-two-pound Caron guns, this kind of short-barreled naval guns are hugely powerful, and they are an important support for the Royal Navy to dominate the seas, and even developed to the extreme sixty-eight pounds on the Victory, The latter can fire flowering shells, but Bomai's battleship is not yet.

But that's still enough.

After all, their enemies only have sixty cannons combined, and they also have the heavy artillery of the coastal defense fortress and the Qing army sailors behind them.

"If you refuse, then fight it!"

Yang Zhao, who immediately received Bomai's reply, also gave the order to fight.

On the wide river, the Dingzhen two ships cut horizontally in front of the two Druids, and the opposite Burmai also adjusted the hull to show the side gun ports, and the four battleships were facing each other at a distance of 1,000 yards, and the Dingyuan fired first, and the 18-pounder guns on the Druids also returned fire, and neither side gained anything, so they continued to close the distance like two diagonal lines, and fired again almost simultaneously at the 800 yards mark.

And then......

"Full speed ahead and keep closing the distance!"

Burmai roared as the cone-tipped shells pierced the hull's one-foot-thick planks.

The screams of the soldiers in the cabin were also heard.

A forty-two-pounder shell hit the starboard side of the fifth-class ship accurately, and then easily gouged through the planks and smashed the cabin into disarray, while the British eighteen-pounder cannon, although it also hit the Dingyuan, could not penetrate the teak shell of the latter at such a distance, and it was clear that Bermai needed to close the distance, to within four hundred yards, and then use the thirty-two-pounder Caron. The power of this short and heavy cannon was too much for the Victory to bear, in fact, at this time, the Royal Navy was within four hundred yards, or even as close as possible, within two hundred yards was the ideal engagement distance, just as their lobster soldiers were required to fire within thirty yards, this kind of brave face-to-face combat for the British Empire defeated almost all enemies.

But......

It's not good here.

After determining a reasonable engagement distance, Yang Zhao played kite flying again, and while the Druid and Gallop were moving at full speed downstream, the Dingzhen 2nd Ship with full horsepower also adjusted its course, and the side guns were also constantly firing, and soon the Druid and Gallop were shot again.

"Keep going!"

Bomai continued to yell as the soldiers screamed.

The two battleships, which had a smooth sail, had almost all their sails puffed out, and they could not close the distance at all under the impetus of the current of the Pearl River.

Even though the speed of the two battleships had reached the limit, they still struggled in vain in the face of the propellers spinning at full speed, and the Dingzhen 2, which had always remained eight hundred yards away, fired incessantly with their 42-pounder and 24-pounder guns, and the accurate and powerful shells continued to pierce the planks of the Druid and Gallop, and the two battleships were soon covered in bruises and dead bodies in the cabin. After all, Bomai was not a fool, after understanding that he was a dish in front of the Ming warships, he immediately gave up the battle and turned to the Humen Fort, and at the same time asked the defenders on the fort for help according to the agreed signal, and the two ships in Dingzhen also gradually entered the range of the coastal defense heavy artillery, and began to aim at the 68,000 or even 10,000 catties of giant cannons on the Weiyuan and other forts.

On the Weiyuan Fort, Guan Tianpei looked at the two Ming warships dragging black smoke with a complicated expression.

At this time, the news of Guangzhou had already arrived.

The fall of Canton put him and the defenders of Humen in an awkward position.

The meaning of the existence of this fortress is to protect the back of Guangzhou, Guangzhou fell and they lost the meaning of defense, but they can't go, the sea is blocked by the Ming army, the land is full of rebellious people, he just got the news, Dongguan and Xin'an have been controlled by the rebellious people, it can be said that almost in the blink of an eye, Humen has become a lonely city......

It should be said that it is an island.

Because Humen Town has also been controlled by the rebellious people, and the two forts of Dajiao and Shajiao, the first line of defense in Humen, have also been captured by the Ming marines and the rebellious people, and the defenders can almost be said to have fled without a fight.

The only thing he can control is Weiyuan Island.

"Your Majesty, the ministers are loyal!"

He looked up to the sky and roared.

"Facing the enemy, my Qing soldiers have died without surrendering!"

Then he resolutely pulled out his knife and shouted at Dingzhen Eryuan on the river.

The officer next to him waved the small flag in his hand, including Weiyuan, Jingyuan, Zhenyuan, Nanshan, Yong'an and other forts on the rungs of the barrage, hundreds of cannons roared in unison, and then ......

"Hold your mother, where are you fighting?"

Then a roar of grief and indignation sounded.