Eleven huge battleships lined up in a long snake formation, sailing across the river thirty zhang away from the ships of the Qing army's naval division, all the gun doors on the starboard side opened, accompanied by a thunderbolt of cannons, the battleships spit out scarlet tongues of fire from the front to the back of the gun doors, the river surface was reflected into a piece of pink by the firelight, and the smoke rose from the battleships in front.

The white smoke of gunpowder and the mist rising from the river surface mix together to form a fairyland-like picture. But for the Qing army, this is not a fairyland, it is a demon from hell!

The Drake and her sister ships fired a volley in a row, pouring out thirty-four shells in one go. The distance between the two sides was only more than 30 zhang, and at such a close distance, the artillery was fired in unison, and the Qing ships were parked very densely, and the hit rate of a round of artillery bombardment could be said to be amazingly high. Of the 34 red-hot shells, less than a third missed, either in the water between the Qing ships and the ships, or swept over the Qing ships and hit the shore; More than two dozen shells hit the target.

The warships of the Qing army were one by one, shoulder to shoulder, head to tail, neatly arranged in square formations, docked on the dock. The distance was so close that the Ming gunners could hit the target even with their eyes closed.

The red-hot shells fell on the almost unguarded Qing warships in front, and the consequences can be imagined! The shells smashed the ship's planks and sawdust flew everywhere. The fragile single-layer cedar plank structure of the Qing warship could not withstand the ravages of twelve-pound and twenty-four-pound shells, and the shells fell into the cabin like red iron bars piercing through the multi-layer planks. Begin to slowly blacken a circle of planks, and gradually ignite the flames.

There were also some shells that smashed on the Qing warships behind, which were relatively close to the shore. There were already a lot of Qing soldiers on the ship, and they were densely packed with human heads, but a row of shells smashed up, and the Qing warship was filled with blood mist, and stumps and internal organ fragments flew everywhere.

The battleships in front sailed out of the white fog and continued westward; The battleships behind entered the white fog, within a distance of thirty zhang. One artillery cannon rained down the most bullets. The three fifth-class ships opened fire one after another, the thunderous sound of cannon echoed across the river, and thirty-two guns bombarded in turn. The small warships of the Qing army moored on the shore flew sawdust horizontally, and the flames soared into the sky, and columns of water rose from time to time in the gaps between the ships.

The six Cormorant-class sixth-class ships that followed were lined up in a long snake formation, and all sixty-six six-pounder guns on the starboard side of the six ships spewed fire in turn. It looks like a bolt of lightning across the river. With a piercing whistling sound, the shells fell one after another on the large and small warships of the Qing army, stirring up a bloody storm.

Some of the ships of the Qing Navy Division that were shelled had already begun to sink with several holes smashed, but most of them were injured. It was not an easy task for solid shells to destroy a large area of ships in those days.

The smoke of gunpowder rising from the battleships in front had risen into the air, and the battleships behind had produced a new batch of gunsmoke. It winds around the surface of the river and rises slowly.

Those who react faster. The sailors and soldiers of the Qing army who were agile and ran on the boat when they heard the alarm bell regretted it, they didn't even have time to untie the ship's cable, and the other party had already dumped hundreds of shells. But many more people didn't even have a chance to regret it, and they were killed by the overwhelming shells that smashed into the sky.

"Run!" The Qing soldiers who did not die had already lost their fighting spirit, abandoned their warships one after another, and fled to the shore in embarrassment.

But the catastrophe of the Qing army did not end there, and the Western-style battleships were followed by three Eastern-style centipede clippers. These clippers were closer to the Qing warships than the Western-style warships, and they were only twelve or thirteen zhang away from the Qing army's fleet.

On the deck of the Centipede Clipper are small charcoal stoves, and the charcoal inside is burning. The Ming sergeants, standing behind the battlements of the clipper, wrapped the oil-soaked hemp rope and linen cloth around the arrows, and then put the arrows on the bowstrings. When he heard the officer's "ready", the Ming sergeant stretched the arrow into the charcoal furnace, ignited the rocket, and then pulled the bowstring.

"Put!" The Ming army officer roared.

Rows of rockets rained down on Qing ships more than ten feet away, and soon set fire to the Qing ships.

The Centipede Clipper did not withdraw, but continued to approach the enemy ship. When the distance between the two sides was only more than ten steps, the Ming sergeant on the clipper threw a row of oil cans and a row of rockets at the Qing ships that did not catch fire.

The "ping-pong" oil tank smashed on the Qing army ship, the ceramic pieces were torn apart, and the oil flowed on the deck. Then the rocket was fired, igniting the oil of fire.

In an instant, the large and small warships of the Qing army in Fengpu were ignited one after another, igniting a sky-high fire. The fire soon spread, and the neatly parked Qing ships were ignited one after another.

The ships of the right battalion and the front battalion of the Qing army's Guangdong naval division were all set on fire, and the ships of the two battalions were already burned into a sea of fire. But the ships of the middle, left and rear battalions of the Qing army in front were still intact. A large number of Qing soldiers shouted, rushed out of the large camp on land, and jumped onto the warship. Some of the Qing soldiers hurriedly cut the cables, some of the Qing soldiers used bamboo poles to push adjacent boats in an attempt to get their boats off the shore, and some Qing soldiers picked up oars and prepared to row.

On the Drake, the Ming gunners were nervously loading the shells, and had already cleaned the chamber with a wet mop, cooled the barrel with water, and wiped it again with a dry mop, and the next thing to do was to load the gunpowder.

Seeing that a large group of Qing soldiers had already boarded the warship of the middle camp of the Qing army in front, Wang Xinyu shouted: "Load grapes!" ”

Grapetron shells, the principle is somewhat similar to howitzers, but the bullets of grapeshots are much larger than those of grenade shotguns, and grapeshots are gourd-shaped, and the inside is a net bag made of wire to protect the bullets, and there is a layer of cloth on the outside, which can not only wrap the projectile, but also increase the tightness of the gun, so the grapetron shells do not need to be closed with wooden boards. Although grapeshot has many advantages, the volume of the shell is also relatively large, and it can only be fired from bulky naval guns, so it is a special shell for the navy.

Li Rui sent a flag signal. Seeing the flag, the signal soldier standing on the mast more than ten feet high then sent out the flag signal, telling the battleship behind to attack the enemy ship with grape shells.

"Change the grape bomb!" The captain's shouts were heard in the gun decks.

The artillery commander shouted: "Change grapes!" ”

The gunners poured gunpowder from the muzzle into the chamber. Then he picked up the grape bullet, stuffed it into the gun port, and pushed it to the end with a mop. Compaction. After loading the shells, the gunners pushed the gun carriage forward, and the gun carriage on the track moved forward, and the muzzle of the gun stretched out from the gun door and aimed at the Qing ships more than 30 zhang away.

"Fire!" The artillery commander gave an order.

A row of battleships opened fire one after another, the fire flickered on the river, and the shells left the muzzles. Fired at the Qing ships.

Under the action of gunpowder gas, the net pocket made of iron wire was broken, and the cloth bag on the outside was scattered. Bullets the size of eggs shot out in all directions and hit the Qing army's ship.

The grapeshotfire fired from the twenty-four-pounder cannon was so powerful that a single grapegre shot could knock out a hundred-man team. Eighteen twenty-four-pounder guns of two fourth-class ships fired a salvo, firing a large volley of grapeshits. The power is imaginable! The shells formed a strip in front of the two battleships with a width of more than three hundred meters. The fan-shaped killing surface with a radius of more than 200 meters completely covered most of the warships in the middle battalion of the Qing army's naval division.

Egg-sized bullets fell on the Qing army's warship like hail, and immediately flesh and blood flew sideways, and screams were heard again and again.

"Ahh A Qing soldier whose arm was broken by a projectile threw away his oar, screamed, covered his broken arm, abandoned the boat and ran to the shore. But before he could take two steps, he tripped under his feet. Almost fell. He looked down and saw a corpse lying on the deck. The man's head had already been shattered by the projectile, and the entire skull was gone, and the red and white mixture was scattered all over the deck.

"Ahh The wounded Qing soldier screamed again and fled ashore as quickly as possible.

Grapeball Goddess scattered the projectiles onto the Qing army's ship, and the Qing soldiers who were crowded into a ball fell one by one.

Three fifth-class ships followed behind the two fourth-class ships, and another row of grapeshot bombs swept over the Qing warships, sweeping the Qing army's sailors who had suffered heavy casualties again.

After the three fifth-level ships drove by, there were basically no people standing on the ships of the Qing army's sailors.

There were also six sixth-class ships in the back, and the six-pounder guns of the six-pounder ships were too small to use grapeshot, but these sixth-class ships were already loaded with shrapnel. When the six sixth-class ships passed through the middle camp of the Qing Army's naval division, they found that there was no one to fight, and the shrapnel had no effect on the ship, so the six sixth-class ships had to stop firing for the time being and wait for the next round to shoot again.

The Centipede Clipper, which was on fire attack mission behind, followed, and took advantage of the opportunity that the Qing army was suppressed by large ships, and three Centipede Clippers passed two feet away from the ships of the Qing Army's naval division.

The oil canister crackled and smashed into the Qing ship, and the rocket followed. In the blink of an eye, the ships of the Qing army's naval division were also caught in a sea of fire.

In the left and rear camps of the Qing army in front, many ships had already cut their cables, sailed into the middle of the river, and struggled to flee upstream. Some Qing ships that were relatively slow to escape were caught up by the Drake, and with a slight collision, they were either crushed to the bottom of the river or smashed into pieces. Some of those who escaped relatively quickly had already rushed across Cheung Chau Island and fled into the Pearl River waterway between Haizhu Island and Guangzhou City.

"It's finally safe!" On a small boat of the Qing army that escaped, the chief of the Qing army said with palpitations.

But before he could finish speaking, he saw smoke billowing from the river in front of him, and the rumbling sound of cannon came from ahead.

"What's going on? Could it be that there are also pirates in front of you? The Qing army was puzzled.

The Pearl River waterway in front is relatively shallow, and a few boats from the Fifth Battalion of Biaodu, Guanghai Battalion and Jingyuan Battalion are moored there, and the Sailor Wharf is under the city of Guangzhou. But at this time, the Qing ships here were also attacked by the Ming army.

Bypassing Haizhu Island from the southern waterway, the four Jinlu-class sixth-class ships that arrived upstream, with more than 20 fire attack ships, went down the river and launched an attack on the Qing naval division ships anchored under the city of Guangzhou.

The four 150-ton Golden Deer-class ships are behemoths under the city of Guangzhou.

The gun doors of the sixth-class ships were opened, and the guns that protruded from the gun doors launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the Qing warships anchored on the shore and the barracks on the shore, so that the Qing soldiers on the shore did not dare to get off the ship at all. The battleships also launched an artillery bombardment on the city wall of Guangzhou, the Guide Gate and the South Gate, and suppressed the Qing artillery erected on the city tower.

The Qing artillery at the head of the city are all small cannons such as general cannons, tiger squat cannons, and Franc machines. Although the guns of the Golden Deer-class sixth-class ships are not large, they are four-pounder cannons, but this kind of British-made guns have a long range, great power, and a large number, a Golden Deer-class sixth-class ship can concentrate eleven guns in a salvo on one side, and four ships have forty-four guns that can fire a salvo.

The port side of the four Golden Deer-class ships continued to spew dazzling fire, and the shells fell in the barracks on the shore and on the head of Guangzhou, beating the flesh and blood of the Qing army.

The Tiandihui fire attack ship that followed behind entered the channel, and the Tiandihui personnel on the ship untied the wooden raft hanging behind the fire attack ship, and two people rowed a wooden row and rushed to the Qing army ships neatly parked on the shore. The rafts were topped with straw and oil.

After the wooden platoon crashed into the Qing army's fleet, the Tiandihui personnel immediately lit the straw, then jumped into the river and swam back to their boat.

In a short time, a sky-high fire broke out on the river under the city of Guangzhou, and the ships of the Qing army were ignited one after another, and the billowing smoke rushed straight into the sky, covering the sky and the sun, and the thick smoke shrouded the south bank of the city of Guangzhou.

In the palace of Pingnan Palace, Shang Kexi was listening to Master Shugui reciting Buddhism. Suddenly, he heard a loud roar, as if someone was firing a cannon.

"Who is so bold? During the national funeral, he dared to set off a cannon! It's a long life, isn't it? Shang Kexi opened his slightly closed eyes.

"Amitabha!" Master Shugui clasped his hands together, "When the donor listens to the recitation of Buddhist scriptures, his heart should be like stopping water, how can he have distracting thoughts?" Amitabha! ”

At this time, the second son, Shang Zhixiao, hurriedly came and wanted to break into the Buddhist hall.

"The prince has an order, when the prince listens to the Buddhist scriptures, unless it is a holy decree, no one is allowed to trespass on the Buddhist hall!" Two guards at the door stopped Shang Zhixiao.

"Get out of here!" Shang Zhixiao roared and shoved the two guards, "Young Master Ben has an emergency military situation!" If it's delayed, you two dogheads won't be protected! ”

The two guards knelt on one knee, but they still blocked Shang Zhixiao's way: "I hope the second son will forgive me!" We are also doing what we are told! The prince has an order, even if it is the Governor, Lord Jingluo is here, he is not allowed to enter! ”

Shang Zhixiao was furious, drew his sword, and was about to swing his sword to slash at the guard's head, but heard a loud shout: "Stop!" ”

Inside the door, Shang Kexi's military advisor Jin Guang walked out and drank Shang Zhixiao.

Seeing that it was golden light, Shang Zhixiao hurriedly bowed his hand: "Master Strategist!" This son has an urgent military situation to report to his father! ”

"If there is anything, the second prince can say it to his military division!" Jin Guang bowed his hand and saluted.

Shang Zhixiao said: "Haikou is attacking Guangzhou City!" The sound of artillery just now was the giant ship of the sea invaders bombarding the city tower! Both Guide Gate and the South Gate were shelled, and our troops suffered heavy casualties! The sailor warships parked on the river south of the city were all set on fire by the thieves! ”

"What?" Jin Guang was taken aback. (To be continued......)