Chapter 42: Smoke from beacons all over (2)

Following the guidance of the lookout on the mast, looking at it with a telescope, sure enough, a flotilla of coalition troops appeared on the sea, and three large cargo ships were coming towards the Navy under the protection of five ordinary warships.

"Okay, the deal is quite good. I'll tell you brothers and do it well." Liu Shiba took off his shirt excitedly and shouted barely.

Everyone had been holding it in for a long time, and finally there was a deal. No one was not working hard. Only Liu Yuan was looking at the coalition ship with a telescope, muttering in his mouth: "Not right? Why is this happening?" Just when Liu Yuan was still observing the coalition fleet, Liu Shiba had already asked the fleet to surround the coalition fleet.

Liu Yuan finally figured it out, and figured out why he always felt something was wrong, so he shouted to Liu Shiba in a hurry: "Brother, order the entire army to retreat quickly. This is a trap." Liu Shiba was shocked and instinctively scolded: "Die dog head, crow mouth, brothers have been waiting for this old age. Why do you say it is a trap? Don't shake everyone's morale."

Liu Yuan was anxious and scolded: "Damn Pig Head, have you ever seen such a large transport ship? This is a large foreign battleship disguised." Liu Shiba looked at it with a telescope for a while, and then he woke up. He quickly ordered the command of the troops to inform the entire army to retreat with flags.

But Liu Shiba's order was still a little late. The three large ships had already pulled up the stroll on the side of the ship, revealing dense muzzles, and were facing Liu Shiba and his fleet ferociously. These three warships were three of the main battleships of the coalition forces, the "Puci Maoci", "Hu Bo", and "Long Live the Queen", which came in disguise.

This is a trap, which was designed and led by Adams himself. When Liu Shiba ordered the retreat, most of the warships of the new fleet had entered the artillery range of the coalition warships, and the first to be hit were the three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe" and "Shunfeng".

"Boom, boom, boom" The coalition fleet fired the first fire. A volley of three giant battleships caused countless huge waves on the sea. The new army flagship "Dingyuan" was also hit by three bombs and began to catch fire. Liu Shiba ordered the counterattack, but continued to let the fleet retreat while fighting.

The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe" and "Shunfeng" that rushed in the front suffered the most. They were all hit by more than ten artillery pieces and were entangled by the coalition fleet, and they could not escape. Liu Shiba was anxious at a glance. How could Liu Shiba, who had always been loyal to him, leave his brother and escape by himself? He said to Liu Yuan: "The dog head is just a fight. We have many ships, so we are afraid that they will be birds." As he said that, he planned to order the entire army to attack.

Liu Yuan smiled bitterly, pointed to the sea on both wings and said, "You can see for yourself." Liu Shiba raised his telescope and took a breath of air conditioning. The masts of a large number of warships of the coalition fleet could already be seen on the sea. The fleet that the coalition forces ambushed in advance was quickly rushing towards the battlefield.

Liu Shiba had no choice but to let the fleet retreat quickly. Before leaving, Liu Shiba shouted to the sky: "Brothers, you can take one step first, I, Liu Shiba, will definitely help you avenge this revenge." After Liu Shiba shouted, all the officers and soldiers of the fleet also shouted in unison: "Avenge!" The shouts shook the sky and went straight to the sky.

The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng" also discovered the intention of the coalition forces and took the initiative to take on the task of covering the retreat of the fleet. Adams also issued the intention of the new fleet to retreat, hurriedly ordered the entire army to quickly surround the new army, and let the three main battleships catch up with the main force of the new army. The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng" tried their best to block, either shelling or impact. In short, as long as there were coalition ships who wanted to get rid of them and pursue the main fleet, they would all be stubbornly blocked by them.

Under the tenacious attack of the three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng", the new army fleet opened up the encirclement before the coalition forces siege and headed towards the vast sea. The last thing Liu Shiba saw was the flag slogan from the three broken warships: "Farewell forever, brothers, avenge us."

The "Yangtze River", "Dahe River", and "Shunfeng" were surrounded. This time, Adams dispatched sixty warships to destroy the new warships in one fell swoop and clear the roads on the sea.

The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng" were still fighting to the death. The three ships were full of fire. The sailors kept firing while extinguishing the fire. Faced with the tenacious three ships, Adams felt respect and ordered the three ships to surrender. The coalition quickly notified the three ships with flag words: "You are surrounded, surrender. As soldiers, you have completed your mission and can surrender gloriously."

In the eyes of the coalition forces, they have been surrounded and have no way of retreat. When completing the cover mission, the three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe" and "Shunfeng" will completely choose the way to surrender. But the character of the Easterners Westerners will never understand that surrender is a great humiliation for the Chinese soldiers. Perhaps there will be a large number of surrenders in the civil war, but on the battlefield of Chinese democracy to resist foreign humiliation, more warriors choose to fight to the last moment. This was like this in the past, this is now, and it will not change in the future.

The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng" replied to the coalition forces in flag language: "Come on, some Chinese are not afraid of death. You can sacrifice and surrender without a talk."

The three ships "Yangtze River", "Dahe", and "Shunfeng" were sunk. Under the dense artillery fire of the coalition forces, the three ships could not last for too long. The already scarred "Dahe" first sank, followed by "Shunfeng", and finally the "Yangtze River".

When the gradually sinking warship "Yangtze River" fired its last shell, the sea finally became quiet. Although the coalition forces sunk three new warships in this battle, Adams' plan to wipe out the new warship fleet was shattered.

The sea was full of new army sailors struggling in the sea. Adams, who always regarded himself as a gentleman, ordered the salvage and rescue of new army soldiers in the water. But Adams was shocked again. None of the new army soldiers struggling dyingly on the sea accepted the bamboo pole that the coalition forces extended to save their lives. Not only that, the soldiers in the water also cursed, and they were all kinds of cursing, which was particularly wonderful.

Faced with these warriors, Adams was completely shocked. He first refused to surrender and fought to the end, but now he refused to rescue. Adams understood that the Chinese soldiers in the water refused to be prisoners. In the face of survival and death as prisoners, they chose the latter.

Adams ordered the stop to rescue, and the whole army lined up on the deck to salute the warriors in the sea. The coalition left, and Adams gave up the plan to rescue these soldiers, but did not make things difficult for them, but just let the fleet leave. Although Adams knew that once these people survived, they would still be heroes who fought with the coalition in the future, Adams, who was particular about knighthood, did not let the coalition kill the people who were struggling on the sea, but just let them fend for themselves.

After learning about the situation here, the nearby fishermen drove small boats to the sea to search and rescue the warriors. The warriors on the three ships finally survived only more than 40 people, and the two thousand warriors were buried in the sea forever.

After hearing the news, Zhejiang Governor Zuo Zongtang personally presided over the memorial service to mourn the soldiers who died in the naval battle. On the day of the memorial service, the God of Heaven was also sad. In the gloomy weather and light rain, countless people came to attend the memorial service in Hangzhou. Liu Mingchuan and Zuo Zongtang all attended the event personally, and even Yang Yi from Beijing sent someone to send elegiac couplets to "Defend the death calmly when fighting against foreigners, and return to the power of the country."

The streets of Hangzhou are filled with people who see off the heroes. The soul-suming Taoist priests shouted loudly: "The soul is back!" I hope that these men on the sea in Zhejiang will return to their hometown.

There has always been a saying that the people in Jiangnan are weak. After this battle, the Chinese people mentioned these sailors and said with a thumbs up: "These men are all men." Who said that there are no men in Jiangnan, and two thousand warriors died as evidence.

Adams wrote in his post-war memoir: "At that moment, when the Chinese sailors chose to die but were unwilling to be captured, I completely understood that the Chinese could not be conquered. At that moment, I was worried about the prospects of this war for the first time."

Adams' concerns were not redundant, and the coalition's life in China was getting harder and harder. Liu Shiba and his fleet fulfilled their oath, took the initiative to attack everywhere, and frequently harassed and attacked the coalition on the transportation lines. Adams had to send a large number of warships to protect the transport fleet.

The sea was uneasy and the land was quiet. Chen Yucheng sent a large number of small teams near Guangzhou to attack everywhere. As long as there were small teams of troops out of the city, they would be ambushed, which made the coalition forces in Guangzhou huddle in the city all day long. Shanghai was also not calm. Liu Mingchuan used Suzhou as a base to vigorously carry out guerrilla warfare. The new army made trouble for the coalition forces around Shanghai with a small number of troops. At night, firecrackers and empty guns were set off outside Shanghai city, and sometimes fired a few shots into the city. The 100,000 coalition forces couldn't even sleep well at night, but it was dark that the coalition forces did not dare to leave the city, for fear of being ambushed by the new army. The coalition forces lived a panic all day in such a situation.

Reality forced the coalition forces to speed up the pace of strategic material reserves. In mid-July, Virkinson saw that the reserved arms could barely maintain two major battles, so he decided to give up Shanghai and immediately go north to attack Beijing, hoping to conquer Beijing and force the Chinese government to surrender. Even if the Chinese people do not surrender and grab a vote in Beijing, they can still regain some capital and reputation. After all, there is a big difference in the capital of Beijing and the capital of China that has not been defeated.
Chapter completed!