Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 264 opens!
After a moment's silence, Li Yi spoke.

"Immediately send a message to the artillery batteries along the coast of our army, and have them prepare to meet the enemy."

"In addition, send an order to the lone army, summoning Wang An, Feng Zicai, Fang Haiyang and other generals, as well as the directors of various departments of the General Staff, to the palace to discuss matters related to meeting the enemy."

After giving these instructions, Li Yi continued.

"Send a message to the troops stationed in Kowloon, asking them to guard the Kowloon artillery batteries and cooperate with Hong Kong to prevent the foreigners from landing."

"Since the foreigners dare to invade our Tang Dynasty, let us teach these ignorant foreigners a lesson!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Tai immediately clasped his fists in agreement.

……

The sea breeze blew on his face, and Earl Elgin put down the telescope in his hand.

The beach of Hong Kong Island in the distance was dyed golden by the morning glow, and the artillery batteries deployed by the Tang army near the port were even more stained with a layer of gold.

"My Daying is back again!"

"This time, we will definitely take back Hong Kong and avenge our previous humiliation."

It is obvious that the Eight-Nation Alliance chose Hong Kong as the location for its first battle against the Tang Dynasty.

There are many reasons why Elgin wanted to use the Battle of Hong Kong as the opening act of this war.

One reason is that Hong Kong is located on the coast of Guangzhou. If Hong Kong can be occupied, it will be convenient for the Eight-Nation Alliance to use Hong Kong as a logistics base for stable supplies and support the subsequent war.

As long as Hong Kong could be captured, even if the Allied Forces' attack on Guangzhou did not go smoothly, Elgin would be confident that he could rely on Hong Kong and the supplies provided by the Qing court to hold out against the Tang army for a long time until victory was achieved.

The second reason is that Hong Kong was once a British colony.

But later it was recovered by the Tang Dynasty, and the British could not swallow this humiliation.

This time, of course, he came to seek revenge.

Therefore, in this war, Hong Kong will be the first to face the test.

After saying this, Elgin turned to the fleet commander Seymour and spoke.

"Seymour, immediately give orders to the fleet to prepare for landing in Hong Kong."

"Let us work together to take back this shining pearl of the Far East for Her Majesty the Queen!"

"I'm sure Her Majesty the Queen will be very pleased."

Upon hearing this, Seymour immediately nodded and agreed.

Then arrange the fleet to prepare for the offensive against Hong Kong.

With the command flag waving on Seymour's flagship, the fleet of the Eight-Nation Alliance marched towards the sea of ​​Tsim Sha Tsui and the Zhongmen Port.

Well, that is the Victoria Harbour in later generations.

Tsim Sha Tsui Ocean and Central Gate were the names of Victoria Harbour before it was occupied by British colonists.

After Li Yi recovered Hong Kong, he immediately ordered the removal of all traces left by the British colonists and changed Victoria Harbour back to its original name.

……

Inside the port, Chen Qing held a telescope and continuously calculated the shooting parameters.

"The enemy has advanced 1,500 meters. The breech-loading gun crew should immediately adjust the firing parameters and prepare for test firing!"

"put!"

Following his order, there was a loud bang and the breech-loading rifled cannon opened fire, and the interior of the turret was instantly filled with smoke.

The shells were fired at the Allied warships on the ocean.

The black shells cut through the air, making a low humming sound.

With a bang, the shell shot into the sea, shooting up a column of water.

Although the artillery pieces being fired for test firing are all breech-loading rifled cannons, their accuracy and range are impressive.

However, due to the long distance and the fact that the target was a moving one, the first round of test firing failed to hit the target.

Even the closest artillery shell was still twenty or thirty meters away from the Allied warship.

The next moment, the sound of artillery fire continued.

Chen Qing withdrew his gaze from the ocean in the distance and shouted.

"Continue to adjust the shooting parameters and prepare for the second round of test firing!"

The gunners were busy adjusting the firing parameters of the artillery and reloading the artillery.

Soon, the second round of test firing was ready.

Chen Qing immediately waved his hand.

"Fire! Fire!"

The next moment, there were several more gunshots.

Thick smoke filled the entire fort.

Several shells were fired quickly, streaking across the sky and heading towards the target.

With a bang, an explosion sounded.

A ball of fire exploded on the side of an Allied sailing battleship. When the fire dissipated, a large hole was blown out on the side.

Through the dark hole, one could see the foreign sailors running around in panic.

Seeing this scene, the Tang army gunners in the artillery position couldn't help but raise their arms and shout.

"Wan Sheng!"

"Fuck these bastards!"

"Hahaha, how about it, my skills are pretty good, right? How's the cannon?"

"Bullshit! I was the one who fired the shot!"

"..."

A group of people were arguing, while Chen Qing waved his hand and spoke.

"A group of people rushed to the street."

"It's just one hit, there's nothing to be proud of."

"Keep hitting me!"

"The king said that if you sink a foreign ship, you will be rewarded with one thousand silver dollars and a third-class collective merit. The opportunity to make meritorious service is right in front of you, don't let it go."

"Let these foreigners see how powerful the Tang Dynasty is!"

As Chen Qing finished speaking, people around him responded in unison.

"Yes!"

"I understand the humble position!"

Immediately afterwards, the gunners on the middle gate turret continued to load and fire.

At the same time, the gunners on the Kowloon Fort across the Tsim Sha Tsui Ocean were also firing test shots. Amid the roar of the artillery, shells flew across the ocean.

……

A shell was fired and hit Seymour's ship.

The ship shook violently due to the explosion.

Seymour reached out to hold onto the side of the boat and managed to keep his balance.

"Impossible, how can the Tang army's artillery be so accurate?"

Seymour said to Earl Elgin beside him with a look of shock on his face.

You know, their fleet is now more than a thousand meters away from Zhongmen Port and not close to the Kowloon Fort.

At this distance, even their naval guns would have difficulty hitting the target.

However, the Tang army's artillery fired accurately and fiercely, and the power of the explosive bombs was also quite astonishing.

It really refreshed Seymour's understanding of the Far East army.

A bunch of barbaric and backward yellow monkeys, when will cannons be able to fire so far and so accurately?
Lord Elgin's face was as calm as water, and he just said.

"The Tang army is not the Qing army. Their fighting power is not weak."

"Sir Seymour, we must cheer up."

"Pass the order and have the fleet close in and open fire to suppress the Tang army's artillery fire and prepare for our army to land in Hong Kong."

Seymour nodded vigorously, and the allied fleet raised its sails and sped up towards Zhongmen Port.

Moreover, as the distance shortened, the coalition naval guns began to return fire.

boom! Boom boom!

The deafening sound of artillery fire continued to ring out.

The sea surface in Tsim Sha Tsui was filled with smoke.

The two sides fought fiercely.

With a loud bang, a naval gun shell hit the dome of the battery.

But after it hit the target, it only splashed up a cloud of sand, which was then blocked by the sandbag fortifications stacked outside the artillery position to relieve the force.

The shells did not cause any damage to the main building.

The reason for this is that when the Tang Dynasty was building the fort, the main buildings were all made of iron bars and cement structures.

And it is not an old open-type artillery battery, but a new type of closed-type artillery battery.

Only the lookout and firing ports are left open in the entire fort, and the rest of the positions are almost completely closed.

The front and top of the turret, which are most vulnerable to artillery fire, have an average thickness of more than one meter, and a layer of sandbags is stacked outside the turret to relieve the force.

Such a fort, unless the shells happen to be fired into the interior of the fort from the lookout or firing port.

Otherwise, with the power of the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon of this era, it would be absolutely impossible to hit it.

The foreign naval guns continued to fire at the Tang army's coastal defense batteries.

Amid the booming sound of artillery fire, shells continued to hit the artillery position.

Obvious vibrations could be felt inside the turret.

But Chen Qing was not at all panicked. He just continued to command his gunners to fire in an orderly manner.

"Aim and fire!"

boom! Boom boom!

The artillery continued to roar.

As the distance got closer, the Tang army was not only firing breech-loading artillery.

Even the muzzle-loading artillery began to pour out fire.

More than ten artillery pieces on the middle gate turret fired alternately, making the coalition forces cry for their parents.

Some Allied soldiers attempted to land on the beach in landing craft, but were discovered by the Tang army lookouts in the artillery position.

The Tang army gunner adjusted the direction of the muzzle and lit the fuse.

Soon, a roar was heard, smoke filled the air, and a dense cloud of shotgun shells sprayed towards the coalition landing craft.

The next moment, the landing craft was swept by shotgun shells, and the coalition soldiers on the boat were shot into pieces in an instant, and their bodies fell into the sea.

The blood dyed the ocean red!
boom! Boom boom!

Shells were flying across the ocean.

A chain bullet fired from a cannon kept spinning in the air, and the next moment it hit the mast of a sailing battleship.

With a crackling sound, the chain bullet rotated and entangled in the mast. The mast broke instantly and poured down to the deck of the ship.

Amid screams, several foreign sailors jumped into the sea.

Struggling desperately in the sea!

The coalition fleet bombarded the Tang army's artillery for half a day, but gained nothing except a pile of broken planks and broken corpses on the ocean.

The Tang army’s Zhongmen Fort and Jiulong Fort still stand there, like unshakable sacred mountains.

The two forts faced each other from a distance and continued to blockade the sea off Tsim Sha Tsui with cross fire.

Seeing this, Seymour had no choice but to order the fleet to retreat temporarily and withdraw from the fire coverage of the Tang army's artillery.

"Commander, this won't work."

"I don't know how the Tang army built their artillery. Our naval guns can't hit their artillery!!"

"If we continue to fight, we won't be able to gain any advantage!"

Seymour went to Elgin to complain and find reasons for his order to withdraw troops.

Elgin's face turned pale and blue, and he spoke in a cold and hard tone.

"Then what should we do? Bypass Hong Kong and attack Guangzhou directly?"

"After a fruitless first battle, the morale of the coalition forces will probably be affected!"

Seymour heard this and spoke.

"Commander, I think since we can't destroy the Tang army's artillery from the front, we might as well send the marines to find another place to land and attack the artillery from behind."

"After the Marines capture the artillery position, it won't be too late for the main force of the coalition to land..."

……

PS: I will update two chapters first, and I am writing another chapter to pay off my debt.

Well, please give me a monthly ticket and subscription...

(End of this chapter)