Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 289: Langqi Island Artillery Battle

Looking at the mighty Tang army fleet on the sea, Shi Delu, Marquis of Jinghai and admiral of the Fujian Navy, was terrified.

The Tang army's current naval power is naturally insufficient compared to the fleet of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

But this deficiency refers to the deficiency in combat power!

As for ordinary transport ships, there is still no shortage of them.

Even if the Tang Dynasty court did not have enough ships, couldn't it still requisition them from the public?
Therefore, the Tang army was able to quickly organize another fleet and launch a cross-sea expedition to Fujian after suffering heavy losses in the battle with the foreign fleet.

Shi Delu took a deep breath and murmured with an extremely solemn expression.

"The Tang thieves are coming to kill us, what should we do?!"

Some time ago, he and Fuzhou Deputy Governor En Ming joined the Allied Forces as an observation group and went to the Guangdong coast to fight against the Tang Dynasty.

During this process, he truly witnessed the combat effectiveness of the Tang army fleet.

Even the Allied Forces, which he thought were invincible with their powerful ships and guns, could not defeat the Tang army, let alone the Fujian Navy of the Qing Dynasty, which was just a few small things!
Taking a deep breath, Shi Delu forced himself to calm down and then spoke.

"Quick, send someone to inform the Governor immediately."

"Let's say the Tang pirate fleet is attacking and Langqi Island is in danger. Please ask the Governor to send reinforcements as soon as possible..."

Upon hearing this, the personal soldiers around Shi Delu immediately nodded in agreement.

Then he immediately found a small boat, left Langqi Island, and headed towards Fuzhou City along the Minjiang River.

……

Wu Quanmei put down the telescope in her hand, looked at Langqi Island in the distance, turned to Fang Haiyang and said.

"Commander, according to the news from the Military Intelligence Department, the main force of the Qing army on Langqi Island is the Fujian Navy of the Qing Army and the newly built Langqi Island Fort garrison."

"Among them, the Fujian Navy had a total of 57 warships of different types, including red single ships and fast crab ships, with a rated force of and an actual force of ."

"The Langqi Island Fort has nearly a hundred artillery pieces of different calibers, a rated force of 2,100, and an actual force of 1,600..."

The information Wu Quanmei provided was very detailed. He even explained the Qing army's troop deployment and defense priorities on Langqi Island.

The reason for this is not that the Tang Dynasty's spies are so powerful that they can understand the internal affairs of the Qing army so clearly.

It was because there was a traitor in the Qing army!

After the Battle of Jiangning, the entire South had realized that the Qing Dynasty was about to collapse.

In this situation, it is natural that some people would think about jumping ship.

Especially those Han generals among the Green Camp soldiers. They have soldiers under their command, and they are not part of the Eight Banners who have no way out and can only follow the Qing Dynasty to the end.

They have ideas and the ability to put them into practice, so they will naturally not sit idly by and wait for death.

It is very normal to have an affair with the neighboring country, the Tang Dynasty, behind the back of the Qing Dynasty.

It is precisely because of the existence of these traitors that the Tang Dynasty now possesses many of the Qing army’s military secrets.

In other words, at present, the entire battlefield is actually unilaterally transparent to the Tang Dynasty.

After listening to Wu Quanmei's report, Fang Haiyang couldn't help but exclaimed.

"These Tartars are too greedy. They have eaten up half of the soldiers who are not paid for their services. How can such an army still fight?"

Wu Quanmei sneered when she heard this.

"Commander, you may not know that those who only eat half of their salary are considered elite troops with relatively strong combat effectiveness in the Qing army."

"When I was still in the Qing army, I ate more than half of the empty salary. In an exaggerated way, even one in ten soldiers was gone..."

Fang Haiyang nodded when he heard this.

"No wonder the Qing army's fighting power is so weak."

"With this method of collecting empty salaries, the Qing army had no choice but to be sparse."

After saying this, Fang Haiyang said with some emotion.

"However, although this Qing demon is very exaggerated in taking the empty salary, he actually put in a lot of effort in building the artillery fort."

"There are nearly a hundred cannons on a Langqi Island fort. This number is almost the same as the number of cannons in Shajiao and Dajiao forts of our Tang Dynasty."

Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort are located at the mouth of the Pearl River.

It just happens to control the estuaries on the left and right, and is the first line of defense for the Pearl River. Its geographical location is very important.

Therefore, when the Tang Dynasty repaired and reinforced the Shajiao and Dajiao forts, it carried out epic reinforcement on them.

But even so, Shajiao Fort and Dajiao Fort only had more than a hundred cannons each.

However, the Qing army deployed nearly a hundred artillery pieces on Langqi Island in one go, so it was no wonder that Fang Haiyang was surprised.

Upon hearing this, Wu Quanmei began to explain.

"In reply to the commander, according to the information from our military intelligence department, there were not originally so many artillery pieces on this Langqi Island fort."

"However, after the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet withdrew from the coast of our Tang Dynasty, it came to Fuzhou for repairs."

"While the allied forces were resting, the Qing government purchased a batch of artillery from them to strengthen Fuzhou's coastal defense."

"So, there are nearly a hundred cannons on Langqi Island today."

After leaving the Chinese coast, the Allied Forces planned to head north to fight Japan.

Logically speaking, we should not sell artillery to the Qing army at this time.

However, in the war with the Tang Dynasty, the Eight-Nation Alliance lost a lot of ships.

Among these, a considerable number are no longer worth repairing.

Therefore, after the coalition forces unloaded all the valuable items such as cannons on the ships, they sank the damaged ships.

However, the gun positions on each ship were fixed, and the coalition forces had no place to put these temporarily unloaded guns, which was really difficult to deal with.

Upon seeing this, the Qing government took the initiative to send people to contact the Allied Forces when they retreated to Fuzhou for rest, hoping to purchase a batch of artillery.

The Allied Forces were worried about how to deal with the unloaded artillery pieces, so the Qing court contacted them on their own initiative. Naturally, they had no reason to refuse.

Then, the Qing government got hold of such a batch of artillery!
Fang Haiyang snorted coldly when he heard this.

"These ghosts really deserve to die. They are about to retreat, but they still don't forget to cause trouble for our Tang Dynasty."

"Humph, sooner or later, this general will personally lead his troops to their homeland and teach these foreigners a lesson!"

Wu Quanmei echoed from the side.

"The commander is right, these foreigners really deserve to be killed!"

"This time they are the ones who are attacking our Tang Dynasty. Next time, it will be our Tang Dynasty's turn to fight back!"

As one of the senior officials of the Tang Dynasty Navy, Wu Quanmei knew the Tang Dynasty's naval development plan.

He believed that if the Tang Dynasty Navy could really develop according to plan.

Then, sooner or later, the Tang Dynasty’s navy will be able to reach the homelands of those foreigners.

Fang Haiyang nodded slightly and then spoke.

"Send a signal, order our fleet to attempt to attack Langqi Island!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Quanmei immediately clasped her fists in response.

Accompanied by a series of flag changes, the Tang army fleet deployed its battle formation on the sea and pressed forward towards Langqi Island.

……

On Langqi Island, seeing the Tang fleet approaching, Shi Delu immediately ordered his own navy to go out and prepare to fight back.

Although he also knew that his navy would not be a match for the Tang army in a naval battle.

However, fighting at sea is better than being blocked and annihilated by the Tang army in the water stronghold!

Under Shi Delu's command, the Fujian Navy of the Qing Army slowly sailed out of the port and headed towards the Tang Army.

The next moment, a rumbling sound of artillery fire was heard on the sea.

The broadside guns of the Tang fleet began to roar.

Shells flew across the sky, and the Qing navy was bombarded head-on before they had time to get close.

A red sloop of war of the Qing army was hit by a cannonball, which landed on the deck and exploded immediately.

The explosion created a large hole on the deck of the Qing army's ship, with wood chips flying and smoke filling the air.

The Qing sailors on the deck had no time to dodge and were stabbed by the flying wood chips. They couldn't help but scream.

The solid cannonball flew across and smashed through the side of the Qing army ship.

The shells slammed into the side of the ship, broke through the planking and flew into the cabin.

It flew across the sky and killed a large number of Qing soldiers.

The entire cabin seemed to have been painted with bright red, with internal organs and minced meat scattered everywhere, which was a shocking sight.

The sound of cannons continued to ring out, and smoke continued to spew out of the gun ports on the sides of the Tang army warships.

Fires flickered in the smoke and shells flew everywhere.

Under the bombardment of the Tang army, columns of water rose from the sea outside Langqi Island.

In the dense mist, the Fujian Navy of the Qing army only rushed halfway before they began to retreat.

With a turn of the rudder, the Fujian Navy of the Qing army, which had just left the port, rushed to retreat towards their own water fort.

Shi Delu on the shore was so angry when she saw this scene that she jumped up and down.

"Waste! They are all a bunch of waste!"

"Who allowed them to retreat like this?!"

However, no matter how angry Shi Delu was, he could not change the reality.

He gritted his teeth.

"Send a message to our artillery batteries, tell them to prepare to meet the enemy, we must stop the invasion of the Tang thieves!"

……

The Tang fleet continued to advance.

The Qing troops on Langqi Island were in a panic, but as the Tang fleet approached, the Qing artillery began firing.

Boom! Boom!
The roar of artillery fire resounded across the sea again, and smoke filled the air above the Qing army's artillery positions.

The shells cut through the air and whistled towards the Tang army fleet.

Columns of water continued to shoot up from the sea, but the threat to the Tang army was limited.

This was because the Qing army's gunners lacked training and their artillery skills were very mediocre. Under the current long-distance situation, it was difficult for the Qing army's gunners to accurately hit the moving targets on the sea.

However, even so, the Tang army had no intention of fighting to the death with the Qing army's artillery.

Instead, the fleet chose to open fire on the sea to tie down the firepower of the artillery and the attention of the defenders, while sending a landing force to land on Langqi Island and then attack the artillery from behind.

Well, it’s obvious that the Tang army learned this trick from the Eight-Nation Alliance!
Although the coalition forces failed to capture the Tang army's artillery position using this tactic, the main reason was that the Tang army's combination of barbed wire and machine guns was somewhat out of date. For the coalition forces who were still using muzzle-loading guns and artillery, it was a complete dimensionality reduction attack.

Rather, this trick is useless.

At the very least, the Tang army can easily deal with the Qing army using this tactic!
(End of this chapter)