Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 302: British and French Allied Forces Landing
The results of this early morning artillery battle were quickly tallied;
The three warships of the British and French allied forces were severely damaged. After barely evacuating to the Johor Strait, most of the seawater had already flooded into them. The hulls of the three warships were severely tilted, and they could only run ashore to save their lives.

It happened to be a high tide in the morning, and the three sailing warships rushed onto the shallows on the side of the Malay Peninsula.

When the tide recedes, the seawater accumulated in the warship will flow out from the breach, and then the carpenters will go up and hammer and repair it. As long as the keel is intact, it can still be used.

If a battleship floats on the sea, it is not considered a sinking.

Another 11 warships suffered damage of varying degrees, with a total of 219 officers and soldiers killed and 604 injured.

When these statistics came out, the face of Vice Admiral Calvin Phillips, commander of the British and French Allied Forces, turned black and he lost his temper angrily. It was difficult for him to accept such heavy casualties.

Finally, under the persuasion of the crowd
Considering that the Singapore Fort was built by the British and used Armstrong coastal guns, this is a case of reusing the original soup to make the original food.

Confirmed from another perspective

The artillery batteries built by the British could indeed withstand the test of actual combat and were extremely effective. The quality and power of the Armstrong artillery were beyond reproach, but it was a pity that it fell into the hands of thieves.

This calmed the commander-in-chief's anger a little, and then he became full of resentment towards the Chu Singapore Expeditionary Force.

"These damn Orientals, get the landing troops ready. The fleet will cover the army's landing tomorrow. It's too disadvantageous to confront the fortress artillery head-on. We must open a breakthrough from the north and let them taste the power of the British and French forces." Vice Admiral Calvin Phillips said with resentment.

Major General Courbet, the deputy commander of the coalition forces, raised his hand in a French military salute and said with a reserved expression;

"Please rest assured, Commander-in-Chief. My French Foreign Legion is highly skilled in combat. They will be the first wave to storm ashore, opening a landing area for the Allied forces and completely annihilating any Oriental soldiers who dare to show their face."

"I hope so, General Courbet, I hope you will bring us news of victory."

"That's absolutely no problem. I'll vouch for it on my military honor."

"Great, then let's wait and see how the Foreign Legion performs."

The opening gun of the British Royal Fleet failed to fire, and it hit a wall.

Although he felt a little jealous, since they were allies after all, Vice Admiral Calvin Phillips still gave his blessings in a gentlemanly manner.

The British and French forces estimated
The large-scale covering fire attack launched by the fleet on the artillery fort should have caused at least 250 to 300 casualties on the Chu defenders.

Actually

This battle report was too optimistic. Perhaps for some reason, it overestimated the power of the British and French artillery coverage, so that it could save face.

The true battle report from the Chu State

In this early morning artillery battle, the defenders of the Chu artillery fort were killed, 7 were injured, and one 33-pound gun and one 30-pound gun were damaged. The total casualties were 24, which was only 40/1 of the estimated casualties of the British and French forces.

Day Three

September 30th, 2025

Around 7:20 in the morning, the bright sunshine was shining everywhere, and there were only a few white clouds floating in the clear sky. It was an ordinary good day.

After two days of rest, the British and French soldiers who landed were obviously in much better spirits. They were no longer as depressed as when they had just disembarked from the troop transport ships, and their morale was quite good.

Especially the officers and soldiers of the French Foreign Legion. When they were gathering to prepare to board the ship, many soldiers waved their own battle axes, raised their sharp scimitars above their heads, shouted wildly, stuck out their tongues, glared, and showed a ferocious look.

It is said that this was a traditional practice of the Nordic Vikings when they went on an expedition. After the battle, they would take out the hearts and livers of the captives and offer them as sacrifices to the omnipotent gods.

Lieutenant Colonel Walker-Taylor twitched his lips speechlessly at this nonsense.

It would be sheer folly to boast about your Viking traditions in front of the Anglo-Saxons.

The French looked stupid and idiotic. These unnecessary actions frightened the Indian soldiers and were of no practical use.

The sailing warships anchored in the Strait of Johor were lined up in a row, with all the side gun ports facing Singapore open, and the black muzzles pointing directly at the lush tropical forest.

Give an order

More than sixty small boats, loaded with three thousand soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, launched an attack on the beach on the Singapore side, with each boat carrying forty to fifty people.

The narrowest part of the Johor Strait is only about a thousand meters wide, and a small boat can reach the other side in just over ten minutes.

Under the watchful eyes of the British and French commanders, more than 3000 French Foreign Legion soldiers successively landed at the three selected landing points and then quickly deployed.

And sent a small number of scouts into the depths of the jungle to investigate the enemy situation.

The small boat that had just transported the soldiers ashore quickly returned to load the next wave of British and Indian Army soldiers who needed to land, and this cycle repeated.

Crisp gunshots were heard from time to time near the landing site. Every gunshot would make the British and French commanders nervous. They would raise their binoculars to observe carefully the source of the gunshots, fearing that they would be ambushed by the Orientals.

However, forty or fifty minutes passed.

The second wave of more than 3,000 soldiers of the British Indian Corps who came ashore by boat also landed smoothly and still did not find any enemy.

Those fierce Oriental soldiers seemed to have all disappeared.

This completely relaxed Major General Courbet's mood, and he immediately started to curse;
"Tell those damn bastards not to fire randomly, damn it! You have to see the enemy before you can strike. Don't waste bullets on these bushes everywhere. I don't want to repeat this order again."

"Yes, sir."

Standing on the spacious deck of the battleship, Major General Courbet watched the small boats in the strait turn around and go to the other side to meet the third wave of landing officers and soldiers of the British Indian Corps, and stroked his carefully groomed upturned beard with satisfaction.

The order went: "Let our men follow the path opened through the dense forest and carefully inspect it. Be careful of ambushes and traps. We are facing cunning Orientals."

"As you command, sir."

Upon receiving the order, the white officer under his command immediately climbed down the rope ladder on the side of the ship, got on the small sampan and rowed towards the shore to convey the order to the commander in front.

Major General Courbet's order made it very clear;
The landing French troops were to conduct a reconnaissance along the previously opened jungle roads, including the dense forests on both sides of the roads, and troops were also to be sent to conduct a thorough search to prevent traps and ambushes.

If this road is fine, there would be no need to go through the trouble of opening up a new road. We could just follow this jungle road through the vast tropical forest, which would save a lot of trouble.

The jungle road opened up by the Chu expeditionary force when they landed was passable by horse-drawn carriages, making it convenient for transporting supplies.

After the British and French forces passed through, the subsequent delivery of combat supplies was reliably guaranteed, which was conducive to the next step of combat.

As time passed, until noon
The vanguard of the over 10,000 British and French allied forces successfully landed on the Singapore beach. Thousands of Malay laborers subsequently transported the war supplies piled up on the other side. On the landing beach, the white vanguard, led by the French Foreign Legion, cautiously advanced to explore the densely forested path and both sides, finding no problems.

After the vanguard troops passed through the dense forest, they finally discovered the Chu defense forces that were on high alert. They were all hiding behind the newly built bunker defense line, as if facing a powerful enemy.

After gathering more than 700 people, the vanguard of the French Foreign Legion launched a tentative attack.

Soon the two exploratory attacks were repelled, and more than a dozen white officers and soldiers were killed or wounded, and the battle ended hastily.

The relevant intelligence was quickly reported to the top leadership of the British and French Allied Forces and verified repeatedly.

The defensive position of the small mountain village located behind the tropical jungle was confirmed to have been newly built after the Chu expeditionary force captured Singapore, and the British side had no relevant intelligence.

This defense line consists of three tall bunkers and is connected by a defense wall over 470 meters long, forming a mountain defense line that separates the entire valley.

Several hundred meters ahead of the defense line, several one-meter-deep trenches were dug and three barbed wire barriers were laid. More than a hundred meters from the defense wall, two deep trenches were dug and equipped with stakes, pits, and other obstacles.

Now the situation becomes clear.

It turned out that this was the idea of ​​the Eastern army. They thought that a mere line of defense could stop the attack of the British and French forces. This was too arrogant.

After a brief discussion, the top brass of the British and French Allied Command decided;

Immediately expand the scope of the front-line positions, speed up the transportation of combat supplies to the front, especially artillery, ammunition, tents and food, expand and pave the jungle roads, and continue to deploy follow-up troops.

At all costs, we must break through this mountain defense line.

Subsequently, more troops passed through a six or seven kilometer-long forest road and entered the front line where they confronted the Chu army.

The Malay laborers were busy cutting down forest trees, clearing bushes, expanding the scope of the Anglo-French front lines, and erecting wooden fences.

By nightfall, a large open space had been opened up at the front line.

from beginning to end
The Chu army hiding behind the defense line had no intention of interfering at all.

This made the British and French soldiers even more arrogant. They stood at the position at the edge of the jungle and pointed at the bunker defense wall more than a thousand meters away.

It seemed like it was just a layer of paper that would break with a slight poke.

It is no wonder that the Anglo-French coalition forces were so arrogant. There were many French Foreign Legion soldiers here who had participated in the second invasion of Northern China a few years ago. No matter how tall and solid the city walls were, they were just for show.

How about those magnificent cities in northern China?
Tens of thousands of Qing troops were stationed in Dagu, Yingcheng, Tianjin and Tongzhou. After the British and French allied forces, with only more than 6000 people, landed in Dagu, they captured cities and territories along the way and were unstoppable.

One city after another was tall and steep. When they heard that the British and French forces were coming, they were so scared that they didn't even have time to close the city gates and everyone fled in panic.

When attacking the capital, the city walls were as high as 20 or 30 meters, and they had to climb over them by climbing ladders.

There were tens of thousands of Qing soldiers with pigtails in the city. They were defeated at the sight of the enemy and fled everywhere, abandoning their weapons and armor before the battle even started. I believe the Eastern troops did the same.

This small low wall in front of me is just a joke.

At night
Dozens of 12-pound field guns have arrived at the front line, along with a large number of artillery shells, dozens of carts of barrels of gunpowder, and other military supplies.

This greatly boosted the morale of the British and French allied officers and soldiers. They sat by the campfire, talking and laughing, eating and drinking, and imagining the scene of breaking through the Chu army's defense line and killing people tomorrow. The camp was filled with malicious and arrogant laughter.

On the top of the bunker opposite
Major General Ho Ruolin, commander-in-chief of the Singapore Expeditionary Force, held a telescope in his hand and took in all the scenes, with a cold murderous intent in his eyes.

"Sir, according to the latest news from the reconnaissance post, the British and French forces have landed over 6300 officers and soldiers, with over Malay laborers assisting in the battle. They are currently resting at night to repair the jungle roads."

"Well... don't worry. I've invested so much money, if I come here, I'm going to make a big profit. This small number of people can't satisfy my appetite."

"I understand. Our six hidden chess pieces are well hidden and have not revealed their movements for the time being."

"Send a signal and tell the brothers to be patient for another day or two and wait for the signal to close the net."

"Yes, sir." After receiving the order, the officer immediately turned around and walked down the bunker stairs to carry out the order.

Major General He Ruolin put down the telescope in his hand. There was no one around him now.

Looking at the darkened jungle ahead, he seemed to have imagined a raging fire that would block out the sun and sky, and muttered, "God bless me, and don't let anything go wrong. I've got a Supreme Treasure in my hand, and I can kill anyone who comes."

He was worried that it would rain at night, which would be the end of him.

Including this morning, the British Royal Navy lined up in the Johor Strait, with the black muzzles pointing directly at the vast tropical jungle, which made Major General He Ruolin very worried.

If the Anglo-French fleet launched an indiscriminate bombardment, the large amount of flammable materials that had been buried long ago would surely be detonated prematurely, making all preparations go to waste.

Fortunately, my worry was in vain and nothing unexpected happened.

In order to prevent the British and French forces from launching heavy artillery bombardments, Major General He Ruolin did not arrange any troops to launch volleys of gunfire and artillery attacks on the British and French forces preparing to land.

No traps were set in the jungle roads, and no ambushes were left, allowing the British and French forces to advance straight ahead.

After three times

The British and French forces are indeed becoming arrogant. They may send in large-scale reinforcements in the next two days...

When I think of this
Major General He Ruolin looked extremely expectant. In order to completely ignite this tropical jungle, his regiment of officers and soldiers prepared for more than 20 days.

More than 100 tons of black powder alone were used, as well as hundreds of tons of sulfur, rags of clothes soaked in kerosene and rosin, and straw ropes. 18 soldiers were also killed, all for the fire of the "Wujiang Plan."

There are six hidden chess pieces, each with three assassins hiding. After receiving the signal, they will set fire together and let the entire tropical jungle burn.

It can be launched at any time as long as the time is right.

Now, everything Major General He Ruolin did was to get the Anglo-French forces to deploy more troops and catch a big fish in one fell swoop.

In the Anglo-French allied camp in front of him, there were about four to five thousand troops gathered.

Major General He Ruolin did not take these few people seriously. He wanted more.

(End of this chapter)