Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 642 Watching the Fire Dragon from Yueyang Tower~
"The east wind at night releases a thousand trees of blossoms~"

"The wind blows down, stars fall like rain~"

Hundreds of rockets, trailing long plumes of flame, crashed into Chenglingji.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Lin Dao let out a long breath, easing the pressure in his heart.

Turning his head to look at the soldiers busily working on the wide, flat-bottomed ship, he said, "Calculate the impact point, calculate the deviation value, and launch all the rockets!"

Enraged, Lin Dao unleashed his most lethal weapon.

Rocket!

It's a rocket, not a rocket shell.

Even if you could buy that thing, nobody would know how to use it.

If you don't know how to use it, the risk increases significantly.

Lin Dao used a rocket similar to the Congreve rocket, which is the same type as the famous Hale rocket.

During the Opium War, the Qing army suffered greatly from the firearms of Hale, and some soldiers were even driven mad by the fear.

Compared to the Hale rocket, the similar products Lin Dao used at this time came from modern industrial production.

Both its technology and craftsmanship are unmatched in this era.

It was even equipped with stabilizers and gyroscopes, significantly improving its accuracy compared to the Hale rocket.

"Be careful when loading!"

Lin Dao loudly instructed, "Especially the loading section and the propellant, there must be no mistakes."

The loading compartment contains napalm bombs.

The propellant is a liquid fuel propellant.

It was naturally very satisfying to land in the enemy's ranks.

But if a malfunction occurs before launch, then things will be bad.

Picking up the walkie-talkie, Lin Dao called out to the several flat-bottomed boats in the nearby waters, "All boats, get ready, countdown begins."

On the converted flat-bottomed boat, rows of steel launchers fixed to the deck were filled with rockets.

'Whoosh whoosh~'

One rocket after another roared into the sky along the steel tracks.

The burning propellant spewed out a long, dazzling halo at the tail.

Hundreds and thousands of rockets flew through the sky, creating a spectacular sight.

Especially when viewed from Yueyang Tower, the view truly resembles stars and rain.

"Is it Chenglingji?!"

Xiang Rong let out a piercing scream.

Everyone knows that hundreds and thousands of boats of all sizes are moored at Chenglingji.

Not only were there naval ships, but also civilian ships transporting military supplies from various places, and even private merchant ships belonging to Manchu nobles and high-ranking officials in the court.

More importantly, these ships were Yueyang City's escape route!
Xiang Rong had already discussed with Mu Zhang'a that if the Taiping army came in large numbers, they would retreat by boat.

The main force retreated to the Yangtze River, while local militias, mainly composed of the Chu and Xiang armies, remained in Dongting Lake to conduct guerrilla warfare and harassment.

With the previous record of killing over 10,000 Taiping rebels as a foundation (the battle report was added in the water), the retreat could be easily explained to the emperor.

But now, the Taiping Army, which had never been known to have a powerful navy before, suddenly unleashed a massive fleet and a barrage of rockets, destroying the fleet at Chenglingji.

This means their escape route has been cut off!

Rockets are not rare; they existed as early as the Ming Dynasty.

Ten years ago, when we were fighting against the foreigners, we were bombed by Hale rockets and cried out for our mothers.

But this is the first time I've ever seen something of this scale and with such a spectacular sight.

Looking out at the raging flames engulfing Chenglingji, Mu Zhang'a's obese body swayed, and he plopped down on the ground.

His fat face trembled incessantly, and his cloudy eyes were filled with despair.

With their escape route cut off, how could they escape when the Taiping army attacked?
"Sir~"

Jiang Zhongyuan came over and helped him up, whispering in his ear, "We still have boats hidden outside the city, so there's no need to worry."

Having already gained experience from their escape, Jiang Zhongyuan and his group certainly wouldn't put all their eggs in one basket.

Yueyang City is located near Dongting Lake, with numerous waterways and bends, making it easy to hide boats.

Here we go again~

Not far away, He Chun let out a mournful cry.

Sure enough, countless fire dragons rose up again from the distant lake surface.

While Xiang Rong and the others lamented, they were also puzzled. Chenglingji was already ablaze with flames, so firing rockets there would be pointless except for venting their anger.

But soon, they understood.

This time, the rockets were not aimed at Chenglingji, but were scattered and slammed into many river bends and ports outside Yueyang City, even the private salt ports hidden deep in the waterways were not spared.

Lin Dao had already used drones to find most of the places outside the city where boats could be hidden.

This time, he came with the intention of annihilating the entire Qing army, so naturally he wouldn't leave them any way out.

Several miles away from Chenglingji, in a small harbor in a river bend, a whistling rocket fell from the sky and exploded on the water.

More than ten boats of various sizes moored here were gradually set on fire.

Some Qing soldiers, unable to withstand the flames, cried out and jumped off the ship.

But once they landed in the water, they realized that it wasn't water at all, but a fiery inferno from hell!

The burning oil, even when it landed on the water, continued to burn.

As more and more rockets fell, the small river bend was already engulfed in flames.

Similar spots to this small river bend are found all around here.

The coordinates previously marked by drone reconnaissance have all been hit by at least one round of rocket attacks.

Lin Dao was well aware of the shortcomings of ships in this era, namely, that they were made of wood.

There's no other trouble, just burning it.

Although the rockets were very inaccurate, he used wide-area coverage fire regardless of cost.

Even a small port with a dozen or so ships could receive hundreds of rockets. Under such intense firepower, wooden boats would have almost no chance of survival.

Even more critically, the wealthy and powerful Lin Dao launched more than one attack on most of the targets.

Subsequent statistics indicate that at least six thousand rockets were fired.

This is not the weak Hale rocket; it is a high-energy incendiary bomb produced in the modern world.

As night fell, the barrage of rockets finally ceased.

Outside Yueyang City, the flames burning fiercely in numerous river bends and harbors even illuminated the night sky.

That night, the people in the city were destined to be sleepless.

On the lake, the fleet of boats slowly moved towards Junshan.

Before launching the attack, the advance team had already climbed Junshan Mountain and cleared out the few remaining Qing troops.

Next, fully equipped disinfection personnel came ashore, carrying spray cans to carry out a comprehensive, grid-like disinfection.

There's no way around it; in movies and TV dramas, Junshan is one of the headquarters of the Beggars' Sect, and they hold martial arts tournaments all the time.

But in reality, Junshan is a haven for mosquitoes, snakes, and ants.

Especially the mosquitoes that live near water, when they swarm together, it's like a dark cloud looming overhead.

Being surrounded by these swarms of mosquitoes will drain your blood in no time.

The forestry workers are experienced and had trained a pest control team early on.

Wearing protective suits, they skillfully carried sprayers to disinfect and kill pests everywhere. The highly lethal TTD and other pesticides were effective against mosquitoes, snakes, and ants that had no resistance, and could wipe out large areas with a single spray.

Along the shore of Junshan Mountain, countless torches, braziers, and camp lights illuminated the sky and earth.

This is the temporary base that Lin Dao has chosen. Tomorrow, the army will officially land near Yueyang City.

The vast majority of the tens of thousands of elite vanguard soldiers of the Taiping Army were busy eating dinner.

Ordinary people in this era absolutely did not have three meals a day; two meals a day were considered good.

Moreover, their diet consisted mainly of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and wild vegetables; being able to eat coarse grains was considered a holiday.

Only during the busy farming season can we have the opportunity to eat old rice, salted fish, and the like.

It's not that they like to eat vegetarian food, it's because they're poor.

Why are they so poor?

Because most of the productive value created through hard work was robbed by the Qing colonists and landlords under the guise of various exorbitant taxes.

Those who remain struggle to make ends meet and naturally have no choice but to live in poverty.

The vast majority of soldiers in the Taiping Army came from these poor people.

For many of them, this was the first time they had eaten white rice, meat, and sweets since joining the Taiping Rebellion.
In short, experienced forest rangers know very well that food is the most important way to maintain and boost morale.

Lin Fengxiang, who was promoted to commander for his meritorious service, inspected the army's food rations.

"Steamed buns for dinner."

The cook, who used a gas cylinder to cook, introduced to Lin Fengxiang, "There's also vegetable soup with luncheon meat."

After thousands of years of development, the vegetation in densely populated areas has long been completely cut down.

Even Junshan Mountain is barren, except for aquatic plants and some thorny shrubs.

There's no way around it; wood has been the most important source of fuel for thousands of years.

Moreover, wood is indispensable for both building houses and constructing other buildings.

Earlier, when Lin Dao was at the bow of the ship, looking at Yueyang Tower through binoculars, it was also a solitary building.

To meet the large-scale fuel consumption of the military, gas cylinders became an inevitable choice.

Holding the register, Lin Fengxiang carefully checked the quantities and various cans and packaging bags.

The number of bags of flour needed for steaming buns, the number of bags of dehydrated vegetables used, the number of cans of luncheon meat opened, and so on, all need to be checked one by one.

If anything goes wrong, the orphanage's inspection team will come to conduct a full investigation.

Hundreds of cooks had their heads chopped off by the Iron-Blooded Youth Corps for their greed for these things.

After verifying that everything was correct, Lin Fengxiang signed and affixed his seal, then turned to go eat.

While patrolling the camp after dinner, they encountered Li Kaifang, a fellow villager who was preparing to set off.

"Let's block the road. We can't let the high-ranking Qing officials escape under the cover of night."

"The leader was furious when those Qing demons escaped in Changsha last time."

"This time, we must kill them all, leave no one alive!"

In the dead of night, most of the Taiping soldiers had already gone to their respective tents to rest.

Inside the main tent, Lin Dao was deep in thought, holding a telegram sent from Guangdong.

The difficulty with telegraphs lay in training technical personnel.

Even if Lin Dao personally selects the professors, it will still take a long time.

After initially training a group of telegraph operators, Lin Dao quickly arranged for them to be sent to various important locations.

Feng Yunshan in Guangdong also arranged a telegraph team for Hong Xiuquan.

The Godfather Society is also developing rapidly in Guangdong.

With the material support from Lindao and the backup in Guangxi, they swept across various regions and defeated the Qing army one after another, growing stronger and stronger, leaving the Qing court in a state of utter chaos.

This not only tied up government troops in Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi, but also forced the Qing government to send more troops to Guangdong as reinforcements.

However, today's telegram is not about the battle situation.

Hong Xiuquan informed Lin Dao that the English had found them and wanted to make contact and negotiate.

Foreigners have been paying close attention to the internal struggles surrounding the mite-clearing treatment.

Seek opportunities anytime, anywhere, and make full use of the troublemaker's unique characteristics.

This is their tradition.

"Englishmen~"

“Reply to Hong Xiuquan and agree to the Englishman’s request for contact.”

"Let them come!"

(End of this chapter)