The thief of the fortress dominates the world

Chapter 747 Battle against Black Fox Island ([-])

Time flies and it has been three months.

In the past three months, the situation has generally been relatively calm.The British seldom come back after harassing the coastal ports a few times and suffering losses.

According to the information collected from various sources, the British stepped up their occupation of the surrounding islands during this period, and after the occupation, they drove the aborigines to build fortifications, apparently intending to use these islands as a bridgehead for a full-scale attack.

And Daqin's side was naturally not idle either. New steam ironclad battleships came from the country continuously, carrying countless new weapons at the same time.

These new weapons include not only the Wude Nine Years Type A machine gun, but also the latest firearms, and small mortars that are more portable, but they were named Wude Nine Years Type A grenade by the Emperor Qin. cylinder.

This new type of weapon called a grenadier is lighter than the previous light mortar. Although its lethality has been weakened, it is more convenient to carry. It can be operated by one person. It is simply a sharp weapon for following infantry.

The new rifle is more powerful both in range and accuracy.

During the past three months, Ran Wu took conservative defensive measures externally, and stepped up training troops internally to familiarize the soldiers with new weapons, and organized several island landing combat exercises to prepare for future combat landings.

The British's intelligence collection channels are very scarce, and they have no idea what the Qin army is doing.After the initial doubts and worries, the British gradually relaxed and agreed that the Qin army should have taken conservative defensive measures because they felt that they could not compete with the iron-clad warships and machine guns of the British Empire.

On the other hand, it was Ran Wu who ordered the news to be strictly sealed, and the British would not be able to find any valuable news even if they wanted to.

Early in the morning of this day, Ran Wu ordered a military meeting to be held.

"Marshal, according to the various information we have collected, the islands chosen by the British are relatively close in distance. If something happens, the islands can provide timely support." The chief of staff pointed to the map to introduce the situation.

"The Brits are obviously planning to prevent us from attacking them."

"The British guy was scared of being beaten by us, that's why it's so complicated."

……

The generals talked a lot, and their words were full of confidence.

So many ironclad warships, so many new weapons, and the results of these three months of training revived everyone's confidence.

After all, the British rely on the so-called ironclad warships and bursting muskets.

And these things, our Great Qin not only has, but even more, and is more powerful, so why not be confident?
"Everyone, the rampant days of the British are coming to an end. After three months of preparation, the strength of our army has been greatly enhanced. Now it is time for our army to start a counterattack and drive out the British. Let the chief of staff explain this to you second tactic."

Ran Wu took the main seat, glanced around the crowd and said in a deep voice.

Everyone immediately quieted down and turned their attention to the chief of staff.

"Generals, the strategy formulated by the marshal is very simple. It is to attack in an all-round way and defeat these eight characters one by one."

When everyone heard it, their spirits were lifted, and their blood boiled.

…………… I am the dividing line of passion…………

Black Fox Island is the closest island to Mangshan Port, the frontline military port of the National Defense Forces.It was occupied by the British a month ago.

After the British occupied Heihu Island, they spared no effort to build fortifications on the island. Various military measures such as watchtowers, barracks, and military docks were built one after another.

The aboriginal tribes on the island became slaves without freedom under the driving and whipping of the British, and many people died under the whips and muskets of the British.

Although there were several resistances during the period, the spears, bows and arrows were quickly defeated by muskets and cannons. Hundreds of aborigines were killed, and the beaches of the island were inevitably piled up with bones like hills.

Under the strong suppression of the British, the aborigines no longer dared to resist, and were completely reduced to slaves of the British.

There is a small hill to the east of the island, which is the highest place on the island. The British built a watchtower on the hill to monitor the situation in the east sea area, which is the direction from which the Qin army came.

The British are confident that if the Daqin army appears, they will be able to detect it immediately and respond quickly.

There are two smaller islands around Heihu Island that were also occupied by the British, and various fortifications were also built on them.The three islands stand in a three-legged posture, with each other as horns.

If one is attacked, the other two will soon get the news and rush to reinforce.

Therefore, the British built beacon towers on the three islands, a trick they learned from the Qin army.The three beacon towers are all built on the highest point of each island. As long as it is not foggy, once the other two islands are set on fire, they can be found quickly.

The beacon tower on Heihu Island was naturally built on this hill, so this hill became a key point of defense for the British. Of course, the main target of defense was the resentful indigenous residents.

If it is said that the Qin army rushed to the mountain, it means that the entire Heihu Island has fallen.

Therefore, the British deployed a full company of troops on this hill with a radius of less than two miles, accounting for one-third of the entire island, which is enough to see the importance the British attach to this hill.

"Smith, wake up, it's your turn to stand guard!" The sentry yawned and left the cabin, waking up his sleeping companion.

Private Private Smith walked out of the cabin with his gun on his back in sleepy eyes. The cold wind blowing from the ocean outside made him shiver suddenly, and most of his drowsiness disappeared at once.

"Damn guard, damn war!" Smith grumbled, and walked towards a remote place beside him, preparing to take a piss.

At this time, it was already dawn, the sky was gradually getting brighter, and half of the fiery red sun could already be seen on the sea level in the east.

The sea breeze carried a fishy smell unique to the sea and rushed into the mouth and nose of the young private private Smith. He let out a sigh of relief, squinted his eyes, unbuttoned his pants and started to release the water.

After feeling comfortable, Smith went up to the watchtower with his gun on his back, shrunk his body, tightened his military overcoat, then leaned against a pillar, found a comfortable posture, and looked towards the sea to the east.

"The morning sun is so beautiful, it seems more beautiful than the English Channel sun." The young second-class soldier looked at the half of the fiery red sun on the sea level and let out a word of admiration.

"Hey, what's that?" Smith seemed to see a black spot appearing on the sun at this moment.

He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully again, but still couldn't see clearly, the fiery red sunlight affected his vision.

"It must be a seagull," Smith said to himself, and instead of continuing to look, he changed his direction and looked at the island below the mountain boredly.

At this time, although the east has begun to shine, the light on the island is still very dim.There was a burst of yelling in English from the foot of the mountain. It was that the aboriginals on Heihu Island were being driven by the British soldiers who had already started working.

There was the sound of felling in the woods below, and the native women were preparing breakfast for the British soldiers.The indigenous men in charge of building the fortifications have begun to carry stones from the beach with heavy steps at bayonet and gunpoint.

Smith looked back and muttered, "These lazy monkeys always need a whip to guard them to work, they are far worse than those Indians."

He looked around as a routine, but found nothing unusual. Smith leaned against the pillar behind him and began to doze off again.

A loud "boom" woke Smith up from his sleep again.He hurriedly opened his eyes, raised his rifle and looked around.

Smith froze when he turned his eyes to the sea to the east.

A huge fleet is heading in his direction.

No!It was not an ordinary fleet, but a huge fleet. He could even see clearly the flashing flames from the muzzle of the huge artillery on the prow of the leading battleship.

"Boom", there was another loud noise, and Smith felt as if his body was swept by a gust of wind, and flew out from the sentry tower.

When he was in the air, he was surprised to see that the tall watchtower he was just now had turned into a pile of broken logs.

"God, what kind of shell is this that has such terrifying power!"

This was Smith's last thought in this world, and then he fell into darkness completely.

"Captain, you can't drive any further, or you'll run aground if you drive any further."

The mighty battleship is the largest tonnage, strongest firepower, fastest, and strongest armored battleship in the Daqin Navy's Fusang Fleet. It has naturally become the flagship of the fleet.

The captain of this warship is Rear Admiral Zheng Sen, the eldest son of Zheng Zhilong who is now named Marquis of Dinghai by the Qin Dynasty.

After the Zheng family surrendered that year, Zheng Sen joined the Great Qin Navy and served in the Great Qin Navy. He has repeatedly made military exploits in the past ten years. He has grown from a brat with high self-esteem to a senior general of the Great Qin Navy.

This time being transferred to serve as the commander of the Fuso Fleet, which is composed of all new warships, is definitely entrusted with a heavy responsibility.Therefore, he himself is full of ambition, and plans to do a good job and teach the arrogant British a hard lesson.

"Okay, order the fleet to martial law and cooperate with the army to bombard the island. At the same time, prepare the landing craft and cooperate with the army to land. Finally, send a reinforcement fleet to stop the British reinforcements."

Zheng Sen gave orders in a deep voice, methodically.

"Obey!" The first mate took the order, turned and left.

Three huge battleships launched a fierce bombardment around Heihu Island, and black clouds rose continuously on Heihu Island, accompanied by the screams of the crowd.

At the same time, several ironclad warships turned their rudders and left the main force of the fleet, divided into two teams and headed in other directions.

The sudden blow threw the unprepared British into chaos.And in the initial shelling, the British sentry tower was destroyed, and even the garrison on the mountain suffered heavy casualties.

The British army stationed on Heihu Island was at least the elite of the British army. After the initial panic, they started to counterattack under the organization of the officers.

On the one hand, they urgently dispatched warships to block the warships of the Great Qin Navy, trying to prevent the Qin army from landing.On the other hand, organize troops on the island and start to set up defense lines, making preparations for fighting the enemy on land.

"Boom boom boom", the sound of huge cannons continued to sound, and the navies of the two sides began to exchange fire.

The British deployed three warships on Black Fox Island, of which only one main battleship was a new type of steam-powered ironclad warship, and the other two were traditional sail warships.

However, the British took advantage of the previous conflict with the Qin army.Moreover, they knew how expensive it would be to manufacture a new type of warship, so they didn't think that the Qin army could have a warship that could compete with them in just a few battles.

Driven by this kind of psychology, the British iron-clad battleship took the lead, and the other two ships, one on the left and one on the right, rushed towards the Qin army's warship in a zigzag shape.

In the impression of the British, the warships of the Qin Army are still traditional sail-style warships. As long as they fire, the opponent's hull will soon become a pile of broken wood.What's more, one's own artillery is better than the opponent's in terms of rate of fire and range, which has been confirmed in many previous battles.

"Captain, looking at the posture of the British guy, he obviously wants to swallow us up in one go." The first officer standing next to Zheng Sen looked at the menacing British warship through the binoculars and chuckled.

"The British guy doesn't know the heights of the sky and the earth, I'm afraid he will knock out his teeth." Zheng Sen snorted softly, and ordered: "Don't rush to fire, don't scare the British guy away."

The British warships saw that the Qin army did not fire, thinking that the Qin army was afraid, and their momentum became more fierce, and they rushed over without hesitation.

Although the Qin army didn't fire any guns, several warships spread out a fan-shaped structure with the Mighty as the core, forming a situation of encircling the British warships.

Seeing the British rushing in, Zheng Sen, who had been observing with a telescope, finally ordered: "Fire!"

The order was quickly conveyed to the other warships through semaphore, and soon, the sound of booming cannons sounded one after another.

The British armored warships that rushed to the front bore the brunt and were hit by several shots.One of the shells fell on the deck next to the command room, and the huge explosion shock wave directly knocked off half of the command room.

"Captain, Captain Wilson is dead!"

The British generals in the command room were so stunned that they heard someone shout before they got up.

Everyone hurriedly looked around and found a twisted iron bar stuck in the neck of Colonel Wilson, the commander. The neck was full of blood, his eyes were wide open, and he had lost his breath.

It is a sad and outrageous thing that Captain Wilson died in the first round of enemy bombardment.

However, the British Imperial Navy has been in the world for so many years, and its background is quite good, and it will not be in chaos because of the death of a captain.

The first officer quickly took over the command and said loudly: "Don't panic, Captain Wilson's death was just an accident. We will make these Eastern monkeys pay the price soon."

The panicked crowd quickly quieted down, and the first officer began to issue orders in an orderly manner.

As a result, when everyone was looking at the first officer expectantly, two shells fell into the center of the crowd, and with two loud bangs, dozens of bodies were immediately thrown into the sky.

When the gunpowder smoke cleared, the survivors looked at the place with lingering fear, and found that there were only broken arms and limbs left on the ground, and a complete human figure could not be seen. The first officer who was impassioned just now had disappeared.

Although Zheng Sen saw a violent explosion on the British warship through the telescope, he didn't know that the enemy's command system had been completely destroyed.

The artillery of the Qin warships was powerful, fast-firing, and highly accurate. Dense shells fell on the British warships one after another.

For the British warships that have lost their command system, no matter how deep their background is, it will not help them at this time.The soldiers rushed around with their heads in their arms, and some even chose to jump into the sea in a panic. The boat was instantly in chaos, and only a few artillery pieces were still resisting in vain.

There were bursts of gunfire and flames everywhere.Huge water columns continued to rise around the battleship, and the British ironclad battleship had basically lost its combat effectiveness.

"Boom", an earth-shattering bang exploded on the ocean, and at the same time, accompanied by a huge fire, a huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky, filled with black smoke, as if a demon had descended into the world.

Everyone was stunned, looking at the scene in front of them in shock.

The huge British ironclad battleship broke into two parts from the middle, the bow suddenly jumped towards the sky, and soon sank slowly towards the bottom of the sea.

Seawater quickly poured into the remaining hull, and the rear half of the stern also began to sink slowly.

Zheng Sen, who saw this scene through the telescope, was also a little stunned. It was the first time he had seen such a spectacular naval battle scene in his life.

Although I have experienced sea battles with my father before, but at that time, the sea battles were fought on the springboard after the two sides approached each other. It is more accurate to say that it is a sea battle, rather than a land battle on a ship.

But the scene in front of him is the scene of a real cannon giant ship.

At this moment, he couldn't help being dazzled, and his heart was surging.

"Captain, it looks like we hit the British guy's arsenal." The first mate who was also shocked looked at it for a long time before putting down the binoculars and said to Zheng Sen.

"It seems to be so. Our shells are not so powerful yet. The flag of persuading surrender is ordered. The main British battleship is finished. If the remaining two ships do not surrender, they will be completely sunk!" Zheng Sen After recovering, he ordered in a deep voice.

The iron-clad battleship that the British were the backbone of was finished, and the remaining two warships also panicked and wanted to turn around and escape.

But their speed was not fast at all, and they were quickly overtaken by the Qin army warships.After two rounds of artillery, a British ship was shot and sank, and the other hurriedly raised the white flag.

The warships of the Qin Army began to send small boats to salvage the British prisoners who fell into the water, and at the same time sent people to receive the captured British warships.

But after a while, the second officer of the Mighty walked in excitedly, saluted Zheng Sen and said loudly: "Captain, according to the situation of the prisoners we have finished interrogating, the British have less than 300 troops left on the island." People. And there is no long-range artillery fire on the island at present. I suggest that we can start landing operations."

"Are you sure?" Zheng Sen asked in a deep voice.

"I brought an interpreter to interrogate several British prisoners. They were all interrogated separately, and their confessions could be verified by each other," said the second officer.

"Okay, order the marines to prepare for the landing operation. At the same time, shell key locations on the island to cover their landing." Zheng Sen ordered decisively.

The second officer hurriedly took orders and left.

In the construction of the Daqin Navy in recent years, in addition to the continuous research and development of new artillery and new warships, the construction of the Marine Corps is also the top priority.

Jiang Chuan is well aware of the development trend of naval warfare in the future, so naturally he will not only train simple sailors.For the Daqin Navy, the strategic task has shifted from offshore defense to ocean expansion.

Since the ocean is expanding, landing operations must be indispensable.And landing operations require professional marines to be competent, not as simple as loading army soldiers on board and putting them off the ship.

When the Marine Corps was first established, many people thought it was unnecessary.However, after several years of encirclement and suppression of pirates, after the Marine Corps played a great role, those people originally began to admire the vision of His Majesty the Emperor.

(End of this chapter)