Dominate the Country

No one knew what Liu Wu said to Chen Ming after he ran into the room anxiously, because after Chen Ming whispered the first sentence in Liu Wu's ear, he waved his hand and drove away all the other people in the room.

The other people in the headquarters only knew that Chen Ming's face became solemn since then, and he rarely smiled; and Liu Wu also had a serious face, but many people felt that he was hiding a smiling face under his serious expression.

No one came to ask about this matter, although they were all curious in their hearts! But curiosity kills the cat! There are no fools in the headquarters.

Chen Ming did not continue to march towards Tianjin. The army was stockpiled in Jinghai, and the 13th Brigade of the Second Garrison Division was separated to go south to support Cangzhou.

Obviously, some unexpected things happened on Chen Han's side, and Chen Ming was probably also restrained by this sudden incident, but this matter did not seem to be very serious, and it was even difficult to say whether it was a bad thing or a good thing. At this juncture, the "vanguard" of the Fu Han Army Navy had already arrived outside Dagukou.

Standing on the bow of a large silk-carrying ship, Chen Dai was beaming with joy as he looked at Dagukou in the distance, which was still in the morning mist.

"Tianjin, after this, Beijing is within reach. I really fought here..." The closer Chen Dai got to Dagukou, the more excited he became, and he danced in the direction of Dagukou. When the Chen family was forced to rebel, how many people could have imagined the current scene? How could they have imagined that the Chen family would have what it is today?

Shi Xinxiong, who was standing next to Chen Dai, did not even look at Chen Dai, and his expression was as cold as a rock. But if anyone could look at Shi Xinxiong eye to eye for a minute, they would definitely find that he looked down on Chen Dai, with a hint of "envy" and "contempt".

What outstanding talents does Chen Dai have? It's because he is a member of the royal family!

Chen Han ruled the world, and Chen Dai is a member of the royal family! With Chen Dai's merits, he should have a title of Earl, right?

And what about Shi Xinxiong himself? Shi Xinxiong asked himself, his chances of being granted a title are really slim. And how much less is his merit than Chen Dai's?

In terms of Shi Xinxiong's merits since he surrendered to Chen Han with Chai Daji, he can definitely be said to be stronger than Chen Dai. But Chen Dai always suppresses him, and the first name he mentions when he has merits is definitely Chen Dai. He is also destined to have a title that Shi Xinxiong can only dream of.

This is the royal family, this is the clan.

Dozens of warships gathered at Dagukou. The few remaining Tianjin Navy warships on the Qing Army dock did not even show their heads, and they went into the Haihe River. But the Fu Han Army Navy did not dare to be careless. The more it is at this time, the more cautious it is, cautious and cautious!

The Dagukou Fort is an important coastal defense site that the Qing Dynasty has operated for many years. It is located on the north and south banks of the Haihe River and is commonly known as the "Screen of Tianjin". During the Ming Dynasty, Dagukou began to be fortified. During the Qing Dynasty, forts were built, cannons were deployed, and facilities were continuously strengthened. When the Fu Han Army rose, Beijing paid more attention to Dagukou. So far, there are two large forts (located in the north and south), twelve earth forts, and ten earth ramparts. Each fort is three to five feet high, with a base circumference of fifty to sixty feet. The upper bricks and lower stones are all made of three-in-one soil and glutinous rice juice. There are a total of 102 cannons in the large and small forts, and the muzzles are aimed at the magnificent sea. The Dagukou fort group was formed, and a relatively complete coastal defense system has taken shape.

In addition, the Qing Dynasty also mobilized young and strong people to build embankments year after year, and dug trenches outside the embankments and erected wooden stakes. Five river-blocking iron chains were set up in Haikou, iron rafts were installed to block the river, wooden fences were installed, connected into a giant raft, and camouflage was strengthened.

Last year, as the Qing army's attack on Korea became effective, the financial tension of the Qing Dynasty was relieved to a certain extent. They strengthened the defense of the flank of Dagukou and renovated a fort in the Beitang area with 14 cannons. They also set up soldiers to defend the camp city north of Beitang. At the same time, three new forts were built in the military grain city east of Tianjin, and more than 30 heavy cannons of less than 10,000 jin were installed, strengthening the depth defense of Tianjin.

Facing such a Dagukou, the first thing that the Fu Han Army Navy was scratching their heads about was the iron rafts blocking the river, the huge rafts connected by wooden fences, and the five iron ropes blocking the river in Haikou.

At this time, the Fu Han Army Navy did not have steamships. The steam engine that Chen Ming had high hopes for could only carry water. The Fu Han Army's ordnance industry was now setting off a wave of research on boring machines, because this thing was not only related to the production of cannons, but also to the grand prize of improving steam engines. Therefore, the current improvement of steam engines is still stuck on the problem of cylinders, and the steamship still only exists in Chen Ming's description of a group of people.

Without the steamship to pull apart the huge rafts made of iron bars and wooden fences, and without the steamship to knock apart the iron chains blocking the river, Chen Dai really didn't dare to make a rash decision to rely on the warships of the Fu Han Army Navy to attack Dagukou!

This is a critical moment, a critical moment that cannot make a mistake.

If the attack of the Fu Han Army is frustrated at this time, the low morale of the Qing army will immediately rise. Since the news of Qianlong's death was spread in the dark camp, the morale of the Qing army has been very low. Qianlong has not appeared so far, and although the Qing Dynasty has not admitted that Qianlong is really dead, most of the soldiers and civilians have believed the news of Qianlong's death.

The morale of the Qing army has all fallen into a trough. If a naval victory suddenly breaks out at this time, no matter how much the real results are, it will definitely boost the morale of the Qing army.

Now is a very critical time point, and no mistakes can be made. The Fu Han Army can only win no matter whether it is fighting on land or sea, and must not lose, so as to give the Qing army a chance to "revive from the ashes". This is the order issued by Chen Ming! He is worried that someone will underestimate the enemy at this critical moment!

"If we have enough marines, it is better to attack Beitang than Dagukou."

On the yellow-white military deployment map of Dagukou, Chen Dai's graphite pen cast a small black dot on a blank space on it.

Chen Dai and Shi Xinxiong looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly. They don't have so many marines now. There are only two battalions, and if they want to rely on two marine battalions that can't even bring a few cannons, go ashore under the artillery fire of the Qing army, and attack Beitang under the pincer attack of the Qing army's reinforcements, it would be a joke.

So the navy can only target Dagukou!

Sitting in Dagukou is Tianjin General Okoen, Xilin Gioro. When the Qing Dynasty conquered Junggar, he joined the army as a third-class guard. After more than ten years, he was promoted to the governor of Gansu for his meritorious service. However, when he was in Gansu, he sold military horses privately, which ruined his career. He was stripped of his official position and sent back home to wait for orders. After Chen Han rose to power, Ekoen served in the Central Plains battlefield for more than a year, and was promoted to the rank of general and transferred to Dagukou. Later, he took the position of Tianjin General.

As a military town guarding the gateway to Beijing, the Green Camp Tianjin Town had a total of nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses. From the second battalion of the town flag, it governed the two associations of Hejian and Dagu, including the Sedangkou Battalion, the left and right battalions of the Hejian Association, the Zhengjiakou Battalion, the Jingzhou Battalion, the Dagu Association Front Left and Middle Left, Back Left, Front Right, Middle Right, Back Right Six Battalions, Gegu Battalion, Qikou Battalion, Wuguan Battalion, Bazhou Battalion, Wuqing Battalion, Jinghai Battalion, Jiuzhou Battalion, and Tianjin City Defense Battalion.

When Chen Ming broke through Jinghai, the Jinghai Battalion fled without a fight. But now, facing the Fu Han Navy coming from the sea, Okoen personally sat in Dagukou. His mission was only to defend the sea at Dagukou. As for the defense on land in Tianjin, it was not something that a small general could be responsible for. The new Zhili admiral Fu Seng'e had already entered Tianjin. Okoen, the genuine general of Tianjin, no longer needed to worry about Tianjin.

In addition to Fu Seng'e, there were Fuerle and Hailancha, and Fu Heng, the head minister of the Military Affairs Office, sat in Tongzhou behind him. The starlight was not dim at all. This was the strongest card that the entire Beijing city could play.

"Send someone to tell the Mermaid, Brown Bear and Light Cavalry to come forward now. Tell David, Olcott and Ackerman that we didn't pay them to act."

Chen Dai was reluctant to use his "small boat" to test the Qing army's coastal defense firepower, so he used the three foreign ships in the team as cannon fodder.

Anyway, the bilateral contract has provisions on combat, compensation for casualties and damage to ships, as well as labor costs for the three British merchant ships, and the Fu Han Army has given them a satisfactory price.

As for the captains of the three British armed merchant ships, they are obviously very happy to show their skills at Dagukou. They are not worried about the dangers of war at all. A timid person cannot become the top leader of an ocean-going merchant ship.

After hearing the same order on their respective ships, David, Olcott and Ackerman laughed loudly at the same time. They love this war. Because the price given by the Fu Han Army is really enough. In addition to satisfying the British customary compensation, each dead and injured sailor can also create a considerable profit for the "officials" represented by the three captains.

"Alas, my dear crew members, move, everyone move. Let's greet the Tatars on the shore with cannonballs. Let them enjoy the enthusiasm of Great Britain."

The captain of the Mermaid, David, his golden hair looked particularly shiny under the warm sunlight. His nose was red, and his face was slightly red. He had already caught the scent of gold and silver coins. Soon those cute little elves would jump into his hands.

Although their current actions seemed to have become mercenaries for the Chinese!

But who cares about this? Silver, gold, these little cuties, and the friendship of the official Eastern Empire, this is the most important.

On both sides of the Haihe River estuary, the two five-meter-high main artillery platforms were densely packed with soldiers and flags. Especially the South Artillery Platform, where Okoen was in charge in person, with a tall general flag erected on the top of the artillery platform.

The sun completely dispelled the morning mist, and the sea surface was shimmering. Seagulls flew low from the sky. In the distance, you could see the white sails that were breaking the waves and undulating with the waves, and the shadows were hazy.

"Zhantai! Chen Ni sent three foreign ships."

The alarm bell had already sounded on the South Artillery Platform, and Okoen also looked at the sea with a telescope. Three ships broke away from Chen Ni's fleet and headed for Dagukou. Looking at the style of the warships, the large sails were much more than those of Chinese warships. They were indeed not Chinese warships, but three ocean-going ships.

"Bah!" Okoen spat fiercely. Chen Ni was so shameless that he attacked Dagukou with foreign ships! "How can the glorious Celestial Empire allow you to jump around?"

"All soldiers, listen to my order. Tianjin is the gate of the emperor. We will never allow Western clowns to show off their strength!"

"All soldiers, cheer up and destroy these three foreign sailing ships. Let Chen Ni see the power of Dagukou!"

"Protect my Tianjin, protect my Qing Dynasty, destroy Chen Ni, destroy Chen Ni!!"

Ekoen roared and roared, roaring angrily. Daqingguo had been beaten to his doorstep by Chen Ni. If this was the price of his resurgence, Ekoen would rather not have it, he would rather die! Would rather die! "Ready!" With a mixture of incomparable hatred in his heart, Ekoen looked at the three Western sailing ships on the sea as if they were his mortal enemies.

Holding the saber at his waist in his hand, when the three huge British armed merchant ships lightly entered the range of the 20-jin bullet general cannon, Ekoen swung his saber and chopped forward fiercely. "Fire!"

Four 20-jin bullet general cannons on the left turret burst out.

"Boom boom boom..." With the roar of cannons, the two main turrets in the north and south, the twelve earth turrets, and the twenty 20-jin bullet general cannons successively spewed out anger, and the light blue smoke mixed with flying dust floated everywhere.

In the smoke, the fire kept spitting out, and the sound of cannons was like a magnificent symphony between sea and land.

Three British armed merchant ships five miles away moved in a zigzag pattern and continued to approach Dagukou. One iron ball after another fell, creating small splashes of water. In fact, even the heaviest twenty-jin iron balls of the Qing army were not very big. Even if they had great power, they would only create a small column of water when they fell into the sea.

As the three British armed merchant ships approached, the shells ejected from the Dagukou artillery gradually increased, and the types of shells also changed from single iron shells to incendiary shells. The Mermaid, which was the first to bear the brunt, had its sails broken by two shells. The shells passed from the upper side and fell on the sea surface two or three hundred meters away, only adding a few small holes to the sails of the Mermaid.

The British never fought back. The distance was still three miles away. At this time, the accuracy of fighting back was too poor. Armed merchant ships generally had twenty or thirty cannons, and there were almost no heavy cannons over twenty pounds. Most of them were twelve-pound cannons, with a small number of eighteen-pound cannons, six-pound cannons, and eight-pound cannons.

Take the Mermaid as an example. This British armed merchant ship has 26 cannons. There are 14 12-pound cannons, 4 18-pound cannons, 6-pound cannons, and 8-pound cannons.

In terms of range, these cannons are really inferior to the 20-jin bullet general cannon of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing army's artillery forts have also changed a lot over the years, from the initial completely open-air layout to the current semi-enclosed and fully enclosed layout. And because the tonnage and size of coastal defense guns are generally large, in order to facilitate the transportation of artillery shells, most of the artillery forts at Dagukou are semi-enclosed.

When the distance was close to two miles, the three British armed merchant ships fired back.

The whole focus was on the left artillery fort, because the flag signal soldiers who served as liaisons on the three British sailing ships received instructions from Chen Dai, and the reason why Chen Dai made this choice was because of the general flag flying on the left artillery fort.

One by one, the iron bullets were sent to the head of the South Artillery Fort, and the mud and bricks were thrown down overwhelmingly. The artillery forts were holding on tenaciously. The Qing army used huge bricks and stones as the outer layer, and a layer of rammed earth and thick logs inside. When ordinary shells hit them, they would not be destroyed by one shot. There were countless pits on the outer layer of bricks and stones, but that was all. Even the rammed earth layer was not exposed, let alone collapse. Only the observers outside suffered casualties from time to time under the fierce bombardment of British sailing ships.

The Qing army's artillery fort was filled with choking smoke inside and outside, and the soldiers inside kept coughing. Although they had covered their mouths and noses with wet towels, their tears flowed uncontrollably.

The smoke was suffocating, and every soldier was sweating profusely, but no one stopped to rest.

Carrying ammunition, loading ammunition, adjusting the height, adjusting the muzzle angle, firing--

The Qing army in Dagukou was also using their own efforts to defend the interests of the Qing Dynasty. It's just that their artillery skills were terrible! Poor accuracy and slow firing rate.

There were only three armed merchant ships. With no qualitative difference in the cannons on both sides, the Qing army tried hard again and again. After half an hour of bombardment, only a dozen shells hit them. And they were scattered on three ships!

European armed sailing ships were not thin and fragile communication boats, and a few shells were harmless to them. The most fortunate Brown Bear had not had a single seriously injured soldier so far, and the only two wounded were hit by flying wood chips.

The Qing army even fired chain bullets, and they didn't even think about how far the chain bullets could be! Less than a hundred feet after the muzzle was ejected, it fell into the water powerlessly. The liaison officer on the mast of the sailing ship looked at Dagukou with disdain.

But contempt was contempt, and in their work, the liaison officers on the three masts were all meticulous. They recorded in detail the distribution of the Qing army's light and heavy artillery, based on the weight of the flames emitted when the artillery was fired; they also recorded the efficiency of the Qing army's artillerymen, with light and heavy artillery being different...