Chapter 140 The disaster of collapse

Chapter 140 The disaster of collapse

Chapter 140 The disaster of collapse
"Someone, go down and rescue them!"

At Shao Quanzhong's command, several of his guards quickly untied the small boat on the boat and rowed towards the place where the person fell into the water.

"boom!"

The opponent's Changlong battleship fired another shot, and this shot hit the water, injuring no one. There was a bright red color on the water surface, and the waves were surging, splashing several guards all over. The small boat swayed back and forth in the waves.

Shao Quanzhong was furious. He reached out and grabbed the military cap and threw it on the pavement at the dock. "Fuck you, you dare to fire at my soldiers? You are a traitor. Liao Rong, I order you to sink this Changlong!"

"Yes!"

A whistle immediately appeared in Liao Rong's hand. A shrill whistle sounded, and footsteps immediately sounded on the Haichang ship parked nearby.

Liao Rong ran down from the deck of the freighter and quickly boarded the Haichang.

Within half a minute, everyone was in position and the muzzle of the Armstrong cannon was slowly raised.

Hai Qing was a little confused, "Second brother, let's just save them. Judging from the flag, they are from the Huaiyang Navy..."

Shao Quanzhong kicked Hai Qing on the butt and said, "You are still my brother, but you are not as brave as Liao Rong. He carried out the order without any hesitation."

"The Huaiyang Navy is Zeng Guofan's subordinate..."

Shao Quanzhong narrowed his eyes and said, "What's wrong with Zeng Guofan? He opened fire on my troops. Even if he is the enemy, even if he is the emperor's ship, I will sink him. I am a vindictive person. Whatever happens, I will do it!"

He waved his hand at the remaining guards and soldiers, "Load your guns. No one on the Changlong warship will be spared!"

Hai Qing shivered a little, "This is going to cause a big mess again."

"I will avenge my grudge immediately, and I hate those who take their time. You can offend me, but you can't bully my subordinates! You have to poke holes when you need to. As a soldier, you have to be brave and win first, and then you can worry about other things later."

Behind him, Hu Liuniang looked intoxicated and trembling with excitement. This is the hero worthy of me. It is a real pleasure to be able to follow him.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom!”

The Haichang fired two rounds with the three Armstrong cannons on its side. The first round of armor-piercing shells sank the Changlong warship, and the second round used shotgun shells, which were rarely used in naval battles. They exploded in the air, and steel balls splashed everywhere, turning the water red.

Each Changlong battleship had a crew of 24 people and was equipped with seven guns, but it was completely defenseless against attacks from modern steam warships.

As early as 1832, the British East India Company dispatched the "Row Armoured" to conduct reconnaissance and survey of China's coastal waters in the name of a diplomatic mission to China.

They saw that the Guangdong Navy, the best-equipped navy of the Qing Dynasty, still had its warships made of old wooden sailing ships. The largest of them was more than 30 meters long and carried 30 guns, all of which were old earthen cannons.

When inspecting Nan'ao, an important coastal defense town in Guangdong, they saw 78 warships similar to Fujian merchant ships, and more than 5000 sailors under the Nan'ao General who seemed to exist only in the roster. They declared: "The entire Chinese fleet, consisting of a thousand ships of different sizes, cannot resist a British warship."

In a letter to the British Foreign Secretary in 1835, he stated that with only one battleship, two large cruisers, six third-rate warships, thirty-four armed steamers and land officers and soldiers, "we would in a very short time wipe out all the prestige of the Chinese navy along the coast and put thousands of native merchant ships under our control."

Today, the performance of the Haichang has once again proved that the report of the East India Company's expedition team is correct. If you fall behind, you will be beaten.

There were far more than twenty-four people on the Changlong battleship that was sunk this time. More than twenty passengers seemed to be northern landlubbers who could not swim and struggled violently when they fell into the water.

The shotgun killed most of the Changlong members, including a few who could swim and flutter their feet. From afar, one could even see the shiny sixth-grade top hat floating on the water.

Hu Liuniang glanced at Shao Quanzhong and saw that he acted as if he didn't see anything. She didn't want to be scolded like Hai Qing, so she waved at her men.

The twenty or so remaining soldiers of the guard platoon held their carbines horizontally and fired two volleys.

There was a thick smell of gunpowder near the port, the water surface was calm, and corpses continued to float down the Yangtze River. The Changlong battleship had also sunk and soon disappeared without a trace.

The boat had already brought the rescued sailors back to shore. Hai Qing bowed and stepped forward, helping an old eunuch in his sixties down from the boat.

The old eunuch walked with the gait of a dragon and a tiger, full of energy. He pushed Haiqing away and said, "Go and save Yang Wudi, he is injured." There was no need for Haiqing to save this one. Two middle-aged men helped another sixty-year-old man to the shore.

The old man had a bandage on his arm, and the blood had turned dark red, so it was obvious that he was not just shot.

The old eunuch looked back at his old friend and breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, they all got out safely."

Looking back at Hai Qing, "You are great. I sent out a distress signal in a hurry and you happened to be there. It's really God's blessing."

Hai Qing quickly introduced him to his master, "This is my sworn brother, the prefect of Fengyang and the commander of the Huai Army, Shao Quanzhong."

The old eunuch clasped his fists and said, "I am Dong Haichuan. I am deeply grateful for your rescue, sir."

Shao Quanzhong quickly returned the greeting and stepped forward to support him, "The old man is my third brother's master, so he is also my elder, so you must not be too polite."

The wounded Yang Luchan, supported by his two sons, also came over to pay his respects.

"Sir, we are planning to go to Fengyang to join you. We have been hunted down by the imperial guards and were about to be wiped out on the Yangtze River. We did not expect to meet you here. We are so lucky."

"This is not a place for conversation. Please enter Zhenjiang City and rest for a while, elders."

The steamship delayed its departure, and Shao Quanzhong accompanied the two martial arts masters to the Zhenjiang Naval Academy to rest temporarily.

After the conversation, Shao Quanzhong found out why the master of his eldest brother and third brother was in trouble here. It was entirely because of Tian Xing.

When Tian Xing ambushed Emperor Xianfeng in Shunyi, he brought a large number of Dong Haichuan's disciples as his backbone.

The ambush failed, and most of Dong Haichuan's disciples died heroically on the battlefield. Only Haiqing followed Tian Xing to join Shao Quanzhong.

The emperor was running away in a hurry at that time and no one noticed that there was a eunuch among the bodies of the robbers, so the matter was not exposed for a while.

But as time went on, the news of the large number of eunuchs disappearing in the Prince Su's Mansion gradually spread and was heard by people with ulterior motives.

Among the bandits who intercepted the emperor's carriage, there were eunuchs from the Prince Su's Palace. Shuntian Prefecture did not dare to be negligent and secretly sent people to investigate, and finally found evidence that Dong Haichuan was in contact with the Guangdong bandits.

When the news reached the emperor, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Guards sent three sixth-rank guards with swords, gathered experts from the Five Cities Army and the Bandit Catching Camp, and went to the Prince Su's Palace to arrest Dong Haichuan.

Yang Luchan and Dong Haichuan were close friends, and they were also implicated and almost caught in one fell swoop.

Fortunately, Yang Luchan had disciples all over the world. Wang Lanting of Prince Duan's Mansion accidentally learned the news and informed the enemy. Yang Luchan took his two sons, several disciples, and Dong Haichuan and fled from the capital in the middle of the night.

After leaving the capital, he learned that the Sixth Master, Prince Su, was not strict with his subordinates and was also implicated. He was fined one year's salary and sent to the clan house to reflect on his mistakes.

The three sixth-rank blue-feathered sword-carrying guards refused to give in and led the masters of the Bandit Catching Battalion and the Five Cities Military Department to track them down. The two sides fought a battle in Nantong Prefecture.

Among the dozen people who escaped, only Brother Dong Haichuan was there, and the rest were Yang Luchan's nephews and followers. Yang Luchan took the lead in commanding the group, but was outnumbered and escaped with injuries.

They fled southward, intending to follow Dong Haichuan to join the Taiping Army. They accidentally heard in Shanghai that Dong Haichuan's disciple Hai Qing had joined Shao Quanzhong of the Huai Army and had become Shao Quanzhong's sworn brother.

At present, Nanjing has been surrounded by the Qing army. Ningbo is a war zone. The Taiping Army and the foreign rifle team are fighting fiercely and it is impossible to cross the line of fire. After discussion, everyone decided to go to Fengyang to seek refuge under Shao Quanzhong.

Unexpectedly, when hiring a boat, their whereabouts were exposed again.

It happened that Zeng Guofan had just sent 6,000 soldiers from the Huaiyang Navy to Shanghai. The imperial guards borrowed a long dragon warship from the Huaiyang Navy from Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, and went up the river to chase the paddle boat. Fortunately, they were rescued by Shao Quanzhong.

Yang Luchan and Dong Haichuan thanked Shao Quanzhong for saving their lives. Yang Luchan was very worried. "In order to save us, the prefect fired at the Huaiyang Navy warships and killed almost all the pursuers. We are safe for now, but you have caused a big disaster, prefect."

Hai Qing counted on his fingers, "It's over. Now we have offended Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, the imperial guards, the Shuntianfu Bandit Catching Battalion, and the Five Cities Army. This is a disaster."

(End of this chapter)