"Well done! The cannonballs are not far behind. Just aim at the biggest ship and hit me hard! If you sink that big ship, I will give you a big reward!"
At the top of Hengshan City, Seng Gelinqin shouted orders while gripping the telescope in his hand so hard that he almost squeezed out the water from a monocular telescope made in London, England, given to him by Emperor Xianfeng. According to his own wild guess, , the person sitting on that large boat, which looked quite luxurious and had many colorful flags, must be the biggest king in the Guangdong bandit rebellion, that is, the false king Hong Xiuquan.
As long as Hong Xiuquan can be killed, the Qing Dynasty's unfavorable situation on the battlefield in Hunan will be reversed overnight. "Bring it up!"
Seng Gelinqin waved his hand. "Cha!"
Dozens of Senggelinqin's Gesheha responded, and then rushed down the city wall. After a while, "Hey, hey, hey," they carried a basket of shining silver coins up to the tower! Senggelinqin pulled it apart again. He said in his throat: "If you aim and hit the big ship, you will be rewarded with five yuan per person to watch the eagle!"
"twitter!"
The artillerymen knew that Seng Gelinqin was really showing off, so they all threw off their arms and got to work. These artillerymen were all "veteran artillerymen" under Hechun, and they still had two brushes in their hands. Only a few of them were seen cooperating in waiting. For a "big gun", first clean the barrel, then load the gunpowder bag, then fill it with lead-cast projectiles, then use an awl to pierce the gunpowder bag through the fire door, and finally move the gun body together to align the muzzle. That big luxury ship going down the river...
"Boom boom boom...
With continuous loud noises, the artillery shells drew a high parabola in Senggelinqin's field of vision, and fell into the Taiping fleet on the river, stirring up water columns around a large ship. If Senggelinqin Those who have practiced Western artillery will know that this situation is called "cross-fire", and it is not far from hitting the target!
But at this time, he just felt a little pity, and kept shouting: "Fight again, fight again, aim, hit hard... "Your Majesty, Your Majesty... the Changmao in the west, south and north of the city are going to attack the city!"
The deputy capital official strode over with his hand on his waist knife, made a thousand salutes, and then reported the military information he had just received to Seng Gelinqin.
Seng Gelinqin turned his head and glanced at the official document behind him, He Chun, Jiang Zhongyuan, then pointed at Jiang Zhongyuan as a matter of course: "Jiang Minqiao, I leave it to you!" "Cha!"
Jiang Zhongyuan cupped his fists and saluted, accepted the military order, and then rushed down to the city to find his three brothers and assigned them the task of defending the city.
Before Senggelinqin could turn his head back, there was another roar in his ears. Before the deafening sound dissipated, more violent cheers started. "Hit! Hit..."
Hit? What hit?
Senggelinqin quickly turned around and raised his telescope to look around, and saw a large hole suddenly appeared in the upper bulkhead of the big ship. It was obviously a shell hit! "Reward! Reward!"
Seng Gelinqin immediately shouted: "All gunners, five yuan each!" Five yuan each, give it immediately!
Seng Gelinqin was really unambiguous in his reward, he gave it as he said, to the letter! This time he not only transferred the Eight Banners of Jingzhou and the Green Camp of Hubei, but also raised 500,000 taels of silver from the Hubei vassal treasury. He was really rich. Give me a reward!
After receiving the cash, the Green Battalion gunners became more energetic in their work, and they also found the right direction. They just covered their heads and fired. Soon another salvo was fired, and more than twenty lead bullets roared towards them. Toward Hong Xiuquan’s ship!
..
"Father God, bless me, I am not afraid of swords and cannons..
While Seng Gelinqin's artillerymen were working hard to earn rewards by firing cannons, Hong Xiuquan, the second son of the God's family, was kneeling on the deck of his ship...reciting sutras! He was the son of the Heavenly Father in the world, how could he be afraid of Qing Yao's cannonballs? Woolen cloth?
The biological son of the Heavenly Father, the Emperor, must be bulletproof!
So when he found out that his ship was being targeted by Qing Yao's cannon, he didn't panic at all. Not only did he not switch to a small boat to escape, he didn't even enter the cabin. He knelt on the front deck and chanted sutras and prayed. "Ka..."
With a loud noise, Hong Xiuquan's boat shook violently several times. At the same time, several water columns suddenly rose up and splashed down, pouring on the deck where Hong Xiuquan was kneeling.
The guards guarding Hong Xiuquan and Dong Wang Yang Xiuqing were all drowned, and fell down because of the violent rocking of the ship. Only King Hong Tian, ​​who was kneeling on the deck, clasping his hands and mumbling something, remained unmoved, as if he was really in trouble. With God's blessing, even a cannonball would turn around when it sees him.
"King of heaven, it's dangerous here, please change to a smaller boat!"
Yang Xiuqing was finally helped to Hong Xiuquan's side, and loudly asked the son of God to change boats to avoid the cannons, but Hong Xiuquan ignored him and just chanted: "Heavenly Father, God bless me, I am not afraid of guns and cannons." .
"Click!"
There was another sound of planks being penetrated by cannonballs!
However, this time it was not the cannonball that penetrated the cabin fender, but the ship's side fender. Before it was all exhausted, it swept across the front deck of the big wooden ship, almost grazing Hong Xiuquan as it flew by. The hot wind almost blew off King Hong Tian's hood, and finally brushed against the arm of one of the King's red-robed guards. The man's arm was bloody and bloody, and he let out bursts of shrill screams!
Several other guards rushed forward and picked up the red-robed guard who was almost dying of pain. Yang Xiuqing called on the left and right to pull down a large flag to use as a stretcher. Everyone put the injured guard on the big flag and worked together to carry him. Left the foredeck.
However, Hong Xiuquan did not even frown and chanted loudly: "Heavenly Father, Lord bless me, I am not afraid of swords and cannons..." What a firm Taoist heart!
..
"Hit, hit, hit a big hairy boss!"
Through the English telescope in his hand, Seng Gelinqin took in the scene of everyone rescuing the guard - he first saw a big, majestic, long-haired boss in a red robe and red scarf being knocked down by a cannon. It seems like he was seriously injured!
Then, he saw a big boss in a yellow robe and a red scarf hurriedly directing a group of young men to wrap the big boss in a red flag and go down. Who was this big boss? It couldn't be Hong Xiuquan, could it?
Thinking of this, Seng Gelinqin felt a little excited!
"Reward, reward, five yuan per person... Keep fighting, hit that big ship, sink it!" "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward!"
"Guan Xiufeng, ask your people to light a cigarette bubble for each gunner and let them smoke foreign cigarettes while firing!" "Cha!"
The gunners under Seng Gelinqin are getting more and more motivated! This prince is so considerate. Not only does he give money readily, but he also allows the Eight Banners soldiers to come up and help them light foreign cigarettes - letting the Eight Banners serve them and smoke foreign cigarettes. This treatment is Did the green camp soldiers dare to think about it in the past?
More than twenty cannons mounted on the Hengshan City Tower roared and spewed out smoke one after another. The shells fired kept hitting Hong Xiuquan's boat, leaving scars on the big wooden boat! And where Hong Xiuquan was The front deck area was hit multiple times!
One of the shells hit Hong Xiuquan from above and made a big hole four or five feet away! But Hong Xiuquan was still fine!
Another time, a shell hit the railing on the second floor of the cabin, and the broken wood flew down and swept across the front deck. Half of the people on the front deck were hit by the broken wood! Hong Xiuquan was still unscathed!
But this King Hong Tian did nothing, he just chanted loudly, "Heavenly Father, Lord, bless me, I am not afraid of swords and guns and cannot be hurt by cannons"!
I don’t know if Hong Xiuquan’s “miracle of dodging bullets” infected everyone. After he avoided nearly ten rounds of shelling, people on the front deck began to follow suit and knelt down to chant, “God bless you, Father God. ”!
The people who chanted sutras with Hong Xiuquan seemed to have received the "blessing of bullet avoidance", and nothing happened during the subsequent rounds of shelling. So others, including Yang Xiuqing, also knelt down and Hong Xiuquan chanted sutras loudly together.
With the shouts of "God bless you, Heavenly Father," the Qingyao artillery fire actually became weaker and weaker, and in the end, it was completely unable to hit Hong Xiuquan's ship.
But this large wooden ship, which had been hit by twenty or thirty rounds of solid bullets in front and back, with more than a dozen holes smashed into its side and deck, actually survived and continued to go north along the Xiangjiang River steadily! ..
"Why don't we fight? Why don't we fire?"
At the top of Hengshan City, Seng Gelinqin suddenly noticed that the bombardment suddenly stopped, so he shouted to the left and right: "Prince Piao, that big wooden boat has sailed out of the range of our cannons and is out of reach!"
"Is it out of reach?" Seng Gelinqin then realized that the luxurious ship that was suspected to be Hong Xiuquan's ship had really left the city of Hengyang quite far away, and it was indeed out of reach. "Your Majesty, how about we find another ship and try again?"
A green battalion general in charge of artillery nearby suggested in a low voice.
"No, we won't change!" Seng Gelinqin looked at the river. There were hundreds of boats on the river! How many boats could he destroy? And these boats were all equipped with long hairs, and there were at least 20,000 to 30,000 people on them!
Once they dock and disembark, Seng Gelinqin will be trapped in Hengshan City!
Thinking of this, he immediately said to He Chun and Guan Wen: "Yuting, Xiufeng, we may have killed Hong Xiuquan just now. Now the Changmao troops outside Hengshan City must be in a state of chaos. Let's take this opportunity to rush out and beat them." We were caught off guard. We defeated the Changmao outside the city and fled northward along the Xiangjiang River. We must not stop fighting!"
Chapter completed!