The battle in the valley was not as easy as Temple Street. Although the opponent's artillery was successfully killed.
But then the infantry sent by Rescinho successfully rushed to the first line of defense, ignoring the casualties caused by the artillery bombardment on the mountain.
They pressed straight forward. As expected, the heroes who were on the battlefield for the first time got stage fright.
Many fired their flintlocks without aiming properly and then reloaded in a panic.
Their nervous and trembling hands made their loading efficiency much lower. Fortunately, they used fixed-loading ammunition.
Otherwise, we don’t know how many flintlock guns will explode due to too much charge, or will not be able to shoot far because of too little charge.
Fortunately, with the support of numbers, they were able to barely block the first wave of Russian attacks.
However, those Russians who temporarily retreated took advantage of the situation and destroyed the enemy's horses. A large gap appeared in the front of the position.
This situation was seen by Bao Youzhi.
He did not dare to let these civilians defend another wave. Instead, he directly ordered them to retreat to the second line of defense.
The second line of defense did not last long. This time the Russians even rushed into the position and fought hand-to-hand with Minzhuang.
In the end, Bao Youzhi sent out a reserve team to repel the Russians.
At this time, they could only retreat to the fortress, because there was nothing on the ground that could stop the enemy's cavalry.
If the enemy's cavalry rushes into the middle of these strong people, they may not even have time to retreat.
Fortunately, the last fortress was not so easy for the enemy to break. Shooting from the top of the fortress gave these people a lot of peace of mind.
As the casualties increased, the remaining minzhuangs were also baptized by the fire of war and became less afraid.
Bao Youzhi commanded these minzhuangs to follow the Russians in shooting. At least the minzhuangs had cover. The Russians could only shoot in formation below the city.
Later, Rescinio moved the Juma that had just been moved away to the city as a bunker. Only then did the Russian army have some protection.
Bao Youzhi also had artillery on the hillside to provide support from time to time.
The war situation became stalemate, and the people of Jiangdong began to mature gradually after the initial panic. Many of them usually hunted, and they were actually very skilled in using flintlock guns.
But after entering the real battlefield, they couldn't adapt to the oppressive feeling of blood and fire.
Now I see my companions dying in front of my eyes, and I see that the enemy will not feel pity because of my fear.
On the contrary, their hearts calmed down. At this time, they only thought about one thing, and that was - war.
There is no way out, just fight!
Under such circumstances, the Russian army could not attack the fortress at the mouth of the valley for a while.
…
Back to Temple Street, after half a night of sailing.
Four gunboats of the Heilongjiang Navy led by Du Hang finally arrived at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.
The new daughter-in-law arrived at the home of her parents-in-law for the first time, and this will be their new home from now on.
Of course, a new daughter-in-law must establish her authority before entering the house. Otherwise, how will she be able to speak for herself in this new home in the future?
If the daughter-in-law of Erdan's family next door came to look for trouble, then Erdan's daughter-in-law would be the one to be operated on.
Since it was late at night, the sky was still dark, and everything was dark, Du Hang was not in a hurry to attack.
With the strength of the Heilongjiang Navy gunboats, there is no need to engage in night battles with those Russian wooden ships.
Du Hang waited outside the river mouth and simply sent a gunboat to bring over the contact person sent by Temple Street.
Through that person's mouth, Du Hang learned some information about the Russian gunboats. He felt relieved when he learned that the Russian gunboats were all parked by the river.
Muravyov's original intention was to use these gunboats as fixed firepower points to protect the safety of the landing site.
In addition, in case of any unexpected situation, you can quickly retreat to the ship, leaving yourself a way out.
This arrangement by the Russians was obviously good news for Du Hang, as it could at least wipe out the Russian fleet in one fell swoop.
This saved him a lot of things. If they spread out, it would take a long time to clean up so many gunboats!
There were still a few hours left, and the sailors and engineers on the boat were not idle either.
They performed final inspections and maintenance on these gunboats.
If you sharpen your gun before the battle, you will lose all your happiness!
Problems are always prone to occur in the early stages of the application of new technologies, which seems inevitable.
The engineers focused on inspecting the two multi-expansion steam engines on the ship. What they were most worried about was problems with these two hearts.
A five-hundred-ton iron thing would be completely dead if it wasn't driven by a steam engine. Unlike that kind of hybrid ship, if the steam engine breaks down, it can be replaced by a sail.
This was the first show of this kind of gunboat, so the people on the boat, especially the engineer, were very nervous. They checked repeatedly for fear of malfunction somewhere.
A ray of light finally appeared on the line between water and sky in the east.
Du Hang ordered each boat to head towards Temple Street at cruising speed. They lined up in a neat row. A gust of wind blew by, blowing the smoke columns from the chimneys of each boat onto an overlapping line.
The rear boat moved forward along the waterline drawn by the front boat, and finally formed a white line behind the fourth gunboat extending to the distant sky.
In the early morning, the Russian army was preparing breakfast on the beachhead.
Suddenly a soldier looked towards the southeastern sky, where there was a looming smoke column.
"Look, what is that?"
Everyone looked in the direction of his finger.
The lookout on the gunboat on the shore quickly climbed up the mast and looked southeast with a telescope. Four steam gunboats suddenly appeared on the river.
"Sir, we found four steam gunboats with the Golden Dragon flag flying on them. They should be gunboats of the Qing Dynasty." The lookout said to the fleet officers below.
The news quickly reached Muravyov's ears, and he was relieved to hear that there were only four gunboats.
With just such a few gunboats, even steamboats equipped with steam engines should not be able to threaten them.
Muravyov does not know much about the navy. He feels that just like the army, the number of people should be able to make up for part of the gap in weapons.
In fact, there was basically no professional navy in the fleet he led. They were just a temporary river fleet.
The main function of this fleet is to transport troops, not to fight the enemy on the water.
The Russians also reacted quickly. The 10 gunboats were fully loaded with sails, slowly accelerated under the influence of the wind, and killed the four approaching gunboats.
Following closely behind, the other gunboats were also ready.
Of course, what the Russians call gunboats refers to all ships equipped with artillery.
The two sides are moving in the same direction, and their approach speed is a bit faster. The outlet of this section of Heilongjiang flows into the Strait of Okhotsk from northwest to southeast.
Therefore, the Heilongjiang Navy travels from southeast to northwest. This season happens to be traveling with the wind, but it is traveling against the current.
The Russian gunboat formation moved down the river from the northwest, but they relied on crosswinds to obtain power, so they did not go in a straight line.
"Left rudder 10, let's cut from their right side, and each boat will reduce its speed to 15 knots."
Du Hang meant to cut through the side of this fleet, so that naturally he would not be able to sink all ten gunboats. But Du Hang was worried that he would get entangled with these ten gunboats.
Other gunboats will come to surround you. You know, there are hundreds of ships and dozens of gunboats.
If they all gather around, the river surface can be sealed. At that time, your speed will inevitably be restricted.
So he wanted to rush in first and disrupt the Russians' deployment.
The reason for lowering the speed was because he found that the speed of the Russian ships was less than ten knots, so Du Hang felt that his fleet did not need to sail so fast, as this would reduce the hit rate of his own gunners.
Moreover, high speed will affect the continuous operation of the steam engine.
Looking at the densely packed ships on the river in the distance, Du Hang couldn't help but imagine shooting cannonballs over them.
Even if the gunner fires a shell with his eyes closed, he can still hit the enemy ship.
In just a moment, the two fleets were within a thousand meters of each other.
Fortunately, the river here is open, and Du Hang controlled the fleet and the Russians to pass each other a thousand meters away.
At this distance, the artillery on the Russian ships could not reach the gunboats of the Heilongjiang Navy, but the new naval guns on Du Hang's side were able to hit them.
Although the protective armor on the Huaihai Navy gunboat could theoretically defend against the opponent's shelling, Du Hang was not so outrageous as to deliberately catch other people's shells.
"Fire!" After receiving the report from the artillery position, Du Hang decisively ordered the bombardment.
"Bang bang bang..." The naval guns at the front and rear of the boat were fired staggered for a few seconds, making the ship's salvo look not so neat.
Thirty-two solid shells flew towards ten Russian gunboats.
Against this small wooden gunboat, solid bullets are more effective.
Sometimes a single solid bullet can destroy a gunboat.
At a distance of one thousand meters, Huai Haijun's shooting hit rate was unsatisfactory.
Only three shells hit the opponent. One hit the mast of a Russian gunboat and passed directly through it.
Another one hit the side of a Russian gunboat, directly opening a big hole in the belly of the gunboat and smashing into the cabin. The turbulent river water immediately rushed in, and soon the gunboat tilted.
The last shell directly shattered the bow of a Russian gunboat.
After all, the Russians resisted firing. Their old-fashioned artillery had no chance of hitting at such a long distance.
When Huai Haijun was preparing for the second round of shooting, the two sides had already passed each other.
However, the tail gun of the Huaihai Navy gunboat can still fire, which is also an advantage of the turret structure.
Twelve shells hit, and two more enemy gunboats were hit.
The two sides were like knights hedging against each other. One time, the Huai Navy was unscathed, while one ship of the other side was sunk and four were damaged.
After passing these ten gunboats, the Huai Navy sailed along the south bank and headed toward the Russian temporary anchorage in the northwest.
Seeing that the remaining gunboats of the other side were about to sail out, Du Hang quickly ordered the fleet to speed up and rush forward.
He just wants to attack when the opponent is gathered together. This is a perfect opportunity to consume a lot of the opponent's ships.
The gunners were already ready. They aimed their guns at the location where the gunboats in the opponent's fleet gathered.
At this time, the ten gunboats that had passed by just completed their turn and caught up from behind.
Oh, no, there are eight ships now, one has sunk, and one is lying on the spot with its mast broken.