It was almost the fourth watch, and Yang Yi guessed that it was so late that the masters of hundreds of households would not be so active and would not come to patrol again. Yang Yi planned to sit down and take a nap. After all, the night watchers like them would not be able to do anything at dawn.
There may not be a chance to rest. During the day, someone led a group of soldiers to patrol Wuzhou City back and forth to see if there were any suspicious people. Just yesterday, the people guarding Dayunmen captured a man who was said to be Australian.
A craftsman who pretends to be a hawker, and whose head is now hanging on the tower of Dayunmen.
As for whether this hawker is really good at craftsmanship, no one cares or cares. During Yang Yi's limited "expeditions", when he encountered "suspicious people", he mostly caught them and asked them a few questions, and then chopped them with a knife. Anyway,
Regardless of whether you read them carefully, their words are almost the same. They all say that they are good people, with an eighty-year-old mother and an eight-year-old child at home.
However, killing a vendor would bring a lot more profit than killing a Li and Dong people during an expedition - these people often have nothing around them, and the vendors should have some money and goods, so everyone can get some benefits.
This is a good thing, why can't it be my turn? Even if I get a few dozen pennies, it's fine. Staying up all night and standing guard is so tiring, and I can't get any money or water. I heard that the Governor gave a salary to those who stand guard at night.
A reward was given, but somehow it disappeared. It must have been taken away by an official.
Those who work as officials get the money, those who work as soldiers suffer the hardships, and those who work as grandma, this world is really unfair.
Yang Yi made up his mind, no matter whether Wuzhou City could be defended or not, as soon as there was chaos in the city, he would rob a few big households in Wuzhou City and make a fortune in troubled times. Someone had already roped him into the gang.
When chaos breaks out in the city, they will take action together.
Yang Yi felt happy when he thought of this, and suddenly wished that the Australians would come over quickly and make a fortune. But before he could close his eyelids, he saw a few bright lights suddenly flashing in the southern sky, like shooting stars.
Same. These bright lights crossed the south wall of Wuzhou City and then fell directly in the city.
Yang Yi was surprised for a while, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. He once heard someone say that Australian rockets can shoot far and accurately. Guangzhou City was attacked by Australian rockets back then, and the city was in fire and a mess. Yang
Yi hurriedly found a conch, blew it with all his strength, and then shouted into the city.
"Enemy attack!"
Following his roar, urgent gongs and drums resounded through the sky, lanterns and torches were lit everywhere, and people's voices were in panic.
The Australians finally came and killed them.
In the early morning of April 12, under the cover of darkness, Schneider led the West Detachment of the Pearl River Advance Fleet to sail onto the water of the Xijiang River south of Wuzhou City. The large and small ships of the advance fleet anchored underground and fired more than a dozen Hale rockets to declare.
The arrival of the Fubo Army. Several of them ignited several boats on the pier outside the city, setting off a raging fire.
Although he couldn't see the situation in Wuzhou City, Schneider, standing on the deck of the flagship of the Pearl River, still smiled proudly when he saw the blazing fire on the riverside: "Look at this big gift we gave Xiong Wencan!"
In contrast, Ruan Xiaowu was much calmer and asked: "Detachment leader, are you waiting for an opportunity to fight the enemy navy or rest on the spot?"
Schneider thought for a while and realized that the naval battalion in Wuzhou probably did not have the ability to fight with the advance fleet at night, let alone come out at night. So he said: "Instruct all ships, except those on duty, to rest."
"Yes!" Ruan Xiaowu saluted.
"Remind all ships to be prepared for night attacks," Schneider added.
Subsequently, the Pearl River sent out a signal to the other ships, and the crew members of each ship took the time to rest. Tomorrow's combat tasks will be heavy, and they must have a good rest in order to cope with it calmly.
Zhu Mingxia gave Snyder three tasks: first, to wait for an opportunity to annihilate the fleet of the Wuzhou Navy Battalion and seize control of the river; second, to conduct a fire reconnaissance of Wuzhou City Defense to find out the strength of Wuzhou City's defense; third, to guide the shelling ships
Occupy a favorable position and bombard Wuzhou City.
Wuzhou City is located at the intersection of Xijiang River and Guijiang River. It guards the waterway leading to Guilin, the capital of Guangxi, and Guangxi. It is an important transportation hub and the gateway to Guangxi Province. After entering Guangdong and controlling Wuzhou, the next step
You can then go up the Gui River to threaten Guilin, and go west to control a large agricultural area in western Guangxi. Therefore, the strategic plan of the Guangdong and Guangxi strategy takes the occupation of Wuzhou as the end point, which is to prepare for the next step of controlling the entire Guangxi.
As the first vanguard force to arrive outside Wuzhou City, the West Detachment of the Pearl River Advance Fleet completely controlled the water surfaces of the Xijiang and Guijiang Rivers and cut off the supply lines of Wuzhou City. Schneider knew that he had a heavy responsibility and did not dare to relax. He was already excited.
, thinking of this made me unable to sleep even more, so I simply sat on the wicker chair with my command knife in hand, closed my eyes and rested, waiting for dawn.
But closing his eyes, Schneider could not help but think of the recent Battle of Antelope Gorge. In the battle of Antelope Gorge, the West Detachment of the Pearl River Advance Fleet won a great victory, but this victory made Schneider lose face and lost two lives.
A gunboat, with dozens of casualties, was an unacceptable loss for Schneider, a veteran in the Navy. In other words, such a victory was enough to make Schneider unable to hold his head high in front of his colleagues.
Such a victory would not bring any honor to Schneider, but only ridicule. Schneider would get angry when he thought of Antelope Gorge, and he just planned to take his anger out on the Wuzhou Naval Battalion.
Just wait, tomorrow I want you to kill every one of you.
At six o'clock in the morning, the battle alarm sounded on time, not because the enemy navy was attacking, but because Schneider had planned to use cannons to wake up Wuzhou City early in the morning. Schneider's plan was to bombard the south city of Wuzhou
, lured the Wuzhou Naval Battalion into battle, and then set up a formation to annihilate the Naval Battalion in one fell swoop. Sailing on the Xijiang River, Schneider was dumbfounded. Not to mention the warships of the Wuzhou Naval Battalion, even a small sampan was in front of him.
No, the entire river is empty, and there are no ships moored at the docks on both sides of the Xijiang River.
Probably the Wuzhou Naval Battalion didn't come over so early. Schneider comforted himself.
Then one hour passed, two hours passed, three hours passed, and it was almost ten o'clock in the blink of an eye, and the Wuzhou Naval Battalion was still missing. The reconnaissance ships he sent out early in the morning came back one after another, and the reports were exactly the same.
There is not a single boat on the Xijiang River.
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster. Schneider immediately thought of fire attack ships. It seems that the enemy wants to repeat their old tricks again. The Xijiang River is vast, and the Battle of Ershawei five years ago has proven that fire attack ships on the wide water are more effective than ambushes. The Polish navy has no role. But the Guijiang River to the west of Wuzhou City is different. The width of the river is only less than 500 meters. It is difficult for the fleet to disperse there, and it is easy to become a living target for fire attack ships. Since there are no enemies on the Xijiang River , the Wuzhou Naval Battalion must be ambushing on the Guijiang River, and maybe there are already a large number of fire attack ships waiting there.
However, the reconnaissance boat sent to the Guijiang River soon came back to report that there were no invincible ships on the Guijiang River.
"Why, you just lie down and get beaten up when you know you can't do it?" Schneider wondered, and asked, "Fire a few shells towards Wuzhou City first!"
The shells roared across the river, first landed on the pier outside the south gate, destroying several houses, then collapsed a piece of parapet battlement, and then punched a dozen holes in the city tower, causing a small fire. .But there was no sound at all on the city walls, no artillery fire was fired, and no troops came out of the city to prepare for battle.
It seems that the Ming army has learned well - this is the consensus of the South China Army since the Guangdong and Guangxi strategy. It has become the consensus of the Ming army generals not to fire at targets outside the range and not to be casually exposed to the artillery fire of the Fubo Army.
Schneider's original plan was to destroy the Wuzhou Naval Battalion and then enter the Guijiang River, but as time passed, Schneider couldn't sit still. Soldiers are very fast, and waiting on the Xijiang River will only delay the fighter's opportunity in vain. The infantry ships of the first brigade have been waiting for a long time. If he does not launch a full-scale battle, that is, if he does not achieve the combat goal, Schneider cannot afford to lose this person. The water surface of the Gui River is not a very good battlefield, and the water surface is narrow. It is not conducive to the deployment of the fleet, and it is fully covered by artillery fire on the west wall of Wuzhou City.
The most terrible thing is that according to the hydrological treatment provided by the intelligence department: the water in the Guijiang River is much shallower than that in the Xijiang River. The biggest problem is that there are many shoals and the changes are large, making it difficult to accurately locate. The reconnaissance boat just reported that the waters in the Guijiang River have been invaded by the enemy. There were signs of a blockade by Shen Chuan and Shen Shi. Although it was not enough to strand the gunboat, a large ship like the Zhujiang would definitely not be able to enter.
But without entering the Guijiang River, he could not complete the task of blocking Wuzhou City from the water.
"Send the fifth squadron into the Guijiang River and send a tugboat to follow behind to cover."
I couldn't figure out the hydrological conditions of the Guijiang River for a while, so I had to bite the bullet and try. If a ship ran aground, a paddle wheel tug could quickly pull them out.
The six large gunboats of the Fifth Squadron sailed into the Guijiang River, waiting for an opportunity to engage the enemy. Each ship soon saw the flag hung on the Pearl River, so according to Plan B of the predetermined plan, they advanced in two columns, with the tugs The formation at the back moved toward the Guijiang River in a mighty manner.
"Every ship, please keep a lookout!"
The two forward gunboats were in an oblique formation, with No. 38 at the forefront. The captain of No. 38, Second Lieutenant Yan Youcai, had just been promoted. This time he was in the forward position, and he couldn't help but be very energetic. It was not Yan. The captain was overly cautious, but he was looking forward to making several new achievements, so he had to concentrate on achieving excellent results. But fate played a trick on Yan Youcai, and the No. 38 boat sailed not far into the Guijiang estuary, only to hear With a bang, boat No. 38 could no longer move.
Schneider saw the flag of boat No. 38 being stranded and in distress from a distance on the deck, and murmured: "Damn it, how does this scout boat work!" As soon as he finished speaking, another person in the vanguard
A gunboat also ran aground, and the two gunboats stopped motionless at the mouth of the Guijiang River, with black smoke from the boilers still rising.
Volume 7 will be updated tomorrow - Chapter 299 of Guangzhou Governance