Otroni, a British soldier who fought with the army, wrote in the "Record of the War against China" that in Guangzhou, trade had resumed, and foreign ships were quickly unloaded and quickly loaded with tea. On 14 April, the ministers Yishan and Longwen arrived. This brought greater morale to the local officials, and the military preparations in violation of the terms of the truce were evident from all sides, with the fort being rearmed, the troops constantly moving towards Canton, rafts on the upper reaches of the river outside the city supposedly under construction, and shopkeepers panicking.
Everyone panicked, but the British army laughed and lost their teeth, and they didn't feel that they had been beaten enough? Then let you have a long memory. Without waiting for Yi Shan to act, the law of righteousness preemptively attacked.
On May 13, Yi Lu secretly ordered the British army to quickly enter a state of combat, and on the afternoon of May 17, an official attack was ordered, on that day, only one warship was left to guard Hong Kong, and the rest of the navy and army were all sent to Guangzhou. On the 18th, Yilu rushed into the Guangzhou Commercial Museum and secretly deployed the work of quickly ending trade and evacuating overseas Chinese in time.
With the 21st, all the local British merchants in Guangzhou were evacuated, and it was the evening of the day that the water city around the shangguan (including White Goose Pond) was moored with the British ships Mordestes, Blades, Algyrin, the ship Vengeance, the official ship Louisa of Yilu, and the merchant ship Dawn. A new offensive by the British army is about to begin.
YiShan grasped the deployment trend of the British army in time, but then he made a little clever: why not attack first? Hit the British cold? At 11 o'clock in the evening, the Chinese West Battery, stationed west of the shangguan, opened fire on the British ships under the orders of Yishan, and at the same time, more than 100 rafts were dropped from upstream.
This surprise attack was personally commanded by Yi Shan, and even Yang Fang did not notify him.
Judging from the course of the battle, it is even more eye-opening, in order to prepare for this battle, Yishan also worked hard, the Ming Dynasty handed down several firearms books have been rotten, the relatives brought, there are also senior craftsmen in the Beijing Firearms Battalion, he stayed in the gongyuan, is also working overtime day and night, rushing to make new firearms, such as fireball artillery rockets and other fresh things, almost condensed the previous one or two hundred years, All the scientific research crystals of China's firearms manufacturing.
When later generations reviewed the Battle of Guangzhou, some people also lamented that just seeing the weapons of the Qing Army, it was very chronological, almost a retrospective exhibition of Chinese firearms from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the Daoguang years, which was very dazzling.
It is commendable that Yishan is also very good at learning and selling now, on the way to Guangzhou, he has been holding on to the scroll, catching a copy of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to watch, and finally achieved great gains, planning to imitate the Three Kingdoms Zhou Yu Huang Gai, to give the British a good scene of burning Chibi: fire ship attack.
This attack plan, based on the fire boats and rafts equipped by Yishan in Foshan, Guangdong Province, and the recruitment of more than 2,000 experienced water braves was even more expensive.
Bernard, a British soldier who fought with the army, described in the "Nemis Steamship Navigation Operation": "The raft is composed of small boats loaded with flammable materials, ranging from 2 to 8 ships, tied together by iron chains. The Chinese prepared about 100 rafts, but only a dozen (i.e. 12) were lit. ”
After the battle began, these carefully prepared moves of Yishan, Hula all greeted the British army, and after a sea of fire, the British army was basically unscathed.
It is not that the British army can fight, but yishan's playing style is too backward, and it is basically one or two hundred years worse than the modern equipment of the British army. For example, these fire ships, according to Yishan's plan, should have crashed into the British ships, and then they were on fire, but they did not expect that the speed of the British big ships was much faster than these small fire ships.
But to say that this round of attack is useless, not necessarily, the British warships in the pursuit of the fireship did not pay attention, and were seized by the Qing Army's West Battery and beat several shots!
Unfortunately, the Shells of the Qing Army, with their small destructive power, could not break the British ships at all.
But being able to hit, compared with the previous Battle of Humen, is already a big improvement, not bad, should applaud.
The British were furious and immediately launched a counterattack against the West Battery, which was destroyed under the repeated bombardment of the modishes, the Algirin, and the ship Vengeance.
The steamship Vengeance God also went up the river and muted a series of gun emplacements of the Qing army.
The losses on the Qing side are recorded by Bernard in the "Nemesis Steamship Navigation Operation": "In the full-scale engagement that began and continued for several days, 71 divisions and ships of the Chinese side were destroyed, and the shore batteries equipped with more than sixty cannons were captured and dismantled. ”
Originally, Yishan wanted to steal chickens, but the result was not only to eat rice, but also to beat the life can not take care of themselves.
However, such a tragic defeat, when it came to Yishan's recital, it became a different scene: "On the first day of April, Ling Ben selected more than 1,700 people who were familiar with Shui Yong. Led by Hu Fengshen and others. Attack and suppress separately. Concealed firearms. By speedboat. Ambush everywhere. He also ordered officers and men to take advantage of the situation along the coast to bombard. The Benyong equals are divided into three teams. Cut first and then go. Attack it left and right. The inverse is attacked on all sides. At the same time, the fire is fired. Ben Yong crouched down on the water. Straight to the bottom of the boat. Hook the hull. Throw firearms. Su Zhen burned two white goose pond warships on the west road. Four large three-board boats. There are dozens of dinghies and three-board boats. There are several small three-board boats on the East Road Ershawei. Countless people have been beaten and drowned. Zhang Qingyun, the commander-in-chief, and others, and the inspectors of the West Battery opened fire. Its reverse came ashore. All were killed. ”
This completely nonsensical report once again made the Daoguang Emperor very happy, and he passed on the message to reward Yishan. But the Daoguang Emperor did not know that when he received the good news, the Yishan he was trying to reward was almost beaten down by the British army!
Yi Shan originally thought that although this surprise attack did not achieve its goal, it also hurt the British, which was not bad. Unexpectedly, for the British, this is only a warm-up exercise.
On the 23rd, the British main battleships and 2,300 British troops from Hong Kong launched a fierce counterattack, and the Qing army was once again in a mess!
First, at nine o'clock in the evening of the 24th, the British army landed from the north of the mud city, the Qing defenders fled first, and more than 2,000 British troops landed without any resistance.
On the 25th (the fifth day of the first month of April), the British troops who landed from The foot of the city went straight to Yuexiu Mountain in the north of Guangzhou and attacked the four forts guarding Guangzhou, including Gongji, Baoji, Yongkang (Sifang Fort), and Qi Ding.
Compared with the hopes of some Qing troops fleeing, more than 2,500 Guizhou soldiers stationed here bravely resisted with flesh and blood, paying the price of 500 soldiers martyred and more than 1,000 wounded, but still failed to defend the fort.
It was a real land battle, with 9 British casualties and 68 wounded, setting a record for the highest casualties since the beginning of the Sino-British war in 1840.
In addition to this fierce battle, the battles elsewhere are basically one-sided and crushed.
After the fall of Yuexiu Mountain, every move in Guangzhou was overlooked by the British army. The Pearl River became a complete passage for British ships to travel freely. The British constantly fired artillery from warships and occupied batteries to various parts of the city and the outskirts of the city, "twenty miles along the Pearl River, outside the three gates of the ring, east, west, south and east, and the sound of the cannon was not interrupted for a moment."
If this offensive continues, the fall of the whole city of Guangzhou is only a matter of minutes.
Fortunately, on the 26th, the sky was suddenly beautiful, the rain poured down, and the British attack could only be postponed.
(The above is an excerpt from Qin Shiyong and Zhang Lan's long popular history book "Seventy Years of Wind and Thunder", for the contextual content, please go to the column to read the whole book)