The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 176 May our Heavenly Father and Lord bless me, I will not be afraid of swords or guns, nor will I be hurt by artillery fire!

"Well done! If the shells aren't far away, aim at the biggest ship and hit it hard! If you sink that big ship, I'll reward you handsomely!"

On the top of Hengshan City, Senggelinqin shouted orders while squeezing the telescope in his hand tightly, almost squeezing the monocular telescope made in London, England, given by Emperor Xianfeng, out of his hand.

According to his own guess, the person sitting on the large ship that looked quite luxurious and had many colorful flags must be the biggest leader among the Guangdong bandits, the pseudo-king Hong Xiuquan.

As long as Hong Xiuquan could be killed, the Qing Dynasty's unfavorable situation on the Hunan battlefield would be reversed overnight.

"Bring it up!"

Senggelinqin waved his hand.

"twitter!"

Dozens of Senggelinqin's Goshaha responded and ran down the city wall. After a while, they went up to the city wall with baskets of glittering silver dollars, shouting "Hey yo, hey yo"!
Senggelinqin shouted again: "Aim and shoot. If you hit that big ship, each person will be rewarded with five dollars!"

"twitter!"

The gunners knew Senggelinqin was serious, so they all threw themselves into action. These gunners were all "old gunners" under Hechun, and they were quite skilled. They worked together to serve a "cannon master", first cleaning the barrel, then loading the gunpowder bag, then filling it with lead-cast bullets, and then piercing the gunpowder bag through the firing port with an awl, and finally moving the gun together to aim the muzzle at the large luxurious ship that was going downstream.
"Boom boom boom"

With a series of loud bangs, the shells drew a high parabola in Senggelinqin's field of vision, fell into the Taiping Army fleet on the river, and stirred up columns of water around a large ship.

If Senggelinqin had studied Western artillery, he would know that this situation is called "cross-fire", which is not far from hitting the target!

At this moment, he just felt a little bit sorry and shouted repeatedly: "Hit again, hit again, aim, hit hard!"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the long-haired people in the west, south and north of the city are about to attack the city!"

Deputy Governor-General Guan Wen strode over with his hand on his sword, bowed, and then reported to Senggelinqin the military intelligence he had just received.

Senggelinqin turned his head and glanced at Guan Wen, He Chun, and Jiang Zhongyuan behind him, then pointed at Jiang Zhongyuan and said as a matter of course: "Jiang Minqiao, I leave it to you!"

"twitter!"

Jiang Zhongyuan saluted and accepted the military order, then rushed down the city to find his three brothers and assigned them the task of defending the city.

Before Senggelinqin turned his head back, another roar rang in his ears. Before the deafening sound faded away, even louder cheers rang out.

“I got it! I got it!”

Won? What won?
Senggelinqin quickly turned his head and raised the telescope to look, and saw a big hole in the upper bulkhead of the big ship, obviously hit by a cannonball!
"Reward! Reward!"

Senggelinqin immediately shouted: "All gunners, five dollars each!"

Five dollars per person, given immediately!

Senggelinqin was really unequivocal in giving out rewards. He gave them as he said, without compromise! This time, he not only mobilized the Eight Banners of Jingzhou and the Green Camp of Hubei, but also took out 500,000 taels of silver from the Hubei Provincial Treasury. He really had a lot of money to give out rewards!
After receiving the cash, the Green Camp gunners worked even harder, and they also found the right direction, so they just fired without hesitation.

Soon another round of volleys was fired, and more than twenty lead bullets whizzed towards Hong Xiuquan's boat!

"Father God bless me, I am not afraid of swords and guns and cannons."

While Senggelinqin's artillerymen were working hard to fire their cannons to earn rewards, Hong Xiuquan, the second son of God, was kneeling on the deck of his own ship and chanting scriptures!
He is the son of Heavenly Father God on earth. How could he be afraid of the Qing demons' artillery shells?
The Son of Heavenly Father God must be bulletproof!
So when he found that his ship was being targeted by cannons from the Qing monsters, he did not panic at all. Instead of changing to a small boat to avoid it, he did not even enter the cabin. He just knelt on the front deck and chanted and prayed.

"click"

With a loud bang, Hong Xiuquan's boat shook violently several times. At the same time, several columns of water suddenly rose up and splashed down, pouring on the deck where Hong Xiuquan was kneeling.

The guards protecting Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, were all soaked and fell down due to the violent shaking of the ship. Only Hong Tianwang, who was kneeling on the deck with his hands clasped together and muttering to himself, remained motionless, as if he was really blessed by God and even the cannonballs would turn around him.

"Heavenly King, this is dangerous, let's change to a small boat!"

Yang Xiuqing was finally helped to Hong Xiuquan's side, and loudly asked this son of God to change boats to avoid the cannon, but Hong Xiuquan ignored him and just chanted: "Father God bless me, I am not afraid of swords and guns, and I can't be hurt by cannons." "Ka!"

Another sound of a wooden board being pierced by a shell!
However, this time the shell did not penetrate the guard plate of the cabin, but the guard plate of the side of the ship. It still had some force left, and swept across the front deck of the large wooden boat, almost brushing past Hong Xiuquan. The hot wind it brought almost blew off Hong Tianwang's hood, and finally brushed against the arm of one of Hong Tianwang's red-robed guards, causing the man's arm to be covered in blood and flesh, and he let out bursts of miserable screams!
Several other guards rushed forward and lifted up the red-robed guard who was almost dying of pain. Yang Xiuqing then ordered his men to tear down a large flag to use as a stretcher. They put the injured guard on the flag and together carried him off the front deck.

However, Hong Xiuquan did not even frown, and chanted loudly: "May the Lord and Father bless me, I am not afraid of swords and guns, and I cannot be hurt by artillery fire."

What a firm determination in the Tao!

"Hit it, hit it, hit a big hairy boss!"

Senggelinqin watched the scene of everyone rescuing the guard through the English telescope in his hand. He first saw a long-haired leader wearing a red robe and a red scarf, with an imposing manner, being knocked down by a cannon, as if he was seriously injured!

Then, he saw a big leader in a yellow robe and a red scarf frantically directing a group of young bandits to wrap the big leader with a red flag and take him away.

Who is this big boss? Could it be Hong Xiuquan?

Thinking of this, Senggelinqin felt a little excited!
"Reward, reward, five dollars a head. Keep fighting. Go after that big ship. Sink it!"

"Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty!"

"Guan Xiufeng, tell your men to light a cigarette for each gunner, so that they can smoke it while firing the cannon!"

"twitter!"

The gunners under Senggelinqin were getting more and more motivated! This prince was so considerate. Not only did he pay them promptly, he also asked the Eight Banners soldiers to help them light foreign cigarettes. Did the Green Camp soldiers dare to think of such treatment in the past?
More than twenty cannons mounted on the Hengshan city wall roared and spewed smoke in wave after wave, and the shells they fired kept hitting Hong Xiuquan's boat, leaving the large wooden boat covered in scars!
The front deck area where Hong Xiuquan was located was hit by bullets many times!
One of the shells hit from above and created a big hole four or five feet away from Hong Xiuquan!
But Hong Xiuquan is still fine!

Another time, a shell hit the railing on the second floor of the cabin, and broken pieces of wood flew down and swept across the front deck. Half of the people on the front deck were hit by these broken wood!

Hong Xiuquan was still unharmed!
And this King Hong did nothing but recited loudly there, "May God, my Father, bless me. I will not be afraid of swords or guns, and I will not be hurt by artillery fire!"
It is not known whether Hong Xiuquan's "miracle of dodging bullets" infected everyone, but after he avoided nearly ten rounds of artillery fire, some people on the front deck began to follow his example and knelt down to chant "May God bless us, our Heavenly Father"!

The people who chanted along with Hong Xiuquan seemed to have received the "blessing of bullet avoidance", and nothing happened in the subsequent rounds of bombardment. So everyone, including Yang Xiuqing, knelt down together and chanted along with Hong Xiuquan.

With the continuous shouts of "Father God bless us", the Qing army's artillery fire actually became weaker and weaker, and in the end they could not even hit Hong Xiuquan's ship.

This large wooden boat, which had been hit by more than twenty or thirty solid bullets and had more than a dozen holes in its sides and decks, actually survived and was still sailing steadily northward along the Xiangjiang River!

"Why aren't you fighting? Why aren't you firing?"

On the top of Hengshan City, Senggelinqin suddenly discovered that the shelling had stopped, so he asked loudly to those around him.

"Your Majesty, that big wooden boat has sailed out of the range of our cannons. We can't reach it!"

"Out of reach?" Senggelinqin then realized that the luxurious ship that was suspected to be Hong Xiuquan's ship had indeed gone quite far away from the Hengyang city wall and was indeed out of reach.

"Your Majesty, how about we switch boats and fight again?"

A Green Camp general in charge of artillery nearby whispered a suggestion.

"No, I won't change!" Senggelinqin looked at the river. There were hundreds of boats on the river! How many could he destroy?

Moreover, these ships were filled with long-haired people, numbering at least 20,000 to 30,000!

Once they dock and disembark, Senggelinqin will be trapped in Hengshan City!

Thinking of this, he immediately said to Hechun and Guanwen: "Yuting, Xiufeng, we may have killed Hong Xiuquan just now. Now the Taiping rebels outside Hengshan City must be in great chaos. We can take this opportunity to rush out and catch them off guard. After repelling the Taiping rebels outside the city, we will leave and quickly retreat northward along the Xiangjiang River. Don't linger in the battle!"

"twitter!"

(End of this chapter)