The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 244: Charge towards the British cannons! Is this the Qing army? (Please subscribe, please vote)
Outside the north gate of Shanghai County, there is the North Gate Office of the Jianghai Customs.

On the north gate tower of the nearby county town, the flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was fluttering, while on the flagpole inside this newly built Chinese-style yamen, which was protected by high walls on all sides, the flag of the Qing Customs was still fluttering in the wind.

When Captain Smith arrived outside the customs office with more than 80 British soldiers armed with live ammunition, this British army captain who had fought in the First Opium War and had stayed in China for more than ten years saw a customs office with sandbags piled up at the gate and chevaux de frise placed. Behind the sandbags there were vaguely a few Chinese customs collectors holding foreign rifles. The roof and corner towers of the office seemed to be covered with sandbags and musketeers were deployed.

Is this an illusion?
Captain Smith was now somewhat suspicious whether he had drunk too much opium and was suffering from hallucinations.
He had never seen such strict defenses even on the battlefields of the Opium War, but now he saw it in a customs office that had always been only concerned with corruption and bribery!

With such defenses deployed in Shanghai County, how could it be ambushed by a small number of infiltrated Taiping troops and a group of gang members?
In addition, didn't they know that Shanghai County was attacked? Why didn't they go to support? Instead, they hid in the customs office?
When Captain Smith's head was full of question marks, someone behind the sandbags outside the gate of the customs office opposite was speaking in Chinese with a Cantonese accent: "Listen, British soldiers outside, this is the sovereign territory of the Qing Dynasty. You have violated the sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty. Leave immediately, otherwise you will bear the consequences. All responsibilities will be borne by the British side!"

Captain Smith was stunned when he heard this. He had been in China for more than ten years and had already learned Chinese, but it was the first time he heard Chinese people say words like "sovereign territory", "infringement of Qing sovereignty", "self-responsible consequences", and "all responsibilities are borne by the British side".

Were the people in that government office really Qing soldiers? Were they really not some European country's army pretending to be soldiers?
Thinking of this, Captain Smith looked back at Wade-Giles, who taught him Chinese, and found that this China expert was also shocked.

"Thomas, do we need to launch an attack now?" Captain Smith asked confidently.

Although the customs office was already defended, Captain Smith was still very confident in his men's fighting ability.

He estimated that these Chinese customs tax collectors could cause at most ten to fifteen casualties, no more.

After all, in the Sino-British War more than a decade ago, the British Expeditionary Force suffered only a few hundred casualties, including only sixty-nine deaths.

This shows how weak the Qing army's fighting power was. They were even worse than the Indians who had become slaves of the British Empire.
Wade, a "China expert", had similar ideas to Smith - the more he studied this country and this nation, the more he felt that they had no hope and were not worth saving. Even after another hundred years, the British Empire would only need to send out a few tens of thousands of expeditionary forces to completely defeat this country's army!

However, this country is a bit far away from the British mainland. Even if it is conquered, the subsequent rule will be very troublesome. Therefore, Wade and most British bureaucrats from Oxford and Cambridge still prefer to maintain a Chinese government that can guarantee and expand British interests, rather than directly rule a population of 400 million.

"Wait a little longer," Wade smiled coldly, "I want to give them one last chance to accept our help."

"Thomas, you are so compassionate!" Captain Smith smiled. "While you are negotiating with them, I think we need to set up the 12-pound cannon. We may need to fire a few shots to scare them."

This cannon was not originally intended to bombard the Customs Office, but to intimidate the Taiping Army in Shanghai County.

After all, bombarding the customs of a sovereign country is too non-neutral.

But Captain Smith now feels it is necessary to use it
"Captain, is it really necessary to bombard?"

"Yes, sir." Captain Smith answered in the affirmative.

Wade was stunned for a moment, then looked at the sandbags and chevaux de frise on the opposite side, and then looked up at the Shanghai County in the distance.

The gate of the county town was still closed, but the city wall was already full of "red-headed men" - they should be the Taiping Army, observing the battle between the British heavenly soldiers and the Qing weak soldiers.

Then, Wade looked left and right and behind him and found that there were quite a few people watching!
Beiguan Yamen is next to Shiliupu and the French Concession, and there are many Chinese and foreign merchant ships on the river nearby. How could there be few people watching the fun?

It's a bit complicated to explain why a customs office of an independent sovereign country was bombarded with cannons in front of so many people!

However, compared to the huge losses that were clearly seen during the attack on the Customs Office, it is always easier to find excuses afterwards. After all, the truth is within the range of the cannon!
Thinking of this, Wade nodded and said, "Okay, let's hurry up. I'm worried that if we delay too long, the Taiping Army in Shanghai County will intervene."

Of course, it would be nice if they could be persuaded to leave peacefully.

When Captain Smith sent people to pull the cannons over, Wade held up a white flag symbolizing peace and walked to within ten steps of the gate of the Customs Office. He then shouted in Chinese to the people inside: "Listen, everyone inside. Shanghai County has been captured by the Taiping Army. According to the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, we will now temporarily take over the Customs Office to ensure that free trade between China and Britain can continue. Please leave immediately. We will ensure the safety of all of you!"

One has to say that Wade was indeed a top student at Cambridge, able to justify such an aggressive act as seizing the customs agency of a sovereign country in such a high-sounding way.

However, the answer from the Jianghai Customs Office was: "Listen, British soldiers outside, this is the sovereign territory of the Qing Dynasty. You have violated the sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty. Leave immediately."

"I am Sir Thomas Wade, the British Vice-Consul in Shanghai. I want to see your Lord!"

The answer from the customs office was still cold: "This is the sovereign territory of the Qing Dynasty. You have violated the sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty."

Is this someone reading out the standard answer? Wade frowned even more tightly. And why is this person's speaking style so similar to that of Luo Xueyan?

Just as he was thinking of Luo Xueyan, he heard a suona sound that made him shudder: "Di di da di da di!"

Then I saw dozens of Chinese soldiers holding bayonets, wearing customs uniforms and black turbans on their heads, rushing out of the customs office, shouting, "Kill!"

Wade thought to himself that this was not good. They were going to kill the messenger. They were indeed barbarians!

He couldn't just sit there and wait to die, so he turned around and ran away. When he turned around, he saw a 12-pound cannon that was being loaded!
Were those Chinese soldiers charging towards the British cannons?

Isn't this too fierce?

At the British position, Captain Smith was also stunned by the bravery of the Qing soldiers on the opposite side.

Were these Qing soldiers mentally ill? They actually launched a bayonet charge against a 12-pound cannon and more than British soldiers armed with live ammunition?

Aren't they afraid that the 12-pounder might have a shotgun in it?

Even if the cannon was not loaded with shotgun shells, the more than 80 British soldiers were equipped with rifled brown basses!

"Captain, shall we fire?"

A gunnery sergeant suddenly yelled at Smith, "I have to fire that solid bullet before I can load the shotgun shells!"

"Fire!" Captain Smith gave the order without thinking twice - this was the most standard operation! Artillery should switch to shotgun shells when facing the enemy infantry charge. He knew this when he was in military school in the UK.

"boom!"

When the cannon sounded, the British captain suddenly realized that something was wrong and there was a British vice-consul running towards him.
As Wade ran, he looked back to see if he was being chased by his pursuers. Suddenly, a strange wind blew past him. The force of the wind was so strong that he was knocked over before he could even stand firmly. Before he landed, his ears were filled with a loud noise like an earthquake.

"Fuck you!" Wade fell heavily to the ground and couldn't help but curse in the national language of England!

That Captain Smith actually fired a 12-pound cannon at him!

This is to "kill" him with cannon!
"bang bang bang"

Before Wade could get up and continue running, he heard gunshots in his ears.

Wade looked in the direction of the gunshots and found that it was the Qing customs officers who were "hunting" him who were firing! Their formation was very spread out, all kneeling on one knee, holding up foreign rifles, and shooting in a very standard posture, which looked like the skirmish tactics of the Western Army!

"not good!"

Wade said to himself, and hurriedly turned back to look at the British front line, and found that the 12-pound cannon that had just fired a shot was surrounded by corpses! It seemed that several people had fallen on the infantry front near the artillery position.

It was obvious that these "Qing Dynasty tax collectors" were very clear-headed and knew to attack the artillery first, and their shooting skills were incredibly accurate, because the distance between them and the 12-pound cannon was at least a hundred yards!

No, they were not using ordinary smoothbore guns, but rifled guns!
Captain Smith saw his artillerymen and infantrymen being knocked to the ground one by one, and he immediately realized that something was wrong. He quickly ordered the infantrymen around him: "Fire! Fire quickly!"

His infantry were equipped with rifled muskets modified from brown bass. Although not as good as rifled muskets such as the Minié rifle and P51 rifle, which were specially designed to fire Minié bullets, they still had satisfactory accuracy at a distance of one or two hundred yards.

If we can kill all the dozens of Qing soldiers who just rushed out, it will be a complete success.

"Boom boom boom"

But before his infantrymen could raise their guns and fire, the Qing soldiers on the opposite side threw out more than a dozen grenades, which created extremely thick clouds of smoke, instantly filling the entire battlefield with thick smoke.

(End of this chapter)