The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 513: The North American Division of the Crimean War? (Requesting subscription and votes)
Petropavlovsk Fortress, May 1855, 5.

Lead-gray clouds pressed over the bay, and the salty sea breeze carried gunpowder smoke into the seemingly indestructible fortress on Signal Hill. Muravyov stood in a granite watchtower, the copper frame of the telescope made his knuckles white - in the distance, the chimneys of three British steam warships were spewing black fog, and the roar of 32-pound heavy guns rolled across the sky like thunder, blowing the wooden fence of an outer defense line on the north side of Signal Hill into powder.

"Your Excellency Governor, excluding the seriously injured who are unable to move, our total strength is only 1793 people. We can no longer maintain the outer defense line..." The voice of Major General Vasily Zavoyko, commander of the fortress army, was torn apart by artillery fire, but it hurt Muravyov's eardrums.

After the night battle of Camel Hill two days ago, the victorious Taiping Army dragged their tired bodies, walked on the muddy road, and chased the defeated Russian army to the Signal Hill Fortress of the Petropavlovsk Fortress, and began to build their starting positions in the mud. Each of them was as strong as iron!

The six steam cruisers of the British and French joint fleet, which had been operating on the outskirts of Avacha Bay, immediately acted like a group of sharks that had smelled blood. Using the cover of last night's rainy night, they broke through the artillery blockade on Mount Nikolai, rushed into Avacha Bay, circled around Signal Hill, and began bombarding the outer positions of Signal Hill with large-caliber naval guns.

Muravyov reached into the pocket of his military uniform with his right hand and crumpled up the handwritten letter from Luo Yaoguo that was stuffed inside: "Evgeni Ivanovich, how about breaking out tonight?"

"Tonight?" Vice Admiral Putyatin looked up at the sky. Dark clouds blowing from the Pacific Ocean were rolling in the sky. Tonight would most likely be another rainy night. But the problem was that the six steam cruisers of the Anglo-French Allied Forces were not easy to deal with!

"The Chinese will launch a large-scale night attack tonight. The six British and French steam cruisers must approach the northern foot of Signal Hill to provide them with fire cover. In this way, the only British and French sailing battleships will be left to block the exit of Avacha Bay." Muravyov whispered, "We still have two steam-powered armed merchant ships and two sailing warships in our port. Maybe we can let the steamships tow the sailing warships out to sea."

"Governor, do you really trust those despicable pagans?" Vice Admiral Putyatin clenched his fists and breathed rapidly. "If it's a trap, we will all die!"

Muravyov's voice was unusually calm: "No, they don't need us to die, they want us to live, they want us to live and spread the war to North America! Yevgeni Ivanovich, I have decided, although I have lost the Petropavlovsk Fortress, but..." He turned and looked at the rolling dark clouds in the east, and said word by word: "I will plant the double-headed eagle flag on Vancouver Island and Fort Langley on the Fraser River!"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor!" Lieutenant General Putyatin stood at attention and saluted the Governor-General of East Siberia.

Late that night, heavy rain arrived as expected, and the entire Avacha Bay was covered by a cold rain curtain. As Muravyov predicted, the Russian outer positions north of Signal Hill, which were already deserted, were covered by 32-pound and 64-pound shrapnel bombs that fell from the sky like meteorites, and balls of dazzling flames rose up one after another.

But all this was meaningless to the Russians. Four thousand soldiers and civilians - including lightly wounded soldiers, women and children, and even horses - were squeezed into four not-so-big ships like sardines. Muravyov stood on the bridge of the Grand Duchess Natalia, looking at the muzzle flames of the British and French warships flickering in the darkness. He knew that this was a gamble of four thousand lives: as long as there was a steam cruiser waiting at the exit of Avacha Bay, the 64-pound and 32-pound shells could tear his fleet into pieces.

"Full speed ahead." Half an hour later, Vice Admiral Putyatin's roar penetrated the roar of the engine. Suddenly, a ball of fire exploded on the starboard side of a sailing warship towed by the Grand Duchess Natalia - the coalition warships discovered them! Muravyov's heart was in his throat, and he quickly grabbed the telescope, only to see three rows of fire in the darkness. "It's a battleship with three gun decks!" Vice Admiral Putyatin roared, "It hasn't discovered the 'Natalia' yet. Don't fight back, full speed ahead!"

As he roared, the main mast of a light sailing warship being towed by the "Natalia" was hit by a whistling chain bullet, and with a creepy "crackling" sound, it broke into two pieces.
"Marshal," Han Yulin's voice rang through the rumbling of artillery fire and rang in Zuo Zongtang's ears, "To the east, there is a ship burning on the sea!"

On the high ground of Tuofeng Mountain, on a newly built wooden observation tower, Zuo Zongtang saw the scene he was most looking forward to through his Western monocular telescope. "Marshal, the Russians broke through, we won, we captured the Petropavlovsk Fortress!" Wang Kaihua, the camp chief, was a little sobbing, "This battle was not easy to fight." Zuo Zongtang smiled slightly: "Not bad, now the reputation of our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can spread all over the world!" He put down the telescope and suddenly shouted, "Send an order, attack Signal Hill. Send a signal to the British and French warships at sea, let them bombard the Signal Hill Fortress to cover our general attack!"

"Yes!"

"Lieutenant General, the Chinese have begun their general attack!"

On the flagship of the British-French joint fleet, HMS Rage, Vice Admiral Collins was looking through a telescope at the Russian sailing warship burning in the east when he heard the shout of his staff officer. He turned around and looked towards Signal Hill. He saw countless whale oil torches suddenly appearing in the night rain, like a river of signal falling from the sky to the earth.

"It's crazy!" exclaimed the British Vice Admiral. "They can actually launch such a large-scale offensive in such horrible weather. And at night! If our troops in the Crimea had such fighting spirit, the war would have been won long ago!"

French Rear Admiral Genouy sighed softly, tears flashing in his eyes: "Yes, we in France once had such warriors. My father was one of them. He and his comrades followed the Emperor to launch attacks on the Austrians who had an absolute advantage on the Magolenberg Plains again and again for the glorious republic. No matter how difficult it was, no matter how much sacrifice they made, they were always in high spirits and launched a new round of attacks until the Austrians were exhausted."

The British Vice Admiral thought of Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, and sighed: "The revolutionary army! Now it's the Chinese' turn. Well! Let's go to support them! The capture of the Petropavlovsk Fortress is always an inspiring victory."

As the Union Jack, the Tricolor Flag, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Panlong Flag slowly rose above the Petropavlovsk Fortress, in Fort Langley on the Fraser River on the west coast of North America, the light of the oil lamp cast the shadow of James Douglas on the North American bison hide map in the Governor's Mansion of the Hudson's Bay Company. This Scottish descendant who controlled the area from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast was staring at the model of Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island on the sand table. Three days ago, the British who escaped from Fort Victoria fled to Fort Langley and brought the news that Fort Victoria was raided and occupied by hundreds of fully armed Cossacks to the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company on the west coast of America, which also plunged the entire Fort Langley into panic.

The raging flames of the Crimean War actually spread to the west coast of North America!
Although the Russians already had a small number of troops stationed in Alaska, no one thought that those few Russian soldiers would dare to invade the British Empire's colonies in North America. What good things did the West Coast of North America have to attract Russian bears? Gold? Fur? Timber? Ice-free ports? Warm and fertile land? Oh, it seems there are quite a lot!
The most troublesome thing was that the British colonies on the west coast of North America were not even territories under the rule of the British government, but belonged to a chartered trading company called the Hudson's Bay Company.

A company always has to make money for its shareholders, so it is impossible to invest too much in a place that generates too much current profit. Although the colonies of the Hudson Bay Company on the west coast of North America have developed quite well in the past two years, they are too far away from Europe, and prices have soared due to the gold rush on the west coast of the United States. Except for those frugal Chinese and Irish, few decent white people will come here to work, unless the company can offer extremely high salaries!
But that's impossible!
Therefore, James Douglas had few decent soldiers who could take up arms to resist the Russians. If he wanted to recruit militia, the majority of them at Fort Langley were coolies from China and gold diggers from Ireland.

Can the Chinese fight for the Queen? Can the Irish fight for the Queen? Don't even think about it! Moreover, Fort Langley is very close to the Oregon region of the United States. Even if they are afraid of the Russians' viciousness, can't they just run to the United States? There are many Chinese and Irish on the west coast of the United States.
"Governor! Your Excellency Governor, they... they are coming!"

A terrified voice suddenly came from outside Governor Douglas's office, and then the door was pushed open by a young Scotsman.

"Richard, are the Russians coming?" Douglas saw a young and somewhat pale face. It was his nephew Richard Douglas, who was also his secretary and the successor in training.
The young man from Scotland shook his head and said to his uncle in an unbelievable tone: "It's Hong Xiuquan, Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Army is coming!"

(End of this chapter)