Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Explosions rang out as shells exploded on the river, sending up high columns of water.

Although the hit rate is relatively low when attacking moving targets.

In particular, many of the gunners at the Wusongkou Fortress were new recruits. Even with several months of intensive training, their artillery skills were naturally no match for the elite gunners of the British and the Gauls.

As a result, in the first round of artillery bombardment at Wusongkou Fortress, none of the dozens of cannons hit their targets.

This outcome left Colonel Ding Juncheng, the fortress commander, with a very unpleasant expression.

He made up his mind that after this battle, he must continue to rigorously train these gunners. Otherwise, it would be a complete waste of ammunition.

"Hahaha!"

On the flagship of the Allied forces, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, Lord Elgin, and Admiral Seymour, Commander of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, burst into laughter when they saw the Wusongkou Fortress open fire, but a large number of shells missed their mark.

They increasingly believed that even if the Taiping army's fortresses were equipped with a large number of cannons, they would not pose any threat to the powerful fleet.

"Good heavens! It seems that operating cannons is still too difficult for those yellow-skinned monkeys!" Count Elgin laughed.

"Yes, Your Excellency. The Royal Navy has an obligation to show these guys what the world's most powerful navy looks like!" Admiral Seymour said proudly.

Faced with the artillery fire from the Wusongkou Fortress, the allied fleet immediately launched a counterattack.

From the warships, a large number of cannons began firing at the Wusongkou Fortress.

Sailing warships typically carried a large number of cannons.

A first-class battleship can even carry hundreds of cannons.

However, even the British Royal Navy did not have many first-class battleships in service.

Generally speaking, Tier III battleships equipped with seventy or eighty cannons were the main force.

The British Royal Navy's Far East Fleet this time only had three Tier III battleships. The rest were Tier IV battleships and Tier V cruisers.

Tier IV battleships could carry over fifty guns, while Tier V cruisers carried only thirty or forty guns.

Even so, after many Royal Navy warships opened fire, the shells were still very dense.

Explosions continued to echo at the Wusongkou Fortress.

Smoke filled the air, and flames soared into the sky.

The entire fortress was completely engulfed in fire and smoke under the fire of numerous Royal Navy warships.

The Gallic fleet also joined the firing.

This puts the Wusongkou Fortress under even greater pressure.

Fortunately, the Wusongkou Fortress was specially reinforced during its construction.

So much so that although the situation appeared tense when faced with heavy bombardment from the Royal Navy and the Gallic Navy, no substantial damage was caused.

Even the stone slabs surrounding each of the fortifications were destroyed in the explosions.

However, the interior defenses, constructed of reinforced concrete, still withstood the fierce bombardment from the British and the Gauls.

This outcome brought a sigh of relief to the Taiping soldiers guarding the fortress.

Since the artillery fire of the British and the Gauls couldn't penetrate the fortress's defenses, the fortress could naturally fire without interference.

Even though the artillery skills of the Taiping army's fortress artillerymen could not compare with those of the British and the Gauls.

But they also made continuous progress during the great war.

Besides, the fortress is equipped with a large number of cannons, so it's only a matter of time before they hit the warships of the British and Gauls.

"boom!"

A 105mm shell hit a warship of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet.

Although it was only a Tier V cruiser.

However, the wooden hull was no match for the conical shells and was easily penetrated by the outer hull.

The explosion of the shells not only caused enormous damage to the ship's hull, but also ignited a massive fire inside the vessel.

The well-trained Royal Navy sailors immediately began damage control efforts to extinguish the fire.

However, there were simply too many flammable items on a sailing warship.

Especially inside the warship, the sailors' hammocks, personal belongings, and other miscellaneous items were all easily ignited. Not to mention the enemy's gunpowder and shells inside. A secondary explosion would have extremely serious consequences.

The exterior of the warship, including the sails, ropes, and hull itself, would also be ignited.

Therefore, the greatest danger for sailing warships in battle was actually burning.

The Wusongkou Fortress, thanks to its strong defenses, did not suffer much damage even when faced with the fierce fire of dozens of warships from the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet and the Gallic Navy.

On the other hand, the fortress's counterattacks began to land hits one after another.

After the initial panic, the fortress artillerymen became increasingly adapted to combat.

As a result, their artillery skills also improved significantly after being tempered in battle.

This resulted in an increasing number of Royal Navy and Gallic Navy warships being hit.

The British and the Gauls' naval guns couldn't break through the Wusongkou Fortress.

However, the fortress cannons at Wusongkou Fortress were able to severely damage the warships of both the British and the Gauls.

Furthermore, if a vital point is hit, the warships of the British and the Gauls could be destroyed.

This made the battle even more brutal.

"boom!"

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out.

A Royal Navy fifth-class sailing cruiser was seen to have exploded violently.

The sailing cruiser, with a displacement of just over 500 tons, was blown to pieces in the explosion and quickly sank into the sea.

On the flagship steam frigate HMS Fury, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, Earl Elgin, and Admiral Seymour, Commander of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, both looked rather grim upon witnessing this scene.

"Your Excellency, it must have been a secondary explosion of gunpowder inside the warship that caused such extensive damage," Admiral Seymour explained.

Count Elgin understood this as well.

But what he cared about was not the reason, but the result.

"Your Excellency, our naval guns seem unable to inflict much damage on this fortress. Destroying the entire fortress seems rather difficult!" Count Elgin said.

"Your Excellency, it seems the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has fortified this fortress. However, I firmly believe that there is no fortress in the world that cannot be breached. As long as the Royal Navy continues its bombardment, with its fierce firepower, we will surely be able to destroy this fortress!" Admiral Seymour appeared somewhat stubborn.

If they stop attacking, wouldn't that prove they can't take down this fortress? And then everything would be for naught.

Count Elgin frowned, but ultimately said nothing more.

As the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, he would not interfere with the specific operations of the navy.

Since Admiral Seymour, as the fleet commander, is unwilling to give up, let the attack continue.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The warships of the British and the Gauls continued to fire fiercely.

A barrage of shells rained down on the Wusongkou Fortress.

The fortress was riddled with craters and holes of all sizes in the violent explosion.

However, the fortress's main gun emplacements did not suffer any substantial damage.

The fortress cannons continued to fire fiercely.

Meanwhile, the fortress's counterattacks continued to inflict even greater damage on the British and the Gauls.

The warships of both the British and the Gauls were constantly being hit by the cannon fire.

These wooden warships didn't have the formidable defenses of a fortress. Once hit by cannon fire, they would often suffer considerable damage.

Furthermore, warships were constantly being severely damaged or sunk.

After half a day of fighting, the British and the Gauls still hadn't managed to destroy the Wusongkou Fortress. However, the allied forces had already lost more than a dozen warships.

Although most of the losses were to Tier V cruisers and even Tier VI frigates, some Tier IV and Tier III battleships were also severely damaged.

For the coalition forces, such losses were already considerable.

More importantly, they simply couldn't see the possibility of destroying the Wusongkou Fortress.

This is the biggest blow to the coalition forces.