Chapter 54: A Different Horse Tail Sea Battle

  The entanglement of the brave little soldiers is still light, but the entanglement of the Gallic roosters has become a big deal, because they found that the landing dock of Keelung was blocked by a huge base.

  The narrow passage in front, anyone with a little military knowledge knows that it is a minefield. If you enter without getting a safe route map, it's no different from looking for death.

  And behind the narrow waterway, in the vast sea area, there are also faint shadows of torpedo boats and other warships, which is not the most ruthless.

  The most incredible thing is that the first round of coastal defense giant cannon shells fired by the enemy army just now has a shooting distance of as much as 20,000 meters.

  The Gallic roosters all know; the opponent's new artillery technology is not only absent in France, but also has never appeared in Britain, the world's number one naval power.

  The other side's first round of fire was clearly a warning, if our fleet didn't get the hint, it's highly likely that our entire fleet would be sunk right here.

  After an emergency high-level consultation on the French flagship, everyone unanimously decided to turn the ship's head around and threaten Taiwan's Tamsui Port, in order to open a landing gap there and carry out a landing operation against Taiwan.

  However, the Gallic roosters also encountered the same problem in Tamkang. In other parts of Taiwan, after some exploration, the Gallic roosters sadly found that today's Taiwan is like a hedgehog, leaving them nowhere to land.

  The helpless French fleet had to return without success, and returned to Da Nang, Vietnam for reorganization. At the same time, they sent a telegram back to France, truthfully reporting the specific situation in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan is now likely to be under the control of the Zhongyong Army, with extremely advanced weapons and equipment.

  In the telegram, Rashid proposed that the French army should avoid the brunt of the Loyal and Brave Army and seek a second target to directly attack the Qing Empire's mainland, landing in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, and forcing the Qing Dynasty to surrender by force.

  The new French cabinet cabled its agreement with Rashid Ali's plan.

  Nowadays Taiwan, has been operated by Zhou Yu with no room for improvement, since Liu Mingchuan was incorporated into the Zhongyong Army, Taiwan has gradually become as solid as a rock, and the outside world is completely unaware.

  The French army, which was blocked in northern Vietnam and Taiwan, did not attack the Hua Xia Zhongyong Army again in the same way as before. They were afraid that if they lost to the Zhongyong Army again, France's international status would be severely damaged, and it was very likely that their neighboring country Germany would take advantage of them.

  In that case, the native land would have the misfortune of losing the country, let alone the northern Viet's Zhongyong army was different from the Qing army, and the French army had no power to send troops to fight against it.

  Persimmons have to be picked soft! Compared with the Zhongyong Army, the Qing Dynasty is France's soft persimmon. They decided to change their strategy in the Far East according to Rashid's suggestion and open a gap on the body of the Qing Dynasty.

  They were forced to turn their guns and prepare to attack Fujian of the Qing Empire while trying to avoid the Zhongyong Army.

  At the same time, the French parliament passed an increase in the military expenses for invading China and set its strike target at Mawei, Fuzhou.

  Mawei is located in the southeast of Fuzhou and is a natural harbor at the lower reaches of the Min River, with both the Fujian Navy and shipyard inside the port.

  The French army invaded Taiwan and was defeated in the first battle. They then proposed peace talks to the Qing government, which immediately rejected them.

  On November 10, 1883, French chargé d'affaires M. Bourée delivered an ultimatum to the Qing dynasty, demanding that it immediately disband the Black Flag Army and pay an indemnity of 250 million francs; otherwise, France would resort to force, with a deadline for response within seven days.

  Four days later, two French warships took advantage of the Sino-French negotiations and sailed into the Min River estuary in Fujian under the pretext of 'touring'.

  They were making pre-war preparations for an invasion of Manchuria.

  The commander of the French Second Far Eastern Squadron, Admiral Courbet, also arrived at the mouth of the Min River by warship. The new French Minister to China in Shanghai loudly declared that if China did not accept France's terms, Courbet would carry out his final ultimatum and annihilate the Fujian fleet, destroy the Mawei Shipyard, and occupy Fuzhou.

  The Qing government decided to compromise with France, sending Zeng Guoquan to Shanghai to negotiate with Bourdeau, asking for exemption from compensation and extension of the ultimatum. Bourdeau insisted on extorting a large sum of compensation. The negotiations between the two countries broke down.

  The Qing government, seeing no hope for peace talks, ordered the coastal and riverine provinces to strengthen their defenses. However, regarding the French side, they only instructed that French ships already inside should be prevented from exiting, while those not yet entered would not be allowed in again. The ban on taking the initiative to attack was not lifted.

  At the same time, the French government ordered the French fleet to be ready to attack Matsu at any moment according to the situation.

  Then, from the middle of next month, French warships entered the mouth of the Min River and anchored at Mawei.

  At this time, Zhang Peilun, the imperial commissioner in charge of Fujian's military affairs, He Zong, the governor-general of Min-Zhe, He Ruzhang, the minister of the Navy Yard, Zhang Zhuodong, the governor of Fujian, and Mutu Shan, the commander-in-chief of Fuzhou, all followed the Qing court's order "not to fire the first shot".

  The invasion of French warships was not only unimpeded, but also warmly welcomed, and ordered each ship not to fire first, and those who violated the order would be beheaded even if they won.

  Then, in Ma Wei Port, such a strange and ridiculous phenomenon appeared. The French warship came in and out of Ma Wei Port freely, while the Chinese warships were under the surveillance of the French warship and could not move.

  On the 20th, French chargé d'affaires M. Bourée lowered his flag and left Beijing, but the Qing government did not sense any danger from this.

  On the 23rd at 8 am, the French Consul in Fuzhou issued an ultimatum to He Jing, ordering the Fujian Fleet to withdraw from Mawei by that afternoon or face war.

  He Ruzhang, upon learning of the news, actually ordered the Fujian naval troops to seal off the information and attempted to request that the French delay the start of hostilities until the 24th. After being refused, he hastily issued orders for emergency battle preparations.

  While Qing military officers believed that 'peace talks were making great progress' and made no preparations whatsoever, Admiral Courbet took advantage of the falling tide to launch a surprise attack with his fleet.

  However, he also ordered that only the warships be sunk and the sailors not be killed. The French naval officers did not understand this, but orders had to be obeyed.

  Two Fujian naval vessels were sunk by enemy gunfire before they could set sail, and many more were heavily damaged. The patriotic soldiers were filled with righteous indignation and rose up to counterattack.

  The helmsman of the flagship "Yangwu", Zhang Chengbiao, was more afraid of death and, disregarding He Ruzhang's orders, had secretly loaded a sufficient amount of ammunition.

  However, when the French warship opened fire, the helmsman Zhang Cheng was frightened and the commander-in-chief took over, using the stern cannon to accurately attack the French flagship Le Triomphant, killing 6 French soldiers. The French torpedo boat sank the Yangwu, and the Chinese coastal artillery immediately hit this torpedo boat, causing its boiler to explode and losing combat effectiveness.

  The helmsman and Zhang Cheng drove a small boat to escape hastily.

  The gunboat "Fu Xing" of the Fujian Fleet was heavily damaged at the start of the war, but it immediately cut off its anchor and turned around, charging into the enemy formation, aiming at the enemy's flagship and firing fiercely, hitting continuously. Later, it was surrounded by enemy ships on three sides, its rudder was destroyed, and the warship lost its combat effectiveness.

  "Yangwei" immediately bravely counterattacked after the French warship opened fire. When it was hit and penetrated by two French warships, the officers and soldiers on board disregarded their lives and continued to launch fierce attacks, injuring the enemy ship's captain and two soldiers.

  However, his own warship was also close to sinking, floating on the surface of the sea, unable to fight again.

  Feiyun and Fuxing also fought bravely without fear, fighting until the warships were severely damaged and on the verge of sinking, unable to fight again.

  The battle on the river lasted for about a few dozen minutes, and all 11 Fujian warships were destroyed or sunk by French warships, with more than 200 casualties among the naval officers and men. The French army had only over 30 deaths and injuries, two torpedo boats were seriously damaged, and the rest were lightly injured.

  Just as the French army was about to launch a full-scale attack, a large fleet of warships arrived at the mouth of the Min River. After discovering this, Rashidun abandoned his continued bombardment of Fujian's defenses and ordered a general retreat.

  These warships were the naval fleet of Zhongyong Army.

  Because there were traitors in the French army, Zhou Yu did not order the naval fleet to join the Battle of Ma Wei ahead of time. He wanted everyone to see the ugly face of the Qing dynasty clearly.

  Without this doomed-to-fail Battle of the Coral Sea, those foolishly loyal people still wouldn't have woken up to realize that the Qing government was already weak and beyond help.

  Only in this way can we avoid the internal war of Huaxia to the greatest extent, and preserve the vitality of the Huaxia nation, providing a strong guarantee for the future development of Huaxia.

  Although this may cause some casualties, it is also an inevitable thing. Without sacrificing the small me, how can I achieve great things?

  Zhou Yu made up his mind after much consideration before making such a decision.

  After the Zhongyong Army fired a few shots at the French fleet, they did not pursue the fleeing French fleet, but instead carried out the action of salvaging their compatriot naval personnel. After a tense and orderly salvage operation, more than 500 Fujian naval officers and men were rescued by the Zhongyong Army, some of whom suffered varying degrees of injury.

  Zhou Yu immediately ordered the medical staff on board to provide necessary treatment to the wounded.

  The Zhongyong naval fleet immediately sank two French torpedo boats on the surface, seriously injuring no one. Zhou Wu ordered the entire fleet to turn around and return to Keelung base.

  It wasn't until they arrived at the Keelung Chungyung Naval Base in Taiwan that all of the rescued officers and men of the Fujian Fleet realized, to their astonishment, that this was not mainland Fujian.

  They then asked the Zhongyong Army to send them back to Fujian, Zhou Yu said nothing, but silently took them to the residential area of the Zhongyong Army base.

  The officers and men of the Fujian Navy found waiting for them here were their families.

  It turned out that Zhou Yu had been prepared earlier. On that day, their family members, including the families of the martyrs, were disguised as Fujian naval personnel by Huang Feihong's intelligence agents, who had won a victory, and on the pretext that the imperial court required their family members to go to Beijing to participate in the celebration activities, they quietly took them all to Taiwan.

  Zhou Yu stood in front of the Fujian naval officers and said with a heavy heart: "You are all the elites of my China. This time, you also saw the Battle of Matou Sea. The Qing Dynasty is what it is like. Because of their incompetence, our Chinese sovereignty has been lost. Can't you wake up now? The Qing Dynasty is beyond salvation!"

  "Although the Qing dynasty is beyond salvation, our Chinese nation cannot decline from here. Its resurgence depends on everyone present and relies on the awakening of every single Chinese person."

  "With our own flesh and blood, we have forged a Great Wall of steel to protect our nation. Our Chinese people have reached the most critical moment!"