After suffering a loss in Xiamen, He Bo's fleet had only 35 warships left. The three lost were the 1,000-ton cruise ships, the two fifth-level cruise warships, the Camarbery and the Caster. The Caster was sunk in the fierce battle of the Gulangyu Fort. After asking about the rescued sailors, He Bo learned that a fleet of the Taiping Army had been hiding nearby, and the patrol warships were only the bait they released. When He Bo mobilized the main fleet to pursue, the two injured ships did not participate in the pursuit due to insufficient power, and were sunk by the main force of the Taiping Fleet that suddenly appeared.

He Bo naturally cursed about the despicable tactics of bullying the weak, and completely forgot that he commanded such a huge fleet to come to find someone else's weak fleet to fight in the decisive battle.

So He Bo decided to give the most severe revenge to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. His goal was to Ningbo, because there was the second largest shipyard in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Zhejiang Shipyard, outside the Shanghai Shipyard.

He Bo, who was arrogant and arrogant, chose the target of Shanghai Shipyard, but was persuaded by Xima, the old and stern deputy commander of the fleet. Xima was born into a naval family and his father was a famous general during the Napoleonic War. He also joined the navy since he was a child and had more than 40 years of experience at sea. He served under General Napi of the Baltic Navy, and then ended with the Crimean War, and the Far East was in trouble. The British Navy Department

In order to borrow his talent, he was promoted to Rear Admiral to replace Steelin as commander of the "Chinese Fleet". Western Malaysia took office in the spring of 1856. At the beginning of this year, Western Malaysia received an order from the Admiralty Department to take over the fleet commander and Western Malaysia became commander of the Pacific Fleet. However, due to the Second Opium War, Western Malaysia's Pacific Fleet also joined the sequence of the British and French fleets, so Western Malaysia remained in Hong Kong.

Regarding He Bo's adventure, Xima calmly said: "Shanghai Shipyard is a shipyard that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has operated for several years. We only suffered a defeat there a month ago. More than ten warships sank in the Huangpu River. We cannot take risks. It is better to choose Ningbo Port, which is also one of the goals that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attaches great importance to."

Bo He respected him, the former senior, so he followed his advice and ordered all warships to go north to Ningbo. Xiamen was a hard bone, and Bo He's fleet lacked soldiers for landing operations. Just like the Gulangyu Fortress was mostly destroyed by British warships, Bo He didn't have the courage to send the only Marines on the ship to land and occupy the fortress, because the Marines were only less than 500 people. Fortunately, Bo He did not send the Marines to land. Otherwise, the 800 regular troops of Taiping Army and the 2,000 township soldiers stationed in Gulangyu would inevitably cause serious casualties to the British Marines with less than 500 people.

The current British army is very tight in the Far East. The two thousand soldiers who retreated from Dagukou, together with the British troops who stayed in Hong Kong, took on the task of defending Hong Kong. The Taiping Army in Guangzhou and other places gathered a large number of troops to threaten Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong Island is protected by naval island, Hong Kong Island is too close to the mainland. The British army is worried that if the Taiping Army takes the risk of adopting a pirate-style small ship smuggling troops to Hong Kong for attack, it will be a big fun, so Erkin dares not be able to be too big, and most of the navy and army are still staying in Hong Kong.

So He Bo and the Western Horse commander fleet continued northward. A few days later, their fleet raided the Sansha Castle Fort in Fujian. Although the British fleet had to occupy this place after fierce battle, the brigade of rural soldiers who drove from Taocheng garrison took a night attack to cause serious losses to the British landing troops.

The British Marines barely held on until dawn. Although He Bo ordered the fleet to fire artillery and barely repelled the Taiping Army's rural soldiers, He Bo did not dare to let the landing soldiers stay on the shore for more than one day, so he hurriedly replenished some food and fresh water, and the British retreated to the sea.

He Bo and Xima were very depressed along the way. Although the naval fleet was very powerful, they could not drive warships to land and destroy the other party's fortresses, and could only send soldiers to land to occupy them. But unlike the Opium War more than 20 years ago. Now, under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a war model was adopted that almost everyone was a soldier. In the words of the coastal people, just like our ancestors were guarding against Japanese pirates during the Ming Dynasty, there were beacons and military preparations in various harbors and turrets along the coast. Once the enemy situation was discovered, the beacons would be fired in one place. The soldiers in the village would be

They would flock to support. Although the British soldiers landed in the city were well-armed, the Taiping Army soldiers mostly used sneak attacks at night. They were familiar with the terrain and were good at using all natural hidden objects. In the words of the British army, these rural soldiers appeared like ghosts. When they were guarding Sansha Castle that night, the British army even found that Taiping Army soldiers came out of a secret tunnel in Sansha Castle and attacked the British army. Fortunately, they discovered it in time and the British army completely blocked the tunnel, but it is not ruled out that there are other secret passages that can lead to this place, so the British army retreated quickly as soon as the sky dawn.

The British army had a powerful fleet but did not dare to land. They could only use artillery fire to destroy some of the artillery batteries, docks and houses to vent their anger, and then sunk some civilian merchant ships to show their strength. However, these did not destroy the fighting spirit of the coastal military and civilians, but instead made them hate the British and French coalition forces even more.

Before He Bo's unlucky days ended. When the Zhoushan Islands approached, the three fast sailboats sent by He Bo to patrol were attacked by a pirate fleet. He Bo was very angry when he received the news. So he led the brigade to arrive, sinking five pirate ships and capturing three other ships. From the captured pirates, they were subordinates of the famous pirate Lin Kan. Because the Taiping Army issued a reward order to get a heavy reward for attacking any British and French ships, the pirates entrenched in the sea began to attack British and French ships frantically.

He Bo is not unfamiliar with the pirates. It can be said that the British fleet in China has been fighting pirates for most of the time. They are entrenched in Taiwan, Penghu Islands, Hong Kong and other places. Why are there pirates entrenched in the waters near Hong Kong? He Bo knows this very easily. The Hong Kong Governor's Office of the United Kingdom has been harassed by pirates for many years, so it issued a reward order, and every time a pirate is obtained, you can get a bonus. This policy was not problematic, but the problem began to change when it was implemented. The problem of generals and officers has been plaguing the British army for many years. Many British officials and fleet captains are willing to wipe out pirates to get more bonuses. But the problem is that if the pirates are wiped out, there will be no such bonus in the future. So some British naval generals and pirates have a tacit understanding with the pirates. This tacit understanding is what the Chinese call raising the bandits and respecting themselves.

British plenipotentiary negotiator Erkin once witnessed British warships pursuing Chinese pirate ships, but reflected: Perhaps it was the British government's direct payment of bonuses that stimulated the British to take rough measures, even forcing good men to become prostitutes, and supporting bandits to be rich, creating more pirates. Hong Kong's Dechen News blamed him unceremoniously that more pirates were suppressed, which was entirely the British's own fault: on the one hand, the British navy neglected his duties, suppressing bandits and not curing the root cause, leaving pirates to pay bonuses; on the other hand, the British authorities greedy for economic interests and issued ship photos indiscriminately, and some pirate ships also obtained licenses openly. They pointed out more sharply that the shameless incentives of the British government to the opium trade were one of the fundamental reasons for the rampant pirates.

As a result, the pirates had never disappeared from the South China Sea. However, under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were no pirates in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places. That sea area was a forbidden area for pirates. It turned out that the largest pirate seahorse gang entrenched in this area and their leader, Monk Tongbao, became the Taiping Army's navy, so the pirates did not dare to appear in this sea area.

When He Bo learned about the Taiping Army's reward order, he was extremely angry. When did British ships become targets for rewards? The pirates who were originally offered rewards became bounty hunters? No wonder they have recently received more and more complaints from merchant ships, saying that the risks of traveling to and from the waters of South China are getting greater and greater, and it turned out that it was because of this.

He Bo ordered the execution of all the captured pirates without hesitation and sent five warships to pursue the pirates. As a result, only three of the five warships came back the next day. The captain of the leader said in grief that they had caught up with the pirates of Lin Kan's army. While they were fighting fiercely with the pirates, they were ambushed by the Taiping East China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet Advantage Fleet. One warship was sunk and the other was captured. Only three British fleets fled back.

Bo He was furious, while Xima fell into deep thought. Finally, Xima said: "It seems that the enemy is cooperating with the pirates to use a brand new maritime guerrilla tactic against us. We cannot disperse any warship at any time in the future to prevent being hit by the enemy from being eaten by the superior fleet. Once we lose a little today and lose a little tomorrow, it will soon accumulate and bring about changes in the entire situation. Now we can only act collectively, with one pair of eyes only staring at one target!"

The strategy of the West Malaysia is very effective. During the next few days of sailing, there were still fast sailboats from Taiping Navy or pirates appearing from afar from time to time. Once the British Navy pursued them, they fled. This time, He Bo did not take the division of troops to pursue them again, nor did he order all ships to pursue them, because the speed of the ships in their fleet was different. He Bo was worried that if the ships were not fast during the pursuit, they would become the target of the enemy if they could not keep up with the brigade. For the Taiping Army or pirate ships that were harassed, He Bo just sent fast ships to expel them and did not pursue them.

In this way, He Bo and Xima came to the sea outside Zhoushan. They wanted to attack Ningbo, at least they had to destroy Ningbo's Zhejiang shipyard. The losses and deterrence to the enemy were the greatest. However, to attack Ningbo, they had to capture Dinghai and Zhenhai first. So the British fleet came towards Dinghai with great swagger. He Bo and Xima both believed that they could occupy Dinghai for the third time. In order to make up for the lack of military strength, He Bo transferred some crew members to act as landing combat troops... to be continued.

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Chapter completed!