Chapter 178 Iron Armor Invincible (3rd update, please subscribe)

Rampage!

There was no need to fire a cannon. The Taiping rushed through Jiaoshan and rammed the Xiangjun navy's sampans, dragon boats and dinghies with its solid steel rams. The sampans and crabs were small and small, and they were flying fast. They became targets in front of the steamboat. The thin hulls were broken into pieces, so that the Xiangjun on the boat didn't even have time to dodge, and they sank into the river with the boat. It was invincible along the way.

On the third day of June, the "Taiping" finally arrived at Mufu Mountain after speeding all the way. At this time, the navy led by Peng Xueshuai entered the mouth of the moat of Jinling, and Zeng Tietong had already built a camp at Yuhuatai. Although they had learned that Li Ni led troops to reinforce Jiangning, they knew nothing about the "Taiping".

At noon that day, when the Taiping arrived at Mufu Mountain and was discovered by the Hunan Brave Army, a cannon shot broke the tranquility on the river. For the Hunan Navy, which had not seen the Taiping Navy for a long time, the following battle was completely beyond their expectations.

They were almost dumbfounded as they stared at the black foreign ship rushing straight towards them. Hundreds of sampans on the river and the Hunan brave men on the long dragons all picked up the light foreign cannons on the bows and aimed at the foreign ship to shoot. In the past few years, the Hunan Navy had relied on more than 600 foreign cannons purchased from Guangdong. With them, they had won victory in naval battles such as Xiangtan and Yuezhou, and finally drove the Taiping Navy out of the Yangtze River completely, and even divided its troops on both sides of the Yangtze River, preventing the troops on the north bank from crossing the river to reinforce Tianjing.

Seeing that the ocean-going ship had sunk a long dragon ship at once, Chen Lao Hu on the sampan immediately raised the foreign cannon on the bow.

"Quick, fire quickly..."

After lighting the fuse, a cannon sounded with a "boom" a moment later. At the moment when the cannonball whizzed out, before he could react, he saw the cannonball that hit the foreign ship actually bounced away.

The sound of a bell resounded on the river. Although the Hunan navy, which had swarmed over the ship, had been attacking the Taiping with their foreign cannons, the next scene stunned them. The shells that hit the ship were all bounced off, and some even hit the sampan on the river, creating a large hole in it.

"My God, what kind of boat is this?"

Just when the Xiang Yong soldiers were wondering if they were seeing things, the Gatling guns on both sides of the bridge began to roar. Finger-thick lead bullets rained down on the sampans and multi-oared crab boats that were swarming over. The bullets directly cut Xiang Yong's body in two. The small sampans were all covered in blood. After the bullets pierced Xiang Yong's body, they also made fist-sized holes in the hulls. In the blink of an eye, dozens of ships sank.

At the same time, the huge 10-inch cannon was aimed forward under the operation of the gunner.

"put!"

With the gunner's muffled roar, the deafening sound even reached the city of Tianjing, Yuhuatai, and Peng Xueshuai's ship on the riverside.

Along with the loud bang, thousands of walnut-sized iron shotgun shells flew out of the muzzle and whistled forward. The shotgun shells swept across the ships in front of the "Taiping" like raindrops. Many sampans were even turned into honeycombs. What was even more tragic was the Hunan Warriors on the boat. Their bodies were torn into pieces by the huge shotgun shells. Both the people and the boat sank into the river in the blink of an eye, leaving only a pile of broken wood and floating corpses in blood on the surface of the river.

Just one shot, in the blink of an eye, hundreds of meters in front of the Taiping, the ship sank and people died. This scene shocked everyone, not to mention the Hunan warriors, even the gunners on the Taiping, did not expect the power of this shot to be so great.

The Hunan Warriors, who had never expected the Changmao cannon to be so powerful, did not even dare to approach. The Hunan Warriors on the ship were terrified and discouraged before they even started fighting. The officers on the ship had to hold their ground and command the Hunan Warriors to sail to meet the enemy. But the next moment, the ironclad gunboat rammed into it without hesitation.

The collision, cannon fire and machine gun fire made the Hunan Navy, despite having hundreds of sampans and dinghies, completely become targets on the river. In a blink of an eye, the small boats that were hit were broken into pieces, and the boats and the Hunan braves on them were sent to the bottom of the water.

"Hit! Hit it!"

The reckless "Taiping" completely ignored the artillery shells of the Hunan Navy. As for the bullets fired by the Hunan braves with their foreign rifles, they were not even a tickle.

From Muliu Mountain to Qinhuai River, the sounds of cannons and drums sounded like thunder and lightning in summer. Faced with such a monster that came out of nowhere, the Hunan Navy, which had risen from Xiangtan and made its mark in Yuezhou, had completely lost their former domineering momentum. Even if they wanted to escape, they didn't know where to go and could only retreat all the way.

"What's going on?"

This scene made Peng Xueshuai angry and anxious, but he was at a loss what to do. Startled by the sound of cannon fire, he got out of the cabin and before he could figure out how to get back, he saw a group of sampans from the Hunan Navy running away on the river. There was only one foreign ship on the river rushing towards them.

"Don't you know how to fire?"

Peng Xueshuai, who was furious, drew out his knife, stood on the bow of the boat and shouted loudly.

"Beat the drums, raise the flags!"

Then he shouted again:

"Anyone who passes this flag will be killed immediately! Charge forward and fire your cannons..."

There was no need for him to charge at all. Before the gunners on the ship could adjust their gun positions, the foreign ship rushed straight towards Peng Xueshuai's ship. Although the foreign ship did not recognize the flag with the word "Peng" written on it on the big ship, others did!

The speeding "Taiping" sank several sampans in succession and did not slow down. Seeing the sampans turned into pieces of wood floating on the river under its impact, although Peng Xueshuai was furious and regretful, he also realized that this ship seemed to be different.

Why is it that when we fire the cannon, it's just like tickling an itch, totally useless?

What was even more terrifying was that it kept ramming and sinking the sampans that were blocking the ship in front of it into the river. The "Taiping" was traveling at full speed, creating waves on the river surface, and its steel ram was flashing a cold and sharp light in the sun.

“Bang…Crack.”

The next moment, Peng Xueshuai's ship was hit in the middle by the Taiping, and the ship was ripped apart. The keel was broken instantly, and the river water quickly flooded into the broken cabin.

At the same time as the Hunan warriors including Peng Xueshuai were thrown to the ground, he, like the others, fell from the deck into the river. The people sank quickly and the boat sank even faster. The broken boat with his head and body disappeared in the blink of an eye. The Hunan warriors who fell into the water held on to the broken wooden boards, struggled and swam in the bloody water, wailing and shouting loudly.

"How, how could this happen..."

Peng Xueshuai, holding a piece of broken wood, looked at the strange ocean ship in astonishment, his eyes full of confusion.

He couldn't understand why this ship was not afraid of either artillery fire or gunfire.

Finally, when the strange-looking ship passed by him, he finally saw clearly this foreign ship that was rampant in the Yangtze River like a crab.

Peng Xueshuai was stunned and murmured.

"Iron, iron... This ship actually has iron armor!"

(End of this chapter)