Schneider seemed to realize something, "All troops stop advancing, stop advancing!" The signal soldier immediately hung up the stop flag, and the tugboat immediately hung a cable behind it for escape work.
Guijiang was only a few hundred meters away from the city wall of Wuzhou and was within the range of the Hongyi cannon. The Ming army on the city immediately seized this opportunity and opened fire on the stranded gunboat. The iron pellets roared and flew across the river, causing water to splash on the river. The situation was critical for a while. Schneider immediately ordered the 130 cannons on the Pearl River to fire and bombard the Ming army's firepower. After knocking down several enemy towers on the city wall, the enemy's firepower was finally suppressed.
Paddlewheel tugboat 621 carefully towed away the stranded gunboat. The gunboats that had already entered the Guijiang River also withdrew to avoid running aground again.
It was obviously impossible to enter Guijiang again. The army behind them had not arrived, so even if they rushed in against the artillery fire on the city wall and bombarded the Ming army, it would not make much sense. Schneider ordered the fleet to withdraw from Guijiang and wait for the arrival of the main army.
At this time, the various units of the First Mixed Brigade participating in the Wuzhou Campaign had arrived at the Wuzhou boundary on transport ships one after another, and landed on Changzhou Island southwest of Wuzhou City. shelling
Zhu Mingxia sent two companies to raid the villages of all sizes on Changzhou Island along the river banks in the south and north of the island. They purged the stubborn villagers on Changzhou Island and at the same time requisitioned manpower as a "reasonable burden." Zhu Mingxia planned to set up a logistics warehouse on the island, and at the same time build outposts and gun towers to guard against Ming troops who might bring reinforcements from the west of Guangxi, and to monitor the Xunjiang River.
Among the three major river systems of the Pearl River, the Xijiang River system has the largest drainage area and the most tributaries. Most rivers in Guangxi are tributaries or main streams of the Xijiang River system. Therefore, controlling the Xijiang River system is equivalent to controlling Guangxi. Of course, to control the huge Xijiang water system, the size of the West Detachment of the Pearl River Task Force is far from enough. Currently, it can only be satisfied with controlling Wuzhou, a key location for water transportation.
Originally Schneider had planned to capture Wuzhou with "a cannon shot and a charge" - he had fought many such siege battles along the way - but looking at the current situation, the Ming army was also gaining ground. If you are smart, you will never come out to fight with them in the wild, let alone a "water fight" where eggs touch stones.
In this way, the battle fell into the boring old routine of "building fortifications", "setting up gun emplacements", and "fire attacks". One of the main tasks of the navy under Wuzhou City was to provide fire support.
Throughout the day, the First Brigade and the West Detachment were busy building fortifications under Wuzhou City, collecting supplies, and preparing to attack the city. The navy towed six artillery boats one by one to Wuzhou City. The 280 mortar guns on them had played a great role in the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary. Although the explosive shells fired by the 280 mortar are only loaded with high-density black powder, their destructive power is enough to destroy most of the defenses in this time and space - even if they are not blown up, the violent explosions and large amounts of explosion fragments can also destroy the defenders. Shaken and fled.
At the same time, the Ming army was busy on the city wall. The scouts of the first brigade penetrated into the mountains around Wuzhou and observed the city with telescopes on the mountain. They noticed that the Ming army was busy not to strengthen the defense, but more as if to strengthen the defense. Moving something. A large number of straw bags were transported to the city gate, seemingly to block the city gate.
In this way, both sides spent a busy day. At night, both the Fubo army and the Ming army lit a large bonfire to prevent the enemy from launching a night attack.
In the middle of the night, Lieutenant Cao Dachuan, the captain of boat No. 42, was woken up by his sailors. He said sleepily: "What happened?" The sailor couldn't tell what was going on, so he just replied: "The lights on the south wall of Wuzhou City suddenly lit up. Overtly and covertly, it's a bit weird." Cao Dachuan thought it was something big. When he was woken up, he became a little angry and was about to reprimand the sailors. Thinking about it, those sailors were just new recruits who had not been under his command for a long time. Then he calmed down his temper.
"It's just lights, what's the fuss about?"
"The light flashed on and off, as if it was a light signal."
"Rule?" Out of caution, Cao Dachuan climbed up, put on his military uniform, and climbed onto the deck from the bottom. Under the instructions of the sentry, he indeed saw bright and dim light spots on the city wall.
When he couldn't see it, Cao Dachuan suddenly understood what the lights were flashing on and off, flashing on and off, twinkling, off and on, twinkling... Isn't this a light signal?
When the navy sails on the sea, communication between ships relies on semaphores during the day, and light signals at night and in bad weather. As a naval officer, this is basic common sense.
He had been trained in this telegraph code system during the training of the officer training team. Whether it was hand flags or light signals, the telegraph code system was used.
But this system is relatively professional after all. For most naval soldiers who are basically illiterate and can barely get a C diploma by literacy when they enter the army, this can only be regarded as "common sense". To master it, you still need to receive special signal training. of.
Signal Corps is not a job that ordinary C diploma holders can do. It is considered a "technical branch" in the Navy. He knew about light signals and the like. Apart from himself, there were only signal soldiers on his little gunboat.
It is impossible for anyone in the Ming army to know Morse code. The only people who can use lights to send such signals are their own people.
Someone is signaling us in the city!
This was not surprising to him. It was common for chiefs to deploy spies or support in enemy cities. Along the way, he had seen many incidents of the local "Leading Party" rising up. It was not surprising that Wuzhou had such internal agents. strange. These matters do not fall under one's own jurisdiction, so there will naturally be dedicated personnel to take care of them.
"It doesn't matter, it must be one of our own..." Cao Dachuan was just halfway through speaking when he suddenly realized that the other party was using a clear code!
Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle is w, twinkle, twinkle, o, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle is s, twinkle, twinkle, h...
Together they are: woshigungqghuihua.
This is obviously Pinyin, and what the other person wants to say is obviously: "I am a lone wolf, please reply!"
He didn't understand what lone wolf meant, but the words "serious situation" came to his mind in an instant.
Cao Dachuan has received training and knows that the signals sent by such secret personnel are encrypted, and only those who have the corresponding code book can decode them. The signals transmitted between naval ships are not encrypted, but only naval signalmen and officers can understand them.
Now this clear signal shows that the sender has no specific recipient, but is sending it to the entire Fubo Army. The sender can only hope that someone will see and understand the signal.
This is no small matter. Is this signal true or false? Why was it sent on the city wall late at night? What's the purpose? These are all problems. However, Cao Dachuan knew that this was not something he should consider at all.
He ordered his men to signal to the Pearl River that he would report important matters to his superiors immediately. The light signal was responded to, and Cao Dachuan's request was approved. So Cao Dachuan held a kerosene lamp, sat in a small boat paddled by a sailor, and headed straight for the Pearl River.
He reported the incident to the officer on duty at the headquarters of the Pearl River. The officer on duty felt that the matter was not trivial and immediately reported the situation to Schneider.
"Is there such a thing?" Schneider, who was woken up, looked confused. "I don't understand this either. Why don't you report it to the Intelligence Office of the Brigade Staff Headquarters and see what they say."
So the news came to the headquarters of the First Brigade on Cheung Chau Island. The staff officer on duty quickly woke up the No. 1 person who was sleeping on the Pearl River: Naval Intelligence Staff Officer, with permission from the elders.
Xu Xu arrived in Wuzhou in the evening. After taking the boat for several days, he was so tired that he didn't even eat when he arrived. He went straight to the vacated cabin to sleep. Xuancheng was naturally furious when he was woken up suddenly, but the news he heard made him turn his anger into a smile. He didn't even bother to put on a neat navy uniform, and ran to the ship building in his underwear.
The purpose of this trip was to be assigned by Jiangshan to go to Wuzhou to supervise the intelligence work in Guangxi and prepare for the next attack on Guangxi. The Foreign Intelligence Service does not have many networks in Guangxi. It only has intelligence personnel in a few key cities and towns. Because these intelligence personnel are far away, their contacts are not close. Most of them are in a semi-hibernating state. They must be "activated" as soon as possible. ” is the primary purpose of the license.
He knew that there were intelligence agents in Wuzhou City, but he didn't have high expectations for what role they could play. The intelligence agents who came here were "long-term lurkers" who mainly collected daily political and economic intelligence and did not expand intelligence. It is mainly based on the Internet, unlike Zhaoqing, which develops a secret organization with dozens or even hundreds of people who can cooperate to "open the city gate". Moreover, once the city gate is closed, the intelligence agents will be completely unable to function. The instructions given to them by the Intelligence Bureau also told them to "lurk down and save themselves."
At this time, the intelligence agent in the city suddenly sent a signal, which was obviously an important intelligence transmission. Otherwise they wouldn't take such a risk.
So Xuquan gave the order and responded with a light signal: "I am the center, received!"
The person on the other side obviously received the signal, but he replied: "There are spies and ambushes in the city!"
This was a bit confusing, so he immediately sent a signal to ask: "The specific situation."
After Luo Yangming stayed in the Nanxunmen Gate Tower for half a night, he used the closing and opening of the lampshade to form a Morse code to send a signal, and finally got a response. Luo Yangming was only 50/50 sure about this method of transmitting information. To a large extent, he was taking a risk. Because he had no channel to pass on the urgent information he had.
To be familiar with the telegraph code, you need to memorize the code of twenty-six letters and ten digits. At the same time, you must master the spelling of pinyin and be able to accurately translate the telegraph code. For the vast majority of the naturalized militiamen who are illiterate or semi-literate, this is undoubtedly a fantasy - only communications soldiers have mastered this technology.
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Volume 7 will be updated tomorrow - Chapter 300 of Guangzhou Strategy
