Alexander did not answer immediately. He just continued to observe the river bank with his glasses. Through the telescope, he could clearly see the smoke columns rising from several cannons on the river bank, but there were no figures, let alone the fire of counterattacking. After a while, he put down the telescope and replied: "Reply to Captain George, continue to maintain speed and distance, pause the shelling, and let the "Enlightenment" and "Celebrity" approach and test it!"

"Yes, Colonel!" The young officer saluted Alexander, turned around and ran under the bridge. After a while, two much smaller clutches were exceeded from the rear of the Counterattack. These were the "Enlightenment" and "Celebrity" that Alexander mentioned just now. Both of them were old wooden-shelled iron-armored ships, but the speed was much faster. They were equipped with six large-caliber mortars on their decks. If the Chinese did not open fire, they could use the six mortars here to bombard the fortifications and turrets on the shore at close range, and kill and injure the defenders in large numbers.

Alexander looked at the four shallow-water heavy gunboats under his feet and behind him, and sighed in a low voice. These four ships have one common feature, low freeboards and nearly 4,000 tons of water displacement, but the lowest one is less than one meter from the water surface, and the highest one is only two meters. The speed and seaworthiness of such ships are naturally very bad. They can only sail along the coast or inland rivers. It is better to be a mobile turret than a warship. Compared to his "Southampton", these four ships are simply four piles of waste that should have been thrown into the trash can. Of course, the pressure also knows that on the Irrawaddy River, this shallow-water gunboat is more suitable than the "Southampton", but no matter what, he still instinctively felt a sense of disgust.

"Col. The Chinese are fighting back!" A voice woke Alexander up from his thoughts. He saw fires shooting from two places on the shore that had not been discovered in advance, and high and thick water columns splashed around the Kaiming and Pingding. It was obvious that the Chinese hid their real turrets and waited until the enemy entered a closer distance before launching a sudden attack.

"Cunning guy! Order the fire to suppress the enemy's turrets, and let the Kaiming and Pingding come back!" Alexander ordered loudly. The four shallow water heavy gunboats on the river also turned the gun mouth and opened fire to the turrets on the turrets on the shore. The two fast ships also quickly turned the bow of the ship and accelerated the distance. At this moment, a ball of fire rose on the rear deck of the Kaiming in front, and a shell hit it. From the bridge of the "Counterattack", you can clearly see that the two hundreds of kilograms of mortars on the rear deck of the Kaiming were flying up like toys.

"Damn it, the 'Kaoming' was hit!" Alexander cursed in a low voice. As an experienced senior naval officer, he could even tell by blasting the firelight from the rising fire point that the Chinese shells also caused the explosion of the other party's launching medicine next to the mortar. This was a very fatal damage to the wooden-shelled iron-clad warships. Without the need for the officers to urge the British sailors on the warships to speed up the frequency of shooting and try their best to pull their companions out of the mastery of the god of death.

But fate was cruel. Like most warships at that time, in order to save tonnage, the armor of the Kaiming was not even laid. The three-point five-inch thick wrought iron armor belt only protected the sides above the water line and flew in a parallel direction below the water surface. The shell hit the rear deck just by hitting the back deck. The violent explosion tore the fragile oak deck. The hot air and air waves tear the steam engine pipelines under the deck and the sailors into pieces. The Kaiming's speed suddenly slowed down and became a living target for the cannon on the shore turret.

Less than a minute after the first hit, the second shell hit the building on the deck. The air waves and shrapnel generated by the explosion swept across the deck and easily wiped out the sailors who were still trying to extinguish the flames on the deck. Now even the most optimistic British sailors have to admit that the "Kaining" is over and that no effort can save him from the Chinese artillery fire.

Colonel Alexander had a gloomy face and whispered: "Play the flag and make Captain William give up the 'Enlightened'!"

"Yes, Colonel!"

The British sailors on the Kaiming who received the order began to rush down the lifeboat on the side of the ship in flames and shrapnel. The Chinese people hit the ship one after another, and the flames quickly devoured anything that could burn on the ship. In less than five minutes, the fast gunboat "Kaiming" with a displacement of 1,200 tons had turned into a pile of torches burning on the river surface. The surviving sailors struggled on the river surface, begging for help from their companions.

"Stop the shelling and send a boat to rescue the sailors!" Alexander ordered. As the British stopped shelling, several small boats with the Red Cross flag rowed towards the sailors on the river, and the Chinese on the shore also stopped shelling. Within this distance, their artillery fire did not pose a great threat to the four heavily armored gunboats of the British. The river surface, which had the rumbling sound of artillery just now, finally calmed down.

"Retreat the anchorage!" Alexander ordered the officers beside him and turned back to the bridge. The officers around him looked at each other and left in scattered.

In the cabin, Alexander was frowning and looking at the map on the table, which marked the fortifications of the Shun Army in detail. Blocks of different colors represent the fortresses, trenches, various fortifications and troops of the Shun Army. Alexander frowned and thought for a while. As a naval officer, he could only be said to be unfamiliar with land warfare. Governor-General Earl Daphlin appointed himself as the commander of the highest military operation. Although he was the highest rank of local military operations, the more important reason was that the invasion of Myanmar was inseparable from the support of the squadron. A commander who was proficient in naval business was more conducive to the coordination of the army, but the problem facing him now was that the Chinese occupied favorable positions and blocked the water with the fort. And unlike the last time, they received a large number of reinforcements from their homeland, and the general's actions were not as conservative as in Bagan.

Alexander pulled the bell and ordered the orderly officer who came in: "Let Major Duncan come to me immediately!"

"Yes, Colonel!"

Two minutes later, Duncan walked into Alexander's cabin and saluted the other party: "Col. I'm here!"

"Major, please sit!" Alexander pointed to the chair opposite him and began to look at the man in front of him with a cautious look. This time Duncan was not appointed as the commander of the army, but came to Beimou as a staff officer in Alexander's headquarters. More than an hour ago, he watched the "Kaining" sink on the lower floor of the bridge.

"Major, you have been to Bemfoot for fifteen days. As an experienced army officer, can you give me some advice? Defeat our enemies!"

Duncan licked his lips to relieve the tension in his heart. He was always a little nervous when facing the strange commander. Alexander saw his nervousness and smiled slightly: "Major, there are only two of us here. Please treat this as an intimate private conversation between two friends. You have served here for more than fifteen years and have fought with Chinese people, and have rich experience."

"Col. Thank you very much for your trust in me!" Duncan replied in a low voice: "If you ask me for my personal opinion, I think it is difficult to defeat the Chinese now. They have occupied favorable terrain and built good fortifications. And according to my observation, they have learned lessons from the last battle and made improvements to our artillery. A few days ago, I carefully observed the shooting effect of the artillery, and the damage caused to them was minimal. If there were no more, larger caliber heavy artillery, it would be difficult to break through the Chinese defense line!"

After listening to Duncan's answer, Alexander felt a little disappointed, but this was consistent with his opinion. In several conversations with Kitchener, Kitchener also made a high evaluation of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese team, believing that it is the right choice to make sufficient preparations before launching an invasion. Alexander admired Kitchener's military talent very much.

"Major, is there any way to bypass the Chinese defense line? Since they have arranged so many troops here, the rear must be empty. If we can bypass their defense line and cut off their supply line, we can win without a fight!"

"Col. This is very difficult!" Duncan stood up and pointed to the map and said, "Although Myanmar's land area is large, the most important part is in the valley of the Irrawaddy River. And the Bemuk is located at the junction of this valley and the Irrawaddy River Delta. If we want to bypass the Bemuk, our army must cross the Rukkai Mountains or the Bogu Mountains, which is very difficult in military terms. Before we cut off the supply line for the Chinese, our army will be hungry!"

"No, there is a third way!" Alexander's eyes were bright and his fingertips fell on a green line on the map. Duncan's eyes looked over with the other's fingertips and whispered: "Irrawaddy?"

"|Yes, the Irrawaddy River!" Alexander said proudly: "If we break through the Chinese defense line, go up against the current, and directly occupy Bagan and even Mandalay with Marines, what will happen to the Chinese defenders here?"

"It will collapse without fighting!" Duncan instinctively answered, but then his face changed: "But the Chinese have mines and turrets on the river surface, which is not so easy to pass!"

"That's my business! Major!" Alexander showed a confident look on his face: "In front of the Royal Navy, this is not an insurmountable difficulty!"
Chapter completed!