Time Travel to 1859: The Iron-Blooded Soldier King

As a first-rank admiral, Shi Rongchun always regarded himself as the supreme ruler of the Celestial Empire. Faced with the arrogant and rude Comerel, he naturally would not give him a good face.

Comerel said proudly, "I am following the orders of our Commander Heb. I demand that you immediately remove the obstacles and artillery at Dagukou, allow our warships to land at Dagukou, and then proceed to Tianjin and enter the capital for negotiations!"

Shi Rongchun snorted coldly and shouted, "You barbarians are but a tiny nation. To meet the Emperor of the Great Qing, you naturally need His permission. I, under His Majesty's order, am stationed at Dagukou. No one is allowed to land without His permission. As for removing the obstacles and artillery at Dagukou, that's wishful thinking. If you know what's good for you, just go back to England and don't bother yourself!"

Comerel said coldly, "Admiral, please don't make the mistake. We, England and France, have assembled more than ten huge ships and are ready to launch a fierce attack on the Dagukou Fort at any time. When the time comes, we will destroy both ourselves and Tianjin and Beijing. If you still think of resolving the dispute peacefully, it will be out of your control!"

"presumptuous!"

Shi Rongchun's face changed drastically. This foreigner was too arrogant and too hateful!

Shi Rongchun stood up and answered word by word, "I tell you, if you want to capture Dagukou, you have to die. Now the troops are stationed at Dagukou..."

Before Shi Rongchun could finish his words, Liu Ye suddenly took two quick steps and interrupted him: "Colonel Comerel, we now have more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces and more than a thousand soldiers in the north and south forts of Dagukou, ready to fight at any time. If your army wants to start a war, we are always ready. You must know that our Qing Empire has a population of tens of millions and a territory of tens of millions of square kilometers. Do you think you can defeat our Qing Empire with just a dozen warships? Aren't you too arrogant? Be careful, we will make it impossible for you to leave!"

Shi Rongchun was stunned. A dozen heavy artillery pieces? Over a thousand soldiers? What on earth was Liu Ye planning to do? At this point, he could only claim more troops to deter the British and French fleets. Why was he claiming less?

Liu Ye, standing by, was sweating profusely. The Admiral behind him was really worried. If he had truly disclosed his troop strength and deployment, how could the British and French soldiers not be on guard given their cunning? Fortunately, he had stopped him!

Comerel laughed heartily upon hearing this. "More than a dozen heavy guns? The fleet behind me has no fewer than forty heavy guns, plus secondary guns of various calibers. How can you withstand them with your limited forces? Little guys, I'll give you one more chance. Do you agree?"

"No!"

Liu Ye shook his head and replied, "Since you have nothing else to do, let's go back the way we came. Bye!"

Liu Ye spoke English fluently.

Shi Rongchun and Comerel were stunned. Shi Rongchun was surprised that Guo Ye actually knew foreign languages. Comerel was also surprised. He didn't expect that there were people in the backward Qing army who knew English. He had never heard of it before!

In the end, Comorel's threats and inducements were ineffective, and he had to return to the sea from Beitang.

When Comeril returned to the flagship and met Commander Heb, he replied, "General, I told you before we left that the stubborn Qing people will not allow us to enter Zhili. We must use our iron ships and cannons to blast open their iron curtain. These East Asian monkeys will not behave unless we hit them!"

Herb sneered, "Why, are you feeling frustrated because you got turned away?"

Comerel snorted coldly and did not answer.

Herb replied, "Commorrel, you have to think it through. We must fight, but there's a Chinese proverb that goes, 'Be polite before using force.' We've done our best to be polite, but they don't understand. If we get beaten, we can't blame anyone else! Also, what exactly are their troop strength and artillery positions? Have you seen it clearly?"

Comerel was shocked. He was so angry that he forgot what the commander had told him. Damn it!

However, Comerel still remembered what Liu Ye said and replied, "General, hey, they are at Dagukou. They only have a dozen heavy artillery and a thousand soldiers. Their defense is worse than that of Guangzhou City. They can't withstand the attack of our ironclad ships at all!"

Heb snorted coldly and asked, "More than a dozen heavy artillery pieces and over a thousand soldiers? Did you see this with your own eyes?"

Comerel replied, "I didn't see it myself, but the situation was similar. The Qing army's discipline was lax. When I arrived, they were still lying on the artillery platform basking in the sun. And this information is absolutely true, because this statement did not come from their commander, but from a very young officer under him, less than twenty years old. He was full of blood and had no restraint. He even dared to interrupt the commander and reveal the truth. I guess he must be a young nobleman from the Qing court who came out to gain military merit..."

Herb raised his eyebrows. What a young officer said was indeed very credible!

Hebu sneered, "If that's the case, then we'll launch an attack on Dagukou tomorrow! It's time to make the Qing Dynasty suffer!"

Above Dagukou, the scene is quite different.

After Comerel left, Shi Rongchun said anxiously, "Liu Ye, who told you to talk nonsense? It's clear now that the Western devils are going to land here. You didn't just exaggerate our strength, you actually underestimated it. How can you scare these devils off like this?"

Liu Ye felt a little embarrassed. He was worried that Shi Rongchun would reveal the actual number of troops. He didn't expect that Shi Rongchun actually planned to report more. It seemed that Shi Rongchun was not incompetent to be able to serve as the governor of Zhili.

Liu Ye chuckled and said, "My Lord Admiral, the Anglo-French coalition has made it clear that they are going to force a landing at Dagukou. A battle is inevitable. Even if we report a higher number of troops, I'm afraid it will be of no avail! It would be better for us to report fewer troops and hide our actual combat power. Not only that, I also ordered some of our soldiers to lie down on the artillery platform and bask in the sun. Haha, the foreign devils will definitely let their guard down if they see us! As long as we arouse their arrogance, we can take advantage of them in the next battle and make them suffer a great loss!"

Shi Rongchun suddenly realized what was going on and couldn't help but laugh, "Good boy, I never thought that at such a young age you could be so vicious and sinister!"

Liu Ye replied with a smile: "Admiral, even if we are vicious and insidious, we don't need to be polite to those Western devils!"

Shi Rongchun nodded and said, "All is fair in war, it is the ultimate principle of military strategy. This time, let's trick them and put a damper on their arrogance!