The matter of Lingqu was mentioned in junior high school history textbooks, and Wei Ze also read an introduction to the meaning of Lingqu in "The Resurrected Army". In 1860, the Liberation Army seized Guangxi and Yongzhou, Hunan, and the waterway connecting the Li River and the Xiang River was in the hands of the Liberation Army.

The channel of the Ling Canal is narrow and curved, and the water level of some sections of the river is shallow, so in the shallow and rapid water, a steep gate is built to raise the water level and facilitate the passage of boats. The steep gate is 5.5-5.9 meters wide, made of rectangular stones, and the steep embankment on both sides of the bank is in the arc shape of the opposite direction, leaving the channel in the middle and setting up the gate. They were the forerunner of the locks and the world's first canal navigation equipment. According to records, the Tang Dynasty began to set up 18 steep gates, the Ming Dynasty gained 36, the Qing Dynasty 32, most of them were distributed in the South Canal.

Wei Ze admired the wisdom of his ancestors. However, there were no steamships in the era when the ancestors created them, and even with a steep gate to regulate the water level, draft was still a big problem. At present, several types of inland river transport ships and combat ships of the Liberation Army have been preliminarily finalized, and they have also begun to be mass-produced. According to Wei Ze's wishful thinking, the prefabricated parts were directly transported to the shipyard in Yongzhou, where they were assembled and debugged.

The original purpose of the Ling Canal was not to consider the navigation of ships of tens of tons and hundreds of tons, and it was originally a river channel for transporting grain. That kind of small flat boat is enough to take on this task. However, such a small boat could not carry large objects, including steam engines. The Liberation Army had to create a special ship with a wider hull, longer and shallower draft to solve this problem.

In September 1861, after more than a year of hard work, the steamship assembled in the newly built Yongzhou shipyard was finally accepted to pass guò. It was a small gunboat of about 20 tons, with an iron-boned wooden hull, steam-powered, and six three-inch gun emplacements on board. There were also bunkers on the side and superstructure for placing the guns.

At the end of the acceptance, Shen Xin, acting secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, personally visited the shipyard. Having seen the shipbuilding in Guangdong, he was responsible for the construction of the shipbuilding and maintenance plant in Qiongzhou, and in Shen Xin's view, the shipyard in Yongzhou can only be called an assembly workshop. However, this workshop was able to allow the steamships of the Liberation Army to appear in the Xiangjiang River, which in itself was a great achievement.

At this time, the Hunan Military Region had already received an operational plan for liberating the entire Hunan, and it was a good thing that steamships had joined it. But the steamship is to burn coal, and when there is coal, the steamship is majestic, and without coal, this heavily armed guy can only float on the water, not even an ordinary boat.

The sea vessels of Guangdong and Qiongzhou were able to roam the country thanks to the high-quality coal supplied by Vietnam's Hongji Coal Mine. Coal was dug out from that place, transported directly to the port by train, loaded onto a ship with a mixture of sails and steam, and then sailed to Liangguang and Qiongzhou. Theoretically, Vietnam's high-quality coal can be shipped to Yongzhou, but the cost is outrageous.

Yongxing has discovered several good coal mines, but if you want to use them, you have to take Hengyang, a waterway transportation hub. In order to achieve a better combat environment, it is necessary to achieve it through guò war, and war itself is such a thing. So Shen Xin sent a telegram to the central government, asking if the troops could capture Hengyang first.

"Shen Xin is really interesting, is there a difference between seizing Hengyang and seizing the whole of Hunan?" After Wei Ze finished speaking at the meeting of the Military Commission, the members of the Military Commission were happy.

"What if we don't attack the two lakes first, but go north along the seaside, go to Fujian, enter Zhejiang, reach the Yangtze River, and then fight west from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to drive the Taiping army to the west?" New opinions have emerged.

The Guangfu Army coveted the grain-producing areas of the two lakes, so in the plan, the two lakes were taken away first. But after seizing the two lakes first, the Taiping army was blocked in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. If the strategic goal is to drive the Taiping Army away, then the whole strategy will have to be revised.

"What if the Taiping army is driven across the Yangtze River?"

"The Taiping army is full of veteran generals, and they may be able to accept going to Sichuan as a last resort. Let them cross the Yangtze River and continue northward, where there are all plains, are they waiting to be surrounded and annihilated on the plains? Those guys wouldn't be stupid. ”

"If we hit Fujian and enter Zhejiang, our maritime transportation capacity will be able to give full play to its advantages. By sea, the pressure on transporting goods can be greatly reduced. ”

"Will the British attack our transport lines?"

"If the British dare to do it, we will take Hong Kong. Moreover, you don't necessarily have to take the sea route to fight Zhejiang, you can still win by land. ”

……

One discussion after another, new strategic considerations emerged. Since it was decided to fight the Taiping army head-on, it was better to fight from the west to the east, but it was better to fight from the east to the west. From east to west, it can also force the Taiping army to go west, adding a little more chaos to the Qing army.

Ju Junfeng immediately objected, "Is our primary enemy the Taiping Army or the Manchu Qing Dynasty?" I don't think people are getting it wrong. Our goal now is to destroy the Manchus, and if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom does not surrender, we will use weapons to make them surrender. But this doesn't mean fighting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom first. ”

Weese strongly supports this view, "The goal of seizing the two lakes cannot be shaken. We now only have the Pearl River Delta, a grain-producing area, and although Jiangsu and Zhejiang are rich, the grain is only enough for themselves. If you want to get a lot of food, you can only take the two lakes area first. There can be no mistake in this strategic sequence. Moreover, the French fought fiercely in Vietnam, and we had just opened a route with Siam, and we could not expect this route to remain unaffected in any way. ”

The opening of the Siam trade route was in March 1861. At this time, Siam was under the rule of the Bangkok Dynasty, and the ruler was the fourth monarch, King Mongkoo, who succumbed to British pressure and signed the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of Commerce with J. Pauling, the representative of the British government, in 1855. Other Western powers followed suit, and because of the invasion of Western countries, the Bangkok dynasty had to start a policy of opening up the country.

The British swallowed India at this time, and the French attacked Vietnam fiercely. King Menggu, who is quite wise, was very polite to the Guangfu army who came on a steam warship and loaded with live ammunition. Since the founding of the Bangkok Dynasty, many Chinese have immigrated to Siam, and the Siamese government and local people have welcomed these Chinese with advanced farming techniques. Rice cultivation in Siam flourished, and Chinese immigrants played a significant role in it.

When the representative of the Guangfu Army proposed the idea of "exchanging rice for rifles", King Menggu was overjoyed. After seeing the muskets of the Liberation Army in person, the Siamese king, who had seen the advanced weapons of Europe, immediately agreed to the trade. The Siamese Bulk Trade Route was finally opened. The two routes ensured the supply of rice to the Liberation Army, but the French kept both routes under threat. R1058