January 16, 1858.

"Woo! Woo! The whistle sounded at the mouth of the Pearl River. It was a steamer flying a crimson flag with the word "Liberation" written in yellow. There were two British steamships near the mouth of the Pearl River, and when they saw this ship from afar, they turned around and came near.

The lookout post on the mast immediately transmitted the news of the approach of the British ships below. The originally tense atmosphere in the captain's room was even more solemn at this time.

"Don't worry about them, the British don't dare to do anything to us, let's keep going." The captain gave the order. The agreement signed between the Liberation Army and the British side of Hong Kong included a section on navigation, and the British were not allowed to intercept warships flying the flag of the Liberation Army. Otherwise, it is considered to be at war. Of course, before the Liberation Army declared war on the British side of Hong Kong, it could not intercept the British ** ship. The inclusion of such naked military threats in the agreement proves that both sides attach great importance to this agreement. Both the Liberation Army and the British regarded the other side as an enemy of great importance, so they did not want to make any mistakes before the official battle.

"What are the British warships trying to do?" The commissar couldn't help but ask.

The captain glanced at the commissar, "How do I know what the British want to do, maybe they just want to come up and have a few looks." Just look at it, are we still afraid that they won't be able to see it? ”

In fact, the captain guessed very correctly, the purpose of the British steamship was to take a look. This is a steamship that the British have never seen before, and unlike the British steamboats, this ship does not have paddle wheels, but it is powered by steam. Needless to say, propeller power is naturally used. In this era, propeller power has been used on many ships, but it is still far from being completely mainstream. Since this steamship is not a British ship, there is only one possibility, and the Liberation Army built a steamship that uses a tail propeller.

The British steamer's attempt to come up and watch failed to do so, and the steamer of the Liberation Army sailed on top of the British paddle steamer, and the ship sailed south after leaving the mouth of the Pearl River, apparently heading south along the coast of Guangdong. The British did not have a port near the southern coast of Guangdong, and after chasing for a while, they had no choice but to give up.

Six hours later, Ergin, the British plenipotentiary in China, glared at the two captains in front of him and asked aloud, "You said that a steamship of the Liberation Army sailed out of the Pearl River?" ”

"Yes! The ship had a draft of about 200 metric tons and sailed 9 knots. I didn't see gun emplacements on either side of the ship. However, there was a gun emcourse in the bow, and I didn't see what kind of guns were mounted on it. Visually it will not exceed 4 inches. "The people who can mix with the captain these years are not ordinary people, just by looking at it, you can see a lot of numbers. Regardless of the great status of the former Canadian Governor-General Elgin, the British captains had their own dignity when faced with naval problems.

Ergin glared at the two British captains, his triangular eyes full of anger. His original intention was to ask the two captains if they were mistaken, the Liberation Army was able to repel the British lobster soldiers in the field, which would have given Elgin a great shock. Now a steamship has sailed out of the Pearl River and has gone to the southern waters of Guangdong with the degree of a British steamship, is this steamship paper-paste? Or did both captains get sick at the same time and have to be sent to an insane asylum?

Ignoring the gaze of the Plenipotentiary of Ergin, the captains added: "This ship is an iron-hulled wooden hull, and judging from the shape, it is not a special warship. ”

"Enough!" Ergin couldn't listen any longer, and he interrupted the two captains with a wave of his hand. After the end of the Crimean War, Britain and France, which were the victors in the war, or Russia, which was the losing side, temporarily accepted the status quo in Europe and began to try to make up for the huge military consumption by making up for the huge military expenditure.

When Britain decided to start the Third Great Smoke War, it was actually Britain, France, Russia, and the United States that jointly sent their navies and six armies to China. The fleets of the four countries had almost all arrived in Shanghai, China, and soon Britain and France were about to attack the Manchus.

The total strength of the four countries was only more than 20,000 people, and only 7,000 were really ready to go to war. They dare to do this because China does not have a navy. Just when Ergin felt that he had basically figured out the attitude of the Liberation Army, suddenly the steam ship of the Liberation Army appeared. A 200-ton steamship is nothing compared to a British warship capable of crossing the oceans. But this is not a simple steamship problem, it is like a strong man carrying a fire qiang in his left and right hands to solve a little hairy boy with a wooden stick, and when he arrived, the little hairy boy suddenly pulled out a loaded fireqiang from his back.

The number of weapons in the hands of the strong man is still above the little hairy boy in terms of combat effectiveness, and the victory of the strong man can still be expected. But there is no gap between the two sides in weapons, and the little hairy child also has the ability to fight back. The huge advantage shrank greatly in an instant, and this strong sense of loss made Ergin extremely uncomfortable.

The civil and military generals in Hong Kong also looked unhappy, but after all, they had fought with the Liberation Army first and suffered from the Liberation Army. So they admitted one thing earlier, the Chinese they were dealing with were no longer a backward nation under the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Being able to produce its own steamships only proves once again that the Governorate is a government with military capabilities. Regardless of what British officials will choose to say according to their own needs, in the British cognitive standard, military capability is directly linked to civilization, and the two sides are directly proportional.

The British side will always pay more attention to what a "civilized government" says.

It was with great difficulty that Erjin adjusted his thinking and accepted a little bit the fact that the Governor's Office had begun to enter the ranks of "civilized government". Then the former governor of Canada had a previous problem, and Elgin never paid attention to what the Governor said. In other words, the Governor's Office made it clear that "if Britain attacks the Manchus, it is unlikely that the Liberation Army will launch a military attack on Hong Kong." However, no matter what agreement the British side reached with the Manchus, the Governor would not recognize it", Ergin proposed his own strategy to the London side.

In Ergin's strategy, the British first defeated the Manchu government and made the Manchus fully accept the British demands. After dealing with the Manchu government, he took the initiative to eliminate the power of the Governor's Office, so as to take Hong Kong as the center and completely control Guangdong. One of the prerequisites that convinced Ergin that Britain could destroy the Governorate was that the Governorate did not have the ability to build steamships. Now one of the cornerstones of Ergin's strategic conception has collapsed. As a qualified British governor, Elgin has never had the characteristics of pulling hard, let alone thinking that everything is under control. Reality changed, and so did Ergin, who began to think about how to adjust his strategy.

The British civilians and soldiers in Hong Kong all knew that Elgin was underestimating the Liberation Army, so they all had a gloating expression in their eyes at this time. The former governor, who liked to be fake and full of style, had criticized the British civil and military forces in Hong Kong more than once for not having confidence in victory, and for being too afraid of the Liberation Army. Now everyone wants to see what kind of solution the former Governor can come up with to face this reality.

Ergin quickly replied, "Send someone to Weezer and ask them to order a steamboat!" ”

Hearing this request, the expressions on the faces of the British civil and military officers instantly turned into admiration.

Two days later, Weeser sent the British envoy down. Then with an expression of admiration on his face, he said to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hong Renji next to him: "As long as there is a chance, you must kill Ergin." ”

Hong Renji looked at Wei Ze's expression without any excitement, and he asked, "Kill Ergin?" How to get rid of it? ”

"Catch him, of course." Weeser gave the answer in the tone of discussing arithmetic problems.

"Kill him?" Hong Renji still couldn't quite make a complete connection between this bloody remark and the flat tone, "Dudu, why did he offend you?" ”

Weeser replied slowly, "I hate smart foreigners. Ergin was very clever in sending someone to buy a ship from us this time. First, he told us that the British attached great importance to our shipbuilding capabilities, and secondly, it was very costly to get steamships from England to Hong Kong. They just paid a high price to buy a ship from us, and now they are preparing to attack the Manchu pass, which is also a very cost-effective choice. If we sell ships to the British, the British will know our industrial prowess. ”

Hong Renji thought about it carefully, he could understand some of these things, and some of them didn't. But even so, Ergin will not reach the point where he must die. It's just that Wei Ze said so, and Hong Renji didn't want to ask too much. He replied, "Governor, why don't we sell him the ship?" ”

Wei Ze didn't want to explain too much, he only replied, "Sue them, we are not enough for ourselves." ”

Asking Hong Renji to deal with the British envoys, Wei Ze summoned the General Staff, "We must be ready to fight the British again." ”

The officers of the General Staff immediately became excited, and although the officers of Lei Hu, who had long been holding back their strength to fight the British again, were nervous, they had been holding back their strength to prepare for war these days. Knowing that the war was likely to break out, Lei Hu's eyes lit up, "Dudu, when will it be fought?" ”

Ke Gongyu, who came back from Britain, was a different kind of excitement, seeing the strength of the British mainland, although Ke Gongyu no longer looked down on the strength of Hong Kong, but he did not underestimate the ability of the British to stretch for tens of thousands of miles. So Ke Gongyu asked, "Why do the British want to fight with us?" ”

"If you know that there are enemies who will fight us to the death, will you do it while the enemy is still weak, or will you wait until they are strong before doing so?" Weeser asked.

This question has made the generals basically understand the reason for the British to act, but this explanation is obviously not enough. Lei Hu asked suspiciously: "Dudu, is it because we have any rumors here that the British know?" ”

"Huh!" Weeser sneered, "I'll say it again, the British don't want to get along with our Liberation Army. The British wanted to invade China and constantly reap the benefits of China. To achieve this, they chose to use their military force. I have told you many times that you have to be logical in doing things. Talk about cause and effect. The appearance of our Liberation Army is not the reason for the war, the reason for the war is that the British want to plunder China, and whoever stands in their way to plunder China will fight whom! ”

After Weeser finished speaking, all the generals fell silent. Weeser has said many times about "logic", and even gave everyone a special lesson on logic. However, it is difficult for the generals to combine this knowledge with reality very organically. For example, there is still a subconscious belief that wars are waged between two sides with private enmity. It is indeed not completely acceptable for the general to completely get rid of personal hatred and consider the problem with logical inevitability.

After a while, Lei Hu suddenly shouted, "Foreign devils don't have a good thing!" ”

This judgment sounded immature and ridiculous to Weeser, and it was too childish to use "good things" and "bad things" to evaluate international politics. There is never a completely uniform standard for good or bad evaluations. From the British point of view, the Chinese who resisted the British invasion were the real big baddies. When these Chinese who rose up to resist were still capable of defeating the British, these Chinese were even more heinous villains to the British.

With Lei Hu starting up, the officers of the General Staff also quickly reached a consensus.

Wei Changrong said viciously: "Kill all these dogs!" Not a single one to stay! ”

"That's right, kill the British!" Hu Chenghe said in a cold voice.

"Kill them!" "Kill the British!" The officers of the General Staff shouted one after another.

Wei Ze frowned slightly, he actually didn't like such a "Chinese-style tradition". In the Chinese tradition, we like to characterize each other as good people and bad people, and then think that good people are born and should have the power to kill and kill bad people. Weeser disagrees with this view of the smallholder economy.

Industrialized societies did not advocate such an attitude, as the British tradition says, "There are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests"! Although this attitude of only talking about interests is not superior, it is much more scientific than looking at the world from a completely subjective perspective such as good people and bad people.

Wei Ze raised his hand and motioned for everyone to stop first, and soon the conference room was quiet. All the officers looked at Wees, waiting for him to make a judgment. "Comrades, fighting with the British is not about good guys fighting bad guys, or bad guys fighting bad guys. We must first determine one thing for ourselves, that is, our Liberation Army is fighting for China! Fighting for China is the mission of our Liberation Army! Fighting for China, this is the glory of our Liberation Army! ”

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