Section 188 The sound of cannons in the White Goose Pond

The sun rose, and Wen Deji stood on the back stern of the spy boat, standing with his hands in his hands, a layer of golden morning sun shrouded his body, and his whole body exuded a dazzling light. The officers and men of the indigenous navy stood beside them, one by one respectfully and respectfully, but did not dare to speak. I saw Mr. Wen looking at Guangzhou, and there was quite a general "who saw Wu Hook, and patted all over the Gangan, and no one would be able to come to the scene." Pride of the people.

"It's back to where we fought." Wen Deji said in a low voice. Thinking of the fact that he and Wang and Xiao went back and forth to raise funds, I couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion - a few years ago, I was rescued by Ran Yao and others with a few xiǎo caliber rifles and shotguns on the White Goose Pond, and the past of the group fleeing in embarrassment is still vivid.

At this time, he led the fleet here, and the safety of the lives and property of the officials and people in the city depended on his thoughts, and the complacency was overflowing.

"I think that at the beginning, Lao Tzu's team was opened, and there were only a dozen people in total, and there were seven or eight guns ......," Wen Desi suddenly hummed this Peking Opera that he was not actually familiar with—there was nothing more than this phrase to express his feelings.

Chen Haiyang was originally downstairs in the back stern, and in order not to disturb Mr. Wen's Yaxing, he never stepped forward. Unlike Wen Dehei's feelings, he was thinking about how to proceed next.

The battle had gone beyond the military sphere and had become a political battle -- the task force had gone all the way to Canton not to take the big East Asian city, but to force the other side to supply and demand. How to exert a certain amount of pressure to achieve your own goals, and not to let the other party simply break the net, you must be very accurate.

"Mr. Wen," Chen Haiyang saw that Wen Desi's energy to reminisce about the past gradually faded, so he beckoned, "What do you think will happen next?" ”

The Senate had no intention of occupying Canton, they had to reopen trade and continue to receive manpower, material resources and markets from Canton. For this reason, they could not scare away the wealthy merchants of Canton - according to the report of the Intelligence Bureau, many wealthy merchants had already fled from Canton, and if they really captured Canton, the entire Pearl River Delta would become a "war zone", and the merchants would not dare to come again, and there would be no point in occupying the city.

Wen Desi and Chen Haiyang racked their brains along the way, thinking about how to make a vigorous scene, but not so that the government of Guangdong would completely close the negotiations.

Now that the warships have arrived at Baietan, the work of peace talks must be launched as soon as possible -- although the expedition to the mouth of the Pearl River has achieved great results, if it fails to achieve the results of peace talks, it will be a complete failure strategically.

Chen Haiyang proposed: whether to immediately send people into Guangzhou to deliver a note, asking the officials in the city to go out of the city to negotiate.

"No, this can't be done with a note -- isn't this a 'two-state theory'? Li Fengjie didn't dare to take this note even if he was killed. Wen Deji shook his head again and again, "Only through contact with the lower authorities to pass on the news, how to deal with the above, they have their own way, we have to find a channel to contact quickly." ”

The Foreign Intelligence Bureau has Lin Baiguang and others lurking in Guangzhou City, so the Situation Task Force in Guangzhou City can receive telegrams from the Lingao Main Station every day.

Li Fengjie wanted to contact Gao Ju several times, but Gao Ju has always refused. I think it's time to get someone from the Intelligence Agency to contact Gao Ju and let him act as an intermediary. Wen Desi said, "Gao Ju has always been an agent of Australian goods, and he can't take off this skin, so it is reasonable for him to come forward." ”

"Let's fire a few empty cannons to scare them," Chen Haiyang said, "and I don't believe that the officials in the city can pretend to be deaf and dumb." ”

Holding high and closing mén thanks, all parties in the city, no matter who comes to meet each other, say "not in the house". This is not a matter of arrogance - it is because of his awkward position and the difficulty of dealing with all parties.

After Guo Yi and others fled, and the Zi's industry was seized one after another, Gao Ju already felt that he had greatly lost face, so he was very unhappy to repair a book and tell Yang Gonggong what happened. Of course, Gonggong Yang can't say anything in the palace now, but he is still a hundred-legged insect, and the road is wide, as long as he catches any opportunity, he may be able to give the Tian family a hard look.

After the defeat of Chengmai, some gentry officials secretly carried out activities, hoping that he would come forward to negotiate peace, he was annoyed that the government had greatly lost face and credibility in the Zi industry, and on the other hand, he did not know what the depth of the water behind this matter was, so he did not dare to come forward casually to agree, so he simply came to "not be at home" and hid in the house to wait and see the changes.

He stayed at home, but he was very well informed outside. He knew all the "deeds" of the task force after it entered the Pearl River, which surprised and delighted him. It was shocking that the Australians were so powerful, not only defeated the officers and soldiers of the attack, but also chased all the way to the Pearl River Inland River. The soldiers pointed directly at Guangzhou -- if the two sides fought a big battle under the city of Guangzhou, the "happy land" of businessmen in Guangzhou would be destroyed in one fell swoop, and the good news was that they had finally not taken the wrong side in this test of "strangulation." Whether it was the government or the Australians, it was reasonable to deal with it -- when the Australians made a comeback, the Gao family could continue to make a fortune in Australian goods.

As the Australians got closer and closer to Canton, the more and more vocalization they had, and it became completely clear to him what the Australians were thinking about - they wanted to "force peace by war".

Since it is to "make peace", there must be a channel of contact. Gao Ju thinks that in the whole of Guangdong, there is no more suitable person to act as this channel. Whether it is the government or Australians, if they want to make peace, they have to find him in the middle.

So in the past month, he has returned to his normal "at home" situation, although he rarely sees customers, and he doesn't talk much about them. It was in the "wait and sell" that the slaughtering of the government and the local gentry was ready to slaughter the officials and the local gentry - and if possible, slaughter the Australians.

Gao Ju kept a close eye on every move outside, and when the Australian fleet was getting closer, the city was gradually rumoring, and the big families began to flee for their lives, he was unmoved—he had a hunch that the Australians would not attack Canton, and at most they would just swing outside the city.

He had already made up his mind, and he would not come forward until someone from the government came up again to ask him to go to Zhichong Jiāo. Of course, a series of conditions must be agreed to first. Not only did he have to save face for himself, but he also had to save face for the Australians – and of course, he had to take a bad breath. As soon as he thought of Tian Da's rude and rebellious appearance in front of him, Master Gao couldn't bear this breath.

On this day, he just got up, had breakfast alone, and went to the yard where he was doing business, and first teased the birds for fun - Gao Ju likes to raise birds very much, he is different from the northern style of bird raising, and the first thing is that the bird should be beautiful and the feathers are colorful. Therefore, many precious birds that are not seen in China are collected from all over the West, and they are colorful and hanging under the eaves of the porch.

Just when people and birds were enjoying each other, a harmonious scene, suddenly the rumbling cannon sound was remembered outside. Several xiǎo birds were immediately frightened and bumped into the cage. raised his brows and frowned, but he followed the prestige in the direction of White Goose Pond.

In that place in Baietan, in addition to the huā boat is a restaurant, where does the cannon come from? Could it be that the Australians have arrived at White Goose Pond? In the midst of his suspicion, a house slave hurried in and told him, "The Australian fleet has arrived at White Goose Pond and is firing empty cannons." ”

"Let them go." Holding up a look of indifference - this is nothing more than a knock on the mountain.

"Sir." The family said with some hesitation, "Master Tian came to worship ......."

"Which Master Tian?"

"It's Tian Da—"

Gao Ju snorted: "Not at home." "This vile and shameless thing, he didn't bother to see.

"He refuses to go, but he wants to see you," the family took the order at once, as usual, and went on to say, "that there is a great fortune to be given to the master." ”

"No," Gao said lightly. As he spoke, he glanced at his family sarcastically, "How much silver did you get from him?" ”

"Xiǎo's no ......" The family was shocked and hurriedly confessed.

"You go to the account room, say that I am right, reward you with eight taels of silver, and throw back Tian Da's four taels of silver" said with an expressionless face.

"xiǎo people don't dare, xiǎo people don't dare." The family was so frightened that they couldn't possess their bodies, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed, "Xiǎo people know that they are wrong......"

"Go ahead."

He didn't know why Tian Da had to see him with a dead face and white face, but he could probably guess it. This time, Tian Da's attempt to annex the Zizi brand in Guangzhou was completely unsuccessful - first Guo Dongzhu and others disappeared mysteriously, which is not bad, because Tian Da can at least get the real estate left by the Zizi brand, but the government blindly dragged it out, and when the news of the Chengmai fiasco came, even outsiders knew that Tian Da had no hope.

It has been almost a year since Tian arrived in Guangzhou, and he originally boasted that he could get the donation of the Guangzhou Purple Character for the owner, but now he has nothing -- if he goes back like this, most of his servants of the Tian family will not be able to do it. In recent days, he has been searching for all kinds of Australian goods and treasures, probably to have a room for prevarication when he returns.

Tian Da ate a closed mén soup in front of the high house. The family members who originally received his silver with a smile on their faces, and said "wrapped on their bodies" came back with a cold face, threw the silver back to him, and said: "Not at home", and never spoke again.

Tian Da scolded and scolded: "nǎinǎi, one by one, they have eaten the bear's heart and leopard gall" This Guangzhou city really can't stay anymore. Originally, as long as he visited Mén, no one dared not to see him, and even if it was not good, he would come out to say hello and give him dozens of taels of silver for entertainment. Nowadays, none of the characters with a little background are willing to see him, and even if they do, they are extremely polite to speak, let alone give him something.

There was no hope for the purple number - when the officials seized the purple number after the Australians fled, Tian Da didn't have much strength to let the officials who watched the mén let him in to "visit". As a result, he was disappointed, and there were a lot of things like goods and wealth that were lost, but all the officials took them. In addition to many common craftsman utensils, there are only a few Australian machinery that do not know how to use them, and the copper and glass parts on them were either stolen by the officials or were destroyed by the rude officials when they were sealed, and they could not be repaired and used without Australian craftsmen. He had also heard that those people had walked very calmly, leaving no trace of a word.

Not to mention that these brands did not fall into his hands at all, even if they really fell into his hands, they were useless unless there were buyers who were willing to take over. But who has the ability to revive these brands? The things they sell are all Australian goods, at least according to Australian secret recipes. Don't say it, just take it and drink it with numbness in your mouth, how to make the sparkling sweet water, no one in Guangzhou knows. There are also ice cubes that can be taken out anytime and anywhere in the summer......

"Hold up this damn old fox." Tian Da came out while scolding. He asked to see Gao Ju because he wanted to blackmail him into a few rare Australian goods to go back to Jiāo, after all, the seizure of Ziming Tower this time was already yellow. And the thief was tightening step by step, and Tian Da vaguely felt that something was not good-he had already used his brain to return to the north.

But he didn't eat the soft and hard, and he didn't take him seriously at all. He originally wanted to dedicate the Australian oil lamp nòng that could shine brightly into the palace, but he didn't expect that the other party would not even see him now, and Tian Da of nòng felt very faceless.

"Go to Liu's house." After sitting in the sedan chair, Tian Da decided to go to Liu's house, and the merchant was not shili and was doing business to the north, and it was said that the family had several rare Australian treasures. This family has a lot to do with Australians, and they are not afraid that they will not be convinced. After he succeeded, he immediately left Guangzhou, and he also heard the sound of the cannons in Baietan, and took advantage of the fact that the city of Guangzhou was still open, and quickly slipped away, in case it fell into the hands of the Australians, there would definitely be no good fruit to eat.

The sedan chair was carried on the street, and when Tian Da was thinking about how to make a good haode to the Liu family in the sedan chair, someone suddenly shouted: "The cow is crazy, run away"

Tian Da was about to poke his head out to take a look, but the sedan chair fell to the ground with a "ping-pong", so that he almost didn't throw it out of the sedan chair. Tian Da scolded: "You dogs can't even lift a sedan chair......"

The palanquin driver has fled. Tian Da just poked his head out of the window, only to see a sturdy buffalo, panting heavily, holding two huge horns and rushing straight towards the sedan chair.

Tian Da screamed and collapsed in the sedan chair.

"Click" The sound of a light brittle bone shattering was the zuihou voice that Tian Da heard in the world.

Tian Da's death caused no ripples in the city of Canton - except for those who knew about Tian Da's grievances with the Australians. The people who had praised Tian Da's stinky feet at the beginning couldn't help but be very weak-hearted, and those who had suffered from him secretly applauded. Gao Ju just smiled slightly after hearing this.

The drama was in full swing in the city, and the task force outside the city was also not idle. The army landed at Baietan, requisitioned several restaurants for headquarters and senior officers' quarters, and built a temporary naval pier on the pier where the huā boats were originally moored. Many of the rocket launchers and Hale rockets were unloaded from the ship and erected outside the city. If the officials in the city still lack a sense of urgency about the peace, Wen Deji is ready to use rockets to remind them.

In order to facilitate the shelling of Guangzhou from all directions, all the shelling boats of the artillery boat squadron were temporarily refitted, the 280mm mortars were dismantled, and they were converted into rocket launchers. In this way, the artillery boats will be able to maneuver along the Baietans and inland waterways and bombard the city of Guangzhou from any direction.

The Hale rocket fleet transferred from Hong Kong brought more than 300 rockets, and Wen Desi decided to give Li Fengjie three days, and if there was no response, he immediately set off a big fireworks for them.

Some elders proposed to use the intelligence system in the city to send "guanxi" to find Gao Ju and propose peace to Li Fengjie.

"To make peace, it is better to let the other party put it forward first, and then we go to ask for a high lift, he will inevitably be proud, and it is inevitable that he will take this credit in the future and ask us for greater benefits." "We'll wait a few days and see how they react." ”

In order to avoid being attacked on his back, Chen Haiyang ordered the navy and sailors to carry artillery and launched an expulsion of the defenders on the west point of Fenghuanggang and the east point of Dongsheng Temple outside the city of Guangzhou. It took less than a day to purge the enemy. The defenders of the two places broke and fled without a fierce battle, leaving behind 90 corpses and more than 200 old cannons, and the ambush army suffered 10 casualties, including 3 killed.

The loss of Fenghuanggang and Dongsheng Temple made Guangzhou's defense more and more passive. Li Fengjie had no choice, and he had to make up his mind about the original twisted matter of asking for peace.

Li Fengjie thought that the biggest obstacle to the peace talks was Gao Shunqin, and if he knew about it, he would definitely be opposed with all his might--if he didn't know about it, he would immediately go to the court to impeach him, he was an imperial historian, and he could "hear about it," and he would put everything he said on hearsay, and if public opinion in Beijing came together, he would not be able to eat and go around.

After thinking about it again, he decided not to come forward as usual, and divided it into two ways: The matter on the Guangzhou side was directly handled by Yu Baocun, the prefect of Guangzhou-anyway, he Yu Baocun was the first one in this matter of defending the territory, and he was not afraid that he would not be willing.

The other way, by Li Luoyou, was conducted by Mén in Australia. Australia is a Portuguese place, the two sides can talk openly and honestly, and some things that can only be hinted at in front of Yu Baocun can be clearly said by Li Luoyou.

At present, it is for Yu Baocunhe to come forward to persuade the Australians to withdraw as soon as possible, and then talk about other conditions in Australia. The more the Australian warship stayed here, the more difficult it would be for him to return to the imperial court.

Yu Bao arrived at the governor's office and discussed secretly for half the night. Early the next morning, he personally took a sedan chair to meet Gao Ju.

"Is this what Fu Jun means?" After listening to Yu Baocun's request for him to go out to drink the "thief" and withdraw from the army, Gao Ju asked.

"Gao Gong, you are old and wise, do you want the student to make it clear?" Yu Baocun smiled bitterly, "It is the responsibility to defend the land, and everyone is involuntarily. This matter has to be borrowed from Gao Gong. ”

"Where does the old man speak," Gao Ju made a nonchalant look, "Gao is just a businessman." I'm afraid this matter is beyond my strength. ”

Yu Baocun secretly scolded this old guy for behaving again, and he must be asking for a price. Now I have a request for him, so I have to signal that as long as he is willing to show the picture, everything is negotiable.