As Guan Zhuofan expected, as soon as Suzhou fell, the Taiping Army Water Village on Xishan Island in Taihu Lake immediately collapsed. "Hangwang" Tang Zhengcai committed suicide by drinking bullets, and the military commander Jian Dongren took the remnants of more than 300 boats and more than 8,000 people to surrender to Ding Ruchang and Li Chaobin.

Xishan Island is a naval base operated by the Taiping Army for several years, and it has accumulated a lot. After the war, it was immediately blocked, so it could not transport even a little bit away, and all of them fell into the hands of the official army, and the Hunan army and the Xuan army water division "distributed the fertilizer".

There are many ships in the Hunan army, but everyone knows that the key to the victory of this battle is the sudden appearance of the Xuanjun sailors, not to mention the two giant ships of Jintai Baiyue, which are still guarding both ends of the inner waterway of Xishan Island. So Li Chaobin discussed with Ding Ruchang very politely, and Zuihou decided to half of the family.

Ding Ruchang first piled up all the ordnance and property he had received on the barge, covered it with tarpaulin, and sent two steamers to escort him back to Shanghai. Then, from among the surrendered troops, more than 1,000 water warriors and craftsmen were selected, and they were sent by ship to the north shore of Taihu Lake, and thrown into the Xuanjun camp outside Suzhou, and handed over to Ding Shijie for temporary containment.

The Xuan army was smooth and full of sails on both land and water, while the Huai army was not so smooth.

In Li Hongzhang's case, it was planned to incorporate 40,000 Taiping troops, but as a result, he was picked up by the Xuan army in the south of the city to take a big advantage, which was unexpected, and he couldn't help but be a little upset. What is even more sad is that Guan Zhuofan rushed back from Kunshan and kept saying that he would return the 30,000 people who had been thrown into the south of the city to the Huai army for reorganization.

How can this be wanted? Li Hongzhang could only shake his head and smile bitterly. However, Suzhou is the capital of the pseudo-"Southern Jiangsu Province". Took Suzhou. After all, it's a huge credit. On such days, other unhappiness is easy to cover up, so I still plan to write an excerpt to report the success, and at the same time I must hurry up to write a letter to the teacher Zeng Guofan - after all, the matter of "Suzhou Killing" has already begun to spread, and it is necessary to obtain the teacher's support before quelling the criticism that may follow.

He has been living in Cheng Xueqi's Kaizi camp for two days, and now he plans to return to his Chinese army. Discuss it with your staff.

Who knew that the bigger trouble was still to come, and if you wanted to get out of the camp, it became an impossible thing to do.

"Futai, why don't you stay here for two more days first......," Cheng Xueqi said in a hesitant manner, "Gordon was outside the camp gate, carrying a gun, and said that he was looking for Futai...... Duel. ”

"Duel?" Li Hongzhang's eyes narrowed, "What is a duel?" ”

"Anyway, it's a big rebellion," Cheng Xueqi said with a wry smile, "He said that Futai lied to him." Now it's on the go. Please Futai ignore him, in two days. When his breath is gone, it will be fine. ”

Before designing to kill Gao Yongkuan, Li Hongzhang deliberately transferred Gordon's Changsheng Army to Xinyang County, just to avoid this trouble, but he didn't expect to come to the door now.

Li Hongzhang thought hatefully, this is because Gao Yongkuan, a traitor, is too cunning, and he actually proposed to let Gordon be the guarantor. He couldn't imagine that it was Guan Yixuan, who came up with the idea for "this traitor".

Gordon's winning army turned out to be the foundation of the second regiment of the Xuan army, and in the battle of Jiading, the Huai army was able to turn the situation back, and Gordon's strength was very great, and then Guan Zhuofan actually sent the second regiment of foreign guns to him, which surprised Li Hongzhang. He personally took the name of "Changsheng Army", and kept Gordon to the deputy general all the way, expanding the Changsheng Army to as many as 4,000 people, all with foreign guns and foreign artillery equipment, not only became the number one main force in the Huai Army, but also in his mind, this is the only force that can match the Xuan Army.

I had to let him do it first. Li Hongzhang sighed and instructed Cheng Xueqi to send someone to pass the order and call his copywriting team to the opening camp to do excerpts here.

It is not easy to do it. Gordon blocked the gate of the camp every day, shouting loudly, although there was no swearing, but he could not do without the unbearable words "treacherous", "shameless", and "coward". Cheng Xueqi invited Li Hongzhang's "foreigner" Kriffin to rise out of the camp and persuade him bitterly, but it didn't work, so he had to warn everyone up and down that no one was allowed to pass these words to Futai.

Li Hongzhang was calm, and he didn't turn his face with Gordon, and in addition to the military expenses of the Chang Shengjun, he also gave a reward of 40,000 silver dollars, plus a commendation message. This is a sign of appeasement, and there is also the meaning of daoqian in it, thinking that grinding him like this for a few days will exhaust his sharpness, so he will naturally go back.

Who knows if Gordon will go back, but still don't buy it. Not only did he forcibly take away the imprisoned Gao Yongkuan Yizi from the Kaizi camp, but also returned the 40,000 silver dollars along with the edict, stating that Chang Shengjun would no longer accept Li Hongzhang's moderation. On the back of the encyclical sent back, another cruel sentence was written: "Because of what happened after the capture of Suzhou, I cannot accept anything related to Li Hongzhang."

"Don't want it, don't want it! I just saved it. Li Hongzhang forcibly suppressed the annoyance in his heart, and said lightly to Criffin, who was doing this errand for him, "Without Gordon, the Huai army still fights, he doesn't want military salaries, I want to see how long I can last." ”

However, the situation was more serious than he thought. Two days later, the British consul in Shanghai, Ali Guo, suddenly rushed to Suzhou to meet Li Hongzhang.

*

*

Gordon's anger comes from three reasons. One is that as a British officer, I was drawn into this deception of surrender, and felt that it was a great shame to have my reputation damaged. Second, they are very angry at the "inhumane" practice of killing and surrendering itself. Third, some people in the concession saw Gordon's jokes and thought that the Chinese regarded his "guarantee" as worthless.

But what Ali Guo did on this trip was not only to stand up for Gordon, but also to represent the public will of the consular corps. The Huai army killed and surrendered more than 2,000 people in Suzhou, which greatly violated the stipulation in the "Public Law of All Nations" that prisoners should not be killed or abused, and caused an uproar in the concessions, and it was unanimously agreed that Western countries should no longer continue to help the barbaric Huai army, and the officers of various countries should not continue to serve in the Huai army and the victorious army. The consuls of various countries have reported to the minister in Beijing to protest to the Prime Minister's Affairs Yamen, and Ali Guo not only conveyed these intentions to Li Hongzhang and expressed his condemnation, but also demanded that Li Hongzhang must make a written daoqian.

When Guan Zhuofan "gifted" the Second Foreign Regiment to Li Hongzhang, most of the British and French officers in the Xuan Army had been concentrated in the Second Foreign Regiment, so the more than 300 foreigners in the Changsheng Army were half British and two percent French, so it was reasonable for the consular corps to recommend Ali Guo to do this.

Regarding Ali Guo's request for daoqian, Li Hongzhang rejected it.

"The eight of them, entrenched in half of the city, are asking for prices all over the sky, not really surrendering! For the sake of hundreds of thousands of living beings in Suzhou, I can't help but do this. The arrow has to be fired, kill eight, save hundreds of thousands, and it makes sense everywhere. ”

"Not eight, but more than two thousand!"

"Those 2,000 people are all their sworn friends, and the relationship is too big, so they have to be killed!"

"But you put Gordon as your guarantor! The honour of the British servicemen was at stake, and in any case, in the event of a change in the Covenant, the witnesses had to be notified in advance. ”

"Gordon is in Xinyang, time is urgent, it's too late to tell him."

"Then you should not accept the surrender of the other party, and you should fight with dignity. It is shameful to use deceptive means, and you must daoqian for this! ”

This point is the key, and it is difficult to cover it up, so Li Hongzhang took out his ruffian energy and played an official tone.

"This is our Chinese military administration," he said arrogantly, dragging out his voice, "and has nothing to do with foreigners, and it can't talk about daoqian or daoqian." ”

Speaking of which, he naturally broke up unhappily, and Ali Guo said goodbye angrily and went to Xinyang to find Gordon.

The specific situation of this negotiation soon reached Guan Zhuofan's ears. He listened to Liu Xunji's report, but just nodded and didn't say a word. When Liu Xun resigned, he leaned back in the chair, playing with an ebony paperweight in his hand, and quietly thought about his thoughts.

What he was thinking about was not the matter of killing and surrendering -- these eight people, who were innocent of death, would have killed them if they were himself, but the means would not be as fierce as Li Hongzhang, killing more than 2,000 people in one fell swoop.

What he was thinking about was Li Hongzhang.

*(To be continued......)