The battle for the assault on Chuansha City began in the morning.

Letting Wu Jianying beat Li Rongfa is Guan Zhuofan's ruthless side. He heard that Li Rongfa had a reputation for bravery, and expected that the battle of the siege would be very fierce, and since he had obtained Wu Jianying's surrendered army, he was reluctant to let his Xuan army take the lead at the risk of heavy losses. As it turned out, he was not wrong in this judgment.

Li Rongfa is indeed a fierce general, but perhaps limited by age, his father Li Xiucheng's cunning, resourceful, flexible and fickle strengths, he did not learn. He defended the city, but he refused to simply defend it, and had sent troops out of the city twice the night before, raiding the officers and troops in the east and south of the city. Night battles are not considered the specialties of the officers and soldiers, but fortunately, several generals have prepared in advance, and with sharp guns, they finally repelled these two surprise attacks, but they also had dozens of casualties.

By dawn, the situation was different, and Wall concentrated most of his field artillery in the south of the city, and began to bombard outside the range of the Taiping artillery as usual. At this time, the disparity in firepower was fully revealed, courage became useless, the forts in the city were broken one by one, and the soldiers defending the city were also killed and wounded.

Half an hour later, the artillery fire began to turn to the walls to the left of the city gate. The city walls of Chuansha, which were not as strong as those of several other county towns, finally began to crumble under the blow of such fierce artillery fire, and gradually opened a large gap of more than ten zhang long, and the broken bricks and muck were piled down, forming a large slope that was sharp on the outside and gentle on the inside.

As soon as the artillery fire began to extend to both sides of the gap, the 500 death squads led by Liu Yulin advanced and prepared to charge. Because there is no way to change clothes. Everyone wore a strip of black cloth on their heads. to make a difference. Wait until the cannon stops. As soon as Liu Yulin shouted with his sword, the five hundred death squads raised their big knives and rushed to the slope with a shout.

At such a time, Li Rongfa still refused to withdraw from the city, and from the broken walls on both sides of the gap, many Taiping troops emerged, desperately blocking this death squad that grabbed the city with muskets, bows and arrows, and stones. Wait until they rush up the slope. Hundreds of Taiping troops came out of it, fighting each other on the slope, fighting extremely fiercely, Liu Yulin was cut off a left hand, and less than half of the five hundred people around him died, almost unable to support it, until Wu Jianying's 1,000 people led by him went up again, and the situation was reversed, which was regarded as seizing the gap.

And when the Xuan army also rushed into the gap, the defeat of the Taiping army was irretrievable. Li Rongfa led more than 2,000 remnants. Out of the north gate retreat to Gaoqiao, on the way to Zhujia Village. It was attacked by Daniel Zhang's horse team again, losing hundreds of people, and the most successful retreat to Gaoqiao was less than 2,000.

The counteroffensive of the official army, from February 20 to 22, a total of three days, recovered the two cities of Nanhui and Chuansha, pressed the Taiping army on the east road in the area of Gaoqiao, and firmly cut off their retreat. Tan Shaoguang shrank in Qingpu and did not dare to move, while Liu Zhaojun on the North Road, because of his fear of the foreign soldiers in the concession, Chen Bing was on the line from Jiading to Wusong, doing nothing, and became a wasted time.

Guan Zhuofan's gamble was a great success. He sent a telegram to Walding Shijie to allow all units to rest in Chuansha for three days, replenish ammunition, and replenish the formation as much as possible with reserves, and set to start marching to Gaoqiao on the 26th. At the same time, he fulfilled his promise and handed over 300 brand-new foreign guns and two eight-pounder cannons to Wu Jianying, and sent someone to take Liu Yulin, who had broken his left hand, over the river and send him to the church hospital in the concession area for treatment of his injuries. Wu Jianying was grateful, and gave an expression: Please dial 1,500 sets of official and military uniforms, and he will change his clothes.

On the 24th, Wu Xu's negotiations finally came to fruition. British Foreign Minister Lord Russell and French Foreign Minister Durban respectively consulted with their naval ministers and brought instructions from Hong Kong to the commander of the British and French fleets, Uncle Hober, asking him to ensure the safety of Shanghai and other commercial ports, not to allow the Taiping army to occupy them, and to allow warships to open fire within 100 miles, which is tantamount to opening up the national policy of "third-party neutrality."

For Guan Zhuofan, who regards Britain and France as great enemies in his heart, this is a piece of news that makes him have mixed feelings, but now is not the time to be sentimental, and I will talk about it later. On the contrary, it was the Englishman who brought the telegram instructions for Uncle Ho from Hong Kong, which made Guan Zhuofan extremely interested, and in the midst of his busy military affairs, Li Bin specially invited him to have a good talk.

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This Englishman, named Li Tai, is the outgoing chief of China's tax department, and his position is now being taken by Hurd. After Li Taitai returned to England, he didn't stay long, and he thought about it again, and began to toss one thing very energetically: he wanted to buy a fleet for the imperial court, and thus became the "father of the Chinese navy".

The method he proposed was for the imperial court to pay for the purchase of a new ship and six warships that had just been decommissioned from the navy from the British government to form a fleet, and to hire his good friend, Captain Aspen of the British Royal Navy, to be the "president" of the fleet, while he himself planned to become the president of the fleet, control everything, and make a name for himself.

This matter has already been recognized, and the Prime Minister's Affairs Yamen is quite tempted by this suggestion. However, who should control this fleet, King Gong, Zeng Guofan, and Li Taitai all have their own plans, coupled with Hurd's fierce opposition, several parties are entangled, and until now, they have not yet decided on a meridian Yin ugly. When Li Tairen arrived in Hong Kong, he was busy communicating with British telegraphs and correspondence with the imperial court.

Guan Zhuofan's rise was after he left China, so he was not familiar with Guan Zhuofan, and it was strange how this Shanghai magistrate suddenly found himself. When he inquired with the British consul, he learned that he was the official of the imperial court and the person who presided over the war in Shanghai, so he was accompanied by Libin and happily went to the banquet.

The dinner party was naturally hosted by Hu Qingqing, but she had another worry, afraid that Guan Zhuofan's first banquet would be ruined: "Master Guan, if he wants to eat vegetables, I won't make it." ”

"Foreign devils eat raw meat, Ru Mao drinks blood, where have you ever seen anything good?" Guan Zhuofan said with a smile, "But this person has been in China for several years, so you can take out your skills and let him open his eyes." ”

Sure enough, this meal was applauded by Li Tai, and after feasting, he proposed to meet the master in accordance with Western rules and thank him in person.

Just kidding, why did I show you my beauty? Guan Zhuofan snorted, shook his head and said: "It's nothing more than five big and three thick, black mouth and black face, nothing to look at - Nelson, let's get down to business." ”

Nelson is the English name of Lee Thai. Li Tai then opened his mouth to talk about the fleet, and talked endlessly, for more than half an hour. According to him, this matter has been unanimously agreed by everyone in the United Kingdom, and both Queen Victoria and Prime Minister Palmerston support him. The Minister of the Navy had already granted the Colonel Aspen permission to serve as a naval officer in the Chinese court.

"The price is also very cheap, only 650,000 taels of silver in total," Li Taitai concluded, "one flagship, three mid-level warships, and three small warships." The special flagship is brand new, with a displacement of 1,300 tons, both main guns are sixty-eight pounds, and in the fleet, there are also one hundred and ten pounds of naval guns. ”

"Yes, yes," Guan Zhuofan understood the whole picture, and said enthusiastically, "I will immediately go to the imperial court and do my part, and I will definitely do such a good thing as Yucheng." Then he thought about it and ordered someone to take 5,000 taels of silver as "Cheng Yi" for Li Taitai.

Li Taitai is not a person who has never seen money, but ...... Five thousand taels? I didn't know each other, but it was such a huge gift that made him really overjoyed. And Guan Zhuofan's insight and understanding in foreign affairs also made him feel like a confidant, shook Guan Zhuofan's hand, and said solemnly: "Yixuan, if this matter can be done in the future, I will definitely give you the name of 'vice president' in the fleet." ”

Vice President? Guan Zhuofan sneered in his heart, but there was a warm smile on his face, and he thanked him repeatedly.

After seeing off Li Taitai, Guan Zhuofan and Libin returned to the signing room to have tea. Libin looked at him stroking his glass and was silent, a little worried, and reminded him: "Yixuan, the counteroffensive of the official army has just started, Gaoqiao Li Rongfa is there, there are still nearly 10,000 long hairs defending it, and they don't know what it will look like, why are you worried about the fleet?" ”

"Changmao is already in the Jedi," Guan Zhuofan said absentmindedly, "With British and French warships participating in the battle, Li Rongfa is dead, and this battle is very good." But ......"

"How?"

"Wall them, with less than thirty eight-pounder field guns, are already indestructible in attacking the city, but the foreigners' gunboats, what did you hear Li Tai say just now? One hundred and ten pound cannons! ”

"The cannon of the strong ship is indeed a sharp weapon." Libin nodded.

"Mr. Leigh, this Aspen fleet, I have to make up my mind." Guan Zhuofan said slowly, "You come and make an excerpt for me." ”

This "Aspen Fleet" is a famous public case in Qing history, and Guan Zhuofan knows it well. This fleet, which was much stronger than the sailors of the imperial court and the Taiping army at that time, could indeed become the prototype of the Chinese navy if it could be successfully established. It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, and everyone has to grab good things, so it will eventually be made into a joke because of the competition between several parties, and it will be lost several times - the imperial court lost hundreds of thousands of silver in vain, Zeng Guofan never got the fleet, Li Tai was discouraged, and the court did a "Aspen fleet retreat case" after the court, and the fleet was disbanded and sailed back to England to be auctioned.

How can the fat in the mouth run away in vain? Guan Zhuofan decided to intervene, and he has already figured out a way.

This method is called "making something out of nothing". (To be continued......)