The Qing army's unscrupulous plundering of the outskirts of Shanghai finally went wrong, and a few bold Qing soldiers even went to the American concession to grab money, which touched the hearts of the Americans.

At the instigation of Yang Xiaoshan, the US warships stationed in the port of Shanghai launched an artillery attack on the Qing troops stationed in Nichengbang under the pretext that the Qing troops had insulted and attacked the aliens in the concession area.

The Qing army fled without a fight, and the next day the governor Gil Hang'a and Daotai Wu Jianzhang personally came forward to make amends.

The loss of Shanghai had a huge impact on the Qing court, because the customs revenue could not be raised, and the Qing court's financial revenue was seriously affected. The imperial court had to send officials to negotiate tariffs with Britain, France, and the United States.

In the end, Wu Jianzhang accepted the suggestion of the British consul Ali Guo, and the consuls of Britain, the United States, and France each appointed a tax department to form a so-called "customs administration committee" to control the customs. It signed nine articles of the "Shanghai Customs Taxation Rules" with the consuls of the three countries, thus setting a precedent for betraying China's customs sovereignty. Subsequently, the Qing government recognized the "Shanghai British, American, and French Concession Land Regulations", allowing foreign invaders to establish political power and police in the concession.

After achieving satisfactory results on the status of the concession and the control of customs, Britain, France, and the United States began to turn to the Qing army, united with the Qing army, built a wall north of the city of Shanghai, cut off the supply lines of the rebel army, and blockaded the county seat of Shanghai.

The Qing Dynasty authorities and foreigners imposed a tight blockade on the rebel army in the city, and the situation became very serious because they could not get the support of the peasants in the suburbs, could not replenish the soldiers, and at the same time could not obtain external supplies such as food and ammunition. About 20,000 or 30,000 people, mostly women and children, remained in the city, suffering from hunger.

Liu Lichuan and other leaders of the rebel army ordered the rebels to eat porridge and grassroots, and at the same time supply the masses with a small amount of grain. The grain stock became smaller and smaller, and the price of rice continued to rise, reaching as high as 300 wen per catty of rice, and soon rising to four or five hundred wen. The rebels "killed cattle and horses for food", and the people killed and ate all the cats and dogs, and ate grass roots and tree bark. Then people starved to death, 8 to 10 people a day. Ammunition was also depleted, and the city was running out of ammunition and food.

The French were the most concerned of the foreigners involved in the blockade, and they opened fire on anyone who tried to interact with the rebels of the Little Knife Society in the city. One evening, an old lady wanted to give a basket of food to a relative in the city, and the French saw her and opened fire, wounding her thigh and falling to the ground. Eventually, she was shot in the back. The poor old lady lay there wailing until midnight when she was carried into the city by the rebels. In order to blockade the county town, the French army shot and killed innocent people ranging from a few to dozens every day, and their crimes were heinous.

During this period, Yang Xiaoshan planned to transport some of Hu Xueyan's military rations in Shanghai into the county seat, but the blockade was too strict, so he could only quietly throw a few bags of rice over the wall at night, which was a drop in the bucket for so many hungry people in the county.

At this time, Xiaodao will be the last chance to break through, but they are still not unified internally, Liu Lichuan advocated breaking through to the direction of Zhenjiang and going to Nanjing to join the Taiping Army, Chen Alin advocated going to his hometown in Fujian to continue the struggle, and the other leaders also had their own opinions.

After continuously mobilizing troops and reaching an agreement with the French army, the Qing army united to launch a final general attack on the county seat of Shanghai.

The artillery on the warships of the French army carried out intensive shelling of the county seat of Shanghai.

The northern city wall was blasted open more than two zhang wide, and the Qing army took advantage of the momentum to attack the city fiercely.

Fortunately, Luo Jian dug a deep trench on the inner side of the city wall, so that they could not easily enter the city. Luo Xuan led hundreds of people to suppress the Qing army's attack with spears and rockets, and beat them back, but also lost a lot of manpower.

But under the city wall of the south gate, the mines of the Qing army exploded again, and the rebel army of the Little Knife Society on this side was not so tenacious and was broken in by the Qing army.

Immediately after that, the east gate was lost again, and the Qing army climbed into the city from the ladder, and they entered the city and set fire everywhere, at this time the county seat of Shanghai could not be defended.

Luo Xuan could only take a few hundred brothers out of the north gate and break out. Fortunately, Yang Xiaoshan responded and hid them in the American concession.

Liu Lichuan led hundreds of brothers to rush out of the West Gate, intending to go to Zhenjiang to join the Taiping Army, but unfortunately walked to Hongqiao and met the Qing Army's general soldier Hu Songlin, although the rebel soldiers fought to the death, but after all, the enemy was outnumbered, most of them died, only the Hundred Dragons Gang Leader Flying Tiger General Pan Qiliang led a small number of people to kill in the Zhenjiang area, and finally voted for Li Xiucheng.

Chen Alin's team also rushed out from the West Gate, but he planned to go south to Fujian, but was still blocked by the Qing army. They fought and retreated, losing quite a few men, and only a few rushed out. Chen Alin and the team were separated, and only a few brothers fled to the American Concession, and it was thanks to Yang Xiaoshan's action that he was not captured by the Qing army, and hid in the medicinal herb store with Luo Gang and others.

The rest of the small leaders, Xu Yao, led more than 160 rebel troops to rush from the small east gate and the north gate, all of them were captured by the Qing army, and finally all of them were killed. There are also more than 300 rebel soldiers such as Cai Sandong and Zhou Longlin who left the city, but they were arrested by the Qing army and regimental training, and after interrogation, they were executed by Ling Chi.

Most of the soldiers of the rebel army fought bravely with the Qing army to the last moment, and only a very few people, Zhu Yuefeng and Shen Shaochang, raised the white flag and surrendered when the city was broken.

Although the Little Knife Society failed for various reasons, they dared to fight with the Qing court with their heads, showing the bloody nature of the men, and finally the curtain call in isolation was also the helplessness of history.

Yang Xiaoshan knew that the American Concession would not be hidden for many days, and so many people would definitely be discovered, so he hurriedly contacted the ship and planned to send Luo Gang and Chen Alin out of Shanghai.

"We're going to Nanyang." Chen Alin's men were dead and scattered, and he was a little disheartened, planning to go to Nanyang to find a way.

Yang Xiaoshan nodded, "This is a little heart. Yang Xiaoshan gave Chen Alin 600 taels of silver as travel expenses.

"Don't thank you, if you meet someone from the Fujian Gang in the future, report my name, at least it will be useful." Chen Alin has been very tough all his life, and it is rare to thank others, and in the face of Yang Xiaoshan's selfless help, he still said thank you no matter how strong he was.

Seeing off Chen Alin, Luo Xuan and Luo Meiying came over.

Seeing Luo Meiying's emaciated face, Yang Xiaoshan couldn't help but say, "Meiying, you have lost a lot of weight." ”

Yang Xiaoshan beckoned the two of them to dinner, but he could see that they were very uncomfortable, the uprising had failed, and so many brothers had died, and the mood was really not good.

"Outline, what are you going to do next?" Yang Xiaoshan asked as he grabbed a piece of meat.

"I can only go back to Hong Kong." Luo Xuan said very uncomfortable, in fact, he would rather die on the battlefield than go back to Hong Kong to live in secret.

"This Qing court is not exhausted, don't be discouraged, or I'll give you a trick." Yang Xiaoshan could see that Luo Xuan still wanted to wrestle with the Qing court, and he was unwilling to end it like this.

Luo Gang's eyes lit up, raised his head and said, "What move?" ”

"Go to Taiwan, where the Qing court's defense strength is limited, and you should be able to break into a new world with your strength." Yang Xiaoshan thought about it, and only Taiwan is suitable for the development of Luo Outline, after all, he was born in the navy, and Taiwan is no more suitable for him.

"It's a small island, how much can it grow?" Luo Outline also looks down on Taiwan a little.

"You can't say that, it's the age of the ocean. The islands are convenient for trade, but they have an advantage, believe me, if you can develop a fleet like a foreigner, you won't be able to fight wherever you want at that time? Yang Xiaoshan prompted.

Luo Xuan is a smart person, he has seen the power of foreigner gunboats, he patted his thigh and said, "Okay, just listen to you." Good brother, if we develop in Taiwan, if you can afford me, come to me to do it together. You will be the top leader, and I will be the second in command for you. ”

"You're welcome, I still have 10,000 taels of silver and 50,000 stone of grain here, and I will send Brother Luo to Taiwan to fight the world." Yang Xiaoshan is full of confidence in Luo Xuan, the relationship between the two is too iron, they have always been comrades-in-arms since Guangxi, and they both trust each other very much.

Although Luo Meiying was still a little reluctant, Yang Xiaoshan still sent them away. Although he also wants to go to Taiwan, now is not the time, he must help the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he cannot leave them alone. After all, at this time, the most promising to overthrow the Qing court was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

But a few days later, Yang Xiaoshan finally saw the scene he least wanted to see, countless corpses floating in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, these corpses were dressed in yellow coats and still tied up.

Yang Xiaoshan recognized this as Dongwang's subordinate from the decoration at a glance, and his heart suddenly felt like ashes: "It's over, the Tianjing Incident still happened." ”