Zhu Jinglun still underestimated Bai Gui, although Hua Tingjie and others are not the first to look at Bai Gui, but these people are between Bai Gui and Huang Zonghan, and they are indeed inclined to support Bai Gui now. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to operating in Guangdong for 30 years, the sleek Bai Gui has always been popular in Guangdong officialdom, while Huang Zonghan was transferred away because he offended too many people after only serving as a governor in Guangdong; There is another reason, that is, when Hua Tingjie and others went out of the city to train Xiangyong, they actually consulted Bai Gui.

Throughout the late Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured so many cities, in addition to a few magistrates surrendered, there were also very few magistrates who abandoned the city and fled, and in the late Ming Dynasty, magistrates abandoned their garrisons and fled. Was it that the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were more spineless than the civil officials of the Manchu Dynasty? Of course not, the civil officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties were half a pound and eight taels, and they had no integrity. The reason is very direct, that is, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was very unsympathetic to the civil officials who abandoned the city and fled, and almost all of them fled with a dead word. Therefore, after the city was broken, some were killed by the Taiping army, some hanged themselves, and very few escaped.

Of course, it is not that there are no escapes at all, but there are relatively few of them.

Therefore, when the foreigners captured the city of Guangzhou, Hua Tingjie and Li Futai still stayed in the city for a few days, because they were worried about the crime of abandoning the city and fleeing, so before they left the city, they secretly visited Bai Gui, hoping that Bai Gui would go out of the city with them. If Bai Gui left the city, the charge of abandoning the city would of course be borne by him, the biggest governor, but Bai Gui did not go out, but he supported Hua Tingjie and them to go out.

Bai Gui approved of their move to go out of the city to train the village brave, and explained to the emperor about this, so Hua Tingjie and they had no worries, and there was no worry about abandoning the city and fleeing, so they were grateful to Bai Gui in their hearts.

At the same time, Huang Zonghan came to Guangdong this time, although he had the task of supervising and integrating Guangdong Xiangyong, the most important thing was to help the emperor stabilize Guangdong as much as possible when the foreigners captured Guangzhou, so Huang Zonghan's mission made him unable to sit back and watch Xiangyong become bigger, which caused some conflicts of opinion with Hua Tingjie, the magistrates who organized Xiangyong to try to recover Guangzhou City.

It can be said that the biggest reason why Huang Zonghan slowly lost in the struggle to win over the Guangdong magistrates is that the interests are different, Bai Gui has the same interests as these people, and Huang Zonghan has the intention of restricting the rights of these people, plus Bai Gui's ability to deal with people and things is not lost to Huang Zonghan, so after coming and going, Bai Gui slowly took the top.

It is impossible for Zhu Jinglun to fully understand these things, he only knows that Bai Gui has slowly won, at least among the local powerful factions in Guangdong, Bai Gui has gained a firm foothold, and this is enough. This shows that Zhu Jinglun's investment in Baigui was not in vain, which is good news in comparison.

Zhu Jinglun nodded: "Hehe, that relationship is good, I don't know if I will go to Huada now to listen to the dispatch?" ”

Fu Li shook his head and said, "That's not in a hurry. Huada people are busy arranging the fort, don't you have a batch of muskets in your hands, keep them for your own use, and send the rest to Huada. I believe that with this gift, BGI will take care of you. ”

Zhu Jinglun understood that the batch of arms in his hand was probably a big bargaining chip for Bai Gui to win over Hua Tingjie, Hua Tingjie is now in charge of the defense of the fort, and he is not confident in the power in his hand, so he wants everything that can strengthen his strength. Messing with this batch of arms is one of the reasons why he openly stood on the opposite side of Huang Zonghan at the critical moment of the struggle between Huang Zonghan and Bai Gui.

Zhu Jinglun thought for a while: "It's okay." I only have more than 2,000 people under my command, so why not give 2,000 guns to the BGI? ”

Fu Li nodded, it seems that what Zhu Jinglun took out can satisfy Hua Tingjie's appetite.

Fu Li said again: "The governor said that the gun can be given to Hua Tingjie, and we have to hold on to the people." ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "The governor can rest assured, this is naturally understood." ”

After Fuli left, Zhu Jinglun immediately asked the black dog to go to the inn to call people, the Wuxianmen Inn is now all under Zhu Jinglun's bag, anyway, there is no one to live in the chaos, there are dozens of rooms in the front and back yards, and more than 2,000 people are squeezed out, as long as these people have big smoke, they are not particular, they are willing to play on the floor, but no one shouts grievances.

Soon Hou Jin followed the black dog.

"Zhu-hehe."

Hou Jin suddenly didn't know what to call Zhu Jinglun, he used to call him by his first name and call Zhu Er. But now he himself felt that something was out of place.

The black dog knows how to observe words and feelings, and reminds in a low voice: "My lord is now in charge of the musket battalion." ”

Hou Jin was so happy that he forgot about the embarrassment: "Brother, are you an official?" ”

Zhu Jinglun said with a smile: "It's not an official position, it's just a temporary dispatch, you take people to move 2,000 guns to the fort, and hand them over to Huaxian County, have a better attitude, don't rush the people of Nanhai County." I'll go to the barracks and I'll be there in a moment. ”

Hou Jin sighed and beckoned people to work.

Zhu Jinglun hurriedly left the yamen and rushed to the camp of Xiezhen not far away, where Bai Gui and the foreigners were all here, the foreigners were as prisoners of war, and Bai Gui was the hostages of the foreigners.

It's just that no one knows yet, anyway, the foreigners didn't say it, and outsiders can't be sure. At the beginning, everyone covered it up well, and Zhu Jinglun told him that Bai Gui lived here, and he couldn't be said to be a hostage to the outside world, otherwise he would lose the dignity of the Qing Dynasty. Only a few officers among those foreigners learned that they were all prisoners now, so naturally they would not talk nonsense.

In fact, Huang Zonghan's explanation was that he was afraid that the townsmen who were guarding these captives would retaliate against the foreigners without authorization and cause more trouble, so before the emperor decided how to deal with these foreigners, Bai Gui did not want any accidents.

Taking advantage of the asymmetry of information between foreigners and officials such as Huang Zonghan, Bai Gui successfully concealed that he was a hostage, so that these foreigners could lay down their arms. When the battle is over, even if it is said at that time, who will believe it. At that time, Bai Gui escaped a catastrophe and was still the governor of Guangdong, and no one talked nonsense.

And now that the foreigners have taken prisoners, in fact, even if Bai Gui wants to go out, they dare to stop him? It's just that suddenly the foreigners are calling again, and before seeing the momentum clearly, Bai Gui feels that the barracks where the foreigners are imprisoned is actually a good place, so that he can avoid the limelight and not have to worry about the responsibility of the city breaking falling on his head. This time it was Huang Zonghan who was responsible.

Zhu Jinglun came to the barracks, but he didn't come to see Baigui, of course, he had to meet Baigui as soon as possible, this is a favor.

Bai Gui's treatment was not bad, living in a single room alone, although the conditions were still relatively simple, but it was much better than others, and those British prisoners could only be squeezed together even if they were officers at this time.

Coincidentally, I actually met Hurd in the Bai Gui room.

Hurd's eyes were extremely strange when he looked at Zhu Jinglun, there was contempt, panic, and a trace of inexplicable grievances, Hurd couldn't accept that Zhu Jinglun was really a secret agent, and he had been lurking by his side for so long, and the burns on Zhu Jinglun's body were not injured by the gunpowder of the Qing army as he imagined, but the explosive gunpowder was ignited by Zhu Jinglun at all.

Seeing Zhu Jinglun come in, Hurd didn't even say hello, and stood up directly to say goodbye to Bai Gui.

"This Yiren wants to get out of the city."

Without waiting for Zhu Jinglun to speak, Bai Gui spoke first.

Hurd came to see Bai Gui, and he actually hoped that Bai Gui would allow him to go out of the city, what the purpose was, Zhu Jinglun could also guess.

Sure enough, Bai Gui said: "This Yi man said that he was willing to go out of the city to negotiate with the Ying Yi outside the city, and he said that he could persuade the Yi people outside not to fight Guangzhou City, is this Yi man credible?" ”

Of course, Hurd is credible, of course Hurd doesn't want the British army to continue to attack the city of Guangzhou, there are thousands of British prisoners in the first city, although most of them are Indian soldiers, but there are nearly 100 British officers, and the second Hurd is a diplomat, and diplomats generally don't want war, because once they go to war, it means the failure of diplomacy.

Zhu Jinglun understands Hurd's mentality very well, and puts himself in Hurd's shoes, if he is Hurd, he is not willing to fight in Guangzhou again, because it is completely meaningless, even if the foreigners take Guangzhou? Last time, I took Guangzhou, but I couldn't control the surroundings of Guangzhou, and trade couldn't be restored, so I went to Beijing. Now that the treaties have been signed, and the Chinese have not ceased the war according to the provisions of the treaty, but have captured the city of Guangzhou, what will the foreigners do? Fight directly, that's what the general is willing to do.

"If he says he doesn't want to fight, that's credible."

Zhu Jinglun replied honestly.

Bai Gui sighed: "It's a pity that the old man can't be the master." ”

Bai Gui said that it didn't count, but Hurd didn't know, he only knew that Bai Gui was the number two person in Guangdong, and thought that Bai Gui could count if he said it.

"By the way, what are you doing here, don't say you're here to see the old man."

Bai Gui seemed to be in a good mood, and he spoke to Zhu Jinglun in a very casual tone, not like a local official at all.

or deliberately show closeness in front of Zhu Jinglun.

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "I really can't hide it from adults." The villain came this time to find a few leaders. ”

Bai Gui was puzzled: "Looking for a leader? Are you looking for foreigners to help train your troops? ”

This idea is still very surprising, before Li Hongzhang, there was really no official in the Qing court who dared to think like this. Moreover, Li Hongzhang's Huai Army and Foreign Gun Team have not yet been formed, so it can be said that there is no precedent at all.

Zhu Jinglun said: "That's exactly what I mean. ”

Bai Gui took a breath, picked up the cup and drank the tea slowly, in fact, he was thinking about whether this matter would lead to any undesirable changes.

Zhu Jinglun also knew that this was a bit unbelievable, but he didn't feel that there was any other taste.

Bai Gui probably figured it out and asked, "Do you think foreigners will help?" ”

What is even more outrageous than Li Hongzhang is that Li Hongzhang is hiring foreigners to fight the Taiping Army, and Zhu Jinglun is directly asking foreigners to help train the troops and turn around and go to fight foreigners.

But Bai Gui asked very seriously, if someone else said so, he would laugh at the other party's whimsy, but this was said by Zhu Jinglun, Bai Gui had to think about it seriously, because Bai Gui thought that he knew foreigners very well, but Zhu Jinglun knew foreigners better than him.

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "Of course Yingyi refuses. But the Indian soldiers didn't care. They are mercenaries in the first place, and whoever gives money will do things for whom! ”