The one in charge of collecting the money is still Wei Lianli, and he will be responsible for it until the forty million taels of silver enter Zhou Lang's official treasury.

Zhou Lang sent ten big ships to the north, accompanied by Wei Lianli, Mr. Bao Yi and Liu Quan's housekeeper, and they will complete the delivery face to face.

A month after Zhou Lang came back from Tianjin, He Shen's henchmen came to inform Liu Quan that he could go to receive the silver, which was very efficient.

The fleet did not encounter any obstruction to the north, and all ships on the sea, when they saw Zhou Lang's flag, whether they were Qing army sailors or pirates, either walked around or fled.

All the way to the mouth of the Yangtze River, along the river, the coastal states and counties were ready to fight, but they did not interfere, for them, it would be good if Zhou Lang did not come to fight them, and no one wanted to provoke Zhou Lang.

A trip to Beijing completely turned Zhou Lang into an object that could not be messed with.

The two sides settled on the sandbar at the mouth of the sea, that is, the area of Chongming Island in later generations.

In fact, if He Shen is ruthless enough, he can let Zhou Lang go to Jiujiang to get it, Zhou Lang's fleet rushed to Jiujiang, and then took away the silver, and He Shen can also report that the silver was robbed, so he doesn't have to settle the account, he can still make a profit.

It's a pity that this is an operation that only those reckless gamblers do, and He Shen has not yet reached this point. Because let Zhou Lang's fleet enter the Yangtze River to take it for itself, the movement will be too big, countless people will be implicated, and Chen Huai, Heshen's ally, will be the first to be dismissed, and he will be impeached, and it is estimated that he can only die. Then there is the state capital along the Yangtze River, which is estimated to bring out a group of people. In the end, whether He Shen will be brought out, He Shen can't guarantee it, so he won't do this risky operation. It is better to give money and settle things.

On the contrary, Zhou Lang moved his mind, and the Qing army could use a boat to transport silver all the way from Jiangxi to the mouth of the Yangtze River, indicating that the Yangtze River shipping was not affected, this is a golden waterway, once the channel is opened, the benefits will be much higher than those of Fujian and Guangdong. After the opening of Shanghai's port, it quickly surpassed Guangzhou.

However, this also has to wait for the things in Guangdong to be done, so Zhou Lang only glanced at it and did not take action, and it was serious for Wei Lianli to honestly go and get the silver back.

Three months passed in a flash, and Changlin's behavior in Guangdong did not exceed Zhou Lang's expectations.

He not only concentrated the green battalions of the provinces of Guangdong, but also transferred some troops from Guangxi, the total strength of the green battalion soldiers in the Qing Dynasty was only more than 600,000, and the two Guangzhou armies that Changlin could move were not more than one-tenth, even if the eight banners were added, Guangzhou could not have too many troops, so Changlin first armed a large number of Guangzhou banner people Yu Ding, and then recruited Xiangyong around Guangzhou, and finally gathered a total of 80,000 troops.

Among them, there are 30,000 green battalions in Guangdong, 10,000 green battalions in Guangxi, 3,000 soldiers in the Eight Banners, 1,000 raised soldiers, 4,000 Yu Ding, 2,000 brave soldiers in the city, and 30,000 brave people in Guangzhou Fuxiang.

In order to gather these forces, Changlin reported to the imperial court that he had received a secret report that the Fujian Haikou would attack Guangzhou just in case. But in this case, he can only draw troops in his own jurisdiction, and Jiangxi and Hunan in neighboring provinces will not support him. Unless the enemy really came, it was possible for him to get reinforcements through the Manchu court.

The administrative efficiency of the Manchus was so slow, which is why in the Opium War, the British army marched along the coast with several thousand men, and the Qing army was empty of a million troops, but everywhere it seemed empty because of unfavorable mobility.

Changlin is actually good enough, after many looting, the business of the city of Guangzhou is extremely withered, not to mention squeezing silver from merchants, now many merchants are closed, people have run back to the countryside to hide, hiding not from the war, but from the government, they are really afraid. And many of them are really bankrupt and have to go back to their hometowns.

In this case, even if there were more soldiers, Changlin would not dare to transfer to Guangdong, and he really couldn't afford to raise them. What is supporting the situation now is not money, but the official grain stocks from all parts of Guangdong, and silver is extremely scarce, and all businessmen who do business rely on loans to operate. Changlin didn't pay the soldiers, so he could only temporarily feed them, promising that after defeating the pirates, he would make up for them at one time.

Under these circumstances, Zhou Lang's troops finally arrived in Guangzhou.

This time, Zhou Lang's personal expedition, as in the past, the Humen Fort has been in his own hands since the last time, so he easily took Huangpu. I don't know why the Qing army didn't fortify Huangpu, probably because they felt that the waterway here was wide and inconvenient for defense. The waterway Changlin outside the city of Guangzhou has been blocked, and in the river water, wooden stakes and iron chains have been erected.

Whether such defensive facilities can hold back Zhou Lang's fleet is hard to say, but it will definitely cause some trouble. Zhou Lang's ships are generally large, and it is no problem to enter Huangpu, but the waterway south of Guangzhou City is a little narrow, and now the other party has blocked it again, and it is not easy to use the fleet to support the siege.

However, Zhou Lang was not in a hurry, he slowly gathered troops in Huangpu, and he also wanted to talk to Changlin.

It is impossible to recruit Changlin, Zhou Lang knew this before, it is okay to let Changlin secretly communicate with him, and it is difficult for him to completely sell the Manchu Dynasty.

Zhou Lang sent a small boat to send a cuirassier to land nearby, and saw that there was only one soldier, and the Guangzhou battery did not fire, this person held a large white flag with two big characters written on it in green paint, "peace talks"!

China does not have a tradition of negotiating with a white flag, so Zhou Lang simply wrote it clearly, but asked this soldier not to enter the city, he was afraid that Changlin would kill him and expressed his determination, the two countries have a tradition of not cutting down the army, but when you don't want to abide by it, you can also find an excuse to kill the envoy, Chinese culture is full of such two-sided principles, there are no absolute rules.

The soldier stopped at a distance of 500 meters outside the city to prevent the opponent's bow and arrow from threatening him, and then he could probably hear the shouting clearly, and this soldier was the loudest in the army, and he used to sing opera and practiced his voice. In fact, Zhou Lang could write a letter, but he wanted a soldier with a loud voice to shout it out in his voice, because these words were not only for Changlin, but also for everyone.

Zhou Lang told Changlin that after giving him ten days to allow the civilians in the city to take refuge in the city, the two armies had nothing to do with the people.

In fact, the offensive has already begun.

Heart-to-heart warfare.

Changlin agreed, there may be chaos in the city, let the people out of the city, the townspeople in the city, will the green camp go out together.

Moreover, the people are in the city, and as a last resort, they can drive the people to the city to defend.

Don't agree, he lost for a while in terms of benevolence and righteousness, a thief, but he cares more about the people, he is the governor of Liangguang, but he doesn't care about the safety of the people, even if this battle is won in the end, Changlin will be scolded by a group of clear streams.

Changlin was in a dilemma for a while, whether he agreed or not, he could only scold Haikou viciously in anger.