Lu Shunde happily took two Irishmen from the General Staff and led a group of prisoners to the dock of East Lake to receive the warships sold by the Americans. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

He had been officially transferred out of the General Staff of the Capture Army and returned to the Naval Division, and he was appointed by the Holy King as the commander of the 10th Division, responsible for the formation of the 3rd Outer Sea Division--- the 10th Division. However, at present, there is only one fourth-tier battleship and four fifth-tier battleships that have just arrived.

Lu Shunde attaches great importance to it, and he likes to return to the water division. Not only did they bring two of the four British officers who surrendered to the General Staff to serve as staff officers in the 10th Division, but they also asked the American warship supplier to provide five retired officers of the US Navy as instructors, and they transferred 3,000 men from the 2nd Division B in Guangzhou and 2,000 from the 8th Division to form the 10th Division on the basis of these 5,000 officers.

Feng Yunshan also attached great importance to the creation of the 10th Division, and he transferred dozens of large Red Single warships from the Liangguang Ocean Shipping Company to the Changzhou Shipyard for refitting, adding newly purchased artillery, and delivering them to the 10th Division as warships.

In this way, the 10th Division was quickly established, and although there were only a few dozen warships and more than 5,000 people for the time being, the five US warships made the 10th Division much stronger than the 5th Division.

This is the largest number of weapons purchased in the Holy Country.

Feng Yunshan immediately asked the logistics department of the General Staff Headquarters to allocate most of the foreign guns and artillery that had arrived to the First Division, with a focus on the First Division, the Second Division, the Third Division, and the Fourth Division.

……..

Five days later, Marshali sent someone to deliver the news that Perry's fleet had arrived on Hong Kong Island and was unwilling to come to Guangzhou, and was only willing to stay for three days, so that Feng Yunshan could send someone to Hong Kong Island to discuss cooperation with him.

Feng Yunshan summoned Zuo Zongtang, Lu Shunde, Wu Chongyao, Wang Minyun and others, and prepared to send a strong lineup to Hong Kong Island to negotiate with him on his behalf.

"Holy King, this foreign devil is so arrogant, what else is there to talk about?" Zuo Zongtang has always disliked foreigners, and when he learned that the Yankees did not come to Guangzhou to meet the Holy King in person, he was even more angry: "It's better to leave aside the foreigners and send the sailor to Yueben by himself." On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore? Since this is so important, and it is close to Taiwan and Ryukyu, it is better for our holy country to take it by itself. ”

Lu Shunde even shouted and echoed: "Holy King, what Mr. Zuo said makes sense!" Just send Lu's 10th Division, just to train the brothers, as well as those foreign warships. ”

Wang Minyun said: "Holy King, if we can cooperate with the Americans, we can achieve our goal without sending troops, it is the best." The United States is thousands of miles away, and our Holy Country is the closest to Yuben, and when the Holy Country Navy Master becomes strong in the future, it is not easy to capture, but there is no need to be anxious. ”

Feng Yunshan groaned slightly and said, "What Mr. Zuo said is reasonable. Still, you guys should meet that Perry first. If he is willing to cooperate with the Holy Kingdom, all will be well; If you don't want to cooperate, don't worry about it, let's send troops on our own. ”

On the third day, the group came to Hong Kong Island and met Perry and Marshali at a teahouse.

As soon as Ma Shali saw everyone, he hurriedly greeted him and greeted Wu Chongyao and the others. But Perry was careless and didn't even lift his buttocks, which made everyone unhappy again.

Among the people in this trip, Wu Chongyao is the mainstay, after all, he has the most exchanges with foreigners, and he can speak English.

Perry was in his sixties, but he was physically burly and powerful.

"I've seen Your Excellency General Perry, the Holy King's intentions, Mr. Marshali has already told you, do you think we can cooperate?" Feng Yunshan asked directly.

Perry showed a hint of arrogance on his face, and said with a smile: "Please tell His Highness the Holy King, I think that with my fleet alone, I can force the shogunate to be subdued." Moreover, Perry is used to going it alone and does not want to cooperate with other countries. I'm so sorry! ”

Marshali, who was on the side, pulled Perry aside and said with a smile: "General Perry, your fleet is on an expedition, not far away, and there are not many warships and warriors, so you should cooperate with the Sailors of the Holy Country, so that you can be safer and complete Franklin as soon as possible. Order of Mr. President Pierce. The Holy State has a powerful navy in the East Indies, with three naval divisions and nearly 30,000 naval officers, and is a loyal ally of our United States. ”

Perry was expressionless: "I'm sorry, Mr. Marshali. On this expedition, I brought with me seven warships, a total of more than 200 cannons, and nearly 2,000 naval officers, which was enough to capture the entire city. As for the Manchu rebels you mentioned, although they are stronger than the Ben, in the eyes of us Westerners, they are not enough to cooperate with my fleet. Mr. Marshali, I know you have done business with them a few times, but you can't let that make you betray our American interests and curry favor with those yellow-skinned monkeys! ”

Although Perry and Marshali were on the side, the conversation between the two still made Wu Chongyao hear it clearly. At this moment, Wu Chongyao, who was originally calm, was also angry: "Bullshit Perry, because we still came to the door to ask for a meeting, he didn't look down on us at all." After speaking, he translated the conversation between Perry and Marshali that he had heard.

Lu Shunde wanted to rush up to teach Perry a lesson on the spot, but fortunately Zuo Zongtang stopped him, and even Wang Minyun, who originally advocated relying on the naval power of the Americans and advocating cooperation, said angrily: "Wang is wrong, such an arrogant Yankee, just ignore it." ”

At that moment, the men turned and left, ignoring Marshali's retention.

Marshali was also helpless, he didn't expect Perry to give him no face at all, so arrogant and arrogant.

Marshali felt a little strange, although this Perry also looked down on these Manchus, he had always given himself face. Now he is accusing himself of betraying the interests of the United States, which is a very wrong direction.

So, he spent some effort and asked the adjutant who followed Perry, and then he understood what was going on:

The newly inaugurated fourteenth president of the United States, Benjamin Franklin? Pierce, who began this year with what he professed to be a "strong" foreign policy, wanted to expand into the Pacific in addition to occupying Cuba in the Americas.

He personally promoted Matthew? Perry was a rear admiral and asked Perry to continue to carry out former President Fillmore's order to "open the door to Japan", and at the same time, he also asked Perry to investigate the situation of islands in the Pacific Ocean and find and establish a US base in East Asia.

Perry's adjutant also told Marshali that Perry had set his sights on the Ryukyu Islands and the island of Taiwan last year as U.S. bases in the East Indies and expanding U.S. influence into Asia. Unexpectedly, the situation changed abruptly, and the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan Island were occupied by the Manchu rebels. It's too late for Perry to hate the Holy Country, where will he cooperate with it?

In addition, Perry's adjutant asked Marshali that in his capacity as plenipotentiary in China, he had privately contacted arms dealers to trade with the Manchu rebels and sell arms and weapons to the rebel leaders.

Marshali now understood. He has always been the faction of the previous president, Fillmore, and now that the new president is in power, it is inevitable to remove himself.

The thought of working diligently for U.S. interests in China, only to be replaced in the end, is not a good thing to think about. After Perry led the fleet to leave Hong Kong Island, he also rushed to Guangzhou, preparing to reveal the plans of Perry and the new president of the United States to Feng Yunshan in Guangzhou.