The state of Humen has been very good, the Qing army has appeared around, but it is really difficult to understand the reason why these officers are afraid of war, if it is said that after the Opium War, they have understood the strength of the enemy, and it is understandable that they dare not attack, but this is in the Qianlong period, it is the era when they are full of contempt for the Yi people, and they do not dare to attack, which really makes people sigh that it is not the military power that is declining, and the weak is the people's hearts.

They didn't dare to attack before, but now that there are more and more British troops in Humen, they don't dare to attack.

On the one hand, the government's army did not dare to attack, and on the other side, the people began to collude with the invaders.

When Zhou Lang first came, he met the Tanmin fishing boats recruited by Magalny, such fishing boats Magarni recruited more than 50 of them, and they had been asked to help intercept foreign merchant ships before, and the wages paid made these poor Tanmen enough to take huge risks, and after seeing that the first batch of Tanmin cooperated with foreigners without any danger, but made a lot of money, more and more imitators followed.

After Magarni recruited a hundred fishing boats, he began to stop recruiting fishing boats, because these fishing boats could not be used for battle, but could only be his auxiliary force to blockade the Pearl River.

But there are still countless fishing boats to and from Humen, and later these fishing boats are no longer hired by Magalny, they are here to do business, and the British are very happy to pay for supplies, and purchase materials at a level twice as high as the local price, which is enough to make a large number of poor fishermen flock to it, which is not only the Tan people, but also the fishing villages in the lower reaches of Humen such as Dongguan and Xiangshan, all participate in this business, and even have some conflicts outside Humen every day.

These scenes made Zhou Lang really blush.

But can the poor be blamed? In a situation where two or three days do not work, and the wife and children have no food, let them go hungry and love the country, is this in line with human nature? Is it fair to let them stand on the side of the government unconditionally when their government treats them inappropriately, arrests and enslaves them at will, and finally beats them up?

Or is it a very controversial question, but in fact, everyone has struggled with it in their hearts, do you love your country, does the country love you?

This country has never truly loved its people, is there a reason to let the people love the country unconditionally in the moment of life and death? The rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of the husband, although the truth is fierce, but when the country rises, the husband does not have any power, and when the country is about to die, it is said that the husband is responsible, is this fair?

Zhou Lang looked at these phenomena, his heart was heavy, and in the end he came to a ridiculous conclusion, that is, patriotism has a cost, and the poor ghost doesn't even have the right to be patriotic? Because you can't afford to love!

No wonder Guan Zi said, "Whoever governs the country must first enrich the people." If the people are rich, it is easy to govern, and if the people are poor, it is difficult to govern. ”

Everyone like Guan Zhong really sees it thoroughly, and it is indeed easier to manage a group of rich people who have the ability to love the country than it is to manage a group of poor people who are walking on the edge of hunger.

Zhou Lang thought like this, which had a huge impact on his future behavior.

To get back to the point, as the trade between the British and the locals in Humen became more and more frequent, the supply of supplies was no longer a problem, and it was unbelievable that fresh vegetables and meat could be eaten every day in a foreign land.

After more than 20 days of such days, the second group of troops from Taiwan finally arrived.

Colin was really eager to ask for battle, Magalny suggested that he let the soldiers rest and recuperate, Colin said that the first batch of troops who arrived more than 20 days ago had already rested, and they could first let this group of people as the vanguard to carry out a tentative attack on Guangzhou, and if it did not go well, they would wait for the follow-up troops to rest and recuperate, and then carry out a general attack.

This time, Magarny has no reason to refuse, after all, Colin is the most reasonable commander of this military operation, and if the conflict with the officer is too big, it is not a good thing, this reason, Magarny, an experienced old politician, understands this truth very well.

So this time he did not stop Colin's actions, and promised that all the ships in his hands could cooperate with Colin unconditionally.

Now the armed forces of the British in Humen are divided into two groups, one is the ships of the Magarny Mission, and the other is the armed merchant ships that nominally belong to the China (East India) Company, those armed merchant ships have nothing to say, they are all four or five hundred tons of deadweight, there are about 20 cannons, and the really powerful ones are actually the warships of the Magarny Mission.

For example, his flagship Lion is the largest ship in the fleet, and most importantly, this is a ship really designed for war, this is a serious warship, although it is only a British third-class battleship, but it is actually the capital ship of the British Navy, because the first-class and second-class battleships, although they have been infinitely exaggerated by later generations of experts and scholars, are actually just gimmicks.

Due to the small number and high cost, the number of first- and second-class battleships of the British was very small, only 5 first-class battleships and 9 second-class battleships, which did not play a real role for hundreds of British Royal Navy.

The Lion, a third-class battleship, was equipped with 26 24-pounder guns; 26 18-pounder guns; 10 4-pounder guns; 2 9-pounder guns, this one ship alone is enough to confront all the batteries in Guangzhou.

There is also a 1,200-ton Hindustan large cargo ship in the mission, although it is a cargo ship, but with the urine of the British, it still has good firepower, equipped with as many as 30 guns, of course, not as many as the number of cannons of the Lion, and the caliber of the cannons of the Lion is not large, but it should not be underestimated.

There is also a two-masted galleon, the Jackal, and a French sailing ship Clarence that was bought when passing through Batavia, these two small sailing ships, with a load of only about 200 tons, and their firepower is relatively weak, with only six bronze cannons, two iron cannons, and sixteen rifles.

Just the naval strength of the mission can go sideways in the Pearl River area, not to mention that Colin still has five 500-ton armed merchant ships in his hand, Zhou Lang brought the lucky ship of the same class, and three British merchant ships of different sizes, such a sea force gives Magalny the ability to block the waters of the Pearl River for a short time.

It also made the British army as long as it was on the water, all the way to Guangzhou, and there was no need to be afraid of the Qing army's obstruction.

So Colin's attack on Guangzhou City is really point-pointed, straight to the point!

With the support of strong firepower, they soon occupied the port of Huangpu, which had been used as a maritime trade port to the south of the Pearl River, and then suppressed the Qing army fort.

With the vigor of Colin, who was eager to make meritorious contributions, they captured two batteries in one day.

It was the two batteries built on the sandbar in the south river of Guangzhou, which the British became the Dutch battery and the French battery, also marked as the first battery and the second battery, and the Chinese called the East battery and the Haizhu battery.

The occupation of Huangpu Port gave the British a solid base outside the city of Guangzhou, captured two forts, and completely opened the south of the city of Guangzhou, and could even bombard the city of Guangzhou from the river without any scruples.

At the end of the day's fighting, Colin was full of passion and planned to capture Canton overnight, and he could not wait for the follow-up troops, nor was he willing to wait for Magalny.

Zhou Lang suggested that he report the battle situation to Magalny as soon as possible, but Colin said in a dashing manner that when Magalny came, he would hand over a complete city of Guangzhou to Magalny.

Zhou Lang doesn't strongly recommend it, in fact, he doesn't plan to have any conflict with Colin at all for the time being, he won't oppose any of Colin's suggestions, if he wants to make people perish, he will make people crazy first, Colin is now about to go crazy, and when he occupies Guangzhou City, I'm afraid he will ignore Magalny's attitude, and then the two sides will really have irreconcilable contradictions.

Anyway, Zhou Lang came to accumulate experience, so he followed Colin to see and learn more, and the army even directly let Colin command, and his artillery was directly incorporated into Colin's artillery, and the infantry also fought with Colin under the leadership of Ma Dalei, Chen Xiaoshou and Hong Jiuzhi.

Just when Zhou Lang thought that tomorrow Colin would launch a general attack on Guangzhou, and then after a bloody battle, or a day or two, or three or five days later, he would occupy Guangzhou, the pearl of Lingnan, but an envoy from the Qing army came that night.

They came to negotiate, and their attitude was extremely humble, which was at opposite ends of the arrogance of the previous Manchu officials, and fully exposed the ugly faces of the magnates.

The frightened people who entered Huangpu were two businessmen, led by Cai Shiwen, the chief merchant of the Thirteen Banks.

As a businessman like him, if he was not forced, it would be impossible to take this kind of risk, as a businessman of the Thirteen Lines worth millions, or even tens of millions, it should be said that they are the big names in the Chinese business community in this era, but these wealthy businessmen, in the eyes of Manchu officials, are still small people who are not in the stream, and they can take off their pants with a random county order and play the board on the street.

But these merchants, who had already made enough money, were forced into the barracks, apparently having no faith in their mission, and horror was written on their faces.

Colin's basic demeanor is still there, although he is bent on capturing Guangzhou City and establishing his own merits at one time, but since the other party has sent a messenger, he still politely invites him in.

Zhou Lang accompanied him to meet the envoy.

Cai Shiwen had a humble attitude and bowed repeatedly, indicating that it was all a misunderstanding.

Tell me some information, such as the foreigners they arrested are all waiting for a good life in the city, and the government is willing to release them. Then I hope that the British army will be able to withdraw from the army, and then everyone will continue to do business in the future.

However, Colin rejected all proposals, and he offered to surrender the city of Canton unconditionally, guaranteeing the safety of all the claims and the preservation of private property.

Such an unreasonable request, as a result, the other party did not immediately refuse, but said that he needed to reply to the adults in Guangzhou before he could decide.

Colin took a tough stance and gave the city of Canton twenty hours to reply, otherwise he would resume military operations.

Zhou Lang kept looking at Cai Shiwen's expression, and found that this was really the expression of a person who survived in the cracks, a flattering demeanor, and a flattering look, which was by no means the posture that a character who said the same thing should have, but this is a Chinese businessman.

According to the short negotiation process, Zhou Lang flashed a word for the first time, "the strategy of delaying the army", and he reflexively judged that the Qing army was delaying time.

However, he is a little unconfident, the so-called strategy of delaying the army is to gain time, to gain time for counterattack, but does the Qing army really plan to fight this battle seriously?

He couldn't help but think of the "Nose Grass Treaty" signed by Qi Shan privately during the Opium War, no matter how you look at it, it looks like a delaying strategy for the soldiers to come to the city, because a big empire really has no reason to sign an alliance with the other party when only a few forts are lost, but Qi Shan really plans to use a draft contract to send the British.

It is really impossible to use common sense to speculate on the attitude of Manchu officials and mud at this time, even famous ministers like Lin Zexu are constantly falsely reporting their military exploits in the performance of the emperor, not to mention other officials.

But the situation in Guangzhou City, Zhou Lang is now black-eyed, and he really doesn't know what those adults think.

It wasn't until the next morning that another person came to the barracks, and Zhou Lang knew some details.

This person was Wei Lianli, who was sent to Guangzhou by Zhou Lang.