Back in Shengjing, it was already the end of the second lunar month, and the weather was slowly getting warmer.

In fact, Feng Yunshan should have arrived in Shengjing a long time ago.

The Suzhou-straight railway, from the north and south ends of the construction at the same time, because there is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal can facilitate the transportation of sleepers and rails, the construction is relatively smooth, Feng Yunshan was still in Guangzhou when he got the news, the north and south sections of the Suzhou-straight railway have been two months ago, in the Yanzhou Mansion on the boundary of Shandong, but because it is still in the commissioning and inspection stage, has not yet been officially opened to traffic, now these two months have passed, it should be almost, ready to wait for the emperor to return to Shengjing to announce the opening of the railway. But if Feng Yunshan is willing, it is also possible to take the train back to Shengjing directly from Shanghai, and there is no big problem in terms of safety. However, Feng Yunshan wanted to see how Suzhou Prefecture was developing, so after leaving Shanghai, he did not take a fast train, but took a steam shallow water gunboat, and under the escort of the inland river sailor, he turned from the Shanghai dock along the upper reaches of the Huangpu River to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, all the way to Suzhou City.

For Suzhou, Feng Yunshan has been to it several times in his previous life, and he has visited Tiger Hill and Suzhou Gardens. But now that I'm back in the same place, my mindset and feelings are completely different.

Feng Yunshan did not inform Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, and others, that he deliberately took a section of the steamship this time, mainly to see what was going on in the area of Suzhou Prefecture, the richest prefecture in the world.

I'm really happy!

Judging from the scenery on both sides of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passing by all the way, although it is the cold winter season, Feng Yunshan can still roughly see that there are countless grass stacks on both sides of the road on this road, and the cooking smoke is curling. Compared with the Guangxi and southern Hunan areas that Feng Yunshan was familiar with before, it is undoubtedly much more lively. Basically, it is difficult to see a place without villages and farmhouses, and at a glance, the wilderness is full of cultivated farmland, ponds and river networks all over the horizon, which makes Feng Yunshan sigh that the prosperity of this Suzhou area is worthy of being the most developed agricultural area in the country.

I wanted to find a few farmers and ask them how the harvest was in a year, but every time Liu Shengbang took someone off the boat, the villagers working on the bank of the canal were like frightened birds, and they avoided it from afar. Seeing the monster of several steamships emitting white smoke, and many high-ranking officials and soldiers, it is strange not to dodge.

Later, there was really no way, Liu Shengbang was also angry, and directly sent someone to invite two elderly villagers to the gunboat to ask the emperor questions, and after some understanding, Feng Yunshan really relaxed. After understanding that it was a passing Hui merchant, the two old farmers were relieved. An old farmer said that he has eight acres of paddy fields and five acres of dry land, of which all the paddy fields are used to grow rice, and can produce nearly 8 stones per mu in a year, which is more than half of the yield compared with the previous few years when only about 5 stones can be produced in 2 seasons per mu, and the sericulture planted on dry land is not much worse than rice.

Another farmer also introduced happily that his family situation was similar, and his two sons, who had been single for many years, also married their daughters-in-law, and their lives were prosperous.

"If you want me to say, thanks to the long-haired emperor! It's really a god descending from heaven to earth, and we are the savior of the grass people. Without his old man, how could there be a happy life for the grass people today. It's just that the holy fertilizer is always insufficient, if only the township could share a little more every year, my family's yield per mu will be increased to 9 stones, and the ancestral house will be renovated again, and it will be blind when it dies. ”

Feng Yunshan took a steam shallow water gunboat along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal all the way north, and when he entered Wuxi County, he met Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu, who was chasing from Suzhou on a fast horse, and others, but it turned out that the general staff of Shengjing sent a message to Shanghai, and Shanghai thought that the emperor had arrived in Suzhou, and transferred the news to Suzhou, Li Hongzhang learned that the emperor had just passed through the canal outside Suzhou, and was shocked, and hurriedly took the telegram from Shengjing, and personally rode a fast horse over. finally caught up with the emperor and his party when they were about to reach the county seat of Wuxi.

The telegram was sent by Zuo Zongtang, reporting three important military information, the first two of which were related to Tsarist Russia.

"Liang Litai, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division, and Luo Qiongshu, commander of the Fifth Infantry Division, led their troops to occupy Xinjiang last year, and now Liang is stationed in Yili and Luo is stationed in Kashgar. However, Zuo's attempt to assassinate Aguba failed, but it became the Akmakitbok of Kokand, and instigated the lord of Kokand to send troops to invade Kashgar. Tsarist Russia sent thousands of troops to the upper reaches of the Ili River and built castles. ”

"The former Xi'an general Zalafen led the remnants of the Manchu Qing to flee to Kulen in the north and established Yixin as emperor. Su Shun and the little emperor's forces were disintegrated, and they were suspected to have been captured and killed by Yixun, and the rest of the troops returned to Yixun, who met with Tsarist Russia in Yaksa, and ceded all the Tangnu Ulianghai west of Kulen and the western half of Uriya Sutai to Tsarist Russia in exchange for Tsarist Russia's weapons and equipment and some mercenary support. ”

"Li Hongzao, vice minister of the Ministry of Supervision, and Cheng Wucai, an adviser to the Ministry of Supervision, impeached the North Korean governor Lu Shunde, saying that he deliberately released Qin Rigang and others who were hiding in the Changbai Mountain area, and provided more than 50 sea vessels, so that Qin Rigang led 3,000 people to flee from Qingjin on sea ships."

After reading these three telegrams, Feng Yunshan really had a headache. What he feared finally happened, and Lao Maozi Tsarist finally made a move, stretching out his bear paw and slapping it to the east. It's not that the empire is advancing too slowly, it's really too northern, and now the Chinese Empire's captives are still mostly southerners, and it is completely difficult to adapt to the extremely cold weather in the north in this era, and the number of people will be seriously reduced if they are not careful. Finally, it has been five years since the recruitment of more than 300,000 soldiers from the north and the training of more than 300,000 soldiers from the captive army.

It was he who gave the remnants of the Manchus and Tsarist Russia a breather for too long, so that they would have a chance. Feng Yunshan still felt powerless: he already knew in advance that Tsarist Russia would extend its claws to the east after the Crimean War, and Na Agubo had already ordered it to be removed, but he didn't expect it to be like this. It seems that even if he is rich in the world and has millions of soldiers, he is still not strong enough to catch it, but fortunately, the Chinese Empire has gone through these years of development, completely stabilized and consolidated, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, and they have not been affected by the change of regime, on the contrary, the people of the people are more supportive of today's imperial court, which is undoubtedly their biggest dependence, thinking of this, Feng Yunshan couldn't help but have confidence.

As for why Lu Shunde wanted to let Qin Rigang go, Feng Yunshan was also very puzzled. Could it be that Lu Shunde was thinking about the old love of the old brothers in the heavenly kingdom, but he didn't hear much about the deep friendship between Lu Shunde and Qin Rigang. However, Qin Rigang was originally entrenched in the deep mountains and old forests of northern Korea, and the captives failed to eliminate him several times, and now it is not necessarily a bad thing to be able to send him away, but his reputation is a little unpleasant. However, after a little operation, let's just say that I will read the face of those old brothers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who followed Qin Rigang, and let them live.

But Feng Yunshan was still a little curious, where would Qin Rigang go? According to the words on the telegram, it was a flight to the east, and the east was not Japan. Where to go in Japan, Feng Yunshan decided to rush back to Shengjing first and figure it out.

In Wuxi, Cheng Hengsheng, vice minister of the Ministry of Communications and director of the Department of Railways, was quickly contacted by telegram, and the other party immediately arranged for a nearby steam locomotive to rush to the Wuxi railway station to form a special train for the emperor to rush from Wuxi to Shengjing. Because it has not yet been opened, it deliberately waited until dawn the next day to depart from Wuxi, and the train ran fast, nearly 400 miles away, and it took more than 7 hours. This is still a conservative pace, and if you follow the original design speed, it will take less than 6 hours to arrive.

Returning to Shengjing, where he had been away for a few months, Feng Yunshan did not care about visiting the concubines and children in the harem, so he directly summoned Shi Dakai, the righteous king and minister of national defense, Zeng Guanlan, vice premier of the cabinet, Zuo Zongtang, chief of the general staff, Mao Qi, deputy chief of the general staff and director of the Operations Division, Wu Ruxiao, vice minister of foreign affairs, and Fan Ruzeng, director of the Special Services Department, who were already waiting outside the palace.

After everyone saw the ceremony, Shi Dakai, who had the highest status, didn't say anything, so it was mainly Zuo Zongtang, who was in charge of specific military affairs, to report it.

"Your Majesty, it took 13 days and more than ten horses to send the information to Lanzhou, and then sent the information from the pigeon station of the Special Service Department to Xi'an to relay, arrived in Wuchang, and finally sent it to Shengjing by telegram from Wuchang. It took a total of 16 days. If it weren't for the recent establishment of a telegraph office in Wuchang, it would be estimated that it would be almost 18 days before receiving news from Kashgar! Zuo Zongtang deliberately emphasized the difficulty of transmitting the news, and then directly suggested: "Obviously, Your Majesty, the Tsarist Russia has been premeditated for a long time. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded silently and let Zuo Zongtang continue.

"Your Majesty, please look!" Zuo Zongtang escaped from his arms with a small map, Feng Yunshan saw at a glance that it was very close to the map of Asia in later generations, and when he looked at the calm Moltke next to him, he knew that it was his masterpiece.

"Kashgar, where the Fifth Infantry Division is stationed, and Ili, who is an assistant of the Fourth Infantry Division, are at least two thousand miles apart, and there is a desert place in the north of the Saiwai Desert. According to the mutual confirmation of the information of Division Commander Luo and Division Commander Liang, the two places launched their troops almost at the same time 24 days ago. Therefore, it can be concluded that even if Na Aguba did not mishear the command of Tsarist Russia, the two sides had already agreed to send troops together. And the Tsarist Russia directly deployed thousands of soldiers in the upper reaches of the Ili River and built castles, which exposed its wolf ambitions. ”