Wu Chaoyue did not contribute to the work and used countless indiscriminate means to torture the Hunan army to the deathbed, and the British and French troops entered the city of Beijing and drove the Xianfeng Emperor to Rehe to kill rabbits. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Of course, the aftermath of the Tianjing Incident still seriously affected the strategic development of the Taiping Army, and when he and Yang Xiuqing still could not trust each other, Shi Dakai of the Northern Front Battlefield of the General Division did not dare to put all the main forces into the Northern Front Battlefield, but only sent Chen Yucheng to lead the partial division to surround Xuzhou again, and the main force continued to stay in Anqing and Luzhou, not only to guard against Wu Chaoyue but also to guard against Yang Xiuqing suddenly copying his lair, and in vain missed the rare opportunity to take the opportunity to annihilate the main force of the Huaibei Qing Army.

The northern front failed to seize the opportunity because of Shi Dakai's conservative prudence, but the Taiping army on the southern front was quite competitive, Lin Fengxiang's army successfully captured Ningbo, and Zeng Lichang's army also successfully captured Quzhou, and together they helped the Taiping army successfully capture the entire territory of Zhejiang. In the case of the partial division surrounding Fuzhou City, the main force of the department has directly hit Zhangzhou and successfully captured the capital city of Zhangzhou, and the forward Yang Fuqing is directly breaking through the water pass, and the troops are entering Guangdong, and the Qing army on the southeast coast continues to disperse, and the Taiping army on the southern front is like a bamboo, and has swept the southeast.

In the case of a very good situation, a harsh murmur suddenly appeared, because of the fear and fear that the Taiping army would take the opportunity to attack Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and in the situation that the British army in Guangdong was weak and very weak at present, the British Far East Governor Bao Ling could only hurriedly send his precious son Xiao Bao Ling to Zhangzhou by boat to liaise with Li Xiu and try to ensure the safety of interests in Guangdong through diplomatic means.

Although Li Xiucheng, who was known as Li Hongzhang of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was not afraid of the threat of force from the British, he also knew the importance of combining the vertical and the horizontal, and in order to avoid the new strengthening of the enemy and reduce resistance, Li Xiucheng immediately promised that he would never attack Hong Kong, and also promised not to attack Guangzhou until the British troops withdrew, in exchange for the non-aggression of the Taiping army and the British army in Guangdong, and lived in peace.

I never expected that Li Xiucheng, the most important general of the Taiping Army's southern front, would be so reasonable, and Xiaobaoling, who had been prepared for hard persuasion, couldn't help but be a little greedy and insufficient, so he tentatively made a shameless request to Li Xiucheng - asking Li Xiucheng to allow British merchants to continue to sell opium in the territory controlled by Li Xiucheng's army, and hoped that Li Xiucheng could protect the safety of the opium trade.

"No way!" Li Xiucheng flatly refused and said: "The Celestial Empire has explicitly banned opium, and those who smoke opium will be killed in one flail, two beats and three times, and those who smuggle opium will be beheaded!" This is a strict order of the Celestial Empire, and no concessions must be made! ”

"Dear Mister Lee, I am amazed by the nobility of your law-abiding character." Xiao Bao Ling smiled and said, "But Mister Lee, have you thought about this problem?" How much do you ban opium in your area, can you really make your people stop smoking opium? Can opium smuggling really be stopped? ”

Li Xiucheng was silent for a while before replying: "I can't do it yet, but I will definitely be able to do it in the future." ”

"Li, with all due respect, if you continue to use this brutal method, you will never be able to truly ban opium." Xiao Baoling said solemnly: "Don't forget, your control area has a very long coastline, and no matter how many troops you have, you can't control every inch of coastline. ”

"Under the temptation of huge profits from opium smuggling, whether it is your people, the people of the Qing Dynasty, or overseas foreigners, they will do everything possible and use every opportunity to smuggle opium into the areas under your control, and the price of opium will skyrocket in the areas under your control because you cut off the normal opium sales channels, resulting in higher profits from opium smuggling, and more people joining the ranks of smuggling. Let all your hard work come to naught, consume your human and financial resources in vain, the gains outweigh the losses, and you have to pay for the taxes that can be collected normally, why bother? ”

"And." Xiao Baoling, who is proficient in Chinese, raised his voice a little and said solemnly: "Dear Mister Lee, we in Britain have signed a new treaty with the Qing court in Beijing, and the Qing court has agreed to lift the opium ban and allow the opium trade to be legalized. In other words, the Qing court has agreed to start a formal opium trade with us. ”

Of course, the Anglo-French alliance at this moment has not officially signed a contract with the Manchu court to legalize the opium trade, but Li Xiucheng has no way of knowing this important information, so Xiao Baoling continued to fool: "Mister Li, I can see that you are a very smart and enlightened Chinese, and you must understand what this means?" ”

"It means that if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom continues to strictly prohibit the opium trade, then it is tantamount to directly affecting our British economic interests in China, and our British merchants will definitely ask the British government to declare war on you, just as the last Opium War caused our country's army to declare war on the Qing army, let the British army declare war on you, form an alliance with the Qing army, and join hands to fight you. Mister Lee, I don't think you want to see that, do you? ”

"Of course I don't want to see it." Li Xiucheng nodded, and said confidently: "But I'm not afraid!" If you really want to help the Qing Demon fight us, then we will accompany you to the end! ”

"Mister Lee, I admire your courage and your determination to uphold the dignity of the Heavenly Army." Xiao Bao Ling smiled and said: "But I want to remind you again, the territory under your control has a long coastline, and there are places where you can land and fight, we don't even need to declare war with you, as long as we lend our fleet to the Qing army's troops, it can make you very uncomfortable, right?" ”

"If you dare to do this, you will declare war on us!" Li Xiucheng said viciously.

"If our government asks us to do it, we can only do it!"

Xiao Bao Ling spread his hands and confronted Li Xiucheng-for-tat, and then when he saw Li Xiucheng's face showing anger, Xiao Bao Ling, who was very able to see the wind and rudder, for his own personal safety and the negotiation would not break down, hurriedly changed the problem again, and said: "Mister Li, on the issue of opium, I suggest that you should learn from Wu Chaoyue, a powerful enemy of your army, who also hates opium, but he is far smarter than you in dealing with opium. ”

"Beyond the little goblin?" Li Xiucheng was stunned and hurriedly asked, "How does the transcendent demon treat opium?" ”

"Don't insist on prohibition, only grooming."

"Mr. Wu Chaoyue has never concealed his hatred of opium in front of anyone, including us. But he never asked us to stop the opium trade, because he knew that it was in the economic interest of our British government in Shanghai and would only drive us to the side of his enemies. Therefore, he never asked for an end to the opium trade, nor did he ask us not to sell opium anymore, as you did with the Heavenly King Hong and the Eastern King Yang of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

But Mr. Wu Chaoyue also banned smoking, and in his army, opium smokers were severely fined and expelled from the army, so the combat effectiveness of his army was always guaranteed. At the same time, in the areas under his control, in addition to severely cracking down on opium smuggling, opium tobacco houses were all levied heavy taxes, allowing the people to smoke high-priced opium, and also encouraging these people to quit smoking. ”

"Mister Lee, you should learn from Mr. Wu Chaoyue." Xiao Baoling also said: "Acquiescing in our sales of opium, imposing tariffs on us, and severely cracking down on opium smuggling among the people, not only to protect our commercial interests, but also to ensure the normal collection of his own taxes." At the same time, people are encouraged to quit smoking and change their smoking habits in order to gradually reduce the ...... imported opium. ”

"Wait." Li Xiucheng interrupted Xiao Baoling and asked very strangely: "Beyond the little demon wants you to sell less and less opium, and you are also willing?" ”

"Of course we do." Xiao Baoling said directly: "In fact, our British government is not willing to sell too much opium to China, because no matter how much opium is sold in China, it is still the damn opium merchants who can make the most profit from it. But after the silver you Chinese is earned by the opium merchants, our British factories will no longer be able to sell more industrial products to you in China, and our British workers will lose their income, or even lose their ...... work. ”

It took a lot of effort for Li Xiucheng to understand that the British side actually wanted to dump industrial products in China the most, rather than wanting to dump opium that only a few opium dealers could make huge profits, and then clearly told Li Xiucheng that the reason why they did not oppose Wu Chao's encouragement of opium abstinence in Hubei was because Wu Chao met their more important needs, that is, to help Britain dump industrial products into Chinese mainland, so that the industrial and mining industries that were more important in Britain could gain benefits. In the end, of course, Xiao Bao Ling once again encouraged Li Xiucheng to learn from Wu Chaoyue, and to protect British economic interests as a means in exchange for British support and help for the Taiping Army.

The saliva was about to dry, and the little bag that was about to smoke in his throat raised the teacup to drink, and at the same time secretly looked at Li Xiucheng's expression, but he didn't have much hope in his heart, and said secretly: "I guess there is not much hope, after all, in China, there are very few people as smart and enlightened as Wu." ”

The sudden appearance of hope made Xiao Bao Ling overjoyed, and after thinking for a long time, Li Xiucheng replied: "In this way, I will ask the king of the east to tell the king of the east everything you mean, Mr. Bao Ling, and see how the king of the east answers, if the king of the east agrees, I will let you sell opium in the territory under my control." But if Dongwang doesn't agree, then I'm sorry, I can only continue to strictly ban smoking. ”

After that, Li Xiucheng added in a low voice, saying: "Before the king of the east answers, I hope that you British will not directly sell opium in the territory under my control, and if you want to sell it, you will find someone else to sell it, I will catch it if I can catch it, and it is their luck if I can't catch it." Also, if you want to sell any industrial product, I have no objection. ”

Li Xiucheng's reasonableness made Xiaobaoling ecstatic, and when Li Xiucheng asked Xiaobaoling to provide the opium liquid and powder smoked by the British as a sample reference, Xiaobaoling also immediately offered it with both hands. At the same time, Xiao Baoling was still surprised in his heart and said: "I can't imagine that in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is extremely stupid, there are even smart people like Wu, should I go to Nanjing again and persuade Yang Xiuqing to learn from Wu?" ”

Li Xiucheng is a very trustworthy person, even though he knew that it would be very risky to ask Yang Xiuqing such a question, but in order to strive for the British army to continue to maintain neutrality, Li Xiucheng still took the risk of writing a letter to Yang Xiuqing, reporting the British requirements and Wu Chaoyue's attitude towards opium to Yang Xiuqing one by one, and asking if he could learn from Wu Chaoyue?

Li Xiucheng's letter was written at a very good time, and it was changed to the usual, Yang Xiuqing, who hated opium to the bone, didn't scold him for being a bloody dog, but it happened that Yang Xiuqing decided to buy a steam fleet from the British in the past few days, and didn't want to tear his face too much with the British. Therefore, after reading Li Xiucheng's letter, Yang Xiuqing not only did not get angry, but on the contrary, carefully considered the proposal to emulate Wu Chaoyue, and finally simply called Hong Renji, who knew the most about the West in the Taiping Army, and asked him to advise.

At the same time, he pointed out to Yang Xiuqing more cautiously that although the Taiping Army strictly banned smoking in the areas under its control, because of the special addiction of opium and the astonishing profits, and because the Taiping Army's current control area was too huge, in fact, the ban on opium in the areas controlled by the Taiping Army was completely empty talk, and it was not uncommon for people to smuggle opium, and even many Taiping Army generals had quietly joined the ranks of smuggling opium.

In the end, Hong Renji also expressed a very forward-looking opinion, saying: "Long live the East King, at present, the Qing Demon Court has not been completely overthrown by us, and the foreigners may also help the Qing Demon at any time in order to sell opium, since we can't completely ban opium now, it is better to follow the example of the Little Demon to change the blockage, first pull the British over to help us, or at least let them remain neutral, and wait for us to completely kill the Qing Demon and overthrow the Qing Demon Court, unify the country, and then free up our hands to ban opium with all our might." ”

Hong Renji's concession suggestion did not make Yang Xiuqing angry, on the contrary, Yang Xiuqing also asked someone to bring all kinds of information collected in Hubei, carefully checked every piece of information about Wu Chaoyue's treatment of opium, and then after thinking about it all night, Yang Xiuqing, whose eyes were bloodshot, nodded, and said to himself: "In this regard, you can follow the example of the little demon, and wait until the Qing Demon Court is overthrown first, and then it is not too late to concentrate on banning opium." ”

Yang Xiuqing made a decisive decision, in fact, as in history, on the day of the signing of the Treaty of Beijing, the French plenipotentiary Gro expressed his willingness to let the French army help the Manchu court against the Taiping army. Russian Minister Ignatiev directly expressed his willingness to support the Manchu court with 10,000 advanced muskets and a large number of artillery, and sent troops to help the Manchu court deal with the Taiping army.

The attitude of Britain and the United States was probably the same, although the attitude was not as urgent as that of France and Russia, but it also said that as long as the price of the Manchu court was right, the British and American armies could not help the Manchu court deal with the Taiping army.

Fortunately for the Taiping Army, the devil who resolutely advocated the shameless strategy of 'borrowing teachers to help suppress' in history was not in power, and it was the prince of Xuan and the prince of alcohol who were in power. Although the devil was very interested in the help that the Western powers took the initiative to lend a hand, the prince and the prince were afraid that Emperor Xianfeng would hold them accountable, and they were even more afraid that the foreigners would take the opportunity to play some tricks, so they insisted on refusing.

"No need, long-haired clown, my Qing court can be wiped out with a snap of a finger, so I don't have to bother your army to take action."

couldn't persuade the fifth brother and the seventh brother to ask the foreigners to help, the devil six could only shut up helplessly, and Gro, who was kindly treated as a donkey's liver and lungs, also shrugged his shoulders and didn't insist anymore. However, the Russian minister Ignatiev still refused to give up, and after the signing of the contract, he also found the devil who had been getting along well recently to talk to him alone, and strongly suggested that the devil six continue to persuade the prince and the alcohol prince to accept Russia's kindness, and said that the return that Russia demanded from the Manchu court would never be too big - at most a few million square kilometers of land.

was pestered by Ignatiev, but the devil six could only casually agree to try his best to persuade and try his best to make the fifth brother and the seventh brother accept Russia's goodwill when negotiating the Sino-Russian Beijing treaty with Ignatiev. Ignatiev nodded in satisfaction, and then asked very strangely: "Dear Mr. Yixun, there is one thing that I don't understand very much, why your imperial court insists on letting the ministers of Western countries be stationed in Hubei Province?" What else should be set up as a prime minister's yamen to be responsible for foreign affairs? Isn't there anyone in your court who knows what this means? ”

"What does that mean?" Devil Six asked casually.

"It means that your imperial court has delegated diplomatic power to Hubei, and from now on, the prime minister's yamen set up by your country in the Hubei provincial capital is equivalent to your country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Ignatiev replied very seriously, and then said: "Mr. Yixun, if you don't understand how important diplomatic power is to a sovereign country in the world, then I am willing to take some time to explain to you in detail, but I don't know if you are interested?" ”

He had long been suspicious of Wu Chaoyue's real purpose of desperately trying to keep foreign ministers stationed in Hubei Province, and the devil blinked his eyes a few times, and quickly replied: "Dear Mr. Ignatiev, I am very interested. (To be continued.) )