Before leaving for Hubei to take office, Wu Chaoyue secretly reached a dirty deal with the consuls of Britain, France, the United States, and Prussia, and secretly signed the first genuine traitorous treaty with the British consul Ali.

At first, the consuls of various countries did not understand why Wu Chaoyue wanted to fight for the position of governor of Hubei, and they all opposed Wu Chaoyue leaving Shanghai to take up his post in Hubei, especially the British consul Aliguo, who had close economic interests with Wu Chaoyue, and even suspected that this was the Manchu court deliberately wanted to transfer Wu Chaoyue from Shanghai, obstruct and destroy Wu Chaoyue's normal economic and trade exchanges with the British, and clamored to use force to force the Manchu court to retract its fate.

Wu Chaoyue, of course, stopped Aliguo's impulsive actions, and also explained to Aliguo another deep reason for his pursuit of the post of governor of Hubei, saying: "Dear Mr. Aliguo, leaving Shanghai is indeed my own request to the imperial court, and the reason is for me, but also for you, the common commercial and economic interests between you and me, and the common interests of China and the British Empire. ”

"Wu, what do you mean by that?" No matter how well Ali Guo is a Chinese expert, he can't understand Wu Chaoyue's words, let alone how Wu Chaoyue's departure from Shanghai will involve the height of international relations.

"Dear Mr. Ali Guo, do you think it is possible to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and end the civil war in China with the military power in my hands?" Wu Chaoyue asked rhetorically.

"No way!" Ali Guo shook his head resolutely and said, "Wu, forgive me for being direct, with your current military strength, it is not a big problem to defend Shanghai and the surrounding areas, but there is absolutely no possibility of destroying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

Frankly, Ali Guo added: "And even if you continue to expand your army, it will be difficult to do this, your army is too dependent on Western weapons, and Western weapons must be purchased from Europe and the United States, and it is too difficult to replenish the long distance, and it is impossible to guarantee timely supply, so even if you can gain an advantage in the local battlefield, it will be difficult for you to win on the global battlefield." ”

"Thank you for being direct." Wu Chaoyue nodded, and then asked: "Then dear Mr. Aliguo, let me ask you one more question, even if you don't consider capital, technology and manpower, is it possible for you and me to establish an industrial system capable of producing modern weapons in Shanghai?" ”

"It's not possible." Aliguo replied more frankly, saying: "Shanghai only has the advantage of a port, but it does not have the most important coal and iron ore resources of modern industry, and even if it does not consider capital, technology and manpower, and does not have sufficient resources to supply, Shanghai cannot afford to establish a complete industrial system that can produce modern weapons." Even if it is barely established, it will be constrained by the insufficient supply of raw materials, and the output will never be large there. ”

"So dear Mr. Aliguo, is there enough coal and iron ore in China's interior?" Wu Chaoyue asked again.

Ali Guo vaguely understood what Wu Yue meant, so he asked rhetorically: "Wu, you went to Hubei to take up your post for the resources of Chinese mainland?" ”

"It's just one of my goals." Wu Yue nodded and said: "Dear Mr. Aliguo, I remember that you once said that after Britain achieved steam industrialization, you came to China to do business in order to find a textile market, and your biggest goal at that time was to let every Chinese wear a textile produced in a Manchester factory, but opium was chosen only when the Chinese court was opposed and the people resisted. ”

"Now that the Opium War has ended, the main product of your exports to China is still the hateful opium, and most of the opium merchants who make China's fortune are still the opium merchants who even Her Royal Highness thinks should be hanged, and because the Chinese government connived and acquiesced in the production and sale of opium, profits have been declining year by year. The real most important industrial products of the British Empire, textiles, industrial equipment and weapons and ammunition, are still not sold well enough in China, not to mention that every Chinese wears a British textile, that is, on average, every ten Chinese do not wear a British textile. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Yue paused and said with a smile: "Mr. Aliguo, if you can take the opportunity of me going to Hubei as a governor to open up the Chinese mainland market, then how many times can you expand the trade volume with China?" How many more industrial products can be sold? With my control of a Chinese province larger than the British mainland, how many cheap resources and raw materials can you get? Taking advantage of the opportunity of my industrialization in Hubei, how many industrial equipment and machines can you sell, and how many orders can you bring to your domestic factories? And taking the opportunity of me to build a new army in Hubei, how many weapons and ammunition can you sell? How many jobs and business profits will be created in your country? ”

Ali Guo smiled, smiled very happily, and said: "Wu, the prospect you have depicted is indeed very wonderful and attractive, as your friend, I also believe that after you come to Hubei to serve as the governor, I also absolutely believe that you can open up the vast and infinite Chinese mainland market for the British Empire." But Wu, I must remind you that although you have a waterway of the Yangtze River with Shanghai in Hubei, your stupid imperial court has not yet opened the Yangtze River waterway and inland markets to our British merchant ships, and our ships cannot freely pass through the Yangtze River. ”

After that, Ali Guo added, "Also, now that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has controlled a long section of the Yangtze River waterway, you and I have no way to freely carry out trade by employing Chinese civilian ships. ”

Wu Yue also smiled, and also smiled very happily, and said: "Mr. Aliguo, let's put aside the matter of the Yangtze River waterway, I just want to ask you now, if I continue to stay in Shanghai to serve, can I open up the Chinese mainland market for you?" Can you help you rapidly expand your trade with China? ”

"I can't do it." Ali Guo shook his head and said: "Although Shanghai's import and export trade has been expanding, and our market is constantly spreading to the surrounding areas, the speed is still too slow and too slow. Moreover, due to the impact of the war, the speed of this spread has also decreased significantly, and the Chinese people even have a problem with food during the war, and the money from us to buy industrial products? ”

Frankly admitting that Wu Yue's continued stay in Shanghai would not be of much help to British business interests, Ali Guo said: "Wu, now I fully understand the reason why you voluntarily went to the Chinese mainland to take up a post, and I also know that with your power in Hubei and your correct understanding of the West, after taking office in Hubei, you will definitely help us quickly open up China's inland market and expand our trade volume with China." But how do you solve the important problem of the Yangtze River waterway? ”

"Dear Mr. Aliguo, since I dare to take up my post in Hubei, of course, I am confident that I will help you solve this problem." Wu Chaoyue smiled very confidently, and said with a smile: "Otherwise, the weapons and ammunition I ordered from you will not be shipped to Hubei, so what can I use to resist the threat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to me?" Isn't it self-defeating to go to Hubei, where there is war everywhere? ”

"What's the best way?" A-Liguo, who had long wanted to open the Chinese mainland market, suddenly lit up.

Wu Chaoyue smiled and didn't answer, just looked at the closed door, Ali Hui willed, got up in person to check that there was no one outside the door, and then closed the door again, walked up to Wu Chaoyue and whispered: "There will be no third person who knows, say, Wu, tell me your good way." ”

"Dear Mr. Aliguo, the stupid Qing court has an Achilles' heel." Wu Chaoyue replied in a low voice: "As long as you grasp this weakness and make a fuss, you can definitely force our imperial court to agree to open the Yangtze River waterway and open several inland ports as trade markets." Attacking this weakness is more effective than you launching a large-scale war against China! ”

"What weakness?" Ali Guo hurriedly asked.

"Grain!" Wu Chaoyue's voice was both low and solemn in reply, and he said in a low voice: "Cao grain is the lifeblood of the Manchu court, and the Manchu emperor and their compatriots eat all the grain from southern China and transported to the north through Cao. Now, due to the impact of the war, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has completely lost its role, and the grain goes north, relying on sea transportation. As long as you cut off the sea roads of the Manchu court again, so that the Manchu emperor and his compatriots have no food to eat, you are not afraid that they will not give in to you! ”

Speaking of this, Wu Chaoyue smiled slightly, "Blockade of the grain sea, you only need to use a small number of warships to do it." If you don't want to start a war, you can even arm one or two pirates to plunder the Manchu court's grain ships, and then force the Manchu court to agree to open the Yangtze River waterway and inland ports in exchange for protecting the Manchu people's grain shipping, and there is also great hope that you can do it. ”

Ah Liguo opened his mouth and stammered, and only after a while did he ask Wu Chaoyue: "Wu, such a good way, why haven't you told us before?" ”

"In the past, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was still open, so even if you cut off the sea transportation, what is the use?" Wu Chaoyue asked angrily.

Ah Liguo suddenly realized, and suddenly danced with his hands and eyebrows, and Wu Chaoyue muttered in his heart: "Yanhuang Ancestor, Chinese compatriots, I am not betraying the country by giving this idea to foreigners. The foreigners did this, and it was not our Chinese compatriots who pitted, but the Tunguska boar skin! ”

Giving foreigners bad ideas to cut off the rations of the wild boar skin family, Wu Chaoyue can use the different framed objects as an excuse to comfort himself and deceive himself. However, in order to encourage the foreigners to make every effort to open up the Yangtze River route, so that they could keep in touch with overseas even in the interior, Wu Chaoyue still signed a secret treaty with Ali Guo, promising to allow the British to freely preach and trade in the treaty port in Hubei, to allow the British to freely enter and leave the treaty city to live and buy houses, and also promised to let the British obtain a concession in Hubei similar to Shanghai in the conscience, and promised to protect the personal and property safety of the concession and the British. At the same time, Wu had to reach verbal agreements with the consuls of the United States, France, and Prussia to make similar commitments to encourage them to develop the Chinese mainland market and help the British open up the Yangtze River route.

In addition, Wu Chaoyue also secretly pointed out the trick of dealing with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Ali Guo, and suggested that the British side should not discuss religious issues with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's crazy people, and only talk about benefits in exchange for the Taiping Army to also open the Yangtze River waterway to the British, and pointed out that Hong Renji was a person who could be won over. At this stage, Britain and France and other countries had already secretly communicated with the Taiping Army, and warships and merchant ships had long been able to pass semi-freely through the section of the Yangtze River between the mouth of the Yangtze River and Nanjing.

The most important foreigner aspect has been settled, and Wu Chaoyue can basically go on the road with peace of mind, but although the grandmother Wu Xu, who has not yet left Shanghai, is very reluctant to let the baby grandson wander alone, but under the persuasion of Wu Lao Comprador and Wu Xiaoping and others, Mrs. Wu still wiped her tears and stopped objecting, Wu Xiaoping, who was very seriously brainwashed by feudal toxins, also asked her son to be an errand with his heart, be diligent and love the people, report to Jun'en, and go down to Lishu, and he must not be as nonsense as before. The unfilial son Wu Chaoyue promised verbally, with his left ear in and out of his right ear, and immediately left his cheap father's instructions behind, and in turn asked the cheap father to move to Hong Kong with his whole family, and not to pull his own hind legs while staying in the mainland.

Of course, Wu Chaoyue could not go to Hubei alone to take office, and decided to take Feng Wanzhen to Hubei to take care of his diet and daily life in the future, and his wife Yang Yuru and Fu Shanxiang were asked by Wu Chaoyue to stay in Shanghai. In this regard, Yang Yuru, who has a docile personality, didn't dare to say anything, but Fu Shanxiang was quite complaining, and Wu Chaoyue sighed and told her, "Baby, it's not that I want to snub you, it's that you are entangled in your feet, and I won't be able to settle down for a while when I get to Hubei, what danger is there and you can't run fast with your feet wrapped, how can I take care of you?" So you wait for me in Shanghai, and when I settle down, I will definitely take you to Hubei and let you give birth to a son for me. ”

There is a virtuous wife to take the lead, the harem side does not let Wu Chaoyue worry much, so that Wu Chaoyue hesitates to follow him to Hubei to take office, after learning that Wu Chaoyue will lead some of the old soldiers to Hubei to take office, Wu Jun Lian Yong, whether out of sincerity or falsehood, all of them are vying to go with Wu Chaoyue, and the attitude is so enthusiastic that they only need to write a blood book. Then after careful consideration, Wu Chaoyue decided to lead Huang Dasha and Cao Yanzhong, two capable lackeys and two experienced soldiers to Hubei, Nie Shicheng and Feng Sanbao, two very potential generals, of course, had to accompany him, and Wu Dadao also had to bring a sniper team and a personal team to Hubei.

In the end, when it came time to count the final entourage list, Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but laugh and found that he had gone around in a circle and returned to the original point, and the team that took office in Hubei included himself, Feng Wanzhen, Zhao Liewen and others, no more, no less, and there were exactly 250 people. Originally, Wu Chaoyue didn't like this number very much, but after Wu Chaoyue thought about it, he gave up the plan to increase or decrease the number of the team, and said secretly: "Two hundred and five is two hundred and five, if Lao Tzu hadn't brought out a two hundred and five battalions, what would be today?" Besides, Lao Tzu doesn't enjoy the Qingfu in Shanghai, but he wants to go to Hubei to start over, isn't it two hundred and five? ”

The remaining Wu Jun Lian Yong and Wu Lao comprador were entrusted to Zhou Tenghu by Wu Chaoyue, and Rong Hong, Huang Sheng and others also stayed in Shanghai temporarily, preparing to hire civilian ships to transport Wu Jun's weapons and equipment and various raw materials to Hubei by water, and try to provide Wu Chaoyue with raw materials for the production of picric acid and ******** by means of private trade. At the same time, Rong Hong and Huang Sheng, two knowledgeable international students, recommended two rare scientific talents in the late Qing Dynasty to Wu Chaoyue, named Li Shanlan and Xu Shou, both of whom were friends made by Rong Hong and Huang Sheng when they engaged in academic exchanges in Shanghai.

"Mr. Tao Fu, Shanghai and my grandfather, I will entrust it to you. Remember, if Xiang Rong and Qi Shan, those two idiots, must force you to send troops to be cannon fodder for them, you can send some people to perfunctory, but at least you have to leave me 3,000 elites to defend Shanghai, and we must not let any more accidents happen in Shanghai! In case I fail in Hubei, I still count on Shanghai to be the capital for my comeback. ”

After saying this to Zhou Tenghu, on November 23, in the cold wind, Wu Chaoyue bid farewell to the old comprador couple Wu and Wu Xiaoping and his wife, and took Feng Wanzhen, Xiao Luoli and 248 entourages to board the ship and set off, passing through the Wu Lijiang River and Taihu Lake to Yixing, and then went east to Xuancheng and went to Hubei by land to take office.

In this regard, although Wu Lao comprador and Zhao Liewen are a little worried that it will take a long time, but there is no way, the Yangtze River waterway from Nanjing to Jiujiang is the world of the Taiping Army, and Wu Chaoyue, who has a deep hatred with the Taiping Army, is destined to be more dangerous by water, far less safe than by land. Fortunately, Emperor Xianfeng also knew Wu Chaoyue's difficulties, and did not stipulate a specific time for Wu Chaoyue to take office, and also adopted Su Shun's suggestion to let Yang Pei, the governor of Huguang, temporarily act as governor, and wait for Wu Chaoyue to take office before handing over the position, so Wu Chaoyue didn't need to worry about being picked up by Emperor Xianfeng too late.

The only thing that worries Wu Chaoyue is the safety of Wuchang Mansion City, in order not to even have a place to stay after he arrives, on the night of departure, Wu Chaoyue, who is not very superstitious, rarely prayed to the sky, "God bless, please be sure to let my teacher guard Wuchang Mansion City." Teacher Zeng, please rest assured, as long as you can defend the city of Wuchang for me, no matter what your strengths and weaknesses are in the future, as a student, I will definitely take care of your family and your cronies and subordinates for you. ”

…………

"Fuck off! Lao Tzu is not dead! ”

Roaring and pushing away the pro-soldiers who came up to dissuade him, risking being shot by a stray bullet, Zeng Guofan, who had already hung up the colors, once again poked his head out from behind the arrow battlements to look at the situation under the city, under the snow-capped city of Wuchang, the siege queue of the Taiping army was like a continuous wave, wave after wave, and the location of the onslaught was the third gap in the city wall that they blew up with tunnel tactics.

"Dashuai, the long-haired attack is too fierce, the brothers can't stand it!" The messenger for help reported to Zeng Guofan with a crying voice, and asked, "General Li asked the little one to ask you, do you want to continue to persevere?" ”

"Hold on! Of course you have to stick to it! Zeng Guofan shouted with red eyes: "How many long hairs have we killed these days, give up at this time, can long hair let us go?" Tell Li Xuyi to defend the gap for me, lose the gap, and come to see me! ”

Sent away the messenger for help from the general Li Xuyi, Zeng Guofan decisively ordered Taqib to lead the reserve force to reinforce Li Xuyi, and then looked at the direction of Shanghai in the east, gritted his teeth and said: "Bastard boy, don't come yet?" Your teacher can't stand it! (To be continued.) )