Thinking of this, Liu Lichuan said suddenly: "Brothers, the situation is critical now, in my opinion, the only way to ask for help from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the closest to Shanghi!" In this way, on the one hand, we sent several messengers to Tianjing to ask for help, and on the other hand, Marshal Chen and I negotiated with the foreigners and wrote letters to the consuls of Britain, France, and the United States, asking them to remain neutral and not to help the government. Only in this way can we avoid being defeated by www.biquge.info the officers and soldiers of the imperial court. Moreover, you can't be trapped in Shanghi City, you should break through to the north! ”

"Generalissimo, even if you want to take refuge, why don't you join the more powerful Southern Holy Country?" Xu Yao, the victorious general, immediately raised questions. He was originally a tenant in Qingpu, and he was born as an authentic peasant, and he was very envious when he heard that land reform had begun to be implemented in the Holy Kingdom, and the landlord's farmland was reduced to tenants for cultivation. According to his mind, it is towards the Taiping Holy Kingdom.

Liu Lichuan looked at Xu Yao, quite displeased, and explained: "Brother Xu has not thought about it, although the Holy Kingdom is powerful, it is cut off by Zhejiang in the middle, and the road is far away, so it is impossible to come to help. Now only by taking refuge in the nearest Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can we have a chance to be saved. What's more, a Qing army that came to attack Shanghi came from the Jiangnan camp besieging Tianjing. ”

Liu Lichuan made a strong argument. He himself knew that the Holy Army had a naval division, and the "Southern Daily" reported that the naval division of the Holy Army had defeated all the Manchu Qing's Guangdong and Fujian naval divisions, and they could reach Shanghi at any time. On the contrary, it is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there are only river sailors, along the Yangtze River, and it is difficult to go to Shanghi for the time being.

However, most of the staff officers who are doing it are good friends with Liu Lichuan, how can they debunk his words?

Marshal Zuo Chen Alin spoke: "I don't agree, this will only drag the brothers into a state of destruction." I don't know how do you want to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Generalissimo? ”

"Since you want to take refuge, of course, you must have a clear attitude! I will be the generalissimo of the Ming Kingdom, announce the abolition of the Ming Kingdom, and change the name to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to manage politics and religion to recruit the Generalissimo, and write to the Heavenly King, asking the Heavenly King to send troops to receive support. Liu Lichuan said what he thought.

"No! Abandon the Ming Kingdom, absolutely not! I, Chen Alin, will not take refuge in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! I didn't read much, but I hated pretending to be a ghost. Our Fujian's Little Knife Club brothers are still the Ming Kingdom. "Chen Alin is categorical.

Several small leaders next to him also echoed, they were from Fujian, and they only listened to Chen Alin's orders.

So, Liu Lichuan led his rebels to announce their defection to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Chen Alin and others were still under the banner of the Ming Kingdom, the original rebels were defeated because of Jiading, Li Xianchi's secret departure and Li Shaoxi's rebellion, the strength was greatly reduced, and now there was a split again inside, and the morale was low for a while, and they all cowered in Shanghi City.

The Qing army outside the city, under the leadership of Xu Naizhao, the governor of Jiangsu, and the political envoy Gilhang'a, successively recovered the rest of the county except Shanghi, and their morale was high.

And the general soldiers, Hu Songlin and Bo Chengsheng, led the Qing soldiers to surround Shanghai City and began to attack.

Wu Jianzhang also recruited fleeing Qing soldiers and regimental bravery, and used the weapons purchased from the American consulate to form an armed force of nearly 1,000 people, and at the same time, he temporarily leased a warship from the United States, plus more than a dozen warships donated by the squire of Nanhui, and hired hundreds of villagers to serve as sailors. As a result, Wu Jianzhang actually formed a small and medium-sized sailor division composed of more than ten warships and hundreds of people.

Wu Jianzhang sent spies into the city to lie to the rebel army, saying that the Qing army fleet was going to Zhenjiang to suppress the Taiping army. The next day, Wu Jianzhang and the commander-in-chief Bo Chengsheng led the fleet to the lower reaches of the Huangpu River, and after not going far, they turned the bow of the ship and hid.

After a while, the foreigner's ship appeared and wanted to dock in the harbor. Wu Jianzhang and his fleet mingled with foreign steamers and shelled the rebel batteries.

Wu Jianzhang's intentions were very sinister, if the rebels were afraid of hurting the foreigners' ships and did not dare to fire back, they would take advantage of the situation to destroy the rebel forts; Once the rebels fought back, they would hit the foreigners' ships, and they would take the opportunity to unite with the foreigners to deal with the rebels.

In the dilemma of attack and defense, the rebel army did not want to offend the foreigners, so they held back and did not open fire. As a result, under the series of offensive artillery fire of the Qing army, the batteries of the rebels, which were not strong enough, were blown up in many places. But the rebels would rather die than retreat, and when one group died, the other batch was immediately replenished.

The Qing army's naval divisions and the rebel batteries each had their own losses, and they were losing each other.

At the same time, Xu Naizhao, Ji Hang'a and Hu Songlin each led a Qing army and Yong Lian, set up a cloud ladder, and attacked the city wall, preparing to rush to break the city of Shanghi.

The Qing army took turns attacking the city, and the rebel army pierced holes in the city walls and added artillery to fight back at the enemy.

The Qing army launched several full-scale attacks on Shanghai City from the north, west, and south, and ran out of ammunition several times.

The rebels slowly grew up under the attack of several times more enemies than themselves, and after a few days of fighting, they all became "veterans" who had experienced life and death warships, and they bravely held their positions. And, under the leadership of the two marshals Chen Lin'a and Pan Qiliang, they launched several charges against the Qing army, and finally repelled the Qing army's attack.

Although the Qing army had obvious advantages, it was still difficult to break through Shanghi City within a few days. A stalemate ensued between the two sides.

…….

At this time, a maritime division of more than 100 ships, led by a fourth-class warship and four fifth-class warships, headed by a Western warship, headed all the way north from Fuzhou Port, bypassing the near coast, and heading straight for Shengsi Island in Chongming County, Taicang Prefecture.

Lu Shunde, commander of the 10th Division, stood on the flagship "Shanghi", which is a wide fourth-class battleship, and as the flagship of the 10th Division of the Navy, the name Shanghi also means that the main scope of activities of the 10th Division in the future is in the Shanghi area.

The 10th Division had only 5,000 men when it set out from Guangzhou more than a month ago, but after recruiting sailors from Nanao, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, and other places, there are now nearly 8,000 sailors and soldiers. Among these 8,000 soldiers, only about 2,000 were veterans originally drawn from the 5th and 5th Divisions, and the rest, even the more than 3,000 people transferred from the land division, were newly recruited sailor soldiers. Therefore, Lu Shunde slowly advanced all the way, training while going north, so that these recruits could adapt to life at sea and combat methods as soon as possible.

"Ernan, why did the General Staff choose this small island called Shengsi as the foothold of our 10th Division?" Lu Shunde, who has always been accustomed to the inland river sailor, is really not very clear about this vast sea. He turned to the two foreigners next to him.

The two foreigners are both Irish, one is named Lu Ernan, and the other is called Lu Sannan. A year ago, as a British naval officer, he was captured and surrendered to the Holy Country, and was pulled by Lu Shunde from the General Staff to the 10th Division formed by Xin to be the chief and deputy chief of staff.

As for these two foreigners, why did they take such a Chinese name, it was because of Lu Shunde.

When Lu Shunde was the deputy chief of the general staff of the General Staff, he liked to take the interpreter to communicate with these surrendered British naval officers and ask for advice. Lu Shunde has a deep understanding of the power of foreigners' warships. After coming and going, they became familiar with these Irish officers. Slowly, foreigners also learned simple Chinese.

For the series of names of foreigners, Lu Shunde always can't remember, he is directly called "Ireland" every time, and over time, even the foreigner himself feels that he has made "Ailan", so he simply took a Chinese name, surnamed "Lu", and the name "Ernan". Another foreigner also took the name "Lu Sannan".

Even, some people behind him jokingly called the division commander Lu Shunde "Lu Yinan", and the 10th Division has become a man of the Lu family.

"Master, do you think Chongming Island is closer? However, according to the plan, our 1st Division could not get too close to Shanghi, lest it be discovered by the warships of the Western powers, which would arouse the vigilance of the Manchu army. Shengsi Island is some distance from Shanghi, it is difficult to find, but at the same time it is not particularly far, once there is something, you can arrive in one day. It's the perfect place to stay. Lu Ernan explained seriously, not rubbing the bridge of his big nose that was itchy by the sea breeze.

"But, Master. When I was still serving in the British Navy, I heard that there were a number of pirates in the waters off Zhoushan Island in Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture. Teachers need to pay a little attention. Lu Sannan on the side suddenly reminded.

"Huh? Got pirates? When Lu Shunde heard this, he laughed: "Old Lu is not only not afraid of pirates!" Also loves pirates. Lao Tzu was born as a river thief. It just so happened that there was still a serious shortage of officers and men in my 10th Division, so I went around the Zhoushan sea area over there and recruited some pirates to come back as sailors. ”

Recruit pirates as sailors? The captains of the captive legion next to them looked at each other, but the two foreigners, Lu Ernan and Lu Sannan, understood very well. To be precise, their ancestors were all pirates.

"Master, you won't delay the Holy King's major affairs, right?" The deputy division commander next to him reminded.

Before they sent out their troops, the Holy King made a special explanation. Although along the way, Lu Shunde recruited the formation of the 10th Division by the way, and at the same time trained and familiarized himself with naval warfare, but more importantly, he seized Shanghi intact, and properly disposed of this batch of Xiaodaohui rebels, so that the foreigners could have a lesson.

"Nope! The things that the Holy King has to do have to wait for the right time, it's still early! Lu Shunde said with a smile: "However, you have to send someone to get in touch with the fine work over there and get information at any time." ”

Everyone should get down, and nearly 100 warships of the 10th Division of the First Division sailed north.

…….