"Hmph, this is your land, and it was your people who led people to loot the factories and trading houses of our British Empire, and robbed us of our wealth and materials, do you think it is appropriate to push this matter to the Taiping Army? I have enough evidence here to prove that a large amount of materials in Shanghai City were looted by a young prince of your Qing Dynasty! Stevili said coldly.

Stevili was not a fool, he understood that the previous invasion of Shanghai City must have been a branch of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the enemy even used their artillery to teach them a hard lesson after looting Shanghai City, which was not only a shame, but also involved a huge responsibility. The loss of hundreds of new guns and tens of thousands of new rifles was enough for the King of England to pronounce him a heavy sentence. And the only solution to this matter is not to pursue the Taiping army to recover supplies, but to find scapegoats. Hong Tiangui never revealed the identity of the Taiping Army, which helped Stevili a lot.

"Ridiculous! Everyone knows that they are the Taiping Army, doesn't it seem too shameless for the general to do this? Li Hongzhang said angrily.

"Humph! I will report the situation of Shanghai City to His Majesty the King of England, and I will also have the Minister in China send a note to His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Stevili waved his hand and said in a deep voice.

Li Hongzhang was full of grief and indignation, but it was difficult to change Stevili's mind. Li Hongzhang is not a fool, so he naturally understands Stevili's idea of causing trouble to the east. But he had a hard time arguing, and the enemy's actions in Shanghai City were probably in this way. The most difficult thing for Li Hongzhang to argue with is Liu Mingchuan's betrayal, without Liu Mingchuan's presence, the Jiangnan Navy Commander Man Shen would not easily get off the ship, let alone let the officers and soldiers of the entire Navy Division get off the ship.

But now that all this has happened, Li Hongzhang can only find a way to get rid of responsibility, otherwise the crime of losing Shanghai City is enough to kill him.

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang immediately wrote two letters by hand, and wrote down in detail what happened in Shanghai.

"Someone comes, immediately send someone to send out two copies of the recital, one to Anqing and hand it over to Zeng Dashuai, and the other to the capital Prince Gong's mansion, be sure to hand it over to Prince Gong in person." After doing all this, Li Hongzhang's whole person seemed to be drained of his spirit.

It was so ruthless that it almost cut off his path.

"Liu Mingchuan, Liu Mingchuan, I will definitely not let you go!" Li Hongzhang's face was full of resentment.

Three days later, Li Hongzhang's recital was sent to Prince Gong's mansion. Yi, who has just served as the king of parliament? They had already received an urgent report from the Tongzhou prefect, but when they saw Li Hongzhang's report, they realized that the situation on the battlefield in Shanghai was much more severe than they imagined. Although Li Hongzhang defeated Li Xiucheng's troops, he was exploited by another Taiping army and attacked and occupied Shanghai with the help of the traitor Liu Mingchuan, and Shanghai's wealth was plundered. The most important thing is that Li Hongzhang betrayed Liu Mingchuan, defected to the Taiping Army, and risked the Qing royal family to deceive the Jiangnan Navy and loot the city of Shanghai. Report. And the only thing that Li Hongzhang is thinking about in this recital is that his recital makes people understand at a glance that things are bad for Liu Mingchuan alone.

Of course, Li Hongzhang will not be stupid enough to put all the responsibility on Liu Mingchuan, who has fled, he pleaded guilty in the twists and turns, and he knew no one in a way, which led to Liu Mingchuan's betrayal. At the same time, Li Hongzhang reported in detail to the British commander Steveli, who knew that it was the Taiping army's sacking of Shanghai and shifted the blame to the Qing Dynasty, which made the newly in power and high-spirited Prince Heshuo full of anger.

"Someone is coming, order the Military Aircraft Department to draw up an order, the whole country wants Liu Mingchuan, and Liu Mingchuan's family will punish the nine clans!" Prince Gong said lightly.

Soon the staff will come up with a twist. Although Prince Gong is the king of the council, he is not the emperor after all, there are also the emperor who has reached the age of seven and the queen mother of the two palaces above him, and the killing of Liu Mingchuan and the nine clans is a trivial matter for him, but how to deal with Li Hongzhang and deal with the unreasonable demands of the British is not something he can decide alone.

With the recital in hand, Prince Gong hurriedly entered the palace.

The Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces took Emperor Tongzhi to the imperial study. When Prince Gong presented Li Hongzhang's recital, the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces also changed her face.

"Lord Wang, what do you think should be done in this matter?" The Empress Dowager Ci'an also felt that things were in a dilemma. The British are not easy to deal with, the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Qing Dynasty could not stop tens of thousands of British ** troops, otherwise Emperor Xianfeng would not have fled to the summer resort in Chengde, and died of illness there.

In the eyes of the Empress Dowager Ci'an, foreigners are all robbers, and it is better not to deal with them or not to deal with them.

"Queen Mother, Li Hongzhang has made it very clear in this matter that the British general does not want to take responsibility and wants to lead the trouble, and our Qing Dynasty cannot agree to it no matter what. What's more, now that Shanghai City has returned to our hands, the biggest loss of the Qing Dynasty is the Jiangnan Water Division, and we must seize the time to rebuild the Water Division, otherwise our Qing Dynasty will have no defense at sea and be more controlled by others. Prince Gong said in a deep voice.

"It should be rebuilt as a sailor, but the British are not easy to deal with, so if we don't agree, they won't make trouble? When the first emperor was there, he didn't agree to the foreigners coming, didn't they come back, and burned the Old Summer Palace. So I think it's better to be cautious about this. "The Empress Dowager Ci'an is a woman after all, and the panic of thinking of the original flight is still extremely uncomfortable.

"Sister! The more robbers the foreigners are, the more we can't condone them, otherwise what dignity do we have in the Qing Dynasty. My sister thinks that Prince Gong's idea is okay, this matter can't be easily admitted, why should we pay for the loss of foreigners. Cixi spoke. At this time, although the Empress Dowager Cixi was the biological mother of the Tongzhi Emperor, she was not the empress before, and now she was named the Empress of the West Palace, and her status was also under Ci'an, so even if he was slightly older, he had to call the Empress Dowager Ci'an his sister.

"My sister's words are wrong, now that the emperor is young, you and I are two women who are difficult to run this country, and we can't repeat the mistakes of the past!" Empress Dowager Ci'an sighed, compared to the ambitious Empress Dowager Cixi who wanted to make a difference, Empress Dowager Ci'an's idea was much simpler, she just wanted to complete Emperor Xianfeng's will and raise the young Emperor Tongzhi to adulthood. As for being blackmailed by foreigners, what is it in the eyes of this gentle woman.

"Queen Mother, the foreigners will not invade again, they are just blackmailing, and they will definitely not use swordsmen in vain." Prince Gong said confidently.

Ci'an looked at him, and then looked at the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was full of recognition, and couldn't help sighing.

"Sixth, how sure are you about this?"

"Queen Mother, the minister is very sure that the foreigners will not use swords against the Qing Dynasty, but now that the hair is strong, our Qing Dynasty will also use the power of the foreigners to suppress the bandits, I am afraid that we need to take out some money to feed the foreigners." Prince Gong said helplessly.

"Foreigners are just a fresh disease for the Qing Dynasty, and the long hair in the south of the Yangtze River is the problem of henchmen. I agree with Prince Gong's decision. "Cixi is also a person with vision, so he naturally understands that Prince Gong's choice is the best.