After the combined fleet of Britain, France, and the United States was severely damaged by the East China Sea Fleet, the commander of the coalition forces, Governor Pruce, under the persuasion of French Minister Bourblon, American Minister John Warrhohan, and Russian Minister Ignatiev, on the one hand, reported the situation to Britain, France, the United States, and Russia, and on the other hand, decided to continue northward.

Emperor Xianfeng has long been given the news of the victory of the Snake Mountain Naval Battle, this is the first big victory of the Qing Empire since the first Opium # War, Xianfeng is very happy, in this stormy time, there is a Taiping rebellion inside, and there is an invasion of Britain, France and the United States outside, it is rare for Li Weiguo to be able to support the pillars of the Qing Dynasty, under the soft grinding and hard bubbles of Lan Guifei Xingzhen and Prince Gong Yixin, Xianfeng made an unprecedented decree to promote Li Weiguo to the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Zhejiang, the imperial envoy of the right capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, and the right attendant of the military department.

At this time, the governor of Liangjiang was the full name of the governor of Jiangsu Province, Jiangnan Province, Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province and other places, supervising military affairs, food and salary, and governing the affairs of Nanhe. Jiangnan Province here was separated from Jiangsu Province in the third year of Xianfeng, that is, the south of the Yangtze River in the original Jiangsu Province was divided into Jiangnan Province, and the north part of the Yangtze River was divided into Jiangsu Province. Jiangnan Province in the early Qing Dynasty was the collective name of Jiangsu and Anhui, not the current Jiangnan Province.

As for letting Li Weiguo serve as the governor of Zhejiang, in fact, Xianfeng has no choice, because Zhejiang Province has always been under Li Weiguo's military control, and it has long been under the control of the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. This is like Jiangsu Province, although it is under the jurisdiction of Li Weiguo's Liangjiang Governor, but in fact it is under the military control of Li Hongzhang's Jiangbei camp, Xianfeng does not want Li Weiguo to interfere in Jiangsu, so he can only let Li Weiguo serve as the governor of Zhejiang.

And the official titles of the right imperial envoy of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Palace, the right attendant of the military department, etc., these are all necessary titles for the governor of Liangjiang, and it is a common practice, and Xianfeng is not stingy.

However, for Li Weiguo, although he is the governor of Jiangnan. But he had already begun to exercise the power of the Governor of Liangjiang, because he placed He Guiqing, the Governor of Liangjiang, under house arrest and supervised Zhejiang Province.

In fact, the two rivers and four provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui Huaibei were in the hands of Li Hongzhang, and Jiangxi and Anhui Huainan were in the hands of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. There is still only one Jiangnan Province under Li Weiguo's control, plus one Zhejiang Province, and in fact, there is no change in the territory, only the official position and grade have been improved.

The Governor of Liangjiang, whose official residence is from the first grade, can be regarded as correcting Li Weiguo's name, and he can exercise the rights of the Governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Zhejiang in an open and honest manner.

In fact, even without the victory in this naval battle, according to Li Weiguo, he served as governor of Jiangnan Province for three years. He is also eligible to be promoted to the rank of Governor of one side.

When the news arrived in Shanghai, Li Weiguo was a first-class official, equivalent to a deputy state-level cadre, and he was naturally happy in his heart.

But what is even happier is Li Weiguo's subordinates, they have made great achievements in successive battles, but unfortunately Li Weiguo has always been the title of governor, and they cannot be promoted to reward, and now Li Weiguo is promoted to governor. Naturally, these people will also be promoted.

The matter of arranging official positions for his subordinates, Li Weiguo handed it over to Wu Yong and Li Hongzao to deal with. And he went to see He Guiqing once.

Li Weiguo and He Guiqing met, what they said no one knows, a few days later He Guiqing left Shanghai to return to Beijing, but just entered the border of Anhui was assassinated by the Taiping army, the court issued a decree to punish Li Hongzhang for half a year, Li Hongzhang cried and lay down.

April of the eighth year of Xianfeng. The envoys of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States led ships to the mouth of Dagu one after another, and sent notes to the Qing government, demanding that ministers plenipotentiary be appointed to negotiate within six days. Russia's note also expressed its readiness to act as a "mediator".

Xianfeng was taken aback, but he was full of confidence, and he ordered the Qing army to fortify in Tianjin and Dagu. On the one hand, he sent Tan Tingxiang, the governor of Zhili, as the minister of the Qincha, to negotiate in Dagu, and pinned his hopes on the so-called "mediation" of the Russian minister.

The British and French aggressors had no sincerity in negotiating and only used this to delay and intensify their military preparations.

In mid-May, the British and French forces suddenly attacked the Dagu forts, and the Qing troops stationed at the forts fought back and fought fiercely with the enemy. However, Tan Tingxiang and others had no fighting spirit and abandoned the defense and fled, coupled with the poor facilities of the fort and the isolation and helplessness, which led to the fall of Dagu.

On the 26th, the British and French troops marched up the Baihe River, invaded the outskirts of Tianjin, and threatened to attack Beijing.

Xianfeng was dumbfounded, thinking that the strength of the Qing army had increased greatly after the Battle of Snake Mountain, but he realized at this moment that it was not the strength of the Qing army that had increased greatly, nor the strength of the Anglo-French alliance weakened, but the strength of Li Weiguo's Shanghai army had increased dramatically.

So Xianfeng hurriedly sent another scholar Guiliang and a scholar of the Ministry of Ministers Hua Shana as ministers of the Qin Mission, and rushed to Tianjin to negotiate peace. Under the coercion and intimidation of the British and French invaders, Gui Liang and others signed the "Treaty of Tianjin" with Russia, Britain, France, and the United States.

The content of the treaty is largely the same as in history, except for the difference in terms of reparation. Britain's claim increased from 4 million taels of silver to 50 million taels, and France's claim increased from 2 million taels of silver to 25 million taels.

At the same time, Britain, France, the United States, and Russia also demanded severe punishment of Li Weiguo in the Additional Protocol and demanded that Li Weiguo publicly apologize to Britain, France, the United States, and Russia. The British, French, and American excuse was that Li Weiguo's army had killed thousands of British, French, and American troops, and the Russian excuse was that Li Weiguo had deceived the Russian minister and confused the British, French, and American forces with false news.

The scholar Guiliang and the official Shangshu Hua Shana are all Sushun people, who have always been hostile to Prince Gong Yixin, and they hate Li Weiguo even more.

Xianfeng was afraid, the British and French troops had reached Tianjin, a step away from Beijing, and the main forces of the Qing army were in the south to encircle and suppress the Taiping army.

As a result, Xianfeng brazenly blamed Li Weiguo for the defeat, ordered Li Weiguo to be removed from his post as governor of Liangjiang, and demanded that Li Weiguo apologize to Britain, France, the United States, and Russia.

Britain, France, the United States, and Russia saw that the Qing government had signed the Treaty of Tianjin very obediently, so they gave up the plan to attack Beijing, and the fleet withdrew its troops to the south, preparing to enter the Yangtze River and take a stroll to Shanghai.

Britain, France, the United States, and Russia hated Li Weiguo to death, and were ready to take the opportunity to humiliate Li Weiguo and force Li Weiguo to lift the defense of Shanghai, just like when they attacked Guangzhou and were defeated by Lin Zexu and forced the Qing government to depose Lin Zexu and suddenly attacked Guangzhou. Then sack Shanghai.

When they thought of the wealth of Shanghai and the mountains of gold and silver in the vaults of the AIIB, Britain, France, the United States, and Russia suddenly turned red, and they flowed all over the place.

However, when the envoys of Britain, France, the United States, and Russia came to Shanghai, they were dumbfounded. Because Li Weiguo did not apologize to them at all, nor did he recognize the Tianjin Treaty, although Li Weiguo announced his resignation, the entire Shanghai military group was still in full array, only obeying Li Weiguo's orders, and did not lift the defense of Shanghai at all, but strengthened it than before.

The Anglo-French combined fleet was about to enter the Yangtze River, but was suddenly intercepted by the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army, and George saw that the situation was not good. Hurriedly withdrew from the Yangtze River.

The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Governor Pruth, was immediately furious, and sent a note to the Qing government officials again, but no one paid attention to him at all, just like Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang, who didn't see them at all, so angry that Pruth vomited blood.

"Let's go north again, if the Qing government doesn't give us an explanation this time, we will enter the city of Beijing!"

Pruss howled. Unite Britain, France, the United States, and Russia and go north again.

August. The combined Anglo-French fleet again arrived at the mouth of Dagu.

Only this time it was different, the British and French combined fleet tossed north and south for several months, giving the Qing army the opportunity to redeploy the Dagukou fort.

At the same time, Zenggelin also led the main force of the Eight Banners of Mongolia to Tianjin, and Xianfeng ordered the governor of Zenggelin to defend directly.

The combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners of Mongolia is much higher than that of the Eight Banners of the Qing Army, plus some Han landlords in the Zhili area. The total number of troops reached 150,000, and a lot of artillery and muskets were added.

On the 20th, George himself, commander of the British and French fleets, led eight British and French warships from the barrage to Haikou and attacked the Dagu Fort. The Qing army, under the command of Seng Lingqin, put up a heroic resistance. The artillery counterattack was fired, and the battle was extremely fierce. Shi Rongchun, the commander of Zhili, and Long Ruyuan, the deputy general of the Dagu Association, were the first soldiers and died in battle. Due to the Qing army's well-prepared firepower and proper tactics, they sank 2 enemy ships, severely damaged the other 6, killed and wounded nearly 500 enemy troops, and the commander of the British and French fleets, George, was killed, and the British and French forces were forced to withdraw from the battle and suffered a crushing defeat.

Originally, the British and French combined fleet was heavily damaged by the Shanghai East China Sea Fleet, and the few remaining battleships were sunk by the Dagukou Battery, which greatly damaged the vitality of the British and French combined fleet, and was no longer able to launch an attack.

Without the support of the Anglo-French coalition, the ministers of Britain, France, the United States and Russia were also dumbfounded, so they had to report the situation to the country again and wait for orders from their respective countries.

Xianfeng won the second battle of Dagukou, saw that the foreigners ran away in disgrace, and the confidence returned, knowing that the Liangjiang region had to count on Li Weiguo to deal with the foreigners and the Taiping army, so he had to reinstate Li Weiguo, but the Shanghai army did not obey the orders of the imperial court, so Xianfeng became vigilant and began to be suspicious of Li Weiguo again.

At this time, the news that the British, French, and American combined fleets had been severely damaged by the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army had already reached Europe and the United States, and the entire Western countries were immediately shocked.

As a student of the British Royal Navy, the victory of the East China Sea Fleet slapped the British, French, and American navies in the face, and the US Navy's Asian Fleet was once again completely annihilated, which made the Americans lose face.

Three months later, in Washington, both the Senate and the House of Representatives, there was a fierce debate, with some clamoring for war against China and others pouring cold water on obstructing the war.

As president, Buchanan's presidential fate was very bumpy, he originally participated in the general election in the spring of 1856, in order to defeat the Republican candidate, he had to draft the "Ostend Declaration" to win the favor of the Southern states and the military, and in the election, the Republicans put forward a radical anti-slavery program, provoked strong resistance from the Southern states and the military, and finally made Buchanan win the election.

However, Buchanan had just been inaugurated as president, and as a result, the 1857 railroad stock crisis triggered the US economy and swept the world, and the collapse of the giant company Ohio Insurance Company directly triggered a larger economic panic, which made the prestige of the Buchanan government decline day by day. In February 1858, the Brown Uprising broke out in the United States. Although the uprising was quickly suppressed by federal troops, it shook the nation, sounded the death knell of slavery, and left the Buchanan government in a precarious position.

Originally, in order to divert domestic contradictions, the Buchanan government spared no expense to rebuild the US Asian Fleet, equipped with six of the world's most powerful steamship battleships and prepared to cooperate with Britain and France in their invasion of the Qing Empire, but the US Asian Fleet was once again completely annihilated by Li Weiguo, and the news was transmitted back to the United States, and Buchanan's prestige fell directly to the bottom, leading to a split among the democrats.

At this time, the Republicans in the United States fought back, seized the Senate, and forced the Buchanan government to ban the "Ostend Declaration" and start a war against China.

At this time, the relations between the North and the South camps in the United States were already quite tense, and the southern states began to stockpile arms and war materials in 1853 to prepare for civil war, while the northern states were not prepared for war in this area, but they stimulated the southern states every day, not knowing that danger was approaching.

The total strength of the US Army is only 30,000, of which 16,000 belong to the North and 14,000 belong to the South, but most of the famous generals and senior officers of the Army are from the southern states.

In the end, the U.S. government abandoned its plan to expedition to the Qing Empire for the second time, and suffered another dumb loss.

At the same time, Britain and France in Europe also received reports from the Canadian governor Prus and the French minister Bourblon that the British, French, and American combined fleets had been defeated.

As a result, Britain and France decided to take revenge, teach the Qing Empire a hard lesson, seek revenge on Li Weiguo, and regain the honor of the British and French armies.

In December 1858, Britain and France passed a resolution to take military revenge on the Qing Empire, appointing Gurkin and Gro as plenipotentiary representatives, and approving the dispatch of 104 warships and 58,000 British marines by the Royal Navy, and 58 warships by the French Navy and 35,000 French marines. The British and French formed an alliance to march in February 1859 and were scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong in February 1860 to launch a war against China and call for the destruction of Li Weiguo's Shanghai Army and the East China Sea Fleet by name.

At the same time, the United States and Russia have also expressed their willingness to enter the war in order to defend the dignity of Westerners. Although the US government was unable to send troops due to domestic problems, it was willing to provide $5 million in funds to the British and French forces and subsidize 40 transport ships to improve the logistical supply of the British and French forces.

Although the Russians were enemies of Britain and France in Europe, they had the same interests as Britain and France in the Far East of Asia, but at this time Russia had no military ports in the Far East and lacked an ocean-going fleet, so it was impossible to act with the British and French navies. However, Russia said it would put pressure on the Qing Empire in the north and contain the Qing army.

After all, Britain and France are naval powers, Russia is an army power, and the United States is the richest country.

As a result, European and American countries supported the aggression of Britain, France, the United States, and Russia in public opinion, and at the same time, various countries secretly began to prepare, although they did not have the ability to expedition to the Qing Empire, they could follow Britain, France, the United States, and Russia to take advantage of the fire and seize the interests of the Far East.

The dynamics in Europe and the United States are under the monitoring of the intelligence stations of the China S.H.I.E.L.D. in Europe and the United States at all times, and one after another the urgently encrypted information was quickly sent to Shanghai and handed over to Li Weiguo.

Li Weiguo was really taken aback when he learned that Britain, France, the United States, and Russia had formed such a powerful lineup of aggression, and the Anglo-French coalition in history was only about 30 warships and more than 20,000 infantry, but now because of Li Weiguo's existence, history has changed, and Britain and France alone have formed more than 160 warships and nearly 100,000 allied troops, and the United States has provided funds, and Russia does not know how many troops to send, and I am afraid that it will not be less than 100,000.

"I really look up to me Li Weiguo!"

"However, since you want to fight, I, Li Weiguo, will accompany you to fight!"

"Although Lao Tzu can't beat you at sea now, he is not afraid of you at all on land!" (To be continued......)