Shanghai, Su Songtai prepared the Yamen.

Since the new governor of Liangjiang, Yiliang, and the governor of Jiangsu, Gil Hang'a, came to Shanghai, one occupied Li Weiguo's military preparation yamen, and the other occupied Li Weiguo's Songjiang prefect's yamen.

Li Weiguo simply took sick leave and stayed in Yu Garden all day, giving outsiders the impression that he "didn't listen to the affairs of the government and just wanted to roll the sheets", in fact, secretly, Li Weiguo had already made a decision to imitate Xiao Yang in Chongming County to deal with Li Weiguo, but Li Weiguo learned from Xiao Yang's experience and lessons, and did it more precisely, without leakage.

As Li Weiguo took the initiative to "go into the wilderness", Yiliang and Gil Hang'a were happy for two days at first, but soon they found out that without Li Weiguo's suppression, they couldn't play at all.

First of all, the yamen in Shanghai were suspended, and Yiliang and Gilhanga couldn't find anyone to inquire about the yamen, and they could only do it by themselves to bring tea and water.

Immediately afterwards, the Chamber of Commerce announced that it would not accept Gilhanga's order to force donations, and then the merchants boycotted the market.

At the same time, the Shanghai army stationed in Shanghai also mutinied, refused to carry out Yiliang's orders, and demanded that Yiliang pay them.

A series of actions, anyone with a discerning eye knows that Li Weiguo must be behind it, but Yiliang and Gilhanga can't find any evidence to accuse Li Weiguo. Since Li Weiguo's policy in his own territory was to light forced labor and light taxes, not only was the normal imperial court tax lower than that of other places, but Li Weiguo did not strictly implement even the increase in the amount of gold required by the imperial court, which benefited all strata of the Shinong, industrial, and commercial strata in Li Weiguo's territory, and they supported Li Weiguo's policy.

Su Song was too prepared to go to the Yamen, and the governor of Jiangsu, Gil Hang'a, came to see Yiliang angrily.

"Your Excellency the Governor, you have to call the shots for your subordinates!"

The appearance of Gilhanga crying and crying when he saw Yiliang made Yiliang, who was also extremely troubled, deeply disgusted.

"Master Ji, you are also the governor of a province. Don't cry like that, okay? ”

Seeing that Yiliang's face was not good-looking, Gilhanga stopped crying and said: "Your Excellency, it's not that the lower officials are crying in front of you, it's really these people who don't respect the orders of the imperial court, and now they are even more out of business, the shops are closed, and they refuse to pay the centi, which is really hateful." ”

Yiliang frowned and said, "The merchant strikes." It's just that these mercenary businessmen think that you want too much, and they feel sorry for their money bags. Your method of extorting donations is too extreme, you must know that although this place is nominally under the jurisdiction of your governor of Jiangsu, it is actually Li Weiguo's territory. ”

Gilhanga snorted coldly and said, "What about Li Weiguo's territory? Unless he dares to rebel openly, he will have to endure us to and pee on his head. ”

Yiliang shook his head and said, "At first, the old man also thought so, but now the old man has found out that if Li Weiguo is forced to rebel." We're dead. ”

Gilhanga was startled, but quickly calmed down and asked, "Why, do you think that Li Weiguo really dares to rebel?" ”

Yiliang nodded. With a solemn expression, he said: "The Shanghai army stationed in Shanghai County not only refused the old man's order, but asked the old man for military salary!" ”

Gilhanga suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's it! This is not a rebellion, but a small trick played by Li Weiguo. It's just a deliberate embarrassment for adults. ”

Yiliang snorted coldly: "What do you know? Do you think that the old man is as superficial as you and only looks at the surface? ”

Gilhang's face was stunned, and he was scolded for being superficial, and naturally he felt uncomfortable. It's just that Yiliang is the governor, he is just a governor, and he has to be accompanied by a smile when he is scolded, and he doesn't dare to show his anger.

I only heard Yiliang continue: "Do you know how much it costs to raise a Shanghai soldier for a day? ”

Gilhanga thought for a while and said, "I remember that the Eight Banners soldiers stationed in the Huai River each had four taels of silver per month. ”

Yi Liang snorted coldly and said, "The expenses of the Eight Banners are already the highest standard in the Qing Dynasty, and it would be good for ordinary green battalion soldiers to have one or two pieces of silver a month." But yesterday the Shanghai military barracks mutinied, clamoring to ask the old man for military salaries. The old man was startled when he asked, and Li Weiguo gave the soldiers of the Shanghai Army a standard of five taels of silver per month for food. The food expenses of 300,000 taels of silver per month for the 40,000 Shanghai army, plus weapons and equipment, and various military expenses, need 500,000 taels of silver per month to maintain, which is 6 million taels a year, all of which are paid by Li Weiguo himself, and now the old man wants to take over the Li family's army, he must pay off the silver first. ”

Gilhanga was suddenly startled again, he knew that the annual military expenditure of the Great Qing Kingdom was nearly 40 million, which seemed to be quite a lot, but it could be distributed to the two million troops of the whole country, and the average annual amount of 20 taels of silver per person was less than 20 taels. And the average annual salary of 150 taels of silver per person in the Shanghai army is more than seven times higher, which sounds really scary.

"It's been several years since the establishment of the Shanghai Army, how could Li Weiguo have so much silver?" Gilhanga asked quickly.

Yiliang shook his head, he didn't know, he only wanted one question now, that is, if he couldn't take out the silver to supply the daily expenses of the Shanghai army within three days, the Shanghai army would mutiny.

This is not a joke, Xianfeng just asked him to supervise Li Weiguo and investigate the secret collusion between Li Weiguo and the Taiping Army, but he did not let him mutiny the Shanghai Army. If this is a mutiny, delaying Xianfeng's extermination of the Taiping army, Yiliang will not be able to cut off even a hundred heads.

Before leaving Beijing, Su Shun ordered Yiliang to plague Li Weiguo as much as possible, and now Yiliang not only seems to be unable to harm Li Weiguo, but if he does not handle the Shanghai army problem well, he may be harmed by Li Weiguo in turn.

Thinking of this, Yi Liang suddenly said: "The plan can't catch up with the changes, we can't do what Lord Su Shun explained, we have to compromise with Li Weiguo for the time being, otherwise we may be planted in Shanghai." ”

After discussion, Yiliang and Gilhanga decided to compromise with Li Weiguo for the time being, and waited until they found out the details of Li Weiguo and gained a firm foothold in Shanghai, and then they began to clean up Li Weiguo.

However, at this moment, an urgent report came, and the two of them were immediately frightened.

"Newspaper—"

"Report to the two adults that the American National Naval Division was attacked by the defenders of Wusongkou at Wusongkou, and the two sides are currently fighting fiercely!"

"Poof—"

Yiliang squirted out a mouthful of tea, and then coughed violently, secretly saying that he was really afraid of something.

When he came to Shanghai, Yiliang knew that Shanghai was next to foreigners, and foreign-related issues had always been taboo in the imperial court, so Yiliang was afraid of dealing with foreigners. Now I heard that the defenders of Wusongkou were fighting with the foreigners. He, the governor of Liangjiang, suddenly had a big head three times.

Gilhang'a also felt bad, but he asked puzzledly: "How can the defenders of Wusongkou fight with foreigners?" ”

The reporter didn't know much about it, and only knew a rough idea, so he said: "I heard that a total of seven warships of the American Navy Division were going to enter the Huangpu River through Wusongkou, and Wusongkou Shou would refuse them to enter the Huangpu River on the grounds that the treaty was expiration, so the two sides couldn't get along, so they started." ”

Gilhanga suddenly said angrily: "Nonsense, how big can it be with just seven warships? What if they are brought in? Who's the guard? The official immediately dismissed him! ”

The reporter replied: "The guard's name is Lin Yao, and he is a commander of the Shanghai army!" If you want to get rid of him, I'm afraid you will have to say hello to Li Weiguo, the commander of the Shanghai Army! ”

Gilhanga had just reached an agreement with Yiliang. was ready to compromise with Li Weiguo temporarily, but now when he heard that the other party was Li Weiguo's general of the Shanghai Army, he suddenly shut up, looked at Yiliang, and asked him to decide.

Yiliang didn't listen to the words of the two of them, he was cunning and cunning, and suddenly realized that something was wrong, and blurted out: "No, this must be Li Weiguo's intention!" ”

Gilhanga asked puzzled, "My lord." The lower officials didn't understand! ”

"You're stupid!" Yiliang immediately scolded and continued: "Li Weiguo has just returned home from illness, and before he left, all the military and political power was handed over to you and me, and now the defenders of Wusongkou are fighting with foreigners. Regardless of the outcome, who will bear the charge of starting a war without permission? It's not you and me! ”

Gilhanga suddenly understood, and the cold sweat on his forehead instantly lay down, and he hurriedly took out his handkerchief and asked while wiping his sweat: "This--how should this be?" Before we left, the emperor gave us a thousand instructions. At this time, when you go to Shanghai, you must have a good relationship with foreigners, and now it's over, and you have a fight with foreigners. Win or lose, we can't eat and walk around! ”

"Li Weiguo! Shame on you! "Yiliang knows very well that this matter was secretly instructed by Li Weiguo, that is, to fix him Yiliang and Gilhanga to death.

Gilhanga asked in fear, "My lord, what should we do now?" ”

"What else can I do?" Yiliang calmed down and said suddenly: "For the sake of today's plan, we will immediately return the military and political power to Li Weiguo, and at the same time immediately report to the imperial court, you and I need to insist that it is Li Weiguo who connived at his subordinates to start the war without authorization!" ”

Gilhanga's mind went blank, except for a resigned nod.

In Yuyuan, Li Weiguo was talking to Su Sanniang about military affairs, and after receiving an urgent report from Wu Songkou, he was also stunned for a while.

Yiliang and Gilhanga really wronged Li Weiguo, because Li Weiguo had no idea that the Americans would bring a fleet to Shanghai at this time.

"This Lin Yao is also really, how can he fight with the Americans at this time? Isn't this causing trouble for you to defend the country? If you don't handle it well, it's equivalent to roasting you on the fire! Su Sanniang suddenly said unhappily.

Li Weiguo thought about it, and suddenly laughed: "Okay, well done!" ”

Su Sanniang was stunned, stretched out her snow-white hand to touch Li Weiguo's forehead, thinking that he was sick, and actually said something foolish.

Li Weiguo immediately grabbed Su Sanniang is jade hand, and said with a smile: "Eldest sister, you don't know, I'm worried that I have no excuse to regain military and political power from Yiliang and Gilhanga, and now the Americans have suddenly sent a fleet, Lin Yao fought well, his fight is to jump into a foreign-related dispute, I can not only regain military and political power, maybe I can also kill Yiliang and Gilhanga in one fell swoop." ”

Su Sanniang didn't understand anything when she heard this, but when she saw that Li Weiguo had been holding her hand, she immediately blushed, hurriedly pulled back, and asked, "Wouldn't it be bad for you to fight with foreigners?" ”

Li Weiguo smiled: "Definitely! If I'm not mistaken, the Americans must have wanted to ask for an explanation for the fact that I shot their American soldiers last year, and they were afraid that they would not be able to beat me, so they brought a fleet and tried to force me to comply! ”

Su Sanniang asked worriedly, "Then are you sure?" ”

"Eldest sister, don't worry!" Li Weiguo said very confidently: "Although I can't help this American fleet at sea, but there are only seven American warships, and I can't help it." ”

Su Sanniang said: "I heard that the foreigners' warships are very powerful, they can't just bring the battleships over, there should be infantry to accompany them." Although your Li Jiajun is powerful, don't forget that your opponent has always been just a knife with a cold weapon, and the Taiping Army is old, weak, sick and disabled, if you start a war with foreigners, the other party is also a foreign gun and a foreign cannon, and the training time of others is much longer than your Li Jiajun. ”

Li Weiguo was also very happy to see that Su Sanniang was so transparent in military affairs, so he comforted her and said: "Actually, even if I don't take the initiative to trouble foreigners, foreigners will soon come to me for trouble." Naturally, I will not compromise, and neither side nor side can avoid this war, and if I choose the Americans as the first opponent, it will be exactly what I want. ”

Li Weiguo is right, even if he doesn't go to trouble foreigners, foreigners will find trouble with Li Weiguo. Because when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Northern Expeditionary Army reached Tianjin, the great powers of various countries believed that the Qing court was not long-term, and in order to expand their interests in China, this was the perfect opportunity for them to force the Qing government to make concessions.

Even if it had not been for the fact that Li Weiguo had shot and killed a US soldier last year, this year the US Government would have sent people to propose to the Qing Government the matter of amending the treaty to expand its interests in invading China, and Britain and France would soon join the United States in forcing the Qing Government to revise the treaty and expand its interests in China. However, the Qing government in history was still very tough at this time, so naturally it did not agree, so Britain, France and the United States would form an alliance to prepare to scare the Qing government by force, but unfortunately the Russians were restless and sent a fleet to invade Heilongjiang, and as a result, Britain and France, who were at war with Russia, finally transferred their fleets to Heilongjiang, fought a battle with the Russians, and did not win, in order to contain the Russians, Britain and France had to compromise with the Qing government, making it difficult for the United States to support it alone, and finally gave up force to start a war against China.

Now that Li Weiguo occupies Shanghai, it is impossible for him to make concessions to Britain, France and the United States, so once Britain, France and the United States gather troops, the two sides will inevitably fight.

Li Weiguo knows that the combat effectiveness of the British and French armies is very strong, after all, Li Jiajun's training time is still short, as Su Sanniang said, Li Jiajun used to deal with the small knife club that used cold weapons and the Taiping Army's miscellaneous army, and it is not possible to test the real combat effectiveness of Li Jiajun, and it is still unknown whether it can compete with the elite army of Britain and France.

I am afraid that this battle cannot be avoided, but Li Weiguo is not afraid, when his Li Jiajun has just been established, Li Weiguo chooses to deal with Xiaodao first and then against the Taiping Army, so that Li Jiajun can adapt to the process of an opponent from weak to strong. It's the same now, Li Weiguo wants to start with the U.S. military first, after all, the combat effectiveness of the U.S. military at this time is much worse than that of the British and French armies.

"If it's a foreign devil, let the eldest sister go to the battlefield!"

Su Sanniang suddenly said that she had been idle for more than half a year, and she liked to fight, so she asked Li Weiguo.

How could Li Weiguo be willing to let Su Sanniang go to the battlefield, he could train Su Sanniang to be a future female secretary in the office.

"Don't worry, wait until Wu Songkou has the result! Now the top priority is the attitude of Britain and France, let's go to the concession first to find out their tone! ”

Li Weiguo did not fight an unprepared war, he wanted to get to the bottom of Britain and France, test their attitudes, and even if he could not prevent them from finding a clear government to revise the treaty, at least stabilize them first, concentrate on cleaning up the Americans first, and then deal with Britain and France more easily. (To be continued......)