At the mouth of the Yangtze River, the waters near Chongming Island have been rumbling from morning to night.

Since yesterday, after Li Weiguo, the king of Wu, took the stage to worship the heavens, the 400,000 Nanyang Army officially swore to the Northern Expedition, but the Nanyang Army encountered a problem, and the Anglo-French combined fleet, with the cooperation of the remnants of Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Army Naval Division, sailed into the Yangtze River, blocked the river, and blocked the Nanyang Army from crossing the river and the Northern Expedition.

Originally, the Nanyang Army arranged a large number of water radium and bleaching radium on the Yangtze River to block the British and French warships from sailing into the Yangtze River, but the Beiyang Army in the north of the Yangtze River secretly helped the British and French fleets to clear the water and radium obstacles, and they were familiar with the Yangtze River waterway, especially Li Hongzhang's guard officer Jiang Tao, who was once the leader of the Jiangzhu Gang, and had a lot of prestige in the Yangtze River area.

Although the Anglo-French forces were completely annihilated on the ground, they still had a strong naval force, and the East China Sea Fleet of the Nanyang Army had only ten shallow water heavy artillery ironclad ships, although they had the advantage of local warfare, but because of their small numbers and poor mobility, this weakness was discovered and exploited by the British and French Navy, which avoided frontal combat and used the speed advantage of Western warships to focus on attacking other wooden sail warships and troop carriers of the East China Sea Fleet, which caused a lot of obstacles to the Northern Expedition of the Nanyang Army.

Li Hongzhang refused to be used as a spearman by Li Weiguo, and only adopted a defensive posture against the Northern Expedition of the Nanyang Army, and did not attack the imperial court, so he planned to guard his own one-third of an acre of land and become the king of the domain.

In response to Li Hongzhang's shrinking tactics, Li Weiguo also quickly made military adjustments. Since the British and French fleets were concentrated in the section from Jinling to Shanghai in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Li Weiguo mobilized 100,000 troops to detour to Wuchang Mansion in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, avoid the blockade of the British and French fleets, cross the Yangtze River in the upper reaches, and then detour to Henan, and go straight to Li Hongzhang's lair in Anhui.

Chuansha Town Shoufu, Tangcun Concentration Camp.

More than 60,000 Anglo-French prisoners of war were held here, awaiting their fate either to be executed or imprisoned forever. It may also be released with the end of the war.

Either way, it will require final negotiations between countries, and whether they will be sacrificed or rescued will ultimately depend on luck.

Klaus, Marin, Guba, and Raymond, as the core commanders of the Anglo-French forces, were all captured, and the British and French had lost their faces on Mars.

Li Weiguo deliberately summoned them, with no other intention than to humiliate them and slap Britain and France in the face.

Of course. Li Weiguo also has a purpose, he wants to test the survival of these four people and use them to do something.

As long as these four people did not want to die and did not want to be prisoners of war in concentration camps for free and hard labor for the rest of their lives, they would find ways to contact their respective families and networks, promise Li Weiguo benefits, and strive for their early release.

Sure enough, under Li Weiguo's open and secret temptation, these four people were moved. They served as commanders in the invasion of China. I know Li Weiguo's methods too well, in the last Battle of Songhu, most of the captured British and French officers and soldiers died on the road to hard labor, building roads, bridges, railways, and mining. But all the hard work was done by the prisoners of war.

It can be said that if there is anyone in the world who can squeeze labor the most, there is no doubt that it is Li Weiguo. He squeezed out almost all of the labor force of the prisoners of war.

Klaus and the others don't want to be exhausted to death on the way to do hard labor, it's too miserable and shameless to die like that. Li Weiguo immediately ordered the S.H.I.E.L.D. secret service to send a report, informing the British and French intelligence stations of S.H.I.E.L.D. to launch an operation, so that the families and networks of Klaus, Marin, Guba and Raymond would come forward to influence the British and French governments and get the benefits that Li Weiguo wanted.

It has to be said that it is convenient to have a telegraph, and the family and network of Klaus and others in Britain and France quickly launched a rescue operation, convened a parliament, and discussed the aftermath of the defeat in the Second Battle of Songhu.

Both the British Empire and the French Empire were faced with a difficult choice at this time, losing the Battle of Songhu again, which was a serious blow to the international prestige of Britain and France.

It was the British militants who supported the continuation of the war, who were not willing to accept defeat and who wanted to maintain the world dominance of the British and French powers.

However, in the two battles of Songhu, the first of which was the battle of Songhu, Britain and France fought 200,000 people, lost 150,000 men, and the direct military losses were as high as 80 million pounds, not including the losses of the colonial army. In the Second Battle of Songhu, Britain and France again sent 300,000 troops, so far, 200,000 troops have been wiped out on the Songhu battlefield, and the other 100,000 troops have been in Burma, although more than a dozen battles have been fought, there have been no major losses. Even so, the direct military losses of Britain and France have exceeded 240 million pounds, which is already three times the losses of the first Battle of Songhu, which can be described as a heavy loss.

Caused such a huge loss, in addition to casualties, the most important thing is the loss of equipment, you must know that the last battle of Songhu lost only old-fashioned muskets and artillery, Britain and France have developed local industries, long-term equipment makes it cheap, but this time the loss is advanced breech-loading rifles and artillery, Britain and France have just been put into production, the cost is extremely high, and there is a loss of more than a dozen advanced steam engine powered ironclad ships, this period because of industrial technology problems and small steel production and other problems, the cost of ironclad ships is also quite high.

Coupled with the mobilization of 200,000 troops from distant Europe to expedition to China, thousands of miles away, the consumption of weapons and ammunition, military expenses such as personnel food and drink, fuel supply and consumption, these add up to a set of astronomical figures, even Britain and France, the world's number one power, can not withstand this kind of consumption.

The anti-war faction has an excuse, and if they want to completely defeat Li Weiguo's million-strong army, they need at least Britain and France to mobilize 1.5 million elites, prepare hundreds of warships, and expedition to China from Europe.

The expedition is unrealistic, at least the financial revenues of Britain and France in the next few years will not be able to support it. What's more, there are bigger problems in Europe, Prussia blitzed Denmark, started the war of unification, and it is unstoppable, the attention of the French military has shifted to the huge military threat to Prussia, and it is impossible to support the third expedition to China without solving the Prussian problem. And the British had a small population, and the army was even more pitiful, even if there were two expeditions to China. Many of the army forces were used as cannon fodder by colonial troops in various colonies, and it was impossible for Britain to get 1.5 million army troops, unless it gave up European interests and went on an expedition to China with the strength of the whole country, which was obviously an unrealistic fantasy.

In the end, Britain also gave up the idea of another expedition to China, and the Lords and Faction, under the impetus of Claus, Marin and other families and networks, authorized the British Minister to China as a representative and agreed to negotiate peace with Li Weiguo with full powers.

Similarly, within France. The family and network of Guba and Raymond also exerted great efforts, and finally pushed the British and French ministers to negotiate with Li Weiguo as plenipotentiaries.

When the news reached China, the British and French envoys to China immediately traveled south from Beijing to Shanghai and asked to meet Li Weiguo.

Everyone knows the purpose of the British and French envoys, and Li Weiguo will not refuse to meet, but he must kill their prestige first, and only summon them after two days.

Of course. In the past two days, although Li Weiguo will not meet with the British and French ministers, Li Weiguo's subordinates are not restricted and are allowed to meet with the British and French ministers.

In fact, this is also the art of negotiation. First of all, his subordinates will negotiate with the British and French ministers to determine the bottom line of both sides, and now exchange views on some issues of concern to both sides, if acceptable to both sides. Then Li Weiguo will come forward last, which also means that the negotiations are about to end, and the two sides are just going through a formality.

Li Weiguo ordered Wu Yong and Rong Hong to be in charge of the temptation. Contact with the British and French ministers to test the bottom line of Britain and France.

Yung Hong has lived abroad for a long time, and it is easier for him to deal with British and French ministers.

Before Rong Hong went to negotiate, he asked Li Weiguo about the bottom line of the negotiation.

In this regard, Li Weiguo's reply was that at the very least, all the provisions of the "Beijing Peace Treaty" of 1860 should be restored, that the loans made by the Qing government and Li Hongzhang to the banks of Britain and France and other European and American countries were illegal loans, and that all the promises and agreements made to Britain, France, and other European and American powers would be null and void, and Li Weiguo would not recognize them.

This is the bottom line, and the sovereignty and dignity of the Chinese nation are sacred and inviolable.

As for other conditions such as asking for war reparations and the withdrawal of the British and French powers from Burma and Cambodia, they are additional conditions, Li Weiguo did not make hard and fast rules on this, and he also knew that the British and French powers were not really defeated, and if the powerful British and French empires really recklessly launched an expedition again, then Li Weiguo himself did not dare to guarantee that he would win, and the outcome would inevitably be that the British and French empires would fall from the world hegemony, but Li Weiguo himself would inevitably pay a heavy price.

Obviously, Li Weiguo did not want to pay a heavy price, and it was impossible for the British and French powers to give up their world hegemony and continue the expedition with the strength of their countries.

Rong Hong and Wu Yong took the bottom line drawn by Li Weiguo to meet with the British and French ministers, and the first round of negotiations between the two sides was similar to the negotiations between most countries, which lasted only half a minute, and the two sides broke up unhappily.

The British and French ministers did not have the slightest attitude of defeat, and even threatened Britain and France with large-scale military retaliation, unless Li Weiguo was willing to accept all the agreements secretly reached between the British and French powers and the Qing government, release the prisoners of war, and compensate the British and French for the war losses of 200 million pounds.

Rong Hong, of course, would not agree, and at the same time conveyed to the British and French ministers several bottom-line demands drawn by Li Weiguo, and demanded that Britain withdraw from Burma and France withdraw from Cambodia, prohibit the British and French powers from coercing and invading China's vassal countries by military and non-military means, and demanded war reparations from the British and French powers, demanding an indemnity of 200 million yuan.

The first round of negotiations was all sky-high demands, and both sides were not sincere, so they naturally broke up unhappily, and then the two sides would contact each other again, threatening each other while appropriately relaxing the conditions.

This is the negotiation between countries, which takes a year and a half at every turn, and the two sides keep tugging and fighting until both sides reach acceptable conditions.

For Li Weiguo, what he needs most at the moment is for the Anglo-French combined fleet to withdraw from the Yangtze River, at least to maintain a neutral attitude.

Rong Hong and Wu Yong did not fail in their mission, and in the process of negotiating with the British and French envoys, they proposed that the two sides should temporarily stop targeted military operations, otherwise they would not be able to negotiate.

The British and French envoys said that unless Li Weiguo suspended military operations in Burma, the British and French combined fleets would continue to sail into the Yangtze River to attack the Nanyang Army.

In the end, Yung Hong agreed to suspend the military operations of the Nanyang Army in Burma, so the British and French also ordered the British and French combined fleet to withdraw from the Yangtze River and return to Naha to recuperate, and the two sides reached a ceasefire agreement to continue the next negotiations.

Without the help of the British and French fleets, Li Hongzhang's army in Jiangbei would not be able to stop the Northern Expedition of the Nanyang Army.

In the early morning of the 15th, the East China Sea Fleet concentrated 10 shallow-water heavy artillery ironclads and 11 sail battleships to launch a fierce attack in the relatively narrow waters of the Jiangyin section of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The roar of the cannons shook the earth.

The artillery salvo of the East China Sea Fleet destroyed the defense line of the Beiyang Army in the Jingjiang area of Jiangbei in one fell swoop, and at the same time, the Nanyang Army of the 16 Towns launched a large-scale operation to cross the Yangtze River, breaking through the defense line of the Yangtze River in only two hours and capturing the county town of Jingjiang in one fell swoop.

By dawn, all the Nanyang troops in the 16 towns had completed crossing the river, the pontoon bridge on the river was erected, and a large number of military supplies were continuously sent into Jingjiang, making the small city of Jingjiang immediately become a large military material base.

Li Hongzhang of Haimen successively learned that the British and French fleets had withdrawn and that the Nanyang Army was attacking Jiangyin in a big way, and he immediately became restless, and immediately ordered 30,000 Beiyang troops to immediately go to support Jingjiang County, but halfway through, he learned that Jingjiang County had fallen, and that the Nanyang Army was marching towards Tongzhou behind the sea hall, and once Tongzhou was lost, the more than 100,000 Beiyang troops in Haimen Hall would be counter-surrounded.

Li Hongzhang was shocked, immediately smeared oil on the soles of his feet, and fled north overnight.

The more than 100,000 Beiyang troops in Haimen Hall also had no intention of fighting again, and immediately abandoned the defense line of Haimen Hall and evacuated to Tongzhou one after another.

Unexpectedly, the Beiyang Army in Haimen Hall was just about to withdraw, and Li Weiguo, who had already expected the result, immediately ordered the Nanyang Army on Chongming Island to launch a counterattack, and captured Haimen Hall at noon the next day.

The Nanyang Army was attacked from the east and west, advancing by land and water, and more than 100,000 Beiyang troops were beaten to the ground, and they were no longer an organization, and more than half of them were captured.

Li Hongzhang arrived in Tongzhou on the front foot, and learned that Haimen had fallen on the back foot, knew that the general trend had gone, and wanted to commit suicide, but was unexpectedly stopped by Li Hanzhang and Jiang Tao and others, and took less than 20,000 remnants of the Beiyang Army to rush day and night and fled back to his hometown in Huai'an Mansion. (To be continued.) )