Washington, D.C., July 5 morning, U.S. time.

In the Office of the President of the White House, the 14th President of the United States, Franklin Pearce, met with Mai Lian, the minister to China who had just returned to the United States, and listened to Mai Lian's specific report on the visit to the Qing Empire.

As a result, when Mai Lian told her story about what happened to her in Shanghai, Pierce was so angry that she almost vomited blood.

Soon, the Senate convened an emergency session to discuss the Shanghai incident.

In the conference room, when all the senators learned the news, they were in an uproar and shouted for revenge.

However, there are also reasonable people who are quick to point the finger at President Pearce, accusing his Asia policy of being a mistake from the beginning and now only retribution.

These men were all from the Whigs (the forerunner of the Republicans), and they hated Pierce because of his support for slavery in the South, which contradicted the Whigs' idea of emancipating slaves to develop the industrial population of the North. As the fierce struggle between the North and the South over slavery in the United States has escalated, this contradiction has reached the point of saber rattling, and it only takes a fuse to explode in full force.

Pierce is a very offensive president, he has just been president for a year, he has implemented a strong policy of American expansion, first assigned Perry to knock on the door of Japan, greatly increased his prestige, and then he instructed Ma Shali to erect the American flag in the American Concession in Shanghai to demonstrate to the Qing Empire, but failed, but was taught a lesson by Li Weiguo, lost the face of the US government, and Pierce's support rate plummeted. In order to reverse the approval rating and win the next presidential re-election, Pierce once again sent Mai Lian to the Qing Empire, and at the same time sent the US East India (Asian) Fleet, which was flexing its force in Japan, to Shanghai to flex its muscles to the Qing Empire in an attempt to save face.

However, Mai Lian failed again, but the US East India Fleet was completely annihilated, Perry and more than 2,000 American officers and men were captured, and the only American concession in Shanghai was forcibly recovered by Li Weiguo. The Wangxia Treaty was not renewed, and it was also abolished by Li Weiguo, and now tens of thousands of American businessmen in the American concession have become refugees, and their lives are in danger at all times under Li Weiguo's butcher's knife.

These unfavorable things were put on the Senate table one by one, showing that Pierce had no way out but to persuade the Senate to agree to start a war against Qing and save face.

What Pierce wanted to do must have been something that the Whigs were trying to prevent, not only because Pierce supported Southern slavery, but also because Pierce was a democratic elite. In order to win the next presidential election, the Whigs had to hit Pierce as hard as they could, discredit the democrats, and reduce their support.

Therefore, when Pierce asked the Senate for approval to use force against the Qing Empire, the Whig senators immediately objected, citing the distance between the two countries was too far, the US Navy lacked ocean-going warships after losing the Asian fleet, the military basis for the inevitable victory over the Qing Empire, and the issue of slavery caused serious confrontation between the North and the South of the United States and the inability to unify war resources. Rejected Pierce's offer.

However, the democrats are supporting Pierce in order to deflect the growing contradictions of slavery in the United States and ease the hostility between the North and the South. Transferring the contradictions to the Qing Empire and supporting the war.

As a result, the Whigs and the Democrats could not reach an agreement, and the two sides were at loggerheads. As a result, the war against the Qing Dynasty could not be passed.

However, Li Weiguo's slapping of Mai Lian's face is equivalent to slapping the United States in the face. Both the Democrats and the Whigs demanded a declaration of war on the Qing Empire in order to preserve the face of the United States in the international community.

During the period when Mai Lian returned to the United States, Li Weiguo was also making various preparations, although he judged that it would be difficult for the United States to carry out military retaliation and aggression against the Qing Empire in a short period of time, but he was not afraid of 10,000 in case of emergency, and was prepared in case of emergency.

After the Shanghai incident, Li Weiguo's thunderous action against the Americans immediately shocked Britain and France, which were about to move, and that domineering spirit made the Chinese people even more excited and made the foreigners of all countries in the concession tremble.

Originally, the British Minister Bao Ling, who had always been embarrassed by Li Weiguo on the issue of purchasing ships, has now changed his attitude and lost the support of the US Asian fleet, and most of the military forces of Britain and France in Asia have been folded in the war against Russia in Heilongjiang, and when Britain and France concentrated all their efforts on participating in the Crimean War, there was no surplus military force to support military operations in Asia, so Bao Ling had to temporarily give up the request to revise the treaty and wait for the end of the Crimean War before making a decision.

Although Li Weiguo said that he would not move the British Concession in Shanghai, Bao Ling was still not at ease, so he could only show weakness to Li Weiguo and made compromises and concessions on the issue of Li Weiguo's desire to buy British warships, in order to ease the relations between the two sides.

There was no political obstacle for Li Weiguo to buy British warships, and the next question was money. As long as money can solve the problem, it is not a problem, at least for Li Weiguo, it is not a problem.

There were no political obstacles, and the British Royal Navy military in Hong Kong quickly sent people over to negotiate with Li Weiguo about the purchase of ships.

At this time, the British Royal Navy from the era of traditional pure wooden sail warships to iron-hulled steam sail hybrid warships, tens of thousands of warships with a total value of nearly a billion pounds will face elimination, although some warships can be directly modified, but most of the warships are difficult to directly install steam engines and transmission propulsion systems because of design and structural problems, will face the fate of dismantling.

The British Asian Fleet stationed in Hong Kong and Singapore has more than 1,000 warships of various types, ranging from 3,500-ton British first-class sail battleships to 300-ton frigates, all of which are included in the British Navy's steam warship renewal plan for the next ten years, which are allowed to be sold, and the funds obtained are used to build new steam-powered warships.

Vice Admiral Bacgenson, deputy commander of the British Asian Fleet, personally led more than 100 warships of the main force of the Royal Navy's Asian Fleet of LinkedIn to Shanghai to negotiate with Li Weiguo; on the one hand, he directly let Li Weiguo see the warships he wanted to buy, and on the other hand, he also showed his muscles to Li Weiguo, which was intended to show Li Weiguo that although Britain was showing weakness, it was not impossible to fight, and warned Li Weiguo not to treat Britain as the United States as easy to bully.

Regarding the mentality of the British, Li Weiguo knows very well that it is not the time to clean up the British at this stage, so he can only laugh at it.

With no political constraints or obstacles, the negotiations between Li Weiguo and Bacgenson went exceptionally smoothly.

Li Weiguo took a fancy to six Maritime Sovereign-class first-class sail battleships equipped with 118 cannons, but these were the only six first-class battleships in the British Asian fleet. In the end, Bacgenson only agreed to sell two ships to Li Weiguo, and the remaining four ships had to be temporarily left in the British Asian fleet to support the façade, which was also a kind of vigilance for Li Weiguo to form a navy.

To compensate for Li Weiguo's displeasure, Bacgenson said that second, third, and fourth class warships could be purchased in unlimited quantities.

Li Weiguo really wanted to buy all the second, third, and fourth class battleships of the British Asian Fleet in one go, so that Bacgenson would only have four single-class battleships left in his hands, and see how he could continue to carry out the strategic mission of deterrence in the vast Far East waters.

However, Li Weiguo did not do this in the end, and the reason why he bought the British sail battleships was because he knew that the British Navy was focusing on building the next generation of steam warships, and these decommissioned British warships were cheap, and it was only right to buy them to deal with the sailors of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing court. As for the confrontation with the traditional world maritime powers such as Britain and France. Li Weiguo didn't expect to rely on these outdated sail warships, so he couldn't buy too much, as long as he could meet the needs of domestic operations in a short time.

In the end, Li Weiguo agreed to purchase two 3,200-ton first-class sail battleships with 118 cannons, six 2,500-ton second-class sail battleships with 96 guns, four 1,800-ton third-class sail battleships with 68 guns, and 30 1,200-ton fourth-class sail battleships with 50 guns.

According to the international classification of sail warships, the above four classes of battleships belong to the category of battleships and are the main force of naval warfare. Bacgensen had hundreds of cruisers in his hands (cruisers of this period were not cruisers, and the difference between the two was very large. Don't be confused), he hoped that Li Weiguo would be able to buy in large quantities, but Li Weiguo refused, because there are not many waters that Li Weiguo can control at the moment. There are only the East China Sea and the mouth of the Yangtze River, and he does not need to cruise around the world like the British Navy, so there is no need for cruisers for the time being, and there is no need to buy them.

However, Li Weiguo still bought one hundred and twenty frigates in one go. With a displacement of between seven and eight hundred tons, it was equipped with twenty to thirty guns and was used to escort the main battleships. and for communication transmission and fire reconnaissance.

The most expensive was naturally the first-class battleship, which cost the British an average of about 100,000 pounds to build this type of battleship, and the total cost was only 150,000 or 60,000 pounds after the decoration and weapon rationing. Because it was treated as a second-hand ship, the price of selling it to Li Weiguo was only 100,000 pounds. There is not much difference in the price of a second-class battleship and a third-class battleship, which is around 70,000 to 90,000 pounds. Fourth-class battleships are relatively cheap, with an average cost of less than 30,000 pounds, and after counting the rationing of various weapons, the average price sold to Li Weiguo is about 30,000 or 40,000, so Li Weiguo directly bought 30 ships.

And the cheapest is the frigate, each cost is only 10,000 pounds, Li Weiguo knows that the Taiping Navy has tens of thousands of warships, once a melee breaks out on the Yangtze River, if the other party takes a self-killing attack, the loss of expensive battleships will not be cost-effective, so he must buy a large number of frigates to protect the capital ships, so Li Weiguo is very generous to buy 120 frigates.

In the end, the total cost of the purchase of ships was finalized, totaling 3.97 million pounds. However, Li Weiguo's navy was not good at using British sail warships, and there was a big gap between the structure and operation of the sail warships in the East and the West, and it took a period of study and training to become an army.

Therefore, Li Weiguo negotiated with Bacgenson to hire more than 200 British Royal Navy officers and skilled British sailors, and asked them to help train Li Jiajun to become proficient in the use of British warships as soon as possible.

Bacgenson readily agreed, of course, all the expenses were paid by Li Weiguo.

In addition to warships, supporting auxiliary ships are also Li Weiguo's procurement target. At this time, the troop carriers and grain carriers of the Li Jiajun Naval Division used residential ships, with small tonnage and poor delivery capacity.

Therefore, Li Weiguo and Bacgenson purchased ten 4,000-ton sail-steam hybrid carriers for transporting troops and grain. Because it is a large steamship, and the steamship is very expensive, even if it is second-hand, it costs Li Weiguo 2.1 million pounds.

In the end, Bacgenson sold Li Weiguo arms with a total value of 500,000 pounds, including shells fired by British-made ship-based artillery, mainly new types of explosive shells, because Li Weiguo's Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau currently produces shells of the caliber required for army artillery, and there is no naval gun caliber for the time being, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has not been built for a long time, and the output is insufficient. The daily production of artillery shells was not enough for the army, so the artillery shells needed by the navy had to be bought from the British for the time being.

In addition to the new type of explosive cartridges for the Navy, Li Weiguo also purchased 5,000 P1851 muskets with short barrels of naval models from Bacgenson, which are rifled muskets with rods specially tailored by the British military for the Royal Navy.

The reason why Li Weiguo bought the naval version of the musket was mainly because his navy's combat object in the next few years was the Taiping army, after all, the Yangtze River was not the sea, and close combat was inevitable, and the Taiping army was best at broadside combat, and the naval version of the musket had a short barrel and light weight, and it was also loaded with bullets. In addition, with a ruler and high shooting accuracy, it is very suitable for the battlefield environment of the Yangtze River waters, and restrains the Taiping army from engaging in broadside battles.

After repeated consultations and negotiations, Li Weiguo and Bacgenson finally finalized all the details. The British side will deliver all the warships, transports, and munitions within three months, and Li Weiguo will pay 100,000 pounds as a deposit, and the rest of the balance will be paid after the delivery is completed in three months.

In this way, Li Weiguo spent nearly seven million pounds before and after, and finally completed the transaction.

Seven million pounds. It is equivalent to 28 million taels of silver in the Qing Dynasty, which is a huge amount of money. At first, Li Weiguo was ready to use the AIIB's coffers, but a few days before the deal was to be completed in August, 57 teams that had participated in the "May Fourth Patriotic" operation returned to Shanghai one after another.

All fifty-seven squads successfully completed their mission. 57 million pounds sterling was cashed out from branches in England all over the world, of which 41 million pounds of gold and silver were shipped back to Shanghai, and the other 16 million pounds were shipped back from various countries according to Li Weiguo's previous orders. Among them, there are more than 20 large steamers used to transport goods alone. The largest full-load displacement reached 6,000 tons, and the lowest was 4,000 tons, and the price of buying it abroad was even cheaper than the second-hand price that Bacgensen sold to Li Weiguo.

Li Weiguo grinds his teeth. He knew that Bacgenson had sold him a much higher price, but this had long been expected by him, and it was not surprising.

However, Han Xin's more troops the better, so Li Weiguo did not return the ten transport ships he bought from Bacgenson.

Suddenly there were 41 million pounds of gold and silver, and Li Weiguo was suddenly not short of money, and he did not have to embezzle the reserves of the AIIB.

On August 18, as the last 20 British warships set sail from Singapore and arrived at the Wusongkou Naval Division Base, they were delivered to the officers and men of the Li Jiajun Naval Division, marking the official completion of Li Weiguo's large-scale procurement of warships.

At the same time, during these months, more than 200 British Royal Navy officers and experienced British sailors assigned by Bacgenson have been in the Wusongkou Navy Barracks to teach the officers and men of the Li Jiajun Navy Division how to use and operate British warships.

Because of Li Weiguo's generosity, these British officers and soldiers were paid almost ten times their daily salary, and the high salary also made these British soldiers energetic to pass on their knowledge and skills to the officers and soldiers of the Li family.

Of course, these British soldiers will definitely be told by the British military not to teach Li Jiajun the experience, technology, and housekeeping skills accumulated by the British Empire for hundreds of years before coming, but Li Weiguo has a small banquet for these British soldiers for three days and a big banquet for five days, and found a large number of professional drinking companions to get each other drunk, and then took out the British Navy's housekeeping skills from their mouths, and found someone to record them, so that the officers and soldiers of the Li family can have a small banquet for three days and a big banquet for five days, and then take out the British Navy's housekeeping skills from their mouths, and find someone to record them, so that the officers and soldiers of the Li family can do it in just a few months. They basically mastered the knowledge, theoretical basis and operation methods of British warships.

On December 12, 1854, Li Weiguo officially held a fleet formation ceremony at the Wusongkou Naval Division Camp, and more than 200 British warships lined up along the river, waving flags, the scale was huge and exciting.

After more than half a year of rigorous training, the officers and men of the Li Jiajun Naval Division have been able to skillfully operate these British warships and use British-made ship-based artillery to carry out sea-to-ground artillery bombardment.

Of course, learning to sail ships and guns is not equal to combat effectiveness, and it requires at least two to three years of long-term and arduous training before finally the knowledge, technology, and experience stolen from the British naval instructors can be completely transformed into their own.

Li Weiguo is not in a hurry, he has time to wait.

However, the shelf must be erected first, for which Li Weiguo established the Navy Yamen, he appointed himself as the Minister of the Navy Yamen, and the original Li Jiajun Wu Songkou Naval Division was renamed the East China Sea Fleet, and December 12 was designated as the Navy Army Day.

Meanwhile. Li Weiguo purchased more than 200 warships from the British on a large scale, and this news also shocked the whole country, especially the central Qing court, and Xianfeng was extremely shocked.

British warships were extremely expensive, a first-class battleship was 100,000 pounds, equivalent to 400,000 taels of silver, enough to build 40 red single ships (30 guns, the most advanced warship of the Qing army), Li Weiguo bought more than 200 warships of various types in one go, costing more than 7 million pounds. Equivalent to 28 million taels of silver, how could Xianfeng not be shocked to be able to take out so much money at once, you must know that there are only tens of thousands of taels of silver in the treasury of the Qing Dynasty at this moment, and even Xianfeng's private money is not 100,000 taels.

Li Weiguo was able to come up with so much silver, which was enough to make Xianfeng and the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty blush and fearful.

The news quickly spread from Lan Guiren's side to Li Weiguo's ears, and Li Weiguo didn't think about it so much at that time. Looking back at this moment, his actions this time were really a bit big, and it was inevitable that he would not be afraid of Xianfeng, so he hurriedly convened the staff group to discuss countermeasures.

Soon. The staff group discussed the results and named the East China Sea Fleet the Imperial Navy of the Qing Dynasty, and the naval yamen could not be set up by Li Weiguo himself, and the imperial court needed to be approved. The warships purchased were used against the increasingly powerful Taiping naval divisions. It is necessary to make the strength of the Taiping Army's sailors as terrifying as possible and scare Xianfeng. At the same time, the money used to buy the battleship can never be admitted to be out of Li Weiguo's own pocket. It is said that part of it is the gold and taxes of Jiangnan Province, and the other part is borrowed from the AIIB.

Li Weiguo immediately wrote a memo, reported these lies and rhetoric made up by his staff to the imperial court, and asked for the establishment of the Qing Navy Yamen on the grounds that the Taiping Army was too powerful, and appointed the Minister of the Navy to manage it, and asked Xianfeng to give this navy the name of the East China Sea Fleet of the Qing Imperial Navy, and at the same time, in order to prove that he really had no money, he had to continue to cry poverty with the imperial court and ask the imperial court for a large sum of silver.

Sure enough, after Li Weiguo's performance was reported to the imperial court, the court immediately quarreled again.

Naturally, the imperial party headed by Su Shun would not let go of this excellent opportunity to impeach Li Weiguo, slandering Li Weiguo as having a heart of disobedience and suspicion of rebellion.

Although Yi Xin was also suspicious, he could only choose to believe Li Weiguo, if Li Weiguo was brought down by Su Shun, then he would not be pleased.

Therefore, Yi Xin retorted: "Your Majesty, although Lord Li did this a little abruptly, you can't blame him if you think about it. The Hong bandit rebels have more than 20,000 warships, and the previous defeat of the Hunan army and naval division of Zeng Guofan in the Xiangjiang River made the number of warships of our imperial court in the Yangtze River basin now less than 2,000, and Li Weiguo's Shanghai naval division has less than 1,000 small warships. ”

Yi Xin paused and continued: "Besides, Lord Li asked the imperial court to set up a naval yamen, asked the emperor to appoint the minister of the navy to manage it, and asked the emperor to give this navy the name of the East China Sea Fleet of the Qing Imperial Navy, which shows that Lord Li is loyal to the imperial court. As for the fact that Lord Li spent 28 million taels of silver to buy a foreigner warship, it can prove Lord Li's loyalty even more, because if Lord Li wants to rebel, there is no need to build a navy at all, because he can completely unite with the Hong bandits, and the more than 20,000 warships of the Hong bandits are enough to compete with the imperial navy. ”

Xianfeng felt that there was some truth, and most of the doubts in his heart suddenly disappeared. Back in the harem, Xianfeng asked Lan Guiren again, and Lan Guiren also helped Li Weiguo say good things. Xianfeng didn't know that the woman he loved the most had secretly formed an alliance with Li Weiguo at the moment, and he believed in Lan Guiren's words, so his suspicion of Li Weiguo was dispelled.

In this way, a court ceremony that was originally extremely unfavorable to Li Weiguo ended in failure, and the Sushun party failed to bring down Li Weiguo, and they were immediately disappointed.

But Xianfeng is Xianfeng after all, and when the emperor has two sons, he immediately approved Li Weiguo's performance, established the naval yamen, gave Li Weiguo's East China Sea Fleet the East China Sea Fleet of the Qing Imperial Navy, and appointed Li Hongzao as the minister of the navy yamen and the political envoy of Jiangnan Province.

When the news came back to Shanghai, Li Weiguo breathed a sigh of relief, but also surprised by the name Li Hongzao.

Li Weiguo stood in front of the window and said to himself: "It's another super boss with more than 150 politics, and I don't know if it's friend or foe!" (To be continued......)