The AIIB, as a landmark in Shanghai County, has a rooftop that is also the highest point in Shanghai.

Usually, when Li Weiguo comes to the AIIB, he always goes to the rooftop to look at the scenery and experience the new city he has built.

Today, Li Weiguo came here again and climbed on the rooftop, but this time it was not to see the scenery, but a kind of expectation, from the east of the sky.

The East is an endless sea, and at this moment the East China Sea Fleet is at war with the British, French, and American combined fleet, Li Weiguo is very nervous and wants to know the result, but even if he stands on the roof of the AIIB, he can't see it, and even with a telescope.

However, there was a dense area of black clouds to the east of the horizon, and a faint thunderclap could be faintly heard from there.

Black clouds are not clouds, they are gunpowder smoke on the battlefield. Thunder is also impossible on a sunny day, and that is the sound of shells exploding in battle.

"The fight must be fierce and hard!"

Li Weiguo said to himself that although the East China Sea Fleet was formed to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he also thought that one day he would encounter foreign navies attacking from the sea.

The East China Sea Fleet, which has just been established for three years, is the youngest member of the world's modern naval family, and its combat strength can directly crush the Taiping Army and the Qing Army, but compared with Britain and France, the number one naval powers, it is far behind.

Now that Britain, France, and the United States, the three most powerful countries in Europe and the United States, have formed a joint fleet to attack, whether the East China Sea Fleet can stop this, Li Weiguo has no bottom in his heart.

It cannot be said that Li Weiguo is so ambitious that he will destroy his prestige, on the contrary, Li Weiguo is very calm and can clearly recognize the current international situation.

Historically, 1857 was the beginning year of the Second Opium War, and it was also the first phase. During this period, Britain, France, the United States, and Russia all demanded to expand their interests in China, but only Britain and France temporarily formed a coalition to invade China, and the scale was not large, only capturing Guangzhou and Shanghai. The Qing government was so frightened that the Qing government signed the Treaty of Tianjin, and the United States did not directly enter the war.

But now history has been reorganized, Li Weiguo dominates Shanghai, annihilates the American Asian Fleet and offends the United States, and now the US Navy has rebuilt a small Asian fleet after three years of development and sent it to Hong Kong to unite with the British and French navies.

The United States entered the war, which expanded the scale of the Second Opium War, which was manifested in the formation of the British, French, and American combined fleet in the first stage, and the Anglo-French forces would have taken advantage of the Taiping Rebellion to directly occupy Shanghai. The appearance of Li Weiguo made the plan of the British and French coalition come to naught, so the British, French and American coalition forces attacked Shanghai became an inevitable choice.

There were gains and losses, Li Weiguo prevented Britain, France and the United States from occupying Shanghai and seizing the autonomy of China's customs, but attracted the British, French and American coalition forces to attack.

However, even if he does it again, Li Weiguo will still do it.

Those who offend our China will be punished even if they are far away, this is the bottom line, and we will never compromise.

"Report—"

Lin Jiyun, commander of the East China Sea Fleet, reported. The decoy fleet of our East China Sea Fleet encountered the combined fleet of Britain, France and the United States, and the battle situation was unfavorable, so we changed the original ambush plan and tried to rely on the firepower of the fortress on Snake Mountain Island to inflict heavy losses on the enemy! ”

The war situation is unfavorable. Changing the plan, encircling and annihilating the enemy turned into fighting for heavy losses.

The change in words suddenly made Li Weiguo nervous, he didn't want the modern navy that he had worked so hard to build to be lost like this, you must know that although the current East China Sea Fleet could not be compared with the first-class navy of Britain and France and other powers. But this is a seed, and sooner or later it will take root and sprout and become China's world-class navy.

Li Weiguo can afford to wait. Therefore, he did not plan to fight with the British, French and American combined fleets from the beginning, he needed to preserve his strength, after all, the real opponent of the East China Sea Fleet at the moment was the naval division of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the potential opponent was the naval division of the Qing army, and the navies of the great powers were the last targets to deal with.

"Pass my order, let Lin Jiyun and Li Weijun quickly give up the combat operation and give me all the retreat into the Yangtze River!"

"Yes!" The signal corpsman received the order and hurried to deliver the order.

Looking at the black clouds in the east of the sky, Li Weiguo sighed, he suddenly thought of a lot of things at this moment, he thought of why Li Hongzhang wanted to protect the ship after the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, and why William II wanted to protect the ship to avoid the war after the Battle of Jutland, why they did that, and Li Weiguo realized it at this moment.

It's just that Li Hongzhang's result of protecting the ship to avoid the war was to bury the Beiyang Naval Division, and the result of Wilhelm II to protect the ship and avoid the war was no exception to bury the German High Seas Fleet.

The answer is clearly no!

Whether it was Li Hongzhang or Wilhelm II, their implementation of the strategy of protecting ships and avoiding war was considered by later generations to be the correct strategic decision, and the reason why they finally buried their respective navies was not because of the strategy of protecting ships and avoiding war, but because of the final defeat in the ground war.

Li Weiguo is not afraid, he is not afraid of fighting ground battles with Britain, France and the United States, 100,000 Shanghai army elites, advanced era of patriotic rifles, high-power artillery, plus local operations, the right time and place are the same as the three, Li Weiguo has enough confidence to defeat the British, French and American coalition forces on the ground.

"Report—"

"What's wrong again?"

"Report to my lord, all the shareholders of the AIIB have signed the share transfer agreement, and the second lady has obtained 100% of the equity, please come over!"

Li Weiguo breathed a sigh of relief, and the delivery was a good thing.

Since the capture of Guangzhou by the British, French, and American forces last year and the outbreak of the Second Opium War, foreigners in Shanghai and its surrounding areas have begun to transfer assets and withdraw their capital from China one after another, fearing that they will be affected by the war.

After the recent news that the British, French, and American forces were going to attack Shanghai, foreigners from various countries in the Shanghai area accelerated the transfer of assets, especially those foreign shareholders of the AIIB, who had the strength and background, and learned from the Russian minister that the British, French, and American forces were preparing to sack Shanghai, focusing on the capital of the AIIB.

At the same time, Li Weiguo also sent people to deliberately release rumors, so that the foreigners thought that Li Weiguo could not defeat the British, French, and American coalition forces, and was ready to abandon Shanghai, which intensified the scale of the foreigners' selling of assets and transferring funds, and these shareholders of the AIIB from various countries finally believed it and began to sell and transfer the shares of the AIIB.

At this time, the AIIB has launched its business nationwide, thanks to the strong alliance between the AIIB and Shenjia Qianzhuang, the AIIB has strong capital, and Shenjia Qianzhuang has branches all over the country, with a wide range of contacts, and the two sides have joined forces, making the AIIB rapidly bigger. It has become the largest bank in the entire Qing Empire and the largest bank in the entire Asian region, and its total capital scale has reached the standard of an international first-class bank.

The stock price of the AIIB has risen more than ten times, and the shareholders have made a lot of money, but on weekdays, they are desperately earning stocks and not selling, waiting for them to continue to appreciate, because Li Weiguo's slogan is to become the central bank of the Qing Empire and the world's first bank in the future, so the shareholders believe that Li Weiguo has that ability, and the shares of the AIIB will continue to soar hundreds of times and thousands of times.

But now the AIIB shareholders have to sell their shares because they know that the British, French and American forces are going to occupy Shanghai and ransack the AIIB's coffers. Once this happens, the AIIB will be finished, and then all the AIIB's money will be robbed, and if there is no capital to develop, the stock will be worthless, and it is possible to go bankrupt directly. Therefore, these profit-seeking foreign shareholders had to sell their stocks, but they encountered Li Weiguo secretly playing tricks to lower the stock price, suppressing and preventing anyone else from buying AIIB shares. forced these foreign shareholders to sell their shares to Li Weiguo at a low price.

Li Weiguo is no longer involved in the specific rules, and will be handed over to the second wife, Shen Ziyan, to take care of it.

Shen Ziyan handed over more than a dozen share transfer deeds to Li Weiguo, poked the thick glasses on her nose with her fingers, and said, "Xianggong." This is all the share transfer deeds, and from now on, the AIIB is completely fair! ”

Li Weiguo glanced at it and handed it to the deputy next to him. hugged Shen Ziyan and said with a smile: "The lady has worked hard and made great contributions." Come and reward a kiss! ”

"Nasty! Just know to bully me! Shen Ziyan was hugged and kissed by Li Weiguo, although she was angry on the surface, she was happy in her heart, and being able to do things for her husband was her happiest thing and her greatest ideal.

"Now that the entire AIIB is in charge, what are you going to do next?"

Hearing Shen Ziyan's inquiry, Li Weiguo smiled without hesitation: "Of course it's going to be expanded!" ”

Shen Ziyan suddenly said excitedly: "The RMB is issued very smoothly in Jiangnan Province and Zhejiang Province, and has become legal tender, the people now only recognize the RMB, and the money of other provinces cannot be circulated in these two provinces at all. ”

Li Weiguo laughed, kissed Shen Ziyan again, and praised: "It is worthy of being the daughter of the big boss of the country's No. 1 money bank, this business vision is not ordinary, and I want to be with Xianggong." It's just that it's not the time yet, and Emperor Xianfeng won't agree. ”

Shen Ziyan frowned slightly, and asked rhetorically: "Xianggong, why doesn't Xianfeng agree!" The RMB exchange rate is stable, there is no loss of gold and silver, it is very convenient to carry and trade, and it is impossible to be counterfeited, if it is implemented throughout the country, it will surely benefit all people, why does he disagree! ”

Li Weiguo pinched Shen Ziyan's nose and said with a smile: "Sure enough, God is fair, lady, you have the beauty of the country and the city, and you have unparalleled business acumen, fortunately, your political acumen is very average, otherwise I don't know how many women in the world would envy and hate you!" ”

Shen Ziyan was very happy when she heard Li Weiguo's first half of the sentence, but when she heard the latter saying that she had no political acumen, she suddenly glanced at Li Weiguo fiercely, and said coquettishly: "I hate it!" ”

Li Weiguo smiled and explained: "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been rebelling for seven or eight years, and the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty are getting weaker and weaker, but the suppression of the Taiping Army depends on the armed forces of Han landlords around the country. ”

"What does he think?" Shen Ziyan asked with a wink.

Li Weiguo said: "Of course, kill me at any cost, whether it is demoting me to an official position on the surface, or secretly sending a killer, he will not be soft anymore!" ”

"Ahh Shen Ziyan exclaimed, only then did she feel scared, and hurriedly said: "It's all my fault, I almost hurt my father-in-law!" ”

Li Weiguo smiled: "It's none of your business, you did a good job, but we have to wait for two years!" ”

"Will Xianfeng change his mind after two years?" Shen Ziyan's eyes lit up and she hurriedly asked.

"That's right!" Li Weiguo pretended to nod mysteriously, and secretly said that Xianfeng would be hung up in two years, and when Cixi would listen to the government, Yixin would be in charge of the government, and it would be no problem to propose RMB as the country's legal tender at that time.

At this time, the chief of the guard, Zhuang Jiuxia, came to report.

"My lord, Madame has sent someone to deliver the message. said that Ba Weisi was back, and he wanted to ask to see the adults and the second lady! ”

"Who is Barvis?" Shen Ziyan had long forgotten about this person.

Li Weiguo was stunned for a moment, and then said angrily: "Ba Weisi, this dog, he still dares to come back to see me?" ”

Just when Li Weiguo was annoyed and angry and wanted to clean up Ba Weisi, the battle between the main force of the East China Sea Fleet and the main force of the British, French, and American combined fleet also entered a climax on the sea near Sheshan Island in the East China Sea.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

The fleets of the two sides were five or six miles apart, and each gave the order to open fire, shooting at each other, both wanting to sink the other at the first opportunity.

Knock knock!

Knock knock!

The cannon roared, and the smoke of gunpowder filled the air. The intense shelling caused the sea to boil, and countless columns of water rose from the sea.

The fleets of both sides lined up in a long snake formation and fired fiercely at each other, and the formation was several kilometers long, like a huge human double helix DNA chain, biting each other to the death.

The fierce artillery battle caused heavy losses on both sides, and although the warships of the British, French, and American fleets were equipped with steam engines, the hull was still wooden, no different from the sail warships of the Shanghai army, and the shells on both sides were high-powered blasting shells. The damage to the wooden hull was huge, and the battleship caught fire, or the hull was blown apart in an instant.

At the beginning, the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army adopted raid tactics and picked up soft persimmons. Concentrate 2 3,200-ton 118-gun first-class sail battleships, 6 2,500-ton 96-gun second-class sail battleships, 4 1,800-ton 68-gun third-class sail battleships, and 30 1,200-ton 50-gun fourth-class sail battleships to surprise the weakest American fleet.

At that time, the American fleet consisted of only six warships, and the targets were scattered, the largest of which was the 2600-ton 54-gun steam battleship USS Virginia. Zhabei, a frigate of the Shanghai Army, was pursuing it with all its might, but was besieged by six battleships of the East China Sea Fleet and sunk in less than five minutes. The other five U.S. warships saw that the situation was not good. They fled in a hurry, but unfortunately the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army was slaughtered from the upwind, and more than 40 battleships bombarded five US ships, and in less than 20 minutes, the US Asian Fleet was completely annihilated.

This was the second time that the US Asian fleet was completely annihilated by the Shanghai army, and it slapped the Americans in the face and also surprised the commanders of the British and French fleets.

According to Lin Jiyun's plan, the Shanghai East China Sea Fleet gave up ambushing the British, French, and American combined fleets, and instead raided the weakest US Asian fleet, and quickly withdrew after completely annihilating it, which not only avenged the officers and men of the Shanghai East China Sea Fleet who had died in battle, but also saved the face of defeat.

However, Lin Jiyun still underestimated the strength and experience of the British and French fleets.

Just when Lin Jiyun led the main force of the East China Sea Fleet to encircle and annihilate the American Asian Fleet, the British and French fleets also quickly gave up the decoy fleet chasing Tang Jizu, and under the command of George, the British and French combined fleets quickly completed the realignment and launched an attack on the East China Sea Fleet.

The Anglo-French fleet, with the help of steam engines, was fast and was able to easily seize a favorable attack position upwind.

At first, Lin Jiyun was also taken aback, he had already learned from Tang Jizu about this advantage of the foreigner warship, so he didn't plan to fight hard, and hurriedly ordered a retreat.

However, George obviously would not easily let go of the main force of the East China Sea Fleet, and although he was happy that the East China Sea Fleet had helped him annihilate the US Asian Fleet, he still led the main forces of the LinkedIn and French fleets to chase after Lin Jiyun's main force of the East China Sea Fleet.

The two sides soon exchanged fierce fire, and Lin Jiyun personally witnessed the various advanced tactical moves and rich combat experience of the British and French fleets, and the East China Sea Fleet soon had a warship sunk and suffered a loss.

In order to get rid of the pursuit of the British and French fleets, Lin Jiyun ruthlessly ordered the frigates of the East China Sea Fleet to attack suicidally to intercept the pursuit of the enemy fleet.

This action immediately frightened George, forcing George to give the order to turn around and avoid dying with the Shanghai warship.

Lin Jiyun suddenly had a flash of inspiration, since a suicide attack on a frigate can block the enemy fleet, then letting a frigate make a suicide attack in an engagement can also block the enemy fleet from seizing the upper hand position.

Once the enemy fleet is blocked and seizes the upwind position, then with the firepower and numerical superiority of the capital ships of the East China Sea Fleet, it is completely possible to press the enemy ships and strike hard.

Lin Jiyun told Li Weijun about his idea, and Li Weijun immediately agreed, because the British and French battleships had to remove a large number of artillery positions in the middle because of the installation of steam engines, so that the first-class sail battleships that could carry 118 cannons could only carry 74 guns because the steam engine and paddle wheel occupied the space. Both sides used front-loading artillery and new high-power flowering shells, and in the case of little difference in range and rate of fire, the capital ships of the East China Sea Fleet had a huge advantage in the number of guns, while the steam engine speed advantage of the British and French fleets was blocked by the suicide attack of the frigates of the Shanghai army. The inability to seize the upwind position in a short period of time forced the two sides to engage in a close-range artillery battle, which was an advantage for the Shanghai East China Sea Fleet, but it was just a sacrifice of many frigates.

As a result, the East China Sea Fleet began a frantic operation, with more than 80 frigates receiving orders to launch suicide attacks to block the British and French fleets from seizing the upwind position, while the East China Sea Fleet concentrated more than 40 capital ships in close artillery battles with British and French warships.

Facing one after another oncoming Shanghai warships. The captains of the British and French battleships had to evade and concentrate their artillery fire to sink the Shanghai warships that wanted to collide. But they didn't dare to collide with each other, and the cost of one steam battleship was equal to twenty sail frigates, which was really a loss.

However, at this moment, the battleships of the East China Sea Fleet approached, and under the fierce attack of powerful firepower, the ships of the British and French fleets caught fire one after another and suffered heavy losses.

"Crazy! All fucking lunatics! ”

George was furious, and his battleship HMS Birmingham had only 74 guns. On the other side, the battleship Dingyuan had 118 guns, and of course it would suffer a big loss if it fought.

Within minutes, the battleship Birmingham was badly wounded, and fires broke out in several places. More than half of the soldiers were killed or wounded, and more than half of the artillery was out of order.

"Look at the sinking of the Liverpool!"

"The Napoleon also sank!"

……

The black smoke was thick and the sight was not good, but George still saw many battleships sunk. Brave the raging fire, puffs of black smoke soared into the sky, including those of the East China Sea Fleet. There were also Anglo-French ones.

"Reverse at full speed and retreat!"

A good man doesn't suffer immediate losses, and George doesn't want to put his life here.

The superiority of the steam engine was once again manifested, although the British and French fleets were blocked from seizing the upwind position, but their steam ships could reverse and withdraw directly from the engagement.

The ships of the East China Sea Fleet are all sail warships, but they do not have the ability to suddenly reverse, and if they want to pursue, they can only make a big circle and have to drive against the wind.

Seeing that the British and French fleets fled against the wind, Lin Jiyun secretly shouted that it was a pity, he could have won a big victory.

But it seems that the East China Sea Fleet won this naval battle!

"The foreign devil has run away!"

"We won!"

"We won!"

……

Cheers suddenly rang out on all the ships of the East China Sea Fleet, and all the officers and men roared and celebrated their victory.

It was a tough win!

The next time the enemy will be prepared, but not so lucky!

As of 4:20 p.m., after statistics, the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army has lost 2 2,500-ton (96) gun second-class battleships, 1 1,800-ton (68) gun third-class battleship, 8 1,200-ton (50) gun fourth-class battleships, and 32 800-ton (20~30) gun frigates, and even the three 3,200-ton (118) gun first-class battleships have caught fire many times and were seriously wounded, with 2,013 officers and soldiers killed and 4,899 wounded. It's a huge cost.

However, the losses of the combined British, French-American fleet were no less significant.

The British, French, and American combined fleets lost 1 3,300-ton 74-gun steam battleship (France), three 2,600-ton 54-gun steam battleships (United States 2, Great Britain 1), one 2,400-ton 50-gun battleship (France), four 2,000-ton 38-gun steam cruisers (United States 2, France 1, Great Britain 1), and 11 1,500-ton 28-gun steam frigates (Britain 8, United States 2, France 1), of which the American Asian Fleet was completely annihilated, and 1,881 officers and men of the British, French, and American combined fleet were killed. 1032 people were injured.

The Battle of Snake Mountain ended with the defeat of the British, French, and American combined fleets, but as the victorious side, the Shanghai East China Sea Fleet also killed 1,000 enemies and suffered 800 losses.

However, the victory in the Battle of Snake Mountain was a huge boost in the morale of the Shanghai army, and after that, the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet of the Shanghai Army were no longer afraid of foreigners, because they experienced a bloody battle, and the myth of the invincibility of the foreigner fleet was shattered.

Subsequently, Lin Jiyun received Li Weiguo's order to lead the East China Sea Fleet back to the mouth of the Yangtze River, implement the strategy of protecting ships and avoiding war, and was not allowed to go to sea to meet the enemy without Li Weiguo's order. (To be continued......)