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After the Opium War, Britain, France and the United States opened concessions in Shanghai.

In the third year of Xianfeng, in order to deter the foreign powers, Li Weiguo took advantage of the opportunity of destroying the US Asian fleet to forcibly take back the US concession in Shanghai, killing chickens and monkeys.

Now, in the eighth year of Xianfeng, the news came that Britain, France, and the United States had formed an allied army to prepare to attack Shanghai, and foreigners from all over the world, in the British Concession and the French Concession in Shanghai, under the instigation and instigation of the legation, received weapons and ammunition one after another, formed the Concession Self-Defense Force, and prepared to cooperate with the coalition forces to attack the county seat of Shanghai.

Outside the British Legation on the Bund, there was a crowd of foreigners from Europe and the United States who had received weapons and ammunition and were being trained in the officer corps headed by Lieutenant Colonel William Steck, military attache of the British Legation.

As for the officers under Lieutenant Colonel William, they were basically military attaches of the British and French legations, as well as some British soldiers who had not left Shanghai. Among these soldiers, many of them have served as instructors for officers and soldiers in Shanghai, from infantry, artillery to navy, but with the reform of the military system of the Shanghai army, they have lost their jobs, because the Shanghai army has changed its combat methods and no longer needs the skills and experience of British officers, and at the same time, the secrets of the new patriotic rifle of the Shanghai army do not want to be known by British officers, so Li Weiguo cleared out all the foreign personnel in the Shanghai army.

Now Lieutenant Colonel William has brought in these British soldiers who had served as instructors in the Shanghai Army, hoping that under their leadership, the Concession Self-Defense Force will be able to achieve greater results.

Pete has always stood by William's side, he is not a commander, he has to obey William's orders. In particular, after Bao Ling was dismissed, Pitt was also relieved of his status as military attache of the legation because of his support for Bao Ling, and only temporarily assisted William in training the Concession Self-Defense Force as a naval officer.

"I advise you not to attack the county seat of Shanghai lightly, do you really think that you can defeat the Shanghai army by relying on these rabble? You're wrong. The Shanghai army is very strong, we are not their opponents at all, on the contrary, we are very dangerous now, because Li Weiguo is a very shrewd person, he will not give us the opportunity to attack Shanghai with the coalition army, before that, he may attack the concession, if I were you, it is better to hold the boundary river and the bridge now. Don't let them in? ”

Pete still said what was in his heart, hoping that William would listen. After all, Pete has been in Shanghai for more than ten years, and he has spent the longest time with Li Weiguo, and he knows Li Weiguo's cunning and ruthlessness, and he also has no idea about this coalition attack on Shanghai.

William suddenly frowned and glanced at Pete, if it weren't for the estimation of the family behind Pete, he would probably be scolding.

"I'm a lieutenant colonel, don't I know this? Need you as a naval officer to make irresponsible remarks? ”

William originally had this idea. was ready to send additional troops to defend the boundary bridge, but when Pete said this, William felt very embarrassed, but gave up the plan to increase reinforcements with a hot head.

"Li Weiguo is now scared to death. He was worried that we were going to attack the county seat of Shanghai, how could he dare to take the initiative to attack the concession? ”

William had already received information from the Russian minister Ignatiev, and knew that Li Weiguo was "scared" and was thinking about suing for peace. Absolutely do not dare to attack the concession.

Pete didn't know that the more he persuaded him, the more he helped, and insisted: "Li Weiguo is a very cunning fox, you must not believe his nonsense." Otherwise, you're going to suffer a lot! ”

If it was usual, William might be able to discuss it calmly with Pete, but now that Pete has been masturbated and William has become the commander, William thinks that Pete is unwilling and jealous of William, so William can't listen to Pete's persuasion at all, and the more Pete persuades, the more irritable William is, the more he can't listen.

"Enough! You just can't see me make meritorious contributions! But let me tell you, this time I'm going to show you how I took the county seat of Shanghai. ”

William saw the map of the Shanghai army's military strength from Ignatiev, and knew the distribution of the Shanghai army's troops, the location of the hoarding of ordnance and food, so he was ready to lead the concession self-defense force to destroy the armory and grain depot of the Shanghai army first, so that even if the Shanghai army had 100,000 troops, it would be like a toothless tiger without ammunition and food.

There was nothing wrong with William's strategy, and any military strategist would have agreed with his ideas.

It's just that Pete knows Li Weiguo too well, and he doesn't believe that Ignatiev can get such an accurate military deployment map from the cunning Li Weiguo, which is definitely problematic.

Unfortunately, the more Pete talked, the more he helped, which angered William, making William even more hot-headed and unable to listen to him.

"Sir William, when are we going to attack those damn yellow-skinned monkeys?"

At this moment, an American in the crowd of the Concession Self-Defense Forces couldn't help but ask William a question. To be precise, since Li Weiguo forcibly took back the American Concession in Shanghai, he went bankrupt and lost all the privileges that Americans should have in China, he hated Li Weiguo and wanted to find Li Weiguo desperately, so he joined the Self-Defense Force of the Concession without hesitation, attacked the Shanghai county with everyone, and regained everything he lost.

With the shouts of this American, many Americans around immediately followed suit, causing all the volunteer militiamen of the Concession Self-Defense Force to shout and demand an answer from William.

"What a rabble!" Pete said coldly, showing no mercy at all.

"Shut up! What do you know? William scolded Pete fiercely, although he also admitted in his heart that the so-called Concession Self-Defense Forces in front of him could not be compared with the real army, at best they were militia organizations, but at present, William's legation guards of only 500 people were considered an army, plus the French legation guards, adding up to a regular army of more than 1,000 people, and the other 9,000 people were civilian organizations.

However, William believed that with 1,000 Anglo-French troops in the lead, and 9,000 militiamen to suppress the formation, it would be enough to deal with the vulnerable Qing army.

William then proceeded to promise that if he was brave and fearless in battle, he would be rewarded with a high reward, and that everyone who took part in the war would receive five hundred pounds sterling and a piece of concession land, and that half of the booty would be handed over and half kept for himself.

This promise immediately aroused a fierce resonance among the more than 10,000 members of the Concession Self-Defense Force, who participated in the battle. Fundamentally, it is still for the sake of looting and making a fortune, which is the essence of their aggressor and will never change.

A day later, William received news that the British, French, and American combined fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the two sides agreed to attack Shanghai together the next day, requiring William to lead his army to attack the ammunition depot and granary of the Shanghai army, contain the strength of the Shanghai army, and cover the landing operation of the coalition army.

At the same time, the Shanghai Army Command. Li Weiguo also received a report that the joint fleet of Britain, France, and the United States had arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and quickly made arrangements.

The main force of the Shanghai Army, a total of eight towns, of which the first town of the Shanghai Army is stationed in Shanghai County, the fourth town is stationed in Shanghai Waigaocang Temple, and the second town is stationed in Baoshan County, assisting in the defense of Wusongkou Fortress and guarding the gateway of the Yangtze River in the northwest of Shanghai; The third and fifth towns were stationed in Dantu to assist in the defense of the Jiangdong camp. against the Taiping army in the direction of Jiangning; Six towns were stationed in the Jiangnan camp to contain the Huainan Taiping Army; The seventh town was stationed in Hangzhou, defending Zhejiang Province, and cooperating with the Qing army of Liangguang to contain the Taiping army in Jiangxi; The eighth town was stationed in Jiading. Assist in the defense of Jinshanwei fortress and defend the southeast coast of Shanghai.

At this time, the Shanghai army did not move except for the fourth town, creating an illusion to confuse the enemy. The British, French, and American coalition forces thought that the Shanghai army really did not want to fight, and did not make military moves. In fact, Li Weiguo had already repaired the railway, and he could quickly mobilize troops into battle.

As for the actions of the Fourth Town. It was also carried out in secret, and was transferred to the periphery of the concession to prepare for a surprise attack. In the county town of Shanghai next to the concession, the first town of the Shanghai army did not move, just to paralyze the enemy in the concession.

This is true for the Army, and the Navy is also carefully deployed.

However, Li Weiguo is not so confident in the East China Sea Fleet, the Shanghai infantry has a cross-era patriotic rifle, and has a huge equipment advantage against the British, French, and American combined marines, so Li Weiguo is confident that he can hit the enemy on land. However, as for the navy, although the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet have mastered the control and use of artillery of British-made warships, they have been established for too short a time, and in terms of naval combat experience and technology, they are certainly not the opponents of Britain and France and other traditional maritime powers.

When Li Weiguo purchased British-made warships to form the East China Sea Fleet, he did not intend to use it to fight with the British and French navies, he knew that the East China Sea Fleet would not be able to defeat the British and French navies in a short period of time, so from the very beginning, Li Weiguo set the East China Sea Fleet as the internal and civil war to fight the naval division of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the naval division against the Qing Empire. It must be the era of ironclad battleships, because the great powers have just started in this regard, and it is easy for Li Weiguo to catch up.

After determining the general policy, Li Weiguo deployed the East China Sea Fleet to Wusongkou, and on the basis of the original Wusongkou Naval Division Base of the Qing Army, the East China Sea Fleet Base was expanded, relying on the artillery cover of the Wusongkou Fortress to jointly guard the Yangtze River and the Huangpu River.

However, being beaten passively is not Li Weiguo's style, and when he learned that the British, French, and American combined fleet had only a few dozen warships, Li Weiguo still had some extravagant hopes in his heart, and wanted to fight with the British, French, and American combined fleet, because the East China Sea Fleet had more than 100 main warships, and even if it could not be defeated, the losses would not be too great, and it was also good to take this opportunity to train the officers and men of the navy in actual combat experience.

Therefore, Li Weiguo ordered that the main force of the East China Sea Fleet could look for fighters near the mouth of the Yangtze River on its own, but it must not leave the mouth of the Yangtze River and enter the East China Sea to fight with the enemy.

Whether it is the army or the navy, Li Weiguo has made detailed arrangements in place, and he has personally done everything, which shows the importance he attaches to this battle and the degree of tension.

Of course, anyone whose lair is invaded, its owner will do the same.

"Report, the Fourth Town has entered the predetermined battlefield, this is the battle plan!" A staff member sent over the battle plan for the fourth town.

After Li Weiguo read it, he handed it to Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan, and the two quickly agreed.

So Li Weiguo ordered: "The plan is approved, start the operation immediately, and tell Chen Liang that we have to fight a time difference, and we must take the concession within 24 hours!" ”

"Yes!" The signal corps received the order and hurried to the fourth town to deliver the order.

Afterwards, Li Weiguo turned to Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan and asked with a smile: "What do you think of Chen Liang's plan?" Will you be able to complete the task this time? ”

Wu Yong said with a smile: "This plan is very good, it is more careful than I planned before, and it is inevitable to complete the task, it is just a matter of time!" ”

Chen Jingnan also nodded and said: "General Chen is worthy of being the descendant of the old general Chen Huacheng, we just want to sit and wait for the enemy to come out and set up an ambush halfway, but he can think of taking the initiative to lure the enemy out, if it succeeds, we will have more time." ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "That's right, the sooner the Fourth Town wins the concession, it is equivalent to cutting off the enemy's foothold, and at the same time, it can also free up his hands to support other battlefields." ”

Wu Yong suddenly asked: "My lord, do you want to withdraw the fifth town, the enemies all add up to nearly 30,000 people, and there is a lot of pressure on our side!" ”

Li Weiguo waved his hand and said, "There is no need for that for the time being!" The Jiangdong battalion cannot afford to lose, we have to guard against the Taiping army, these people have no overall view at all, and the invasion of foreign enemies will not only not jointly resist external humiliation, but may even fall into the well and attack us from behind. ”

Chen Jingnan agreed: "That's right! The Taiping Army's worship of God is said to be similar to the Christianity of the foreigners, and it is not excluded that Hong Xiuquan secretly reached an agreement with the foreigners, and it is very necessary for the Fifth Town to stay in the Dantu as a reserve. Besides, even if you really need it, with the convenience of the railway, you can return to the aid in a few hours, so you don't have to worry about it at all. ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "There is no need to return to help, I believe that the combat effectiveness of the new Shanghai army will definitely be able to overwhelm the enemy, you don't have to doubt that the advanced degree of the patriotic rifle is enough to crush the British, French and American coalition forces that use muskets!" ”

Seeing Li Weiguo so confident, Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan were also happy in their hearts, but the two of them were still drumming in their hearts, a little nervous and worried, after all, they knew how powerful the foreigners were, and it was still unknown whether the Shanghai army could beat each other.

For senior strategists like Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan, they like to control everything and don't like the unknown, because there are too many uncertainties in the unknown, and once they make a mistake in judgment, it will be a fiasco, so they can't put their minds at ease without seeing the results of the battle between the Shanghai army and the foreigners.

Li Weiguo doesn't say much, let's talk with facts! (To be continued......)