Li Hanzhang has been a governor and a heavy minister since more than 20 years ago, and he has served as the governor of Liangguang for six years, and his ability to control the territory under his jurisdiction is far from being comparable to Lu Chuanlin and Tao Mo, so Liangguang was successfully liberated peacefully, and none of the prefects and county commanders and generals with troops jumped out to resist.

On the contrary, some people want to take advantage of the chaos to fish in troubled waters, but how can the kind of "revolution" that dares to storm the governor's palace after gathering only a few dozen people and is like child's play succeed?

Especially at this time, there was a full military police regiment stationed in the city of Guangzhou, not only easily suppressed the riot, but also quickly found out the mastermind behind it and wiped it out

Because this incident was too insignificant, the commander of the military police regiment considered that with the surge in the number of biochemical soldiers and the increasing tension of the space on the message board, in order to avoid delaying Li Hui from seeing more important information in time, he did not report to him, but took care of the matter himself, "Anyway, there are no deaths, it's just a trivial matter." ”

After more than three brigades of troops were stationed in Guangdong, it was no longer difficult to take Hong Kong, but the rebels did not attack immediately, because only six old warships of the coastal defense fleet did not defeat the British Far East Fleet.

However, what Deng Shichang didn't expect was that a number of British warships, including the Centurion, sailed out of Victoria Harbour, and Deng Shichang suddenly became nervous, "What should I do?" Do you want to intercept them? ”

Although in the internal assessment of the navy, the Centurion battleship cannot defeat the Haitian-class armored cruisers, it is a fairly new 10,000-ton battleship after all, and it is not something that these two old ironclad ships in Dingzhen can compete with, and as for the four old cruisers with a tonnage of only more than 2,000 tons, they are even less worth mentioning.

Ignoring the difference in the quality of personnel between the two sides, which has not yet been accurately positioned, and comparing them only with hard power, if the coastal defense fleet insists on intercepting this British fleet, it will definitely pay the price of total annihilation, but it is impossible to inflict heavy losses on the enemy

If it was Deng Shichang in the past, maybe he would have ordered it to be intercepted as soon as his brain was hot, but a series of changes and dazzling changes in the current situation in the past few days made him calm down a lot, and after thinking about it again, Deng Shichang gritted his teeth and ordered to avoid it.

It must be admitted that this was a very rational decision, because at this time the six Haitian-class patrols of the Ocean Fleet had just been maintained and repaired in Arthur and Weihai, and it was impossible to rush to Hong Kong in one day anyway, if the six warships of the Haiphong Fleet fought to the death with the British Far East Fleet here, it would actually give the British a chance to break through, and it would not be advantageous diplomatically to launch a surprise attack without declaring war on Britain.

Therefore, although he felt a little sorry for the escape of the British Far East Fleet, Li Hui still silently praised Deng Shichang. He appointed Deng Shichang as the commander of the two Guangzhous, mainly considering that Deng Shichang was a native of Guangdong, which was conducive to winning the hearts and minds of the people in Guangdong, and that the draft of Guangzhou Port was limited, and the Haitian-level patrol could not enter, but now that I think about it, he actually made a fatal mistake in military affairs, but fortunately, Deng Shichang made the correct response, and the British did not seem to be ready to start a war against China immediately, otherwise the losses would be great

"Sending Deng Shichang south is politically advantageous, and it is also convenient for supply and maintenance, but sending the coastal defense fleet under the nose of the British Far East Fleet, which is stronger than them, is actually quite risky militarily, and if the commander of the British Far East Fleet is bold enough, he can take advantage of the fact that the ocean fleet has not arrived, and kill these four warships of the coastal defense fleet without declaring war. Although this is not enough to change the overall situation, the loss of the navy is large, but fortunately he did not make such a decision after all, but I don't know if he did not see that we were preparing to recover Hong Kong, or if he saw it but did not dare to start a war with us without permission."

Just when Li Hui was afraid, a new news came back from the Zhijing 2nd ship, which was far away from the British fleet, and Li Hui stood up suddenly, "What? They didn't go south, but east? ”

"Going to Japan? It is unlikely that if the British Navy were to visit Japan, there would have been diplomatic procedures beforehand, and it would not have been possible for the British Navy to have no news at all. If you don't need to go through the diplomatic process, then it's still in China? A smile gradually appeared on Li Hui's face, he had already guessed the destination of the British Far East Fleet's trip and their motives for this trip

"It seems that the British still don't believe that we dare to do anything to Hong Kong, which has become a British colony, but they are worried that we will send troops to occupy the Shanghai Concession, so they will send the Far East Fleet to support the foreigners there?" , Li Hui couldn't help but sneer after thinking about this, the British Far East Fleet went north to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and it was simply sent to the door to find a fight!

At this time, the Ocean Fleet under the command of Liu Buyun had sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River, and their task was to blockade Shanghai at sea to prevent the foreigners and Qing troops in Shanghai from escaping overseas, and at the same time to threaten Nanjing, exerting pressure on Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and the Nanyang Naval Division to force them to surrender.

Although he is an old rival, Li Hui still asked Li Hongzhang to write a letter to Liu Kunyi, Qingliu wants to save face, which can be regarded as giving him a step. I don't know if this letter played a role, although Liu Kunyi twisted and did not declare the uprising, but after all, he did not dare to order resistance, the rebel army quickly stationed in Nanjing and Shanghai, and then did not want to kill himself The Nanyang Navy Division decisively announced the uprising, and at this time, Liu Kunyi finally announced the "uprising", but was not recognized by Li Hui, only mixed with the treatment of surrender

The Nanyang Naval Division was the second largest fleet in the late Qing Dynasty after the Beiyang Naval Division, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was the largest and most advanced military industrial enterprise in China, and the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau in Nanjing was also very strong, and the strength of the rebel army was significantly enhanced after the takeover, but the impact of Liu Kunyi's surrender was far more than that.

As Liu Kunyi's political successor, and under the pressure of the newly built "Yangtze River Fleet", Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, soon followed the announcement of an uprising, following Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces, Hunan and Hubei were also liberated. )