Faced with the consuls of the three countries' request to open Nanjing as a treaty port and free entry and exit of merchant ships on the Yangtze River, Lin Zhe did not arbitrarily and directly refuse, although he never intended to agree.

In fact, there is nothing to open more ports for trade, it is nothing more than more places to do business, and it does not mean that the ports are directly ceded to these foreigners, but the ensuing navigation rights of the Yangtze River cannot be given at will.

Once approved, the next day the British river gunboats would begin to patrol the Yangtze River, and the capital of Nanjing, at that time, would be within the range of the foreigners' guns, a situation that Lin Zhe could not bear.

But even if you don't agree, you can't refuse now, because it will seriously damage the harmonious relationship with foreigners.

In this regard, Lin Zhe's plan is to delay it for a while, now all the energy of the empire is focused on fighting against the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, once there is a direct conflict with the foreigners, it will be difficult for him to free up his hands to deal with these foreign armies when the time comes.

Therefore, Lin Zhe's plan was to drag it out first, wait for himself to clean up the main force of the Qing court's army in northern Jiangsu, and then turn back to deal with these foreigners.

When the time comes, whether it is a negotiation or a direct war, you will have a way to deal with it.

As for now, if you don't agree or refuse, you drag it out, anyway, in the past few years, the time required for communication and exchange and troop mobilization is calculated in months, and when the British issue an ultimatum to themselves, it is estimated that they will be completely prepared for war, and when the time comes, whether it is fighting or talking, will they have the confidence.

The consuls of the three countries could not get an accurate reply from Lin Zhe, and after a few days in Nanjing, they returned to Shanghai. As for how they reported the relevant situation of the Chinese Empire to other countries, this was something that Lin Zhe could not guess.

But their arrival also made Lin Zhe vigilant!

In the past, I had a good relationship with these foreigners. But when it comes to the critical moment, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not use the knife against themselves.

Therefore, it is necessary to further speed up the expansion of the Royal Army of Lin Zhe Jude, and the formation of the Sixth Division must be put on the agenda!

Soon after the consuls of the Three Kingdoms left Nanjing, Lin Zhe ordered the Sixth Division to officially begin its formation, and the place of training was not in Zhejiang or Nanjing, but in Songjiang Mansion, and specially ordered to give priority to the supply of ordnance required by the Sixth Division.

There was already a Seventh Division on the Shanghai side. If the Sixth Division is also trained there, the Royal Army will be able to have more than 16,000 troops in the Shanghai area in the future, and it will barely be enough to deal with a possible foreign landing army. Even if you can't fight, you can delay for a certain amount of time and wait for you to draw reinforcements from other fronts.

At the same time, Lin Zhe also instructed the naval side. Training should be strengthened. At the same time, 500,000 yuan was allocated to build ships, so that they could order more warships and purchase more naval guns.

Although the navy didn't know why Lin Zhe was generous, he directly gave 500,000 yuan to build a ship, but it was definitely not their style to take the money, and after taking the money, the navy immediately placed orders with Shanghai Shipyard and Linde Machinery Factory, respectively, to order two 1,000-ton steam dark wheel wooden warships. In addition, a number of river gunboats were ordered, as well as the naval guns needed for the above-mentioned warships.

So. The navy has ordered three 1,000-ton steam dark wheel warships, of which the first ship Suzhou has completed the main construction and launched, is currently outfitting, is expected to be commissioned within a month, the two newly ordered ships are expected to be launched and commissioned next year.

However, even with these three warships, the strength of the Royal Navy is still quite weak, and there are only six warships with a scale of several hundred tons, of which only four can be used for far-sea operations, and two are limited by the size of the ship can only fight in the near sea.

Compared with the scarcity of large warships, the number of river gunboats is relatively large, of which there are only 16 Xingwu-class gunboats, and six improved versions of the Xingwu-class have been put into service, and another six are under construction.

In addition, there were two large river gunboats with a tonnage of 400 tons, but they were specially used for inland river operations.

On the whole, the naval strength that has been developed for several years is still very weak, and if it starts a war with the great powers, it is estimated that even a detachment of other countries will not be able to defeat it.

However, Lin Zhe did not expect the navy to play much of a role, once he fought with the great powers, Lin Zhe only relied on the army, as for the navy, it can only be said to be a psychological comfort, better than nothing.

The consuls of the three kingdoms left Nanjing, although it aroused Lin Zhe's vigilance, but soon Lin Zhe put these things down, and the most important thing now is not to compete with the foreign powers for interests, but to destroy the Manchu army gathered in northern Jiangsu first.

"Now Shi Qingxuan, where is he?" At the routine daily briefing, Lin Zhe asked Shi Langyi like this.

Shi Langyi, the chief of the Joint Staff, was naturally clear about the movements of the various troops, and immediately said: "At present, the Third Division of the First Army, the 19th Auxiliary Defense Division, and the 20th Assistant Defense Division have arrived in Bengbu, and it is expected that they will be able to join the First Division and other units of the First Army within three days!" ”

Lin Zhe nodded after hearing this: "This marching speed is okay!" ”

"The departments of the First Army are advancing lightly and are not carrying too many baggage supplies, so the speed of this march is naturally faster!" Shi Lang Yi Road:

"However, we have received accurate information, and another Qing army has reinforced the direction of Suqian, and the Qing army has increased to more than 30,000 in this place, so if the first army wants to successfully take Suqian to reinforce Huai'an, it is still relatively difficult!"

The Chinese army has recently transferred troops to the direction of northern Jiangsu, and the Qing army has not been idle, and has been sending troops south to reinforce northern Jiangsu since a few months ago, and troops from Henan, Shandong, Zhili, and even from Mongolia, Northeast, Shanxi and other places have come over.

The area of Huai'an and Suqian in northern Jiangsu has become a magnet, attracting many Qing and Chinese troops.

Almost every day, new reinforcements arrived in the area, and the continuous increase in the strength of the two sides also led to frequent skirmishes between the two sides, and the area of engagement was the largest outside Huai'an.

In Andong County, northwest of Huai'an City, Jiangsu, a Chinese army of 800 people is walking on the field!

Judging from their clothing, they are a very typical mixed Chinese army. There are soldiers of the Aldefence Force in disorganized costumes, as well as soldiers of the Royal Army wearing uniform of the same dark blue.

At present, only the Royal Army and the Royal Navy of the Chinese Army have been uniformed with uniforms, and the Auxiliary Defense Force. Scoring, several of the early auxiliary divisions have a unified uniform, and the style of their soldiers' uniforms is somewhat different from that of the Royal Army, the color is based on gray, and the pants have no division of the color of the troops, because all the soldiers of the auxiliary defense army are all infantry, and there is no need to score.

As for the officers in the Auxiliary Defense Force. Although they serve in the Auxiliary Division, they are strictly speaking officers of the Royal Army, so they wear the uniform of Royal Army officers.

However, the distribution of uniform dark gray uniforms was limited to the 1st to 8th Auxiliary Defense Divisions. However, the 11 auxiliary defense divisions established this year, that is, the 11 auxiliary defense divisions after the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, are limited by time and military spending problems, and have not popularized uniform uniforms on a large scale on a large scale for the time being. So much so that some units have military uniforms. Others were forced to wear civilian costumes or simply continue to use the uniforms of the former Qing or Taiping armies.

Some people may say that this will lead to indistinguishability due to the use of previous military uniforms, and there is no need to worry about this, because all the soldiers of the Chinese Army have bald heads or inch heads, and they can see a bald head from a distance, and it is difficult to distinguish them.

This Chinese army in Andong County today. It was an infantry company belonging to the 5th Infantry Division of the 5th Army and a musket battalion belonging to the 10th Auxiliary Defense Division.

I saw them walking on a dirt road in the countryside, and the soldiers walked forward step by step with their guns on their shoulders. On either side were officers on horseback.

At this time, the surroundings were so quiet that several officers on horses couldn't help but close their eyes and want to squint for a while.

But soon there was a sound of horses' hooves in front of him, which broke the silence of the countryside, and one of the captains at the head opened his eyes, and saw that the cavalry in front of him, also wearing dark blue uniforms, was coming quickly on horseback, and soon he rode to the captain:

"Report, enemy troops have been spotted ahead!"

When the captain heard this, the fatigue on his face disappeared instantly, and he immediately said, "How many people are there?" ”

The cavalry quickly replied: "Located about three kilometers in front of us, looking at the direction should be to the county town of Andong, the enemy army has about 1,500 people, including 500 musket troops, 150 cavalry troops, and the rest are cold weapon troops!" ”

"Fifteen hundred? This vote can be done, Company Commander Li, or we will fight once? A lieutenant next to him said.

Captain Li did not answer immediately, the enemy army has 1,500 men, which is nothing. Five hundred musketeers armed with arquebuses or smoothbore guns are not to be worried, but the key thing is that there are still 150 cavalry inside, and if this fights, the cavalry of the opposing side will be a great variable, and the slightest carelessness will cause a catastrophe.

However, at this time, another second lieutenant said: "Company commander, let's fight, we were originally going to attack Andong County, if we let the other party enter the city first, then they rely on the strong city to defend it, it will be difficult for us to take Andong County again!" ”

Captain Li was calculating the gains and losses in his heart, and it was difficult to make a decision for a while, and this time he led his army north, and he accepted the order to capture the county seat of Andong.

Previous intelligence showed that the main forces of the Qing army were gathered in Huai'an City, and they did not deploy many troops to the cities around Huai'an City, because they were also afraid of being broken by the Chinese army, so the main forces were hoarded in Huai'an City.

Since the Qing army hoarded Huai'an, the Chinese army would not be able to take Huai'an City for a while and a half, so it simply cleaned up the surrounding area first, which is located about 40 kilometers northwest of Huai'an City, and the Qing army did not have many troops here, and there were only more than 1,000 people before.

Therefore, the military headquarters transferred an infantry company of the 5th Division, and then a musket battalion of the 10th Auxiliary Defense Division, with a total of nearly 800 people to Anton.

But now there are more than 1,000 Qing troops in front of them, and they are also going in the direction of Anton, once they arrive at Andong in advance, they will gather with the enemy army in the city at that time, and it will be difficult to fight on their side.

But if you catch up directly with the war now, there are many unknown changes, after all, the 800 people under his command are only half of the troops on the opposite side, and only 100 of the 800 people are Royal Army soldiers, and the others are all soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Army.

But soon he didn't have to think about whether to fight or not, because not long after, a group of cavalry wearing Qing army uniforms appeared.

They were discovered by the Qing army at the same time! (To be continued......)