Gioulai and Brückney looked at each other, both of them a little incomprehensible.

Brückny asked: "I agree not to attack the city for the time being, but why did we Prussia and Austria stay?" Isn't it too much to leave a few dozen warships in Shanghai? There is no force here that can threaten us, and the dozen or so warships of the Navy of the Democratic Alliance should be lurking in the depths of the Yangtze River and will rush downstream at any time. ”

Raglan smiled slightly: "The Yangtze River goes up to the waterway narrower, there are too many warships, but they will be crowded together and lose flexibility, and the mine technology of the Democratic Alliance is quite advanced, now he has not cast, it does not mean that it will not be cast in the future, we must have enough ships to carry out uninterrupted patrols on the river from Shanghai to Nanjing, so that he does not have the opportunity to lay mines, so there are dozens of warships left in Shanghai." ”

Fernand also said: "Mr. Brückney, if you and Mr. Gille are not willing to stay in Shanghai, then I will exchange with you on behalf of Spain, and you can be responsible for a piece of the river upstream." ”

I didn't understand it before, so I asked Raglan a question, but now I understand that in the thinking of Giwulai and Brückney, the real battle must start from the upstream, because the warships of the Democratic Alliance are hiding upstream, and the downstream is next to the sea, which is relatively safer than the upstream.

Moreover, the distribution of the spoils of war is based on the proportion of the capital ships currently held, that is to say, even if no shots are fired or not fired, the two countries can still be divided into five or six, which has nothing to do with the size of the output.

Austria and Prussia are already the weakest, and they are happy to stand by and watch, Fernand is taking people for fools, right?

Brunick's face sank immediately and he said, "We obey Mr. Raglan's arrangement. Willing to be stationed in Shanghai. ”

Raglan glanced at the two men with a smirk, and said, "Gentlemen, I must remind you once again that it is enough to just guard the harbor, and not to try to storm the city until the real battle begins. Don't leave the range of naval guns, okay, let's go, occupy our first foothold in China! ”

The flag bearer immediately waved his flag.

Suddenly, the whistle sounded, and one by one the battleships sailed to the Shanghai wharf, and from the next day, except for the Austrian-Prussian fleet left to patrol the river around Shanghai, the British, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese warships sailed upstream with their respective transport ships. In just a few days, from the Xiaguan wharf in Nanjing to the wharf in Shanghai, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were completely occupied by the allied forces.

The Baoshan Iron and Steel Works was unsurprisingly destroyed the next day, and the Sardinian-invested Iron and Steel Plant, which was next to the Steel Mountain Iron and Steel Works, was preserved, as it was a Sardinian sole proprietorship.

Although Sardinia was a small country in the eyes of the Great Powers, and even had a feud with Austria, it had a special relationship with France. is protected by the French government, not to mention that Cavour's baby daughter made Wang Feng a lover. Wang Feng and France are in the honeymoon period, and this face still needs to be given, so the French consul in Shanghai, Mintiny, specially found the coalition forces to say hello, but the condition is that before the end of the war, the blast furnace can only maintain the operation of the smoldering furnace. A single piece of steel must not be shipped out.

Although the coalition forces occupied the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there was no major movement for the time being, because the Qing army did not dare to launch a large-scale offensive without the certainty of victory, whether it was Li Hongzhang. is still a monk and a reckless person, once one side launches a full-scale attack, the other side will definitely respond sideways, but the problem is that the Russian army's accident was annihilated and disrupted their deployment, which is equivalent to three sharp knives being broken off.

On the contrary, after the occupation of Jingxiang by the Democratic Alliance Army, it was equivalent to changing from the original two sharp knives in northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu into three, forming a clamping posture against the Huai Army and Hunan Army in eastern Henan and northern Anhui, and seizing the strategic commanding heights in one fell swoop.

It is about 240 kilometers from Xiangyang to Xinyang, and about 200 kilometers from Nanyang to Xinyang, the distance is very close, if the Democratic Alliance Army sends troops from Jingxiang, it can be under the city of Xinyang in three or two days, and the Russian army of 50,000 people is completely annihilated, Zuo Zongtang led his troops to retreat into the northwest, in fact, Xinyang is put in danger, once Xinyang is lost, Fuyang and Bozhou are located in the Huaixi Plain, and there is no danger to defend at all, and the strategic situation will become more passive.

Although the Qing army has an advantage over the Democratic Alliance in terms of numbers, its combat effectiveness and weaponry are at a disadvantage, and if the number of troops is reduced, the concentration of troops by the Democratic Alliance to attack one of the cities will make the war situation more dangerous, and if the Huaibei battlefield is completely defeated, it will be difficult for the 200,000 Eight Banner soldiers in Shandong to be left alone, and perhaps next year, the city of Beijing will change hands.

Since ancient times, Jingxiang sent troops, but to attack Wanluo in the north, take Jiangdong in the east, enter Yizhou in the west, and go to Huxiang in the south, the strategic position is extremely important, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Jingxiang's unexpected loss is a move to the whole body.

In the Bozhou base camp, when November 5, after receiving the news of the loss of Jingxiang, "Hey~~" Zeng Guofan sighed heavily: "I can't imagine that the Russians are so useless, and the emperor still has high hopes in vain, although there are foreigners entering the Yangtze River now, the situation is still extremely unfavorable to our Qing Dynasty."

What's even more worrying is that the short-haired material reserves are abundant, and we should rely on the foreigners to provide the ordnance consumption, and the foreigners cross the ocean, and it is not easy to transport, and whether the uninterrupted supply can be guaranteed when the war is fierce, this is also a problem.

In addition, in terms of grain and grass, due to the cut off of transportation in recent years, the reserve granaries of the court have gradually bottomed out, and the grain production in the north is not as good as that in the south, and the land of Jianghuai is used as a battlefield, and the harvest will inevitably be cut off at the turn of spring and summer next year.

But take the initiative to attack, the odds of winning are not very great, since the official recruited Xiang Yong to fight with the bandits seven years ago, even if he has been defeated several times, he has never been so restrained, gradually Fu (Li Hongzhang's table), you have always been resourceful, can you have a good way to break the game? ”

To tell the truth, Li Hongzhang also had a headache about the current situation, and he pondered for a long time before arching his hand: "Now it's not only our army that is militarily weak, I'm afraid the teacher has also seen a large number of photos spread by short hair, all of which are Russians wantonly abusing the people in Nanyang and doing whatever they want."

I'm not afraid of the teacher's blame, the first time I saw it, I was also angry, I hated to break the Russians into thousands of corpses, and the short-haired all annihilated the Russians, sealed the head of the head Murayoviv, and spread the word to all the prefectures and counties in the world, which was not only avenged for the people of Nanyang, but also occupied the moral high ground, coupled with the fiercely worded article in the "Xinhua Daily", wherever the photo was disseminated, it was a great increase in fame.

What is even more worrying is that in exchange for the Russians sending troops, the court ceded a secret agreement to Russia about the millions of miles north of the Heilongjiang River and south of the Outer Xing'an Mountains to Russia.

Shorthair seized the opportunity and invited many renegade Confucian scholars to attack the emperor for betraying the country and betraying his ancestors in the "Xinhua Daily" one after another. ”

also sighed, Li Hongzhang shook his head and said: "Based on the above, the longer it drags on, the more unfavorable it will be to my Daqing, if you want to get out of the predicament, only by defeating the short hair in a short period of time can you seal the mouth of the people in the world!" ”

Zeng Guofan nodded and said: "It's simple to seal the mouths of the people in the world, my Qing Dynasty from Kangxi to Qianlong, there are countless literary prisons, and it is only when Daoguang Ye slightly loosens the ban, but how difficult it is to solve it quickly!" ”

Li Hongzhang pondered: "Now there is only one way, ask the foreign warships to go up the Yangtze River, capture Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou, cut off the connection between the short-haired Jingxiang and Xianghu, and then send a temporary avoidance of the Hanzhong Jiang Zhonghei and the Sichuan soldiers to attack Jingxiang, or there can be a turnaround, please ask the teacher and me to jointly revise the book and send it to the commander of the coalition army, Mr. Raglan, what do you think?" ”

"Good!" Zeng Guofan didn't have a better way, and nodded.

The letter was sent out on the same day, but because the entire line along the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Wuhan was occupied by the Democratic League, it would take a long time to take a detour by sea to reach Raglan, so Zeng and Li had to wait patiently.

And nearly ten days ago, the NLD Navy hidden in Palawan heard the news of the coalition fleet's outpouring of the nest, so it immediately sailed out and went straight to Singapore!

The fleet was hidden in the Sulu Sea east of Palawan, and it took five days to cross the rugged waterway into the South China Sea, and by this day it was already in the vicinity of the Tsangmu Shoal, a thousand kilometers from Singapore.

In November, the South China Sea sky was blue, the wind was soft, it was the best season of the year, including the transport ships, 70 ships were pulling off the sails, relying on the wind to sail, after all, they had been lurking outside for a long time, the food was better, the fishing industry in the South China Sea was very rich at that time, and the whole army of 12,000 people could make a living by relying on all kinds of canned food and fishing, and what was lacking was only fresh water and fruits, and what needed to be saved more was coal.

Fresh water and fruits can rob the fishing boats of the indigenous people of the Philippines and Indonesia, although compared to the navy of 12,000 people, the harvest on the fishing boats is very limited, but no matter how small the mosquito is, it is meat, right?

The process of robbery is almost the same as that of modern society, once a fishing boat is found, it is first forced to stop by firing cannons, and then going on the boat to search for and arrest, and all the valuable materials are robbed, and finally the fishermen kill and extinguish the mouth, and the boat is scuttled on the spot.

But the coal can't be robbed, the fishing boat is sail-powered, there is no steam engine, the limited coal in the army can only be used at the most critical time, but if the sail is purely used, it will take five or six days to reach Singapore. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass in Pailong Bay~~~~