Hurd, who came out of the compound of the military government in Guangdong, briefly met with the consuls of Britain, France, the United States, and Germany in Guangzhou, and then went directly to Hong Kong by boat. The British Governor of Hong Kong was Kennedy. Before Hurd arrived in Hong Kong, he had already received a telegram from the consul in Guangzhou.

God, it's incredible. Is he crazy? ‘

Kennedy looked at the message and let out the same emotion as Hurd. But when I think about it, it seems that London really has the possibility of agreeing.

First of all, Liu Xian drew a big pie.

It is true that he took away the power and benefits won by Britain in more than 30 years of pioneering, but he gave the promise of free trade and the opening of the country. This is extremely tempting for factory entrepreneurs in Europe. For this, it seems that customs duties can also be considered. And isn't there a most-favored-nation treatment?

Secondly, consular jurisdiction, no country of strength, will tolerate this disgrace.

Finally, there is the issue of Hong Kong, the free port and the New Territories, condominium, for London, this is a difficult choice.

In this case, the notorious opium and chip trade did not seem to be a problem. What's more, laws have been introduced in China to restrict the trade in opium and chips. [It is not a prohibition of buying and selling. Before 1868 in Britain, opium was freely traded. It's like buying a box of cigarettes now. At that time, there were no known number of opium and film smokers in the whole of Britain. 】

Of course, what frightened Kennedi the most was Liu Xian's strength and his attitude towards the war.

Million? Ten million?

For densely populated China, 10 million people is a price to pay. "Sacrifice today in exchange for the glory of tomorrow." A very imposing and bold word. This is the demeanor of the superior!

But this is an unimaginable loss for the British.

100,000, 200,000, 500,000, 1 million soldiers can fight on the battlefield. Then Britain only needs a tenth of them, and the whole society will become turbulent and shaken.

Moreover, according to the Qin army's appearance and combat effectiveness, it is difficult to completely defeat the Qin army, which has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and sufficient reserves, even if it pulls in all the troops of the entire British Alliance countries. The enormous cost and cost is not something that Britain can tolerate and pursue.

Britain has no land desire for China. Kennedy knows this!

China is not India. In the original definition, London made this clear.

In the afternoon, Hurd arrived in Hong Kong, where he had a detailed conversation with Kennedy, along with Vice Admiral Ryddle of the British Royal Navy, the commander of the Chinese fleet.

"We've got to give him some color. The reputation of the British Empire was not something that he, the head of an Eastern rebel army, could ignore. ”

As a soldier, a vice admiral, Reddell is proud. He looked down on China's navy, whether it was a naval division or a Nanyang naval division.

However, neither Kennedy nor Hurd took his words.

Can the strength of the Chinese fleet withstand the current Nanyang naval division? Is Redder really sure of victory? London didn't speak, where did he get the guts to shoot? If the British warships were dispatched, but they confronted the Nanyang Naval Division, and Rydel, who could not fire the cannons, why would he add glory to the British Empire?

This guy is just showing his attitude!

The 'Chinese warships' in the British Royal Navy were the British Far East Fleet in the future. Ten years earlier, it had officially disassociated itself from the British East India Fleet and had become a separate army.

By 1869, it had a total of 19 ships, the largest of which was the flagship Odisha with a displacement of 3,774 tons, which was an ironclad battleship. It was followed by the Telia with 1459 tons, which was a cruiser. The rest belonged to gunboats and sailboats. The names are Cayades, Moldist, Juno, Igisha, Tully, Lundaf, Gruul, Lopven, Gnome, Helnet, Miggi, Sisr, Fly, Ghisreal, Awake, Mosquito, and Svengee. Among them, the "Swenji" is the smallest, with a displacement of only 295 tons.

When Drell came to Hong Kong two years ago, he brought with him a cruiser, the Crouffler, which is now located outside the mouth of Tianjin. In addition, Yantai has the Ghisrael, Shanghai has the Huangpu River on the Talisha, the Motest, and the Awakening, Hankou has the Mosquito, and Xiamen has the Gulu.

Seven warships were outside, and only thirteen British warships were left in Hong Kong.

It's still a formidable force. It is far stronger than the current Nanyang detachment in Lingdingyang, although the other party has just subdued the Guangdong naval division. However, the main force of the Nanyang Fleet was still in Fujian, and there was only one ironclad gunboat, a wooden-hulled cruiser, and two gunboats here in Guangzhou. Not to mention how many of the officers and soldiers who surrendered to the Guangdong Navy Division were willing to fight to the death for the Qin army, even if they were all willing, the six small steam gunboats such as Anlan and Zhentao would not play much role. The British gunboats, which were eight or nine hundred tons and close to a thousand tons, could overturn them with a light yì.

However, as soon as the shells are struck, there is no room for retraction. What kind of attitude the British Empire had towards the Qin army's army needs to be decided by London. It's not for Hurd, Kennedy, or Derrell to decide.

Qin Jun didn't take the initiative to greet the British now, did he?!

As for the news of the request for help urgently transmitted by the Portuguese governor of Macau, Yahuila, during the meeting between the three people, no one turned a blind eye. The Chinese want to restore their own rule in Macao and reopen the Macao customs, which is a Portuguese affair and has nothing to do with the British. At that time, Yamaliu took advantage of the British victory in the War of the First Raven to levy land rent, poll tax and real estate tax on the Chinese residents of Macao, extending his ruling power that he had only the right to exercise over the Portuguese to the Chinese residents. It also ordered all Chinese vessels berthed in Macao to register and pay taxes with the "Harbour Master's Office". He also dug up the graves of villagers in the area of the border gates, sent troops to destroy the Manchu customs in Macao, demolished the stone monument erected at the city hall inscribed with the "Treatise on the Aftermath of Macao", and tried the Chinese in Macao without authorization......

Although Amarlius was beheaded by the Chinese, the Portuguese have been enjoying Amarlius for more than 20 years. Now, it's time for them to pay the price.

According to Marquis Liu's madness towards the British, the Portuguese would not put it in his eyes at all!

The Chinese took back Macau, which was of course the first step for the Chinese to remove the shackles on their bodies, and Kennedy was very worried. But until London's attitude has subsided, he will never say a word about it.

Don't mention any joint pressure and threats, Liu Xian won't pay attention to it at all!

……

Fogang, Longshan Town.

The cannon roared, and dots of black smoke rose from the positions on both sides. The shouts of slaughter can be heard at times, and at other times they are silent.

The sun is sinking in the west, the sky is getting late, and the battlefield of the Shuikoupu of the Yanjiang River, which is reflected red by the sunset, is silent.

"Zhai Guoyan of the dog day!"

Wu Jinzhu lay behind the bunker and cursed hatefully. Zhai Guoyan, the commander of the Guangdong land and water army, restarted the old business of the army under Zhang Zhaodong, and the battlefield layout of Longshan Town was very complete. In particular, the key areas of the Yanjiang River, Shuikoupu and Fist Ridge have all been equipped with capable troops.

Fighting across a river is no better than fighting an offensive battle on flat land. The Qing army was covered by artillery fire again, and its firepower was also quite fierce. The loss of direct hard fight will be very large.

Qi Dalin's subordinates occupied Lege Mountain and Dawang Mountain, and they were already thinking of extending their troops to the west of Longshan Town, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Yanjiang River, and then reverse Longshan Town.

Wu Jinzhu was unwilling. The troops here in Longshan Town belong to him and Li Shien, and if they do it according to Qi Dalin's idea, the two of them will purely cooperate in battle. Wu Jinzhu doesn't want to continue to be a supporting role. He wanted to open a gap from Shuikoupu and rush into the heart of the Qing army on the south bank.

There are Qing troops stationed in the north and south of the river, and most of the area of Longshan Town is in the south of the Yangtze River. The Yanjiang River also forks out a tributary in Longshan Town, flowing southward. Lege Mountain and Dawang Mountain are all located on the west side of this tributary, and the east side of the tributary is the focus of the Qing army's defense.

Because Longshan Town is the lowest place in the whole Fogang, it is a small basin with big mountains to the north, west and east. A river and the flat land around it are the essence of Fogang.

The Qing army held the north bank of the Yan River on the one hand, and then stuck the eastern line of the tributaries of Longshan Town, and the Qin army wanted to conquer Fogang and see the county seat of Fogang, either by detouring hundreds of miles from the west, along the Beijiang River to Yingde County, and then attacking Fogang, or by crossing the mountains and mountains from the east. It's a lot of work!

Wu Jinzhu wanted to come up with real results to stop Qi Dalin. The latter didn't want to pay too heavy a price, and planned to walk an extra two or three hundred miles, and then kill Fogang after taking Yingde, Wu Jinzhu also agreed with Qi Dalin's correct idea that he was unwilling to pay too heavy a price, but he just didn't want to fight his deputy.

People are selfish. No credit, why did he show his face in front of Liu Xian? Why go any further?

So his eyes were nailed to Shuikoupu, as long as he took this place and opened the gap into the Qing army's Jiangnan defensive position, wouldn't it be easy to take away the Qing army in that wave?

It's just because Zhai Guoyan's shrewdness has created considerable trouble for his combat plans!

There is a pontoon bridge at the mouth of the water. Originally, it was built on the basis of twelve wooden boats, which were covered with wooden planks. The iron cable hook is the key point to connect things.

But now everything is gone. Zhai Guoyan put away the iron cable, and the wooden boat went to the county seat along the Yanjiang River. And here a battalion head was arranged, six or seven hundred guards.

The Qing army set up a semi-arc position at the east end of the pontoon bridge, and within 100 meters around the west end, they swept everything away. No people, no houses, no trees, barrier-free areas. All the qiē was clear at a glance, and then they hid behind the fortifications and shot the attackers without cover!

So it's no wonder that Wu Jinzhu angrily scolded Zhai Guoyan.

Not far from Wu Jinzhu, an artillery instructor was shrinking his head, constantly looking at the opposite position. He held a small notebook in his hand, and from time to time he picked up a pencil and wrote and drew on it. Not far from this artillery instructor, the commander of the artillery brigade was also carefully observing and recording the azimuth coordinates, distance, and altitude of the reference objects that were still visible in the Qing army's defense line, and preparing for the coverage of the artillery bombardment. R1152