After some beating by Li Yongji, the representatives of all parties finally returned to their own territory one after another with trepidation, and they all planned to make a statement to their masters after they returned, and they all wanted to persuade their masters to accept Li Yongji's conditions, and not to play half-hearted and pretend to shirk that way, because it was too dangerous.

It can be said that although Li Yongji is too young, when facing him, many people feel that there is a feeling of being overwhelmed by Mount Tai, and this feeling is not only his identity as an emperor, but also more important is his toughness that cannot be refused and the absolute strength that supports his tough attitude.

However, not everyone dislikes Li Yongji, and some people feel that he has a real kingly bearing, but they are impressed by this, and some even plan to stay in office. For example, Li Hongzhang, he planned to stay and look for new opportunities, and as for the responsibility of delivering a message to Zeng Guofan, he was handed over to Zeng Guoquan.

"What? Shaoquan, you don't plan to go back? Hearing Li Hongzhang's plan, Zeng Guoquan, who came with him, was also taken aback, "Do you want to stay?" Want to be an official here? ”

"Yes." Li Hongzhang nodded, "Yuan Fu, it's not that I don't miss the old feelings, but now that the situation in the world has been decided, Zeng Gong can't stop Li Yongji at all, even if I go back, it's useless...... In short, I want to stay and see the opportunity, if it can really work, enter their central court, this is also a good thing for Zeng Gong, isn't it? ”

"Hmm." Zeng Guoquan snorted sullenly, stopped talking, and just drank sullenly.

"Hey." Li Hongzhang sighed, "Go back and talk to Zeng Gong well, just tell you and I what I have seen and heard here, I believe that with Zeng Gong's knowledge, I will definitely not do unwise things." ”

"I know." Zeng Guoquan drank another glass of wine, "Our Hunan army is not an elite army at all, no, the opponent of the Chinese army." They don't need to send any elites, as long as they send 100,000 militia to crush us.

Hey, I don't know, it turns out that they have two million troops silently, and more than half of them are equipped with foreign guns and cannons, even those who don't have foreign guns and cannons are steel knives made of stainless steel! This gap ...... It's not going to be able to fight at all!

If you want me to see, don't talk about us, even the Qing court is not their opponent! It's really weird, I think of our Hunan army. Tighten their belts, only so much possessions, but they seem to be able to pull up a large army casually, I really wonder where they got so much money, where did they get so many weapons. ”

"It is said that there are foreigners who support them." Li Hongzhang said, "But this is also hearsay, because it seems that the relationship between the foreigners and him is not very good, otherwise, can he declare war with the Russians?" ”

"Declare war on the Russians. And not a declaration of war on the British, the French. Zeng Guoquan pursed his lips, "It's not that I don't know anything, I know that the British and the French and the Russians are not of the same mind, maybe the British and the French support Li Yongji." Oh, and the Americans. ”

"It's not as easy as you think." Li Hongzhang shook his head, "In short, there are a lot of strange things in this. That's why I wanted to stay, and I had to go inside them to know more. ”

"How. Your brother has been there for so long, and he hasn't asked for much useful information? Zeng Guoquan said with a smile.

"He has been locked up in a military academy to study, and there is no news about it." Li Hongzhang was not surprised that Zeng Guoquan knew about Li Hezhang, but said lightly, "The Qingpu Military Academy is very strict, and it is usually not allowed to leave the school, even if it is a correspondence with my family, I have to check it, and I haven't been in touch with him for a long time."

Besides, even if he can spread the news, it is useless, his status is too small, and he can't inquire about many useful things at all, at most, he can learn some training methods of the Chinese army. ”

"Hmph." Zeng Guoquan drank a glass of wine again, and then simply picked up the wine jug and poured wine into his mouth, but he didn't pay attention to Li Hongzhang anymore.

Seeing him like this, Li Hongzhang shook his head, slowly stood up, and left here playfully, leaving him to drink alone, even though this was originally his room.

Out of the room door, Li Hongzhang came to the courtyard, walked a few steps behind his back, and then stood still in the middle, looking at the bright crescent moon in the sky.

Look, look, after watching it for a long time, he exhaled lightly and smiled slightly: "It's just a matter of starting all over again, and if you change your path, you may not have a chance to get ahead." ”

……

By the end of May 1860, warlords in various places began to change their flags one after another, and by mid-June 1860, except for a very few places in Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Northeast China, all other provinces had issued statements expressing their acceptance of the leadership of the Chinese Empire and becoming an autonomous province of the Chinese Empire.

After their announcement, the national defense forces at all levels, which had been prepared for a long time, marched into the provincial capitals or strategic points of these provinces as a symbol of central sovereignty and a guarantee of power for the Chinese Empire.

With the arrival of the National Defense Forces, there are also airborne cadres at all levels selected by the central government, such as officials of the National Taxation Bureau, internal affairs commissioners who supervise local government affairs, and so on, all of whom have been stationed in the bureaucratic system of provinces at all levels, and have become the eyes and ears of the central government to control the localities.

In this way, although the autonomous provinces at all levels still have a great deal of autonomy, the military and diplomatic powers are transferred to the central government, and the other most important aspect of tax collection is equally divided, so that the strong and weak branches are tantamount to the strong and weak branches, and the local governments no longer have the strength to confront the central government, so it is not too much to say that de facto unification has been achieved.

After all, after so long of war, everyone also hopes to live a peaceful life in a few years, and the new dynasty has a new atmosphere, and everyone also hopes that under the new dynasty, life can be better than before.

Under the rule of this general trend, even Chen Yucheng and Hong Tianfugui had to bow their heads in the end, but they did not want to surrender to Li Xiucheng, who had become the National Guard of the Chinese Empire, but wanted to surrender directly to other elite units of the Imperial Army.

Of course, there was no problem with this kind of small request, Li Yongji quickly assigned a messenger from the Internal Affairs Office, with a regiment of the mighty army, to the city of Nanchang, at the gate of Nanchang City, and accepted the surrender of Chen Yucheng and Hong Tianfugui and others.

After surrendering, Li Yongji did not embarrass Chen Yucheng and them, but went with them, that is, they were all free. You can go wherever you want.

Hong Tianfugui has no ambition for a long time, and only wants to live a happy life as a rich man, so he brought a batch of gold and silver treasures that he had looted before, and bought a big mansion on the outskirts of Nanchang with his brothers and other relatives, and a group of cronies.

Chen Yucheng is different, he doesn't want to return to the field, but he doesn't want to enter politics, so he chooses to continue to lead the troops, but because he still wants to lead his own soldiers and horses. Therefore, you can't be a Wehrmacht or even a Praetorian Guard, you can only be a National Guard, and your salary is also paid in proportion to the National Guard.

In other words, Chen Yucheng became a division commander of the National Guard, with a quota of 10,000 National Guards, but his station was not in Nanchang, but was assigned to the First Military Region, and the garrison's camp was in Beijing.

This was certainly not intended to embarrass him, but his own request. Because Chen Yucheng still wanted to fight and fight with the Qing army, he took the initiative to ask to go to the north.

In this regard, Li Yongji is very generous. He was simply assigned to the First Military Region, and although the weapons were not issued, because they had to be reissued after Beijing, other supplies such as clothing and salaries were issued on time and in accordance with the treatment of the National Guard. Of course, personnel from the divisional staff and officers from the Judge Advocate General's Office had to be sent in order to facilitate the monitoring of this unit. This is also the proper meaning.

On the contrary, Li Xiucheng did not want to continue to lead the troops, but handed over the military power and became the mayor of Jiujiang City, which can be regarded as abandoning the army and joining politics.

After Chen Yucheng and Hong Tianfugui surrendered, even if the Taiping army really disappeared, even if there were still some remnants, it was just a small trouble.

Although there is still a soldier and horse of Shi Dakai in Nanning, with a total strength of more than 50,000 people, Shi Dakai has long been not from the Kingdom of Heaven, but has been divided into separate forces, and with a national defense force of more than 10,000 people going to Guilin, the shape has become more and more unfavorable to him.

In fact, since Peng Dashun and Zhu Yidian led an army of 100,000 to leave, Shi Dakai has already rebelled and left, and he has long lost his ambition and fighting spirit.

If it weren't for the oppression of the Qing army around him, if he wasn't afraid that the retreat to the mountains and forests would be counterattacked, he would have chosen to retreat long ago.

In fact, Li Yongji's rise has helped Shi Dakai, if it weren't for Li Yongji's rapid rise, especially the rapid turn of face with the Qing court, the local government of Guizhou in Guangxi was at a loss, and he was not busy exterminating Shi Dakai in Nanning, Shi Dakai's life in the past two years would not have been so nourishing.

Nearly two years have passed, although he has not conquered the city again, but the local people's livelihood has been managed by him well, at least the food has been self-sufficient, no longer as in the past.

Of course, it is precisely because of the ease of life that he has more time to think about the future, especially to give him time to gather intelligence.

Therefore, when he knew that the land of the Central Plains had changed and successively annexed the Chinese Empire, especially after Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng also surrendered, he gradually had the intention of surrendering.

Originally, he wanted to take care of it and ask Li Yongji to send someone to recruit him, but unfortunately, he couldn't wait left or right, so he couldn't help but become arrogant.

This is purely because the place where he lives is too far away, and he is usually too honest, so that Li Yongji has forgotten about his stubble, you must know that Li Yongji is very busy, he is now busy with the navy, busy monitoring the Russians, how can there be air traffic control.

On the contrary, it was Shen Shiming, who was conscientious in managing the State Council, and noticed him, the famous wing king, so he sent 10,000 national defense troops to Guilin at the same time, and also ordered the governor of Guangxi (the governor is the official name of the highest military and political governor of the autonomous province, which is slightly different from the province directly under the central government, for example, Zeng Guofan is the governor of Hunan) to go all out to suppress it.

At this moment, Shi Dakai was a little unbearable, especially when he learned that most of the country was peaceful, he knew that he was unable to support himself at all, and he would definitely not be able to resist the regular army of the Chinese Empire like a wolf.

In this way, Shi Dakai didn't even have the intention of resisting, so he simply asked for surrender himself, and after Shen Shiming made Li Yongji clear, he finally reminded Li Yongji of the character Shi Dakai, so he approved his request for surrender.

Originally, Li Yongji thought that with Shi Dakai's current mentality, nine times out of ten he would be in politics or return to the field, but he didn't expect Shi Dakai to ask to continue to lead the troops, and he also took the initiative to ask to go to Beijing and ask to fight the Qing army!

This made Li Yongji a little surprised, after all, this was a bit unexpected to him, didn't it mean that Shi Dakai was depressed, why did he still want to fight?

In fact, Shi Dakai's so-called depression was caused by discouragement after continuous betrayals and blows, and it was a last resort, but he still had a fire in his heart.

Especially when he heard that Li Xiucheng actually led his troops north to fight the Qing army, the pride of the past also grew little by little, hoping to make contributions again under the new dynasty.

No matter what he thought, in short, he made a request, and Li Yongji also gave him permission to continue to lead the troops.

However, Shi Dakai was even more ruthless than Chen Yucheng, and he actually asked to be a member of the National Defense Force, not an officer of the National Guard.

In other words, his soldiers can be appointed by the imperial court, but he must be the division commander of the Wehrmacht.

It's not that he doesn't know that almost all the officers and soldiers of the National Defense Force are uniformly recruited and trained by the State Council, and there are also supervision agencies such as the General Staff Department and the Military Judge Advocate General's Office, and they all have political studies, and from the first day of a soldier's service, they must constantly swear allegiance to Li Yongji's portrait, and they are all a group of brainwashing soldiers, and it is impossible to have a heart with Shi Dakai, and they will definitely not become Shi Dakai's private army.

But he did it anyway, because he had had enough, he just wanted to lead the troops to fight with peace of mind, and he didn't want to care about those people's hearts and minds and all the other mess.

In this way, Shi Dakai became a major general and division commander of the National Defense Army, and was also transferred to the First Military Region and assigned to the First War Zone.

With Shi Dakai's public surrender, there are basically no major rebellions in the entire land of China except for the northeast, northwest and southwest regions, or even if there is a rebellion, it will not be a climate for the time being.

So, on the surface, by the end of June 1861, the world had finally been reunited in a relatively peaceful manner. After the reunification, the Chinese Empire can finally be called the Celestial Empire, and it can finally call itself Chinese orthodoxy in the name of righteousness. (To be continued......)