The Chinese army's large-scale military action against Guangdong is not a whim, but long before the end of the Jiangbei Campaign, the 1858 strategic plan formulated by the Strategic Department of the General Staff Department has included the Guangdong strategy as the core goal of the 1858 strategic plan.

According to the 1858 strategic plan, the main goal, that is, the core of the whole plan, was to march into Zhili, conquer the Jingshi, seize many northern provinces, and completely lay the foundation for the unification of the empire. Because as long as the Chinese army takes Shandong, Zhili and other provinces, it can unceremoniously claim to control most of China, and then whether it is Lin Chengting in Jiangxi or Zeng Guofan in Hunan Province such as Yunguigui and other provinces, or Shi Dakai who is entrenched in Hubei and northern Jiangxi and is marching into Sichuan at the same time, or the remnants of the Qing army in other provinces are not worth mentioning.

However, it was not easy to achieve this strategic goal, and it was not easy for the Chinese army to defeat the Qing army, which still had more than 100,000 or even more than 200,000 troops, so as to seize the northern region.

Because at present, the strength of the Chinese army is still too small, and at the same time, the battle line is getting farther and farther away, which makes it difficult for the Chinese army to mobilize, reinforcements and supplies are very troublesome, and at the same time, several other directions are not characters who are willing to admit defeat, Lin Chengting, Shi Dakai, Zeng Guofan, they can still stand in this country to maintain the identity of chess players, and then play chess with Lin Zhe to dominate Kyushu, which is enough to show that they are not easy to deal with.

Therefore, the Chinese army needs to maintain a large number of troops in Fujian, northern Jiangxi, and Anhui, even if it does not take the initiative to move westward, but it also needs to maintain a large number of troops to prevent accidents. You must know that with the strong rise of the Chinese Empire, it turned out that Jiangxi. The staggered entanglement of the tripartite forces of Zeng Guofan, Lin Chengting, and Shi Dakai in the Huguang region has gradually calmed down, and Lin Chengting has reached a secret agreement with Zeng Guofan in private. Give up looking at each other and aim at the Taipings.

However, after Shi Dakai captured Hubei, although he also sent troops south to Hunan, a considerable part of the troops had already marched into Sichuan, and the Qing army in Sichuan was defeated and retreated, if nothing else, it was only a matter of time before Shi Dakai took Sichuan.

And why did Shi Dakai go to Sichuan, the reason here is not complicated!

That's because the strong rise of the Chinese Empire has put a lot of pressure on him, and if he doesn't want to lose, then he has to control more territory. And then it has to be a place that can be defended.

Sichuan is a very typical place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is quite difficult to enter Sichuan.

Shi Dakai focused his attention on Sichuan, and did not even bother to continue the war with Zeng Guofan in Hunan, where large-scale wars had rarely occurred in recent months.

Why? Because Shi Dakai was going to Sichuan, although he was a little unwilling, he also knew that if he and Shi Dakai fought to the death now, they would be picked up by the Chinese army later. So it's better to bury your head in development and preserve your strength.

In order to allow the Hunan army under his command to obtain more adequate funds, Zeng Guofan has already extended his palm to Liangguang and Yunnan-Guizhou provinces, especially Yunnan-Guizhou provinces, which he used as a rear base.

These people were guarding against Lin Zhe. But the same Lin Zhe also guarded against them, for Lin Zhe, the first task was to destroy the Manchu court, and then it was time to clean up Zeng Guofan and Shi Dakai and others. Now, Lin Zhe doesn't have to. At the same time, there is no extra strength to meddle in the situation in the western provinces.

Therefore, the hoarding of heavy troops in northern Jiangxi and Anhui has become a foregone conclusion, and the hoarding of heavy troops is not for the purpose of advancing westward. It was to prevent Zeng Guofan, Shi Dakai and others from coming out to make trouble when the Chinese army was fighting in the north.

Then there are the Guangdong side and the Fujian side, as well as the Northern Anhui Twist Army like a psoriasis, which involved a large number of troops of the Chinese Army and a lot of war funds.

In order to be able to launch a large-scale war in North China in the future, it is necessary for the Chinese army to obtain more war funds, and it is necessary to clear the dangers in other regions, so as to free up more troops for the Northern Expedition.

At the same time, it was also to be able to control Guangdong earlier, so that the Chinese Empire could gain another rich land.

There are many reasons why there is a Guangdong strategy in early 1858!

Allowing the Third Army to march into Guangdong was not a simple tactical choice, but a part of the overall strategic planning of the Chinese Empire!

And when the Chinese Empire loaded large quantities of war supplies from Shanghai and transported them to southern Fujian to support the Third Army's upcoming campaign against Guangdong.

Lin Zhe heard some words that he didn't want to hear.

The British Governor in Hong Kong, who was also the Minister to China, arrived in Nanjing, and then asked to see Lin Zhe!

Regarding Bao Ling's coming to Nanjing, in fact, Lin Zhe was rejected at first, not because he hated or hated foreigners, in fact, he didn't have any racial discrimination, Khanty? William, the blonde and blue-eyed Englishman, was still knighted and reused. It's because the arrival of this package order means that too many things will be requested, and many things are things that Lin Zhe doesn't want to give and can't give.

But Bao Ling insisted on coming!

Because Bao Ling, the British minister, and several other ministers had been arguing with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire in Shanghai for several months, and the two sides were talking about stopping, and after a few months, they were stunned and did not talk about the result.

What made these foreigners even more depressed was that after the Shanghai negotiations broke down, when these foreigners cried for artillery and rifles to solve all problems, they would always throw out some conditions that they could not refuse, such as opening up the right of foreigners to trade and live in more cities, allowing foreigners to set up embassies in Nanjing, and setting up more sound commercial laws to ensure the safety of foreigners' legitimate funds in China, and tariffs were not negotiable.

But every time Song Guanqian promised to make some concessions to attract these foreigners back to the negotiating table, this Song Guanqian would pull the issue around, saying that he could get the tax card and smuggling the tariff, saying that he would ask China to relax the restrictions on cloth imports, and people would talk about the tax rate on raw silk exports.

In short, a question will involve several or even dozens of questions, and when these foreigners and Song Guanqian talked about these dozens of questions one by one, Song Guanqian immediately changed his angle, and then threw out more detailed questions.

At the end of December, Bao Ling finally came to his senses, and Song Guan had no intention of formally negotiating with them, or he had no right to sign relevant treaties with them, he was just delaying time.

Therefore, Bao Ling threw down Song Guanqian, and then insisted on going to Nanjing to personally interview Lin Zhe, otherwise he would announce the complete breakdown of the negotiations, and then he also personally told Song Guanqian that once the negotiations broke down, then he Bao Ling would officially resign from the post of minister in China, and then the position of minister plenipotentiary would be held by Earl Elgin, the commander of the Anglo-French coalition army who had just arrived in Hong Kong with thousands of troops.

That is to say, at that time, Britain and France will directly use war to obtain the benefits they want, as for whether to fight with the Qing court or with the Chinese army, it does not matter to them!

In addition, Bao Ling came to Nanjing in such a hurry, and he also heard the news that the Chinese army was about to enter Guangdong, because now the British and French training troops are planning to attack Guangzhou, if it weren't for Bao Ling's constant negotiations with the Chinese Empire in Shanghai, it is estimated that they would have directly attacked Guangzhou, and they would have waited until now.

Bao Ling, who had just arrived in Nanjing, did not say much after meeting Lin Zhe, he said: Nearly 10,000 British and French soldiers are in Hong Kong, and as long as they give an order, they can immediately land in the Guangzhou area!

He didn't say who he was going to fight, these soldiers could be going to fight the Qing army or the Chinese army!

After Bao Ling left, Lin Zhe's originally calm expression quickly became a little hideous, and he rarely said violently: Fuck, I'm really afraid of you!

Those Manchu Wenchen generals were either afraid of foreigners like wolves and tigers, and when they saw foreigners, before the foreigners spoke, their knees softened. Either sit in and watch the sky, thinking that only China is a civilized world, and foreigners are barbarians, and they look arrogant from head to toe.

But Lin Zhe is different, for these foreigners, he has neither fear nor arrogance to the point of directly ignoring them.

He knows these foreigners very well, they just want the market, they want raw materials, they want to make money, if the inducement can achieve these goals, they will negotiate, if the intimidation can make the backward countries submit, then they will intimidate, if the inducement and intimidation do not work, then they will directly send troops and start a war!

In this regard, Lin Zhe also started preparations early, otherwise the Sixth Infantry Division, which was newly established last year, would not have been sent to the north or southern Anhui region, which was in urgent need of troops, but stayed in Shanghai.

There are two infantry divisions in Shanghai, the Sixth Infantry Division and the Seventh Infantry Division, and the density of troops is the first in the Chinese Empire, you must know that even the main force of the Northern Expedition has only three Royal Army Divisions, and there are only two Royal Army Divisions in southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi on the Western Front, and there is only one in Fujian, and even in the capital Nanjing, there is only one newly trained Guards Division.

But only Shanghai, a small place, is concentrated two royal army divisions, and in addition to the army troops, there is also the naval Wusong fortress, although the fortress has not yet been completed, but the basic works have begun one after another, the navy has installed a number of artillery on it, and at the same time stationed up to 2,000 fortress troops.

The reason why so many troops are deployed in Shanghai is naturally to prevent these foreigners from directly starting a war!

And now Bao Ling's words are not an exaggeration to say that it is the final ultimatum to war, and now what Lin Zhe needs to face is: either give them the benefits they need, or meet their war! (To be continued......)