Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden Yuanxiang Hall waiting for the frost pavilion, the West King and his wife here feasted Luo Weilin, Clifford and Mo Jiana dressed as a man, during the banquet Luo Weilin suddenly talked about the war in Xiamen, bluntly said that the Xiamen rebel army was already in a dangerous situation, Xiao Yungui came back to his senses, secretly scolded himself for being stupid, although Xiamen's own people can't communicate with the news, but can't they communicate through foreigners?

In fact, the news that Luo Weilin got was not much different from that of the Xiwang couple, the merchant ships of the great powers coming and going to Xiamen could dock in the outer port of Xiamen, the Qing army and sailors strictly blocked the sea passage, Britain and France and other countries knew very little about the news in the city, and it was very lagging behind, because of a typhoon landing, many ships did not choose Xiamen for shelter. At the same time, Xiamen's status among the five treaty ports was relatively low, and the war that broke out in Xiamen had a slightly smaller impact on the great powers, so the great powers did not pay enough attention.

Xiao Yungui didn't say anything, just asked lightly, "Father, do you have any suggestions?" ”

Luo Weilin seemed to be very sincere and said: "Your Excellency King Xi, as far as we know, many of the Red Turban Taiping Army in Xiamen are composed of local Hui parties, they have close ties with the Tiandihui in Guangdong, and their purpose of uprising is also different from that of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and they want to restore the previous Ming Dynasty. ”

Xiao Yungui touched his chin and said, "So what? ”

Luo Weilin said slowly: "They are temporarily attached to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it is inevitable that they will be estranged from your army in the future, and now the war is unfavorable, the main force of your army is far away in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and it is difficult to provide real military help to the rebel army in Xiamen, and their defeat is inevitable." ”

Xiao Yungui said a little impatiently: "You just said that Lord Wenhan has any suggestions." ”

Seeing that the King of the West saw through the fact that he represented Lord Wenhan behind him, he stopped turning around at the moment, and said with a slight smile: "Lord Wenhan thinks that Britain and France can jointly put pressure on the Qing court to restore order at the Xiamen treaty port as soon as possible, and at the same time transport the rebels in Xiamen City to Nanyang, so that they can help them avoid the butcher's knife of the Qing army." As for the important people sent to the south by the King of the West, we promise to help them return to Shanghai safely. ”

Xiao Yungui was slightly stunned, and he was not in a hurry to answer, he glanced at Hong Yun'er, and the couple found an excuse to leave one after the other. The two came to a side hall, and Xiao Yungui asked, "What are the British paying attention to?" They weishenme want the people of the knife club to go to the South Seas? Do they really want to help us? ”

Hong Yun'er sighed lightly and said, "It's not that simple, let me tell you about the situation of the Xiamen treaty port first." ”

At that moment, Hong Yun'er said slowly, it turned out that Xiamen has been in a relatively embarrassing position since the opening of the Opium War, and it has an old treaty port of Guangzhou in the south. Guangzhou has all the necessary conditions for complete Huayang commerce, which is incomparable with Xiamen. To the north, there are the emerging treaty ports of Ningbo and Shanghai, which are located under the shadow of the inland canal network, with convenient waterways and abundant products nearby. It is also beyond the reach of Xiamen. It is also advantaged by the nearby port of Fuzhou, which is close to Wuyi Mountain, the largest producer of black tea in China. The merchant ships of the great powers liked to dock in Fuzhou to trade black tea. The sad thing about Xiamen is that it has been since the opening of the port. It operates as a humiliating port for the sale of Chinese workers.

After the Opium War, Xiamen opened its port, and the foreign powers began to openly lure and plunder Chinese laborers out of Xiamen to go abroad. In the 23rd year of Daoguang, the British and French companies were the first to recruit 838 farmers to Xiamen to work as contract laborers in the sugar cane plantations in Mauritius. In June of the 25th year of Daoguang, the French ship transported 180 Chinese laborers from Xiamen to Popontan Island in Africa. According to statistics, Daoguang twenty-five years to Xianfeng three years. A total of 18 batches of 12,261 indentured Chinese laborers were exported from Xiamen, most of whom were Tong'an people. The foreign powers colluded with the government and the inferior gentry, deliberately provoked a war in the countryside of Tong'an, and then lured and plundered the villagers of the defeated side to go abroad. They even openly abduct fishermen at sea and sell them. A large number of Chinese workers became an important part of the overseas Chinese in Tong'an in the early days, and later Xiamen even became the largest human trafficking center in Asia. Xiamen's commerce and trade did not flourish until the late 19th century, but it has long been the largest port for the sale of Chinese laborers, and it has long been deeply marked by history.

Xiao Yungui looked angry after hearing this: "Do the British want those who failed to revolt to go to Nanyang as Chinese laborers to do hard labor?" ”

Hong Yun'er nodded and said: "It is very likely that once we agree, the merchant ships of the foreigners can help these people leave, but as long as they are disarmed and on the ship, they will be no different from the piglets that have been sold." On the vast sea, it's not foreigners with foreign guns and cannons who have the final say? Besides, the mountains and rivers of Nanyang are far away, once they go to Nanyang, we can't take care of what they will do after they arrive in Nanyang, and the great powers will not do anything for free, the biggest possibility is to deceive them into the ship first, and then pull them to Nanyang to be sold as Chinese laborers. In Nanyang, these people have no roots and no roots, and in order to make a living, they have to sell themselves and sign a deed of sale with foreigners, and even if we know and protest in the future, foreigners can also be said to have voluntarily signed a contract of sale. Wen Han played this abacus well, firstly, he bought us a favor to help us rescue those people, secondly, he also restored order at the Xiamen port as soon as possible, and thirdly, he was able to make a lot of money from human trafficking. ”

Xiao Yungui scolded a series of national scoldings, his face turned pale, he walked back and forth a few steps and then stood up and said angrily: "No, these people can't be treated like this, we can't be bewitched and deceived by foreigners, and become accomplices of foreigners to lure them!" The foreigner raised by the son of a bitch, is it really easy for us to be deceived? Immediately send Li Xiucheng's troops to attack south and go to Xiamen to rescue them! ”

Hong Yun'er hurriedly said: "You calm down, Xiamen is more than a thousand miles away from here, and there are Ningbo, Taizhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other important towns along the way, how can you fight in a hurry?" ”

Xiao Yungui sat down dejectedly and muttered: "Then, then organize the fleet to go by sea......" Speaking of this, he himself didn't have the confidence to continue, not to mention that there were Qing army sailors on the sea, even if there was no Qing army sailors, how could a large sea fleet be organized to go south in a short time? What's more, there are too many unpredictable situations at sea, and it is not a joke to accidentally cause a shipwreck.

"King Xi doesn't have to worry, it's feasible to take the sea route!" Zuo Zongtang's voice floated in, followed by a green shirt also floated in, and the Xiwang couple looked back and saw that Zuo Zongtang was already standing on the side hall.

Xiao Yungui was overjoyed, he knew that Zuo Zongtang would never say big things, so he stood up and asked, "What is Mr. Zuo's good plan?" ”

Zuo Zongtang touched his chin and said with a smile: "Xiamen Knife will cause trouble, we should help, but we are far away in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and the whip is beyond reach, and it is too far to take the land route, but it is still feasible to take the sea route." We have already captured Shaoxing, and the king of the west can order Li Xiucheng's troops to move eastward to attack Ningbo, and after taking Ningbo, we can organize a well-established fleet of seagoing ships to go south. ”

Xiao Yungui said curiously: "Ningbo has a fleet of sea vessels? ”

Hong Yun'er understood a little, and said happily: "It is very likely that in addition to Ningbo being a treaty port, the Zhoushan Islands off the coast here are a gathering place for pirates, and Ningbo is also the largest smuggling port, and pirates and smuggling occupy most of the sky in Ningbo." ”

In the early Qing Dynasty, the smuggling activities in Ningbo were very prosperous, when the smuggling merchants gathered in Shuangyu Port, Liegang and Cen Port under Ningbo Prefecture and the merchants of Portugal, Britain, Japan and the Netherlands carried out smuggling and trading, and the number of people was countless. Smuggling and piracy have always been inseparable, the Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo is innumerable, providing a natural hiding place for pirates, here gathered by the Portuguese, China's Guangdong, Fujian people composed of pirate groups, for a hundred years has been rampant on the sea, the Qing army sailors can do nothing against them, and even many Qing army sailors are also born pirates.

Today, the pirates engaged in smuggling and looting in the waters of Ningbo and Zhoushan are still dominated by Chinese pirates from Guangdong and Fujian, as well as Portuguese pirates, who are engaged in smuggling and looting, and even serve as bodyguards. Many merchants often hired pirates to escort them by sea, while Chinese and Portuguese pirates openly collected protection money from merchants passing through Ningbo and Zhoushan.

Xiao Yungui said strangely: "But are these pirates willing to help us?" ”

Hong Yun'er smiled and said, "It must be okay, as long as we spend some money, and then take advantage of the contradiction between Chinese pirates and Portuguese pirates." ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled and said: "Yes, in the early years of Xianfeng, due to the conflict of interests, a serious conflict broke out between Chinese pirates and Portuguese red-haired pirates. The Portuguese pirates who occupied the hill of Ningbo were originally Portuguese who came from Macao, and due to the busy maritime trade in Ningbo, this Portuguese pirate can be said to have made a lot of money. Zuo had heard that the Portuguese red-haired pirate fleet, which acted as the "protector" of merchant ships entering and leaving the waters of Ningbo Port, could receive a huge protection fee of up to 750,000 silver oceans in one year. As for the local Chinese officials in Ningbo, the foreigners naturally disdain, and they will not give a dime of bonuses. Later, the local government devised a poisonous plan to instigate the Chinese pirates and the Portuguese red-haired pirates to engage in a naval battle. As a result, our Chinese pirates naturally won, and they finally got out of the evil spirit of the Daoguang years. But the Portuguese red-haired pirates are still brewing a counterattack, if our Taiping army captures Ningbo, supports the Chinese pirates to fight the Portuguese pirates, and adds money and food to them, Zuo believes that the pirates in Guangdong are willing to help us. (To be continued......)