With the construction of a railway line in the Jiangnan region by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the telegraph business entered China earlier than in history. Following the Jiangsu-Shanghai Railway, the railway between Suzhou, Tianjing, and Hangzhou was also completed, so the large and small cities near the Yangtze River Delta began to be connected by the railway.

The telegraph connected the cities with the telegraph flying line, and then telegraph offices were set up in each city, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set up a postal department to manage the telegraph business, and at the same time divided the telegraph into two categories: official and civil, according to the need. The official telegraph was divided into four levels, and the secrecy process for each level was different, and the highest level of confidential telegrams was managed by the special official department of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Ten days ago, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom naval ships returning from Shanhaiguan brought back the order of the Western King far to the north, and the official telegraph office in Shanghai sent a telegram to Tianjing for this order, which was a confidential message of the highest level, but the content was simple: "War has been declared, and the ministries are acting according to plan." ”

Zuo Zongtang, who received the telegram at that time, just glanced at it lightly, and then called a meeting of the ministers. At the court meeting, Zuo Zongtang showed the edict of the king of the west that had been prepared in advance, announcing that the British and French forces had brazenly used force to intervene in the civil war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and had given up their neutral position, and they had colluded with the Manchu Qing to jointly prevent the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from unifying the whole country.

Except for a few important ministers, the rest of the officials of the Heavenly Kingdom were still a little unable to turn around, and the British and French and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cooperated very closely in Jiangnan, so why did they suddenly declare war? Later, Zuo Zongtang showed the news that the navy ship had brought back. The Anglo-French coalition forces and the Ronglu rebels jointly announced the fact that "the Qing monarch is on the side, and the alliance is difficult". This was the fact that the Anglo-French forces intended to support the Manchu rebels to occupy the northern territories and thus affect the process of China's unification.

Subsequently, Zuo Zongtang announced that the Jiangnan region had begun to enter a state of imminent war, especially the coastal cities were ready to face the war. At the same time, the garrisons stationed at the treaty ports were ordered to be on standby, send troops to surround the concessions and embassy areas, and carry out a clean-up operation against the British and French troops in the concessions.

On the same day, the British and French consuls who remained in Tianjing announced on the spot that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had declared war with them, urging the British and French consuls in Tianjing to evacuate Tianjing within 24 hours, and at the same time telling the consuls of the two countries to pay attention to the fact that the Taiping army would launch an encirclement and clearance operation against the concessions in the Wukou treaty ports, and the civilians would have 24 hours to evacuate. The Anglo-French cooperation with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was temporarily suspended, and the British and French personnel were only allowed to evacuate for 24 hours.

The British and French consuls were dumbfounded. They didn't expect the war to come so quickly, and Shanghai and other places that are closer to each other are okay to say, it's a big deal to send a telegram to know there, but what about Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places that are far away? Fortunately, the diplomat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom politely explained that when the edict of declaration of war arrived in Guangzhou, the local government of Guangzhou would also send a note in advance, and there would be 24 hours of evacuation time from the time the note was sent.

The consuls of the two countries did not seem to understand the cause of the incident, and they asked one after another the reason for the declaration of war. When they learned of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's casus belli, they were speechless, and it seemed sufficient to intervene in the civil wars of other countries and openly support a rebel army of the Manchu Qing in their attempt to seize power in the north. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom only declared war in front of Britain and France, and everyone who understands it knows that once Britain and France set up another Manchu regime in the north, the first target of attack will be the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Fortunately, the officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom agreed to the two consuls to send a report to Shanghai. Notifying them of the news of the declaration of war over there doesn't really have to be bothered. After receiving the Tianjing telegram, the Navy Political Department had already sent a note to the people of the two consulates in Shanghai.

Military transfers began on the same day. The newly formed Sixth Army of the Taiping Army stationed in Shanghai, under the command of army commander Pan Qiliang, began to strengthen the defense of Wusongkou and other places, and at the same time sent troops to encircle the British and French concessions.

The arrogant British were stimulated, and on that day hundreds of marines in the Shanghai Concession were assembled, and the policemen in the Concession were armed. George? Gordon recruited hundreds of foreigners to form a foreign gun team, intending to protect the concession by force. At the same time, the three British warships remaining in Shanghai also moved into action, ready to support the fighting in the concession at any time. The British and French merchants were panicked, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Department of Commerce announced that the day's trade was still valid, but that the British and French merchant ships had to leave the port twenty-four hours later.

On the same day, the military deployment and mobilization begun by the two sides continued until late at night, and the British and French people in the concession were in panic all night, and by the early morning of the next day, they found that the concession had been surrounded by tens of thousands of Taiping troops on three sides, and the Taiping soldiers were guarding behind the temporary barricades and fortifications with loaded guns, and even the chariots and horses that should have entered the concession in the morning to collect dung could not enter.

Gordon and his foreign guns confronted the Taiping at the entrance to the northern concession, while the British marines mainly guarded the other entrances, and three British warships cruised the Huangpu River. The atmosphere on both sides was depressing, but the British and French civilians in the concession did not evacuate through the only remaining route in Guò, which was the waterway.

The confrontation lasted until about 10 o'clock in the morning, and the British warships could not bear to shell the Taiping positions on the shore first, and then the artillery on both sides of the Taiping Army began to return fire, and soon the three British warships were hit by the double blows of the Taiping artillery and rockets on both sides of the strait, and they sank one after another in less than an hour after the battle began. Some of the British sailors who escaped from the water fled back to the concession, while some were taken downstream by the river and became prisoners of the Taiping army.

Then the exchange of fire on the shore also began, Gordon's foreign gun team gathered mercenaries from various countries to participate, firearms were varied, but they did not have any tactical cooperation, and were quickly defeated by the Taiping army, fortunately, the Taiping army did not take advantage of the victory into the concession, they still stayed outside the lend-lease.

After seeing the results of the day, some British and French people in the concession began to evacuate one after another, and they took British, French and American merchant ships to Hong Kong, and the evacuees were all wealthy people. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, that is, 24 hours later, the Taiping army began to blockade the Huangpu River, and several merchant ships that had not had time to evacuate were also stopped by the Taiping army's artillery and patrol anti-smuggling boats, and the people on board were sent back to the concession, and the ships were detained.

At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the British consul in Shanghai, Midile, asked to negotiate with the Taiping army, and then he was received by Tao Enpei, deputy director of the Shanghai Military Department.

Midile naturally asked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to stop its attack on the concession, but was rejected by Tao Enpei, an old man with a smile, who was very interesting, saying that when the British and French military forces withdrew from China, the Taiping army's military operations would stop.

Midile was helpless, he naturally couldn't do this request, and then Midile asked the Taiping Army to give some time so that Britain and France could have enough time to evacuate the civilians in the concession. This request was also denied, and the old man said that the day given yesterday was enough, and those who did not leave were military personnel. It is okay to go through the concession area, unless everyone in the concession surrenders to the Taiping army.

Midile's negotiations failed, and he understood that the Taiping army had come for real this time, and the concession and the people in the concession had become a bargaining chip for them in the future. On the way back, Midile was very frustrated, he knew that the Taiping army had the strength to enter the concession in minutes, but they would rather stay outside, just waiting for the main force of the coalition navy in the north to return, and the Shanghai concession was a fragrant bait.

On the same day, the major newspapers in Shanghai published the news of the declaration of war on the front page, and several official newspapers of the Taiping Army gave detailed reasons for the declaration of war, and the British and French expeditionary forces came to help the Manchus, which was the most direct reason for war, and this article seemed to be sufficient.

In the following days, the Taiping army surrounded the concession, and no major conflict broke out between the two sides, because the food and fresh vegetables in the concession gradually ran out, and Midile went to negotiate again, and finally Tao Enpei agreed to sell grain and fresh vegetables and fruits to the people in the concession, but to trade in cash.

As a result, the British and French concessions were surrounded and raised, and they were in peace for the time being, but the people in the concession were praying that their warships would return from the north as soon as possible, and because of the lack of news, they did not know that in the past few days, their expeditionary landing force had been almost completely annihilated.

The Shanghai Concession was plagued by several other treaty ports, the smaller Anglo-French Concession in Fuzhou, where the British and French people were besieged for a day and then simply offered to surrender to the Taipings, but were refused.

Hong Kong received many British and French civilians who had fled from the treaty ports, and Hong Kong, which already had a population of 80,000, surged by more than 20,000 overnight.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and the township soldiers from all over the country began to mobilize and actively prepare for war, and Dinghai and other places were also on full alert, and the clouds of war shrouded the sky over the south of the Yangtze River.

It was at this time that the Suzhou-Hangzhou Railway was completed, and the railway contracted by the Americans was completed on schedule, and the war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France did not affect its final completion. Unlike the first celebration of the opening of the Suzhou-Shanghai railway, this time the ordinary Chinese people participated more, and they began to slowly accept the railway, but it did not mean that they accepted the foreigners.

Due to the propaganda of newspapers and local government announcements, Britain and France were promoted as accomplices who came to help the Manchus suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Accustomed to the fact that the former Manchus did not rule the Manchus, the people in the south of the Yangtze River angrily staged a series of anti-British and French demonstrations, most of which were of course students of the martial arts school.

With the instructions of the Western Wangniang, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Information Department increased the propaganda of the war, and some British and French troops burned and looted in the north were exposed, and the people in the south of the Yangtze River became even more bizarre and angry, so the contradictions between China and the West after being suppressed by Christianity under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for many years began to erupt...... (To be continued......)