After the news of the fall of Nanjing came out, not only the Manchu dynasty was shocked, but also the ancient land of China, and even Shijie was shocked.

Emperor Xianfeng was furious, breaking I don't know how many jade bowls, but this time he didn't have the object of anger, the minister Lu Jianying and the generals who guarded Jiangning were almost all killed, and after calming down, Xianfeng had to issue an edict to punish himself. It has been less than three months since the fall of Changsha in the past, and such a rare frequent crime makes people feel that Xianfeng is putting on a show.

When the news of Lu Jianying's death reached Beijing, the Qing court considered him to be a "dead day" and wanted to give him a big gift. However, there is a royal history that directly reprimanded him for not saving him in the battle of Enchang, and said that after he escaped to Jinling, he did not make peace with the general Xianghou, resulting in the fall of Nanjing in 12 days. "He was killed in the place of the ten temples in Huangjiatang, he has fled and cannot escape, and he is not a person who committed suicide in battle, and he cannot be compared with the dead in the city and the dead (Xianghou and others)." The Qing court thought it was justified and only rewarded him with the title of governor, which was regarded as a mercy to this mediocre official. Lao Lu is a person, there is really no big strategy, he is a typical example of a clever eunuch in the Qing court, he only knows that the time is good, the pitch is up and down, and when something happens, he will only deceive the people absurdly, whitewash and deceive the king, and there will definitely be no good end.

In the face of the Taiping army occupying Nanjing, Xianfeng wanted to swallow them in one bite, but hate to hate, and the war still had to rely on those arrogant soldiers, so Manchu Renchun was re-activated by Xianfeng to worship the governor of Jiangnan, and he was also ready to return to the battlefield, and followed Xianfeng to strictly order Qishan in Jiangbei and Xiang Rong in Jiangnan, and ordered them to go north and south to suppress thieves in Jinling City.

At the same time, the name of the king of the west appeared one after another in various places to present to Xianfeng, and the officials of the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Suzhou agreed that the king of the west was more fierce and cunning than the two thieves of Hong and Yang, and the civil and military officers who died at the hands of this thief were no less than dozens of people, and they were actually the number one anti-thief of this dynasty, so the Qing court's reward for the head of the king of the west was even higher than that of Hong and Yang.

Many anti-Qing gangs began to plot to raise the flag against the Qing Dynasty in response to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and among them, there were the Heaven and Earth Society, the Little Knife Society, and the Red Money Society in Songjiang and other places, and it was they who brewed the Shanghai Uprising of the Little Knife Society, which later shocked China and foreign countries. Xiao Yungui, the western king who was planning to march into Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, naturally would not let go of this good situation that could be exploited, and Tong Qiangsheng of Bai Zetang rushed to Songjiang, Qingpu, Shanghai and other places with his men early to contact the local Tiandihui, Xiaodaohui and other gangs.

In fact, in addition to the Qing court and the rebel army, there is a third shili who is closely watching every move of the Taiping army. Yes, they are the great powers of Britain, France, and the United States. Since the signing of the "Jiangning Treaty", Shanghai opened its port, and because of its convenient waterways and abundant nearby products, Shanghai began to gradually replace Guangzhou as China's first foreign trade port. The great powers that held concessions in Shanghai were shocked by the capture of Jinling by the Taipings, and they feared that the rapid expansion of the Taiping army would threaten their interests in China, so they paid more attention to the Chinese rebels.

Wen Han, then British plenipotentiary and governor of Hong Kong, immediately sent a report to London analyzing the impact of the fall of Nanking by the Taiping army on the Manchu government: "Now that the fall of Nanking has become a fact, the Manchu government in China will be dealt a severe blow not before since the beginning of the rebellion. Regardless of how important the city of Nanjing is in the hearts of the Chinese in terms of the topography of the city of Nanjing, which is on the banks of the Yangtze River, in the center of the empire, close to the canal, if the rebels want, they can easily block all transportation, and even cut off the waterway for rice grain to Beijing. Such an important place, now occupied by a powerful brigade of armed rebels, could not be ignored in any way, and it would certainly affect British interests in China. I propose that we quickly engage with the rebels occupying Nanking, so that we can have a more comprehensive and accurate judgment of these rapidly developing rebels. ”

After Lord Wenhan sent out his report, he did not wait any longer, but began to march from Hong Kong to Nanjing.

In March of the third year of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20 days after the rebels occupied Nanjing, Lord Wenhan set off from Hong Kong and hurried to Shanghai on the British Far East Fleet's "Hermes" (cruiser). "Halmis" is a steam engine sail double-powered wooden-hull three-masted ship, 76 meters long, the hull is made of double-layer oak planks, each layer is up to 42 centimeters thick, to build such a large ship, you have to use at least 600 huge thousand-year-old oaks, its sail area is 1,120 square meters, the steam engine power is 360 horsepower, the bow has a solid angle of attack, the displacement is 1,300 tons, the ship is equipped with 34 rear-loading rifled guns and 116 crew members. The hull of the "Halmis" was black and shiny, and the rice-shaped flag was waving in the wind, and it sailed into the Huangpu River with great force.

On the banks of the Huangpu River, the merchant hall built roads and factories, and initially formed a pattern of "ten miles of foreign fields". The changes on the banks of the Huangpu River can be described as changing with each passing day, the foreigners have snapped up the feng shui treasures on both sides of the Huangpu River, and some of the grand and huge large docks and large docks have not yet been completed, but they have shown a pattern of rows and rows: Shuntai Wharf, Jardine Wharf, Taikoo Wharf, Mail Boat Wharf, Gonghexiang Wharf, Detai Wharf, Wanju Wharf, Baoshun Wharf, Lichuan Wharf one by one, each wharf can dock more than thousands of tons of cross-ocean ships, behind the wharf is a row of neat and uniform large stackhouses, Thousands of tons of cargo are handled every day.

The Gongyi Wharf, Wangjiadu Wharf, Yangjiadu Wharf, Dongjiadu Wharf, Laobaidu Wharf, etc., operated by Chinese businessmen, can only dock flat-bottomed boats and ferries carrying hundreds of stones. The wharf was full of raw silk, white silk, yellow silk, kapok, tea, porcelain, antiques, and large quantities of foreign cloth, iron, nails, wax, glass, opium, hardware and coal that were about to be sold inland. Everywhere near the wharves and warehouses, you can see foreigners in high-nosed and blue-eyed fancy clothes, Indians, Manilans and blacks who are employed by them, and if it were not for gangs and groups of pigtailed coolies carrying large items next to the foreign ships, people would inevitably ask if this is Chinese land.

The "Halmis" docked at the Shuntai pier, and Captain James Hope, the Admiral of the Far East Fleet, accompanied Wen Han to disembark. Shun Tai Pier is not far from the British Consulate in Shanghai, and the consul is Ruther

FordAlcock) was waiting on the docks. As soon as Lord Wenham got off the boat, he respectfully accompanied him aboard a two-wheeled leather wagon, which was very luxuriously decorated, with the brass fenders of the black-painted ruts polished, a small British flag planted on the top of the canopy, and an Indian groom with a big head on his head sat on a high seat and screamed "oh-ah", the whip was thrown "pop", and two white-nosed chestnut horses led the cart to run "tuk-tuk", and the rubber wheels pressed the rolling sound on the stone road.

Lord Wenham was forty-seven years old, with a typical Saxon skull, blonde hair, a high nose and deep eyes, a thick beard on his chin, and a cold look with a bit of melancholy. Ali Guo wore a black top hat, a strand of flaxen hair peeking out from the brim, light gray eyes, and an indescribable smile on the corner of his mouth.

Ali told Wen Han that after the Chinese rebels conquered Jiangning, Zhenjiang and Guazhou fell into the hands of the rebels, and according to some information provided by the Manchu government, the rebels were still massing forces to the east, most likely Hangzhou, Suzhou, and even Shanghai. For this reason, the Shanghai gentry and Qing soldiers were panicked, and the British merchants and overseas Chinese relatives in the concession were uneasy, and no one knew when the rebels would attack Shanghai, let alone whether the rebels would abide by the "Jiangning Treaty" signed between the British Empire and the Qing government. Wen Han was a little surprised, he didn't expect the situation to change so quickly, and decided to hold a situation analysis meeting as soon as he arrived at the consulate.

The consulate is a three-storey Western-style building in the Victorian style, with granite bottom and large stone strips running through the walls, and a red background blue road "rice" flag floating on the semi-circular dome. Through the bright south window of the conference hall, you can overlook the Huangpu River, large and small foreign ships and Chinese civilian ships are like shuttles passing through the river, from time to time you can hear the boat bells on the river and the dull and uniform sound of the water feet, through the right window you can see the meandering Suzhou Creek, the simple and dirty canopy boats are crowded on both sides like small reptiles, only a narrow waterway is left in the center, the fishermen who are called "boat households" by the Chinese government have eaten and lived on the canopy boats for generations, and the sewage and garbage in the river flow down the river and flow into the Huangpu River. Drift into the sea as the tide rises and falls.

On the other side of the Suzhou Creek is the county seat of Shanghai, which was built in the 32nd year of Jiajing (1553) of the Ming Dynasty, it has been a full 300 years ago.

Wen Han got out of the carriage and entered the consulate chamber, where he took off his tweed coat and handed it to the Indian waiter who was waiting next to him, and turned to sit down on a Victorian lion's claw sofa. He took out a box of cigars from his pocket, handed one to Aliko, and picked up the other himself, and Aliguo lit it for him.

Wen Han took two deep breaths and said slowly: "I received your report that Wu Jianzhang of Shanghai Dao wants to hire our troops to help defend the Yangtze River and prevent the rebels from attacking Shanghai, but until we find out the roots of the rebels, the Royal Navy cannot intervene in the Chinese civil war." Wu Jianzhang's official title is Su Song Taidao, which governs the eleven counties of Suzhou, Songjiang and Taicang, and Shanghai is a county under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture, but the British think that "Su Song Taidao" is awkward and always call him "Shanghai Dao".

Colonel He Bo snorted and said, "The appointment of our troops to assist in the defense of Shanghai should be negotiated by the Chinese emperor and the minister, how can a small Shanghai Daotai come forward?" This is a diplomatic contempt for the British Empire, which will never be tolerated. "He was in his thirties, of medium height, with a thick sea lion beard meticulously combed, and he wore a crisp blue twill navy suit, with a short sword hanging from the left side of his belt, and a green emerald embedded in the hilt, typical of the British navy.

Ali Guo couldn't help but laugh and said, "Colonel Hebo, the Qing Emperor has not yet learned how to deal with civilized countries, and always lets the magistrates deal with the so-called 'Yangyi'. Wu Jianzhang often evasively spoke with me when dealing with me, and I sometimes couldn't figure out who he represented, whether he represented the imperial court or the local government, or just himself. ”

Wen Han pondered for a moment and asked, "Mr. Aliguo, how much do you know about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?" ”

"Your Excellency, this large-scale civil war in China has been going on for two years, and the Manchu government has never issued any official information. I still don't know who the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is. However, the interesting point is that from the list of bounties announced by the Manchu government, their leader seems to be a man named Xiao Chaogui, because his reward is the highest, higher than Wei Zheng, Yang Xiuqing, and Hong Xiuquan. The rest of the information was an article in the Hong Kong newspaper "The Friend of China", which was written on the basis of rumors from Chinese businessmen, refugees, and missionaries in China. Some people say that the Taiping army is a robber who kills people and sets fires, some say that they are rebels who converted to Christianity, and some say that they are a powerful civil gang, in short, they say anything. The Manchu government did not allow us to go deep into the interior, and I and the entire consulate staff stayed in Shanghai, unable to assess the sudden rise of the rebels. ”