Liu Lichuan, Pan Qiliang, Chen Alin, He Bin and more than a dozen other people left Shanghai on a British merchant ship, Xiao Yungui asked the British in the church for help, and the British merchant Wilbur was very happy to have more people on board, because Xiao Yungui purchased a large amount of goods on his merchant ship. These goods included cotton, sugar, pepper, coffee, grain, etc., and even a batch of arms and a batch of tobacco smuggled on the merchant ship, and everything that Xiao Yungui found useful was bought. As for the large boxes of opium on the ship, Xiao Yungui only purchased one or two boxes for medicinal use, and Wilbur didn't mind, these things would always find sellers in Shanghai, and he didn't have to worry about not being able to sell them.

Wilbur's merchant ship was a Bartymore type of fast sailing ship, in the early 19th century, after the trade between the East and the West entered its heyday, Britain and the United States and other countries built a lot of this kind of fast sailing ship for transporting fresh tea, if your merchant ship can carry fresh tea back to London first, then waiting for you will be a heavy profit. With the opening of several commercial ports in China, British fast sailing ships began to transport Chinese tea and Australian wool in large quantities, and the use of fast sailing ships continued until the seventies of the 19th century, when the appearance of steam ships was gradually phased out, but sometimes such ships could easily run at speeds of 24 knots when the wind speed, wind direction and currents were favorable.

Wilbur was also the first foreign merchant to eat crabs, and since the arrival of the Taiping army in Shanghai, although the foreign powers have adhered to their so-called neutrality, there is still a rumor among the lower classes of merchants that the rebels are a gang of bandits. It was only a short voyage from the Huangpu River controlled by the British Concession to the Huangpu River in Xujiahui, but many merchants heeded the advice of the consulate and did not swim against the river to trade with the rebels.

When Xiao Yungui found the missionaries and Sergeant Liszt in the church and told them about the need for trade, Liszt recommended his old friend Wilbur. Due to the war in Shanghai, the land route and the Yangtze River waterway were cut off. Shanghai's trade was affected, and the buyers of the former trade were hiding in the concession in a panic, and Wilbur's hard-working goods could not be sold. When Liszt learned of Xiao Yungui's needs, he immediately sent two of his soldiers back to the British Concession to inform his friend Wilbur.

Upon seeing Liszt's handwritten letter, Wilbur decided to take the plunge, taking almost all his goods with him, and sailing south in the evening, the slender body of the fast sailing boat along the Huangpu River to the mouth of the Cao River into the Huangpu River. To Wilbur's surprise, in the humble grass hut next to the fork of the riverport, he saw the third big man of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

It was different from the first trade with Lord Wenham. Xiao Yungui was a lot more stingy this time, and after he personally went on the ship to check the type and quantity of goods, he discussed with Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others. Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others are people who have been in Shanghai for many years, and they have seen a lot of this kind of business transactions, and Wilbur has seen several people who are trade experts. I'm embarrassed to shout indiscriminately, and the price quoted is fair.

Xiao Yungui traded with the silver taels he carried with the army. Wilbur liked Xiao Yungui's full tattoo silver. So the two sides made a deal after some haggling. Xiao Yungui got a batch of material supplements, cotton cloth and grain were urgently needed, after thousands of mouths of the Qingpu Righteous Army, Xiao Yungui purchased food on the spot to solve the problem of eating, it was better than transporting grain from Wuxi again. And cotton cloth can be sewn clothes, and the Qingpu rebels also need to change the ragged clothes as soon as possible. Sugar is also urgently needed. Sometimes some hot sugar water can save the life of a wounded soldier who has lost too much blood; Pepper? Xiao Yungui only planned to use it to improve the taste, and the amount of pepper was not much; Coffee and tobacco are purely Xiao Yungui's own needs.

In contrast, there were very few munitions on merchant ships, and Wilbur's merchant ships were not like the Hamils as a warship, so there were not many gunpowder, guns, and muskets that could be purchased. Seeing that the rebel leaders have such a great need for munitions. Wilbur immediately said that after returning to the concession, he would try his best to buy arms and then trade them.

Xiao Yungui immediately said that as long as the quality of the arms was good, he would want all the artillery, muskets, gunpowder, and lead. So Wilbur decided to stay in Shanghai to engage in arms trading, and his merchant ships returned to Xiamen, Guangzhou and other places to purchase more arms. In this way, Xiao Yungui asked Wilbur to take Liu Lichuan and others to Xiamen, and Wilbur of course took great care of this big customer, and immediately said that he must bring people safely, and the Qing army could not search British merchant ships casually.

In this way, Liu Lichuan and the others boarded the ship and headed south that night, and according to the speed of this fast sailing ship, it is estimated that it will be able to reach Xiamen in a few days.

Then Xiao Yungui and Li Shanlan chatted, he hoped that Li Shanlan could recommend some people to come over to help, through this transaction Xiao Yungui found that he needed to find some people familiar with commerce and trade as soon as possible to help, and then there will be more and more trade with foreigners, and the Taiping Army will need this kind of talent.

Li Shanlan immediately recommended two people, these two are brothers, their ancestors are businessmen who run Nanyang shipping, one is called Chen Huizu, the other is called Chen Huizong, both of them are working in the British Concession Jardine Matheson. When the two brothers first returned to China, they had a lot of help from Li Shanlan, so it was not difficult for the two brothers who had been overseas for many years to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Li Shanlan's persuasion.

Xiao Yungui was overjoyed and immediately wrote a letter of appointment and asked Li Shanlan to recruit the two of them over, and at the same time ordered someone to contact Zhu Changlin of Guiyun and He Yuanlun of Baoqing Chamber of Commerce to come to Shanghai, planning to discuss with them and set up a foreign affairs business hall for foreign trade of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Shanghai.

On Li Shanlan's side, Xiao Yungui generously gave a large amount of money, which was regarded as his research science, and asked him to recruit more knowledgeable and interested talents to join in preparation for the establishment of a scientific research institute in the future. At the same time, Xiao Yungui also asked Li Shanlan to use the funds to purchase more Western scientific books and find someone to translate Western scientific works, which was the most prepared for the establishment of the library. Xiao Yungui even planned to buy the church school as the first Western-style school in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the missionary of the Zuihou church said that the church school was the property of the church and that he had no right to sell it, so Xiao Yungui gave up for the time being. However, Xiao Yungui made up his mind that as soon as the war in Shanghai was over, the establishment of schools and the dispatch of foreign students must be implemented as soon as possible.

In the days that followed, Wilbur introduced several merchants to trade with a wealth of goods, and in addition to a large amount of arms, grain, cloth, and medicinal materials were the most purchased commodities by the Taiping army. After Hong Yun'er, Li Xuanji, Yao Yuan and others came to join the camp, the entire church became the base camp of the rebels. A dirt road from Cao Yangjing to the church district became the most prosperous trade route in Shanghai during the war.

Women are really natural shoppers. Hong Yuner even bought a useless piano, compared to Xiao Yungui, she felt that the pendulum clock, knives, forks, tableware, foreign wax, etc. she bought were still useful, what was the piano used for? ?

Hong Yun'er didn't explain to Xiao Yungui, she just glared, Xiao Yungui still paid the bill obediently, time seemed to go back to the past, he was still the eldest young master who spent money like water, and he was followed by his girlfriend.

Later, Xiao Yungui even found that Hong Yuner secretly collected a set of white Western wedding dresses, you must know that white is a taboo in the Taiping Army. She actually hid it secretly. followed Hong Yun'er and picked out a few sets of Western women's clothes in other colors for herself, Li Xuanji and Zhou Xiuying. Let Xiao Yungui sigh, women, women, it's really the same in any era.

The Taiping Army, which had been replenished by a large number of munitions, did not rush to attack Shanghai, and the battles of Baoshan, Wusong, and Gaoqiao were also very smooth, and more than 1,000 green battalion soldiers and local regiments did not resist for long. Lin Qirong, Zhou Lichun, and others will smoothly occupy the mouth of the Huangpu River.

Xiao Yungui waited for a few days, and he asked the armies to distribute the newly purchased artillery and muskets. Began large-scale training of Taiping soldiers in the use of firearms. Sergeant Liszt and Corporal Barrett were hired by Xiao Yungui to serve as temporary military advisers to help the Taiping Army train its troops.

For several days, there was no news that the Qing army had reinforced Shanghai, and Xiao Yungui once thought that the Qing army had abandoned Shanghai, and Jihua, who had stayed in the city to lure the enemy, had failed, but only a day had passed. Shocking news came one after another.

The first to come to the news was Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang, who were attacking Hangzhou, and Jiang Zhongyuan's troops of the Qing army in Jiangxi Province had captured Yuhang, an outpost on the outskirts of Hangzhou, two days earlier. and each of them withdrew his troops. Jiang Zhongyuan's 5,000 Chu Yong and thousands of local regiments trained troops and horses to occupy important places such as Yuhang, Xianlin, and Cangqian, and successively sent troops to attack the Taiping army camp, and sent troops to threaten Deqing County to attack the supply lines of the Taiping army in Hangzhou. Li Kaifang commanded the army to fight Jiang Zhongyuan three times in one day, but he failed to defeat the Qing army, and the two sides confronted each other. Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were worried that Xiang Rongbu and Jiang Zhongyuan in Hangzhou should break through with the outside world, and immediately asked Suzhou and Shanghai for help.

It was only at this time that Xiao Yungui knew about Hu Yihuang's defeat in Shanggao, and he scolded in anger: "If you are not afraid that the enemy is strong, you are afraid that your teammates are as stupid as pigs!" Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, you two villains! Hu Yihuang's defeat is such a big thing, you all have a kind of hiding it from me! Lao Tzu also supplied a large amount of food to the past! Bai Zetang! What are these people doing for food?! Do you have to wait until the Qingbing knife is on your neck? ”

Only Hong Yun'er was there in the house, and seeing that Xiao Yungui was so angry after reading Lin Fengxiang's letter, she hurriedly took the letter and hurriedly looked at it a few times, and then stepped forward and persuaded softly: "Bai Zetang has been established for a short time, and a large number of people have been sent to southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, and it is not possible to establish an intelligence network in a short period of time, and you can't be too anxious." As for Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing not revealing the defeat of Shanggao to us, I think they may be trying to save face, or they may want us to lose the battle. Through this incident, it seems that Tianjing's suspicion of us has not been eliminated, but there is a suspicion of expansion, but fortunately, this incident is a reminder that Tianjing is unlikely to give us reinforcements, unless one day the West Temple is defeated or you and I personally go to Tianjing to ask for help, otherwise Tianjing will not give us a single reinforcement. ”

Xiao Yungui said hatefully: "Lao Tzu would rather die than beg those two birdmen!" It's better to ask for others than for yourself, I can see clearly, and we will rely on ourselves in the future! What is Jiang Zhongyuan? It's okay if he doesn't come, Lao Tzu will clean him up when he comes! (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )

PS: There is a bug in Chapter 202, Hong Xuanjiao is obviously in Shanghai, and he actually went to meet the East King with Shi Dakai?

"In comparison, it seems that Shi Dakai and Hong Xuanjiao are very shabby"

There are more names here.,Because it's difficult to modify the VIP chapter.,Let's automatically block it.,I'm sorry everyone.。