In the study room of the Xiwang Courtyard in Shanghai, Xiao Yungui stared solemnly at the map of Jiangnan hanging in the room, and this 1:25 km military map was densely packed with standards for the troops stationed in Shili on all sides.

The intelligence department and Bai Zetang integrated the military deployment information in various places, plus the map specially drawn by the Cartography Department of the Martial Arts School, so that there was this map in front of the King of the West. Xiao Yungui's gaze remained fixed on the actual military demarcation line between Sufu Province and Tianjing, which began from Zhenjiang and went south to Danyang, Jintan, Liyang, and Guangde, and extended to the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces in the south. The line of Danyang, Jintan, Liyang, and Guangde near Tianjing was the place where the Tianjing side gathered the most troops this time, and the troops on both sides in the south were smaller.

Xiao Yungui's expression was solemn, the cigarette in his hand kept curling green smoke, and he looked at the map in a daze motionlessly.

Xiao Yungui has had a lot of troubles recently, the first of which is that diplomacy with the great powers has begun to fall into coldness. One of the direct reasons was that the Taiping Army insisted on refusing to withdraw its troops from Temple Street and Sakhalin Island, which led to the fact that the negotiations between Britain and France and Russia had been at a standstill, and the negotiations in Paris also seemed to deliberately downplay the negotiations in the Far East, and Britain and France and other victorious powers and Russia seemed to have reached a tacit understanding in Paris that only European affairs would be discussed in Paris, and Far East Asian affairs would not be discussed at the Paris Peace Conference.

Although according to the employment treaty, after the end of the war, the employment relationship between Britain and France and the Taiping Army ended immediately, and Britain and France could not find a direct legal excuse to demand the withdrawal of the Taiping Army, but the British and French were still very dissatisfied with the little brother they had the intention to support, and the reason was that they began to be disobedient.

Following a large number of convoys of the Taiping Army to Nagasaki, Japan, and then the "Treaty of Shanghai, Saga Domain, and Matsumae Domain" was exposed, which made Britain and France even more dissatisfied. Bao Ling only realized at this time that the king of the west, Weishenme, was also indifferent when he used the coalition fleet to retreat alone as a threat, and it turned out that the king of the west had long been prepared to cooperate with Japan to maintain the supply line in the far northeast.

The British and French were secretly annoyed by the secret Chen Cang of the Western King's hand, and they began to feel that the Taiping Army's hand was stretched too long. The ambition of the king of the west is also very big, and he intervenes in Temple Street, Sakhalin, and Japan. Although Japan is not considered to be the center of gravity of British and French commercial interests in the Far East, the United States regards Japan as its own Shili range, so the Taiping Army's hand has also greatly dissatisfied the Americans.

Although the Taiping Army and the Great Powers were still able to maintain the appearance of politeness and cooperation, both the Great Powers and the Taiping Army began to be wary of each other, and the relationship was only to maintain the existing state, and there was no room for further cooperation, the most direct manifestation of which was that the British compensated the Taiping Army a liquidated damages and directly stopped the construction of the Taiping Army ships built at the Plymouth Shipyard. The British have always valued goodwill. They were willing to pay liquidated damages rather than stop building Taiping ships, which shows that the relationship between Britain and the Taiping began to cool.

Fortunately, the cooperation with the British did not stop, and the first batch of naval officers recruited from the Taiping Army and the civilian population went to Britain for naval military studies, a total of 328 people, led by admirals Tang Zhengcai and Zhao.

King Xi had been prepared that the British would not continue to train their own naval personnel. But unexpectedly, the British still agreed to continue this cooperation, which made Xiao Yungui feel a little puzzled. Since the British can stop building ships. Why continue to help train yourself in the Navy?

I didn't figure it out when I thought about it. Xiao Yungui asked people to investigate, and Zuihou learned that it was the British Rothschilds who helped with this. How the Rothschilds persuaded the British Prime Minister and the Admiralty Secretary, Xiao Yungui did not know, but he faintly felt that behind all this, there seemed to be that beautiful and poignant figure secretly helping the Taiping Army, and he couldn't help but panic for a while when he thought of this.

Compared to the United Kingdom, France and the United States moved slightly less. France won the right to build the Suzhou-Hangzhou railway, while the United States obtained a 45% investment stake in the Shanghai-Nanjing railway, while Britain won the right to build the railway from Suzhou to Zhenjiang.

Although there was a rift in diplomatic relations. But Xiao Yungui will not regret it, there must be a bottom limit for cooperation with foreign powers, and this bottom line is the sovereignty of the territory. Regarding the "Jiangning Treaty" now recognized by the West Palace, except for the cession of Hong Kong and consular jurisdiction, Xiao Yungui did not feel that the other trade terms hurt the sovereignty issue too much, and even Xiao Yungui did not have much resistance to the opium trafficking. Opium is first of all a medicinal material, and secondly, it is a commodity, at that time, all countries in Shijie did not have any anti-drug regulations, and the trafficking of opium in all countries was the same legal, but weishenme would be flooded in the country, and even become synonymous with losing power and humiliating the country? The key is not in the commodities themselves, but in the national and domestic institutions themselves. Therefore, Xiao Yungui did not feel that the opium trade violated sovereignty, and the only way to eliminate the influence of opium was to rely on his own domestic anti-drug system to limit it.

On the contrary, on the territorial issue, Xiao Yungui felt that this was a fundamental issue, and there was no compromise in the slightest. Temple Street and Sakhalin Island were snatched by the Russians from the Manchus, and the Taiping army drove out the Russians, and in Xiao Yungui's eyes, this was the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because sooner or later he would overthrow the Manchus, and all the territories that the Manchus now occupied should also belong to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Now, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gives up Temple Street and Sakhalin Island because of the intervention of Britain and France, will the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom give up more territory if Britain and France threaten to go to war in the future?

Territorial sovereignty has nothing to do with interests, but with the living space of a country's people, so Xiao Yungui does not regret the decision he made, and how can the diplomacy between countries be perennially intimate? Didn't Britain and France also fight for a hundred years, and then contain each other, use each other, and cooperate with each other?

So the Taiping Army and the British, French, American and other powers continued their cooperation and quarrels, as well as using each other and being wary of each other, anyway, the impact of this matter has not reached the point where both sides need to use war to solve the problem, so everything is business as usual, but the rift between the two sides has appeared.

Subsequently, the foreign instructors of Britain, France, the United States and other countries began to leave one after another in the martial arts academy in Shanghai, for various reasons, but Xiao Yungui knew that this was the follow-up to the refusal to withdraw troops, and he did not stop it, but generously dismissed the foreign instructors who were unwilling to stay. But there are also foreigners who go the opposite way, more than 100 foreign instructors, including the American Jack, actually applied to immigrate to China at this time, and they were willing to settle in China with their families, and they were willing to join the Taiping Army. Among these people. Americans are the majority, this country of immigrants is already rich in a stronger pioneering spirit, and at the same time they do not have much loyalty to their own country, and the patriotic enthusiasm of Americans was only integrated after the real reunification of the North and the South, and now the United States is only a country of immigrants.

Xiao Yungui naturally would not refuse, and with a stroke of the pen, he agreed to the foreign brothers to become nationals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and agreed to their request to serve in the army, so King Xi once again slapped Britain, France, the United States and other countries in the face. Moreover, with the opening of Sufu Province, the Huayi Miscellaneous Department already has a certain foundation, and it will not be too much of a problem for more than 100 foreigners to join the troops they originally trained. Most of them serve as staff officers and do not have the command of the army.

In addition to the problem of diplomatic headaches, the king of the east suddenly made a difficulty, and the king of the west sighed again, not afraid of a god-like opponent, but afraid of a pig-like opponent. But looking back. If he were the king of the east, he would also be nervous about the expansion of the west hall. Most of Fujian was taken by the West Temple. There is a great tendency to continue to move south to Guangdong. If the southeast half of the wall is taken by the King of the West, Tianjing will no longer be able to balance the advantage of the West Palace.

Yang Xiuqing is still very strategic, and he launched the Battle of Nanchang almost after the Battle of Wentai. Because the soldiers and horses of Tianjing were still an army with a mixture of hot and cold weapons, they had a great advantage in numbers, and after Tianjing went south to conquer Jiangxi, Yang Xiuqing pursued the policy of paying grain according to the old in Jiangxi. Tianjing's soldiers and horses swelled dramatically to more than 500,000, and it was known as one million to the outside world.

When the second attack on Nanchang, Yang Xiuqing led the troops with Hu Yihuang, and at the same time ordered the winged king Shi Dakai to go south from Hubei. Control all soldiers and horses in Jiangxi. The second dozen Nanchang Shi Dakai concentrated 250,000 Taiping troops to besiege Nanchang, although Jiang Zhongyuan was powerful, but the gap in strength was too great, and he and the wing king Shi Dakai was not much stronger, after holding on for more than two months, Nanchang City was broken. But Jiang Zhongyuan did not die in the city like he did in history when he defended Luzhou, he actually made up and fled to Hengyang. Xiao Yungui despised Jiang Zhongyuan greatly when he heard it afterwards, and at the same time felt that this guy was really fateful.

After conquering Nanchang, Shi Dakai returned to Hubei to sit in the town, and Yang Xiuqing saw the opportunity to expand the war in Fujian in the West Palace, and began to attack the King of the West. In his mind, the king of the west, who was in the limelight, was always the biggest threat, and the king of Tianjing, who hid in the deep palace to study doctrines, write crooked poems, and play with women, was always only second.

Yang Xiuqing's movements were very fast, after Hu Yihuang's army swept away the other Qing troops in Jiangxi, he immediately recruited in the Guangde area of Huzhou County, and the pressure caused by more than 200,000 troops was not something that more than 10,000 people in the Third Division of the New First Army in Jiangxi could handle, so Xiao Yungui immediately asked the New Third Army to rush to Huzhou.

The king of the east and the king of the west both knew that the so-called summoning the queen of the west and the second son to return to Tianjing and the summoning of the king of the west to return to Beijing to report on their work were just excuses. Yang Xiuqing knew that Xiao Yungui would definitely not come back, and Xiao Yungui also knew that he couldn't go, so there was no nonsense between the two sides, and Chen Bing confronted or fought a real battle, which became Zuihou's choice now.

However, Yang Xiuqing also left a hand, he did not declare the West Palace to be a rebel because the West King did not obey the edict, which would cause a complete fire and merge, and at the same time he was also afraid of the invincible reputation of the West Palace's soldiers and horses, Yang Xiuqing hoped to use a huge advantage in soldiers and horses and a local victory in a war to force the West King to submit. He even thought about it, as long as the king of the west gave in, was willing to return to Tianjing, and handed over the military and political power of Sufu Province, he could let the king of the west spend his old age in Tianjing, but all this would have to be said after the fight.

The cigarette in Xiao Yungui's hand burned to the end, and a burst of scorching heat made Xiao Yungui hurriedly throw away the cigarette butt, and when he looked back, he didn't know when Hong Yun'er was already standing beside him, also looking at the map.

Xiao Yungui suddenly said: "I plan to use our old classmate to contain the East Palace, what do you think?" ”

Hong Yun'er squinted her eyes and said, "You mean to send troops to Xiangtan and Changsha to fight the Hunan army?" ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said: "We are now in full fire with the East Palace, and it will only cheapen the Heavenly King, but if the Eastern King can temporarily retreat at this time, the East King's temperament will start a war with the Heavenly King sooner or later." The Hunan army has been entrenched in Hengyang for a year, and they are also anxious to capture Changsha, with the existence of the Hunan army, I think the East Hall will not be so unscrupulous to enter the east. ”

Hong Yun'er smiled bitterly and said, "I didn't expect things to turn out like this, what are you going to do?" ”

Xiao Yungui took her hand and stood side by side with her, and asked rhetorically, "What do you think?" ”

Hong Yun'er smiled and said: "We don't have to do too much, we just need to bring the news of Yang Xiuqing's army to the eastward march to the old classmate, he must know that this is an opportunity, and the Hunan army will definitely send troops to Changsha immediately." ”

"Do we count this as a betrayal of our comrades?" Xiao Yungui said in a deep voice.

Hong Yun'er shook her head and said, "When Yang Xiuqing Chen Bing Huzhou, he is no longer our comrade-in-arms. After a pause, she sighed lightly and said, "It's a pity that the good situation in Fujian and Guangdong." ”

Xiao Yungui also nodded and sighed lightly: "It seems that the biggest enemy is not the Manchu Qing but ourselves. ”

Hong Yun'er smiled and said, "That's right, I came from Suzhou to accompany you, just to help you come to Anne." The two looked at each other and smiled, and the hand they were holding tighter. (To be continued......)