It is very necessary for political negotiations to be interspersed between military operations or in the process of military preparations, and the contradictions between the interests of Britain and France and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have not reached the point of irreconcilability, and the necessary negotiations can ease the contradictions, and at the same time, they can also make the quarrels between the British and French parliaments more uncertain.

In addition to diplomacy and politics is the military preparations of the Taiping Army, before Xiao Yungui raised troops to the north, he had already made careful arrangements, the members of the General Staff Headquarters and the Xiwang Advisory Group repeatedly deduced, the worst plan has been estimated, now the total annihilation of the British and French landing forces, just to go to the British and French navy This is the best situation.

According to the deduction at that time, Xiao Yungui would let Li Xiucheng lead half of the Taiping Army in the Jintang area to the south, while Lin Fengxiang in Huaishang would launch a northward campaign to open up the road to the north. As long as the Taiping army does not leave the city of Beijing, it will be able to contain more than half of the Qing army in the north, just like the Qing army's siege of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps in Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Lin Fengxiang's Northern Advance Corps was composed of the new Sixth Army and the Seventh Army, Lin Fengxiang had already begun to launch the Battle of Xuzhou at the same time that Xiao Yungui set off to the north, at this time fortunately, the Yellow River was not diverted as in history, and the Shandong boundary north of Xuzhou and the area around the canal had not yet formed a large area of the Yellow Flood Area, so the strategic plan of the Taiping Army was to go north along the canal, open up the connection with the North Army, and then expand to both sides, and gradually annex Shandong and Henan provinces.

And Shi Dakai, who was stationed in Wuhan. Xiao Yungui also sent an order for Shi Dakai to send troops to the Jingxiang area. To contain the Qing army of the Ministry of Official, Cultural and Cultural Affairs of Hubei, the Jingxiang region can take the best. If it can't be taken, it will contain the official and cultural department, and wait for the pacification of Sichuan, Chen Yucheng's troops will divide into two routes, all the way north to Shaanxi and Gansu, and all the way along the Yangtze River out of Sichuan and Shi Dakai to attack Hubei.

As for the Qing army of Zeng Guofan, who was trapped in Hunan, was actually semi-independent, the treacherous and cunning Zeng Guofan naturally would not send troops to take the initiative to attack the Taiping army, his Hunan was already surrounded by enemies, and his son-in-law Ronglu raised the flag to rebel against the imperial court, plus the Taiping army cut off Hunan's commerce and trade on all sides, and Zeng Guofan lacked firearms and ammunition. did not dare to launch a big battle lightly, and Lin Qirong, who guarded Jiangxi, Lu Xianba, who guarded Liangguang, Du Wenxiu, who guarded Yungui, and others all stared at Hunan with fierce eyes, Zeng Guofan naturally did not dare to provoke. Therefore, Zeng Guofan's recent banner in Hunan is to protect the territory and the people, intending to protect a province in Hunan, and after waiting for the general trend of the world to become clear, he hijacked the military and people of a province to sell at a price. Therefore, the Hunan army in Hunan did not have to think too much about it for the time being, and Xiao Yungui scoffed at Zeng Guofan's wishful thinking and waited until the whole country was unified. How to knead the former kingdom is not an easy task?

As for the Qing armies in Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi, because they entered the king of Beijing and Qin, the troops were transferred a lot, and Chen Yucheng could easily move north even if he only mentioned one army, so the general trend of the world gradually became clear. Further afield, Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia and other places outside the border need to wait for the Central Plains to plot again.

So. After Xiao Yungui was ready to accept the prisoners, the various units rested for three days, and then joined forces with Li Xiu. The north-south campaign was launched, and the main battlefield was in Shandong. Once the southbound passage is opened. Soldiers and ammunition would be able to arrive in an endless stream of ammunition to the capital, and by that time the Manchu rule in the north would be completely over.

But what gave Xiao Yungui a headache was the British and French naval expeditionary fleet heading south. When these people go south, they must first protect their concessions, ports, and Hong Kong, and then they will definitely send fleets to attack Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and any other port cities, and even break into the Yangtze River and attack Zhenjiang and even Tianjing.

However, what made Xiao Yungui breathe a sigh of relief was that the news of the war with Britain and France, he sent people to Shanhaiguan to inform the naval warships more than ten days before the declaration of war, and Luo Xuan would definitely send the news back to the Jiangnan area as soon as possible, and the Jiangnan Taiping Army had more time to prepare than the British and French troops over there.

At the same time, since the reign of King Xi in Tianjing, various localities have set up a complete system of local township soldiers and coastal defense, built forts in coastal ports, set up coastal guards, and local anti-smuggling fleets and anti-smuggling units, and the local troops plus the two field armies remaining in the south of the Yangtze River should be able to hold the port. However, shipping and some inland waterway shipping may be attacked by the British and French forces, which will have a certain impact on the commercial trade and freight traffic of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Therefore, Xiao Yungui wanted to meet with the US Minister Lie Weilian first, hoping that the United States could mediate and mediate, so that the ships of some neutral countries could still trade freely, and his bargaining chip was the British and French concessions in the five ports and the British and French military and civilians in the concessions. Although Britain and France may not agree to this negotiation if they tear their faces apart, they can still talk about it, and if they don't talk about it, there is no hope at all, and there is hope for turning around after talking.

After the British and French soldiers of the brigade walked by, Xiao Yungui saw the officers and generals of the British and French forces and a group of diplomats coming over collectively. Grant and Montauban and other soldiers still have straight uniforms, but their weapons are gone, and Grant and Montauban's sabers were handed over to Li Xiucheng at the surrender ceremony of Huogezhuang, and they came here empty-handed. Xiao Yungui did not attend the surrender ceremony, he did not care about the surrender ceremony of this kind of battle, and he did not need him to attend in person, he hoped to receive a peace note from Britain and France in the future.

Seeing the King of the West, Grant and Montauban and others are all mixed tastes, although this King of the West is tough, he has always maintained a gentlemanly demeanor, and he is very proficient in Western etiquette, and can be said to be the ruler of the Far East closest to the West. But his sudden declaration of war this time is indeed too despicable, he is like a twin star with two sides of good and evil, unpredictable.

Still the warm smile and courtesy greetings, King West took the initiative to shake hands with Grant, Montauban, Ergin, Gro and others to express their greetings, and Grant said bitterly: "Your Royal Highness King West, congratulations on becoming a temporary victor, but I believe that what you will face next is crazy revenge from Britain and France." ”

There is a strong sense of threat from the mouth of a surrenderer, no matter how you look at it, you will splash your skin at the ordinary market, and after losing the fight, jump a few feet away and then shout for the other party to wait for this kind of face-saving words. But Xiao Yungui knew that what Grant said was not a threat, Britain and France would really retaliate, but he was ready, so he smiled slightly and said: "General Grant, there will be retaliation from Britain and France, I believe this, but I can't go crazy, because the interests of the Far East are not enough to make Britain and France completely crazy, and your strategic focus is still in Europe, isn't it?" ”

Without waiting for Grant to refute, Xiao Yungui continued: "Gentlemen, although you have become prisoners, please rest assured, you have always been old friends of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and you and your soldiers will be treated as they deserve, but until the end of the war, you can only stay in several prisoner of war camps built outside Tianjin until the end of the war." ”

Montauban nodded, and he said unwillingly: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, this time we lost your sneak attack, next time we will have a decisive battle." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "General Montauban, war is inherently tricky, and a sneak attack is not correct, but the military operations we launched were only launched after the declaration of war note was sent to you. As for a fair matchup, I don't think you have that chance, you can only wait until the war is over to go back. ”

After speaking, Xiao Yungui looked at Erjin and Gro and said: "As for the two ministers and other consuls and gentlemen, I plan to let you go back first, and the British and French soldiers and civilians in China in the south also need the government to stabilize the hearts of the people." ”

After the collapse of the landing force of the Anglo-French expeditionary force, the British and French envoys, journalists, missionaries, chaplains, medical personnel, interpreters and other civilian personnel who accompanied the army were basically captured or surrendered, and many of them did not retreat to Huogezhuang with the large army, but fell behind during the pursuit of the Taiping army, and then were captured by the Taiping army one after another. A small group of people followed the large army to Huogezhuang, and then surrendered with the brigade. Some people were caught by the common people after they were separated or left behind, and among these people, the lucky ones were handed over to the Taiping army, and some of the unlucky ones were killed on the spot. As a result, most of the Anglo-French stragglers were finally willing to surrender to the Taiping Army, so as not to be beaten to death by the common people.

After listening to Xiao Yungui's words, Erjin and Ge Luo were surprised and delighted, and Xiao Yungui had a wishful thinking, Ergin and other civilian politicians would be harmless to put back, these people can affect the diplomatic negotiations later, because they are already very aware of the military strength of the Taiping Army, and they have been cooperating with the Taiping Army in the Far East, it is better to be familiar with it, if Britain and France send another person to the Far East, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no mistakes, or Ergin, Gro, and Wei Tuma These people will have smooth contact.

At the same time, having these politicians go back can also calm down those admirals, after all, politicians will also consider problems from the perspective of interests, unlike the military, who only look at problems from a military point of view.

"However, before I let you go, I need to meet with the American Minister, Mr. Levier, and Mr. Ergin and Mr. Gro may represent Britain and France, and continue to exercise your diplomatic duties." Xiao Yungui added with a smile: "But I won't let any of the military personnel go." ”

So, after a short meeting, the British and French troops surrendered and the captured personnel were escorted by the Taiping Army into several groups and taken to Tianjin one after another. Soldiers and officers were separated, military personnel were separated from civilian personnel, and journalists, missionaries, and medical personnel were kept in one place. Of course, Xiao Yungui will not raise them in vain, soldiers and other personnel are gathered to participate in labor operations, first burying the corpses of the battlefield, and then going to build houses, bridges, and farmland for the villages that have been harmed by the coalition forces, in short, there is no food to eat if they don't work. Missionaries and journalists were brought together to translate foreign writings or help the Taiping Army with paperwork, while medical staff were directly involved in medical care. As a result, the Taiping Army had some more logistical support labor available in the Jintang area.

After arranging these affairs, Xiao Yungui took Erjin and others to Tianjin to meet with Lie Weilian, while Li Xiucheng marched south three days later...... (To be continued......)