When he returned to the place where he stayed, Rong Lu covered his head and fell asleep, he tried not to think about the bloody scene, but he always recalled it in his mind, and he couldn't forget it, as if the hands raised by the headless corpse were pointing at him, and they still complained after death, pointing out to the sky that he had killed them.

Rong Lu couldn't help but sit up, opened an altar of the number one daughter Hong that Cheng En had collected, and didn't care about it, raised his head and poured half of the jar, with a beast-like wail in his mouth, and then kept pouring himself wine, and soon he was drunk and unconscious.

I don't know how long it took, Rong Lu was still awakened by a terrible and bloody dream, sat up and found himself sleeping on the bed, only to feel cold sweat all over his body, followed by a burst of headache and splitting feeling, Rong Lu held his head and groaned, eager to take a knife to cut off his head.

"Brother Rong, are you awake? I'm really convinced of you, I can get drunk by myself, come and drink a bowl of sobering soup. Cheng En didn't know when he arrived in the house, and came over with a bowl of sour soup and said, "I know that you are cold on the outside and hot on the inside, but you still feel sorry for those killed rebels, right?" ”

Rong Lu took the decanting soup in a daze, and didn't speak, just shook his head and drank the decanting soup.

Cheng En pulled Zhang to sit down, and said slowly: "I also know that this time we killed nearly 10,000 people, and I am also fucking afraid, to be honest, my legs and stomach are still trembling." But when I think that as long as it's not me who dies, then I don't feel afraid. Since those chaotic parties dare to rebel, they should know what the consequences will be, you must know that the king's law is like a furnace, since the case has occurred, then it is time to subdue the law, we are just doing things according to the will of the court, and those unjust ghosts should also find the above if they want to ask for their lives, right? ”

Rong Lu sighed, noncommittal, Cheng En opened a box next to the bed and said with a smile: "Hehe, say something happy, this Wu Jianzhang is quite good, and sent a batch of gold beads and jade, each brother can get a share, I think the total value is more than 100,000 taels of silver, this trip to Jiangnan is not in vain." ”

Rong Lu looked at the past, only to see that the box in the gold ingots, silver ingots, pearls, jade, jade, jade, he had never seen so many gold jewelry shells before, a group of twelve of them, each of them can get ten thousand two silver, their monthly salary is only a hundred two silver, it is considered a windfall, seeing these yellow and white things, Rong Lu can't help but feel a pounding heart.

Cheng En closed the box and continued: "I told Wu Jianzhang that he will do the errands later, and the reward to the foreigners will always be hundreds of thousands of taels, Wu Jianzhang will repay it with tariffs or expanding the foreigners' concessions, and we don't have to worry about it, we better leave Shanghai as soon as possible, I heard that the long-haired thieves are besieging Suzhou and Hangzhou and the two states are very urgent, if they are blocked in Shanghai, they will not be able to do it." Anyway, we have almost done the errand that Lord Su Shun explained, and a few bandit leaders are on the run, so let the local yamen continue to pursue them, and we can't stay and take risks. ”

Rong Lu breathed a sigh of relief, nodded slowly and said: "Cheng, let's take care of it, and we will return to Beijing in a few days to resume our lives, but before leaving, I still want to buy some foreign guns from foreigners, even if we brothers have a few special envoys, they are stronger than those shotguns in the firearms battalion." ”

Cheng En said with a smile: "These days are in chaos, it's good to buy some foreign guns to defend yourself, and you can deal with foreign devils, and I won't mix with my brother." ”

Early the next morning, Rong Lu found several foreign companies in Shanghai to buy a batch of foreign guns through the relationship between several British people in the mercenary army, and these foreign guns were both long and short, but only dozens. Because Rong Lu didn't ask for much, and he made it clear that it was for appreciation, these more than 100 guns were just a drop in the bucket for the entire Shanghai black market arms trade, and no one would care at all.

Just after Rong Lu and the foreign company finished trading guns, Cheng En took a few guards to find him breathlessly, and the first sentence of the split was: "The long-haired thief has been killed, the regimental training in Kunshan has broken up, the long-haired Ben Jiading is gone, and Qingpu's mud legs are also making a fuss, we have to leave quickly." ”

Rong Lu sighed, did not answer, only to hear the noise of people outside the foreign bank, everyone came to the door to see, only to see that many people on the street have spread rumors, all say that the long hair is coming, for a time the street is chaotic, merchants, stalls, transporters, have put away their belongings, scattered, the original lively street has become chaotic and crowded.

Rong Lu, Cheng En and others brought foreign guns, and when they saw that many large families on the street began to flee for their lives outside the city, mules, livestock, carts and carriages were crowded, crowding the narrow roads in Shanghai. Cheng En hurriedly said: "You have to go quickly, if Wu Jianzhang and Yuan Zude seal the city gate later, they won't be able to get out." Rong Lu frowned and said loudly: "No, you can't go out by land, you have to find a boat and take the waterway!" ”

Everyone retreated, Rong Lu and others came to the British Concession, fortunately, Rong Lu knew English, and after a lot of tongues, Rong Lu and others were able to enter the concession, and the lease was crowded with rich businessmen and people who wanted to take refuge in the British Concession, but they were all blocked by the British army with loaded guns.

When they arrived at the British Consulate, Rong Lu finally met Lord Wen Han, and after repeated requests, Rong Lu spent another sum of money, and Wen Han reluctantly agreed to let them leave from Baoshun Wharf on a British merchant ship.

After dark, Rong Lu and the others finally boarded the British merchant ship "Megoff" and went east along the Huangpu River. Standing on the deck and looking back, there were a lot of fires lit outside the city of Shanghai, and from time to time there was a low sound of artillery fire, Rong Lu knew that Long Mao must have killed the suburbs of Shanghai and began to bombard Shanghai, whether this future Oriental Paris could be defended, Rong Lu didn't know, he only knew that if Shanghai did not have the help of foreigners, the Qing court would not be able to hold it.

……

After receiving the news that the Qing court began to deal with the Shanghai Xiaodao Society on the same day, Xiao Yungui and Zuo Zongtang discussed for a while and decided that Xiao Yungui would personally lead 2,000 soldiers and horses to enter Shanghai first, and Zuo Zongtang would lead the army to continue to besiege Suzhou City. Compared with Suzhou, Shanghai at this time was still only a small county town, Xiao Yungui's 2,000 elites plus Qingpu's 3,000 rebels should be enough, in order to keep Suzhou and Hangzhou, the green battalions near Shanghai were almost exhausted, only Wu Jianzhang and Yuan Zude newly organized some local regimental training, Xiao Yungui is confident that these troops are enough.

Soon in the afternoon of the same day, Xiao Yungui led the troops to Kunshan, and immediately raided the local regimental training of more than 800 Qing troops in Kunshan.

Xiao Yungui ordered Li Zuoche to clean up the battlefield, and at the same time ordered Tang Erniu to lead people to Qingpu to contact Zhou Lichun's father and daughter, and make an appointment to meet tomorrow morning to attack Jiading together.

After cleaning up the battlefield and hastily using some dry food, Xiao Yungui commanded the soldiers and horses to rush to Jiading, this operation is actually a quick word, to capture Shanghai before the Qing army in Jiangbei and Suzhou and Hangzhou reacted, and then let the Qing court and foreigners look at each other, Xiao Yungui is only afraid that Shanghai will be more difficult to fight at that time.

In the evening, Xiao Yungui's soldiers and horses arrived in Jiading, and the Taiping army immediately set up camp and prepared meals. Just as Xiao Yungui was nibbling on the dough, Tang Erniu came back, and with him came hundreds of people from the Qingpu Peasant Rebel Army, led by a female general.

On the way to Jiading, Zhou Xiuying had fantasized about the invincible Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it was rumored that he was born as the crown prince of Christ, with three heads and six arms, a seven-foot tiger body, and a mighty appearance. Zhou Xiuying didn't know who Christ was, but when she thought of someone who could be called the prince, she must be handsome and mighty, just like the third prince in the play. But when Tang Erniu took her into the camp, she was in front of a bearded man with a face full of mud and sweat, his eyes were red, a pair of big black hands held a dough cake and couldn't stop gnawing, a green robe, covered with blood and mud, and a yellow scarf on his head was the only thing that was different from the Taiping soldiers outside.

Tang Erniu stepped forward and hugged his fists and said: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, the Qingpu Righteous Army has been contacted, this is Zhou Xiuying, the daughter of Zhou Yingying, she led eight hundred righteous soldiers to help first, and Zhou Yingying took the team and the family in the back. ”

I saw that King Xi put the cake in his hand on the ground, wiped the cake oil on his hand, stood up and said with a smile: "It turns out that this is the famous heroine Zhou Xiuying Zhou girl, it is really better to meet, it is really heroic and heroic." ”

Zhou Xiuying came back to her senses, and only felt that this Xiwang looked like a rough peasant in the countryside, and there was nothing special, but he spoke really loudly. Zhou Xiuying hurriedly clasped her fists and saluted: "The little woman Zhou Xiuying has seen His Royal Highness the King of the West. ”

King Naxi stared at Zhou Xiuying for a few moments, and said with a smile: "Come, come, come, let's sit down and talk, we came in a hurry, we didn't bring any extra things, and there are no tables and chairs in this tent, let's just sit on the stone and talk." ”

Zhou Xiuying snorted, followed Tang Erniu to sit on the stone opposite the King of the West, the King of the West did not talk nonsense, pointed to a map spread on the ground and said: "I heard that the rebel army in Qingpu defeated Jiading under the leadership of Zhou Yingying last year, but later the Qing demon was strong, and the rebel army Zuihou still retreated to Qingpu and fought with the Qing demon, Miss Zhou, how do you say that this battle should be fought tomorrow?" ”

Zhou Xiuying didn't expect the king of the west to be so anxious, but seeing him looking at the map, his face was solemn, it seemed that he was very concerned about the war, and he didn't have half of his vanity, so he opened his mouth and said: "Fuzaobang, Lianqi River, and Loutang River lie across the east and west of Jiading, and Yantietang, Hengli, and Xinchapu run through the north and south of Jiading, and I don't know how to attack the county seat. ”

Xiao Yungui squinted his eyes and said, "The inside should be combined with the outside, this is a good idea." ”