In Ye Mingchen's study in the Liangguang Governor's Mansion, Rong Lu smiled and said after hearing this: "Hu Youlu, Zhu Hongying, He Goubei and others used to fight separately, and they still had some thoughts of losing their lips and teeth, but now that they are together, they will naturally have the heart to swallow others. Moreover, the Heaven and Earth Society has always boasted of regaining its sight, Zhu Hongying even regarded himself as a descendant of the Ming Clan, and Hu Youlu was the old man of the Heaven and Earth Society, but he was close to the long-haired thief and the general Luo Outline under the pseudo-King of the West. And He Gou heard that it was a chess piece placed in Guangxi by the long-haired pseudo-Dongwang. There are three shili in this rebel army, in fact, it is only necessary to let Governor Lao slow down the pace of advancement, and the thieves have a relaxed life, which will definitely cause trouble and cause some internal strife. After the infighting, it will be much easier to march again. But if the persecution of Governor Lao is too tight, the thieves will definitely be hugged, and it will not be easy to start. ”

Ye Mingchen stroked his fat belly and smiled: "Zhonghua is worthy of being a reincarnation Zhuge , and he sorted out the priorities in just a few words, so that the old man can see the sun." ”

Rong Lu humbled a few words, and then the two agreed on the details of Xiang Yong's dispatch to Guangdong Province, Ye Mingchen was in charge of Liangguang, and there were five ministers of trade, plus Guangzhou was prosperous and rich in commerce and trade, and Xiangyong's military expenses were borne by Liangguang and one force, and at the same time, Rong Lu got more franchises for several commodities such as tea silk, and they were all happy.

While he was talking, Ye Mingchen's staff came to deliver an official document, but Ye Mingchen saw that it was an urgent official document, and when he opened it, he lost his voice and said: "Wenzhou has fallen?!" ”

Rong Lu's face changed slightly, and he glanced at Li Chong beside him, and both of them secretly said in their hearts: "The long-haired thief's attack is so sharp?!" ”

Ye Mingchen's face was also extremely ugly, and after looking at the details a few more times, he passed the official document to Rong Lu to take a closer look, he stood up and paced a few steps restlessly: "The puppet king of the West is so rampant, can Zhonghua have a strategy to control the enemy?" ”

Rong Lu did not answer. Looking closely at the official document, it turned out that Li Kaifang's troops in the southern expedition of the West Temple quickly went south after capturing Taizhou, ignoring Chuzhou. Li Tingyu personally sat in Wenzhou to defend the palace, but Li Kaifang connected with Qu Zhenhan, Jin Peiquan, the leaders of the Red Turban Army of the Southern Zhejiang Heaven and Earth Society, and captured Wenzhou within three days, and Li Tingyu only took more than 100 people to break through and escape.

Qu Zhenhan's original name was Zhenhai, the word Zhenhuang, the number Biquan, and the Yueqing people. Rough text. And rich in strength, and his brother Zhenshan learned boxing together, good friends, spending money to make customers, and taking Na Rong as a prisoner. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army rose. Qu Zhenhan and the others were ready to respond early in the morning. But at that time, Xiao Yungui, the king of the West, was busy carrying out the Sufu New Deal and had no time to send troops to the south. He sent Bai Zetang's people south to contact Qu Zhenhan. Let them wait for the Taiping army to march south before launching an uprising.

As early as 1853, when the Taiping army of the West Temple swept the south of the Yangtze River, southern Zhejiang was plagued by famine for many years, and thieves were numerous, and then the Taiping army captured Ningbo, and Li Tingyu sent troops to guard Wentai. Benjun Yi Council Group Practice. Qu Zhenhan and others took the opportunity to set up a group training bureau at Xiaoshun Bridge to control the group training in various nearby places, with more than 500 people.

When Li Tingyu was in Wentai, there were many local powerful and wealthy families who set up regimental training and even the village to protect themselves, and Li Tingyu also knew that it was difficult to confront the Taiping army with the Qing army alone at this time. Therefore, there are quite a lot of local group exercises in southern Zhejiang. Li Tingyu also checked the details of these regimental training leaders, Qu Zhenhan had no bad deeds before, and there were not many soldiers and horses under him, so he was ignored by Li Tingyu.

Subsequently, Qu Zhenhan got the secret support of the king of the west, and after planning in many ways, he expanded the army to more than 1,500 people, divided into three battalions in the front, middle and rear, each battalion has five sentry posts, 100 sentry sentry people, 10 sentry sheds per outpost, and 10 people in each shed. Deputy Marshal Ni Tingmo, Zhenhan and the chief general of the Chinese battalion.

In history, the uprising of the Red Turban Army in southern Zhejiang was actually because someone told the informant and had to start an incident in advance, and Zuihou failed within a few days. But this time, the king of the west sent a lot of Bai Zetang's good men to the south to help, these Bai Zetang's people are used to these things, so the secrecy work has been done very well, but everyone who wants to come up with the first whistleblower has been wiped out by Bai Zetang one by one, so Li Tingyu has never known that there is such an ambush near Wenzhou.

When Li Kaifang's soldiers and horses went south, he swept the nearby regimental training shili with thunderous means, and Li Tingyu ordered the surrounding regiments to train into Wenzhou City, so as not to let these regimental training shili be wiped out by the Taiping army one by one, and at the same time, it could be regarded as adding some more troops to Wenzhou City. It was only because Li Tingyu's soldiers and horses reinforcing Taizhou were annihilated, and the troops in Wenzhou City were insufficient, so when these regiments practiced into the city, Li Tingyu did not distinguish much.

The day after the Taiping army arrived in Wenzhou, Qu Zhenhan and others immediately got into trouble, they wrapped their heads in red scarves to think that they were different, stormed the north gate of Wenzhou, and Li Kaifang should occupy the north gate, and then the Taiping army and the Qing army fought in the streets for two days, and finally took Wenzhou.

Wenzhou was originally an important town run by Li Tingyu, Li Tingyu originally thought that no matter how bad it was, he could hold on to the tenth month, and the reinforcements organized by Wang Yide would be able to reach Wenzhou after ten months, and at the same time Li Tingyu also asked Jiang Zhongyuan in Jiangxi for help, although Jiang Zhongyuan and Li Tingyu had some disagreements when they rescued Hangzhou, but Jiang Zhongyuan was extremely loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so he also agreed to send troops to rescue. Moreover, Chuzhou is still behind the Taiping Army, Li Tingyu plans to hold on to Wenzhou City for a period of time, wait for the rescue soldiers and horses from all walks of life to arrive, imitate the Battle of Nanchang, drag down the Taiping Army under the city, and the soldiers and horses of Chuzhou can also attack behind the back, so that the Taiping Army can be severely damaged.

Unexpectedly, Wenzhou fell within three days, Li Tingyu almost died, and Zuihou was only spared and had to retreat to Fujian. Seeing this, the Qing army had to stand still, and Chuzhou, which was lonely behind the Taiping army, did not last long, and surrendered on the tenth day after the fall of Wenzhou.

After Rong Lu read the details of the battle situation on the official document, he muttered: "The long-haired thief is attacking fiercely, presumably Fujian's Li Tingyu and Wang Yide can't support it much. As for the strategy of flat long hair, the younger generation does not have a more haode strategy. ”

Ye Mingchen sighed lightly and said: "I can't imagine that the long-haired thief has become so prosperous in a short period of time, there are anti-thieves in the court, and there are foreigners persecuting outside, Zhonghua, to say something heart-wrenching, is it really going to change the sky?" ”

Seeing that Ye Mingchen was a little discouraged, Rong Lu smiled and said: "Lord Zhengtai is relieved, although we don't have a more strategic plan, but the younger generation thinks that the more places this long hair occupies, the more stable Jinling City will be." Once it settles down, the hairy thief will also be unstable inside. ”

Ye Mingchen sighed and said, "You mean there will be a battle between the long-haired puppet kings?" ”

Rong Lu bowed his head slightly and said, "Not bad." Although the Hong thief calls himself the pseudo-king of heaven and is the co-master of several kings, the real power of the long-haired center is in the hands of the pseudo-king of the east, and now the pseudo-king of the west is in full swing, and it is bound to be jealous of the two thieves of Hong Yang. The puppet king of the West is now attacking Fujian, the puppet king of the east is attacking Jiangxi, and the puppet king of the north is attacking Huaishang. The younger generation expects that once Changmao occupies Huaishang, Fujian, and Jiangxi, there is no threat of a strong enemy in Jinling, and the kings of Changmao will inevitably have a big infighting. ”

Ye Mingchen frowned and said, "Are the long-haired puppet kings really killing each other?" ”

Rong Lu said lightly: "Longhair founded the country with divine rights. Politics and religion are united, and the Hong thief is not the emperor, but only the co-master, so the most taboo is the fall of political and religious power. Yang Thief is chaotic and pretends to be the Heavenly Father. He controls the clerical power and uses the clerical power to monopolize the government. Over time, it will inevitably attract the suspicion of the flood thieves. There will definitely be a battle between the two puppet kings. At that time, the pseudo-king of the West, the pseudo-north, the pseudo-wing king and other kings will inevitably not be able to stand alone, and Longhair will definitely be divided into two factions for a vicious fight. Either the Hong thief kills the Yang thief, or the Yang thief is dominant, anyway, the long hair will definitely be a big injury to the vitality at that time. ”

Hearing this, Ye Mingchen cheered up a little, and said with a wry smile: "I hope it is as Zhonghua said." ”

Then the two talked about some political affairs. Seeing that it was almost evening, Ye Mingchen ordered someone to set up a banquet for Rong Lu to pick up the wind and wash the dust. During the banquet, a cadre of civil and military officials in Guangzhou came to accompany him, and although Rong Lu was only a general soldier at the moment, he hung up the rank of commander. At the banquet, he did not look small, and he was still the son-in-law of Zeng Guofan and the loyal man in the court, and he was also a celebrity summoned by Emperor Xianfeng.

After the wine and food were full, everyone dispersed, Rong Lu got up to say goodbye, Ye Mingchen pulled Rong Lu and wanted him to rest in his house, but Rong Lu wanted to take the opportunity to check some things in the business here, so he politely declined.

After leaving the Governor's Palace, Rong Lu ordered his subordinates to send gifts back to the foreign bank, and he and Li Zhong took a few guards to the thirteen foreign banks.

Thirteen foreign companies have long existed, here is adjacent to the wharf of Guangzhou City, after the signing of the Jiangning Treaty, Guangzhou is officially opened, foreign businessmen from all over the world clearly see that the eastern country with a population of 400 million contains unlimited business opportunities, Guangzhou is the southernmost bridgehead to enter the Chinese market, and it is also an old place in the trading circle with China, they are like bees smelling nectar, rushing in, expanding the merchant hall on the bank of the Pearl River, running foreign banks, building roads, and repairing warehouses, at this time the thirteen foreign banks are more prosperous than before.

At this time, although it was already nightfall, the banks of the Pearl River were still brightly lit and full of people, and many ships were still unloading and loading. Rong Lu looked at it, and only felt that this place was more lush than the last time he came, and it was the commercial trade that made the changes on the banks of the Pearl River change with each passing day.

I saw that some of the grand docks and large docks and warehouses here have not yet been completed, but they have already shown the trend of rows and rows, the wharves are one by one, each wharf can dock cross-sea ships with a load of more than 1,000 tons, and behind the wharf is a row of neat and uniform large stacks, which handle thousands of tons of goods every day. The few wharves operated by the Chinese merchants could only dock flat-bottomed boats and ferries carrying hundreds of stones, and compared with the foreign wharves, these wharves were like mounds connected by the mountains, small and cold.

The wharf is full of raw silk, white silk, yellow silk, kapok, tea, porcelain, antiques, and large quantities of foreign cloth, iron, nails, wax, glass, hardware and coal that are about to be sold inland. Everywhere around the docks and warehouses you can see foreigners in high-nosed and blue-eyed costumes, as well as Indians, Manilans, and blacks who are employed by them.

Walking into the thirteen lines of the neighborhood at night, the shops and shops on the left and right sides here are still brightly lit, and there are foreigners coming and going from time to time, and the weather in Guangzhou is still very warm at night, so Guangzhou is still very lively at night.

Thirteen Lines Street, from the beginning of the Kangxi period, is the concentration of foreign trade, in the past, only the thirteen lines of Guangzhou can trade with foreign Yi in the country, so there are many foreigners here, so the architectural style here is mostly Western style. Walking in the meantime, Rong Lu has a feeling of returning to modern times.

In the past, the thirteen banks were nine public banks that were established during the Qianlong period, including foreign businessman Pan Zhencheng, who requested the government to set up, and the bank had the function of being both official and commercial. The Thirteen Banks had the obligations to the government to underwrite and pay taxes and salaries on foreign vessels, to regulate etiquette, to convey government decrees, to deliver official documents to foreign merchants, and to manage foreign merchant ships, and to play the role of intermediaries in the negotiations between the Qing government and foreign merchants. On the other hand, the Thirteen Banks enjoyed foreign trade privileges, through which all imports and exports were to be bought and sold. The Treaty of Jiangning provided for the opening of the five ports for trade, and now the privilege of the Thirteen Banks to monopolize foreign trade has been abolished. Although the real Thirteen Elements have declined, the Thirteen Elements neighborhood has become more prosperous, but it is still thriving.

Coming to the door of a Western-style restaurant, Rong Lu looked up and saw that it was an obvious Western-style baroque building, with a dome and many pillars, which produced various light and shade changes under different lights. The colour palette is also bold, with red and white as the main tones. What is more noteworthy is the windows, which are not only varied, but also show wavy curves, which make the whole building full of vitality. The sign reads "French Restaurant" in large French letters.

Rong Lu smiled faintly and said to Li Chong: "Let's go in and open the foreign meat." (To be continued......)