In the afternoon of the next day, the spies sent by Tong Qiangsheng had returned, and after listening to the spies' report, Tong Qiangsheng stepped into the cabin with a gloomy face.

In the cabin, Liu Lichuan and the others sat or slept in their clothes, and they all woke up at this moment, and when they saw Tong Qiangsheng walking in with an unkind face, everyone was shocked, it shouldn't be bad news.

After Tong Qiangsheng saluted everyone, he said in a deep voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, this morning the spies in our city risked their lives to report that the Qing Demon has been searching for various gang congregations throughout Shanghai since last night. As of this morning, tens of thousands of people have been beheaded at the north gate of Shanghai. ”

Liu Lichuan's face was full of anger, and he stood up and shouted, "What did you say?" The government killed tens of thousands of us? No way! We all have eyeliner in Yamen! The government wants to mobilize troops and horses, and we can't not have received any news at all! ”

Tong Qiangsheng's face was a little gloomy, and he sighed lightly and said: "We have already investigated clearly, this time the Qing Demon sent the secret agents from the backup office of Da Nei Shangyu to the south, and these Da Nei eagle dogs found out that you have eyeliner in the Yamen, so they bypassed Wu Jianzhang and directly borrowed troops from foreigners to help suppress them." Last night, they first attacked the yamen, pulled out the eyeliner in the yamen of the knife society and the heaven and earth society, and then mobilized the Qing army and foreign soldiers and horses in the city to search for the congregations of various gangs, and found one by one, and the people who were caught were all gathered at the north gate to behead the public. ”

Xiaodaohui and the others opened their mouths wide and couldn't speak, Liu Lichuan suddenly slumped into the chair, and after a while, his face was like frost, he looked at Tong Qiangsheng and said, "I want to go back to save my brothers." ”

Tong Qiangsheng shook his head and said: "Chief Helmsman Liu, I'm afraid that I won't be able to go back at the moment, thousands of Qing demons and foreign soldiers are searching everywhere, and the shadows of your leaders are everywhere, and you will be arrested as soon as you show up." ”

Pan Qiliang's eyes widened and he said angrily: "Are you just watching your brothers being hunted and killed by Qing demons and foreign devils?" ”

Tong Qiangsheng slowly stood up and said: "At present, everyone can only follow me to Zhenjiang first, the king of the west is attacking Suzhou and Hangzhou, after the capture of Suzhou and Hangzhou, the king of the west will definitely wave his army to capture Shanghai, and it will not be too late to take revenge at that time." ”

Zhou Lichun sighed and said: "That's all, but we still have more than ten village brothers scattered in Tangwan, old man, I still go back to Tangwan and other places to contact the villages to gather together, and when the soldiers of the West King arrive, I will respond to the soldiers and horses of the King of the West, invade Shanghai, and avenge those brothers who died!" ”

Tong Qiangsheng nodded and said: "Old Hero Zhou said well, when the soldiers of the King of the West arrive, I need Old Hero Zhou to respond more." ”

Xu Yao, the leader of the Luohan Gang, slapped the table and said: "Our Luohan Gang has decided to follow Brother Tong to Zhenjiang, and in the future, we will kill in Shanghai, and then settle accounts with Gou Qing Demons and foreign devils!" ”

Tong Qiangsheng hummed and said happily: "With the Xu Gang Master joining, my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will be like a tiger with wings." ”

Liu Lichuan shook his head suddenly, stood up and said, "Brother Tong, our people from the Little Knife Club still decided to go back to Shanghai first, I still don't believe that our huge Guangdong gang will be uprooted overnight!" Thank you for your kindness, last night's life-saving grace, the brothers of the Little Knife Club must remember! ”

Tong Qiangsheng saw that Liu Lichuan still seemed to be a little puzzled, knowing that he said so, but he still didn't believe himself in his heart, thinking about it, the Guangdong Gang was quite big in Shanghai, saying that it was swept away by the Qing court overnight, and anyone would not believe it, and he frowned slightly angrily at the moment and said: "Mr. Liu, I have already reminded you with good words, since you still don't believe it, then you can leave by yourself, it's really kind to be a donkey's liver and lungs!" ”

When the people of the Little Knife Club heard the rumors and were about to have a seizure, Liu Lichuan stood up and shouted back to the gang, turned around and said in a deep voice: "Brother Tong, please don't misunderstand, I must go back to Shanghai, even if Shanghai is a sea of swords and fires, I have to break through, it's a big deal to accompany the brothers in the city to die together, and it is not in vain to get acquainted with the brothers." ”

Pan Qiliang said: "Yes, people are dead, but after 18 years, they will be a good man again!" ”

Tong Qiangsheng stopped talking, everyone in the Little Knife Club got up and said goodbye, and everyone sent to the shore, watching dozens of Little Knife Club people wait away.

Zhou Xiuying asked with tears in her eyes: "Brother Tong, is there no way to help President Liu and them?" ”

Tong Qiangsheng frowned and said: "I have already sent someone to send a letter to the army of the West King besieging Suzhou, and I only hope that the West King can send reinforcements quickly." Then he turned around and hugged his fist at Zhou Lichun and said: "Old hero Zhou, I bother the brothers of the Tangwan Tiandi Association to go back to Tangwan first, and then go back to Zhenjiang with Xu Gang Leader and others. ”

After the group of heroes praised each other and hugged each other's fists to say goodbye, Zhou Lichun and Zhou Xiuying left with Tangwan people and others, and Tong Qiangsheng took Xu Yao and others to board the boat and go to Zhenjiang. In Tong Qiangsheng's eyes, the matter of the Shanghai Little Knife Society is certainly worthy of sympathy, and he also wants to draw his sword to help, but he also found out another news in Shanghai, and he needs him to go back to Zhenjiang in person, because he knows that the Qing court has mobilized sailors from Guangdong to go north, and now that they have arrived in Xiamen, the Taiping Army sailors in Zhenjiang need to prepare early.

……

West of Suzhou, inside the Taiping Army camp.

The West King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was carefully looking at the letter sent by Tong Qiangsheng in the big tent, although the cannon was rumbling outside, and the 20,000 Taiping troops were storming Suzhou City, but the West King did not seem to be worried about the war outside at all, but looked at the letter attentively, and the more he looked at it, the deeper his brows were locked.

Zuo Zongtang paced a few steps in the tent and said slowly: "King Xi, the Guangdong sailors of the Qing court have arrived in Xiamen, and the water war may be unfavorable." ”

Xiao Yungui slowly put down the letter, touched his chin and said: "Wu Quanmei and Chen Guotai are the two demon leaders who command more than 1,000 soldiers and horses of the naval division, more than 90 foreign cannons, more than 400 small cannons, and more than 30 red single boats coming north. Zhenjiang is backed by the south bank, our artillery, medicine, and soldiers can be supported in time, and the batteries on the bank of Zhenjiang are guarded by sailors and ships, and they are not afraid of him. ”

It turned out that after Tong Qiangsheng arrived in Shanghai, he first heard about Wu Chongyao, an alternate Daoist of the Qing court, who wrote a letter to foreigners to hire a steamer. This Wu Chongyao, also known as Wu Shaorong, was formerly known as Yuan Wei, the word Ziyuan, and a native of Nanhai, Guangdong. In the 49th year of Qianlong, his grandfather Wu Guoying founded Yihexing, one of the thirteen lines in Guangzhou. His father, Wu Bingjian, took Dunyuan as the business name newspaper to undertake, and his business has improved greatly, and he jumped to the top of the thirteen lines. At that time, the Wu family's wealth was known as the best in East Asia, and it was deeply admired by foreigners. According to the practice of following his father's name at that time, Wu Chongyao was still called Wu Haoguan to the outside world.

The Qing court was defeated by the Yangtze River water battle, and Emperor Xianfeng was furious, so he issued an order to Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang, and asked him to mobilize the Guangyue naval division to go north to help suppress it, and he must open up the passage of Caoyun. Ye Mingchen was playing Tai Chi with foreigners, and it was not easy to come forward to hire foreigners' ships, so he remembered that Wu Chongyao, a donor who had a good relationship with foreigners, kicked the ball to Wu Chongyao, and strictly punished Wu Chongyao, a sick candidate, to hire foreigner ships to help in the war.

Wu Chongyao was bedridden at the time, and after receiving the notice, he immediately sent his cronies to hire foreign warships with British chargé d'affaires consul Pashali, British minister Wen Han, American minister Marshali, and deputy minister Bo Jia. Because Wen Han was already in Tianjing, he had a non-conflict agreement with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the rest of the countries were also instructed by domestic neutrality, so there was no result.

Tong Qiangsheng was surprised when he heard the news, although the foreigners did not borrow the foreigners' ships to help suppress them, but thinking that the Qing court would not give up, Tong Qiangsheng and others strengthened the news to investigate. Later, the investigation learned that Ye Mingchen also ordered Ma Yingjie of Shunde Zhixian County to hire 8 large red boats and 12 medium-sized ships, equipped with sufficient soldiers, artillery, gunpowder, and lead pellets, and set off for Jiangnan on 21 May under the management of Chen Guotai, the director of the Xiangshan Association Division.

Later, Guangdong hired 6 large and 8 medium red single boats, in addition to the original ship Shui Yong recruited according to the number of recruits, each ship was equipped with a battalion of sailors to help the pilot, a total of 394 people. It was also equipped with 94 large iron cannons in foreign costumes, ranging from 1,000 catties to 6,700 catties. The local yamen in Guangdong allocated 50,000 catties of gunpowder, and the guerrilla Wu Quanmei of the Guangdong naval division set off for Jiangnan.

Before and after, Guangdong sent a total of 34 red single boats, more than 1,000 sailors, 94 foreign cannons, and hundreds of other small cannons to the north together, if this Qing army sailor entered the Yangtze River, it would be a huge threat to the Taiping army's sailors and Zhenjiang, Guazhou and other places.

This red single ship was originally a large cargo ship used in Guangdong civil shipping, and Guangdong merchants shipbuilding need to report to the customs and give a red list for inspection, so the shipbuilding name is "red single ship". This kind of ship is large, solid, fast, and can install 20 or 30 guns per ship, which is not comparable to the current ships in the Taiping Army. Moreover, the red single boats are all out of Chen Village and other places in Shunde County, most of the owners of these red single boats are engaged in selling oil, going back and forth to Luzon and Siam countries, because they have to guard against pirates all the year round, these boat operators can skillfully steer the boat, can quickly fire artillery, the speed of the ship, the elite of the artillery fire, and the proficiency of the pointing, compared with the regular sailors of the Qing army. The ship's helmsmen and sailors were all fathers, sons and brothers, and they all worked together to move forward when they encountered the enemy, and there was no risk of prevarication and dispersion, so the Qing army spent a lot of money to hire them.

After Tong Qiangsheng heard the news, he immediately sent a secret letter to Xiao Yungui, Xiao Yungui naturally knew the power of this red single boat, and the sailors of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history suffered all the hardships of this kind of red single boat, so he had the idea of retiring from Guazhou, which was lonely in the north of the river.

Zuo Zongtang slowly shook his head and said: "King Xi, you can't retreat from Guazhou, the King of Heaven and the King of East have arrived in Nanjing, and they are discussing the strategy of going north to attack Yangzhou, and we can't give up here in the West Palace." It is indeed difficult to deal with the large number of fast guns on the red single boats, but we can buy foreign guns in Shanghai, arrange batteries on both sides of Guazhou and Zhenjiang, and supplement them with naval warships, so it must not be difficult to defend the two places. ”

Xiao Yungui pondered for a moment and said: "I want Tong Qiangsheng to win over the Little Knife Society and some local gangs in Shanghai, these people are not only helpful to us in attacking Shanghai, especially the Little Knife Society, they are all Cantonese, I believe they are more familiar with the fleet from Guangdong, maybe they will have other ways." ”

Before the words fell, another secret agent sent a letter outside the tent, Xiao Yungui hurriedly opened it and watched, only after a few glances, he exclaimed: "The big thing is not good, the Qing Demon has already detected the movement of the Little Knife Society, and has begun to do something to the Shanghai Little Knife Society!" ”