The Taipings' strengthened version of the barrel tactics achieved unpredictable results, with more than 300 mines, each costing only 150 silver dollars, and a British warship was worth hundreds of times or more. In fact, compared with the mature mine warfare in later generations, this result is not the most brilliant, during World War II, the warring sides used a large number of mines, a total of about 100,000 offensive mines were used, and then a total of 2,665 ships were sunk, most of these ships were transport ships of tens of thousands of tons, which can be described as brilliant results.

In this time and space, although the Russians had used mines in the Crimean War, their success was not great, and the Taiping Army's reinforced keg tactics opened a new chapter in the history of naval warfare.

Of course, the results and losses of the battle were not known until the next day, when the land forces of the Taiping army continued to counterattack the fort according to the pre-made plan, and General Napier suffered heavy losses in the night battle, because they were facing a Taiping army several times their size.

The battle continued until the sky was dark, and General Napier finally reluctantly led dozens of Marines to board the French's own ships and escape from Wusongkou, and then the Taiping army used battery artillery to send off four French warships and successfully damaged one.

Pan Qiliang commanded the entire counterattack campaign, although the soldiers were very brave, but the French army also resisted fiercely, so it was not until dawn that the Wusongkou fort was conquered, which was much later than the original plan, if it were not for the Taiping army's mine tactics to achieve unprecedented results, then Seymour's fleet would inevitably return to the fort or escape from the waters of the Huangpu River, then the Taiping army's plan to lure the enemy would have completely failed.

Fortunately, after dawn, good news came. Let Pan Qiliang's hanging heart relax, in fact, when the night battle was still going on. The Taiping generals found some burning wreckage floating down from the upstream, and probably guessed something. It's just that I didn't expect that the twenty British warships that broke through the Huangpu River would be wiped out, and the next Wusongkou Fort would have no battle to fight at all.

The Battle of Wusongkou avenged the great revenge of the British army for the capture of Wusongkou more than 20 years ago, and the old hero Zhou Lichun, who was then the military chief of the Political Department of the Shanghai Army, burst into tears, looking at the wreckage of the ship floating along the river, he muttered: "Chen Junmen, you rest in peace, we have avenged your revenge for you......

The news of the victory in the Battle of Wusongkou had spread throughout Shanghai the next day, and the soldiers and civilians were all thunderous with joy, after the Taiping army and the British army clashed at the mouth of the Pearl River. There has been no negotiation agreement between the Taiping Army and the British, and the big guys have been holding their breath for the arrogance of the British, in addition to the old debts of more than 20 years ago, there are also new enmities in recent years, and today it can be said that the old debts and new debts are settled together.

Taking advantage of the new victory, coupled with the news from the north, the news and newspapers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hyped up the victory of the war, and the king of the north led the First Army to annihilate more than 20,000 British and French troops and expel the Manchu rebels. surrounded the city of Beijing. At the great victory at Wusongkou in the south, twenty allied warships were sunk, and the news of the Taiping army's heavy victory in the war against the Anglo-French alliance began to spread throughout the world.

In the conference room on the second floor of the British Consulate in the British Concession in Shanghai, a group of British military and political dignitaries and businessmen who stayed in the concession gathered together. All of them looked sad, or silently smoking cigars, or drinking whiskey non-stop. The atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

"Gentlemen, what shall we do?" It was the British consul in Tianjing, Midil, who spoke. He was always close to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he felt that he was a sinner at the moment.

"I have long said that you can't be too indulgent with the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in the words of the Chinese. We are raising tigers for trouble! British Admiral Hubber knocked on the table and said, his other arm still hanging on his chest, the gauze on his head has not been removed, he returned to Shanghai to recuperate after being injured in the Jintang battle more than a month ago, and his injuries have not yet healed.

Midile hated Uncle He's thick sea lion whiskers very much, and he said unceremoniously: "General Uncle He, what we need is constructive construction, not to pursue the previous problems!" The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom declared war on us this time, not because of our previous policy, but because our policy has changed, and the usual neutral position has been broken by the force of the expeditionary force, which will inevitably cause a conflict between the two sides! We should rethink why this situation has come to this point! ”

General Seymour, who had fled back to the concession, was still a junior in military circles, but he still supported Admiral Hober's opinion: "Mr. Midile, the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has harmed our interests in the Far East, and we must limit it. ”

The British consul in Shanghai, Ali Guo, was a neutral faction, and he frowned and said, "Can the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom be limited?" If we had not had a policy that leaned toward the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, how much benefit would we have gained in the Far East? The Crimean War, we won a crushing victory, although we contained Russia, but the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was inevitable, I support Mr. Midile's opinion, we should reflect on our China policy, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom because of the war, use a large number of mines to close the ports, we will lose all trade in the Far East, note, gentlemen, it is all ......"

On the sofa on the side, Clifford, the representative of the Rothschild family in the Far East, raised his glass and suddenly said: "Gentlemen, as businessmen, we pay more attention to long-term interests, it is true that at present, the war between us and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has damaged a lot of interests, but in the long run, a weak and civil strife China seems to be more in line with our interests, its strength must be limited to a controllable range, not like now, it dares to resist us!" ”

Midile's brows furrowed, he was secretly cursing the Rothschild family in his heart, this blood-sucking family, relying on the Crimean War to earn a lot of money, and now the crisis in the Far East, behind them is fueled by them, the British Parliament quietly changed its policy towards China and agreed to launch an expedition against the Manchus, the Rothschild family is the black hand behind it, and the reason is just that the increasingly powerful Taiping Heavenly Kingdom vigorously developed its own industry and commerce, and began to crowd out a lot of Far East markets, so that some of the Rothschild family's investments suffered lossesTherefore, they did not want to see the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lose the market in the Far East after it became strong.

After listening to it. He immediately asked, "Now our forces in the Far East are very weak, and only a strong navy cannot conquer a country with a vast continent. Gentlemen, if we want to limit the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. So how many land forces do we need? Will the blockade of the Navy alone be able to force them to submit? Gentlemen, you must know that apart from opium, we have no goods that are indispensable to the Chinese, and even opium they do not necessarily need! ”

Clifford shook his head and said, "We don't need to conquer every inch of land, we just need to capture their capital, Tianjing!" In this way, a new treaty can be signed! ”

"Tianjing?!" Midile smiled dumbly and said: "There is at least one army of Taiping army field troops guarding, and tens of thousands of local village soldiers are assisted, the Taiping army is not the Manchu army, Mr. Clifford, how many troops do we need to send to the Far East to fight?" ”

Midile's words are true. At that time, although the British Empire was known as the empire on which the sun never set, the pure British army only had more than 200,000 regular troops, and the rest were mostly huge colonial troops.

Clifford pondered for a moment and said: "The Rothschilds will support the expansion of this war, the British Empire was declared war by a weak country, which is a humiliation in itself, and I think the queen does not want to disgrace the empire, and we will support the recruitment of more expeditionary forces to China." ”

Clifford's guarantee represents the financial support of London's major consortia, and Midile looked at the rich son of the Rothschild family, who had previously been artistic. He didn't expect that now he would become as ruthless and ruthless as a politician, what did he want? Is it really because the interests of the Rothschilds are damaged in the Far East?

Midile's inquiring gaze turned to Alexander, the majority shareholder of Jardine Matheson. Madison, because he knew that Alexander was the real representative of the Rothschilds in the Far East.

Alexander seemed a little helpless, although Jardine Matheson's business in the Far East had been affected by the rise of local Chinese industry and commerce. However, because of the strength of Britain's own industry, Jardine Matheson is gradually changing its traditional business model, and they are actively negotiating with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom the issue of joint mining rights for some mineral projects in the mainland. Jardine Matheson intended to take advantage of its technological superiority in the fields of minerals, shipbuilding, railways, shipping, and so on under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but a war ruined the previous efforts. Because Clifford was reluctant to deepen his cooperation with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he began to preach the lucrative profits of the opium trade again. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had taken control of the whole of China and started a nationwide anti-smoking policy, the opium trade of Jardine Matheson would have suffered greatly.

But Alexander knew that the opium trade now only accounted for a pitiful 18% of the total trade of Jardine Matheson, and he believed that in order to expand its trade influence in the Far East, the Rothschilds had to give up the opium trade, and once China was like Japan, no one bought this kind of thing, then what was the point of opium production? On the contrary, the increasingly open Chinese market needs something else, and foreign investors can even begin to set up banks in China, and for a country of 400 million people, the lure of preemptive access to the financial sector will far outweigh the opium trade.

But Alexander could not convince Clifford, he could only send his assessment back to China, waiting for instructions from the country, so he could only smile at Midile's gaze and say: "Gentlemen, in fact, we don't have to worry, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has surrounded the concession, we are safe for the time being, the navy does not have to risk trying to attack other ports of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom due to the lack of help from the army, we do not want the Taiping army to block the shipping lanes and ports with mines, the navy should return to Hong Kong first to ensure the safety of Hong Kong, Waiting for further instructions from home, either bringing the willingness to negotiate at home, or sending more expeditionary forces, in fact, we just have to wait now, don't we? ”

Alexander didn't say anything, and Midile breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Alexander would truthfully report what had happened here, and that their consulate would have to make a detailed report to the country, and that it would be foolish to expand the war, but it was unknown if it would work...... (To be continued......)