Li Xian has always had a headache because of the lack of background in the Mixed Yuan Sect, the lack of real masters in the faction, and the lack of capable talents.

After this southern expedition, some discordant elements in Guangzhou were divided into princes, and the peripheral forces were strengthened, and the degree of unity within the Huaxia Army seemed to have increased to a great level.

After staying in Qiongzhou for another ten days and helping Qin Rigang control the whole of Qiongzhou, Li Xiancai led his troops to set off and continue to attack Qinzhou.

The battle in Qinzhou was lackluster, Qinzhou was originally a well-known poor place in Guangdong, and the equipment of the Qinzhou Green Battalion was very poor, that is, it was very different from the original Qing army in Guangzhou, and the morale was extremely low.

Moreover, the walls of the capital city of Qinzhou were low and crumbling, and there was little protection.

When Li Xian led his troops to press the border, he took the state city with just one charge, and the other counties in Qinzhou were basically determined by transmission, and there were almost no conflicts.

According to the agreement, Yang Tianming took over the defense of Qinzhou, and this will be an important foothold of the Demon Sect in Guangdong in the future.

For this result, Yang Tianming didn't know what to think, if he could make his own decisions, Yang Tianming would rather have Dongguan or Bao'an and other counties close to Guangzhou, rather than such a state.

However, in terms of the overall development of the Demon Sect, obtaining Qinzhou, a state adjacent to Guangxi, is more important than anything else.

Yang Tianming strongly integrated the Demon Sect forces in Guangzhou, obtained a huge amount of wealth, and secretly recognized the Demon Sect high-level afterwards, at this time, naturally there was no position to oppose the decision of the high-level of the headquarters, anything in this world, if you get it, you have to pay.

"What should I do now, will you take the troops back to Guangzhou?" After the matter in Qinzhou stabilized, Yang Tianming took the time to ask Li Xian.

"Oh, I still have a lot of things to do here, and I can't go back to Guangzhou for the time being. Li Xian said.

"Some time ago, our merchants in Guangzhou went to Annan to buy grain, and there were pirates who reached out to rob them, and some local forces even bullied them, so I got Annan to solve this matter. ”

Yang Tianming couldn't help but be stunned, but after thinking about it for a while, he understood: "Yes, Annan pirates are too arrogant, it's time to teach them some lessons." ”

The issue of Annan was quite complex and troublesome, and Annam had historically regarded itself as a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, and its relationship with the Qing court was not bad.

After the Huaxia army raised its position in Guangzhou, the Qing court was shocked and sent envoys to the Nanyang countries, demanding that the Nanyang countries not trade with the Huaxia army in Guangzhou or send troops to help, including Annam.

After Guangzhou, there was a shortage of grain, so some merchants went to Annam to buy grain.

At that time, Annan wanted to detain these merchants and swallow up their property, but fortunately, there were more sensible people who felt that the Sanyuan View was okay, but Li Xian had always been known as the No. 1 pirate in the South China Sea, and if he rashly provoked anger, he was afraid that there would be trouble, so it was better to save face for each other on the surface.

As a result, the merchants of Guangzhou went to Annam to do business, and they were subjected to a lot of difficulties, paid a lot of unnecessary costs, and spent a lot of unjust money, but in the end they finally bought grain.

It's just that as soon as these merchants left the port on a sea ship, they encountered pirates and were robbed of a lot of property, and hundreds of grain ships were robbed before and after, and a discerning person could know what was going on inside at a glance.

This is not a matter of Annam alone, but the epitome of the attitude of the entire Nanyang countries towards the Huaxia army, merchants who went to Nanyang to do business, they were subjected to several times more unfair treatment than before, that is, the merchants of Liangjiang and Fujian and Zhejiang, who were inclined to the Qing court, went to the sea to do business, which was also much worse than before.

In this case, the Huaxia Army must adopt means to deal with it, otherwise there will be endless troubles in the future.

Qinzhou was very close to Annan, but Li Xian did not have the intention of attacking by land, so he directly attacked the Hongji port of Annan from the sea, forcibly landed in the name of exterminating pirates, occupied the port, and established trench positions.

Then, the Huaxia army attacked here and seriously began to exterminate the pirates, beating the pirates around Hongji Port to a miserable point.

The so-called crows in the world are as black as the crows, and these pirates are actually inextricably linked to the gentry and even the government in Annam, and many people are complaining about it.

Several counties around Hongji Port organized tens of thousands of armed forces to drive out Li Xianbu of Hongji Port by force, but Annam has always been poor, and its industrial level is even far inferior to that of the Qing court, and even iron pots have to be imported from Foshan and Guangdong, and its equipment level can be imagined.

In this battle, he was naturally beaten by Li Xian, and then captured a large number of prisoners and dug coal in the coal mines around Hongji Port.

Hongji Port itself is an important port in the north of Annam, and more importantly, there is Hongji Coal Mine, which is the largest and best open-pit coal mine in Annam, which is convenient for coal mining, and is very close to the port, and easy to transport.

It's just that after Li Xian carefully inspected the Hongji Coal Mine, he secretly said that it was a pity.

It turns out that Hongji Coal Mine produces high-quality anthracite, which is excellent as fuel for steam engines, but cannot be used to make coking coal, which is a bit of a fly in the ointment.

Guangdong has always been short of coal, Li Xian originally developed industry, steam engines mainly used charcoal, all rely on the blessed land to get cheap wood to afford to consume, now finally has high-quality coal, naturally will not let go.

Annan was very nervous about the occupation of Hongji Port, first sending envoys to try to resolve it diplomatically, and then sending tens of thousands of troops to invade.

It is a pity that Annan has not experienced a major war for decades, and the military industry is weak, it is difficult to produce even ordinary iron cannons by himself, and the soldiers of the army have little will to fight, and the results can be imagined.

After Li Xian led his troops to defeat the invading Annan army twice, he also felt annoyed, and led his troops to attack the capital of Annan directly, and advanced to forty miles away from its capital.

At this time, the monarchs and ministers of Annam woke up from a dream, and understood that a careless situation would be a change of dynasty, and immediately sent envoys to him, promising a large amount of benefits and goods, and severely punishing the officials and gentry who had presided over the plundering of the merchants of Guangzhou.

After some consideration, Li Xian felt that even if he occupied the capital city, it would only plunge the entire Annan into chaos, and there would be no practical benefit to the Huaxia army, so he reluctantly agreed to return to the army.

Of course, it was inevitable to extort millions of taels worth of property and grain from Annan, obtain the right to develop the port of Hongji, and at the same time conclude various trade agreements.

Having said that, Annan is a country with relatively rich minerals, rich reserves of coal, iron, copper, etc., easy to mine and transport, and rich in grain, and is a very much-needed trading partner of Guangzhou, which is of great significance to the upgrading of China's military industrial system.

When Annan and the Huaxia Army signed a treaty and sorted out the relationship between the two sides, the Nanyang countries were greatly shaken and had to re-examine their response to the forces of the Huaxia Army in Guangzhou.

Historically, China had great influence on the Nanyang states, and even in Li Xian's time, the Qing Dynasty's invisible and actual influence on the Nanyang states was much higher than that of the European powers.

After the Huaxia army cleaned up Annam, it perfectly inherited the influence of the Middle Earth Dynasty on Nanyang, and it was in the limelight for a while.

Britain was naturally not very happy to see this situation, but it was a pity that Britain's influence was mainly concentrated in the Indian Ocean, and the influence on the South Sea side was not very strong, so it could only strengthen ties with the Spanish forces in Luzon to avoid the dominance of the Chinese army in the South Seas.

In the following years, the Chinese army was in the era of frenzied shipbuilding, doing its best to build all kinds of warships and merchant ships, imitating European-style ocean-going ships and steamships, competing with Britain for influence in the South Seas, and even having several head-to-head confrontations with the British navy.

During this period, the strength of the Chinese army was very strong, but the navy started late after all, much worse than the British, but taking advantage of the fact that Britain's attention was focused on India and Europe, and the gap that the Nanyang side could not take into account, it did not suffer much, and it became stronger and stronger.

After several years of conquest, the commercial power of the Huaxia Army gradually gained a foothold in Nanyang, obtaining a large amount of wealth and various materials needed for industry and people's livelihood, providing a solid material foundation for the promotion of its industrial base, and also won Li Xian the name of "King of Nanyang".

After much preparation, in the spring of 1846, the Huaxia Army finally had the ability to carry out a large-scale northern expedition to launch the most acute challenge to the Qing government's rule in China.