Chapter 226

Following the British army led by the same Shi Di Flier, the French army, the "Changsheng Army", and the Qing army occupied Qingpu, Fengxian Nanqiao Town, Zhelin Town and the county seat. In September, he occupied Jiading, and later left for Shanghai at the end of his term.

And this time the war in the east resumed, and he, an old Jianghu, was naturally requisitioned.

From 1848 to 1851, he served as assistant secretary to the Hong Kong Army, and his contacts with China began.

During the Second Opium War in 1860, Stifley served as a brigade commander of the British invasion of China and participated in the Anglo-French forces to capture Dagu and Tianjin.

In March 1862, Stifley was promoted to commander of the army, commanding the British to attack the Taiping Army near Shanghai, and the Taiping Army began an indissoluble bond.

In April, he joined the French army and the "Changsheng Army" to defeat the Taiping army in the area of Qibao Town, and negotiated a Shanghai defense agreement with the then commander of the British invasion fleet He Bo and the commander of the French invasion fleet Brod, and then the French army, Changsheng army, and Qing army captured Jiading, Qingpu, Fengxian Nanqiao, Tuolin, Fengxian and other Taiping army towns in May.

In January 1863, because Bai Qiwen, the commander of the "Changsheng Army", was dismissed, he signed a contract with Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu at that time, to manage the "Changsheng Army" treaty, recommending his in-law Gordon to succeed him as the commander of the "Changsheng Army", and returned to China after the expiration of his term in March. He later served in the British Army in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia).

Originally, he was not recruited for this war, but when the news of the growing Taiping army reached London, and the British army was forced to expand the scale of the army invading China, he was officially called upon.

These two Britons had fought against the Taiping Army, and they both knew the strength of the Taiping Army, although the equipment was extremely poor, but the ruthlessness of the death as if they were at home made them all look sideways, so they were cautious about attacking the Taiping Army, especially after learning that the Taiping Army had risen sharply and had crossed several provinces and had hundreds of thousands of troops.

If it was an ordinary British commander, who was not familiar with the situation of the Taiping Army, he would definitely sneer at the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Taiping Army, thinking that they were all rabble, and directly waved his army north to attack the Taiping Army.

It is precisely because these two people attach great importance to the Taiping Army in their hearts that they will be moved after learning that Zuo Zongtang intends to jointly send troops to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with them, but they used to deal with Li Hongzhang mostly and were not familiar with Zuo Zongtang, so they consulted Bruce's opinion.

After they got Bruce's affirmative reply, they couldn't wait to go to Hangzhou to meet Zuo Zongtang.

In front of the Yamen, the former governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and now the mansion of the Marquis of Chu, He Bo and Shi Di Fuli talked while walking.

"I have heard of this governor of Fujian and Zhejiang for a long time, and I have heard that his military talent is outstanding, and even Li Hongzhang is not as good as him, and now I finally have the opportunity to meet him. He Bodao.

"Uncle He, you're wrong! The Manchu Dynasty has fallen, Zuo Zongtang is no longer the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Manchu Dynasty, and in order to compete with the Heavenly Marquis of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he even established himself as the Marquis of Chu. "Stifford said.

"I hope so. He Bo said, "I really can't imagine that those Taiping troops will resurrect, I remember that when I left, they were already in decline and there was no need to be troubled." ”

"Yes, they must be stopped, or the lion of the East may really awaken. Stifoli said with a solemn expression.

They had heard the legend of the lion of the East since childhood, and Amsterd, a British diplomat who had been to China, thought that the only way to knock on China's door was through war.

The French Emperor Napoleon, on the other hand, commented contemptuously: "It is the greatest folly in the world to fight against this vast and rich empire." ”

"At first you may succeed, you will seize their ships and destroy their military and commercial facilities, but you will also make them understand their own power. They think, they build ships, they equip themselves with artillery. They will bring in gunners from France, the United States, and even London, to build a fleet and defeat you. ”

Amsterd retorted: "Behind China's superficial strength is a giant with feet of clay, very weak." ”

Napoleon insisted that China was not weak, it was nothing more than a sleeping lion.

"Today, it seems that the lion is asleep, and even a fly dares to fall on its face and cry a few times...... Once China is awakened, the world will be shaken. ”

This phrase quickly spread throughout Europe and the world, causing a strong sensation that continues to this day.

In fact, this is indeed a fulfillment, in the history of Hong Tian's previous life, although China was bullied by foreign powers in modern times, but after a great man surnamed Mao dominated China, China rose at an incredible speed, and by the time of Hong Tian, China was already one of the world's most powerful countries.

"You must form an alliance with this Marquis of Chu. He Bodao.

"That's right. "Stifford said.

......

Zuo Zongtang met with He Bo and Shi Di Fuli in the Hou Ye's mansion, and the three of them had a very happy conversation.

Zuo Zongtang claimed considerable respect for the British Empire, and hoped to unite with the British army against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

He Bo and Stifley also repeatedly said that the British Empire's determination to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was very firm, but they did not know much about the situation in China and hoped to cooperate with Zuo Zongtang.

In the end, both sides reached a basic consensus and cooperated with each other in dealing with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

And Zuo Zongtang also proposed to let the British land in Hangzhou, and then go north to attack southern Jiangsu.

He Bo and Stifley were quite surprised, because according to the information they had received from Bruce, the coastal areas of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had recently stepped up the construction of forts, and they had a certain defensive strength, and if they wanted to force a landing in those areas, they would probably have to pay a lot of price.

Now that Zuo Zongtang allowed them to go north from Hangzhou, they could avoid the fortifications along the coast of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and directly threaten the hinterland of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

During the negotiation between the two sides, He Bo and Shi Di Fuli also went to the prison to meet the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom envoy Peng Yulin, and found that the envoy turned out to be a man with a broken arm, and at this time he was even more tortured by the Chu army and was scarred and dying, but he still scolded Zuo Zongtang bitterly, looking quite tough.

He Bo and Shi Di Flley also heard about this General Peng, and heard that a well-known general in China was unbearable to see him tortured, so they suggested to Zuo Zongtang that he should keep his life, and he could use him to persuade the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to surrender in the future.

However, He Bo and Stifer's suggestion, Zuo Zongtang did not agree, Zuo Zongtang insisted on beheading Peng Yulin when the coalition army went out to strengthen the army, although He Bo and Stifley felt unhappy, but after learning that this was a Chinese tradition, they could only reluctantly accept.

The Chu army of Chu Marquis Zuo Zongtang and the British Expeditionary Force basically reached a joint intention, and while He Bo and Stitchley sent a message to London and Shanghai Bruce, they ordered the British Army on standby in Hong Kong to go north and land in Hangzhou.

Soon after, He Bo and Stifley received a response from Shanghai and London, agreeing with their alliance with the Chu army.

The combined forces of the Chu army and the British army did not act immediately, because December 25, 1864 arrived, which was Christmas in the West, and soon after that, it was the Western New Year.

Zuo Zongtang claimed that in order to deepen the relationship between the two sides, a grand Christmas party was held in Hangzhou for the British army, and the British army was jubilant for a while.

In this way, the first Christmas gala in Chinese history was held in Hangzhou.

May 25, 1864, was remembered by later Britons, not because it was Christmas, but because it seemed to them as a cry of doom.

On this day, the expeditionary force they sent to China was destroyed!

The cunning Zuo Zongtang deceived their expeditionary force that day, and nominally held a Christmas party for their expeditionary force, but in fact it was a big conspiracy.

In the food of the gala, Zuo Zongtang was poisoned, which is a chronic poison, which makes people unconsciously feel that their bodies are getting weaker and weaker, and gradually become sleepy.

All but a handful of the British army were poisoned.

The result can be imagined, the British army was captured by the prepared Chu army with almost no resistance, and became a prisoner of the Chinese.

And the warships of the British expeditionary fleet were also controlled by the Chu army.

More than 20,000 British troops of the sea and land armies were easily subdued by the Chinese.

On the same day, Zuo Zongtang announced that he would cancel the title of Marquis of Chu, return to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and release Peng Yulin, the special envoy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

When Peng Yulin appeared in front of He Bo and Shi Di Fuli, these two people were almost so angry that they vomited blood, and they didn't know that they had been completely deceived by that Zuo Zongtang at this time.

They were still interceding for Peng Yulin at that time, and wanted Peng Yulin to persuade them to surrender to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! As a result, the other party was completely fine at this time, but pleaded for them in front of Zuo Zongtang and wanted to persuade them to surrender.

Isn't this a repeat of the case? It's just a reversal of roles.

He Bo and Shi Di Fleur naturally swore to the death, the world's largest country, the honorary soldiers of the British Empire, how could they surrender to the lowly Chinese, they were a thousand and ten thousand unwilling, they scolded Zuo Zongtang and Peng Yulin, because these two people played the emperor and completely deceived them, making them sinners of the British Empire.

This sentence is not wrong at all, if it was a dignified defeat, they would not be so angry, and now they have been deceived by the tricks of the other party, so that a huge expeditionary force has become a prisoner of the enemy, and their two commanders are really shameless to face the fathers and villagers of the British Empire.

In the midst of the scolding, Hober and Stifley were dragged down and imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp, but of course they were treated favorably.

There is no need to worry about their lives, neither Zuo Zongtang nor Peng Yulin will hurt him, even the lives of those British soldiers are guaranteed, and the Taiping army will not easily harm foreigners, this is Hong Tianxia's order, uh, the current Chu army is attached to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it can be regarded as the Taiping army, so this order naturally has to be implemented.

Not to harm foreigners easily, of course, this is not Hongtian's desire to give privileges to foreigners, but only to prevent foreign prisoners of war from being killed.

Foreign prisoners of war, Hong Tian has always attached great importance to them, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is now far behind the great powers of other countries, and it must be improved quickly.

But this is by no means something that can be done overnight, but now that the situation is bad, what should be done? This makes Hong Tian feel a headache.

Historically, the Manchu Qing Dynasty sent students abroad, but the result was tragic, most of the students did not come back, and many of them became foreigners.

Of course, there are also some who have returned to China, but most of them are revolutionary, and few have returned from Western technical studies, and a large number of them have been brainwashed by Western "advanced" ideas.

As a result, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was turned upside down by these semi-foreigners, and later allowed the internal careerists to succeed in their conspiracy, resulting in the destruction of the country for more than 300 years.

Although Hong Tian thinks that he has clever means and should be able to avoid these, he is also very vigilant about this, in addition, sending international students to stay abroad takes a long time and the effect is low.

A group of international students really want to learn something, and they don't think about it for a few years, but a few years, judging from the situation in China that is changing every day, is really too long.

Moreover, the main technologies of the West are blocked from the outside world, and the technologies that can really come in handy must be developed by themselves.

Therefore, although Hong Tian has already begun to prepare, he did not pin the future of China on these international students who are very likely not to return.

On the one hand, he invited foreign experts to help develop the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's industry, and on the other hand, he supported the development of local technology, both of which later achieved considerable results.

The main representative of the former was Li Hongzhang, whose faction was later called the Westernization faction, which greatly admired the West and advocated the appointment of foreigners to develop China's industry, and the Jiangnan Shipyard, the world's largest shipyard, was the strongest pacesetter of the Westernization faction.

The latter is the nativist, the main representative is Zeng Guofan, although they are in favor of absorbing Western technology, but they should focus on their own development, and later the world's first arsenal, Jinling Arsenal is the flagpole of the localists.

The competition between the two sides is extremely fierce, and the scope of competition is not limited to industry, the confrontation between the government factions, the dispute over the education system, and so on.

In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Westernization Movement, the dispute between the Westernizers and the localists was a major topic, and until later, no one could tell who was right and who was wrong, and perhaps there was no right or wrong at all.

Since the trick of international students is not needed for the time being, Hong Tian naturally set his sights on foreigners, and the experts invited are naturally capable, but the asking price is generally very high, and the secrecy of the technology is also extremely strict, and it is almost impossible for China to learn the real technology.

So Hong Tian hit the idea on those prisoners of war.

In the battle with the previous British fleet and the British troops in the British Concession in Shanghai, Hong Tian captured a lot of British soldiers, and it was precisely because of their presence that the warships obtained by those prisoners could play a role.

Therefore, Hong Tian came up with the idea of taking prisoners, not only in the military, but also in other aspects of the talent he also wanted to discover, and in fact, he really found a lot of usable talents.

One of them, Henry, was proficient in telegraphy, which made Hong Tianru a treasure, treated him as a guest, founded a telegraph office, and ordered him to start a telegraph business in China.

In addition to the telegraph office, there is also a railway office that has also begun to operate.

The railroad expert was not an Englishman, but an American named Smith.

It was a coincidence that after the battle with the British fleet in Shanghai that day, all the foreign merchant ships that witnessed the battle were taken into custody, and Smith was the owner of one of the American merchant ships.

Smith was originally engaged in the railroad business in the United States, but because of the outbreak of the American Civil War, and the railroad he built was in a war zone, the war made him unable to continue to build, so he could only go to the sea to do business, but he did not expect to be detained in China for no reason.

Hong Tian was greatly pleased with the acquisition of talents for telegraphs and railways, so he also looked forward to the acquisition of prisoners of war in the future, and naturally did not allow any harm to foreign prisoners of war to occur.

When Hong Tian got the news, he was already in Tianjing City, looking at the good news in his hand, the smile on his face couldn't be suppressed, "Hahahaha!

For the invasion of the British army, Hong Tian has always been very worried, in fact, he does not have a very good way to solve this big threat, originally he planned to take the coastal artillery method for passive defense, as for the confrontation at sea, he really did not think that the few captured warships could not be the opponent of the powerful fleet of the world's largest naval power, Britain.

However, Hong Tian will not despair, the navy may really not be able to help the British, but the army he is confident, with the continuous expansion of the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the strength of the army is getting bigger and bigger, and most of them are the army, and most of them are elite, some of them have changed the descendants of the equipment, and the combat effectiveness is not weak.

Britain has never been an army power, even if the combat power is much higher than the Taiping Army, but the number is far less, Hong Tian is not afraid, he has long been thinking about the national war of resistance, but Hong Tian is actually a little unbearable for this, he is no longer the first time to come to this world Hong Tian, at this time he has completely assumed the responsibility of the monarch of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, if it is not necessary, he is absolutely unwilling to sacrifice the people, but if it really comes to that dangerous time, Hong Tian naturally can't care so much, once the British defeat the Taiping Army, then the whole of China will face danger。

The turning point came after Peng Yulin went to Zuo Zongtang, and the news came at that time that Zuo Zongtang detained Peng Yulin, refused to surrender to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and sent a letter of war to Hong Tian.

In fact, it was not a war letter at all, but a letter from Peng Yulin, saying that Zuo Zongtang intended to surrender, but he did not surrender immediately, but planned to return to the British after pit him, and informed Hong Tian of the plan.

After Hong Tian learned the reason, he secretly exclaimed, of course, he was also worried that Britain would not be fooled, so he did not inform anyone about the matter, but ordered the Taiping army to step up the coercion of Fujian and Zhejiang, and release the smoke of the Taiping army and the Chu army, but on the grounds of ensuring Peng Yulin's safety, he did not go to war.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang's plan finally succeeded, and Hong Tian was naturally extremely excited.

The destruction of the British Expeditionary Force this time is definitely a heavy blow to Britain, and it will be difficult for Britain to launch a large-scale war of aggression against China for a period of time in the future.

The 20,000 British troops, most of which were Indian and Malayan servants, were still an unbearable loss for the British Army, making his already weak Army even more unbearable.

And the British navy should have become extremely cautious after this fiasco, and it would not have attacked easily.

After suspending the British threat, Hong Tian finally put down a big stone in his heart and returned to China from abroad, the situation in China was changing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom became the sole government of China, and the people were attached to it, and many regions expressed their willingness to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Sichuan, under the persuasion of Zhao Liewen, had already submitted to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and announced his annexation.

According to Hong Tian's knowledge, Luo Bingzhang had detained Zhao Liewen who had entered Sichuan, but after learning the news of the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, he released Zhao Liewen, apparently losing hope for the Manchu Dynasty.

Luo Bingzhang is an old senior, and Zeng Guofan is a respected old man, and he is also one of the eight famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, known as the reincarnation of Kong Ming, Hong Tian sincerely welcomes his return.

At the same time, there was also good news from Shaanxi, the former governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Xilin, was seriously ill, and after learning of the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, he collapsed and passed away.

Liu Rong, the governor of Shaanxi, announced his attachment, Liu Rong was born in the Hunan army, and was a guest of Zeng Guofan, after learning that Zeng Guofan returned to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was ready to move, and after the death of his boss, he immediately seized the opportunity to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In addition, Zhang Liangji, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou and the governor of Guizhou, after learning that Luo Bingzhang and Liu Rong had surrendered, knew that the general situation was inviolable, and also sent people to express his surrender.

In addition, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangguang, has also secretly expressed his willingness to surrender to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

For Liu Kunyi's attachment, Hong Tian is not surprised at all, Liu Kunyi is also a veteran of the Hunan Army, and Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Changyou founded the Hunan Army together, and Liu Kunyi is Liu Changyou's uncle, but the age of this uncle is 12 years younger than his nephew Liu Changyou, so Liu Changyou is generally in charge of major matters.

In addition to the Manchu Qing Dynasty's use of two Liu (Liu Changyou, Liu Kunyi) to balance the north and south of Zeng Guofan, Liu Kunyi's real talent and hard work are naturally not less, and he, like Liu Changyou, is a visionary.

I don't know how the Japanese offended the Liu family, Liu Changyou was extremely wary of Japan early on, and even proposed to preemptively strike against Japan.

And Liu Kun is not bad, he is the first person in China to propose a protracted war against Japan.

Liu Kunyi did not propose this strategy in the War of Resistance Against Japan, when the visionary had already passed away for decades.

He proposed a protracted war against Japan in 1894 during the Sino-Japanese War, when the Japanese invaded Korea and then invaded northeastern China. Due to the repeated defeats of most of the Manchu troops participating in the war in the early stage, the Qing government decided to send the Hunan army out of the pass to fight against Japan, and appointed Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang and the former general of the Hunan army, as the minister of the Qin mission, commanding 60,000 Hunan troops to go out of the pass.