Tomorrow is 515, the anniversary of the starting point, and the day with the most benefits. In addition to the gift bag and school bag, this time's "515 Red Envelope Flip" must be seen, how can there be a reason not to grab the red envelope, set the alarm clock high~

The arrival of George Yilu intensified the panic of the officials, gentlemen, merchants and people in Guangzhou, and intensified the panic atmosphere inside and outside the city.

Wu Changqing and Pan Shiming hurriedly entered the Rong Garden, and when they saw Yi Zhicontent, they were leisurely drinking tea and reading books in the study, Wu Changqing couldn't help but smile and said: "This is all burning eyebrows, it is really rare for Brother Contentment to be so leisurely." ”

Yi Zhizhi said with a smile: "It's not that your eyebrows have burned yet. With that, he put down the book, took the cigar box from the table, handed one to each of them, and lit one himself, and then continued: "The soldiers are in chaos, you two didn't come here to hang out with me, did you?" ”

"I'm here to report it." Pan Shiming spewed out a puff of smoke and said: "The staff of the newspaper are panicked and can't feel at ease. ”

"We can't go out of business." Yi Zhishu said without thinking about it: "The more panicked the market, the more the newspaper can't be closed, and the newspaper is suspended, which will cause more panic. ”

It's a bit heavy. Yuanqi has an assessment every three years, a bad evaluation, not only is there no hope for the assessment in these three years, but it may also affect the next assessment, Pan Shiming frowned, and said: "Is it too much." After all, we didn't declare in advance that we were not allowed to ask for leave. ”

"Count them out of luck." Yi Zhishu said unmoved: "The duty of the newspaper is to control and guide public opinion, the more major events occur, the more they are not allowed to ask for leave, and they are working overtime. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, if there are still those who ask for leave, they will be removed directly. Yuan Qi will not be rehired for life. ”

Hearing this, Pan Shiming was silent for a long time, he originally planned to take this opportunity to rest for a month or two, but it seemed that there was no chance, Wu Changqing gloated and said: "In this way, Brother Cheng has been busy these days." ”

Yi Zhizu turned to him and said, "What? There are also many people taking leave from shipyards? ”

"It's a lot." Wu Changqing nodded and said, "You won't give them a bad review, right?" ”

"Not really." Yi Zhizhi said: "The shipyard is different from the newspaper, but these people also need to be recorded in detail. In the future, these people will not be allowed to access core secrets. ”

Get. This is not much better than giving a bad review in the assessment, it seems to be worse, Wu Changqing has the heart to defend them, thinking that these people are indeed unreliable, he immediately nodded and said, "Listen to Brother Zhizhi." ”

Slightly groaned. He said: "Strange to say, Citi mechanics don't seem to be worried about the upcoming war, and basically no one asks for leave." ”

"There's nothing strange about it, they're different." Yi Zhizhi said: "Unless England wants to declare war on Citigroup, even if the British army enters Guangzhou." Nor will it embarrass the Citi people, what do they have to worry about? As he spoke, he knocked on the cigarette ash and said, "Look at this situation, I am afraid that the people of each factory are unstable, so let's not sit here, go down and go around, and stabilize the people's hearts." ”

Hearing this, Pan Shiming hurriedly asked: "The huge fleet of the English is anchored outside Haikou, so you really don't worry about them coming in at all?" ”

Yi Zhixiang glanced at him and said, "Wouldn't your old man also want to go into the city to avoid trouble?" ”

"That's what it means." Pan Shiming said: "The old man has to be cautious about the safety of hundreds of people in a large family, but the Wu family has not moved, and the old man is not embarrassed to leave." ”

"It's still Old Man Wu who is calm." Yi Zhifen said with a smile: "The Yuanqi group trains 10,000 people, if I can't even protect Henan Island, I, the big shopkeeper of Yuanqi, will not have the face to go now." As he spoke, he stood up and said to Pan Shiming: "Tell General Merchant Pan that even if the British army passes through Humen, Henan Island is safer than Guangzhou City, and there is no need to move the nest, besides, the British army will not attack Guangzhou at all this time." ”

Pan Shiming said with some doubts: "Outside the English Chen Binghu Gate, but not attacking Guangzhou?" Why? "The reason is very simple, even if the British army wins a big victory in Guangzhou, they will not be able to get what they want, because Yilu knows Lin Butang's personality very well." Yi Zhizhi said: "In that case, why should the British army waste ammunition, energy and time here?

Moreover, Guangzhou was far away from Beijing, and even if the two sides negotiated and exchanged documents, a round trip would take a month, and the British fleet could not afford to spend time, but now that George Ely, the British plenipotentiary and commander-in-chief of the British army, had arrived, the British fleet would leave in as little as one or two days or as long as three or five days. ”

As it turned out, Yi Zhi's judgment was once again extremely accurate, and George Yilu only repaired in one day off the coast of Canton, and the fleet sailed north, leaving only six corvettes in the waters of Canton.

When the news spread, all the officials, gentlemen, businessmen, and ordinary people in Guangzhou breathed a sigh of relief, but Yi Zhizhi was not at all relieved. The film war has begun.

Humen Village, Admiralty Office.

Lin Zexu, the governor of Liangguang, paced slowly in the study with his hands behind his back, with a grim expression, the British army went north, not only did he not feel relaxed, but also heavy, to be honest, he would rather the British army attack Guangzhou, so that Guangzhou would still be fully prepared for war, Liangjiang and Zhili are afraid that they are defenseless.

As early as the third day after the arrival of the fleet in Guangzhou, he had already described in detail the details of the British fleet and pointed out that it was very likely that the British army would go north, take strict precautions in the coastal provinces, and then urgently report to the Beijing Division and Fujian, Zhejiang, Liangjiang, and Zhili with an expedited report of 500 li.

Now that the British army is really going north, how can he not worry, although Deng Tingzhen took over as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, he has been in office for less than four months, even if he is fully preparing for war, but judging from the situation of the Eight Banners Green Battalion, I am afraid that it is not optimistic, let alone Liangjiang and Zhili. The governor of Liangjiang, Iribu, did not know whether he had taken office in Jiangning, Zhili-Tianjin, which was the gateway to Beijing, and he did not know whether Qishan would believe his words and go all out to guard against it.

Then he thought of Yi Zhicontentment, this kid is not very old. But he is familiar with the West, thoughtful, and knows things like a god, so far, almost all the things he said have been fulfilled one by one, thinking of this, he shouted to the outside world: "Come on." ”

A long entourage hurriedly bowed in and said, "What do you command?" ”

"Send to Xiguan and invite Yi Zhicontent." Lin Zexu finished speaking. Slowly paced back to the desk and sat down, pondering for a long time, he picked up the pen, the news of the British army's big move north, or the fast horse to report to the Beijing division, the British ship is fast, Fujian and Zhejiang are afraid that it will be too late, but Zhili still has time to take precautions.

Yi Zhishu arrived at Humen the next morning. rushed to the gate of Humen Walled City, and saw Guan Tianpei striding out. He hurriedly arched his hand and said with a smile: "How dare you greet the army in person." ”

"There are few people in Guangzhou who can make the old man come out to greet him, and you can easily count one of them." Guan Tianpei smiled heartily: "Contentment doesn't have to be humble, you should be." ”

The two of them entered the city side by side all the way, and Yi Zhizhi still knew the measure, and was slightly half a step behind. After passing the city gate, Guan Tianpeicai said: "The British army is going north, and the ministers are worried and sleepless, and contentment may share the worries of the ministers?" ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled contentedly, "Guan Junmen is also raised below." There was a pause. He continued: "The Lord of the Ministry summoned me for this? There's really nothing you can do about it. ”

Seeing that he replied so simply, Guan Tianpei changed his words and said, "The British army is going north, will it come to Guangzhou again?" ”

"It's bound to come." Yi Zhifen said unequivocally: "The British army goes north, regardless of victory or defeat, it will return to Guangzhou, if the negotiations do not go well, the British army may also attack Guangzhou, the military gate should not be slack because the British army has gone north, in the next stealing thought, during this time, the military gate should be well reorganized by the sailors." ”

Hearing him mention the rectification of the water master again, Guan Tianpei could only smile bitterly, this kid is good at everything, but he has too deep prejudices about the water master, but after thinking about it, the water master is really embarrassed and thrown home, sighed lightly, and he said: "It's time to rectify it." Having said that, he understood in his heart that the rectification of the sailor was easier said than done.

The two talked all the way into the Admiralty's Office, and went straight into Lin Zexu's study, after saluting, Lin Zexu stretched out his hand to give up his seat, and then asked directly: "The British army is going north, where do you think it will attack first?" ”

Dinghai! Yi Zhishu knew quite well that the first city captured by the British army was Dinghai County, but he did not say it directly, but asked: "I don't know the specific situation of the British fleet - the number of types of warships, the number of artillery, the number of soldiers, etc., do the ministers and the military gate have detailed information?" ”

"Yes." Lin Zexu rummaged through the table as he spoke, then handed him a list and said, "This is the summary of the English fleet, the number of artillery is roughly accurate, but the number of soldiers is difficult to estimate. ”

Yi Zhixin has his own intelligence sources, the intelligence network formed by Lin Da'an and Ren An has developed rapidly in the past two years, recruiting a lot of people, and also recruiting a lot of volunteer students and down-to-earth Citi people who have no skills, for the intelligence collection of the British fleet, it is naturally the focus, the reason why he wants the two to ask for information about the British fleet, one is to cover up, and the other also wants to compare.

The information collected by the sailors of the British fleet is quite detailed, and statistics have been made, totaling 74 large and small sail warships, auxiliary gunboats, steam tugboats, troop carriers, and transport ships, more than 600 shipboard guns, and more than 7,000 sailors.

After reading it carefully, Yi Zhizhi put down the list and said: "As I said before, the coastal port cities, such as Xiamen, Ningbo, Dinghai, Nanjing, and Tianjin, are all targets of the British army. As he spoke, he looked at Lin Zexu and said, "I have vaguely heard that England is very envious of Portugal's way of leasing Macau, and has made the same request, I don't know if this matter is true?" ”

Hearing this, Lin Zexu glanced at Guan Tianpei, he has not been in Guangzhou for a long time, and has been paying full attention to the ban on smoking and preparing for coastal defense, he has never heard of this at all, Guan Tianpei does not know, he has little contact with the civil officials in Guangzhou, and he has not had much contact with the Thirteen Lines, and for the English businessmen, he has not seen it a few times, where do he know about it, so he simply kept silent.

After a slight sigh, Lin Zexu said: "This matter, the headquarters is not clear, and the officials in Guangzhou must be summoned to inquire, but this matter is related to the target of the British army?" ”

Yi Zhishu nodded and said, "If this is the case, then it will be determined that the first target of the British army will be Dinghai County." ”

"Dinghai County in Dazhoushan?" Guan Tianpei's face sank, and said: "Dinghai has always been an important place for soldiers, the throat of Zhejiang, and has always been the guarantee for the two rivers and Fujian and Zhejiang to go to sea. ”

Lin Zexu asked: "What does it mean to be content, Yingyi has the intention of leasing Dinghai?" ”

"Guan Junmen is right." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "Dinghai is an important place for soldiers, occupying Dinghai is enough to control the sea trade between the two rivers and Fujian and Zhejiang, first, Yingyi has the intention of leasing and separating Dinghai, and second, the Yingyi fleet comes from afar and needs to occupy a foothold, or as a springboard or as a bridgehead."

Moreover, because Dinghai's position in coastal defense is extremely important, once the Yingyi occupy Dinghai, they can also use this to blackmail the imperial court as a bargaining chip for their rude demands. All in all, Dinghai's geographical location is prominent, and it is isolated overseas, which is completely enough to give full play to the advantages of Yingyi's naval operations, and it can also be counted in one fell swoop, which can be called the target of the Yingyi fleet. ”

"Dinghai is in danger." Guan Tianpei sighed lightly, as the commander of the Guangdong Navy Division, he naturally knew the layout of the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense, and he also had a rough understanding of the situation in Dinghai, with such a large fleet of the British army, the defense of the Humen Fort was so strong, and the officers and soldiers were still afraid of the enemy, not to mention that they were unprepared, and the defense was far inferior to the Dinghai in Humen.

After being silent for a long time, Lin Zexu said: "What about outside Dinghai? ”

"After the capture of Dinghai." After a pause, Yi Zhizhi said: "Translocation, if you are the commander of the Yingyi Navy, you will definitely not delay more along the way, but ride the monsoon and go straight to Tianjin." ”

Monsoon, yes, Yingyi is a sail warship, and it must be used to go straight to Tianjin with the help of the monsoon! Lin Zexu's heart tightened, he didn't know what kind of shock would be caused by such a huge fleet of Yingyi suddenly appearing on the surface of Tianjin! After a long silence, he spoke: "With the speed of the Yingyi fleet, how long will it take to reach Tianjin?" ”

"At the moment, it is a tailwind, and at the normal sailing speed of the Yingyi warship, one hour and ten knots is two hundred nautical miles a day." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "If there is no delay along the way, it will only take about twelve days to travel from Guangzhou to Tianjin." ”

PS.5.15 "Starting Point" is raining red envelopes! Starting at 12 noon, grab a round every hour, and a large wave of 515 red envelopes depends on luck. You all go and grab it, and the starting coins you grabbed continue to subscribe to my chapters! (To be continued.) )