Seeing Yilu, he strode out of the official hall, but Pu Dingcha didn't even glance at his back, Yilu stood up and said: "Dear gentlemen, I think everyone should understand that war is full of unpredictability, General Yilu has done his best, and this "Treaty of Macao" is the best result we can achieve before. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The commander of the naval fleet, Bomai, couldn't help but say: "The intelligence we collected before is not completely accurate, the Qing Navy Division is not completely so bad, the Navy Division in Guangzhou has more than a dozen American merchant ships converted into warships, and there are also five American light cruisers. ”

Army Commander Bourley continued: "Because of the lack of fresh food, fruits and vegetables, and clean fresh water, our soldiers suffered from the terrible malaria in Zhoushan, and I have every reason to believe that the Qing country has excellent muskets, which have a longer range and more accurate accuracy than the muskets used by our soldiers." ”

Major General Guo Fu said disapprerovingly: "Are you talking about rifled guns?" ”

"It should be a rifled gun." "However, the rate of fire of their muskets does not seem to be inferior to that of smoothbore guns. ”

"How is that possible?" Guo Fu said in surprise: "The ancient Qing Kingdom actually has a new musket with such excellent performance?" Are you sure it's not a joke? ”

Bourli is actually not sure, the battle of Dinghai, he is in the city, the Yuanqi regiment is practicing outside the city, the firing range is far and high, he is sure, but the rate of fire is fast, he is not sure, the artillery shelling of the Yuanqi regiment is almost uninterrupted when the siege of the city, he can not judge the frequency of the opponent's shooting from the sound of gunfire, but there are many soldiers who went up to the city wall but were lucky not to die swore that the other party's musket fire rate is fast, not inferior to the rate of fire of smoothbore guns.

During his detention in Guangzhou, he also carefully paid attention to the muskets equipped by the soldiers trained by the Yuanqi regiment, which was an American Hall-type M1819 rear-loading rifle, but it was not a rear-loading but a front-loading rifle. ”

Hearing this, Pu Dingcha said with a solemn face: "The United States is supporting the Qing State behind it? ”

"It's not possible to draw that conclusion at this time." Yilu said: "Those five light cruisers have obviously been ordered a long time ago, and they were not ordered by the Qing naval division, they should have been purchased by Yuan Qi, as for the musket ......, Yuan Qi donated millions of silver dollars as early as three years ago, that is, before the Qing State began to ban smoking, and began to buy muskets and artillery to strengthen the defense of the Humen Fort." After the outbreak of the war, no American merchant ships came to Guangzhou to trade. ”

Pu Ding Cha had heard of Yuan Qi's name, but he didn't have a detailed understanding, and when he heard that Yuan Qi was mentioned one after another, he couldn't help but say: "What's going on with Yuan Qi?" And Yuanqi group practice? ”

"Yuanqi is a large company jointly founded by Guangzhou businessmen....... Yilu briefly introduced Yuan Qi's situation, and then said: "When Guangzhou was banned, Yuan Qi set up a Yuan Qi regiment to practice, with a scale of 10,000 people.

Yuanqi's big shopkeeper is the boss, named Yi Zhicontent, is a fluent Englishman, for our Great Britain and the situation in Europe, including the United States, are very familiar and understandable, and is also very shrewd and open business, Zhoushan Dinghai War, captured officers and soldiers were treated well by Yuanqi, exchange prisoners of war, negotiations between the two countries, are led ......by this person. ”

Guo Fu asked: "Yuanqi Tuanlian does not belong to the Qing army?" Where is it stationed today? ”

"In Guangzhou." Yilu said: "Yi Zhishu cares about Yuanqi's bank and factory very much, and has privately agreed with us to attack Guangzhou, and not to attack and destroy the factory and bank ....... under Yuanqi's name." ”

"Yuanqi wants to vigorously develop industry in the Qing Kingdom?" Rear Admiral Bhaga said in a deep voice: "This is not in the interests of the Empire in the Far East, all the Empire needs is a colony like India. ”

Yilu glanced at him and said, "Qing is not India, Qing is a unified and huge empire, and it is not realistic to turn Qing into a colony like India at present. On the contrary, I think that the Qing should be encouraged to develop industry, which is conducive to the empire quickly getting rid of the economic crisis, if nothing else, the Qing country can build a railway, so that the empire's steel industry can quickly get out of the trough, and another ........ ”

Pu Dingcha waved his hand, interrupted him, and said, "This issue is not something we should be concerned about and debate now, or talk in detail about all aspects of the Qing State that you know." ”

The arrival of the huge fleet made Huang Dianyuan overjoyed, and he hurriedly sent someone to inform the leaders of the Heaven and Earth Society, and reported in detail the strength of the British warships coming to help, whether the British army was fighting Tianjin or Jiangning, such a huge force was enough to crush it, and the Heaven and Earth Society could not miss such a good opportunity.

Humen Village, Admiralty Office.

Looking at the report on the arrival of the huge British fleet on the surface of the Modao Ocean from Macao, Guan Tianpei couldn't help but gasp, groaned slightly, and ordered: "Someone, copy a copy, and the clipper ship will report it to the Governor's Palace." ”

Now there are 80 Yingyi warships on the grinding sea, and there are only eight third-class battleships, and I don't know if there will be any warships in the future, such a huge fleet, can Humen be able to defend it? Guan Tianpei paced back and forth in the room worriedly, if all the Yuanqi regiment training was in Guangzhou, he would not be worried, but now that all the elites of the Yuanqi regiment were transferred to Jiangning, if the British fleet attacked, he was really not sure at all.

Mai Tingzhang, who came quickly after hearing the news, lowered his voice as soon as he entered the door: "Junmen, the scale of the Yingyi fleet is so large, if you really want to attack Jiangning, I am afraid that it will be more than lucky." ”

Does this kid still care about Jiang Ning? Guan Tianpei rolled his eyes and said: "Yingyi is powerful, it is very likely to attack Humen, send people to the Huadi camp to inform Yuanqi to practice, in addition, the elite of the righteous and brave will also be transferred to the vicinity to assist in defense, and order all battalions to be ready for battle." ”

"Mark and command." Mai Tingzhang hurriedly bowed and said, raised his body, and asked again: "Is Shanghai going to send a clipper to notify?" ”

Guan Tianpei waved his hand and said: "Yi Zhixiang has already made arrangements, and he uses flying pigeons to pass the book, so why do you need a fast boat." ”

Canton City, Governor's Palace.

Qi Shan received a detailed report on Yingyi's increase in troops after dark, and after reading it carefully, he sighed lightly, nearly 20,000 additional troops, forty warships, it seems that Yi Zhi's judgment is accurate, Yingyi's large-scale increase in troops is unlikely to comply with the treaty previously made, but this battle, I'm afraid it's not ordinary to fight, and I don't know if Yingyi will fight Guangzhou first? He didn't dare to think about it, and hurriedly wrote an excerpt, and then sent it to Jingshi and Jiangning in an expedited manner of 800 li.

Early the next morning, Qi Shan led a group of officials to Humen, and when the ship arrived at the Humen Fort, he instructed Yu Baochun, the prefect of Guangzhou, to go to Macao by boat, and asked him to contact the British commander through the Governor of Macao, Biandu, to see if there was any possibility of peace talks between the two sides in Macao.

After receiving the request for peace talks conveyed by Portugal, Pu Ding Cha was very happy to send Major Ma Gong to Macao, and the two sides were in contact, and when they saw the conditions set by Pu Ding Cha, Yu Baochun was directly petrified and hurriedly sent a fast ship to report to Humen.

The amount of the indemnity shall not be less than 20 million silver dollars, and the cession of Zhoushan Islands and Hong Kong shall be officially approved by His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty..... After only reading the first three articles, Qi Shan was completely dead, but he replied to the British side with Yu Baochun, reported these conditions to the Beijing Division, and asked the British side to wait in Modaoyang for the time being.

Back and forth, at noon the next day, Major Ma Gong returned to the "Kang Huali" on the surface of the grinding knife, after listening to the report, Pu Ding Cha shook his head disapprovingly, it was obvious that the other party was trying to delay time, it seems that he led the fleet to arrive in the middle of April, some of them were unexpected by the Qing Kingdom, and he groaned slightly, so he ordered: "Send someone to invite Yilu, Baga, Guo Fu, Bomai, and Boli." ”

When the crowd arrived, Pu Ding glanced at everyone and said: "Everyone, we have been repairing in the Knife Yang for three days, although the officials of Guangdong in the Qing Kingdom have the will to negotiate peace, but they do not have the sincerity of the peace talks, they just want to delay our time, I think we should discuss the next course of action." ”

As he spoke, he looked at Yilu and said, "First of all, we must try our best to ensure the personal safety and property safety of Her Majesty's people, Colonel Yilu, the time when you were responsible for issuing proclamations to British merchants in the Far East and putting the interests of the country under the interests of commerce is over. As Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain in the Far East, I was very concerned about the safety of the lives and property of the merchants of the Far East, but it was my duty to end the war quickly and satisfactorily.

Now, I regret to announce that we are going to take very tough measures against the Qing country, and I hope that all the people of Her Majesty will not put their lives and property within the sphere of influence of the Qing authorities, which is undoubtedly very risky, and we will not be able to rescue them in time. ”

This is undoubtedly a declaration of war, Yilu hurriedly got up and bowed slightly: "Your Excellency, this announcement will spread throughout Macao and Guangzhou at noon, in fact, there are no more people of Her Majesty in Guangzhou. ”

"Good." "Now let's discuss the direction and goal of our attack. ”

As soon as the words fell, Rear Admiral Baga spoke: "There is no doubt that the target of our attack should be Tianjin, and force the Qing Emperor to sign a contract at Baihe or even under the walls of the Qing capital. ”

There was silence in the official hall of Nuoda, and after a while, Pu Ding Cha asked in a deep voice: "Are there any different opinions?" ”

"I don't think it's a good idea." Yilu said unceremoniously: "The Qing State has hoarded heavy troops in Tianjin, although the Qing army is vulnerable, but Tianjin is the gateway of the Qing State's Beijing Division, once we attack Tianjin, we will attract all the troops in the north of the Qing State to Tianjin."

I don't know if you know that the canal from Tianjin to Jingshi is not organized to drive a huge fleet, and the northern army of the Qing State is mainly cavalry, I think that the Qing Emperor will not give us a chance to fight under the walls of the Beijing Division.

In comparison, Jinling, in the political, economic and military status is far better than Tianjin, gentlemen, Jiangnan is the richest place in the Qing State, Jinling is the center of the Jiangnan, the capture of Jinling, is equivalent to control the richest Jiangnan in the Qing State.

Moreover, Jinling also controls the inland waterway of the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, in the Qing Dynasty, where there is no railway and shipping and is not developed, the Yangtze River waterway and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are the two largest transportation arteries of the Qing Dynasty, you should be very clear, what does it mean for the Qing to cut off these two arteries? What does it mean for our fleet?

The most important thing is that Jinling is an undefended city at all, and the Qing people foolishly believe that the Yangtze River channel is a natural danger, and it is impossible for our fleet to enter the Yangtze River and go up the river to attack Jinling. ”

"I'm in favor of attacking Jinling." Bo Mai said: "While we can complete the mission, we must minimize casualties, and we must also provide the officers and soldiers of the fleet with the opportunity to grab wealth to the greatest extent, Jinling and Tianjin, it is not difficult to make a choice." ”

"The entry of a huge fleet into the inland waterway of the Yangtze River is a complete adventure." Bajia said in a deep voice, it is not that he has not considered attacking Jinling, but has repeatedly learned in detail about the situation of the Yangtze River channel, "From the mouth of the Yangtze River to Jinling, it is a full two hundred nautical miles, and the situation of the channel is complicated, and it will take at least ten days for the fleet to arrive in Jinling. ”

"General Baga has seen too much the speed of the Qing army's build-up and march." Yilu said in a relaxed tone: "In the case of being defenseless, let alone ten days, even twenty days, it is impossible for Jinling to gather enough troops to defend." ”

"As for attacks along the way, there's no need to worry about it." Bomai continued: "The largest defensive fort on the Yangtze River is the Wusong Fort near the mouth of the sea, and last year, we easily captured the Wusong Fort at the cost of less than ten casualties. ”

Pu Ding Cha is actually inclined to attack Jinling, as long as he can capture Jinling in one fell swoop, it is enough to force the Qing Emperor to make huge concessions, of course, the wealth of Jinling, is also one of the reasons for his heart, attacking Tianjin, there is no doubt that it will be a bitter battle, if the Qing Emperor is determined to resist to the end, it will be a meaningless hard battle, to be honest, in the face of a huge number of cavalry, he really did not dare to send an army landing to attack the Qing Division.

Of course, the attack on Jinling is indeed an adventure, although the Yangtze River is an enviable and eye-catching golden waterway, once the fleet enters, it will face countless unpredictable dangers.

Just when he was unable to choose, Bo Mai spoke again: "There is another point, I don't know if you have taken it into account, Tianjin has a cold climate in winter, and there is a freezing period of up to three or four months, even if we attack Tianjin, there is not much chance of forcing the Qing Emperor to sign a contract." (To be continued.) )