Daoguang spit out the stuffiness in his chest for several days, and was thinking about how to deal with Yingyi if the Guangdong sailors recovered Dinghai, but the eunuch outside the door reported softly: "Your Majesty, the scholar Mu Zhang'a is handing over a sign outside to ask to see." ”

What did Mu Zhang'a do? Daoguang frowned imperceptibly, for the situation in the court, he can be said to be a hole in the fire, since the ban on smoking, the Manchu and Han ministers in the court have been like fire and water, since the outbreak of the Xuan Weiping case in Xiangyang, Hubei Province in March last year, the dispute between the Manchus and the Han has become more and more intense, has reached the point of public attack, Wang Ding's straight son has bluntly reprimanded Mu Zhang'a as a traitor in the court.

This time, Lin Zexu defeated the British fleet in Guangdong, shouldn't Mu Zhang'a be unable to hold his breath? Thinking of this, Daoguang said in a deep voice: "Let him in." He wants to see what the other party means, the dispute between the Manchus and the Hans, he tolerates it, and from time to time favors the Manchus, but if it is because of the Manchu and Han disputes and ignores the overall situation, he will not tolerate it.

Mu Zhang'a, who was less than sixty years old, was a scholar of the Mandarin Palace, the head of the cabinet, and the chief minister of military aircraft, walked into the room steadily, and when he asked for peace, he quickly glanced at Daoguang, and saw that his expression was flat, and hurriedly said calmly: "Slave Mu Zhang'a respectfully asks for Sheng'an." ”

Daoguang said as always: "No courtesy, give me a seat." ”

After thanking him, he sat down diagonally on the small pestle, and Mu Zhang'a Cai said: "The great victory of the Guangdong Navy Master is really the blessing of the community, and the slave congratulates the emperor." ”

Daoguang said in a flat tone: "It's just a small victory, the main fleet of Yingyi is still there, and the southeast sea frontier is still overwhelming." ”

"The emperor's holy candle shines." Mu Zhang'a followed the conversation and said: "The main fleet of Yingyi is angry and goes south, only afraid that the southeast will be troublesome, the slave prays to the emperor, and orders the southeastern coastal provinces to be strictly fortified to prevent the Yingyi disaster. ”

"Jiangsu?" Daoguang raised his eyebrows and said in a deep voice: "Not Guangzhou?" ”

"Yingyi goes south, and the place of attack must be Jiangsu and Zhejiang." Mu Zhang'a said in a firm tone: "The Guangdong Navy Division can completely annihilate the Yingyi Yuehai Fleet in Modaoyang and send troops to recover Dinghai, and I think I have full certainty. In the simple view of the servants, the capture of Dinghai by Yingyi is for the purpose of the fleet's stronghold, and no matter how large the fleet is, it cannot drift on the sea for a long time, because Yingyi will inevitably be unwilling to settle the sea and regain it, and its main fleet will inevitably re-occupy Dinghai when it goes south. ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment before he continued: "Looking at the southeast coastal sailors, the outstanding combat power is none other than the Guangdong sailors, in order to prevent Dinghai from being captured by Yingyi again, the servants pleaded with the emperor to make an order for the Guangdong sailors to stick to Dinghai. ”

"Guangdong sailors stick to Dinghai?" Daoguang glanced at him and said, "Isn't Guangzhou empty?" ”

"Dinghai is the first place for Yingyi to attack, which shows that Yingyi attaches great importance to Dinghai." Mu Zhang'a said calmly: "And the daily supply of the Yingyi fleet also needs a safe port, Dinghai is the best place for Yingyi, Yingyi must not be willing to lose, the slave steals that if Dinghai is not captured, Yingyi will definitely not attack Guangzhou, after all, Guangzhou is well guarded, even if there is no sailor, there is also Humen Fort." ”

This is not unreasonable, and it is high-sounding, but Daoguang knows in his heart that Mu Zhang'a is killing! With the strength of the Guangdong Naval Division, sharpen the sword in the first battle, and then fight Dinghai, even if you are sure to send troops to recover Dinghai, it will inevitably be a loss of troops, in the face of the attack of the main fleet of Yingyi, where can you still hold Dinghai?

But I have to say that Mu Zhang'a's analysis is reasonable, Yingyi will inevitably attack Dinghai first, and the Zhejiang Navy Division is useless, how can he defend Dinghai? He didn't want Dinghai to be captured by Yingyi again, or, with Fujian and Zhejiang Deng Tingzhen fully assisting the Guangdong Navy Division to defend Dinghai?

Just when he was thinking about it, Mu Zhang'a said slowly: "The slave heard that Lin Zexu vigorously recruited volunteers in Guangdong, and encouraged the local gentry to form a group training, there is a Yuanqi group training, the scale is tens of thousands, and tens of thousands of group warriors are recruited from various prefectures and counties in Guangdong. ”

Daoguang has no shortage of ears and eyes in Guangzhou, and he has long heard of the Yuanqi group training, but one Guangzhou is facing a war, and then the Yuanqi group training is Lin Zexu personally supervised the construction, although the Yuanqi group training has exceeded the nature of the local group training, but the current enemy is not suitable to attack Lin Zexu's prestige, nor should it be difficult to attack the enthusiasm of the Guangzhou gentry to form a group training, and no one is impeached, so he simply turned a blind eye and waited for the war to end, and then dealt with it.

At this time, Mu Zhang'a heard something in this, and as soon as he thought about it, he reacted that he was also clear about the situation of the Guangdong Naval Division, and suddenly he was so brave, he was able to completely annihilate the Yingyi Yuehai Fleet in Modaoyang, and he was sure to send troops to recover Dinghai.

Mu Zhang'a knew Daoguang's attitude towards Yuan Qi, he was very cautious in saying this, and cautiously tested Daoguang's reaction, seeing that Daoguang was silent, he boldly said: "Historically, local regimental training has been formed to protect the territory and the people, and to help each other, but it is rare to hear that there are local regimental exercises for cross-provincial expeditions, which are already comparable to the division of the imperial court, and the servants have also heard that the purchase of firearms from Humen Fort is the hand of fake Yuanqi." ”

Speaking of this, he stopped abruptly, and then said that it was over, Yuanqi has silver, tens of thousands of regiments, and channels for purchasing Western firearms, Lin Zexu himself has high prestige, and he is a Han Chinese, and Guangzhou is far away from Beijing, these obvious things, there is no need for him to say more.

Hearing this, Daoguang understood what Mu Zhang'a meant, with the Guangdong Navy holding on to Dinghai, using the hands of Yingyi to consume the strength of Yuanqi's group training, and at the same time taking this opportunity to hit Lin Zexu's prestige, Guangdong Navy sharpened his knife and won a great victory, if there was another Dinghai victory, Lin Zexu would inevitably have a growing prestige, which was not a good thing for the imperial court, especially Lin Zexu was in the position of the governor of Liangguang.

Of course, this matter can only be understood but not spoken, Daoguang pondered for a long time, and then changed his words and said: "Guangdong Navy Master has a great victory, I want to send a Qin to send south to Guangzhou, can Zipu have a suitable person to elect?" ”

Hearing this, Mu Zhang'a was relieved, changed his mind slightly, and said: "The emperor sent Qin to the south, not only to reward the generals of the Guangdong Navy, but also to negotiate with Yingyi in Guangzhou. ”

With Qi Shan as the Qin messenger to go south to Guangzhou? Daoguang glanced at him, Qi Shan is a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion and the governor of Zhili, his position and rank are higher than Lin Zexu, and it is quite suitable for him to go to Guangzhou, even if he negotiates with Yingyi, this identity is enough, but it is difficult to say that Mu Zhang'a has no small abacus in his heart.

Daoguang was also lazy to ponder, and immediately said lightly: "Kneel down." ”

Mu Zhang'a bowed down and retreated, Daoguang sighed secretly, party strife is really harmful to the country, but the Manchu and Han wars are unavoidable since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, what can he do, the left and right are carefully balanced, but it is Yuan Qi's group practice, which makes him a little surprised.

He didn't think about it before, but now after Mu Zhang'a mentioned it, the more he thought about it, the more shocked he became, although Yuan Qi was far away in Guangzhou, but he was quite clear about Yuan Qi's situation, and he also intended to tolerate it, after all, for the imperial court, Yuan Qi still had more advantages than disadvantages, and he could provide millions of taxes for the court and the local government a year, which made him see the hope of solving the lack of income.

And this war against England, Yuan Qi is also generous donation, vigorously funded the Guangzhou Green Camp to strengthen the defense, the amount of donation is large, even the thirteen lines are greatly inferior, for the imperial court to inspect the construction of the railway, Yuan Qi is also not shirked, spending a huge amount of money to build the Focan-Guangzhou Railway, this attitude, let him quite pleased.

However, Yuanqi's group practice has touched his bottom line, Yuanqi's strength is strong, and then controlling tens of thousands of strong team training, it is easy to form a tail that cannot be dropped, and it is not conducive to the imperial court's control of Guangdong, perhaps, let Yuanqi group practice and Yingyi fight to lose both, it is the best result, which is much better than the imperial court coming forward to suppress Yuanqi.

In addition, the position of the governor of Liangguang should no longer be held by the Han Chinese, but this is not an urgent task, and the top priority is to deal with the invasion from the Yingyi first.

After thinking about it and thinking about it carefully for a long time, Daoguang wrote an edict to the Zhejiang governor Wu Ergong and Admiral Zhu Tingbiao, who were dismissed because of the fall of Dinghai, but still stayed in office to atone for their crimes. It was a clear message to Admiral Zhu Tingbiao to fully assist the Guangdong Navy Division in attacking and defending Dinghai.

One bright and one dark two wills, completely leaked the contradiction in his heart, for the Guangdong Navy Division to send troops to recover Dinghai, whether it can succeed, he has no bottom in his heart, and although he has the intention to borrow a knife to kill, but for the Guangdong Navy Division and Yuan Qi group training who can defeat Yingyi again and again, he is still a little reluctant to fight the light, the war is in the ascendant, and there is no reason to cut his wings.

Only one day late, Bo Mai led two warships to the sea of Tianjin in an embarrassed manner, and hurriedly boarded the flagship of Yi Lu, the plenipotentiary representative of the British army. ”

Suddenly hearing this amazing news, Yilu and Yilu couldn't react, and looked at Bomai in disbelief, of course the two knew that Bomai couldn't deceive them, but the United States had entered the war? The Yuehai Fleet, which also joined forces with the Qing Navy Division, was completely wiped out, and then attacked Dinghai, how is this possible?

After a slight pause, Yi Lu said, "God, I'm not dreaming, am I?" ”

"Your Excellency." Bo Mai said in a deep voice: "The enemy fleet has more than 20 sail warships, and more than 20 armed merchant ships, all of which are about 1,000 tons of sailboats, and they used despicable means to sneak attack Dinghai, and the battleships left behind in Dinghai were caught off guard, and eight were sunk and captured, and only four warships remained. ”

Yilu's face sank, and he said, "What is the situation in Dinghai?" ”

"Waiting for our help."

Yilu asked, "Will the Guangdong Fleet really be wiped out?" ”

"It should be." Bo Mai nodded and said, "If the Guangdong Fleet is not completely annihilated, how can there not even be a speedboat to report the news?" Damn, if it weren't for the annihilation of the whole army, if it weren't for the warships of the Guangdong Fleet leading the way, Dinghai would not have been suddenly attacked. ”

After pondering for a moment, Yilu looked at Yilu and said, "Will the United States declare war on Great Britain for the sake of the Qing Kingdom?" ”

"Impossible." Yilu said without hesitation: "In the past two years, Yuanqi and the United States have had close business and trade contacts, and the scope of commerce between the two sides has gradually expanded, but this is not enough to make the United States dizzy and declare war on our British Empire, this is impossible!" ”

After glancing at the two of them, Bomai said in a deep voice: "The fleets that came to attack Dinghai were all flying American flags, and there were many Yankees on the warships. ”

"There's no need to argue about it now, there's no point." Yilu glanced at the two of them as he spoke, and said, "What action should we take now?" Is it to attack the Jingshi of Tianjin and the Qing State, or to return to Dinghai? ”

"Return to Dinghai." Bomai said without hesitation: "Dinghai lacks enough fresh food and vegetables, and malaria is breaking out in the military camp, if it is besieged for a long time, I am afraid it will cause great casualties." ”

"Malaria?" Yilu asked.

"Yes, malaria." Bomai nodded, "Those hateful civilians in Dinghai are very unkind to us, polluting the water sources inside and outside the city, and refusing to sell us fresh food and vegetables. ”

"Let's go back to Dinghai." Yilu followed: "Attacking Tianjin or the Qing Kingdom Jingshi, it is possible to miss the monsoon, then our situation will be even more difficult, besides, the thousands of people in Dinghai are also waiting for our rescue." ”

After a slight groan, Yilu said in a deep voice: "Order the fleet to lift anchor and raise sails, and return, the goal is to fix the sea." ”

Dinghai County, now it is a lively scene, the Guangdong Navy Division recovered Dinghai, and after the news of the Zhejiang Green Battalion took over the defense, the green battalions in various coastal parts of Zhejiang heard the wind and moved, and sent troops to Dinghai as quickly as possible, of course, not for the defense, but for the sake of dividing the merits, even the Fujian Navy Division sent a fleet to Dinghai.

Originally, because the British army had captured Dinghai and fled, the people scattered along the coast also rushed back to Dinghai after hearing that the British army in the imperial court had recovered Dinghai. For a time, the small county town of Dinghai was overcrowded, but fortunately, the green camps from all over the country who came to Dinghai were still interesting, and they all brought a lot of food, meat, vegetables, vegetables, and wine, so that there would be no shortage of food.

Yi Zhizhi did not dislike the soldiers who came at all, and all of them were recruited to work as coolies and dig fortifications, which was also a generous gift he left for the green battalion that stayed in Dinghai.

South Gate, Tower, two veterans with white hair pointed at the trenches under the city wall, the two veterans are Guan Tianpei, one is the governor of Zhejiang Zhu Tingbiao, received the news of the recovery of Dinghai, as the governor of Zhejiang, was reprimanded by Daoguang sternly, resigned from his post and retained, so that he made meritorious service to recover Dinghai Zhu Tingbiao almost starry night rushed to Dinghai.

"These trenches, although they were originally used for siege, can also be used for defense with a little reconstruction." Guan Tianpei said and commanded: "Unfold the drawings." ”

Behind him, Mai Tingzhang hurriedly unfolded a fortification map drawn by Yi Zhishu himself, Guan Tianpei pointed to the drawing, and even said that it was better than a good one, and then said: "The Guangdong Navy Division is pouring out of the nest this time, Guangzhou is now singing an empty city plan, and it is necessary to return to defense as soon as possible, and early tomorrow morning, we will return to the sea. (To be continued.) )