The two foreign ships that went straight down the river were not hindered by the Taiping army all the way, and after Changshu, the waterway in front of them was safe, and everyone hung their hearts for many days before they put it down and breathed a sigh of relief.

The psychology of the Taiping Army is really strange, Guan Zhuofan thought to himself. They allowed these two American ships to come and go on the Yangtze River, not daring to move a single thing, but on land, they dared to attack Shanghai at the risk of breaking with the foreigners. In this way, most of them were foreigners' gunboats, which impressed them too much, but on land, such a sense of fear was much less.

The Taiping army has already fought Shanghai once.

It was in the tenth year of Xianfeng, that is, last year, after Li Xiucheng conquered Suzhou, after a little repair, he divided his troops to besiege and plunder, including a partial division of nearly 10,000 people, attacking Shanghai, capturing Qingpu and Songjiang, and finally began to besiege the county seat of Shanghai.

In terms of the imperial court, if it is said that "there are no soldiers in Shanghai", it is not completely true - the battalion of the right battalion of the Jiangnan Governor Benbiao, stationed in the Songjiang area, numbered as many as several thousand, led by a general named Li Hengsong. Li Hengsong is still a person who can fight and dare to fight, but his troops have been in arrears for a long time, their morale is weak, and they can't stop the sharp edge of the "Cantonese bandits" at all. In the end, the city of Shanghai was held by hundreds of foreign soldiers who poured out of the concession and more than 500 "foreign guns" organized by an American.

This American, named Wall, is only twenty-nine years old, with black hair and blue eyes, and is a legend. He loved two things most in his life, navigation and military affairs, once trained soldiers for the government in Nicaragua, and once led mercenaries for the French in Crimea, and his voyages have traveled all continents. He had a soft spot for the East, especially for China, and held the position of first mate on two ships, one called the "Dongfang" and the other simply "Confucius". Since the age of fifteen, he has been to China several times, and finally settled in Shanghai.

When the Taiping army marched towards Shanghai, he had a premonition of the uselessness of the Qing army, so he said that the gentry in the city would pay for it, and he organized more than 500 idle foreign sailors, foreign soldiers, and foreign scoundrels, armed with foreign guns, to count them as an army, not only to pay salaries, but also to promise to reward them with booty.

Under such favorable conditions, the foreign gun team was quite brave in the early days, and while the Taiping army was unprepared, Wall led the team out of the city to fight, and he took Songjiang City back. Not to mention the loot grabbed, the official gentry in Shanghai were even more ecstatic, and rewarded 30,000 taels of silver, and the two totaled nearly 60,000 US dollars.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, the quality of the soldiers of the foreign rifle team was uneven, and the nature of the rabble was soon exposed. In the next two battles at Qingpu, they were defeated and lost, and the remaining 200 people retreated into Shanghai again. And Wall himself, hit by a stray bullet from the arquebus, entered through the left jaw and pierced through the right cheek, so that he could not even speak, his face was covered with blood, and his appearance was very terrifying, if it were not for his two deputies, Forrest and Bai Qiwen, who desperately saved him, he would have almost died at the hands of the Taipings.

When the Taiping army began to attack the city, the consuls of various countries in the concession could no longer sit idly by, so they sent out all the foreign soldiers in the concession, totaling more than 600 people, to defend the city with the remaining foreign spear team and some Qing soldiers. After three days of fierce offensive and defensive fighting, this time it was the turn of the Taiping army to lose its troops and suffer heavy losses, and the flanks were disturbed by Li Hengsong's attack, and the Taiping army's partial division finally couldn't support it and withdrew from the siege.

Ironically, just as the foreign soldiers and the Qing soldiers joined forces to fight the Taiping army in Shanghai, Guan Zhuofan's Qing army was also fighting to the death with the British and French forces at Bali Bridge. Such a strange thing is very rare in the history of wars in the world.

Shanghai was finally defended, but it relied on the strength of foreign soldiers. Fortunately, the gentry's attitude towards the foreign guns turned disappointing, except for sending a sum of travel expenses to Wall and letting him go to Europe for treatment, the rest of the rest were ignored, and the foreign guns naturally ceased to exist.

However, that time, in the end, it was only a partial division of the Taiping Army, and its strength was not strong. And this time, if Li Xiucheng takes advantage of the military might of Xinke Hangzhou and attacks Shanghai again, then with Shanghai's current defense, whether it can still resist it is only to look at the sky and make a hexagram. Therefore, Shanghainese's expectations for Xuanjun can be imagined.

In the midst of this ardent eagerness, the steamship "William Matt" finally sailed into the Huangpu River on the second day of November.

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Among the gentry who picked up the ship at the port, Li Hengsong had the highest official rank and was the general of the third grade, but the real power was the fourth grade of Shanghai Dao Wu Xu, so the protagonist naturally had to be sung by him, and Li Hengsong was with the alternate Dao Yang Fang, the prefect of Songjiang Jia Yiqian, and the outgoing Shanghai magistrate Jin Yulin, who shrank behind with interest.

To their surprise, it was not Guan Zhuofan who got off the ship first, but Ding Shijie, who was ordered to lead this army by the Sipin Division. Behind him were more than 600 officers and men of the horse corps, who streamed down the two pedals. These 600 people all have the pride of being a "heavenly soldier of the Beijing camp", and they went out to fight for the first time to earn face, so they all have bright swords and armor, high spirits, neat and powerful steps, and there is no trace of fatigue at all.

Such a military appearance naturally made the officials and gentry on the dock overjoyed, and Wu Xu, led by Wu Xu, politely met with Ding Shijie and Daniel Zhang. The soldiers were taken by the officers to a nearby open space, shouting trumpets to gather the whole team, solemnly and silently, and the array was on the side.

At this time, I saw Guan Zhuofan out of the deck, wearing a green coat and a small hat, with a pair of ink crystal glasses, trembling and walking down from the pedal, followed by Zhang Shun, carrying a large suitcase for him.

This royal guard of the red Jinghua brought such a thing to Shanghai? The officials present all had a feeling of disbelief. And his outfit is quite Western, not as conservative and old-fashioned as other Beijing officials, so that these Shanghai gentry who were ahead of the trend have a good impression in their hearts. As for what was in the box, I don't know anything else, at least it contained a yellow jacket, that was certain.

In terms of etiquette, Ding Shijie should be allowed to get off the boat first, this is something that Guan Zhuofan has already thought about on the road, and this outfit is also deliberate, which means that I, Guan Zhuofan, and your bosses in Shanghai, can definitely be with the light.

However, being an official, performing this salute, and subordinates will inevitably see the procedure of the superior. When he walked in front of Wu Xu, Guan Zhuofan lifted the front of his robe and neatly invited a chief an.

"Guan Zhuofan, see all the adults!"

This gift must not be abolished, but how to deal with his gift also made these local officials in Shanghai very troubled. Logically speaking, a county magistrate who comes to Shanghai to take up his post, they don't have to greet it at all, at most the county government will have a master book, which is enough. But Guan Zhuofan's identity is different - although Ding Shijie is the nominal commander, everyone knows that Guan Zhuofan is the actual mastermind of this army, and the words "imperial guard" are here, and no one dares to really treat him as a seven-grade county.

As a result, all the officials, including Wu Xu, as if they had been frightened, avoided his salute one after another, saying that they did not dare to accept it, and then clasped their fists as a return salute.

"Yixuan!" Wu Xu helped Guan Zhuofan up, smiled with a smile, and said affectionately, "Your name, I have admired you for a long time, this time I got the emperor's permission to let you out of Beijing, so I was lucky to meet you in Shanghai." ”

"Don't dare to be. When Xia Guan first arrived in Shanghai, he still had to ask Lord Wu to mention more. ”

"Well said, well said." Wu Xu finished his kind words, and then got down to business, "The horses of the Xuan army are the ships that got off in Minhang, and they have been sent by the Jia Governor's Mansion to Qibao properly. The barracks had already been prepared, just waiting for Ding Dusi and them to enter the camp. Your mansion is taken care of by me and Lao Jin for you, don't be shabby. I'll send you to rest in a while, and I'll do the east at night and wash the dust for you. ”

Wu Xu is a native of Guangdong, but he is fluent in official language. He has been in the officialdom for many years, and the official is extremely old, these words are not leaky, considerate, even Guan Zhuofan listens to it, and he also has a warm feeling. Guan Zhuofan has also considered the title of "Xuan Jun", although this is not in line with the etiquette system, but since it is a convention, he does not have to be entangled in the etiquette system everywhere, otherwise it will delay the right thing with the text.

"Thank you, Lord Wu!" Guan Zhuofan's tone was still very humble, "Speaking of the mansion...... The lower officials still live in the county office, not to mention the seal. ”

"Don't be busy, don't be busy, you can rest for one more day, and you can do it again the day after tomorrow. Lao Jin is in Songjiang Mansion, and the left and right are only a few steps away, and he is not in a hurry. ”

Jin Yulin, the former magistrate of Shanghai, was transferred to be the same governor of Songjiang Mansion, and in terms of rank, he was promoted to an official.

"Then the subordinate will 'be respectful rather than obey'." Guan Zhuofan made a gesture, indicating that he had received this hospitality.

After meeting the officials, I had to pay tribute and thank you to the group of gentry who were standing a few steps away. Before he could walk over, he swept his eyes and saw that Libin was also standing in the crowd, looking at him excitedly.

"Half a load at a time, a year at most." Guan Zhuofan remembered what he had said in the Zichun Pavilion and bowed his head slightly to Libin.

Mr. Li, I, Guan Zhuofan, have not broken my trust in you, and I have finally come to Shanghai!

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(Today, I pushed the history class, and I asked you for some recommendation votes, and rushed to the list, thank you!) ）