Qianqing Palace in early May. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info It was the beautiful season of late spring and early summer, Xianfeng came out of the Yangxin Palace on the west side, and only let the little eunuch An Dehai follow him to serve.

Walking in the pavilions in the Qianqing Palace, Xianfeng, who has not been out for a long time, is intoxicated in this warm sunshine and early summer breeze.

However, the next moment, the beauty of tranquility was trampled by the hurried footsteps!

Shen Lanyu, the chief eunuch in charge of the imperial front, led the imperial guards to Su Shun, panting and hurriedly running over.

"Your Majesty, something is wrong!" Shen Lanyu, who has always been calm, was also a little panicked today.

And Su Shun, who followed closely, had a trembling voice, and knelt down with a crying voice and bowed: "Your Majesty, Shanghi City has completely fallen!" ”

Xianfeng frowned, the mood brought by the beautiful weather was ruined at once, and he hummed dissatisfiedly: "What are you yelling about? Could it be that the governor of Su, Gil Hang'a, has not yet broken through Shanghi City? Speaking of this, Xianfeng remembered that he had high hopes for Gilhanga, but he failed to quickly extinguish the rebels, and said with some dissatisfaction: "This Gilhanga, how did you do it!?" Do you want me to send reinforcements again? Where can I conjure up troops! ”

"Your Majesty! Gilhanga united with the foreigners, repelled the rebels several times, and was already about to occupy Shanghi City. Unexpectedly, the Cantonese thieves in the south suddenly came out of the sea by boat, and the soldiers were caught off guard and defeated. The governor of Qisu, Gil Hang'a, and the general soldier of Yichang Town, Hu Songlin, both died in battle, and only Bo Chengsheng, the chief soldier of Langshan Town, led hundreds of water divisions to flee to Taihu Lake. ”

Seeing Xianfeng's wide mouth, Su Shun hurriedly lowered his head and cried: "Your Majesty, Shanghi City, including several counties of Songjiang Prefecture, has all been occupied by Cantonese thieves. ”

This time, Xianfeng was not as angry as before, but a cold from the bottom of his heart. The early summer breeze couldn't warm his heart.

Why did you lose again, and even lost your hi? What happened to the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty? Tens of thousands of elite soldiers, Gilhang'a is a banner man, it can be said that he doesn't have to kill thieves, and the general soldier Hu Songlin, who can fight well, was also specially transferred from Xiang Rong to help suppress the rebels, but he didn't expect both of them to die in battle.

Could it be that the Qing Dynasty has been defeated again and again, and the country has been overturned by this group of rebels?

Could it be that I am like the Chongzhen Emperor of the previous dynasty, who worked diligently to govern but finally avoided the fate of the country?

This great rivers and mountains, so many beauties, and the right to kill and take away, is it just like this?

Xianfeng's heart was empty. He didn't even have the strength to be angry.

He was angry a lot, and he knew that anger alone wouldn't work. These men are all killed in battle, or defeated, what else can they do? I can only praise them, otherwise there will be no one to work for me in the future.

We still have to figure out how to solve the current dilemma. Perhaps, it is really time to change it as Su Shun said.

"Su Shun, Shanghi is lost, where are the foreigners? The Cantonese thieves didn't beat them? Xianfeng asked.

"Your Majesty, I heard that it was beaten. The foreigners were also beaten honestly by the Cantonese thieves and surrendered! Even the warships of Yingyi and other countries were confiscated by the Cantonese thieves. Su Shun cried with a sad face, "The above hi customs mortgage mentioned last time, borrowing silver taels from foreigners, buying foreigner warships and foreign guns, such a thing happened before it had time, and now Shanghi City has been lost, so what can I do?" ”

Xianfeng was taken aback this time: These Cantonese thieves have become so powerful? Even the foreigners dared to fight, and they forced the foreigners to surrender!?

This must be the credit of those foreign guns and cannons!

"Su Shun, has that Wu Jianzhang been escorted to Jingshi? If he arrives, give him a chance and let him make meritorious contributions. Xianfeng gritted his teeth and made a decision: "Su Shun, I have appointed you as the special envoy and Wu Jianzhang as the deputy envoy to negotiate with Yingyi instead of me." Find a way to get them to send troops, cooperate with my Qing Dynasty, and recapture Shanghi. In the future, some things can be appropriately sweetened for them. Now that the Qing Dynasty is in crisis, I can't take care of these decencies! ”

When Su Shun heard this, he was stunned!

The emperor even said such a thing! It seems that the fall of Shanghi City really made the emperor anxious.

The emperor, who has always had a good face and looked down on foreigners, is really ruthless this time. was willing to pull down his face, and did not hesitate to do the soft things he hated in the past, and asked foreigners to recapture Shanghi City.

Su Shun also understands why Xianfeng did this.

In the whole of Jiangnan, there are no troops to send! In addition to the strength of the local defense, there is only the Jiangnan battalion, and the Jiangnan battalion can no longer draw troops. Otherwise, if it is attacked by the long-haired thief army in Jinling City, the consequences will be even more unimaginable.

And it's so important to go to Hi City. At present, a small half of the treasury revenue of the Qing Dynasty comes from the customs revenue of Shanghi. Not only that, but more tea, raw silk, porcelain, etc. were sold to foreigners, in exchange for huge wealth, and returned to the Qing treasury. Now that Shanghi has fallen, not only is the Shanghi tariff gone, but even the Jiangnan area wants to sell tea and raw silk, etc., and it is impossible to do it!

This doomed the Qing Dynasty to have to recapture Shanghai City.

At the same time, there is another point, once the Songjiang Mansion where Shanghi is located is occupied by the Cantonese thieves, it will gain a firm foothold, and it will gradually encroach on the surrounding areas in the future. Next to it is Suzhou Mansion, Changzhou Mansion, Jiaxing Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion and other places, which is the richest place in the Qing Dynasty. It can be said that this land south of the Yangtze River is already half of the Qing Dynasty, providing half of the silver taels and grain, supporting the operation of the Qing Dynasty.

It's no wonder that Xianfeng wants to recapture Shanghi at any cost.

There were some words that Xianfeng didn't say hatefully, but Su Shun already understood it completely. He suddenly felt his heart heavy.

Ask the foreigners to send troops to recover Shanghi! If you can't talk about it, you will naturally have to bear the wrath of the emperor, and killing your head is no more than a slight punishment; After the negotiation is completed, he has become a traitor again, and he will definitely be scolded by the people, despised and impeached by those upright officials.

However, I can't help it, because this is to carry this black pot to the emperor.

He could only nod his head and bow to the ground: "Slave obeys the holy commandment!" ”

Xianfeng waved his hand: "You stand down!" Remember, this trip must persuade the foreigners to agree to send troops to recover Shanghi! Without Shanghi, not only will you minions be gone, but all the children of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty will starve, and even I can only eat pickles! ”

With tears in his eyes, Su Shun nodded in agreement.

…….

And in the Tianjing City of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in the Dongwang Mansion.

At the same time, Yang Xiuqing also learned that Shanghi City was occupied by the army of Feng Yunshan, the king of the south.

Looking at the beautiful female official named Zhu Jiumei next to him, wearing a wide female robe but still highlighting her graceful figure, Yang Xiuqing swallowed her saliva, if it weren't for this news that swept his interest, according to his usual temper, he would have pampered this Zhu Jiumei.

It's just that the news that Shanghai City was occupied by Nanwang's Cantonese army made him shocked, and he lost his mood for a while.

The rebel army in Shanghi City the previous time, the leader named Liu He, did write a few letters to the Heavenly King expressing his desire to take refuge and begging the Heavenly Kingdom to send troops to support and occupy Shanghi.

However, the Heavenly King has always disliked these congregations of heaven and earth, and he himself does not like these people who do not believe in the Holy Religion. What's more, if there are not many troops in the capital today, and they are besieged by the two large battalions in the south and north of the Qing Demon, how can they send troops to support? I wanted him to fend for himself, but I didn't expect that this Nanwang would run from the sea route of Fujian, and he forcibly inserted a foot and occupied Shanghi.

The point is, he didn't expect the power of the Southern King to be so powerful. To occupy Shanghi, it is necessary to defeat the Qing army and subdue the foreigners! But these are the only ones, and the damn Cantonese army has done it. Moreover, Yang Xiuqing knew that this was just a small force of Feng Yunshan!

Defeating those Qing troops, Yang Xiuqing is confident that the heavenly soldiers of the Heavenly Kingdom can also do it, but to defeat those foreigners, it is not possible to rely on combat bravery. And also a sailor from the sea! Inevitably, the strength of this Nanwang's sea sailor has reached a very terrifying point!

This made Yang Xiuqing both worried and extremely covetous!