"!!! It's snowing!"

Standing on a steamboat in Baihekou, Zhili, General Ding Yuzhan, the Haisong Navy, wrapped in a heavy and gorgeous military coat, reached out in surprise with black leather gloves to catch the small snowflakes falling in the air. He turned his head and the thin northern snow fell against the black smoke from the chimney behind him.

There were excitement screams from several boats around him, both in Cantonese or Fujian. Most of the soldiers of the Little Knife Legion saw the falling snow in the north for the first time. They were all poor people before, so naturally they could not be well-informed. I don’t know how many people ran up from the cabin to see the scenery of the northern country that they had never seen before.

"It's so cold in the north, damn it." The special envoy Qin Mazi walked up. He hugged in a marten coat, as if he was trembling all over. He looked at Ding Yuzhan and asked, "General, aren't you cold?"

"Cold! Fortunately, I brought this batch of winter clothes! But it also has good benefits to cold." Ding Yuzhan said with a smile.

"Is this good?" Qin Mazi asked in surprise.

Ding Yuzhan raised his hand in front of him and turned around, then smiled proudly: "General's coat! Golden buttons! Golden ribbon! Leather boots! Leather gloves! Beautiful!"

"Yes," Qin Mazi glanced at the rough man disdainfully: "I will definitely not wear such military uniforms in the south. I heard that Zhou Kaiyuan did it specifically for this operation."

Turning his head and looking at the boats around him, Song Haijun's blue coat filled the boat's side and jumped towards the snow in the air. Qin Mazi also wanted to reach out from his sleeve to catch some snowflakes, but he considered himself to be a civil servant, and he was smarter than these thick people: "General, the previous few small British steamboats are close to Dagukou, what are they going to do?"

"Measure the depth of the water and prepare for the attack." Ding Yuzhan was finally tired of the snowflakes and looked around in the snow with a telescope. Of course, he didn't look at the Qing army's fortress at Dagukou at all, but was completely enjoying the scenery.

"I think they have entered the range of Qing Yao artillery? I won't fight today, right?" Qin Mazi looked at the foreign steamboats that were entering and stopping in the Dagukou River with some concern. She was a little worried.

"I don't know! If you dare to fire a cannon, just fight!" Ding Yuzhan put down his telescope and patted Qin Mazi's shoulder and smiled: "It's okay. It must be another artillery battle. Then we will go to Zhoushan and Annan."

As he was talking, the Dagu Port suddenly came through the gongs and drums. Then banners spread across the coast. Countless Qing soldiers shouted. Qin Mazi was startled by the momentum and asked in surprise: "What are the Qing Yao doing?"

"What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?" Ding Yuzhan also nervously held up his telescope and looked at the coast where Citi was waving. He said to himself in confusion.

In January 1857, the British and French allied forces headed north from Shanghai and gathered at the periphery of Dagukou. The envoys of Britain, France, Russia and the United States demanded that the Qing Dynasty send plenipotentiary envoys to negotiate trade. Russia also demanded that the Qing Dynasty define territory and seize land with the Qing Dynasty.

Britain, France and Song were the main forces. But at this moment, the Navy followed the coalition forces, the Earth and Seas Song had only one sailing warship. Hai Song did not send other ships. The main forces were all land warships.

This is because Britain and France not only transported troops to Haisong, but also the land ships have been completely upgraded. This time, there were only 3 sail warships among the 26 warships in the land, and among the gunboats, there were steam power in the other places. Haisong did not have the ability to launch steamship warships from Haijing to Tianjin. Because there were very few such warships in this place.

Among the 6,000 coalition forces, the Haisong Xiaodao Legion occupied 2,000 people. The emperor, who was worried about the "power-on incident" and "Shi Da's entry into the Song Dynasty" in Haijing, seemed to have great confidence in this expedition and was less afraid of the Qing Dynasty than the Navy itself.

The main force of the navy and 5,000 Crusader Black Flag Army soldiers occupied Zhoushan near Ningbo. This was during this spoil-sharing war. Zhao Kuo obtained a deposit for the land, a springboard between the north and south China Seas. With this island, Haisong could go north and enter a deeper range.

Originally, the great powers did not allow Haisong to obtain land territories along the coast. Emperor Haisong asked for Taiwan as the military base and "colonial" of the Song Dynasty. It was close to Haisong, with a large area and greater strategic value;

But Erkin and Burbron directly said "no": "Taiwan will become a trading port this time, how can it be given to you? It is the legal territory of the Qing Dynasty!"

But as a dirty transaction in that era, the global jungle era, Britain and France, who had just been talking about protecting the interests of the Qing Dynasty, quickly agreed to give Zhoushan to Zhao Kuo without asking the owner's land for the distribution of other people's things.

Close to Ningbo Zhoushan of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it was originally a sea fortress of the Qing Dynasty. It was a passage for trading between the north and south. It was handed over to Zhao Kuo, which was beneficial to the benefits of the great powers: First, if Haisong was pulled into the robber group, this weak thug really needed a logistics base to complete a longer-distance strike; second, it could be used to fight pirates. Zhao Kuo was very good at doing such trivial things, and handed over to him. The security of the Qing Dynasty's coastal trade would be better; third, Haisong got a foothold on the sea of ​​Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which could help them resist the rebels of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and safeguard the interests of the great powers at the estuary of the Yangtze River;

Although Zhao Kuo belongs to the Taiping Army, whether from the understanding of this bitch's personality, from the analysis of the Qing Dynasty or from the Western civilization, the British and French ministers were convinced that he would help the Qing Dynasty and the great powers resist the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was in line with his political and commercial interests. After the Haisong and the Qing Dynasty recognized each other, the Taiping Army who were everywhere in Shanghai and the Qing officials would not be scared away by the Taiping Army, and the army of another local strongman could directly land in support of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang war zone, and the interests of the great powers would be as solid as a rock.

In addition, Zhoushan has been crippled. In the first Opium War, the British fleet fought Zhoushan and exploded the Qing Dynasty fortifications and artillery. Then Zhao Kuo himself thought that Zhoushan navy was harassed his smuggling, so he blitzed Zhoushan and bombed the fortifications again. This time it was the third one, and the main defense point Zhoushan Dingyuan defenders almost did not resist, so they fought to take a boat from the north of the island.

Zhoushan was seized by Hai Song. This time, Zhao Kuo began to send troops to station and to build fortifications. This place will become a military and commercial center of Hai Song, and become a sword against the navel of Man Qing. At that time, with the northernmost fortress in the Hai Song area, the Hai Song navy could take the lead (Beijing) and chop the legs (Fujian and Taiwan). If you are unhappy in the middle, you can directly attack Shanghai, Ningbo and other places, not to mention commercial interests. This is the throat of the sea transportation between Shanghai and Hai Jing. Zhao Kuo is already preparing to kill the Qing Ningbo navy with the Ming or Yin to dominate the sea patrol rights. Anyway, the Qing Dynasty doesn’t want the sea. If you don’t want it, I don’t want it, and I won’t give it to you. My navy is better than your navy!

At this moment, when the British and French allied forces outside Dagukou were beginning to measure the depth of Dagukou for war, Tan Tingxiang, the highest commander of the Qing Dynasty on the Dagukou Fort, was also watching these foreign steamers sailing into the range of the fort with a telescope, and drove and stopped swaying. He didn't understand what the foreigners were doing, but he was still nervous and sweating all over his head.

"Sir, the enemy ship has reached the range of our artillery, so can we fire the artillery?" The Qing general asked Tan Tingxiang for advice.

"Of course not!" Tan Tingxiang was startled and scolded: "I'm confused! How can I start the battle first and give people a clear connotation? Even if I fire a cannon, I have to wait until the enemy ship fires the cannon first! This will make our country of Heaven and Heaven stand the truth!"

Small British and French steamships swayed and measured the water condition of Dagu under the Manchu guns. Then they drove away. I wonder what Britain and France were doing. Tan Tingxiang wiped his cold sweat and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking: What are you barbarians swaying around! You almost caused the war just now? Do you finally properly implement the emperor's policy.

"Send orders to demonstrate!" Tan Tingxiang pointed at the butt of the British steamboat and shouted with the energy of the dantian.

Until the British, French and Song ally arrived outside Dagukou, Tianjin, and demanded negotiations with the Qing court. Xianfeng was not clear about the requests of foreigners from the four countries who suddenly rushed up, especially the Qing rebels were still wrapped inside.

The latter did not make Comrade Xianfeng too anxious because the other party asked for peace! This was to show weakness! The pseudo-Song emperor actually claimed to be a barbarian, which means he was just a guilty traitor! Some ministers in the court had radicals and discussed how to use the pseudo-Song to destroy Hong Xiuquan, and the pseudo-Song is nothing!

In other words, if the British and French coalition forces brought the Taiping Army, Xianfeng might have a heart attack.

Therefore, Xianfeng Baba asked his super think tank, the Minister of the Military Affairs Office, to formulate a detailed and "smart" diplomatic strategy for the Zhili Governor Tan Tingxiang who was preparing to negotiate.

Expressing friendship with Russia; trying to restrain the United States; these two barbarian classmates are still good, at least they did not lead the army, and they also said that they would not interfere in the diplomacy between the Qing Dynasty and the Song Dynasty;

He advised the law to give up on Haisong. He persuaded the ruthless elder brother, Britain to stop making trouble. If France repents and turns his heart to the point, it will not be too late. The Qing Dynasty can appreciate France's "benefits".

Strictly questioning the UK!

This bastard is too cruel. He is the one who makes trouble. This time he is the leader of the rebellion. He has the power to make a big splash. He was the one who started the Opium War back then. This barbarian is too bastard. He is jealous of the Qing Dynasty's status!

He must be scolded severely, and he will be red and crying. Do you know what morality is?

Hai Song? The rebels must surrender to the court immediately! They knelt on their hands at the Guangzhou city gate and waited for the officers and soldiers to come in and take them in - of course. There is no such thing as frank confession;

Of course, when Tan Tingxiang went to Dagu, he was chatting and laughing with the barbarians of the four countries. Of course, except for ignoring the special envoy of Haisong, the latter did not dare to see him.

The barbarians have never been a single piece of iron. Britain and France are determined to eat the weight and say, "Call out the priests who can represent the emperor! You, Tan Tingxiang, are not worth enough! Others are not allowed to talk about it!"

Russia's smiling fox pretends to be a tiger's power and demands a large area of ​​territory. The United States is even at the forefront of selling friends and seeking honor.

The United States has no troops, and it takes British and French easy-to-drive, so it is not as hang-up as the two. - Leading a group of little brothers, smashing steel pipes and machetes on the table, yelling: King of Hell, let me come out! If I don’t come out, I will burn your temple!

As long as the United States can make a convention (the Treaty of Nanjing), it’s okay if I don’t see the King of Hell, and the little devil will be fine!

Face is nothing, just make money!

Therefore, the American ambassador did not require the Qing Dynasty to send a full-powered minister. He submitted 11 articles to the revision of the agreement to Tan Tingxiang, the governor of Zhili.

Originally, the United States had the best attitude among the four barbarians, but his request for revision to arrive at Xianfeng was immediately over.

Because the United States wants to revise the Book of the State, it is an equal relationship, and the American translator translated the Book of the State according to their civilization. But the first sentence of the US President to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty made the money-loving lovers who had no dignity and shame become a scum in Xianfeng's eyes!

The first sentence is: "I have selected wise and wise men, named Lie, and named William (the American minister who is squatting on the ship in Dagukou at this moment), and sent him to the station and chase him.

This was originally a letter of introduction. It was: "Our company general manager sent to you to promote..."

But the problem is that the translation of the Chinese letter, seeking equality, translates the US president into "I"!!!!!!

I!!!!!!

After looking at the American Book of State, Xianfeng in the Old Summer Palace snorted coldly, sneered on his face, and said in a red pen:

"In the books I read, the king actually called himself "I". He was really arrogant and didn't feel ridiculous!!"

As a result, the American minister outside Dagukou had a heart of love for money. He wanted to betray the robber group and first threw himself into the arms of the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't know what was going on. He was so famous that he was so retribution was unhappy.

However, the barbarians are hateful and hateful. Yelang is arrogant and overestimated, but even fools can see the murderous aura of Britain and France this time.

Although in this parallel space, Britain and France did not attack Guangzhou and captured Su Wu and Ye Mingchen from the sea alive, they led the rebels north and the soldiers in Dagukou were still provocative.

Xianfeng was helpless, without money or soldiers.

Because of the uprising everywhere, the Taiping Army, Nian Army, and the pseudo-Song Army had already bankrupted the Qing Dynasty's treasury. In order to accumulate money, the court could sell officials in large quantities at the beginning, which was a big income, but later there were too many people buying official land. At that time, it was probably because they threw down a brick on the roof of the Qing Dynasty and smashed a piece of alternative road platforms and county magistrates. The number of land buyers is naturally worthless. It doesn't matter. You will never be a real shortage in your life, so the rich began to stop donating officials, and the government began to force donations.

"Sir, no. I don't want to be an official."

"No! You must be an official! Only when you become an official loves the court! This is a seal and pay the bank!"

With such financial resources, it is naturally impossible to organize a large number of troops to fight against the foreigners and Hai Song’s sea landing raids.

Moreover, the Qing Dynasty's military system emphasized the control of internal slaves. A large number of officers and soldiers were scattered in small places, like the Japanese devils back then. There were 3 or 4 green camp soldiers in a small outpost to monitor the people. This kind of surveillance network could naturally prevent slaves from rebelling, but it also caused the Qing Dynasty to have no mobile troops at all.

The Qing army was not worthy of it. When there was no war, they were all elite soldiers. According to the memorial, they could kill monkey meat when Sun Wuzi rebelled. But when they needed to fight against foreigners, immediately these officers and soldiers who were more powerful than the heavenly soldiers and generals turned into a confused clan wandering on the edge of mutiny:

Give military expenses! We are owing wages for the past year and will be mutiny immediately!

Car fee! Pickling fee! Dressing fee! None of them can be missing!

And even if you come, you may not be able to fight.

Xianfeng didn't want to mobilize the army to fight against the barbarians. In his impression, these people were idiots and didn't understand the ox of the Celestial Empire, but they were not his slaves and would not overthrow it. Moreover, with the "terrible and impregnable" defensive fortifications in the north, foreigners could not fight in at all.

At that time, we first "suppress and suppress" the foreigners, and wait until they fail, kneel down and then "suppress" them, as if we raise a dog, we should use both kindness and power, so that we will not worry about foreigners being dissatisfied!

So even if foreign soldiers gathered, Xianfeng still instructed that the biggest key was to suppress the Taiping Army!

All the main forces of the Qing Dynasty who suppressed the Taiping Army remained unmoved and continued to attack internal rebels.

As for the north, the Qing army had 40,000 Qing soldiers in Zhili alone. They mobilized 10,000 Qing soldiers around the four turrets in Dagukou, and relying on their four turrets to build for many years.

These 4 turrets are very strong, with a total of 142 cannons, because Dagukou is a strategic location.

Dagukou is located at the mouth of the Haihe River. The river channel is one mile wide and the water is nearly two meters deep. 120 miles up the river is Tianjin, an important town in North China. It is the gateway to Tianjin and Tianjin is also the gateway to Beijing;

At the same time, Dagukou is also the main entrance to the government transporting grain from sea to Beijing in the Yangtze River, Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and is also a salt-producing area. Naturally, the Qing government strictly defended. During the First Opium War, it was frightened by British warships. At that time, four large turrets were built on both sides of the sea outlet.

With these forts and nearly 10,000 troops, Tan Tingxiang was very confident in the victory of the war. Xianfeng also believed that Dagukou was as solid as a decent person.

But a leader is a leader, and he thinks too much. For the overall situation of the Celestial Empire, for world peace, and for human friendship, people do not want to start a war, but they actually despise you and ignore you at all.

In the memorial, Xianfeng saw that Tan Tingxiang had a little idea of ​​bullying foreigners, so he immediately beat the minister and repeatedly ordered Tan Tingxiang not to be beaten many times!

Tan Tingxiang reported that British ships often drove into the mouth of the river to spy on information and wanted to fight. Xianfeng said earnestly: "Tan Tingxiang is afraid that the barbarians will take advantage of the inland river, but they will not hurt me when they drive themselves! But if they fire the guns first, they will have reason to hit me, so make sure that they do not drive themselves."

The next day, Xianfeng instructed Tan Tingxiang again: "The governor must not start the army first because of his bravery. Tianjin will not be able to win. If it is difficult for him to disturb other places, it may not be comparable to Tianjin. (It is not difficult for Tianjin to kill foreigners, but it is even more troublesome for them to run around elsewhere)"

A week later, Xianfeng said to Tan Tingxiang again, don’t fight: “Don’t listen to your generals, that’s because they want to make contributions without considering future troubles.”

The Xianfeng brothers' conditions that neither allowed Britain and France to negotiate nor launched a war decree, which made Tan Tingxiang very embarrassed and embarrassed.

After thinking about the emperor's thoughts, he decided to "demonstrate" against the British, French and Song coalition forces on the shore.

The naked ones scare the enemy away with military power.

He asked the soldiers and soldiers from both sides of Dagukou to line up, and all the flags were fired and all the weapons were polished. Tan Tingxiang personally waved the flag on the fort to command, but the Qing Dynasty defenders lined up along the coast for a full ten miles on the shore!

The flag was flying, the war drums shook the sky, the soldiers clenched the iron fists of justice, lined up along the coast shoulder to shoulder, glaring at the barbarian fleet on the sea, with hatred and contempt, as if countless shells were fired at the other party, and they used all the anger in their chests to roar towards the sea: "I... Da... Qing... Wei... Wu..."
Chapter completed!