"Teacher, what do you think?" Dong Shuheng looked at Wei Yuan, who was sitting there comfortably. Unlike others, Wei Yuan didn't seem worried at all.
"Shu Heng, in fact, the issues you just talked about are secondary. Who are the Manchu and Qing government? They are barbarians from the north. What do the barbarians value most?" Wei Yuan said.
"What do you mean, teacher, no need to guess anything? Just talk to them with your fists," Dong Shuheng replied.
"Yes, if you defeat them, they will naturally be afraid of you. You see, the foreigners opened concessions in Shanghai and ceded Hong Kong Island, and the Qing government in turn curried favor with them. Why? It's not because the British scared them!
"
"Foreigners can do this, why can't we Chinese do this?"
Yes, foreigners can bully the Qing court, can’t we Chinese also bully them?
"Teacher, students understand!" Dong Shuheng stood up and bowed to Wei Yuan.
…
"Everyone, please arrange the order now." Dong Shuheng turned to the conference table, looked at the civil and military officials sitting there, and said seriously.
"Huh..." All the civil and military officials below sat upright. They looked directly at Dong Shuheng, waiting for their tasks there.
"Ji Mingshan." Dong Shuheng shouted.
"arrive!"
"The Intelligence Department is going to shift the focus of its work to the vicinity of the capital. All the operations bureaus will go to the capital, and the director of the operations bureau, Zheng Jian, will personally lead the team."
"Yes, President." Zheng Jian stood up and replied. There was no expression on his face, only a trace of bloodthirsty light could be seen in his eyes.
"The Intelligence Department's first goal is to monitor every move of the Qing government. Second, I want the price of rice in the capital to rise tenfold within the next half month. The Canal Shipping Company and the Huaihai Company's Northern Branch must fully cooperate with the work of the Intelligence Department
.Third, for those who dare to take advantage of the situation to rob people and make them disappear from the world, the deterrent power of our Huai Navy must not be shaken."
"Commander Liu of the Navy."
"Arrived!" Liu Dahai, who had just returned from Japan, stood up and replied.
After the treaty was signed, Liu Dahai led the main fleet back. Bao Youzhi still led his squadron to stay in Tokyo Bay. Before the fort was built, he would be responsible for defending Edo. After all, he had paid for protection.
It's free.
At the same time, there was also a reorganized Marine Regiment left in Japan, which was Ding Li's regiment. The Marine Regiment was very flexible and could be sent wherever it was needed. They did not have a fixed station or defense zone.
"The Navy hastened to make preparations. At the same time, the Ocean Company also had to mobilize ships quickly. When we went to Tianjin this time, weren't there bandits there? We just said we were going to surrender the bandits."
"The General Staff Headquarters and the Army will allocate one regiment, two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment from each of the three divisions in Jiangsu, and assemble directly at Yancheng Port. There they will board the ship secretly and head north. The navy and merchant ships will be responsible for transportation and escort."
"Send an order to the Third Division of Shandong. All Shandong troops will go to Jiaodong to hand over the bandits to prevent the Qing government from sending them north. I am not going to expose their existence this time."
"Lou Zhigang, the special forces sent small teams to various places to protect the Huaihai Trading Company. Anyone who wants to attack the Huaihai Trading Company will be chopped off by me."
"Yes, President, I promise to complete the mission!" Lou Zhigang stood up and said, how could such a large-scale operation not include a special force?
"Instruct Wang Congzhi's First Division in Xuzhou to enter northern Anhui from Xuzhou, camp step by step, occupy one place and digest the other."
"Teacher."
"It's time." Liu Qingnan stood up, thinking that it was finally his turn.
"The instructor will leave enough manpower to defend the Beida Camp to prevent the Taiping Army from sneak attacks. The other units will attack westward, but do not approach Luzhou, which is surrounded by the Taiping Army, for the time being."
"The Second Division dispatched a unit from Changzhou to attack Ningguo and Huizhou southward."
"Peng Yulin!"
"arrive!"
"You are responsible for the war on the southern front. After occupying Ningguo and Huizhou, it is up to you to decide whether to continue the attack."
"From now on, wherever our Huai Navy attacks, that's our territory. Whoever dares to touch the territory in our Huai Navy's hands will have their hands chopped off." Dong Shuheng announced to the civil and military forces of the Huai Navy.
No one would think that he was talking big words. Everyone was happy in their hearts that the president finally took his own steps. The bigger the president's steps are, the further they can go by following Dong Shuheng.
"Finally, the entire army is informed to cancel annual leave, all personnel return to the team, and all areas enter a level 1 alert state."
After the Huaihai Navy entered the first-level alert state, all garrison troops in various places canceled their vacations, prepared supplies, and were ready to start operations at any time.
The militiamen canceled production tasks, entered into daily training, and had to inventory and prepare weapons and supplies.
All checkpoints in various places are activated to detect all passing personnel. Personnel who do not hold identity certificates issued by the military government must undergo strict scrutiny before they can move within the Huaihai Navy's sphere of influence.
The Huai Navy was fully mobilized, and its efficiency was terrifying.
Huaihai commercial firms in various places continued to operate after receiving notices from the headquarters. Some governments had already received warnings from the Huaihai Navy before receiving notice from the court.
Huai Haijun did what he said, and no one doubted it at all. He had already learned a painful lesson before.
At that time, the Huaihai Navy was first established, and people in some places were jealous of the good business of the Huaihai Trading Company. As a result, these people and their families disappeared mysteriously.
Everyone said that Huai Haijun controlled huge underground forces, and whoever caused trouble would be in trouble.
Local officials are not human beings. They can just prevaricate the officials of the Ministry of Justice. But Huai Haijun cannot afford to offend him.
Some officials who were more dedicated to their duties only sent government officials to check things out in a symbolic manner. The government officials usually benefited from Huaihai Trading Company. At most, they could just come to the door and say hello, but they didn't dare to affect other people's business.
They are all doing serious business, how can they be colluding with bandits?
…
Tongzhou is the end point of the canal and the distribution point for supplies entering Beijing. Twelve major grain stores in the capital have their granaries here. It can be said that this is the grain bag of the capital, controlling the changes in grain prices in the capital.
Today the whole of Tongzhou smells of burnt rice and flour. One night, almost all the granaries in Tongzhou were burned down.
The grain merchants were shouting and grabbing land one by one, and the Tongzhou government was in chaos.
The people in the capital reacted very quickly, with long queues forming at the entrances of major grain stores. Without the food replenishment in the granaries, the rice and noodles in the grain store shops would disappear in a short time.
Immediately afterwards, a new issue of "Changjiang Business Daily" was delivered to the capital. An important news was published on the front page: Huaihai Company will completely suspend the transportation of rice grains from the canal and sea to Beijing. Moreover, due to the freezing of the canal, canal shipping will also be suspended.
Shipping business.
At this time, the whole capital was boiling. The doors of the grain stores were quickly closed tightly. There were even incidents of smashing rice shops on some streets.
Emperor Xianfeng held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures. The ministers all lowered their heads like defeated roosters. No one could tell a good solution. The emperor had done it, and some people were even secretly waiting to see what the emperor would do. play.
Even if we can think of a solution now, we still don't have enough time. In the past six months, the supplies in the capital have basically been transported by the Huaihai Company from the canal. Even the goods of several major grain stores have been imported from the Huaihai Navy.
Suddenly the largest supplier was gone, and everyone could not find a new supplier for a while. Especially the freight route was still in the hands of Huaihai Company.
The price of rice was originally supposed to increase within a week. However, in just three days, the price on the black market in the capital increased to more than ten times, and there was still a price but no market. All major grain stores closed down one after another.
Some people in the surrounding government offices even took out the government rations from the government treasury and resold them. The profit was really too great.
But at this time, banditry was raging in the west and south of the capital. Caravans from neighboring provinces could not enter at all. Shanxi's grain would be intercepted when it reached the Taihang Mountains.
Emperor Xianfeng passed the blame to the Ministry of Revenue and ordered the Ministry of Revenue to transfer grain within half a month to stabilize prices. This order made the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue want to resign and go home immediately.
At this time, several prefectures and counties around the capital also used a large amount of funds to purchase grain. The price of grain was raised, which made the Qing government's idea of allocating grain from Zhili prefectures and counties to stabilize prices aborted.
Emperor Xianfeng, who usually seemed a very gentle man, had become very angry these days, and several maids and eunuchs had been carried out of the palace to be disposed of.
"Hermione, have you found out the matter?"
"When I return to the Emperor, I have found out that the fire was indeed caused by man-made arson. However, the arsonist has long since escaped."
"I sent my most capable men and tracked down a group of people, but the enemy was very powerful. Only one of our spies came back. I have evacuated everyone to the palace in the past few days."
"Are you worried that this group of people will be harmful to the palace?" Xianfeng said with a frown.
"Yes, Your Majesty, these people are all from the Lian family, and their equipment is better than ours. I am worried that they will sneak into the palace."
"This Dong Shuheng is really ambitious, and he actually raised so many dead soldiers." Xianfeng said regretfully.
Originally, he wanted to promote Dong Shuheng as a role model, so he promoted Dong Shuheng out of the norm. Now the person he promoted started to backfire on him so quickly, making him feel like he was slapped in the face.
"Well, you did the right thing. You ordered the Shenji Battalion and the Forward Battalion to strengthen their defenses in the past few days." Xianfeng was still afraid of death.
The capital's defense force is mainly composed of the Eight Banners. Many of these people smoke cigarettes, and many are hereditary. Now they don't have much combat power. It is really possible for the Huai Navy people to get into the palace. .
On the eve of the Spring Festival, Prince Chunjun's palace entertained guests, and the entire palace returned to silence. The people outside were anxious for the next meal, but this did not affect the dignitaries from continuing to indulge in extravagance.
Most people in the capital do not have much food reserves, including ordinary Eight Banner families. Everyone uses the money every month to buy rice, flour and daily necessities. Now that they have received the money, they can no longer buy anything.
In the middle of the night, a group of men in black sneaked into Prince Chunjun's palace and quietly killed all the guards.
The next day, a piece of news shook the entire capital like a 12-magnitude earthquake. The seventh son of the dignified Emperor Daoguang, the half-brother of Emperor Xianfeng, and Prince Chun of Daqing County were brutally murdered. All their belongings were robbed.
When Emperor Xianfeng found out, he was furious in the palace again.