Mr. Wu knew very well that he had offended Huai Haijun and could not clear up the past grudges.
He ran to Guangdong and relied on his relationship with foreigners to prosper in Guangzhou.
Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, valued Wu Jianzhang very much because Wu Jianzhang helped Governor Ye build a new army.
Yes, Wu Jianzhang learned from the Huai Navy, purchased weapons from British and French businessmen in Guangzhou, and established a new army of nearly 5,000 people. This new army was designated under the name of Governor Ye Mingchen. In fact, it was still controlled by Wu Jianzhang's people
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As mentioned before, Xianfeng delegated power to various localities to prepare new armies and adopt Western infantry drills. However, each locality could not raise the money for equipment alone. The new army had to be raised by itself. No regiment could train well without having to pay a penny.
Therefore, the effect of forming new armies in various places is not good. However, this further highlights Wu Jianzhang's excellence.
In the battle to suppress the Tiandihui uprising in Guangdong and Guangxi in the early fourth year of Xianfeng, Wu Jianzhang's new army came in handy.
Wu Jianzhang himself also followed the rising tide and became Ye Mingchen's favorite person.
Dong Shuheng was naturally aware of Wu Jianzhang's little moves. But Wu Jianzhang has now become the spokesperson of Britain and France in Guangdong.
There were only two official targets for communication between Britain and France in China, one was Dong Shuheng's Nanyang Yamen, and the other was Wu Jianzhang's Guangdong Chief Envoy Yamen.
As for the Qing court, they still refused to communicate with foreigners as before the second Opium War in history.
Britain and France were simply trying to use Guangzhou merchants to make Huai Haijun compromise commercially, but Wu Jianzhang and the others did not control the source of goods, and there was no way they could compete with Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants for the right to export goods.
The only thing to worry about is that Wu Jianzhang and others are smuggling opium in Guangdong to make profits to make up for their losses in the import and export field.
Dong Shuheng hated this very much, but now the Huaihai Navy is in the honeymoon period with Britain and France.
Dong Shuheng needs these two years of precious development time, so he can't touch Wu Jianzhang yet.
Even so, Dong Shuheng stepped up the investigation of opium smuggling.
Britain and France could not sell opium directly to the mainland of the Qing Dynasty, because selling opium in China is still illegal. They could only sell opium overseas to unscrupulous Chinese businessmen, who would then resell it in.
So Dong Shuheng kept an eye on those businessmen who smuggled opium.
The cost of smuggling opium is very high. As long as they are investigated and punished a few times, these people will basically go bankrupt.
Those unscrupulous merchants even invented an incredibly fast ship in order to smuggle opium. The imperial anti-smuggling ship could not catch up with them.
But at the mouth of the Yangtze River, these people encountered obstacles everywhere, and the anti-smuggling steamers of Shanghai Customs could easily catch them.
They couldn't get any favors on the road. Huai Haijun had strong local control and had a strict household registration system.
If they pretend to be foreign merchants, they will be easily detected by the local militia.
However, Wu Jianzhang and the others have learned to be smart now, avoiding the Huaihai Navy and smuggling opium to other parts of the Qing court. As long as they can make money, it doesn't matter whose money it is.
Dong Shuheng is very clear that the relatively good relationship he currently maintains with Britain and France is all because of the Crimean War.
Therefore, Dong Shuheng has been letting the intelligence agencies do their best to collect information about the Crimean War.
The intelligence agency even placed spies in the French legation to obtain the status of the Crimean War from reports sent from France. Some information was also obtained from merchant ships from the West.
On January 4, 1854, the British and French fleets entered the Black Sea to escort the Turkish transport fleet. This fleet was very large.
The British fleet has 11 main battleships, while the French fleet has 14 and is equipped with more broadsides. There are 8 warships with more than 100 broadsides (5 French and 3 British).
The warships of the British and French fleets were all driven by a mixture of sails and steam, and their maneuverability advantages were very obvious. One day later, the Turkish army defeated the Russian attack at Sitat, which was a wing of the Russian army.
On February 6, 1854, Russia announced that it would break off diplomatic relations with Britain and France in response to the British and French combined fleet sailing into the Black Sea. On the 10th, the British peace delegation arrived in Russia to make a final diplomatic effort and met with the Tsar.
The two sides had great differences. The Tsar was worried about going to war with Britain and France, but he was unwilling to give in. Nicholas I told the British envoy: "Don't threaten me with war, and I can rely on Berlin and Vienna."
This was a warning that Britain and France might cause another war in Europe. However, the Holy Alliance has long been inseparable.
Prussia had long complained about Russia's support for Austria in the Prussian-Austrian dispute in 1850, and at this time, it would not take chestnuts from the fire for Russia over the Balkans, an issue that had nothing to do with Prussia.
Dong Shuheng had actually known Prussia's attitude towards Russia for a long time. Prince Adalbert had already told Dong Shuheng that Prussia was ready to give up its alliance with Russia.
Dong Shuheng also expressed his attitude towards Russia to Prince Adalbert, and stated that he and Russia would soon go to war.
Austria was even more unpredictable. Nicholas I never expected Austria's betrayal a few months later.
On the 21st, the Russian government declared a state of war with Britain and France. Russia was forced to fight a war with the Allies, which had about 1 million troops, with 700,000 troops.
It lags far behind Western European countries in terms of military technology and equipment. The battle started in several theaters at the same time.
On April 5, 1854, the British Army landed at Gallipoli. Subsequently, the Allied Forces' combat plan was born here.
60,000 British and French armies, with the cooperation of the navy, landed on the Crimean Peninsula and captured the Russian naval base Sevastopol Fortress within 6 weeks.
This goal is very limited. The purpose is to destroy Russia's Black Sea Fleet and end Russia's advantage in the Black Sea. This is in line with Britain's wishes. For France, the war itself has achieved its goal.
As more troops arrived, the coalition forces began to march toward Constantinople. Local wine and women were very cheap, and syphilis was very common among coalition soldiers.
The local sanitary conditions were very bad, and the British logistics were equally bad. Since the Napoleonic Wars, the British army's logistics training had been abandoned.
Most officers had not experienced war, even low-intensity colonial conflicts. The French army was in much better shape.
Napoleon was defeated, but France was not defeated. The French army is still the best equipped and most well-organized army in Europe. Many officers have combat experience, and the logistics system is also very effective.
In terms of weapons and equipment, the advantage of Britain and France comes from the new rifled rifle-the rifle. The biggest advantage of the rifled rifle over the smoothbore gun is its range and accuracy.
The effective range of the musket is only 150 yards (one yard is about 0.914 meters), and its accuracy is very low.
The effective range of rifled rifles reaches 500 yards. The French army was the first to equip the rifle in the late 1840s, which gave it a huge technical and tactical advantage over the armies of the major powers at the same time.
New rifles bring new tactics. The skirmisher line formations of the Napoleonic era can be further expanded to avoid being killed by the opponent's intensive firepower. The opponent's dense formation will be hit by precise firepower from a longer distance.
In addition, the role of artillery has undergone major changes, because the typical range of field artillery is mostly 1000-1500 yards, and some light artillery only have a range of 600-800 yards, so the range advantage over rifles has become smaller.
The role of artillery became similar to that of later machine guns, serving as a firepower multiplier for infantry. Despite slow response from senior officials and distrust of rifled rifles, the British army was equipped with the Type 1851 rifle in 1851, which constituted the Crimean War.
It is the main battle individual weapon of the British Army and has played a huge role.
The participating troops of the British Army include 4 infantry divisions, 1 light infantry division and 1 cavalry division. The entire division has about 6,000 men.
The participating troops of the French Army were 4 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades. The organization was similar to that of the British Army.
According to the level of artillery technology at that time, the French army's approach was more suitable for actual combat needs. The status of cavalry in the French army has declined greatly compared with the Napoleonic era. The new Minie rifle has reduced the cavalry's assault power, so the French army rarely uses large cavalry corps.
The commander of the British army was Baron Raglan, an approachable nobleman. The commander of the French army was Marshal Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, a new generation of French soldiers created by the French Revolution.
On April 20, 1854, Russia suffered its biggest blow since the war began. Prussia and Austria announced their neutrality and secretly formed a defensive alliance.
The reasons for neutrality were obvious, but the Tsar could not see it. The failure of the Holy Alliance at the most critical moment left him frustrated and angry.
As if to add another pinch of salt to the Tsar's wounds, the British and French fleets bombarded Sevastopol on April 22, 1854, indicating that Britain and France were actually preparing to fight a war with Russia.
The war is still going on, at least there is no news that the war is over.
Based on Dong Shuheng's understanding of the Russians, they will definitely not give up. It is summer now, and the Russians will definitely drag the war into winter.
The Russians always unconsciously believed that their soldiers would gain an advantage in winter.
Therefore, Dong Shuheng believes that the war will not end before at least next spring.
From this information, Dong Shuheng was able to see two problems. One was that the British and French armies were troubled by the epidemic, which caused a large number of non-combat attrition to the British and French allied forces.
The modern medical and health system has not yet been established, and the probability of an epidemic occurring in long-distance delivery operations of large corps is still very high.
The other is that although the Russian army was at a disadvantage in the battle, it did not suffer much losses, which means that the Russians still have strength and can fight.
Speaking of Britain and France, the ministers of the two countries recently sent people to request Dong Shuheng to meet.
Liu Qingbei has already contacted the two ministers and understood their demands, but this matter is too big for Liu Qingbei to decide.
It turned out that Britain and France heard that the Huai Navy defeated the Russians again in the Far East, and were impressed by the combat power of the Huai Navy.
So this time we want the Huai Navy to send troops to Crimea, take a boat from China, disembark in Kuwait, and then follow the inland territory of Turkey to Crimea, which is not much further than starting from the UK.
As for the transfer of troops from India, the British have not considered it. They feel that transferring those Asan there will only be a waste of logistical supplies.
The British and French ministers believed that since these Qing people were able to defeat the Russians in the Far East, it meant that they at least had the ability to fight against Western armies.
According to the original alliance Dong Shuheng made with them, they naturally hope that the Huai Navy can directly send troops to the Crimean battlefield.
In a battlefield with hundreds of thousands of people, the more strength you have, the more chance of victory you have.
The other two ministers also knew that the Qing people had excellent medical skills. Many foreigners in the concession had visited the hospital established by Dong Shuheng in Shanghai and had seen the magic of traditional Chinese medicine.
Adalbert\tAfter Prince Adalbert's pneumonia was cured by Chinese doctors, it became a living advertisement.
Now Prince Adalbert is promoting the allicin injection produced by Huai Haijun in Europe, which has cured some nobles suffering from the disease. This has allowed him to earn a huge price difference, and it has also gained him the friendship of many nobles.
The magical medicine from the East has become a household name in Europe. However, because it is very expensive, only the rich can use it.
This time the two envoys approached Huai Haijun and hoped that it could supply a large amount of this drug and send a medical team to the battlefield.
When Dong Shuheng heard the news, although he looked embarrassed on his face, he was already happy in his heart.
He originally wanted his army to experience large-scale battles between European powers.
However, it is not easy for him to bring up this matter himself. If he brings it up himself, he will naturally not get any benefits and will not be able to negotiate terms. Moreover, it is easy for others to suspect that he has ulterior motives.