One hundred and forty-sixth chapter to force peace
Chapter 146: War to force peace
Finally, at the end of the letter, he wrote that if he agreed to peace talks, he would send a mission from Lingao in a few days. As for the location of the negotiations, they could be in Macau. If there was any response from Guangdong, they could also go to Macao to entrust Jesus with Jesus.
The letter will be forwarded.
"In view of my humble position, the only option left now is to negotiate." Li Xijue said cautiously.
The only way to suppress him was to pay. Wang Zunde's heart was shrouded in pain. He knew very well that it would probably not be his turn to recruit him, and the emperor might not allow him to recruit him.
It couldn't be suppressed, and it couldn't be appeased. It couldn't even talk about any countermeasures that could be taken. This feeling of being helpless enveloped him, and he didn't speak for a long time. Until Li Xijue reminded him in a low voice that he should submit a memorial to the emperor.
Only then did he become startled.
Such a huge defeat cannot be concealed at any cost. Once other people's memorials are announced, they will no longer have the initiative. Li Xijue can only remind Dong Weng that this matter should be done early and quickly, and cannot be delayed.
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Wang Zunde nodded. Although he couldn't think of how to write this memorial, what Li Xijue said was completely correct.
A feeling of mental fatigue enveloped his heart. He just nodded and said, "Mr. Just Yi." He waved his hand feebly to let Li Xijue go out.
"Letter drawn by Lu Zan——"
"Let's discuss it another day."
After Li Xijue came out, he brought other staff to discuss. Everyone agreed to draft the memorial first and submit it to the court as soon as possible, leaving one step behind. At that time, he arranged for a staff member responsible for drafting the memorial to draft the memorial overnight. At the same time, he sent someone to Guangzhou.
Go to the city and discuss the aftermath with Governor Li Fengjie and others.
As for negotiating peace, Li Xijue did not have the courage to make his own opinions, and Lu Yizhong's letters could not be leaked out. He just sent people to Macau secretly to see if the Australians came to Macau before discussing.
The most difficult thing is the remnants of He Rubin who are currently trapped in Haikou: Thousands of troops are now trapped in Haikou and the Qiongshan area, with no food and grass inside and no reinforcements outside. Even the news has been completely cut off, and they are under siege by the army of Kun thieves.
, I’m afraid it won’t take long for the whole army to be wiped out.
The death of many classic military generals in Chengmai is shocking. If He Rubin also died in battle or was captured, it would shock the government and the public even more than the defeat of the army in Chengmai - comparable to the defeat and death of Lu Qin in the sixth year of the Apocalypse. That would really be terrible.
Guangdong and Guangxi were shocked.
Li Xijue mused at the staff meeting: "It would be great if He Zhen and others could be withdrawn safely."
"Now that the strait is locked, our troops and navy are at a disadvantage. How can we get across?" Some staff members shook their heads repeatedly.
The Kun Thieves' navy showed their superiority in the small-scale battle across the Qiongzhou Strait, and the Guangdong Navy was simply unable to compete with them.
"We have to sneak into Qiongzhou quietly in advance and get in touch with He Zhen. After all, there must be news about how many troops are left in the army and how their morale and food are."
"So what if we know it. If we don't recruit the thieves quickly, I'm afraid we won't be able to control our troops..."
"Should we report it to Lord Zhijun and ask him to quickly dispatch Chen Zhentai to Zhaoqing to discuss and see if he can mobilize more troops to meet He Zhen?"
Chen Ting is the deputy commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Association, stationed in Nan'ao. Although he is named "deputy commander-in-chief" in name, he is not actually controlled by He Rubin. He is a senior member of the army who guards one side alone.
"He only has such a small number of troops, what's the use?" Li Xijue had no hope of any military action to resolve the deadlock - since even 20,000 troops could not defeat Lingao and suffered a complete defeat, a mere few thousand men would be defeated.
It's even more unreasonable.
There was a silence in the Nuan Pavilion, and the staff and assistants of the Governor's Yamen looked at each other. After much deliberation, there really was no other way to do it except "stroking".
In the combat command room of the Naval Command Building in Bopu, in front of the wall hung with a huge Guangdong-Hainan chart, Navy Command Chief Chen Haiyang was holding a staff meeting.
Participating in the meeting were the navy's staff and several veteran officers. There were also two non-naval officer veterans attending the meeting, one of whom was naval adviser Wen Desi. As an authority on the navy and shipbuilding in the age of sail, his right to speak was
Very big. Then there is the permission to work in the Intelligence Bureau. This person's current title is Naval Intelligence Staff Officer, who is responsible for collecting and organizing naval military intelligence. However, according to the permission, he is a "doing everything" in the Foreign Intelligence Agency.
's handyman".
This unprofessional naval staff team highlights the navy's professional dilemma. There are fewer people who have served in the navy than in the army, and there are none who have served as staff officers. This makes most of the staff work fall to regular naval officers.
He was born as the People's Commissar of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Command, the two heads of the highest naval agencies. As for Li Di, a naval officer who cannot go to sea, he has always served as commander of the naval fortress and port director. Now Chen Haiyang simply appointed him as chief of staff to learn the staff business.
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Of course, Li Di's academic performance as a staff officer was not very good, and he was still at the lowest level of failure. An amateur naval officer who knew very little about basic naval business had too many lessons to make up for becoming a professional staff officer.
The navy has currently undertaken the task of attacking the Qiongzhou Strait. Strictly speaking, this cannot be regarded as attacking the strait, because the navy actually only attacked ports under the control of the government and military such as Shenying Port in Qiongshan County.
The remnants of the anti-government army received reinforcements from the mainland. Other ships entering and leaving the strait were ignored.
Any ships entering or exiting these ports will be captured and escorted to Ma Niao for processing. All cargo ships attempting to transport goods in and out of Qiongshan ports will be confiscated. If civilian ships are indeed sealed by the government, the shipowners are allowed to redeem them at a low price.
Get the boat.
This kind of attack was devastating to the material circulation in Qiongshan. Indeed, the Fubo Army did not attack the ports in Wenchang and other places that were still in the hands of the official army, but the ports in other states and counties were detrimental to Qiongshan's own
Transportation is not helpful - in the prefectures and counties of Hainan, bulk cargo transportation relies almost entirely on sea transportation along coastal routes. Given the poor condition of the post roads, long-distance land cargo transportation is almost impossible.
Tang Yunwen saw that most of the Japanese warships were small and medium-sized ships, and the number was not large. He tried several times to break the Japanese army at sea, but was defeated every time - the navy's ships were inferior in terms of equipment and training level.
None of them were comparable to the medieval level of the Ming Dynasty Navy. In the end, the navy ships completely retreated back to the Baisha Water Village and stopped dispatching.
In this way, Qiongshan is equivalent to being under siege. Although Qiongshan itself does not lack grain, and summer grain will soon be available, this sense of despair of losing external contact makes the officers and soldiers trapped in Qiongshan desperate.
Morale is getting lower and lower.
The preliminary goal of maritime warfare has been achieved. The Executive Committee believes that the state of war cannot continue like this and must end as soon as possible - the impact of the war on the economy is too great, especially the stagnation of foreign trade. Originally, it could be from Guangzhou Station every month
We can obtain a large amount of materials, manpower and money from this direction. Now, except for a small amount of people and materials that can be transported from Foshan, Leizhou and other places, this channel is basically cut off.
It is not only the transportation channels that have been lost, but also the business network. Until the situation is clear, business partners on the mainland are silent about continuing to distribute "Australian goods". As a result, exporting goods to Lingao has become a potentially high-risk business.
, becomes expensive.
Originally, the Executive Committee planned to wait for Xiong Wencan to come to appease the two sides and hold peace talks. However, it seems that there will be a period of time before Lao Xiong can come to serve as governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. According to the historical process, it will take him five years from Chongzhen to serve as governor of Guangdong and Guangdong and governor of Guangdong.
I can't wait anymore. I decided to carry out "peace work" as soon as possible to end the war between the two sides - at the very least, restore the flow of materials.
Although many senators have doubts about how Wang Zunde or Li Fengjie are planning to deceive the superiors and conceal the defeat before suing for peace, the Executive Committee believes that this is their matter and has nothing to do with the Senate - provided they are willing to seek peace.
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The Executive Committee once held a secret meeting on the development of the post-war situation. About thirty elders were invited to discuss and predict how the situation would develop in the future. The elders believed that there was a possibility of another war in the Guangdong officialdom.
There is little risk, but beware that the other party may adopt the "no peace, no war, no surrender, no retreat" approach.
"During the Opium War, after the local officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty realized that the means of war could not fight the British at all, they did not dare to negotiate peace privately, but they were not willing to risk their lives in a vain war, so they adopted such a turtle tactic." Yu Eshui said.
The meeting warned, "If the Guangdong government adopts such methods, it will pose the greatest threat to us."
In this way, the Crossing Group had no choice but to imitate the British and continue to expand the scale of the war until the emperor himself was forced to make the decision to sue for peace. However, the war potential and combat machine of the Crossing Group could not be compared with the British in 1840.
The last straw that broke Daoguang's resistance was the arrival of troops at the gates of Nanjing. The long-range power projection required to carry out military operations to cut off water transportation was beyond the capabilities of the navy.
"In addition, we have to consider that Qiongzhou itself is too remote and is not an important place in the Ming Dynasty's territory. Its loss for five or six years is not a particularly important thing for the Ming Dynasty, which is now surrounded by smoke. It can be completely ignored
To put it another way, this is a long-term war for us - even though there is no armed conflict."
Therefore, the tone of the meeting was to take advantage of the chaos in the Guangdong officialdom to quickly bring the war to Guangzhou, the richest city in South China, and force the Guangdong officialdom to seek peace before a worse situation happens - since Qiongzhou
The government is just a borderland. Directly invading the Pearl River Delta should shock the officials all over Guangdong. At least Li Fengjie will definitely be unable to sit still. As long as he cannot sit still, he will have to sue for peace.