The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 275 The Qing Dynasty also wants to reverse colonization (seeking votes and subscription)

"Your Majesty, I led my troops to fight the bandit leader Su Sanniang outside Kunshan City today. I first led my elite troops to attack fiercely and reached Shuangfeng Mountain, but was blocked by the bandits. We fought back and forth until dusk, and both armies were exhausted. However, I still personally led the battle, and used the cannons to bombard fiercely, and also used cavalry to break into their lair. As a result, I won the battle and captured a lot of enemies. Su Sanniang was defeated and fled."

"Let Your Majesty know that yesterday another group of Taihai soldiers came from Changshu. They were all elite soldiers from Guangxi, with a lot of guns and cannons. Su Sanniang's army was revitalized and she went out to challenge them. Although I have few soldiers, I still went out in a Western formation, with huge cannons and foreign guns. At noon, we saw the battle. The enemy soldiers surged like waves, retreating and advancing again, and the cycle continued until dark. Our army was exhausted and had to retreat for a while."

"Your Majesty, I have received foreign guns, cannons and ammunition from Shanghai. I have also received help from the gentry in Jiading, Anting, Luodian and other places. The number of troops on the front line has increased to 5,000, all of whom are armed with foreign guns. We have also sent troops to Kunshan and fought Su Sanniang in the wilds of the land of fish, rice and water. The battle lasted until dark, but we only won a small victory."

"I beg your Majesty to report that I won a great victory in a field battle with Su Sanniang outside Kunshan City today. I have captured the strategic location of Shuangfeng Mountain. I also bombarded Su Sanniang's lair with my cannons. Su Sanniang was badly defeated and has retreated to Kunshan City."

"Your Majesty, I have led my troops to besiege Kunshan today. Although Su Sanniang is brave, she is like a tigress in a cage. It is difficult for her to show her ferocity. She will be captured by us soon."

"Your Majesty, I was not able to defeat Su Sanniang in the field battle outside Kunshan City today. Although Su Sanniang was trapped, she was still ferocious. She also received 5,000 reinforcements from the bandit leader Zhou from Qingpu. I was outnumbered and had to withdraw my troops."

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. Although I was defeated by the combined forces of Su and Zhou a few days ago, I still have some strength left. The wooden fortress of Anting, Jiading and Luodian has been built. I can retreat to defend and advance to attack. I am invincible!"

"Your Majesty, the Shanghai envoys are in urgent need of negotiation, so I have no choice but to withdraw my troops to Shanghai temporarily. After the negotiation with the foreigners is completed, I will attack Kunshan again. Although I failed to kill Su Sanniang in this battle of Kunshan, I have repeatedly broken into her lair and killed and wounded many people. However, our army suffered little loss, with only more than 600 people killed, 300 to 400 seriously injured, and more than 100 missing. It is indeed a great victory."

All of the above are secret military reports sent by the loyal and brave Baturu Luo Xueyan, the Shanghai Governor and Minister of Trade of the Five Ports of the Qing Dynasty, to the Jiangbei Camp by water in May and June of the third year of the Xianfeng reign, and then forwarded to Beijing from the Jiangbei Camp.

From these memorials, we can see that the battle outside Kunshan was very fierce. Although Luo Xueyan was brave and diligent, Su Sanniang was very strong and could endure the hard battle. Although she was once overwhelmed and attacked by Luo Xueyan, she finally defended Kunshan and repelled Luo Xueyan who tried to conquer Kunshan and relieve Suzhou.

Of course, there are definitely exaggerations in the battle reports in these memorials. However, the credibility is still quite high. Luo Xueyan and Su Sanniang did "fight every day" outside the city of Kunshan, and the "battle was fierce", and in the end "people were killed".

As for the sounds of gunfire, artillery fire, and soldiers marching out, there was everything, not a single one missing. People in Kunshan and Anting could hear the sound of gunfire every day.

In the end, Luo Xueyan was forced to temporarily leave Kunshan under the repeated urging of the British, French and American envoys and gave up his small goal of "capturing Su Sanniang".

Of course, during the time Luo Yaoguo was in the Wu Wang Mansion in Kunshan, in addition to the "battle" with Su Sanniang, he also did not neglect the official business of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Under his supervision, the two most important events, military reorganization and land reform, were pushed forward a big step!

In terms of military reform, the two old units, Shang Yi and Shang Er, took the lead and set up the framework of two divisions, four brigades, eight regiments and thirty-second battalions according to the model of Shanghai New Army. Wang Dalong and Li Kezhong, who had served as regiment commanders in Shanghai New Army and followed the old French captain Jean Pierre, each led a group of officers from the teaching regiment to leave the team and return to Kunshan in the name of "supporting the Hunan Army". Then they joined the Shang Yi and Shang Er armies as military commanders and were specifically responsible for the "military reform divisions" of the two armies.

At the same time, Li Shoucheng and Zeng Lichang, two old Guangxi military commanders, left the team and, in the name of "former subordinates of Marshal Xue from the Hunan Army", brought a group of loyal and reliable Hunan officers into the Shanghai New Army to learn how to lead troops from foreign officers.

In addition, Luo Yaoguo also secretly ordered Wu Ruxiao to escort a batch of newly arrived American-made 1842-style smoothbore rifles and a batch of bullets to Kunshan, so that the "foreign gun rate" of the Upper First and Upper Second Armies reached a quarter.

In terms of land reform, Luo Yaoguo was not in a hurry to push forward. Instead, he ordered Chen Ji, Ma Baocai and Zhang Bao to organize a Kunshan lecture class and recruited a group of young people from Suzhou, Songjiang and Taiyuan who were proficient in reading and writing and eager to make progress, and taught them the true principles in the first volume of "Anti-Scripture".

At the same time, Luo Yaoguo, together with Chen Ji, Ma Baocai, Zhang Bao and others, formulated the "Guiding Opinions on Land Reform in Susongtai" and the "Regulations on the Protection of Mulberry Garden and Silk Industry in Susongtai", two fundamental documents used to guide the land reform in Susongtai.

In addition to formulating these two fundamental documents, Luo Yaoguo also decided to select several townships in Kunshan County to carry out land reform pilot projects, striving to "not kill anyone and not confiscate any family."

In order to drive as much capital as possible from the Suzhou, Songjiang and Taiyuan areas to Shanghai, Luo Yaoguo also ordered the Jiangnan branch of the God Worshipping Society to open a green channel for Kunshan landlords to "Run Shanghai", and even had people print a lot of advertisements for "Shanghai Xue Ji Real Estate Company" and "Shanghai HSBC Bank" - as long as you deposit money into HSBC Bank or buy a house from Xue Ji Real Estate, you can immediately have a smooth journey to Shanghai!
In order to boost the confidence of the landlords and wealthy people who "run" Shanghai, Luo Yaoguo also ordered the Shanghai New Army and local militia stationed in Anting Town, Jiading County, and Luodian Town to start building a "wooden city defense line" from Anting to Luodian.

This "wooden city defense line" will be built on the natural river channels throughout the Susongtai area, supplemented by hundreds of watchtowers, fortresses, and checkpoints, with the main purpose of being full of sincerity and reassuring. Of course, the defense line must be built, and business cannot stop.

Therefore, the Taiping Army and the Shanghai New Army tacitly established four commercial checkpoints on the contact line between the two sides near Anting, Luodian, Jiading County and Minhang Town. Among them, the Anting Commercial Checkpoint guards the Suzhou River, the Minhang Commercial Checkpoint guards the Huangpu River, and the Luodian and Jiading Commercial Checkpoints guard the water and land passages leading to Taicang Liuhe. As long as they are not trafficking drugs, any goods can enter the Taiping Army's jurisdiction through these four checkpoints after paying tolls.

As for the goods entering the territory of the Shanghai New Army from the Taiping Army's territory, it was even simpler. After the Jianghai Customs collected the lijin tax, they would accept all comers.

After finishing these tasks, Luo Yaoguo left Su Sanniang, who had been diagnosed with pregnancy, and returned to the Anting camp of the Shanghai New Army. After that, he led a regiment of "victorious troops" under the name of Luo Xueyan and returned to Shanghai County in a heroic and high-spirited manner.

"Mr. Luo, you have been delayed for too long at the Anting front this time, which has seriously affected your job as Minister of Trade for the Five Ports! For this, I protest to you on behalf of the United States of America!"

"Lord Luo, the British Empire also doubts your efficiency in handling diplomatic issues. You may not know that your counterparts in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have just signed a very progressive temporary agreement with me!"

"Lord Luo, although our French Empire is inclined towards the Qing Empire, our goodwill should be rewarded accordingly, rather than being neglected again and again!"

Dianchuntang in Yu Garden, Shanghai. He had just returned to Shanghai and had not had time to celebrate his wedding with Zhou Xiuying after a short separation when the British Minister to China, John Bowring, the French Minister to China, and the American Minister to China, Marshall, came aggressively with their interpreters.

In order to force Luo Xueyan to submit, the British Minister to the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace was very ungentlemanly. He showed Luo Xueyan, who had an unshaven beard, a tired face and a slightly hoarse voice, an agreement that was said to be signed by him and Luo Yaoguo.

Of course, the content of the agreement would not be told to Luo Xueyan. Luo Xueyan only needed to know that the British Empire and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had the possibility of becoming friends.

As Wenxian expected, Luo Xueyan really showed a worried look, then sighed and said in Oxford English: "Mr. Wenxian, if you really think that the agreement you signed with Luo Yaoguo is progressive, I can accept similar conditions! I can not only give such conditions to Britain, but also to France and the United States, and even more!
But before I make enough concessions, Mr. Wenxian, can you tell me what Luo Yaoguo promised? "

Wen Xian didn't expect Luo Xueyan to give in so quickly. It seems that he is indeed much easier to talk to than Ye Mingchen.

"I'm sorry, this is our country's diplomatic secret! Our agreement with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not public!" Wen Xian did not intend to tell Luo Xueyan the content of the agreement he signed with Luo Yaoguo.
"But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has made public the treaty they signed with their British brothers!" Luo Xueyan looked at Wen Xian, and a mocking smile suddenly appeared on his tired face. "They also said that your Queen Victoria is Hong Xiuquan's sister in heaven. I really don't know if the Queen of England and the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are relatives!"

"Pfft."

"Hahaha"

The joyful laughter of Americans and French people rang out in Dianchun Hall.

"This, this is nonsense they are talking about!"

Wen Xian roared, but he also knew that Luo Xueyan really knew what he and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had signed, so he looked at Luo Xueyan with a sullen face.

Luo Xueyan smiled and said, "The first is to set up consulates in each other's countries. You set up a consulate in Kunshan, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sets up a consulate in the Straits Settlements. You already have a consulate in our Qing Dynasty, so let's set up our Qing Dynasty consulate in Singapore! I'll let Wu Chaoyue be the consul general. He is a good friend of you British people!"
The second is free trade and labor export. OK, no problem! How much the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom exported, we also exported the same amount! We just have a lot of people in the Qing Dynasty! Minister Marsali, your western United States is vast and sparsely populated, do you want some Chinese workers? Is 100,000 enough? If not, then 200,000 or 300,000! But don't be anti-Chinese! By the way, our Qing Dynasty's Consulate General in the United States should be located in California!

The third article is freedom of religion. OK, no problem. You can spread Christianity, and we will spread Buddhism! I will find some monks to go to London, Paris, and New York to chant sutras. Isn't this fair?
Mr. Wenxian, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can have it, our Qing Dynasty should also have it. This is called most-favored-nation treatment! "

(End of this chapter)