Chapter 27 The Terminator of the Ever Victorious Army

Li Hongzhang started dealing with foreigners after he arrived in Shanghai.In September 1862, Wall, the first leader of the Ever Victorious Army, was killed by the Taiping Army, which raised the question of who would succeed him.He Bo, the commander of the British Navy that invaded China, recommended Bai Qiwen, the American deputy to Li Hongzhang, to Li Hongzhang.Li Hongzhang put forward the conditions in many ways, that the Ever Victorious Army belongs to the Chinese army and should be dispatched by him in a unified way.Soon, Li Hongzhang sent Bai Qiwen to assist the Hunan Army in Nanjing, but Bai Qiwen did not obey his orders.

Bai Qiwen didn't dare to confront Li Hongzhang directly, so he vented his anger on Yangfang, the Taoist platform in Songjiang.He ran to Yang Fang's house, beat him up, and robbed Yang Fang of all the 40,000 yuan of foreign silver found in Yang's house.Bai Qiwen felt guilty for doing something bad, and fled to the British army to hide.Zeng Guofan didn't care much about the fact that Li Hongzhang's reinforcements did not arrive, because he asked for reinforcements only to recruit Cheng Xueqi's department back.As for the Ever-Victorious Army, Zeng Guofan said something like this: There is nothing wrong with the Ever-Victorious Army not coming to Nanjing, but there is no advantage in coming!However, Li Hongzhang could not tolerate Bai Qiwen's disobedience, beating of court officials, and burglary.Of course, the treacherous and cunning Li Hongzhang would not handle such a difficult matter personally. He ordered Wu Xu to arrest Bai and bring him to justice within a time limit, and demanded that the Changsheng Army be transferred to Chinese officials and no outsiders should interfere.Seeing that Li Hongzhang was really angry, the British army felt that it was inconvenient to destroy the relationship between China and Britain for a Bai Qiwen, so they decided to hand over Bai Qiwen.However, the commander of the British navy stationed in China, De Foley, had a close personal relationship with Bai Qiwen, and insisted firmly on not surrendering Bai Qiwen.Li Hongzhang was determined to use this as a breakthrough to reorganize the Changsheng Army.Li Hongzhang's reorganization of the Ever Victory Army had two main purposes. One was to reduce the funds of the Ever Victory Army and save money to develop the Huai Army; the other was to take back the military power of the Ever Victory Army.The unreasonable and hard-pointed British certainly would not agree to Li Hongzhang's reorganization plan.The British government appointed Gordon as the new commander-in-chief of the Ever Victorious Army to replace Bai Qiwen.

Gordon's arrival made Li Hongzhang's heart skip a beat.He realized that Britain would never give up the sinister intention of leading the Ever Victorious Army easily, and could not confront it head-on.Li Hongzhang entrusted someone to investigate Gordon's details, and learned that Gordon was born in a family of officers and had profound research on military topography and infantry joint operations. His personality weakness was vanity and greed.As soon as Gordon arrived in China, he was warmly welcomed by Li Hongzhang. Before Gordon came to China, he heard that Li Hongzhang was a strong man, and he was so scared that his predecessor hid in the warship and dared not come out, so he was already mentally prepared to deal with it.But after seeing Li Hongzhang, Gordon changed his view. In his official letter to the British government, he highly praised Li Hongzhang, saying that he was the most outstanding military strategist and statesman in China. Industry, our British government should not only not oppose it, but should help and support it with all our strength.

The initial cooperation between Gordon and Li Hongzhang was not bad.However, Gordon was extremely dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang because of the assassination of Suzhou.What happened is this: After the private transaction between Gordon and Gao Yongkuan and others, Gordon claimed that he had meritorious service and asked Li Hongzhang to pay Chang Shengjun two months' salary, and threatened Li Hongzhang that if he did not pay, he would resign.Li Hongzhang replied that he would consider it.Then, Gordon went to visit Gao Yongkuan and others in Suzhou City. Gao Yongkuan expressed his satisfaction with Gordon's arrangement.Later, when Gordon heard that Li Hongzhang had only promised to pay one month's favor, he really set sail and prepared to leave.Just as Gordon walked out of the city gate, he heard gunshots. He felt very strange.Someone told him that Li Hongzhang did not allow Gao Yongkuan and the others to keep the old department, and was sending people to fire shots to demonstrate.Gordon felt that something was wrong, so he sent someone to arrest Li Hongzhang.But he failed to catch Li Hongzhang, and was detained by the Huai army instead.The next morning, Gordon learned that Gao Yongkuan and others had been killed by Li Hongzhang!Gordon was furious. He felt that Li Hongzhang not only refused to pay, but also made fun of himself in the matter of Gao Yongkuan and others. Where would the face of the officers of the British Empire go?Angrily, he took a pistol and looked for Li Hongzhang everywhere, saying that he would kill him.Afterwards, Gordon proposed that Li Hongzhang resign and hand Li Hongzhang over to the Beijing government for trial. Otherwise, he would lead the Changsheng Army to take back the land that the Huai Army had taken back and hand it over to the Taiping Army.

Li Hongzhang sent the military doctor of the Changsheng Army, Ma Geli, who later helped Li Hongzhang start Westernization, to mediate.Britain also sent someone to do Li Hongzhang's work, asking Li Hongzhang to write an apology letter to Gordon, but Li Hongzhang refused.Later, Li Hongzhang allocated 70,000 taels of military pay to the Ever Victorious Army, and sent the British Hurd, who was newly appointed by the imperial court, the General Taxation Department of the Customs, to mediate.Hurd's predecessor, the British Li Taitai, did not end well because of his opposition to Li Hongzhang.After listening to Hurd's words, Gordon thought that he had no better place to live after leaving the Ever Victorious Army.So, he returned to the Ever Victorious Army.

Since then, the relationship between Gordon and Li Hongzhang has been good.Gordon also praised Li Hongzhang to others many times, saying that he is a wise military strategist.In 1863, Huai army attacked Changzhou.Changzhou generals learned the lessons of Suzhou and defended the city desperately, refusing to surrender.Li Hongzhang invited Gordon to assist, and Gordon blasted open the city gate with cannons to assist the Huai army in recovering Changzhou.Since Gordon did not seek the consent of the British government in advance, the United Kingdom found it difficult to control the Ever Victorious Army. The British Garrison Commander Burrough proposed to the British government to disband the Ever Victorious Army.The defense of Shanghai was undertaken by the British Army stationed in Shanghai.

Although Li Hongzhang was mentally prepared, he never expected that Britain would agree to disband the Ever Victorious Army.Not missing the opportunity, Li Hongzhang immediately announced the disbandment of the Ever Victorious Army.As soon as Li Hongzhang announced the news, the British became dissatisfied.Bacharley, the consul in China, issued a note saying that only the British Minister could handle the disbandment of the Ever Victorious Army, and that Li Hongzhang had no right to make a decision.Li Hongzhang was well aware of the temperament of the British. If he missed this opportunity, it would be difficult to completely get rid of the ever-victorious army.Gordon hesitated again.Li Hongzhang knew that Gordon had always had a good reputation, so he took Bai Qiwen hiding in the warship as an example, and warned Gordon that reputation is the most important thing in life, and he should not destroy himself for the benefit of others.Li Hongzhang sent Ding Richang to advise Gordon to learn the lesson of Bai Qiwen's dismissal, saying that Chang Shengjun has a bad reputation now, and your stay here will also affect your reputation, and you have to think about yourself.Li Hongzhang quickly raised 190,000 taels of severance pay (over 30,000 taels), and handed it all over to Gordon.Only 600 artillerymen, 300 foreign guns and 11 foreign instructors were left behind, and the rest were all disbanded.Gordon took the money and won the honorary rank of admiral issued by the Qing government, and went back to England in a glorious manner.Afterwards, Zeng Guofan praised Li Hongzhang for being able to control foreigners.