Chapter 72 Interact with autonomy

Li Hongzhang spent his childhood in his hometown in Anhui, and received education in the orthodox culture of Confucianism. When he first came to Shanghai, he felt very strange and at a loss for this dazzling city, and the beggars he brought with him were everywhere. It's out of place here. Great Shanghai is dominated by foreigners. If you want to take root in Shanghai, it is impossible not to deal with foreigners. Escape and conflict are definitely not the way.Li Hongzhang hated foreigners domineering and domineering in China. Since he was sensible, he knew the fact that foreigners came to China to invade wantonly, so there was a strong feeling of resentment from the bottom of his heart.

In addition, there are also many Chinese officials who worship foreigners and fawn on foreigners everywhere. Some local people in Shanghai, Wu Xu and Yang Fang are two typical representatives. He tried his best to please him, and he was given a lot of money, especially that Yang Fang, who even married his daughter to the American Hua Er, the leader of the foreign gun team. For this reason Li Hongzhang was very distressed.The policy of the imperial court was to build good relations with foreigners, because they wanted to use their teachers to help suppress the Taiping Army, and spent a lot of money to support the ever-victorious foreign gun team.In addition, the weapons of the foreigners are indeed very advanced, so I can't accept it at all. Compared with the foreign guns and cannons of the devils, the power of the Huai army's swords, spears, and earthen guns is simply worlds apart.

So Li Hongzhang was full of hatred and anxiety in his heart. He wrote to his teacher, asking for the secret of dealing with foreigners.Zeng Guofan wrote back and said: We can cooperate with foreigners in local defense, but we can't let them enter the mainland to intervene in the war against the Taiping Army;In fact, this is for the Chinese military to take the initiative in warfare. In order to continue to penetrate into the mainland of China to carry out further aggression, the foreigners actively requested to participate in the suppression of the Taiping Army.However, the imperial court was eager to destroy the Taiping Army, regardless of the danger of drinking poison to quench thirst, and urged Li Hongzhang to allow foreigners to participate in the suppression.

Those Chinese officials and gentry who worshiped foreigners also catered to the insidious request of foreigners. Wu Xu even went to Li Hongzhang to persuade him: Mr. Futai, since the foreigners voluntarily help us fight the Taiping Army, and the Prime Minister’s Office also supports it, such a good thing , why do we disagree? Li Hongzhang was very angry when he heard this: You know what a fart!Foreigners are weasels and have no good intentions to give chicken New Year greetings. Are they so kind to help us?You fools who don't know what's good or what's wrong!After scolding Wu Xu, no one dared to bring up this matter again.

However, this is just a stopgap measure and cannot continue like this.Later, Li Hongzhang used some brains and came up with a way to confuse the muddy water and deceive the sky.Don't your court and foreigners both know how to suppress it?OK.I sent thousands of people to Songjiang and Xujiahui to garrison and drill, and your foreign gun team also merged into the drill together, and went to the meeting when necessary, while our large Huai army unit acted alone.In fact, when large forces are in action, it is not necessary to send this coalition force to participate. The imperial court repeatedly warned Li Hongzhang to pay attention to win over foreigners and not to make things stalemate.So Li Hongzhang came up with another trick, which was to agree to the previously established special forces for the suppression of the war to participate in the battles around Shanghai, but they were absolutely not allowed to be involved in the main battle of the Huai army.

But Chang Shengjun was always a thorn in Li Hongzhang's eyes and a thorn in his flesh.Before the Huai Army arrived in Shanghai, the Changsheng Army was the savior of the Shanghai officials and gentry, and they flattered this foreign gun team in every possible way.Who is Li Hongzhang? How can he allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?In front of our Huai army, how can we tolerate the arrogance of your foreign gun team. It just so happened that Huaer was killed by Li Xiucheng's army in Cixi, Zhejiang Province, and his deputy Bai Qiwen took over as the commander. Bai Qiwen was born in the United States and was an adventurer.Li Hongzhang took the opportunity to install an Englishman, Hao Lunde, as the secretary of the Changsheng Army, and restrained Bai Qiwen.

At this time, Li Xiucheng withdrew his troops back to Nanjing to attack Zeng Guoquan, and Zeng Guofan quickly ordered Li Hongzhang to send troops to reinforce his younger brother.Li Hongzhang saw that the opportunity had come, so he appointed Wu Xu and Yang Fang, who had been resigned at this time, to lead the Changsheng Army to Nanjing for support.Yang Fang was holding his breath at this time, and his foreign son-in-law Hua Er was also beaten to death, so he spread his anger everywhere and refused to allocate funds to the Ever Victorious Army in time. The Ever Victorious Army was used to domineering and domineering, so they couldn't stand it, so all the officers and soldiers resisted the order, saying that they would not leave until they were paid in arrears.However, there is an order from above that major military affairs cannot be delayed.Yang Fang asked someone to call Bai Qiwen for questioning: Do you want to rebel or what?I am the commander in chief of this operation, should the Changsheng Army listen to you or mine?

This Bai Qiwen is not easy to provoke: so what?Our ever-victorious army fights for money. If you don’t pay, why should we listen to you?Yang Fang was furious when he heard this: You bastard!This is Li Futai's order, and you will be responsible for any delays.Bai Qiwen didn't care about this at all: We want money, did you and Wu Xu, two old bastards, embezzle the money? Seeing him insulting him, Yang Fang became furious, pointed at Bai Qiwen and cursed: "Good you foreign devil, my surname is Yang, I'm afraid you won't succeed, come and get the money if you have the ability!"

The quarrel gradually escalated, and Bai Qiwen's blood surged at this time. He stepped forward and grabbed Yang Fang's wrist with his left hand, and slapped him with his right hand. fell to the ground.Bai Qiwen called his men to rush into the back warehouse, and took away 40,000 taels of silver from Yang Fang. This matter became a big deal, but Li Hongzhang was happy, and now there is something to write about.So Wu Xu and Yang Fang were dismissed for investigation, and then negotiated with the British side, and Bai Qiwen was dismissed. Bai Qiwen refused to accept this tone, and went to Beijing to appeal to the ministers of Britain and France. The ministers of the two countries reported it to Prince Gong Yixin.On the one hand, Li Hongzhang reduced the number of the Ever Victorious Army from 4,500 to 3,000, and at the same time withdrew some authority. On the other hand, he asked the British Army Commander Stefley to recommend a successor. Stefley recommended Gordon. Before taking office, he was temporarily represented by Hao Lunde.After Haolunde took over, he suffered a defeat in the battle against Taicang, with more than 300 casualties.Ever since then, Chang Shengjun has never recovered.

In the second year, the Huai army captured Suzhou, and the war in Jiangsu was basically over. There was no need for foreigners to participate in the defense and suppression of Shanghai. hands.