Chapter 41: Seizing the Opportunity to Expand

  On August 29, 1858 (the eighth year of Xianfeng), the Qing army's Jiangbei Dazhan was attacked and broken by the Taiping Army, with over 30,000 casualties. The commander-in-chief, De Hinga, fled to Yangzhou.

  After this battle, the Taiping Army's power in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River grew stronger, and northern Jiangsu Province and Shanghai were exposed to the Taiping Army's edge, shocking the Qing court.

  The foreigners in Shanghai also felt threatened and demanded that the Governor of Liangjiang strengthen the defense forces in Shanghai.

  Li Mingfang pulled Andrew to request from Weihaiwei to strengthen the Yang Gun Team. After consideration, Weihaiwei thought that the expansion of the Yang Gun Team would be beneficial for Britain without any harm, as this armed force was led by foreigners and Li Mingfang, a pro-British leader. Although the Yang Gun Team did not directly belong to the British army, it was absolutely pro-British in stance.

  The Ward's contingent recruited British subjects and allocated 100,000 taels from the Qing government's recent payment of 500,000 taels in advance indemnity to the contingent. Under the pretext of using the contingent to protect British residents in Shanghai, they coerced the Governor-General of Liangjiang into agreeing to expand the contingent.

  Under the strong demand of British Minister and the military threat from the Ever Victorious Army, Governor General He Guiqing also specially approved the recruitment of Chinese soldiers into the Ever Victorious Army and the expansion of its armaments. However, it was only allowed to expand the total number of the Ever Victorious Army to one battalion of foreign soldiers and one battalion of Chinese soldiers.

  In the Qing dynasty, a banner was configured with over 1,100 people. In present-day Shanghai, it's easy to recruit a banner of Chinese soldiers, but recruiting a banner of British soldiers is impossible. So in this regard, He Guiqing played a small trick. Even if they expand their army, at most they can only have over 1,000 soldiers and horses, and the waves they can stir up are limited.

  With the strong support of the British, Li Mingfeng pulled out another 2,000 strong cavalry and countless grain and fodder from the already resource-strained Jiangsu Green Camp, which can be considered as a 'return' to He Guiqing.

  After the establishment of the Shanghai Customs Gunboat Squadron, it also gained some reputation in Shanghai. This time, recruitment was conducted at various enlistment points set up in the British Concession and Shanghai City. In just under three days, enough Chinese recruits were enlisted to form a battalion, mostly consisting of Qing soldiers who had been dispersed from the Jiangbei Garrison and escaped to Shanghai.

  The recruitment point in the British Concession has been recruiting for over 10 days, and more than 400 people from various countries including Britain, France, America and Russia have joined, mostly sailors and adventurers who came to Shanghai.

  After the recruitment was completed, the newly recruited soldiers were incorporated into the existing formations. There were two battalions of foreign troops with 600 men and two battalions of Chinese troops with 1,200 men. This recruitment was extremely strict, requiring physical strength, proficiency in firearms, horsemanship, etc., so this expansion did not affect the elite nature of the Foreign Rifle Corps.

  This expansion of the army was so smooth because the conditions offered by the foreign gun team were indeed tempting, with an annual salary of 36 taels of silver, which is equivalent to the salary of a seventh-grade military officer in the imperial court. The soldiers of the foreign gun team had three times more salary than ordinary green camp soldiers, and some green camp soldiers even secretly ran over to sign up for the foreign gun team.

  When recruiting foreign troops, Li Mingfeng offered the condition of allowing plunder in case of victory. Many of these recruited foreign troops were people who couldn't make a living at home or had committed crimes and escaped to the East, or came to the East to seek fortune and adventure, so they were considered fugitives. As long as there was enough profit, they were the most fearless group of people. Allowing plunder was very attractive to these people.

  Andrew had been in the army for over a decade and was well-versed in British military tactics. After new recruits joined, under Li Mingfeng's strict orders, Andrew quickly organized training to familiarize these new soldiers with Western combat methods.

  At the same time, Li Mingfeng had to run to the British Consulate several times a day, using the British intelligence network to understand the latest developments.

  In recent days, the crack troops of the Xiang Army have invaded Anhui, successively capturing Pingshan, Tongcheng, Shucheng, and advancing straight towards Luzhou and Anqing.

  Upon hearing this "good news", the Governor of Liangjiang, He Guiqing finally breathed a sigh of relief. Luozhou and Anqing were the shields of Tianjing; if Anqing fell, Tianjing would become an isolated city. Therefore, no matter what, the Taiping Army could not possibly conquer Jiangsu to the east; they must first go back to reinforce Luozhou.

  Li Mingfeng had just heard the news and thought that his plan to expand his own power by relying on the Tianping army's strong momentum had fallen through. However, when he heard that the leader of the Xiang Army's elite troops was named Li Xubin, his concerns were alleviated.

  Because of the great victory in Sanhe Town, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, two famous generals of the Heavenly Kingdom Army, annihilated Li Xubin, a fierce general of the Xiang Army. It seems that the current victory of the Xiang Army is only short-term, and Li Xubin will be defeated sooner or later, so Li Mingfang suggested that the British concentrate their intelligence efforts on Li Xubin and the movements of the Taiping Army in Anhui.

  Li Mingfang had his own plan, preparing to lead the Foreign Arms Corps to make a name for themselves in Sanhe Town and attract the attention of the imperial court, so as to obtain treatment similar to that of the Xiang Army.

  Gong Cheng has been in charge of building the barracks for the foreign gun team in Shanghai. It is unknown where he accumulated so much silver, and he built a military base that can accommodate three to four thousand people without taking a single penny from Li Mingfeng.

  On this day, Li Mingfeng was watching the marksmanship training of the Chinese at the school grounds when Gong Cheng sent someone to invite him. Li Mingfeng knew that Gong Banlun never did anything useless, so if he had sent someone to find himself, it must be something important. This matter couldn't be delayed, so Li Mingfeng immediately let Andrew and the others continue directing the training while he rode his horse alone to Gong's residence.

  Li Mingfeng was already an acquaintance of the Gong family, and the doorman hastened to open the door to welcome him. Upon entering the Gong residence, he saw Gong Banlun chatting idly with a few foreigners in the living room.

  As Li Mingfeng came in, Gong Cheng stood up and introduced both sides: "This is the highest commander of the Qing Empire and the British Empire's jointly established foreign gun team - Mr. Li Mingfeng." Gong Cheng said this in English.

  "These gentlemen are from Prussia." Gong Cheng introduced the foreigners' identities to Li Mingfeng again.

  "Welcome" with a professional smile, Li Mingfeng said in fluent German. This guy, if only considering the polite language used for greetings, can speak over ten languages.

  "Oh, Commander, you really are as amazing as the rumors say."

  Even Li Mingfeng, who has a thicker skin, felt his face burning when he heard such praise. He only knew two sentences in German, "hello" and "goodbye", and speaking more would reveal his ignorance, so he wisely decided to use English to chat with these Prussians: "Gentlemen, you are overpraising me, I just learned a few sentences of German from others, nothing special."

  After a few polite exchanges, they sat down again. Gong Cheng told Li Mingfeng the identities and purposes of these Prussians. They were originally a group of arms dealers from Prussia.

  However, from Li Mingfeng's observation, they were not arms dealers at all. Their every move was clearly marked with the temperament of a soldier - strict, serious and powerful.

  Li Mingfeng thought to himself that these people should be officers of the regular army of Prussia, and the leader should be that guy named Eros. He didn't know why they were hiding their identities, but according to Li Mingfeng's habit, he preferred to speak openly.

  Old Li stood up from his chair with a passionate smile and said to Eros, "Mr. Eros, my habit is to discuss sensitive topics in a small circle, the matter of buying firearms can be discussed between you and me face-to-face, what do you say?"

  Eros was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and replied: "The commander's habit is correct, I also agree with your point of view, the fewer people who know about confidential matters, the better."

  Under Li Mingfeng's lead, two people entered the house. The remaining people, Li Mingfeng then gestured to Gong Cheng to accompany him for a chat.