Chapter 69 New Situation
Three days later, Li Mingfang went to the embassy to see Elgin and Wade, and conveyed He Guiqing's meaning. Elgin and Wade didn't mind the Qing government intervening either. However, Li Mingfang hinted to them that the power structure of the洋枪队 had changed, and if Britain wanted to intervene, it must be approved by He Guiqing.
After entrusting the task of persuading He Guiqing to the British, Li Mingfeng went to see the Prussians. The Prussian warship had already returned home, leaving all the ammunition behind. All the things that Li Mingfeng had collected from Tongcheng and Shucheng were transported back to their country by the Prussians, but this was only enough to pay for one-third of the expenses.
Li Mingfeng stored all the goods he brought from Chizhou in the base of the Shanghai Foreign Rifle Corps. This time, everything that was not worth selling was transported back to Europe for the Prussians. After settlement, it still wasn't enough, and Li Mingfeng claimed he had no more money to pay. The Prussians were eager to return home, so they didn't bother with the small remaining balance, and Li Mingfeng managed to get a good deal again.
Having settled everything, Li Mingfeng prepared to take advantage of the imperial court and foreigners' power entering the foreign gun team before handling some affairs.
All along, Li Mingfeng had not adapted to this era without TV, no internet, and even no phone or telegram. The feeling of being cut off from information made Li Mingfeng very depressed. Leading troops in battle, Li Mingfeng didn't even have a detailed and accurate map of the forces, which was far different from his imagined clever strategies and command of war.
Li Mingfeng found Gong Cheng and specially invited him to set up an intelligence agency to gather information about various parties. Even if he couldn't find out the color of every important figure's underwear, he should at least know major events in the shortest time possible. Li Mingfeng was already tired of going to teahouses to gather news by listening to rumors.
Gong Cheng fully agreed with Li Mingfeng's proposal, however, Gong Cheng suggested that intelligence personnel cannot be selected from under Wei Zhi-Jun, otherwise there will be hidden dangers in the future. In the end, the two men decided to select 200 honest and reliable people who are clever and capable of collecting intelligence from the original 1,000 Chinese soldiers of the Foreign Gun Corps.
Time was running out, and Li Mingfeng did not want this intelligence network to be controlled by others as well. So he immediately selected 200 loyal men with Gong Chang, Cai Yiqun, Chen Xinghan, Wu Ting and several other Chinese military leaders to form an intelligence unit.
Li Mingfeng ordered Gong Cheng to be the head of the Intelligence Section, which was divided into four parts: Beijing Branch, Tianjing Branch, Guangzhou Branch and Wuchang Branch.
The reason for setting up branches in Guangzhou and Wuchang is that the situation in Guangzhou is complex, the Anglo-French coalition forces have not yet withdrawn from Guangzhou, and Li Mingfeng also wants to know whether the militia led by Zhang Shipei and Qin Cheng has slipped out of his control. The Wuchang branch was set up because Wuchang is close to Anqing and Jiujiang, where the Taiping Army and the Qing army are fighting, and since Hong Xiuquan established the Heavenly Kingdom, almost all major battles have taken place either under the city of Tianjing or near Wuchang.
A two-hundred-man intelligence team was actually too simplistic, as the personnel responsible for transmitting intelligence would have to number at least over a hundred. The insufficient manpower, combined with being unable to infiltrate internally and only probing from the outside, meant that Li Mingfeng didn't hold much hope for the intelligence unit; he just wanted to know what kind of situation the current world was in.
This matter was thoroughly handed over to Gong Cheng by Li Mingfeng. This guy is cunning and will definitely handle it well.
A few days later, it was the Lunar New Year again. Li Mingfeng found several hundred barbers in Shanghai to give Wei Zhi-Jun and others a haircut at the Foreign Gun Corps. In the previous busy days of fighting, Wei Zhi-Jun and others had no chance to get a haircut. Now that they were finally idle, they got haircuts, took baths, and changed into new military uniforms. Wei Zhi-Jun and others finally felt like soldiers of the Qing Dynasty again.
The coldest days of the lunar month, but the soldiers' training couldn't be relaxed. The surrendered long-haired bandits didn't know how to use Western rifles at all. Andrew, Parland and others had become full-time military instructors, training the long-haired bandits to use guns every day.
The Prussians left behind 50,000 rifles, over a hundred pieces of artillery and countless bullets, which were more than enough for the Ever Victorious Army to use.
A few days later, Elgin sent Li Mingfang two hundred military instructors and ten military advisers. It seems that the British have convinced He Guiqing and the imperial court.
The Taiping rebels who had defected, although they had been baptized by the fire of war, were also new recruits in the face of Western advanced weapons and tactics. With nearly 20,000 people, Andrew alone could not train them all, and the people sent by Elgin indeed played a huge role, joining the training in a short period of time.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, He Guiqing summoned Li Mingfeng to the Governor's Mansion, as it turned out that the Emperor had issued an imperial edict.
Li Mingfeng knelt down to receive the imperial edict and thanked the emperor's great kindness. After respectfully putting away the edict, he stood up and asked He Guoqin: "Lord He, I am a martial man and do not understand these elaborate words. Would you please trouble yourself to explain it to me?"
"This time it was a loss for my younger brother, it was this official's incompetence, unable to protect his subordinates, and letting others stab him in the back."
Li Mingfeng hastily asked, "What makes you say that?" He Guiqing led him into the room and dismissed the attendants. Only then did he say with a gloomy face: "Because of your retreat in Jingdezhen, you were severely impeached by those Hunan Army guys."
"How is the situation in Jingdezhen?" Li Mingfeng asked hastily.
During the days when the British warships were anchored at Lake Port, Li Mingfeng received news that Yang Fuqing and Yang Yiqing had joined forces with more than 30,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on the Xiang Army's camp. At that time, both sides fought fiercely for several days without a clear victory or defeat. Since arriving in Shanghai, Li Mingfeng was unable to obtain news of the battle situation in Jiangxi.
"Zhang Yunlan, Xiao Qijiang were greedy for merit and insisted on holding out to wait for Hu Linyi's reinforcements despite knowing that the Taiping forces were too strong to be defeated. As a result, after six days of fighting against the Yang brothers, Huang Wenjin's army encircled the Xiang Army from behind. In the end, in a fierce battle, the Xiang Army suffered over 10,000 casualties, and Wang Kaihua died in battle under the city wall of Jingde Town. Zhang Yunlan and Xiao Qijiang retreated with their remaining troops to Raozhou and Fuzhou, never daring to come out again. Many surrounding counties were also occupied by the Taiping forces." said He Guiqing.
Seeing Li Mingfeng's cautious appearance, He Guiqing knew that Li Mingfeng was afraid of being blamed by the imperial court. He quickly comforted him, saying: "Don't worry, although some annoying guys have impeached you for retreating from the battlefield, I have also made excuses for you. Think about it, how can your small force of less than 2,000 foreign guns guarantee that the 20,000 newly surrendered long-haired bandits won't turn against us? At that time, bringing the long-haired bandits back to discipline was the right thing to do. Moreover, at that time, the long-haired bandits were powerful, and our temporary retreat was also reasonable. The people of the Xiang Army are greedy for merit and have been defeated in battle, yet they shift the blame onto others, how shameless is that?"
"How was the imperial court handled?" Li Mingfeng really didn't understand the edict's mumbo-jumbo.
The Jiangbei Dazhen was defeated, and the northern Anhui and southern Jiangsu provinces were shaken. In the battle of Sanhe, Li Xubin, the first brave general of the Xiang Army, died in battle. The entire province of Anhui had become a stronghold of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Now, with the Battle of Jingdezhen, the Taiping rebels in Jiangxi have risen again. Originally, after the internal strife between Hong and Yang in 1856, the Taiping forces were on the decline. However, over the past few months, through these three battles, the Taiping forces have regained their prestige, making it even more difficult to completely eradicate them.
He Guoqiang sighed and continued: "In this situation, the emperor is extremely angry. However, with his wise eyes, His Majesty also understands that the defeat of Jingdezhen was actually due to Zhang Xiao's greed for merit, and your withdrawal of troops was indeed unavoidable. Moreover, with the help of Mr. Gui Liang, who spoke on your behalf, you were not allowed to be taken advantage of by the treacherous plans of the Xiang Army. However, in the defeat of Jingdezhen, you also bear some responsibility and are somewhat implicated."
Li Mingfeng was originally very worried and fearful, but after listening to He Guoqiang's introduction, the stone in his heart finally fell.
The imperial court originally awarded Li Mingfeng a posthumous title of deputy general because he died in battle. Although he didn't die, the emperor's words are not to be taken lightly, and since he was awarded the title, that's what it is. This time, He Guiqing petitioned again, saying that Li Mingfeng had surrendered the Taiping leader Wei Zhijun, severely striking down their arrogant and domineering air.
It should be a great achievement, and Li Mingfeng's promotion to General is also normal. However, due to the Jingdezhen incident, Li Mingfeng has a stain on his reputation, and moreover, Xianfeng and the imperial courtiers look down on this fake foreign devil, so this time the imperial court only symbolically awarded him a single-eyed peacock feather. Now, the peacock feather is like an official position, it can be bought. The single-eyed peacock feather that Li Mingfeng got, has a clear price tag, 7,000 taels of silver.
Even He Guiqing felt unjust for Li Mingfeng, who had made a great contribution, but only got a single-eyed peacock feather.
However, Li Mingfeng didn't care about this point, what he cared more about was how the imperial court would treat his foreign gun troops.
I finally managed to update a chapter before 12 o'clock, I'm exhausted. Today is the fifth day of Chinese New Year, I have relatives inviting me for lunch and dinner, can't not go, today's two chapters are squeezed out by me with great difficulty. These few days during Chinese New Year, most of the time I only updated one chapter, I really owe it to my readers who support me, so today I'm exhausted to death but still managed to update this chapter before the sixth day arrives.
