Foreigner merchant ships are much faster than fishing boats, because this ship is the latest steam engine and sailboat design. When the sail is downwind, it will be driven by steam propeller. Moreover, the design of ship-type flowing water has reached the peak of the post-sailing era. As a result, they arrived in Guangzhou at 10 noon due to all the new technologies in industry.
The news of Henry’s return to Guangzhou was quite shocking. When he disappeared for half a year, the officer even wrote his name in a notice of death and sent it back to China. Who knows that he actually appeared alive? Although he was skinny and bleak, he came back alive. This is a wonder.
Ordinary soldiers gathered around and were keen to discuss. Officers also attached great importance to meeting Henry urgently and asking him what had happened. They expressed sympathy for Henry’s previous experience in Guangzhou and said that they would start an investigation, but they were more concerned about Henry’s stronghold in China Township.
In the afternoon, what happened to Henry happened to the British army in Guangzhou. The ordinary soldiers were very angry and insisted on seeking justice for Henry.
Zhu Jinglun was also very angry. He knew that Lin Fuxiang was going to Parkes to lure the enemy, but Lin Fuxiang never told him the specific plan. If he had known, he would never accept Lin Fuxiang’s plan to release a foreigner soldier back to Guangzhou.
"Are you going to kill me?"
Long-term accumulated anger with Lin Fuxiang broke out, and Zhu Jinglun reprimanded Lin Zhuang.
Lin Zhuang explained, "We have questioned the soldier many times and have long forgotten what happened in Guangzhou. Calm down-you caught them just when they entered the city. At that time, they were not familiar with Guangzhou, and after such a long time, it was impossible to remember where Zhang Fu was!"
Lin Zhuang’s explanation still makes sense. Henry and other British soldiers were caught by Miss Zhang Dajia on the first day of entering the city, and then they were sent out of Guangzhou for nearly a hundred years. They don’t know much about Guangzhou, so it is difficult to find the location of the Zhang family from the 600 streets in Guangzhou.
Zhu Jinglun sneered, "It’s not whether you remember or not. The problem is that you didn’t take my life seriously. The British soldier’s account is likely to expose the Zhang family and expose me."
Lin Zhuang was also a little annoyed. "How can you do something big without killing people? How much is your life worth?"
Yes, the soldier’s life is worth a few dollars. There are no fewer spies arrested in Guangzhou, but Lin Fuxiang or Huang Zonghan still keeps sending people into the city secretly. Put up a notice and sometimes three or five people will be caught. Where will these lives be in the eyes of those adults?
If it’s valuable, it’s only valuable if it can dye Lin Fuxiang and others red, otherwise it’s really worthless.
In the eyes of literati and officialdom, Wang has been installed for thousands of years. Even the top group of literati and officialdom have a country and a country in their eyes. One day, the so-called "Do I cherish Wang Zai?"
Zhu Jinglun knew that he was at risk of exposure and was likely to be recognized by the British soldier. Instead of running, he went to the Zhang family to tell the Zhang family, old and young, to find a way to move out of the city and take refuge with relatives, or to take refuge, but he could not stay in the city and tell them that a foreign soldier had escaped from the Zhang family.
Zhang Yong, the housekeeper, immediately panicked. Second, the wealthy family was also panicked. At this time, the wealthy family who had been fasting and chanting Buddha had a lot of ideas. He said that he had to wait for the young master to come back.
Zhu Jinglun, the master of the Zhang family, decided to look for Hurd again, but at this time he couldn’t even see Hurd’s face. Many British soldiers appeared outside the general’s house. They were unusually angry and noisy, and there was a faint smell of mutiny. After listening to a few words casually, Zhu Jinglun knew that these people were dissatisfied with soldier Henry and urged the chief executive to order them to leave the city to retaliate against Xiang Yong.
It’s not just Xiang Yong. These people are angry when they see China people. Zhu Jinglun feels that more than one British soldier is glaring at himself.
After waiting for a moment, I found some familiar translators who told Zhu Jinglun that Hurd had been attending the meeting.
Henry’s return to the city made the British army nervous. Hurd was discussing with several officers urgently. He was meeting Zhu Jinglun at a military meeting.
Seeing this situation, it is inevitable that Zhu Jinglun and the British will go out of the city to fight. Although the process is not quite what they expected, the main purpose is not to save Parkes. The bigger reason is that Henry told the story of their four British soldiers being kidnapped and persecuted, which aroused the anger of the whole British army. They thought it was a great humiliation. Of course, British officers may attach more importance to Parkes’s status, but it is time for the soldiers to give an explanation.
In the face of anger, I’m afraid Lin Fuxiang is not the only British soldier who can get Zhu Jinglun and find Lin Zhuang at once.
"The British are angry. Lord Lin now has two choices. The first is to hide with Parkes. The second is to fight to the death with the British. And I strongly suggest that you immediately find Lord Huang to support the troops outside the city to ambush the British, otherwise there will be no great success. Besides, I warn you that you’d better not hide me if you have any plans in the future."
Lin Zhuang sighed, "This matter is absolutely non-negotiable. Lord Huang will never agree to the military adventure to ambush the foreigners, but my adults can rest assured that my adults have a plan."
Zhu Jinglun despised Lin Zhuang. "What’s the deal?"
He had to ask Lin Fuxiang to give him a bottom, and they always kept it from him. It was too passive.
Lin Zhuang hesitated for a long time and finally said, "I believe in you, and you should also believe in us because we are ready."
Hurd’s emergency meeting finally ended. It is indeed because Parkes officers are generally more concerned that Parkes is not only more important because of Parkes, but because of Parkes’s identity. Parkes is the minister of Guangzhou, and here he represents Britain.
As a result, the British representative was shamefully kidnapped by China people, which was a disgrace to the British empire. Now that they know where Parkes is, they must do something.
After the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, they chose to burn the Garden. According to China’s official statement, the British and French allied forces were robbers. The purpose was to rob Britain and France. Then they explained that the commander saw that the envoy who was detained by China was abused. It was a situation to return to the British and French allied forces. They felt that the China detained the envoy and abused him, insulting the two countries. Therefore, it was necessary to teach the China people a lesson that the Garden was burned in retaliation.
Whether this explanation is reasonable or not, even if the Qing government didn’t detain foreign consuls, they might still rob them, but these two robber countries can explain it with this reason. It is said that diplomats are of great significance in their minds. After knowing the position of Parkes, they must take action.
But at this time, the French didn’t support them. The French had a realistic reason. If Guangzhou troops were transferred to rescue Parkes, once China took the opportunity to attack the city, there would be no defensive forces.
The main defensive force in Guangzhou is the British army. Even if the British hire coolies and Indian soldiers are excluded, the number of British people is still more than 500, which is not lost to France. Once the British manpower goes to rescue Parkes, the French troops will defend a big city like Guangzhou, but the interests of Guangzhou are endless. Britain and France also want to expand their interests here. They unilaterally oppose the British sending troops to rescue their ministers or calm the soldiers’ anger.
The biggest difference between the two sides broke out in the formation of the British and French Coalition forces.
While the senior officers were arguing, the British staff and some middle-ranking officers were not idle. They actively made battle plans.
According to the information they have now and the information of a British merchant ship, they quickly confirmed the location of Parkes’s imprisonment. According to the merchant ship log, they recorded it on the comparison map. They found that there was a temple near the location at that time, that is, the Polo Temple in Miaotou Village near Huangpu Pier.
According to the information they have, there is no large-scale rural brave activity in China near the place. The biggest military force is the local villagers to protect themselves and protect their elders in the landlords’ homes near the strong men.
The British staff think that if 500 regular troops can be dispatched to sweep this place in one day, it will take up to two days to prepare for the war.
The plan for the war here was successfully worked out, and the high-level officials there finally discussed the result, and they all made concessions to each other. The French resolutely refused to withdraw from the defensive forces in the city, and the British compromised, while the French agreed to exclude their navy from participating in British operations.
Obviously, the two sides decided that it was relatively safe to send out the navy because there was no naval force in Guangzhou that could threaten them, so they could come and go freely.
After the urgent military meeting, the British and French Coalition forces acted immediately. An hour later, four British warships and two French warships made a fire and anchored to the Polo Temple overnight.
Section 47 volunteered
Zhu Jinglun doesn’t like passivity, but he has been falling into passivity for a long time.
Before leaving, he got the latest news that Bai Gui told him that Huang Zonghan decided to confirm the news before taking action.
Huang Zonghan learned from Bai Gui that Parkes was kidnapped by Lin Fuxiang, but Huang Zonghan people did not receive Lin Fuxiang’s return. He needed to confirm that the disunity of the Ministry made Zhu Jinglun more and more pessimistic about the Qing army.
As soon as Zhu Jinglun decided that the British couldn’t ignore Parkes, in fact, it didn’t matter to them whether Parkes lived or died. What mattered was that they had to respond, even if they fought an unsuccessful rescue war, it was better than doing nothing. Just like Parkes, the Indian soldiers would slap Baigui in the face and take people out of the city in vain. Now the news that Parkes was imprisoned came out, the British army was bound to do something, but if the British high-level officials were indifferent, it would become a joke after returning home. Sometimes people had no choice.
Zhu Jinglun hoped that Huang Zonghan’s threat of sending troops was to prevent the British and French Coalition forces from mobilizing too many troops, but Huang Zonghan did not cooperate. Now, the situation has exceeded Zhu Jinglun’s expectation
The British navy is undoubtedly the most powerful in the world. The training level of naval soldiers is not worse than that of the elite army by half a point, but they are far superior to the British army in sense of honor and fighting will. Therefore, four warships with 200 naval bodies are a powerful force, not to mention the participation of the French in two French warships with 100 naval soldiers. Although naval battles may not be better than those of the British army, landing battles are definitely not bad.
A total of 300 British and French naval soldiers, this force is not Lin Fuxiang’s 500-odd water camp veterans can deal with it. Zhu Jinglun believes that even if an ambush is to annihilate the foreigners’ Qing army, it is necessary to prepare five times less superior troops, otherwise it will be difficult to eat the opponent.
Now the British and French Coalition forces have dispatched 300 people, and Lin Fuxiang’s township courage can’t take this force even if the troops are ambushed.
If Huang Zonghan was willing to cooperate at that time, Zhu Jinglun believed that the British and French allied forces would never dare to take out 300 European soldiers to participate in this competition, that is, hundreds of Indian soldiers at most.
Now the only hope depends on whether Lin Fuxiang’s intrigue can succeed, but Zhu Jinglun doesn’t expect much about it. Unless the British and French Coalition forces are stupid pigs and have no fighting experience, the 300-strong Coalition navy can’t be buried by Lin Fuxiang.
The ship was bumping along, and Zhu Jinglun was silently crowded in the corner of the cabin. He didn’t want to come or not. When Hurd came to see him, he asked for his advice, but he didn’t force the tie. Zhu Jinglun agreed, although he didn’t see any hope. It seemed that he could stand a good chance of winning Lin Fuxiang.
There are several translators around, all of whom are a little flustered. They are different from Zhu Jinglun. Most of them are engaged in the British action by the translation institute embedded in the army. They have to take part in the same. Even so, he can still keep it in the first-class cabin with Zhu Jinglun. It is a hierarchical society in China. They have long been used to it.
The ruler is always noble, whether he is a Manchu or an Englishman.