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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 204: Trade Road

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    More than ten people, including Liu Lichuan, Pan Qiliang, Chen Alin and He Bin, left Shanghai on a British merchant ship. Xiao Yungui asked a British man in the church for help. The British businessman Wilbur was very happy to have more people on board, because  Xiao Yungui made a large purchase of goods on his merchant ship.  These goods included cotton cloth, sugar, pepper, coffee, grain, etc., and even a batch of arms and a batch of tobacco smuggled on merchant ships. Everything Xiao Yungui thought was useful was bought.  As for the large boxes of opium on the ship, Xiao Yungui only purchased one or two boxes for medicinal purposes, and Wilbur didn't mind. There would always be sellers for these things in Shanghai, so he didn't have to worry about not being able to sell them.

    Wilbur's merchant ship was a Bartmore model fast sailing ship. In the early 19th century, after East-West trade entered its heyday, Britain, the United States and other countries built many such fast sailing ships for transporting fresh tea. If your merchant ship can carry  If you return to London first with fresh tea leaves, a huge profit will be waiting for you.  With the opening of several commercial ports in China, British fast sailing ships began to transport Chinese tea and Australian wool in large quantities. The use of fast sailing ships continued until the 1870s. When steam ships appeared, they were gradually eliminated, but sometimes  This kind of boat can even easily reach a speed of 24 knots when the wind speed, wind direction and ocean current are favorable.  

    Wilbur can be regarded as the first foreign businessman to take advantage of the situation. Since the Taiping Army arrived in Shanghai, although the great powers have adhered to their so-called neutral attitude, the saying among lower-class businessmen is that the rebels are a group of bandits.  It was actually only a short voyage from the Huangpu River controlled by the British Concession to the Huangpu River in Xujiahui, but many merchants still followed the consulate's advice and did not go upstream to trade with the rebels.

    When Xiao Yungui found the missionary and Sergeant Lister in the church and told them about the need for trade, Lister recommended his old friend Wilbur.  Due to the war in Shanghai, land routes and Yangtze River water routes were cut off.  Shanghai's trade was affected. Buyers of previous trade were hiding in the concessions and were in panic all day long. The goods that Wilbur had worked so hard to transport could not be sold.  After Liszt learned of Xiao Yungui's needs, he immediately sent two of his soldiers back to the British Concession to inform his friend Wilbur.

    After seeing Liszt's handwritten letter, Wilbur decided to take the risk. He took almost all the goods and sailed south in the evening. The slender body of the speedboat followed the Huangpu River to Caohejing.  At the mouth of the Huangpu River.  What Wilbur didn't expect was that in the simple hut next to the river port fork, he saw the third most important person in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

    It is different from the first transaction with Lord Wenhan.  Xiao Yungui was much stingier this time. After he personally boarded the ship to check the type and quantity of the goods, he discussed it with Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others.  Liu Lichuan, Chen Alin and others were all people who had been around Shanghai for many years. They had seen a lot of this kind of business transactions, and several of the people Wilbur met were all trade experts.  I'm embarrassed to shout out the price randomly, but the price quoted is quite reasonable.

    Xiao Yungui used the silver he carried with the army to conduct the transaction.  Wilbur liked the full pattern of silver brought by Xiao Yungui.  So the two parties made a deal after some haggling.  Xiao Yungui received a batch of supplies. Cotton cloth and grain were urgently needed. After adding thousands of mouths to the Qingpu Rebels, Xiao Yungui purchased grain locally to solve the problem of eating. It was better than transporting grain from Wuxi.  Cotton can be used to sew clothes, so the Qingpu Rebels also need to change out of their ragged clothes as soon as possible.  Sugar is also urgently needed.  Sometimes some hot sugar water can save the life of a wounded soldier who has lost too much blood; pepper?  Xiao Yungui only planned to use it to improve the taste, and the amount of pepper was not much; the coffee and tobacco were purely for Xiao Yungui's own needs.

    In comparison, there were very few arms on merchant ships. After all, Wilbur's merchant ship was not a battleship like the Hamils, so there were not many gunpowder, artillery and muskets available.  Seeing that the rebel leaders have such a huge demand for arms.  Wilbur immediately said that after returning to the concession, he would try to buy arms and then trade them.

    Xiao Yungui immediately said that as long as the quality of the arms was good, he would want them all no matter how many artillery pieces, muskets, gunpowder, or lead.  So Wilbur decided to stay in Shanghai to engage in arms trading, and his merchant ships returned to Xiamen, Guangzhou and other places to purchase more arms.  So Xiao Yungui asked Wilbur to take Liu Lichuan and others to Xiamen. Of course, Wilbur took great care of this big customer and immediately said that he would bring them safely. The Qing army could not randomly search British merchant ships.

    In this way, Liu Lichuan and others boarded the ship and headed south that night. According to the speed of this fast sailing ship, it was estimated that they would reach Xiamen in a few days.

    Then Xiao Yungui and Li Shanlan chatted. He hoped that Li Shanlan could recommend some people to help. Through this transaction, Xiao Yungui found that he needed to find some people who were familiar with business as soon as possible to help. Then there would be more and more trade with foreigners.  , the Taiping Army will need such talents.

    Li Shanlan immediately recommended two people. They were brothers. Their ancestors were merchants who ran Nanyang shipping. One was named Chen Huizu and the other was named Chen Huizong.They all worked at Jardine Matheson in the British Concession.  When the two brothers first returned to China, they had a lot of help from Li Shanlan. Therefore, it was not difficult for the two brothers who had been overseas for many years and had not benefited from the emperor's favor to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Li Shanlan's persuasion.

    Xiao Yungui was overjoyed and immediately wrote a letter of appointment asking Li Shanlan to recruit the two people. At the same time, he ordered people to contact Zhu Changlin of Guiyun Company and He Yuanlun of Baoqing Chamber of Commerce to come to Shanghai, intending to discuss with them to establish a foreign affairs office for the Taiping Rebellion's foreign trade in Shanghai.

    As for Li Shanlan, Xiao Yungui generously gave him a large sum of money for scientific research, and asked him to recruit more talented people with knowledge and interest in Western science to prepare for the establishment of a scientific research institute in the future.  At the same time, Xiao Yungui also asked Li Shanlan to use the funds to purchase more Western scientific books and find people to translate them to prepare for the establishment of a library.  Xiao Yungui even planned to purchase a mission school as the first Western-style school in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the end, the missionary of the church said that the mission school was the property of the church and he had no right to sell it, so Xiao Yungui temporarily gave up.  But Xiao Yungui made up his mind that once the war in Shanghai was over, the establishment of schools and the sending of overseas students must be implemented as soon as possible.

    Within the next few days, Wilbur successively introduced several merchants who came to trade with a wealth of goods. In addition to a large amount of arms, grain, cloth, and medicinal materials were the most purchased goods by the Taiping Army.  After Hong Yun'er, Li Xuanji, Yao Yuan and others broke up camp and came to join them, the entire area around the church became the base camp of the rebels.  A dirt road from Caoyangjing to the church district became the most prosperous trade road in Shanghai during the war.

    Women are really gifted shoppers.  Hong Yuner even bought a useless piano. In contrast, Xiao Yungui felt that the pendulum clock, cutlery, wax, etc. she bought were of some use. What was the piano used for?  ?

    Hong Yun'er didn't explain to Xiao Yungui, but just stared. Xiao Yungui still paid the bill obediently. It was as if time had returned to the past, when he was still the young man who spent money like water, and he was followed by his girlfriend.

    Later, Xiao Yungui even discovered that Hong Yun'er secretly collected a white Western wedding dress. You must know that white is a taboo of the Taiping Army.  She actually hid it secretly.  Following Hong Yun'er, she also picked out several sets of Western women's clothing in other colors for herself, Li Xuanji and Zhou Xiuying.  Let Xiao Yungui lament, women, women, are the same in all eras.

    The Taiping Army, which had received a large amount of arms replenishment, was not in a hurry to attack Shanghai. The battles at Baoshan, Wusong, and Gaoqiao also went smoothly. More than a thousand green battalion soldiers and local regiments did not resist for long.  Lin Qirong, Zhou Lichun and others will successfully occupy the estuary of the Huangpu River.

    Xiao Yungui waited for a few days and asked each army to distribute the newly purchased artillery and muskets.  Begin large-scale training of Taiping soldiers in the use of firearms.  Sergeant Lister and Corporal Barritt were hired by Xiao Yungui to serve as temporary military consultants to help the Taiping Army train troops.

    There was no news of the Qing army's reinforcements in Shanghai for several days. Xiao Yungui once thought that the Qing army had abandoned Shanghai and his plan to stay in the city to lure the enemy had failed, but only one day passed.  Shocking news came one after another.

    The first news came from Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang, who were attacking Hangzhou. Jiang Zhongyuan's troops of the Qing army in Gan Province had captured Yuhang, an outpost on the outskirts of Hangzhou two days ago. Li Kaifang personally led the troops and fought a battle with Jiang Zhongyuan in Wuchang. Both sides had no choice.  What's the advantage?  Just withdraw your troops.  Jiang Zhongyuan's five thousand Chu warriors and thousands of local regiments trained troops and horses to occupy key areas such as Yuhang, Xianlin, and Cangqian. They sent out teams one after another to attack Taiping Army camps. He also sent troops to threaten Deqing County and harass the Taiping Army's supply lines in Hangzhou.  Li Kaifang led his troops to fight Jiang Zhongyuan three times in one day, but failed to defeat the Qing army, and the two sides faced off.  Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were worried that Xiang Rongbu and Jiang Zhongyuan in Hangzhou should cooperate with others to break out of the encirclement, and immediately asked for help from Suzhou and Shanghai.

    Only then did Xiao Yungui know about Hu Yihuang's defeat at Shanggao. In anger, he yelled: "If you are not afraid of the enemy being strong, you are afraid that your teammates are as stupid as pigs! Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, you two villains! Hu Yihuang  You all have the guts to hide such a big thing from me! Fortunately, I supplied a large amount of food! Bai Zetang! What do these people do for food?! Do you have to wait until the Qing soldiers put their swords to their necks before you know?  ?¡±

    Hong Yun'er was the only one in the room. Seeing how angry Xiao Yungui was after reading Lin Fengxiang's letter, she quickly took the letter and glanced at it for a few times, then stepped forward and persuaded softly: "The establishment of Bai Zetang is still short.  A large number of manpower have been deployed in southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places. It cannot be established in a short time to establish an intelligence network. You should not be too impatient. As for Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing not telling us about the defeat of Shanggao, I think they may  It was because of face, or maybe they wanted us to lose the battle. From this incident, it seems that Tianjing's suspicion of us has not been eliminated, but is suspected of being expanded. Fortunately, this happened.  It reminds us that Tianjing is unlikely to give us reinforcements unless one day the West Palace is defeated or you and I personallyWe ran to Tianjing to ask for help, otherwise Tianjing would not give us any reinforcements.  "

    Xiao Yungui said bitterly: "I would rather die than beg those two birdmen! It's better to ask for yourself than to ask for others. I can see clearly that we will have to rely on ourselves in the future! Who does Jiang Zhongyuan mean? It would be better if he didn't come.  I'll take care of him when he comes!" (To be continued. Mobile phone users please go and read.)

    PS: In Chapter 202, Hong Xuanjiao was obviously in Shanghai, but she went to see Dong Wang with Shi Dakai?

    "In comparison, Shi Dakai and Hong Xuanjiao look very shabby"

    There are too many names here. Because it is difficult to modify the VIP chapter, please block it automatically. I¡¯m sorry.
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