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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 663: Chaos in the Concession

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    The telegraph business entered China earlier than in history after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom built railway lines in the south of the Yangtze River.  Following the Suzhou-Shanghai Railway, the railway between Suzhou, Tianjing, and Hangzhou was also built. As a result, large and small cities near the Yangtze River Delta began to be connected by railways. Where the railways extended, telegraphs, a new means of information dissemination, also allowed  The land of China has entered a new era.

    Telegraphs connected cities through telegraph flying lines, and telegraph rooms were set up in each city. The Taiping Rebellion established a postal department to handle telegraph services. At the same time, telegraphs were divided into two categories: official and civilian according to needs.  Official telegrams are divided into four levels, and each level has a different degree of confidentiality. The highest-level confidential messages are managed by a specialized official department of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

    Ten days ago, the Taiping Rebellion naval ship returned from Shanhaiguan and brought back the Xiwang order from far north. The official telegraph room in Shanghai sent a message of this order to Tianjing. The message was the highest level of confidentiality, but the content was very simple.  : "War has been declared, and all ministries are acting as planned."

    Zuo Zongtang, who received the telegram at that time, just glanced at it lightly, and then called a meeting with ministers from various ministries.  At the court meeting, Zuo Zongtang presented the edict of the King of the West that had been prepared in advance, announcing that the British and French forces were brazenly using force to intervene in the civil war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchu Qing Dynasty.  To unify the whole country, from now on, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France will declare war.

    Except for a few important ministers, the officials of the Kingdom of Heaven were still a little unable to turn around. Britain, France and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cooperated very closely in Jiangnan, so why did they suddenly declare war?  Zuo Zongtang then presented the news brought back by the navy ship.  The British and French forces in the north jointly announced the fact with the Ronglu rebels that "the Qing Dynasty is on the side of the emperor, and the alliance with the Yangtze River is peaceful."  This is the fact that the British and French coalition intends to influence the process of China's unification by supporting the Manchu rebels to occupy the northern territory.

    ??Then Zuo Zongtang announced that the Jiangnan region had begun to enter a state of war, especially the coastal cities to prepare for the war.  At the same time, the garrisons stationed at the treaty ports were ordered to be on standby, and troops were sent to surround the concessions and embassy areas, and to carry out clearing operations against the British and French troops in the concessions.

    On the same day, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sent a note to the British and French consuls who were staying in Tianjing, announcing on the spot that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had declared war on it, urging the British and French consuls in Tianjing to evacuate Tianjing within 24 hours, and also reminded the consuls of the two countries that the Taiping Army would trade with Wukou.  The concession within the port launched a siege and clearing operation, and civilians had 24 hours to evacuate.  All cooperation projects between Britain and France and the Taiping Rebellion were temporarily suspended, and relevant British and French personnel only had 24 hours to evacuate.

    The British and French consuls were dumbfounded.  They did not expect that the war would come so quickly. It was okay for places such as Shanghai that were nearby. At worst, they would send a telegram to inform them, but what about Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places that were far away?  Fortunately, the diplomats of the Taiping Rebellion politely explained that when the declaration of war arrived in Guangzhou, the local government in Guangzhou would also note it in advance. From the time the note was sent, there would be a 24-hour evacuation time.

    The consuls of the two countries seemed not to understand the cause of the matter. They asked one after another about the reason for the declaration of war.  When they learned the Taiping's casus belli, they were speechless. It seemed that this reason was enough to intervene in other countries' civil wars and openly support a Manchu rebel force intent on seizing power in the north.  The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom just declared war before Britain and France. Anyone who understands knows that once Britain and France establish another Manchu regime in the north, the first target of attack will be the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

    Fortunately, the officials of the Taiping Rebellion agreed with the two consuls to send a report to Shanghai.  In fact, they don't need to bother to inform them of the declaration of war.  After receiving the telegram from Tianjing, the Administrative Secretary of Shanghai had already sent a note to the people in the two consulates in Shanghai.

    Military mobilization has begun that day.  The newly formed Sixth Army of the Taiping Army stationed in Shanghai, under the command of Army Commander Pan Qiliang, began to strengthen the defenses of Wusongkou and other places, and at the same time sent troops to surround the British and French concessions.

    The arrogant British were stimulated. On that day, hundreds of Marines were gathered in the Shanghai concession, and the police in the concession were armed. At the same time, the British Charlie George Gordon recruited hundreds of foreigners to form a foreign gun team, intending to use force.  Protect the concession.  At the same time, the three British ships remaining in Shanghai also took action, ready to support the battle in the concession at any time.  British and French merchants were panicked, but the Taiping Rebellion's Commercial Department announced that the day's transactions were still valid, but the British and French merchant ships must leave the port after 24 hours.

    On that day, the military deployment and mobilization started by both sides lasted until late at night. The British and French people in the concession were in panic all night. By the early morning of the next day, they found that the concession had been surrounded by tens of thousands of Taiping troops on three sides. The Taiping soldiers were armed with live ammunition.  Standing behind the temporary barricades and fortifications, even the carriages and horses that were supposed to enter the concession to collect excrement in the morning were not able to enter.

    Gordon led his foreign rifle team to stand at the entrance of the northern concession and faced off against the Taiping Army.The Marine Corps mainly guarded several other entrances, and three British warships were cruising on the Huangpu River.  The atmosphere on both sides was very depressing, but the British and French civilians in the concession did not evacuate through the only remaining channel, which was the waterway.

    The confrontation lasted until about 10 o'clock in the morning. The British warships could not bear it and first shelled the Taiping Army positions on the shore. Then the Taiping Army's artillery on both sides of the Taiwan Strait began to fight back. Soon the three British warships were hit by a double attack from Taiping Army artillery and rockets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and the battle began.  They sank one after another in less than an hour.  Some of the British sailors who fell into the water and escaped returned to the concession, while others were carried downstream by the river and became prisoners of the Taiping Army.

    Then the firefight on the shore also began. Gordon's foreign gun team gathered mercenaries from various countries to participate. They had a variety of firearms, but they did not have any tactical cooperation and were quickly defeated by the Taiping Army. Fortunately, the Taiping Army did not take advantage of the victory to enter the concession.  , they still stay on loan.

    After seeing the results of the day, some British and French people in the concession began to evacuate one after another. They evacuated to Hong Kong on British, French and American merchant ships. Those who evacuated were all wealthy people.  At about three o'clock in the afternoon that day, that is, after the twenty-four-hour time limit expired, the Taiping Army began to blockade the Huangpu River. Several merchant ships that had not had time to evacuate were also intercepted by Taiping Army's artillery and anti-smuggling patrol boats, and the people on board were deported.  Back in the concession, the ship was detained.

    The foreigners were hiding in the concession in panic. Tens of thousands of Taiping troops surrounded them outside. They didn't know what their fate would be. At about four o'clock that afternoon, the British Consul in Shanghai, Midile, asked for negotiations with the Taiping troops. Then he got  was received by Tao Enpei, Deputy Director-General of the Shanghai Naval Administration Department.

    Midile naturally asked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to stop attacking the concession, but Tao Enpei, an old man, refused with a smile. The old man was very interesting. He said that when the British and French military forces withdraw from China, the Taiping Army's military operations will stop.

    Midile was helpless. Naturally, he was unable to fulfill this request. Then Midile asked the Taiping Army to extend some time so that the British and French could have enough time to evacuate the civilians in the concession.  This request was also rejected. The old man said that the one day given yesterday was enough, and those who did not leave were military personnel.  You can leave the concession, unless everyone in the concession surrenders to the Taiping Army.

    Midile¡¯s negotiations failed. He understood that the Taiping Army was serious this time, and the concession and the people in the concession would become a bargaining chip in their future negotiations.  Midile was frustrated on the way back. He knew that the Taiping Army had the strength to break into the concession in minutes, but they would rather stay outside, waiting for the main force of the northern coalition navy to return, and the Shanghai concession was a fragrant bait.

    On that day, major newspapers in Shanghai published news of the declaration of war on their front pages. Several official Taiping Army newspapers gave detailed reasons for the declaration of war. The British and French expeditionary forces were here to help the Manchus. This was the most direct reason for the war. This article  That seems to be enough.

    In the following days, the Taiping Army surrounded the concession, and no major conflicts broke out between the two sides. Because the food and fresh vegetables in the concession gradually ran out, Midile went to negotiate again, and finally Tao Enpei agreed to sell.  Grain, fresh vegetables and fruits are given to people in the concession, but they need to be paid in cash.

    As a result, the British and French concessions were surrounded and maintained in this way, and they were peaceful for the time being. However, the people in the concession were praying that their warships would come back from the north as soon as possible. Due to the lack of news, they did not know that in the past few days, their  The expeditionary force landing force has been almost completely wiped out.

    Like the Shanghai Concession, there were several other treaty port concessions that suffered the same fate. The British and French Concession in Fuzhou was even smaller. After being surrounded for a day, the British and French people inside simply offered to surrender to the Taiping Army, but were rejected.

    Hong Kong received many British and French civilians who fled from the treaty ports. The population of Hong Kong, which already had a population of 80,000, surged by more than 20,000 overnight.

    The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was loose on the outside and tight on the inside. Soldiers from all over the country began to mobilize and actively prepare for war. Dinghai and other places were also on full alert. The dark clouds of war shrouded the skies south of the Yangtze River.

    It was during this time that the Suzhou-Hangzhou Railway was completed. The railway contracted by the Americans was opened to traffic on schedule. The war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France did not affect its final completion.  The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still held celebrations to celebrate the opening of the Suzhou-Shanghai Railway. Unlike the first celebration of the opening of the Jiangsu-Shanghai Railway, ordinary Chinese people were more involved in this celebration. They began to slowly accept the railway, but it did not mean that they  Accepted foreigners.

    Due to the propaganda published by newspapers and local government proclamations, Britain and France were promoted as accomplices who came to help the Qing Dynasty suppress the Taiping Rebellion. What kind of thing were the Manchu Qing Dynasty?  People all over Jiangnan, who had become accustomed to the absence of Manchu rule, angrily held a series of anti-British and French demonstrations. Of course, most of them were students from the Jiangwu School.

    Following the instruction of Queen Mother Xi, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Information Department stepped up its war propaganda, and the burning, killing, and looting behavior of some British and French troops in the north was exposed.came out, the people in the south of the Yangtze River became even more bizarrely angry, and the conflicts between China and the Yangtze that had been suppressed by Christianity under the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for many years began to erupt (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
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