Wild North America 1846

Chapter 389
After the meal, the first volume of the "1863 International Policy Foresight Research Report; The End of the Turmoil in China" presented by the secretariat has been delivered. Li Cha reads it while drinking tea to relieve his tiredness...

The report begins with the current situation;
First of this year

On the tenth day of the first month of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the Empress Dowager Cixi issued an imperial edict in the name of Emperor Tongzhi, officially announcing the imperial court's decision to "leverage teachers to assist in the suppression".

The so-called "borrowing teachers to assist in the suppression" is to use the strong ships and guns of foreigners to suppress the long-haired bandits that have lasted for many years.

As early as the second year of Xianfeng (1852), when the Taiping Army attacked southern Chu, some people proposed to invite foreigners to send "fire steamers into the river to help suppress", but it was suspended because of the military parade along the river by the Governor of Liangjiang.

In the second year when the Taiping Army came to Nanjing, Wu Jianzhang, the governor of Shanghai, was ordered by Governor Yang Wending to beg for help from the Tang, British and French consuls in Shanghai.

At that time

The Great Tang Empire had just won the Tang-Mo war, and all kinds of troubles in its own family were complicated, so it never agreed.

After the Second Opium War, in September of the tenth year of Xianfeng, as soon as the "Beijing Treaty" was signed, French envoy Ge Luo expressed to Prince Gong Yixin that all French ships and soldiers were willing to listen to the dispatch and help the Qing court "attack and suppress rebellion" ".

The Russian envoy Ignachev also offered to "teach guns" for the Qing army and sent troops to suppress the Taiping army.

At that time, the Tang Kingdom was caught in the North American War, but there was no time to take care of the affairs here, and finally nothing happened.

In the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), the United Kingdom also expressed its willingness to help the Qing court "suppress civil strife."In June of the same year, after winning the North American War, the Tang Empire finally loosened its attitude and expressed its willingness to "provide appropriate assistance and restore peace."

For this, many powerful ministers in the Qing court expressed their appreciation.Yixin, Zeng Guofan, Xue Huan and others successively proposed to the imperial court to "borrow teachers to assist in the suppression".

In November of the same year, the Taiping Army conquered Ningbo and Hangzhou, and attacked Shanghai again in December, which finally made the Qing court make the final decision of "borrowing troops to assist in the suppression".

With the support of the big powers, the Qing court immediately won a series of victories on the battlefield, fighting "rebellion, retreat and retreat, lost the city and land, and the army is already defeated!"

Li Hongzhang hired instructors from the Tang State to train thousands of pikemen trained in accordance with the new art of war, known as the "Huai Army", and led them to Anqing to merge with Cheng Xueqi and Guo Songlin of the former Hunan Army.

Soon after, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army from Anqing to Shanghai on a British ship, set up a large camp in the suburb of Xinqiao, and joined forces with the British, French and Tang intervention forces and the Huaer foreign gun team to encircle and suppress the Taiping army in Fengxian, Songjiang, and Qingpu.

It adopted the strategy of "suppressing and appeasing" to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in southern Jiangsu, step by step.

Li Hongzhang recruited and surrendered the generals of the Taiping Army in Changshu, Zhaowen, and Taicang, and together with the "Eternal Victory Army" captured Taicang, Kunshan and other places.

Then they captured Suzhou and Wuxi, captured Jiaxing in Zhejiang in February, and captured Changzhou and Danyang in Jiangsu in April, achieving a series of victories.

After the fall of Tianjing in June, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to cooperate with the Hunan army to capture Huzhou, Zhejiang, and then led the army to Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places to suppress the rest of the Taiping army.

In the process of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Hongzhang purchased a large number of foreign guns and cannons, hired foreign officers to equip and train the Huai army, and quickly expanded to 7 to [-] people.

In the past two years, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to suppress the Eastern and Western Nian armies in Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhili, and his performance was extremely eye-catching.

In October, the Chen Decai Department of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was defeated by the Seng Gelinqin Department of the Qing Army at Heishidu, Huoshan, Anhui. More than [-] of his subordinate Ma Ronghe surrendered to the enemy. King Lan Chengchun of Hu was betrayed and killed by a traitor. Merged with the Nian Army, but the situation is gone.

After Li Hongzhang became the governor of Zhili in 1862, he successively transferred officers from the Huai Army to study in the Tang Dynasty. Formed an important military force in the late Qing Dynasty.

Overall
Under the encirclement and suppression of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guoquan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and other important officials of the Qing court, after the fall of Tianjing, this vigorous peasant uprising marked by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to an end, and the decision of the Qing court to "leverage teachers to help suppress" further intensified this process.

In Li Cha's view, the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are not the masters of the world at all. Instead of the war continuing and the common people suffering more, it is better to end the peace earlier.

In the outlook report, policy experts also hold a similar view.

The next 1863 and the next 5 to 10 years will be a period for the social order of Shenzhou to be reorganized and the battered country to be restored.

After this heavy blow, the foundation of the Qing government's rule in China has been shaken.

All kinds of new trends of thought, new concepts, and thoughts of national self-confidence, self-improvement, and self-reliance have penetrated into this ancient continent with the opened ports, and will inevitably ferment and grow subtly, forming a new force for reforming society.

After watching
Li Cha felt a heavy heart for no reason, which was also the reason why he was generally reluctant to read the reports from Shenzhou.

The things over there are too complicated, and there are many taboo minefields. If you accidentally touch it, you will be wiped out, so why bother?

Forget it, just focus on your own things.

next morning

When it was just dawn, a group of more than thirty heavy horse-drawn carriages with royal insignias galloped out of the Daming Palace, and drove northward under the escort of cuirassiers with bright armor. The streets along the way were heavily guarded.

more than three hours later
oak town

Compared with the port town with less than 10 people more than 8.35 years ago, the area of ​​Oak Town today has expanded more than ten times, with more than [-] permanent residents. One after another, the overhanging Chinese buildings with white walls and black tiles are hidden in the green hills and greenery. Between the trees, the stream is gurgling and the scenery is pleasant.

The buildings in the town are mainly 2-3 storeys. There are many British-style steeple houses in the old block. The streets paved with stone slabs have a sense of age. There are salted fish hanging on the door of every household, and the air is full of richness and tranquility. .

Although the town is not very big, almost half of the residents in the town are family members of the Royal Navy, and the rest are also working in shipyards or docks, and generally live a relatively prosperous life.

Therefore, there are many two- to three-story detached villas here, women and children are well dressed, and their complexions are ruddy and healthy. It is obvious that they are living a good life.

During the war, the Oak Bay Wharf was expanded, and now it has 4 berths of 8 tons and 5000 berths of [-] tons, and there are also several supporting large warehouse areas, which are extremely capable of unloading personnel and cargo.

The long concrete plank road extends into the bay, which is now empty and lonely.

during the war

This place is often full of [-]-ton immigrant ships as large as hills. Countless mainland recruits set foot on the North American continent for the first time, and it is here that they disembark at this Oak Bay pier.

Then walk from here to the train station more than ten kilometers away, take the train, and go to the Salt Lake City training base.

nowadays

The transportation of recruits from the mainland has already stopped, and there are still a few immigrant boats arriving every month, but all of them are half-grown children.

Today, at the wharf of Oak Bay Port, there is a huge steam ironclad battleship with flags hanging on it, and its black muzzle is pointing directly at the sky.

Compared with other iron-clad warships on the navy dock, the "Gust"-class steam iron-clad ship has a full-load displacement of 4980 tons, which is almost three times the size of the iron-clad frigate. The huge steel rivets exude a cold luster, full of indescribable power.

At this time, the steam ironclad ship represents the highest level of warships in the world today.

On the pier, the Royal Guards guarded all around, the carpet, the Royal Navy honor guard and a large group of senior military officials were all waiting here, looking forward to it.

After 9:30, every few minutes
A team of Royal Guards cavalry riding white horses will arrive, and then quickly start guarding, which makes the atmosphere at the scene solemn.

Everyone knows well; His Majesty's convoy is about to arrive.

"Come on, come on, hurry up...play music!"

When a large group of cavalry appeared at the end of the line of sight, the sound of majestic and exciting music was played immediately, and military and political officials immediately stood on both sides of the red carpet, waiting for His Majesty's convoy to arrive.

A group of more than 30 heavy carriages began to slow down early, and when they arrived at the pier, the sturdy steeds were already covered in sweat and stopped with a heavy snort.

"Salute, welcome Your Majesty." The welcoming military generals and guards all saluted in unison.

His Majesty the Emperor and his entourage got off the carriage, and when they saw Duke Pan Hengchen, Admiral of the Navy standing in the first place, they walked over with a smile and raised their hands in return.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Among the high-ranking military and political officials who accompanied him, there were also several noble ladies including the duchess, who immediately stood up to express their thanks.

Standing by the pier, Li Cha carefully looked at the armored cruiser "Guangfeng" which was close at hand. This is a typical Tang Empire-style ironclad warship. The deck is neatly arranged and has an invisible industrial beauty.

There are two forward 203mm main guns on the bow, two rearward 203mm main guns on the stern, and two thick chimneys standing side by side behind the midship conning tower.

Along the side of the hull, five Colt 5-inch 7mm rifled breech-loading guns are arranged, with a total of 178 on both sides. The overall layout is strict and standardized, full of the sense of power of the Iron Age.

Just such a battleship cost a full 28.7 Tang Yuan.

If the navy's plan to develop the 7800-ton "Zhenwei" ironclad ship is approved, the cost of each ship will be doubled, and tens of thousands of yuan will be lost for each sea training. The development of the navy is indeed a gold-swallowing beast.

"Your Majesty Qizuo, please step aboard the ship for inspection, and I will answer your Majesty's questions at any time." Marshal Pan Hengchen came over with a smile on his face, and asked for instructions in a low voice.

Li Cha had this intention, so he nodded in agreement; "Lead the way ahead."

"The minister obeys the order."

Boarding the battleship, the feeling is really different.

Different from the previous ironclad warships of the Tang Empire, the steam ironclad cruiser "Guangfeng" has a wide and large deck, so the layout of the ship is much more relaxed.

It is reflected in the main turret and the auxiliary turret. Each turret has a semi-independent iron armor enclosure, which can cover the flying shrapnel during naval battles, protect the crew members, and also block the invasion of waves rushing to the deck. This is a battle. Accumulated experience!
Standing on the deck, you can’t see all kinds of messy high-pressure steam pipes, all of which are hidden under the deck, which can effectively prevent the flying shrapnel from destroying the steam pipes and causing the loss of overall power of the ship. This also comes from the valuable experience in actual combat. accumulated experience.

Every bit of detail contains the summary and accumulation of the Tang Empire Navy's naval battles, and it is fed back to the construction of the most advanced iron-clad warships.

(End of this chapter)