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On the morning of the 4th of February, 1853, Ke Gongyu, the commander of the Instructional Brigade, rode a horse and led a small group of cavalry to the river crossing. The horses were captured from the Qing Army in Wuhu and East and West Liang Mountains. They were not familiar with their new owners. Fortunately, the horses in Jiangnan were not good horses. In this place where the water network was dense and the hills were crisscrossed, the horses were better behaved. If it was the kind of horse that could travel thousands of miles in a day and eight hundred at night, it would be easy for the rider and the horse to get into trouble.
At the crossing, Ke Gongyu and the cavalry jumped off their horses. In Changsha City, the Instructional Brigade formed the earliest cavalry unit. When they moved from Changsha, the horses were handed over to the cavalry unit. Everyone had accumulated some experience, so they did not feel that it was too difficult to control the new mounts.
Several boats rowed over from the other side of the river. Standing on the bow was Hu Chenghe, the head of the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters. When the troops arrived at Jinling, the first thing they did was to draw a map and prepare a defensive position. The drawing staff of the General Staff Headquarters and the staff of the divisions dispersed to prepare for the battle.
After disembarking, Hu Chenghe said to Ke Gongyu, "Fortunately, you came. If we left you in Anqing, we would not be able to fight in Nanjing. Jinling is so big! "
Jinling was almost seven times the size of Wuchang City. It took 60,000 Taiping army soldiers to surround Wuchang City. Currently, Vézé's army was only 3,500 people. Together with Luo Dagang's 4,000 navy soldiers, it was impossible to surround Jinling with 7,500 people.
Ke Gongyu was not as troubled as Hu Chenghe. He said calmly, "With the Prime Minister's leadership, we can conquer more than 10 cities in less than a month. We can travel thousands of miles from Wuchang to Jinling. If the Prime Minister says we can conquer it, then we can! "
Hu Chenghe had followed Vézé around this time a year ago. He knew that Ke Gongyu admired Vézé very much, so it was not strange for him to have such an attitude. But Nanjing was too big. From the current observation, there might be about 20,000 to 30,000 Qing Army soldiers in the city. It would be too much for Vézé's troops to fight ten enemies at once.
While they were talking, they heard the sound of cannons on the city wall of Nanjing. The two generals looked over with furrowed brows. There were more and more cannons being fired, and the general direction was the place where the vanguard troops were approaching tentatively. After listening for a while, Ke Gongyu suddenly burst into laughter. "Looks like Qing Yao is so scared that he almost peed his pants!"
Even if he wasn't as optimistic as Ke Gongyu, Hu Chenghe's furrowed brows had already relaxed. The Qing Army's artillery opened fire like mad, as if they were facing a fierce attack from tens of thousands of enemies. Hu Chenghe knew very well that the total number of probing troops was less than 300. The response of the Qing Army only proved one thing. It was not that the defending Qing Army had enough gunpowder, but that the defense of Nanjing was very weak. Hu Chenghe couldn't help but revise the number of Qing Army troops in his mind. If there really were 20,000 to 30,000 Qing Army troops, and they also had outstanding generals, then the correct response of the Qing Army would be to lure the Taiping army into attacking the city, and then use fierce firepower to inflict heavy casualties on the Taiping army.
Ke Gongyu took out a small booklet from his pocket. This was the training manual used by the senior officers in the military academy. He flipped to a page and read: "The way of using troops, show them to be soft and meet them with hard. Show them to be weak and take advantage of them to be strong. Show them to be cautious and respond to them with open arms. Show them to the west and show them to the east. First disobey, then unite. Like a ghost without a trace, like water without wound. Therefore, the place is not the place, the sight is not the plan. No one can predict the movements of the people. "
After reading, Ke Gongyu put away the booklet and said with a cold smile: "Prime Minister is absolutely right. Qing Yao didn't expect us to attack Jinling so quickly. The city's defenses are extremely weak. At this time, we will definitely be able to take it down in one go. "
Hu Chenghe didn't want to support or oppose this, although he felt that Ke Gongyu trusted Vézé too much. War was not such a simple matter. But Hu Chenghe couldn't help but envy Ke Gongyu's simplicity. Sometimes, thinking too much was too tiring. If Hu Chenghe could only think about carrying out orders like Ke Gongyu, it would save him a lot of trouble.
Just as they were talking, the guards suddenly moved. They surrounded a few people walking towards the ferry.
Vézé only arrived at Nanjing at noon. He knew that Manchu Qing was rotten, but he didn't know how rotten the local organization of Manchu Qing was. Along the way, they attacked cities and territories. This was the way of a surprise attack. If they couldn't deal with the enemy cleanly, then they would only be stopped or dealt with by the local organization.
But after reaching Wuhu, the troops didn't rely on boats anymore. Instead, they split into two teams on land and water to attack Nanjing. As a result, a large number of local officials actually surrendered. This surrender seemed to be quite sincere. They came to surrender with local grain, land, and tax booklets. This was the real thing. Once they controlled the local personnel, land, and annual grain quantity, it was tantamount to cutting into the actual control of the local area. Vézé naturally accepted it.
Because of this matter, he was delayed for a while. It wasn't until noon that he arrived in Nanjing.
When he arrived at the camp, he saw several people surrounded at the gate, one of whom was a foreign devil. Vézé stopped and asked, "What's the matter with that foreign devil?"
Ke Gongyu, who came to greet them, replied, "He seems to have something to talk to us about."
Vézé frowned. He didn't go into the big tent, but asked someone to bring the foreign devil over.
The foreign devil first spoke in a Chinese accent that Vézé couldn't understand. Anyway, out of ten words, there were at least eight that he didn't understand. So Vézé simply used a very fluent 21st-century Manhattan accent and said, "Do you speak English?"
The businessman was anxious when he saw Vézé frowning, as if he didn't understand what he was saying. When he suddenly heard English, he was quite surprised. After a pause, the guy replied to Vézé in English, "General, I am a British businessman. I saw that your troops have arrived in Nanjing, and I want to do business with you! "
"Come in with me," said Vézé.
Ke Gongyu and the other generals listened to Vézé's fluent conversation with the brown-haired, brown-eyed foreigner in a language they had never heard before. But when they saw Vézé's expression, they didn't dare to disturb him.
Vézé wasn't worried that this foreign devil was an assassin. If the Manchu Qing could so quickly send a foreign assassin pretending to be a businessman, then Vézé felt that his death might not be unjust. A person who had completely misremembered history deserved to die like this.
After introducing each other's names, Vézé said in American English, "Mr. Smith, why do you dare to take the initiative to do business with me?"
The businessman named Smith replied in British English with a smile on his face, "Sir General, I've never seen this kind of military uniform of your esteemed army in China."
Collar, collar, epaulets, and armbands. This was the iconic feature of the European and American army at this time. The uniform of Vézé's troops had all these elements. So Vézé completely understood why Smith dared to take the initiative to ask for business.
"Then what are you going to sell me?" Vézé asked knowingly.
"Guns! Cannons! Gunpowder! Shells! " Smith replied frankly, "General, I have many friends in Shanghai. If you are willing to buy, I can have as many as you want."
Because he didn't understand the terms, Vézé asked someone to bring him a matchlock and his modified flintlock, and then began to discuss the arms trade with Smith. Smith said that gunpowder was two taels per barrel, and he could sell 300 barrels to Vézé first. Flintlock was five taels per barrel, and he could get two thousand for Vézé first.
"These two thousand guns are old, right? Five taels for one is too much! Don't give me those broken guns from the Napoleonic era in France at the beginning of the century! "Vézé immediately bargained.
Listening to Vézé showing off his knowledge of Europe, Smith was in awe. This was the first time he met a Chinese who was so proficient in European history in China. Smith immediately assured him that this was a British product, and although the gun was old, it must be good.
Vézé laughed and said: "Mr. Smith, how long has it been since you went back to England? How come I heard that England doesn't use flintlock anymore? "
This time Smith was even more surprised, because he only heard that the British Army no longer used flintlock, but they didn't completely eliminate flintlock. He immediately argued: "Hong Kong's army uses flintlock, General must have been to Hong Kong, you must know their equipment!"
In the end, Vézé increased the gunpowder from 300 barrels to 800 barrels, and maintained the price of five taels per barrel. He signed a business contract with Smith, in which Smith promised to deliver the weapons and gunpowder from Shanghai to Nanjing within 15 days. If the weapons could be delivered within 10 days, Vézé would increase the shipping cost by 5%.
Vézé didn't really care about the few thousand taels of silver, China had been badly beaten since the first Opium War. All kinds of compensation and interest added up to a total of 1.3 billion taels of silver. If China's losses were limited to the first Opium War, China could save at least 1.2 billion taels of silver. Vézé naturally knew which was more important between 1.2 billion taels of silver and a few thousand taels of silver.
The reason why he haggled was because Vézé needed to get these weapons as soon as possible. Moreover, he needed to get on the arms trade line. These days, the merchants who were involved in the arms trade were not good people, especially those who were involved in the arms trade in the Far East. Vézé's experience of haggling with his mother in the food market made him understand a sentence. When an expert in haggling according to the details, it was precisely when he wanted to buy.
In Europe, merchants and thieves shared the same god, which meant they shared the same ancestor. Vézé believed that Mr. Smith would not disgrace his identity as a merchant.
Sure enough, after Smith read the contract, he raised a question, "General, if I can deliver these goods to Nanjing within 7 days, can you increase the price by 5%?"
"Why?" Vézé was somewhat puzzled.
"If you rent a steamship in Shanghai, it will require a considerable amount of money. Of course, it will also save a lot of time! "Smith replied confidently.
"I can only give you 200 taels of silver as a deposit first." Vézé replied.
Smith knew that Vézé's words indicated his attitude, and the negotiation had entered a deeper level. Smith asked Vézé to pay half of the money first, but Vézé immediately rejected, "At most, I will give you 500 taels of silver so that you won't lose money if you rent a ship. This is the first time we met, why should I believe in your business reputation? "
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