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Before the British infantry and fleet arrived in Guangdong, the Liberation Army had sent an envoy to the British, announcing that Guangzhou was an undefended city, hoping that the British would not attack Guangzhou by force!
The British army was skeptical about this, but when they easily occupied Guangzhou without firing a single shot, they were naturally full of satisfaction. It seemed that the Liberation Army was not ignorant of the power of the British, so they obediently withdrew from this important city. However, the excitement brought about by easily occupying Guangzhou City soon disappeared. After entering Guangzhou City, the British discovered that not only did they take away all the valuable things in Guangzhou City's treasury, but even the equipment in the factories had also been taken away. The wealthy class, who were worried about the British looting, also ran away with their valuables. The prosperous Guangzhou city had now become a place without any profits.
Without any profits to be made, the soldiers would naturally not be able to receive any additional benefits from the war. Although the British army had repeatedly emphasized military discipline, there were still dozens of robberies of civilians every day. More and more people escaped from Guangzhou City, causing the already depressed market to become even more depressed.
The commander of the British army was furious and took strict measures to rectify military discipline. This was not because the British had a strong sense of morality. Guangzhou was different from other places. It was the most important foreign trade city in China. If the British looted excessively, it would only incur the wrath of the people of China. As the educated upper class, the British civil and military officials could naturally understand the propaganda of the modern nation-state. The United Kingdom did the same thing, emphasizing the differences between their own citizens and foreign citizens, making their citizens believe that they were the citizens of the greatest country in the world. This created a strong cohesiveness and centripetal force.
There was nothing worth looting in Guangzhou right now. The people who dared to stay in Guangzhou were people who had no enmity towards the British. Of course, the British civil and military officials knew that it would not be beneficial to turn these people into enemies of the British.
However, whatever the officer said didn't mean much. The negative influence of the propaganda of the modern nation-state was clearly displayed among the British soldiers. Since Britain was the greatest country in the world, the ordinary people of China naturally had to bow down to the British and obediently hand over their valuables. There was no money in the war, so why did the British soldiers have to fight day and night? Had not the English looted to their heart's content in all barbarous regions after their victories? Why did he have to be different in Guangzhou? With the suppression of the officers, the hostility of the soldiers grew day by day.
Faced with such a situation, the British could only hurry up and send their contacts to other parts of Guangdong to see if the armed forces of the big local tobacco dealers in China, which they had originally contacted, had started to rise as promised. All the reports were roughly divided into two types. The liaison personnel were either discovered when passing through the blockade, arrested, or killed while trying to escape. Some of the local spies from Hong Kong, who were disguised as refugees, managed to find out that the Liberation Army had taken military action against the big tobacco dealers at the same time that the British attacked Guangzhou. At this time, many heads were hung up in various cities and towns. The original owners of these heads were these big tobacco dealers and their military personnel. They were charged with treason by the Commander-in-Chief's Office!
The British were shocked by this information. Part of the reason for the shock was naturally that the Liberation Army had taken such a quick response and wiped out the British spies in one fell swoop. Another small part was the charge of treason set by the Commander-in-Chief's Office. The British were too familiar with this term, so they were surprised to find that the Commander-in-Chief's Office turned out to be a political organization very similar to the Western government.
Things had reached the point where there were no spies to rely on, and the British did not get any benefits in Guangzhou. The original strategy could be said to have been completely ruined. Moreover, the British had only occupied Guangzhou at this time. The spies they sent were mainly stopped by the Chinese troops when they went three miles (nearly 10 miles) outside the city. When the British sent out a large force to sweep, they found that these small forces could not find a trace. When facing the British forces, they did not show their faces at all.
This was unbearable for the British. The British had spent a lot of resources to send out a powerful army and navy, but at this time, they could only hide in an empty Guangzhou city. The Commander-in-Chief's Office only lost control of Guangzhou, but took advantage of the British attack on Guangzhou to completely eradicate the object of cooperation with the British. Not only did their power in Guangdong not weaken, but it also increased.
But the British had no good way to deal with it, so they could only wait. Time passed day by day. Small-scale exchanges of fire between the two sides outside Guangzhou city continued, and the number of wounded soldiers increased every day. Meanwhile, the Chinese people in Guangzhou began to flee the city in large numbers, which made it more and more difficult for the British to supply on the spot.
On the 15th of December, a fierce debate broke out in the British headquarters stationed in Guangzhou. In the end, should they give up and withdraw from Guangzhou? Or should they work harder and send out the Army to carry out a fatal blow against the Liberation Army?
The strategic goal of restoring Guangdong's tobacco business through war was now impossible to achieve. At this time, the major tobacco dealers had been wiped out. Even if the Commander-in-Chief's Office led by Vézé surrendered to the British, it would be a terrible job to re-establish these sales channels. Not to mention that Vézé, who had control of Guangdong, had no reason to open up the tobacco trade to the British.
But retreat was not a good choice. If they could not give Vézé a fatal blow, or at least a blow that would let Vézé understand that the British were not to be trifled with, Vézé could abandon Guangzhou city, or simply restore Guangzhou city. Other places would be the ruling center of the Commander-in-Chief's Office. What could the British do to Vézé? If they could not threaten the other party's core strength, it would prove that they had the ability to shake the other party's core strength, and the other party would never surrender.
Those who supported the retreat were all military personnel. The British military officers were not fools. At this time, no matter what they said, they had to admit that the combat effectiveness of the Liberation Army was probably not "as bad" as they thought. In other words, in the face of the manpower advantage of the Liberation Army, the British might still "encounter some trouble."
And those who insisted on continuing to fight the Liberation Army were the civil officials. They already knew that this war operation would undoubtedly not achieve its original goal. But if they retreated without any victory, they would not be able to explain it to their country. As talents cultivated by the civil official system, they knew the eyes of the old foxes in their country.
Just when the civil officials advocated for war and the military officials asked for retreat, the appearance of one person affected the situation. Yue Shoushan, a Foshan tobacco merchant, fled to Guangzhou. He was the only China tobacco merchant who had contacted the British before the war who could meet the British. The military meeting immediately ended, and the British began to receive this lackey who should have played a great role.
Yue Shoushan was indeed a local snake in Foshan. When he saw the overwhelming advantage of the Liberation Army in the face of hundreds of rebels, he made a prompt decision to run for his life. After seeing the Thirteen Elements destroyed, Yue Shoushan had already prepared an escape route. At that time, it was chaos, and Yue Shoushan took the opportunity to escape. He did not even care about his family. He dug a tunnel, walked through a canal, and was lucky enough to escape.
After escaping from Foshan, Yue Shoushan did not foolishly run away immediately. He first hid in a secret place. When the people who went out to search returned to Foshan and the place was not so tight, he disguised himself and walked by land. In just these ten days, the inner torment made Yue Shoushan look ten years older. Although the ends of his hair were still black, many of the roots had turned white. Although some of the British had seen Yue Shoushan before, if they did not look carefully, they would not be able to help but think that this old man in his sixties, who looked haggard, was the once black-haired, high-spirited Yue Shoushan.
With such a person who had experienced the specific events, the British were finally able to understand in more detail what had happened in Foshan. Yue Shoushan knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly. He cried and begged the British to send troops to destroy the Restoration Society and avenge Yue Shoushan.
The British civil and military officials discovered one thing from the information provided by Yue Shoushan. They sent Yue Shoushan away to rest, and the people who had just been in a meeting continued with the interrupted meeting. Of course, the British had no intention of avenging a lackey. The military officials who had just thought that it was necessary to withdraw raised their own opinion. "The ironmaking center of the Viceroy's Office is located in Foshan. We need to destroy their ironmaking plant!"
As the civil and military officials of an industrialized country, there was no need to emphasize the significance of destroying the ironmaking center of an enemy force. Such a result would be enough to explain to their country. More importantly, destroying the ironmaking center of the Liberation Army would indeed be a heavy blow to the Liberation Army. In view of the power that the Liberation Army had displayed, the main force of the Liberation Army would definitely be stationed in Foshan to protect their ironmaking center. If the British army continued to advance toward Foshan, there was a 90% chance that the two sides would encounter each other.
Once these conditions were met, the Great Britain's officials immediately resumed their warlike nature as the soldiers of the Great Britain Empire. As long as they could inflict a heavy blow to the Liberation Army in Foshan and destroy the local ironmaking center, this battle would be enough to achieve the goal of teaching the Liberation Army a lesson.
There was a waterway between Guangdong and Foshan, but it was very narrow and not suitable for the sailing battleships of the British. Therefore, the British sent a fleet of steamships along the river to cooperate with the army in attacking.
The news of the British marching toward Foshan quickly reached the waiting Liberation Army. The General Staff Headquarters was filled with cheers. Vézé had once said that as long as they could release the news to the British that the Liberation Army had an important ironmaking base in Foshan, the British would definitely send troops.
Everyone was skeptical of this judgment. There were too many directions that the British could attack in. Withdrawing the fleet from the Pearl River and transporting troops to attack along the coast would be a greater threat and more in line with a long-term strategy. The ironmaking plant had indeed cost the Commander-in-Chief a lot of money, but no one felt that the British army had a reason to risk their lives for it.
Foshan was southwest of Guangzhou and further inland. The Liberation Army could mobilize nearly 20,000 troops here to deal with the British army. The British attacking Foshan was more like suicide. From a war point of view, this was a very unwise move. Vézé's explanation was very simple. "When we went north to save Lin Fengxiang and the others, were we afraid? At that time, we were worried about how to cross the Yellow River. The Qing Army was nothing in our eyes. "
"The British army really thinks they're nothing!" Comrades from Shandong and Hebei in the General Staff Headquarters shouted at the time. There were comrades from all over the Liberation Army. Although the comrades from the south did not understand that the "shallots" that could only grow to the length of two chopsticks in the south could grow to a huge plant more than a meter tall in Shandong. It was just that they were all young men. They might be slower to learn other things, but they learned to curse very quickly. Everyone immediately understood that he was mocking the British for thinking too highly of themselves!
Since the Military Governor Vaize's ability to foresee things was exactly the same as before, the comrades in the army also worked hard to complete their war preparations, striving to display their past abilities in the coming war and kill the British in the encirclement like cutting melons and vegetables.
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