After Liu Yong came back from Jilin last year, he reported every detail of his meeting with Zhao Xin. Among them, what frightened Qianlong the most was what Zhao Xin said at the end:
"In less than ten years, our red flag will be planted all over the mountains and rivers!"
As people get older, they sleep less. Over the past year, Qianlong often fell asleep in the middle of the night and woke up with a start.
In his dreams, he saw Zhao Xin leading his men into Beijing countless times, while Yong Yan hung himself on the coal mountain like Chongzhen. After that, the Beihai Navy dug up the tombs of emperors of the Qing Dynasty, crushed their bones and scattered ashes, and razed them to the ground.
Regardless of whether Zhao Xin's descendant of King Zhao is true or not, Qianlong believed that Zhao Xin would definitely avenge the former Ming clan, so as to prove the legitimacy of his legal system.
If he had no doubt that he would crush Zhao Xin and his Beihai town to death, then the Beihai Navy defeated Tsarist Russia with less than ten thousand people, expanded the territory thousands of miles, and even captured the west of Baihar Lake. Finally, Qianlong finally saw clearly what kind of opponent Beihai Town was.
Therefore, he must, at all costs, completely resolve this problem before he abdicates sixty years after ascending the throne.
As for whether the national treasury will be drained, he is not worried at all because he has raised a Heshen for his son.
Qianlong was also very helpless about his choice of crown prince Yong Yan. What is different from another time and space is that due to the emergence of Beihai Town, Qianlong has nineteen sons so far, and only seven are alive.
The eighth prince, Yongxuan, did things inappropriately and was not popular; the eleventh elder brother, Yongxuan, preferred literary pursuits; the twelfth elder brother, Ulanara, was born to Qianlong, but Qianlong did not like it; the seventeenth elder brother, Yonglin, was too young; as for his head, Not to mention the two sons who were born two years ago.
Therefore, Yong Yan stood out among the generals among the generals. But the problem is that although Yong Yan is calm and generous, he lacks toughness.
The failure of the Hunchun battle made Qianlong deeply realize that if he wanted to fight an opponent like Zhao Xin, even if he was as powerful as Sauron's soldiers, he would not be his opponent at all.
So his current strategy is to "kill the elephant when too many ants kill him". It will take him a few years to amass hundreds of thousands of troops, from Heilongjiang in the north to the Li Dynasty in the south. Several armies will attack at the same time. Let's see if Zhao Xin can take care of it!
Faced with such a tough opponent, Qianlong thought that as long as water transportation from the north to the south continued, and as long as taxes and taxes from various places continued to be collected, he could send troops batch by batch into the flesh and blood grinding mill outside the customs, and use national power to repeatedly crush his opponents.
But Yong Yan may not be able to do it.
On the morning of the third day after Qianlong moved, Yong Yan, He Shen, Fu Chang'an and others returned from Tianjin. Everyone went directly around the city to the Old Summer Palace. As soon as they handed over the sign, Qianlong immediately summoned them.
After carefully listening to everyone's reports and learning about the drills of the new water camp, Qianlong changed his plan and ordered all five second-class sailing gunboats anchored off Dagukou to be dispatched to fight in Liaodong.
In Qianlong's view, if there were not enough gunboats, he could buy more gunboats or build them in the south. This battle must be won to boost morale. Let the world know that he is still the emperor and the Qing Dynasty is stable.
And a very important point is that winning the battle can also deter the Han officials in the court and the literati in the south of the Yangtze River from making any changes.
To put it bluntly, the true meaning of the Manchu Qing's rule over China was to "use the Han to control the Han, divide the Mongols, and the Eight Banners were the foundation of the country." If you want to control the Han people in the world, you must use Confucian etiquette, and etiquette cannot surpass the human heart. Therefore, it is inevitable to recruit cultural servants and restrict ideas.
He Shen then proposed that, considering that some officers and soldiers of the water camp were not familiar with the operation of the new gunboats, more than 2,000 people from the East India Company and instructors from the British Admiralty could accompany them.
Yong Yan expressed his opposition. Even if the rebellion was suppressed, it would still be the rebellion of the Qing Dynasty. How could foreigners interfere? This is a matter of face!
He Shen retorted that there was nothing in the world but the land of the king. Even though the British are thousands of miles away, they are still the emperor's ministers. That's why they can provide gunboats to the Qing Dynasty. Since they admire China and respect the emperor as the lord of the world, what does it mean to help them go to sea to fight. Moreover, the emperor stated that this battle must be won, and it would be more secure with their help.
"These foreigners are all greedy people who don't know etiquette. What they want is nothing more than porcelain, tea, silk, rhubarb and other things from our Qing Dynasty. The British representative Macartney always wanted to see him Tianyan did not get permission from the emperor because he did not respect the etiquette of our heavenly dynasty.
The slave thought that if he was asked to serve the emperor this time, it would be better to slap him in the face and give him some fresh air. If he helps us win, the emperor can allow him to come to Beijing to observe the ceremony during the Wanshou Festival next year, so as to show the gentle and far-reaching way of the Celestial Empire and convince the foreign guests. "
Although Yong Yan deliberately objected, Qianlong agreed and praised He Shen greatly. He immediately announced that Ji Huang, a great scholar, was over eighty years old and could not take care of both. Agui has been in charge of the courtyard for more than ten years and is over seventy years old. All the affairs of the Hanlin Academy's bachelor's degree are managed by He Shen and Peng Yuanrui.
Subsequently, Qianlong ordered Fu Chang'an, Minister of the Ministry of War, to be the imperial envoy and sit in Tianjin to supervise the war. At the same time, he ordered the British to assist in the war. So Fu Chang'an, who had just returned to Beijing and was still hot on his butt, rushed to Tianjin with the imperial edict and a large group of followers.
Two days later, the former Governor of Madras, British envoy Macartney and representatives of the East India Company were extremely excited after receiving Qianlong's edict. The mysterious Qing Empire was finally about to open its doors to them.
So after emergency internal consultations, the British agreed to the Qing court's "request" to let them go to sea to assist in the war. The reason why they agreed was that first of all, the people in the Admiralty wanted to know the details of the large iron ships in the North Sea up close; secondly, they wanted to deepen cooperation with the Qing Empire in this way and allow Britain to trade freely with China.
In fact, the British were also fed up. They had been staying on the five battleships these days, doing nothing but supervising training every day. The Qing government did not allow them to land at all. Although food and drink were delivered every day in large quantities and a theater troupe was even sent on board to perform, it was so depressing that I could go crazy without being able to go anywhere.
Now it is always good to have the opportunity to go out to sea and see the scenery of the northern coast of the Qing Empire, at least it is better than staying outside the entrance of Dagu. As for the battle, no one in the British thought that they would lose, from top to bottom.
joke! Five second-class sailing battleships with an average displacement of 2,200 tons and equipped with a hundred artillery were dispatched together. They were invincible on the seas in this era.
So another day passed, after the Qing government used large and small ships to desperately complete the supply of food and drinking water, and after learning that the fleet of the Northern Navy was still anchored at Fu Changxing Island for loading, the five warships raised their white sails and became murderous. are dispatched...
Deng Fei and the others have been waiting in Fuzhou for five days. There is a lot of soybean stock here, almost 50,000 shi, and it was originally going to be shipped to Jinzhou one after another.
In order to prevent the Northern Navy from finding an excuse to fire artillery ashore, the county magistrate of Fuzhou and the Eight Banners garrison mobilized all ships to transport soybeans. But because winter is approaching, almost all the big ships in the south are gone, leaving only a few small boats of two to three hundred stone. Moreover, the wind and waves are strong in winter and sailing is dangerous, so the transportation of soybeans to Changxing Island is much slower.
So in desperation, Deng Fei had to ask the Marine Battalion to move to the Thor, and let the smaller Beihai No. 1 and No. 2 be loaded first. When they were full, he quickly sent them back, and he stayed at the end.
What makes the soybean merchants in Fuzhou find it most incredible is that the Beihai Navy actually gave money, and it was 30% higher than the market price. This was really pie in the sky.
After the merchants received the money, they found that it was silver coins minted by Beihai Town itself. Five coins were equivalent to one tael. They were surprised to find that these silver coins were extremely beautiful in appearance, and each weighed exactly the same, making them perfect for use as weights.
But the question is who dares to spend this money? So the merchants had to quietly melt the silver coins and recast them into silver ingots.
However, when the work of loading soybeans entered the sixth day, Fuzhou sent someone again. They said that the high-intensity transportation in recent days had made the ships overwhelmed and damaged, and the speed behind them would be slower. They asked the Beihai Navy to be patient. wait.
When Jiang Fan and Hong Liangji found out, they warned to beware of fraud. But Deng Fei and Ding Guofeng didn't take it seriously. It was true that there were some people playing tricks on the Beihai Navy, but in the end they all behaved under the threat of the cannon, so they advised them not to worry.
So the Thor showed its fangs and bombarded the beach near the Empress' Palace. The rumbling explosions could be heard even in Fuzhou City.
Of course, Fuzhou was scared to death, but they had received an order from Xiong Yue and they had to delay. The imperial fleet would arrive soon. So they tampered with the ships transporting soybeans overnight to create an illusion and confuse their opponents.
Speaking of which, Beihai Town still had too few informants in the areas ruled by the Qing court. This had a lot to do with Zhao Xin's previous unwillingness to deal with Manchu scholars.
During the few days that the Northern Navy fleet was waiting on Changxing Island, Kuai Ma military reports from Fuzhou to Xiongyue worked day and night, reporting the movements of the Northern Navy at any time. Xiong Yue arranged for a fast boat to go out to sea from Xiong Yue River and fly to Shanhaiguan.
It is said that once the Qing court's communication system was operating at full capacity, its energy was still quite large.
After setting off from Dagu Port, the sailing fleet continued along the coastline and passed the entrance of Linhe River the next day. It was only more than 300 miles away from Shanhaiguan. After Shanhaiguan received the strict order from Fu Chang'an to rush for six hundred miles, they quickly dispatched ships to continuously deliver the news obtained from Xiong Yue to the fleet.
In this way, a naval battle began, with one side prepared and the other unprepared.
The joining of the British also forced Zhao Xin to turn his vigilant eyes to Southeast Asia while staring at Tsarist Russia and the Manchu Qing Dynasty; so the Northern Navy had to extend its tentacles to Southeast Asia in advance.
It was midnight on October 21, the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong's reign.
Five mountain-like sailing ships were moored quietly to the west of the estuary of the Xiongyue River. In the captain's room of one of them, which was given the name "Zhenbei" by Qianlong, a ceremony that would have stunned the British was being secretly carried out. conduct.
"The sky is peaceful, the earth is peaceful. The lonely and empty God, his actions are as I wish. God is never far away from me, and he is as urgent as the laws and orders!"
In the spacious captain's cabin, all the tables and chairs were moved away, leaving a large open space in the middle. On the ground were seven jujube soup cups, seven cents of money, seven cloud horses, incense lamps, and five fruits. A man wearing a Taoist robe and a Taoist crown was holding a coin in both hands and chanting something.
The Taoist's left hand was painted with "Guxu Three-Star Yellow Emperor Talisman". After throwing the money with his palms together, he wrote down the pros and cons, then took out another one from the small box in front of him and continued to repeat the previous action.
After all fifteen coins were invested, the ceremony finally came to an end. I just heard the Taoist mutter something: "Turn your back to Guxu and face Xu, and march your troops without losing. Now I will learn Guxu's method. One soldier must be able to defeat ten thousand men. I offer the Holy Water of the Supreme Lord, and the curse is urgent." Just like the law."
At almost midnight, the servant boy opened the door of the house, and several anxious Qing generals who had been waiting for it walked in.
The leader of the navy, Admiral Hardanga, stared at the Taoist priest with red eyes, "How is it?"
The Taoist priest handed over the paper he had finished writing and said in a deep voice: "Xu Hai is Gu, Chen Si is Xu, enter from the northwest, great victory!"
When several Qing generals heard this, their faces suddenly became happy.
This set of rituals is called "Guxu Shu", which is an ancient Chinese military divination technique and part of the military theory. It was used from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
It is said that ancient Chinese military strategists believed that the victory or defeat of war was affected by God's will, so they had many taboos of their own. For example, when the country is divided into Tai Sui, it is not allowed to send troops to fight outside, it is not allowed to fight on Jiazi Day, etc.
What does that mean? Ancient astronomy combined the positions of the twelve stars in the sky with the locations of regions and countries on the ground. It was called "dividing stars" in astronomy and "dividing fields" in geography. If Tai Sui (Jupiter) comes to the enemy's country, he cannot attack.
"Guxu Technique" is an essential knowledge for ancient Chinese military strategists. For example, Li Jing of the Tang Dynasty is a typical example of "Jingfengjiao, Niaozhan, Yunxi, and Guxu Techniques, in order to make good use of soldiers." In "The Art of War of the Duke of Wei", " also retains a large number of various divination practices.
Through the divination of the Guxu technique, each or each group of the twelve earthly branches must determine its "lone" and "xu" directions. Next, as long as the appropriate age data is selected, the only "lone" and "virtual" direction can be found, thereby determining the main attack direction.
The "Tiger Seal Sutra" says that if the enemy is in a weak position and has been fighting for a long time without being defeated, he must not retreat, but if he attacks with all his strength, he will win.
To put it bluntly, Guxu Shu is a divination technique used in the military field to choose the direction of defense or attack according to age. The application of Guxu technique is called "Back to Gu to attack Xu", which means starting from the "lone" position on the battlefield and attacking from the "virtual" position.
The most famous learner of Guxu Shu in history was Emperor Chen Wu, Chen Baxian. He not only studied it, but also believed in it. He particularly favored Wu Mingche and Zhou Hongzheng who were familiar with this type of numerology.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Zongxi also mastered the Guxu technique and taught it to Wang Zhengzhong, who once created the calendar for Lu Jianguo. Huang Zongxi also said with great emotion, "The scholar who has taught me his unique skills has only one ear!"
However, the way of heaven in war is not due to astronomical phenomena, but to its justice.
As the saying goes, "if people are in trouble, nothing will come of it." Instead of relying on the divination of "repeatedly turning Kuigang Gang, frequently moving Tai Sui, sitting on the white tiger, and greedy the wolf in making plans," it is better to do a good job in people's affairs.
There are many examples in ancient history of defeats due to Guxu Shu, but many people still believe them. This is mainly because since there is a sacrifice, Guxu Technique has a godhead. If you win with the help of Guxu Technique, it is naturally due to the blessing of the magic weapon and the magician has merit; if you fail miserably, it means you are not pious, or you are rejected by the gods, and it has nothing to do with the magician or the magic itself.
However, this set of things was recorded in detail in the "Wu Bei Zhi" and "Secretary of the Participation" of the Ming Dynasty, and was included in the "Si Ku Quanshu", which shows how deeply rooted it was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
At around 4 o'clock in the morning the next day, heavy fog suddenly appeared on the sea. Navy Admiral Hadang'a was overjoyed after hearing the news. He first burned incense and prayed, and then ordered people to notify the ships to head for Changxing Island, 200 miles away.
Although the British on board felt strange, they believed that the foggy weather was conducive to launching a surprise attack, so they said nothing. However, Macartney, who was accompanying him, was really not satisfied. Apart from overlooking the Great Wall dominating the seaside, they saw nothing along the way.
Of course, what they are looking forward to most right now is to see the long-rumored big iron ship.
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