Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 450
After Liu Yong came back from Jilin last year, he reported every detail of the meeting with Zhao Xin, and what shocked Qianlong the most was Zhao Xin's last sentence:

"In less than ten years, our red flags will be planted all over the mountains and rivers!"

People get old and sleep less. Qianlong often woke up in the middle of the night in this year.

In the dream, he saw Zhao Xin lead his men into Beijing City countless times, and Yong Yan hanged himself on Meishan Mountain like Chongzhen.After that, the Beihai Navy dug up the tombs of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, smashed their bones and ashes, and razed them to the ground.

Regardless of whether Zhao Xin's descendant of King Zhao is real or not, Qianlong believes that Zhao Xin will definitely avenge the former Ming clan, so as to prove the rationality of his legal system.

If he had no doubt before that he would crush Zhao Xin and his Beihai town to death, but when the Beihai Navy defeated Tsarist Russia with less than [-] people, it expanded thousands of miles, and even defeated the west of Baihar Lake Finally, Qianlong finally saw what kind of opponent Beihai Town was.

Therefore, he must do whatever it takes to completely solve this problem before he abdicates 60 years after he ascended the throne.

As for whether the national treasury will be emptied, he is not worried at all because he has raised a Heshen for his son.

Qianlong was also very helpless about the prince Yongyan he chose.The difference from another time and space is that because of the appearance of Beihai Town, Qianlong has nineteen sons so far, and only seven are alive.

The eighth son, Yongxuan, was inappropriate and unpopular; the eleventh elder brother, Yongxuan, preferred literary affairs; Not to mention the two sons who were born in [-].

So Yong Yan stood out from the crowd by pulling out generals.But the problem is that although Yong Yan has a calm personality and a generous personality, he lacks toughness.

The defeat in the battle of Hunchun made Qianlong deeply realize that if he wanted to fight against an opponent like Zhao Xin, even if he was as strong as a Sauron soldier, he would not be an opponent at all.

So his current strategy is "too many ants to kill elephants". It takes a few years to gather hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, from Heilongjiang in the north to Li Chao in the south, and several armies attack at the same time. Let's see if Zhao Xin can take care of it!

Faced with such a tough opponent, Qianlong thought to himself that as long as the north-south water transport continued, as long as the taxation and energy sources from various places continued to be collected, he could send the army batch after batch to the flesh and blood mill outside the customs, and repeatedly crush the opponent with national strength.

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.The crowd went directly around the city to the Old Summer Palace, and as soon as they handed over the signs, Qianlong immediately summoned them.

After carefully listening to everyone's reports and learning about the drills of the new-style water battalion, Qianlong changed his plan and ordered all five second-class sail gunboats moored off Dagukou to dispatch to fight in Liaodong.

In Qianlong's view, gunboats can be bought if there are not enough gunboats, or they can be built in the south.This game must be won to boost morale.Let the world know that he is still the Son of Heaven and that the Qing Dynasty is stable.

And a very important point is that if you win the battle, you can also deter the changes of the Han officials in the court and the literati in the south of the Yangtze River.

To put it bluntly, the true meaning of Manchu rule over China is "Using Han to control Han, divide Mongolia, and the Eight Banners to be the foundation of the country."If you want to control the Han people in the world, you must use the Confucian etiquette, and the etiquette is better than the human heart; so it is inevitable to win over cultural servants and restrict thought.

He Shen then suggested that, considering that some officers and soldiers of the water battalion were not yet familiar with the operation of the new gunboat, the more than 2000 people from the East India Company and instructors from the British Admiralty could be accompanied.

Yong Yan expressed his opposition, even if it was to suppress the rebellion, it was also a rebellion of the Qing Dynasty, how could Yangyi be allowed to intervene?This is really a matter of face!
He Shen retorted that there is no king in the world.Even if the English are thousands of miles away, they are still the courtiers of the emperor, so they will provide gunboats to our Qing Dynasty.Since they admire China and respect the emperor as the master of the world, it is nothing to help them go to sea to fight.Besides, the emperor stated that this battle must be won, and it would be safer to have their help.

"These foreign barbarians are all greedy people who don't know etiquette. What they want is nothing more than my Qing Dynasty's porcelain, tea, silk, rhubarb, etc. Before that, the representative of the English, Macartney, had always wanted to kowtow. Tianyan, because she doesn't respect the etiquette of my celestial dynasty, has not been allowed by the master.

The slave thought that to order him to serve his master this time, it would be better to slap him with a sweet date, to let the air out first.If you help us win the battle, the master can allow him to go to Beijing to watch the ceremony at the Longevity Festival next year, so as to show the way of the gentle and far-reaching heaven and convince the guests of the four barbarians. "

Although Yong Yan objected intentionally, Qianlong agreed and praised He Shen greatly.He then sent an order that Ji Huang, a university scholar, was over eighty years old and could not take care of his energy.Ah Gui has been in charge of the academy for more than ten years, and is also over seventy years old.All the academic affairs of the Hanlin Academy are managed by Heshen and Peng Yuanrui.

Afterwards, Qianlong ordered Minister Fu Chang'an of the Ministry of War to serve as an imperial envoy to supervise the battle in Tianjin, and at the same time ordered the British to help in the war.So Fu Chang'an, who had just returned to Beijing and hadn't had a hot seat yet, rushed to Tianjin with the imperial decree and a large helper.

Two days later, the current Governor of Madras, British envoy Macartney and representatives of the East India Company were extremely excited after receiving Qianlong's decree. The mysterious Qing Empire finally opened the door to them.

So after urgent internal consultations, the British agreed to the Qing government's "request" to let them go to sea to assist in combat.The reason why they agreed was firstly that the people in the Admiralty wanted to get a close look at the details of the big iron ships in the North Sea; 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 are also annoyed. They have been staying on five battleships these days, and they have nothing to do except supervise and train every day. The Qing court does not allow them to go ashore at all.Although there are special people to deliver food and drink every day, the amount is large enough, and even a troupe is sent to perform on the boat, but not being able to go anywhere is really depressing and going crazy.

It is always good to have the opportunity to go out to sea and see the northern coastal scenery of the Qing Empire, at least it is better than staying outside Dagukou.As for combat, no one in the UK from top to bottom thought they would lose.

joke!Five second-class sail battleships with an average displacement of 2200 tons and equipped with one hundred cannons were dispatched together, and they were invincible at sea in this year.

So another day later, after the Qing government used ships of all sizes to desperately complete the supply of food and drinking water, and learned that the fleet of the Beihai Navy was still berthed at Changxing Island in Fuzhou for loading, the five warships raised their white sails and showed a murderous look. 's dispatched.
Deng Fei and the others have been waiting in Fuzhou for five days.There are quite a lot of soybeans in stock here, almost [-] shi, which were supposed to be shipped to Jinzhou one after another.

In order to prevent the Northern Navy from finding excuses to fire and land, the county magistrate of Fuzhou and the Eight Banners garrison conscripted all ships to transport soybeans.But because winter is approaching, almost all the large ships in the south are gone, and only some small boats of two or three hundred shi are left.Moreover, the wind and waves are strong in winter, and sailing is dangerous, so the speed of transporting soybeans to Changxing Island is much slower.

In desperation, Deng Fei had no choice but to let the marine battalion move to the Thunder God, let the smaller Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] be loaded first, and send them back when they were full, leaving him at the end.

The most unbelievable thing for the soybean merchants in Fuzhou was that the Beihai Navy actually gave money, and it was [-]% higher than the market price. This is really pie in the sky.

After the merchants received the money, they found that it was a silver coin minted by Beihai Town itself, and five pieces were worth one tael.They were surprised to find that these silver coins were extremely exquisite in appearance, and each of them had exactly the same weight, which could be used as weights.

But the question is who dares to spend this money?So the merchants had to quietly melt the silver coins and change them into silver ingots.

However, when the work of shipping soybeans entered the sixth day, Fuzhou sent people again, saying that the high-intensity transportation in the past few days has caused the ships to be overwhelmed and damaged, and the speed behind will be slow. Please wait patiently.

After Jiang Fan and Hong Liangji knew about it, they reminded them to beware of fraud.But Deng Fei and Ding Guofeng didn't take it seriously. They were playing tricks on Beihai Haijun, but in the end they were honest under the deterrence of the cannon, so they advised them not to worry.

So the Thunder God showed its fangs and shelled the tidal flats near the Empress Palace. The rumbling explosion could be heard even in Fuzhou City.

Of course Fuzhou was terrified to death, but they had already received an order from Xiong Yue, they had to delay the time, and the imperial fleet would arrive soon.So they tampered with the ships transporting soybeans overnight, creating false appearances and confusing opponents.

Speaking of which, Beihai Town still has too few eyeliners in the areas ruled by the Qing court. This has a lot to do with Zhao Xin's reluctance to deal with scholars in the Qing Dynasty.

During the few days when the Beihai fleet was waiting on Changxing Island, the fast horse army newspapers from Fuzhou to Xiongyue kept reporting the movement of the Beihai Navy at any time.And Xiong Yue arranged for the Clippers to go out to sea from the Xiongyue River and report to Shanhaiguan.

It is said that once the communication system of the Qing court is fully operational, the energy is still not small.

After setting off from Dagukou, the sailing fleet has been advancing along the coastline. It passed the mouth of the Linhe River the next day, and it was only a 300-mile voyage from Shanhaiguan.As for Shanhaiguan, after receiving the urgent order from Fu Chang'an for six hundred miles, they quickly dispatched ships to deliver the information they received from Xiong Yue to the fleet.

In this way, a naval battle in which one side was prepared and the other was unprepared kicked off.

The addition of the British also forced Zhao Xin to turn his vigilant eyes to Southeast Asia while staring at Tsarist Russia and the Qing Dynasty; so the Northern Navy had to extend its tentacles to Southeast Asia in advance.

October 54, 23th year of Qianlong, midnight.

Five mountain-like sailing ships are moored quietly on the west side of the Xiongyue River estuary. In the captain's room of one of them, which was named "Zhenbei" by Qianlong, a ceremony that would make the British people dumbfounded is being held in secret. conduct.

"The heavens are peaceful, the earth is peaceful. The gods are lonely and empty, and their intentions are as I wish. The gods are not far from my side, and they are in a hurry like laws and decrees!"

In the spacious captain's cabin, all the tables and chairs were removed, leaving a large space in the middle.On the ground were seven jujube soups, seven cents of money, seven cloud horses, incense lamps, and five fruits. A man in a Taoist robe and a Taoist crown was holding a coin in both hands, chanting.

The Taoist painted the "Guxu Three-Star Yellow Emperor Charm" on his left hand. After clasping his palms and tossing the money, he recorded the pros and cons, then took another one from the small box in front of him, and continued to repeat the previous action.

After all the fifteen coins were invested, the celebration finally came to an end.I just heard the Taoist chanting words: "Turn your back to Guxu and face Xu, and march out without losing. Now I will learn the law of Guxu, and one soldier must be able to defeat ten thousand men. I offer the divine water of the Supreme Lord, and the curse is urgent. Like a law."

When it was about Chen's hour, the Taoist ordered his servant boy to open the door, and several anxious generals of the Qing army who had been waiting for a long time came in.

Admiral Hadang'a, headed by the navy, stared at the red eyes and asked the Taoist priest, "How is it?"

The Taoist handed over the paper that had been written, and said in a deep voice, "Xu Hai is lonely, Chen Si is Xu, enter from the northwest, and you will win!"

When the generals of the Qing army heard this, they immediately beamed with joy.

This set of rituals, called "Guxushu", is an ancient Chinese military divination technique, which is part of the military theory, and has been used from the pre-Qin period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Ancient Chinese military strategists believed that the victory or defeat of a war was influenced by God's will, so they had many taboos of their own.For example, when the division is the country of Tai Sui, it is not allowed to raise troops to fight, and it is not allowed to fight on Jiazi Day, etc.

What does that mean?In ancient astronomy, the positions of the twelve stars in the astronomical phenomenon were combined with the positions of regions and countries on the ground. It was called "Fenxing" in astronomy and "Fenye" ​​in geography.If Tai Sui (Jupiter) comes to the enemy's country, it cannot attack.

"The technique of solitude and emptiness" is a must-have knowledge for military strategists in ancient China. For example, Li Jing of the Tang Dynasty was a typical example of "the art of fine wind horns, bird occupation, cloud furrowing, and solitary emptiness for good use of soldiers". " also retains a large number of deeds of divination by various practitioners.

Through the divination of solitude and emptiness, each or each group of the twelve earthly branches must determine its "solitary" and "virtual" orientation.Next, as long as the appropriate year-time data is selected, the only "solitary" and "virtual" orientation can be found to determine the main attack direction.

The "Tiger Seal Classic" says that if the enemy is in the void, those who have fought for a long time without being defeated must not retreat, but if they fight hard together, they will surely win.

To put it bluntly, the Lonely Void Technique is a divination technique applied in the military field to choose a favorable direction for defense or attack depending on the age. "Being alone and attacking the virtual" means starting from the "solitary" position on the battlefield and attacking the "virtual" position.

The most famous learner of solitary emptiness in history was Chen Baxian, Emperor Wu of Chen. He not only learned, but also believed in it. He especially favored Wu Mingche and Zhou Hongzheng who were familiar with this kind of numerology.

Huang Zongxi, a scholar in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also mastered the technique of solitary emptiness, and passed it on to Wang Zhengzhong, who made the calendar for Lu Jianguo.Huang Zongxi also said with great emotion, "It is only one person who can pass on my outstanding scholars!"

However, the way of heaven in war is not astronomical and calendar phenomena, but because of its justice.

The so-called "if you don't improve your personnel, you will never succeed", rather than relying on the divination of "repeatedly turning Kui Ganggang, frequently shifting the Tai Sui, sitting and pushing the white tiger, and greedy wolves in their actions", it is better to do a good job in people's affairs.

In ancient history, there are many examples of being defeated because of the Guxu technique, but there are still many people who believe it.This is mainly because since there is a sacrifice, the Guxu Technique has a godhead.If one wins by relying on the Lonely Void Technique, it is naturally blessed by the magic weapon, and the warlock has merit; if it fails miserably, it is impious, or rejected by the gods, and has nothing to do with the warlock and the spell itself.

However, this set of things was recorded in detail in the Ming Dynasty's "Wu Bei Zhi" and "Participating Secretary", and was included in the "Si Ku Quan Shu", which shows how deeply rooted it was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

At Yin time the next day, that is, at four o'clock in the morning, a thick fog suddenly appeared on the sea.Admiral Hadang'a of the navy was overjoyed when he heard the news. He first burned incense and prayed, and then ordered people to notify the ships to head to Changxing Island, which is [-] miles away.

Although the British on the ships felt strange, they also believed that the foggy weather was conducive to launching a surprise attack, so they did not object.However, Macartney, who was accompanying him, was really dissatisfied. Except for overlooking the Great Wall by the sea, they saw nothing along the way.

Of course, what they are most looking forward to right now is to see the long-rumored big iron ship.

(End of this chapter)