In the study room of Xiwangbeiyuan in Shanghai, Xiao Yungui stared at the Jiangnan map hanging in the house with a solemn expression. The 1:25-kilometer military map was densely packed with standardized the garrison of various forces.

The map in front of the Western King was created by the Intelligence Department and the Military Intelligence Department of Bai Zetang, which combined with the map specially drawn by the Martial Arts and School Mapping Department. Xiao Yungui's eyes were always staring at the actual military dividing line between Su Fu Province and Tianjing without saying a word. This dividing line starts from Zhenjiang, and goes south to Danyang, Jintan, Liyang, Guangde, and extends to the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi Province to the south. Danyang, Jintan, Liyang, and Guangde, near Tianjing, are the places where Tianjing gathers the most troops this time, and both sides have fewer troops in the south.

Xiao Yungui had a solemn expression, and the cigarette in his hand kept emitting green smoke. He looked at the map motionlessly in a daze.

Recently, Xiao Yungui has had many worries, first of all, his diplomacy with the great powers began to fall into a cold state. One of the direct reasons was that the Taiping Army insisted on refusing to withdraw troops from Miaojie and Sakhalin Island, which led to the suspension of negotiations between Britain, France and Russia. The negotiations held in Paris seemed to deliberately downplay the negotiations in the Far East. Victory countries such as Britain, France and Russia seemed to have reached a tacit understanding in Paris, and only talked about Europe in Paris, while the Far East and Asia matters were not discussed at the Paris Peace Conference.

Although the employment relationship between Britain and France and the Taiping Army ended immediately after the war, and Britain and France could not find a direct legal excuse to demand the Taiping Army withdraw, Britain and France were still very dissatisfied with the younger brother they were willing to support, because the reason was that they were disobedient.

Following the Taiping Army's large fleet to Nagasaki, Japan, and then the "Shanghai, Saga, and Matsue Fate Treaty" was exposed, which made Britain and France even more dissatisfied. At this time, Bao Ling understood why the Western King was indifferent when he threatened to retreat alone with the coalition fleet. It turned out that the Western King had long been preparing to cooperate with Japan to maintain the supply line in the northeast.

Chen Cang secretly made Britain and France secretly angry about the secret move of the Western King. They began to feel that the Taiping Army's hands were too long. The Western King's ambition was also very great, and he inserted his hands in Temple Street, Sakhalin Island, and Japan. Although Japan is not considered to be the focus of the trade interests of Britain and France in the Far East, the United States regards Japan as its sphere of influence, so the Taiping Army's move also made the Americans very dissatisfied.

Although the Taiping Army and the great powers can still maintain the surface politeness and cooperation, both the great powers and the Taiping Army began to be vigilant against each other, and the relationship was only maintained in the current state and there was no room for further cooperation. The most direct manifestation was that the British compensated the Taiping Army for a penalty for liquidated damages and directly stopped the construction of the Taiping Army ships built by the Plymouth Shipyard. The British have always attached great importance to goodwill. They would rather pay the penalty for liquidated damages than stop building the Taiping Army ships, which shows that the relationship between the British and the Taiping Army began to become cold.

Fortunately, the cooperation with Britain did not stop. The first batch of naval soldiers recruited from the Taiping Army and the people went to Britain for naval military study. There were a total of 328 people, led by Navy generals Tang Zhengcai and Zhao.

The King of the West was prepared that the British would not continue to train their naval personnel. But unexpectedly, the British still agreed to continue this cooperation, which made Xiao Yungui feel a little puzzled. Since the British could stop building ships, why should they continue to train their naval personnel?

After thinking about it, Xiao Yungui couldn't figure it out. Finally, he learned that it was the British Rothschild family who helped this. Xiao Yungui didn't know how the Rothschild family convinced the British Prime Minister and the Navy Minister, but he vaguely felt that behind all this, the beautiful and sad figure seemed to be secretly helping the Taiping Army. When he thought of this, he couldn't help but feel panicked.

Compared with Britain, France and the United States have made smaller moves. France has obtained the right to build the Suzhou-Hangzhou Railway, while the United States has obtained 45% of the investment shares of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. This time, Britain has obtained the right to build the railway from Suzhou to Zhenjiang, which somewhat comforted the great powers.

Although there were cracks in diplomatic relations, Xiao Yungui would not feel regretful. There must be a bottom line for cooperation with the great powers, which is the sovereignty of the territory. For the Jiangning Treaty recognized by the West Palace, except for the cedes of Hong Kong and consular judgment, Xiao Yungui did not feel that the other trade clauses were too harmful to the issue of sovereignty, and there was no big resistance to the sale of opium. Opium was first a medicinal material, and secondly it was a commodity. At that time, there were no anti-drug regulations in all countries. Opium was the same legal system for trafficking in various countries, but why did it spread domestically and even become synonymous with the loss of power and humiliation of the country? The key is not the commodity itself, but the national and domestic system itself. Therefore, Xiao Yungui did not think that opium trade violated sovereignty. To eliminate the influence of opium, it could only rely on his own domestic anti-drug system to limit it.

On the contrary, on the issue of territoriality, Xiao Yungui felt that this was a fundamental problem and could not compromise at all. Miaojie and Sakhalin Island were snatched from the Qing Dynasty by the Russians. The Taiping Army finally drove away the Russians. In Xiao Yungui's eyes, this was the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because sooner or later he would overthrow the Qing Dynasty, and all the territory occupied by the Qing Dynasty now should belong to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abandoned Miaojie and Sakhalin Island because of the interference of Britain and France, then if Britain and France threatened to start a war in the future, would the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom give up more territory?

Territorial sovereignty has nothing to do with interests, but with the living space of a country's people. Therefore, Xiao Yungui does not regret the decision he made. Moreover, how could the diplomacy between countries be close all year round? Didn't Britain and France fight for a hundred years, then restrain each other, use each other and cooperate with each other?

So the Taiping Army and Britain, France and the United States continued their cooperation and quarrels, as well as their use of each other and their vigilance. Anyway, the impact of this matter has not reached the point where both sides need to use war to resolve the problem, so everything is as usual, but the cracks on both sides have already appeared.

Then, foreign instructors from Britain, France, the United States and other countries began to leave one after another for various reasons, but Xiao Yungui knew that this was the follow-up of the refusal to withdraw troops. He did not stop him, but instead generously dismissed foreign teachers who were unwilling to stay. But there were also foreigners who went against the rules. More than 100 foreign teachers, including American Jack, actually applied to immigrate to China at this time. They were willing to settle in China with their families and they were willing to join the Taiping Army. Among these people, most of the Americans were, and this immigrant country was already rich in pioneering spirit. At the same time, they did not have much loyalty to their own country. The American patriotic enthusiasm was integrated after the real unification of the north and the south. Now the United States is just an immigrant country.

Xiao Yungui naturally would not refuse. With a big stroke, he agreed to agree to the foreign brothers becoming citizens of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and their request to serve in the army. So the Western King once again magnificently defeated Britain, France, the United States and other countries. Moreover, with the opening of Suzhou Province, the Chinese and foreign scattered a certain foundation, and more than a hundred foreigners joined the troops they had originally trained would not have much problem. Most of them served as staff officers and did not have the power to command the army.

In addition to the diplomatic headache, the King of the East suddenly attacked this time. The King of the West sighed again that he was not afraid of a god-like opponent, but was afraid of a pig-like opponent. But looking back, if he was the King of the East, he would be very nervous about the expansion of the West Palace. Most of Fujian was taken down by the West Palace. There was a tendency to continue to go south to Guangdong. If the southeast half of the wall was taken down by the King of the West, Tianjing would no longer be able to balance the advantages of the West Palace.

Yang Xiuqing was still very strategic. He almost launched the second battle against Nanchang after the Battle of Wen and Taiwan. Since the Tianjing troops were still mixed with hot and cold weapons, they had a great advantage in number. After Tianjing fought against Jiangxi in the south, Yang Xiuqing implemented the policy of paying food in Jiangxi. Tianjing's troops expanded rapidly to more than 500,000, and were known as one million to the public.

When he was fighting against Nanchang, Yang Xiuqing led his troops with Hu Yihuang, and at the same time ordered King Yi of Yi to go south from Hubei to control all the troops in Jiangxi. When he fought against Nanchang, Shi Dakai concentrated 250,000 Taiping Army to besiege Nanchang. Although Jiang Zhongyuan was powerful, the gap in military strength was too big, and he was not much better than King Yi of Yi Dakai. After more than two months of persistence, Nanchang City was defeated. However, Jiang Zhongyuan did not die like he defended Luzhou in history. He actually fled to Hengyang with makeup. Xiao Yungui later heard that he despised Jiang Zhongyuan, and at the same time he felt that this guy was really lucky.

After conquering Nanchang, Shi Dakai returned to Hubei to take charge, while Yang Xiuqing seized the opportunity and began to attack the King of the West at the moment when the war was being fought to expand Fujian. Su Fu Province was too close to Tianjing, and the King of the West was always a hidden danger. In his consciousness, the King of the West, who was in the limelight, was always the biggest threat, while the King of the Tianjing who was hiding in the deep palace to study doctrines, writing wrong poems and playing with women was always the second.

Yang Xiuqing was very quick. After Hu Yihuang's army wiped out other Qing troops in Jiangxi, he immediately deployed troops in Guangde area of ​​Huzhou County. The pressure caused by more than 200,000 troops was not something that more than 10,000 troops in Jiangxi's new first army could handle, so Xiao Yungui immediately asked the new third army to rush to Huzhou.

Both the Eastern King and the Western King knew it well that the so-called Zhaoxi King Niang and the Second Crown Prince returned to Tianjing and Zhaoxi King returned to Beijing to report their duties were just excuses. Yang Xiuqing knew that Xiao Yungui would definitely not come back, and Xiao Yungui also knew that he could not go, so the two sides had no nonsense. Confronting each other or fighting a real battle became the last choice now.

However, Yang Xiuqing still had one move. He did not declare the West Palace a rebel because the King of the Western Palace did not obey the order. Doing so would trigger a complete fire. At the same time, he was also afraid of the invincible name of the West Palace's military and horses. Yang Xiuqing hoped to use his huge military and horse advantages and local war victory to force the Western Palace to surrender. He even thought that as long as the King of the Western Palace surrendered and was willing to return to Tianjing and hand over the military and political power of Su Fu Province, he could let the Western Palace spend his old age in Tianjing, but all this must be fought before talking.

The cigarette in Xiao Yungui's hand burned to the end, and a burning heat made Xiao Yungui hurriedly throw away the cigarette butts. When he looked back, he was already standing beside him at some point, looking at the map.

Xiao Yungui suddenly said, "I plan to use our old classmate to restrain the East Palace. What do you think?"

Hong Yuner narrowed her eyes and said, "What do you mean is to instigate the Hunan Army to send troops to attack Xiangtan and Changsha?"

Xiao Yungui nodded and said, "We are now fully influential with the East Palace and will only be cheaper to the Heavenly King. But if the East King can retreat temporarily at this time, the East King will start a war with the Heavenly King sooner or later. The Hunan Army has been entrenched in Hengyang for a year, and they are also anxious to capture Changsha. With the existence of the Hunan Army, I think the East Palace will not be so unscrupulous to come eastward."

Hong Yuner smiled bitterly and said, "I didn't expect things to turn out like this. What are you going to do?"

Xiao Yungui held her hand and stood side by side with her, and asked back, "What do you think?"

Hong Yun'er smiled and said, "We don't have to do too much. We just need to bring the news of Yang Xiuqing's army advancing east to our old classmates. He must know that this is an opportunity, and the Hunan Army will definitely send troops to Changsha immediately."

"Does our actions betray comrades?" Xiao Yungui said in a deep voice.

Hong Yuner shook her head and said, "When Yang Xiuqing was fighting in Huzhou, he was no longer our comrade-in-arms." After a pause, she then sighed softly, "It's a pity that the good situation in Fujian and Guangdong."

Xiao Yungui also nodded and sighed: "It seems that the biggest enemy is not the Qing Dynasty but ourselves. We must first settle the country when fighting foreign countries?"

Hong Yuner smiled and said, "That's right, I came from Suzhou to accompany you, just to help you settle." The two of them smiled at each other, holding their hands tighter. (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
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