After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom built railway lines in the Jiangnan region, the telegraph business entered China earlier than in history. After the Suzhou-Shanghai Railway, the railway between Suzhou, Tianjing and Hangzhou was also completed, so cities of all sizes near the Yangtze River Delta began to be connected by railways. Where the railways extended, the new information dissemination method of telegraph also brought the land of China into a new era.

Telegrams connect each city through telegram flying lines, and then telegraph rooms are set up in each city. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established a postal department to manage telegraph business. At the same time, telegraphs are divided into two major categories: official and civil use according to needs. Official telegraphs are divided into four levels, and each level has different confidentiality. The highest level of confidential telegraphs is managed by the official department of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Ten days ago, the Taiping Heavenly Navy ship returned from Shanhaiguan to bring back the order of the Western King far away in the north. The official telegram room of Shanghai issued a telegram message to Tianjing. The telegram message was the highest level of confidential telegram, but the content was very simple: "War has been declared, and the departments acted as planned."

Zuo Zongtang, who received the telegram at that time, just glanced lightly and then summoned the ministers of various ministries to meet. At the court meeting, Zuo Zongtang presented the Western King's edict that had been prepared in advance, announcing that the British and French coalition forces had used force to intervene in the civil war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty, and had given up their neutral position. They colluded with the Qing Dynasty to jointly prevent the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from unifying the country. From now on, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom declared war with Britain and France.

Except for a few important officials, the rest of the officials of the Kingdom of Heaven were still unable to make a turn. Britain, France and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cooperated very closely in Jiangnan, so why did they suddenly declare war? Then Zuo Zongtang showed the news brought back by the naval ships. The fact that the British and French coalition forces jointly announced the "clearing the monarch and joining the United States to join the rebels in the north" with the Ronglu rebels. This is the fact that the British and French coalition forces planned to influence China's unification process by supporting the Qing rebels to occupy the northern territory.

Then Zuo Zongtang announced that the Jiangnan region had begun to enter a state of war, especially the coastal cities were ready to fight. At the same time, he ordered the garrisons stationed in the trading port to be on high alert, send troops to surround various concessions and embassy areas, and carry out a clearance operation against the British and French troops in the concession.

On the same day, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gave a note to the British and French consuls who stayed in Tianjing. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom announced the note to declare war with it on the spot, urging the British and French consuls in Tianjing to evacuate Tianjing within 24 hours, and also gave the attention of the consuls of the two countries. The Taiping Army will launch an encirclement and clearance operation on the concessions within the Wukou Trading Port, and civilians will have a 24-hour evacuation time. All projects jointly cooperated with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were temporarily stopped, and relevant British and French personnel also had only a 24-hour evacuation time.

The consuls of Britain and France were both dumbfounded. They did not expect the war to come so quickly. It was easy to say that the closer Shanghai and other places were, but at most they could send a telegram to inform them, but what should I do if there were farther Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places? Fortunately, the diplomatic officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom explained politely that when the declaration of war edict arrived in Guangzhou, the local government in Guangzhou would also notify the notice in advance. From the time the notice was sent, there would be 24 hours of evacuation time there.

The consuls of the two countries did not seem to understand the cause of the incident, and they asked the reasons for declaring war one after another. When they learned the reason for declaring war by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they were speechless and intervened in other civil wars and openly supported a rebel army from the Qing Dynasty to seize the northern regime. This reason seemed sufficient. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom just declared war in front of Britain and France. People who understand know that once Britain and France built another Qing regime in the north, the first target of the attack was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Fortunately, the officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom agreed to send a report to Shanghai to inform the news of the declaration of war, but they didn't have to worry about it. After receiving the Tianjing telegram, the Shanghai Military and Political Department had already sent a note to the people in the consulates of Shanghai and the two countries.

The military mobilization began on that day. The newly formed Sixth Army of the Taiping Army stationed in Shanghai began to strengthen the defense of Wusongkou and other places under the command of the commander Pan Qiliang, and at the same time sent troops to surround the British and French concessions.

The arrogant British were stimulated. On that day, hundreds of Marine soldiers in the Shanghai Concession were gathered, and the police in the Concession were armed. At the same time, the British Charlie George Gordon recruited hundreds of foreigners to form a foreign gun team, intending to protect the concession by force. At the same time, the three British ships left in Shanghai also took action and were ready to support the battle in the concession at any time. The merchants of Britain and France were in panic, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Business Department announced that the transaction on that day was still valid, but twenty-four hours later, the merchant ships of Britain and France must leave the port.

On that day, the military deployment and mobilization between the two sides continued until late at night. The British and French people in the concession were in panic all night. By the early morning of the next day, they found that the three sides of the concession were surrounded by tens of thousands of Taiping troops. The Taiping soldiers were guarding the temporary barricades and fortifications with guns and live ammunitions, and even the chariots that should have entered the concession to collect feces in the morning could not enter.

Gordon led his foreign gun team to confront the Taiping Army at the entrance of the northern concession, while the British Marines mainly guarded several other entrances, and three British warships were cruising on the Huangpu River. The atmosphere on both sides was very depressing, but the British and French civilians in the concession did not evacuate through the only remaining passage, which was the waterway.

The confrontation lasted until about 10 o'clock in the morning. The British warships could not bear it and first shelled the Taiping Army positions on the shore. Then the artillery on both sides of the Taiping Army began to fight back. Soon, the three British warships were hit by the Taiping Army artillery and rockets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and they sank one after another less than an hour after the war started. Some of the British sailors who had fallen into the water fled back to the concession, and some were taken downstream by the river and became prisoners of the Taiping Army.

Then the firefighting on the shore began. Gordon's foreign gun team gathered mercenaries from various countries to participate. The firearms were diverse, but they did not cooperate with any tactical methods and were soon defeated by the Taiping Army. Fortunately, the Taiping Army did not take advantage of the victory to enter the concession, and they still stood outside the loan.

After seeing the results of the day, some British and French people in the concession began to evacuate one after another. They took British, French and American merchant ships to Hong Kong, and the evacuated wealthy people were all rich. At about 3:00 p.m. that day, that is, after the 24-hour time, the Taiping Army began to block the Huangpu River. Several merchant ships that had not had time to evacuate were also stopped by Taiping Army artillery and patrol anti-smuggling ships. The people on the ship were sent back to the concession, and the ship was detained.

Foreigners hid in the concession in panic. Tens of thousands of Taiping troops surrounded them outside. They didn't know what their fate would be. At around 4 pm that day, British Shanghai Consul Midile requested negotiations with the Taiping Army. He was then received by Tao Enpei, deputy director of the Shanghai Military and Political Department.

Midile naturally asked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to stop attacking the concession, but was rejected by the old man Tao Enpei with a smile. The old man was very interesting. He said that whenever the British and French military forces withdrew from China, the Taiping Army's military operations would stop.

Midile was helpless, and he naturally could not do this request. Midile then asked the Taiping Army to be graceful for some time so that Britain and France could have enough time to evacuate civilians in the concession. This request was also rejected. The old man said that giving one day yesterday was enough, and those who did not leave were military personnel. It would be okay to go out of the concession unless everyone in the concession surrendered to the Taiping Army.

Midile's negotiation failed. He understood that the Taiping Army was coming this time, and the people in the Concession and Concession became a bargaining chip for their negotiations in the future. On the way back, Midile was very depressed. He knew that the Taiping Army had the strength to enter the Concession every minute, but they would rather stay outside just waiting for the main force of the coalition navy in the north to come back, and the Shanghai Concession was a fragrant bait.

On that day, major newspapers in Shanghai published news of the declaration of war on the front page. Several official newspapers of the Taiping Army gave detailed reasons for declaring war. The British and French expeditionary forces were here to help the Qing Dynasty. This was the most direct reason for starting the war, and this seemed to be enough.

In the following days, the Taiping Army surrounded the concession, and no major conflict broke out between the two sides. Because the food and fresh vegetables in the concession were gradually used up, Midile once again went to negotiate. Finally, Tao Enpei agreed to sell the grain and fresh vegetables and fruits to the people in the concession, but to trade in the bank.

So, the British and French concessions were surrounded and kept, and they were safe for the time being, but the people in the concessions were praying that their warships would return from the north quickly. Due to the discontinuation of news, they did not know that in just a few days, their expeditionary force landing troops had been almost wiped out.

The concessions also encountered several other concessions at trade ports. The British and French concessions in Fuzhou were smaller. After being surrounded for a day, the British and French people simply proposed to surrender to the Taiping Army, but were rejected.

Hong Kong has received many British and French civilians who escaped from trading ports. Hong Kong, which already has a population of 80,000, surged by more than 20,000 overnight.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was loose on the outside and tight on the inside. The soldiers from all over the country began to mobilize and actively prepare for war. Dinghai and other places were also on full alert. The clouds of war enveloped the sky above Jiangnan.

At this time, the Suzhou-Hangzhou Railway was completed, and this section of railway contracted and built by the Americans completed the opening of traffic on schedule. The war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France did not affect its final completion. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still held a celebration to celebrate the opening of traffic. Unlike the first celebration of the opening of the Suzhou-Shanghai Railway, during this celebration, ordinary Chinese people participated more. They began to slowly accept the railway, but it did not mean that they accepted the foreigners.

Due to the announcements and publicity issued by newspapers and local governments, Britain and France were promoted as accomplices who came to help the Qing Dynasty suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. What kind of thing was the Qing Dynasty? People in Jiangnan who were not as old as the Qing Dynasty ruled in the past held a series of anti-British and French marches in anger. Of course, most of them were students from martial arts schools.

With the instructions of the Western King's Edge, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom News Department increased its war propaganda. Some British and French troops burned, killed, looted, and the people in Jiangnan became even more bizarrely angry. Therefore, the conflicts between China and the United States after being suppressed by Christianity under the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for many years began to erupt... (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better and faster!

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