1850 American Gold Tycoon

In mid-August, the war between the Qing army and the British and French forces fell into a stalemate.

Liang Yao's reward for the captives of the Mongolian cavalry has reached 60 US dollars per person, and the reward for the Sauron cavalry has reached 100 US dollars per person.

But it was already difficult to buy prisoners from the British and French forces.

Liang Yao looked at his old uncle with admiration.

Liang Shaoqiong used more than 10,000 defeated Qing troops to withstand the fierce attack of the British and French forces, and Tongzhou City still stands today.

When the British and French allied forces decided to bypass Tongzhou City and attack the capital directly, Liang Shaoqiong sent cavalry to continuously harass the logistics and supplies of the British and French allied forces, causing the British and French allied forces to be overwhelmed.

Once the British and French allied forces concentrated their forces to kill the Qing cavalry leaving the city, these Qing cavalry did not want to fight and quickly retreated into the city. It would be useless to let the British and French forces have strength.

The two sides were in a stalemate near Tongzhou City for nearly two months.

In Tianjin, a group of imprisoned prisoners from the Sauron tribe had nothing to do and started talking after having had enough food and drinks.

Although they were shackled, there were no signs of abuse on their bodies. Their faces were all red, and their physical and mental conditions seemed to be quite good. Some of them were even much fatter than when they were first captured.

It's just that they don't understand what these foreigners are doing.

Every meal they eat consists of wine, meat, vegetables and fine grains, which are not cheap.

"What kind of medicine do you think these foreigners are selling in their gourds? They imprisoned us here, neither beating nor scolding us, and providing us with good food and drink, and fish and meat for every meal."

"And wine!"

"Don't tell me, the foreign doctor is really good at it. I thought this leg was going to be useless, but now it can move."

"They are not foreigners, these jailers are Qing people with shaved braids!"

"Yes, they are from the Qing Dynasty! I heard the jailers talking and talking in the Nikan dialect of the south."

"Shut up!" a tall military leader named Kekudi scolded, "They must have no good intentions in imprisoning us here!"

"What Zuo Ling is saying is, foreigners, bah! How can these little favors from these unknown Nikans make you forget your ancestors?"

The transport ship has arrived at Dagukou, and Liang Yao came to the prisoner of war camp to check out the Mongolian cavalry and Sauron captives that he had purchased from the British and French forces for a large sum of money, preparing to transport them to California.

In the past two months, he purchased a total of 2,820 prisoners of the Mongolian cavalry and 816 prisoners of Sauron's various ministries from the British and French forces.

After a round of inspection, Liang Yao discovered that the Aixinjueluo family was not only ruthless to the Han people, but even more ruthless to the Mongols and the so-called Suoge tribe of Manchuria.

The Han people had to bear taxes, and the Sauron people not only had to bear the mink tax and endure the economic exploitation of the Aisin Gioro family, but they also had to bear the blood tax to provide the Qing Dynasty with high-quality soldiers without restraint.

The situation of prisoners captured by the Mongolian cavalry will be better. Although the proportion of herdsmen in the cavalry is quite high, young and middle-aged people make up the majority.

The captives of Sauron's various tribes are damn ridiculous. After statistical screening, among the 816 Sauron prisoners, only 370 can be called armored, and the rest are mostly Xidan idlers recruited from Jilin and other places.

There are many minors aged thirteen or fourteen, old people over seventy years old, and gray-haired people everywhere.

The word Sauron first appeared in the late Ming Dynasty and was a collective name for the tribes along the Heilongjiang River. The Sauron tribe in the Qing Dynasty mainly refers to the Ewenki, Daur and Oroqen tribes of the Sauron tribe. They are a half-fishing and hunting, half-farming nation in the Heilongjiang River Basin.

Among them, the Daur people are the best at farming and have the largest population. The lifestyle of the Ewenki and Oroqen people is mainly based on fishing and hunting, and their population is much smaller than that of the Daur people.

After the Battle of Yaksa and the signing of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, in order to strengthen control over the Sauron tribe and facilitate the recruitment of Sauron soldiers, the Qing government transferred a large number of Sauron people, especially those in the outer northeastern region, into They moved to the Nen River Basin south of Heilongjiang and were successively organized into the Solon Niulu and Buhat Eight Banners.

Although this move strengthened the Qing government's control over the Sauron tribe, it also led to the emptiness of defense power in the Heilongjiang Basin, especially in the outer northeastern region, and laid the foundation for the subsequent loss of the outer northeastern territory.

The tribesmen of Sauron have lived and grown up in a harsh natural environment since childhood, and with a little training they can become very good soldiers.

When Nurhachi was integrating the Jurchen tribes in the Northeast, he once said to the Sauron people: We are one country. Call on Sauron people to fight for the establishment of the Jurchen Manchu community and recruit Sauron people as soldiers.

But after entering the customs, the Aixinjueluo family forgot about their promise to the Sauron people. All the Eight Banners of the Manchu, Mongolian and Han Dynasties entered the customs. Except for a few Sauron nobles who were promoted to nobility, most of them The people of Sauron were still left in the bitter cold outside the pass.

This is not because the Aixinjueluo family has forgotten these suffering brothers, but precisely because they remember these suffering brothers and did so intentionally.

In order to allow the Sauron people to preserve their combat effectiveness and prevent the Sauron people from being contaminated with Han customs and repeating the mistakes of the Manchu Eight Banners and the Green Camp Soldiers. The Aixinjueluo family prohibited the Sauron people from entering the customs, and continued to let them maintain "Mandarin riding and shooting" in the bitter and cold land outside the customs. They were strictly prohibited from using firearms and lived a harsh life of hungry meals.

This approach has indeed achieved certain results.

After the Qing army entered the customs, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners soldiers plummeted at an alarming rate. By the time the San Francisco Rebellion was put down, the Eight Banners soldiers were no longer used as the main force in countering the rebellion. During the Qianlong period, the Eight Banners soldiers were reduced to the embarrassing situation of missing arrows and falling to the ground on horseback.

Among the many Eight Banners troops, only Sauron's troops maintained extremely strong combat effectiveness until they could no longer squeeze out manpower.

The wars experienced by the Qing army after entering the customs: pacification of the San Francisco dynasty, the Battle of Yaksa, the Battle of Junggar, the Battle of Altai, the Battle of Jinchuan and Jinchuan, the Hezhuo Rebellion, resistance to the invasion of the Kurkhas, and the pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army.

Whether these battles were civil wars or foreign wars, whether they were in the snowy plateaus, the deserts of the Western Regions, the primitive jungles of the Hengduan Mountains in the southwest, or the white mountains and black waters of the Northeast, the Sauron soldiers were not only never absent, but also performed very well.

However, the Aixinjueluo family did not sympathize with the Sauron people. As the war became more frequent, the recruitment of the Sauron people continued unabated and intensified.

By the Xianfeng period, more than 10,000 Sauron soldiers had been recruited, accounting for 40% of the ethnic group. The Sauron tribe is on the verge of extinction.

Therefore, although the Sauron people are also bannermen, their living standards and treatment are comparable to those in the pass, especially compared with the Manchu Eight Banners in the capital. It can be said that they are in the sky and on the ground.

Although famous generals such as Hailancha, Dolonga, and Mutushan emerged in his tribe.

But this has not changed the miserable life of most ordinary Sauron people. Many Sauron people are even reduced to begging for a living when they cannot hunt prey.

"Hey, Nikan, that Nikan man, come over and talk to me."

Kekudi saw that Liang Yao's attire was different from the others, and the soldiers treated Liang Yao with great respect. He guessed that Liang Yao must be a very important person among these people, so he shook the shackles on his body and made a sound, which aroused Liang Yao's reaction. Notice.

He didn't want to be locked up here in confusion all the time.

This aimless feeling, like waiting for death, was worse than killing him directly.

"Can you speak Chinese?" Liang Yao stopped in front of this Sauron soldier who was a little taller than him with great interest.

"Since the third year of Xianfeng's reign (1853), I have been fighting Hongyang bandits and Nianzi in Jiangsu and Anhui. Is it surprising that I can speak some Chinese?" Kekudi said with some pride.

"Looking at your accent, you are from Cantonese, right?"

"You're an interesting person. You can recognize my Cantonese accent." Liang Yao was a little surprised.

"My unit has been cooperating with Yue Yong all year round. If I hadn't received the edict from King Qin, I would still be killing Changmaoli in southern Jiangsu. I once served under Liang Shuai. Not only can I recognize your accent, but I can also speak it. A few words." After saying that, Kekudi came closer to Liang Yao, took a closer look and said.

"You and Liang Shuai look somewhat similar."

"Liang Shaoqiong is my uncle." Liang Yao couldn't help laughing.

The Hunan Army and the Yue Yong lacked cavalry, so the Qing court sent Sauron cavalry to cooperate with the Hunan Army and the Yue Yong in fighting, and was also responsible for monitoring the actions of the Hunan Army's Yue Yong generals.

"Liang Shuai is your uncle? So you are here to save us?" Kekudi was overjoyed when he heard this.

"That's right." Liang Yao did not deny it. He looked at Kecudi carefully and asked.

"It looks like you're an official? What's your name?"

"I am Zuo Ling, my name is Kokudi," Kokudi replied.

"Unexpectedly, there are still fish that slipped through the net." Liang Yao looked at Kekudi, then looked at the Sauron soldiers beside Kekudi, and sighed.

"Senggelinqin actually asked you to charge head-on. It's really stupid. Does he want you Sauron people to become extinct? You were the one who almost defeated the Sikh Cavalry that day."

The British and French allied forces always thought that it was the Mongolian cavalry that almost defeated the Sikh Cavalry on the day of the field battle. After the battle, they learned that it was the Sauron cavalry that almost defeated the Sikh Cavalry.

"Sikh Cavalry?"

"Those Indians with the turbans."

"Those foreigners wearing turbans couldn't help but fight. If they hadn't been able to use their guns well, we would have torn their military formation into pieces long ago." Kekudi said disdainfully.

"On the contrary, those foreign cavalry wearing helmets and red clothes are difficult to deal with."

"That's the Royal Dragoons of England."

"They are all foreigners anyway, and they are not good people. Since you are Liang Shuai's nephew, you are also a subject of my Qing Dynasty. I think you have some status among these people. You persuaded them to let us go.

My brothers and I will remember your kindness, and I will also say a few kind words for you and Liang Shuai in front of General Dolonga in the future. "Kokudi said.

"You still want to stain Duolong'a's crown with your blood?" Liang Yao shook his head.

"This is not why I saved you from the guns of foreigners."

After speaking, Liang Yao left.

The British and French forces have been attacking Tongzhou City for a long time. After two months of consumption, the ammunition stocks of the British and French forces are gradually bottoming out.

Elgin and Ge Luo found Liang Yao, hoping that Liang Yao could mediate.

Liang Yao didn't get what he wanted, so he pretended to shirk it and reluctantly agreed to mediate.

Liang Yao pulled several carts of medicines to Tongzhou City.

At this time, the Qing army in Tongzhou City was also short of men and horses, but there was no shortage of food and grass for the time being.

The composition of the defenders in Tongzhou City was relatively complex, including Yue Yong, Green Camp, Mongolian cavalry and Sauron soldiers.

These Sauron soldiers, like Liang Yao's prisoners in Tianjin, were mostly child soldiers aged thirteen or fourteen who were still childish.

"Britain and France are interested in peace talks. Please help me set up a line and let me go to the capital city to meet Prince Gong."

After finding Liang Shaoqiong, Liang Yao directly explained the reason for his visit. Seeing that Liang Shaoqiong had a bandage on his arm, he asked with concern.

"Uncle, is this injury on your arm?"

"I accidentally got hit by a stray bullet. The minor injury is not a problem." Liang Shaoqiong said as he moved his arms.

"It's better to be careful. If something goes wrong with you, no one can carry the flag of the Liang family," Liang Yao said.

"Prince Gong, I will help you make the connection. I also want to cease the war as soon as possible. The ammunition brought from Jiangnan is almost exhausted. I am not sure if the fight continues." Liang Shaoqiong looked around and saw no one around. He lowered his voice and said to Liang Yao.

"There's also something big happening at the imperial court."

"event?"

Liang Yao frowned and thought for a moment, wondering if Xianfeng was dead?

Major events occurred within the Qing court. Apart from Xianfeng's death, the succession of thrones, and the transfer of power, Liang Yao could not think of any other major events.

"The emperor passed away." Liang Shaoqiong said softly, and then told Liang Yao everything that happened within the Qing court these days.

It turns out that Emperor Xianfeng fell ill soon after arriving at Chengde Summer Resort, and finally died of depression. The cause of death is still unknown.

Before Xianfeng's death, he ordered three imperial ministers and five military ministers (Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Sushun, Jingshou, Muyin, Kuangyuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying) to assist the three-year-old crown prince Zai Chun. As the emperor, he was the general regent of the government, and he was responsible for the eight ministers.

"Forget it, you and Pan Shicheng, the Minister of Gu Ming, are not included. Even Prince Gong Yi is not among them?" Liang Yao said after reading the secret letter sent by Pan Shicheng in Liang Shaoqiong's study.

"These two letters, one is from Sushun and the other is from Yi." Liang Shaoqiong pulled out two more secret letters from a corner.

Liang Yao opened it and read it. It turned out that Yi and Sushun simultaneously offered an olive branch to Liang Shaoqiong to win over Liang Shaoqiong.

"You have elite soldiers in your hands, and the imperial court also pointed you to put down the Hongyang Rebellion and the Nian Army. In the future, whether Yi gains power or Sushun gains power, as long as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army are not in peace, they will have to use you. What do you think? "?" Liang Yao asked.

"Sushun reused many Han officials and treated them well, but he was domineering and too sharp, and he did not know how to restrain himself. Pan Shicheng said that he was arbitrary in Chengde and frightened the new emperor, and the two queen mothers were also dissatisfied with him. , but because of the power of the Eight Ministers Gu Ming, I dare not be angry but dare not speak out." Liang Shaoqiong frowned.

"Compared to Sushun, Yi is indeed better in this regard, more calm in dealing with others, and not surprised by favors or disgrace.

Sushun and Yi each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Sushun is a powerful and important minister, and now with Xianfeng's legacy, there is no one who can surpass him in terms of power.

Yi Ze showed up in the court because of his high status. Although he temporarily lost power and was excluded from the center of power, it does not necessarily mean that he will not have the opportunity to return to the center of power in the future. "Liang Yao said.

In the fifth year of Xianfeng's reign (1855), Xianfeng dismissed Yi from all his duties because "there were many omissions in all etiquette". With Yi Cong's power over the government and the opposition, the leader of the military aircraft with one man under his command and more than ten thousand people was reduced to an empty frame with only the title of prince overnight.

This time Xianfeng excluded Yi from the list of ministers who cared about life. This was a big blow to Yi who was left alone in the capital city to face foreign enemies alone.

"I'm also blinded by things in the temple, but after weighing the pros and cons, I still think it's better to be on Yi's side." Liang Shaoqiong analyzed.

"I was promoted by Yi, and Yi is kind to me no matter what. Furthermore, Sushun already has Zeng Hu and other Han ministers as his arms. Now the situation is urgent and he has to win over me. When this matter is over, I will I’m afraid the weight in Sushun’s heart is not that heavy.”

"That's the reason. Sushun is gaining momentum now. You siding with Sushun now is the icing on the cake, but having you siding with Yi is a timely help." Liang Yao is also more inclined to support Yi.

"I will arrange for you to meet Prince Gong now." Liang Shaoqiong said.

"Okay." Liang Yao nodded and asked immediately.

"By the way, do you know Kokudi?"

"This name sounds familiar, but I can't remember it at the moment."

"A Sorrenzo collar."

"Oh, it's him. This man is a master who is willing to risk his life in a war. When he was fighting Gaozi Town, Duolonga placed this kid next to me as an informant, and also borrowed 20 taels of silver from me, so I still have some impression. How do you know him?"

"It's a long story. Let your people take me to the capital."

Sudden changes occurred in the Qing court, and the war situation fell into a stalemate. Under the mediation of Liang Yao, Yi and Liang Shaoqiong finally negotiated on behalf of the Qing government with the British special envoy Elgin, the French special envoy Guero, and the American special envoy Liang Yao.

After several rounds of negotiations, the two parties reached the following agreement.

The Qing Dynasty allowed envoys from Britain, France and the United States to station themselves in the capital, but the number of persons accompanying them should not exceed 10, and they were not allowed to bring weapons into Beijing.

The Qing government also included in its agenda the dispatch of diplomatic envoys to London, Paris, and Washington.

The military compensation was halved. The Qing compensated the British for 4 million taels of silver and the French for 1.5 million taels of silver.

Residents of Britain, France and the United States can freely live and do business at the ports with legal procedures, but there are no concessions at the ports.

The Qing Dynasty opened navigation rights to the Pearl River and Yangtze River to merchant ships from Britain, France and the United States.

The Qing side regained its tariff autonomy.

Allow Qing residents to go to the United States to live freely and make a living.

Hong Kong Island is temporarily leased to the United States for 99 years.

The temporary concession in Zhoushan is jointly used by Britain and France. The lease period is 99 years. Britain and France will discuss how to allocate it.

Finally, the Qing Dynasty, Britain, France, and the United States formally signed a treaty in the capital city in October 1858, which was the Treaty of the Capital City.

The envoys of Britain and France were satisfied that the treaty could be signed in the capital city.

Although this treaty is still unfair, it is much better than the previous "Tianjin Treaty".

After the treaty was signed, the Qing, Britain and France returned prisoners to each other.

The Qing side returned the prisoners of war captured in the war and the British merchants captured on Hong Kong Island to Britain and France.

Britain and France also returned Ye Mingchen, He Guiqing and the captured Green Camp soldiers to the Qing Dynasty.

After the British and French forces withdrew.

The Qing Dynasty officially decided to jointly organize shipping administration with the United States.

However, the Qing government did not adopt Liang Yao's suggestion and decided to set up the shipping administration in Guangdong. Instead, Shen Baozhen was appointed Minister of Shipping and decided to establish a shipping administration in Fuzhou.

In addition, the Manchu and Qing senior officials also made personnel adjustments to local officials.

Ye Mingchen, the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang, were sentenced to death.

Baigui, the governor of Guangdong, and Muten, the general of Guangzhou, were dismissed.

Liang Shaoqiong served as the governor of Liangjiang, and Pan Shicheng served as the governor of Jiangsu, responsible for supervising and suppressing the Hongyang bandits.

As for the vacancies of local officials in Guangdong, the Manchu and Qing leaders used political tricks to appoint Hu Linyi from the Hunan Army as the governor of Guangdong and Guangdong, and Guo Songtao as the governor of Guangdong.

Speeding up the progress, I will return to the United States in the next chapter