Chapter 225 Luo Xueyan’s Promotion (Please vote, please subscribe)

Suzhou, Shuyuan Lane, Jiangsu Governor’s Office.

Jiangsu Governor Guaerjia Yiliang has been getting as anxious as an ant on a hot pan these days. This old bureaucrat, who is also a well-known figure in modern Chinese history, is already 63 years old this year. He became the Governor of Guangdong at the age of 48 15 years ago. He had a lot of room for advancement. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he would have a chance to become a Yizhongtang.

But just when everything was going smoothly, this accident happened!

And this accident was the famous Opium War in modern history!

To be honest, Yiliang’s performance in the Opium War was absolutely remarkable. He worked from the beginning to the end for almost five years without making any major mistakes. Emperor Daoguang was also very satisfied with his performance and appointed him as the acting governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi twice. In the final period after the Opium War, he was also appointed as the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Just when Yiliang thought he had gotten through it safely and could continue to make progress, he was suddenly found a crime by Emperor Daoguang and arrested. He was demoted to the lowest position and had to go home to eat rice. He was idle for almost ten years until the second year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign, when he was reappointed as the general of Fuzhou. At the beginning of this year, he was transferred to the post of governor of Jiangsu.

After more than ten years of twists and turns, he returned to the position of governor.

But he was not happy at all. In fact, from the first day he received the transfer order, he knew that he was here to take the blame!
Because when he took office, the Taiping Army had already taken over at least half of the territory of Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture in Hubei, and also controlled half of Hunan. At this time, the defenses along the Yangtze River downstream of Wuchang were only better than nothing, and it would be difficult to resist the Taiping Army down the river for a long time.

The prosperous Jiangnan region is likely to become the next target of attack by the Taiping rebels, who control Wuchang and Hanyang and have a large number of ships!
Whoever becomes the governor of Jiangsu at this time would likely be blamed for the loss of a city and the country’s life.

Fortunately, the Jiangsu governor’s residence is not in Jiangning Prefecture but in Suzhou Prefecture, so there should be some room for maneuver. There are also foreign strongholds in Shanghai near Suzhou. As long as we can borrow foreign soldiers, there is still hope of defending Suzhou.

However, when Yi Liang, the “old scapegoat”, officially took over as Governor of Jiangsu, he found that the situation was worse than he had originally imagined!
The Taiping rebels came too quickly. Their vanguard rushed to Taiping Prefecture next to Jiangning Prefecture in February, captured Caishiji and Dangtu County. After gaining a foothold, they quickly advanced into Jiangning, successively conquering Jiangning Town, Banqiao, Moling Town, Dashengguan, Yuhuatai, Xiaolingwei, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, and Yanziji. By the beginning of March, they had completed the three-sided encirclement of Jiangning.

And the main force of the Taiping Army continued to flow along the Yangtze River!

At the same time, the attitude of the foreigners made Yiliang feel desperate. The British, French and American consuls in Shanghai only mentioned “revising the treaty” but did not propose to send troops. As soon as Wu Jianzhang negotiated with them to send troops, these foreign devils said something like “neutrality”!
They are “neutral” but still want to “revise the treaty”. Isn’t this just trying to get something for free?
The foreigners are really not good people!

The news that came from outside Jiangning City this morning made Yiliang even more frightened – the main force of the Changmao army had already landed at the dock of Dashengguan. The “red-headed men” were a mighty force, and there were no less than 100,000 strong men who could go to the battlefield.

Together with the 30,000 or 40,000 who arrived earlier, the number of Taiping troops outside Nanjing City had reached 130,000 or 140,000!
I’m afraid that Jinling City will fall soon.
“Master Yi, good news!”

When Yiliang was getting anxious in the second hall of his own governor’s office, he suddenly heard someone outside shouting “good news”. The person who shouted spoke in Beijing dialect and was obviously not one of the Shaoxing lawyers who were just eating and drinking in the governor’s office.

Yiliang thought about it, and a hint of joy flashed across his face.

Because he had remembered that the voice belonged to his nephew Guaerjia Yuanbao.

Yuanbao came to Suzhou with Shengbao. Shengbao came to serve as assistant minister of military affairs, while Yuanbao served under Yiliang and Shengbao as a second-class guard.

Yiliang also valued these two nephews very much, and immediately entrusted them with important tasks, asking Shengbao, the assistant minister, to help organize the Jiangsu militia. Unexpectedly, Shengbao had only been in office for a few days when his brothers came to report good news.

“Yuanbao, come in quickly!” Yiliang called out quickly.

“twitter!”

The person outside responded first, and then the door curtain was raised, and Guaerjia Yuanbao hurried in from outside. When he came to Yiliang, he bowed and said, “Greetings to my uncle.” “Hurry up,” Yiliang smiled and asked Yuanbao to stand up, “Yuanbao, you said you had good news just now?”

Yuan Bao stood up, took two steps, and came to Yiliang’s side. He smiled and said, “Uncle, today the leader of the foreigners in Shanghai, the Vice Consul of England, Sir Thomas Wade, and Wu Daotai came to Suzhou together. I just accompanied my brother to meet them.”

“Is this the good news you mentioned?” Yiliang snorted, his face fell, “Yuanbao, those foreign devils are very cunning. It’s harder than climbing to the sky to ask them to send troops to help suppress the rebellion. Besides, we can’t afford the cost of asking them to send troops! If they sell opium to us openly, they will cheat all the money in our country!
Besides, even if we agree to let them sell opium freely, how many soldiers can they send? How many foreign soldiers are there in Shanghai?”

Yuan Bao shook his head and said, “Uncle, their coming to Suzhou is certainly not good news, but they brought some unexpected good news.”

“What good news?” Yiliang asked.

Yuan Bao smiled and said, “It’s a rare general from Shanghai. He is a fellow countryman invited back from Southeast Asia by Luo Ruweng. His name is Luo Xueyan. He is the deputy county governor of Hunan and Luo Ruweng’s chief advisor. A while ago, he followed Luo Ruweng’s order and led 500 elite Hunan troops to Shanghai to buy arms from foreigners.”

Yuanbao then told Yiliang all the stories that Wu Jianzhang had told Shengbao and Yuanbao, including some exaggerations, about how Luo Xueyan “first showed off his military power in Shanghai, then won over foreigners, and finally purchased foreign weapons and hired foreign generals.”

Yiliang was stunned for a moment, with a suspicious look on his face: “There is such a person. Is it wrong that Luo Ruweng invited him back from Southeast Asia?”

Yuan Bao asked: “Uncle, what’s wrong?”

Yiliang shook his head: “Everything is wrong. First of all, it’s wrong to come back from Southeast Asia! I, your uncle, was the Governor of Guangdong, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang for five years. I know all too well about these scoundrels who went to Southeast Asia. There are not many good guys. Nine out of ten of them have joined the Tiandihui!

Secondly, isn’t this guy a little too capable? Is it so easy to practice foreign drills? I have seen elite foreign soldiers. I also wanted my Fu Biao to learn from them, but I couldn’t! How can that guy say that he can master it by practicing?
Besides, it’s not easy to deal with foreigners. When I, the governor, wanted to ask them for help, they ignored me and put forward a series of conditions. Why should they help Luo Xueyan so much? “

After listening to Yiliang’s analysis, Yuanbao also felt that there was indeed something wrong with Luo Xueyan.

“Uncle,” Yuan Bao frowned, “What do you think we should do? Should we try to capture him?”

Yiliang glanced at Yuanbao and said, “Capture him? He has 800 elite soldiers in Shanghai, and he has bought a large number of foreign guns and cannons and can practice foreign drills. I am not sure I can capture him even if I send my flag over there!
Besides, just because he has problems doesn’t mean we won’t tolerate him! I guess he might be fostered by foreigners, or maybe the Hunanese are working with foreigners to do this, but he’s unlikely to be a Long Haired person. As long as he’s not a Long Haired person, he can be used.”

“Uncle is really great!” Yuan Bao gave a thumbs up and praised him. After that, he asked with a big smile on his face, “I wonder how Uncle is going to use him?”

Yiliang stroked his beard and smiled slightly: “Of course I will report it to the emperor. Let the emperor judge for himself what this person’s background is. If he is really the seventh-rank candidate recommended by Luo Ruzhai, the Ministry of Personnel must have his file, and we will know it once we check it.

As long as the emperor is sure that he is Luo Ruzhai’s man, then the emperor will definitely want to make use of this talent. Yuanbao, you can make a suggestion to Prince Gong to see if he can be appointed as the Jiangnan Salt Law and Jiangning Prefecture! “

“A fourth-rank position, still a lucrative one!”

Yuan Bao’s face was full of envy.

Yiliang glanced at him and said with a smile, “If it’s not a lucrative position, why would he be willing to work so hard? Jiangning Prefecture is an empty post, but the Jiangnan Salt Administration is not in vain. After all, the salt affairs of Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Taicang are under the jurisdiction of the Salt Administration. Isn’t it like making a few hundred thousand taels a year? If he is a bit ruthless, he can make millions! But the premise is that he has to defend these four prefectures and one state! If he fails, the millions will be collected by the Taiping!
Over a million, hehe. Even if he is a Taiping rebel, he must be loyal to the Qing Dynasty! Let’s go, I’ll go meet that foreign devil Wade!”

(End of this chapter)