Just as the so-called soldiers are not tired of deception, there were "thirty-six plans" in ancient China, and the tricks were all rushed to make the other party eat dumb losses. Li Hongzhang, as a person who has been in the eunuch sea for a long time, is naturally more familiar with these routines. He once played a trick to solve a certain foreigner mercenary from the United States quietly.
This person's name is Bai Qiwen, he is still capable of fighting, but he often smokes because of some things. Bai Qiwen was born in a family of officers, deeply affected by the family environment, likes to run around, likes to take risks, he has been on the battlefield in Europe before coming to China, and after coming to China, Bai Qiwen thinks that there are many opportunities here, so he joined the foreign gun team without thinking.
Another important figure in the Yankees was the American Wahl, who also became a Chinese citizen. In 1860, Wahl was commissioned by the Qing court to form a new army to help the Qing army against the Taiping Army. Wahl himself served as the team leader, and Bai Qiwen served as the deputy leader because of his certain combat experience.
This new army is actually no different from a mercenary, and is employed by people to fight for their lives. However, the equipment of the foreign gun team is much better than that of the Taiping Army, all of which are foreign guns and cannons, which is more than enough to deal with swords and sticks. At the beginning, the foreign soldiers in the team were not very disciplined, and they suffered losses against the Taiping Army.
Two years later, the foreign gun team was changed to the Changsheng Army, and Wahl still led the team, and due to the adjustment of the strategy, the combat effectiveness of the Changsheng Army was greatly strengthened. But the accident reappeared, Wahl was wounded and died in battle, and Bai Qiwen became the boss of the team. Bai Qiwen was different from Hua'er, he looked down on qingjun and Chinese in his heart, and his personality was very arrogant, and he said some words boasting of his battle achievements at every turn.
This kind of personality of his may still be able to eat well in foreign countries, but Chinese has paid attention to low-key and subtlety since ancient times, and there is absolutely no rule of making meritorious contributions to treating himself as a master. Therefore, Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan did not like this foreigner very much, and Bai Qiwen, who was a foreigner, felt that no one in China dared to move him.
Although Bai Qiwen cooperated with Li Hongzhang's Huai Army several times, contradictions broke out between the two sides each time. Li Hongzhang endured Bai Qiwen for a long time, until Bai Qiwen led people to directly beat up his boss Yang Fang, who managed him, and snatched 40,000 taels of silver from the storeroom, Li Hongzhang finally couldn't bear it.
He dismissed Bai Qiwen. Bai Qiwen was very angry, he thought that he had made no mistake but was fired, all because of the problems on the side of the Qing army. So Bai Qiwen went directly to the Beijing Division to complain, he had backstage support, and his speech was more arrogant, Li Hongzhang was even more unaccustomed to him, desperately trying to prevent him from reinstatement, as a result, Bai Qiwen had to leave in sorrow.
Unwillingly, he fell directly to the Taiping Army, and in turn opposed the Qing army. However, on the side of the Taiping Army, Tan Shaoguang, the King of Mu, was not very confident of Bai Qiwen's loyalty and did not entrust him with heavy responsibilities. The depressed Bai Qiwen planned to come to the Qing army again, but the US consul was also fed up with his constant tossing and turning, and twice sent him to Japan, not allowing him to come back to China.
Bai Qiwen was able to survive, he quietly sneaked back, and as a result, he was caught by the Qing army in Xiamen. In view of Bai Qiwen's identity, Li Hongzhang did not openly deal with him, but instructed people to send him to Suzhou to be taken care of. Of course, this statement was only explicit, in fact, those who sent Bai Qiwen had already received a secret order from Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang meant that this man was so powerful that he was going to heaven, so let him taste what it was like to go into the water. Knowing this, his men did not wait for Bai Qiwen's feet to set foot on the ground in Suzhou, so they threw him into the Lanxi River and announced that Bai Qiwen had "drowned in the boat". When Li Hongzhang heard the news, he touched his beard and smiled: "This criminal is extremely vicious and vicious, and he has caused him to be cursed, which shows that the Heavenly Dao is unhappy." When Bai Qiwen's body was salvaged, no suspicious traces could be found, and without evidence, Uncle Sam had to admit the results of this investigation.