"Your Majesty, Minister, there is no need to discuss this issue. Her Majesty the Queen Mother in Beijing can either open the city gate and invite Her Majesty the Emperor and me in, or I can directly blow open the city wall and walk in myself as an occupier in their frightened eyes.
They have no other choice." Just as his female secretary spent a whole night ransacking the Summer Palace, and then returned to Qinhuangdao with Cixi's beloved treasures, Yang Feng was speaking in an unquestionable tone to the visitors.
British Minister Buckler said.
Of course, Cixi was not prepared to rely on holding on to Beijing to solve the problem. Even if her Eight Banners elite soldiers could hold on for a year, it would still be meaningless if they could not defeat Yang Feng. Her goal was to use holding on to Beijing to make Yang Feng give up and turn around.
betraying Guangxu again. After all, Yang Feng's help to Guangxu cannot be without a bottom line. He is an exchange of interests. If the cost of attacking Beijing makes him feel that it is not worthwhile, and then gives him what Guangxu promised, this guy will change his attitude.
Cixi saw this very clearly.
So while arranging the city defense, she also asked Bao Kele, who had already gone to Tianjin, to be a lobbyist. She didn't care whether it succeeded or not. The key was not to cut off the channel for dialogue between the two parties.
Baokele left Beijing before the fall of Tongzhou, and was immediately invited out by Ronglu himself. Of course, labor fees were indispensable. In fact, most of the envoys from various countries in Beijing at this time went to Tianjin. This war was chaotic.
What if a shell misses the target and flies to the embassy? If someone accidentally hurts it, of course you can blackmail it, but if it is accidentally shot by Yang Feng's army, you have to admit that you are unlucky. So far, the British Navy has built a diesel warship
The number has reached 20, and there are still more than 20 under construction. But the diesel engine has been researched so far, let alone built. Even if it breaks down, you have to go to Sweden to buy replacement parts from Young Power Systems Company. Now some sober-minded people
Insightful people have called on the government to be wary of this situation of being controlled by others in key technologies, and have even called for a halt to the construction of diesel-engine warships.
The British government would like to think so, but look around, almost all naval powers are building. Even Turkey, which is in decline, has directly ordered two 7,000-ton armored cruisers from Sweden, relying on the advantage of owning the Baku oil fields. The Russian Czar even
It is announced that all new Russian warships will use diesel engines in the future. This is not to mention that due to the shortage of oil, almost all major British consortiums have formed their own oil companies to explore and exploit oil throughout the world. If the British government stops building diesel-engine warships,
One can imagine how these angry predators will roulin the current government.
Prime Minister Salisbury even lamented that Britain was gradually being kidnapped by oil. Of course, he was too embarrassed to say that he was kidnapped by Yang Feng. In this case, I am afraid that even if Yang Feng's army accidentally injured their envoy, they would have to swallow it.
In this case, why not quickly avoid that place of right and wrong in Peiping.
It's a pity that Tianjin is not safe either, because the loyal and brave army on the eastern front, or the rebel army, has also reached the gates of Tianjin. Luo Rongguang, who was stationed in Dagukou, rejected Ronglu's request to support Tianjin and told him clearly,
The duty of the Dagukou garrison is to guard the country's gate. If there is an invasion from a foreign enemy, they will fight to the death. However, they will not care about matters within the country's gate. Not only the Dagukou garrison refuses to support Tianjin, but also the Beitangkou garrison.
The same refusal was made for the same reason. Poor Ronglu was now counting on Bao Kele's trip, otherwise he would have to lead his 7,000 men to fight a decisive battle against Yang Feng's brigade and the defecting New Army brigade.
"His Royal Highness King Zhennan, we just hope that you two can sit down and resolve the differences through negotiation. After all, once a war occurs, it will cause too much harm to civilians. For humanitarian reasons, it is best to avoid this kind of thing as much as possible."
Baokele said with a smile.
"No war? Yes, as long as the defenders in Beijing put down their weapons, welcome the emperor back to the palace, and then tie themselves up to await punishment, wouldn't there be no need for a war?" Yang Feng said.
"Huh?!" Baokele didn't dare to discuss this issue anymore. He had already determined that Yang Feng had to send Guangxu back to the throne this time. In fact, the British government did not have much influence on this war between emperors and empresses in China.
They even welcomed Guangxu more. After all, the slogans Guangxu promoted outside seemed very liberal, and he said that once he returned to Beijing, he would launch reforms. After Russia took over northern Japan, the British had no choice. They needed
A China that is powerful enough to stop the Russians from expanding in the Far East. As for whether China will rise, this is not a consideration for the time being. Besides, even if China does rise, it will be a matter of the future. The Russians can only be blocked on land now.
is the most important.
"Your Excellency, Minister, perhaps you should go and see our Emperor. You may find that he is a more suitable choice than the Queen Mother." Yang Feng looked at him and said calmly.
"Well, I think it's time for me to meet the emperor." Buckler shrugged. Of course he understood what it meant to be the British minister to meet Guangxu, but since Yang Feng insisted on flattering Guangxu, Britain had no choice.
At this time, the fighting outside Beijing had begun.
"What are they going to do?" Zaiyi looked at the hundreds of trucks driving out of the Zhongyong Army camp in the distance with some confusion. From the telescope, it could be seen that the trucks were not filled with soldiers.
"They want to fill in the moat!" Dashanyan, the general advisor of the city defense beside him, immediately understood the enemy's intention. If these trucks were filled with soil, they could fill in a road on the moat with a width of only fifty meters in one trip.
.
"How can they unload the truck when filling the river? Are they going to find a group of soldiers holding shovels? Wouldn't that just serve as a target for us?" Zai Yi said with a smile.
"Sir, the tail of that car can be lifted up by itself, and the soil inside will fall down immediately. I have seen it by the canal." A Goshiha said cautiously.
"Huh?" Zaiyi was dumbfounded. He slapped Goshiha on the back of the head and cursed: "I knew you didn't tell me earlier, you piece of shit!"
"Quickly, fire the artillery and stop them!" Under Goshiha's resentful eyes, Zaiyi shouted to the artillerymen next to him with a general's air. Two hundred gates were concentrated on the three-kilometer wall on both sides of the Chaoyang Gate he was defending.
Artillery accounts for almost half of the artillery in Beijing. The Zhongyong Army only has 20,000 people. It is impossible to encircle it on all sides. There are even no troops deployed in other directions. There is only one attack surface in the east of the city. The main attack directions are Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen.
There was no one in the direction, and the Qing army didn't have the guts to come out anyway. Dongbianmen belonged to the outer city, and they wouldn't attack there either.
After receiving his order, the densely packed artillery on the city wall opened fire immediately. However, with the skills of the Qing army's artillery, it was obvious that it would take a lot of luck to hit a convoy three or four kilometers away. We saw balls of fire in the wilderness.
They kept exploding, but unfortunately they all hit the backs of those trucks.
"Your Majesty, you must waste artillery shells. Use machine guns when they get close..." Before Dashanyan could finish his words, he heard a sudden roar above his head, and the old guy threw himself into a bunker surrounded by sandbags.
Inside, a huge fireball exploded not far away, and Zaiyi screamed and rolled in. Before the two of them could calm down, it was like a volcano erupting, and the entire city wall was instantly covered by countless exploding fireballs.
submerged.
Although this round of shelling did not cause much damage to the Qing army due to sufficient bunker protection, almost a third of the soldiers still fled their posts crying, and even the quick ones ran directly to the city.
Went down.
"Come back, don't run!" Dashanyan roared speechlessly. His hatred for Yang Feng was even deeper now. Obviously, if the devil hadn't caused trouble, it would have been the Japanese army led by him to face these pigs.
We have the same opponent, what a blessing that would be!
It's a pity that the fleeing Qing army didn't listen to him. At the same time, the second round of artillery shells fell, and not only the artillery shells, but also a small amount of poison gas bombs were contained in them. Now more people were running away. Dashanyan was so angry that he was
Zaiyi, who was curled up like a hedgehog at his feet, picked him up and shouted: "Your Highness, you must stop the soldiers from escaping!"
Zaiyi held her head in confusion for a moment, and didn't wake up until Dashanyan shouted for the second time.
"Order to supervise the battle team and kill anyone who runs away again!" He touched his twitching heart and finally regained some of his strength. He said fiercely to Goshiha. Under Dashanyan's suggestion, the Qing army was under all orders.
Supervisory teams were arranged at the passages of the city wall. However, because there was no order and they were caught off guard, they were rushed away. After receiving the order, the supervising team immediately raised their ghost-headed swords. The defeated troops who ran halfway had to
I slowly walked back to the city wall. Of course, those who ran away had no choice but to run away.
At this time, the Zhongyong Army's shelling also stopped, and the trucks were already about two kilometers closer.
"Don't waste the shells, get closer and use the machine gun!" Dashanyan said.
However, at this moment, all the trucks turned around and headed north at the same time, and then a crawler bulldozer and a crawler trailer drove out from behind, also chasing the convoy north.
"What do you mean, change to Dongzhimen?" Zaiyi was stunned.
Dashanyan was also at a loss, and the two of them looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes. But at this time, Zai Xun from Dongzhimen was anxious. He happened to be watching the fun, but suddenly he became the one being watched.
"Hurry up and prepare to shoot, Ma, you are not such a bully. It would be great to hit Chaoyangmen properly. Why do you have to run here?" He said with a face full of sadness and anger.
But then he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was not the target either!
"Andingmen, hurry up, go to Andingmen!" Dashanyan suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs.