Chapter 34: Peace Talks I
At this moment, the psychological defenses of all the coalition soldiers, including Montauban, collapsed, and they were completely desperate, because there was an invincible monster in front of them, and in the face of such a thing, any resistance would be futile, and if they continued to fight, there was no point in increasing casualties except for plain gains.
"Retreat!" Montauban squeezed out these words from between his teeth, and his heart was like ashes, the entire coalition of 10,000 people was defeated by a young man from China! And with great losses!
He pulled the panicked French ambassador Gro and said, "Did you see that? Did you see that? This Chinese can summon demons from hell, and we can't fight them unless God helps us! ”
Gro nodded meranally, without any intention of stopping, urging the horses under his crotch, and fled without looking back, under the escort of his entourage.
Zhang Yuntian chased and killed for a while in the back, so frightened that the British and French troops threw away their armor, and some people didn't even want guns in order to run faster.
There were a considerable number of Indian soldiers in the British army, they were left behind as cannon fodder, and they were ruthlessly crushed into pulp by Zhang Yuntian's tank, and this group of fools was also, their own country was occupied, not only did they not want to resist, but they even had the leisure to help the invaders invade other countries!
The British and French troops had already scattered and fled, fleeing from seven or eight directions, Zhang Yuntian was lacking in skills, chased for a while, only wiped out the dragoons, and when he turned back to look for other defeated soldiers, the people had already run away, and he had to give up.
In this battle, Zhang Yuntian annihilated a total of 2,300 British troops and 900 French troops with 10,000 people, captured 50 breech cannons and 3,000 flintlock guns, and gained a lot.
Montauban fled all the way with the defeated army, for fear of being caught up by Zhang Yuntian, and sent a thousand men to defend the Tongzhou main road, and the large army fled back to Tianjin.
In just three days, from the complete victory to the dispersal of the whole army, only 5,000 of the 10,000 soldiers brought with him remained, and the rest died and scattered, and this defeat was definitely the worst defeat in the history of world wars.
10,000 was defeated by one person, and was chased to lose his armor and run for more than 100 kilometers, if this matter is transmitted back to the ears of the emperor, his career should come to an end, and even his life will have to be lost.
He was depressed, and soon became bedridden.
The British envoy Erjin and the French envoy Gro were also full of gloom, the original negotiation conditions were one and the same, who knew that there was such a big change, how could they talk about it in the future?
Just when he was at a loss, a Chinese man in a white suit with Western politeness walked in, Erjin saw this person, and only barely squeezed out a smile on his originally gloomy expression, "Mr. Gong, it's too good for you to come, I just want you to help me come up with some ideas!" ”
This Chinese is the big traitor Gong Xiaogong, originally the Dagu Fort was very carefully guarded, there were both hidden piles in the river and mines on the bank, the defense was foolproof, it was this person with his servants to investigate around, and informed the foreigners of the Qing army's defense situation in great detail, which made the invaders avoid the real and drive straight in.
Originally, according to history, he also led the way and led the foreigners to loot the Old Summer Palace, of course, he also took the opportunity to make a fortune, but this dream was ruthlessly shattered by Zhang Yuntian.
"I've heard about that!" Gong Xiaogong said, "From ancient times to the present, there has never been a record of such a strange beast in history, and there must be another hidden secret!" ”
In his opinion, he didn't believe in any talk of summoning hellish demons at all, and if so, why had he never heard of it before?
Gong Xiaogong even believed that the Anglo-French alliance was hit by the mines bought by the Qing army, or that the two armies misfired because of the division of treasures and the uneven distribution of the spoils, so in order to avoid the emperors of various countries to blame, so they made up such a set of lies.
He paused, changed his words, and said: "I know that the two ministers are worried about the negotiation, this can be assured, now that the Qing army has been killed by the coalition forces, as long as the minister writes a letter to King Gong, asking him to go to Tongzhou for peace talks, and then double the price of compensation, as a concession, you can temporarily not enter the capital, so that it is not the best of both worlds?" ”
"Doubled?" Erjin couldn't believe his ears, "We just lost the war, how can the Qing court negotiate peace with us?" Not to mention that we have to raise the compensation price! Mr. Gong can't be joking! ”
Gong Xiaogong said solemnly: "I'm definitely not joking, the coalition refused to negotiate peace with the Qing court before, didn't it just want more benefits?" Now that the army has come to the city, although there have been some small changes on the way, I believe that this matter is by no means the instruction of the Qing court, so the more benefits at this time, the more sincere the Qing court will think of the peace talks, not to mention that the emperor still regards himself as a great power, and cares most about face, and now we promise not to enter the capital, which is the greatest respect for him! They won't be able to tell the difference between good and bad! ”
Erjin thought for a while, there is really no better way at the moment, it is better to give it a try, he nodded, patted Gong Xiaogong's shoulder and praised: "Mr. Gong is definitely the smartest person in the whole of China!" ”
Gong Xiaogong is a noble person, and even his father Gong Zizhen is not taken seriously by him, so now he is praised by foreigners, and he still has a natural expression.
Two hours ago... In the lobby of Prince Gong's Mansion, Yi? Walking around fidgeting with their hands behind their backs, the ministers standing below were also solemn and did not say a word, and the atmosphere of the entire hall was silent and solemn, so frightened that the maidservants serving on the side did not move, and did not even dare to breathe.
After a while, Yi? He stopped and asked Gui Liang below, "That British envoy Erjin actually openly said that he would burn down the Old Summer Palace?" This... It's arrogant! ”
Gui Liang just came back from the coalition army, was going to negotiate peace, but was beaten down by Ergin, now the main force of the Qing army has been defeated, and his own side has long lost the capital to negotiate, so he also swallowed his anger over there, and said all the good things, but was still driven back by others, before leaving, Erjin threatened: The Old Summer Palace must be burned! In order to avenge the illegal detention of 39 people, including Ambassador Bashari!
It turned out that when he was in Tongzhou, the Qing court and the coalition army had a peace talk, because the British envoy Ba Xiali was bidding all over the sky, and the peace talks broke down, Seng Gegelqin was angry that Ba Xia Li was speechless, so he personally led people to capture his group of 39 people on the way back, which also became one of the fuses of the Battle of Bali Bridge.
Now although Bashari and some of his entourage have been released, Erjin is still very angry and threatens to take revenge on the Qing Dynasty, of course, these are all things that happened before they entered the city, if he had known that he could meet Zhang Yuntian, he would rather die than say anything about those pretending to be 13.