A false alarm, more than 200 Qing cavalry came, led by a fat old man in his sixties, covered in dust, sweating, to the front of the saddle and dismounted, kneeling in front of the queen mother's car to ask for guilt: "Minister Ma Yukun is late to save the car, please forgive the queen mother and the emperor!" ”

"Admiral Ma is guilty of something, quickly calm down." When it was in danger, where did the Empress Dowager Cixi dare to reprimand the minister of rescue, it was too late to comfort her, Ma Yukun brought so many soldiers and horses, plus Baturu Liu Yanzhi, she took a reassuring pill, so she was not so worried.

"What's the role of this old man?" Liu Yanzhi asked Zhou Jiarui in a whisper.

"Ma Yukun, Admiral Zhili, equivalent to the commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region, this old man was born in the army, has fought a lot of tough battles, fought with Twist, fought with Agubai in Xinjiang, fought with the Japanese in North Korea, and played with the Eight-Nation Alliance, he is a tough guy." Teacher Zhou replied.

Liu Yanzhi was in awe, such a person is the backbone of the Chinese nation, a real iron-blooded soldier.

These horses brought by Ma Yukun include part of the Wuwei Left Army, the Tiger Gun Battalion and the Shenji Battalion, as well as a group of ministers who escaped from the capital, all of them are disgraced and embarrassed, Cixi asked about the situation in the city, Ma Yukun replied that the soldiers will not retreat, and now the whole city of Beijing is fighting in the streets.

This cry is not fake, as a soldier, watching the capital fall into the hands of the enemy, this indignation is unacceptable.

Cixi gently soothed a few words, and then shed a few tears, and suddenly remembered that Liu Yanzhi had mentioned that he wanted a good gun, so he asked Ma Yukun if he had a useful spear.

The Tiger Gun Battalion is a unit that specializes in spears, Ma Yukun asked someone to come over with a tiger gun, and Cixi asked him to hand it over to Liu Yanzhi.

This tiger gun is not simple, the head of the gun is sharp, there is no red tassel, it is not the kind of gun body made of the whole ash rod, but the whole iron gun shaft, a layer of bamboo on the outside, and then wrapped with silk thread, leather strips and rattan skin, the outer layer is covered with linen, coated with a layer of lacquer, this treatment method not only ensures the rigidity of the gun barrel, but also has elasticity, it will not freeze the hand in winter, and the weapon shock will not transmit the tremor to the tiger's mouth during the war, but the manufacturing cost is high, time-consuming and laborious, ordinary troops will not be equipped, the tiger gun battalion is the guard unit of the emperor when hunting, There will be this kind of magic weapon.

Of course, no matter how powerful the cold weapon is, it can't compete with the most old-fashioned arquebus, Cixi just watched Liu Yan's straight gun pick the thief, which produced this kind of plot, and the gift of the gun is also a kind of ritual and grace, and it is an encouragement to the loyal ministers and good generals in times of crisis.

Liu Yan got this tiger gun, thanked him again, and also gave Ma Yukun a fist salute, Ma Yukun saw his blood-stained robe, his eyes were blazing, he knew that he was a tiger general, and nodded to him slightly to show his appreciation.

When the reinforcements arrived, Cixi felt a little more at ease, and ordered to continue on the road, and the team swayed forward, including the prince wearing python robes, the ministers wearing first- and second-grade official uniforms, the royal forest army wearing armor, and the Wuwei Left Army wearing new-style military uniforms, and a large number of nobles who changed into the robes of the people, all kinds of colors, staggering, sad faces, and marching to the northwest.

The Eight-Nation Coalition will chase at any time, the West Hunting team did not dare to stop, ran to the Summer Palace in one breath, Cixi did not even dare to enter the garden, until the evening, only to camp in Guanshi, which is seventy miles away from Beijing, where there are Hui people living for generations, the imam heard that the Empress Dowager Luan drove here, and hurriedly let out the mosque to invite the Empress Dowager Emperor to stay, that night, the veteran Ma Yukun, a veteran in his sixties, personally guarded the door with a knife and a gun, and did not dare to slack off.

In the early morning of the next day, Luan drove on the road again, arrived at the south entrance at noon, the stragglers were raging, the common people abandoned their houses, and hid in the mountains with their families and dogs and sheep, and the guards searched everywhere to find some millet and eggs, which were cooked in the farmer's pot for the queen mother and the emperor to satisfy their hunger.

Cixi sat and rested in the farmhouse, this is already the best house in the village, it is only half of the green brick, the upper half is rammed earth, the big kang is covered with dirty mats, and there is tea on the small kang table, there is no good tea in the countryside, only the tea made by the coolies in the capital.

The eunuch trembled and held the coarse porcelain bowl, and there was a hole in the bowl, Cixi frowned at a glance, the palace used all tribute porcelain, translucent and snow-white, comparable to jade, such crude tableware looked at no appetite, millet porridge was hot, and there was no spoon, only a pair of black wooden chopsticks, two eggs were boiled in the wrong heat, and the palace maid carefully peeled the skin, or peeled mottled and ugly.

On weekdays, Cixi is accustomed to brocade clothes and jade food, two meals a day are hundreds of dishes, of course, this is just the formula of the palace emperor's diet, in fact, these hundreds of dishes Cixi did not even taste, and after the arrangement, she withdrew and rewarded the palace maids and eunuchs to eat, the queen mother only eats all kinds of Jiangnan dishes carefully cooked by the imperial kitchen, any dish contains the hard work of the imperial chefs, and she tried her best to eat happily and satisfactorily for Lafayette, even so, the queen mother still found fault at both ends in three days, in a word, the queen mother's mouth was struggling.

The escape was in a hurry, the tableware was not brought, the cooking utensils were not brought, the imperial kitchen was not brought, the millet porridge and eggs were burned by the palace maids, the taste can be imagined, Cixi was upset, waved her hand and said to withdraw, the mourning family did not want to eat.

Li Lianying fell to her knees with a puff: "Lafayette, you are worried about the people of the capital, and the minions know it, but you also have to take care of the phoenix body." ”

"Bring it to the Emperor." Cixi waved her hand and closed her eyes, but her stomach was growling uncontrollably, and the atmosphere was a little embarrassing.

Li Lianying saw the opportunity to act, and asked the palace maid to take the food down for the time being, the weather is hot, and the hot millet porridge is naturally difficult to eat, and when Lafayette is in a better mood, he may use it.

Now Cixi is still hypocritical, others don't even have millet porridge and eggs, the princes and ministers and soldiers ran to the field to find food to eat, fortunately, the year of Gengzi is a good year, there are ripe crops everywhere, melons, fruits and grains, everything, as long as you do it, you can't be hungry.

I saw the python robe and Baylor and the soldier in the number coat squatting on the ridge together, holding melons in their hands, gobbling up their faces full of juice, and after eating, they wiped their mouths with their sleeves, and continued to pick them on the ground.

When the millet porridge was cold, Li Lianying personally brought it over and begged: "Lafayette, you can use some." ”

Cixi was in a bad mood, and waved her hand to blow the coarse porcelain bowl on the ground, and now she didn't even have to eat millet porridge.

Li Lianying was so frightened that she knelt on the ground and kowtowed like pounding garlic: "Lafayette, Lafayette, the slave should die." ”

"The mourning family wants to be quiet." Cixi didn't have the heart to scold him, and waved his hand to let him out.

Li Lianying walked out of the farmhouse backwards, and it happened that Lin Huaiyuan came over with a wooden food box, and said, "Manager Li, you are auspicious." ”

"Lord Lin, this is?" Li Lianying looked at the box suspiciously.

"The minister has prepared some pastries, please invite the chief manager to offer the queen mother." Lin Huaiyuan opened the lid of the box and revealed the color of the goods inside, although it was only a folk pastry, it was also very fine, and the golden cake was decorated with green and red silk, and he had an appetite when he looked at it.

"You owe this loyalty." Li Lianying was worried about the Queen Mother's meal, and her old face suddenly turned cloudy, and she hurriedly took over the food box.

"Mr. Li, this is a little heart." Lin Huaiyuan took out an ingot of horseshoe gold from his sleeve and gave it to Li Lianying, this ingot of gold was also prepared by Zhou Jiarui for him.

Unexpectedly, Li Lianying raised her face and said, "Lord Lin, do we still lack this yellow and white thing?" He stretched out his hand to block it, carried the food box into the farmhouse, and presented it to Cixi.

Cixi was actually hungry for a long time, but she didn't want to eat poor food on the shelf, she closed her eyes slightly, her nose twitched twice, the fragrance of the cake made her feel like a sudden, and she wanted to grab it immediately and stuff it into her mouth, but she still asked casually: "Little Lizi, what is this?" ”

"Back to Lafayette, it is some dim sum prepared by Lin Huaiyuan, the official of Dai criminals, please taste Lafayette." Li Lianying replied.

"Oh, I look weird and like people, I don't know how it tastes." Cixi said, her frowning brows stretched a little, picked up a piece casually, and ate it slowly, drinking water from the tea bowl while eating, and the one she ate was called a fragrant.

Li Lianying's heart fell to the ground, but she quietly wiped her tears, he was a loyal slave, serving his master for decades, he had never seen Cixi so embarrassed, how could he not be sad.

Cixi ate a few pieces of pastry, asked people to send the rest to Guangxu and Longyu, took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth, and asked, "Little Lizi, what kind of official is Lin Huaiyuan?" ”

"Back to Lafayette, Lin Huaiyuan was the prefect of Omi before he retreated."

"Oh, when you return to Beijing, get him a basket to pawn, you can remember this for the mourning family."

"Huh."

Li Lianying came out of the farmhouse, Lin Huaiyuan was still waiting in the distance, only to see the chief eunuch beckoning to him: "Lord Lin, congratulations." ”

"Manager Li, where does the joy come from?" Lin Huaiyuan ran over and asked, his heart full of apprehension.

"Lafayette said, when I return to Beijing, I will bring you a basket."

"Empress Dowager Xie Longen, Chief Xie Li." Lin Huaiyuan was grateful, and he couldn't wait to throw himself to the ground.

"That's it, in the future, if you work hard, Lafayette will have to promote you." After Li Lianying finished speaking, she turned around and went back.

Lin Huaiyuan was full of emotion, ten years of hard study, twenty years of conscientious work, and a box of snacks that were not worth two taels of silver.

After the team finished fighting, continued to pull out, crossed the Juyong Pass, passed through the forty-mile ditch, the mountain road was bumpy, the carriage and horses could not pass, the queen mother also had to get off the car and walk, the cavalry all dismounted, led the horse forward, and rested again, even the millet porridge had nothing to eat, the guards searched everywhere, only to get two nests for Cixi to fill the hunger, and the rest of the people could only be hungry, sit on the ground, and tighten the belt to resist hunger.

Liu Yanzhi and the others also didn't have anything to eat, but Zhou Jiarui was calm, he told Liu Yanzhi that he would be able to arrive in Huailai County tomorrow, and the county magistrate here was called Wu Yong, who was a very capable official, and it was time to carry out the third step of the plan.

As he spoke, he took out a stack of papers, which were written in small letters.

"This is the memora I wrote, please submit it to Cixi, our brother's future is on this."

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