These days, Qin Zhihong has never seen his senior brother Wang Qingyi again, but he also learned a lot of news during his days in the capital: foreigners are eyeing each other, and they are sending troops to protect Dongjiaomin Lane and the embassy church, and the imperial court initially allowed each country to have a garrison of 30 people, but now it has increased to more than 1,000 people, and the number is still increasing.

By this time, it was the summer of the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, and many Boxers came into the capital, Qin Zhihong only knew when he asked that it was the imperial court that ordered the boxers to enter the capital, Qin Zhihong immediately rushed to panic, because he knew that foreigners and Boxers were constantly pouring into the capital, and there would inevitably be disputes, and there would definitely be incidents.

Sure enough, there was a riot in the capital, and the Boxers gathered near Dongjiaomin Lane and began to attack the church and attack the embassy. And Qin Zhihong returned to the residence to tell Lian'er, Lian'er was also taken aback, she didn't expect the boxers to be so impulsive, so she asked Qin Zhihong:

"Do you think the court will care?"

Qin Zhihong said: "I don't know, but now the imperial court doesn't seem to have made any statement, maybe it's still waiting." But I heard that the foreigners had already sent troops from Tianjin, and the first batch of forward troops had already boarded the train and were heading for the capital. ”

Qin Zhihong was not at ease, so he said: "No, I have to go to the inner city to have a look, if I find my senior brother Wang Qingyi, and explain to him clearly, whether it is a foreigner or the imperial court, if you say that you will turn your face, you will turn your face, so that he can have a way out in his heart." ”

Qin Zhihong has been practicing medicine near the Guangning Gate in the outer city, and rarely goes to the inner city, because it is generally a residential area for high-ranking officials and nobles and children of the Eight Banners, and these people rarely invite Jianghu Langzhong to see a doctor, so except for himself to go to the pharmacy in Dashilar to buy some medicinal materials, Qin Zhihong rarely enters the inner city.

Lian'er also insisted on following, and Qin Zhihong also knew that she was not at ease with herself, so she agreed to leave together.

Walking north from Chongwen Gate, soon arrived at Dongjiaomin Lane, in fact, I had seen a little fire in the distance, and when I walked in, I realized that it was the boxers who were throwing torches into the various embassies, trying to attack the door of the test tube with fire. However, every embassy had foreigners with loaded guns in the handle, and although there were many Boxers, they did not dare to approach.

Not only were a few houses in the embassy area burned, but many nearby houses were also set on fire, and the flames and pillars of smoke could be seen in any corner of the capital. Qin Zhihong searched all over the places where boxers gathered, but he didn't find his senior brother Wang Qingyi, and foreigners shot outside the embassy from time to time, Qin Zhihong felt that it was too dangerous, so he took this Lian'er back quickly.

But not long after arriving home, the senior brother Wang Qingyi came to look for him and the two of them, only to see that the senior brother was full of dust, obviously he had fought with foreigners with boxers, but he didn't know what happened to the two of them this time.

Wang Qingyi didn't say hello, and said directly to Qin Zhihong: "Senior brother, there is something you have to do, can you help me in the end?" ”

Qin Zhihong replied: "Senior brother, if you have anything to say, you can just say it, and you don't have to be polite at this time." ”

As soon as Wang Qing saw Qin Zhihong say this, he said directly: "Now that the Queen Mother Lafayette has declared war with the Eight Kingdoms, and the Eight Kingdoms have also assembled their armies and are heading towards the capital, I want you to quickly take my letter to the two leaders Cao Futian and Zhang Decheng, to inform them, and hurry up to stop the foreigners on the road, ensure that we take the embassy, and then prepare the imperial court to resist." ”

Qin Zhihong also felt that the responsibility was heavy at this time, so he agreed. Before leaving, Qin Zhihong said to Wang Qingyi:

"Senior brother, although the situation is urgent now, junior brother still has something to say to you, senior brother."

Wang Qingyi hurriedly asked, "What's the matter?" You said. ”

Qin Zhihong said: "I think that although the imperial court recognized the Boxers this time and allowed the boxers to enter Beijing, it is indispensable to guard against people, think about the final outcome of my cousin Zhu Honglan, and you will understand that the imperial court will push us out as scapegoats at any time, and although the main battle faction in the court is tough, but if they can't beat the foreigners, they will also be difficult to protect themselves, you have to think twice!" ”

Wang Qing smiled and said: "This master often tells me that the court is not credible, but I think how can you and the master have such a short understanding, if there is no support from the court, we will be at most a homeless grass, and there is no way to serve the country, okay, don't tell me about it, you better leave as soon as possible." ”

Qin Zhihong saw that it was Wang Qingyi who said this, sighed, and thought to himself, everyone has their own ambitions, and they can't force it, so he led the horse from the master out of the door, and told Lian'er that he must wait for him to come back at home.

According to his brother's instructions, Qin Zhihong hurried up, and finally at night, when he arrived at TJ, he met Zhang Decheng and Cao Futian.

In the letter, Wang Qingyi informed the two leaders that the imperial court had sent troops to block the coalition forces along the way, and Zai Yi and other ministers of the main war faction in the DPRK and China also said that they hoped that the Boxers would fight together with the official army and find their own fighters to block the Eight-Nation Alliance.

According to the actual situation specifically explained in the letter, Zhang Decheng and Cao Futian opened the map and carefully observed the situation, so they decided: quickly send people to inform Tankou near the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, quickly destroy the railroad tracks, and delay the advance of the foreigners, and then Cao Futian led all the troops to block the attack in the middle, and Zhang Decheng needed to stay here and wait for all his troops to be in place before supporting.

Because Qin Zhihong had just passed by along the way and was familiar with the road, Cao Futian agreed that Qin Zhihong would go with him to block the coalition army.

At this time, the team of foreigners from all over the world was not very large, only about 500 people, and when they arrived at TJ, they hurriedly got on the train to support the Beijing Division, but when they arrived at Yangcun, the railroad tracks were destroyed, so they had to get off the train, stand by in place, and wait for the reinforcements to arrive and then advance to the capital.

At this time, Cao Futian arrived at Yang Village with the people from all the altars that TJ could contact, and sure enough, he learned from the surrounding people that there were many foreigners' troops stationed here, and soon the Qing army sent by the imperial court was also led by Nie Shicheng to block it.

Cao Futian immediately felt bad, Qin Zhihong was just on the side, and hurriedly asked Old Man Cao why he said so. Cao Futian replied:

"You are Wang Qingyi's junior brother, I will also tell you, this Nie Shicheng and the Boxers have always been at odds, last month we had a foreigner's railway at the TJ tea party, this Nie Admiral sent people and shot and killed more than 500 of our brothers, which can be described as bloody and brutal; And some time ago, we played TJ Lend-Lease, and it was he who led his troops to suppress it, which can be described as collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country. Fortunately, Wang Qingyi's elder brother made this crime public in front of the ministers of the main station of the court, so that King Duan and Ronglu punished him, so we couldn't get along with him anymore, and the matter was over. ”

Qin Zhihong thought to himself, this Nie Shicheng regards boxers as bandits, although he doesn't know the general situation, sometimes it can even be said that he is a happy thing to be a relative and an enemy, and he is connected to foreign countries, but didn't I also see boxers set fire to the people's houses near Dongjiaomin Lane? Some things in time are really difficult to distinguish from right and wrong, and even sometimes, instead of looking at emotions, only looking at the interests and disadvantages, they come clearly and clearly.

In fact, Nie Shicheng suppressed boxers when he was in ZL, and later Rong Lu transferred him to TJ, and he had constant friction with Cao Futian and Zhang Decheng. The Qing army of TJ was dressed differently from the Beijing division, and the military uniforms were mostly similar to those of foreigners, which also attracted many attacks from the Boxers, but Nie Shicheng received orders from his superiors and did not dare to resist, and even said in a reply letter to Rong Lu, the Minister of Military Aircraft: "Boxers and bandits harm the people will bring disaster to the country." A certain commander is directly subordinate, there are bandits in the territory, and he can't be suppressed, so what? If you are killed by the bandits, you will not dare to resign. "Presumably, he also has a word of suffering.

However, since the imperial court instructed the officials and soldiers to work together with the boxers to stop the foreigners, Cao Futian had no choice but to take care of the overall situation. Now the foreign army in Yangcun has been surrounded by the Qing army and the Boxers, and soon a Qing soldier came with an order from Admiral Nie Shicheng, saying that the Boxers should immediately charge Yangcun and quickly annihilate the outer ** team inside.

How could Cao Futian not know that this was cannon fodder for the Qing army, but since the imperial court had recognized the Boxers, he had no choice but to take orders, and after saying this, the Qing soldiers went back, Cao Futian said helplessly: "Okay, just take this reinforcement and don't exist, only our Boxers themselves are planning with the foreigners." ”

Saying that, Cao Futian ordered a group of Boxers to attack the recalcitrant foreigners stationed in Yangcun. However, this team of men and horses just attacked less than 300 meters away from Yang Village, and saw the various entrances of the village, the roaring tongue of fire with machine guns, in an instant, many boxers were knocked to the ground, Cao Futian immediately ordered the Boxers to withdraw quickly, but at this time, the Qing army was responsible for the defense of the front but also suddenly machine guns roared, Cao Futian and Qin Zhihong looked from afar, it turned out that Nie Shicheng actually ordered to shoot at the Boxers who were afraid of death and did not dare to attack, Cao Futian suddenly stood with three fire caps and scolded.

Qin Zhihong saw hundreds of people with his own eyes, being hit to the ground piece by piece by bullets from both sides, while they still held large swords and spears in their hands, but they could never fight again.

Suddenly, Qin Zhihong couldn't hear all the gunshots, and felt extremely sad in his heart, this sadness was reflected in the hearts of many people in the past, Xiang Yu had, Zhuge Liang had, Yue Fei had, Yuan Chonghuan had, and Tie Xuan who was enshrined in the Tiegong Temple of JN Mansion also had, this is actually the helplessness when the country is too weak and the individual is too strong. Although Qin Zhihong is not a hero, this helplessness also invades the whole body in an instant, not to mention those who have great ambitions.

At this time, the Qing army had also exchanged fire with the coalition army, but the coalition army seemed to be in defeat, so they gathered their troops and withdrew eastward, and in less than a day, they withdrew from Langfang to the TJ lease.

Cao Futian also led the army back, and said to Qin Zhihong: "You hurry up and see Zhang Decheng and ask him to prepare to defend the TJ Dagu Fort." I'll go with a large group of people to help. ”

So Qin Zhihong did not delay, he immediately set off, here to rush to TJ, in fact, at this time, the coalition army has captured Dagukou, and Zhang Decheng's command is known as the "first regiment in the world" The title of 5,000 men and horses has been ready, so Qin Zhihong immediately returned to see Cao Futian and told him that Dagu was lost, and Zhang Decheng's leader was ready to fight a decisive battle with the foreigners.

At this time, Cao Futian arrived at Laolongtou Station with a large group of men and horses following the retreating vanguard of the foreigners, Cao Futian decided to attack the coalition army, but he was afraid that Nie Shicheng, who arrived later, would also come to attack the Boxers, so he would suffer a big loss, so he was a little undecided, Qin Zhihong saw the clue, and said to Cao Futian: "Mr. Cao, if you can trust me, I can go to Nie Shicheng to persuade the outside world to avoid accidental injury, and my senior brother Wang Qingyi has a relationship with Duanwang Zaiyi, and he will also consider it in his face." ”

Cao Futian glanced at Qin Zhihong and said, "Okay, it has to be like this, as long as I can make him temporarily put aside his prejudices, I am still willing to cooperate with the officials and soldiers." ”

So Qin Zhihong immediately went west along the railway to find the officers and soldiers.