"Didn't you say that the Wu thief had already retreated? How did you come back again? Yesterday I said goodbye, and today I said it again, is this one true and that one is false? ”

"I hope that the sudden return of the Wu thief is false news, it is really retreated, the Shoushan District of Gyeonggi can't withstand the war, and our manor outside the city can't withstand the toss. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"Don't dream, the Wu thief must have really come this time! Didn't you see that Prince Gong and several military planes were not in the courtroom? The old prince Hui and the monk prince who are in charge of the defense of the capital division are also not there? Also, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and according to the rules of the imperial court, it is not up to the early dynasty, so why does the palace still issue an order to call Daqi? In addition to the fact that the Wu rebel thief army suddenly turned around and killed back, what other major event could make the two Queen Mothers change the rules of their ancestors? ”

"Listening to what Master Fei said, it makes some sense, but the old man still hopes that Wu Thief's crime against Jingshi is just a rumor, don't be true."

"Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen! ”

An official who suddenly rushed into the court room shouted and interrupted the discussion of the Manchu civil and military officials, and shouted: "The big thing is not good, the palace has just spread the edict, and the whole city is under martial law!" The news that Wu's rebel thief army turned around and came to attack the capital again can be sure to be true! ”

"Martial law in the whole city?!"

The uproar resumed, and none of the Manchu officials in the court room did not have a change of color on their faces, and they all complained bitterly in their hearts, and they all understood what kind of danger signal the sudden martial law in the capital represented, and they were all worried about whether the capital could block the offensive of the Wu army? There are quite a few middle-level officials who have begun to play such an idea, "If the Wu thief really enters the capital, the official will immediately raise his hand and surrender, and go to the Wu thief to become an official again." ”

"What's the noise? Shut up the king! ”

In the panic, the majestic sound of the dragon and tiger roaring of the monk and the prince suddenly came, which immediately overwhelmed all the voices in the room, and then, the door of the court room was kicked open, and the wind and snow poured into the middle of the room. A group of young mice who are greedy for life and afraid of death, Zeng Guoquan, a dog thief, a clown jumping off the beam, and a soldier who is a prisoner in Beijing who seeks his own death, what is there to be afraid of? ! ”

Not to mention, the majesty of the monk and the prince really calmed the audience, and not only did none of the civil and military officials in the room dare to speak again, but they didn't even dare to take a breath. Seeing this scene, the monk's expression was naturally more majestic and brave, and he said confidently: "Listen, you just need to be good at your own errand!" When the Wu rebel army came to the city, there was the old prince Hui and the king who led the army to exterminate it, you just have to wait in the city to celebrate the old prince Hui and the king! ”

The officials nodded one after another, all saying yes, but while nodding yes, there were still some young people who couldn't help but slander the monk and the prince in their hearts, and said secretly: "Monk and prince, remember the last time the foreigners forced the emperor to Rehe, you seemed to say the same thing before the war?" ”

At this time, the Jingyang bell had already rang, and the signal to convene the court meeting was issued, and the hundred officials hurriedly went out of the room to line up, and the bloodshot devil six also led the military aircraft with black circles on their faces and hurriedly came to the door of the court to join the court.

After arriving at the Jinluan Palace, the hundred officials had just stood according to their positions, and An Dehai's voice came from the hall saying that the two palaces had arrived, and the hundred officials hurriedly knelt down and saluted, and the mountain shouted long live. And after finishing the passing scene, Ci'an, who was sitting behind the bead curtain, spoke first, and said in a hoarse voice: "Aiqing, I think you have also heard the news, the thief of the Wu rebel thief army, Zeng Guoquan, went and returned, and suddenly rushed to the north, as of yesterday night, he had arrived in the southern suburbs of Gu'an, and there were only two hundred miles left from the capital. The thief is huge, what can he do? Do you have a high opinion? ”

Although he had been mentally prepared, when Ci'an personally confirmed the bad news, the civil and military officials in the Jinluan Palace were still in an uproar, and their hope of staying away from the war was completely disappointed. Only the monk and the prince were not flustered, and came out and played: "Don't worry, the Queen Mother, there are servants to assist the old prince Hui to lead the army and resist the thieves, and Zeng Guoquan will be captured by the rebels, and the Wu rebel thieves will not return!" ”

"The matter of commanding the army to resist the enemy, of course, depends on the old prince Hui and the monk Aiqing." Cixi nodded behind the curtain, and asked very uneasily: "I just don't know how the fifth master and the monk Aiqing plan to resist the enemy?" ”

"The slave has already discussed it with Old Prince Hui." The monk replied with great confidence: "The Jianrui, firearms, forwards, escorts, patrol battalions and Fengtai garrisons in the capital still have 26,000 troops, which is enough to hold the capital. ”

"In addition, the minions and the old prince Hui also plan to follow the example of the Kangxi Dynasty's famous general, the first-class Zhongda Gongtu Haitu General, to recruit the brave and healthy among the slaves of the Eight Banners, and let them bring their own bows, arrows, knives and guns to join the army, and the minions are estimated to get at least 50,000 troops, and when the minions build these 50,000 slaves into an army, they can fight with the Wu rebel army on the battlefield."

Hearing that this strategy of the monk prince was quite reliable, Cixi breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked: "Monk Aiqing, then how do you plan to fight the Wu rebel army?" ”

"The slave thinks that the Eight Banners such as Qianfeng and Ruijian should be responsible for guarding the inner city, and let the green battalion soldiers of Fengtai guard the outer city, and be uniformly assigned and commanded by the old prince Hui." The monk replied: "The slave commander led the slaves of the Eight Banners to the gate of Yongding, and faced the Wu rebel army head-on, and Guan Bao killed the Wu rebel thief army without leaving a piece of armor!" ”

"Seng Qing, are you going to fight head-on with the Wu rebel thief army?" Both Ci'an and Cixi were surprised and asked, "Why do you just defend the city and wait for the reinforcements from Guanwen and Luo Bingzhang?" ”

"The two queen mothers don't know." The monk said with a heartfelt speech: "Those who defend the city will guard the outer Guo as a buffer, blindly trapping the lonely city, which is equivalent to tying one's hands and feet, not only dampening morale, but also losing mobility, allowing the Wu rebel thief army to run rampant outside the city, rampant thieves, and even cause the people outside the city to follow the thieves, so that the thieves are becoming more and more powerful." ”

After that, the monk and the prince also added, "Besides, the Three Mountains and Five Gardens such as the Old Summer Palace are outside the city, and the same is true for the manor and courtyard of the hundred officials of the imperial court. Only by stationing a heavy army outside the city can police Zeng Guoquan's rebel leader, so that he will not dare to indulge too much in the robbery of thieves. ”

Strictly speaking, the deployment arrangement of the monk prince is actually very reasonable, almost flawless, and the monk prince also took into account the property interests of the civil and military officials and the Manchu court outside the city, so after the monk and the prince finished speaking, he immediately won the applause of the Manchu Dynasty, and many civil and military officials who were originally a little slanderous could not help but look at the monk and the prince with a good impression.

But there are also objections, at least Bao Jun, who has just returned from Hubei and has been kicked out of the military aircraft, said cautiously: "Monk Wangye, although your deployment is correct and reasonable, but have you forgotten one thing, Lord Wang?" ”

"What has this king forgotten?" The monk asked in a big way.

"The prince seems to have forgotten that it is not the time for Kangxi." Bao Jun said timidly: "When Kangxi Ye was in the time, the battlefield was still dominated by archery and horse archery, and our Eight Banners slaves in the Qing Dynasty practiced bow and horse, and they could go to the battlefield if they picked up arms. And now, the battlefield is dominated by guns and cannons, and the Eight Banners slaves in the capital are also idle, and many people can't even ride horses, let alone open bows and arrows, and ask them to ...... with the tiger and wolf division of Wu thieves. ”

"Shut up! You life-hungry rat who is afraid of death! ”

The monk interrupted angrily and reprimanded: "My Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty are now in storage, and the horses are put in Nanshan, but the foundation is still there!" The Eight Banners Warriors' innate bloodiness is still there! Give more encouragement to the clothed slaves of our Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty, issue them a batch of firearms to strengthen their armament, and then after the personal training of this king, how can they not go into battle to kill the enemy and reproduce the sharp momentum of our Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty sweeping the world? ”

At present, Bao Jun, who is wearing the guilt, did not dare to say anything, but the devil six still stood on his side and said: "Monk Wangye, my clothed domestic slave of the Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty may still be able to train and become talents, but Lord Wang, the Wu rebel thief army is now only two hundred miles away from the capital, in such a little time, are you sure that you can quickly train them into an army?" ”

"It's ......."

Finally it was the turn of the monk to be speechless, but fortunately, at the critical moment, Cixi suddenly stood on the side of the monk and said: "King Gong, since Monk Aiqing has this confidence, let him do it, just like Monk Aiqing said, although I put the horse in Nanshan, swords and guns into the warehouse, but the foundation is still there, after the careful training of Monk Aiqing, it may not be impossible to reproduce the glory of the Eight Banners when the dynasty opened." ”

Hearing Cixi's words, of course the monk and the prince smiled, and kowtowed to Cixi again and again to thank him, but he didn't know that Cixi whispered to Ci'an behind the bead curtain, "Baojun and Lao Liu are right, but letting those tens of thousands of slaves go into battle can not only save food, but also consume the ammunition of Wu thieves, so we have to support Monk Greenqin." ”

When Ci'an nodded yes, the monk said again: "The two queen mothers, the slaves are brave, and I want to ask the two queen mothers to give the new Eight Banners slaves a name of the Tiger God Camp." ”

"Tiger God Battalion? Why is it called Tiger God Camp? Cixi asked suspiciously.

"The reason why Wu's rebel army is rampant is that it relies on foreign guns and cannons of foreign devils." The monk and the prince explained eloquently: "The tiger eats the sheep, the gods catch the ghosts, and the two queen mothers give the new army of the slaves the name Tiger God Camp, which will definitely break the Wu rebel army and capture the Zeng Guoquan rebel thief!" ”

Cixi closed her eyes helplessly, but after a wry smile, Cixi still suggested that Ci'an accept, Ci'an opened his mouth to allow it, and the monk and prince were suddenly overjoyed, kowtowed heavily and said: "The slave thanked the two Queen Mothers for giving their names, and the Tiger God Camp drove them, and the slaves will definitely live up to the two Queen Mothers." ”

There are no tigers in the mountains, monkeys are overlords, the courtiers and minions in the Manchu court who know a little bit about military affairs have either died on the battlefield before, or they are in the field and cannot participate in the court meeting, this court meeting has naturally become the protagonist of our monk Greenqin monk and prince, whether it is the deployment of troops or the arrangement of troops, and even personnel arrangements, logistics supply and weapons allocation, basically our monks and princes are arranged, and the hundred officials who do not understand the military echo the voice, and the Ci'an and Cixi who do not understand the military are approved one by one, and no one opposes or knows how to oppose them, let the monk and the prince get out of the limelight, and swept away the bad luck that he was forced to hand over the military power to the official document before.

But there is also a disgusting situation of the monk and the prince, just when the monk and the prince were proud, the Tongzhi Emperor, who was only more than five years old sitting in front of the bead curtain, suddenly opened his mouth and said: "Monk Aiqing, why is it not over yet?" I'm hungry, thirsty, and want to pee. ”

"The emperor forgives the sin, it will be over immediately, it will be over immediately."

The monk and the prince hurriedly asked for guilt, but after the words came out, the monk and the prince subconsciously shuddered, quickly shut up, and quietly went to see the civil and military colleagues next to him, for fear that someone would catch his speech and take the opportunity to slander, but fortunately, he also relied on the monk to protect his manor property outside the city, and the civil and military officials were all silent, Ci'an and Cixi pretended not to hear behind the curtain because there was really no one available, but they scolded together in their hearts, "Phew! Crow's beak! ”

After the dispersal of the court, the two palace edicts that called on the eight banners to join the Tiger God Camp to defend against the enemy naturally conveyed to the whole city at the first time, and our complacent monk and prince also sent troops to Yongding Gate to open up a camp early to receive conscripted house slaves to form the Tiger God Camp, and couldn't wait to imagine that he copied the wonderful picture of the Manchu Dynasty butcher Tuhai using the house slaves as soldiers to break Chahar, and he only hoped to lead the army as soon as possible and kill Zeng Guoquan and annihilate the whole army.

Because he was busy assisting Mianyu in deploying the city defense, the monk did not take time out of his busy schedule to check the situation in the Tiger God Camp outside Yongding Gate until it was about to get dark, and the result made the monk and the prince dumbfounded that the picture of ten thousand slaves gathering in the crowd did not appear at all, and in the Tiger God camp of Nuoda, there were only a few hundred people wearing the clothes of the family, and the soldiers were so small that the guns and ammunition specially requested by the monk and the prince were piled up in the camp and no one received them, and it was as cold and deserted as a barren mountain and a wild temple.

"Lord Wang, it's not that the minions don't do their best, it's that the dog minions in the city are all greedy for life and afraid of death, and they don't dare to go to the battlefield to fight, and they don't want to come to enlist in the army!"

"Rubbish! Idiot! They don't want to come, can't they be tied up? ”

After a tantrum like thunder, in order to recruit enough soldiers and cannon fodder, our monk and prince had no choice but to pull Hui Lao Wang Ye into the palace overnight, and asked Ci'an and Cixi to issue an edict to forcibly recruit the Eight Banners slaves in the city to join the Tiger God Camp, forcing those clothed slaves who have eaten leftovers from generations to bring their own weapons to the battlefield!

…………

On the same day, in order to gain time for the Manchu court to respond and to delay the northward pace of the Wu army as much as possible, Tong Jian, the general of the Qing army who was previously sent back to Baoding Mansion from Zhengding, led more than 2,000 troops from his headquarters to fight a battle with the main force of the Wu army north of Gu'an.

The result of the battle was, of course, the defeat of the Tong Jianjun who had no cavalry to help, but this battle also sounded the alarm for Zeng Guoquan and the Wu army, because the Zhili Qing army, which had been equipped with Western weapons, was not only able to skillfully use new weapons on the battlefield, but also showed quite good military discipline and very tenacious spiritual fighting spirit, even if it was bombarded by the grenadiers of the Wu army, it did not collapse, and also resisted the impact of the Wu army with the hollow phalanx that Wu Chaoyue relied on to become famous, and once repelled the linear attack of the Wu army.

As a last resort, Zeng Guoquan could only use the precious bitter acid cannonballs, which barely crushed the infantry phalanx of Tong Jian's army, and the cavalry of the Wu army took advantage of the situation to launch a charge, using a deformed version of the hammer anvil tactic to crush the enemy. So after the victory of the battle, Zeng Guoquan's face not only did not have any joy, but on the contrary, he said to Zhang Zhidong worriedly: "If we can't break the city before the main force of the official and civil forces return to the capital, I'm afraid we will really have to flee to Zhangjiakou." ”

Zhang Zhidong, who was also shocked by the battlefield performance of the Zhili Qing army, nodded, and he didn't expect that the Zhili Qing army would be able to have such a battlefield performance now, and then Zhang Zhidong said: "Jiu Shuai, since we have chosen to take this road, we can only go one way to the black, let's go quickly, don't waste time, just leave the matter of chasing and killing the remnants of the enemy to our cavalry." ”

Zeng Guoquan adopted Zhang Zhidong's suggestion, and while ordering the infantry to continue to march north, he handed over all the matters of pursuing the enemy's defeated troops to Ding Ruchang, and then after continuing to march the army, Zeng Guoquan said to Zhang Zhidong: "Xiaoda, in addition to worrying that the official will return to the division too quickly, do you know what I am still worried about?" ”

"Worried that Beijing's city defenses are too strong to be breached immediately?" Zhang Zhidong asked curiously.

Zeng Guoquan shook his head and said: "No, I'm not worried about Beijing's city defense, the city's city defense is strong, but the capital is so big, the city wall of the outer city alone is twenty-eight miles long, and there are opportunities everywhere, as long as we don't skimp on gunpowder, it will definitely not be a big problem to blow up one or two holes." ”

"What are you worried about?" Zhang Zhidong asked.

"There are not enough troops." Zeng Guoquan replied: "We only have thirteen battalions of more than 6,000 infantry to launch a strong attack, once the attack is unfavorable and the casualties of the soldiers are too large, I am afraid that there will soon be no soldiers available." ”

"Nine Shuai don't have to worry." Zhang Zhidong comforted: "Our meticulous work has already been reported, and now there are groups of beggars inside and outside the capital, and the displaced people are everywhere. When the time comes, we will probably only worry that there will be too many auxiliaries and nowhere to place them, and we will never worry about the shortage of soldiers. ”

"But what about weapons?" Zeng Guoquan asked: "We can't ask the auxiliaries to go to the battlefield with sticks and stones, and fight against the most sophisticated elite camp of the chaotic party, the Shenji Battalion, right?" What is the difference between fighting like this and dying for nothing? ”

"It's ......." Zhang Zhidong was no longer resourceful, so he could only comfort: "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, let's talk about it then." Anyway, there is no turning back for us now, we can only take one step at a time. ”

Zeng Guoquan sighed, still worried, hoping for a miracle to appear, there was a divine angel who could step on the seven-colored auspicious clouds and give himself tens of thousands of iron knives and spears, so that he could arm the many beggars and outlaws outside Beijing, and share the pressure of attacking the main army.

By the way, it's better to send a few thousand more muskets, even primitive arquebuses.