Li Bingheng...... More importantly, Ronglu's report made Cixi realize that it was time for her to leave Beijing, as she had done thirty-eight years earlier, and hide in a safer place and wait for peace to come. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

But that's not what she wants to see.

Cixi is now full of hatred for Zaiyi and his accomplices. These people had sworn that the Boxers they had found would defeat the Western alliance, restore the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, and allow her to depose the young emperor who no longer obeyed her without worrying about anything. But those people let her down.

Zaiyi, his accomplices, the Boxers, who had failed to achieve any victory, brought a coalition larger than any previous one to her, and left her suffer the tragic consequences of declaring war on thirteen nations at the same time - and the Qing Dynasty. She had done everything she could to maintain the court, but what was left of it when the Western coalition took Beijing again, when the young and reckless emperor took power again?

The Qing Dynasty, the court that had long since become corrupt in the eyes of the rebels and traitors was all she had, but now, she was going to lose it.

And the only thing that led to this unfortunate result was a bunch of stupid, arrogant and ambitious princes and ministers, and the incompetent people on whom they depended.

Cixi began to hate them.

Of course, at this moment, she can't punish them yet. Although she will eventually guillotine them all, now she has to rely on them to leave Beijing under the protection of these people and take refuge in a safe place. Moreover, Zai Yi and his accomplices will also be bargaining chips that can be sold at any time in exchange for forgiveness when the court negotiates with foreigners, otherwise, the foreigners will blame her for the war.

Even if she didn't do anything wrong.

Regardless of what others thought of the issue, Cixi did not think she had done anything wrong. She was only coerced and misled by some careerists, because of countless completely wrong decisions and some blackmails hidden in the shadows, she had to give an order that she was not willing to give.

Cixi was convinced that she had done nothing wrong, and that she was a victim of this war, and that she should not bear even a little responsibility for it.

It is only Zai Yi and his accomplices who need to be held responsible, and of course, the Boxers. When the time is fully ripe, they will be punished with the severest punishment, and every Western country will be satisfied and praise her decisive decision.

So now, they have to live, and they can continue to do whatever they want, adding new evidence to themselves.

Cixi sneered in her heart, but there was still no expression on her face, and her voice was chillingly cold. "It is said that Jae-hoon arrested Xu Yongyi."

"Back to Galeries Lafayette, yes." Li Lianying, the chief steward standing beside her, replied in a low voice, while secretly wondering what she was thinking - but this was not an easy thing to do. At a time when the coalition forces were already approaching Beijing, even as Cixi's most trusted eunuch, he could not guess what kind of sentence she would give to a minister who had strongly opposed this decision before the war began: to execute him immediately, like Yuan Chang and Xu Jingcheng, or to temporarily detain him in prison and decide slowly according to the changing situation, or decisively reactivate him and negotiate with the foreigners?

Li Lianying could not guess what Cixi thought, but in fact, Cixi had none of them - she handed over the power of adjudication to Jae-hoon.

It's just that she's still a little curious. "What are you going to do?"

"Prince Zhuang plans to send Lord Xu to the vegetable market to be beheaded." Li Lianying said slowly, while cautiously observing her expression and reaction, "There are also Lianyuan and Tateyama [note] ......"

"I don't know what is dead or alive." Cixi sneered. However, other than that, she didn't say anything, nothing was revealed, which made Li Lianying confused: "I don't know what is dead or alive", is she referring to the three ministers who opposed the declaration of war at the beginning and are now going to die, or Prince Zhuang Zaixun?

Maybe they are.

Li Lianying shook her head secretly. Then, he cautiously asked: "Lafayette, about leaving Jingxi Hunt related matters......

"You can do it yourself." Cixi waved her hand softly, feebly, like a pesky fly—as the master of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi was unwilling to talk about anything related to leaving her palace, even though she knew and asked to do so—and it tingled her heart.

But even stop talking about it immediately...... In fact, it hadn't even started yet, and her heart still hurt just by touching the fur. In order to escape this pain as much as possible, Cixi changed the subject. "Tell Rong Lu to let his soldiers further relax the siege of the foreign embassy, and at the same time send more vegetables and fresh fruits. But let him remember that this matter must be kept secret and must not be known to anyone......"

It is now necessary to make some preparations for future negotiations.

Later in the day, the diplomats besieged by the Qing army in the embassy district, their guard soldiers, and Western civilians enjoyed this benefit that Cixi had deliberately bestowed upon them—despite the fact that it had existed many days earlier, it had now become more numerous than before, almost tripled, and the Qing soldiers had also shrunk their battle line about a hundred meters to the rear.

Naturally, this strange change became the first topic of discussion at a dinner hosted by the wife of the British minister, Sir MacDonald, which, it should be noted, was held almost every day from the day the Qing army surrounded the embassy district. About forty men and women dressed in well-dressed dinner dresses sat together for a sumptuous feast of fresh fruit from California, corned beef, canned green beans, French fish sauce, beef gravy, pasta, and unlimited champagne and coffee—but God's servants, the obnoxious missionaries, were forbidden to attend, while the soldiers of the Guard and ordinary citizens had to hide in the trenches and makeshift shelters and munch on dry bread.

At all times, even during war and under siege, the gentlemen and ladies of high society enjoyed more than the average man, and of course, they did not regard war and death as a great deal, and continued to tell jokes and anecdotes at the dinner table, and to burst into bursts of merry laughter.

But today is different.

Today, very serious issues are being discussed. After discussing General Ronglu's strange behavior for a while, the topic naturally developed to a deeper level: What exactly do the Chinese want to do?

"The Chinese must have gone crazy – of course, I already knew this when the Chinese government declared war on thirteen countries at the same time." Mr. Morrison, a well-known correspondent of The Times, said in an irrefutable tone, "I have never heard such a ridiculous story of delivering vegetables and fresh fruit to the enemy in the encirclement while the war was still going on, and voluntarily shrinking his own lines." ”

"Maybe it's their war etiquette." Conger said. Of course, he said to himself, it was just to take care of the face of a certain brigadier general.

However, his deliberate attention immediately drew a rebuttal from the Germans. "Etiquette? The Chinese shot Baron Klinder! These barbarians have no idea what etiquette is. ”

"That's because your Excellency the Baron always shoots at the Chinese." Robert. Sir Hurd snorted dissatisfied, "We all know what he's done. Baron Clinder would shoot a Chinese even if he was just passing by, and it was precisely because of this unjustifiable recklessness that he summoned death for himself. ”

"Baron Clinder is just countering the Chinese attack on us, sir." The Austrians came out to defend their German relatives - and more importantly, of course, the Austrian Guards were also involved in the shooting of the Chinese organized by Baron Klinder, and they had to defend themselves. "It was the Chinese who provoked this war, not us."

"In any case, Baron Clinder is undoubtedly too reckless, not only to put himself in danger, but also to put us in danger." Sir Macdonald, of course, would be on the side of his countrymen. Moreover, he did not have any good feelings for the Germans. "The Germans are like their unsane emperors, reckless and impulsive megalomaniacs." Jazz muttered inwardly, still with the professional smile of a diplomat on his face.

"I agree." "Of course, the German government still needs to hold the Chinese government accountable for the murder of His Excellency the Baron. ”

"The murderers must be severely punished and a monument to His Excellency the Baron must be erected." The Germans shouted.

"That was after the war ended." Conger spread his hands, helpless at the fact that the subject had gone in the right direction—but he still had to correct it back. "What we're talking about now is what the Chinese's actions really mean. If this is not their etiquette of war, then its meaning becomes even more profound. ”

All eyes were on him. "What do you think, Mr. Conger?"

"Perhaps, our army has already won in a decisive large-scale battle." Conger stood up and announced in a loud voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to assert that the war is coming to an end. ”

"Are you sure?" Morrison asked rhetorically, and then added: "I see no sign that the war is about to end. Moreover, where are our troops? ”

Conger couldn't answer that question. As for the army, the last information the diplomats had was that General Seymour was leading an expeditionary force to Peking, but the general and his troops were soon gone, as Sir Hurd had given him.

Where is the army?

A voice suddenly rang out. "Our troops have reached the outskirts of Beijing." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )