Zeng Guofan's lament didn't take long to become a reality. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Horton didn't brag either, two infantry brigades, an artillery regiment, plus more than 10,000 people before, to deal with the remnants of less than 20,000 defeated generals, among which the Hunan Army, the Huai Army, the Green Battalion, and not even a completed formation, were completely broken up, all of them were improvised together, such a team, if you want to compete with the elite British Empire infantry division, it is simply unthinkable!

Horton said that one day to take the position of the Qing army, the result began to attack at noon, and by eight or nine o'clock in the evening, the entire Qing army was beaten and left with the last line of defense, this is still because Zeng Guofan, Zhang Shusheng, Liu Mingchuan, Bao Chao and other generals personally sat in the town, fought desperately, and only persisted until now, if they are all to Gong Yuan, Ge Buqi like the waste to supervise the war, I am afraid that the Qing army will not hold out until sunset, it has completely collapsed!

Even so, the Qing army could no longer hold on, and the 20,000 troops, under the fierce attack of the British army, took eight or nine hours, together with the positions built by the earthen ramparts, plus 20,000 troops, all destroyed!

The Qing army was defeated again, it really couldn't withstand the attack of the British army, it was too violent, hundreds of Western artillery shells kept bombing, from noon to night, almost never stopped, the huge Qing army positions were bombarded by shells, everywhere was a huge crater blown out by shells, and there was charred land everywhere!

Zeng Guofan led the remnants of the defeated army to retreat to the rear again, retreating overnight, because the British army did not give the Qing army a chance to breathe, and kept attacking, attacking in attack!

From the middle of the night to the early morning of the next day, in one night, Zeng Guofan led the remnants of the defeated army to retreat to the northwest, fifty miles, and retreated straight to the Langfang area!

Zeng Guofan has completely lost his temper, tens of thousands of troops, and now there are only a few thousand people left, and the major main forces have all suffered heavy casualties, and he is the biggest sinner in particular! Most of the elites accumulated by the imperial court in the past ten years have been wasted!

The more Zeng Guofan thought about it, the more aggrieved he became, he pulled out his waist knife and slashed at his head!

"Your Excellency!"

Bao Chao's hand was weak, and he grabbed Zeng Guofan's wrist, "My lord, why are you doing this?" Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, not to mention that the enemy we face is still more powerful than ever? If you die, what will happen to the Hunan army in the future? ”

Zeng Guofan burst into tears and cried bitterly: "How can I be worthy of the trust of the imperial court? How can I be worthy of the tens of thousands of soldiers who died? After losing his teacher and humiliating the country, what face does he have to live in the world? ”

"My lord, it's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, if he dies, won't he never be able to take revenge? Please take care of yourself......"

The generals on the side persuaded hard one after another, and only then did they persuade Zeng Guofan, but, where to go next? The army of foreigners is chasing too quickly, and they can't resist it at all, even if they refuse to defend the city, they are just burying a city! With the thousands of soldiers with low morale under his command now, they can't resist the attack of foreigners at all!

"Retreat! The order was sent that the army retreated in the direction of Fangshan Daxing and Tongxian, and prepared to look for opportunities to continue to block the foreigners in the area of Nanyuan and Tongxian! ”

Zeng Guofan calmed down and made a choice again, going to Daxing and Tongxian to resist the city, when the time comes, the strength of the capital should also come out, and when the time comes, the troops will join forces in one place, presumably there will be the strength of a battle!

Zeng Guofan sent an order, the Qing army retreated all the way to the north, two days and two nights, Zeng Guofan retreated to the territory of Tongxian, on the one hand to the imperial court to ask the imperial court to send reinforcements, on the other hand, on the other hand, on the spot to deploy defenses, trying to block the foreigners' army again.

The song was quickly sent to the imperial court, this time not by telegram, but directly by galloping horses, because the telegram had long been gone, and the whole of Tianjin had fallen, where else to send the telegram?

Above the court, all the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty are stupid!

I didn't expect it, I didn't think of it, I originally thought that the Hunan Army and the Huai Army were the Optimus Pillars of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Mingchuan, Bao Chao, Zhang Shusheng, Pan Dingxin and others were all famous generals, and there were commanders like Zeng Guofan sitting in Tianjin, and there were also tens of thousands of green battalions to help, but they still did not withstand the attack of the foreigners, from the attack of the foreigners to the fall of Tianjin, it was only a few days! Now a few days have passed, and the Western coalition army has actually advanced the troops to Tongxian!

It seems that the scene of the first emperor patrolling Rehe a few years ago is going to be repeated again!

"You all talk about it, you all talk about it, what should we do now? How is it good? ”

Now Cixi is not in the capital, only Ci'an is left behind the curtain, he is generous, but it is missing Cixi's decision to kill, when he encounters such a thing, he has already panicked, and asked repeatedly.

Above the entire court, the birds were silent, who would have thought that this group of Westerners would do it when they said they would do it, and it had not been a month since the attack on Guangzhou......

"The Queen Mother, in the opinion of the ministers, we can only avoid it for a while, and ask the Queen Mother and the Emperor to move to Rehe and temporarily avoid the foreigners, the society is important......"

The man on the side replied in a deep voice.

"And after that?"

Yixin asked, "Lord Genshan, what about after that, do we want to make peace with foreigners again?" This time, the other party asked for 33 million taels of silver! ”

Wu Ren said astringently: "What about 33 million taels of silver? If we don't negotiate peace, I'm afraid that even the city of Beijing will be taken over, and we can only keep the country first, and the rest is secondary, 33 million taels of silver, although we can't take it out, but there is always a way to solve it......"

Yixin was so angry that he trembled, what a thing, now he is going to top the black pot again, now the emperor is young, and the person in charge of the Qing Dynasty is himself, there was originally the Queen Mother of the West to share the pressure, and now the Queen Mother of the West is also far away in the United States, and everything has to be carried by herself!

"Wang Huanzhang, if I let you lead the army to fight to the death, can you hold the city of Beijing?"

Yixin turned around and shouted at Wang Huanzhang in the corner, Wang Huanzhang was just a nominal commander, and if he didn't want to discuss the military, he wouldn't even be able to get on the stage.

Hearing Yixin's question, Wang Huanzhang said in a deep voice: "Lord, it's still the same sentence, if the Hunan army and the Huai army are still there, the minister will command, and there will still be a battle power, now, no, the minister has no power to return to the sky, the combat power of the various departments in the Beijing camp is too weak, and it is impossible to resist the 100,000 army of foreigners, and now the most feasible way is to protect the emperor and the queen mother to patrol the Rehe River and wait for ......backups."

Backup? That naturally refers to Li Hongzhang in the south and Guo Ye in the northwest!

(To be continued.) )