After the snow cleared, the north wind on the magnolia paddock was blowing non-stop, and some flagpoles were broken by the strong wind, and the snow on the grassland melted half, revealing yellow weeds in many places.

On the venue of the meeting, the eighteen-year-old Tongzhi Emperor straightened the yellow round-brimmed dragon hat on his head, and was still wearing the bright yellow round-necked satin embroidered cloud dragon mink robe of the Kangxi Emperor, and the blue velvet beaded cloud toe boots on his feet, riding a high-headed royal horse, with a heavy face. Behind him, 2,000 soldiers of the Shenji Battalion lined up in eight columns, with yellow and yellow flags fluttering in the wind at the front of the team, horses in front, and artillery in formation.

After 13 years of trading power and money, the Shenji Battalion has become a public institution for the children of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Dynasty to play birds and drink tea, and the organization is said to be bloated, with a large number of cadres at the department level and department, and 540 officials, 300 more than the Ministry of War. The folk proverb "If you see a thief, you should run away, hire a replacement early, and enter the camp less", which is to satirize these moths in the system. Although the 2,000 people who followed the Tongzhi Emperor were selected, and the old, weak, sick and disabled were eliminated, the training time was too short, and some of the soldiers were shaking, and they couldn't even hold the muskets steadily.

On the other hand, Liu Mingchuan's 5,000 Huai troops on the opposite side not only have an absolute advantage in numbers, but all of them are soldiers who crawled out of the pile of dead people, and many officers are veterans of the "inscription battalion", and they have undergone Western military training.

The horn of the battle sounded, and Emperor Tongzhi took out the ebony war knife that originally belonged to Emperor Kangxi on his waist, and turned back to the two thousand fully armed Shenji Battalion soldiers behind him and shouted: "Warriors, for the glory of the Xinjueluo family, rush with me!" ”

After speaking, Emperor Tongzhi was like a warrior on the battlefield, clapping his horse and whipping, and rushed to the center of the enclosure to watch the city, where the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong, ministers and wives of various countries were sitting there talking and laughing. The bright sunlight shone on the brim of Emperor Tongzhi's hat, and a dark shadow appeared on his young face, and no one in the Eight Banners Sergeant behind him understood what this kid was thinking in his heart at the moment, nor did he understand what the emperor's words meant. Emperor Tongzhi is like Don Quixote in the big windmill, rushing on a grotesque journey.

"Boom", "boom", after a burst of salute, the Huai army also raised the battle flag and blew the horn of attack, Liu Mingchuan had not been on the battlefield for a long time, pulled out his war knife, and shouted to the five thousand Huai troops behind him: "Brothers, rush me!" ”

Although it was only an exercise, the scene of the two sides fighting fiercely, to be precise, the scene of the Huai army's torture and killing of the Eight Banners was very intense. In the Eight Banners Army, only Emperor Tongzhi was very heroic, like an enraged beast, pulling out his sword, cutting down on anyone, and rampage, because no one dared to stop him. Less than half an hour later, Emperor Tongzhi's Eight Banners team was quickly smashed to pieces by Liu Mingchuan's Huai army and raised his hands to surrender.

Towards the end of the meeting, Emperor Tongzhi had an accident and strayed into the range of an artillery cannon and was knocked off his horse. The moment Emperor Tongzhi fell off his horse, the dragon hat fell on the grass, the corners of his mouth oozed blood, and he suddenly felt relieved, lying on the cold snow, and didn't get up for a long time. Fortunately, it was only a drill at that time, and the weight of ** was only one-tenth of a normal shell, otherwise Emperor Tongzhi would have really been relieved.

In the stands, the British minister to China, Wittoma, the French minister to China, and the acting minister of the United States, Williams, were stunned when they saw the fall of the Tongzhi Emperor. Empress Dowager Cixi smiled at them and said It's okay, it's like acting, just like your Taixi's drama, Emperor Tongzhi, this child is still young, and he is greedy for fun, let him lie down on the snow for a while.

Emperor Tongzhi lay on the snow, looking at the blue sky above the grassland, the floating white clouds like a foal, he suddenly remembered the scene of Emperor Xianfeng helping him to ride a horse for the first time, that year, he was four years old, Emperor Xianfeng personally held him on a yellow royal horse, let him ride alone, Emperor Tongzhi was very scared, crying and refused to go up, Emperor Xianfeng said angrily: "Son, you will reign in the world in the future, and you must get used to a person to move forward bravely." Thinking of the current situation of being alone, Emperor Tongzhi had tears in his eyes and softly called to the sky "Huang Ama".

Emperor Tongzhi lay on the snow for too long, and then as soon as the cold wind blew, he returned to the imperial tent at dusk, and began to have a high fever and fell unconscious. Song Xiaofei went to the thatched house in a hurry, and when he came back, he saw Rong Lu with hundreds of personal soldiers surrounding the imperial tent, saying that he was ordered by the Empress Dowager Cixi to protect the emperor, and the idle people were not allowed to approach the imperial tent again.

Song Xiaofei thought to himself, Rong Lu must have taken this opportunity to get back the confession, he had to leave quickly, otherwise as a person who knew Rong Lu's secret, his life would be in danger at any time. Taking advantage of the darkness, Song Xiaofei slipped to the outer city of the Mulan enclosure, he wore the costume of a eunuch to serve, and when he met the guard, he showed his waist card, lying that the Empress Dowager Cixi sent him out of the camp to do errands, and asked the guard for a white horse.

Out of the outer city, Song Xiao rode his horse and galloped wildly, all the way to the woods in the north. As soon as he ran out of the hunting ground, the sound of horses' hooves sounded behind him, and Rong Lu's team of personal soldiers chased after him. At that time, it was getting dark and the light was dim, Song Xiaofei had an idea, jumped off the horse, and let the horse continue to gallop forward, the team did not know that Song Xiaofei had jumped off the horse and chased the white horse.

When the pursuers were far away, Song Xiaofei relied on his memory and continued to walk north. It was dark and slippery, and after walking for an unknown amount of time, his boots were wet with snow, and his body was shivering with cold, and when he passed a small long hillside, his feet slipped and rolled into a large lake. The water of the lake is actually warm, and it is a famous hot spring lake in the forest sea snow field. His disfigured dough was soaked in water and completely peeled off, so he ripped it off and threw it away. The clothes on his body were very uncomfortable when they were wet, and he took off his surname, soaked in the hot springs, and warmed his body, otherwise he would have to freeze to death. He went into the water, just showed half of his head, and found that there were flag soldiers holding pine oil torches on the shore in front of him, but it was a little far away from the lake, and then looked closely, the lake was more than ten meters away from him, and there was a girl who was soaking in the hot springs.

The girl was the twenty-year-old Princess Rongshou, with rabbit lips, dull eyes, a little old-looking, looking like a thirty-year-old village girl, with the gloom of his father, Prince Gong, on her face. She looks really sorry for the title of princess, and even more sorry for her handsome father, if she makes a ranking of princesses in the past dynasties, it is estimated that she can enter the bottom thirty. It's not her fault that she's ugly, but her bad temper is her problem, she is widowed at the age of 17, her surname is weird, and she often does whatever she wants. In addition to being calm in front of Cixi, he has always been arrogant and domineering in front of others. Once, when the convoy of a Xi Shangshu in the court met with her convoy, the horse was not controlled, and the princess's convoy was rammed, so she ordered the chauffeur and others to be imprisoned until Xi Shangshu trembled and kowtowed to the sedan chair to plead guilty.

At this time, a round of faint moon overhead, Princess Rongshou stroked her 20-year-old body in the hot spring, thinking that she was widowed at such a young age, and others were respectful to her on the surface, but in fact, she was afraid to stay away, and she felt an inexplicable sense of loneliness in her heart.

Suddenly, Song Xiaofei appeared in the water, although she looked good, the attractive six-pack abs in her abdomen made people can't help but touch it, she was ready to scream as if she had seen a ghost, Song Xiaofei hurriedly swam over and covered her mouth, Princess Rongshou resisted, Song Xiaofei was anxious, so he threw her into the water, hey, neither of them was wearing clothes, and it was another fight in the water.

When the cavalry chasing Song Xiaofei on the order of Ronglu chased into the forest, the flag officer guarding the princess shouted: "You are so bold, dare to disturb the princess!" ”

The officer who led Rong Lu said: "My lord, I don't dare to be humble, but today we are ordered to arrest the key criminal, and General Rong said that if we can't find the fugitive, we will go back to see him." ”

No one knows how Song Xiaofei conquered Princess Rongshou, and 10,000 words are omitted here for the time being, for reasons you know. Princess Rongshou heard the noise on the shore, got dressed, walked over and glared, pulled out the waist knife of one of the guards, and cut off the left arm of the leading officer under Rong Lu with one sword. The officer's severed arm was bleeding and he passed out. Rong Lu's other subordinates were startled, and hurriedly carried the officers back to the camp to resume their lives.

Seven days later, Song Xiaofei returned to Yanjing City, walked to Yuan's Mansion on Cultural Street, and caught up with lunch at home. Uncle Yuan Baoling saw Song Xiaofei, he was very angry, and immediately asked him where he had gone during this time, Song Xiaofei thought about it, and said: "My nephew misses his friends and hometown in Nanjing, and he is greedy for fun, so he went to Xuanwu Lake, Yuhuatai, and Qinhuai River with them to hang out, played for a while, and was voluntarily punished, and I hope my uncle will forgive me." ”

On the hunting grassland, Emperor Tongzhi had a high fever and fell unconscious, and the concubine Jingshou was quickly excused by Cixi to relieve him of the leadership of the Shenji Battalion. And Liu Mingchuan, although it was not his fault that Emperor Tongzhi was in a coma, due to the obstruction of the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the imperial teacher Li Hongzao, he was not sealed by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the 5,000 Huai soldiers who practiced with him also became the ones to be punished. He was angry and annoyed, feeling that he was put on the side by Li Hongzhang again, just like when Li Hongzhang patted his chest and sponsored him to serve as the governor of Shaanxi, he was disheartened, took the silver taels given by Li Hongzhang, and returned to his hometown Feixi Dajian Manor, which is Liu Xinwei in Mabu in Lu'an today. Li Hongzhang told him in a secret letter that he would let him recuperate in his hometown for three months first, and the Empress Dowager Cixi would naturally not treat him badly if he had the right opportunity.

After the end of the hunt that year, Emperor Tongzhi returned to the palace, and his condition did not improve, first he had a fever and dizziness, his chest was full of irritation, his body was sore and his legs were weak, and then his throat was dry and sore, his chest was full of nausea, and on the fourth day, he couldn't pull out. Coupled with long-term depression, listlessness, and worsening immunity, in December, he contracted smallpox.

In 1870, the smallpox epidemic in France struck Germany and French troops, and more than 20,000 strong German troops died at once. The imperial doctors took turns to prescribe medicine to no avail, and Emperor Tongzhi's condition became more and more serious, first the lips and cheeks were hard and swollen, the gums were black, and then the tongue was dry and bad breath, the stool was black and sticky, and blood began to be in the stool. At the age of 19, that is, in January 1875, the Tongzhi Emperor had not yet understood that his death was approaching, and the Qing Dynasty had reached an important moment when it was necessary to determine who would inherit the throne.