Chapter Seventy-Five: The Crimes of the Eight-Nation Alliance
Outside the southern side of the Imperial City, there is a T-shaped forecourt enclosed by a red wall, which is the palace square of the Imperial City. On the three ends of the "T" shaped square, build a door of three coupon holes, the east is the left gate of Chang'an, and the west is the right gate of Chang'an. There is also a gate at the south end of the square, called Daqing Gate.
Between [***] to the Great Qing Gate, it is the central imperial road paved with stone slabs for the emperor to enter and exit, along both sides of the central imperial road there is a thousand-step corridor that is 700 steps long with the eaves through the ridge, the left gate of Chang'an in the east, the right gate of Chang'an in the west, 110 rooms in the east and west, and 34 rooms in the north direction respectively.
Outside the thousand-step corridor, a vermilion palace wall of more than 6 meters high is built. On both sides of the wall were the central yamen of the time.
Outside the wall of the East Palace, there are rich and powerful official offices such as the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, the Zongren Mansion, the Honglu Temple, and the Qintianjian Temple, and outside the wall of the West Palace, there are military officials such as the Military Aircraft Department, the Governor's Mansion, the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple.
Historically, after the Eight-Nation Coalition Army invaded Yanjing City, the six departments and Jiuqing and other government offices were occupied as barracks by various [***] teams and ransacked frantically.
Tens of thousands of books of scriptures and history were lost in Hanlin Academy, 307 volumes of Yongle Canon were lost, and tens of thousands of newly minted copper coins in Qian Fatang, gold and steel sacrificial vessels in Taichang Temple, and gold and silver tableware in Guanglu Temple were all looted. The army snatched 3,000,000 taels of silver and countless silk brocades from the treasury of the household department.
According to the data, only about 60 million taels of silver were lost in the treasury, and the value of other canonical cultural relics and national treasures is even more difficult to estimate.
After the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded the Imperial City, they ransacked the Forbidden City, Sanhai, Huangshi City and other places, and then looted the Royal Garden, the Summer Palace, and various royal scenic spots in Yanjing City.
According to reliable records, when the Eight-Nation Alliance sacked the Imperial City and the Forbidden City, they robbed 320,000 shicang rice (1 stone = 60 kilograms = 120 catties) and more than 80 million taels of silver, as well as more than 5 million taels of gold, as well as palace treasures of inestimable value.
In the Luan driving garage alone, 21 chariot rides, 1,373 Luan drivers, 12 sedan chairs, 2 jade treasures, 282 imperial concubine ceremonial staffs, 84 imperial concubine color staffs, 1 new and old cloud disk umbrella, 133 brocade flags, 9 ivory, 2 elephant saddles, 2 war drums, 2 bells, 2 static whips and a number of accompanying items.
The palace lost more than 2,000 treasures, including 24 jasper bullets, 47,506 books in the four libraries, 2 golden clocks, 1 Li Tinggui ink, 4 large screens, 1 jade horse, 1 copy of "Hair Reverse Seal", 1 string of real ink crystal beads, hair reverse Lin Fengxiang, Hong Xuanjiao's teeth and so on.
However, these are only some of the treasures looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and there are many more treasures that have not been recorded or cannot be recorded.
After the Eight-Nation Coalition ransacked the imperial city and the treasury offices of the six ministries and nine secretaries, they targeted the palaces of the palace ministers and Manchu nobles in the inner city.
For example, the French army snatched more than 30 taels of gold, more than 200 taels of silver and countless antique treasures from the palace of King Li, and snatched 365 strings of pearls and antiques worth more than 300 taels of silver from the house of Yang Lishan, the minister of military aircraft who was executed. The army snatched more than 300,000 taels of silver hidden in the well from Baojun Mansion.
Also, in the process of the Eight-Nation Alliance's sacking of Yanjing City, more than 1,800 princes, nobles, civil and military officials died, and all these people's family property was looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and no one can count how much gold, silver and jewelry the Eight-Nation Alliance has robbed!
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However, in history, the sack of Yanjing City by the Eight-Nation Alliance was far more than that, after they robbed the Imperial City, the Forbidden City, the Six Divisions and the Nine Qings, the mansions of the princes and nobles in the inner city, and the civil and military officials, they turned their targets to the official buildings, residences, merchants, shops, temples, temples and so on in Yanjing City.
For example, the Temple of Heaven in the south of the outer city lost 1,148 sacrificial vessels, 168 sacrificial vessels were lost in the Sheji Altar, and more than 3,000 gold-plated Buddhas, more than 50 bronze Buddhas, 13 magnetic Buddhas, 12 pairs of magnetic bottles, 40 gold-plated utensils, 7 silverwares, more than 4,300 bronze utensils, 58 tin utensils, 70 flags, more than 1,400 brocade embroideries, more than 110 bamboo and wood utensils, more than 1,600 ink carved treasures, and more than 100 musical instruments.
After the Eight-Nation Alliance withdrew from Yanjing, except for some people who fled from Yanjing, the population of Yanjing City did not survive.
On the streets, corpses blocked the road, and the homes of the dead were looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and no one knew how many private gold and silver treasures had been robbed by the Eight-Nation Alliance.
However, some experts estimate that excluding gold, priceless treasures, utensils, and other things, just silver, the Eight-Nation Alliance has robbed no less than 1 billion taels in Yanjing City!
And if you include other gold jewelry, rare treasures, etc., I am afraid that the value will be countless times more than the silver that was stolen!
In order to cover up their crimes of burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of evil, and in order to cover up the specific amount of property they had looted, the Eight-Nation Coalition began to set fire to the city.
Forbidden City, Imperial City, Inner City, Outer City...... Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire......
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Thinking about these terrifying histories, Wang Jundao's heart was still heavy after he walked out of [***] to the south of the palace with his army.
Finally, he made up his mind that his goal in this life is not only to make China rise, but also to lead the heroes of China to loot Britain and France, plunder their countries, rob them of gold, silver and jewelry, take possession of their cultural treasures, and at the same time recover what the British and French forces stole from Yanjing City forty years ago.
He also had to lead the Yanhuang Iron Brigade to plunder the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia, and Italy...... He wants to make these countries pay back a thousandfold.
Even if he has to bear tens of millions of infamy for this, even if he will be stinking for 10,000 years and will not be forgiven by future generations, he will not hesitate to do it.
Although Wang Jundao has this ambition, he knows that he can't be ambitious now, what he has to do is to prevent Yanjing City from being destroyed as much as possible.
So as soon as [***] came out, he led the army to control the six ministries and Jiuqing officials, he didn't have time to reason with those civil and military officials, and he didn't have the energy to talk to them about loyalty, whoever was disobedient, whoever resisted him, he would kill whom!
He doesn't care what the world thinks of him, and he doesn't care about the rebellious infamy given by the poor and rotten Confucian, and he uses heavy codes in troubled times, as long as the overall situation is settled, everything is not important.
Change of dynasty, how can there be immortals?
Recasting the country, how can it not be bloodless?
From ancient times to the present, any new dynasty overthrows the old dynasty, and the population will be drastically halved, millions, tens of millions can die, how can hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people not die?
Those who are pedantic and do not obey discipline will be killed!
Stopping the fight with force is Wang Jundao's current means, for the grand wish in his heart, the grand wish to let China stand at the top of the world again, those who follow the others will prosper, and those who oppose the others will die!
Therefore, Wang Jundao killed people, decisively killed, six departments and nine qing, unwilling to obey his orders, unwilling to do according to his orders, whether they were civil officials or military attachés, he rewarded them with a gun.
In his opinion, since he is willing to be loyal to the Manchus as Han people, and since he is willing to adhere to the sour system with corrupt thoughts, then he will fulfill them and let them be the "loyal ministers" praised by those corrupt Confucians, and let them become loyal ministers of the Great Qing Dynasty!
Finally, after Wang Jundao killed one hundred and twenty-seven civil and military officials who were unwilling to obey his orders, and ordered the army to raid the homes of these officials, all the civil and military officials were frightened and gave in, and no one dared to say a word to him again!
When Wang Jundao completely controlled the Six Ministries and Jiuqing, the Military Aircraft Department, and the Prime Minister's Yamen, Wei Zhongcheng had already received his order and led a team of political workers from the Christian Church to arrive.
At the same time, there are also Wang Jundao, the bishops and foreigners of various churches in Yanjing City who have been captured since the beginning of the day, and of course, the most important thing is the ministers and high-level personnel of the embassies of the countries of the Eight-Nation Alliance.
After some reporting and explanation, Wang Jundao directly instructed Wei Zhongcheng: "I will hand over all the affairs here to you to deal with, you help me control all the places such as the Military Aircraft Department, the Prime Minister's Yamen, the Sixth Ministry, the Jiuqing, etc., all the civil and military officials here have been surrendered by me, no matter what position they held before, what their status, you can command them at will, I will give you 2,000 soldiers, if someone does not obey the order, you will kill me directly, if someone is restless, or has other bad ideas, you will also kill them all for me, Questions? ”
"No problem!" Wei Zhongcheng gave a standard military salute and said loudly: "Commander, don't forget what I came from!" ”
"I forgot, you used to be a 'butcher'." Wang Jundao couldn't help but be stunned for a while.
Wei Zhongcheng grinned, before he followed Wang Jundao, he was the county lieutenant, in charge of the criminal law prison, with a merciful heart to help the world, to do decisive killing, to let him deal with the affairs here, it is very simple, just need to hold a gun on the one hand, money and power on the other, while intimidating, and tempting.
If it were simpler, he wouldn't even need to bow down to everything, just hold a gun to the heads of these civil and military officials, and force them to carry out Wang Jundao's orders.
And doing these things, he has a kind of pleasure in his heart, all the high-ranking officials of the Great Qing Kingdom, from now on, will be completely trampled under his feet, in addition to worshiping Wang Jundao in his heart, he is grateful, if there is no Wang Jundao, how can he Wei Zhongcheng have surpassed the hundred civil and military officials of the Great Qing Dynasty today?
At this moment, he was completely dead to Wang Jundao, the so-called soldier died for his confidant, he was willing to swear to the death for Wang Jundao, even if Wang Jundao wanted him to slaughter the common people and bear the infamy of the ages, he had no complaints!
With Wei Zhongcheng sitting in the Military Aircraft Department, the Prime Minister's Yamen, and the Six Ministries and Nine Secretaries, Wang Jundao no longer has any worries, he is completely relieved.
Now, with the edict written by Cixi and the order obtained from the military aircraft, he will lead the army to seize the control and command of the Wuwei Army!