Mandalay, outside the Royal Palace.

Qian Guotang looked at the looming figure in front of him and fell into deep thought, yesterday afternoon, the third battalion of the first division of the army launched a large-scale counterattack from the left flank, and once advanced hundreds of meters, and conquered a vital city gate tower, and retreated the battle line back to the vicinity of the palace wall.

However, the news from above said that although the third battalion had relatively strong combat effectiveness and had achieved a lot of results in the counteroffensive, the resistance of the Praetorian Guards was also very tenacious, and by last night, the third battalion had lost the ability to continue the offensive because of excessive casualties.

In the evening, the Kyoto garrison attempted a night attack, but it did not result in any actual results, but instead lost dozens of men.

Now the war has once again reached a stalemate.

The longer this dragged on, the more likely it was to be uncertain, especially when he and several other officers of the Kyoto Garrison went to see Li Haotong last night, although Li Haotong didn't say anything, but he learned from several other advisers and colleagues that because the Kyoto Garrison and the Praetorian Guards were at a standoff, and caused serious damage to Mandalay City, and more importantly, this unresolved scene brought great risks to the Ning Kingdom.

The Ningguo military was afraid that if the two sides could not distinguish the winner for a long time, it would attract a direct invasion by the British or Chinese army.

Although the military of the Ning army insisted on a very clear neutrality in this battle for the throne, they did not want to see the Chinese army or the British army intervene.

Under these circumstances, a number of senior military officers of the Ning Army, including the commander of the very important First Division of the Army, who had originally adhered to a neutral attitude, had already held many meetings outside the city, and there were even reports that the military was unwilling to let this chaotic situation continue, and they hoped to end the current chaotic situation as soon as possible. Thus restoring peace to the Ning Kingdom.

There is no doubt that once the Ningguo military directly intervenes, then whether it is the Kyoto garrison or the Praetorian Guard, it will be impossible to resist the attack of the elite Ningguo Army Field Corps, and no matter where the Ningguo military falls, then the other side will have an absolute strategic advantage.

And what worries Li Haotong and others even more is. Now they can't speculate at all about the attitude of the military, and if they decide to intervene, which side will they fall?

Of course, Li Haotong was worried about this, but he didn't know that there was also an endless debate within the Ningguo military at this moment.

Although the Ningguo military is a whole, since the era of Lin Chengting, the military has been independent of the government under the leadership of Lin Chengting, except for Lin Chengting. No one can command the military, and the Ningguo military still maintains this great independence.

That's why they can maintain a neutral attitude in the battle for the throne, because the eldest prince or the second prince ascends the throne, there is not too much essential difference for them, the military is a self-proclaimed system, and whether the eldest prince or the second prince ascends the throne, they must continue to win over the military.

But there is another reason for them to remain neutral, that is, the Ningguo military is actually not monolithic. There must be people who support the eldest prince, and there are people who support the second prince. And once the military intervenes, then there is a great possibility that the military will be the first to split, and then it will not only be a civil war between the Praetorian Guard and the Kyoto garrison, but a civil war that will affect the entire Ning country, and the tens of thousands of military troops will fight first.

In order to avoid divisions within the military, in order to avoid the drain of forces in a civil war. In order to retain enough strength to deal with the invasion of the British army or the Chinese army, most of the senior generals of the Ningguo military reached a tacit agreement, that is, the military will not intervene in the battle for the throne this time, so as to avoid the military being involved in the civil war.

But now the battle for the throne has been pending for a long time, and the gunboats sent by the British to find out the news are also going up the river. When the river defense troops of the Ning army discovered that the British gunboats were going up the river, although they blocked it to a certain extent, they were forced to retreat for fear of causing a large-scale invasion of the British army.

The arrival of the British gunboats made the top brass of the Ning army feel the urgent pressure, so that they would discuss whether to intervene in order to end the current battle for the throne and cut off the possibility of British or Chinese military intervention from the source.

But to meddle is okay, the key is who to support?

Everyone knows that the ministers and the Praetorian Guards behind the eldest prince are relying on the support of the British, and Li Haotong behind the second prince and the Kyoto garrison are standing in preparation for the Chinese Empire.

Whichever side is supported is likely to attract interference from the other.

This choice is a difficult problem faced by many senior generals of the Ning army, which supports the second prince, and it may not be the British gunboats that will probe the news, but an inland river fleet or even tens of thousands of British troops.

However, if the Ningguo military supported the eldest prince, perhaps tens of thousands of Chinese troops on the northern border would be killed immediately.

This is sandwiched in the middle, which makes it difficult for the Ningguo military to choose!

The situation of Ningguo in 1868 was actually even more tragic than that of Thailand.

Since the 50s, Thailand has been sandwiched between Britain and France, and after the 60s, the power of the Chinese Empire has also extended to Thailand through the Kingdom of Vietnam.

Although contemporary Thailand is regarded as a strategic buffer zone by Britain, France and China, so as to maintain its independent status, but it is sandwiched between the three countries, this Thailand's life is naturally not good, when the former wants to develop a modern navy, just ordered a small offshore gunboat from the imperial side, but the British and French immediately have opinions, so Thailand also had to bite the head and order a gunboat in the hands of Britain and France respectively.

Being sandwiched between major powers, of course, you can walk a tightrope to gain benefits, but if you don't do it well, you will be crushed.

The situation of Ningguo is worse than that of Thailand, China, Britain and France are only some conflicts of commercial interests on the Thai side, and there is no risk of turning into war, and the three countries are also inclined to retain Thailand as a fast strategic buffer to avoid direct contact of interests between the three.

But Ning's words are directly sandwiched between the empire and the United Kingdom, and for the empire and the United Kingdom, the strategic importance of Myanmar is far comparable to that of Thailand, one to protect the strategic security of India, and the other to protect the security of the southwestern territory of Yunnan and Guizhou. Therefore, no one wants to see the other party control Ning Guo, let alone directly annex Ning Guo.

Otherwise, the Memorandum of Understanding on China-Britain and Burma would not have been signed.

"We can't wait any longer, no matter what the military decides, but we have to try to take this palace before the military intervenes, and even if the military wants to intervene, there will be no way!" Li Haotong at a meeting with several Chinese military advisers. I can no longer hide the urgency in my heart.

In the past few days, Li Haotong can be said to be under great pressure, and he has not had a good night's sleep, and he feels that if he continues like this, he will go crazy sooner or later.

This coup d'état is not a fun thing, if Li Haotong fails, he can imagine what the end will be, he also has his sister and nephew the second prince. These three of them must have died without a place to be buried.

Even the family behind him, his parents, and his siblings are probably no better.

In the traditional Confucian dynastic change, it is often the losing side that loses everything, and being exterminated is the most basic.

If it is in a Western country, the losing side may just fail, and it is a big deal to pat the ass and return to his fiefdom to continue to be a nobleman, but in the Confucian dynasties such as China and Ningguo, this kind of thing will definitely not happen. The traditional Confucian dynasty has always paid attention to cutting the grass and roots, and does not kill the blood of your whole family. The victor will not be able to enjoy the fruits of victory.

Li Haotong already doesn't plan to wait any longer!

In the afternoon of the same day, he personally went to the front line with some personal guards, speaking of which, it was the first time he had been on the front line, and he had always been in command in the rear before, and he had never been a military general. He doesn't know anything about commanding operations, and what he is good at is really mobilizing food and wages in the rear and arranging them in the middle.

But now, he is dressed in military uniform, and then he appears on the front line.

He first summoned most of the middle and high-ranking officers. Half of these officers were die-hard officers of the Li family, and the other half were Chinese military advisers.

For these people, he doesn't need to motivate them too much, because the former is a diehard loyalist of the Li family, and Li Haotong is prosperous and rich, and they will follow Ronghua and wealth, and if Li Haotong fails, they will also be exterminated by the winner, and there is absolutely no possibility of luck.

The military advisers from China, who came with the heavy responsibility of the Imperial Army, were tasked with helping Li Haotong win the battle for the throne, and then completely pull King Ning into the chariot of the Empire.

But those ordinary soldiers don't have such a high level of consciousness.

Although the Ning Kingdom is a typical country ruled by Chinese, but the number of Chinese is small after all, in the early years Lin Chengting's Ning army had a lot of Chinese soldiers, but as the war continued, and these Chinese soldiers gradually grew up, they were directly transferred by Lin Chengting, and then appointed as low-level officials at all levels, so up to now, most of the soldiers in the Ning army are native natives.

Naturally, it is impossible for these natives to have any sense of loyalty to Li Haotong, and even to the entire Ning Kingdom, the reason why they serve as soldiers to fight is mainly for food and salary, and the reason for fighting and charging on weekdays is not to hold the belief of dying for Ning Guo or Li Haotong, but because of the extremely harsh military discipline in the modern army.

If such a soldier wants to exert 100 or even 200 percent combat effectiveness, then he can only rely on foreign affairs to motivate him.

The most effective of these is gold and silver!

Li Haotong directly arrived at the front line with a group of guards, and these guards were carrying boxes of silver yuan!

In fact, these boxes of silver dollars add up to only a few thousand yuan, but when these soldiers directly pushed the wooden boxes to them, and the piles of silver dollars were piled up like a hill, the visual impact was very huge.

Just like those bosses in later generations when they paid salaries to employees, it was the same salary expenditure of tens of millions, but if it was a direct bank transfer, the same amount of money was sent, but the employees looked at it just a set of numbers, and many people at most just looked at the information received by the bank, and then ignored it.

But if you put tens of millions of dollars in cash directly on the scene, then it is very visually striking, and people's first impression is that this boss is really rich, and he may even make headlines.

Then the native soldiers stepped forward one by one, and then took the silver yuan.

After the silver yuan was issued, Li Haotong also ascended the high platform and announced that as long as the palace was conquered, all the gold and silver property in the palace would be distributed as spoils of war, and the soldiers would be theirs as much as they could!

Li Haotong directly regarded the entire palace as a reward!

Although it seems to be a very loser's behavior, but now I don't know if this palace belongs to him in the future, besides, there is not much gold and silver in the palace, most of them are some luxury items, King Ning's treasury is not here, it has long been controlled by Li Haotong, and even in order to be prepared, he has begun to transfer the gold and silver of the treasury in the past few days, and directly deposited it in the branch of the Imperial Royal Bank in Mandalay, in exchange for millions of yuan bank cashier's checks.

Once he fails, this money is the foundation of his Li family's comeback in the future, if he wins, I'm sorry, this money is still his Li family's private property.

The indigenous soldiers who were dazzled by the silver taken out by Li Haotong soon showed madness in the next attack.

Watching the soldiers who had been afraid to move forward heroically run out of cover, and then rushed to the position defended by the Praetorian Guards on the opposite side, Li Haotong finally smiled. (To be continued.) )