Although he knew that if he continued to stay in Beiping, the end would be too good, but he couldn't ignore it, and he couldn't escape directly from Beiping like Xianfeng, because in this Beiping, in addition to Xianfeng and those powerful ministers who fled, there were too many people in the Forbidden City, there were many concubines in the palace of Emperor Daoguang, and there were also concubines of Emperor Xianfeng who did not take away, and then there were many families of powerful ministers in the palace.

His own family is still in the city, he can escape alone, but it is difficult for his family to take him with him, if he escapes alone, what will his family do? If he can't find him, it is estimated that his family will be affected.

Not to mention that Yixun's family members are all there, in fact, most of the powerful family members are still in Beiping, and there are very few powerful family members who can flee with Xianfeng.

After all, it is impossible for the Qing army to flee in a hurry to let these magnates bring a large family with them, even Mu Yin, who is responsible for arranging the East Hunt, only brought three or five family members, and most of the others are the same, and which of these people is not hundreds of family members, if they fail to escape with Xianfeng, they basically can't escape if they want to escape now, because the Chinese army outside the city has arrived, and now the city is too chaotic, if the female family members in this family are not protected by hundreds of soldiers, it is estimated that they will be scattered by the mob as soon as they leave the house. And when the time comes, what will happen to these beautiful women can already be imagined with their eyes closed.

There are still tens of thousands of people in this city, and with his family in need of Yixun's protection, he can't leave them behind and flee directly.

And now that there is chaos in the city, the current Chinese army has not yet entered it, but there are hundreds of people killed and injured due to various riots. If there is no official force to suppress it at this moment, it is estimated that when the Chinese army comes in. The people in the city were killed and injured because of the riots.

And Yixun knows very well what he thinks, so don't say anything like that. Whether it was Xianfeng or Mu Yin, they never expected Yixin and the green camp and Beijing camp left behind to be able to hold Beiping, or even for a few days.

Anyway, he can't keep it, and Yixun's luxury now is to be able to keep the safety of many people in the city, especially the families of the ladies in the palace and other powerful ministers.

And to save their lives, this Beiping can't be chaotic.

Because no conqueror would like a ruined city, if he could maintain the comfort in the city, and then wait until the Chinese army entered the city, then Beiping would not experience war at that time. There will be no turmoil.

At that time, even if he can't end up well, his family may have a good death.

In fact, so far, Yixun doesn't know what to do, in despair, he can't do much, he can't escape, he can't resist, he doesn't have the courage to commit suicide and so on, what else can he do except be captured?

Just let Xianfeng escape. When Beiping was in turmoil, outside Beiping City, Song Xiangtang, who had finally arrived at the foot of Beiping City, frowned at this moment.

"Puppet Emperor Xianfeng wants to escape? So what are you waiting for, hurry up and send Lao Tzu into Beiping! "Song Xiangtang heard the report of the cavalry company that there was an abnormality in Beiping City. A large number of people went out from the east gate of Beiping, and in addition to the army, there were also a large number of powerful ministers. Where is this still worth guessing, fools know that Xianfeng is going to escape.

Song Xiangtang said as he walked back and forth: "No." The puppet emperor Xianfeng must not be allowed to escape, he must catch up! ”

"Immediately send a fast horse to report the news to Shi Hou. Let them send men and horses to intercept! As he spoke, he glanced at the map near Beiping spread on the ammunition box, then gritted his teeth and said: "The second regiment immediately changed its route and directly bypassed Beiping to advance eastward, and let the cavalry company cooperate with them to capture the puppet emperor alive!" ”

"The third regiment will catch up with me to reinforce the second regiment!" Song Xiangtang soon issued the relevant battle order.

At this time, there was a humane on the side: "What about Beiping?" If there is only one first regiment left, I am afraid it will be difficult to conquer a big city like Beiping! ”

Song Xiangtang heard this, but he didn't care: "Since the puppet emperor wants to escape, it is difficult to escape alone, and since he wants to escape, he must take the army and flee together!" ”

Others also excused themselves: "The general is right, according to our intelligence, although there were nearly 30,000 troops stationed in Beiping City, most of them were old armies such as the Green Battalion and Eight Banners, and the only new army was the first town, not to mention whether the first town was strong or not, to the good or bad is the new army, the puppet emperor Xianfeng wants to escape, they must be accompanied by protection, in this way, although there may be a lot of Qing troops left in the city, but most of them are weak old armies, to fight these old armies, an infantry regiment is enough!" ”

If outsiders heard this, it is estimated that the generals of the Chinese army would have to be arrogant, but in fact, this is the case.

Whether it is the Chinese Army or the Qing Army or the Hunan Army, the Zhenhu Army or even the Taiping Army, the main force is now the line troops equipped with muskets, as for the old army that used cold weapons and arquebuses, they have long been abandoned by the pace of the times, not to mention that the Chinese army looks down on them, even if the Qing army itself looks down on these old green battalion troops.

If before 1856, cold weapons would not still be able to play the role of cannon fodder, so that the Chinese army organized and trained the auxiliary defense force on a large scale, then now in 1859, when the main forces of the two sides are engaged in a decisive battle, they are not even qualified to be cannon fodder, especially for the Sixth Army, an army equipped with new rear-loading rifles.

Although the Sixth Army is followed by many auxiliary defense divisions, except for the special exception of the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, the other auxiliary defense divisions are all miscellaneous in the rear, mainly to bomb and suppress the local area and maintain the supply line.

The Chinese army's auxiliary defense army is unusable, and the green battalion and the old army of the Eight Banners in the Qing army are even more unusable. Run with the new army yourself.

Whether it is the auxiliary defense division in the Chinese army or the green battalion in the Qing army, it is now in 1859. It's already not even qualified to be cannon fodder.

In this way, the generals of the 1st Division heard that there was no new army of the Qing army in Beiping, and only a group of green battalions were waiting for the old army. It is not surprising to think that one infantry regiment will be able to capture Beiping.

In order to achieve this strategic goal, Song Xiangtang directly divided his troops into two ways and sent the first corps to attack Beiping independently, while he took two infantry regiments and other main forces to bypass Beiping City directly, and then directly went east from the south of Beiping City!

In front of the main force led by Song Xiangtang, the cavalry company of the first division also took the lead, no longer caring about horsepower but directly galloping eastward. They had to catch up with Xianfeng's fugitive team, provide the main forces in the rear with the enemy in front of them, and if possible, they would also use tactics to delay the enemy's march.

In the ranks of the first town of the Qing army, a Qing army general wearing a new army uniform looked at the cavalry looming in the rear, and he could see from the color of the uniforms of those cavalry at a glance, it was the cavalry of the Chinese army.

"Why did they catch up so quickly, you can't let them come up, let the cavalry drive them away!" The first town commander Le Shan said with a sad face.

Under his command. Hundreds of cavalry in the first town roared out, and then pursued and escaped with the cavalry of the Chinese army in the rear. And when it comes to fighting, it is also chasing and fleeing, and it is difficult to distinguish the winner in a short period of time.

Le Shan watched as the Chinese cavalry and his own cavalry chased after him, and soon disappeared out of sight. He looked back at the large pile of carriages in the middle of the line and sighed.

Leshan is the first town to rule. Although he is not a general of the new army cultivated by Du Xing'a, the entire new army system in the Qing army is inseparable from Du Xing'a. Therefore, this Leshan actually served under Duxing A in his early years, and was able to be entrusted with an important task by Xianfeng as the commander of the first town, which shows that Leshan is deeply trusted by Xianfeng, and his ability is also there.

It's a pity that the first town was born out of the Eight Banners New Army, and the Eight Banners New Army has already been rotten to the rotten grain, when the Eight Banners New Army was reorganized into the first town, he tried to replace the original Eight Banners soldiers, and directly recruited peasant children from near Gyeonggi to supplement, but it was strongly opposed by the government and the opposition.

Even Xianfeng maintained an opposing opinion, they believed that the first town was the royal garrison, the last line of defense of the royal family, even if it was impossible to appoint all the bannermen as officers, but the soldiers must at least be bannermen.

Even if you don't take into account the problem of the defense of the Manchu and Han Dynasties, but since so many banner people in the capital are waiting to enter the new army to receive salaries, you must know that since the military reform of the Qing army, the existing green battalions are generally eliminated, and the eight banner troops are maintained at the old scale. However, when the New Army of the Eight Banners was first organized and trained, several old Eight Banners Army was directly withdrawn.

If the new army doesn't recruit the children of the banner people, you let several of the children of the flag people drink the northwest wind?

So in the end, even if Leshan tried his best to implement it, it failed to change the status quo that the soldiers in the first town were all banner people, and in the end they could only be recruited on the basis of merit among the banner people.

But even if it is a merit-based recruitment, but the children of the Eight Banners have already degenerated in the past two hundred years of life, coupled with the small population base of the banner people, unlike the selection of Han soldiers, they can only choose one out of thousands of people, they can only choose one out of ten or even one out of five, and the quality of the selected soldiers is not likely to be strong even if they are recruited on the basis of merit.

You must know that whether it is the Chinese Army, Li Hongzhang's Jianghuai New Army, or the New Army under Duxing A, their soldiers are basically selected from the base of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of people, and basically only 10,000 or 20,000 people are recruited out of tens of millions of people in a province.

The foundation is poor, and although Leshan did his best in follow-up training, it was still difficult to change some bad habits in the era of the Eight Banners New Army.

As a result, the combat effectiveness of First Town is actually far inferior to that of the other new armies, and at most it is stronger than the worse old armies.

The only thing that is better is the cavalry, the cavalry of the Qing army is actually Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry, whether it is the cavalry under the command of Duxing A or the cavalry under the command of Leshan, although the training and weapons are slightly lacking, but at least there is a brave force, many of them are herdsmen recruited from the Mongolian steppe region.

No matter how powerful they are, but at least they dare to fight!

However, what about these Eight Banner infantry, Le Shan himself couldn't believe them!

In this case, if you want to get rid of the pursuers behind you, there is only one word: run!

Don't expect anything to leave the troops behind, don't expect to return the carbine or anything like that, what Leshan can hope for is to keep running, not letting the pursuers in the rear catch up, and then successfully arrive at the troops sent by Duxing'a in Jixian County to meet the Holy Driver.

Although Du Xing'a's troops can't defeat the Chinese army, they are at least still regular troops, and their combat effectiveness is much stronger than those Eight Banner soldiers under Le Shan's hand who smoke big cigarettes and walk birds every day.

But even if he was bent on escaping, but looking at the more than 300 carriages in the middle of the team, Leshan just couldn't be optimistic, and it was hell that he could run away with so much burden. (To be continued.) )