Emperor Xianfeng left, in a hurry, simply, without any mud and water, and without a trace of nostalgia.

The emperor can go, and the princes and ministers can follow, but most of the people in the capital don't have the ability to leave at will, so they can only wait, waiting for the last moment to come.

Fortunately, most of the Han people are not worried, on the contrary, they have a little expectation, after all, it is not foreigners who call, but Han people, for them, the days are already like this, and if they change the Han emperor, maybe the days will be better.

The rich children of the Eight Banners are also okay, at least they can find a way to run out of the capital, follow the emperor's footsteps to Rehe or even go directly to Guanwai, although there will be losses during the period, but they can always save their lives.

It's just that those children of the Eight Banners who have poor income and a large number of them, want to run, no money, don't run, and are afraid of being counterattacked, so they are panicked all day long.

In the panic of the people of the banner in the capital, Prince Gong? In the face of danger, he was ordered to take charge of the military and political power of the capital as Prince Gong's follower and minister.

But for this position, he is actually not happy to take it, because it is indeed a hot potato, and it is indeed a mess.

What's more, he is essentially just a scapegoat pushed out by the emperor, who seems to have a lot of power, but in fact has no real power.

Because when the emperor left, he took away all the troops that could fight in the capital, and at present, the entire capital is counted together, with a total of more than 5,000 armed forces, and even the management of public security in the capital is reluctant.

But whether you like it or not, Yi? At this time, there was no way to object, and at this time, he still had a sense of ownership, and felt that he always had to fight hard and obey the destiny of heaven.

The first thing he did was to summon the remaining ministers for a meeting. In order to discuss countermeasures, these ministers are Guiliang, a scholar of Wenhuadian University, Bao Jun, the minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Fu Ming'a, the deputy commander of the infantry military camp, and Wenxiang, the head of the household department.

Among them, Gui Liang is Yi? 's father-in-law, Bao Jun is with Yi? Always be friendly, are they all Yi? , only Fu Ming'a and Wen Xiang are new outsiders to join this small circle.

Fu Ming'a, whose name is law and order, is a descendant of Yuan Chonghuan, and last year he was still helping to do military affairs in the Jiangnan battalion under He Chun. However, because of good luck, when he was fighting the Liuhe War with the Taiping Army, he was injured in many places because he was on the front line, so he had to be recalled to the capital in advance for treatment, which allowed him to avoid the disaster of the later Jiangnan camp.

After that, he became a deputy commander in the capital infantry military camp, in fact, he was a training officer, responsible for retraining the undisciplined infantry military camp.

He's got a bit of a skill. Knowing that the habits of the infantry battalion were difficult to change, he asked for a new army, that is, on the basis of the original infantry battalion, some poor banner people were re-recruited into two battalions, which were the so-called infantry front battalion and infantry rear battalion.

He actually used to talk to Yi? Uncooked. On the contrary, he was loyal to Emperor Xianfeng, who promoted him, and this time Emperor Xianfeng fled, and the reason why he was thrown out was to take insurance. After all, the soldiers and horses in his hands are the only force in the capital that can control the field today.

Not to mention Wen Xiang, he used to be Xianfeng's henchman, and he once trained the Shenji Battalion as a household servant. And the Shenji Battalion is the so-called new army in Xianfeng's mouth.

This time Emperor Xianfeng fled, he took away the new army Shenji Battalion, originally wanted to take Wenxiang away, but Wenxiang himself wanted to stay, in view of this, Emperor Xianfeng also approved him to stay, of course, the Shenji Battalion he trained was to be taken away, and the silver in the household was basically taken away by Emperor Xianfeng.

In other words, in fact, Fu Ming'a and Wen Xiang were both left by Emperor Xianfeng to restrain Yi? The chess pieces, one of them holds military power, and the other holds financial power. If you don't know the two of them, you can't do anything.

Fortunately, everyone also knows that now is the time of national crisis, and we must always work together, so the atmosphere at the meeting was also harmonious, and there was no clear distinction.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Prince Gong? didn't talk nonsense, and as soon as he gave up his hand slightly, he went straight to the point, "Don't say anything else, the emperor left me to preside over the peace with Southern Li, but Xiao Wang is only a shallow learner, and he doesn't have a clue yet, I don't know if you have any regulations?" ”

Everyone looked at each other for a while, and finally it was the honest Wen Xiang who spoke first: "Lord Wang, I don't know where Li Regent's soldiers and horses are fighting now?" ”

"As far as I know now, their strikers have already laid down Tai'an City and are heading towards Jinan." Abundant? sighed.

"So fast?" Wen Xiang was taken aback, "It's only been a few days?" ”

"Actually, Tai'an City surrendered by itself." Abundant? Shaking his head, "Li Wei's army didn't make much effort at all, and then, that forward force only stayed in Tai'an for two days before continuing to march towards Jinan. It seems that they really want to hit Beijing so straightforwardly. ”

"How many Shorthaired Strikers are there?" Wen Xiang frowned and asked.

"I don't know how much." Abundant? Continue to shake his head, "Some say less than 5,000, some say 20,000, but according to my estimate, it should not exceed 10,000." ”

"In that case, there shouldn't be a big problem." Wen Xiang said, "Shengbao is in Jinan, his troops are at least 30,000 people, and basically there are not many losses, Jinan City is a big city, but if you defend it, it should still be possible to hold there." ”

"If it's just a striker, I'm not afraid." Abundant? frowned and said, "I'm afraid that their main force will finish resting and take advantage of the situation to attack, then it will be difficult." The foreigners have sharp firearms, and it is difficult to say whether Jinan can hold it. ”

"Then decentralize." Wen Xiang said, "Let Shengbao requisition Jinan's taxes on the spot, and recruit soldiers and horses to defend the city on the spot." ”

"He's already doing that." Abundant? glanced at Wen Xiang, "As far as my informant newspaper said, Shengbao not only intercepted the treasury in Jinan, but also increased taxes, and grabbed strong men everywhere, and now he has raised an army of 100,000 people, and he is stepping up training every day." Moreover, there is also news that has not been confirmed, that is, I heard that he sent an envoy to the short-haired camp privately to hook up with Li Yi...... Whether it's true or not, it seems that we can hardly count on this Katsubo-sama. ”

"Is the information reliable?" Wen Xiang frowned, obviously suspicious of Yi? rhetoric.

"It's the emperor's secret line that sued me." Abundant? Faint words.

Hear Yi? Saying this, Wen Xiang didn't say anything anymore, just frowned and shook his head.

"Lord, don't hide it." Fu Ming'a suddenly said, "Presumably, you must have an idea, and you must have an idea, just take it out and say it, as long as it is beneficial to my Qing Dynasty, I promise to listen to you." ”

Hear this. Abundant? Looking at Wen Xiang, Wen Xiang smiled slightly: "The prince doesn't need to look at me, I am the same as General Fu Ming'a, wholeheartedly for the Qing Dynasty, if you have any ideas, just say it." ”

"Okay then." Abundant? Nodding, "Let me see, now we are no longer reliable except for Beijing and Tianjin, so we need to strengthen the city defense of Beijing and Tianjin." The children of the Eight Banners were then recruited as soldiers, trained strictly, and prepared in advance to defend Beijing and Tianjin. ”

"Lord Wang, you want to recruit soldiers?" Fu Ming'a frowned, "That's a good idea, but the flag man ......"

"I know what you mean." Abundant? Waving his hand, "Most of the flag people are indeed unusable, but when this national disaster occurs, they can't be useless."

This time, we will only recruit poor people who have no bad habits to serve as soldiers. Then they will be trained with severe punishment, and if necessary, they will be killed to make an example.

I don't believe it, as long as I train strictly, will my Eight Banners really not be able to support the wall?

General Fumina. At that time, the responsibility of training the army will have to be handed over to you, so you don't want to live up to the trust of the imperial court. ”

"Since the prince said so, the last general will have a spectrum in his heart." Fumina hugged his fist. "As long as you give me the power to act cheaply, and I am really willing to train the soldiers with a dead hand, I promise to train you an elite army. But. How many soldiers are you going to recruit? If there are fewer soldiers, there are not enough, and if there are more soldiers, do we have so much silver? ”

"It's up to Lord Wenxiang." Abundant? Turning his head to look at Wen Xiang, "Lord Wen Xiang, I plan to recruit 50,000 bannermen to train a new army first, and the Russians have promised to help in terms of weapons, but the asking price is very high, including guns and cannons, at least one million taels of silver." So, you still have to find a way to raise this money. ”

"There's not much money left in the household." Wen Xiang shook his head, "Don't hide it from the prince, the household department now has a total of 20,000 taels of silver, and it is difficult to maintain this amount of silver, let alone 1 million taels of silver." ”

"Is there no other way?" Abundant? frowned.

"At present, it seems that if you want to raise so much silver in the short term, you can only raise taxes." Wen Xiang said, "But once the tax is raised, the people will definitely complain, and then they will not be of the same mind with us." ”

"Are they on the same mind with us now?" Bao Jun suddenly interjected, "If you want me to say, it's time to come, don't play any tricks of popular support." If you want me to say, the Han people are unreliable, while the short hair has not yet called, we quickly tax the rich Han families in the capital, there are so many people in the capital, there are so many rich people, is it difficult to raise a million taels? But we have to start this quickly, otherwise, when all the rich Han people run away, we will have nowhere to collect money. ”

"Never!" Wen Xiang hurriedly objected, "Now we haven't reached that point yet, if we do this in advance, the capital will definitely be in chaos, and the people of the world will know about it, and they will definitely deviate from us, and there will never be a division of King Qin, and then there will be no hope even for the last point." ”

"The teacher of King Qin? When has it been, and you still believe this? Bao Jun said loudly, "How many days has it been since King Qin's order?" Don't talk about the south, but the governor of the north will you see if there are any people who listen to orders? Hmph, Monk Greenqin's defeat, we no longer have many available soldiers, and our prestige has fallen to the bottom, and now everyone is looking at us, as long as Beijing is defeated, this flower country will no longer be ours. Otherwise, how could Shorthair hit Tai'an in such a short time? ”

Speaking of which, Bao Jun turned his head to Prince Gong? said: "Lord Wang, now that the situation is obvious, then Li Yi is clearly trying to snatch this flowery country, and he will not stop if he does not conquer Beijing City." At this time, let's not talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality, let's talk about it ourselves.

If you want me to see, while the short hair is still far away, we will immediately close the city gate, and then follow the example of the short hair to catch the reactionaries, and in the name of catching the anti-thieves, send the banner men and soldiers to raid the big Han families in the city. In this way, we can only offend a small number of large Han families, but we can get a lot of money, and then we can seize the time to train and prepare for war.

Moreover, if we do it in this way, our banner people have personally attacked the Han people, which is equivalent to handing in the name of the people, and there is no way back.

As long as my banner people are united, it is not easy to say anything else, it is still very promising to hold this Beijing city, and when the time comes, you can wait for change by delay, and who will belong to the world, this is not certain! ”

"What if the Han people make trouble first?" Wen Xiang retorted, "Even if we only rob the rich Han people, but the Han people are not fools, don't they understand our thoughts?" The Han people account for the vast majority in this capital, we robbed the Han people, once they start to hate us, how can this city be defended? Not to mention anything else, what if when we fight with the short-haired army, the Han people are making trouble in the city? ”

"You think too highly of the Han people, just them? Give them the courage not to make trouble! Besides, if you are really afraid that they will make trouble, then you should expel all the Han people from Beijing in advance. Bao Jun said, "Only the Manchus and Mongols are left in the city, isn't this okay?" It just so happens that there are fewer people in the city, so it's easier for us to defend and we can salvage. ”

"You, you're ......" Wen Xiang was furious, "Are you crazy? What nonsense? ”

"Okay, okay, don't talk about it." Prince Gong? Waving his hand, "Forget about the expulsion of the Han people from Beijing, the matter has not yet reached that point." However, in the name of the thief's donation, the matter of finding a large Han family to raise silver taels can be considered. ”

"Lord Wang!" Wen Xiang said loudly, "Bao Jun is fooling around, why are you also coaxing?" Once this kind of thing is done, the Han people and we will no longer be of the same mind, and there will be no turning back! ”

"Do you have any other way to raise money?" Abundant? asked Wenxiang, "I don't want to do this either, but if I don't do this, who do we ask for silver?" Do we have a man of our own? What's more, I'm just asking for donations from thieves, and I won't kill them! When the national disaster is at hand, what is the matter with asking the Han people to give a little silver? ”

"This, this ......" Wen Xiang's mouth moved, and finally he shook his head and never spoke again.

"Okay, this matter is decided, the same day will be levied to raise the thief donation, and then the poor and good people of the banner people will be recruited to serve as soldiers." Prince Gong? Clapper said.

"Lord Wang." Fu Ming'a suddenly spoke up again, "I have no problem with your decision, but with all due respect, even if you start training from now on, even if you use the strictest method to train them, if you want to form combat effectiveness, it will not be possible without two or three months, not to mention that you still have to use Western-style weapons and Western-style exercises, it will take even longer, at least three months."

The question is, Shorthair has hit Tai'an now, will they give us three months to prepare for the war? ”

"You don't have to worry about that." Prince Gong? smiled, "I expected it, so I talked to the Russian envoy Nikolai in advance." He has promised to mediate for us and contribute to the matter of peace, and now he and the peace envoy he and I have sent are already on the way south, and we will soon be able to come into contact with Shorthair.

Hmph, it would be best if we could negotiate peace with Short-haired Shun this time, and if we couldn't negotiate in the end, we could at least delay it for three or five months, and by then, we would have enough time to prepare for defense. (To be continued......)