The appointment of Duanjun Wang Zaiyi, who was extremely hostile to foreigners, as the prime minister and minister of Yamen, who handled foreign affairs, had already indisputably conveyed the attitude of the Qing court to various countries. In fact, the day before this appointment was announced, the British minister Dou Nale received reliable information that the Empress Dowager Cixi, the supreme ruler of the Qing Empire, had decided to attack all foreigners, and the evidence was that the military defense army of Dong Fuxiang (mainly Hui people) who had been stationed in Beijing was making military preparations to attack the embassy district.

Without hesitation, Dou Nale immediately sent a telegram to Vice Admiral Seymour stationed in Tianjin, telling him that the situation in Beijing was deteriorating at every moment, and that it was necessary to immediately arrange for the landing of all available troops and make all preparations for the march into Beijing.

That night, the consuls of the various countries in Tianjin urgently met to study Dou Nale's telegram, and Britain, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria agreed to immediately send troops to reinforce Beijing, but Russia and France did not agree. The reason for Russia's opposition was that the main forces of the Russian army were on their way to Tianjin from Arthur and would need to wait a few days. While they were arguing fiercely, Dou Nale's second telegram arrived, and his tone became even more urgent: the situation was extremely critical, and if troops were not sent to Beijing immediately, it would be too late!

Two hours later, the warships outside the mouth of Dagu lit fire and anchored, and in the early morning of the next day, the coalition forces landed in Tanggu. This time it was not a small force of a few hundred people from the previous time, but the coalition army that was pieced together this time totaled 2,050 people, including 915 British troops, 450 German troops, 313 Russian troops, 158 French troops, 100 American troops, and 52 Japanese troops. 40 Italian troops, 25 Austrian troops.

A small eight-nation coalition army that can be cobbled together as much as possible. Because the British army was the absolute main force, Vice Admiral Seymour of the British Navy deservedly became the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.

The coalition forces still marched by train. They moved in a hurry, carrying only 200 rounds of ammunition each, which seemed to be the limit of the ammunition that the soldiers carried. A whole host of logistical problems were hardly studied, Seymour believed that there would be no real battle on their trip, and the British, who had been arrogant for two or three centuries, believed either the imperial government or the ignorant peasants. None of them had the guts to shoot at the regular army of the British Empire.

After leaving Tianjin. They were not stopped by any armed force. Making this rescue trip more like a sightseeing, the front convertible car is equipped with cannons and machine guns, and the foreign soldiers in different styles of military uniforms sit lazily on the train, the biggest difference is their military caps: the British and French soldiers are white sunhats. The hats of Italian soldiers were decorated with feathers. The most formal are the Germans. Half of them wore steel helmets, the most obvious symbol being the spike on the steel helmet. Most of them had never been to the heart of China, so they were interested in the midsummer scenery. On both sides of the railway line, endless fields with endless crops growing, the occasional village to be seen, low adobe houses, and the monotonous scenery quickly bores the soldiers.

In the afternoon of that day, the telegraph line from Peking to Tientsin was cut off by the Boxers, and Seymour lost contact with the rear and front.

At dusk, the military vehicles arrived at Yangcun Station, which was guarded by the troops of Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Front Army, and the Qing army did not make any moves to prevent the allied forces from entering Yangcun. The officers and men of the former army of Wuwei did not show any anger at the blatant act of aggression. That's the reality.

Without permission, armed personnel of any other country are not allowed to set foot on the territory of another country, otherwise it will be aggression and will bring war. This is the general rule of international law. However, in 1900, the Qing Empire did not yet have the consciousness and behavior of a sovereign state, and its soldiers only obeyed the orders of the top. Officers and men seldom hear the word "state", let alone have a sense of anti-aggression, and do not understand that the basic mission of the army is to defend its own territorial security.

Nie Shicheng's troops even had a friendly conversation with the coalition forces, allowing the coalition forces to see the baskets of heads—all of which were the heads of the boxers, which could be used for reward. It was as if those bloody human heads were not cut off from the necks of their living compatriots, but treasures that could be exchanged for money.

The coalition soldiers were in a relaxed mood and continued to board the bus the next day to the north. The railroad began to show signs of vandalism, or a few sleepers were drained, or a section of track was moved. This is undoubtedly the masterpiece of the boxers. Fortunately, they did not know how to repair the railway, and they did not even know the skills of destroying the railway, so the allied soldiers quickly repaired the damaged railway, and the military vehicles continued to move forward until they reached Langfang.

It's already very close to Beijing. Seymour was reported that the railroad ahead was badly damaged, and the train was really unable to move and had to stop to repair the road.

On this very day, an incident occurred in Beijing, where the secretary of the Japanese embassy, Sugiyama Bin, was killed by Dong Fuxiang's soldiers. Sugiyama Bin was ordered by the Japanese minister to go out of Yongding Gate to meet Seymour's coalition army, but unexpectedly, the shadow of the coalition army has not been seen, but it fell into the hands of the Gan soldiers, and the Gan soldiers didn't care what his identity was, and immediately cut off his little Oriental head.

The soldiers of the Gan army did not understand that Sugiyama was a diplomat. In fact, not only Gan Jun, but also the highest decision-making level of the Qing Empire, did not understand the prevailing international practices. In the hot early summer of 1900, the Qing Empire did not have a comprehensive plan for the Boxer Rebellion internally, and externally, faced with armed intervention by foreign powers and even a full-scale war. Nie Shicheng's troops welcomed the coalition forces, but Dong Fuxiang's troops began to kill any foreigners. The same is true of the Boxers.

The Manchu Empire, the last feudal dynasty that considered itself to have inherited the orthodoxy of Chinese civilization, was staging a farce that was unique in history. Those who left their names in history have played a tragic role in the strict sense, whether they died unexpectedly, or those who died in bed for a long time, leaving endless melancholy to future generations, bringing severe suffering to the people at that time.

The killing of diplomats has sparked panic in embassies. The protests, the deployment of defensive measures, and the sending of telegrams urging Seymour reinforcements kept the embassy district busy.

However, when the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department and Prince Li Shiduo was in the last dynasty, he actually suppressed such a major event as the heads of Japanese diplomats being cut off by the regular army of the Qing Dynasty. Perhaps he thought that as long as he suppressed the upper score, things would naturally die. When an empire is decaying and on the verge of extinction, officials mostly have this mentality.

But on this day, Cixi called Rong Lu's "Qi" - a royal proverb with a Manchu style, which means to be questioned. Rong Lu met with Cixi alone, and the Queen Mother did not allow foreign soldiers to enter Beijing, and Rong Lu completely agreed. However, Rong Lu proposed that the embassy must not be attacked, it is incompatible with public law, and the consequences are unpredictable. If you really can't do it, let's protect the foreigners in Beijing and withdraw from Beijing.

Regarding Rong Lu's opinion, Cixi did not comment.

In Langfang, Seymour's coalition troops were building a railroad when suddenly a deafening shout came out from the green gauze tents on both sides, and under the stunned gaze of the coalition soldiers, countless Boxers with red turbans, swords, spears, sticks, and banners of various colors rushed out of the sorghum fields and killed the foreign soldiers standing on the roadbed.

The day was June 13, 1900.

After all, it was a regular army, and after a slight panic, the coalition forces began to shoot at the crowd. With little to no aim, each bullet can hit a living flesh.

But the bravery of the Boxers is difficult to describe in words: they completely ignored the dense barrage of bullets, they did not even bend down (or did not understand) to bend down and bow their heads for the simplest dodge, they screamed, and their writhing bodies were like a dance to celebrate the harvest. The people who rushed to the front were knocked down one by one, and the back continued the journey of death one after another! The vast majority of them are convinced that they are invulnerable – they have a term for "sleeping" for their partners who lie in pools of blood, and those who sleep wake up in two or three days. They didn't even think about how their friends who had their heads shattered, their eyes knocked out, their stomachs pierced and their internal organs flowed out of their stomachs were restored, and the puddles of bright red blood beneath them meant.

This is a group of peasants who have been working the hardest in the barren land for generations, meek, kind, humorous, they love drama, they want to be rich and clothed, they cannot write, but they can sing the sun, the moon, the mountains, the rivers and the beloved girl in a beautiful minor key. The bitter hatred and bravery they showed in the face of foreign invaders were enough to make their children and grandchildren still excited, melancholy, and uneasy a hundred years later.

The offensive failed. The gods and runes could not withstand the projectiles made of steel, and after leaving behind pieces of corpses, the Boxers retreated to the green gauze tent and to the place where they had set out.

On this day, the city gates of Beijing were opened, and thousands of Boxers poured into Beijing.

On this day, Cixi made an important decision: to use the regular army of the empire to prevent the Seymour coalition from entering Beijing.

"Quickly transfer all of Nie Shicheng's army back to the railway places near Tianjin and station__If there are foreign soldiers breaking into Gyeonggi, Ding Wei Yulu, Nie Shicheng, and Luo Rongguang are asking." So said the Lord.

Yulu, Governor of Zhili.

Nie Shicheng, the former commander of the Wuwei Army, is the commander of the most effective troops in Tianjin.

Luo Rongguang, commander of Dagu Fort.

The Qing court apparently took into account that reinforcements from the great powers would come from the sea. Since the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, a situation has taken shape in which there is no sea and no defense. The warships of the great powers were free to cruise in the Bohai Bay, China's inland sea. If you want to stop its reinforcements, you can only rely on the strength of the shore defense batteries. However, if you want to use force, why wait for thousands of foreign soldiers to come ashore before fighting?

In the year of Gengzi, due to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, the corruption and incompetence of the Qing court were unreasonably exposed to China and foreign countries as never before. (To be continued......)