"Report to Lord Liu, the Eight Banners Army is about to attack, and all departments are ready, do you want to attack?" A subordinate reported urgently. "How many times have I said it, call the chief of staff, the Northern Expeditionary Army does not promote the Qing court, I am now the chief of staff of the capital column, do you understand?" Liu Mingchuan seemed to be a little disgusted by the words of the adult, and reprimanded. "Yes, yes, yes! Subordinates are stupid, chief of staff, you give orders!. ”

Liu Mingchuan took out his pocket watch and glanced at it, and the hour and minute hands pointed to 4 o'clock in the morning. "Tell the ministries to attack, this is the first battle we have joined the Northern Expeditionary Army, if anyone drops the chain for me, don't say that I will be dealt with by military law." After all, in the eyes of the original Hunan army, they were extremely contemptuous of the Eight Banners. At the sound of an order, five divisions launched an attack. The Eight Banners Army, which was preparing to launch an attack on the capital, was suddenly hit by a blow from the rear and immediately became a mess.

In the temporary command post of the Eighth Banner Army, there was also chaos. At this time, Sakoba and Sorango were also confused. One of his subordinates crawled in and said, "Report, it's not good, tens of thousands of Qing soldiers have attacked us from behind." The troops have become a mess, sir, retreat quickly. "It must be Li Hongzhang's descendants who have arrived, and they are not allowed to retreat and resist on the spot, and the retreat will be over." Sackba came to his senses and shouted.

Although the Eight Banners were well-trained, they had not gone through the battle formation after all, and Li Hongzhang's descendants had been trained in the Great War, coupled with the sudden attack, the Eight Banners quickly collapsed. Soldiers could not find those who were officials, and those who were officials could not find soldiers, and the structure of the Eight Banners Army was completely disrupted. At this moment, a group of men and horses were killed from the city, and the Eight Banners began to run with their heads in their hands. An hour later, 30,000 Eight Banner soldiers were defeated.

Sakma and Sorango were caught in the rout, completely losing their ability to command. Under the powerful offensive, the Eight Banners knelt on the ground and surrendered in pieces. The battle drew to a near noon end, when Sakba and Sorango were captured. The two were escorted to Liu Mingchuan with a disgraced face, and they knew Liu Mingchuan's name but did not know each other. "Please follow me into the city and go to the Forbidden City to meet your master, I think you two have a lot to say to your master. By the way, by the way, I will tell you two, I am Liu Mingchuan. ”

After Liu Mingchuan finished speaking, he threw away and strode towards the city gate, the two of them stared at each other in surprise, Liu Mingchuan was not killed, which showed that Li Hongzhang had a heart of betrayal at that time. In the operation to seize the capital, Li Hongzhang must have made careful preparations. The general trend was gone, and the two of them were like deflated balls, and they walked towards the city with the group of prisoners in despair. Liu Mingchuan dismounted in front of the Li Mansion, and then walked straight in.

"Report to the commander-in-chief, deputy commander-in-chief, Liu Mingchuan came to report." Although Liu Mingchuan's military salute is not very standard, he is very serious. Khalid returned the salute cleanly. Li Hongzhang was not used to saluting the army, so he just raised his hand and said excitedly: "Brother Liu has done a good job, and if you destroy this Eight Banners Army, I will get rid of a piece of my heart." General Ha, the troops have arrived in the capital, you can deploy. ”

Khalid did not give in and said: "Chief of Staff Liu, order the 1st Division of the Beijing Column to garrison Fengtai, the 2nd Division to garrison Tongzhou, and the 3rd Division to garrison Daxing. You lead the 4th and 5th Divisions to Fangshan and eliminate the Eight Banners Army in Fangshan. If the Eight Banners Army flees and cannot be pursued, you must lead your troops to build fortifications in Fangshan, and this direction is our key defense area. Liu Mingchuan took the order and left. Li Hongzhang was puzzled: "General Ha, weishenme is not fortified in the north?" ”

Khalid said with a smile: "There is no Eight Banners Army in the north, and Weishenme has to be fortified. "But there is a division of new troops in Chengde." "Lord Li, the imperial court is gone, do you think the new army of this division can attack? The ideal of the Tao must be clearer than I am. Li Hongzhang nodded and said: "What you said makes sense, no wonder you are not worried about the new army in the direction of Zhangjiakou, yes, they will soon know about the changes in the capital." Although there are more than 100,000 horses, they are now a rabble. ”

Khalid's eyes lit up and he said: "The Qing court no longer exists, and the Qing troops everywhere have become rootless. Lord Li, now is the best time, and I want to use your influence to persuade the new army in Zhangjiakou to surrender. If the more than 100,000 new troops in Zhangjiakou surrendered, the capital would be even more at ease. Li Hongzhang shook his head and said: "The head of the new army in Zhangjiakou is Qi Mingru, the minister of military aircraft, this person is arrogant and has always been at odds with me, I'm afraid it won't work." ”

"My lord, there is no loss in writing a letter at this time and at that time. At present, we have captured the capital, and the grassland column of our West Road is in the north of Chen Bing, eyeing Zhangjiakou. If my Taihang column occupies Shijiazhuang, the Qing army in Zhangjiakou has actually been surrounded, I think Qi Mingru will make a wise choice when he sees this situation. Of course, there is no hurry, and it is not too late to wait for the situation to become clear. "The head of Khalid's analysis is the Tao.

Li Hongzhang seemed to think of something and said: "There are 50,000 Japanese troops in Baoding, and you put Liu Mingchuan in Daxing to target the Japanese army!" "Exactly, what I'm worried about is also the Japanese army in Baoding. If they launch an attack on the capital, there will be some trouble. However, the problem is not big, as long as Commander Leng leads his troops to capture Shijiazhuang, the Japanese army in Baoding will either flee or stick to Baoding. Unless the Japanese army in Baoding received an order from McMahon to recapture the capital. ”

Referring to McMahon, Li Hongzhang said: "McMahon was shocked to hear of the change in the capital, and he must order the capital to be recaptured, and we must mention it." Khalid said lightly: "McMahon's desire to recapture the capital is probably stronger than anyone else's, but he is facing no soldiers. At present, there are only 5,000 German troops in Tianjin, and the German army is responsible for garrisoning Tianjin, and it is impossible to send troops. In addition, news from Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places will soon reach Tianjin, and McMahon will have to worry about hundreds of thousands of allied troops at that time, and he will not be able to take care of the capital at all. ”

In the Forbidden Palace, after listening to what Sackba and Sogolan said, he looked at the stunned Cixi and the others and said: "You see, this is the so-called elite of the Eight Banners, and in one morning, 30,000 horses were wiped out by Li Hongzhang's descendants. First-class equipment, first-class training, who brags about this. It's a shame for the two of you to have the face to come to see us. "Lord Gong, it was the enemy who launched a surprise attack, and we didn't expect it?" Sakma was not convinced.

"Okay, what kind of face and sophistry do the generals of the defeated army have, I thought you could earn some face, it seems that you are fishing for the moon in the water, you go down!" Yi kicked the grizzled two out. Then he turned to everyone: "Now you can imagine how powerful the Northern Expeditionary Army is, that is, the elite of the Hunan Army, which has beaten the elite of the Eight Banners to the ground and has experienced a hundred battles, is also not the opponent of the Northern Expeditionary Army. The character of Deng Zixuan is too terrifying, and he has created an invincible iron army. I can tell you that the fate of the coalition forces is not much better, and this army will fight for hegemony in the future! After saying that, Yi raised his legs and walked out, and everyone froze there when they heard this, and all hope was gone.

Liu Mingchuan led his troops to Fangshan, where there was still the shadow of the Eight Banners Army, and the 4th Division of the Eight Banners Royal Guards had already run away without a trace. "Report to the Chief of Staff, Bi Ying led his troops to flee south, whether to pursue or not!" A subordinate reported. "Don't pursue, order the troops to take over Fangshan, immediately build fortifications, strengthen the defense, our task is to defend the capital." Biying fled in a hurry, and a large number of military supplies, weapons, ammunition and a large amount of food were discarded in Fangshan Town.

Liu Ming was overjoyed to see the grain, at least he didn't have to raise food. After a night of silence, early the next morning, Liu Mingchuan changed into the general uniform of the Northern Expeditionary Army and looked carefully in the mirror. At present, although the troops have cut their braids, the clothes of the original Qing army have not been changed. For the sake of distinction, all the commanders were only issued a military cap of the Northern Expeditionary Army. There was a commotion in front of the door, and I saw the adjutant running in in a panic and said, "Chief of Staff, your family is here!" ”

Without waiting for Liu Mingchuan to react, he saw his wife, two aunts and their respective maids rushing into the courtyard. "Master, it's really you, you're still alive." The wife screamed and pounced, crying with joy. Not to be outdone, the two aunts rushed up, snot and tears. Liu Mingchuan didn't know what to say: "Okay, I'm not a good haode, you cry and mourn!" But I was very touched by the scene of your crying and mourning at the beginning. ”

The eldest lady stopped choking and said, "Stumped that you were there at the time?" "Not only was I there, but I was able to see each of you really put on a show. I didn't expect to see the scene of me a hundred years later, and your grief-stricken appearance made me unforgettable. The aunt was too dissatisfied and said: "Your heart is really hard, why don't you tell us a little bit of news later." "That's it, master, you are too ruthless, do you know what kind of life the slave family has lived in the past two years, every day I think of you with tears soaked in the pillow towel, do you see if I am dead?" The second aunt was too coquettish to hold Liu Mingchuan's arm.

The eldest lady scolded: "What kind of system does it become in broad daylight? "The second aunt hurriedly let go of her arm and got up, the eldest lady forgot the scene just now when she forgot to throw herself into Liu Mingchuan's arms, in fact, she was jealous of the second aunt's performance." Alright, you can rest assured that you have seen me too. There will be war here at any time, go back! Liu Mingchuan unceremoniously gave an eviction order.

Two days after the change in Beijing, McMahon was negotiating with the Japanese prime minister at the British Consulate in Tianjin, and there were British, French, and German marshals, American consuls, and other relevant personnel. A memorandum on the large-scale arming of Japanese troops has been preliminarily drawn up, and consultations on the details will be held below. One of his subordinates hurriedly came in and whispered a few words in his ear, and McMahon heard it, obviously out of shape. He forcibly calmed and politely told the Japanese prime minister that there was an urgent military situation, and then waved his hand and led the generals into the next room.

After listening to the officer's statement, the French marshal was surprised: "Even if Li Hongzhang rebels, it is impossible to occupy the capital, you must know that there are more than 100,000 troops of the Eight Banners in and around the capital. "The marshal of the Russian army is not convinced either. McMahon asked, "Where is Li Hongzhang's descendant troops currently located, and is there any exit from the Third Customs?" The chief of staff of the coalition army said: "Three days ago, five divisions of his descendants arrived in Changli County. McMahon's hand trembled a little and said, "The capital is over, and the news is conclusive." The Eight Banners are a rabble that will collapse at the touch of a button. The key point is that Li Hongzhang's bold rebellion is very likely to be a signal for the Northern Expeditionary Army to attack on a large scale, and the hundreds of thousands of troops in our Central Plains have lost their sense of unified command. Li Hongzhang's purpose in capturing the capital was to destroy the command organs of our coalition forces. ”

"At present, the limited telegrams from Yangzhou and Zhengzhou only lead to the capital, and now that the capital is occupied, we can't know the news from the front, and the front line has not received any instructions, and my hundreds of thousands of Central Plains troops are in danger!" The chief of staff of the coalition forces fell into despair. "The capital must be recaptured!" "But we don't have any troops to send now!" Mark Mahon turned to the German marshal and said, "General von Laus, immediately order the German troops in Qingdao to board the ship and go to Tianjin." ”

However, 10 days later, when 20,000 German troops landed in Tianjin, the Central Plains battle was no longer manageable, and all the games were lost.

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