Lieutenant Harold's calm demeanor was maintained to Zuihou, and after listening to the reports of Sergeant Liszt and Corporal Barrett full of concern, he actually enjoyed a cup of hot coffee, and said calmly: "Let all the soldiers be ready for battle, I will send a herald to ask Lord Wenhan in the concession for reinforcements, until we receive a new order, we must hold here." ”

Liszt had a gloomy face, looking at this rich boy who was alive and well, and he didn't know which famous nobleman in the country was the son of a nobleman in the country, who was sent to the Far East to gild, and it was only a matter of time before this kind of son-in-law who didn't know anything killed everyone.

Barrett felt that Harold was right, that it was the duty of the soldiers to obey orders, and without new orders, they could only continue to guard.

"Then how should we arrange our troops, lieutenant? We don't have artillery in our hands and we don't have enough ammunition. Liszt said dissatisfiedly: "More than 100 people have to defend the church area and the church school respectively, this is very difficult, the rebels on the opposite side will tear us apart one by one!" ”

Harold elegantly wiped his mouth with a silk scarf and said, "Don't worry sergeant, let the soldiers gather, we Red Shirts will not retreat without a fight." ”

Liszt was very angry: "Lieutenant Harold, you should be sober, we still have French, American and Sikhs under our hands, we are just a mercenary army desperately fighting for money, not the Red Shirts of Queen Bixia!" You should send someone for help right away, and then send someone to negotiate and wait for new orders or reinforcements! ”

Harold stood up with a thud and said loudly, "Sergeant, watch your words!" Execute the order now! ”

Baritra pulled Liszt's arm, and in the British army disobeying the orders of the commander would be punished severely, and Liszt had to indignantly pop out a few words from between his teeth: "Yes, sir! ”

Before the words fell, a soldier shouted at the door: "Lieutenant Harold." The French received an order, and they began to retreat. ”

Harold and the others were all taken aback, and Harold waved his fist angrily and said angrily: "These damn Frenchmen! I am the commander of this mercenary army! They don't have the right to retreat! ”

Liszt gloated and said, "Lieutenant, it must have been ordered by the French consulate." ”

Harold walked around irritably, and then came bad news, and the Americans also retreated to the city, and Liszt said loudly: "Lieutenant, the facts are already clear, and I believe that Lord Wenhan's order to retreat will also come immediately, and we should consider the question of retreat." ”

Harold's hesitation didn't last long. Lord Wenhan's retreat order finally came, Liszt and Barrett were relieved, Liszt was already ready to turn around and go out to gather the soldiers to retreat, at this time Harold said with a gloomy face: "Sergeant Liszt, Lord Wenham asked to leave five people as observers to stay in the church. Monitor the movements of these rebels, and I hope you will stay. ”

Liszt and Barrett were stunned. Both knew what it meant to stay with the team. Maybe he will be killed by the rebels, maybe he will be captured and taken prisoner, Liszt immediately understands that Harold is taking revenge on himself.

Barrett couldn't help but want to say something, but was pulled by Liszt, he looked at Harold with a blue face and asked, "Is this indeed an order from Lord Wenhan?" ”

Harold said impatiently, "Sergeant." Are you questioning my commands? ”

Liszt raised his head, gritted his teeth, and said, "No, sir, I will bring someone to stay." ”

Barrett immediately said, "Lieutenant." I asked to stay with Sergeant Liszt. ”

Harold didn't say much, nodded in agreement, and then went out to lead the soldiers to retreat.

Liszt smiled bitterly and said, "Barrett, you don't have to stay. ”

Barrett smiled and said, "Do you think I'm here for you?" You're not a pretty girl, you're not that attractive, I'm curious about the rebels, that's why I want to stay. ”

Liszt didn't say anything more, Barrett and he were good friends, and it was not strange for him to stay, and as soon as he said it, Liszt also found that in fact, he actually wanted to stay in his own heart, because the mysterious rebel army also made him curious.

Soon the soldiers in the church were withdrawn, leaving only Liszt and Barrett with three British soldiers, all of whom had stayed voluntarily, and all three were loyal supporters of Liszt.

Soon the time limit set by the rebels arrived, perhaps the rebels had already detected the soldiers of the church and retreated to the city, and the rebels who had completely crossed Zhaojiabang did not all come to the church, they divided into several groups of men and horses, followed the footsteps of Lieutenant Harold and others and began to march to the south of Shanghai, only a group of more than 200 soldiers and horses with two large yellow flags came towards the church.

Liszt and Barrett and other five British soldiers did not hide, Liszt asked three soldiers to observe from the bell tower of the church, he and Barrett were still wearing neat military uniforms and standing outside the door with guns to watch these rebels slowly approach, the two were only accompanied by Li Shanlan, and other priests, priests, and Christians hid in the church and did not dare to come out.

What is a little surprising is that the leader is still the bearded rebel officer just now, but he has changed into a set of robes, and his head is no longer wrapped in a red scarf, but a yellow turban, which is very different from other rebel soldiers who are wrapped in red cloth.

The bearded officer rode his horse and flew off his horse, and said with a smile, "I'm glad that your soldiers can retreat, so that everyone doesn't have to fight each other." ”

After Li Shanlan finished translating, Li Szt smiled and said: "It seems that we were all fooled just now, you should not be an ordinary Taiping Heavenly Kingdom officer, you should be a big man, I didn't expect you to come in person to give an ultimatum, if we could guess your identity at that time and forcibly detain you, maybe we could change the course of the war." ”

The bearded officer Haha smiled and said: "I am Xiao Chaogui, the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and I know that you British people who claim to be righteous and civilized will never do anything to detain the envoy, so I came in person." This guy is Xiao Yungui, although he smiled chicly, but when he went back just now, his vest was full of sweat, and he personally took the risk to be the messenger of Zuihou's ultimatum because there was really no suitable person in the army, and he didn't want the people sent to be scared by foreigners. I didn't want to be too tough and cause conflicts, so I had to go out on my own, but fortunately, the foreigner still had a chivalrous demeanor and didn't detain him, the messenger who passed the message.

Xiao Yungui's words surprised Liszt and Barrett, both of them knew that the supreme commander of the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was attacking Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai at the moment was this king of the West, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty offered a reward of 100,000 taels of silver for his head, but he didn't expect him to dare to take four guards to the enemy's camp to spread the word after disguise, and Liszt understood that the person in front of him was definitely not as rude as his appearance appeared, this person was extremely thoughtful.

looked at Xiao Yungui and said something to Li Shanlan with a smile. Although Li Szt could not understand Chinese, he could see that Li Shanlan was very happy and seemed to be friends with Xiao Yungui. Liszt, who was a little alert, hurriedly asked, "Mr. Li, what did His Excellency the King of the West say to you?" He was afraid that Li Shanlan would be bewitched by Xiao Yungui's words and betray himself and Barrett.

Li Shanlan said excitedly: "King Xi wants to go to the church and the church school. He said that after the city was built, he planned to expand the church and school. A library and a scientific research institute will also be opened. Xiwang invited me to be the president of the Academy of Science, and also wanted to invite famous scholars from all over the world to come to China to study academics together. Li Shanlan was obsessed with scientific and academic research, and of course he was very excited to hear such words, he didn't care what kind of official the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gave him and how much money he was given. On the contrary, let him study knowledge, and this old man will not refuse.

Liszt breathed a sigh of relief and said, "As long as the King of the West promises to protect the church and the people inside, of course he can go into the church if he wants to." At that moment, the king of the West brought more than ten guards into the church under the leadership of Liszt, Li Shanlan and others.

When Xiao Yungui saw the huge cross and the portrait of Jesus directly above the church hall, his eyes moistened a little. Walking through the rows of seats, Xiao Yungui knelt beside the pool used for baptism. Although the furnishings here are very different from those of the later Xujiahui Church, he still remembers the scene when he accompanied his mother to pray in the church.

Seeing the peaceful expression on the face of King West and the reverent kneeling in front of the portrait of Jesus, both Liszt and Barrett breathed a sigh of relief, and Barrett whispered: "God likes such devout believers as King West, sergeant, I have come to like these rebels, they are all devout Christians, and I cannot find a reason to hate them except for the difference in skin color." ”

Xiao Yungui bowed down in front of the portrait of Jesus, and more than a dozen guards behind him also bowed down reverently, all of them clasped their hands into fists on their lips, and silently recited words in their mouths, as if they were praying sincerely.

Everyone was silent, and the pastors, priests, and Christians in the church slowly came out of the hiding room, slowly gathered in front of the portrait, and began to pray with King Xi and others.

After a long time, Xiao Yungui slowly got up, turned back to those guards and said loudly: "Heavenly Father Emperor God has heard our prayers, let us fight bravely to kill the enemy, expel Hu Nu, and let this unfair shijie bathe in God's favor again as soon as possible!" Everyone cheered together, and the atmosphere was very enthusiastic.

The pastors and priests in the church began to come forward to talk to Xiao Yungui's guards, these people were missionaries in China, Chinese was okay, and the soldiers of the Taiping Army were also very happy to communicate with these foreign foreign brothers, they felt new about the things in the church, and those priests and priests began to make introductions.

Xiao Yungui came to Liszt and said: "Sergeant, I want to set up my headquarters here, so that I can protect this place more often, and I can often pray here, at the same time, I heard that there are many Western doctors in the church, and the doctors in our army also want to communicate with them, and at the same time I want to hire Western doctors as the military doctors of our army, and we will pay them." ”

Liszt is a little strange, many Chinese are afraid of Western medicine, but this king of the West is not afraid, but sends his own people to communicate with them, and dares to use Western doctors to treat his own soldiers, which shows his open-mindedness and open-mindedness. Liszt completely forgot that an hour ago, he was still enemies with these rebels, and under the warm invitation of the king of the west and the drive of money, whether it was Liszt, the priest and priest of the church who knew how to heal, they were all willing to do things for the king of the west. (To be continued.) )