Sir Elgin and Lord Gro did not expect that they would meet Xiao Yungui, the king of the West, in the Nanyuan camp of the Taiping army on the outskirts of Nanjing, and in a surprised gaffe, the envoys of the coalition army of more than 20 people were very politely invited into the Nanyuan camp.

The follow-up troops of the Taiping army arrived within two days after the Guards Cavalry Regiment reached the city of Beijing, and the Taiping army formed an encirclement of Beijing from the east, north, and south, and in these three directions, the Taiping army established three large camps. The north camp is the Longdao Village camp, which is garrisoned here by the second division led by Feng Zicai of the First Army, which has only more than 8,000 soldiers and horses, and the cavalry regiment of the second division is transferred to the east camp for use. The Qing army and the coalition army in the north did not have many troops, so more than 8,000 people were more than enough to guard here.

The east camp is the big camp of Gaobei Village, Gaobei Village is the last village from Tongzhou to the capital, in the early years, it was called Gaomi shop, in the old days it was the imperial grain transfer station, there is a wharf on the side of the Pingjin Gate, another legend was once called Gao Honey Shop, it is said that someone leans on the beekeeping and honey of Lang Homeland of the forest to make honey for a living, there are many people who come here to buy honey within a radius of dozens of miles, so it is named. And because of the ancient temple in the village, the original bell and the tablet have "Qihua Gate" (now Chaoyang Gate), outside the high honey shop, letter friends and so on. In the Qing Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Shuntianfu Daxing, due to the special geographical location and the commercial role of Gaobeidian Wharf, merchants gathered to build houses and temples; The busyness of the wharf, the liveliness of the temple fair of Tianxian Palace, and the rise of various folk flower fairs have made it a lively "port" in the capital. Therefore, the Gaobeidian known to women and children has a long history, and it has been studied for thousands of years.

After the arrival of the Taiping army, they honestly and unceremoniously occupied this place, and built a camp of Gaobei Village on both sides of the Huihe River. Because of the imminent war, the wharves, teahouses, wine shops, merchant pavilions, workshops, and private houses along the coast had already been emptied, and the Taiping army took over these buildings. A large camp was built on the basis of buildings. The cavalry regiments of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the First Army led by Li Xiucheng and a rocket artillery regiment sent by Dalian Bay were garrisoned here. They had to face the main pressure of the coalition forces, so the generals and artillery were equipped with the best.

The camp in the south of the city was located in Nanyuan, and Xiao Yungui personally led the remaining nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses to garrison here. The south garden in the suburbs of Beijing is the royal garden of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, because there is the old road of the Yongding River in the garden, forming a large lake and swamp, and the vegetation is luxuriant. Beasts and elk gather. Huang Taiji attacked Beijing, but Yuan Chonghuan resisted, so he went to Nanhaizi to let go of his horses and rest his troops. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty went to Nanyuan many times to hunt and parade, and there were complete barracks facilities and buildings built here, and it was the station of the 29th Army of the National Army for a long time during the later Republic of China.

After the arrival of the Taiping army, the Qing army on the periphery abandoned the Nanyuan camp. Shrink your forces to the Three Mountains and Five Gardens. It was Xiao Yungui who set up his main camp here. The large battalion in the south is mainly to deal with the reinforcements of the Qing army in Hebei, Shandong, Jianghuai and other places that may come to the south, and also to deal with the possible detour offensive of the coalition forces, so it is also quite important here.

Judging from the layout of the entire Taiping Army, Xiao Yungui mainly cut off the idea of the coalition army to capture Beijing, and completely cut off the reinforcement channel in the south of the Qing court, while Xiao Yungui in the west has no more troops to deploy for the time being, and Chen Yucheng's troops have already sent troops to Sichuan at the beginning of the year and are now attacking Chengdu. The Taiping army attacked Sichuan, and Sichuan and Shaanxi were shaken. The Qing army in the west did not dare to come to the aid in a big way.

The establishment of the three battalions of the Taiping Army is also coincidental, reminiscent of the history of the Qing army in later history, the Qing army set up Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps to besiege Tianjing, but at this moment, the strength and weakness were reversed, and it became the Beijing division of the Taiping Army to create three battalions to besiege the Qing court.

There are a total of 16 high platforms of all sizes in the Nanyuan camp, of which there are 10 important platforms, which are all built of loess. There are 3 platforms in the northwest corner and northeast corner of Nanyuan, which are called big platforms, two platforms, and three platforms. The main function of these high platforms is for the emperor and concubine to come to Nanyuan to hunt, to climb high and look into the distance, to watch the spectacular scene of hunting. Among them, the Tiger Killing Platform in the West Red Gate and the Eagle Drying Platform in the South Red Gate also have the function of military parade. The Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty held a big parade in Nanyuan at the location of the Tiger Killing Platform and the Eagle Drying Platform. Now these high platforms are the location of ready-made forts, and after the Taiping army entered the Nanyuan camp, they used these high platforms as forts.

Erjin and Ge Luo walked into the Nanyuan camp with the envoy group and saw a group of extremely busy Taiping soldiers, they were busy reinforcing the fortifications, reinforcing the forts, carrying firearms and artillery, and the entire Nanyuan camp did not seem to have any idle people. Ergin's expression was uncertain, it seems that the Taiping army has spent so much manpower, material resources and combat power, and it can be said that it is inevitable for Beijing to win, and it will be an extremely difficult and abnormal negotiation.

Xiao Yungui, the king of the west, was on a high platform to meet the envoys, not seen for a few months, Xiao Yungui was still full of energy, he smiled and shook hands with each member of the envoys, and finally walked beside Erjin and Ge Luo like old friends and introduced: "This is the Eagle Terrace, built in the Yuan Dynasty, is a rare historical monument. The place where the Qing court parade was mostly here, Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty Qianlong four years, twenty-three years, all here to review the Eight Banners array. The Qing court painter Lang Shining, an Italian, also once painted a picture of Qianlong's military uniform, which is also very good. ”

Erjin was not in the mood to listen to these historical allusions, he frowned and said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, can you first explain why our two countries invited the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to join the Qing government in the northern expedition last year, but you refused at that time, but at this time, you led troops to follow us like weasels to snatch the fruits of victory?" ”

Xiao Yungui did not feel sorry for the British old-fashioned and straightforward, he was used to this mode of diplomatic conversation, he smiled faintly and said: "Your Excellency, I also hoped to be able to send troops with Britain and France, but there were too many difficulties at that time, and the Taiping army still had to digest the newly occupied territory in the south, so it was not able to go on a northern expedition with Britain and France. And now we have overcome the difficulties and have the conditions for the Northern Expedition, so we will send troops. But isn't it a bit inappropriate for us to follow you? Is it our Taiping Army or the troops of the coalition army that are now coming to the city of Beijing? It seems that the coalition forces are still burning and looting in Tongzhou. ”

Erjin and Gro's faces turned red, the coalition army was indeed still doing those things that made the word soldier shameful, and the Taiping army did detour to the south of Shanhaiguan, and it was not considered to be following them. I only heard Xiao Yungui continue: "It's even more ridiculous to snatch the fruits of victory, has the Qing army surrendered?" Have they given up on Beijing? ”

Erjin and Gro glanced at each other, and Erjin said angrily: "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a reversal. No credit! If we hadn't attracted a large number of Qing troops at Dagukou, you wouldn't have been able to enter Beijing from Shanhaiguan at all! Xiao Yungui was not angry at all, and said with a smile: "Minister Erjin, I am also very disappointed in the coalition army, it took you more than two months to fight from Dagukou to Tongzhou, fortunately, our Taiping army did not send troops with you at that time, otherwise we may still be grinding in Tongzhou with the coalition army now." ”

This sentence made the military attachés of the allied forces of the envoy regiment present furious. Major Compnon of the French General Staff and Major Probin of the British General Staff stood up angrily together, each cursing loudly in their own Chinese, and the Chinese personnel listened to the translation. They also ridiculed each other, and the scene was extremely chaotic and noisy for a while.

On the Chinese side, Xiao Yungui brought Qian Jiang and his staff group, as well as Su Ji, Song Feng and other artillery and cavalry officers as military attachés. There were more people than the coalition legations. So soon the scolding of the coalition forces was suppressed.

Erjin Tie said angrily with a blue face: "Your Excellency the King of the West, have you made up your mind to start a war with Britain and France?" ”

Xiao Yungui's face also sank at this time, and he said coldly: "If you invite the battle, we will fight, and our Taiping Army will definitely not be afraid of the army of any country!" ”

Seeing that the situation was tense, Lieutenant Colonel Wu Shili hurriedly interrupted: "Let's sit down and discuss slowly, Your Excellency King Xi, there are too many people on the Chinese side participating in the negotiations. It would be better for everyone to negotiate with the same number of people to resolve the current situation. ”

Erjin also felt a little incredible, why he would unconsciously lose his mind every time he faced this king of the west. Perhaps it is the normal reaction of a dark-bellied politician to another dark-bellied and dirty politician who is even more sordid than him. At that moment, Erjin suppressed his anger and nodded and said: "The coalition forces have not yet invited the Taiping Army to fight, and we are here to negotiate today." ”

Xiao Yungui sighed, raised his hand and pressed it, and the noisy Taiping Army generals behind him calmed down slightly, Xiao Yungui said: "Okay, cut off ten negotiators on both sides, and negotiate in the big tent here in half an hour." The rest waited outside in the tent to rest and wait. Your Excellency, this king is waiting for you in the Great Tent. With that, he turned around and went into the tent.

Half an hour later, after deliberation, the coalition forces selected ten people to participate in the negotiations, in addition to Ergin and Gro, there were also consuls Pashali, Lieutenant Colonel Wu Shili, Major Combonong, Major Probin, and two translators, and the remaining two were indeed Gong Cheng and Rong Lu.

Gong Cheng and Rong Lu were also in the envoy group, they wore the clothes of the coalition army and shrank behind, Xiao Yungui didn't notice these two people at first, in fact, he didn't remember Rong Lu's appearance very much, after meeting in the Yangtze River that year, Xiao Yungui almost forgot Rong Lu's appearance, and Rong Lu's physical body was still developing, and he didn't recognize it at the beginning after not seeing it for a few years. But when the ten-person negotiation team of the British and French coalition entered the group, Xiao Yungui finally saw Rong Lu and Gong Cheng at the back.

Xiao Yungui didn't know Gong Cheng, but Rong Lu recognized him, because Rong Lu's gloomy eyes and Xiao Yungui's gaze met unexpectedly, and after the two stared for a while, Xiao Yungui recognized him.

"It's really unimaginable, a Manchu minister, a loyal and good man who is willing to be a spy who lures wolves into the house?!" After Xiao Yungui looked at the list of envoys handed over by Qian Jiang, he also knew Gong Cheng's identity, and immediately made sarcastic remarks.

Before anyone could translate, Rong Lu said with a smile: "Each other, didn't His Excellency King Xi also betray the interests of many countries to Britain and France in Jiangnan?" ”

Xiao Yungui didn't refute Rong Lu's words at all, whether he was betraying the interests of the country, and history will have its own judgment in the future, he sneered: "What identity can you sit on the seat of the British and French envoys?" ”

After listening to the translation, Erjin said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, they are our allies, so they can naturally attend, and besides, they represent some aristocratic forces in the Qing court, and the content of our discussion will involve them later, and it is normal for them to attend." ”

Xiao Yungui laughed, and after a while, he said coldly: "This king does not negotiate with traitors!" "Brush up your sleeves and leave...... (To be continued......)