The Provisional Military Conference was very dull, and the Allied intelligence was once again the pitiful object of accusation, and the Allied forces lacked reliable and necessary information on the military operations of the Taiping Army.

"Gentlemen, what I want to know is the purpose of the Taiping Army's northward march!" Sir Elgin's tone was very unpleasant.

General Grant still maintained his demeanor, and he said: "The Taiping Army sent troops to the Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou fronts, with a very clear purpose, that is, to capture the Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou fronts. After that, they have two possibilities of action, one is to go north to capture the northeastern provinces, and then fight with the Russians in the northeast, and the other is to ......" Speaking of this, Grant hesitated a little, Rong Lu took his words and said: "There is also a possibility to enter the customs directly from Shanhaiguan and go straight to the capital!" Snatch the fruits of the coalition's victory! ”

Sir Elgin was furious, he was thoroughly enraged by Rong Lu's words, and General Montauban thought that this was unlikely, and the commander, who had not had much contact with the Taipings, questioned: "Didn't the Taipings just declare war on the Russians?" They should concentrate their forces on the Russians, and not fight Beijing at this time, which will cause immeasurable losses, they will lose our trust, and even go to war with us. ”

Rong Lu laughed, General Montauban was a little annoyed by Rong Lu's ridicule, and glared angrily, but Rong Lu was not afraid, and said eloquently: "I can't understand that Changmao Xi King, there is nothing he doesn't dare to do in this world, when 2,000 soldiers and horses raided Changsha, fought from Hunan to Jiangning in forty days, and then landed in Guangzhou, this person is a natural adventurer." ”

Wu Shili studied this prominent figure in the Far East. Nodding in agreement: "It is very likely that in order to stop us in Tongzhou, the Empress Dowager of the Manchu Dynasty put the last bit of military power in Beijing in our direction. It is very likely that the king of the Taiping army will capture the capital first at this time. This king of the West sometimes does some really crazy things, he's a madman! ”

The French minister, Gro, frowned and said, "Gentlemen, what should we do then?" General Montauban said very bluntly: "We can only be faster, see who will capture the city of Beijing first!" ”

The British consul, Pashali, added: "It is still necessary to warn the Taiping army through diplomatic channels, as their actions are likely to cause war!" ”

Rong Lu was noncommittal about this, he just said word by word with a slight smile: "Have you forgotten jì gentlemen?" The Taiping army and the imperial court were already in a state of war, they were only fighting their enemies. Don't forget, Beijing is still under the control of the Empress Dowager Xi, so the diplomatic note will have no effect. They could well have said that we were attacking the Manchus and were not targeting the allied forces. I agree with General Montauban that we can only speed up our pace and get to Beijing first. After all, even if the Taiping army can land at Shanhaiguan. Shanhaiguan is still five or six hundred miles away from the capital, and we are only eight miles away from Beijing......"

……

At the same time, hundreds of miles away, on the tower of the Jingbian Gate of Shanhaiguan, the flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been rising in the smoke of gunpowder, followed by a burst of cheers, more than 10,000 Taiping soldiers broke out together inside and outside the Shanhaiguan Huge cheers, resounding inside and outside this ancient city pass.

"Soldiers! More than two hundred years ago. It was from here that the Manchus entered the customs, today. I, Xiao Chaogui, will lead you back from here! The madman in the mouth of the allied general, the king of the Taiping army was standing on the tower of Shanhaiguan at this moment, he was dressed in a straight new marshal uniform, holding the marshal's sword in his hand, and he encouraged his soldiers with a majestic voice, his words were simple and powerful, and the soldiers of the Taiping army broke out into a new round of cheers.

If the commanders of the coalition army knew that the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom appeared in Shanhaiguan, they would definitely know that the purpose of the Taiping Army was the city of Beijing, and in addition, there seemed to be nothing in the world worthy of the Western King personally leading troops to take risks.

The whereabouts of Xiao Yungui, the king of the West, are very secret, in fact, the declaration of war on Russia is a layer of smoke screen, the state of war between the Taiping army and the Russians has not been lifted, and whether to declare war or not has nothing to do with the overall situation, but the Taiping army has been on the defensive in the north before, and now the declaration of war has created an illusion for Britain and France, that is, the Taiping army may take the initiative to attack, so it became a logical thing to mobilize the strength of an army to go north to Dalian Bay.

Since Xiao Yungui declared war on Russia, he took Tianjing's first army in Beijing from Shanghai to ship and went north, and the people who stayed in Tianjing to attend some activities from time to time were just stand-ins found by the Intelligence Department and Bai Zetang. This stand-in looks a little similar to Xiao Yungui from a distance, as long as he doesn't speak, it looks like there will be no flaws from a distance. In this way, Xiao Yungui followed the brigade to Dalian Bay, and the affairs of Tianjing were handed over to Zuo Zongtang, Hong Yuner and others.

His purpose of going north this time was actually very simple, that is, to take advantage of the fierce battle between the British and French forces and the Qing army, to capture the Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou lines in one fell swoop, close the throat of the northeast, prevent the Manchu government from escaping back to the northeast after the defeat, and at the same time lay a foundation for the Taiping army to attack the northeast next, and his greatest ambition is to capture Beijing in front of the coalition army!

As Rong Lu said, although the Taiping army refused to join the British and French coalition forces and jointly take military action against the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Taiping army has always been at war with the Qing army, and he led the Taiping army to cross the sea to seize Shanhaiguan, and then enter the customs to attack the city of Beijing.

Now Britain and France have extricated themselves from the Crimean War, although the wounds of the war still need a little time to heal, but the local war Britain and France can still deal with, if the Taiping Army really seized the city of Beijing, it will directly touch the interests of Britain and France. Britain and France have begun to adjust their Far East policy, and they began to find that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not so easy to control and manipulate, and at the same time, the growing strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has also made Britain and France feel the threat of Far Eastern interests, and some British dignitaries have thought that controlling a weak government in China is more in line with British interests, and this ready-made weak government is the Manchu Qing.

However, if the Anglo-French forces can capture Beijing, overthrow the regime of the Empress Dowager of the West, and let the old Manchu aristocratic forces represented by Rong Lu and Mianyu regain power, then there will be a weak government in northern China, and at some point Britain and France will inevitably turn to support this government to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and even obstruct the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's unification of the whole country by force.

Therefore, Xiao Yungui had to take the risk of leading his troops north to seize Beijing, and what prompted Xiao Yungui to make up his mind was Xingzhen's reply to him.

After Xingzhen received the secret letter from Peng Yulin and Li Mengqun that day, although she was with Prince Gong? Others said that they didn't need to pay attention to it, but in private, she still sent the reply to the king of the West through Cheng Lingxiu. Since Li Ding's death, Cheng Lingxiu has not been in contact with Bai Zetang in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it was not until Xingzhen came forward that Cheng Lingxiu cheered up and contacted Bai Zetang in the capital again.

Xingzhen sent a long letter to Xiao Yungui, the letter was written very long, analyzing the various situations after the British and French forces captured Beijing, and finally Xingzhen said in the letter: "Now that we are standing in this position, the things we decide are no longer personal matters, it will affect the rise and fall of the country for hundreds of years, in other words, you and I have a heavier burden on our shoulders, that is, historical responsibility!" All I can do is resist to the end as best I can, and if you don't go north and participate in this foreign war, then you will become a sinner of history! ”

After Xiao Yungui read the letter at that time, her first reaction was that this little lady was using the method of agitation, and she wanted to drag herself into the water, so that the Taiping army and the British and French forces would fight each other, so that the Manchu Qing could survive in the troubled waters. But after calming down and thinking about it, her words are not unreasonable, and the various possibilities she analyzed after the British and French coalition forces captured Beijing are very logical, which shows that Song Qingyun's political vision is very unique. If the capital is occupied by the Anglo-French coalition forces, then in this game, Britain and France will have the first hand, they can support the puppet regime, they can suppress the Taiping army, and even intervene in the process of China's reunification by armed force, no matter which situation is very passive for the Taiping army.

After Xiao Yungui didn't sleep all night, after thinking about it all night, he finally made up his mind to take this risk, once he fought with Britain and France, the Taiping army in the southern ports, commerce and trade may receive British and French sanctions and blows, the Taiping army's navy still can't match the British and French fleets, and it is possible that the good situation will be lost, but this gamble He Xiwang can't help but gamble, just like Xingzhen said, there is a historical responsibility in it, Xiao Yungui is determined to take his own historical responsibility.

In the end, Xiao Yungui relieved himself, the big deal is like the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in later generations, fighting a people's war, the big deal is to develop from scratch, when the new China was first established in later generations, the diplomatic dilemma faced by the face seems to be the same, but Taizu still fought to resist US aggression and aid Korea under pressure, and as a result, China paid the price, but stood up.

Strategically, Xiao Yungui has already made up his mind for the worst, that is, the possibility of war with Britain, France and Russia at the same time, but tactically he still took measures, declaring war with Russia before going north to Dalian Bay is a strategy, and capturing Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou, and then capturing Beijing first, at least in legal terms, the Taiping Army is not inappropriate, and Britain and France will have scruples in dealing with it.

So Xiao Yungui secretly went north with the army, the Qing army defense force of Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou was extremely weak, most of the soldiers and horses here were sent south to fight against the British and French forces, the first army of Tianjing was the earliest army of the Taiping Army, the three divisions were the elite of the elite, the first day after landing captured Jinzhou, Qinhuangdao and Shanhaiguan, at this time the West King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was already standing on top of the Shanhaiguan, the next thing he had to do was how to take the Taiping soldiers to Beijing in the shortest possible time, and their difficulty was the roadShanhaiguan is more than 500 miles away from Beijing...... (To be continued......)