Peng Yulin left, Xingzhen didn't know how much his words had played a role in him, but at least Peng Yulin's eyes were full of vitality, returning to the Han Dynasty and the imperial constitution was a huge pie, which was not much better than Wangmei, but at least it could satisfy hunger and quench thirst.

After Peng Yulin left, Prince Gong turned out of the inner hall behind the screen. Come, Xingzhen turned around and looked at him and said, "Did you see it?" Now these Hanchen generals are all thinking like this. ”

Abundant? frowned and said: "Peng Yulin is like this after reading those demon books in Taiping, and the imperial sister-in-law doesn't have to generalize." Speaking of this, he paused, and then smiled: "The imperial sister-in-law asked the courtiers to come over and listen to you and Peng Yulin to talk, just to let the courtiers know Peng Yulin's personal thoughts?" He can't represent the world's scholars, in fact, the Han people who study in the world, as long as you can give him an official position and power, they will give you their lives, and it is already rare for someone like Peng Yulin to still hold loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. ”

Xingzhen snorted and said, "He can't represent the world's readers, but you can't underestimate these readers." Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, all dynasties have literary prisons, although the backbone of the world's scholars has been shackled, but under the rule of the Taiping, this shackle has been untied, once the shackles are freed, the wild horse of thought will gallop wantonly, the Taiping is not afraid of this kind of open-mindedness, and we are very afraid, in the final analysis, we Manchu people still only want to continue to rule the Han people, and the first to govern the Han people. Peng Yulin can read those books in Taiping, and there is no guarantee that others will not read them, once it spreads, it will be a disaster more terrible than the sword soldiers. Furthermore, we can give scholars official positions and power. Taiping can give the same, Xu Naizhao, Tao Enpei and others surrendered to Taiping, didn't they all hold high positions? If this continues, sooner or later, all the scholars in the world will vote for Taiping. ”

Abundant? He said viciously: "These scholars are restless. Then we will control their peace, and the younger brother will go down to strictly investigate those forbidden books, I want to see who dares to circulate those demon books of Taiping! ”

Xingzhen said slowly: "Banning is just an expedient measure, the key is that we in the Qing Dynasty still have to give these people hope, a hope that can be seen but cannot be reached." ”

Abundant? Said thoughtfully: "What does the imperial sister-in-law mean is like what Peng Yulin said, to return to the Han Dynasty, the imperial constitution, and the republic of the five ethnic groups?" ”

Xingzhen nodded and said: "Now that we have been forced to the foot of the wall, we can only throw out this hope in exchange for people's hearts." ”

Abundant? frowned and said, "But if the imperial sister-in-law really does this." I'm afraid that many of us will not agree. ”

Xingzhen sneered: "Didn't you hear what I said to Peng Yulin? This thing can't be done in thirty or fifty years, and can you imagine what it will look like in thirty or fifty years? You are actually taking this road when you are setting up foreign affairs now, and foreign affairs are being done. At a certain time, there will be a group of upstarts who will rise, and these upstarts will have capital, new factories, and new technologies in their hands, and they will definitely replace the conservative forces in the current court, and we Manchus in the Qing Dynasty will rely on these people to continue the national ancestry. In this way, we can keep the one qiē that our Manchu people now have. ”

Abundant? There was a turmoil in my heart. I felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't say it, so I had to say: "The first emperor once said that whoever can pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can be crowned king, whether it is Han or Manchu, the courtier thinks that this condition is tempting enough." ”

Xingzhen shook her head and said: "King Feng is just Yu Yin alone, and what this palace wants is to give hope to the Han people in the world." ”

Abundant? Still a little uneasy, he said: "Then we really have no room for turning around with the one in the east." ”

Xingzhen said coldly: "Do we still have room to turn around now?" Hongu has already given them a chance. But they were still obsessed, didn't there be an urgent report from the monk king that the new army on the north bank of the White River had broken up for no reason? The generals of those battalions of the new army were all from the east. They are deliberately letting foreigners go ashore! They are cutting themselves off from their fathers and fathers! ”

Abundant? He nodded gloomily and said: "The monk and the king report three times a day, the foreigners have landed on the shore, and they are currently advancing to the military grain city, Dagukou and other places. ”

Xingzhen said with some annoyance: "I asked Peng Yulin to go to warn him, why did Monk Lingqin worry about the previous strategy?" When the foreigner first came ashore, it was the most chaotic and vulnerable time, and he should have sent cavalry to attack at night, but he missed the opportunity in vain! ”

Abundant? Said: "The monk king is also helpless, the victory or defeat of the night attack in the dark accounts for half, he is asking for a stable word." ”

Xingzhen sighed helplessly and said: "I have to let Peng Yulin lead a team of soldiers and horses to help, with Peng Yulin and Li Mengqun here, maybe the monk can still deal with the foreigners for a few more days, let's take care of the scum who have forgotten their ancestors first!" I'm afraid that Monk Greenqin won't listen to Peng Yulin's words. ”

Abundant? Said: "This doesn't matter, the younger brother will also write a letter to the monk king, so that he must listen to Peng Yulin more, now the military strength of the foreigners is about the same as the Taiping army, Peng Yulin and the most elite soldiers and horses of Taiping have been fighting for a long time, I believe that there are some ways to deal with the foreigners." ”

Xingzhen bowed slightly: "That's the only way, let the Seventh Master step up the purge of the new army in the capital, and in two days, we will do it, take down these leaders in the capital first, and the army outside will be cleaned up." After the chaos is calmed down, we will immediately strengthen the defense line of the capital, and we will defend the capital! ”

Abundant? answered, and then asked in a low voice: "Imperial sister-in-law, the Russian ambassador sent a note again, the Russian army on the side of the northeast Nebuchu City has gathered 50,000 soldiers and horses, claiming that they can enter the customs at any time to support us in our fight against Britain and France, do you really not think about it?" ”

Xingzhen sneered: "Can the Russians really have such good intentions? They sent troops to invade the northeast just to take advantage of the chaos to occupy our land! They will definitely not dare to go to war with England and France for us at this time! Sue General Heilongjiang and General Jilin, give the palace general a good look at the Northeast, once the Russians have a move, they must strike first! ”

Abundant? Hmm, and then asked, "Sister-in-law, do you want to reply to the Taiping Pseudo-King of the West?" ”

Xingzhen thought for a moment and said: "This palace will reply with your own handwriting, Huang Huai's soldiers and horses can't move." It is really impossible to transfer troops and horses, and immediately let the people of Henan, Shandong and other places relocate, and we must let go of the water of the Yellow River to block the enemy! As for Taiping, I'll reply. If they really want to resist the British and French invasion, they will cut off the British and French fleets from the sea! ”

Abundant? Taken aback, he said, "Let go of the water of the Yellow River?" Isn't that about the floods? How is the land of Shandong and Henan? How can so many people migrate in a hurry? ”

Xingzhen Yinya gritted secretly: "This is also forced by the pseudo-king of the West, it is really at the last moment, if you want to transfer Huang Huai's soldiers and horses, you can only dig the embankment of the Yellow River and use water as a soldier to block the Taiping army from going north!" We can't be blamed for this, he forced it! ”

……

As Xingzhen said. The first night of the Anglo-French army on Chinese soil was extremely uncomfortable and chaotic. The sky was full of stars, and the soldiers who had gone ashore in advance had to sleep on the ground. Only Montauban had the right to use tents.

The Japanese horses in the camp did whatever they wanted, broke free from their ropes, ran around, and sniffed the sleeping soldiers with their noses. Caused a flurry. The soldiers woke up. It felt like the ground was damp. The British soldiers, on the other hand, woke up Colonel Dupan and his entourage, who had returned from a reconnaissance mission. They infiltrated the battery and returned with loot such as a fake cannon, some armor and a few flags, just past the British camp.

It was late at night, and Colonel Dupan went to wake up General Montauban and report on the reconnaissance. He was accompanied by several British soldiers and 20 French engineers and tunnel soldiers to reconnoitre, and found that Beitang Village and the fort were empty, and all the artillery was carried away. It seems that the Qing Dynasty, which the British contacted, should have had a very positive effect, and they were ready to retreat early in the morning. Thousands of Qing troops abandoned the batteries and positions here, and all that remained on them were fake cannons and false flags. Colonel Dupan believed that the Qing army had set up these things mainly to deceive its own allies, rather than to deter the allied forces.

On the side of the French, such as Dupin, and on the side of the British, such as Grant and Rowhenry, they all competed for the merit of the battery reconnaissance. This is the beginning of the endless competition of the coalition forces, in the face of the results, competing for merit, unconvinced, and blatantly!

On the first night, the coalition army spent in extreme confusion and unrest, although General Montauban ordered his subordinates to seize the stone bridge outside Beitang Village, but after all, the intelligence reconnaissance was limited, and the terrain was unfamiliar, General Montauban was still very worried that the Qing army would launch a night attack, you must know that in the dark night, if the cavalry really attacked the coalition camp at night, Montauban believed that the coalition army would suffer heavy losses.

But after the night, the camp was quite calm, and even the British chaplain Mji wondered why the nearby Qing cavalry did not attack when the coalition army landed in confusion and was extremely vulnerable, and why they calmly went ashore. The priest, who was not a soldier, believed that this was the first tactical mistake of the monk Grinchen.

Early the next morning, the two commanders of the coalition forces officially entered Beitang, and the gunboats stopped at the foot of the estuary battery. Beitang is a small city with thousands of inhabitants, and according to the estimates of about 3,000 to 30,000 people, it is densely populated but dirty. The city resembles an island, surrounded by the sea at high tide and swampy silt at low tide. As Dr. Castaño described, the town is oval in shape, surrounded by wide ditches and divided in two by a long street that connects many small alleys. The Franco-British forces used that street as the boundary and occupied the left and right neighborhoods respectively.

The captain of the French medical team was concerned about the sanitary conditions in the occupied territories, which he described as the most unhealthy stops. The rotting carcasses of cattle are everywhere, not a single plant grows in the city, and the outskirts are bare plains, mostly submerged at high tide. Especially at low tide, there is an unpleasant smell from the silt of the stream and the muddy water of the beach. If precautions are not taken properly, epidemics will prevail.

As for the residents, they were all forced to evacuate urgently, leaving their homes and fleeing in misery. But about 50 of them would rather commit suicide than leave home. Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz and his deputy, Major Compnon, entered an official's house and saw a terrible scene. According to Elisson, three women lay sideways on the brick kang, "an old lady with some shabby clothes; Two young women, dressed luxuriously, one of them is very beautiful. The necks of the three women were slit, and the purple silk curtains were stained with blood, and a large amount of blood gushed out and dripped on the ground in strings. They were still gasping hoarsely, and their limbs twitched before they died. Next to them, two little girls, not yet old enough to remember, sometimes grabbed the deceased's braids and played, and sometimes chased back and forth all over the room, enjoying this unusual situation! Opposite the brick kang, on a teak armchair, sat the head of the family, the official, staring in a daze at this horrible scene...... "It was he who cut the throats of the old woman, probably his mother, and his two wives." And the man of this family also committed suicide by wiping his neck with a razor.

Lieutenant Colonel Schmitz later inquired and learned that before their arrival, several Nanyang coolies, whom Gro said were Indian Sikh cavalrymen, broke into his home and looted and smashed it. As soon as the gang left, another group of coolies broke down the door and smashed it again. The poor family was so frightened that they swallowed a lot of opium and died...... (To be continued......)