screamed, Gu Hongming slapped excitedly! Immediately found that he was the only one celebrating at the scene, but the madman didn't care.

"Wadsey, your men have lost."

"He's foul!" Second Lieutenant Loeb, who was helped up, was flushed. He blushed because he knew in his heart that his opponent would definitely show mercy to his knees, and the force of his knees was by no means comparable to that of fists, and if his opponent struck them with all his might, it would be good that he could now leave a life.

Feng. Loeb was born in the Junker aristocracy, and the reason why he provoked the duel was not Long Qian's untimely laughter, the real reason was the death of his friend, and it was also the fact that the German soldiers who escaped from the Battle of Xigu were angry: The Qing army was extremely fierce and used white-knuckle warfare to defeat the German army!

It's just unbearable! The Chinese, who were as cowardly as rabbits, actually defeated the German Army with bayonets, and on the premise that the forces were basically equal! Intolerable, intolerable! Therefore, when he heard that the tall Chinese was actually the commander of the Battle of Xigu, he immediately had the idea of teaching a lesson, at least breaking the bridge of his nose with his iron fist! Let him always remember the strength of the German soldiers!

But if you lose, you lose inexplicably and convincingly, the opponent's reaction, strength and fighting skills are by no means comparable to yourself, this is Chinese martial arts?

"Enough!" A gloomy Wardsea stopped the commotion of several of his officers, "You won. But your country loses! What do you think about this? Unexpectedly, Wadsey stared at Long Qian, who was slowly putting on his boots. The style of his boots was Western, and Wadsey suspected that the Chinese, who had a burly physique rarely seen in Chinese, had robbed the coalition soldiers of their military boots. Wadsi was found after the most sloppy. This peculiar Chinese did not even have that ridiculous pig tail.

Long Qian saluted to Wadsey, "Honorable Mr. Marshal, as Mr. Gu Hongming said, a hundred years ago, the French once rode on the heads of the Germans, and the great Germany was still divided, but the first battle of Sedang gave birth to a powerful country. China has existed as a complete and independent country for two thousand years! For a long period of time, she has been the most powerful country in the East! If you look at the territory of the countries in the world, there is no country that is more stable than mine. One or two failures don't matter. I firmly believe that my homeland will emerge from the shadow of defeat and become strong again. ”

"You're confident. You may be a qualified military man, but you are not a qualified diplomat. Wadsey waved his hand vigorously, "Dear Mr. Prime Minister." Please. Your subordinate won a round on the battlefield. But. I don't welcome him, he can go. ”

Li Hongzhang glared at Long Qian fiercely and went back to his room with Wadsey.

"I must defeat you on the battlefield! If you're alive! "Feng. Loeb shouted at Long Qian.

Wait for Situ to translate it. Long Qian smiled, "I hope there will be that day." Perhaps you have already put on the marshal's epaulettes. It would feel better to defeat a field marshal. Mr. Loeb, why don't you think that we might be allies? ”

"The hateful Chinese will never be worthy to be allies of Germany!" Loeb followed the officers back to the main hall.

Of course, Gu Hongming wanted to go with Li Hongzhang, leaving only Situ Jun to accompany Long Qian in the courtyard, "Commander, you seem to have offended the prime minister." ”

Long Qian didn't say anything. Squinting at the golden glazed tiles. The West Garden, the royal private garden, became the headquarters of the occupation forces, and the scattered pavilions were unintelligible and lifeless, with garbage and fallen leaves everywhere heralding the decline of a dynasty. Long Qian couldn't name the palace where Wadsey lived, only the lake to the west rippled with microwaves, which seemed to tell the story of the rise and fall of this royal palace.

"This should be a fairyland on earth, but now__Situ, I don't have time to spend here. Perhaps, we will soon be leaving Beijing. Let's go, let's go back. ”

Long Qian and Situ both went to the "base area" of Deshengmen. What he has to do now is to quietly move the troops in Beijing out of Beijing as soon as possible on the premise of ensuring safety, and it is indeed too dangerous for the little 200 people to stay in Beijing. For this reason, Jiang Yun and Tian Shubang came up with a way to disguise themselves as a convoy transporting garbage, and they could send weapons and some silver taels out of the city. The coalition sentry stationed at Xizhimen did not scrutinize the carts full of garbage. The only drawback is that you have to go in batches, and you can only move one shift at a time. The Fifth Company has been taken out of Beijing by Cheng Erhu using this method, and the Sixth Company and the Guard Company must also leave as soon as possible.

At the end of the day, there was a large amount of gold and silver, which could certainly not be safely transported out of the city at the moment, and there was no need to transport those silver taels back to Shandong, and put them in Beijing, preferably Tianjin, in order to play their greatest role.

"Commander, the brothers want to go home, when can we go back to Shandong?" Wang Mingyuan asked.

"I know this. I'm thinking about it too. You went to Niangzi Pass and told Lushan that they must stabilize the mood of the troops, and it is not impossible to fight back, I still hope to have a name and go back. Now it's up to the court, damn the Manchu Tartars, who knows what they think? ”

For the first time, Long Qian felt out of control, things had deviated from his grasp, and a sense of powerlessness enveloped him, if the imperial court did not agree, would he re-enter the situation of armed confrontation? So why make such a big detour? What if Cixi didn't let him go back to Shandong and gave him another place? How to convince these subordinates who are extremely rustic?

Long Qian didn't know that Li Hongzhang actually wrote a letter to Cixi asking for Long Qian to go to the Yamen, the governor of Zhili, and Long Qian didn't know that Yuan Shikai, who was far away in Shandong, actually went to the imperial court to ask him to return to Shandong to suppress bandits. And what happened in Xiyuan today was to make Li Hongzhang dispel the idea of leaving himself by his side.

Li Hongzhang estimates that his days are numbered. Damn negotiations might be going on for a long time, and I can't afford to spend it here all the time. I wanted to minimize the amount of compensation, especially to eliminate the demand for foreign troops to be stationed in China, but it seems that I can play too little role. This matter is Li Hongzhang singing the leading role, Yixuan's role is very small, and he persuaded Li Hongzhang to be tougher, Li Hongzhang may not be able to do it because of the restraint of Cixi's position. Moreover, why does Li Hongzhang, an old bureaucrat, believe in himself? After all, it is more reliable to control the troops. With the gold and silver he snatched, he may not be able to open up a piece of the sky. The most difficult thing now is to convince the troops to go with them. As for the territory, the most suitable is the vast and sparsely populated and resource-rich Northeast, which is now occupied by the Russians, and the Japanese will soon be added, and then there will be dog-eat-dog. The more chaotic it is, the more opportunities you have. However, the local concept of officers and men cannot be eliminated after more than a year of training. Even an officer in a position like Wang Mingyuan was looking forward to going home. Not to mention those ordinary soldiers whose parents and sisters are in Lunan?

Ning Shijun saw that Long Qian had been frowning and pondering, "Commander, what's the difficulty?" ”

"Shi Jun, you can help me write a letter. It was handed over to Mingyuan to take to Taiyuan. I met a friend named Jia Jiying in Taiyuan. People are very righteous. I would like to invite him to Beijing. When this side is settled, you will withdraw from Beijing with the guard company, and Jiang Yun will stay behind for the time being. ”

"What are you going to do?" Ning Shijun asked.

"When I was in Taiyuan. He once asked the Empress Dowager for a house, but did not say the specific place. My original intention was to occupy Yizhou or Yanzhou, but I was afraid that the old thief would be worried about our background and unwilling to let the tiger return to the mountain. Moreover, Yuan Shikai may not want us to go back. So I'm struggling. You see, what is needed most now is land and time, and we are busy with all of this, looking for these two things. ”

The importance of the territory, Ning Shijun understands, Wang Mingyuan and Jiang Yun understand, but the importance of time is not so clear, "Commander, what do you say about us." Several people said.

"The worst plan is that the court will turn its face and deny people. If you can't say that, you'll have to find another way out. After you rendezvous with Lushan, prepare the whole army to go out, and listen to my orders wherever you go. ”

"What about you? The troops are gone, and you are left alone in Beijing, it's too dangerous. Wang Mingyuan was not at ease.

"Leave me alone, I have to go back to Xianliang Temple. Li Hongzhang was unhappy today. See what the old man will say? Situ, let's go. Mingyuan, you must be careful when you go out of the city. ”

Not long after Long Qian and Situ Jun went back, there was a lot of noise outside, and Long Qian knew that Li Hongzhang's car had returned. Sure enough, when Gu Hongming saw Long Qian, "I didn't expect General Long to be so skilled!" It's really happy, you can't be polite to foreigners, otherwise he will bully you. ”

Long Qian didn't have time to deal with this madness, when he saw Li Hongzhang, who was wearing a dark brown fur jacket, a leather hat, and a cane, surrounded by a group of people.

"The middle hall is back." Long Qian intervened and said.

Li Hongzhang snorted, "The courage of the horseman, what a way!" You come with me. ”

Long Qian followed Li Hongzhang to his reception room, Li Hongzhang lifted the curtain, entered the inner room to change clothes, waited for a long time, Li Hongzhang changed into civilian clothes and came out, the waiter had already made tea for him, Li Hongzhang snorted slowly, his eyelids drooped, "Long Qian, you are very disappointed in the old man." It's been in vain for the old man's thoughts. ”

"Zhongtang, I don't know what is wrong with my humble position."

"If it weren't for Wa Shuai looking at the old man and Mr. Gu, whether you could stand here and speak, it was still between the two. The country is weak, how can it have the capital to compete with foreigners? The old man has already played the queen mother, and let you come to the prime minister's yamen to walk. It seems that your class is strong and courageous, where is the material for diplomacy. ”

"The humble position is indeed a reckless man, and he is more willing to lead the troops to fight, and he has failed to live up to the cultivation of the middle hall." Late Qing Dynasty diplomacy? It's better to kill Lao Tzu. Long Qian was slandered.

"You're still meritorious. Wa Shuai offered to release the foreigners you had captured before substantive peace talks could be held. You finally gave the old man a card. However, the old man asks you, if you lose to the German today, how will it end? ”

"Humble self-confidence will not lose. If there is no certainty of victory, how dare you fall into the prestige of the middle hall? ”

"You're still young, and the old man is not afraid of heaven and earth at your age. When you go through it, you will know that it is useless to be brave for a while__"

"Zhongtang__"

Li Hongzhang raised his hand and stopped Long Qian, "The battle of Xigu has greatly stimulated the foreigners. Especially the British, the Germans are secondary. If there are a few more Xigu, the old man will not be so difficult to be caught off guard. Anyway, since the foreigners don't want to see you, you might as well go and lead the troops. After this war, the imperial court's armament withered, and it had to be vigorously rectified. There's a place where you work. ”

"Thank you for your kindness." This sentence is solid. Unexpectedly, Li Hongzhang has never known him in his life, and he has repeatedly cared for himself. If it was someone else, the beauty would have been impossible to find for a long time, only he knew that not only could he not mix with Li Hongzhang, but he was Cixi Ronglu, all of them were dry bones in the grave, and there was not much time to come, "The humble duty is willing to train the troops to fight, and the humble post guarantees that as long as it takes three years, the humble post will definitely train a small station elite soldier who is not inferior to the command of Yuan Shikai." ”

"I heard that Yuan Weiting has been defeated by you several times, but is it true?"

Unexpectedly, Li Hongzhang actually heard about this__Long Qian's heart was turning, and he really couldn't figure out the relationship between Yuan Shikai and Li Hongzhang, so he had to deal with it vaguely, "That's Lord Yuan underestimating the enemy." If the whole army comes, the lowly can only flee for his life. ”

"Yuan Weiting is also a leader of the younger generation, and he can fight against the small standing soldiers with a ringing horse, which makes the old man look forward to it. You say, how do you make good use of your captives? ”

"I think that at least we should discount our country's military compensation. A person has to fold 100,000 taels of silver, right? That Seymour was the commander of the British Far East Fleet, worth two million taels in total, right? ”

"Ha Luha, what a child's talk." Rarely, Li Hongzhang actually laughed happily for a while, "You once said that you would rather lose money than let them garrison, what do you think?" ”

"I think that the geographical location of Jingshi is not good. At the beginning, Ming Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing and guarded the country with the Son of Heaven, based on his trust in his military strength. Now that the maritime situation is critical, the Bohai Bay is no longer owned by me, and the garrison along the line from Tianjin to Beijing is carried out, even if the Zhongtang peace talks are successful and the foreigners are forced to withdraw from the capital, the Beijing division is always under the threat of the foreigners. Therefore, it is better to pay reparations than to garrison. ”

"Easy to say!" Li Hongzhang was depressed. Today's conversation with Wadsey was not pleasant, although Li Hongzhang visited Germany a few years ago and met with the Kaiser and Chancellor Bismarck, and he pulled out these attempts to get closer to each other, Wadsey kept an eye on the matter of punishing the culprits, and insisted that the imperial court quickly hand over Duanjun Wang and others. When it comes to the dignity of the royal family, how dare Li Hongzhang agree easily? Li Hongzhang was worried that Wadsey cared about Long Qian's affairs, but he didn't. On the contrary, Wadsey also mentioned Long Qian when he sent Li Hongzhang out, saying that he was a real soldier, but unfortunately there are too few soldiers like that in your country, and I don't want to see him again at the negotiating table__"You stay for a while and write me a note on peace talks." When the will of the imperial court comes down, you can go and train your troops well. ”

Long Qian was ecstatic in his heart, "Thank you Zhongtang for your kindness." Zhongtang is concerned about the safety of the world, and he must take care of his body and cherish himself for the good of the country. ”

Li Hongzhang snorted, picked up the teacup, and when he saw this, Long Qian withdrew from the room. (To be continued......)