Rong Lu, who was left by Cixi, did not go to do any official business, and he had no official business to do. Now, all the yamen of the Beijing division are closed and locked, and no official goes to "work" anymore.

Rong Lu, who hid back in the house of Ju'er Hutong at the intersection of Dongcheng, remembered a story that happened when the British and French forces opened Beijing forty years ago. That time Cixi also fled and fled to Rehe. Leaving to preside over the situation was Prince Gong Yi 60. On a whim, the devil went to the six departments to inspect at night, and found that only one of the little officials was reading with candles, and he was very surprised. Yi 60 said, everyone has fled, why don't you leave? This man said, "If you take the money of the court, you must be loyal to the king." Yi 60 was very moved, firmly remembered this person, and then soared, promoted again and again, and soon entered the top level__

Rong Lu is old, and his health is not good, and his memory is seriously declining, so he can't remember the name of the lucky person who stepped on the right point. This officialdom legend is not a story, but a fact that really happened.

Rong Lu didn't need to emulate that person. After decades of struggle, he is now at the top of officialdom. After Yuroku's death, the title of Governor of Naoli and Minister of Beiyang Trade temporarily fell on Ronglu's head. The honor of this so-called head of the frontier ministers was not very attractive to Rong Lu. At this time, whoever wears this hat is unlucky. Soon, the hat turned to Li Hongzhang's head. Dealing with the current erosion situation, Li Hongzhang, who claims to be the "pastemaker" of the Qing Dynasty, is much stronger than him. What he hopes for most now is that Li Hongzhang, who has already gone north, will come to Beijing one day earlier, so that he can get rid of the "sea of suffering" in Beijing one day earlier.

The news of the Empress Dowager and the emperor's distress at Shenwumen and Deshengmen did not reach his ears until that night. That's slow enough. The news made Rong Lu shocked again, and carefully asked the queen mother and the emperor if they were okay, and then put his mind at ease. However, the news is not so certain.

The occurrence of this incident made Rong Lu deeply worried. Reality reminded him that the safest place in Beijing is not the palace minister's house protected by soldiers, but ordinary people. The Queen Mother is gone, and it is said that those princes are also gone, and they all escaped without waiting for the orders of the imperial court. Stay in Beijing. The highest official position is yourself, right? Will the defeated soldiers who take advantage of the chaos fight their own ideas?

No way. Gotta hide! You must no longer stay at home. The more Rong Lu thought about it, the more frightened he became, so he called the housekeeper and asked him to clean up immediately and find a place to hide.

Compared to the kind of people like Yixuan. Rong Lu is considered incorruptible. He is more concerned with pondering people. And not for money. The things were packed up, and they were prepared in advance, and the family members made arrangements in advance. Only a few of his closest family members remained with him. Soon, the butler reported that everything was in order, and asked the master to get in the car.

Rong Lu decided to hide in the house of the third housekeeper to avoid the limelight.

It was already dark, gunshots rang out everywhere, and Rong Lu, who had come out of the gate in makeup, had just gotten on the mule cart under the protection of several cronies, and a group of people came running over, "This is it," the leader shouted.

Rong Lu, who was sitting in the car, immediately became nervous.

"Stand still, who's it?" There was a sharp shout, not a Jingshi accent.

"We are going relatives__" the butler's trembling voice trembled.

"Who's sitting in the car, get down!"

"Don't use force, don't use force, it's really a relative." The housekeeper's anxious voice.

"What relatives are leaving now?" The curtain was opened by a bayonet, and Rong Lu was almost paralyzed with fright.

"Is it Lord Ronglu? We're here to find an adult. The first big man with a Beijing accent asked softly, turned to the housekeeper and said, "Sir, don't be afraid, we are not bad people, we are the troops of King Qinqin from Shandong, who have just entered the city and are looking for Lord Ronglu." ”

Rong Lu's heart moved, "You are from Shandong?" ”

"Yes, my name is Long Qian, the standard commander of the Qinwang detachment of the Wuwei New Army."

"You are Long Qian? I am Ronglu. ”

"I've seen my lord." Long Qian didn't say a word, and immediately bowed to the worship.

"Hurry up, please," Rong Lu came to his senses, jumped off the mule cart neatly, and helped Long Qian up.

Long Qian took out the holy decree in his arms and handed over the documents of the military department, "My lord, forgive me for being slow to act, I rushed to Beijing, the city has been broken, and I tried my best to enter the city, who knew that the holy car had already left the city, and I heard that the lord was still in Beijing, so I rushed all the way." ”

The light was dim, and Rong Lu tried to read the paperwork and confirmed it. He put aside the doubts in his heart and stared at the big man in front of him, but he couldn't see his face clearly, "Okay, good, really a loyal minister, the Queen Mother was still talking to you the day before yesterday, if you come two days earlier, the Queen Mother will definitely summon __" Rong Lu didn't care about his humility, grabbed Long Qian's hand tightly, and saw Long Qian's bare head and gauze wrapped around his head.

"The Queen Mother's holy grace, Long's death is difficult to repay. My lord, the situation is urgent, foreign devils go into the city to arrest princes and ministers everywhere, Long Qian is this point of troops, and it is difficult to protect the safety of adults, please follow me out of the city to chase the holy car. ”

"This official was ordered by the Holy Father to stay in Beijing to deal with the aftermath__"

"What a good aftermath! My lord, foreign devils have no humanity, they will kill people when they see them, and it will be a matter of the future to deal with the aftermath. Come on, adults on board! ”

"No__"

"My lord, if you want to punish sin, you will be guilty of humiliation in the future. Why are you still stunned? Help the adults get on the bus! ”

The housekeeper who calmed down felt that this army had no malicious intent, "Master, what this Lord Long said is, let's go out of the city first to avoid it." ”

"You're a housekeeper, aren't you? The east and south of the city are not easy to walk, we are facing west, you come to lead the way, don't take the street, go through the alley. ”

"Okay, good, the little surname is Zhang, Lord Long calls me Lao Zhang," it is said that the prime minister's door is the seventh official, and Steward Zhang can't shake his majesty now, "Xiao Guozi, you lead the way and go to Xizhimen." ”

"Steward Zhang is polite. Company Commander Xu, you open the way with him in front, Xiaolin, you come to break off! Long Qian ordered.

"Yes." Xu Gongzhi and Gu Xiaolin replied loudly.

Listening to the Shandong dialect, Rong Lu's doubts were dispelled at all, he was really a Shandong soldier! I didn't expect to meet this Qinwang soldier and horse of the famous Beijing Division at this juncture, "General Long__"

"Humble duty should not be __"

"You still don't know the way, the Queen Mother has awarded you a lieutenant." Rong Lu, who got on the mule cart again, opened the curtain. "Is that all you have?"

"Back to the adult's words, there are still hundreds of people in the western suburbs, and when they meet soldiers who don't know where, they shoot at us without saying a word, so we have no choice but to take two companies into the city first__ It's hard to say, and when we get to a safe place, we will report to the adults in detail."

The group headed west. It was not a smooth journey, and there was a battle with a team of foreign soldiers near Shichahai, and Steward Zhang saw several foreign soldiers fall in the rain of bullets. The Shandong soldiers dispersed the foreign soldiers. Rong Lu rushed through the blockade under protection and disappeared in the darkness.

Robbing out Ronglu was Long Qian's temporary plan.

The Deshengmen ambush went well, and the Mengshan army suffered almost no casualties. But when gathering troops, they encountered stragglers. Long Qian caught one who looked like an official. Escorted back for questioning, it was a staff general of the Shenji Battalion, under interrogation. The unlucky general said that it was Rong Lu who stayed in Beijing, and Long Qian moved his mind.

It definitely won't work to catch up directly. There is a referral at the end. The most suitable person is Ronglu. Ordered to get rid of the general, Long Qian temporarily changed his plan. After dark, he broke up with Ning Shijun, and took Xu Gongzhi and Gu Xiaolin's company to Dongcheng Ronglu's mansion, and met Ronglu going out in a panic.

No more persuasion was needed, and Rong Lu's own actions proved that he was not willing to stay in Beijing either.

At dawn, Long Qian and his entourage rushed out of the outer city, looking back at the black and towering city wall behind them, Rong Lu let out a long sigh of relief. Escaping is escaping, and the family has also made arrangements in advance, but is it against the will to chase Lafayette like this? Will it upset the woman? It's hard to offend her.

For that woman, Rong Lu has a deeper understanding than others.

"General Long, General Long," Rong Lu called back Long Qian, who was walking in front, "Where are you going?" ”

"My lord, there are hundreds of troops left outside the city. Let's find them first, and then we will chase after them. You see, even if my soldiers can fight again, that is, such a small number of people, in case of danger, it will be difficult to deal with. Dare to ask, did the holy driver go to Rehe? ”

"Your soldiers, where are they now?" Rong Lu didn't answer Long Qian's latter question, and asked rhetorically,

"The lowly position wants them to wait near Wanping."

That is the only way to go west, but the Queen Mother is not taking this road. Rong Lu muttered, "It's okay, then let's find them first." "Now Rong Lu only has a few followers in his hands, and he can't listen to Long Qian. Now it is a real war and chaos, not to mention whether the foreign soldiers will go out of the city to the west, it is the Gan army that has lost its trace, and Rong Lu is worried about encountering it.

"In your opinion, what will the foreign soldiers do if they occupy the Beijing Division?" Rong Lu stared at Long Qian who was standing by the sedan chair, and since last night, he has not taken a good look at this person.

"What a man__ has the spirit of a Yan Zhao man__" Rong Lu praised in his heart.

Long Qian smiled, "My lord, is this a lowly position in the school?" They thought that the foreigners were just asking for money, and they would not and would not have the strength to subvert the court and set up a new king. Therefore, they will talk to the imperial court about the withdrawal of troops. Moreover, there are many contradictions between the powers, and it depends on whether the imperial court will take advantage of them. However, now is not the time for peace talks—the more anxious we are, the higher their asking price will be. ”

Rong Lu became interested and got off the sedan chair, "What are you for?" Can you tell me about it? He looked around, "You come with me, let's go over there and rest a little." So that your soldiers can rest. ”

"Okay, then rest. Fetch some water and dry food. Long Qian turned around and said to Gu Xiaolin.

Rong Lu walked to a tree stump and sat down, waiting for Long Qian's answer.

My lord knows that although there are as many as eight countries in the coalition, in fact, they are mainly Britain, Germany, Japan, and Russia, and the United States and France still have some right to speak, such as Italy and Austria are not worth mentioning. Among the major countries, Russia and Japan are hostile to each other, and Japan has hated Russia since the intervention of the three countries. And there are also many contradictions between Britain, France and Germany, especially Germany and France, 30 years ago just fought a big war, the hatred has not disappeared, out of geopolitical considerations, in Central and Western Europe, Germany and France do not stand side by side, there is virtue can not, there is law without virtue. They could never be twisted into a rope. In the future, the imperial court can make full use of its contradictions to pull one faction and suppress the other faction in an attempt to reduce losses. What can be worried is that the imperial court has too few bargaining chips, so when he arrived at the outskirts of Tianjin with his army, he made up his mind to annihilate the coalition army and capture as many prisoners as possible in order to bargain with them in the future. Lai Imperial Court Hongfu, the guidance of the lord, finally fulfilled the mission, Xigu annihilated the Seymour coalition army in a battle, and Seymour was also captured. Nassimore was a British vice admiral in service. The commander of the East Asian Fleet was considered a high-ranking general of the British army, and it was impossible for Britain not to care about Seymour's safety. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the subordinate department were strictly ordered to treat the prisoners of the coalition forces well, all for the sake of the imperial court__"

Rong Lu was very interested, and felt that Long Qian was very insightful in taking precautions, "So, you already expected that this battle would fail?" ”

"Yes. Adult Mingjian. At the beginning, it was still invincible to Japan, how could it carry many countries alone? These countries are all first-class powers today. ”

"Then why do you still want to come to King Qin?"

"There are some things that we have to do knowing that we can't do it. If everyone avoids war. The country will not be a country. ”

"What a guy who knows he can't do it! If Zuo Wenxiang is alive. I will lead you to be my confidant. I haven't asked yet, does General Long have a table word? Rong Lu changed the subject.

"Don't dare to ask. Humble resignation. ”

"Long Qian, think back? Good, good. Is it a gift from Lingzun? Take it well. ”

"Yes. Listen to Jiaci. I was naughty as a child. My father had a headache. So he took it for me. Maybe he wants me to be more secure. ”

Rong Lu pointed to another tree stump, "Sit down and talk, the old man has to thank you." At the same time. I'm curious about you too. Can I tell my family history? ”

"Of course." Long Qian smiled and sat down on the ground.

"Hmm, you were born in the United States?"

"Yes."

"When did you return home?"

"1898, oh, the year of Wuxu."

"Why did you return home?"

"It's a long story. My ancestral home is Taiyuan Province, and my grandfather was a merchant who traveled back and forth to Fujian to sell tea. I got to know a lot of Westerners, and later I moved my family to Nanyang. My father went to the United States in his lifetime. Although his father's business is not bad, he has been discriminated against by whites and has always wanted to return to his homeland. Unexpectedly, Jia Yan died of illness when he was ten years old, and the matter was put on hold. After my father passed away, my business slowly declined, and my mother relied on the family's savings to support me through college, and often taught me not to forget my father's long-cherished wish and not to forget my homeland. After graduation, I decided to return to China, but my mother suddenly fell seriously ill and died, and it was delayed until the year before last. ”

"Well, I see. Ling Zun Lingtang lives overseas, thinking about his homeland, which is admirable. Rong Lu said softly. Rong Lu was not very interested in Long Qian's experience, he was more concerned about the situation after this person returned to China, "According to Yuan Shikai's report, you have fallen into the grass and Mengshan, why did you fall into the grass?" ”

Long Qian knew that sooner or later he would have to pass this hurdle, and the reason why he found Rong Lu was because Rong Lu was the best candidate to solve this problem, "It's really unbearable." After I returned to China, I traveled around, and on the way from Jinan to Yizhou, I was taken captive by Mengshanzhai, and in order to save my life, I had no choice but to fall into the grass and Mengshan. It wasn't until last year that Lord Cao Kun entered Mengshan to suppress Mengshan, and I was able to control the cottage. With that, Long Qian stood up and bowed deeply to Rong Lu.

To put it simply, Rong Lu didn't want to ask too many questions. Moreover, Yuan Shikai was also secretive about the defeat in Mengshanzhai, "Ha Luha, this section has been revealed." You can get lost and know how to return to the court, and it is good to know how to serve the court. Now that you have made military achievements, even the Queen Mother and her old man have sighed for a long time, and awarded you the post of deputy general, don't think about it anymore. In Tianjin, your troops defeated the coalition army and captured the enemy chieftain, but is it true? The military department sent people, but they didn't see the prisoners, where are those foreign soldiers now? ”

"Back to adults. How dare Long Qian hide it from the imperial court. In several battles before and after Xigu, hundreds of enemies were captured, some of which were handed over to Lord Ma Yukun. British Vice Admiral Seymour and more than 400 prisoners, including British, French, German, American, Italian, and Austrian officers and men, should now be in the Wanping area. Adults will be able to see you soon. ”

"It turned out to be true!" Rong Lu stood up excitedly, acting neatly like a young man, "Then hurry up, don't fall into the hands of Dong Fuxiang Ganjun." ”

Long Qian pretended to be puzzled, "Why is this?" ”

Rong Lu said hatefully, "Dong Fuxiang resented the imperial court, and even sent troops to attack the palace and kill Prince Zhuang. Now that they have turned out of Beijing, it is estimated that they will also take this road back to Gansu. I hope your troops don't encounter Gan's army. ”

Long Qian smiled secretly in his heart, the case in the capital made Dong Fuxiang the best in the tank, "The lowly post department is all elite soldiers in a hundred battles, and there should be no problem in protecting a few prisoners." If the adults are physically able, let's hurry. ”

"Hurry, hurry." Rong Lu was helped back to the sedan chair by the housekeeper, still holding a dough cake given by Gu Xiaolin in his hand, and began to ponder in his heart, and the first thing he thought about was Dong Fuxiang. Thinking of the safety of the Queen Mother, he urged him to speed up.

Dong Fuxiang's house must have gone back to the northwest to claim the king! Rong Lu felt a chill in his heart, and originally discussed with Cixi the retreat in case of unfavorable war, and agreed on two places to stay, one is the Rehe Palace, which can also be imagined, forty years ago, Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe because of the capture of Beijing by the British and French forces, and finally died in the Rehe Palace. That event made the ambitious Cixi and thus began her history as a ruler. But now, unlike forty years ago, the Rehe Palace has been abandoned for many years, and it is too close to Jingshi to be safe. The second location was chosen Xi'an. This was proposed by Rong Lu, perhaps because he served as a general in Xi'an, and the geographical location of Xi'an is better than that of Rehe.

But now with Dong Fuxiang's incident, Xi'an has become unsafe. The matter was in a hurry, and it was no longer appropriate to go to Xi'an since Dong Fuxiang's rebellion (Rong Lu had already determined that Dong Fuxiang had rebelled). But if she didn't study the matter with Cixi again, would Cixi still go to Xi'an according to the original plan?

Rong Lu thought, with this reason, plus the hundreds of foreign captives in Long Qian's hands, Cixi wouldn't blame him for leaving Beijing without permission, right? (To be continued......)