Monk Greenqin's initiative to retreat made the deployment of the coalition army ineffective, but the commander of the coalition army was very optimistic, they believed that Monk Greenqin could not avoid the war forever, and behind him was the heart of the Qing Empire, and one day he would be forced to fight a decisive battle.

With the retreat of Seng Lingqin again, the coalition army easily occupied the small city of Zhangjiawan, and the Qing allied forces who entered the city first began to sack, and then the British and French soldiers spontaneously joined the sack, and the coalition commander did not stop it.

The pawnshops in the small town had a large number of gold bricks, silver ingots, and jewelry, all of which were looted. Perhaps it had been suppressed for too long, but it was the British who were the most ferocious in this robbery, and Colonel Dupan could not but say: "According to their habit of taking everything that is useful, they [the British] have robbed the whole city." Lieutenant Colonel Wu Shili described that after the British ransacked Zhangjiawan, some Chinese went to take away furniture and clothing, etc., and the consul and some people with a sense of justice were indignant about the incident, although it was not the British who took the lead in starting the robbery.

Small shops selling sorghum liquor, or pawnshops, were also looted by coolies, because this is almost the law of war. And those quaint old mansions, carved beams and paintings, there are many artistic treasures, all those who cannot be carried away are ruthlessly destroyed: it is bearable, which is unbearable!

When Wu Shili and Rong Lu passed by a house, they happened to see several Indian soldiers taking the stone lion of the town house at the gate as the object of anger, and they wasted their strength to smash the stone lion, and broke out into a huge cheer. Wu Shili wanted to step forward to stop a few words, but was stopped by Rong Lu. He looked at this English-speaking Qing nobleman with some surprise, and he said with a smile: "Let them smash it, there are many more." Wu Shili was speechless. I don't know if this is his helpless words or show off.

In this collective robbery, the prostitutes and Hong Kong coolies in the Indian army and barracks were more powerful than the British soldiers. Of course, the women and girls in the homes of the victims of the robbery were respected by British officers. However, many of them preferred to commit suicide by taking opium, and a young woman threw herself into the river from a high point above the bridge, and only some survived with the help of military doctors. Wu Shili did not understand their behavior. Rong Lu explained that it was to save his ......

With the consent of his master, the philanthropic Father Mji used a large mansion to host families under threat. Xun He acted as a translator to mobilize a fat woman and her daughter in the city to live with 15 maids. But it was a wasted effort. The old woman said in a weird way, the words of the foreign devils can't be believed, they are not right, not to mention that she doesn't want to live anymore. The British soldiers forcibly pushed her and her daughter into the carriage. And the servants followed "like a flock." But. Before the car could reach its destination, the old woman strangled her daughter to death, and she swallowed a large amount of opium......

The English priest's charity was not recompensed, and he did a bad deed with good intentions, which he still regrets, and that night all the women in the boarding house ran away. Unwilling to accept the "care of Yangyi......

Wu Shili finally summed up one sentence, but this sentence made Rong Lu unhappy. "It turns out that the women here are more courageous than the men, although it seems a little retarded to do so, but they only have the respect of the people!"

At the same time as the robbery was carried out, the coalition forces sent a large number of reconnaissance teams for reconnaissance operations. This is very necessary, the coalition command is very eager to find the position of the main force of the monk and quickly fight a decisive battle with it, once the victory over the monk and the spirit of the city, the road to the capital will be undefended.

Because of the personnel of the Qing allied forces as guides, the reconnaissance operation of the coalition forces was very effective. Perhaps it was a joke from the last Baihe waterway reconnaissance incident, but this time the allied reconnaissance operation attached great importance to the cooperation that the Qing allies could give, and each reconnaissance team had Qing allied soldiers to cooperate with the action.

On the third day after the Battle of Zhangjiawan, General Colino arrived from Tianjin with 3,000 horses and three field artillery batteries, which were urgently needed by the coalition forces. At the same time, on the British side, Grant also wanted to bring two regiments to join him with General Napier, who was still in Hexi.

Reconnaissance showed that the cavalry of the Qing army of the Monk Lingqin Department was massing on a large scale along the canal line from Tongzhou to the capital. According to the information provided by the Qing allied forces, there were two bridges on the canal, and the west one was a wooden bridge, which was impassable by artillery. The second is a single-arch stone bridge, a beautiful white marble old bridge, built in the 17th century, with animal stone carved railings, called Bali Bridge, Bali, which is about the distance from there to Tongzhou City, and the Chinese like to use distance as a place name. Listening to the descriptions of the soldiers of the Qing Allied Army, from the bridge, you can see the tall walls of Beijing in the distance. However, because of the shelter of trees and houses, the allied reconnaissance team could not see the bridge, let alone its specific location, and the distance between the two sides seemed to be incorrect, and Wu Shili and the others could not read the Chinese military map like a landscape painting. But one thing is certain, that is, the Bali Bridge must be taken by the coalition forces!

With the deepening of the reconnaissance operation, the deployment of the Qing army also began to show clues, Bali Bridge seems to be the last place for Monk Lingqin to retreat, after here there is no danger on the way to the capital, but it seems that Bali Bridge is not a dangerous place.

However, General Seng Lingqin's determination to engage in battle had been decided, and in the past few days the reconnaissance team has found a large number of Qing troops assembled near the Bali Bridge, and set up barracks and trenches, where they are preparing to stop the advance of the British and French forces.

According to the Qing allied forces, this is a large encirclement, Rong Lu believes that Seng Lingqin must have been very careful to prepare for a decisive battle here, on this great plain, the commander of the Qing army personally led about 30,000 or more troops to fight a decisive battle with the coalition army. On the plain, it happened to be the place where a large number of cavalry came into play, and Rong Lu was worried about the large-scale detour of the Qing cavalry, after all, this was no longer the place where the mud swamp in the Jintang area was everywhere. This can also be seen Monk Greenqin's intentions, he just hopes to finally fight a decisive battle with the coalition army on the plain, so as to give full play to the advantages of his cavalry, and the infantry position of the Qing army must have been carefully arranged, Rong Lu pointed out that Monk Greenqin will definitely hide the infantry in the bushes or villages, as a stronghold to hold on, there must be a preset artillery array inside, to provide artillery support for the entire battlefield.

At the same time, as a reserve team, the commander of the Qing army also has elite troops, that is, the new army of the Beijing Division, which was previously formed by him, and then became the division of Prince Yiyi, these soldiers are wearing black-edged yellow coats for identification, equipped with a large number of firearms, the Monk Greenqin Department is in the Bali Bridge decisive battle, the new army in the capital will definitely be reinforced when the battle situation is unfavorable, and their number is about 20,000. Moreover, the generals of the Qing side were very familiar with the terrain, while the generals of the coalition forces were not familiar with the geographical environment except for the allied forces of the Qing State.

Rong Lu fulfilled his obligation, he analyzed and described in detail the tactics and troop deployment that the Qing army might use, for which the allied high command was very grateful, so the British and French troops prepared to meet the battle, the Bali Bridge was a bridge they had to cross, and they went to the ocean to reach here for this!

General Montauban was so lucky this time that it was his turn to get ahead of the troops and determine the position of the attack, in other words, Grant gave in and let Montauban command the entire campaign, which was unique after setting foot on Chinese soil. Grant's explanation for this is simple, the French army is the main force! Colonel Dupan believed that Grant was afraid of losing the battle, but Grant's action countered Colonel Dupan's remarks, and he led the LinkedIn Army to follow the French army! And the Qing allies, who may have bad things, stayed behind to stick to the small city of Zhangjiawan and ensure the logistics channel, at least they still have some methods and morale to defend the city. Only Rong Lu and a few other Qing allied generals and their elite guards followed the battlefield, and the allied cavalry was limited, and their cavalry of more than 1,000 Qing allied cavalry was organized into a cavalry reserve.

Montauban checked the battlefield situation as soon as he arrived at the frontier, which is 5 kilometers away from the Zhangjiawan coalition camp, which is an important town in Tongzhou, and the granite old road leads to Beijing. In the village of Baliqiao, the road crosses the canal and passes over the stone bridge. The two commanders of the coalition army have learned from the reconnaissance team that the front and back of the Bali Bridge are guarded by the army of the monk king. So, Montauban made up his mind and decided to take the bridge in one fell swoop. He agreed with Grant that once the location of the Qing army at the Bali Bridge had been determined, the French army would be deployed in front of the bridge and then capture this strategic point.

The day before the decisive battle, in the camp of the coalition forces, it can be described as a group of people who are excited and uneasy. Wu Shili wrote a letter to his family with excitement, and then he walked out of his tent, he saw Rong Lu standing alone in the moonlight, he stepped forward to say hello, Rong Lu only turned his head slightly. Wu Shili curiously asked him what he was doing here, and Rong Lu's answer was intriguing: "I created the original history!" Wu Shili didn't know why, and Rong Lu didn't explain anything, Wu Shili thought it might be a grammatical error.

At dawn the next day, everyone got up early to prepare, had breakfast, and the coalition officers drank a cup of coffee together. At half past five o'clock, the signal signal sounded, and the signal soldiers with the red battle flag rode in the camp, and when they saw the red battle flag, people took off their hats and cheered loudly.

The weather was superb, perfect for fighting, no pesky rain and no pesky winds. A light infantryman of the second battalion wrote in his diary: "...... The morning is clear, slightly cool, and cheerful; On the river, on the field, a hazy mist floats...... After a while, the bright sun dispelled the morning mist and shone on the countryside near and far, how intoxicating the earth was! ”

The cheerful drums of war sounded, as did the sound of the Scottish bagpipes of the British army, and the soldiers of the coalition army were ready to go, and the battle line spread from east to west. General Ranman led his officers and men plus 2 artillery companies and the staff headquarters to the right side, and General Collino led 1 artillery company to the center, and then the British army that followed will spread out to the west. The infantry and artillery are in the center, and the cavalry is on the left, which is the combat position. In the avant-garde troops, Britain and France each sent 4,000 men and horses, a total of about 8,000, and the rest of the soldiers were assembled in the rear, as reserves, ready to reinforce the front at any time.

With heavy and slow steps, the coalition soldiers marched towards one goal - the Bali Bridge! (To be continued......)