With a "boom", the bookcase in the Qinzheng Qinxian Hall fell to the ground, frightening all the eunuchs and maids who were standing around with their heads down to lie down on the ground. Several military ministers, cabinet bachelors, six Manchu and Han ministers, ministers, and more
He didn't even dare to raise his head.
Emperor Xianfeng, who had just pushed down the desk in front of him, stood there blankly when he heard cries coming from Chongqi, the director of the Ministry of Works who was lying in front. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty... my slave's Ama is dead.
So miserable, so miserable......"
This Chongqi was in his twenties, with handsome features and a gentle manner. The name of his grandmother who died miserably was Sai Shang'a! Indeed, he died miserably, and he "died" twice, one time because he was "cheated"
"Dead", in one case "is dying" - at this very moment, Sai Shang'a is still being lit by a sky lantern outside the Chao Zong gate in Changsha, and is screaming in agony as he burns!
So what does "being cheated to death" mean?
It’s just passive “cheating to death and deceiving the emperor”!
He didn't take the initiative to fake death, because he was captured by Hong Xiuquan, and there was no way to fake death to deceive Xianfeng. However, Seng Gelinqin acted righteously and did not say that he was "captured" or "missing", but made up stories for him.
He died a heroic death for his country.
According to Seng Gelinqin's memorial, after being "accidentally ambushed", Saishang'a led eight thousand dead soldiers to the rear and fought bloody battles with 50,000 Changmao on the side of the Xiangjiang River for three days and three nights. They ran out of ammunition and reinforcements and had to risk their lives to break out.
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On the way to break out of the siege, they encountered the Taiping Angels. The "Bull Demon" Luo Yaoguo led a "demon army" of 3,000 people. So his cousin led a horseback assault on horseback, rushed into Luo Yaoguo's middle army, and then killed seven long-haired warriors one after another.
He was exhausted and fell off his horse, but he still fought to the death. In the end, he was hacked to death by more than ten Changmao men with random knives. Before he died, he bowed to the north and shouted: "Slave Sai Shang is ashamed of trusting the emperor. He can only repay the kindness of the country in the next life."
………”
Look, how heroic it is?
It is precisely because of this memorial from Seng Gelinqin that Chongqi is able to wear a mourning hat and enter the palace today to pray for the grace of a grand burial for her deceased father (actually, his surviving father).
With this grace, Sai Shang'a, who was lit with a sky lantern outside the Chao Zong gate, was considered to have "dead a worthy death". He would not be blamed again in the future, and the future career of his brothers and sons was also guaranteed.
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However, Xianfeng was not in the mood to appreciate Sai Shang'a's loyalty and heroism at the moment.
Because there are a lot of defeat reports sent to Xianfeng today. In addition to this letter from Seng Gelinqin, there are also letters from Luo Bingzhang and Luo Raodian, "Changsha City has to be abandoned."
Marching into Hubei Province", Zhang Liangji sent "I impeached Cheng Zicai for fleeing Yuezhou Province without fighting" and so on.
In short, it’s all bad news!
Oh, there is also an inexplicable secret, which was given by Zeng Guofan, saying that he wanted to raise the flag to be Zeng Jia. Guofan... "Lost? Defeated? How did you lose?"
Xianfeng just murmured to himself: "It was fine yesterday, so why was it defeated overnight? Didn't Luo Bingzhang and Luo Raodian already recapture Changsha City?"
"Didn't Seng Gelinqin and Sai Shang'a join forces together? How could they be defeated? They had thirty thousand troops at hand! Luo Bingzhang, Luo Raodian, Zeng Guofan, and Shengbao still had twenty to thirty thousand troops in their hands.
..This is 56,000 people! How did it fail like this?"
"How could an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people and the fortified city of Changsha be defeated by Changmao...even Baling County in Yuezhou Prefecture was defeated? Isn't this too fast? Is it possible that the situation in Hunan is beyond repair?
?How do Sai Shang'a, Seng Gelinqin, Luo Bingzhang, Luo Raodian, Zeng Guofan, Shengbao and others do things?"
"Your Majesty, it is Cheng Zicai who deserves death! It was precisely because he escaped before the battle and took away thousands of Hubei Green Camps that the Changsha Fucheng and Yuezhou Fucheng fell quickly. Your Majesty, please quickly send an order to take him to the capital and hand him over to the Ministry for discussion! This way
It can also boost the morale of the army, and there is still something to be done!”
The battle ahead was defeated, so the big guys in the court naturally had to find ways to cover up their own people, and at the same time, they also cleared themselves of the suspicion of deceiving the emperor. This made it necessary to find a scapegoat. Originally, it was Saishang'a who should take the blame.
, but he has become Zhonglie now, we can’t let Zhonglie take the blame, right?
The blame for the defeat of the Qing army in the Xiangjiang River can also be placed on Seng Gelinqin. However, several big bosses have received Seng Gelinqin's letter. In the letter, Seng Gelinqin told these people that if they want to defeat Changmao, they must rely on the Eight Banners and the Green Camp.
This kind of baggage and rice bag will definitely not work. The only way is to organize group training on a large scale! To organize group training, we cannot rely only on the Han people, the banner people must also work hard!
And he, Seng Gelinqin, planned to go to his hometown of Horqin grassland to recruit a Mongolian regiment to help the emperor grow hair, and he also planned to rectify the Eight Banners of the Beijing Banner!
After receiving Senggelinqin's letter, several big shots in the court knew that the monk king could not take the blame. Because among the flag members, Senggelinqin had the best conditions for organizing regiment training.
one.
Unlike the other Eight Banners in the Four-Nine City or the Eight Banners garrisoned in various cities, although Seng Gelinqin, a flag member, had served as the Manchu and Mongolian commander of the Eight Banners several times, he himself was not a descendant of the Eight Banners.
Senggelinqin was not affiliated with any of the Eight Banners, but was the eleventh generation king of Zasakdoro County of the Horqin Left Back Banner of Mongolia... To put it simply, he was the subordinate of the Qing Emperor.
of a vassal king.
He had his own territory and led people, but at the same time because of Daoguang's trust, he was called into the capital at the age of twenty-three and took up a job that generally only Eight Banners nobles could do. He worked there for more than twenty years.
As a result, this Seng Gelinqin became a Mongolian vassal king disguised as a nobleman of the Eight Banners.
On the one hand, he was regarded as a noble of the Eight Banners by Daoguang and Xianfeng, and he was very trusted. On the other hand, he was a vassal king and could go to his own territory and recruit regiments for Xianfeng from among his own subjects.
So if Xianfeng wanted to organize a "non-Han group training", it would have to be Seng Gelinqin. Since it had to be him, he couldn't let him take the blame.
And it is not convenient for Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, to take the blame... If he takes the blame, the governor of Hunan will no longer be able to do it. But in the current situation, who is willing to take over the mess in Hunan?
No one can take over this stall!
He was doing the job too badly, and others didn't dare to take it on, so they had no choice but to let him keep doing it.
As for Zeng Guofan, Luo Shaodian was a minister of the regiment and helped with military affairs. They were not qualified to carry out military affairs. Moreover, the court also expected them to run some regiment affairs in Hunan and provide some support.
So after all the calculations, only Cheng Zicai could take the blame. So Qi Jianzao, the leader of the Han officials, pushed Cheng Zicai out!
Xianfeng turned his head, bent his thin back, and looked at Qi Hanzao. Mayan was a little angry: "The errands have been completed like this, and the province is almost wiped out, so you are going to push out the retired Governor of Huguang, Cheng Cai, to take the blame? Is it possible? Is there no one else? Moreover, things were going well a few days ago, even Changsha was taken back. How come they were defeated like a mountain in the blink of an eye?
77”
When Qi Hanzao heard this, his heart skipped a beat. The emperor finally realized that he had been kept in the dark?
What is he trying to do? He doesn't want to take off the top of a respected military minister, right? "Your Majesty, this old minister is incompetent..."
Qi Zao was also aware of this. Thinking of this, he immediately bowed his head and was about to resign.
"Okay, okay!" Although Xianfeng knew that he had been deceived by some treacherous officials, he also knew that now was not the time to pursue the case. What mattered now was that the emperor and his ministers worked together to tide over the difficulties!
In addition, he, the emperor, has no special confidants in the court. He really can't figure out who is loyal and who is traitorous? Moreover, he believes that under the leadership of his father and his wise leadership, most of the courtiers are loyal, and the traitorous ones are just a few. pinch..
Thinking of this, Xianfeng waved his hands and said: "I know you are incompetent! But who else can I use if I don't need you? My teacher..." When he mentioned "teacher", Xianfeng did not say any more, but sighed.
His teacher Du Shutian was supposed to join the military aircraft this year, but he died of illness while on a business trip abroad in June.
"Your Majesty, now is the time to employ people. Du Wenzheng's son, Du Han, is both capable and virtuous, and has the courage to do his job. Why don't we let him recover from his love and learn how to walk in a military aircraft."
Qi Hanzao is able to serve as the chief military aircraft, so of course he understands what Emperor Xianfeng is thinking now? The emperor must have felt that no one of his own in the military aircraft department was watching... so he didn't know who to target?
Emperor Xianfeng finally nodded: "It's time to let Du Han come back..."
Immediately afterwards, his anger rose again: "Let Seng Gelinqin, Sushun and Shengbao come back! I want to ask them personally how this battle was fought?" "Your Majesty, your servant Yi Xin has something to say. !" Prince Gong Yixin knew that he could no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb, and quickly asked to speak.
"You?" Xianfeng glanced at his younger brother warily, "Say it!"
Prince Gong Yixin said plausibly: "Your Majesty, the defeat of Hunan was not due to war. It was because the land in Hunan was not enough to support the people of Hunan. There were too many poor people who were about to starve to death! So we rebelled against the Cantonese bandits who robbed the rich and gave to the poor. The method of dividing the fields won the hearts of the extremely vicious people, and their war losses were quickly replenished."
"Although before the Battle of Xiangjiang, Changmao's territory was only Hengzhou, Guiyang, Yongzhou and part of Changsha. To us, the Qing Dynasty, it was just a corner. But in this corner of the country, there were probably millions of extremely poor people. If you choose the best among the people to serve in the army, you can get at least one hundred thousand men!"
"The imperial army's war-ready troops in Hunan are no more than 50,000, and there are many bad habits among the officers and soldiers, and there are very few who are skilled in martial arts. They may not be comparable to the extremely vicious soldiers recruited by the Guangdong bandits for their rebellion. ..
Prince Gong Yi?'s words were clear and logical, and Emperor Xianfeng's face became increasingly ugly.
He couldn't understand why this old man wanted to bring the topic to "thousands of miles of fertile wilderness outside the Pass"!
It seems that the battle did not go well this time, and it is all because he, the emperor, did not listen to the advice. He should have divided the fertile fields thousands of miles outside the pass, so that the poor people in Hunan would not follow Changmao in rebellion...
Chapter completed!