Lin Fengxiang was able to guess Shengbao's thoughts, so he had to compete with Shengbao for time. He left 5,000 troops stationed in Langfang to intercept Shengbao.
This army is led by Li Kaifang, who must block Shengbao here for two days so that Lin Fengxiang can advance to the outskirts of Beijing.
"Lao Li, the time is up, you must find a way to break out of the encirclement and join us in Tongzhou." Lin Fengxiang explained seriously.
It is very dangerous to stay on the blocking mission this time, and it is very likely that the entire army will be annihilated.
Originally, Lin Fengxiang did not want Liu Kaifang to stay. His old brother fought bravely, but was too fierce. Lin Fengxiang was worried that at the last moment, Li Kaifang would choose to die together.
However, except for Li Kaifang, no one can suppress the remaining holy soldiers.
The morale of the army at the rear is very important. On my side, only Li Kaifang can improve the morale. Because Li Kaifang and he are the two main generals of the Northern Expedition.
Li Kaifang used a method commonly used by the Taiping Army in Langfang - men's and women's libraries.
Due to time constraints, Li Kaifang gathered all the men and their families were taken into custody, essentially as hostages. In this way, Li Kaifang had tens of thousands of strong men to defend the city.
These men were then divided into small groups and mixed with the Taiping Army to defend the city.
Langfang is the only way to Beijing. When Shengbao arrived at Langfang, he encountered Li Kaifang. The war was about to break out. If Shengbao took a detour to Beijing, he would waste a lot of time, and there was Li Kaifang's army behind him.
It's not safe either.
After careful consideration, I still have to overcome this obstacle.
Time was running out, and Shengbao's style of play was very similar to that of the Taiping Army, which was to kill and hit a point desperately.
In fact, it would be better for Shengbao to wait until all the infantry behind him came up before attacking, but he didn't have that time, so he could only fight and wait.
The offensive and defensive battle in Langfang was very fierce, and Shengbao also fought hard. Instead of being punished by the court, it would be better to let his soldiers fight against the Taiping Army.
On the other side, Lin Fengxiang led an army of more than 30,000 people and fought all the way north, heading straight for Tongzhou, the center of the canal.
Tongzhou is to the east of the capital, facing Beijing's Dong'an Gate. It is the end point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and an important transfer station for supplies entering Beijing. Forty or fifty miles further west from Tongzhou is the city of Beijing.
When the Taiping Army reached Langfang, the entire city of Beijing felt as if it had been hit by a magnitude 12 earthquake.
Many people think of the scene when Li Zicheng arrived in the capital at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Xianfeng sat blankly on his dragon throne. He made the plan, but the reality did not develop in the direction he hoped.
The rebels throughout the Qing Dynasty were like gophers, popping up one after another, and now they are popping up around the capital.
He has no choice now and can only rely on his ministers.
"Your Majesty, Shengbao failed to suppress the bandits and allowed the bandits to flee north. Your Majesty, please issue an order to arrest them." A censor came out and said. At this time, silence is obviously not enough. As a censor who is a talkative party,
You must be the first to come out and wipe out a wave of existence.
"Now is the time to recruit people. How can we punish the general who leads the army? Who should be sent to fight against the bandits? Your Majesty, in accordance with your opinion, you can send someone to reprimand Sheng Bao and allow him to perform meritorious service. Then mobilize all your troops to protect him.
The safety of the capital is important."
Military Minister Du Han came out and said this.
"What Du Aiqing said is true. Prince Gong, I order you to organize the bannermen from the capital to go to the city to defend. All registered Eight Banners soldiers must go to the city. The imperial court has supported them for so many years, and it is time for them to contribute."
Emperor Xianfeng looked at Prince Gong who was bowing his head and said nothing.
Doesn’t this sixth brother claim to be talented? Then I will give you some responsibility this time.
Prince Gong came out to promise. He had already cursed in his heart: "Now the Eight Banners soldiers still look like soldiers. If you let yourself organize them, you can drown yourself in the saliva of those Eight Banners old women. This is purely
It’s just a thankless job!”
However, complaints are complaints, and at this moment, Prince Gong did not dare to show it. He could only suffer the loss of silence silently.
"Your Majesty, I think we should urgently order Seng Gelinqin to lead his army directly back to the capital, and attack the Taiping Army in front and behind with the Shengbao Department." Ruilin said.
"Well, it's time to report. Send an order to Seng Gelinqin and ask him to rush to the east gate of the capital to set up defenses. Do you have any other suggestions?"
"Your Majesty, there are still tens of thousands of refugees in the capital, and there are hundreds of thousands of refugees outside the city. These people are easily deceived by bandits. I hope that your Majesty can issue an order to collect and manage them in a centralized manner and raise supplies for relief." The Ministry of Household Affairs said.
Shangshu Sun Ruizhen came out to suggest that he had been frustrated by money and food matters these days.
So I just stood up and spoke out about this sensitive matter, and it wouldn't matter even if I was dismissed from office.
Emperor Xianfeng pondered for a while, but none of the other officials stood up to express their opinions on this issue. Because the next issue was about money and food, everyone was trying their best to avoid it.
"Since Sun Aiqing raised this problem, does Sun Aiqing have any solution?" Xianfeng asked Sun Ruizhen again.
Sun Ruizhen thought to herself, you, the emperor, are too irresponsible. Aren't you responsible for everything? If the Huaihai Company had not been raided, there would have been no shortage of supplies in the capital, and naturally there would have been no such thing.
Maybe Changmao won't come to the capital.
Now that things have become serious, I think of my ministers again. This is a typical blame-shifting behavior.
Sun Ruizhen was planning to resign and return to the countryside anyway. She was a rare bachelor: "Your Majesty, there are two ways to solve the current refugee crisis. One is to have the princes, ministers and big households in the capital raise food to relieve the people; the second is to
The order was issued to cancel the investigation of Huaihai Company and allow Huaihai Company to resume delivering grain to the capital. Now they are the only ones who have grain in their hands and have the ability to deliver it to the capital."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall was shocked, and someone immediately stood up and accused him with righteous indignation: "Sun Ruizhen, you actually stand up for a traitor like Huai Haijun. It turns out that you are Huai Haijun's internal agent in the court."
"Sun Ruizhen, you colluded with the rebels, please ask the emperor to take him down and hold him accountable."
…
Sun Ruizhen has also been immersed in the court for many years, and she has seen this kind of behavior many times. These people are not targeting the second suggestion they mentioned about Huaihai Company.
In fact, it was because of the first suggestion he made that each family raise food to relieve the people. The capital is now so short of supplies that no prince or minister has come up with food to help the people.
All the farms outside Beijing are in the hands of these people, and only they have food in their hands. However, these people are selfish and short-sighted.
Sun Ruizhen thought of the records in Ming history about when Li Zicheng arrived outside Beijing. The faces of the royal family at that time and the princes and ministers now were probably the same.
I saw Sun Ruizhen slowly taking off the flower feathers on her head, placing them on the royal road beside her, kneeling down and saluting: "Your Majesty, please punish me!"
As an emperor, Xianfeng didn't understand what was going on. But he couldn't make a decision now because the news from Jiangsu Jierhang'a hadn't come yet.
It stands to reason that if the plan is implemented, there should be results. A few days ago, a secret report that Dong Shuheng was killed was sent back, but there is no follow-up news.
Judging from the performances of the princes and ministers just now, it is obviously impossible to snatch food from their hands.
"Sun Aiqing, please stand up. I will not punish you for words. Besides, I know Sun Aiqing's loyalty well." After saying this, he winked at the eunuch beside him, and an eunuch immediately helped Sun Ruizhen up.
"Pass an order to the Shuntian Prefecture and the House of Internal Affairs to collect the refugees in the city. Withdraw part of the grain reserves from the inner treasury to provide relief first. After the long hair outside the city has dispersed, they will be sent back to their place of origin." Xianfeng said. He did not mention the refugees outside the city.
The number is too great, and now the court has no energy to deal with it.
The court meeting was full of waffling and nothing could be decided. After the court meeting dispersed, Xianfeng kept several military ministers behind.
The problem had to be solved eventually. After returning to the inner study, Xianfeng was about to change into casual clothes. At this time, Hermione suddenly appeared.
"Your Majesty, this slave deserves to die. If the job is not done well, that Dong Shuheng is not dead."
"What? He's not dead! How can you guarantee that?" This news was worse for Xianfeng than when the Taiping Army invaded the capital.
"Your Majesty, these are all slaves who are not doing their job properly. For some reason, Dong Shuheng was only injured and has not shown up for the past few days. The servants below thought he was dead. The carriage was indeed blown to pieces at that time. For this reason, we still
An agent died." Hermione did not beg for mercy, he knew his master's temperament.
He still has a chance to survive if he takes the initiative to plead guilty, but if he begs for mercy, he will probably die.
"What about Gilhanga? What about him? Why is there no news?"
"Our people can't contact him anymore, and everyone who was with him has also lost contact." Hermione reported.
Xianfeng took a few steps back and fell down on the couch.
It's over, everything is over. Jiangsu's plan is the premise of everything. Now it has failed, so everything is over.
If Dong Shuheng is not dead, what will he do? If he joins forces with the Taiping Army to rebel, can he withstand it?
The Hunan Army and the Chu Army in the west are blocked by the Taiping Army and cannot be counted on for the time being. There are no troops available in the entire north. What will happen if the Huai Navy goes north?
Xianfeng has now reached the point where he has to consider the survival of the Qing Dynasty.
"Let the military ministers wait a moment, I will go there in a while." Xianfeng said to the eunuch who stayed outside.
"Hermione, what's going on with Huai Haijun now?" Xianfeng asked.
"Huai Haijun seems to be marching towards Anhui and Jiangxi now, saying that he wants to suppress bandits." Hermione said, Huai Haijun's actions are carried out with great fanfare and can be easily detected.
"You didn't enter Henan and went north to Shandong?" Xianfeng asked.
"No, the main force of the Huai Navy is now around Xuzhou and Tianjing. If there are major changes, we can still detect them." Hermione said.
Of course, Hermione made another mistake. He ignored that the Huai Navy had naval forces. Of course, with their perspective, they could not consider the situation at sea.