"Your Majesty, after my brother's persuasion, Huai Haijun is willing to restrain his officers and soldiers and will not cause trouble around the capital. However, he has made a few requests, and I hope the imperial court can grant them."
"What's the request?" Xianfeng asked.
"Uh..." Yi Xin hesitated for a moment before repeating the memorial to General Huai Haijun's request.
"Ahem..." Xianfeng coughed twice, holding back his body, and his face suddenly turned red.
"Your Majesty, I feel that Huai Haijun is trying to bargain with the imperial court." Peng Yunzhang revealed the mystery with one sentence.
After hearing this, Xianfeng relaxed a lot and thought: "This Dong Shuheng is a salt merchant after all, and he has to use these low-level tricks in the shopping mall to deal with the court."
"Peng Aiqing and Du Aiqing, please come forward to negotiate with the Huai Navy. The sixth brother is left to work hard to rectify the defense of the capital. All city walls must be strengthened. Go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to get 200,000 taels of silver to reward the Beijing camp." Xianfeng could not do it at this time. Don't use your own private money to calm the morale of the army.
Peng and Du knew clearly that they were sent by Xianfeng to negotiate with the Huai Navy because they were Han officials.
This is not a good job. No matter how the discussion goes, the censor may bring it up in the future. After all, it is the court that loses its interests in the end.
The two could only complain secretly in their hearts. At this time, Xianfeng only looked calm on the surface, but in fact he was already furious.
If the two of them dared to say "no", Xianfeng would probably explode immediately.
As for Prince Gong Yixin, he would rather stay in the capital and follow the bannermen and Xi Ni than go to Huai Haijun. Anyway, they are just dead pigs who are not afraid of boiling water.
Seng Gelinqin strictly implemented the military aircraft's decision and did not provoke Huai Haijun. Anyway, they did not raise the flag to rebel. He was not a fool like Shengbao.
Although Seng Gelinqin was a Mongolian and stout, he was not rough-minded at all, but rather scheming.
When he led people to capture Shengbao today, Shengbao seemed to be stupid. Such a failure was a huge blow to Shengbao, which made Seng Gelinqin secretly grateful.
As a general, Seng Gelinqin also couldn't figure out how the Huai Navy used infantry to annihilate the cavalry. Of course, he couldn't have imagined that if he could figure it out, he wouldn't have lost to the British and French forces in history.
Anyway, he is currently guarding the Taiping Army. Compared with the Huaihai Navy, the Taiping Army is easier to fight.
Lin Fengxiang now lives in the county government office in Tongzhou. The supplies of the Taiping Army can still last for a while.
In a bedroom, Li Kaifang was lying on the bed with a pale face. Lin Fengxiang walked in gently.
"Xiucai." Li Kaifang had already woken up. When she saw Lin Fengxiang entering the room, she struggled to sit up.
"Stop moving now, the wound will burst open if you move again." Lin Fengxiang quickly stopped him.
Li Kaifang found that she couldn't use her strength and stopped struggling: "Old Lin, I heard that Shengbao had a fight with Huai Haijun and was beaten to the point of annihilation of the entire army?"
"Well, yes, the news should be true." Lin Fengxiang replied.
"I never thought that Huai Haijun avenged me for Li Kaifang's revenge, so wouldn't I owe him a big favor?" Li Kaifang said, "Xiucai, who do you think Huai Haijun is from and why do they have Sometimes you fight with us, sometimes you help us, and sometimes you fight against the Qing court?"
Li Kaifang was almost confused by Huai Haijun and didn't know what kind of position he should give him in his heart.
"They are not on anyone's side. The Huaihai Navy is only on their own side." Lin Fengxiang revealed the mystery with one word.
"Xiucai, you are showing off in front of me, Lao Li again. Is it possible that the Huaihai Navy just sent us supplies to help us kill the troops of our strong enemy Shengbao, and then he turns around and wants to attack us again?" Li Kaifang was still a little confused.
But come here.
"It's very possible. The Qing government has given them enough benefits, so why don't they come to attack us?" Lin Fengxiang continued.
"Xiucai, why don't we break out of the encirclement, go outside the customs, and dig the ancestral graves of the Manchu Tatars? Wouldn't it be fun! By then we will occupy a piece of land near the sea, and we can use sea ships to contact Tianjing City."
Lin Fengxiang did not answer immediately. Looking at Li Kaifang's injuries, he shook his head and said, "Let's wait a few days and see! While Seng Gelinqin has not attacked recently, let's train the new refugee army under our command first."
As the Huaihai Navy entered the capital, the area around the capital suddenly became three forces, forming a tripartite form.
The fierce fighting that had lasted for a while also temporarily stopped.
Both the Qing army and the Taiping army were licking their wounds, and only the Huaihai navy was advancing towards Beijing.
According to Dong Shuheng, when you come to the capital, you should always take a look at the city walls of old Beijing. There is also the Old Summer Palace! People in later generations will not have the opportunity to visit this garden, because only the ruins are left.
But it’s only 1854! It must be the heyday of the Old Summer Palace. I really want to visit this garden that combines Chinese and Western styles. It is said that there are a large number of treasures, cultural relics and ancient books in the garden.
If he could bring some ancient books back to Wei Yuan, the old man would probably be so happy that he wouldn't even ask for the betrothal gift.
Dong Shuheng was thinking about these things and actually made himself happy.
Before Dong Shuheng could be happy for long, Huai Haijun was blocked by a group of refugees in the south of Beijing.
Naturally, the refugees cannot stop Huai Haijun, but the scale of the refugees is too large, more than 100,000 in total.
Previously, the Taiping Army came from the east. In order to prevent the refugees from being hijacked by the Taiping Army, the Qing government sent troops to drive all the refugees to the south.
For this reason, the Qing government opened some porridge shacks here, but it was a drop in the bucket. People died of cold and hunger every day.
Dong Shuheng only ordered the army to stop when he saw many frozen and hard corpses on the roadside and so many shivering refugees hiding in simple shacks.
"Wang Xiao, we have to rescue these refugees, requisition a village nearby, and then let the troops set up tents to build a temporary refugee camp." Dong Shuheng told Wang Xiao his idea.
"President, do we really want to waste our energy on these refugees? The Qing government itself is unwilling to take care of it. My subordinates think that we should go to Beijing as soon as possible to force the Qing government to agree to our conditions. Then return to Jiangsu. We have been here for a long time.
"My subordinates are worried about the long nights and many dreams." Wang Xiao said worriedly.
"Wang Xiao, have you forgotten the purpose of our Huaihai Navy? Others can ignore death, but we can't. If we don't save this time, then I, Dong Shuheng, will slap myself in the face. What qualifications do I have in the future?
In front of the soldiers, you say everything is for China and everything is for the people?" Dong Shuheng asked rhetorically.
"Yes, President, my subordinates are wrong." Wang Xiao lowered his head. Dong Shuheng has always required them to understand not only military affairs, but also politics. Therefore, there has always been cultural education in the Huai Navy.
Dong Shuheng hoped that the army in his hands would be a flesh-and-blood army, rather than a killing machine that only knew how to be loyal to itself and was indifferent to everything else. If that were the case, what would be the difference between the armies of some warlords in later generations?
"Wang Xiao, we don't have to stay all, just leave one group to maintain order. Go out and investigate. Have you found any larger Zhuangzi nearby?" Dong Shuheng asked.
"Report to the President, we have already investigated. There is a large village near Haidian Town, which belongs to Prince Chun. Thousands of acres of land around it belong to this village," Wang Xiao said.
"Is that the Prince Chun who was killed?" Dong Shuheng remembered that the previous revenge action killed a Prince, who was also Daoguang's son.
"Yes, President, there are servants guarding the village, and refugees generally don't dare to approach it," Wang Xiao said.
"Okay, it's up to him. Send the cavalry company to take down that village. Don't kill the surrendered people. Just find a yard and lock them up. Then build a refugee camp around that village. If there are not enough houses, use ours.
Tent. The farmers in the village should not be in trouble, just requisition part of the house, and the property of the farmers must be protected." Dong Shuheng ordered.
Obviously, he wanted Wang Xiao to stay and take charge of the refugees, and he led his troops to continue marching around the capital.
"President, there is a bigger garden in Haidian Town." Wang Xiao said thiefly.
"What kind of garden?"
"Old Summer Palace! That garden is so big. I took the cavalry company for a walk in the morning, and I couldn't even see the edge of it!" Wang Xiao said exaggeratedly.
Wang Xiao's words caught Dong Shuheng's attention. He had always wanted to see what the real Old Summer Palace looked like, and this opportunity came.
But it cannot be used to house refugees, otherwise good things will be wasted. Although it is now a palace of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it will become a cultural relic unit and museum of China in the future.
Now that Dong Shuheng is here, there is no big problem in preserving this garden.
Dong Shuheng nodded. If the Qing government uses delaying tactics on him this time, then he must go to the Old Summer Palace to have a look. It will also put some pressure on the Qing government.
Just as he said, Dong Shuheng sent two companies of cavalry to gather the refugees. When the refugees heard that there was food, they all dragged their tired bodies and gathered towards Zhuangzi, the home of Lord Chun of Haidian Town.
On the other side, a cavalry company also arrived at Zhuangzi. After King Chunjun was killed, his son inherited the throne. How could a child manage the palace?
Since the arrival of Huaihai Haijun, the people in Zhuangzi have been trembling all day long, wondering when Huaihai Haijun will come to take revenge on them. They all know how the master's family died. It was not because Lard was deceived and invaded Huaihai Company.
elements.
Seeing Huai Haijun's cavalry company charging towards Zhuangzi with ferocious looks, Zhuangzi's steward greased his feet and ran away early. How could the servants have the courage to confront Huai Haijun? They ran away and surrendered.
The cavalry company quickly occupied Zhuangzi, and the infantrymen also came with their tents. They drove the people who originally lived in Zhuangzi to live together. Naturally, those die-hard slaves from the Wang family in Chun County were imprisoned. The villagers brought their few families with them.
Their belongings were concentrated and lived together.
A regiment of infantry gathered together and quickly built the camp, with a simple fence built around it with barbed wire.