The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 318 Stimulating the Foreigners
Seeing the changing expressions on Cixi's face, Ronglu and Wang Wenshao suddenly became worried and couldn't help but look at Zai Yi.

Zai Yi was naturally aware of the content of Teng Yuzhao's memorial, but he did not want to say anything until Cixi had finished reading the memorial and expressed her attitude.

It was not that Zai Yi hated Ronglu and did not inform him, the chief minister of the Military Affairs Council, of the news of the German troop increase. It was actually that he was a little confused by Teng Yuzhao's memorial.

Although Zai Yi was once the most staunch advocate of war for personal gain, the reality has made him see clearly that it is not something that any country can do to stand up to the world's powers.

He no longer wants to, and is unwilling to, overly provoke the foreigners.

Seeing that Zai Yi just lowered his head, looked at his nose, looked at his mouth, looked at his heart with his eyes slightly closed, Ronglu and Wang Wenshao had no choice but to look at Cixi again.

Cixi held the memorial and read it for a long time with a complicated expression before slowly closing it. She closed her eyes and thought for a long time before handing it to Ronglu.

"Zhonghua, you guys should take a look too!"

Ronglu took the memorial and couldn't wait to open it. He really wanted to know what the content of this memorial from Teng Xingfu was that made Cixi, who was always determined and opinionated, so worried.

Wang Wenshao, who was standing by, also hurriedly came up to Ronglu and stretched his neck to read Teng Yuzhao's memorial together.

Teng Yuzhao's memorial was actually not very long. Apart from telling Cixi that the coalition forces outside the capital were still hiding outside the city and not taking any action, he also wanted to move his camp office in Yi County to Luzhou Prefecture in Shanxi.

Luzhou Prefecture, which is Changzhi in later generations, governs the entire Shangdang Basin area.

Although Teng Yuzhao was fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance, Luzhou Prefecture was in Shanxi after all. As the general director of Beiyang and Zhili military affairs, he could not lead his troops to fight across borders without authorization. He had to consult the imperial court on this matter.

The reason given by Teng Yuzhao was that Luzhou Prefecture was located in the mountains, which was conducive to defense. In this way, he would have no worries and could concentrate on leading troops to fight outside.

In addition, the vanguard army suffered heavy losses in the battle of the capital, and with the reinforcement of a large number of former Boxers scattered in the capital, they urgently need to be trained and will be difficult to be used in a short period of time. It is requested that the Wuwei Vanguard Army that retreated from Lutai to Baoding be transferred to the vanguard army.

After Yu Lu assigned the Wuwei Vanguard Army to Teng Yuzhao, Song Qing and others a few months ago, not only did the Wuwei Vanguard Army that remained in Lutai refuse to obey the dispatch of Song Qing and Ma Yukun, but even those Wuwei Vanguard Army in Tianjin, after the fall of Beicang, many of them returned to Lutai without authorization, with a total number of more than 5,000 people, attempting to form their own army.

After that, after Teng Yuzhao took office as the general director of the Beiyang Zhili Military Affairs, he also issued orders to this unit, but the Lutai defenders ignored Teng Yuzhao's orders and did not even give him any response.

In the subsequent Allied Forces' encirclement and suppression attack, they were defeated by the Allied Forces, withdrew from Lutai, and finally retreated to Baoding, where they were taken in by Ronglu, who was responsible for gathering the defeated soldiers.

Teng Yuzhao also stated in the memorial that, in view of the fact that the defenders of Lutai did not obey military orders, he demanded that all officers above the rank of captain be dismissed and investigated, and the rest of the soldiers be sent to Yi County, where they would be reorganized by the vanguard army.

Ronglu just glanced over these paragraphs. He believed that these contents alone were not enough to make Cixi think too much.

Sure enough, what follows is a bombshell.

In his memorial, Teng Yuzhao said that since the coalition forces of foreign powers landed at Dagukou, they had disregarded morality and burned, killed and looted along the way, resulting in the tragic deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the displacement of a large number of people, especially in Tongzhou, where the coalition forces killed the most people.

Therefore, Teng Yuzao suggested that all the commanders of the coalition forces be listed as war criminals, and if the court did not object, he would make them public in his name. Although the content of this last paragraph was also not long, Ronglu could not help but fall into thought after reading it.

Before Cixi could speak, Wang Wenshao said angrily, "Nonsense, Teng Xingfu is just a reckless warrior. Listing the foreign leader as a war criminal at this time is just adding fuel to the fire and further irritating the foreigners. How can the peace talks be successful?"

Wang Wenshao's words made Zai Yi very angry. He wanted to scold Wang Wenshao, but when he saw that Cixi and Ronglu ignored Wang Wenshao, Zai Yi swallowed the words back.

Cixi's eyes swept across the faces of several people one by one, lingered briefly on Gangyi's face, frowned slightly, and finally her eyes fell on Zai Yi.

"Prince Duan, what do you think of Teng Xingfu's memorial?"

Zai Yi took a deep breath and said carefully, "Replying to the Queen Mother, the first few things in Teng Xingfu's memorial can be agreed to, especially his request to take back the defeated soldiers from Lutai, which must be handled immediately, so that he can integrate the recruits more quickly to prevent them from forming cliques and causing trouble."

"As for the last one?"

To be honest, Zai Yi did not agree with Teng Yuzao's so-called war criminal theory, but he was unwilling to oppose Teng Yuzao's suggestion, especially in light of Wang Wenshao's previous statement.

"Empress Dowager, I think that Teng Xingfu has always been cautious in his actions. This time he suggested that the leaders of the foreign armies of various countries be listed as war criminals. There must be a deeper reason. You may as well issue an imperial edict to Teng Yuzao and ask him to explain the reasons in detail. It will not be too late for Your Majesty to make a decision later."

Seeing that Zai Yi's answer was quite proper, but he obviously did not understand the last suggestion in Teng Yuzhao's memorial, Cixi looked at Ronglu, whose eyes had become sharp.

When Ronglu saw Cixi looking at him, he bowed deeply to her and said with a look of emotion on his face.

"Congratulations, Queen Mother! Congratulations, Queen Mother! Teng Xingfu is a man of great talent, and I am far inferior to him!"

Several people, including Cixi, were shocked by Ronglu's sudden action and words. They all looked at Ronglu in surprise, waiting for his next words.

Ronglu said excitedly, "Empress Dowager, Teng Xingfu is laying the groundwork for peace talks!"

Ronglu's words made the others even more confused. Wang Wenshao said anxiously, "How can Lord Rong be so confused? Teng Xingfu's intention will definitely anger the foreigners. How can we negotiate peace?"

Zai Yi was also frightened by Ronglu's words. Teng Yuzhao had always been against negotiating peace now, and advocated that the war with the foreigners should continue until the foreigners took the initiative to propose peace. In that way, the court would take the initiative and would not suffer too much loss in the post-war peace talks.

But why would Ronglu now say that Teng Xingfu was preparing for peace talks?

Zai Yi tried hard to recall the contents of Teng Yuzhao's memorial, but no matter what he did, he could not come up with the same answer as Ronglu.

Cixi also hesitated and asked, "Zhonghua, Teng Xingfu has always advocated that we should resolutely resist the foreigners, that is, we should fight but not make peace, and wait until the foreigners can no longer defeat us, and then wait for them to come to us first to negotiate peace."

"But now you say he is laying the groundwork for peace talks. Why is that?"

Thanks: Super Legend Brother for the reward!
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(End of this chapter)