The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 367: The Eight Banners can actually be rebellious! (Please vote and subscribe)
Emperor Xianfeng, leaning on a cane and wearing sunglasses, squeezed through the huge crowd outside the office of the Minister of Military Training in the Capital Region in Wanping County.

He is here on a secret visit!
Didn't he hear Concubine Yi's sister Wanzhen say a few days ago that the young and old men in the old city are now cheering up and want to join the new army and take up foreign guns to defend the Qing Dynasty?

He was excited at that time!

Emperor Xianfeng was still a young man after all. He was only 24 years old this year, and he still had some vigor and passion in his body. So after hearing about this, he decided to help these people.

As a Manchu monarch, Xianfeng certainly knew that the people he could really trust were the Eight Banners! It would be better to have the old Manchus who had been eating iron crops for generations, rather than the new Han army that was temporarily brought up like Zeng Jia Guofan.

Of course, the loyalty of Senggelinqin, a Mongolian prince who was born as a shepherd, was not very good. He said he was a royal relative, but in fact he was not much stronger than Zengjia Guofan. He was originally a shepherd, and had nothing to do with the Eight Banners. He was just a member of the same clan as a prince of Khorchin, and he was one generation younger. Of course, he was not considered a noble. The Mongolian Khorchin tribe was passed down from Genghis Khan for almost 600 to 700 years. The Borjigit clan was everywhere on the grassland, and if you look closely, they were all from the same clan.

The prince married Emperor Jiaqing's third daughter, Princess Zhuangjing Heshuo. After the couple died, they had no son to inherit.

Later, no one knew how they chose each other. Anyway, Senggelinqin was lucky enough to become their adopted son. He went from being a shepherd boy to a prince, and became the adopted grandson of Jiaqing, the adopted nephew of Daoguang, and the adopted cousin of Xianfeng.

As for this family relationship, it's not that close.

It seems unreliable to leave the safety of the Qing Dynasty to Senggelinqin and his Khorchin fellow countrymen. If our own people can really cheer up, then there will be hope for the revival of the Qing Dynasty.

However, he also knew that the bosses under his command were not very honest. They might just talk big in front of the little girl Wanzhen, but they actually had no determination to join the army and fight against the Taiping rebels.

That's why he brought An Dehai today, and called a burly old guard from outside the Qianqing Gate, as well as a few "foreign masters" with thin arms and legs, changed into casual clothes, got on a few horse-drawn carriages, and quietly came to Wanping County, just to see with their own eyes whether there were any Eight Banners descendants coming here to join the army?
Believe it or not, there really were some, and there were a lot of them. Outside Senggelinqin's yamen, the three inner and three outer layers were all filled with handsome men wearing melon-shaped hats, long gowns and jackets. Some of them were even carrying bird cages. Facing the Goshaha sent by Senggelinqin, they showed no fear at all and even shouted loudly. They were definitely descendants of the Eight Banners and there was no way they were pretending.

"Senggelinqin, why don't you let me serve as a soldier to defend the Qing Dynasty? Look at the color of my belt. It's a yellow belt. I have a share in the Qing Dynasty. If I don't protect the Qing Dynasty, who will?"

"Well done!"

"We have a share in the Qing Dynasty!"

"Yes!"

As Xianfeng squeezed out of the crowd with his crutches, he saw a short and fat man holding his yellow belt blocking the gate of Senggelinqin's yamen and shouting, while people all around cheered.

The Mongolian warriors under Senggelinqin all huddled there, not even daring to fight back, let alone talk back at the Aisin-Gioro clan!

Seeing that the soldiers under Senggelinqin were all scared, the Eight Banners outside became more energetic. Immediately, another lean red belt stood up and shouted to the Minister of Military Training: "Senggelinqin, my ancestors fought in Sarhu with Taizu, entered the pass several times with Taizong, and also followed Shizu to establish the capital in the Central Plains. I am not afraid of the long hairs!
Although I can't ride a horse or shoot arrows, firing a foreign rifle won't be a problem for me!

You, a Borjigin, are stopping us Aixinjueluo and Jueluo from taking up arms to defend the Qing Dynasty. What is your intention? Now that so many officials in the Manchu court are saying that they want to train new soldiers for the Eight Banners, why are you shrinking and not saying anything? What do you want to do?"

This is so heartbreaking!
Xianfeng thought: "But it does make sense! In the past few days, many officials have written to the emperor to request the training of the Eight Banners New Army, but Senggelinqin is not among them."

"What else can I do? I have ambitions!"

"I heard that several officials from the Censorate have already reported Senggelinqin, saying that he trained troops in the capital without using the Eight Banners, which must be his ulterior motive!"

"What? He was just a shepherd, and now he's a prince, and he's still not satisfied?"

"Why should he be content? He is the descendant of the Great Khan Borjigin!"

"Which Khan?"

"Of course it is the Great Khan of Mongolia, Genghis Khan." Xianfeng frowned slightly. The discussions of the Eight Banners descendants around him were becoming more and more outrageous. They all started to talk nonsense. The ancestor of the Khorchin tribe was the brother of Genghis Khan, so Senggelinqin could not be considered a descendant of the Khan, but at most a "nephew's grandson."

"My Lord, please, please submit a memorial!"

"Your Majesty, those bosses under your command are almost saying you are..."

"Your Majesty, if they want to be soldiers, please let them be!"

"Yes, they did have a share in the Qing Dynasty."

In Senggelinqin's signing room, several of his subordinates and aides were surrounding the Mongolian prince and trying to persuade him earnestly!
They all advised Senggelinqin to make concessions to the Eight Banners leaders who were blocking the outside.

But the Minister of Training the Army was unmoved. When he heard his subordinates’ persuasion, he responded with a stern look: “What nonsense are you talking about? Don’t you know who those people are? They dare to block my office and make trouble without even carrying foreign guns. If they carry foreign guns, won’t they mutiny every now and then? If they do, it won’t work to fight the Taiping rebels. The best thing is to make trouble for me and the court!”

After hearing what he said, the officials and staff members all lowered their heads and kept silent. But Senggelinqin was still furious, and before he had finished venting his anger, he raised his hand and pointed at Shengbao who was sitting with his head down. He was the loudest just now, but now he was silent: "Shengkezhai, you are also an old soldier, and you have led the Eight Banners. Haven't you suffered enough? Don't you know how difficult it is to control those arrogant and domineering soldiers? If a bunch of yellow belts and red belts squeeze into the Wanping New Army, who can control them?"

It's no wonder that Senggelinqin was a man with a long history in the military, and he was able to see through Luo Xueyan's conspiracy at a glance.

The Eight Banners can actually rebel!
The rebellion of the Eight Banners can be referred to the later Ottoman Guards!

Those uncles couldn't even defeat the Russians or the Egyptians, but they were pretty good at dealing with the Ottoman Sultan.

The reason why the Eight Banners Army did not rebel in history was, on the one hand, that Empress Dowager Cixi had been protecting them in the last few decades of the Qing Dynasty; on the other hand, this group of people had poor martial ethics. They could neither defeat the Beiyang Army nor the revolutionary army.

But the Eight Bannermen of today are not as weak as they would be a few decades later. Beijing has not been washed by the British, French, and Eight-Nation Alliances, and these people still have some spirit. They are in a state where they know they cannot fight, but they don't know it yet.

Senggelinqin didn't dare to think about what would happen if he gave them good foreign guns, let them practice foreign exercises, and then handed over the Han new army soldiers who had been trained with great difficulty to them!

That's why he refused to follow the crowd and wrote to Emperor Xianfeng to request the training of a new Eight Banners Army. Others wrote to him to set a high tone, but he wrote to him to ask for trouble!

But Senggelinqin never thought that while he was still holding out, Xianfeng had already been moved by a group of young and old men in the city.

Seeing the huge crowds outside the military training minister's office, he finally became convinced that the people of the Eight Banners could be used!
He thought that it would be a bit difficult for these pampered Eight Banners soldiers to pick up the archery and horsemanship skills that they had lost for so many years, but didn't they have foreign guns and cannons now?

What Woren said was right. It is not as difficult to practice with a foreign rifle as with a bow and horse. If you can't do it in one month, how about two or three months? This is a slow and steady process. If you fire a few hundred rifles, as long as you are not blind, you will definitely be able to do it.

Since anyone can practice it, why didn't Xianfeng use his own people?

Thinking of this, Xianfeng walked towards Senggelinqin's yamen with big strides, leaning on his crutches.

"Sir, you are..."

One of the Goshaha chiefs guarding the gate knew that Xianfeng was no ordinary person as soon as he saw his dress.

The way he dressed in secret made him look like a prince at least!
There was also an elderly strong man following behind him, wearing a sword that seemed to be worn by a guard or a palace guard. And An Dehai, with a white face and no beard, walked with his body bent, looking like a eunuch.
Xianfeng stopped pretending and shouted, "Go and tell Senggelinqin that the emperor is here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, An Dehai took out a waist badge with the words "Imperial Palace Attendant" and waved it, then he escorted Xianfeng and strode into the yamen.

(End of this chapter)