The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 528: Xianfeng brought peace, and the Qing Dynasty demons had no Eight Banners (seeking votes and subscription)
The beginning of the Chen hour.

Changxindian, the central army of the Taiping Army.

Looking out from Yang Xiuqing's gilded telescope, the left and right wings of the Taiping Army's defense line were attacked by the Qing army at the same time! All I could see was a series of blue turbans forming two torrents that had already waded across the Yongding River in autumn. Their formation was very chaotic, and it was obvious at a glance that they were not elite soldiers.

"Your Highness, the Qing demons are testing our two wings and tearing up our forces. If one of our wings is weak, they will attack that wing as the main attack. If both wings are strong, it means that we have emptied the soldiers in the middle, and their main force will attack our middle!" Winster White, who was standing by, analyzed the Qing demons' tactics for Yang Xiuqing. Although this Englishman who believed in the God Worshipping Society did not catch up with the years when Emperor Napoleon was so powerful, he had served in the British Army and the East India Company mercenaries for many years. He had heard many older British soldiers analyze Waterloo and knew the emperor's mind thoroughly.

Yang Xiuqing snorted coldly. He already had a countermeasure in mind. He curled his lips and revealed a mocking smile: "It's a good way of fighting, but it uses the means of coercion and instigation. This is just showing off one's skills in front of an expert!" He suddenly put away the telescope, took a white flour bun from Daozi's hand beside him, weighed it a few times and said: "Attacking the heart is the best!" Then he began to eat the white flour bun in big mouthfuls. The more he ate, the happier he became.

"Three catties of rice, three catties of rice," Zhang Ah Si kept repeating, stepping across the cold Yongding River. His straw sandals had long since disappeared, and the big bowl of thick porridge he drank at midnight had long since been digested. Now his stomach was empty, and he only thought about the three catties of rice and the good days of eating imperial food every day after the flag was raised. "Ah!" A skinny man next to him suddenly screamed and shrank half a head - it turned out that he stepped on a bamboo stick hidden in the mud on the riverbank!

Zhang Ah Si was immediately frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. He was a little afraid to move forward, but there was no choice but to face the endless stream of beggars coming up from the Yongding River behind him, shouting the slogan "Three catties of rice, join the Eight Banners", pushing the people in front of them to rush forward. At the same time, the muzzle flames of the Taiping Army positions in front of him gradually became denser.
The bamboo sticks in the mud on the riverbank were dark red, soaked with the blood of countless beggars. More and more beggars fell under the guns of the Taiping Army. Zhang Ah Si had just avoided the spikes under his feet when a cloud of blood suddenly exploded from the side. A few mountain-splitting cannons were extended from behind the breastwork of the Taiping Army in front, and lead sand swept across the riverbank like an iron broom. The front row of beggars fell down like wheat being cut, covered in blood, screaming and wailing, while the people behind were still shouting "three pounds of rice" and rushing forward.

Yang Xiuqing squinted his one eye and ate his steamed buns mouthful by mouthful. "Drum roll!" the Eastern King shouted, and thirty cowhide drums roared. A hundred wooden signs suddenly appeared behind the breastworks of the Taiping Army's two wings, with cinnabar writing "Those who surrender will receive five catties of rice", each word as big as a basket. Behind the breastworks, countless young people shouted with Henan accents: "Xianfeng surrendered to the Taiping Army, and the Qing demons had no Eight Banners!"

"Spreading evil words to confuse the people!" The Hunan captain supervising the battle waved his sword and shouted in Hunanese Mandarin, but his head was shattered by a Minié bullet. This was the sharpshooters of the Taiping Army showing off their power. These old Guangxi soldiers specifically targeted those wearing hats! After a burst of crackling gunfire, Zhang Asi suddenly discovered that the "hats" who were holding the line had disappeared. Without the supervisor, and hearing the cry of "Xianfeng brought peace, and the evil was eliminated without the Eight Banners", the hungry beggars suddenly lost the motivation to move forward. Countless poor men holding knives, spears, and muskets, with their heads wrapped in blue cloth, looked at the line of fortifications in front of them that had been broken by artillery fire, but for a moment no one dared to rush forward.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

The Zhongzhou dialect of the newly recruited Boy Scouts in Henan cut through the sound of gunfire. Fourteen-year-old Zhuzi held a large flag and led a hundred or so of his peers to push wheelbarrows out of the trenches. The carts were piled with steaming coarse grain steamed bread, which was particularly sweet in the bloody smell. The battle line of the beggar army suddenly stagnated, and dozens of people in the front row threw down wooden spears to grab food.

With a gunshot, an old Hunan soldier who had taken off his hat picked up the brown bass in his hand and shot the pillar's kneecap in pieces. The Henan teenager whose home was washed away by the flood, however, held the flagpole with one hand and grabbed a hot steamed bread with the other hand, raised it high, and shouted loudly: "Father, give me food!"

The starving beggars threw away their swords, spears and muskets, and rushed forward while shouting "Pray to God, eat steamed bread". Zhang Ah Si was among them. He took a steamed bread from a 13 or 14-year-old girl and stuffed it into his mouth, tasting the first bite of brown sugar in his life. It was so sweet!

Just as Zhang Ah Si was chewing his steamed bread, someone suddenly shouted, "In the sky, in the sky, what a huge flying ball!"

While Zhang Asi was munching on a steamed bun, he looked up and saw a flying ball as big as a small house rising up from behind the Taiping Army formation. There was a basket hanging under the ball, and in the basket stood a man in a yellow robe and yellow hat, with two "yellow jackets" beside him!
"That's Emperor Xianfeng!" Zhuzi ignored the severe pain in his knee and shouted, "Emperor Xianfeng surrendered long ago. The Emperor Xianfeng in Beijing is a fake. The Qing Dynasty no longer has the Eight Banners."

Zhang Asi was so frightened that he even forgot to eat his steamed bread. He had heard the rumor that Emperor Xianfeng had been captured when he was farming in his hometown in Shandong. However, the landowner, Mr. Kong, insisted that it was nonsense and could not be believed!

But now, seeing is believing! The real, fragrant and sweet steamed bread!

"If you still want to eat steamed bread, just shout with us - Xianfeng brought peace, there were no Eight Banners in the Qing Dynasty, and it was Zeng Guofan who dug the Yellow River dam," the young men with Zhongzhou accents shouted together again.

Was it Zeng Guofan who did it?

Zhang Ah Si was still a little bit unconvinced. Zeng Guofan was a descendant of Zengzi, how could he do such a thing? Besides, the prophecy of "the collapse of the Yellow River and the demise of the Qing Dynasty" had been circulating for several months, but no one believed it.
A 13 or 14-year-old Taiping Army girl stuffed a hot steamed bun into Zhang Ah Si's hand and said, "Hurry up, take it, eat it and shout at the same time!"

When Zhang Ah Si saw the steaming and fragrant steamed bread, he immediately felt that Zeng Guofan was the worst villain in the world. He nodded heavily and said, "It was Zeng Guofan who dug the Yellow River dam."

Just as he took the steamed bread and raised his arms to shout, the sound of muffled thunder suddenly rang behind his ears!

"Bombardment. Qing demons are bombarding. Drop your weapons quickly and hide in the trenches to avoid the bombardment!" The Taiping Army boy soldiers on the battlefield shouted together.

In Changxindian, Yang Xiuqing saw the gunpowder smoke from the Qing army's artillery through the gilded telescope, and snorted coldly, "The Beiyang Army still has too many artillery! When I take Beijing and Tianjin, I will also buy more foreign artillery! No, I will open a Tianjin artillery factory and make foreign artillery myself!"

It’s the exact time of Chen.

Li Hongzhang held up a monocular telescope, and the lens showed the Huai Army's Third Regiment forming three rows of troops, with blue cloth wrapped around their heads forming wavy lines in the morning breeze. They waded across the Yongding River and began to attack the Taiping Army's right wing.

Although the previous round of charge by the Beggars' Army did not consume much ammunition and manpower of the Taiping Army, it did flatten the bamboo stick formation and break through several layers of the stakes, thus clearing the way for the follow-up troops to attack.

"Fire!" Before a Huai Army battalion officer in the front had even finished his voice, eight hundred flintlock rifles fired at the same time. Lead bullets rained down on the breastwork of the Taiping Army's right wing, making the rammed earth wall covered with pockmarks.

A large red flag suddenly rose behind the wall, and Taiping Army musketeers with red scarves on their heads poked their heads out from behind the wall and raised their foreign rifles. Gu Longxian, a division commander under Yang Xiuqing, drew his saber and said, "Fire!" Hundreds of brown basses exploded at the same time, and more than fifty blue cloth-wrapped heads in the front row of the Huai Army fell to the ground.

"Second row, move forward!" The Huai Army battalion officer named Zhou Shengbo's forehead was bulging with veins. The Huai Army formation rolled like a wave, and the second row of soldiers stepped over the bodies of their comrades to fill the gaps.

Behind the battle line of the Third Regiment, Major De Vigne, who was standing beside Dorona, had his French beard trembling in the smoke: "Keep firing two rounds a minute!"

At the same time, the five battalions of foreign riflemen commanded by the Hunan Army general Li Xubin also waded across the Yongding River.

At this time, Mathilde was sitting sideways on the back of a black French horse, reviewing the Beiyang Army's cuirassiers and lancers who were about to launch a charge!
Beijing City, Deshengmen.

Yuan Bao stood on the Deshengmen tower, looking at the dense crowds of beggar soldiers and Senggelinqin's Mongolian cavalry below, and didn't know what to say for a moment. Du Han, the Grand Councilor, Grand Secretary, and Minister of Rites, wearing his official robes and holding a bright yellow scroll, rode to the foot of the city and said loudly: "Listen, people on the city, I am the Grand Councilor and Grand Secretary Du Han, and I am here to serve the emperor in accordance with the secret decree of Emperor Xianfeng. You should quickly open the city gates, support Emperor Xianfeng, and protect the Qing Dynasty together!"

Yuan Bao slapped the bricks on the parapet and cursed: "Du Han, you traitor, the Qing Dynasty is in such a state, and you still want to rebel. When the Taiping Rebellion enters Beijing, you will have no chance of survival without my help?"

Du Han laughed and said, "The Qing Dynasty will not end. Beijing's walls are strong and there is enough food in the city to support it for a year. As long as we can restore order and establish Emperor Xianfeng, we can call on heroes all over the world to serve the emperor. Even the foreigners will support us!"

Yuan Bao was almost laughing with anger. Just as he was about to order the cannon to fire, someone suddenly shouted, "Su Zhongtang is here!"

Su Shun was out of breath and trotted all the way up the city wall. When he saw Yuan Bao, he said, "The Empress Dowager has ordered you to take the foreign rifle team of the imperial guards to the Yangxin Palace to protect the emperor."

Yuan Bao was startled, looked at Su Shun and asked: "Yes, Yongding River"

Su Shun sighed: "Go quickly, it will be too late if you are late. Leave this to me, I will go and talk to them!"

Yuan Bao was actually worried that he could not win the battle at Yongding River, so he did not suspect any trick and immediately left Deshengmen with his newly formed 800-strong imperial guards and foreign rifle corps and headed for the Forbidden City.

Watching Yuan Bao leave, Su Shun took out the gold medallion with the inscription "As if I were here in person" and held it high: "Listen, generals, the Emperor Xianfeng has issued an order."

(End of this chapter)